Mick: "Shepherd's risen, all right. And he is pissed."Audrey certainly lucked into the right private detective, didn't she?
The crazed cult leader plot has been done to death, so to speak. It was pretty obvious right from the start that Donovan Shepherd thwarted his own execution because he'd been turned, and I'm glad they didn't try to pretend the audience wouldn't figure that out.
Of course, this episode wasn't about Audrey being stalked by undead Donovan Shepherd. It was about four-year-old Beth being rescued by undead Mick St. John. The similarities of the current case (and clandestinely searching through Mick's files) helped Beth to remember what she had forgotten. I liked that Beth didn't confront Mick with the photos and accuse him of stalking her, that she didn't berate him for keeping it from her, that she didn't have to be told. The writers resisted using it to create an artificial wedge between Beth and Mick. Yay.
The closing scene was lovely, even though the symbolism was ridiculously obvious. Beth finally gave a little girl thank-you kiss on the cheek to her vampire guardian angel, who cowered before the symbolically breaking dawn like the movie monster that he is.
And (I know, I'm repeating myself) I liked that, after fluttering all over the place in the last episode, Mick got to be a tough guy again. Threatening the movie producer with a real sword. Getting tossed down a mountain. The macho beheading scene. And I really enjoyed Shepherd's minion continuing to spout threatening lunacy as Mick was twisting his nose.
Where was Josh? Was that his boss that just wound up in the morgue? It also seemed odd that there was no Coraline, especially when Mick was so weirded out and hot under the collar about her last week. I guess she was the subtext, huh? I also missed Josef. Although I can't quite see Mick taking Beth and Audrey to him for protection, a la Spike.
Bits and pieces:
— The opening scene showed Mick cutting a bullet out of his arm, not because it would keep hurting him, but because he wouldn't be able to go through a metal detector at the airport. Nice bit of set-up to remind us of the extent of vampire invulnerability before the execution scene.
— The actor who played Donovan was suitably creepy, but maybe too theatrical. Sort of like the actor you'd cast in summer stock to play Charles Manson.
— I liked the bits about Hollywood (true crime as entertainment). And the upside down religious aspects of vampire resurrection, with Shepherd being turned by a vampire priest, and Mick literally rocking a confessional.
— That little girl playing Beth in the flashbacks did not look four years old. It would have been a tough role for a four-year-old to play, though, and an older child probably would have remembered Mick's face.
— Come on. After being pursued by the media for fourteen years, Audrey never considered that Beth might just have been looking for an in-depth story? Yes, she wasn't. But in real life, she would have been.
— It's been a couple of months since the pilot.
— This episode was written by producer Jill Blotevogel, who wrote my favorite episode of The Dead Zone.
Quotes:
Beth: "Audrey's demon was in prison, and she never felt safe. The police never found the woman who took me, but somehow, I always felt safe."
Mick: "Donovan Shepherd was big for awhile. He had the grunge charm of Kurt Cobain and the media savvy of Donald Trump."
Mick: "I thought about being an actor back in the seventies, but I think I really just wanted to be Steve McQueen."
Mick: "Mi casa es su casa. That's Spanish, by the way, for keep her out of my stuff."
Mick: "I would recommend not going to the office."
Beth: "Okay."
Mick: "Okay. Or upstairs. Or through the gray door."
Beth: "Wow. This all sounds so Alice in Wonderland."
Mick: "Beware of the bottles that say drink me, okay?"
Maybe Mick did all that tantalizing warning because subconsciously, he really wanted Beth to find the photos. Yes, I like that.
Three out of four prop movie swords,
Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.
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