TV Review: MISFITS: Season 5, Episode 5 [Channel 4]

Channel 4‘s Misfits 5.5 TV Show Review. Misfits: Season 5, Episode 5 seemed relatively light, considering it launched the second half of the show’s final season. It did, however, serve to move certain elements along. I suppose it could be summarized as a self-serving effort, by Rudy (Joseph Gilgun), to get Finn (Nathan McMullen) beyond his infatuation with Jess (Karla Crome), resulting in more lasting consequence than one-off hi-jinx.

Unaware of Rudy’s true motives, Finn clumsily approached the powers support group as a singles meet, and stumbled his way into the good graces of a member named Leah. Only, she wasn’t Leah. Leah (Scarlett Brookes) was actually an agoraphobe with the power to electronically transfer personalities. When her estranged friend, Debbie (Chloe Pirrie), told her about the support meetings, she downloaded herself (via phone) into Debbie, momentarily supplanting her consciousness. Leah relinquished control of Debbie after getting Finn’s number, and Debbie had no recollection of their meeting. Her negative reaction to Finn, at the next meeting, left him more than a little out of sorts. With Jess once again on Finn’s mind, Rudy resorted to a more embarrassing means of tarnishing her image in Finn’s eyes.

Between Rudy’s measure, his bungling that resulted in said measure going public, and his effort to keep it all from Jess, their courtship came to a heated end. On a side note, Greg (Shaun Dooley), in bringing the matter to Jess’ attention, provided some insight regarding his closeted identity. Jess’ humiliation was an accident that amounted to a particularly bad prank. Greg’s humiliation was a rebuke of his affections, and explained quite a lot about the man he had apparently grown to be. He was still a creep, though, as evidenced by a seemingly random mock shooting of the gang.

Leah used Finn’s number to occupy his body, and brought him to her. Her plan was to make him her shut-in companion, but he was less than receptive to the idea. Much less so, upon learning that she had downloaded him into a flash drive. Rudy would learn about Leah’s ability from Debbie, and it was off to another door kicking rescue for the gang. With both Leah and Finn in digital form, the gang made off with his inert body and the flash drive, but not his phone. Leah used his contact list to hijack one of the would be rescuers. The resulting chase scene seemed to be heading to a very dark place, but Leah was merely lovelorn, and not homicidal (nor without a sense of humor, it turned out). Once Finn became convinced of that distinction, he convinced her, in turn, to attempt a romance that extended beyond her flat.

With Finn having turned an abduction into a romance, and Rudy having made up with Jess (all too easily, it seemed), there was one other pairing to come. After being nailed by body snatching Leah, the gang was sprung by electrician-at-large Helen (Ellie Kendrick). Once Rudy Too learned of this, he took the opportunity to thank her (for resuscitating his elder self, last episode), and to tell her about a group of his own that he was putting together.

A few issues came to mind. Early on, Alex (Matt Stokoe) had “relieved” a support group member of her ability to invert objects (she turned her cat inside out). Alex may have been too impressed with his prospective client to worry, but I would certainly concern myself with that power doing unpleasant things to me (even if just one part, in particular). Later, he would step forward to de-power Leah, but the matter had already been resolved. I’m pretty sure that would have been rape; making for a dark grey area that may need addressing.

As far as I can tell, Rudy Too is at least as decent as Rudy, but with none of the nasty bits. I’m, therefore, not entirely clear what Jess sees in Rudy. As weak as his conciliatory speech was, I’m tempted to declare her affection a mild case of masochism.

Alex has been kicking in a lot of doors. Granted, he was possessed in one case; but I have to wonder if those break-ins have been the reason he has remained in community service.

I suppose the whole notion of “going postal” doesn’t carry all that much weight in Britain (gun control, and all), otherwise Greg’s pantomiming of gunning down the gang would’ve come across as more alarming to them than it did. The scene would have likely been cut from a U.S. production, so I hope that otherwise random sequence leads to something significant.

Misfits 5.5 was good for a laugh, had some technical chops to it, and even managed a brief scare (given what was revealed about the cast’s future), but it was almost entirely a set up episode. While it did not distract from the ongoing narrative, I was left wondering about how the series would be able to satisfactorily wrap things up in the time it has left.

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