FK Season 2, Episode "Near Death"
Jun. 17th, 2024 02:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
switchbladeeyesIt has been a MINUTE since I did one of these episode review/recap/rambly brain dump posts. Now that ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fkficfest is over, I turn my FK fannish (autocorrect really wants this to be “Finnish”) attentions back to season 2's episodes.
Mr. SwitchbladeEyes and I missed "Near Death" (amongst others) when we watched the show last summer because Amazon yanked the show off Prime. The show was a rewatch for me after many, many years, and a first time watch for him. So as I reached an episode we missed, I asked Mr. SwitchbladeEyes if he wanted to watch it with me. I told him, “I think Nick’s soul is devoured by worms or something.” And he was on board.
Parts of "Near Death," I remembered quite well (flashbacks and a lot of the near death experience stuff) but other parts were a total blank (the modern story... turns out the police procedural aspect is not that great, which is probably why I didn't recall it).
I'm assuming fans' mileage may vary on whether the events of Nick's near death experiences were "real." (Real in the sense that they were actually, objectively happening, and not something that Nick's psyche created; no doubt it felt real enough to him.) For reasons I will discuss, I'm on #TeamNotReal. I think what he saw near death were fantastical manifestations of his mental and emotional state à la “Dying for Fame,” “Feeding the Beast,” and “Curiouser and Curiouser.”
This is an interesting episode regardless of whether you're #TeamReal or #TeamNotReal.
We start off in the day time with some dude running through a field looking like he's fleeing something or someone. Whatever he's running from seems to catch up to him and we have a cool screen fade from the field in the day to police lights at night. The dude from the field? He's dead.
As soon as Nick and Nat appeared on screen at the investigation, I had to pause the episode because Mr. SwitchbladeEyes got angry all over again about "Last Knight." Even though I've been rewatching season 2 episodes, this is the first one he's seen since the series finale. He particularly went off about how LK treated Natalie, and I was just like, I know, babe, I know. This quickly devolved into a rant about other shows with finales that angered him lol.
Anyhoo, after he got that out of his system, we resumed. Nat's all, I have no idea why this guy died. There's no apparent cause of death. So they don't know if it was murder. Except we, the audience saw that guy running in fear from something.
Back at the police station, Nick's like, oh, it's Myra's birthday? If I'd have known, I'd have gotten her something. Sweet of Nick to say that. It certainly speaks to Nick having become closer to Schanke’s family though we never see what that might have looked like.
Birthdays make Schanke feel Some Kind of Way. He's hyper cognizant of mortality inching forward toward its end. Schanke fretting about death hit me right in the feels. Not much longer for him on this Earth 😭😭. (No, fam, I don't think I’ll ever get over the show killing off this character.)
Dead Dude has been ID'd because he was reported as a missing person. He was a scientist at Neuro Science Place. Nick and Schank go to the morgue to chat with Nat about the autopsy results. She's still stymied as to cause of death. Dead Dude had prostate cancer, but that didn't kill him. Can't say what caused it so can't say if it’s a homicide. Buuuut, the body was moved, which is enough to start a police investigation. I mean, at minimum, we've got mishandling of a corpse. They will start at Neuro Science Place. The detectives take Nat with them because they need someone who can speak the science lingo to help them understand what work was going on at Neuro Science Place.
The important things to learn at Neuro Science Place are (1) Amanda Tapping of Stargate SG-1 is one of the scientists, (2) the scientists study consciousness, and (3) the scientists keep weird late night hours.
We get a weird flash of the main scientist, who I shall dub "Dr. NearDeath," walking around in the daylight. Seems to be something she is thinking about and is then distracted when Nick knocks on her office door. Nick talks to her as Schanke and Nat talk to the other two scientists. Dr. NearDeath totally overshares about her background with seeing people die. And her views on death, consciousness, and the effects of near death on people. Talking about near death experiences makes Nick flashback to the night he met LaCroix and LaCroix's offer to turn him into a vampire. 'Cause that process required a near death experience.
Also, the flashback time period? We've been here before. Sometime in season 1, but I can't remember what episode. It led right up to the events where this episode's flashbacks start. My recollection is that the season 1 flashback was way more cool atmosphere-wise. Like dark, candle-lit, foreboding and seductive. In "Near Death," it is just... too well lit. It's fine, but comparatively speaking, the season 1 flashback atmosphere was better.
