Live on the Air - Dark Knight Part II

[nicholas_lucien]

Arriving at the radio station, LaCroix meets Nick outside and Nick follows, Alyce close behind (a fact both these vampires seem to be missing).  Eventually they all reach an abattoir.  LaCroix confirms he has the missing cup, and is still irritated Nick has rejected him and his gift.  LaCroix taunts Nick until Nick vamps out, and Alyce screams.  LaCroix is finally aware of Alyce, and rushes up to her.  LaCroix proposes a choice, or two options, for Nick: save and protect Alyce or get the cup for the ritual.  This is slightly different than how this occurred in the movie, but shows Nick’s struggle more (as much as he want to be mortal, he will not have an innocent mortal die to achieve it).  So LaCroix lets the cup fall as he goes to bite Alyce at the same time.  Interestingly, Nick takes a third option to resolve the conflict: he doesn’t save the cup so that smashes, he doesn’t grab Alyce and get her out of danger, instead he charges at LaCroix and pins him which separates LaCroix from Alyce but she is still close to them and to danger.  Alyce runs away into the dawn while Nick is still fighting LaCroix inside the building. 

LaCroix mentions mortality means death and if Nick wants that, that can be achieved in multiple ways for a vampire (and this sentiment will actually be repeated a few times through the show, that Nick seeks mortality so he can die) and grabs a cleaver to cut off Nick’s head.  I personally do not believe LaCroix was serious about that (after all, that’s how LaCroix killed his maker - decapitation), but just wanted to trigger Nick, possibly seeing how far Nick would go for self-protection or just wanting to get Nick’s anger and hatred to rise up (after all, in Love You to Death, LaCroix does say that Nick’s hatred of him was a “step in the right direction”).  Or LaCroix is just crazy thinking this type of behavior to Nick will get Nick to eventually return to him.  In any event, Nick does fight back, impaling LaCroix on some metal spikes, one going through his chest.  Now, Nick has a look on his face as he stares at LaCroix and touches the metal spike.  I interpreted it as shock and disbelief that Nick had landed such a blow onto LaCroix – I think LaCroix would have taught Nick that he would always be weaker and helpless compared to his maker.  This would be the first time Nick would have fought back like this and gotten anything close to LaCroix’s heart.  pj1228 pointed out earlier another interpretation: one of regret at his action, then relief that the metal spike was not actually lethal so his maker would still live.  Nick does like LaCroix, and it would be a relief (at some level) that his maker, such a constant in his life, would still be there.  That would also explain why he didn’t do anything else at this moment to make sure LaCroix was dead – Nick really didn’t want him to die.
 

So Nick leaves the abattoir, LaCroix watches him go (he seems happy at what Nick has done – either fighting back or not making sure he was dead by a wooden stake or fire or something), and Nick has to hide in the trunk of his car since the sun is up.  Alyce is worried, since Nick didn’t follow her out or make contact with her after what had happened.  In fact, no one has seen him, but his car was found and towed in.  Schanke goes to pick the car up, then decides to drive it around a bit while he runs down a lead at the hospital. 

Next scene is the mobile blood unit driving to the hospital so Fenner can drop off the new donations.  Schanke is already in the hospital asking questions while Nick escapes from the trunk and confirms that all the victims had donated blood, then gets back to the car.  Fenner confirms that Schanke came in the Caddy, then goes and cuts the break line, Nick hearing someone with lots of keys near the car.  Schanke returns to the car, and smoking and blasting polka music through the speakers, drives around but eventually looses control going downhill because the breaks don’t work and wreaks the car.

Alyce still hasn’t heard from Nick, so decides to go to his home.  She gets the address from the phone book, and the alarm code from the Mayan glyphs that Nick happened to mention was his code.

Meanwhile, the Caddy is eventually towed, Schanke finds out how bad the damage is, and then Nick appears.  Nick admits Schanke was right about the other murders – that there was a link between the blood type and the blood mobile with the guard being a separate case, apologizes, and their partnership improves.  Schanke even offers Nick some food because he sees Nick is weak.

While the Detectives are going back to the hospital, Alyce arrives and gets into Nick’s place.  Before the door can close, Jeannie enters, finally seeking the safety Nick offered for her. 

