Straightwashing GBLT Characters

Well, there are certain genres of media that automatically assume that GBLT people couldn’t possibly have existed, especially if it’s set in the future (especially in dystopians. I tell you guys, us GBLT folks are super freaking tasty – the zombies and aliens go right for us!) and especially if it’s set in the past. Because we all arrived in 1960, don’tchaknow.

This erasure annoys me, it truly does. But do you know what annoys me even more?

When they remove already existing gay characters to sanitise a work for television. To have those few tiny crumbs we’ve actually managed to achieve removed lest it hurt the delicate fee-fees of the poor straight world.

So when Tanya Huff’s Blood Ties series of books became a TV show, bisexual Henry became straight and gay man Tony was replaced by a straight woman. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t a big fan for the portrayal in the books – but that doesn’t excuse cutting them out entirely.

Or did you know that in the Walking Dead comics, there were actually gay characters in the prison? Again, I actually hated how they were portrayed because they were a mess of homophobic tropes – but they were there. TV show? 3 seasons now and not one damn GBLT character.

Even Troy crosses the line with a very straight retelling of the Illiad.

Now we’re getting Da Vinci’s Demons, that would be Leonardo Da Vinci, he was repeatedly accused of sodomy, never married, was never connected to a female lover, but repeatedly with men, drew erotic pictures of them and left his most valuable painting in his will to one of his live-in “apprentices” Da Vinci. It’s an act of wilful ignorance to not realise Da Vinci played for our team. In fact, if you don’t want to include us icky gay people then you probably need to stay away from Renaissance painters – especially Florentine Renaissance painters! But Da Vinci’s Demons?

Well, the first scene we see him in, pretty much, involves him with a bare breasted woman who he “rescued” from a nunnery and it’s repeatedly made clear that he is having regular sex with. His main love interest - his overwhelming obsession - is Lucrezia Donati. A substantial amount of his time is spent obsessing over her - and her over him; and we get several explicit sex scenes between them. So do we have any indication that Leonardo Da Vinci, actual gay man, was actually even slightly interested in men? Well, in the Tower he is accused of sodomy (Florence is apparently full of “sodomites” - shame we never saw any of them, ever) and on trial. It’s almost comic if it weren’t so insulting - firstly when he makes an ambiguous speech that amounts to “mind your own business” Vanessa speaks up quickly to remind us that he’s totally slept with her.

Review: The Turning by Jennifer Armintrout, Book 1 of the Blood Ties Series

Dr. Carrie Ames is a new doctor, overworked but driven, skilled and determined. Right until a John Doe arrives in her emergency room who simply shouldn’t be alive. He doesn’t last long but he shakes her to the core – enough for her to go check on his body in the morgue. Only to find that body healed, up, moving around and with great big fangs.

Convalescing from the attack takes weeks – but in those weeks she notices some major changes and is eventually faced with the impossible: she’s a vampire. Blood drinking, sunlight dodging, the whole thing. And Nathan, a member of the Voluntary Vampire Extinction Movement, is her best and only source for information on her new condition.

Unless she goes to her sire. Her brutal, abusive, violent sire who preys on children, slaughters humans and rapes any under his control. A sire who is desperate for a companion – and a sire she is bound to by blood.

Looking at the cover, I was very pleasantly surprised by a lot in this book. There was relatively little focus on sex, even relatively little on lust. There’s instant attraction but that’s not allowed to overwhelm everything else nor does it force two people into instant love and undying declarations of affection and love. It’s clear Nathan and Carrie are heading that way – but it’s not going to be quick, it’s not going to be easy, and no amount of super-horny fumblings are going to replace the misgivings both have about the other nor is it going to drop them on the happy-ever-after train.

In fact, I would say their interaction with each other is less “romantic” and more “exploratory”. There is definite physical attraction that builds into more – but the focus is far more on Carrie trying to live with her new state, trying to deal with the feelings of the sire bond and just trying to decide what to do with her life. And yes, part of it is deciding where Nathan fits in – is he a friend to trust? A love interest? A threat bringing ultimatums from the Voluntary Vampire Extinction Movement? Is he trying to control her? Manipulate her? Finding a ground-state for co-existence with Nathan as well as escaping her sire’s attentions feature much much higher than getting into Nathan’s pants.

The same applies on Nathan’s side – we have far more of his worry over what to do with Carrie, his trying to get her into the VVEM, his targeting of Cyrus, his past with his wife, whether Carrie is under Cyrus’s control – all of these take greater precedence than having sex with Carrie. Yes, he’s attracted to her, yes they’re heading that way but he even outright says he doesn’t love her and works more towards fitting her into her new existence and his life.

In short, we don’t cross eyes over a crowded room then take the express train to humpa-ville. We actually have a story.

And it’s a great story with a lot of unique elements. Sure, “good” vampires and “bad” vampires are things we’ve seen before – but a vampire society driven towards their own kind’s extinction? Making feeding on unwilling humans and creating new vampires a crime? These are novel concepts in a genre where already so much is clichéd and done a hundred times over – these elements make for an excellent addition to the genre and the two clashing sides make for some wonderful epic potential. Then we throw in witches to be a very nice wild card as well to really mix it up.

Blood Ties Season 2, Episode 10: Deep Dark

Coreen wants to get some help for Vicki and her tumultuous love life – and has gone to speak to her spirit guide. But things are different from what she’s done before, and after a blood ritual and the intervention of a spooky voiced possession, Coreen ends up red eyed, bleeding from the eye and speaking with the demonic possession voice – and Vicki is sent sprawling as her marks glow and burn.

Vicki goes to check on the spirit guide after Coreen is 5 hours late returning. The spirit guide is being nicely cryptic – so Vicki threatens to punch her. Apparently “he” has come through. She gives precious little information so Vicki follows through and does punch her. Vicki puts 2 and 2 together and comes up with Astaroth (remember Astaroth? I nearly didn’t) as she tells Henry. Since the psychic warned her that she would hear about what’s doing she decides that the police are most likely to know – but Celluci is still miffed with her so she calls in, pretending to be Kate (Celluci’s occasional partner) to get the news. And hears that Coreen is at a strip bar.

Where she is, beating down the bouncers with her Astaroth strength. And forcing the dancers to kiss her, to the cheering of all the men in the club.

Celluci is part of a task force involved in a major case (with Kate and Dave – my gods, they can appear on the screen at the same time!), a kidnapping of a rich Hong Kong business man’s daughter. Vicki insists on his help, dragging him away to help intervene with Coreen so she doesn’t get arrested.

