Moonlight Episode Discussion - Ep 3: Dr. Feelgood

[GuardianAngel]

Episode Three: Dr. Feelgood

Summary: A person is struck by a car as he crosses the street. A passing motorist tries to help him, but the victim was a vampire who promptly feeds on the good Samaritan. Instead of killing him, he spawns another vampire. The new vampire goes on a spree that threatens to reveal them all. Mick must stop the new vampire.

My apologies for posting this so late - I've had the flu. So let's get this going.


Beth shows up at Mick's place. She has questions. Big surprise there. She's nervous but determined. She tells him she wants to speak with him about...him.



He doesn't appear to be thrilled that she's there but he lets her in.



Mick confirms that he's a vampire. There are a couple hundred in L.A. and they are very careful about keeping the secret. They've been hunted for thousands of years so it's very important no one know they exist. She wants to know if he bites people on the neck and suck their blood out (Normally I would have thought that was gross but I wanted Mick to say yes and give us a sample.) He tells her he gets most of his blood from the bloodbank.



Beth wants to know how someone becomes a vampire - how did Mick become a vampire. Mick has a flashback to his wedding night, his wife is a vampire. He doesn't want to share this info. He tells Beth she has to go. She's persistant and wants to know if he was bitten by another vampire. He tells Beth "another time."



We hear Mick's VO as he describes what it's like to be turned into a vampire and we see a distracted man cross the street and get hit by a car.



A good samaritan comes along (who happens to be a doctor) and helps him. The hit man vamps out and bites the doctor.

[francis]

I love how he hesitates, watching her at the monitor, and she hesitates too, until she finally knocks. I love Mick's face when he opens the door, how he looks around. I guess he suspected her to bring a camera team.
He trusts her with a few facts that he can't deny, part amused and part annoyed at her curiosity. He has to make sure she keeps this for herself, to keep Josef out of her hair. But he clearly isn't in the mood for a questionaire. When his turning comes up, he is too emotionally involved to cope with her reporter-mode. He can't tell her that just now, it hurts too much. Especially as he knows she was kidnapped by Coraline and he doesn't want her to remember that.
She's not very understanding in that scene. She is more curious, excited about knowing a secret, than caring for him. She doesn't see right now that he is hurting, that he has never told anybody and that he just can't talk about this like he gave an interview.
They will come around, but it was a big deal for Mick and he needed another Beth mood to talk about this.

[wpgrace]

Oh GA! Sorry you have been sick and hope you are doing much better now... I wondered why you weren't at the party Friday night... you were missed!

I kinda agree with francis, that Beth got all National Inquirer on Mick when she came back to his apartment and kinda failed to notice that this was a tough subject for him...

On the other hand, SHE CAME BACK, so I think from Mick's point of view, she was batting 1000... he knows she's not afraid of him, and that had to be his biggest worry... of course now he has to worry if she'll spill the secret. I like that little interchange when she asked how can it be that people don't know and he says the vamps are careful or if someone sees something odd, other people don't believe them... sorta a fair warning for the reporter.

This was not one of my favorite eps, mostly cause I didn't like the guest actor AT ALL, tho it did have some of my favorite moments in it...

Looking forward to the rest of the discussion!

[allegrita]

Going back to the end of Episode 2 and our speculation about what happened after Mick made the big reveal, I've always thought that Beth HAS to have stuck around that night, at least long enough to discover that (after the silver buckshot was out of him) Mick's wounds healed...because she didn't bat an eye that he had healed from his wounds, no longer twitching and weak. He was fine, completely back to the picture of health. And our intrepid reporter didn't bat an eye OR ask a single question about that.

I agree that I didn't love this episode as much as I liked some others. Part of it was the doctor. Part of it was his poorly-constructed fangs (a function of budget and time constraints). However, this episode contains some of my favorite scenes, including those of Mick's wedding night. So I really, really enjoyed watching this episode on Friday night.

[wpgrace]

Going back to the end of Episode 2 and our speculation about what happened after Mick made the big reveal, I've always thought that Beth HAS to have stuck around that night, at least long enough to discover that (after the silver buckshot was out of him) Mick's wounds healed...because she didn't bat an eye that he had healed from his wounds, no longer twitching and weak. He was fine, completely back to the picture of health. And our intrepid reporter didn't bat an eye OR ask a single question about that.

I agree that I didn't love this episode as much as I liked some others. Part of it was the doctor. Part of it was his poorly-constructed fangs (a function of budget and time constraints). However, this episode contains some of my favorite scenes, including those of Mick's wedding night. So I really, really enjoyed watching this episode on Friday night.

Interesting speculation about Beth and the post "I'm a vampire" moment... you authors always dig deeper than I do...

