Carmilla – Act II – Episodes 18-20

By starrymag | October 1, 2016

By: Kathryn Trammell

 

Welcome back, Creampuffs, to Season Three of “Carmilla.” When last we spoke Laura (Elise Bauman), Carmilla (Natasha Negovanlis) and LaFontaine (Kaitlyn Alexander) were in the midst of brewing up an invocation to summon some otherworldly help in the form of Ereshkigal, the Goddess of Death. Being one of the gods who originally created the four talisman necessary for entrapping the Dean (Annie Briggs), Ereshkigal may know the way to the third talisman, especially since it’s Mattie’s (Sophia Walker) locket she is directly responsible for imbuing with power. It should be of no surprise to us that when Mattie apparats into the library after the invocation is complete. Yet, it is a surprise to Carmilla, who hasn’t seen her sister since she died in her arms. Thus, begins Act II of “Carmilla” Season Three.

 

Episode 18

 

Laura is startled awake by Carmilla’s reaction to Mattie’s grand entrance and together they ask Mattie how she is still alive. Mattie’s explanation of her own existence does little to ease their confusion. Laura and Carmilla quickly sort through Mattie’s words determining that the “she” to which Mattie is referring is the Goddess of Death who has sent Mattie as her personal messenger and spokesperson to the library. “Mattie is here,” the goddess assures them both, but so too is Ereshkigal who can see, hear and speak through Mattie.

 

Carmilla notices the locket around Mattie’s neck and realizes it was she who took it from the desk, but when Laura asks Mattie to give the locket back to them she quickly responds by saying that Laura has to earn the locket back by way of contest. She suggests a game that if Laura wins, she gets to keep the locket, but if she loses she has to go back to the Land of the Dead with Mattie. These are pretty high stakes, but given that the challenger gets to pick the game, Laura agrees proving to both Mattie and Carmilla that she is the Bobby Fisher of Scrabble. She wins using the word “quixotry,” beating Mattie by 300 points and securing the third talisman as their own.

 

When Laura begins to speculate about what the fourth talisman might be, Mattie becomes surprised that the girl who just beat her at a game of scrabble with the word “quixotry” hasn’t yet figured out what “the liar’s heart” is. She wastes no time in telling them that the fourth talisman is “the heart of a Silas Board member.” Since Laura killed Vordenburg at the end of Season Two, they all assume they are fresh out of human board member hearts to harvest. They seem to have forgotten; however, about Danny. Although her heart may no longer beat, it is still very much locked safe inside her chest. This could also be the motive behind the Dean’s decision to turn Danny into a vampire and against her friends as she too was a human member on the Board. With Vordenburg dead and gone and Danny out of sight, out mind, so too is their chance at encaging the Dean.

 

Episode 19

 

Mattie believes Laura would be better off switching sides since her actions in Season Two did more to help the Dean than they did to hinder her. Her anger at Laura doesn’t end there because it’s still fueled with the memory that Laura is the reason she now serves as “the go-between” for the teenager that got her killed and the “terrifying Death Goddess” that wants to kill her mother.

 

Carmilla defends Laura saying their mother played them all and that the only difference between her and Mattie and Laura is that Laura doesn’t have the years of experience necessary to anticipate the Dean’s deception. Her words do little to boost Laura’s confidence, which tanked the moment Mattie blamed her for her death. Before Laura leaves the room she looks Mattie in the eyes and tells her very honestly, “I’m sorry.”

 

Once Laura is gone from the room, Mattie’s incorporeal form glitches and fades reminding both she and Carmilla that she isn’t really there. Her soul, or whatever counts as the soul of a vampire, is being held somewhere in the Underworld ruled by Ereshkigal. While Mattie would give anything to be “here” with Carmilla with “voices to hear and faces to see,” that might be impossible until certain doors and pathways between worlds of existence open again. But, until the Dean is trapped inside her cage, the gods will keep those doors closed for their own protection. This explains perhaps why Mattie was especially upset with Laura, who she not only blames for her death but for keeping her dead as well.

 

Before she leaves, Mattie warns Carmilla about the bleak reality of the Underworld where she is forced every second of her new existence to face all of the regrets she’s earned throughout her many lives. “Yours are waiting for you too,” she says before vanishing into a puff of black smoke.

 

Some indistinct amount of time later, Laura sits at the desk and addresses her audience about the mess thinks she’s made. “Am I really the one to fix any of this?” she asks before her dad (Enrico Colantoni) walks into the room to assure her that she is. In an earnest, beautiful, pulling-on-the-heartstrings kind of performance, Enrico Colantoni channels every shred of pride Mr. Hollis has for his daughter when he reminds her that she is the same brave girl today that she was when she accused her Principal of embezzlement, when she raged against fifth-grade princess culture and when she refused to leave her dad inside a car filling up with smoke because staying with him (although it meant risking her own life) ensured he would be saved by her relentless screams for help. His daughter’s selfless bravery is the single greatest attribute she has, but its also the single greatest reason he fears so much for her life, because he’s come to realize in her nineteen years that if altruism truly exists inside one human, that human is his daughter.