After our investigative trio leave, in the car, Schanke shares how he finds the scientists and their work super sus. But Nick's not really listening because he's spacing out alternating between visions of seeing a bright doorway and drinking LaCroix's blood. Schanke's all, "Ground Control to Major Nick," LOL, to get Nick to focus back on the conversation. They toss out ideas. Nat postulates, maybe there's something the scientists didn't tell us, some kind of research that got out of hand.
I guess Nick dropped Nat and Schanke... somewhere. Because next thing, he's taking time out from the investigation to drop by the Raven to chat with Janette. It's fine though. I will accept his weird detours if it means we'll see Janette. (Mr. SwitchbladeEyes was all, maybe next he'll go home, change into his pajamas and play cards or mini golf, THEN go back to work. I was all, no, no, those particular weird detours were confined to season 1.)
In the club, Nick's sitting at a table looking pensive remembering again the night he was turned into a vampire, recalling LaCroix biting him and Janette talking to him. Present day Janette snaps him out of it. Nick asks her what it was like for her when LaCroix brought her over. Interesting that they've never talked about this. She says it was "very intense." She relays seeing a light near death and then hearing LaCroix calling her back to life. Nick asks if she thought at that moment that she had a choice. Janette said she did not see live vs. die as a choice. It's not really clear what she saw or heard near death, other than a light and LaCroix's voice. Or if she understands Nick's question in the same terms of what he saw with his own near death experience, which we haven't yet touched on. Or was it like, she could drink LaCroix's blood—and drink enough of it to turn her—or not? IDK. I like that it's ambiguous though because it leaves things open to interpretation.
We then head back to Dr. NearDeath and she's in the daylight at, idk, a desert? A quarry? And she's attacked by Dead Dude, who grabs her ankle and emerges from the ground. She wakes up. She's using a machine from Neuro Science Place that measures consciousness. The other two scientists are there. Natalie's theory about off-the-books experimentation is accurate. Turns out, Dr. NearDeath & Co. have been using the machine to bring about a near death brain state to take readings and report what they see. Dr. NearDeath has done this more than once and reports that what she sees is "getting more disturbing." Distressed, she wonders if they killed Dead Dude with their experiment.
Meanwhile, Nick's back on the job, without his partner, skulking about Neuro Science Place and eavesdropping on the scientists. Nick goes to talk to Dr. NearDeath again to ask her about what they've been doing. And I guess she knows that he overheard them or something? Because she spills her guts right away. They've been bringing about near death brain states using the machine. She describes it as "flatlining" LOL, because this is 1994 and we've all seen or heard of the movie "Flatliners" at this point in time. Not sure that dated reference will make sense to future viewers. At any rate, it's like flatlining, but without the danger (except, you know, someone is actually dead). Dr. NearDeath believes near death experiences can have great therapeutic value, including curing disease. Mmmmmkay. We haven't seen any diseases cured or any evidence to support this hypothesis. And let's also keep in mind that psychologically, the only near death experiences we've seen, Dead Dude's and Dr. NearDeath's, have been terrifying. Nick's buying it though because of course he is.
Dr. NearDeath confesses that Dead Dude died while he was under and that she and the other scientists got rid of the body to avoid their experiments getting shut down. Nick points out that, um, that's a crime. But he's going to do fuck all about it. Because he wants to have a near death experience. She offers to use the machine on him, but he doesn't commit to it at that moment and leaves without arresting her. My god, he's just terrible at being a cop sometimes! This woman is running secret experiments on human beings! Someone has died! And she tried to cover it up! But being a professional will never get in the way of Nick making everything About Him. /end rant about when Nick does shit like this.
Apparently, the Neuro Science Place administrator is on to the secret experiments too. It looks like Amanda Tapping confessed to him or something? Anyway, he's reading her the riot act.
Back at the morgue, Nick has told Natalie what happened. But before we get into that, WHAT is Nick wearing? The long black coat he had been wearing during the episode had been covering for him. No longer. You know how I feel about the vests and that holds for me here, ugh, but more so, the SHIRT. Why is it so wrinkled? It looks too big for him and like he slept in it. They should never have had him take off his coat. I hate it. (Nat looks great though.)
Anyway, Nat's trying to talk sense into Nick. There's no evidence for what Dr. NearDeath is saying. And also, you have to arrest her! Natalie gives a scientific explanation for people seeing things, including a bright light, near death. These people are experiencing hallucinations, she explains, from the brain's final activity to hang onto consciousness, that's it.