And I agree, not a fave, but it's an old friend now...

And really, check out that henley in GA's pics, cause it's another good one... and I SAID you authors dig deeper than I do... I'm shallow but honest.

[eris]

I think Moonlight is something of a patchwork quilt. There are definitely weak episodes, but those inevitably have the pieces integral to the story (almost like the writers wrote the good/important parts and used the rest of the epi as filler). The important stuff in this one is the Cora connection.

I think the accidental turning was handled TERRIBLY. If it was as easy to turn someone as this epi suggests, any vamp who had a physical relationship with a human who got rough or bit back would have been churning out fledglings all over the place. It should have taken more than that tiny bit of blood. (unless they had establish vampirism as a virus... which they never got around to)

Interesting things this epi suggests/establishes are that:

1 - Mick HAD to have stayed with Coraline in the beginning because not staying with his sire would have meant he'd have gone feral.

2 - Vamps have rules for their society.

3 - the Cleaner is awesome... and scary

4 - Mick is willing to act like a "real" vampire if the need arises and he respects the laws of vampire society.

[allegrita]

Ahhhh....yes, this is definitely one of the better Henleys. Tight-fitting and smooth, not waffle-weave. I also love the way the neck is cut; it allows the shirt to drape attractively open unlike the tan one in NSTAV. (Plus--the NSTAV one's pocket ruined the look for me...it's a good thing the grad student from hell poked a hole in that Henley so we didn't ever have to see it again!)

See, I can be JUST as shallow as Grace!

[wpgrace]

Ahhhh....yes, this is definitely one of the better Henleys. Tight-fitting and smooth, not waffle-weave. I also love the way the neck is cut; it allows the shirt to drape attractively open unlike the tan one in NSTAV. (Plus--the NSTAV one's pocket ruined the look for me...it's a good thing the grad student from hell poked a hole in that Henley so we didn't ever have to see it again!)

See, I can be JUST as shallow as Grace!

Oh thank God I'm not the only one!!!

And I LOVE your henley analysis... even when being shallow you dig deeper than me!

[wpgrace]

Interesting things this epi suggests/establishes are that:

1 - Mick HAD to have stayed with Coraline in the beginning because not staying with his sire would have meant he'd have gone feral.

2 - Vamps have rules for their society.

3 - the Cleaner is awesome... and scary

4 - Mick is willing to act like a "real" vampire if the need arises and he respects the laws of vampire society.

You cut to the chase as usual Eris... I like thinking about it this way... thanks.

[Raven]

One thing that always struck me as strange was that the Cleaner carts off the sire, who has a day job and can easily picked up anytime...and she leaves the rogue for Mick, who does the actual cleanup. Does she only cleanup dead bodies?

[eris]

One thing that always struck me as strange was that the Cleaner carts off the sire, who has a day job and can easily picked up anytime...and she leaves the rogue for Mick, who does the actual cleanup. Does she only cleanup dead bodies?

I think the Cleaners were familiar enough with Mick to know he'd do what was necessary. And she wanted to make the sire pay for the cleanup from his fledgling's bender.

[wpgrace]

One thing that always struck me as strange was that the Cleaner carts off the sire, who has a day job and can easily picked up anytime...and she leaves the rogue for Mick, who does the actual cleanup. Does she only cleanup dead bodies?

Mick made clear to her earlier that he was after the rogue... he had dibs.

[allegrita]

I got the impression that the Cleaner realized that Mick wanted to fix this one himself, that it was personal for him. And I agree with Eris, she trusts him to do it right. (She must not know about him blowing it with Lee Jay back in the 80's.)

Picking up Stovsky may simply have been a billing problem, but I wonder if it was also a vampire-justice thing. He blew it, left a rogue, endangered the community. He may need to be dealt with under the justice department arm of the Cleaner's operation. (I still wonder if he survived the experience.)

[Fleur de Lisa]

GA~~~thanks again for your synopsis and gorgeous pix, and I am so sorry to hear that you weren't feeling well. I hope that you are much better now.

I have researched, inspected and given serious consideration to the following:

Mick's dark henleys seem to fit him tighter. Must be all that washing in cold water that retains that snug fit......mind wandering to his washboard abs....

[wpgrace]

GA~~~thanks again for your synopsis and gorgeous pix, and I am so sorry to hear that you weren't feeling well. I hope that you are much better now.

I have researched, inspected and given serious consideration to the following:

Mick's dark henleys seem to fit him tighter. Must be all that washing in cold water that retains that snug fit......mind wandering to his washboard abs....

You could be right about the washing temps... you are definitely right that the darker ones fit him... better.

I am partial to those.

Enjoyable analysis.