Moonlight Episode Discussion - Ep 7: The Ringer

[helloeeze]

Ha, Ha! Yes, Coraline is in love. It's just her version of love I'm not sure about. I'm sure there is no real answer because I'm pretty sure the writers didn't think that deeply into it. I'm going with the fake identity. That was my first impression. Maybe that was Hank Motolla pretending to be the father....ha, ha.

[lunalux]

Re: Coraline - Beth says shes been using her work for a couple of years, but met her only a couple of months ago.

I have always thought it was Coraline being opportunisitic in terms of assuming another's identity because there seemed to be some significance that Mick and Beth had become friends. Mick says I think this has to do with Beth. I think Beth is why Coraline has come back now, because she can't stand to see me....happy. If that is the case, then Beth meeting Coraline would have predated Beth meeting Mick at the fountain.

Logically, Coraline would have had to know the future to establish this identity years before and coincidentally have it all work out as it did. I think that is just as implausible.

[mwj01]

Another case of Moonlight Math perhaps?

[Lilly]

My thought was that this was an identity that Coraline was using. It was who she was at the time. It worked out very nicely that she was able to use it to get close to Beth and, by extension, Mick. She would have found a way regardless of her current occupation, though. As far as the timeline, I have no problem chalking that up to sloppiness on the part of the writers. "A couple of months" is pretty vague.

[lunalux]

Well...I think that there are a number of possible scenarios and that's why we should be thankful that the writers were not overly concerned with math, making sure there were no plot holes etc, because then we surely would not be talking about these episodes for the umpteenth time over a year later. Nor, I think, would we have the tons of fan fiction dealing with backstory, etc.

[librarian_7]

Well...I think that there are a number of possible scenarios and that's why we should be thankful that the writers were not overly concerned with math, making sure there were no plot holes etc, because then we surely would not be talking about these episodes for the umpteenth time over a year later. Nor, I think, would we have the tons of fan fiction dealing with backstory, etc.

And sometimes, that's all the fun, these days.

As far as Coraline's creation of a Morgan backstory, she apparently knew that Mick was keeping an eye on Beth all these years, and may have started working up an identity in a profession that would bring her close, if needed, to Beth as soon as Beth decided to major in journalism. Which would have given her several years worth of time to perfect the identity.

I'd always thought she probably killed Morgan and assumed her identity at the time Morgan relocated to L.A. from Chicago, but it seems equally plausible that she might have put some time into fabricating the identity.

Lucky

[darlingcat]

Speaking of speculations, any thoughts on the real Morgan Vincent?
I am not sure if it has been discussed but Coraline didn't invent her, she did exist.

ETA: Beth says they've been using Morgan's stuff for a couple of years, and at the fire she says that they've known each other a couple of months (presumably having met in person for the first time?)

DC - The whole Morgan Vincent plot hole really bugged me when I saw the episode. So I played with it in my final four - episode 15 (Lunalux is fundamentally opposed to self-promotion, but now that you've mentioned it). Considering that that was followed up with FdL (I saw Dr. Feelgood in reruns and then watch all the epis on Unbox over a couple of days) I really thought there really needed to be some explanation.

I did read it again, Luna. Thanks for the tip. It does give an explanation to what might have happened. I do believe you should have written the last four episodes

I also watched the Ringer again last night and Beth says that she "met Morgan about two months ago, she just moved from Chicago" but Buzzwire had used her pictures for about two years. She also mentions in another scene that Morgan worked for a certain editor in Chicago for three years.
One can go for either explanation but I tend to think that Coraline probably killed Morgan and assumed her identity when she decided to make her move.

PS: Luna, I adore your banner

[darlingcat]

Ha, Ha! Yes, Coraline is in love. It's just her version of love I'm not sure about.

Helloeeze!

[wpgrace]

My thought was that this was an identity that Coraline was using. It was who she was at the time. It worked out very nicely that she was able to use it to get close to Beth and, by extension, Mick. She would have found a way regardless of her current occupation, though. As far as the timeline, I have no problem chalking that up to sloppiness on the part of the writers. "A couple of months" is pretty vague.

