“I’m not angry. I found my guardian angel.”
- Beth
I will admit that the “case of the week” in this episode is one of my least favorites. I understand why they did it to show parallels to Beth’s own situation but I think it could have been handled better. The case deals with a convicted serial killer on death row who is being put to death at the top of the episode. Beth is on scene (of course) and she kind of bonds a little bit with the sole survivor of Donovan Shepard’s massacre, Audrey. Donavan is crazy and he’s got all these followers who think he’s some kind of prophet. Shepard has some rather ruthless parting words before he dies and it is enough to incite his followers into a frenzy.
Beth lets Audrey stay at her place that night, assuming the girl doesn’t want to be alone. Audrey is grateful but gets really freaked out when someone sounding like Shepard calls her and uses the exact same phrase he did when he saw her hiding in the closet all those years ago. To assuage some of Audrey’s fears, Beth takes her to see Mick. He agrees to take a look into the case for her and even offers to stay outside Beth’s place that night but Beth turns him down. She doesn’t think it is that big a deal. Although she is drawing parallels to her own kidnapping, pointing out that even though her kidnapper was never caught, she always felt safe and that Audrey’s tormenter had been in jail and she never felt safe. Well that’s because you had a sexy vampire keeping watch, honey.
Mick’s sleuthing uncovers a website with unlisted information about the DA, the jury and Beth. So of course, Mick rushes over and it’s a good thing he does. Beth’s gone to Buzzwire to finish up a few things and a man has broken in and is posing as Shepard. Mick swoops in (literally) and takes the guy out. He’s just a Shepard lackey but Mick gets him to talk and reveal that Shepard had a bio pic deal with some big producer named Jerry Drake. So Mick heads out to meet with Drake. It turns out Jerry was the one who set up the website with the unlisted information on everyone. Mick makes it very clear that if any harm comes to Audrey, Jerry will be in a world of hurt.
Beth and Audrey head to the DA’s office to look through mugshots to see if Audrey can ID the man from the night before but all they find is the DA’s office a bloody mess. Mick’s listened to Shepard’s memoirs and he now thinks that Shepard could have become a vampire right before the execution and so he goes to check the morgue. He finds the DA’s body instead so goes to the prison to look through video footage. He finds that the priest turned him right before the execution so now he gets to pay a man of the cloth a visit. Things get a little rough in the confessional until the priest admits that Shepard hated Drake for exploiting him. So while Beth and Audrey are holed up relatively safely at Mick’s place, Mick is on the war path to kill Shepard.
Because Mick told Beth to do something (stay out of his office), you know she’s going to do the opposite. She ends up snooping through his files and finds one on her. It has photos of her growing up. The cool part about this scene is I’m pretty sure Sophia Myles actually gave the director photos of her childhood to use since it looked exactly like her. Anyway, she’s kind of freaking out a bit. I don’t think she’s necessarily thinking stalker but she is upset Mick let her think she was imagining their connection.
Mick gets to Drake’s place and finds the producer dead. Shepard killed him earlier and he’s lying in wait. He and Mick tussle and Mick goes over the edge of a pretty steep embankment. I guess Mick didn’t vamp out so Shepard doesn’t realize Mick is like him. But in the struggle, Mick drops his phone and Shepard uses it to track Audrey down. Beth ends up calling Mick’s phone (because he said he’d be there in 10 minutes after finding Drake’s dead body) but she realizes pretty quick that it isn’t Mick on the other end. She does everything she can to protect Audrey, including taking on Shepard herself. He’s surprised she isn’t afraid of him and just when he’s about to slit her throat, Mick rushes in and kicks Shepard’s ass pretty handily. The situation gets a little dire as the girls race for the elevator and Shepard nearly gets in. But Mick gets his attention long enough for the doors to close so Beth and Audrey don’t see Shepard’s head depart from his body. I have to wonder how Mick cleaned all that up and got rid of the body. Where are the easily killed vampires from Buffy that just turn to dust when you stake them when you need them? That’s easy to just sweep up!
With Audrey squared away and finally feeling safe from Shepard, Beth has a chance to talk to Mick about the photos she found. It was a beautifully shot scene and it was so intimate and touching without being overdone. Beth is happy she’s found her guardian angel (even if he still considers himself a monster) but she wants him to talk to her. She acknowledges how hard it had to be for Mick to kill Coraline to save her and she brushes off the idea that he would have done it anyway. Mick insists they can’t be together (notice Josh was rather absent from this episode) but Beth isn’t so sure. She gives him a kiss on the cheek and he heads inside away from daylight as it backlights her in a soft glow.
As I mentioned before, this wasn’t one of my favorite episodes case wise but I did like the bit of resolution we got near the end of the episode. I’ve mentioned several times before that Mick and Beth have always been my favorite couple on this show and the progression we are on with them is just so fun I can’t wait to see what comes next.
No comments:
Post a Comment