Moonlight Episode Discussion - Ep 2: Out Of The Past

[allegrita]

Oh man...I've just read all the way through this thread. Lots and lots of cogent stuff and I don't have time to add much...but I must say, I've often thought of writing a fill-in-the-blanks story about what happened after Mick said "I'm a vampire."

Oooooh! Maybe for the next challenge, after the valentine one??

[coco]

I think this would make an excellent challenge and really hope that the writers here will consider it for the next one *fingers crossed*

[wpgrace]

I think this would make an excellent challenge and really hope that the writers here will consider it for the next one *fingers crossed*

This is what I'm saying!!!

[allegrita]

I was looking for something else, and came across this cap at Moonlight-Love. The single-malt is definitely Macallan.

Full pic:


Cropped:

[wpgrace]

Wow Alle! That's pretty super snooping... you a PI in real life ever??

[allegrita]

LOL! No, but Facebook Beth is studying for her PI license, and so I'm learning some stuff...

[Fleur de Lisa]

Great investigative skillz, alle!

[Jade]

not to crazy about this episode but the very last scene did it for me.

[jen]

Five of six months late, I find this fabulous discussion.

Not a writer (wish I were) but I have often thought that Beth got some type of evidence--blood soaked rag?--and took it to someone she trusted for bloodwork and/or genomic profile without giving many details. In the next episode, she looked very uncomfortable when Mick explained the importance of keeping their secret. Did she call her friend and plead that it was just a joke and to ignore it but the individual doing the research had already found out too much to let it lay.

I know--no one can say now but it is interesting.

In almost every episode, there are scenes that could be expanded. There are loose ends to tie up.

Just one of the things that made Moonlight so amazing and keeps fan interest.

[Kade1301]

I'm with Josef and Eris on this one: This episode should never have happened. Because either, if Mick did bite Lee Jay's neck artery, the guy should have bled to death. Or, if Mick didn't go for the artery, he would have had enough time to snap Lee Jay's neck (after all, he has enough time to look araound!). And anyway, what was Mick thinking, attacking Lee Jay in the street like this?

Of course, it would have been even better if he had taken Eileen to the shooting range and taught her how to handle that gun... BTW, saying "I was young and stupid" - at age 60 - is not a luxury most humans can afford. But then I've sometimes wondered, based on how many immortals behave extremely stupidly for a very long time, whether maybe, once the body stops aging, the brain stops developing as well...

Back to the episode: It would have been a real pity if Lee Jay had died in 1982, because I think he's in the top three of "best bad guys" - if not the best ever. So I really like this episode, even if I have a supicion that the legal background wouldn't really stand up to scrutiny (why has the retired cop the case file - which is a bit thin, by the way - in his apartment, and why was it indadmissible?) But for once I don't really care.

There's so many things I love about the episode: Josef offering to help Mick kill Lee Jay (right out of prison it would have been possible - after the break-in in Mick's apartment it was too late), how Steve shows the "2 million" (does that have the same meaning in the U.S. as in England?), when Mick muses about mankind staying the same but technology improving all the time, when Lee Jay sets up Mick - twice (well, I'm kinda sorry for Mick - though, shouldn't he have seen the stake coming? Where are those famous vampire visual comprehension and reflexes? - but I still have to admire the pure genius of Lee Jay), a Ferrari improves every show it's in, the moment when Mick enters Beth's apartment, that Beth thinks about taping Lee Jay's phone call. I also like Beth's "Why does the girl always have to wait in the car?" - and the fact that she doesn't. And whereas I didn't find Mick's "climb" to the rooftop convincing when watching the episode for the first time, now I think it's much better than the later jumps.

