![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nicholas_lucien) wrote2018-07-07 10:16 am
Live on the Air - Dark Knight Part I
The pilot episodes for Forever Knight are Dark Knight and Dark Knight, The Second Chapter. These are a rework of the movie Nick Knight. Everyone but Schanke was recast and the story moved to Toronto, ON, Canada. Many scenes and the point of the scenes are similar to Nick Knight, though the flow of the scenes are better and flashbacks were added. Nick was also aged to be over 760 years old and lives in an old brick warehouse converted to a loft space, which is much better than an old movie theater in Nick Knight. The characteristics of the vampire when vamped out is also slightly different than in the movie. The fangs, initially the lateral incisors, have been moved over to be the canines. The eyes change color and they now become a yellow with dark green edges instead of extremely pale light blue. There is no longer any modifications to the brow or extended fingers/nails.
So the scene opens with the flashback: a large room filled with lighted candles and Janette walking towards someone. This is Paris in 1228, and she reaches for Nick, who has been converted, but not had this first feeding yet. LaCroix is playing a stringed instrument, and explains to Nick that he needs to kill to satisfy the thirst and hunger. I think both LaCroix and Janette are worried, as this is an important juncture in Nick’s development as a vampire – he needs to feed on a human (so as to not become a carouche), but also not reject and fight back, or he would not survive and die. Since they do not want that to happen to Nick (each want him for their own reasons), so throughout the rest of the flashbacks they will be encouraging him in his first kill and drinking of human blood.
Because of a number of dead bodies in the last few weeks being found missing blood, news gets out about the guard and it is assumed to be the newest victim in the killing spree. Reporters flock near the scene and tried to get Nick to confirm the link to these “vampire murders.” Nick encourages just one reporter to leave by hypnosis and all the rest leave as well, so that’s nice. As the dead guard comes into view, Schanke is there, showing how to take pictures of the scene and jab at Nick about being a homicide cop who is squeamish around blood and not getting this case solved. Off to a great relationship!
Nick leaves to go talk to the assistant curator, Alyce Hunter. Looking around the room at all the Mayan artifacts, he knows these came from Altun Kinal by citing a unique green pigment and carvings he calls the “glyphs of Chak Mool.” [Honestly, I’ve found only a few websites that spell it this way. Chaac is the Mayan rain god that carries a shield and the lighting axe. It is possible that the stele Nick is standing in front of is Chaac, but it is not so clear to see. There is also another similarly-spelled word: chacmool, which is a particular style of Mesoamerican reclining statue offering a bowl full of sacrifices and gifts to the gods, and is associated with the god of rain. An image of one chacmool discovered in Chichen Itza can be seen in the green posters on the wall behind Alyce’s desk.] Nick is doing a fine job of being interested in the case, but his focus is on the Mayan cup. He knew one was stolen, and with all the artifacts from Altun Kinal around, it probably didn’t take him too long to realize the missing cup might be like the one he has. Alyce’s sketch would confirm it – the cup was identical to the one Nick has. I imagine Nick would always keep an ear out for any discovered Mayan cup from Altun Kinal; the fact he didn’t already know it was there at the ROM was probably due to it just being excavated a month before and the announcement had not been released and everyone involved was keeping this under wraps. But LaCroix knew it was there, so he must have learned about it somehow. Perhaps LaCroix had been at Altun Kinal the prior month and learned about the cup then.
Next, Nick is at the morgue drinking Natalie Lambert’s tea, then she shows him the bite marks on the guard’s neck. She knows it’s a vampire’s bite. Nick looks quite irritated. On the surface it’s a problem that a vampire is making kills and the body is being found by mortals, underneath that, I think this is the physical confirmation for Nick that it is LaCroix who killed the guard and stole the cup. We will find out in Hearts of Darkness that there is a difference in vampire bite marks (Natalie uses it to determine if the vampire was male or female), but I imagine that each vampire would leave their own unique bite mark, like a dental impression. And Nick spent centuries killing with LaCroix - I am sure Nick would recognize LaCroix’s bite mark. And Nick’s night just gets worse when he finds out Captain Stonetree partners him up with Schanke. And after a night like that, Nick goes back to his loft and drinks blood out of his Mayan cup.