Nick does NOT want to hear it. He decides to drop on her what it was like when LaCroix brought him across. Back to the flashback. LaCroix has drunk Nick's blood, and he and Janette are talking about how Nick is dying. Janette's fretting. What if he's seeing the light and steps into it? What will you do if he dies as a mortal? (Cue Mr. SwitchbladeEyes, "Just go get somebody else then, yeesh. Someone else will probably be interested.")
LaCroix's like, "Don't worry about it, girl, I got this."
Meanwhile, Nick's having a vision in daylight where a bright doorway opens up. Also, it's really weird seeing the actor in the daylight lol.
LaCroix bites into his own wrist 'cause he's going to feed his blood to Nick, reversing his impending death and turning him into a vampire.
Meanwhile, in the near death vision, whoa, whoa, whoa... check out the gauzy chemise thing Nick is wearing in the bright sunlight. HELLO. Not much left to the imagination here. 😏 It almost, but does not quite, make up for the terrible stuff with his hair. Whatevs. Nick's hearing LaCroix's creepy and possessive voice, but also seeing a woman in the doorway. She's like, come hang out with us in the light, don't listen to evil LaCroix. While LaCroix's like, come on back, buddy. Ostensibly at this moment, Nick had a choice and chose vampirism because we then flash to Nick revived, drinking LaCroix's blood and then, after, kissing Janette.
Present day Nick, who is telling Nat the story, explains that he believes he had a choice near death, and he chose to be a vampire instead of dying as a mortal, which he regrets. Nat's like, soooooo... you're saying you think if you have a near death experience, you'll get another crack at it? And Nick's like yeah, maybe I can step into the light and die as a mortal (I guess cured of vampirism at that moment? IDK how he's getting there.) Oh, and you have to let me do that. Poor Nat. Dang. Nick's just over here with a death wish, and she's just supposed to accept that. No thank you! Sorry to say it's not the last time he's going to have a death wish on this show.
Back at Neuro Science Place, the administrator has moved his riot act-reading to Dr. NearDeath. She's enraged when he says he's calling the police and shutting down the research. So she stabs him in the neck, murdering him. Right after the murder, a call comes in. It's Nick and he wants to use the machine and for her to bring it to his apartment. She agrees.
Building security at Neuro Science Place quickly finds the body. Nat and Schanke are on the scene. Nick has "called in with the flu." When the consciousness-measuring machine proves to be missing, Nat knows exactly what's up. Nat can't explain it all to Schanke, but Schanke is ready to act if Nick is in some kind of trouble. Because Schanke is the best.
At Nick's place, Dr. NearDeath puts Nick into the machine. She believes she has an ally in Nick and he can help convince others to continue the work if he sees what they've been doing. But something goes wrong. The machine is behaving strangely because Nick is not human. It's overloading and it shuts down just as Nick's brain enters the near death state. Since the machine is shut down, I assume the machine can't bring his brain waves back to normal consciousness or whatever.
Meanwhile, Nat's explained to Schanke that Nick wants to use the machine. Schanke's like, I am calling for some units to go to his place, but Nat convinces Schanke to keep it a secret "for Nick." Schanke doesn't call the unit, but he's upset that Nick would be doing this and doesn't understand why.
Nick's mind is at the weird desert/maybe a quarry (does Canada have deserts?). Here he sees LaCroix (super weird seeing him in the daylight), who apparently is the same entity Nick saw before as a woman, but for Reasons, Nick's mind manifests the entity (aka "the guide") as LaCroix. The guide's all, you're still like, too evil. And Nick's like, aw man, I've tried really hard to not be evil. The guide shows Nick what Nick's soul looks like... and it's a corpse being devoured by worms, just as I recalled. Gross. Then the guide shows him a field full of crosses representing the souls of all the people Nick has murdered. And it's A LOT. (Mr. SwitchbladeEyes wanted to pause to do the vampire math and I was like, oh, I've already done it! I conservatively estimate over 34,000 people. Mr. SwitchbladeEyes was like, "No wonder Nick's soul looks like that.")
The guide takes Nick to the bright light door and tells him he will be mortal if he steps through and his soul will be judged. And Nick's like... crap, I'm going to be damned. The guide asks Nick what he values the most and Nick says, "humanity." He sees humanity as a superior state of being, "a state of grace." Which is an interesting way to put it. Certainly consistent with the religious world view he grew up with and that we see stays with him. He has to regain his humanity before he dies so he can achieve a state of grace. So he has to go back. But is it too late?!
Interesting that this machine could kill him, or put him into a coma or something? That seems implausible. But maybe not. Modern science may have new and interesting ways to (unintentionally) kill vampires. We certainly saw that in "Fever."
