SGRoA: Blood Ties, S1 E2: Blood Price Part 2, Electric Boogaloo

Been a slow week around here, Snowflakes: just the usual grocery store and laundry folding. So let's jump right back in!

When we left off, Henry had taken an unconscious Vicki from the park where the latest serial killer/demon victim was. This ep picks up right there, with Henry going through Vicki's purse as she slowly comes to on his couch. He has a big ol' portrait of dear old Dad on the wall. There's a lot of exposition here, everything from Henry not being the killer to Vicki's RP to the fact that a demon is the killer, and Vicki is skeptical. It's deftly done, and nicely sets up Henry's gentle insistence and Vicki's automatic defensiveness. She demands to know why Henry's on this case, too, and he just comes right out with it: He's a vampire.

a black kitten wearing bat wings and fangs

pictured: Henry

He tries to prove his vampyness to her, but she passes it off as a trick. She won't be easy to convince - though she fears she might be more credulous than she used to be.

Mike finds Vicki's glasses at the scene. He calls her, but of course she's not answering, because Henry's convincing her to team up. He tells her to take the day and think about it, but not to give up his secret. "Who'd believe me?" she says, and heads home.

Where she finds Mike sitting at her desk. He's worried about her, he's mad she's still sticking her nose in, and he's afraid she's going to end up a victim of the "serial killer". She reacts with nothing but hostility, and Mike leaves - only to immediately get harassed by his boss, who is wildly unhappy both with the media attention on the case, and with the rumors that Vicki is involved. Mike lies and says she's not, but even if she were, she cleared almost every homicide she ever worked, so how bad would that be? Fucking very, says Mike's boss, and stalks away.

a tabby kitten with floppy ears pointed at the ground. he looks sad

man, tough material for recapping today!

Vicki shows up at Henry's, since she's definitely not giving up this case, and Celluci is not an option in like 10 different ways. Might as well work with Henry, Duke of Richmond, as she figures out when he claims the Hank 8 portrait is a "family photo". He's impressed at her history knowledge, and she says she minored in it. He writes and illustrates graphic novels, and she admires his wall of work before getting down to the nitty-gritty: telling her about demons.

Flashback Time! The dudes in robes have been the Hellfire Club, that 18th-century group of rich assholes who had nothing better to do than summon demons.

There is a lot of very bad special effects here, and I absolutely love them. The rich dudes are trying to sacrifice Henry to a demon, and the demon is so janky looking, it's amazing. They really should just have had Henry tell the story. But anyway, he knows it's the same demon because it has the same scent? or knows it's a demon at all, because of the scent? It's a little unclear, and there's a lot of Christian talk about hell and demons and corruption of the soul and the end of the world and shit. It all comes down to finding the person calling the demons, and they can do that by tracking recent thefts of luxury goods - because demons don't make riches, they can only deliver them.

So Henry tells Vicki to get on it, he has other stuff to do, and then there's a weird moment at the door when they almost kiss? but she says it'll look like she's robbing the cradle? but she's like 30 and he's clearly in his 20s? Oh and some bonus fatphobia about Queen Victoria, because of course, I forget how everything had to tell us how bad it was to be fat for a while there.

captain kathryn janeway, rolling her eyes

Coreen is going slightly insane, telling anyone and everyone that her boyfriend was killed by a vampire, and she's gonna prove it - she complains about Vicki's progress, only to go to work and tell one of the regulars the same thing, while Demon Guy - Victor? was that his name? - takes her photo with his shiny new camera.

Vicki heads to the PD to track down stolen goods. Mike isn't buying it, but she swears, no more vamp case. She's just tracking down a stolen car. He lets her get away with it.

Demon Guy's demon didn't get to drink the last girl's blood - or not enough, at any rate. Demon Guy says it's not his problem. Demon says it was a meddling vampire, but it won't be a problem again, and certainly not when the next demon gets here.

Vicki's narrowed down the Demon Guy's "purchases" to an area around the university, but Henry says it's not narrow enough, and does a spell that Vicki calls "demon GPS" and that shows them where the demon is: a park, hunting his next vic.

Vicki and Henry head down there, and since they have to walk around to find the demon, we get Henry's origin story. He actually wanted to be changed! But his kind of vamps can't share hunting grounds, so eventually their relationship ended, but it doesn't seem he regrets being a vamp at all, and HALLE-FUCKING-LUJAH!

some good fucking VAMPS!

