Current air date: August 19, 2010
The basics (from tvguide.com):
Synopsis: Mick discovers Coraline's secret to becoming fully human again, but he also learns that it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Beth receives some heartbreaking news and deals with it alone, since she is angry with Mick.
Written by: Chip Johannessen
Directed by: Eric Laneuville
Original Air Date: Jan 18, 2008
Guest Cast:
Meredith Monroe: Cynthia
Bitsie Tulloch: Celeste
David Blue: Logan
Jason Butler Harner: Lance
John Everlove: Paramedic
Jill Latiano: The Cleaner
Jeremy Forte: Scientist
Charley Rossman: Security Guard
Christopher Stapleton: Officer
Marques Johnson: Minister
My own thoughts about this episode:
When TMC aired, nobody knew whether there would be any more episodes of Moonlight, and I'm trying to recapture that feeling as I write this intro. Because I think it's really important to consider the episode in the context of that uncertainty.
In general terms, I think Chip Johannessen did a wonderful job of finding a decent stopping place, maybe even an ending place (because for all we knew, it wouldn't ever be back), while still making us salivate for more. So much new information was presented to us, and so many questions were left unanswered--but still, we felt satisfied in a way at the end of that episode, prepared (if not at all reconciled) to wait out the strike and see what happened. So kudos to Chip for that amazing feat.
The story of how the cure works, and why it was created, fascinated me. This backstory isn't perfect, by any means: the plot holes in the vampire genocide alternate-history are gigantic, and it's full of contradictions, not to mention impossible to reconcile with actual history. Also, we don't know how much of it is true--we only have Coraline's word for it, and Mick's extrapolation of what she said. We know that she had been lying to him all along (most recently about there being seven brothers in the Duvall family), so she could have made it all up. But I choose to believe that she was telling the truth--at least mostly. I'm a sucker for alternate-history stories anyway, so I happily suspended disbelief here. So the cure exists, but it's not really a cure, and there's a finite amount of it. Coraline's been using it for who knows how long (at least several months), staying human as Morgan and also using bits of it in her attempts to make more. And Lance, her uber-rich and powerful older brother (of whom even Josef is wary), is looking for her. Yikes.
Beth is lost in grief and confusion, still pushing Mick away, still trying to deal with the enormity of Josh's death. And she's faced with the daunting prospect that Josh might not have been as true to her as she thought. (Ooh, can you say, Karma? Doesn't feel too good to be on the receiving end, does it, Beth?) Of course, that turns out to be the opposite of what's really going on, and Beth is instead confronted with another huge emotional bombshell: Josh was going to propose. And she doesn't know what she would have answered. (We do, though.)
Mick goes to see Cynthia (that wonderful scene of her napping in the huge, round tub, and then exchanging falsely cordial little barbs with Mick, is one of my favorites) and then to Coraline's lab, where he gets his ass kicked and finds out that Lance can regenerate after being burned. (Hmm... so that's how Coraline survived the fire!)
When Mick goes home, Beth's waiting for him in the hall (I love all the MickBeth hall scenes)
and they finally talk, beginning to find their way back to each other... but their conversation is interrupted when Coraline comes in. I find it very interesting that Beth cedes the field to Coraline here. It's as if she's acknowledging that she really has no right to feel possessive of Mick. After the events of the past few days, I can certainly see how she feels... and yet you can just feel the yearning between them, the wish to recapture their former closeness. The chasm between them has never felt so vast, and the irony of it is that Coraline is about to offer Mick a bridge back across. The scene between Mick and Coraline is bittersweet. Coraline still adores Mick, but Mick... well, let's just say that the fever has broken. I think he still loves her, but he's no longer mad for her. And she knows it. I think that when she gives him the cure, she does it selflessly, knowing that he's not going with her. And when Lance catches up with them and poor Human Mick really gets his ass kicked by Lance, Coraline makes the ultimate sacrifice for Mick.
And let me say that (a) Coraline has never looked more beautiful than when she lets Lance stake her, and (b) I'll never forgive the Moonlight PTB for cutting her out of the series as if she didn't matter anymore.
The final scenes, with Mick experiencing the joys and agonies of being human, and then going to Josh's funeral, are my favorite parts of the episode, and this is where I think Chip J. did the best work of bringing the series to a good pausing point. I love the brief clips of Mick chowing down, looking into the freezer and turning away, and sleeping on the couch under the brown afghan. And oh... I always get a lump in my throat when Mick squints up at the sun through his bloodied eyes, and when he and Beth stare at each other, listening to the words of the minister:
"Part of what makes life so invigorating is its finite nature. We're all mortal. Our time is limited. It's part of what allows us to love, and hurt. And in the end, it inspires us... to make the most of the time we are given."
"The Mortal Cure" made the most of the time it was given to bring the series to a believable pause. And we were all left with the feeling that it just HAD to come back.
Links:
http://www.tvguide.com/episode-recaps/M ... -7086.aspx
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1077034/
(No Wikipedia page is available for this episode)
) and I think she figured she'd lure him off somewhere, somehow, after he'd enjoyed a bit of humanity on her. And that lovely lovely scene between the two of em... just 
.