Coreen is just smacking the police aside as Vicki arrives. Coreen/Astaroth and Vicki fight, again to the cheering delight of the crowd, and Coreen easily knocks Vicki aside – but Henry, with his vampire speed, manages to knock Coreen out.

Back to the office and Celluci is still with the gang (hello, kidnapping task force?)  Astaroth claims he is there for Vicki, what she wants – needs. Henry and Vicki go to find a priest for an exorcism, leaving Celluci to babysit Coreen (despite his protests about the task force). The priest is reluctant, his lastb exorcism wasn’t a happy, fun time apparently.

And Astaroth/Coreen is taunting Celluci – with his relationship with Vicki, with Henry and with his father (sorry, you need some foreshadowing before I care about Celluci’s daddy issues) and finally hits on she knows crimes being committed – including the location of his kidnap victim, she’ll tell him so long as he adjusts her pillows. This is when Vicki, Henry and the priest arrives and tells him not to – apparently fluffing demonic pillows is an exorcism no-no.

Cue Exorcism scene. You all know this script, holy water, taunting, appeals, bargains etc. But Henry has a revelation – he can’t hear Coreen’s heartbeat. Upon opening her top, Vicki finds a wound through which you can see ribs – and the heart is missing.

Vicki and Celluci go back to the police station to follow leads and Kate makes it clear that Crowley has already noticed his absence and bringing Vicki was a bad idea. Celluci uses his tit-bit he gained from the demon to explain his absence. Crowley demands his gun and his badge –suspending him. He walked out of an investigation and didn’t explain where he went, a big no-no. Vicki and Celluci have a moment – not just a resentment moment but a relationship moment, asking what Vicki actually wants.

They get a lead on the taxi driver who dropped Coreen/Astaroth off and, while Vicki stays with Coreen to reassure her and have a touching moment, Celluci and Henry go investigate. They lern where Astaroth/Coreen put her heart, and at the same time Celluci gets Henry to use his vampire powers on him to pull back the image Astaroth gave him – getting an image of the crypt where his kidnap victim is being kept. He calls Kate and passes on the information, though he’s unsure whether she’ll follow it

Blood Ties, Season 2, Episode 9: We'll Meet Again

 In perhaps the weirdest twist Vicki’s had for a while, her new client is a young teenager – an emancipated minor – who wants Vicki to find his wife. Apparently they’ve been together for 400 years – a dozen lifetimes, which Coreen takes to mean he’s been reincarnated. And Vicki thinks it’s time to bring in Henry. Thoroughly convinced by the kid’s nigh incomprehensible grasp of 20s slang, they decide to believe him. (Yeah, I know I know, it’s Blood Ties, just run with it).

Turns out Lee, the kid, met his wife back in the 1600s and she was a Mohawk – and they always die together (which is supposed to be romantic but feels vaguely creepy). And they have a plan through each lifetime – when one of them realises who they are, they go to their tree and carve their initials and a meeting place and time on it for the other to see. Only this time urban sprawl means the tree has been cut down and replaced with a shopping centre.

Celluci raises his head – he’s having a performance review and Crowley warns him that it isn’t all shiny – too much Vicki Nelson, too many weird cases, too many cases unsolved and shelved. Which complicates things because Vicki’s on the phone asking for a favour – tracking down an accident report about the last time Lee and his wife died (in a car accident). Celluci is also not moved by “love at first sight”, he has a full stack of case files on “love at first sight.” Henry has his own appointment – meeting with someone called Augustus about a move of some kind.

Looking at the accident report they get a different story from Lee’s memories – he was predeceased by his wife (Alice at the time) and he was survived by Jeff – a younger brother. Going to talk to Jeff they find out that Alice died in the accident but John (as Lee was then) was kept alive in hospital. Jeff didn’t want to pull the plug – and kept him alive for 10 years in a coma. This causes Lee to protest that he should have been allowed to die, causing Jeff to slam the door on them.

To Dr. Mohadevan, the awesome pathologist, with the report of the accident. It seems there was some discrepancies, the ambulance arrived quickly but didn’t leave that way since the paramedics had a fight. It’s hard to see more since the police report is a clear example of arse covering. Dr. Mohadevan also finds that Alice had haemophilia – which is exceptionally rare in women. Dr. Mohadevan points out there are only 3 in all Toronto.

Which results in taking Lee to see Helen Underhill, his long lost reincarnated love. And her husband. To which Lee explodes again.

Vicki goes to talk to Henry to encourage him to convince Lee to drop it – but the old romantic is all for true love (to which Vicki responds with the line of the night: “The 80s called, they want their lyrics back”) and thinks Vicki’s too eager to let it drop. She protests that Helen is married and you don’t just try to break up someone’s marriage. He says that Lee came back for the dead for love, there’s no force more powerful than that kind of longing – Vicki says that kind of longing will get you an ankle bracelet and a restraining order (she’s on a roll). Vicki also notices Henry has tickets to Vancouver – but when she asks about it Henry distracts her by saying he doesn’t understand her client.

The next day, Vicki has been doing some research – it seems Helen has been researching reincarnation and past lives. And she sends flowers to John Smith’s grave on the anniversary of the car accident (Lee’s previous incarnation). Vicki goes to see Jeff again and finds out Helen came to see him about John and that she knew things about Alice no-one else could have known.

They go back to Helen’s house and find Lee ranting in the garden about their past together. Helen eventually comes out and asks why he couldn’t stay away – and kisses him (uh, the kid’s 15. That’s not skeevy at all…). She tells Lee he’s too late and should stay away. Vicki tells Lee she said no – and he leaves with Coreen. While Vicki goes back to her office with Helen (brilliant line of the night #3 “Are you sure this is decaff?” “Real coffee would take this out behind the shed and beat it until it turned to tea.”).  She’s pregnant (which is extremely dangerous for a haemophiliac) and Barton, her husband, is safe and stable and gives her the security she needs (the kind of man who gives you socks for your anniversary – line #4!).  She’s followed her heart for a dozen lifetimes of rebellion and now she has security – and she does love Barton. And Vicki reflects on her own confusing love life.

Blood Ties, Season 2, Episode 8: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

 Vicki is paying a visit to a local prison where there’s a man, Charles, inside for killing a woman, cutting off her head and hiding it. Charles confessed. He has a problem – he’s psychic and, at the time, he couldn’t tell the difference between his own thoughts, the voice in his head, and that of the actual killer. Now he can tell the difference because the voice has started again, and the real killer has already picked a victim. Of course, this is a hard sell to the police, but Vicki deals in weird all the time, it even says so on her advert.

She takes this to Celluci who is sceptical. I was close to screaming about his constant, unreasonable scepticism, but this time he makes some sense. While he believes in the mystical badness, there are plenty of normal reasons why the killings could start up again – including a copy cat killer that is being manipulated by Charles from prison.

