By Brandon Nolta

Last week, producers did the inevitable: Josh (Jordan Belfi), the upstanding D.A. who was dating Beth (Sophia Myles), got whacked by a drug lord’s flunky. Naturally, this is a sad development, but Josh was the major obstacle in the burgeoning romance between Mick (Alex O’Loughlin) and Beth, so his death was no shock. Anyway, as often happens in these kind of stories, the course of true love seems to have run underground and uphill and through a canal or two, not the least because Coraline (Shannyn Sossamon) has returned in her full-fanged glory.

Those of you who have been watching MOONLIGHT know that Mick, a bloodsucker from the unhappy brooding detective mold, has long been searching for a cure for his vampiric status. Well, thanks to a little hacker work and the tracking of an old blond acquaintance of Mick’s, he tracks down Coraline to a lab, where he finds her and a lab-coated vampire hard at work on creating the cure. Turns out Coraline’s got her hands on a substance that temporarily restores humanity to nosferatu, but the effects wear off within a few days. As he watches, however, an Oreo-eyed vampire with a foul temperament and impressive healing powers even for a vamp shows up and trashes the place. Mick jumps in … and gets tossed about a bit for his troubles.


Meanwhile, Beth is still dealing with various and sundry issues related to Josh’s death: the grief itself, the fact she was his insurance beneficiary, and most disturbingly, the discovery that he was going to propose. All this, plus the mix of emotions over asking Mick to turn Josh as he lay dying—and Mick refusing—hasn’t helped their relationship any. So, when she swings by Mick’s apartment, things seem to look up a little for Beth … until Coraline comes by. Beth, who’s still not thrilled with her, leaves. Coraline tells Mick a story about the formation of the mortality-inducing compound by a vampire family of French royalty (thus explaining the guillotine and the Reign of Terror in one far-fetched stroke), and promptly produces a batch of the compound. Mick’s desire to be human again, even for a little while, circumvents his good sense, and he tries some. It works, all right, but as Mick and Coraline go for a walk, discussing how a real cure can be created, the Oreo-eyed bad guy shows up with a friend, itching for a smackdown.


Now, if you were paying attention up to now, you might be thinking, “Hey, isn’t Mick running at half-speed right about now?” And, you’d be right: Oreo-eyed guy hands an even bigger smackdown to Mick, which hurts almost as much for Mick as the late revelation that Coraline isn’t an enemy of Mr. Bad Vampire, she’s his sister. Turns out Coraline left a relevant fact or two out of her story. Anyway, she gives her evil brother what he wants—the compound and her surrender—in exchange for Mick’s life. Evil Brother agrees, stakes Coraline and vamooses into the night. All Mick has left to him is to take a sample of his own blood for further research, and try to enjoy the time he has left as a human. Somewhat bittersweet, but it’s a nice place to stop for now; there ought to be one more episode in the initial order, but we’ll see. MOONLIGHT, unlike some other shows we’ve seen this season, has steadily improved from its first few episodes, and maybe it’ll survive the strike. If not … well, it’ll be on DVD soon enough.