"Poor Nicholas. See what your mortal fascination has made you."
A case of TV amnesia gives Natalie an opportunity to play house with Nick, but how long can it last?
Every time I watch this one I think it's going to be a clip show, where Natalie is going to tell Nick stories so we can flash back to the season's highlights, but it's actually about a vampire with memory loss, and it builds on some of the new ideas the show is exploring.
Remember when the lady with multiple personalities was only a vampire when that one personality took over? Suddenly it seemed like vampirism was all in the mind. And if Nick's forgotten he's a vampire, then may he isn't one any more. He can eat, right? He couldn't do that before. Something's different about him.
That's enough for Natalie to start creating a new life for Nick. No reason to tell him he's a vampire.
But that could never last.
Flashbacks:
In what may have been the Crimean War, La Croix is riding around in a very impressive uniform. I don't think he's a soldier. We know he's drawn to war for the free food, so I think he took that uniform off someone dead so he could wander around the battleground. But a lucky soldier stuck him in the chest with a piece of wood, barely hitting his heart, and La Croix is on his way to hell if Nick won't pull the stick out. Nick saves him with a little of his own blood, and La Croix decides he'll pay him back for this favor.
Nigel Bennett's acting is perfect in this scene.
Little Bites:
-La Croix enjoyed saying, "The bullet glanced off the good detective's very THICK skull."
-Nick sits at the piano and plays Für Elise by Beethoven. Then he remembers playing the piece for his "hard of hearing" friend who was jotting down notes on a staff with a quill pen. Not only did Nick meet Beethoven, but he wrote one of his most famous works. This is a stretch.
-Nick agrees to help La Croix in the past, but only if La Croix agrees to let him leave. This is odd since they had the same conversation when we met Jack the Ripper.
-La Croix claims to be helping Nick because he owes him, but we know La Croix wouldn't let Nick die.
-I like the ending. Rather than gaining his memory in a moment of epiphany he is going to let La Croix tell it. You have to wonder which parts La Croix embellishes and which parts he leaves out.
-How long did Natalie think they could go on pretending?
Final Analysis: Nigel Bennett's acting alone is worth a lot, and this episode is actually about exploring the lives of vampires rather than being a police procedural. Four out of five fabulous war uniforms.
Adam D. Jones is a writer, musician, and medievalist who feels a kinship for vampires because his sensitive eyes that make it difficult to go outside during the day.
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