Ya know, Lilly, I stupidly never considered that option... that she used that vamp relocation guy... but that DOES make sense to me. We are assuming that is what Mick would have to do eventually (being how he may be lucky but clearly isn't all that careful ), and that Josef HAS done this... so why a stretch for Cora to do the same thing, create a persona, create references, and lay a background for her? And as mwj said, Cora is a creative type, so she probably DID do the photographs...

So this is another possibility... what an interesting quandary for our vamps anyway, huh? Having to reinvent themselves from time to time to prevent being bored, but also to prevent being "discovered," and then in this case, to get close to her ex-husband and his current love-interest. A 300 year old vamp would be pretty skilled at this maneuver one would think.

[mwj01]

Exactly Sister! Only one little thing...she was getting close her husband again, not ex.

[wpgrace]

Exactly Sister! Only one little thing...she was getting close her husband again, not ex.

We never have resolved that issue, have we? How she became ex? It isn't in any eps... he calls her ex... I don't think she thinks of it as ex...and clearly Lance didn't think of HIM as an ex-in-law. (I know, another ep...)

Did their marriage end with her supposed death or is there some way for vamps to divorce? I mean, he can hardly waltz into a courtroom, 33 years after the marriage, looking 30, and say he wants a divorce...I don't think we'll ever know... but it IS an intriguing question!

We shoulda thought of that question before all those ladies went to the London Con... maybe one of the actors there had thought of that or they talked about it on set or something...

[mwj01]

It was confirmed by the writers at the May con in LA just after cancellation that they were indeed still married. But as you said, even if they wanted to, making it official would've been kinda tricky.

[Phoenix]

I'm going to go against the flow.... I think that Morgan Vincent was just a careful backstory that Coraline had probably paid a lot of money for. Beth spoke to someone who said he was her father. Even Beth herself suspected that this was only a shallow confirmation of MOrgan's existence, after discovering the true level of Coraline's persistence and cleverness, and wanted to check into it deeper. Beth felt it was entirely possible for Coraline to have faked her backstory, otherwise she never would have wanted to check further.

I think the photographic work was her own. I think everything we know about Coraline suggests an artistic temperament and she certainly was very comfortable with the equipment. She's been in town for months and I think Buzzwire would have noticed a drop in the quality of 'MOrgan's' work if the work wasn't Coraline's own.

Also, I think that a murder raises the possibility of an investigation - you can never control when someone else might miss the person, or who might report someone missing - this would have been too big a risk. It would have risked Coraline having to ditch the Morgan persona and skip town if an investigation (which she couldn't anticipate) began. That wouldn't have suited her at all.

Just passing through to say that I agree with Luxe. I have always believed that Morgan Vincent and Coraline were one and the same. And that's as much as I shall reveal - apart from a bit of shameless self-promotion. One of these years, (when I eventually finish it), my beliefs on the matter will be revealed in a multi-chapter fic titled: Masquerade.

[wpgrace]

It was confirmed by the writers at the May con in LA just after cancellation that they were indeed still married. But as you said, even if they wanted to, making it official would've been kinda tricky.

OH! Well thank you, Sister! I had never heard that... I didn't really join the boards until after the cancellation and I'm sure I didn't read thru everything all that well... all those tears in my eyes and all...

But cool that someone asked that question...

[francis]

I never thought I would find something new after all that time, but I watched my DVD episode "The Ringer" again at a bigger and better monitor (research for my story).
When Mick is at Morgan's place to get fingerprints (minute 17:46) there's a closeup of his eyes.
When he's at the cemetery searching for Mottola's urn (minute 32:30) there's another closeup, and it looks exactly the same. The light, the glimpse of background. I never noticed that. I guess they filmed it once, and then edited it in when they needed it again.

Here's at Morgan's:


And here's at the cemetery:


And besides, doesn't he have the most beautiful eyes ever?