Episode 1: In Memoriam
This one starts with a rather old-fashioned flatbed truck entering a warehouse. Kenzi is hiding underneath the truck and runs behind some crates. She watches a couple of guys dressed in monks’ robes move a box onto the flatbed (“This is so Raiders!”), but when she goes up for a closer look, she’s jumped by some scumbag named Whicher. He says Kenzi has to die for violating Fae laws (and she says his breath smells like Yeti anus; I’m … not sure how she knows that) and says the Una Mens will “cleanse” her. Dyson and Hale show up and tell Whicher to let her go, but he says the human has to die. Kenzi pulls loose, insisting that she’s not human and starts blasting sparks from her hands. It’s obviously some kind of parlour trick, since one of her hands stops producing sparks and she has to cover. Whicher is apparently as stupid as he looks, because he believes she’s Fae. He says if he sees her again, her skin will line the Una Mens’ holy chamber. As they’re leaving, Dyson takes a lingering look at the box on the flatbed.
We find out that Kenzi’s powers are temporary and that she’s been masquerading as a terrorist. There’s definitely some chemistry between her and Hale, though I don’t know if they’ve done anything about it. Dyson takes her home and sniffs around, but she assures him there’s no one else there. He notes the inordinate number of thongs around (Kenzi: “I’ll have you know, these are all business thongs.”) We see Hale isn’t the only one Kenzi has chemistry with, as she and Dyson start making out. He stops, partly because he knows Hale has a thing for Kenzi, and partly … I think partly because he’s as weirded out by kissing Kenzi as we are; it’s like he senses it’s not right somehow. There’s a knock at the door and it’s Aife, who’s looking to hire a private investigator. She uses her succubus mojo to charm Kenzi (“Suede, in this weather? You beautiful bad-ass.”) Neither Dyson nor Kenzi seem to know her (nor she them) and she says she needs help finding her daughter Bo—another name neither of them recognize.
At a diner, Aife tells them she has no memory or proof of giving birth, but she knows she has a daughter named Bo. She mentions Dr. Taft’s “lab”, and Dyson says he vaguely remembers her being there. Kenzi thinks she’s crazy, but when she shows them a picture of Bo, Dyson is immediately smitten. (Kenzi: “Yeah, if you’re into like faces, and bodies, whatever.”) Aife shows them a weird mark in her eye, which Dyson says is a Recuerdo Coil—proof that someone screwed with her memory. Dyson leaves to go searching down by the river, something he’s been doing every day for the past month, looking for Tamsin. He remembers she rescued him, then drove off a cliff (which he survived by changing to wolf form at the last second) and wants to find out why. Aife takes care of the check (she wants to get going because it’s Fleet Week) by using her mojo on the waitress. That gives Kenzi a flashback of Bo doing the same thing when they first met. In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s the same waitress—or the same actress, anyway.
Dyson looks around by the river—and flashes back to going over the cliff—but can’t find anything. At the Dal, Trick is messing around with some kind of cosmological model. Kenzi figures he’s channeling his frustration because “something” happened with Stella; I’m not sure what, but it looks like they’ve broken up. We finally learn who the Una Mens are: a near-omniscient council of Fae authorities whose sole purpose is to insure the old laws are followed. Apparently, they’ve come to town because of all the crazy shit that’s been happening in the last few years. Kenzi asks about Fae that can cause memory loss and Trick mentions a guy named Dr. Snook. He’s an Ortinax, a fish-Fae that feeds off memories (and moonlights as an optometrist). Kenzi asks about Lauren and Trick says he has people looking for her; Kenzi’s a lot more sympathetic about Lauren working for Taft and then abandoning the Fae. They mention Nadia but nothing about Bo, so everyone seems to have forgotten her. Kenzi goes to see the eye doctor and Trick tells her to be careful. As he throws one box of junk on top of another, we see the Wanderer tarot card—with two figures on it.
At Snook’s office (which has a pretty rich clientele) Kenzi and Dyson confront the doc as he’s extracting a woman’s memories of her husband cheating on her. They ask about past clients, but Snook mentions he only takes memories and doesn’t restore them, then points out that Kenzi and Dyson both have Recuerdo Coils in their eyes. (Kenzi: “I could be famous … I could be a Kardashian.”) Snook (who has an annoying habit of referring to himself in the third person) says these Recuerdo Coils weren’t done by him; in order to work on Fae they’d have to be done by someone much more powerful. At the Dal, Trick tells Kenzi they’d have to find the Recuerdo Compass and shatter it to restore the stolen memories. He says a Fae named Engelram has the Compass. Kenzi recognizes the name as a wealthy Fae collector and knows his security is top-notch. (“What? I keep tabs on wealthy Fae dealings … for my science.”) Engelram is throwing a big bash before the Una Mens decide to outlaw fun and Kenzi says she and Dyson will attend to try and find the Compass. Trick catches Kenzi trying to lift some stuff and she empties out her backpack. When the picture of Bo comes out, Trick has a weird reaction to it, physically and emotionally. He asks Kenzi to tell him everything she knows about her new client.
