Live on the Air - For I Have Sinned
Nov. 9th, 2019 10:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nicholas_lucienThe next episode I watched was For I Have Sinned. Nick and Schanke are more permanent partners now, and their current case involves a string of dead women with indications the killer will murder again. We also get flashbacks in this episode – the various times Nick talked with Joan of Arc. I like how these flashbacks were done since it is of the same person, but at three different points in her life.
I write these as I watch the episode, so hopefully I didn’t make too many grammatical errors!
The opening shows two individuals getting … frisky … at night in a department store. Soon though, the woman has to leave, and puts on her necklace which has a silver-toned cross. He goes back to his guarding duties and she heads off. In the car, she puts on her wedding ring, but the killer is already inside the car, hidden in the back. The killer says the woman doesn’t deserve to wear the cross, then kills her. So we know these killings have a religious undertone, but it will take a while before the Detectives learn about that.
We meet Nick driving to the Raven, then going in. He does not receive a friendly greeting from other vampires, which is a reminder that Nick is probably most often seen as an outsider. Nick does give some advice though – immortals should still floss! I love this because, as far as I am concerned, this is all the proof I need that Nick was a dentist in one of his past lives! He would have been great in the very old days of dentistry – he could hypnotize patients before there were the various drugs to numb pain or put you under.
Anyway, Nick finds Janette, dances a while, but he’s there on business and it seems whenever Nick needs help on something, to Janette he goes. Two women so far have been discovered, and Nick wants to know if she’s heard anything. Janette reminds him she doesn’t care about the mortals, which makes you wonder why would Nick think she’s heard anything? There is no indications these murders were done by their kind, so why ask her? Probably because Janette is protective, and listening to gossip and what was happening (especially to women like ones accused of witchcraft, sinning, etc) would be early warning signs if people were getting too zealous and could come after her family next.
Janette also reminds Nick he doesn’t need to do this; wanting to change himself is no point – people can change, but he’s not people. She knows what he really needs, and dips her finger into some blood to remind him what he is and what he requires.
Nick’s temptation is cut short as Schanke comes into the club looking for his partner. Alma also sees something she wants in Schanke and he is irritated Nick pulls him out of the club. Schanke thinks he was about to hook up with Alma, but Nick doubts Schanke would actually turn on his marriage vows. But their conversation is cut off as Nick is informed another body has been found.
Arriving on the scene, they find the woman had been killed, then stabbed in the feet and hands, as in crucifixion. Now they know there is a religious motivation. This would be confirmed by Natalie, who had noted such cross necklaces on the other victims as well and confirmed all victims were of the same religion – Catholic (which is what Nick was when mortal). She sees Nick is very bothered by the cross, and he explains those items weaken him and he fears them.
During the day a man enters a Church and goes to Confession. The unknown man explains he doesn’t need to confess anything, as he is actually doing God’s Work, removing sin from the congregation by killing the sinners. Father Rochefort explains that is not what God wants; he wants for sinners to turn back and return to Grace. The man doesn’t care for the Father’s words, as he sees Father Rochefort as part of the problem: sinners come to him to be absolved, he grants it, and the sinners go back to sin again. He wants Father Rochefort to know the next woman is one he himself knows, and the man intends to burn her. Now, this presents a problem, because, as an ordained priest bound under the Seal of Confession, Rochefort cannot tell anyone what he knows. Today there are some laws in some countries that the priests can be made to break the Seal to tell what they know about specific concerns (like sex trafficking or child sex abuse), but this does not apply in Father Rochefort’s situation.
That night, we see Nick trying out those garlic pills Nat wants him to take. It does not go well. Falling, Nick touches his remote control, turning on the gas fireplace. He turns it off, then decides to touch the cross on the necklace from the last victim. But the memories come and its back to the 1400s and his first, though not last, meeting with Joan of Arc.