Vicki isn’t convinced and reviews all her old notes since, surprise, she was the one who put him in prison. Time for some flashbacks to the days when Vicki and Celluci flirted.

Time to call in Henry for his input. He’s still not best pleased with Vicki after last week, but the whole rift between them doesn’t seem to be nearly as bad. At very least he’s watching Vicki in case she has any black magic side effects. Henry does spot a wooded area Vicki mentioned repeatedly in her notes so it’s time for a road trip.

When Vicki arrives, they find a crime scene and Celluci. She asks details from Celluci and if she’s right and Celluci pulls out a whole lot of arsey behaviour and gives her a lecture on her always expecting to get what she wants. Now, I’m fine with keeping Vicki from the crime scene because she’s a civilian, I’m even fine with him not sharing details with her (though he does), but doing either because Celluci’s in some kind of snit from last week and/or because Vicki’s right? Petulance isn’t a good look on the man. Vicki did bring Henry, though, so while Celluci was sticking his bottom lip out and pouting, the vampire has snuck in for a look at the decapitated body.

Vicki goes to Dr. Mohadevan and I’m amused that no-one has tried to silence the doctor, because that never works. The awesome pathologist, in between being vexed by annoying relatives of missing people trying to find out who the body is, tells Vicki that the similarities between this body and the previous murders are “striking.” Just as Celluci arrives so Vicki and Celluci can snipe some more. Celluci insists it’s a copy cat and the crime scene photos were leaked on the net, hence the similarities and Vicki that it’s definitely the psychic theory. I kind of want to slap them both and am desperately clinging to hope that Mohadevan does. Alas, she does not – but she does throw them out of her mortuary.

Blood Ties, Season 2, Episode 7: Unwrapped

Some enterprising thieves have hit a truck full of artefacts heading to a museum. In particular, they’re after the Incan mummy which they’re convinced will have lots of gold on it. They do find some gold – at which point the Mummy wakes up and drains one of them to a skeletal husk. So they’re probably not going to be spending it

Vicki and Henry have another problem – Henry has been having vivid nightmares which worry him considerably, despite Vicki’s mockery. Vampires, being undead, don’t dream – they lie like the dead while the sun is up. What does worry Henry is that the only way a vampire can die, other than being killed, is suicide – and several vampires do just that. He worries that the dreams may be a sign of his own self-immolation. Especially since he’s dreaming about the sun shining.

Coreen assures him that it’s a good omen to see sunlight in your dreams – it means all kinds of wonderful things, though Henry points out that he is a vampire and the sun is generally rather less wonderful to them. All Henry can do is describe a figure in his dream – by his clothes he was an Incan. And he’s warning Henry off.

Cellucci and Kate (wow Kate, they let you out of the plot box? Did they put Dave back in? I’m beginning to think these 2 may be the same person, or the show doesn’t particularly care which POC side kick they dredge up) are investigating the death at the museum. Except Kate thinks the body is a mummy since it’s so dessicated and the mummy is out of its sarcophagus (if it looks like the mummy, then why was it called in as murder?) but Celluci sees the spider web tattoo on the corpse’s neck and wants forensics to look.

The Incan mummy and his new little servant (Wendell. No, really. At least he’s got a good reason for his life of crime) who he spared have gone on a little soul eating spree – but he wants something special – the life of a nightwalker, another immortal, will give him ultimate power. He also did something unpleasant to the golden amulet that imprisoned him by spilling Wendell’s blood on it.

Celluci, having finally dealt with his doubting issues, has decided to drop his case in with Vicki – thousand year old corpse with 10 year old tattoo and a missing Incan mummy, which Vicki connects to Henry’s dreams not being that oblivious. So it’s find out who the mummy is, why he’s back and what he wants. Vicki follows up looking into the gang that uses the spider web tattoo.

She does her illicit checking and finds the identity of the dead guy – but not much else so hands the name to Celluci in the hope he can get his phone records. Coreen, who has one hell of a research library, of course knows the identity of the mummy – Pacha Kamaq, an Incan priest who worshipped Supay, the god of death and lead a cult to (unsuccessfully) try and take over back in ye olden times. Really, that whole building is Coreen’s library and I want to know what her indexing system is because 2 days she can find out anything.

Because Pacha Kamaq was buddy buddy with the god of death, he couldn’t be executed. So they used the amulet to bind his aya and bury him alive instead. They conclude that the newly awakened Pacha Kamaq isn’t a happy fun guy and needs to be stopped – and from Henry’s dreams they know he’s aimed at the vampire.

Blood Ties, Season 2, Episode 6: Drawn and Quartered

 Henry makes an awesome look out with his senses while Vicki is breaking and entering and planting bugs. But less so when he distracts Vicki by inviting her to one of his art shows – an actual date. They are going on an actual date – time for Vicki’s happy shocked face.

Of course there’s a complication. The gallery owner, Jude, is trying to set up – we see an ominous picture with a hanged man in it and then something unseen leaps on him. The next day, Henry tells Vicki that the owner has gone missing which rather puts a crimp in their plans. And he’s brought a friend, Mia, an artis t and Jude’s girlfriend, to help deal with the situation (we’re also pointed towards Mia’s tattoo in a not-too-subtle manner so I’m sure it’ll be relevant at some point).

Mia is rather flaky for Vicki, vague and not very pleasant Vicki and her don’t get along – and it seems Jude is inclined to these tantrums and disappearing as well – but not usually before a show. Vicki promises to look for him but Mia is less than appreciative.

This leads to Vicki and Coreen going to the art gallery to mingle and investigate. Vicki finds the picture that Henry is selling is both in high demand and modelled after her – as one of the pretentious patrons of the gallery tells her (Angus), who also tells her that Jude and Mia’s relationship is rocky and ending.

Meanwhile, Coreen is fascinated by the creeping painting of the house with the hanged man – much to the artist’s (Tyrone) joy. Henry arrives to marvel at Vicki wearing a dress (and gooshily compliment her) and I marvel that Vicki doesn’t comment on the fact his trousers come with a sequinned groin. Trying too hard Henry, really, trying too hard. They snark back and forth a little. Coreen (in between gushing about her new artist friend) and Vicki both dish the dirt on the not-very-pleasant Mia while Henry gets snippy defending her and on another painting Vicki spots Mia’s tattoo on a painting (yes we’re really drawing attention to it).

