Stonetree's heroics land him him in serious trouble, and Nick won't be able to save him without defeating a ghost from his own past.
Internal Affairs doesn't make it easy on any of the cops in our show. Of course, it shouldn't be easy. When a cop kills someone, they should be under a lot of scrutiny, and throughout the episode it's hard to believe sometimes that Stonetree is gonna pull it out. But it's very inspiring to see how dedicated Nick and Schanke are to their captain, working all night to search for any evidence, because they know Stonetree is a good man.
Meanwhile, Nick catches fleeting glances of a woman from his past, someone he thought was long dead. Toronto is going to have to build more apartments just to make room for all of the specters from his past lives.
Flashback:
Nick and LaCroix visit a tavern, and Nick is immediately enchanted by the barmaid, Alexandra. Not sure about the setting or time period, but everyone's dressed like one of the Three Musketeers.
The lovely bar wench is taken back to Nick's place, where he romances her before vamping out and feeding on her, which is what happens when vampires get turned on in this show. We rarely see this side of Nick, back when he took life on a whim and barely felt bad about it. It's not always clear when he changed into a moral vampire with a soul.
Little Bites:
-It's weird that Nick and LaCroix order wine and demand The Good Stuff. They don't eat. It's a major plot point, sometimes.
-Fashion police: Back in the tavern, Alexandra's top is simply held up by magic.
-Once again, Nick wakes up with blood sweating through his forehead, which is a sign of his guilt. And, once again, I'm not sure why he is able to bleed when his heart only beats once every ten years. The blood bubbles to surface just like his past is bubbling up to meet him.
-Alexandra claims she never kills. She also says she's stronger than Nick. I'm not sure how she's so strong without blood. Maybe she visits slaughterhouses. I don't know.
-Grace, the lab assistant, is always a welcome addition.
-The show teases us with Alexandra's presence at the end, just like the museum curator in the first episode, but we never see her again.
-Nick has terrible luck with conversions. He did it easily with Natalie's brother, but every other time he tries to bring someone across it completely fails. This time is different. He thought she was dead, but La Croix sensed a bit of life in her and brought her the rest of the way on a lark. It's not clear why he never mentioned it. Would have saved Nick a lot of confusion.
Final Analysis: Stonetree's episodes are always maudlin, and the ghost story is inconsistent with other parts of the show. Still, we get to watch Nick climb on a bus and irritate the strange man at the wheel. 3 out of 5 elephant guns.
Adam D. Jones is a writer, historian, and undefeated cat wrestler. He's also something of a wine snob himself, having recently sent back his communion cup because it had crumbs in it.
When Alexandra confronts Nick he asks her how many innocents she's killed, and my understanding of her response is "So many. I never counted." So her vampire strength is reasonable, although she's perhaps under-estimated Nick.
ReplyDeleteMy fan theory for why Alexandra and others are set up as potentially reoccurring characters but don't: vampires in Toronto always end up at The Raven and a meeting with Janette.
ReplyDeleteTo me Janette is the well balanced of our three main vampires. She isn't tormented about what she is and what she does like Nick, but she also isn't obsessed with how other vampires ought to think and behave like LaCroix. If Alexandra regards Nick as her demon lover / sire / nemesis, Janette will convince her that she really ought to lead her own life somewhere else. If that doesn't work, Janette is protective of her Nikola and maybe even a bit possessive, so stakes Alexandra and doesn't bother telling Nick about it. :-)
Janette is certainly the best part of the show. I like the idea that she is quietly herding the vamps of Toronto.
DeleteI liked seeing the menfolk defend themselves when confronted, despite all the guilt-tripping. And I was amused that Alexandra's foreboding final shot at the end of the episode read to me more like she was just annoyed that those scoundrels got away
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