SGRoA: Moonlight, S1 E9: Fleur de Lis

Didn't Forever Knight have an episode titled Fleur de Lis? The one about Nick's sister, Fleur? or maybe I'm just remembering what Lacroix called her.... Anyway, Snowflakes, I'm here, I'm high, I'm ready to recap!

Ooh, it's a Beth voiceover! She's talking about memory - as a concept and her specifically traumatic ones of her abduction - while she pounds on Mick's door. He finally lets her in, and she waves a file at him. She has proof that Morgan is Coraline. Mick says he knows, and then Coraline comes down his stairs - dressed only in his shirt, and both of them still wet from the shower. He says it's not what it looks like, but Beth doesn't care: she's already staking Coraline.

We then get a "24 Hours Earlier" on the screen along with Beth staking out Coraline's apartment.(heh. "staking".) Mick shows up and they have a weirdly jealousy-laden convo about Morgan/Coraline. Turns out, Beth now thinks that Morgan is Coraline, and she's trying to convince Mick to look into her background a little more closely. Mick agrees to keep Morgan busy, but warns Beth that if Morgan is Coraline, and if she suspects, it'll be very bad for Beth. Beth is super fucking pissed about the abduction, and determined to get the truth, so she's fine with that.

pictured: Beth

So it seems that we're finally getting some real episodes in here! I wonder if the earlier half of the season was why this got cancelled: no one should have to put in 7 episodes before things start to become sensical. I'm thrilled that this ep picks up where we left off, and that it all makes narrative sense, even going so far as to make narrative sense with the entire previous episode! Like, you know, a story!

Now, why exactly Beth has decided Morgan absolutely IS Coraline suddenly, I don't know, but it feels like getting ahead of myself to wonder about it at all! I actually have faith that it will be explained momentarily, so let's press PLAY again.

So, it's daylight again, and I assume this is before the events in the opening bit (this is after the sting). But I hate that I have to assume again. Bad writers! No cookie!

Mick is meeting with a client who wants his wife followed. He thinks she's cheating, he's a CEO, he's paying Mick 50K for his expertise and his discretion. Guy's a jerk, but obvies Mick takes the job.

And then he meets Coraline for lunch? Oh, we were off to such a good start. Anyway, Morgan orders real food and then Mick apologizes for - that night several episodes ago? in the graveyard, when he made her bleed? That must have been in the "last time on Moonlight" bit, which I skipped, so maybe I will stop doing that. Anyway, he wants her to do the photography for this surveillance job; he offers her 10K and she takes it. Morgan probes about the ex she looks so much like; Mick politely deflects.

Beth, meanwhile, is at Buzzwire, Googling Coraline. Mick texts to tell her that Morgan will be with him on the case all day, so this is...the next day. Huh. Okay, time indicators were missing, I made an assumption, but, like, also, were you going to invent a case to keep Morgan busy, Mick? And why does Morgan need to be busy if Beth is just looking up 300-year-old courtesans on Lexis Nexis?

no, no, I'm gonna be positive, it's good, we're fine

We get some heavy metal Flashback Time of Coraline being branded with the fleur-de-lis, even though it's actually a tattoo, and then Beth is lying to her boss about heading out to do some research for a story.

Mick and Morgan are in the park, homing in on their target. Mick has an earpiece for Morgan, who says she loves how "Bourne Identity" it all is. They're doing okay for a while, but husband dude wanted conversations recorded, so Mick almost gets made. But Morgan gets several shots of the lady kissing her affair partner, and Mick gives up on the recording to just listen in on the convo - just long enough to hear that "if he finds out, he'll kill us".

a chipmunk turning suddenly with dramatic sound effect

Morgan is jazzed she got the shots for that easy ten grand, but Mick says they can't turn the evidence over if husband dude is gonna kill lady and her affair partner. Morgan says that they can't be sure that what Mick heard referenced an actual murder - she says a) it's probably metaphorical and 2) even if it's not, they were hired to provide information, and they can't know, and therefore have no responsibility for, what husband dude does with said info. But Mick wants to investigate a little more - husband dude was certainly very concerned with secrecy, so much that Mick thinks he might choose murder over divorce. Morgan agrees, but wants to stop by Buzzwire to drop something off for Beth.

Beth is, of course, breaking into Morgan's place.

Mick heads to husband dude's office, but husband dude won't see him, so Mick doesn't hand over the evidence. Morgan was waiting outside, I guess? because she meets him in the elevator. On the way down, they pick up both the affair partner and the lady, and Mick has to turn his head so that Lady - who saw him at the park - won't recognize him. So he and Morgan are basically kissing, of course. Why waste a cliche, I guess?