And Celluci has found Jude’s body – disturbingly posed in a chair, outside. To the police station and the morgue (yes, Celluci allows Vicki and Henry to come with, no he has no reason to, but he has for 2 seasons it’s not going to change. I assume Toronto just has revolving doors on the morgue) where Henry takes issue with Celluci questioning Mia as a suspect – and asks Vicki to prove Mia innocent. Vicki promises to find the killer – all she’ll do. When the menfolk have finished snarling at each other, Dr. Mohadevan gives Vicki the real info – Jude died of drowning in oil paint – only it wasn’t forced down his throat and there’s no sign of pain in his mouth – just his lungs. Which is impossible – which is always fun to the awesome Dr. Mohadevan.

Blood Ties, Season 2, Episode 5: The Devil You Know

After the death on his door step last week, Henry is doing a role call of all the vampires he can think of in the city – to see if he really does have Christina on his doorstep. And Vicki arrives, of course, irritated that he’s trying to freeze her out. She’s irritated he went to Celluci and not her, angry that he’s pushing her out and demands he acknowledge it’s Christina moving in on his territory – the vampire who made him. Henry is far from responsive.

And there’s another body, 2 in fact – which Celluci blames on Henry. He’s convinced it’s Christina and demands Henry sorts it out.  Henry, though is both angry that Vicki told Celluci and convinced it’s not Christina because the death is too public, too blatant to be a vampire, certainly one of Christina’s age. 600 year old vampires don’t get that way by being so open. He leaves, annoyed that  Celluci is so fixed on Christina they’ve dismissed other options.

Henry takes a brooch from the crime scene and goes hunting – smelling another vampire he shouts dramatically at it and has a Christina flashback

At the same time, Vicki and Celluci are eating Chinese, discussing vampire territorialism and who Christina is (yes, it’s a well done info dump) – and realising that Henry took the brooch. Now they have to question whether they can trust him.

And to add fuel to that fire, Henry returns to his home to find Christina in his bed. Vampire hormones go, lots of snarling follows and recriminations about the past (Henry says he “loved” her past tense and they mention a time she nearly killed him for encroaching in her territory) and finally we reach the dead models – which Christina says were killed by Alexander, another vampire. A vampire who has been hunting Christina and she brought him to Toronto to involve Henry.

Henry is, unsurprisingly, not best pleased but insists Christina speak to Celluci about the model murders to at least take some of the heat of Henry. His territory, his rules. She leaves when it’s over and he grants her territory she may hunt in.

Henry calls Vicki to explain everything – including his instincts and trust for Christina, the instinct to hunt, fight and love – but the conversation is interrupted by Christina arriving at Vicki’s. She’s arrived to be all pally and friendly so they can be strong women together. Hah, no, course not. She talks about Vicki’s relationship with Henry and how Vicki can’t possibly understand him blah blah, strong women jealous over same men, blah, Vicki cannot possibly like another woman who isn’t subservient, blah, blah.  

Get some pictures of Alexander off Coreen (who lampshade’s Vicki’s jealousy – this isn’t a show for subtlty) Time to go to the morgue and fill in Celluci. Mohadevan the awesome gives them the usual vampire schtick – drained of blood etc etc, but the marks on the bodies show hesitation – incompetence, inexperience which you certainly wouldn’t expect from Christina. We also run into Dave! Remember Dave? I almost didn’t – he was Celluci’s token Black sidekick for odd flashes of season 1.

Blood Ties, Season 2, Episode 4: Bugged

At a goth club there seems to be a new drug going round – Sweet Venom – and, like many drugs, it’s not healthy, but they don’t normally  call cockroaches to appear.

This concerns Lexia, the owner of the club who fears that it’ll  give the powers that be another excuse to oust her – so she goes to Vicki who, rather predictably, is less than amused and gracious about the whole goth scene, affectations and appearance. But Coreen is there – a friend of Lexia and Lexia has helped her when she needed to poke Vicki for judging her based on her appearance. And since it involves her subculture, Coreen wants to be part of the investigation, despite the risks (as Vicki points out, every investigation involves the supernatural since she got her pentagram tattoos). I don’t know if Coreen’s extreme eagerness is a plus or not, she reminds me of a puppy.

Dr. Mohadevan examines the body – and it’s been consumed by insects despite the very short period of death and gone into severe allergic reaction, very unpleasant indeed. Naturally this calls for a trip to the club for all the standard questions that don’t really reveal much, though the fact they keep mentioning absinthe looks like a particularly lamp-shaded clue. Though Vicki does hit quickly on the possibility of drugs and it’s quickly clear that Coreen’s closeness to the culture and Lexia is going to be a problem for her.

Meanwhile someone has delivered some take away to Henry – but forgot that he prefers his women alive and not dead and propped on his front door. He decides to lie about it to Vicki and go to Celluci for help and reporting that she’s dead (a fashion model). No, it doesn’t make sense to me either. Henry believes his little delivery means there’s another vampire in the city which, given their territorial nature, is a bad thing. This is a take-over bid by a rival vampire - and a vampire that’s willing to kill people making Henry the better choice to have around.

The body ends up in the morgue, the awesome Dr. Mohadevan takes a look – and Vicki arrives for her own investigation. Naturally, being a professional, experienced and capable police detective, Celluci is completely and utterly unable to lie with a straight face and Vicki quickly finds out something’s up – so she goes to see Henry about it. To protect Vicki (ugh) he gives her a complete brush off.

Vicki lays down the truth to Coreen – whether it’s insect summoning black magic or a more mundane drug, something is happening at the club, even if Coreen doesn’t want to face it, so it’s time for another little field trip. At the club, Vicki asks Lexia if she sells drugs who, amazingly, says no (because if she was, she would totally say yes, right?) Vicki also doesn’t seem to entertain the possibility that someone could sell drugs at a club without being the owner. Case in point, Winter, the bar tender, is passing another vial on to another guy – who drops dead among lots of cockroaches in the alley. And Vicki finds the body (with Coreen claiming one of the insects) – interrupting Coreen’s lecture about judging on appearances.

Blood Ties, Season 2, Episode 3: 5:55

A simple retrieval of an object for Vicki’s client – perhaps the worst businessman ever – from a seedy motel when Henry’s vampire senses start tingling. Lo, there is evil about, Vicki’s pentagrams start glowing, doors slam, maids drop trays and… big dark shadows come racing at them.

And Vicki wakes up at 5:55 (this is relevant or it wouldn’t be the title of the episode. Oh and no way that was a dream, just saying). She recounts this to Coreen, including that she died at the end of it. Then a new client, Jacob Keller, arrives and it’s the awful businessman who sends objects to complete strangers (actually, to complete stranger’s mailboxes) on the promise they’ll send him money back, from her dream. He recounts what he wants her to do – find this object (in the possession of a Benoit), just like in the dream.

