Moonlight Episode Discussion - Ep 5: Arrested Development

[GuardianAngel]

I know some of you are not but I AM an AD fan. Didn't care for the teen vamp escort killer but I adored the Mick/Beth interaction in this episode. It's like Mick says in the beginning, it doesn't matter what you want, it's what the universe wants and he's powerless to fight it. One of my all time favorite Mick/Beth scene is the one just coming up.

[wpgrace]

I know some of you are not but I AM an AD fan. Didn't care for the teen vamp escort killer but I adored the Mick/Beth interaction in this episode. It's like Mick says in the beginning, it doesn't matter what you want, it's what the universe wants and he's powerless to fight it. One of my all time favorite Mick/Beth scene is the one just coming up.

I agree... the MickBEth was excellent in this ep and this was the best MickJosef we had gotten so far, as well... we see far more of Josef's personality and it sets him up for his role in BC....

[darkstarrising]

I know some of you are not but I AM an AD fan. Didn't care for the teen vamp escort killer but I adored the Mick/Beth interaction in this episode. It's like Mick says in the beginning, it doesn't matter what you want, it's what the universe wants and he's powerless to fight it. One of my all time favorite Mick/Beth scene is the one just coming up.

I agree... the MickBeth was excellent in this ep and this was the best MickJosef we had gotten so far, as well... we see far more of Josef's personality and it sets him up for his role in BC....

I'll have to admit, AD was not my among my favorites, and when I thought about it, it came back to the teen vamp. Part of my dislike of the character was the casting (as has been discussed earlier in this thread), but I also found the writing about the character was weak. All we have is a picture to go by, and a few words about a bordello. But who betrayed him? Was he turned at this in-between age on purpose or was it just coincidence? Was he the San Francisco killer? Too many unanswered questions. It was as if there was too much going on in this episode, and maybe this information was cut. There was a lot going on with Beth and Josh, Beth and her co-workers, Mick and Beth, Josef and Mick, Mick and the parents, the teen vamp and the call girl, Mick and Beth and the cops, and let us not forget, Mick, Beth Josef and Ryder!! Phew!!! I'm surprised they had time for the credits!!!

To your point, though, the interactions among the primary characters was well written.

[wpgrace]

I agree with you Dark, that aside from the cruddy casting of the teen vamp, they could have made him more interesting had we known more about him.

I think the fact that Mick felt some empathy for him was supposed to just do it for us... but it didn't for me... much as I love Mick, I was nothing but repulsed by this character.

I hope that little actor ends up with a decent career tho... to have this and not much else wouldn't be very much fun...

I DO think it was interesting how STRONG the teen vamp was, how he was able to so overpower Mick. He was older, but Mick would beat Lola the very next week... so this guy was a surprise to him... and I think shook him up a little. So that helped make him a bit interesting, at the final moment anyway...

Tho I find it hard to believe that over 100 plus years he couldn't figure out how to have sex... I mean many human 16 year olds figure it out pretty quick...

[GuardianAngel]

I'll have to admit, AD was not my among my favorites, and when I thought about it, it came back to the teen vamp. Part of my dislike of the character was the casting (as has been discussed earlier in this thread), but I also found the writing about the character was weak. All we have is a picture to go by, and a few words about a bordello. But who betrayed him? Was he turned at this in-between age on purpose or was it just coincidence? Was he the San Francisco killer? Too many unanswered questions.

You are right dss. And, you know what? It's proof of a poor character that there were all those unanswered questions and I didn't care. I had no interest in learning more about him.



Mick and Beth leave the morgue room. Beth stops in front of him and turns around abruptly.



Beth asks Mick if he thinks it's a little weird them bumping into each other there.



Mick plays dumb.



Beth tells him that he's been avoiding her. He says he hasn't.



She says he has. Ever since the desert. Beth says he's been avoiding her and dodging her calls.



And then they've run into each other twice. First downtown and now there.



Following two completely different paths they wind up in the same spot.



She asks if he doesn't think that's a little strange.



Mick responds that he's not big on catagorizing things into strange and not.



Wow, vampires make really bad liars.



Mick doesn't think they need to make this into a big deal. (Bad, bad choice of words)



Beth says it IS a big deal. She FED him!



He was dying and she brought him back to life. With. Her. Blood.



He asks what is it that she wants him to say. (Poor guy is drowning)



Her response - admit something happened. (Duh!)



Mick grudgingly admits it. Wrong attitude. Beth turns to leave.



Mick pulls her back. Beth is surprised (So was I. Pleasantly so)



Mick is a bit miffed now himself. He asks what would have happened if he called her back.