Nat and Schanke are now on the scene, and apparently the strychnine in rat poison can bring him back for Science Reasons. Conveniently, Nick has some under his sink. Let's hope he doesn't still store coffee under the sink too.
Over in the near death experience, the guide and the door disappear, and Nick doesn't know how to go back. Is he about to die? Be in a coma? Or maybe he'll eventually just naturally revive because, you know, he's vampire? With Nat and Schanke's ministrations, Nick comes to. Fortunately, he's not vamped out. And thank goodness he didn't have to die wearing that vest and shirt.
Apparently, Schanke reported something to Captain Cohen because he's promising her on the phone that he'll take Nick to the hospital for evaluation. Nick gives Schanke a bullshit reason for allowing Dr. NearDeath to put him in the machine. He did it so the investigation could be "thorough." Come ON now. Schanke wants to know what Nick saw with the machine, but Nick tells him that there's nothing. Which, IDK, weird. I mean, you don't have to tell him the vampire stuff, but that you saw something… why not say? Schanke freaks out again at the concept of death. (Cue me again thinking of Schanke's impending doom.)
Anyway, Schanke leaves with Dr. NearDeath in his custody (though not handcuffed, which is weird). We will never talk about the fact that Dr. NearDeath only had an opportunity to commit murder because Nick didn't arrest her once he knew she'd already committed a crime. Also, did the machine kill Dead Dude or what!? The show is just like this with police investigations half the time.
Nick and Nat have a brief exchange where Nick says he needs to work here, among the living, to earn forgiveness. (Maybe he could start with actually behaving like a professional at some point 🧐.) THE END... of the episode.
Not the end of talking about what this episode means.
As I mentioned at the outset, I'm #TeamNotReal as far as Nick's near death experiences are concerned. I think he perceived them as real, but that they only existed in his mind, not on some other plane of existence. Nat gave us a scientific reason explanation and I land with her on this.
We don't actually get a unified vision of what near death experiences are. For Dead Dude and Dr. NearDeath, they were scary. Janette didn't say anything about a guide or a moral choice between good and evil. What is happening? Neurons firing in personal and idiosyncratic ways, I say.
Throwing in a cosmic plane with an existential choice between death and vampirism AFTER getting bitten by a vampire doesn't work for me. LaCroix gave Nick the choice to become a vampire and I think that is significant. How informed was the choice? Debatable. I'm not sure it can ever really be a fully informed choice. Nonetheless, I do not think the choice was illusory for Nick, and I think he made it while he was fully aware and awake, not when he was in the near death state. I do not think he had a chance for take-backsies.
This matters to me because we see instances in which people aren't given a choice. I think it cheapens the tragedy of those situations to suggest they actually did have a choice after all. Take Serena, the only vampire more bummed out to be a vampire than Nick. Serena was stunned by what Nick did to her in "Baby, Baby." She never wanted vampirism and would never have chosen it. Take Janette, who did NOT want Nick to bring her back over once she became mortal again. Assuming he brought her back over against her express wishes, wouldn't it take away from the tragedy to suggest he didn't actually steal the choice away from her?
I also think a near death "choice" creates a weird moral situation vis-à-vis our child vampires, Daniel and Divia. We don't think of children as people with the mental capacity to make a decision like "should I become a bloodsucking, undead creature of the night?" In fact, a child's lack of capacity to choose is a point LaCroix used to crawl under Nick’s skin in season 1's "Father Figure.”
For these reasons, I am on #TeamNotReal.
But why would Nick imagine the things the way he does? Why would he imagine that he had a second opportunity to make a choice? Well, we already know that he almost immediately regretted becoming a vampire though LaCroix talks him around to it. I think the near death vision was a manifestation of his regret about having said yes.
In addition, Nick's recollections of the things he saw may also be shaped by his major guilt complex. At this point in season 2, he's cruising headlong toward a total break with reality (to be seen in “Curiouser and Curiouser"). And if there's one thing Nick likes to do with his guilt, it's add extra guilt on top. So if he can feel bad for saying yes to LaCroix, he can feel twice as bad if he thinks he said yes a second time. That's just the whipped cream and cherry on top of his guilt sundae.
Mr. SwitchbladeEyes, meanwhile, is #TeamReal. Quote: "I think it's silly that Natalie dismissed the idea of near death visions being real. Bitch, you live in a world where vampires are real." He doesn't give a whit about my #TeamNotReal arguments lol. "Nick definitely could have chosen something different at that time." He's #TeamReal all the way.