Vicki starts with her investigating to find the person who owes Jacob money, or the object at least (with the most awful Southern-US accent I’ve heard outside of True Blood). At least Henry mocks her for it.

Unfortunately, when she arrives at the Benoit’s flat, he’s dead and it’s a crime scene, with Celluci and Kate already processing it. Time for some office gossip and relationship drama before Vicki tells her client that the man’s dead and his Roman glass has been stolen – he is rather perturbed since he owes people money for retrieving it and needs either payment or the glass back (yes, gape at this guy folks, he went into debt to acquire an object that he then “sold” to a complete stranger, sight unseen, sending the object to an untraceable PO Box).

Vicki has a clue where the bowl could be sold – from her dream; which is where she leads them all, pretending she saw an appointment in his flat (this would be the dream that ends up with her dying). Of course, she takes time to discuss her jealousy (hypothetical) with Henry who has just the right amount of arrogant sexy swagger about him. Back to the plot and away from the flirting – she begins to replay her dream. This time she manages to see a guy who they try to restrain, but are distracted by Keller – and he opens a box (pandora’s?) and all the dark shadows come out again…

..And Vicki wakes up in her office at 5:55. And this is when I headdesk. Yes it’s a Groundhog day plot line. Honestly, writers, this plotline was original exactly once, after that it became a sad, cheap way for you to make 10 minutes of plot cover the whole damn episode/film/whatever. Yes, I’m not a fan.

Thankfully, this convoluted groundhog day plot line is being played by Vicki Nelson – and she doesn’t tolerate such bullshit. When Keller arrives in her office this time she grabs him by his coat, slams him against a wall and demands an explanation. She rushes to try and save Benoit, but arrives too late – a sneaky janitor leaves the scene and Benoit dies after gasping “janit-“. (It’s such subtlety which impresses me about this show). Crime scene means Celluci arrives and Vicki spends her time on this third time round to talk about him and Kate – ugh, it was bad the first time.

She even feels the need to have the same conversation with Henry again while heading to the box in the motel. And this time they leave the box unattended AGAIN, and Keller opens it.

Rewind, replay. 5:55 in the office again. Yadda yadda, blah blah – they visit Benoit and catch him alive and drag him back to her office with Keller. Leaving them under vampire guard, she arranges to go to the motel with Celluci – who, of course, plays the sceptic (AAARGH what does it take to make this man believe in the supernatural?!). Only, this time Darrel Foreman, the man supposed to be selling the box is dead, murdered. They run to catch the murderous fake Janitor, get him and the box which Vicki then opens… Vicki opened it. What, was there not enough discussion about Celluci’s tie this time round?!

People of Colour as Extras do not Equal Inclusion

Here’s an interesting phenomenon, I think there’s a population of POC mole people in the world, or at least on TV.

For example, on the Secret Circle there were only 3 POC (including 2 people who managed to make a brief appearance for 2 episodes), who actually spoke. But when they’re at school, when there are crowds of people in the corridors - suddenly there are several POC! Yes, the POC mole people came out from the corners and the shadows to show their face for Essential Inclusivity Crowd Scene and then, when there’s actually speaking lines going around, they fade back into their secret lairs. I actually expect the white cast to look around in shock “where did these guys come from?!”  

One of the most obvious examples was the season three premiere, “Happy Birthday Elena.”  This episode stood out not because something spectacular happened in the plot, but because they managed to scare up so many people of colour for Elena’s birthday party. Where did they come from? I thought Black people were only for the purposes of snacking or to do magic when Elena needs a favour.  

On Falling Skies, the representation of people of colour is well below population demographics, which would lead one to believe that for some reason, the aliens find us to be extra tasty; that is until it’s time to show a crowd scene and all of the people of colour come out of hiding to wave at the camera, before being saved by the ever-so-heroic white knight Tom.

Crowd scenes are a major time for the POC mole-people to show up to hit those essential inclusion moments - and how many times do we see this? An all white cast, but the minute we’ve got a crowd of people going in front of the cameras, the POC mole people emerge! And yea the casting director pats himself on the back, because a face in the crowd with a bit more melanin and lo, inclusion is achieved!

Who do they think is actually falling for that? If the best you can do for inclusion appears in the credits as “man crossing road #3” then you do not have inclusion.

Then you have what we like to call recurring tokens. Members of the protagonist team who are POC, but extremely tertiary (they’re not even side-kicks) to the other cast members. The absolute best example of that is of course T-Dog from The Walking Dead.  First, we have to deal with the fact that though we have been promised Tyrese would make an appearance, the ineffectual T-Dog (could they have chosen a more uncool 90’s name?)  is the only representation of Black masculinity.  We have been given a reason to invest in every other character whereas for T-Dog, we have learned that he is handy to have around as a driver if you are running from zombies, or if you need a big heavy box moved.  More often than not an entire episode can go by without seeing him and when he does appear, chances are he does not have a single line of dialogue.

But he’s hardly the only one. Melissa on The Secret Circle, is virtually an afterthought. On Bedlam season 1 we had Molly floating around everyone else’s life. In Falling Skies, despite being part of the team since the very beginning and one of their most skilled and experienced scouts, Dai still takes a secondary role to the teenaged Hal and the new recruit Maggie. He’s always around in the background, especially on any dangerous scouting missions, but most episodes he doesn’t even have a speaking role. These characters aspire to become side-kicks, they’re hangers on who are occasionally useful, but their main role is to show a face that isn’t white to the cameras.

Another useful POC token to throw in is the external support staff. They probably won’t show up every episode and when they do, it’s only briefly for their expertise - they’re not involved in the main storylines, they won’t have any storylines of their own, they usually won’t have any real character development - but they’re there to assist the main (white) protagonist’s story.

Blood Ties: Season 2, Episode 2 Wild Blood

In an interesting beginning, Vicki and Henry are discussing the pros and cons of vampirism – the power it gives, the amazing senses; things Vicki would love to experience. But it comes with costs – sunlight, loss of friends and family and, of course, loss of Henry since vampire territorial nature prevents them from coexisting in the same city.

And the case of the week a woman, a cat burglar, robs a man’s house. The man is clearly a hunter with a like of taxidermy given the many many heads stuffed on the walls – including head of a black panther of some kind which attracts her attention. But not nearly so much as him coming home, grabbing a gun – then being mauled to death by, what sounds like, a big cat. She fills her bags and then leaves. The dots seem pretty clear so far.

