Class – Co-Owner Of a Lonely Heart – Episode Review
Last weekend’s rewatch was a Class double bill, appropriately enough the two-parter of Co-Owner Of A Lonely Heart and Brave-Ish Heart. This review will deal with the first of those. If you want to check out our previous episode reviews then you can find them here – Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3.
Synopsis
April (Sophie Hopkins) starts to feel the effects of sharing her heart with Corakinus (Paul Marc Davis). His attempts to sever the attachment only make it stronger.
Co-Owner of a Loney Heart splits the gang in two once again. On the one hand we have Ram (Fady Elsayed) and April’s growing romance and her intense connection to Corakinus. The rest of the gang face the twin dangers of the new Head Teacher, Dorothea Ames (Pooky Quesnel), and some creepy flesh-eating alien blossom.
April and Ram (and Corakinus)
I know some fans have an issue with how fast Ram and April’s relationship developed, but this is high school after all and these kids have gone through an intense experience together. Like April says later in the episode to her mother “we’ve got stuff in common”. I think that fending off alien threats togethere would help cement a relationship pretty quickly.
Sophie Hopkins has some absolutely stellar scenes in this episode as her bond with Corakinus grows and influences her. The scene when she talks of soldiers awaiting rescue as cowards, channeling the attitudes of the Shadow Kin, is nothing short of jaw-dropping.
We also get to meet both of her parents and fill in a lot of her background (her father tried to kill April and her mother, paralysed her mother, has been in prison, just got out). The first meeting between April and her father is INTENSE. April summons Shadow Kin blades as her anger (and the bond) takes her over.
The April/Ram love scene gets some flack but I think I get what they were going for. The whole sequence serves to contrast April and Ram with Corakinus and Kharrus, their attitudes towards intimacy, and shows that the link isn’t only one way. Side-note – The design of the Shadow Kin realm is awesome, and I can’t wait to see more of it in the next episode (Brave-ish Heart).
I also think that the scene with April and Ram and her mother (Shannon Murray) is great.
I understand why April’s mum is so worried and protective (given what we just found out about her husband) but I loved how Ram handled it. He’s sweet, thoughtful and caring.
Love Blossoms
While Ram and April are getting intimate, back at school Charlie (Greg Austin), Tanya (Vivian Oparah) and Matteusz (Jordan Renzo) have multiple issues to deal with. There’s the new Head Teacher who seems to know EVERYTHING about our gang, right down to the fact that Charlie and Quill are not of this world. Matteusz is dealing with the fact Charlie lied about the Soul Cabinet being empty. Alien blossoms are feeding and multiplying across the city. Oh and Parents’ Evening is coming up.
The alien blossoms might just be my favourite thing about this and the following episode. Something so beautiful shouldn’t be scary. But the insidious way that they multiply and build up is brilliantly done. From the moment the first blossom lands on April’s window as she is playing things seem wrong. When you see them draw blood on both Dorothea and Matteusz the sense of dread starts to build. The moment you see the dead squirrel (once again, this show is NOT for kids!) covered in the blossoms it all clicks. I love that particular horror element. This isn’t a foe that our heroes can fight, or reason with. It’s an implacable growing enemy.
Come Together
Matteusz and Charlie are arguing over the Cabinet. Charlie tells Matteusz that it isn’t just a weapon. Yes the souls contained withim can be used to destroy another race…but that’s not all. Apparently there’s a Rhodian children’s tale that the souls will take over the forms of whichever race they are sent to destroy. Sooo that feels like it could be very relevant doesn’t it?
Ram informs Tanya what’s going on with April and the gang converge on April’s home. They arrive just in time to see her reach in to her mother and heal her legs!!! After performing that miracle April rips a hole in space to the Shadow Kin home and leaps through it, with Ram hot on her heels.
Overall thoughts
Co-Owner of a Lonely Heart is a very intense episode, with only some brief moments of levity. Tanya lightens the mood a couple of times as we actually get reminded she is only 1 – her “is Charlie all human… down there” line kills me every time! Even Quill, who can usually be counted on for some hilarity, is pretty sombre in this episode. While episode 2 belonged to Fady, and 3 to Vivian, there’s no doubt that this episode is 100% Sophie Hopkins’. In the previous episodes April has seemed fairly meek but as her bond with Corakinus grows, and her relationship with Ram matures, she changes for the better.
While the new head teacher seems really odd, I actually really like the way she bridges the gap between our gang and The Governors. The scene with her and Quill where she brokers a deal to remove the creature keeping Quill beholden to Charlie shows just how much power the Governors have. And just how much they know. Something I wish we had gotten to see more of.
That’s it for my review of Co-Owner of a Lonely Heart. I’ll be back with my review of Brave-ish Heart before the next episode. Don’t forget that the Class rewatch continues on Sunday May 3rd at 8pm (UK time) with episode 6 – Detained!