What did y'all think of this episode? Are you #TeamReal or #TeamNotReal? Why?
fkficfest is over, I turn my FK fannish (autocorrect really wants this to be “Finnish”) attentions back to season 2's episodes.Mr. SwitchbladeEyes and I missed "Near Death" (amongst others) when we watched the show last summer because Amazon yanked the show off Prime. The show was a rewatch for me after many, many years, and a first time watch for him. So as I reached an episode we missed, I asked Mr. SwitchbladeEyes if he wanted to watch it with me. I told him, “I think Nick’s soul is devoured by worms or something.” And he was on board.
Parts of "Near Death," I remembered quite well (flashbacks and a lot of the near death experience stuff) but other parts were a total blank (the modern story... turns out the police procedural aspect is not that great, which is probably why I didn't recall it).
I'm assuming fans' mileage may vary on whether the events of Nick's near death experiences were "real." (Real in the sense that they were actually, objectively happening, and not something that Nick's psyche created; no doubt it felt real enough to him.) For reasons I will discuss, I'm on #TeamNotReal. I think what he saw near death were fantastical manifestations of his mental and emotional state à la “Dying for Fame,” “Feeding the Beast,” and “Curiouser and Curiouser.”
This is an interesting episode regardless of whether you're #TeamReal or #TeamNotReal.
We start off in the day time with some dude running through a field looking like he's fleeing something or someone. Whatever he's running from seems to catch up to him and we have a cool screen fade from the field in the day to police lights at night. The dude from the field? He's dead.
As soon as Nick and Nat appeared on screen at the investigation, I had to pause the episode because Mr. SwitchbladeEyes got angry all over again about "Last Knight." Even though I've been rewatching season 2 episodes, this is the first one he's seen since the series finale. He particularly went off about how LK treated Natalie, and I was just like, I know, babe, I know. This quickly devolved into a rant about other shows with finales that angered him lol.
Anyhoo, after he got that out of his system, we resumed. Nat's all, I have no idea why this guy died. There's no apparent cause of death. So they don't know if it was murder. Except we, the audience saw that guy running in fear from something.
Back at the police station, Nick's like, oh, it's Myra's birthday? If I'd have known, I'd have gotten her something. Sweet of Nick to say that. It certainly speaks to Nick having become closer to Schanke’s family though we never see what that might have looked like.
Birthdays make Schanke feel Some Kind of Way. He's hyper cognizant of mortality inching forward toward its end. Schanke fretting about death hit me right in the feels. Not much longer for him on this Earth 😭😭. (No, fam, I don't think I’ll ever get over the show killing off this character.)
Dead Dude has been ID'd because he was reported as a missing person. He was a scientist at Neuro Science Place. Nick and Schank go to the morgue to chat with Nat about the autopsy results. She's still stymied as to cause of death. Dead Dude had prostate cancer, but that didn't kill him. Can't say what caused it so can't say if it’s a homicide. Buuuut, the body was moved, which is enough to start a police investigation. I mean, at minimum, we've got mishandling of a corpse. They will start at Neuro Science Place. The detectives take Nat with them because they need someone who can speak the science lingo to help them understand what work was going on at Neuro Science Place.
The important things to learn at Neuro Science Place are (1) Amanda Tapping of Stargate SG-1 is one of the scientists, (2) the scientists study consciousness, and (3) the scientists keep weird late night hours.
We get a weird flash of the main scientist, who I shall dub "Dr. NearDeath," walking around in the daylight. Seems to be something she is thinking about and is then distracted when Nick knocks on her office door. Nick talks to her as Schanke and Nat talk to the other two scientists. Dr. NearDeath totally overshares about her background with seeing people die. And her views on death, consciousness, and the effects of near death on people. Talking about near death experiences makes Nick flashback to the night he met LaCroix and LaCroix's offer to turn him into a vampire. 'Cause that process required a near death experience.
Also, the flashback time period? We've been here before. Sometime in season 1, but I can't remember what episode. It led right up to the events where this episode's flashbacks start. My recollection is that the season 1 flashback was way more cool atmosphere-wise. Like dark, candle-lit, foreboding and seductive. In "Near Death," it is just... too well lit. It's fine, but comparatively speaking, the season 1 flashback atmosphere was better.
After our investigative trio leave, in the car, Schanke shares how he finds the scientists and their work super sus. But Nick's not really listening because he's spacing out alternating between visions of seeing a bright doorway and drinking LaCroix's blood. Schanke's all, "Ground Control to Major Nick," LOL, to get Nick to focus back on the conversation. They toss out ideas. Nat postulates, maybe there's something the scientists didn't tell us, some kind of research that got out of hand.
