Misfits: Episode Four (War, What is it Good For?)

Ollie: “Has anyone got one of these weird powers?”

Ollie didn't last long. No sooner had we learned of his ability to teleport (and marvelled at his cool sandals), and he was dead. I half expected Curtis to turn back time and save him. But not this time. Dead is dead. Which is a pity because I liked Ollie. It's just a shame he was never anything more than an organ donor. At least Nikki's got her new heart. Unfortunately, she's also inherited Ollie's terrible superpower: the ability to teleport just a few feet. I guess you take the rough with the smooth.

The “man stuck in game” plot felt a little bland, but it was by no means throwaway. If Tim hadn't shot Ollie, then Nikki would've died. Which is presumably why Superhoodie didn't intervene. Ollie's death happened exactly on schedule. Why Superhoodie would favour Nikki's life over Ollie's, I'm not altogether sure. Will Nikki surviving have future implications? Does she still have a part to play in the bigger picture? It's not as though she had a meaningful role in Alisha's rescue. She just teleported in and was instantly captured. She didn't help their cause one jot.

And why wouldn't Superhoodie let Alisha phone for an ambulance? Why was his death so important? His objective was to save Alisha; not to go on some suicide mission. Unless he had no way of returning to his own time. Is that why he asked Alisha to burn his body? Has he always known this is how it would end?

The Las Vegas photo showed Superhoodie and Alisha together. So in the future, Alisha is alive. She was never shot. So what caused gun-toting Tim to appear in the present? Has Curtis' time travelling knocked events off kilter? Has the butterfly effect somehow screwed everything up? And how did Superhoodie travel back through time in the first place? His abilities are clearly more advanced than Curtis'. Yet, time travel isn't his superpower. Invisibility is. Did someone send him back? Or does he develop the ability to time travel at a later date?

In other news, Curtis and Alisha are now history -- which means Curtis is free to see Nikki. In a perfect world, that would leave Alisha free to see Superhoodie. Only Superhoodie's dead. All Alisha has is her grief; and because of her promise, she has to endure it alone. I found Superhoodie's reluctance to let Alisha go quite moving. He knew his life was almost over. Little did Alisha know that the next time she'd see him it would be to watch him die.

Which leaves Alisha still trying to work out the enigma that is Simon. Despite being ontologically identical to Superhoodie, he has a long way to go before becoming the man she fell in love with. It's heartbreaking the way she smiles at him. You can see she wants to make that connection. But Simon can't respond. They've not been together yet. He doesn't know her. And Alisha can't tell him all they've been through. The times they've shared. What they mean to each other.

True to form, Nathan provided the light relief amidst the doom and gloom. His escape attempt was woefully comical. Watching him trying to somersault out of his bonds had me in stitches. In the end, he did the selfless thing. He sacrificed himself so that Alisha could escape. I'm not sure how you come back from dismemberment. Shame we didn't get to find out. But, all in all, it was a terrible rescue attempt. Nothing went right. Even Nikki teleporting in from nowhere didn't help. Without Superhoodie's sacrifice they'd all be dead. Which pretty much sums them up. A bit crap.

With Superhoodie gone, I dread to think what will become of the ASBO five. Will they make it to the end of the season unscathed?

Bits and Pieces:

-- At least now we know why Nikki had a scar in Curtis' flash forward. She's had a heart transplant.

-- Now Alisha has the keys to the base she presumably has access to all of Superhoodie's future newscasts. I wonder what she'll find there.

-- I loved Nathan's slowness at the significance of washing Shaun's car. He was embarrassingly sluggish on the uptake. It wasn't until he was actually sat in the car that the penny finally dropped.

-- I liked Nathan making fun of the fact that none of them (except, I guess, Simon) can control their powers. Which makes them all essentially useless.

-- Kelly would have looked lovely in that dress; if not for the gash across her face and the blood.

-- Nikki appears to be able to teleport to whoever she's thinking about. She also appears to be able to travel further than Ollie.

Quotes:

Nathan: “Better him than me.”
Simon: “You're immortal.”
Nathan: “Better him than one of you.”

Kelly: “Let me go, you dick.”

Tim: “Put it on!”
Kelly: “You can shove that up your arse.”

Nathan: “A bunch of young offenders develop superpowers and not one of us thinks of using them to commit crime? Shame on us!”

Simon: “I thought we'd use our powers to help people.”
Nathan: “Nah!”

Nathan: “See, that's why I don't play computer games. Because they never bloody end!”

Kelly: “Brilliant fucking rescue”.
Nathan: ”No chance of a rewind then?”

Alisha: “I won't let you die.”
Simon: “You have to, or I'll never be this person.”

Alisha: “I don't love him. I love you.”
Simon: “You falling in love with him, that makes him become me.”