SGRoA: Forever Knight S03 E01: Black Buddha, Part 1

Snowflakes. I am sorry to do this to you. But it is how the season starts, so there's no way around it. Get your tissues ready.

We open on a dude making a bomb, intercut with some people having really aggressive sex. Like, they're knocking stuff off the nightstands and shit. Oh. It's the bomb builder who's having the sex. With a flight attendant. To whom he then gives the bomb, so she can take it on the plane - "Promise not to open it until you're airborne." Do people who bomb things usually have active sex lives? It doesn't seem to fit, to me, but I'm not a forensic psychiatrist or anything, so, you know.

And then we get our new credits - with a new producer, no less. No more commentary from James, I guess.

We come back from the credits onto the Titanic, with Nick talking to a woman who looks really familiar. I want to say we've seen her before, but I think it's just because she's a pretty blonde.

Anyway, she's saying she caused the sinking, because "I am the Buddha", while holding up a black Buddha statue.

Nick bites her, but we don't know if he kills her, because it turns out this is a nightmare and he wakes up in a blood sweat, then goes straight for the bottle. He watches a little news about an Edmonton courthouse bombing, then Schanke calls. Apparently he's going to Edmonton (which is across the country from Toronto) for a week to testify. Nick promises to look in on his family and advises him to take his "good" suit.

In the lab, Nat's weighing organs and telling Nick that if he wants to get "better" - ie, cured of vampirism - he has to follow the program. He complains that it's been 4 years, and she's all, "Psha, yeah, which is nothing to you. Get your shit together."

He gets a call from the interim captain, Joe Reese, who's taking over for Cohen while she's in Edmonton with Schanke. Nick goes back up to the squad room, and Reese gives him the commissioner's daughter as a partner for the next week. Nick doesn't want the assignment - especially since Tracy Vetter is sleeping in the squad room when he goes to meet her, and completely doesn't recognize her from her time working on a political campaign in the 60s. 

They go out driving around with the top down, and Tracy's all, "I'm my own person! I'm not just the Commish's daughter!" She also wants to know why Nick didn't go to Edmonton, since he made the collar. He just says he hates to fly, though she asks about him being allergic to sunlight. They end up near the airport.

Meanwhile, the bomber is standing at the end of the runway, watching the planes. He triggers the detonator, which is in a music box, and in the cockpit - she was a pilot, not a stew - there are a few moments of tinkling melody before BOOM.

Nick and Tracy see the plane explode. Tracy calls it in while Nick runs into the wreckage, because he can hear a baby crying. The baby's unharmed,  but Nick finds part of a boarding pass - Schanke's.

Schanke and Cohen are dead.

After the commercial break, everyone's shown up, and Nick is holding Natalie in her ME gear. Nick says that Schanke dreamed his own death last week. Captain Reese says he sent someone to tell Myra, and Nick says that he has to go, too, but what will he tell her? They don't yet know why the plane went down, and Nick insists it was a bomb, but there's no evidence yet of anything. Nick's all wracked with guilt because he collared the guy, he should have gone to Edmonton, but Reese says no, don't play that game, everyone dies.

Nick starts off toward his car, but stops in the wreckage to have a flashback. To, as the life preservers state, the SS Titanic. Which...no, guys. It was the RMS Titanic. I feel like even in, what, 1994? this wouldn't have been difficult to figure out. They had libraries then, right?

The blonde walks up to him, and she's wearing a 1920s headpiece with a 1912 gown. Ah, FK. So detail-oriented.

She looks like the ballet dancer/lingerie model from season 1. That's what it is. It's not her, but it's really striking.

Anyway, she straight-out tells him she knows he's a vampire. Nick plays dumb, but only for, like, a second. He warns her to stay away, but she introduces herself by cutting her wrist and offering it to him with her name: Claire Gibson. Nick drinks, and only then does she tell him she needs his help.

Nick finally makes it up to his car, walking right past the bomber, who's passing himself off as just another looky-loo.

Back on the Titanic, Claire tells Nick all about the Buddha, which is, of course, cursed. She gives it to Nick, saying that its real value is in granting one wish, and hers is to live forever, because she adores life. (I should also mention that she has an atrocious French accent. It's making all her scenes laughable.)

Tracy and Reese are walking through the wreckage when Tracy swears she sees someone blink. Reese checks, but the dude is cold. He suggests they head home, because it's been a long night. They walk away, and behind them, the dude opens his eyes and flies away. Tracy thinks she heard something, but dismisses it.

On the radio, Lacroix is talking about death, of course. Does, like, he know what's going on in Nick's life, or is it all just coincidence? Anyway, I assume Nick is listening, because Lacroix's lines are overlaid on Nick going home, staring at the Buddha, and drinking blood.

The bomber builds another.

Nick wants to be in on the investigation, but of course, a local PD isn't going to be involved in that sort of thing. Reese tells Nick to take a few days, but he doesn't want to; he asks about Tracy, who took Reese up on that offer.

Of course, she's not at home, resting. She went to the hangar where they're keeping the bodies. She flashes a badge and gets right through, but Nick doesn't - he's not with the commissioner. He mojos the guy and gives Tracy some shit for using her father. She says she just wants to see what's going on with the baby and maybe help out.