Nick had been following Joan, and she had gone into a church to pray. She was on her way to gain a meeting with the Dauphin, but that meant a stop in Vancouleurs to get escort to enter the French Royal Court in Chinon (she would convince the garrison commander, Baudricort, she had divine blessing because she learned through “grace” about the results from the Battle of Rouvray before the messengers had even arrived with the news); this would be around 1428, making Joan about 16 years old at this point. Baring his fangs, Nick wanted to know if she feared him, as one should. She responded that she did not, and in fact knew exactly who he was and what he was. She knew he was cursed. Nick thought this was cute, saying he, as an immortal, was cursed. “To live forever; everlasting life” – the promise of the Church, but one Nick actually did have, so how could he be considered cursed? Joan explained that he feared Salvation (where a soul is saved from sin and its eternal consequences) but really Nick feared Judgement (the last step in Salvation). Since he feared what would happen to him after Judgement, Nick might live forever, but he lived forever in fear of death. Since she did not fear the result of her Judgment, she was not afraid of him or of death. She pitied him and offered to pray for him. Joan leaves, and Nick is a little shocked. She had no doubt about what was going to happen to her soul, but Nick sure had doubt about his own. We would learn in Near Death that Nick’s fear wasn’t just because he was a vampire, but from something that happened when he was mortal, which is why he chose to become a vampire rather than die as a mortal and be judged (“Why should I go with you, when I can live?” and “What can you offer me?” – he’s not convinced Heaven and eternal life with God is an option here if he’s asking those questions). One reason I really like this episode, it does give a few indirect hints about what Nick’s state must have been in his final years as a mortal. What had happened that he feared Judgment and his sentence? Nick might want to come back to grace, but reaching out to the cross he is burned, so he can’t come back now.
Back during the day, St John’s is putting together their Easter Pageant (April 10-18), including a nice pile of wood for a bonfire. Father Rochefort is talking with an older priest, trying to find a way to break the Seal and warn that a murderer was going to strike again. But the Seal cannot be broken, he is told, even if it means someone dies because no one would trust the Church again and if it means you bear the guilt of knowing you could have prevented a death then that’s what you do. But Rochefort thinks he might have found a loop-hole – he just can’t identify the individual who confessed (which honestly isn’t really hard in this case since he doesn’t even know the man anyway).
Speaking of sinning, Schanke (on what must be his night off because why would you do this on your work shift with a partner who could come looking for you at any moment) has gone back to the Raven to try and have sex with someone. And Alma finds him, but she’s interested in something else (and hypnotizes him, so that’s not nice). They go to a room that seems to be closed down or under renovation, but it allows them to be private. Alma strikes, but stops after Janette enters and barks her name; this also frees Schanke from the hypnosis. Interestingly enough, this will not be the first time we see fully emerged/enraged vampires being stopped by just calling their name. Since they are supposed to be a little out of control at this stage, it seems odd they could be stopped so easily. My theory is it's their name and how it is said acts as a method of control – a failsafe added so their makers can control their offspring. But if someone else learns or happens to speak it right, they could stop the vampire as well. Anyway, Janette warns Schanke off and to never come back.
Nick, in the meantime, is working. Schanke had learned earlier each of the victims had attended the same Church, and since there were religious overtones to the last murder, perhaps going to the Church would shed some light on the case. Nick finds Father Rochefort, who confirms he knew them and they were parishioners at that Church. But he says he can’t help Nick. Nick believes these murders might be the work of a religious person (like a priest); Rochefort doesn’t confirm or deny, but says perhaps the person would confess. Nick knows an evasive nervous person when he sees it, and thinks this priest already knows the murderer has confessed, but Nick lets the priest go.
The next new location is the business Loose Lips, where we will meet the next potential victim for this murderer – a phone sex operator/phone actor. The murderer might think her sin is inspiring lust in others, but between calls she is talking to another operator about buying a dress, wearing it to a wedding, and then returning it – that’s got to be a sin. I can’t stand people who do that. But the next call she takes is the murderer, explaining he knows who she is and what he intends to do to her. She (Magda) wants to report this to the police, but her boss says ‘why’? Freaks are a part of their job and just ignore it. She tells Magda to go home for the rest of the night. She takes the tape and begins to leave the building but she is caught by a masked man in the stairwell. Conveniently, Nick happens to be driving by and hears Magda’s screams. Nick flies to where she is and pulls his gun on the perp. The perp has a gun and fires once at Nick, then runs off. Nick tells Magda to call him an ambulance, then leaves when she is gone and chases the perp outside. Turns out the perp is Father Rochefort. I love this – he asks for Nick to not shoot him, though that was exactly what he had just done.
