In an interesting beginning, Vicki and Henry are
discussing the pros and cons of vampirism – the power it gives, the amazing
senses; things Vicki would love to experience. But it comes with costs –
sunlight, loss of friends and family and, of course, loss of Henry since
vampire territorial nature prevents them from coexisting in the same city.
And the case of the week a woman, a cat burglar, robs a
man’s house. The man is clearly a hunter with a like of taxidermy given the
many many heads stuffed on the walls – including head of a black panther of
some kind which attracts her attention. But not nearly so much as him coming
home, grabbing a gun – then being mauled to death by, what sounds like, a big
cat. She fills her bags and then leaves. The dots seem pretty clear so far.
Since Melville, the dead man, was a friend of the mayor’s
there’s rather a lot of pressure for the police to solve this case – in particular
there is a lot of pressure on Celluci put there by Crowley, his boss (and she
who dislikes Vicki because, of course, a strong female character must be
universally hated by at least 75% of all other women in the world, and 100% of
other strong female characters). And they have a suspect – Felicia, the thief,
who was seen in the area at the time of death and ran from police. The problem
is that Melville was mauled by claws, consistent with a big cat and it’s
unlikely Felicia would have been able to rip off his head and place it on the
table (nice touch, I have to say). Celluci excellently points out how concerned
his boss is because the victim was prominent – it’s all about placating the
press, not justice.
Of course, a lot of this is undermined when Celluci
declares to the doubting Kate that he knows Felicia is guilty (that would be
those magical gut reactions). Time for
some questioning of Felicia and her story is not so much full of holes as one
big hole. During Celluci’s menacing little interrogation (where are the
lawyers?) Felicia’s eyes glow.
Celluci, of course, knows who to call with spooky stuff –
Vicki and Henry. Except he’s been playing awkward sceptic for the last season
so both of them get to poke and needle him about him finally asking them for
help – which is truly glorious to watch. Oh yes yes it is.
Celluci and Kate’s questioning doesn’t get much further
except Felicia has pulled out some extra levels of creepy – and dropped hints
about how very wrong and inhuman it is to take someone’s head. Lots of verbal
back and forth, including references to keeping a big cat as a pet – which brings
a tear to Felicia’s eye – but no clues from her.
Meanwhile Vicki and Henry are doing some investigating
and breaking and entering of Felicia’s house – finding her family and a storage
locker. A storage locker that smells and is covered in claw marks. Her family,
like her, are completely lacking in any and all kind of records – school records,
medical records etc, they’re blank slates which is hard to achieve in the 21st
century.
Time to go see Mr. Bannick – who is less than welcoming,
one of his children is dead and he acts like Felicia is as well – or at least
has no contact with her since he warned her against going to the city. He talks
ominous and controlingly about “discipline” (sounding both abusive and
cult-leaderish) and Felicia’s choice between good and evil – and lots of other
really obvious undertones. Naturally, he also reacts to talk about big cats.
Back with Henry, Vicki and he put 2 and 2 together, and
come up with lycanthropes – werecats. But also consider that it isn’t a matter
of animalistic instinct – Melville was deliberately murdered, not hunted. Vicki
fills in Celluci, but also runs into Kate who attacks Vicki for Mike freezing
her out and how he is beginning to believe in the supernatural – which she
blames on Vicki.
A big cat is also wandering around the streets, menacing
people, while Celluci is threatening Felicia with bringing her family into the
investigation – interviewing her father. She falls silent and demands a lawyer
(at last). And the sighting of the Jaguar means Crowley is ready to call the
killing an animal control problem rather than a murder – Celluci is running out
of time to accuse Felicia.
Vicki takes a last ditch effort to solve the case by
going to Melville’s hone – and finding a lot of books on lycanthropes,
shapeshifters and skinwalkers. And, of course she finds his taxidermy
collection of hunting trophies – but the locations listed don’t match the
animals killed. A gazelle in Montana, a wild boar in Greenland – and a black
Jaguar in Ontario. He’s been hunting shapeshifters for sport and Vicki
remembers Felicia’s dead brother. That night they go to Bannick’s farm to check
the locked barn – in which there is a Jaguar. Henry and the Jaguar snarl at
each other, seeing who has the bigger fangs; Vicki talks them down and the
Jaguar becomes Melissa, Vicki’s sister. Melissa describes the cruel murder of
her brother – how Melville hunted him and left him to die slowly, and her
father’s unwillingness to act against him. Felicia may have been driven to
revenge, especially since no human justice system would convict Melville – but her
father may kill Felicia in order to keep their secret. She rings Celluci to
fill him in before the showdown
We have a dramatic confrontation outside the police
station – Celluci, Felicia and her father in which Celluci gets to play
peacemaker and talk everyone down
I have to say how much I loved loved loved Henry and
Vicki poking Celluci for finally coming to them for help. I’ve complained
before about Celluci getting a pass for his behaviour. I’ve complained about
him playing the sceptic while demons came out of the ground and monsters feel
from the air. It would have supremely annoyed me if they’d just agreed to help
him without at least a LITTLE snark. Just a bit. Admittedly, I’d still have
given him far more grief than they did.
Kate needs to be let in on the big secret. I had great
hopes when she was introduced – we were going to get another prominent female
character and a WOC, but, like Crowley, she’s now been turned into another
strong woman who hates Vicki. Enough, enough of strong female characters who
can only relate to other women if they are subservient – and who always strike
sparks with any other strong female character. This isn’t Highlander, there can
be more than one.
We had an acknowledgement of Vicki’s disability – her night
blindness. But it almost lampoons it – because she complains they’re in a barn
with no light – total darkness – which is hard for her. But if it takes total
darkness of her visual impairment to kick in, then that sounds a lot like
standard human vision – and it stands out all the more because we have over a
season of Vicki acting in near total darkness without impairment.
I’d say it’s a nice twist on the shapeshifter myths but
it has been done before and it only touched on things like how lack of wild
spaces pushes urbanisation and the lack of achieving justice (which would have
been a nice metaphor if nothing else). And it all just seemed so very… pat with
the ending. It’s a trope that has been repeated – but has scope for a lot of
complexity which isn’t explored.
