By Brandon Nolta

So, Beth (Sophia Myles) starts the week off right: standing over Morgan (Shannyn Sossamon) in the hospital, recovering from the staking Beth gave her in the last episode. That’s right, Morgan admitted to being Coraline, and so Beth treated her to a stabbing, thinking that she was still a vampire … except, mirabile dictu, she’s not. Now Mick (Alex O’Loughlin) is hoping she’ll recover so that the cure for vampirism can be passed along to him. This is exciting enough, but to make things more fun, there’s an old guy in New York who feels the need to put a contract out on Mick’s buddy Josef (Jason Dohring), and the old guy is aware that Josef is among the undead set.

Right after this, Josef and two poker buddies get a friendly game interrupted with automatic fire and grenades. Damn, I hate that. Mick looks into it, but gets interrupted by Morgan/Coraline returning to the waking world. Not that she’s coherent, but conversation isn’t Mick’s priority anyway; he takes a syringe of her blood and spirits it away as she slides into unconsciousness again. Of course, Mick and friends should know it takes more than gunfire and booms to take out a 400-year-old bloodsucker, a supposition proven when Josef shows up in Mick’s apartment.


Since Josef’s apartment was toasted in a public way, Mick and Beth start digging while Josef hides at Mick’s place. Then again, Mick’s idea of hiding and Josef’s idea don’t exactly mesh, which leads to complications of the cliché kind. Meanwhile, Morgan appears to be sickening, and is getting a bit long in the tooth, begging the question of why she isn’t showing up on the vampire radar of any other bloodsucker. But, who has time to dwell on this? Josef’s hot to get his hands on something in his office safe, and it ain’t the cash. The assassin, named Ralph, shows up to waste Josef, but Mick arrives, and even Special Ops skills don’t do much against vampire speed and strength. Josef then has the poor taste to disappear, leaving Mick with a foul temper and many questions. Since the guy who hired Ralph is in New York, Mick decides to go there too, Beth in tow and Ralph following close behind.

In New York, Mick and Beth interview the old guy, who turns out to be hot to kill Josef because he blames him for the death of his daughter in 1955. Mick is troubled by the evidence, but it becomes apparent that Josef was in love with the girl. Oh, but it gets better. Mick and Beth follow Josef to his hideout, where he shows them the reason he’s there: the supposedly dead girl, who appears to be comatose … and the same age she was in 1955. Turns out that the turning process doesn’t always work so good. Now Ralph comes swinging in and stakes Josef. This really pisses off Mick, who kills Ralph after slapping him around a bit. Ouch.


Hell, I might be the only one who thinks so, but MOONLIGHT continues to work out a new groove for itself, figuring out a middle ground between noir and romance. O’Loughlin and Myles make a cute couple, and the role reversal of the main nosferatu—Josef being love-stricken and Mick going all red in tooth and claw—is a nice change.  The tone of the show varies, but it works nicely, and the mythology continues to grow apace. It’s just fun, and even if you find the central concept derivative, MOONLIGHT plays enough changes on the basic tune to be worth a watch.