So this is Father Rochefort’s thinking – scare Magda before the real perp could get to her. Bring a gun to scare her and have the intent to use the gun because it is loaded with live ammunition and THEN ACTUALLY SHOOTS A COP IN THE GUT (NORMALLY A LETHAL INJURY) AND THIS IS ALL BETTER THAN BEING CAUGHT BREAKING THE SEAL OF CONFESSION! ((EDIT: So as PJ1228 pointed out, that was probably actually the murderer who was trying to grab Magda and shot Nick, not the priest, so that makes a lot more sense. Sorry about that!))
Nick is, understandably, not impressed with priests, and not with the actions of this one. Nick doesn’t like how Rochefort is hiding behind religious beliefs (and honestly, Rochefort could just say he actually doesn’t know the name of the person instead of being all ‘I can’t break the Seal’) and Rochefort replies that he believes in all parts of his religion, including that salvation can come from the Church and the Church can grant everlasting life. A different type of everlasting life than the one Nick has. Rochefort’s question of whether Nick believes in anything that strongly pushes Nick into another flashback of Joan.
An older Joan, in gear and looking more mannish (a precaution to protect her) is kneeling before a cross, praying.
Nick approaches from behind, noting she is different than the last time they had met. By now she is viewed as both a heroine and a heretic. She had made the long-standing Anglo-Saxon wars into a religious war, but her place as having received her Vision and help from God could not be doubted, or it would imply the French King received his crown not from God, but from the Devil. Her test to prove herself as God’s instrument was to free Orléans from the siege, which did happen on 8 May 1429. Of course, the English took this as a sign she was from the Devil, since how else could a peasant girl do this, plus they thought God was on their side. Since she appears to be free, this was before her capture, so would be around late 1429 or early 1430.
Nick questions why she would want to accept what some people want – for her to die. She would give her life for her beliefs – that God really did speak and guide her – so she would die a martyr to her faith. Nick thinks she probably would enjoy that. Joan says she would really enjoy being back with her family. Nick takes that as meaning she is finally afraid of dying and Judgment – a big difference from last time. Nick is very interested in her (just saying – he tends to have a lot of interest in women who perform traditionally male jobs and dress like men – just saying) and tries to tempt her into accepting his offer of immortality (he seems confident he can bring her across, this would have been his first attempt); he offers what the Church offered – everlasting life. Joan refused.
Then Nick responds with what I think happened to him as a mortal – putting faith in men, or more specifically the Church, but all they have are lies. “Why throw your life away for the Church?” (which happened to Nick when he was ordered to go on Crusade). “For some pious old men who would lie to you” (Nick put his faith in religious men, and I think religious men turned on him, forcing Nick to leave his faith). Unlike Nick, Joan doesn’t seem to be bothered by that, thinking if it is God’s Will that her death is needed to keep the Church strong, then she will give up her life for that. Besides, she is still sure about what will happen to her after Judgement, and she’s sure she will have immortality in Heaven. Her faith is that strong. And here is the important line from Nick, and the source of his fear and a reason why he chose to become a vampire: “How can you be sure your god will be waiting for you on the other side?” It’s a question for her, but also a question he seems to have asked himself – he wasn’t sure God would be there waiting for him after Judgement. Hard to believe he, as a young mortal man, would have believed that he might not get into Heaven (he fought in the Crusades and part of that was anyone who fought would automatically be absolved of all sins). So someone had to tell Nick, despite this decree of absolution, he still wasn’t getting into Heaven – perhaps old pious Churchmen because why would a young, religious Nick listen to anyone else about his soul? He was convinced he wasn’t getting into Heaven, and LaCroix would have taught him that the Church and what it stood for was just a myth, like so many others LaCroix had seen over the years. And I’m sure Nick at some point came across religious people who lied to get what they wanted, reinforcing that everything was a lie. And yet Joan, confronted with a similar situation of people turning on her and saying she isn’t getting into Heaven because of what she is doing, still believes in her faith and what will happen to her soul. She had a strength and inner conviction Nick lacked and still lacks. Joan leaves her cross for Nick, reminding him that the faith he lost was still there for him to reclaim.