Since Melville, the dead man, was a friend of the mayor’s there’s rather a lot of pressure for the police to solve this case – in particular there is a lot of pressure on Celluci put there by Crowley, his boss (and she who dislikes Vicki because, of course, a strong female character must be universally hated by at least 75% of all other women in the world, and 100% of other strong female characters). And they have a suspect – Felicia, the thief, who was seen in the area at the time of death and ran from police. The problem is that Melville was mauled by claws, consistent with a big cat and it’s unlikely Felicia would have been able to rip off his head and place it on the table (nice touch, I have to say). Celluci excellently points out how concerned his boss is because the victim was prominent – it’s all about placating the press, not justice.

Of course, a lot of this is undermined when Celluci declares to the doubting Kate that he knows Felicia is guilty (that would be those magical gut reactions).  Time for some questioning of Felicia and her story is not so much full of holes as one big hole. During Celluci’s menacing little interrogation (where are the lawyers?) Felicia’s eyes glow.

Celluci, of course, knows who to call with spooky stuff – Vicki and Henry. Except he’s been playing awkward sceptic for the last season so both of them get to poke and needle him about him finally asking them for help – which is truly glorious to watch. Oh yes yes it is.

Celluci and Kate’s questioning doesn’t get much further except Felicia has pulled out some extra levels of creepy – and dropped hints about how very wrong and inhuman it is to take someone’s head. Lots of verbal back and forth, including references to keeping a big cat as a pet – which brings a tear to Felicia’s eye – but no clues from her.

Blood Ties Season 2, Episode 1: D.O.A

Vicki starts the new season with a new client. Paul Deeds, an undercover cop who wants her help in a murder investigation since she has a reputation for handling odd cases. Whose murder? Why that would be his – he says as he walks through the door.

I love how the interact within 5 seconds – he’s a ghost but she’s mocking him for his marital problems. Rarely do actors have that kind of instant chemistry. I also love how they poke fun at that classic ghost depiction – how can he not pick things up but he can still sit down?

Back to investigating, Deeds doesn’t know how he died nor does he know where his body is, but he does know that he was undercover in a bike gang and his supervisor was Fry – but for some reason he can’t remember the last time he check in with him. Coreen, alas, cannot see him – but is excited about the whole thing (of course she is) and not skeeved about the fact the ghost proves his existence by spotting her red thong and passing the info onto Vicki (I was skeeved, thank you).

Vicki has 2 methods of dealing with a mystery – ask Henry for help or ask Celluci for help (and yes, I am tired of that) and this time it’s Celluci’s turn, to go ask the nice undercover police people to spill all their information to someone not involved in their case. Because that’s going to go down well. She tells Celluci all she knows (he has his obligatory sceptic moment, but at least it only lasts a couple of seconds); makes it clear he didn’t like Paul “dirty” Deeds since he has a reputation of securing his convictions “no matter what” (that sounds ominous. Even worse on a detective programme, since most TV detectives wouldn’t know proper law and procedure if you beat them about the face with a legal ethics book). But he agrees to speak to the undercover guys who are sure to be forthcoming.

Next step in the investigation is to talk to Henry (yes, really. This hereby concludes Vicki’s investigative skills) learning not much except that Henry is suspicious and also can’t see Deeds. But Deeds does remember the biker bar he was last in before he died, one of Henry’s hunting grounds. Henry and Coreen do some research but we largely see Henry’s worry – sure it looks like Deed’s ghost, but there are plenty of creatures

Blood Ties Season 1, Episode 12: Norman.

Vicki and Henry are watching old vampire films, flirting (as ever) and discussing the nature of vampires feeding and the different ways of doing it – and how it all feels different. Vicki listens then rapidly derails the near-sex talk much to Henry’s frustration.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, a man cuts himself, the blood falls on his wooden floor that opens a pentacle on the floor, from which emerges a demon – and the last occupant of the house, who promptly cuts the human’s throat. See, this is why houses should have wall-to-wall carpeting. It’s Norman, the man who was pulled into the demon dimension in the first episode.

Vicki, at her office is discussing her mundane work, but her pentacle marks are burning. She wants to remove them but Coreen reminds her that they’re powerful and have helped her before – Vicki decides to avoid the issue (an allusion to her and Henry as well) and a Client, Camille Stone arrives to break up the conversation. She is a psychic and that she had a dream in which a being of pure evil attacked and killed Vicki. Something was summoned from a pentagram, using a book and a chalice. Vicki believes her – having seen demonic summoning before – and asks her to contact Vicki if she has any more visions.  The knife, book and chalice were all involved in the previous summoning and Vicki thought Henry had destroyed them. I’m glad that Vicki, after all she’s seen, doesn’t play sceptic, that’s already annoying when Celluci does it.

Vicki goes to see Henry but it’s not a good time – Henry has company. There follows some snark with Vicki poking his lechery which he responds with “a man has to eat”, “you don’t have to play with your food.” It’s a good snark exchange but  it is rather dehumanising – but then, being the prey of a vampire is dehumanising. Turns out Henry has separated the summoning items but not destroyed them – Vicki wants them destroyed the next night.

And we see that, surprise surprise, the psychic is actually the demon in disguise – using Vicki and Henry to gather the objects together and take them from their safe spaces and hiding spots.

Celluci has the case of the man who had his throat cut – and since Dave (his normal token POC sidekick) is away (not that you’d notice) he has a new one – Kate (who also has a crush on him). Speaking to the awesome Dr. Mohadevan they do link this dead body to the blood drained bodies they had waaay back in episode one. We also see that Kate is capable and observant – maybe due to be more than just a silent partner.

Time for a consultation and notes sharing between Celluci and Vicki where they bring each other up to date. Celluci wants Vicki to run but she doesn’t think you can from demons. Celluci and Kate also discuss the matter and Kate accurately links the case to Vicki and the weird cases she has been taking since becoming a private detective – I hope this develops as suspicion based on experience and knowledge rather than jealousy.

Time for magical item treasure hunting! The chalice is in the hands of s surly, demon fighting antique dealer, Maurice (who is British, of course) who is upset because Henry told him not to tell anyone where it was, even him. He has hidden the Chalice under a concealing spell – no-one knows where it is, including him. He says it’s safe as it is.  They leave - and in comes the demon wearing a Vicki disguise. There’s  a snag with spells – when the caster dies their magic dies with them, which means killing Maurice will reveal the chalice. Slice n’ dice time.

Blood Ties: Season 1, Episode 11: Post Partum

 

So, Coreen wants an advance (which Viki won’t give) which results in lots of passive aggressive stomping for the episode.