Schanke and Nick are driving back to the hospital.  Nick tries to find out what happened to LaCroix, but his maker seems to have disappeared – no body was found at the abattoir and no Nightcrawler was on the air.  LaCroix seems to be gone and Nick is kinda happy.  He probably thinks LaCroix has decided to take the hint and leave him alone.  He should know better.

Back at the loft, Alyce has arrived and finds the matching Mayan cup, then Jeannie.       

Schanke and Nick finally arrived at the hospital and are trying to figure out someone who has access to the blood types of donors and has lots of keys.

The man with the keys is at Nick’s place, somehow figuring out Nick knew who he was and needed to be killed.  Alyce calls an ambulance to get Jeannie to a hospital, but since Jeannie knows the killer works there, she does not want to go.

Bouncing back to the hospital, they learn that Fenner matches the man they were looking for.  They also learn that the bloodmobile worker’s mother had died due to Hepatitis from contaminated blood.  The son, Fenner, blamed himself for his mother’s death, snapped, decided that the contaminated blood came from a homeless donor, then began killing them in revenge. 

Bouncing back to the loft, Fenner is buzzed in.  Nick calls into his machine and Alyce picks up.  She tells Nick Jeannie is alive and knows who the killer is, the puts the phone down to go admit Fenner, then is attacked by him.  Nick hears all this, rushes off to tell Schanke that Fenner is at his place, then flies over.  Jeannie tries to stop Fenner with a broom on fire, but can’t and Fenner tosses it into Nick’s flammable paints.  Nick breaks in through the window, catches Fenner, then almost bites to kill him, but doesn’t.  There is a large fire in the loft and Jeannie is able to make it out, but Alyce is surrounded by the fire.  LaCroix enters and makes sure Fenner doesn’t have to worry about escaping by killing him.  LaCroix wants to continue the fight he and Nick had started the previous night, but Nick is too weak.  He needs blood to have the strength to fight and Alyce offers hers, much to the delight of LaCroix.  Turns out Alyce wouldn’t mind being a vampire, having opportunities which even LaCroix had said were benefits of their long lives: to watch the world change and evolve, to see civilizations come and go.  Just like Nick’s first feeding, he is encouraged by LaCroix and the other woman to give in and yield, but unlike what happens in the flashback sequences, Nick fights back and rejects what these people both want him to do. 

Nick grabs a burning stake and scorches LaCroix, who retaliates by tossing Nick away and knocking him out.  Different from the movie, Alyce doesn’t try to fight LaCroix, but tries to run.  However LaCroix captures her, quasi-hypnotizes (?) her so she doesn’t fight back, and bites her.  Nick wakes up, sees what is going on, and impales LaCroix with a burning wooden stake.  LaCroix burns against the elevator’s metal door, then disappears, leaving only a pile of cloth on fire.  This would allow LaCroix to come back later, and is different than in the movie, where LaCroix absolutely dies, melting on screen.  Nick rushes over to Alyce, who is not dead (unlike what happened in the movie).  LaCroix did not have enough time to drain and kill her.  Nick cradles her as the sounds of police sirens are heard in the background.  Presumably before or when they all arrived Nick passes out, which is why he would need Nat to give him a transfusion of blood.  Also that ambulance, which was called earlier, still hasn’t arrived yet.
 

Next, Nick and Nat are at the ROM, Nick’s Mayan cup surviving the fight going on in the loft, and has now been donated to the exhibit in memory of Alyce.  Natalie and Nick talk and Nick says LaCroix and Alyce were the lucky ones in this – implying both are dead and being dead is a desirable state to be in (like what he wishes to be?).  Nick also realizes that if Nat hadn’t given him human blood, he would have died too.  And here Nat makes the second comment about Nick seeking mortality so he can die: “is that why you wanted to become mortal again, to die ….”  Schanke goes to collect them and they all head out to leave.  Nick finds out that Natalie had actually given him Schanke’s blood, which I think makes Nick a bit more protective over Schanke and more willing to work with him.

Then the episode ends with Alyce.  She is now a vampire and is looking down on everyone from the skylight window.

So the episodes end with a number of unanswered questions or unfinished problems:

First, of course, is how does Nick get his poor injured Caddy fixed?  In the movie, Schanke was able to get a relative to help with that and the work was completed.  Here, the car isn’t necessarily fixed yet.  I am very concerned about this car and I need resolution!