A scream, a yell, a scuffle: they've found their demon. Henry jumps right in and fights, the victim runs away, Vicki helps a little, but Henry is wounded by the demon pretty badly. Holy crap! WE HAVE FEEDING FROM THE MAIN CHARACTER! No hesitation, no terrible speeches, no nonsense about how terrible/wonderful/bad/good/sexy it is! Just an arm, a chomp, and enough blood to get him home.

The potential vic from last night is talking to Graham and Celluci, and talks about the demon, Henry, and "the chick" - who Celluci correctly pings as Vicki. Everything is weirdly blue again, because it's daytime, and the blue filter continues as we circle back to Henry's doorman, whittling a stake at his security booth to...ward off vampire killers? Kill them? But his first stop is Henry's apartment? and he has fangs? I have no idea what's going on here, but Vicki fobs him off by pretending she has Henry in a compromising position back in the bedroom, because the sun's still up and he's dead. Well, mostly dead; he wakes as Vicki comes back into the room and since he's now healed - no weirdness about the blood drinking, no endless speeches about what it means for their rELatiONshIP, I love this show so fucking much - they can get on with the investigation.

Which takes them back to the university, since they're pretty sure it's a student who's controlling the demons. Henry knows a woman who works there, and she's gorgeous and in her 60s. She calls Vicki Henry's "new friend", but he steers her away from that deftly. She has her oars dipped in the occult goings-on, and if they give her a little time, she'll come up with a few names of kids who are doing perhaps a bit more than dabbling.

Celluci wants Vicki to come in for a lineup, since skate-kid says she was at the crime scene last night - apparently someone actually died? That wasn't clear. I'm sad he didn't get away. She's not going to go, but she does tell him that she's running down some names, and she'll keep him in the loop. Henry wants to know what the story is with Mike, but she just says she doesn't know anymore. He doesn't press - for now. But he does ask that if she finds the killer before sundown, that she won't try to take him herself. She agrees, reluctantly.

Vicki gives Mike the list she got from Professor Lady, and clues him in to the red Porsche Norman - not Victor, don't know where I got that - had stolen. Which should be helpful, as Norman is using the beautiful blue day to harass Coreen, standing by his car. He tells her he believes her about the vampires, and he says he knows who killed her boyfriend, and he can prove it to her. She just has to go to his apartment with him. She's hesitant, but only for a moment; she does, at least, call Vicki and leave a message that she's going with "this guy named Norman" to learn about the murder.

Of course, she's in the car for like point-three seconds and Norman's chloroforming her. Jesus, dude. Slow down. We've gone "slightly pressuring lie" to "tied up in my apartment while I summon a demon" in way less than 10 seconds. Good thing Vicki got the message and put it together with her list! Bad thing she didn't hear Norman coming up behind her and now she's the final sacrifice!

But! GOOD thing Vicki has left a message on Henry's voicemail, and told him the address! So Henry wakes up, grabs his grimoire, and heads out to vanquish demons. Just another Tuesday, yeah?

Norman starts the ritual and the terrible SFX demon from Flashback Time shows up; he needs Norman to kill Vicki so he can fully enter this plane, but Henry and his grimoire have shown up to scream Latin at the demon, and Vicki ruins the salt circle, and then Norman gets eaten by the demon. Kind of a disappointing climax, honestly, even with Mike showing up just as the demon was giving his parting threats, and now needs an explainer.

I'm guessing it was better in the book, but at least it wasn't too drawn out. They knew the limitations of their SFX; they reined it in. You have to respect that.

In our de-now-ment, as Michael Hobbes would say, we get Coreen hiring herself to be Vicki's assistant, and Vicki agreeing, which seems nice! Coreen seems weird, but sweet. On the sidewalk outside Vicki's office/house, she runs into Henry and says they should keep in touch, but he dips as soon as Mike pulls up, and Vicki walks away with him to get dinner, while Henry keeps mysterious watch from behind a lamppost.

AND I'M SO HYPE FOR NEXT WEEK, Y'ALL! This show is so much better than I remembered! I know the jokes are thin on the ground, but honestly, I was pretty swept up in the plot and the decent dialogue and the interesting characterization and - well, I mean, in it just being a good show! Are the special effects laughable? Yes. Is the blue filter for daylight a choice? It certainly is.

IS IT ANYWHERE AS BAD AS MOONLIGHT? fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck, no!