And we have a woman in a pool describing how she wants to be a mother until dark murky stuff is dropped in the water. Yes, it’s going to be a creepy supernatural pregnancy episode – it’s a trope that rises over and over again. This becomes Vicki’s case when the father turns up and describes how his wife went from talking to the foetus to conversing with it. Which lead to her being checked into the clinic full time – and he can no longer get in touch with her. She’s there of her own free will, but he thinks she’s fallen into the grip of a fertility clinic cult.

So Vicki needs to go undercover and she can’t take Henry to pose as her husband because of his whole combusting in daylight thing. So she goes to see Celluci, causing his colleague to choke on her coffee with her novelly worded request. He also shows (it contains the word “holistic” this is proof that they are devious. No-one honestly uses the words “holistic” or “synergy” it’s known). Mike seems very disturbed at the idea of Vicki being lovey and sweet – which amuses me immensely

Undercover they go and check Vicki into the clinic for a month. Which is already suspicious considering how quickly and easily they took them as patients. This involves lots of amusing awkwardness of course. Vicki gets to meet one of her fellow cultists who is so perky I’m amazed Vicki doesn’t just strangle her. She also learns that there are “Alpha Mommies” who spend all their time alone! And isn’t that just perky and super! I can’t wait for Vicki to strangle these people.

Meanwhile Coreen and Henry are interviewing previous clients (and Coreen trying to get Henry to buy her blood) of the clinic who seem fine to meet in the middle of the night. His wife has since died in an accident and it’s just him and his demo- err, child (nah, let’s be honest here, it’s a demon-child. This doesn’t like we’re going to have much of a twist here). Henry leaves quickly because he can smell blood on the demon-child that is not his. Pets are apparently missing all over the neighbourhood.

Coreen goes to check other people who went to the clinic but many won’t talk to her. Re-interviewing the father of the demon-child and finds a picture of another baby born in the clinic which looks identical to Travis (the Demon-child) when he was born (I think, anyway. Babies don’t look all that different to me anyway). And his father describes how cold and inhuman the boy became.

Blood Ties, Season 1, Episode 10: Necrodrome

Let’s start with more fun flirting between Henry and Vicki always a good beginning. Especially since they’re tracking down a nice, mundane cheating husband which is so often the bread and butter work of a private detective. Not sure why Vicki has brought Henry along, but it’s become the norm now.

And the case of the week – we’re in an odd funeral home were 2 odd men are doing some very odd things to a dead body. Even more oddly, an odd figure in an odd mask puts something on the corpse’s mouth which makes said body, oddly, move around. How very odd.

Mr. Olienov, runs a funeral home in which he has to explain to a woman why her nearest and dearest’s body is not actually around for her to bury. She’s rather upset, as one can imagine as corpses are not normally mislaid. He has hired Vicki to find the body (a man called Diesel – a boxing champion) at the recommendation of the awesome Dr. Mohadevan, the pathologist. Because she knows Vicki can handle the freaky cases – including the security camera which shows a strange masked man’s oddness and the moving corpse which would be hard to show to the police.

Time to show the video to Henry and some more intense flirting – he is good at it, I’ll give him that. Yes yes he is. Anyway Henry, seeing a corpse get up next to a man in an Egyptian mask declares it to be Egyptian Necromancy. Well, he’s a font of knowledge this guy. Go back to flirting Henry. Vicki concludes that the man must have known his way around the funeral home since he avoided the cameras, picked the right doors etc

Time to speak to someone who knows Olienov – the awesome pathologist Dr. Mohadevan! And as she does, she makes the fantastic and amazing sound mundane. And how a resurrection (or Easter Weekend) is just a very annoying thing to happen in a funeral home. She’s very passé about it, in her work they see so many things that are strange (as we’ve seen in past episodes). Henry as one of the undead also gets a little tetchy about the use of the words “reanimated” and “resurrected” interchangeably. Vampires are resurrected – they have life and free will. The reanimated are puppets in the hands of their controllers.

At the funeral home again Vicki meets the son of Mr. Olienov who hits a solid 100 on the creepy scale. She goes to interview Diesel’s wife, Darlene, who fills Vicki in on his glowing boxing career and how it ended with an overly harsh penalty of a 10 year ban for betting on himself. Which leaves Vicki the oh-so-fun task of explaining the supernatural to Celluci again. He doesn’t play sceptic at least, but he does play “too busy to care”.  Am I supposed to like this character again?

Back to Henry for more flirting and more exposition of Egyptian belief in the afterlife, which is nicely dropped in and shows some decent research. I do appreciate that about this series, they do try to include some research into mythology.

Move on to the baddies at the Necrodrome. Yes a fighting ring where reanimated dead are made to fight each other – until one, well, dies.

Blood Ties, Season 1, Episode 9: Stone Cold

Vicki and Celluci meet jogging and discussing the ramifications of last episode. It seems that things are tense but Vicki is confident things will be fine between them. As an added bonus, she reassures Celluci they’ll be fine. Which doesn’t please me.  But more on that later.

Anyway, back to the plot – and a young couple are busy getting down to business, clothes come off and then she grows snakes and he turns to stone. Surprise gorgon! That’s got to put you off. Almost as much as the awful special effects.

The man’s (Brendan) modelling manager comes to Vicki to ask her to find him because she’s all he has in the world. Oh and he owes her $6,000. Celluci has recommended the case – which cases Coreen to suddenly start cheerleading for Celluci (and here was me thinking she was Team Henry) and acting like Vicki is unreasonable for not instantly forgiving him

Time for Vicki to do what she always does when she has a case – go see Henry. Yes I’ve ranted about this before as well – it’s a simple missing person’s case, Vicki, you’re a detective, you’re not even going to try and investigate before dragging the vampire in? This makes Vicki look so incapable and weak as detective that she can’t even begin to pursue a case without begging help from a vampire. How did she manage before Henry came along?

On to the nightclub where the man disappeared to pick up leads, speak to bar staff and eventually lead to the club owner (the gorgon), Elena who knows nothing, remembers nothing and has never had any trouble ever. Which is, of course, very very suspicious. In particular Henry heard her heartbeat race showing a lie and Vicki catches on that Elena mentioned “sexual predators” before she did –pointing to what she was thinking. Good detective work, I like it. Time for more Vicki and Henry flirting

Back to Coreen to check a website that Henry heard about in the club – a website where men post pictures of the women they’ve slept with. Yes, it’s classy. Thankfully Vicki treats it accordingly. But open for the women from Brendan’s profile has the club owner’s distinctive tattoo.

Celluci follows up to the same club asking questions because it has suddenly become a police matter, and starts flirting with Elena

Knowing she lied, Vicki and Henry go to her house – planning to enter unofficially (also known as breaking and entering). Out come the lock picks (or Henry entering through an upstairs window) and Henry hears a far-too-slow heart beat inside (wait, his hearing is that strong?) And inside they find a statue of Brendan – with the too slow heartbeat. Vicki and Henry rush out with the statue (and an acknowledgement and reminder of Vicki’s disability, at last) just as Celluci and the club owner bring the flirting home.

