Fred enlists his mothers’ help in figuring out what was stolen from his dad’s archive vault, Viv and Geoff are giving their parents the silent treatment and feeling kind of lucky that their secret house party got a free pass because their parents secret trumped theirs. Viv gets suspended from school for defending herself against her would-be rapist and he threatens to press charges if she doesn’t apologize. Deloris’ old friend Gina, the town sheriff, has a lead on the murders of the butcher and the vamps that link back to her and Fred and a string of unsolved murders all over the world.

WHAT WORKED: Viv’s desire to humanize the monsters is a nice touch and it poses a very valid grey area question.  Geoff choosing not to out Phillip but, asking him to accept who he is so it doesn’t end up killing him, or making him want to kill himself, granted that doesn’t always work and the odds of Phillip coming out in their small town is unlikely, it was nice to hear on TV.

WHAT DIDN’T: There wasn’t much to find fault within this episode, it was pretty well written, beautifully acted, and I can’t think of one flaw.

BEST LINE (s):

“I broke a nail” – Fred’s Mom as she gives him the finger, she’s sassy and I love it.

BEST MOMENT: Viv in the principals’ office for the win. It was the realness of the audacity of her would-be rapist blaming her for him getting hurt and the sheer hubris of him gaslighting her and saying, “she had problems” and he has no idea why she would ever attack him. Watching Viv’s reaction to being called into the principal’s office and accused of assaulting her almost rapist was realistic and caused me to have a visceral reaction and uneasiness towards the whole situation. There’s a myriad of ways thing could have played out in this scene and not every woman reacts the same way so, her reaction was super valid and plausible and shuts down this antiquated idea that the way to tell if a woman has been assaulted, or almost assaulted, is how she reacts afterward. It was interesting to see these events play out in a show where the end didn’t come off as being exploitative or put in for shock value.

EPISODE’S MVP: Viv all the way! From her being sick of all the lies, to having to deal with a gaslighting rapist and an unconcerned principal to trying to save her monster rescuer from her dad’s traps, Viv was put through it in this episode and she came through like a champ. Her reactions were realistic and really helped to push this story along and I look forward to seeing how her character progresses throughout the rest of the season especially with the smooth, thoughtful, reflective, badass way that Taveeta Szymanowicz portrays her.

Overall: 9.0