FK Season 3 episode “Blind Faith"

[switchbladeeyes]

Oh boy, we watched "Blind Faith."

Vampooches, yay! This episode goes to a weird place, and I can’t help but enjoy it. I mean, vampire dogs. Sometimes you have to lean in and embrace the gifts the show gives us.

The crime story element of the show raps up quickly thanks to the swift action of Perry (cue in my mind, the “Perry” theme from Phineas & Ferb). And the rest of the present day non-vampire story is mainly focused on Jody's story, which is compelling in its own right, vampuppy notwithstanding. I find how Tracy has behaved toward Jody to be very real. Certainly, it is not good behavior, but it is real. I thought the show developed that well.

Meanwhile, in the vampire story, aside from learning that houndpires are a thing, we also learn that (1) there are two different "types" of vampires, and (2) Nick is a huge snob. A carouche is a "lower form" of vampire because... they prefer animal blood? Nick, bruh, you drink animal blood. In fact, it seems Nick's life would be a lot easier if he craved animal blood instead of human blood. Maybe a "downgrade" (if you could even call it that) would actually be a scientifically more achievable interim goal than becoming human. Just saying. Aside from blood preference, I can't discern a meaningful difference between a carouche vampire (Screed being my only real way to measure) and, for lack of a better term, a vampire vampire. (And in true FK fashion, this concept will never come up again, at least as far as I can recall. Sigh.)

We can't not talk about Perry turning Jody into a vampire. Not only are vampire dogs a thing, but vampire dogs can turn humans into vampires! Amazing! I wonder if Jody is a carouche? Who knows. I have Questions about how Perry turned Jody into a vampire. Once again the show stumbles a bit on the whole "how vampires are made" issue. Ah well. And now Perry is Jody's master, but is also Jody's dog. What happens when he wants her to throw the tennis ball, but she doesn't feel like it?

And finally, the flashbacks. It's been a minute since we've seen LaCroix be a straight up evil MF'er for no real reason. (At least in "Outside the Lines," he was making a point. It was F'ed up and it was evil, but at least there was a discernable point that I could kind of understand in an academic sense.) But here, I cannot figure out his deal. Like okay, it's true that as a dog, Raleigh might be amenable to another owner. So what? Seriously. Who cares. LaCroix cares and really doesn't want Nick to have a pet, I guess, so has Raleigh turned into a vicious killing machine (a vampire dog, who even in the end, actually still seems to care about Nick, in a dog way). This forces Nick to kill Raleigh and all of us viewers who were traumatized by "Old Yeller" as kids get to relive it. LaCroix is just The Worst here.

Lastly on the flashbacks, the tie in to the "The Hound of the Baskervilles" was a little forced, but since I love both FK and Sherlock Holmes, I'll allow it.

P.S. The existence of vampire dogs implies the existence of other vampire animals. I've spent too much time thinking about this while also side-eyeing my cats (I have concluded if they were vampire cats, they'd definitely take me out.) It also made me reminisce about "Count Duckula" and "Bunnicula," if anyone else remembers those from when they were a kid.

Comments

[greerwatson]

Well, there were certainly Vamp-Kitties in the Forever Knight wars! Some of the Cousins had them.

The question of what, exactly, makes a "carouche" is one that has always puzzled fans. Some take it one way; some prefer other interpretations. Of course, TPTB neither knew nor cared. Did it work as a script: that's all that mattered to them.

[switchbladeeyes]

Ha! Vamp kitties and Cousins. I don’t remember it, but it Makes Sense. LOL.

I do remember LaCroix as a penguin in War 8 though most entries related to that are pulled. (There's also a snow cone place where I live called "Vampire Penguin" that also makes me think of it :-D.)

These seem to be the possible ways of making a carouche, any other theories?

1. Carouche makes a carouche
2. Vampire animal makes a carouche
3. If the first blood you drink as a vampire is animal blood, you're a carouche (I recall this coming up at some point, but not in this episode, unless I missed it)

And can only carouche make vampire animals? LaCroix outsources converting Raleigh, but I don't know if it's because he can't do it or he won't do it.

[greerwatson]

I'm pretty sure #3 is canon. That's the explanation of how Screed became a carouche. The rest are fans' attempts to make sense of it all.

I suspect LaCroix just doesn't fancy dog blood. He's a fussy eater!

[pj1228]

Richard Lambert seems to be the exception from #3 rule. I'm pretty sure Nick gave him cow's blood as first meal (the bottle was unlabeled if I recall correctly), and yet he wasn't a carouche because he went for human blood later on.

[switchbladeeyes]

Dang it, I forgot about him. I suppose Nick could have had human blood in the bottle since he knows where to get it.

[thefruitbat]

Yes, there were vamp-kitties fighting along the humans and vamps in the FK wars. I found it a bit difficult to get into the feeling of reading the entries from their perspectives, but it was a funny idea. There's also a fanfic series (never finished) that at some point ends up letting Nick get blind and borrowing Perry as a seeing eye dog. And somehow he gets along with still-just-a-cat Sydney. It's a really wild series.
Another story had vamp-bunnies as a feature.
Just asking myself right now what would happen if they tried to turn vampire bats... Would they just get stronger and turn to ashes in the sun?

I also loved Duckula as a kid. Sneak peek into a chapter of a series I'm currently writing: He will be mentioned. XD

[switchbladeeyes]

LOL, that series does sound wild.

Now I can't stop thinking about what happens if you try to turn a vampire bat into a vampire vampire bat :-D

Ha! Fun to incorporate a Count Duckula reference into a story.

[greerwatson]

How about the vampire teddy bear? That was hilarious.

[pj1228]

Ah yes, I remember that series, something with "Dance" in each title and some very nice Nat/LC moments.

[thefruitbat]

Yes, the Dance series. It started nicely with some really cool ideas, but then it got really wild with Nick going blind an much S/M stuff with non con and that pretty much ruined it for me.