'Nashville' Might Sound Very Different Next Season ...
Fight for Your Right To Party
Moonlight: Love Lasts Forever
by Jen Creer, posted Jan 12th 2008 2:25PM
(S01E11) "I love you, too." Beth to JoshI wish I could say this was a heart-breaking episode, but it wasn't. In fact, I'm torn because some parts of it were truly excellent, and others were pretty predictable. Let's unpack it a bit, though, and see if we can uncover whether it was a good episode or not. And by suggesting that we critique it, that is with the caveat that I am a big fan of the show-- but everything that is good should be able to stand up to a little scrutiny, yes?
Visually, the episode was stunning, starting with the opening shots of Mick working out, shirtless, in his apartment. I am pretty sure the voice over was talking about how vampires spend a lot of time alone at night while the rest of the world sleeps, but I was pretty much paying attention to Mick doing push-ups.
Do you think Mick has to work out to maintain his physique? Or does he just enjoy working out? I mean, being a vampire should give him super strength without him having to do much about it... Either way, I'm not complaining.
Other ways that the episode was visually stunning were with the special effects. We got to see more of Mick vamping out this episode than we usually do. I loved the fact that he was able to intimidate Trejada's location out of the witness just by preying on the man's superstitions. I was a bit uncomfortable with the racial undertones, though, that Latinos are going to be more afraid of a vampire than other groups, and that it is somehow more okay to reveal a vampire identity to them. Are they less likely to be a threat to vampires, or less likely to tell anyone what they've seen? Less likely to be believed? I wish that had been explained a bit more, because I wasn't sure really whether my gut instincts that this was a little racially inappropriate were correct or not.
Back to the special effects, it was amazing to see Mick jump over the car! That was very fun. Mick was working so hard in this episode to do the right things and to use his vampire powers for good, but in the end, he can't save everyone.
As for the predictable elements of the episode, I wasn't quite sure I bought the fact that Beth and Josh would re-kindle their romance so fast. Beth slept with Josh, and technically they were still going out, so there really wasn't anything odd about it. Josh said he's missed her, indicating that it's been awhile,and Beth looked uncomfortable. But the episode would have been more heartbreaking if I had believed that Beth really had resolved her love for Josh before Josh was killed. I thought Beth's grief was genuine-- Josh had been a huge part of her life for a long time-- but it would have been nice to have a few episodes in which we thought Beth and Josh were really together, rather than feeling that this was simply a rather predictable way to get Josh out of the way so Beth and Mick can be together.
On that note, did they really have to kill Josh? I felt sorry for him-- both the character, and the actor. I thought the scene in which Mick was trying to save him was really good-- I like medical trauma stuff. And I liked the fact that Mick was a medic in World War II, rather than Mick just automatically knowing how to cauterize an artery, or tie a chain around one to stave off bleeding.
It was completely unsurprising that Beth wanted Mick to save Josh by turning him-- and also completely unsurprising that Mick refused. The show has done a good job of establishing that Mick hates being a vampire, and also that he hasn't ever turned anyone. It would be dangerous. Look what happened to Josef when he tried it! Also, I can't imagine that Josh would have been very happy about being turned into a vampire FOREVER. Beth will have to overcome her own selfishness. Saving someone no matter what the price isn't really saving them at all.
I understand that the circumstances of Josh's death throw another obstacle into Beth and Mick's relationship, because she is mad at him for not saving Josh. But I wish it didn't feel so contrived. Visually, it was great that Mick literally had Josh's blood on his hands-- but it was a little bit overdone. Because it wasn't really Mick's fault that Josh died. Mick did everything he could (within the realm of what Mick could live with) to save him.
I wasn't sure I bought the fact that Mick savagely killed Trejada either. That does against everything Mick believes in nearly as much as turning Josh would have. Sure, Trejada is a drug lord, so you can argue that Mick was doing the world a favor (if Mick would just start killing drug lords, then he'd make the world a better place, and if he had done this to begin with, Josh would still be alive), but Mick isn't a big believer in vigilante justice. He likes to play by mortals' rules. Sure, Trejada made it personal. But I still thought it was out of character. Cool (I am a big believer in vigilante justice), but out of character.
On a more interesting note: It's interesting that Beth has the same blood type as Coraline (I wonder whether that was true before Coraline became "human"?). It is also interesting that Coraline's blood was so clean that the scientist thought it was a child's blood. I hope we find out more about that.
So, all in all, it was an interesting episode, it was an important episode, it had some great elements, but I can't say that it didn't also have some pretty significant flaws.
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