So back to the present and Nick is kicked out of interrogation and was in the hallway when Magda found him, worried because the last time she had seen him he was calling for an ambulance. Nick had completely forgotten his ruse and just dismissed the injury as a graze. Anyway, Magda is convinced she can help catch the guy, using herself as bait, but no one is liking that idea. They decide to put her in a new place and have a cop guard her until this is over. While that is happening, Nick returns to the loft and Nat is there. He brought out Joan’s wooden cross, which he still kept after all these centuries. Nick explains again why vampires fear the cross – it’s a representation of Light and they are of the Dark. But he needs to tackle his fear of them because soon he will be spending the whole day in Church.
Schanke is feeling bad about what he had almost done and was trying to talk to Myra on the phone, but she was irritated as Don was calling her at 6 in the morning. Nick tells Schanke where he wants everyone outside to watch, while he goes in. Just walking through the Church, Nick is already feeling weak and having difficulty focusing. He’s seeing things that remind him of times in the past, and a flashback – to the final time he saw Joan.
The date is 30 May 1431. Joan had been captured and handed over to the English (along with the English paying a nice sum to get her) almost exactly a year before - 23 May 1430 - and a trial had finally been held in Rouen, France (English held part). Many attempts had been tried to rescue her, and she had even attempted to escape, but none were successful. Her trial of heresy was a sham trial, without meeting even the basic standard of evidence at the time, without adequate testimony of her heresy, and lots of legal violations. But she was still found guilty and ordered to be killed by burning – lethal to both mortals and vampires. It is the burning that Nick is watching from a low or basement room with bars on the windows. She sees him and tells him not to mourn for her, as she will live on in the afterlife. He has Joan’s cross, and she asks him to hold it up, to give her courage during this burning (which is similar to what actually did happen at her execution – asking two Fathers to hold up a crucifix before her). It's unknown if Nick was able to do that for her or not, as he can’t touch crosses. If Nick at least stayed for the entire execution, he would have had to watch her body be burned three times, as the English didn’t want there to be any doubt of her death and wanted nothing left for relics to be made from.
Nick comes back from that memory, still haunted by it, and combined with what he is feeling from being within the Church, he tries to escape, to be greeted by sunlight outside. Barely keeping it together, he finds a dark, secluded place to hide – the confessional. It seems like he is regretting agreeing to a stakeout at the Church, which is very reasonable considering what he is – what did he think was going to happen? It makes you understand why Janette and LaCroix worry about him so much. While in there, two people would come into the confessional.
Schanke is still feeling bad about what he tried to do, and figured confessional at this time is what should be done. Only Nick is the one in there, not a priest. For the first person who had entered confessional, Nick had pretended to be asleep, but with Schanke, Nick decided to stay awake and have some fun. As for Magda, she spent the day playing cards with her cop, then escaped out the window when he wasn’t in the room anymore.
By evening Nick was able to leave the confessional, fortunately, no one else needing it for the day. But Father Rochefort had found out what Nick had done and went to go find him. Nick, even though it is night, has not recovered from being in the Church all day, plus he’s not at full strength anyway since he doesn’t drink human blood and limits his intake of cow blood, so he is staggering as he walks with Rochefort, finally dropping into a chair. Rochefort reminds Nick they both want to find this poor man, and Nick reminds the Father this man is a killer. Rochefort reminds Nick that even such a sinful man can be forgiven and everyone can have everlasting life.
