Better To Hold A Candle

Hex Episode 1x03 - "Deeper Into The Darkness"

Episode Grade: B


Previously: Thelma is a lesbian ghost; Cassie is a member of the McBains, a family of Cure fans; history repeats itself; so on and so forth.

So, apparently my stupid optimism wasn't completely misplaced! Isn't that wonderful. We open right where we left off last week, Cassie and Troy on their date, playing pool, Azazeal stalking them. Pool game is irritatingly soundtracked by fucking Joss Stone, like I didn't have enough reasons to complain about this show already. Troy screws up and pots the cue ball along with the 8 ball, so Cassie wins. Troy jokingly tells her not to tell anyone, so as to avoid ruining his reputation, which is essentially the exact same joke he made last week about the car. Cassie somewhat awkwardly segues this into "Surely I'm doing that already just by being here." Troy admits this is true, but he doesn't care, because dull and resemblant of Jamie Oliver as he may be, he isn't a total dick like all of his friends appear to be. Which begs the question of why they're his friends in the first place, of course, but let's not get into that.

Troy drives Cassie back to the college, they share obligatory "I had a really good night"s before moving on to the obligatory making out. All is going well until the Xylophone of Ensuing Wacky Hijinks starts up to announce Thelma's arrival. Thelma gives a loud "psst!" to get Cassie's attention, then starts mouthing at her, in spite of the fact that, presumably, Troy can't hear her. Also, apparently she can walk through walls or teleport or something, because she clearly didn't have to open any doors to get into the car. So, yeah, there's that. Anyway, Cassie silently tries to get her to go away, Thelma refuses, Troy notices that Cassie is distracted and she ends up having to pretend she's still upset about Thelma and can't cope with doing this right now, while Thelma awesomely laughs at their cheesy dialogue, which entirely makes up for the cheesiness of it, hooray!

Having got away from Troy now, Cassie is obviously pissed at Thelma, and rants at her, as Thelma long-windedly attempts to explain why she interrupted, by explaining every last detail of her last scene in the previous episode, and neither of them pay any attention to what the other is saying. Good clean fun. So, anyway, Thelma eventually blurts out the only information she had that she actually needed to say: "You're a McBain!", which shuts Cassie up into the credits.

Afterwards, Cassie stands by a road, looking nervously up at a clocktower. Hey, that's not the college! Wow, other buildings exist too. Who knew? So, anyway, Cassie goes inside, where there's a few extras milling around in nurses uniforms and sitting in wheelchairs and suchlike, and, after some hesitation, knocks on a door. She's greeted by a woman who totally reminds me of Lost's Libby in her institutionalised days. Or rather, seconds. But maybe that's just because they both get fashion tips from Insanity Fair. Yes, that pun is quite clearly stolen, thanks for asking. Anyway, for the two or so people who hadn't figured out who this woman is, Cassie says "Hi, mum", and also feels the need to tell her "It's me, Cassie" just to reiterate that Libby is not exactly all there, mentally. Libby cheerily informs Cassie that "the flowers keep dying," and tries to show her some photographs that Cassie somewhat bitterly tells her she's already seen, "Last time. And the time before." And man, Libby is really bringing out some actual acting talent in Christina Cole. Awesome. Anyway, Cassie's not here for idle jibber-jabber, she's here to tell Libby that she knows the story of the McBains, and that when she tried searching for her father a few years back and Libby freaked out, it wasn't because she was scared of losing Cassie, and it wasn't because she was trying to protect her, because if that was the case, she wouldn't have sent her to Medenham (which I guess must be the name of the college), fool. Wow, that run-on sentence made my wholely unnecessary Mr. T impression even more stupid! "I can only think of one reason that you'd do that. You wanted this for me, didn't you?" Oh, but that is cold. Libby makes futile attempts to deny this, but fairly quickly relents and tells her she did it because "he said he'd make them stop." But, shockingly enough, turns out Azazeal, who is of course the 'he' in question, is not to be trusted, because he did nothing of the sort, and is in fact the reason why Libby is crazy. So, yeah, he's kind of evil, in case you hadn't noticed. Libby repeats Azazeal's whole thing about Cassie having no control over destiny and such like, and also says she's "descended from the Medenham witches". Mostly it's just "You're doomed. Doomed doomed doomed." though. As Cassie gets up to leave, Libby frantically asks "You will come and see me, won't you? You won't leave me?" Cassie just walks out the door without answering, leaving the camera to linger on Libby looking sadly at old, old photos of Cassie. Way the best damn scene in this series so far. But possibly not the best in the episode, shockingly. I know!

