Moonlight: Fated to Pretend - VIDEO

(S01E13) "Forgive me." Josef to Mick (for you-know-why)

Whew, boy, a lot going on in this episode! Mick might have to consider going to see a shrink for vampires to wrap his mind around all of the whirlwind changes in just one episode. There was a lot to like in this episode-- Mick as he dove into a chili dog, Mick eating a strawberry on the beach, Mick devouring a doughnut, and we'll talk about more things after the jump. But there were also some things that just bugged the hell out of me. And I am going to talk about those too.

Mick is human now, and it's all the more precious because it is fleeting. He doesn't take for granted the things that we all do: orange juice and coffee in the morning, sleeping in beds, mortality. I don't think that most of us walk around with a strong sense that our lives are fragile simply because we are mortal: We simply have no choice. If we thought about it too much, it would cripple us.He knows he will turn back into a vampire eventually, but he wants to savor being human. I suppose the eventual return makes what is going to happen later a little easier to bear than if he were never going to have to return to that existence at all.

So, now that Mick is human, he and Beth can date, right? Even though as both Josef and Beth note in the episode: Humans and vampires can actually date. Josef does it all the time. The only thing keeping Mick and Beth from being together is Mick. But it turns out that Mick's very love for Beth, which he confesses to Josef in this episode, might be the thing that keeps them apart: his desire to protect her is stronger than anything else in his life.

I realize that sexual tension makes good television, so keeping Mick and Beth apart and longing for each other makes more sense than letting them get together, but this is starting to feel really contrived. Can't it turn out that he's still married to Coraline or something that is more complicated than simply his own self-righteousness that nobody is buying but Mick?

So, let's talk for a few minutes about what was really irritating about this episode and threatened to completely mar my enjoyment of it, which is a shame. For one thing, just let Sophia Myles have cut her hair. The actress has, in fact, cut her hair, as Kristin Sample discovered in her visit to the Moonlight set. So, instead of just letting this be, they have put her in a wig, which looks just terrible. That wig bothered the hell out of me for the entire episode. I found it distracting and horrible. They are also shooting her through a filter, which she doesn't need-- so that was distracting too. But on the other hand, it does add to the campy effect of the show.

I like Eric Winter... at least I liked him on Brothers and Sisters. Okay, introducing a new possible love interest for Beth is a good move. It creates another reason for Beth and Mick not to be together outside of Mick's misplaced morality. But do they have to make him a carbon copy of Josh? A stick-in-the-mud, uptight, ADA? Is that really the type Beth is attracted to? Winter is a very amiable actor; let him be that. Give us a reason to like him so that our loyalties are divided too-- that will make for much more compelling television. I know that having him be an ADA means that the three of them will all get thrown together frequently, but it still shows a distinct lack of imagination.

We got a line from Beth as she got off the phone with Talbot: "He's starting to grow on me!" Which was altogether too obvious. If he is starting to grow on her, can you just please show us instead of telling us? Instead of having him piss Beth off by implying that Mick is dead when they are tied up together, maybe you could make that scene sort of romantic, have him provide comfort, or have them get kind of a charge out of their proximity. There was a lot of potential for bonding-while-in-danger, and it was completely wasted.

While I am still on things that irritated me, just one more and I'll get back to the good: There was an episode of Angel in which Angel becomes human so he can finally be with Buffy, only to have to become a vampire again in order to protect Buffy. Been there, done that. You can argue that all vampire shows are somewhat derivative of each other, but that is pretty extreme. Let's try not to do that again, mmmk?

The scene, however, in which Josef turned Mick did not disappoint. When Josef vamped out and attacked Mick to show him that there was no way Mick could take on one vampire, let alone more, in a fight as a human, that was one of Jason Dohring's best moments (especially because he seemed really stilted in his delivery in this episode). My favorite moment of the entire episode was when Josef said, "Forgive me." That was a singularly beautiful moment and a GREAT delivery-- it was infused with exactly as much emotion and conflict as should have been there. The tears Mick cried were also GREAT. This is showing instead of telling.

Vampirism has always been erotic, and also dallies with homoeroticism, and I was happy that they didn't shy away from that in this episode: Josef jumps Mick in what can only be described as an embrace for the turning. But it was an embrace of friendship, of brotherly love, and only had the outside trappings of man-on-man. It was, in a word, complicated, just as it should be. The orchestra they hired to play for the turning, as Dohring reported on Shaun O Mac's radio show, worked out very well, but I would have liked even MORE of it. But it was a significant moment, and they gave it its due.

Once Mick was turned, he was able to embrace his vampirism to go and kick some ass, and the looks on his and Josef's faces was priceless. I'm inserting a picture here, because it's so great. It leads to my second favorite line in the episode, when Josef hisses at Talbot, "We're saving your ass!"

In short, there was a lot that irritated me about this episode, obviously, but there is still a lot to love. With a show that's on the bubble, though, you don't want to mess around with things that are irritating or just plain BAD. The show has to be as good as it can be-- so let's hope the season just continues to get better, and that we can look forward to a second season.