I guess Nick dropped Nat and Schanke... somewhere. Because next thing, he's taking time out from the investigation to drop by the Raven to chat with Janette. It's fine though. I will accept his weird detours if it means we'll see Janette. (Mr. SwitchbladeEyes was all, maybe next he'll go home, change into his pajamas and play cards or mini golf, THEN go back to work. I was all, no, no, those particular weird detours were confined to season 1.)
In the club, Nick's sitting at a table looking pensive remembering again the night he was turned into a vampire, recalling LaCroix biting him and Janette talking to him. Present day Janette snaps him out of it. Nick asks her what it was like for her when LaCroix brought her over. Interesting that they've never talked about this. She says it was "very intense." She relays seeing a light near death and then hearing LaCroix calling her back to life. Nick asks if she thought at that moment that she had a choice. Janette said she did not see live vs. die as a choice. It's not really clear what she saw or heard near death, other than a light and LaCroix's voice. Or if she understands Nick's question in the same terms of what he saw with his own near death experience, which we haven't yet touched on. Or was it like, she could drink LaCroix's blood—and drink enough of it to turn her—or not? IDK. I like that it's ambiguous though because it leaves things open to interpretation.
We then head back to Dr. NearDeath and she's in the daylight at, idk, a desert? A quarry? And she's attacked by Dead Dude, who grabs her ankle and emerges from the ground. She wakes up. She's using a machine from Neuro Science Place that measures consciousness. The other two scientists are there. Natalie's theory about off-the-books experimentation is accurate. Turns out, Dr. NearDeath & Co. have been using the machine to bring about a near death brain state to take readings and report what they see. Dr. NearDeath has done this more than once and reports that what she sees is "getting more disturbing." Distressed, she wonders if they killed Dead Dude with their experiment.
Meanwhile, Nick's back on the job, without his partner, skulking about Neuro Science Place and eavesdropping on the scientists. Nick goes to talk to Dr. NearDeath again to ask her about what they've been doing. And I guess she knows that he overheard them or something? Because she spills her guts right away. They've been bringing about near death brain states using the machine. She describes it as "flatlining" LOL, because this is 1994 and we've all seen or heard of the movie "Flatliners" at this point in time. Not sure that dated reference will make sense to future viewers. At any rate, it's like flatlining, but without the danger (except, you know, someone is actually dead). Dr. NearDeath believes near death experiences can have great therapeutic value, including curing disease. Mmmmmkay. We haven't seen any diseases cured or any evidence to support this hypothesis. And let's also keep in mind that psychologically, the only near death experiences we've seen, Dead Dude's and Dr. NearDeath's, have been terrifying. Nick's buying it though because of course he is.
Dr. NearDeath confesses that Dead Dude died while he was under and that she and the other scientists got rid of the body to avoid their experiments getting shut down. Nick points out that, um, that's a crime. But he's going to do fuck all about it. Because he wants to have a near death experience. She offers to use the machine on him, but he doesn't commit to it at that moment and leaves without arresting her. My god, he's just terrible at being a cop sometimes! This woman is running secret experiments on human beings! Someone has died! And she tried to cover it up! But being a professional will never get in the way of Nick making everything About Him. /end rant about when Nick does shit like this.
Apparently, the Neuro Science Place administrator is on to the secret experiments too. It looks like Amanda Tapping confessed to him or something? Anyway, he's reading her the riot act.
Back at the morgue, Nick has told Natalie what happened. But before we get into that, WHAT is Nick wearing? The long black coat he had been wearing during the episode had been covering for him. No longer. You know how I feel about the vests and that holds for me here, ugh, but more so, the SHIRT. Why is it so wrinkled? It looks too big for him and like he slept in it. They should never have had him take off his coat. I hate it. (Nat looks great though.)
Anyway, Nat's trying to talk sense into Nick. There's no evidence for what Dr. NearDeath is saying. And also, you have to arrest her! Natalie gives a scientific explanation for people seeing things, including a bright light, near death. These people are experiencing hallucinations, she explains, from the brain's final activity to hang onto consciousness, that's it.
Nick does NOT want to hear it. He decides to drop on her what it was like when LaCroix brought him across. Back to the flashback. LaCroix has drunk Nick's blood, and he and Janette are talking about how Nick is dying. Janette's fretting. What if he's seeing the light and steps into it? What will you do if he dies as a mortal? (Cue Mr. SwitchbladeEyes, "Just go get somebody else then, yeesh. Someone else will probably be interested.")
