A serial killer of young women is tied to a computer dating service in Toronto. Metro police Detective Nick Knight (Geraint Wyn Davies) appears at the scene of the latest killing - one in which a brilliant young career woman was brutally killed. That she died whilst seeking love makes it all the more tragic. That she wasn't the only one and was the latest in several such murders makes it chilling. Nick's partner Detective Don Schanke (John Kapelos) scores a break in the case with a telling lead almost immediately.
The deaths of the young women coincide with the 30th birthday of accomplished young coroner Dr.Natalie Lambert. It highlights the fact that with everything she has going in her life and career helping the police, a life partner is not one of those things. It also shows us that the very search for one can yield frightening results for women at times. As for men in her life, there is a guy she works with whom she routinely shows interest in, and he shows passing interest in her sometimes. But it's real complicated as workplace romances can be.
When she meets a new guy (Barclay Hope) - a handsome gentlemen with, like her work colleague Nick, an air of mystery, she feels something. Like Natalie's dearly departed brother Richard, the guy is a lawyer. He seems a lot more like Richard than Nick and there is a gap in her life left by Richard's passing. Nick shows signs of jealousy which are a source of frustration for her. We know she gots a major crush on 'im, eh! Buddy just never staked his claim!
Nick and Natalie (Catherine Disher) have a special relationship going back three years. The sexual tension between the 800 year old vampire and the just turned thirty, highly accomplished and devastatingly sexy nerd-girl is noticeable in virtually every episode of the series. She helps Nick find his humanity offering considerably more than merely playing Moneypenny to his 007.
A lot of groundwork that could have been laid out earlier was instead done in this episode. The mystery of how Natalie knows Nick's secret and why she helps him wasn't adequately dealt with early on in the series. The viewer had to just go with the fact that the coroner had knowledge of the dual identity of a police detective/vampire and was helping him pass himself off as human. She was seen getting Nick to tone down his excesses like a good friend would try to serve as support mechanism for an addict trying to quit.
This episode features a flashback by Natalie, not Nick. Flashbacks were a big part of the show but they were mostly Nick's and depicted an instance from his 800 year character arc that was reflected in the mystery he was working on as a cop. Instead we get a series of memories Natalie has about the strange man who ended up on her slab who turned out to be a vampire - a sad, depressed kind who was in need of friend but was afraid his true nature would be exposed.
The question of whether Natalie was a "familiar" i.e. a human who wants to become a vampire and undergoes a kind of apprenticeship serving a vampire could have been speculated upon by those who had digested other vampire fiction. But Natalie is not a familiar. Nor is she enraptured by a form of vampire hypnosis that we see Nick use in many ways during the series, including in this episode where he draws information from a suspect using that ability. In one of the flashback scenes Natalie actually shows immunity to it when he tries it.
To have made Natalie a familiar or an enthralled acolyte in a hypnotized state would have made the character look weak and made the bond between Nick and Natalie look cheap. The story of Nick and Natalie is a love story insofar as their lives will allow for that. The special relationship between Nick and Natalie is tested here and it's limits are exposed. They made good choices. But they made them later then they needed to.
So no dream sequences for Nick, no LaCroix nor Janette. Coming as it did on the heels of a bizarre episode filled with dream sequences which served no purpose in tying the backstory together, this episode helped put the viewers back on track in accepting a diagesis for the duration of a weekly broadcast teleplay. We see the worthiness of the motivations of the regular characters and a truth that we can relate to.
The murder mystery itself is pretty simplistic and forgettable and provides an unsurprising resolution. This was, and wasn't, a cop show. The police procedural portion would always take a backseat to the supernatural and metaphysics as it should have.
One of the scenes in this specific episode criticized and misunderstood by some fans is the one in which Nick is seen in his black pyjamas practising his golf putting on one of those portable greens in his loft. Why is the scene there? Golfing is a day activity and Nick is a vampire. That is entirely the point. Nick looks forward to a future time in which he will do things during the day. Aspiration is motivation.
The deaths of the young women coincide with the 30th birthday of accomplished young coroner Dr.Natalie Lambert. It highlights the fact that with everything she has going in her life and career helping the police, a life partner is not one of those things. It also shows us that the very search for one can yield frightening results for women at times. As for men in her life, there is a guy she works with whom she routinely shows interest in, and he shows passing interest in her sometimes. But it's real complicated as workplace romances can be.
When she meets a new guy (Barclay Hope) - a handsome gentlemen with, like her work colleague Nick, an air of mystery, she feels something. Like Natalie's dearly departed brother Richard, the guy is a lawyer. He seems a lot more like Richard than Nick and there is a gap in her life left by Richard's passing. Nick shows signs of jealousy which are a source of frustration for her. We know she gots a major crush on 'im, eh! Buddy just never staked his claim!
Nick and Natalie (Catherine Disher) have a special relationship going back three years. The sexual tension between the 800 year old vampire and the just turned thirty, highly accomplished and devastatingly sexy nerd-girl is noticeable in virtually every episode of the series. She helps Nick find his humanity offering considerably more than merely playing Moneypenny to his 007.
A lot of groundwork that could have been laid out earlier was instead done in this episode. The mystery of how Natalie knows Nick's secret and why she helps him wasn't adequately dealt with early on in the series. The viewer had to just go with the fact that the coroner had knowledge of the dual identity of a police detective/vampire and was helping him pass himself off as human. She was seen getting Nick to tone down his excesses like a good friend would try to serve as support mechanism for an addict trying to quit.
This episode features a flashback by Natalie, not Nick. Flashbacks were a big part of the show but they were mostly Nick's and depicted an instance from his 800 year character arc that was reflected in the mystery he was working on as a cop. Instead we get a series of memories Natalie has about the strange man who ended up on her slab who turned out to be a vampire - a sad, depressed kind who was in need of friend but was afraid his true nature would be exposed.
The question of whether Natalie was a "familiar" i.e. a human who wants to become a vampire and undergoes a kind of apprenticeship serving a vampire could have been speculated upon by those who had digested other vampire fiction. But Natalie is not a familiar. Nor is she enraptured by a form of vampire hypnosis that we see Nick use in many ways during the series, including in this episode where he draws information from a suspect using that ability. In one of the flashback scenes Natalie actually shows immunity to it when he tries it.
To have made Natalie a familiar or an enthralled acolyte in a hypnotized state would have made the character look weak and made the bond between Nick and Natalie look cheap. The story of Nick and Natalie is a love story insofar as their lives will allow for that. The special relationship between Nick and Natalie is tested here and it's limits are exposed. They made good choices. But they made them later then they needed to.
So no dream sequences for Nick, no LaCroix nor Janette. Coming as it did on the heels of a bizarre episode filled with dream sequences which served no purpose in tying the backstory together, this episode helped put the viewers back on track in accepting a diagesis for the duration of a weekly broadcast teleplay. We see the worthiness of the motivations of the regular characters and a truth that we can relate to.
The murder mystery itself is pretty simplistic and forgettable and provides an unsurprising resolution. This was, and wasn't, a cop show. The police procedural portion would always take a backseat to the supernatural and metaphysics as it should have.
One of the scenes in this specific episode criticized and misunderstood by some fans is the one in which Nick is seen in his black pyjamas practising his golf putting on one of those portable greens in his loft. Why is the scene there? Golfing is a day activity and Nick is a vampire. That is entirely the point. Nick looks forward to a future time in which he will do things during the day. Aspiration is motivation.
