We begin with an argument – Vicki being rather good at
those (and usually in the right as well) between Vicki and Celluci. After weeks
of refusing to hear anything to do with the supernatural he is furious that
Vicki didn’t tell him that Henry Fitzroy was a vampire! He also tries to argue
two pronged that Henry is a threat (because of all the stuff he has seen in the
movies) and pour scorn on the idea that Henry helps her deal with the
supernatural cases (which he pours scorn on for believing in). I’d demand he
pick a point and argue it rather than arguing 2 mutually exclusive points.
Still, Vicki has ordered far far too much Chinese food, so this can be
discussed over a meal
We move to what looks like a haunting and a death because
of it – a really really scary haunting actually. That was really well done
considering what looks like an extremely small special effect budget. The
deceased is a defence attorney and his widow wants Vicki to investigate (the
police believe it was a heart attack). She believes the attacker would be
Magnus O’Connor, an ex-client of Freddie’s. Except it seems like Magnus killed
himself a week ago.
This of course leads Vicki to go see Henry because… I
have no idea. To pose for a picture for him (except the picture he’s drawing
isn’t actually in the pose she’s sat in… details details). More flirting and
foreshadowing. The next day it’s time to go interview Magnus’s grieving mother –
she gets no information but makes the woman cry and Magnus’s younger brother
threaten her.
On to the most excellent pathologist, Dr. Rajani
Mohadevan (she is my favourite character in the show – even if it is dubious
that Vicki has constant access to her morgue) who points out that cardiac
arrest just means “heart stopped working” and doesn’t indicate much in terms of
cause of death. Bruises on the heart suggest someone reached into his chest and
squeezed it. She also finds out that Magnus died with a pentagon carved into
his chest – something that Celluci lied to her about.
Back to Henry for more feeding him of information which
leads to the inspiration of Magnus’s suicide being a Celtic death ritual to
allow him to seek revenge after death. On to see Sinead, an ex of Henry’s (they
broke up because Sinead used magic to bind him to her – something she tries to
do again, using magic to coerce Henry back into her bed) who says that the spell on Magnus’s bodies was just the
equivalent of the Last Rites.
Later we get to see the excellent pathologist again when
the prosecutor in Magnus’s case also shows up dead with Magnus’s fingerprints
on his heart – causing Vicki to go check on the judge as well. He’s covering in
fear after a threatening phone call (really judge? In your profession a spooky
phone call sends you to the panic room) and Vicki questions him on exactly why
Magnus is so eager to kill them all – it seems they covered up some of the
evidence in his case being contaminated. She packs the judge off with Henry to
a hotel to keep him safe but, alas Magnus arrives and kills the judge anyway
(despite Vicki’s truly pathetic attempts at first aid). But they did find out
that Vicki’s
marks from the demon allow her to touch Magnus’s ghost.
There follows some fun confrontations with the police (especially
the Nasty Police Chief who just Hates Vicki, Crowley) over the judge’s death. Time
for Henry and Vicki to question Sinead for the truth of the ritual while
Celluci and Dave Graham (his side-kick – can a bit character have a side-kick) question
Magnus’s brother who has been seen at each of the crime scenes. Sinead tells
them some random vague stuff about Vicki’s tattoos and that the ritual on
Magnus’s body wasn’t cleansing ritual (surprise) but actually *gasp* blocks the
spirit and keeps it on Earth (you need an expert to figure this out by now?)
and that it has been bound to a person! If only they could figure out who? I
mean he has “mother” written across his chest in big letters.
And the police detective who also screwed up the case
against Magnus and Magnus’s next victim? Is Detective Crowley. Time for a grand
confrontation to save Crowley’s life and have Vicki’s special marks rip out
Magnus’s spectral heart – niiicely done. Maybe I’ll take back my criticism of
the special effects. Henry could have just snapped the mother’s neck – I’m just
saying.
While Celluci annoys me a lot more than he did in the
book – since he spends all his time being jealous or heckling, at times he and Vicki
do fall into a relationship I love – bantering off each other and sliding into
discussions where you can sense them as old friends with old arguments, old
in-jokes etc that really works. I just wish we could see more of this and less
of Celluci locking antlers with Henry and playing sceptic while werewolves eat
his shoes.
He continues to demand Vicki keeps him in the loop – he’s
done this before, but at no point has Vicki kept information from him except
when he refuses to deal with the supernatural. He seems to spend a lot of time
demanding Vicki keeping him up to date on her case then demanding Vicki stop
telling him about the case! Then acting like she has a habit of withholding information
from him.
As with last episode, I question why Vicki has gone to
Henry with this case. Lawyer dies of apparent natural causes, has a freaky
message on his phone but her suspect is already dead. What about this case
screams or even whispers of the supernatural? Also, the awful Irish accents don’t
make this episode any easier.
I want to see Dr. Mohadevan play a much bigger role – in fact,
she’d make an awesome sidekick or protagonist. I love her rational scientific
mind that refuses to be surprised by anything and is willing to encompass
anything – and if the evidence says that a non-human creature killed someone or
that someone died by having their heart squeezed then that is what happened –
never mind what is “possible” or not – that’s what the evidence says! It makes
me forgive Vicki being able to access any and all resources of a police
detective
I still don’t like the flip of roles between Henry and
Vicki from the book. In the book, Henry hired Vicki for her skills as a
detective for the supernatural community – now Vicki keeps dropping in on Henry
as his random supernatural Wikipedia for all of her cases – it’s a completely
different dynamic and presents Vicki as constantly asking – no, demanding –
favours so she can do her job.
I’m going to poke at the Nasty Police Chief Who Hates
Vicki simply because this is a trope I see a lot in fiction – if you have a
strong, independent, powerful female character and she meets another strong,
independent, powerful female character then they have to hate each other (or
one has to hate the other for no good reason if the person hated is the
protagonist). It’s like there can only ever be one! I think it’s also why a lot
of strong, independent female protagonists have no other strong female
characters around them. And of course Celluci has to tell Crawler that her
mistakes don’t make her look weak – they make her look human (hmmm… male
dominated profession, woman leader makes a mistake? Yeah I think she’s pretty
right on that one).