Otherwise, in the last few minutes everything starts to go wrong: The car ride to the warehouse must be the most artificial-looking one I've seen since some sixties movies, if he wants to blend in among humans Mick should start to carry a pocket knife to cut off plastic restraints - let's hope Julia is too upset to notice what happens (or at least too incoherent to tell Carl). Then, when Lee Jay shoots him, we see five bullet holes in Mick's left shoulder (any hunters here? What sort of damage does buckshot cause at short distance?) but Mick falls down clutching his right shoulder. Mick gets up again, Lee Jay shoots him again, and whereas there's now exit wounds - again, is that possible for buckshot? - at the front of Mick's right shoulder, there's no damage to his back (clearly seen in the hallway). Then, when Lee Jay threatens Mick with the welding torch and Beth shoots Lee Jay (which I am all in favour of - one of the moments that keep me hooked on the series) - where does the welding torch go? I think it should have fallen on Mick and I'm just hoping that welding torches switch off immediately when the hand's off the lever (or however they work).

I don't get that Carl lets a confessed killer walk on. And how does Mick get away, anyway - he doesn't seem capable of doing one of his super-speed disappearing acts? How does he get home - I wouldn't have liked him to drive in his state? And why doesn't he drink the blood right where he gets it - most probably from Josef or Guillermo. Both of whom could have dug out the silver pellets at the same time. Of course then Beth wouldn't have learnt that Mick is a vampire and that would have taken much of the fun out of the next episodes, but still...

And whereas I agree that the end is extremely touching - shouldn't a normal reaction to "I am a vampire" be something like "O....kay.... You need help, let me call an ambulance." I mean, if a guy who was shot in the chest has blood dripping from his mouth, I don't think "vampire", I think "oh shit, injured lung, internal bleeding.... and the guy is delirious" (of course, E.R. doesn't seem to exist in the Moonlight-universe).

Oh, but I notice, Beth's reaction wasn't included in the episode - so did anything become of the fic challenge mentioned before in this thread?

Bye, Kade

[redwinter101]

Hi Kade.

ITA about the car scene - just mortifyingly bad. I'm so glad they fixed it for later episodes.

Re the challenge, here's a link to the thread where you can find details of all the stories: viewtopic.php?f=137&t=2368

Red

[librarian_7]

Kade,

There were some lovely responses to that challenge. See this thread: viewtopic.php?f=137&t=2368 for links to the stories.

Lucky

ETA: Red beat me to it. And yes, those buckshot wounds have always bothered me! He gets shot in the shoulder, and falls down with wounds in his back, then apparently gets shot lower in the back, but there are never any wounds to be seen. As far as the blood, perhaps he was retrieving some from a secret stash, and didn't want to take any chance of being seen with it in public. Then again, he was hurt, maybe not thinking clearly--after all, he left his front door standing wide open, how bright was that?

L

[wondergirl9847]

I really cannot look at a lot of the technical mistakes because I won't be able to enjoy the show that way. I turn my brain off (not hard to do for me. LOL) and enjoy the characters when I watch now.

I figure that Mick was like a wounded animal and went to the safest, most comforting place, in his mind...the Fortress of Style. He was hurt and wanting to just be home so he could drink blood and get better. He may have drank one of the other blood bags before he got home just so he COULD make it home. Just speculatin'.

[Kade1301]

I really cannot look at a lot of the technical mistakes because I won't be able to enjoy the show that way. I turn my brain off ...

That's how I started out (though some of the mistakes are so obvious I'd have to be completely drunk to not notice them). But now that I have a place to list all the errors (instead of boring a friend who's stopped watching halfway through the series because she couldn't stand the inconsistencies any more), finding them has become part of the fun! And I watch Moonlight much more often than other, better made series or films. When a film is good I watch it once to know what happens, a second time to get the details, possibly once more in another language if the first watchings were dubbed (and once more to really get the dialogue) - but then that's it - 'till a year or so later. There's nothing to do except watching and admiring the actors/directors/rest of the team's skill...

Wheras with Moonlight there's so much to find, and get angry about, and speculate how it could have been done or should have been done, and "tv facts" to check against reality - it's almost like puzzle solving (and definitely more fun than Sudoko...)

Brain exercise by Moonlight, yeah!

ETA: Thanks, Red and Lucky, for the link!

Bye, Kade

[francis]

Someone has a tag line (I think it's PNWgal) that fanfiction is the Sudoku of writing.

I have fun writing missing scenes and trying to make sense of some errors, including them into my storyline.