Nat is working the case. She has a bulletin board of people whose bodies haven't been found intact - or at all, in the case of "J. D. Valdez", who was in his 20s and travelling alone. Most of the other bodies were sitting over the wings, and were therefore mostly vaporized.

As they're leaving, Tracy thinks she sees something, and makes an excuse that she forgot her keys to go back in. In the hall, Nat confirms to Nick that it was a bomb.

Tracy finds someone going through a bag, and she tells him to turn around with his hands where she can see them. "I'm afraid that's impossible," he says, turning, holding a dismembered hand in his own. "I lost one in the crash."

Tracy faints, probably because someone in this show is finally having fun being dead.

Nick takes Nat to his house, and shows her the Buddha, which is just an excuse for another flashback. Nick tells Claire to leave now, with the other women and children. She's all, "Hey, it's sinking, right? Because I wished for something. Better bite me, bitch."

Nick tells Nat that the plane bombing is all his fault, and Nat's all, "Bitch, no. Stop being dumb." She figures out that Nick has it because he wants his wish to come true, and she's mad. Like, really, really angry, and she's completely justified in this. She tells him off for believing in magic and being a dumbass, then leaves.

Tracy wakes up in her own car with the handless guy - Javier Vachon. This scene is amazeballs. It's finally fun, sparkling dialogue, very well-delivered by Vachon, not so much by Tracy. He gives her gun back, and she points it on him and tells him they're going downtown. No, he says, we're going to your place so I can clean up, then I'll get some new clothes, and you'll forget you ever saw me. He's trying to mojo her - which has a different sound effect than Nick's mojoing, and doesn't rely on eye contact.

Wait. Is Vachon more powerful/older than Nick? I didn't remember that, but like I've said, I didn't get to even see most of season 3, so who knows? I guess we'll find out, won't we?

Anyway, mojoing Tracy doesn't work, so he offers her details about the crash, and she goes for it.

Lacroix is now talking about guilt, as Nick drives to the Raven. He asks for Janette, but the bartender doesn't know her. Lacroix's taken over the club - he broadcasts from a booth in the back - and Janette left over a month ago. She thought it would be easier not to say goodbye to Nick. He cautions Nick not to go looking for her, because she doesn't want to be found. He suggests that maybe it's time for Nick to go, too.

Tracy does take Vachon home, and tells him he's running from something, that she can help, she's a cop. He says that's why she can't help, and that he has to go, and she shouldn't try to find him. He kisses her, vamps out for a second, then gets hold of himself and takes off.

Nick listens to the black box and can hear the music-box tune, but Reese comes in and yells at him that Cohen might have let him get away with this obsessive bullshit, but he won't. Taxpayers aren't paying him to go off on his own little tangents!

Nick acquiesces, since he really only came in to clean out Schanke's desk, which is pretty depressing.

The bomber wraps his latest bomb and attaches a card - to the newly-official Captain Reese.

Nick goes to Reese to hand in his resignation, just as a box that looks like the bomb shows up. But it turns out it's just chocolates from the commissioner. Reese offers some to Tracy, who's following up on J. D. Valdez leads. She's technically off-duty, too, and heads out to check on the last known address - a vacant church. Reese tells her to take someone with her, but she's all, "Nah. Why would I? I already know the guy is weird and maybe a vampire."

Nat goes to Nick's apartment, which is in boxes and furniture covers, to yell at him about leaving without saying goodbye. Nick says, "I just killed my friends." Natalie yells at him again.

Natalie, where have your balls been the last two seasons? I like this you so much better. She basically tells him he's being a self-indulgent brat, and she expected more from him, and then she walks out.

Tracy goes to the church to nose around, and does find a room where it looks like someone lives, though Vachon's not there. Another vampire is, though, one who talks to her in Spanish and whom she shoots.

Reese calls Nick to ask about "Valdez", and while they're on the phone, Nick sees an explosion out his window. The music box in Reese's candybox starts playing, and Nick's all "DON'T TOUCH IT" and Reese is all "BUT I WAS JUST GOING TO EAT SOME" and Nick tells him to call the bomb squad and evacuate the precinct - and not to move.

Spanish vampire is all in Tracy's face, saying he's looking for Vachon, and she's going to help him find him.

Bombs are going off at every precinct in the city. Nick trades places with Reese, mojoing him a little to get it done. Nick, of course, doesn't wait for the bomb squad or anything, he just launches himself out a window and lets the thing go off.

Vachon comes in just as Spanish vamp is about to kill Tracy - ostensibly to rescue her, but then it looks like he's going to kill her, because she can't be allowed to remember this stuff? That seems...odd.

Nick unpacks and tells Nat he's going to throw the Buddha into the ocean, where it belongs. The baby has a dad, who's coming from Alberta to get her. And Vachon doesn't kill Tracy, but he...flies somewhere with her?

And that's the end!

Next week: Tracy's still alive! But she's dating the bomber! Whose name is Vudu! Which they could maybe have actually said sometime in the episode!

And later this week: NOVEL RECAP! Are you excited, Snowflakes? Because I am. We'll be doing one episode and one chapter every week!