LaCroix's like, "Don't worry about it, girl, I got this."
Meanwhile, Nick's having a vision in daylight where a bright doorway opens up. Also, it's really weird seeing the actor in the daylight lol.
LaCroix bites into his own wrist 'cause he's going to feed his blood to Nick, reversing his impending death and turning him into a vampire.
Meanwhile, in the near death vision, whoa, whoa, whoa... check out the gauzy chemise thing Nick is wearing in the bright sunlight. HELLO. Not much left to the imagination here. 😏 It almost, but does not quite, make up for the terrible stuff with his hair. Whatevs. Nick's hearing LaCroix's creepy and possessive voice, but also seeing a woman in the doorway. She's like, come hang out with us in the light, don't listen to evil LaCroix. While LaCroix's like, come on back, buddy. Ostensibly at this moment, Nick had a choice and chose vampirism because we then flash to Nick revived, drinking LaCroix's blood and then, after, kissing Janette.
Present day Nick, who is telling Nat the story, explains that he believes he had a choice near death, and he chose to be a vampire instead of dying as a mortal, which he regrets. Nat's like, soooooo... you're saying you think if you have a near death experience, you'll get another crack at it? And Nick's like yeah, maybe I can step into the light and die as a mortal (I guess cured of vampirism at that moment? IDK how he's getting there.) Oh, and you have to let me do that. Poor Nat. Dang. Nick's just over here with a death wish, and she's just supposed to accept that. No thank you! Sorry to say it's not the last time he's going to have a death wish on this show.
Back at Neuro Science Place, the administrator has moved his riot act-reading to Dr. NearDeath. She's enraged when he says he's calling the police and shutting down the research. So she stabs him in the neck, murdering him. Right after the murder, a call comes in. It's Nick and he wants to use the machine and for her to bring it to his apartment. She agrees.
Building security at Neuro Science Place quickly finds the body. Nat and Schanke are on the scene. Nick has "called in with the flu." When the consciousness-measuring machine proves to be missing, Nat knows exactly what's up. Nat can't explain it all to Schanke, but Schanke is ready to act if Nick is in some kind of trouble. Because Schanke is the best.
At Nick's place, Dr. NearDeath puts Nick into the machine. She believes she has an ally in Nick and he can help convince others to continue the work if he sees what they've been doing. But something goes wrong. The machine is behaving strangely because Nick is not human. It's overloading and it shuts down just as Nick's brain enters the near death state. Since the machine is shut down, I assume the machine can't bring his brain waves back to normal consciousness or whatever.
Meanwhile, Nat's explained to Schanke that Nick wants to use the machine. Schanke's like, I am calling for some units to go to his place, but Nat convinces Schanke to keep it a secret "for Nick." Schanke doesn't call the unit, but he's upset that Nick would be doing this and doesn't understand why.
Nick's mind is at the weird desert/maybe a quarry (does Canada have deserts?). Here he sees LaCroix (super weird seeing him in the daylight), who apparently is the same entity Nick saw before as a woman, but for Reasons, Nick's mind manifests the entity (aka "the guide") as LaCroix. The guide's all, you're still like, too evil. And Nick's like, aw man, I've tried really hard to not be evil. The guide shows Nick what Nick's soul looks like... and it's a corpse being devoured by worms, just as I recalled. Gross. Then the guide shows him a field full of crosses representing the souls of all the people Nick has murdered. And it's A LOT. (Mr. SwitchbladeEyes wanted to pause to do the vampire math and I was like, oh, I've already done it! I conservatively estimate over 34,000 people. Mr. SwitchbladeEyes was like, "No wonder Nick's soul looks like that.")
The guide takes Nick to the bright light door and tells him he will be mortal if he steps through and his soul will be judged. And Nick's like... crap, I'm going to be damned. The guide asks Nick what he values the most and Nick says, "humanity." He sees humanity as a superior state of being, "a state of grace." Which is an interesting way to put it. Certainly consistent with the religious world view he grew up with and that we see stays with him. He has to regain his humanity before he dies so he can achieve a state of grace. So he has to go back. But is it too late?!
Interesting that this machine could kill him, or put him into a coma or something? That seems implausible. But maybe not. Modern science may have new and interesting ways to (unintentionally) kill vampires. We certainly saw that in "Fever."
