'Moonlight': The case of the undead psycho killer

November 16, 2007 9:17 PM

This week on Moonlight, Mick and Beth take on an undead sociopath described as a cross between Kurt Cobain, Donald Trump and Charles Manson. I can't testify to his musicianship or his real estate skills, but he did do the Manson thing effectively -- goading his "family" into slaughtering a houseful of people -- and he does have highly suspect hair, so maybe that's where the likeness should be found.

Spoilers of the night.... What music they make.

Plucky girl reporter Beth Turner is covering the execution of Donovan Shepherd, the aforementioned cult leader/bad hair perpetrator/mass murderer, while Mick digs bullets out of his arms and philosophizes, as is his wont. Shepherd's got a boatload of crazy followers who look menacing and take pictures of Audrey Pell, whose testimony brought Shepherd to this end. Shepherd, sporting the sort of mangy weave that's routinely mocked on America's Next Top Model, uses his last words not to plead forgiveness, but to say he'll be back and there will be blood. Charming.

Audrey, who was just a kid when Shepherd and his groupies killed her family 14 years ago, is understandably wigged after the execution and the threats. Less understandably, she decides she'll stay with Beth, a complete stranger she met observing an execution. When Audrey gets a spooky call from beyond the grave and sees a mangy-haired figure watching from outside, she freaks again, and Beth calls Mick.

Mick does some poking around and realizes that Shepherd's followers have posted a hit list of the folks who brought about Shepherd's execution -- and they know Audrey is staying at Beth's. He rushes there just in time to find Audrey being menaced by a badly-coiffed nutjob who turns out to be not the man himself, but one of his followers. While Mick tracks down a movie producer who will be making a version of Shepherd's story, Audrey and Beth go to the cops to see if she can identify the guy standing outside. Alas, when they get there, they find the Deputy DA's office awash in blood and the man himself nowhere to be found. Yikes.

More sleuthing, and Mick finds out a couple of things: 1) Shepherd started sounding particularly vampish in his last few days, and 2) the DA is in Shepherd's morgue drawer. Mick figures out that the prison priest is the vamp who turned Shepherd -- like the Catholic priesthood doesn't have enough of a PR problem at the moment... -- and that Shepherd was pretty pissy about his movie-producer friend. Doh! A second visit to the producer finds him most sincerely dead, as Shepherd had already come to call. Mick is so distracted by the blood of the producer that he fails to notice Shepherd is still there. They fight, and Shepherd knocks him through a balcony, leaving Mick to tumble to what he thinks is Mick's death. Not so much -- Mick just looks attractively disheveled as he climbs back up the hill -- but psycho Shepherd now has Mick's phone and knows where Beth and Audrey are.

I'll give Shepherd one thing -- he does do psycho menace well. There's lots of taunting and pounding and crashing through windows as he stalks Audrey and Beth, but Mick appears just in time to save the day. His ultimate method of dispatching Shepherd would be impressive if I hadn't seen Sam Winchester saw off a vamp's head with razor wire the night before on Supernatural. Now that, my friend, was a beheading!

While Beth and Audrey were hunkered down in Mick's apartment, Beth did some snooping and figured out (at last!) that Mick was the guy who saved her lo, these many years ago. She's shocked, and Mick's convinced she'll be pissed at him, but no -- she takes that as another opportunity to get all kissy-face with the undead. I can't say I blame her, but it does put a crimp on Mick's "Woe! Despise me, for I art monstrous!" shtick. He does cringe from the light and slink off convincingly, though. Mick would make a decent goth girl, if he weren't a dude. And a vampire. And fictional.

