Episode 8: End of Faes
This one starts with Tamsin moving out. You’ll remember last episode she freaked out when Bo told her she loved her, but wasn’t in love with her. Ah, that old line. Bo is worried about Tamsin (Bo: “Where will you go?”; Tamsin: “Wherever the wind takes me … Motel Six, then wherever the wind takes me.”) and doesn’t want to lose another friend. Tamsin is determined to leave and gives Bo an invitation that came for her. It has the triskele on the seal and is for a fancy party. Turns out Bo’s not the only one who got one: Trick, Lauren, and Dyson all received one too (though Vex didn’t and he seems a bit put out). They decide to attend the party to learn more about the Ancients and how to defeat them. Dyson asks Mark to come along, saying he has to have his first mission sometime. That worries Vex, who tells Mark to call him if he needs back-up.
The soirée turns out to be a surprise party to welcome Bo to the family, which freaks her out a bit. Elsewhere, Heratio and Iris get ready for the party and she’s pretty excited. It looks like Heratio and Zee (aka Hera and Zeus) have something planned involving Iris and she’s kinda nervous about it. Bo and company are on guard, wondering what the whole point of the party is and what Bo’s father has to do with it. Trick points out that there are quite a few Fae there and everyone splits up to work the room, Mark’s job being to get close to Iris and get info on her parents. Bo and Lauren talk about their encounter during the blackout and it almost sounds like Bo wants to recommit, but Lauren notices Tamsin and that pretty much kills the mood. Tamsin says she’ll help Bo, but she’s going to have fun while doing it.
Bo snoops around and runs into Iris, who’s wearing an interesting bracelet; she says her parents make her wear it and that she’s never allowed to have friends over. Bo tries to use her succubus power to interrogate Iris, but they’re interrupted by Zee. Dyson runs into Heratio and injects him with an insecticide (which Lauren gave him earlier) to avoid a repeat of the bug swarm attack from last episode. Heratio asks how his “bitch” Alicia is doing and Dyson punches him, though it seems to do more damage to Dyson’s hand than Heratio’s face. Zee formally introduces herself to Bo, confirming she’s Zeus (though she’s also gone by Ammon, Jupiter, and Odin at various times). Bo is somewhat surprised (“Zeus, as in white hair, thunder thighs, plus … a dude?”) Bo asks why Zee sent the Oracles after her and Zee says she needed to figure out what Bo wants more than anything else … which turned out to be freedom from her father’s influence. Zee says Hades wants to use Bo to end the world and that she can help stop him.
Bo is ready to leave—for some reason, she doesn’t trust her sadistic, murdering relatives—but she finds a punch bowl filled with some kind of prophecy juice. She and Trick drink the punch and see Darkness flowing over the world, snuffing out all life. Bo says the Nothingness reminds her of when she was in Tarterus. Zee says the connection Bo has to Hades (symbolized by the handprint on her chest) has been feeding him the whole time, and has to be severed. Bo reluctantly considers it, knowing it won’t be that simple—there’s always some kind of sacrifice involved with these things. Mark chats up Iris, trying to get information. She says she’s sick of having to do everything her parents say (and mentions her mysterious bracelet again); Mark suggests they go somewhere quiet and talk. He obviously thinks he’s in control, but the whole thing smells like a set-up to me.
Lauren takes a sample of Heratio’s blood from Dyson’s fist for analysis, hoping to get any advantage they can against him. They watch as Heratio puts the moves on a young woman, probably wanting to get hold of her body—literally. Iris takes Mark to an empty apartment and puts the moves on him, which seems to affect his reasoning. Man, we dudes can be stupid when it comes to women, can’t we? At the party, Zee tells Bo her father’s mark has to be carved from her chest and uncovers a table full of weapons. If Bo picks the wrong one, the ceremony will fail. She considers several (including leeches, a Minotaur horn, and a huge-ass sword) before deciding on a rusty dagger (the Amethusto Dagger) which Zee says is supposed to keep its owner free of evil thoughts.