Nick sees someone open the confessional door, then stands up. But its all too much and Nick collapses unconscious into Father Rochefort’s arms. While Nick recovers inside the Church, Schanke is still watching from outside and sees Magda arrive. Then Schanke is knocked out.
Magda waits on a pew, and a man sits beside her. He looks sinister, but he’s not doing anything at the time, but she panics anyway. So this is the killer. Someone goes to bring food to Schanke, finds he had been knocked out, but Schanke wakes up to let them know Magda is inside the Church. But Magda isn’t really in the Church anymore, as the killer has dragged her outside to the area being set up for the Easter Pageant, complete with a stand and a large cross he ties her to. He dumps gasoline on the wood sticks. Nick hears Magda’s muffled screams and probably smells the gasoline too, so he flies over to where they are. Nick knocks the man over, who was about to light the pyre, but now the man attacks Nick with a lighted stake – two things which are bad for vampires and he still isn’t really recovered from his ordeal. Nick is able to knock the guy out, but when he falls over his burning stake touches the wood and gasoline and sets it ablaze. Nick is reminded of Joan again and the courage she had. He wasn’t able to save her, but he can save Magda. Nick jumps through the flames, unties her, and jumps out.
Finally, the killer has been caught and Magda says she had seen him before in Church; she even feels sorry for him. Magda gives Nick her necklace with the cross, forcing his hand to close over the item. He ends up holding it for quite a while and it didn’t burn so much. Nick feels this means he is getting closer to his goals. But the sun is coming and he has to go.
So lots going on in this episode, and I especially enjoyed the Joan of Arc flashbacks. As always, if you like a prompt or an idea, feel free to use it!
Images can be found here.
Next up: Last Act
no subject
Date: November 10th, 2019 07:21 am (UTC)My impression is that we were supposed to think he recognized the killer's voice in the confessional. Though how that would enable him to guess that Magda is the next victim is another matter!
Truth is, there are enormous holes in the plot. It is a very exciting episode, though; and one that, through the flashback with Joan of Arc, gives us insight into Nick's views on vampires and salvation. That is, in itself, a very important part of the series; and I think they made the right decision in tackling it early in Season One.
no subject
Date: November 10th, 2019 03:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: November 10th, 2019 09:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: November 10th, 2019 11:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: November 10th, 2019 09:28 pm (UTC)I love this because, as far as I am concerned, this is all the proof I need that Nick was a dentist in one of his past lives!
LOL - I'm looking forward to reading that story!
Since they are supposed to be a little out of control at this stage,
My impression always was that Alma is very much in control. Maybe she just doesn't want to risk Janette's wrath and that's what's stopping her.
Bring a gun to scare her and have the intent to use the gun because it is loaded with live ammunition and THEN ACTUALLY SHOOTS A COP IN THE GUT (NORMALLY A LETHAL INJURY) AND THIS IS ALL BETTER THAN BEING CAUGHT BREAKING THE SEAL OF CONFESSION!
Actually I don't think that this was the case. It was the real killer who catches Magda and has the gun. He escapes after shooting Nick. Father Rochfort happened to be in the alley and gets caught by Nick because he intended to warn Magda, but he wasn't the one with the gun.
I always found Father Rocheford (Michael McManus) quite cute. It was this episode that got me into watching LEXX (season 2 at this time) occasionally. Imagine my delight when Nigel became a regular in season 3 and 4 of LEXX.
no subject
Date: November 10th, 2019 11:55 pm (UTC)Yes, I think Nick as a dentist would be a great story! I'm kinda hoping someone will write it as I don't think I can do a good dentist story!
Yes, Alma would definitely not want to face Janette's wrath!
I think you are right about the murderer being the one who shot Nick. I've added a correction to the entry. I'm sorry and glad you caught that! Sometimes when people look vaguely similar and sound kinda similar I get confused. It's one reason I can't watch soap operas - so many of the female characters are similar I can't tell them apart and get confused about the storyline!
Yes, I definitely enjoyed watching him in LEXX, along with Nigel!