Highlights and odds and ends:

Why the hell didn't any of Audrey's friends or (surviving) family come with her to the execution, or make sure she had somewhere to go? I realize they needed that for the plot, but boy, her friends suck.
Beth and Audrey bond over being survivors of childhood horror -- Beth tells Audrey she has flashes, but she blocks it out. She also tells Beth she had a "guardian Angel" who saved her, and that helped. She has no idea.
Josh is nowhere to be found. "Things are a little... iffy right now." I'll say.
"I thought about being an actor back in the 70s," Mick voiceovers. "But I think I really just wanted to be Steve McQueen. There is a difference." Yes, there is.
The producer is a complete ass. I cheered a bit when he died.
I hate it when people come to stay without warning, but that's because I'm a slob. Mick has bigger concerns -- like leaving out blood-stained drinking glasses. He also gives Beth a list of places she shouldn't go -- which she promptly ignores. Plucky girl reporters are like that.
Producer dude when Shepherd reveals himself to be a vampire: "Oh, your movie's going to rock!" He totally deserved to die.
Shepherd to Mick when they meet at his apartment: "Come on -- two vampires, two lovely ladies... In my day, we called that a party!" "Yeah, well I outgrew that phase," says Mick. Mores the pity.
Beth freaks out -- but not half as much as she should -- when she discovered a file full of photos that prove Mick's been stalking her for years. Mick gets predictably angsty when she confronts him -- "First I murder my wife, then I stalk you -- it just gets better and better." Beth is calm -- "I've felt safe my whole life, and now I know why." Woman: a vampire has been following you your entire life! This is the point where you get to freak out!

E-mail

in CBS, Moonlight

Permalink

| Comments (31)

31 Comments

I preferred Jessica's rundowns, that said I loved this episode with all its faults. Now Mick is feeling a little stalked by Beth 8-) the tables have turned.

assuit | November 16, 2007 10:19 PM

I don't think this episode was as good as some others, as there were some small story issues that stood out for me. That said, it was a still a good episode, with good pacing. I'll say this for the show - some shows never learn how to do an ending. Others have endings that seem forced at times (Smallville comes to mind for me at times). For the most part, this show knows how to do an ending and have it fit and flow.

Because I like the show, and because I thought this episode was still good, I'll note what I didn't like. First off, come on Mick ... an investigative reporter and you specifically warn her places to not go? Just foolish. Either lock up good ... or tell her the places that she can go.

In the middle, they made a comment on parole. Something about how the fanatic family would bother her (the witness) whenever Sheppard was up for the parole. I don't know much about the law ... but I don't remember death penalty folks being up for parole.

They didn't really do a good job of explaning how Sheppared "died" in front of everyone (and had the monitors show the heart rate slow down). Also, i agree ... should've done something to set up the girl staying with beth. Seemed a bit awkward.

Does this make JOsh the DA now? Obviously there are a lot of ADA's ... but I wonder if that's the route they go. Makes sense.

One last thing. Still don't really get how this whole sunlight thing works. Mick can move around during the day ... but sometimes a small speck of sun and he gets all worried.

Oh, solid music choices, even though I am not into music enough to know what they were until I take the time to look it up (if I get around to it).

Just to be clear, still liked the episode and really like the show. Overall story made sense, as last week they "introduced" Coraline, so at some point, Beth needed to understand bits about her past.

Oh, some other comments. Finder Spyder really gets used a lot on TV shows (Journeyman comes to mind, although I know i've seen it on other shows). Is this some industry agreed upon fake website? What was with the 10 grand in the hole comment the producer said to Mick?

Oh ... old school note ... nice to see Jesse (sad that actually falls under old school now).

Will be interesting to see how they take things, with Josh/Beth, Mick/Beth ... my honest guess is that they are going to build it up, and whenver the original order came to an end, there's going to be a traumatic event that shakes Beth up a bit. They have Mick trying to fight getting drawn in, but with all his fighting to "Stay human", it makes sense for him to break at some point. Thus, at some point, unless they build toward a full relationship right away (which goes against how the promos for the show went before the season), something needs to happen on the other side (Beth), IMO to shake that relationship up.

Tony | November 17, 2007 12:04 AM

Only 3 comments after last night's show ?

Where is everybody ? Maybe no one wants to admit their dissapointment in this episode.

I am still enjoying the show, however I did have to take a big dose of my own medicine about suspending disbelief.

It's is one thing to bend physical laws when you are illustrating a construction of mythology, or creating new " facts " for that mythos, but when you play with real world Science, specifically Medical Science and it's supporting technology that I begin to squirm.