In Iris’s bedroom, Lauren and Tamsin have Heratio tied to a chair, as insurance in case anything happens to Bo. Tamsin concedes to Lauren that the “better woman won” in their rivalry over Bo, which surprises Lauren a bit, as she seemed to think her romp with Bo during the blackout was a one-off. Lauren finds restraints beside Iris’s bed, which makes her and Tamsin want to pound Heratio, but they soon realize that he and Zee are scared of Iris for some reason. Zee is preparing to cut the handprint from Bo’s chest, thus severing her connection to Hades, when Lauren and Tamsin interrupt. Lauren tells Bo Iris is more powerful than Heratio and Zee and Bo stops the ceremony, reasoning that they need the most powerful of the Ancients to stop Hades. Dyson is worried, since Mark is alone with Iris, and he really freaks out when Lauren tells him they’ve left the penthouse. Everybody heads out to find them, leaving Zee disappointed and saying it’s time for Plan B.
At the empty house, Mark and Iris wake up after a long night of boning. Mark goes to get some food from the fridge and sees a photo of “Iris” with her parents. He realizes the house belongs to the family of the girl whose body Iris now inhabits (Cecilia Lawrence). Iris says she was supposed to kill Cecilia when she took over her body, but she didn’t and now she wants to join Cecilia’s family. Mark is ready to get the hell out of there, especially when Cecillia’s parents show up from vacation. Her dad is overwhelmed to see his supposedly dead daughter standing in the hall, but he soon figures out she’s not he genuine article. Iris is pissed off by his rejection and literally pulls his heart out of his chest. The blood pool forms a triskele and Mark realizes Iris is the one who’s been killing people. She says they all needed to “go to sleep”.
Iris says the people she killed are just sleeping and after the End Times they’ll wake up again good as new; sounds very biblical. Mark tells her Zee and Heratio lied about everything and that the humans she killed are never going to wake up. Iris freaks out and rips off her bracelet, which makes things worse. She can feel something terrible happening to her and Mark says to take off while he cleans up the mess. But Iris’s mother has been lurking in the hall and jams a knife into Mark’s gut before crying over her husband’s corpse. Mark takes off too, bleeding like a stuck pig. At the penthouse, Zee and Heratio worry what will happen if Iris removes her bracelet and Zee orders Heratio to find her. Tamsin is there, keeping an eye on them, and talks to Zee about how hurt she is by Bo’s rejection. Zee says the best way to stop people hurting you is to hurt them first, then zaps Tamsin with a lightning bolt from the sky.
Bo, Dyson, and Lauren show up at a park where someone matching Iris’s description has been causing a disturbance. Dyson finds Mark’s jacket, covered with blood, and he and Lauren go to find him. Before they leave, Lauren lets Bo know she figured out what Bo was trying to say earlier and she’s on board. Not far away, Iris plucks a flower, which crumbles to dust, and is approached by a cop, who also ends up turning to dust. Bo finds Iris and tries to talk to her. Iris says she’s not supposed to hurt Bo, since Zee needs her for something. She confesses that she’s killed people, but says her parents forced her. Bo tries to use her succubus power, but her hand turns black as soon as she touches Iris, who runs off. Bo turns and finds the whole park turned dark, like in her vision, and realizes it isn’t her father who heralds the end of days, it’s Iris. Obviously the bracelet was keeping her death-dealing power in check.
Bo goes to the Dal to show Trick her blackened hand and tell him that Iris is the real threat. He figures out that the Ancients used the chaos of the storm to bring forth the Nyx—a being of destruction heralded by chaos—and put it inside Iris to use as a weapon to wipe out the world. Trick says the only thing that might stop it is an adamantine box that looks like an ancient jack-in-the-box; it was designed to hold evil. Bo tells him she has the box, a birthday present from her father. The blackness on Bo’s arm spreads and she heads home to get the box. In the park, Dyson and Lauren find Mark with Vex, who he called for help. Mark is half-dead and Dyson is freaking out; Vex goes for help as Lauren tries to minister to Mark.
At home, Bo finds Zee with the box in her hands and they start an old-fashioned Krystle-Alexis type catfight (though they don’t end up in a swimming pool). Bo uses her blackened hand to resist Zee’s strength (“Black is the new get the hell outta my house.”) and throws her out on her ass. Zee pounds on the door, telling Bo if she opens the box, Hades will walk the Earth. Bo has a vision of her father (played by Eric Roberts), who tells her they can decide the fate of the world together. Bo wants nothing to do with his schemes, but he says “sometimes the greatest evil is the greatest mercy”, which confuses the hell out of her. He leaves the final decision up to her and the vision ends. Bo figures maybe it takes evil to fight evil and starts cranking the handle of the box. Zee hears the tune and takes off, and when the box opens, a bright light pours out and envelops Bo. Is Hades finally on Earth? We’ll see next episode.