Nick wakes up the next night with two messages on his answering machine – one from Alyce saying she would be at the ROM researching the cup, and the other from Natalie reminding him to eat. Nick has a hamburger on the stove and takes a bite, then spits it all out. Natalie also makes reference to whether Nick can see his reflection yet in the mirror. As vampires in this series normally have reflections, I always took this to be a joke referring to other myths that said vampires don’t have reflections. Maybe not the best joke, but a joke none the less.
Arriving at the precinct, Schanke assaults Nick with garlic breath, so their strained relationship hasn’t changed. Driving around, Schanke tries smoking in Nick’s car but is stopped. When asked about his car and why he has it, Nick responds that the car has lots of trunk space. The 1962. [deep calming breath] Nick actually has a ’61, but this is how the ’62 first gets into canon. Soon Nick detects danger and they head off to an apartment complex (better than a pool in the Nick Knight movie) which has an active shooter who has just one live hostage left. Nick goes around, rises up to the window, and vamped out, pulls the shooter out. The gunman shoots Nick a lot, but that doesn’t stop Nick. Afterward, Nick leaves for the museum while the serial killer goes after Nick’s homeless friends, killing one (Topper) and severely injuring another (Jeannie) who gets away (and knows who the killer is).
At the museum, Nick confirms that only a vampire could have entered. Alyce had just been doing more research into Altun Kinal and the ritual cups and flipping through the book, she had found a picture of someone who looks exactly like Nick. Alyce heard a noise and went to investigate, at which point Nick shows up behind her, scaring her. There is a connection between them and she kisses him and wants more, but Nick’s vampire is emerging and Nick leaves before he hurts her. Though Alyce did figure out a reason her cup might have been stolen: if someone else had the other cup, they would want her's to make the pair.
Nick never returned to work and Natalie would find him later at the loft, drinking blood. She is, naturally, quite ticked off, as she is trying to find a way to bring him back across and here he is drinking the stuff she tells him is just setting them back. Nick’s not proud in what he is doing, but Natalie seems to not know why he is in this depressed, self-destructive state, until there is a call on the phone. It’s Alyce. Natalie sees Nick hurting and asks what happened. Nick says he kissed her, and then nearly killed her. So instead of working through this depression from wanting to feel and love but immediately being expressed as wanting to bite and drain the blood, Natalie just encourages Nick to think of something else: she wants to know about the other vampires. Nick tells her about Altun Kinal and LaCroix’s involvement with that (missing scene), then explains his relationship to LaCroix. The Master vampire will thwart Nick’s attempts at mortality, including making sure Nick doesn’t get the other Mayan cup.
During the day, the most recent victim, Topper, is discovered and Nick arrives later. He feels guilty about this death, both from the fact that he thinks LaCroix is doing it (even though, like most of the other victims, there are no bite marks, just a slash), and he had offered Topper and the missing Jeannie protection but didn’t force them and now something bad had happened he was in a position to prevent. Schanke, in the meantime, is connecting that homeless people of a specific blood type are being killed and a blood mobile is going around that homeless people are donating at, which could be a way the targets are being identified.
Nick is experiencing a lot of guilt, thinking his searches for mortality has brought LaCroix, who is killing these people in another attempt to stop and drive Nick away. He decides he needs to face his creator, so pays Janette a visit at her club, the Raven. Though Nick has been in Toronto for three years, he has not visited the club or her, isolating himself from his family and the Community (though considering lots of people are dancing alone and shining light from a flashlight directly onto their head I would probably avoid that club as well). Janette does know he was in town and possibly what he has been doing, as she will later make a joke about how Nick can’t drink because he is on duty, even though Nick never said what his current profession was. They reminisce about the last time they were with each other (Chicago) and Nick makes a comment about the lights being installed at Wrigley Field and (and if I am interpreting this correctly) seems like he would have stayed in Chicago had he known they were going to do that so he could watch the night games. Janette does express her distaste for the baseball. The ban on night games at Wrigley Field was lifted on 25 Feb 1988 and lights came on at night on 8 Aug 1988, so Nick must have left Chicago before then. Anyway, Nick eventually gets to the reason he is there: LaCroix is in town and he knows Janette is aware. She does know, writes something on a piece of paper and gives it to Nick, and gives a warning: LaCroix is disappointed in him. Nick leaves and starts driving, then changes the radio station to the one broadcasting LaCroix. I think the note Janette gave him was the station he should tune into. Nick knows where that radio station is, and turning on the live broadcast would confirm LaCroix was currently there. And Alyce is following him since finding him at the Raven - perfect!
Next Up: Episode: Dark Knight Part II
Images can be found here.