Cassie is sitting in her room crying when Thelma walks in (by opening the door, I might add. Apparently she can only walk through car doors). Cassie entirely unconvincingly tells her "Stubbed my toe", Thelma responds with an equally toned "Life's a bitch." Heh. Cassie tells Thelma that "Even though she's away with the faeries, there's still a part of me that hopes she'll sort everything out. Look after me." Awww, man. The good momentum that's been building is slightly thrown off when, once again, the writers feel the need to have Thelma remind us that she's a lesbian! And a ghost! She's a lesbian ghost! Did we mention that she's a lesbian ghost? I'm not sure we did. Anyway. Thelma gets into some angst of her own, she's worried that Cassie is annoyed and/or bored with her, and would rather she wasn't around. "And normally that would be fine. Except I've got no one else to talk to." Cassie apologises sincerely. "And if you're sick of me now," Thelma continues, "What's it going to be like in 10 years? 20 years?" And, I mean, it's pretty obvious stuff, but affecting nonetheless. And the scene doesn't even go on way longer than it needs to! They're definitely improving, I'm telling you.

Later that night, Cassie sleeps, and Thelma sits watching her, drinking a carton of Five Alive. Gah! What is it with that stuff? Thelma has a look through some papers on Cassie's desk, and finds more displays of her Cure fandom. Cassie dreams again about little Esther hanging for the tree, and wakes up with a start. Thelma's immediate reaction is to deny invading her dreams again. "It wasn't that scary," Cassie quips then, she tells Thelma she saw Esther. "Sitting quietly in the corner?" Thelma asks hopefully. "No, hanging from a tree." Cassie replies. Thelma tuts and tells her "Children do that sometimes." I'd complain about the 'show, don't tell thing again, but Thelma's line there was actually funny. Cassie wants to know why she keeps seeing Esther. Thelma, in her usual way, suggests "hallucinogenic drugs, schizophrenia, too much cheese last thing at night," and hesitates before giving the probable actual reason: the ol' "history repeats itself" chestnut.

Common room. Cassie sits alone reading a magazine, Troy and the Trio of Suck sit opposite, Gemma is planning a holiday abroad and wants to know if Troy will come. Troy and Cassie share a significant glance, and he says "Yeah, of course", as Gemma snuggles up to him. Cassie rolls her eyes and leaves. Leon says some stupid crap that I don't care about. Troy sadly watches Cassie go.

Cassie sits on a bench outside looking sad and pensive. Oooh, is that Thelma's bench? Rupert appears and oooooh, says essentially the same thing! He also came to tell Cassie that he thought the memorial service was very moving, Cassie awesomely replies "I thought it was sycophantic nonsense." Hee! Rupert, somewhat shocked, laughs and then says she's probably right. Cassie gets up to go stare at the Hanging Tree. Rupert follows to tell her that Jenny is, as ever, worried about her, Cassie assures him she's fine. How many times have we had that scene now? Rupert notices her looking at the Hanging Tree, and assumes this means she needs some exposition regarding it. So, Esther was hung for having the Devil in her, which Rupert opines is "old country speak for PMT", and blathers some further unimportant details. Cassie asks if he believes in free will. Short answer; no, with a 'but'. Long answer; yes, with an 'maybe'. Also, he calls Cassie "a tough cookie". I don't really know why I mention that, but it seemed worthwhile. I'm probably hungry. Cassie goes to watch Troy play football again. Troy notices, and is momentarily distracted, causing Leon to run up and angrily hit him in the chest to direct his attention back to the game.

