Misfits - Episode Five, 1.05

I'm writing this in the afterglow of the episode. I'm still grinning from the 48-odd minutes of capital-A Amazing I just watched.

From episode three, Misfits took the Skins route and began focusing primarily on individual characters for each episode. Episodes one and two followed the crew as they killed, buried, dug up, and buried again their probation officer; the following episodes still dealt with the aftermath, but mostly as a B-plot to the A story of a protagonist as he/she deals with his or her new power.

This episode, which focused on Simon, is my favorite so far. It had a strange subplot about Nathan getting hypnotized by a baby, which served only to add substance to his and Kelly's relationship, I'm guessing, but that was largely overshadowed by the Simon/Sally story. Simon has always been the odd one out (the actor who portrays him has mastered the art of sitting and acting uncomfortable -- I'm serious, he's really good), the brunt of Nathan's jokes, or else ignored entirely. So when you see him warm up to Sally here (his gradual smile in the bar!), it's tragic, because she is cruelly using him to incriminate the group of her boyfriend's murder.

Not sure why she didn't just confiscate phones like they did in the first episode, but I'm glad she didn't, because the resulting tragedy that unfolded was well worth the price of admission.

We see Simon fall for Sally, and there are two beautiful, parallel scenes:

1. He asks her to get a drink, she says no and walks away, turns around, says, "Simon," and suddenly they're at the bar. (Their date's soundtrack consisting, perfectly as usual, of the XX and Damien Rice.)

2. He kisses her, she says, "This is my fault," walks away, turns around, and a beat later he's sitting in her kitchen, grinning. Half a scene later, you realize he has used his power to become invisible and she didn't really invite him in.

This episode played at first like a quirky love story (older woman/shy younger man; guy dates his probation worker) that transformed at its climax into a fantastically terrifying horror-movie plot as he smashes her head against the door -- silence at first, and then you realize she's dead over the same Damien Rice that played during their date. I'm a complete sucker for this kind of unpredictable plot/ironic parallel or song choice, but I thought this was absolutely perfect.

I won't even mention the beautiful-as-usual cinematography and direction, brilliant acting, etc. (Well, only one mention, then.)