Mick texts Beth that he and Morgan are on their way to Morgan's place to pick up a camera, and Beth hides, but then Mick smells her and hustles Morgan out so Beth can keep snooping. They head to across the street from the Biltmore, where the affair people were meeting, and set up surveillance on the room. Beth calls Mick, and Morgan's giving a play-by-play of the sex, and then Mick makes it sound even pervier when Beth asks what they're doing, so I guess I know why she was so pissed in the opener. Mick gets off the phone without doing anything to make it sound like he's spying and not fucking, and then Beth finds photos of him from the 50s in Morgan's drawer.

they're all in this ep!

So Mick and Morgan watch people have sex, and end up kissing, because who wouldn't? (lots of people, clearly, but they're both single, so why not?) But the big reveal here is that Lady's affair partner is her stepson! Remember back in 2007, before we all knew what joke I am now socially obligated to put in here? "Stepson, what are you doing? I'm stuck in the hotel bed!" Pretty good reason for murder, as 2 out of 2 private eyes agrees.

They finally end up at Buzzwire, where Beth is safely at her desk, but she can't hide how fucking angry she is. She heads out to go do...something, I missed it, I'm not going back, and Mick of course uses that opportunity to talk about what happened at the hotel - the kiss. Morgan's all, it's no big, why did you even bring it up? Oh, right, because you like Beth. So, no, I won't mention it to her. But I think I'm more your type, right? I mean, you did marry someone who looks just like me.

Husband Dude sets up a meeting, finally. Mick says he's taking all the surveillance - including Morgan's memory card - back to his place before he goes to the meet, because he doesn't want to turn anything over until he knows it won't get someone killed.

Beth goes to see Josef, who again has an office full of people, but he actually makes them all leave before discussing vampire shit. She wants all the skinny on Mick.

Who is simultaneously getting stood up by Husband Dude, who has hired someone to ransack Mick's office. Mick calls Morgan to tell her all their shit is gone, and he thinks that he should go to Stepson's place to warn him and Lady. Morgan Googles the address and Mick heads out.

Morgan gets off the phone and Beth's editor is there, handing her a sound file she asked the audio guy to clean up. Editor wants to know what story it's for and is all weird about it, like come the fuck on, is this what they pay you for? Babysitting people about what work is for what story and why and when it'll be done all day long? Shouldn't you be, I dunno, like, EDITING? This suspicion just feels so weird to me, and this poor editor seems never to have any lines that aren't "Get me a story", "I'll give you a story", or "What story is that for?". Wasted character. No one needs fuckin management up in this bitch.

use company resources for my own ends

Josef tells Beth there is absolutely no cure for vampirism, so no, Coraline definitely didn't find it. He thinks Mick is still obsessed, just like he was when he first met Coraline, and that it was only when Coraline took Beth that Mick had really had it. Beth remembers the fire, but isn't convinced that Coraline is dead. Josef says that if she's back - and that's a very generous "if", for Beth's sake - Coraline is back for Mick, end of story.

Beth goes up to the house where Mick first met Coraline on the assumption that Coraline still owns it, and finds a bunch of surveillance of herself and Mick - rather obviously.

Mick shows up at Stepson's back door, and Stepson lets him in after Mick confesses to following him and Lady. Morgan, meanwhile, is listening to that cleaned-up audio Mick took in the park, and hears that Lady and Stepson are going to kill Husband - it's only if he figures out that's the plan that he'll kill first. But Mick is on high alert because he sees all the surveillance from his office on Stepson's coffee table, and is confronting Stepson when Lady shoots him in the back.

Morgan shows up at Stepson's looking for Mick. The door is still open, but no one's there, because they went to kill Husband Dude. She calls Mick's phone, and finds him covered in blood. Morgan wants to go to the hospital, but Mick says no, it's just a scalp laceration, it's not that bad, let's go save Husband Dude, so they do.

Beth has ventured into Coraline's basement, and hoo-doggies, is this some creepy shit. There's a whole-ass little girl's bedroom, complete with a fake kitchen I would have killed for at age 5. It's where she was held before Coraline took her to meet up with Mick, before wherever the fire was. Beth is working through her trauma in real time, and this is awful. No wonder she stabs the bitch - appropriately with a stake made by breaking off the leg of a chair from the room.

So the big plan was to run over Husband Dude as he left the office with Stepson. Mick fucks that up, though, by stopping Dude and Son in the street, punching out Son, telling Dude they were planning to kill him, and then saving Morgan from the speeding BMW driven by Lady by flying straight up. Everyone lives; they call the cops; Morgan has questions that Mick brushes off. They'll stop by the station tomorrow to drop off the evidence and give formal statements, yadda yadda.

Mick takes Morgan back to his place and they do the do, you know how it be sometimes, sex with the ex just hits different. But he sees the tattoo, he calls her Coraline, she admits it, he's super jazzed to become human and doesn't stop fucking kissing her! And it's then, obviously, that Beth comes in with her file and her stake and her incandescent and totally justified anger

and stabs a fully human Coraline.

lol, no, she's not dead, they're gonna call an ambulance, but I couldn't resist. Come back next week and find out what happens, I hope! The box just says it's about Josef being marked for death, but, like, so? what happens in the other 34 minutes?