Cassie walks straight into Troy's room without knocking, where Troy is being all shirtless, as he tends to worryingly often. Cassie asks why he's been avoiding her, Troy gets all "You started it!", they assure each other they are still into each other. Cassie wants to know what's the deal with the Gemma thing then. Troy irritatingly mocks her for being jealous, then "jokes" that he was hoping for a threesome. "I mean, you've got much better breasts than her, but she's got much better..." Cassie interrupts him at this point, and I really can't think of any truthful way he could have ended that sentence. She's got better... lack of the ability to SET ME ON FIRE WITH HER MIND, I guess. Anyway, Cassie apologises for being weird about Thelma, Troy tells her she doesn't need to apologise about that, and they get with the making out again.

Jenny giggles to someone on the phone as she walks down a corridor, locking a door that's mostly glass behind her so Azazeal can gaze out of it and smile creepily for a while.

In their room, Thelma's babbling on about food again. Cassie asks if she can remember a time before this thing began, whenever that might have been. Right now, it's as ill-defined as Thelma's ghostly abilities. If they can make it through this scene without using any of the words "history", "repeats" and "itself", I'm giving this episode an A+. Thelma treads on dangerous ground there, saying "I don't think there was one." Cassie does, and she wants to hang on to that. "And apart from you, and a small pony, there was always one other thing I wanted, in the time before." And there's some sweet hemming and hawing around it for a not-overly-long while, but Thelma eventually gives Cassie her blessing to make all the out she wants to with Troy. Camera zooms out to show that Azazeal's been eavesdropping, with a thoughtful look. No, I'm not really giving it an A+.

There's some really, really creepy music. Like, carnival creepy. Well, not quite. Actually it sounds very Final Fantasy VIII, though it's been too long since I played that to remember what point in the game. Azazeal walks up to Troy's shirtless sleeping form and fully CUTS HIS OWN PALM OPEN AND ROLLS A MAGGOT AROUND IN IT. Fucking hell! He's picked "dead-eyed stare" from his 101 Totally Creepy Expressions book today. He then takes this bloody maggot and inserts it into Troy's ear. Oh, well, OK then. More creepy staring, then he wanders off, and the camera zooms into to watch the maggot move around under Troy's skin. Fun.

Cassie walking with Thelma outside when Jenny approaches to inform her that Libby's been on the phone in "a bit of a state", asking Cassie to go see her. Cassie thanks her and tells her not to bother calling Libby back, she'll go right away to find out what's wrong.

And so she does. Libby intensely gives Cassie a necklace with a big blue gem in it. Cassie thanks her and tells her it's very nice, Libby crazies "No no no, you don't understand! It's been in the family for years, it will protect you" and insists that she put it on and never take it off, ever, not even for the requisite nude shower scene in the episode, repeating this over and over until Cassie agrees to do so to shut her up. There some tears and hugging, then Cassie leaves, and Libby lies down on her bed to cry. And then a hand appears on her shoulder, and there's a creepy whispered "shhhhh, it's going to be alright" and in the unlikely event that the word 'creepy' didn't tip you off, it's Azazeal. "It isn't going to protect her, is it," Libby says. It's not a question. Azazeal non-answers "You did the right thing", Libby tries to convince herself "you wouldn't hurt her, would you?" and Azazeal turns the creepy up yet further, asking "Have I ever hurt you?" Libby insists on knowing what's going to happen to Cassie, so Azazeal just straight up tells her; the necklace will blind her to the possessed, but he pretends like it's a good thing. "If she can't see them, she can't worry about them, can she?" Eeeep.