Nat and Schanke are now on the scene, and apparently the strychnine in rat poison can bring him back for Science Reasons. Conveniently, Nick has some under his sink. Let's hope he doesn't still store coffee under the sink too.
Over in the near death experience, the guide and the door disappear, and Nick doesn't know how to go back. Is he about to die? Be in a coma? Or maybe he'll eventually just naturally revive because, you know, he's vampire? With Nat and Schanke's ministrations, Nick comes to. Fortunately, he's not vamped out. And thank goodness he didn't have to die wearing that vest and shirt.
Apparently, Schanke reported something to Captain Cohen because he's promising her on the phone that he'll take Nick to the hospital for evaluation. Nick gives Schanke a bullshit reason for allowing Dr. NearDeath to put him in the machine. He did it so the investigation could be "thorough." Come ON now. Schanke wants to know what Nick saw with the machine, but Nick tells him that there's nothing. Which, IDK, weird. I mean, you don't have to tell him the vampire stuff, but that you saw something… why not say? Schanke freaks out again at the concept of death. (Cue me again thinking of Schanke's impending doom.)
Anyway, Schanke leaves with Dr. NearDeath in his custody (though not handcuffed, which is weird). We will never talk about the fact that Dr. NearDeath only had an opportunity to commit murder because Nick didn't arrest her once he knew she'd already committed a crime. Also, did the machine kill Dead Dude or what!? The show is just like this with police investigations half the time.
Nick and Nat have a brief exchange where Nick says he needs to work here, among the living, to earn forgiveness. (Maybe he could start with actually behaving like a professional at some point 🧐.) THE END... of the episode.
Not the end of talking about what this episode means.
As I mentioned at the outset, I'm #TeamNotReal as far as Nick's near death experiences are concerned. I think he perceived them as real, but that they only existed in his mind, not on some other plane of existence. Nat gave us a scientific reason explanation and I land with her on this.
We don't actually get a unified vision of what near death experiences are. For Dead Dude and Dr. NearDeath, they were scary. Janette didn't say anything about a guide or a moral choice between good and evil. What is happening? Neurons firing in personal and idiosyncratic ways, I say.
Throwing in a cosmic plane with an existential choice between death and vampirism AFTER getting bitten by a vampire doesn't work for me. LaCroix gave Nick the choice to become a vampire and I think that is significant. How informed was the choice? Debatable. I'm not sure it can ever really be a fully informed choice. Nonetheless, I do not think the choice was illusory for Nick, and I think he made it while he was fully aware and awake, not when he was in the near death state. I do not think he had a chance for take-backsies.
This matters to me because we see instances in which people aren't given a choice. I think it cheapens the tragedy of those situations to suggest they actually did have a choice after all. Take Serena, the only vampire more bummed out to be a vampire than Nick. Serena was stunned by what Nick did to her in "Baby, Baby." She never wanted vampirism and would never have chosen it. Take Janette, who did NOT want Nick to bring her back over once she became mortal again. Assuming he brought her back over against her express wishes, wouldn't it take away from the tragedy to suggest he didn't actually steal the choice away from her?
I also think a near death "choice" creates a weird moral situation vis-à-vis our child vampires, Daniel and Divia. We don't think of children as people with the mental capacity to make a decision like "should I become a bloodsucking, undead creature of the night?" In fact, a child's lack of capacity to choose is a point LaCroix used to crawl under Nick’s skin in season 1's "Father Figure.”
For these reasons, I am on #TeamNotReal.
But why would Nick imagine the things the way he does? Why would he imagine that he had a second opportunity to make a choice? Well, we already know that he almost immediately regretted becoming a vampire though LaCroix talks him around to it. I think the near death vision was a manifestation of his regret about having said yes.
In addition, Nick's recollections of the things he saw may also be shaped by his major guilt complex. At this point in season 2, he's cruising headlong toward a total break with reality (to be seen in “Curiouser and Curiouser"). And if there's one thing Nick likes to do with his guilt, it's add extra guilt on top. So if he can feel bad for saying yes to LaCroix, he can feel twice as bad if he thinks he said yes a second time. That's just the whipped cream and cherry on top of his guilt sundae.
Mr. SwitchbladeEyes, meanwhile, is #TeamReal. Quote: "I think it's silly that Natalie dismissed the idea of near death visions being real. Bitch, you live in a world where vampires are real." He doesn't give a whit about my #TeamNotReal arguments lol. "Nick definitely could have chosen something different at that time." He's #TeamReal all the way.
What did y'all think of this episode? Are you #TeamReal or #TeamNotReal? Why?