Beth isn't following (or not wanting too). Mick continues. He asks doesn't she have some dinner she's giving (translates: you have a boyfriend)



She's unphased. She insists that she's there and so is he. There must be a reason.



Her next line has always bugged me. I don't think it fit the conversation - kinda from left field. She tells him to help her track the killer and she thinks he'll find the girl.

[Raven]

Fast forward through zitvamp and AD is really a great episode. I agree with GA on all points.
I would like to add that Beth is so pretty in this scene and Sophia was really outstanding. "I FED YOU!". Really terrific. Again, I agree with GA. The last line was out in left field. Bad editing.

[wondergirl9847]

She tells him to help her track the killer and she thinks he'll find the girl.

I took that as having double meaning. She was talking not only about the call-girl, but herself. I could be reading WAY too much into that line though, but I figure, going with what happened at the very end of the episode....it worked.

[redwinter101]

Lovely blow by blow, GA.

This was a great scene - if Mick hadn't realised already that avoidance just doesn't work with Beth, he sure does now. And I know I'm shallow, but they both looked sooooooo beautiful.

Red

[darkstarrising]

A nit on the editing of the scene in the morgue with the parents, then after the parents leave. While the parents were there, Mick's hair is damn near perfect (not that I look that closely, ok, I do). This part of the scene must have been shot right after make-up. But after they leave and he starts talking with Beth, a part in his hair has magically appeared and he looks worse for wear. This part of the scene was probably shot at a different time.

[PNWgal]

wg, GREAT analogy! Never thought of it that way when Beth said that.

Beth was positively radiant in this scene - I love how she stood her ground with him and forced him to admit there was something between them. This really was my favorite scene and probably the only thing that gets me to re-watch AD. It's just such a "morning after" conversation - he wants to remain clueless and she wants him to talk about it.

[GuardianAngel]

She tells him to help her track the killer and she thinks he'll find the girl.

I took that as having double meaning. She was talking not only about the call-girl, but herself. I could be reading WAY too much into that line though, but I figure, going with what happened at the very end of the episode....it worked.

Hmmm. Hadn't thought of it that way. I'm not sure that's what she means but I kinda like it.

[wpgrace]

Lovely blow by blow, GA.

This was a great scene - if Mick hadn't realised already that avoidance just doesn't work with Beth, he sure does now. And I know I'm shallow, but they both looked sooooooo beautiful.

Red

Not shallow, just an expert by this point...and a truth teller...

But GA, sooo glad you complained about Beth's line... she seemed to be leading him ever so reluctantly (his reluctance) to an admission they have a "thang" happening and then she pulls back just as he is about to come.... to her point of view. And goes back to the we make a great (investitgative) team... meanwhile, he's left hanging out there having all but name called Josh at this point.

Possible there were more lines and they cut this scene... or it's just weird and she's a Mick-tease? And maybe you're right Christy... but that's quite the circuitous path to what she SEEMED to be leading him straight to a minute before...

And agree with Red regarding your amazing captioning... screen and words... of this section. Brava honey!!!!!!

[GuardianAngel]

Thank you. It IS one of my all-time favorite Mick/Beth scenes. Besides the great dialogue and attitude, they do both look great. Sophia must be wearing flats in this scene because Mick looks like he towers over her. And when he puts his hands on his hips he's so wiiiide.

It is just like a morning after conversation, isn't it PNW? I LOVE that Mick did not let her walk away in a huff. And I love me some Mick with attitude.

[Fleur de Lisa]

Loved that sequence. Finally, Beth holding her ground and demanding a response from him. I also always took the "find the girl" line to have a double meaning. Then again, I thought that in Fever when looking at pix of Leni and Jack and Mick says "they were in love", or her reading the diary at the park in SB...you know the line.

Maybe the writers were throwing us a bone, maybe it was coincidence, but I like to go with the romanticism of it all.
And GA--you are great at this!! And I loved AD--didn't realize how much until watching it again recently, but there is such a comfortable aura between Mick and Beth that is displayed throughout this entire ep--from the 'argument' in the morgue--to the great discussion in the car, to the ending.

[SirenSong]

This was such a weird exchange between the two, I thought. I kind of lump it into the same category as the stupid Beth dialogue at the end of Out of the Past. Here she confronts Mick and wants him to admit that they made a connection in the desert and then she switches mode and tells him that they should try to track the killer together. Huh? What does one thing possibly have to do with the other? It's like they edited out 15 lines of dialogue for time purposes. And as much as I would like to think that Chisty's connect the dot explanation was what they had in mind, I think that's giving the writers waaaaayyyyy too much credit.

Weird, weird, weird.