In her room, Cassie's already broken her promise, as Thelma is holding the necklace and inspecting it, asking why Libby gave it to Cassie. As per usual, Cassie gives a lame joke before telling her the truth, and gives a slightly less lame joke, suggesting an uzi might be more useful in protecting from Azazeal. If you really believe that, though, maybe you should actually try attacking him in some way instead of just engaging in pleasant conversation whenever he shows up. Anyway, Thelma gets annoyed at Cassie's dismissiveness some more, and makes her promise again that she'll actually wear the damn necklace, but it's possible she might actually keep a promise to Thelma.

Cafeteria, the bitches bitch about Troy and Cassie. Well, Gemma, bitchy as she is, is not entirely in the wrong here, because Troy has been kind of a dick to her here. Roxanne, though, just fuck off, really.

Random corridor. Thelma listens in on the Trio of Suck being their usual excessively bitchy, horny and also bitchy selves, making fun of Troy for not completely despising Cassie in every way, so he storms off. Thelma looks a little annoyed with him for not standing up for Cassie more, but also pleased with him for being pissed off with them about it. Which, you know, is a lot to show in one facial expression, so kudos. Leon follows to apologise to Troy, then immediately completely negates this by asking Troy "you couldn't lend her to me when you're done, could you?". Troy slams him against a wall and posessively (hint hint) threatens to kill him if he says anything else like that about Cassie, which does not exactly make Thelma happy about the whole giving her blessing thing. Leon stumbles off, weirded out, and Troy lights a cigarette so that Thelma and the audience can see his bloodshot eyes.

Naturally, Thelma immediately goes to report the news to Cassie, who's getting ready for a date with Troy, and naturally, Cassie dismisses it as jealousy, and after much arguing, realises Thelma's earlier fears by telling her "I don't want you." As Cassie is getting her storm-out on, Thelma realises she's not wearing the necklace, and makes sure she at least does that. I really do love the way they actually kind of trusted the audience's intelligence for once to get the whole inherent tragedy of this.

Montage time! Generic rockin' riffage as Troy and Cassie are heading off on their date, they get caught in some roadworks, and one of the workers is using a tool that appears to be basically a FLAMING TRIDENT, which, so awesome. Mournful piano as Thelma sits alone in the cafeteria, eating crisps, looking at a creepy pupilless statue.

Generic Restaurant. Cassie and Troy talk about her mother. "I think she was just holding it together until she could get me into school", Cassie says, which is really very sad. Troy tells her he remembers the day she came to Medenham; she was wearing a Greatful Dead t-shirt. Cassie embarrassedly admits that she didn't even like them, she was just trying to be radical. Troy goes one better by telling her "I used to want to be Michael Jackson." Cassie admits defeat right there, because seriously, you can't beat that. Cassie once again apologises for being weird, Troy tells her not to worry about it and creepily adds "Besides, I'm going to make you pay later".

Cafeteria. Thelma paces around on top of a table boredly. That's all.

Troy and Cassie arrive back at college, Troy tells her he doesn't feel like going in to Leon yet, so they go for a walk.

Thelma lies on a table, playing dead. She sits up, looks at the pupilless statue again. She notices something about it, though I have no idea what, and walks up for a closer look. Camera pans around to show that she's actually looking at a painting behind it, of a minotaur grabbing a woman from behind. Also, the woman is wearing Cassie's necklace. And there's a stained glass window that light is shining through onto the painting showing... a goat battling a snake with a crown? I really don't know what's going on here, but apparently this stuff leads Thelma to the conclusion that she needs to go running to find Cassie and Troy. Well, I say 'find', but there's really no way she'd know where to find them unless she already knew where Cassie was, which is probably another one of those ghost things. No wait, she's gone to the car. Oh, Troy's dragged Cassie to the shed where she found the Smurf Penis. OK, it makes some reasonable sense that Thelma would think to look there. Troy and Cassie starts making out and undressing each other as Thelma runs around shouting for Cassie. Cassie and Troy start making sex faces, Thelma figures it out/has a lucky guess and goes into the shed to watch them finish. Troy walks out, and Cassie picks up a lantern to show Thelma and the audience her bloodshot eyes. And, voila, an actual cliffhanger.