I know the Producers/Writers are not obligated to flatly explain every little detail, but some gaps require larger leaps of faith than others.

Although distracted by my left brain squirms, I did feel the epidode was worth seeing over.

It grew on me the second time around.

So, keep those electronic cards and letters coming, folks...The powers that be, CBS, need feedback, even if it's negative.

They can't fix it if they don't know it's broken. Besides, our show isn't really broken, just bruised.

In spite of it's flaws I still think this is one of the more enjoyable shows in a long while. SciFi/fantasy/drama...and a engaging story line...what's not to love ?

Ladylw | November 17, 2007 4:14 AM

I would have to agree that this episode grew on me during the second viewing. I like this show more and more as it goes along. Certain parts were a bit disjointed, but there were plenty of great scenes in there.

JAM | November 17, 2007 6:44 AM

I am a little surprised by the lack of comments as well, but it is the weekend before thanksgiving, so..ces't la vie. I agree with JAM. This episode had holes-a-plenty, but Mick and Beth still rock and it was nice to have them interacting again like in past episodes. Of course I loved the ending, but it left me hanging - I thought they'd do some real smooching, but alas, denied. Anyhoo, I still love this show. Between it and Blood Ties on Lifetime, I am covered for my vampyr fix. Ciao!

SansMerci1013 | November 17, 2007 7:31 AM

I know, I know, some people may not have liked this particular episode. While I agree that it's not the best episode I've seen, I did still like it. Why? The ending. Who cares about some silly little plot holes? It's a vampire show. There's bound to be some questionable elements to it. But one thing I've always loved about this show, is the writers' ability to make a great ending. And that's really what draws me in and keeps me wanting more. Ok, so maybe they do need to tidy up some scenes, but overall I still enjoyed it. And I will definitely keep watching! I'm pretty confident the next episode will be so much better, since they're bringing back Coraline. Can't wait!! MickBeth Rocks!

Anya | November 17, 2007 8:11 AM

Well, I liked the episode.

I kinda expected them to go on with the Coraline storyline, so I was surprised when she didn't even make a menacing appearance last night. But, then, I never watch the previews for next week's ep, (they ruin things), so I guess I only have myself to blame for being uninformed.

I thought the beheading was good, actually, and not quite what I expected. I did, however, know that Sheppard was a vamp from the first moment they showed his pale pasty face and his uneaten last meal. And this even before his rambling about blood before he was executed. The clues were all there!

Although the ep was a good one insofar as it was interesting to watch, I don't feel it was much of a vampire episode, which disappointed me. What with the execution at the beginning, m*** murders, single murders, stalked women and detective files Moonlight last night for all the world resembled any run-of-the-mill police, CSI, or detective drama ripped from the headlines. It wasn't particularly spooky or supernatural at all.

This is a problem, in my mind, that the show has had from the beginning. I'm down with hybrid shows, (Moonlight: the vampire/detective drama) but this show doesn't always seem to do this seemlessly.

It was cool to hear one of my favorite local NYC bands, The Kin, featured in the final three minutes of the show when Beth kisses Mick. Nice choice. Good song.

Berlin | November 17, 2007 8:56 AM

While this episode didn't have the "eke"-factor of last weeks, I still enjoyed it very much! The show just keeps improving as the writers and cast discover the characters and their lives. I look forward to the show continuing to find its footing and seeing more of Alex O'Loughlin!

Oh, and I like Jessica's reviews as well. They're a bit ****ier! No offense, Sarah!

KayDee | November 17, 2007 11:03 AM

This was Moonlight's best episode so far. It finally got things out in the open about who saved Beth when she was a little girl. She doesn't know the cir***stances yet, but I'm sure, from the previews, that that's not long in coming.

The chemistry between the actors/characters is tangible and it's a delight to watch them play off one another.

It looks at though Moonlight not only took the demo again this week, but held the demo from Ghost Whisperer (2.7) while going up, giving Moonlight its highest demo rating thus far.

Thank you, CBS, for having enough faith in this show to keep it going while it finds itself and its viewers, who are many and still growing.

Leeser | November 17, 2007 11:05 AM