Second, Schanke was able to connect that most of the victims died because Fenner killed them.  As far as police cases are concerned, the murderer of the museum guard is still, officially, unsolved.  Since it had nothing to do with the other deaths, did Nick make this case go away?  Did Natalie lie on the final autopsy report, changing the method of death and make it look like Fenner did that one as well, but how to get everyone to forget about the puncture wounds she talked about?  Was the case left unsolved, though I think the ROM would insist that some resolution be reached in their guard’s death and the theft of one of their artifacts.  Then Fenner himself would die with puncture marks on his neck and blood loss.  Schanke might believe about heat from the fire evaporating off the blood volume, but Natalie can’t put that in the report, and it still didn’t address the marks.  This just sounds like a paperwork nightmare.

Third, what about Alyce?  She clearly did not die in the loft, and is now a vampire.  Who made her?  Not LaCroix, so someone else?  Where was Janette is all of this?  She would have felt the fight between LaCroix and Nick, so I would think she would come over to see what happened.  She would, therefore, be there and in a position to bring Alyce across.  Perhaps Janette didn’t want to get involved in Nick’s life and be the one to actually kill her, so brought her across instead.  Or Alyce has enough life in her to survive but since she was bitten by a vampire and could have gotten enough vampire blood into her, she could have returned as a Hunter and Janette couldn’t allow that to happen which would endanger them (the Community which would have a Hunter after them, and her family which would have been held responsible for creating a Hunter).  Or my personal favorite: Nick brought her across.  In any event, everyone thinks Alyce died, so the vampires (Nick, Janette, or both, or someone else) had to explain why a woman is dead, convince everyone she is dead, and have no body to provide the mortals to confirm the death.  What, were they shown a pile of ash and told that was Alyce?  And Nick would reinforce that she was dead, so either he really does believe she is gone, or he knows and is having to lie.  We never see or hear any hint about Alyce afterward, so she is probably not in the city anymore – who has her and is taking over her training?  Or does she eventually die shortly after being made?

Fourth, LaCroix.  He doesn’t die on screen, and he will come back.  How?  Was he dead and he came back?  Was he just severely injured and escaped to heal later?  Was he ever really in that much danger, being as he says later, much to old and powerful to die, so never did die?  Was he never really in that much danger because Nick still didn’t really want him to die, so missed LaCroix’s heart deliberately?  Or did Nick really want to kill him this time, but still missed the heart?

Fifth, also is LaCroix.  I wonder what he had been up to the whole month prior to this episode.  We know he knew about the Mayan cup being unearthed the previous month, when no one else outside the project knew.  He knew it would be sent to Toronto, but possibly not exactly when.  So LaCroix, three weeks prior to the episode, comes to Toronto to wait and check up on Nick because you will not be able to convince me he did no reconnaissance once there.  He knows where Nick lives, so presumably checked the place out, seeing Nick’s Mayan cup.  He made contact with Janette to let her know about which radio station he would be at and to give it to Nick when he finally came looking.  I know if I was LaCroix, I would also go check out Nick’s workplace, hypnotizing everyone there to not remember and just watching everyone’s reactions to Nick.  I like to think at some point LaCroix learns about Schanke, who is not fond of Nick, and hypnotizes Stonetree into making Schanke and Nick partners, just to annoy Nick.  Also hypnotizing Schanke to not notice or ignore anything that would hint at Nick being a vampire, explaining why it took so long for Schanke to put it all together. 

Sixth, would be Natalie and the blood she gave to Nick at the loft.  I find it interesting she used Schanke as a donor instead of herself.  She could have easily lied and said she was the only blood match to Nick, as an explanation for why she had to be the donor, but she didn’t.  I think I would like to know a reason why.

Seventh, LaCroix again.  This time in regards to Nick’s Mayan cup.  If LaCroix didn’t want Nick to be able to go through with the ritual, why not destroy Nick’s cup instead of waiting around in case another cup is discovered and then only destroy that one?  At some point did Nick get LaCroix to swear he would never destroy that particular cup?  I would love to hear that conversation.  Or did LaCroix let Nick keep his cup as a permanent visual reminder that Nick would get close, but never close enough, to reaching mortality?

Well, that was fun.  As always, if you like a prompt or idea, feel free to run with it!

Next up: A more in-depth analysis of the Mayan Cup and Altun Kinal.

Images can be found here.