Dyson goes to Vex—who’s now the new Morrigan, leader of the Dark Fae—to score the tickets to Engelram’s party. Vex is still an asshole, threatening to burn a fashion designer with an iron because he doesn’t like the outfit she made for him. Dyson says he knows Vex is lying about the old Morrigan dying and leaving everything to him … Dyson can smell her, half-rotting in the cell where Vex has been keeping her. Dyson agrees to keep his mouth shut in exchange for the tickets and Vex gives in. At the party, there seems to be a mismatch in the ratio of hot women to men. Hale explains to Dyson that Engelram can grant wishes and every time he has a party, he picks one lucky woman to be the recipient. They wonder where Kenzi is, and we see her at home trying to get ready. She leaves Lauren a message and is surprised by Massimo (the asshole druid who worked with Tamsin) holding a crossbow.
Turns out he’s there to deliver the sparkle dust Kenzi’s been using to pass as Fae. He’s a real tool about it (rubbing the dust into her neck, offering to fuck her in lieu of payment), but she has to have the dust or the Una Mens will know she’s not Fae and get rid of her. Massimo gives her the rest of the dust, but says she better have his money next time or she’s in deep shit. At the party, Kenzi shows up looking fine, but Dyson’s not sure if she can compete with all the other hotties. She takes that as a challenge and drags Hale onto the dance floor. Dyson catches a glimpse of Bo at the bar just before he’s accosted by a nymph named Clio (played by Mia Kirshner). He tries to get rid of her (bad nymph memories, “tequila-soaked nakedness”), but she says not all nymphs are bad … they just spawn that way.
Kenzi and Hale start a spotlight dance but Hale’s a bit awkward, so Dyson cuts in. He and Kenzi have better chemistry and she goes back and forth between the two partners, finishing with a flourish and impressing the hell out of everyone. Ksenia Solo’s a really good dancer; she’s obviously had training. Her performance gets her the coveted private invitation (Kenzi: “Ah, the last rose.”; Dyson: “How original.”) and she heads up to Engelram’s private chamber, which is stuffed with antiquities. She meets Engelram (played by George Takei … oh, my!), who turns out to have a snake’s body. Vex shows up at the party (dressed like a gay Sweeney Todd), still pissed off about Dyson blackmailing him for the tickets. He makes one innocent woman break her own neck and everyone breaks the fuck out.
In Engelram’s chamber, he gives Kenzi the Recuerdo Compass, though he says he thought she would’ve wished for “her” return; I assume he means Bo, but of course Kenzi has no memory of Bo, so how could she wish for her to come back? Engelram recognizes Kenzi as human and says now that he’s granted her wish, he’s going to swallow her whole. (Kenzi: “Oh, Cobra Commander!”) Vex tries to kill Dyson, but Hale intervenes and Dyson goes to find Kenzi. Vex says he has a Recuerdo Coil too, but he doesn’t want everyone to get their memories back, as it might result in him losing his place as the Morrigan. Hale and Vex fight and Hale gets the better of him with his siren power, threatening to kill Vex. It looks like he might actually mean it, as Vex’s ears are bleeding and he’s obviously in a shitload of pain.
Dyson puts a spear through Engelram’s snaky head (and he utters an “oh, my”, naturally) before he can kill Kenzi. Down at the docks, Aife’s about to grab a sailor when Trick shows up. Fucked up memories or not, they know each other as father and daughter. At the party, Dyson and Kenzi break the Compass, but nothing changes. They discuss whether they should keep things as they are and surprisingly, it’s Dyson who wants to have a relationship and Kenzi who thinks somethings feels … wrong. (Kenzi: “My heart hurts and I don’t know why.”) They align the Compass with true north and both immediately get massive headaches as their memories return. They look at each other and utter a single word: Bo.
And they’re not the only ones affected; on the docks, Aife and Trick regain their memories too … and Aife regains her crazy. Her hatred of Trick rushes back and she attacks him with a knife. At the party house, Hale and Vex have their memories back too (and Vex is instantly less dickish) and they discuss how to find Bo. Dyson gets a call from Tamsin and since she was the last person to see Bo alive, he rushes off to see her. Kenzi follows before Hale can tell her his true feelings for her. At the Una Mens warehouse, the box on the flatbed opens and some shiny black shit starts pouring out. In a restaurant somewhere, Lauren (who’s apparently been working there as a waitress—with a terrible red dye-job) suddenly remembers Bo and freaks out. Speaking of Bo, we finally see her in the last few seconds of the episode, opening her eyes—which are that familiar evil shade of blue. So yeah, this was a Bo-less episode (also Tamsin-less, and mostly Lauren-less). An interesting experiment, having the main character absent; I think they pulled it off pretty well, though it’ll be nice to see Bo again (and find out where she’s been) next episode.