 

He can’t protect her from her bravery, but he can try to help her bravely face her mission to save the world and so he stands up to leave the safety of the library with a plan to bring said “help” to his daughter. Before he leaves, he tells Carmilla to keep his daughter safe and then he hugs Laura one last time after handing her the project he’s been working on with LaF (it may or may not be a low grade dirty bomb). The door closes behind him and Laura curls up in the chair alone with the memory of all he said to her and cries.

 

After a couple hours pass, Carmilla re-enters the room to check on Laura with a Tardis cup full of hot chocolate in hand. Laura assures Carmilla that she’s okay, which is good because Carmilla wants to talk. The topic up for discussion is similar to the one she just discussed with her father, but while her father embellished the selfless bravery of Laura’s actions Carmilla chooses to embellish the fact that Laura’s actions also mean she is risking her life more than she should be.

 

They begin to bicker and turn circles around the same argument they always do – that it’s okay for Carmilla to risk her life because she older, more experienced and somewhat impervious to destruction while it isn’t okay for Laura to do the same because she’s inexperienced and a frail human being. Laura rails against Carmilla’s logical reasoning saying she obviously hasn’t recognized Laura’s recent growth, which has allowed her to navigate the more morally ambiguous areas of life especially those that deal with past mistakes and making healthy the relationships that used to be unhealthy.

 

Carmilla questions Laura’s choice of words, especially those that label desperate desk sex and repressed squishy feelings as “healthy,” but Laura insists that even though they’ve had a couple of “slips” they can be mature about what’s happening between them. At least, that’s what her mouth is arguing because her eyes and body argue the total opposite when they begin to respond to Carmilla’s own darkening eyes and to her own encroaching body. The words “oh crap” slip from Laura’s mouth before Carmilla slips her back onto the desk and the two slip up on their poorly-defined friendship yet again.

 

After the current broadcast’s technical difficulties clear themselves up, the live feed resumes itself to reveal Laura with a hairdo that any 80’s rock band would envy and smile in need of a cigarette. This time there is no “oops” after the fact. This time, there is only the sweet sigh of satisfaction.

 

Episode 20

 

Laura, sans Southern bouffant, apologizes to her audience for having recently redefined the term “desk jockey” and explains that she, Carmilla and LaF are still very much trying to figure out the best way to beat the Dean despite not having the fourth talisman. Carmilla wants to send the Dean into the roomful of knives and set her fire, LaF wants to subdue her with shock collar and Laura wants to try talking things out.

 

Luckily, J-P (Aaron Chartrand) pops up with a plan that he says might just take care of the Dean while sparing Perry’s body and soul in the process. According to J-P, the Dean is close to opening the fifth gate. When she does, she will be drained of all her energy and vulnerable to the kind of exorcism ritual that could release a god from the body it’s inhabiting. The only problem with this is that none of them are certain how they would actually kill the Dean once her spirit has been exorcised. LaF suggests they do the circle spell they tried on Mattie, but seeing as how it couldn’t even confine Mattie, neither Laura nor Carm want to risk using it on the Dean.

 

Carmilla and LaF continue to bicker until the video cuts away mid-insult to show an argument-weary Carmilla sitting with both feet propped up on the desk while watching Laura walk into room with a mug of blood. She tells Laura that LaF has run off with the “prophecy glasses” in search of more hidden clues after their argument failed to produce any solutions. But while the issues between she and Carmilla couldn’t be resolved, Laura wants to make sure that one glaring issue between them is and that is the issue of their relationship.

 

Laura has certainly given the we-can-still-be-friends ideal the good ole college try, but she caves saying, “this just keeps happening,” while motioning to the space between the two of them as if it were electric. And it is – electric. It is downright lip-biting, fingertip-grazing, hair-pulling hot. It is anything but “light” which is the distinction these two decide to give to their newly agreed-upon relationship terms, which assume they will be able to enjoy each other while promising to keep things no-strings-attached. It’s such a beautiful lie they tell themselves, especially considering the kiss they share to test these new terms is done with complete abandon. The world may still be in jeopardy the way it always has been in seasons past, their friends may be in trouble and their hearts may still get broken, but for once this moment is theirs and they both fall into it with honest smiles on their faces.

 

That is until LaF runs into the room with the Dean unconscious and draped over her shoulder.

 

Till next time, Creampuffs.