Coreen, Vicki and Henry all gather at Vicki’s office to discuss the stoned Brendan – and Coreen the very well read comes up with basilisk or gorgon. Vicki suspects Elena, but Henry advocates more caution. There is also much teasing of Vicki over Celluci going to Elena’s house. For some reason Vicki wastes her time taking this to Celluci who, obviously, ignores everything she says as usual and is snippy because she’s not all fuzzy and warm to him and wonders why they don’t just end everything. Y’know, Mike, I thought exactly the same thing myself. Why does Vicki put up with you?

In frustration and with characteristic courage and recklessness but, I have to say, uncharacteristic spunkiness, Vicki taunts Elena the gorgon to try and draw her out. And it works – a masked man turns up at Vicki’s office to smash the statue. She smacks him around really nicely but one blow puts her down. This is followed by reasonable depression and a really powerful conversation between her and Henry about love, youth and connection. Speaking of powerful scenes – Vicki buries the statue fragments that are all that is left of Brendan.

Blood Ties, Season 1, Episode 8: Heart of Fire

Last week Celluci’s jealousy (coupled with Henry’s obtuse need to be as mysterious and non-communicative as possible) lead to Henry getting the ugly sun brooch to drain his powers and leave him vulnerable to Javier the vampire hunter.

Vicki is not pleased by this turn of events. No, no she is not and makes her displeasure very well known with judicious application of knuckles to jaw. Celluci seems to think that working with vigilante priests is part of his job – wow, the job description of a police officer just got way wider. They agree to work together because Vicki wants Henry back and Celluci wants Javier Mendosa – why? In what way has Javier acted differently to what Celluci expected?

Henry is a chained up for the pleasure of Javier, who is quoting the trippier parts of Revelations. Henry spends a lot of time rather pointlessly flailing in his chains and trying to bite Javier from a distance of several feet. We also get some wonderful flashbacks about the last time Henry was held captive by the Catholic Church.  We also see that it was the same priest in both cases – making Javier over 400 years old.

Javier drains his blood and offers him a rat to eat – which Henry rejects out of mercy. There follows classic inquisition techniques of torture for confession and showing henry video of Delphine, one of his vampire children who Javier also tortured into confession. This goes on in extremely dramatic fashion – it’s very thematic but it’s also very melodramatic. In the past eh escapes by winning the sympathy of Mendosa’s female assistant, Maria – and praying over the rosarie to convince her he’s not evil. Then he eats her – hey, he’s hungry, snack time! But he also offers her his blood to make her a vampire. She wakes – sees Mendosa and calls him her love – and he stakes her (with a hammer as well – very realistic and traditional).

Celluci goes back to the police station for more flirting with Kate (to his cluelessness) and boss lady Crowley on the warpath (because she doesn’t like Vicki, because strong, independent tough women must hate each other, It’s a Rule). And Vicki sets Coreen on the research trail.

Police work includes harassing prostitutes for more information (there was a prostitute murdered last week as well). I dislike the harassment but I do like how the sex-worker makes it clear that she needs the money and makes their harassment clear as harassment. She takes them to an abandoned church where  Javier tried to take her to feed the last vampire he had kidnapped (Delphine)

They find Delphine, chained and starving Vicki feeds her and asks her a few questions – but then the sun comes up and Delphine burns to ash. They do find the research that Javier left behind. We also get Celluci being all sad because it was such a horrible way for Delphine to die.

More research later, including awesome pathologist, reveals a Chinese herb revered for immortality mixed with vampire blood (yes, the pathologist is awesome). And Coreen finds that the 8 rayed sun is also of Chinese origin – again for eternity (I think the mythology is played very fast and loose here). They also learn that there was a priest in the Sapnish Inquisition called Javier Mendosa as well. It’s at this point I back away from the screen in case it wants to slap me any harder with blatantly obvious clues.  With this barrage they finally come to the conclusion that Javier is using vampire blood to extend his own lifespan.

Blood Ties Season 1, Episode 7: Heart of Ice

Vicki and Celluci are doing their flirty thing, with Celluci blurring the boundaries around their relationship and Vicki giving him not too subtle “back off” vibes. And Vicki doing some actual, mundane detective work for money.

On the supernatural front, Francine, a homeless woman is attacked by night-versioned beast-like hunter under the light of the full moon.

Annie, another homeless person and a friend of Francine takes the case to Vicki. She remembers Vicki from her police days as one of the few who had any sympathy for the homeless – and with at least 4 people missing, they need sympathy.

After finding some of the dead woman’s stuff and some blood she, of course, turns to henry, hoping to use him as a bloodhound to track the blood trail into the sewer. Yes there is flirting. Vicki takes the bag they found to Celluci to try and get the police working on the case. Celluci is unwilling to devote resources to the case and deems it a low priority and a “hard sell” especially since it’s based on the witness statements of homeless people.

While not helpful on her case, he does want Vicki to look at his; Celluci and Graham are working on the murder of a sex-worker who was drained of blood with tiny holes on her neck. And a big, neon sign saying “vampire” flashing over her corpse. Yes, of course Celluci is aimed at Henry and Vicki is protecting him. The fact that Vicki has given Henry blood before also raises itself in the conversation

Henry’s tracking of the beast doesn’t find it – but does find a human who is also hunting it – and he calls it a Windigo. The man, Peter, a Native American, returns to Vicki’s office with Henry to tell them a dramatic story about the Windigo – a creature that used to be a man that eats people. He tells all of this in a rather stilted English for some reason. Coreens’ research fills in some gaps on the big hairy monstrous Winidgo

Celluci is approached by a Javier Mendoza over the dead sex-worker. He’s an officer of “canon law” and is basically hunting Henry because he’s a vampire.  He also brings a file of other supposed victims of Henry, including Delphine, a  woman he was in a relationship with in 1944 – which Celluci then takes to confront Henry with in his classic jealous style. Celluci is left with the difficult choice of handing Henry over to Mendoza or not – he doesn’t like Henry, but working with or helping a vigilante killer is a hard choice to make.

Javier presents Henry as a monster with a mass number of kills and that Vicki will be the next victim. And Javier gives him a sun pendant that will drain Henry’s life if placed on his chest. And Javier should know because, unknown to Celluci, he has already used it on Delphine – who isn’t dead, she’s a vampire (something Henry neglected to mention) and imprisoned at Javier’s mercy, left for the sun.