Recap: Astrid & Lilly learn how hard it is to maintain work-life-monster hunting balance in Ep. 8

The fault lines are beginning to fissure between favorite dynamic duo, Astrid (Jana Morrison) and Lilly (Samantha Aucoin). As their personal lives diverge, and their romantic lives evolve, they find themselves spending more time apart.

This would be totally understandable, if painful, in any other friendship; but as these two heroines are Pine Academy’s primary monster-busting force, and stronger together than apart, their rocky alliance could endanger the survival of the entire world.

This week’s episode of Astrid & Lilly Save the World tests the strength of that titular ampersand, perhaps more so than ever before. Will it be able to hold up?

**SPOILER WARNING! Spoilers ahead for Astrid & Lilly Save the World Season 1, Episode 8, "Hair."**

Astrid and Lilly aren’t on the best of terms, and the wise thing for them would probably be to give each other space. Unfortunately that’s impossible, as they’ve both ended up in a Breakfast Club-like detention sentence, along with the usual suspects: Sparrow (Spencer Macpherson), Candace (Julia Doyle), Eggs (Michael McCreary), Tate (Kolton Stewart), all presided over by their warden for the afternoon — Vice Principal Michelle (Megan Hutchings). Instead of an essay, she’s got them hard at work on an exhilarating arts and crafts project. Real introspective stuff.

Unsurprisingly, Lilly, who’s been losing sleep over Candace and their hot-and-cold dalliance, dozes off. While asleep, she has a horrific nightmare featuring a girl with long hair and sharp teeth coming at her. She wakes up to alert Astrid — who’s busy making out with her new boo Sparrow in the stacks. But if there’s a new monster afoot, they’re going to have to table their personal matters for the moment.

And there sure is. That little girl is not only in Lilly’s dreams: She’s stalking the hallways. She even makes her way into the boys’ bathroom, and claims her first victim, one of the detainees, enveloping him in her elastic hair.

Meanwhile, Lily and Candace have wandered off to the cafeteria for a snack, and Lilly asks for some clarity over what they are. Candace wants to keep things on the hush-hush, as she’s not ready to go public yet. They seal their vow of secrecy with a kiss, which is ironically espied by Tate through the glass windows.

The kiss is rudely interrupted when Lilly catches a glimpse of the monster in the kitchen. After returning to detention, Lilly and Astrid consult their monster notebook and identify their latest foe as the Somnium Viatore. It’s a monster from the dream realm that enters through its victims’ nightmares, and wraps them up in a wet hair cocoon, then keeps you in its web.

Its way into our world is through the mind of someone keeping a secret. Eh-hem… Lilly? And what’s more, their supersensory powers are ineffective on monsters from the dream realm, which is why they weren’t alerted to its presence. So this one’s going to be tricky.

Add to that the infighting between Lilly and Astrid, and we’re in for a whole lot of trouble. Astrid renews her attacks on Candace and Lilly’s newfound preoccupation with her; and Lilly lets Astrid know that she knows she used her car to have sex with Sparrow, thereby violating the sanctity of their shared space.

They continue arguing as they collect the tools they need to vanquish the Somnium Viatore: a camcorder, and a pair of scissors. And they don’t have much time, as the creep has picked off all of their classmates one-by-one, and has stowed them — inside its hair-cocoon-traps — in a storage room. It was only a matter of time before the monster got Astrid and Lilly, too, so distracted by their personal problems they didn’t stand a chance.

Inside the storage room, Astrid and Lilly are forced to admit to their frenemies that they are in fact monster hunters, which explains both the current situation they find themselves in as well as their past flakiness and elusiveness.

And so long as they’re divulging secrets, Tate let’s rip that Lilly and Candace are dating. Astrid snaps back at Tate for supposedly outing the couple, and then targets her opprobrium at Lilly for her questionable choice in companionship. Lilly digs into Candace for her reluctance to go public. Then Tate drops a bomb: He says he’s always known Candace’s sexuality has been fluid. She’s just embarrassed by Lilly.

Now that her secret has been divulged, Lilly has the energy to break free from the cocoon, and use the scissors to liberate the rest of the captives. She then flips on the camcorder and records the Somnium Viatore, sucking her into the camcorder, and imprisoning her in the celluloid shackles. Before she’s gone, Astrid cuts off a lock of her hair, and they deposit it in the vessel.

But their shared victory does nothing to repair their fractured friendship, and Lilly and Astrid leave the scene embittered. When Brutus (Olivier Renaud) arrives at the school to notify them that, after doing his due diligence, his disbelief in The Guardian was misguided, and that it really is here and it really is going to try to open up all the portals at once, their response is less than commensurate with the gravity of the situation.

They tell him that he’s going to have to find some other monster hunters in their place, because they’re on a friend break.

The timing couldn’t be any worse.