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Blood Ties: Deadly Departed
I think this was definitely my favorite episode so far. It felt like tonally and character-wise everything completely clicked.
This episode made me more sympathetic to Mike than I have been so far this season. I really liked the fact that he was trying to watch Vicki's back, and I sympathized with his frustration that she's not giving him the information he needs to do that, even though he was literally risking his job to help her out. I also liked the fact that we got to see him acting like a cop, and witnessing the fact that he was good at his job. He was really good in that interrogation with Magnus' brother, and also in his interactions with Crowley. (And may I say, that's a very interesting choice to name a character who's supposedly one of the good guys in a show about demon hunting). And I really loved his opening scene with Vicki. I *like* the fact that he's suspicious of Henry--he has no reason not to be, and really, we don't have complete textual evidence that Henry's completely on the side of good yet, so it seems very in character to me.
I also loved Vicki's repeated attempts to placate Mike with food (though Chinese is obviously their ritual), and the fact that I could pick up a lot more of a partner vibe between them in this episode than before. I think the show is doing a good job of fleshing out the backstories of the characters while still mainly focusing on the crime of the week; it was interesting to see that it isn't just Mike that Vicki had problems with on the force, for example, and Crowley has the makings of an interesting recurring character. (She is not a character from the books, btw, unless I am misremembering).
It was also interesting to get a little more of Henry's backstory. I like that they're continuing his canonical Catholicism--it makes sense to me he would be suspicious of magic and people who deal with demons--but nevertheless I hope this isn't the last we've seen of Sinead. She's hot, she's a very interesting witch (I kind of like the fact that she's neither clearly good nor clearly bad, but mainly just self-interested), she has the mysterious Pandora's box of power, and she could clearly continue to be an information source for them all--for a price. Umm, and as far as I'm concerned they could pretty much let Henry continue to pay that price with her every week. That scene was HOT like a hot thing. Guh. And yes, ok, she used magic on him after she promised not to, she was bad, blah blah. I still think she's a very interesting character, and I imagine she will recur someday or they wouldn't have bothered with the mysterious Pandora's box.
And speaking of mysterious: I like that Vicki's demon tattoo has mysterious powers and will probably demand a price somehow, even though that feels like they're ripping off elements from the Kim Harrison books. That's ok, though, if you're going to steal, steal from good writers.
The main murder plot was the strongest one yet, I thought: the ghost was scary rather than cheesy; Mangus' motives were convincing enough that you didn't necessarily guess the twist with his mom; the resolution made sense, and they finally are finding explanations that allow them to tell the truth yet conceal it at the same time, which I like.
And finally, Vicki's banter was even better than normal this time, both with Mike and with Henry. Favorite line: "Vicki Nelson, warrior princess." (Oh, and I forgot to mention, I loved Henry doing the Lex Luthor move and throwing the sword at her head.) And it was nice that we got a little bit of an explanation for why Henry is helping Vicki: he wants to learn how to work cases, presumably for his graphic novels.
This episode made me more sympathetic to Mike than I have been so far this season. I really liked the fact that he was trying to watch Vicki's back, and I sympathized with his frustration that she's not giving him the information he needs to do that, even though he was literally risking his job to help her out. I also liked the fact that we got to see him acting like a cop, and witnessing the fact that he was good at his job. He was really good in that interrogation with Magnus' brother, and also in his interactions with Crowley. (And may I say, that's a very interesting choice to name a character who's supposedly one of the good guys in a show about demon hunting). And I really loved his opening scene with Vicki. I *like* the fact that he's suspicious of Henry--he has no reason not to be, and really, we don't have complete textual evidence that Henry's completely on the side of good yet, so it seems very in character to me.
I also loved Vicki's repeated attempts to placate Mike with food (though Chinese is obviously their ritual), and the fact that I could pick up a lot more of a partner vibe between them in this episode than before. I think the show is doing a good job of fleshing out the backstories of the characters while still mainly focusing on the crime of the week; it was interesting to see that it isn't just Mike that Vicki had problems with on the force, for example, and Crowley has the makings of an interesting recurring character. (She is not a character from the books, btw, unless I am misremembering).
It was also interesting to get a little more of Henry's backstory. I like that they're continuing his canonical Catholicism--it makes sense to me he would be suspicious of magic and people who deal with demons--but nevertheless I hope this isn't the last we've seen of Sinead. She's hot, she's a very interesting witch (I kind of like the fact that she's neither clearly good nor clearly bad, but mainly just self-interested), she has the mysterious Pandora's box of power, and she could clearly continue to be an information source for them all--for a price. Umm, and as far as I'm concerned they could pretty much let Henry continue to pay that price with her every week. That scene was HOT like a hot thing. Guh. And yes, ok, she used magic on him after she promised not to, she was bad, blah blah. I still think she's a very interesting character, and I imagine she will recur someday or they wouldn't have bothered with the mysterious Pandora's box.
And speaking of mysterious: I like that Vicki's demon tattoo has mysterious powers and will probably demand a price somehow, even though that feels like they're ripping off elements from the Kim Harrison books. That's ok, though, if you're going to steal, steal from good writers.
The main murder plot was the strongest one yet, I thought: the ghost was scary rather than cheesy; Mangus' motives were convincing enough that you didn't necessarily guess the twist with his mom; the resolution made sense, and they finally are finding explanations that allow them to tell the truth yet conceal it at the same time, which I like.
And finally, Vicki's banter was even better than normal this time, both with Mike and with Henry. Favorite line: "Vicki Nelson, warrior princess." (Oh, and I forgot to mention, I loved Henry doing the Lex Luthor move and throwing the sword at her head.) And it was nice that we got a little bit of an explanation for why Henry is helping Vicki: he wants to learn how to work cases, presumably for his graphic novels.
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I find the Mike and Henry dynamic to be nicely illustrated, and those two are going to have to find a way to get along. More or less. It will be interesting.