(S01E05) Another episode, another Krista dream-sequence to lead into the opening credits. Fun fact: Krista's blood ritual lasts four hours and forty-two minutes longer than the previous longest blood ritual on record. But it's worth it -- Boone's destination is discovered. So Krista and Chase SWAT-up and are off to Louisiana for a showdown. Hmm. Anne Rice country. Where next week -- Sunnydale? Boone escapes.Back at vampire HQ, we find Marcus fears the dreaded "pure bloods" (those born as vampires) who might threaten his autonomy of the House. And as soon as he mentions his concern to Chase, a pure-blood shows up at his door wanting a little face time. Yep, we are definitely in Anne Rice country this episode, as the pure blood is a young girl -- a child vampire in Victorian dress.
After last week's detour as a kidnap victim, minor supporting-character Blade (Kirk Jones) is back on the vampire pregnancy investigation this week. He will also leave Detroit tonight to ... err ... chase Chase to Berlin where she's sent on some maternity-related mission for Marcus. Blade is able to travel light and sail right through the airport metal detectors, because he is met by a sexy German customs agent who reloads him with firepower.
With Chase out of her hair for the moment, Krista has a chance to creep all over the mansion again looking for a sample of the Aurora vaccine the steal Blade. We viewers have known what Aurora is for so long, I keep forgetting our heroes are still supposed to be in the dark about it.
Anyway, Marcus catches her and -- Bond-villain fashion -- fills her in with some enticing details of his plans for world domination. He'd better hurry, 'cause he is on the pure-blood's radar, if not their shit-list.
Earlier, Krista and Blade do have one nice character scene, when Krista visits the Blade-cave to jack up on blood-substitute serum. Her undead fate is really starting to wear on her. She doesn't get to enjoy her superpowers much, she doesn't have the advantages of being still half-human like Blade, and she knows she will never see the sun again. Blade practices tough love, saying, "the next time you do see the sun it'll be the last thing you over see."
Blade himself is such a static character. He comes in each week, roughs up an informant, has his two fight scenes and then he's out. Not a lot to grab onto there, would be nice to see him develop a little inner-conflict or something before the season ends. From the preview, looks like he will be forced to interact with an regular innocent human being next week. Might be interesting to see how he handles that.
One last thing. Chase has a great episode. Some sharp one-liners, and she finally got an assignment beyond babysitting Krista. And then .... Oh well. Damn. Just when you start to appreciate a villain ...
(This Sunday at 1pm, Spike is running a six-hour marathon of all episodes to date (including the two-hour premiere) if you need to catch up.)
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-27-2006 @ 9:30AM
Mack Swift said...
Definetly a fun episode, and I really think I'm in love with Jill Wagner.
I liked that this episode was more action-centric while filling/tantalizing us with a few more bits and pieces of the overall storyline. Blade sneaking into Germany and getting his gear at a customs checkpoint was pretty slick as well as the raid on the safehouse. Sticky seems to be filling in as Blade somewhat nicely; adding his own touches here and there as well as improvments to his fighting skillz.
-So is the House of Chthon attemting to create a daywalker of the own with the pregnant woman? And if so, why exactly her?
-Was Krista lying about sleeping around with Boone? I think there's more to this Boone subplot then we're seeing. Krista seems more intent on killing Boone then Marcus is. Why?
-How does Boone know so much about Aurora? DId he inherit those memories proxy from Krista which came from Marcus? Marcus did directly inject his own blood into Krista to turn her. And why turn Krista in the first place?
-And now where do Krista's loyalties lay? Did she accept Marcus's offer simply to get closer to the House's dealings then before? Or because she gave into those 'feeling left out' feelings she told Blade about earlier?
THis show has 2 really good things going for it (okay, okay 3 - Jill Wagner). THe first is they're not afraid to take out characters (ie Fr. Carlyle) and second everyone seems to be connected to someone in someway and they all have a part in the overall consiracies.
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7-27-2006 @ 11:05PM
Tim said...
So are all purebloods kids? Vampires don't age, right? Wut's the deal there?
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7-28-2006 @ 4:25AM
Gordon Werner said...
1. Jill Wagner is definite hotness.
2. This show ... is really fun to watch ...
3. Krista said she was in love with Boone because that was a good excuse as to why she took so long to connect to him ... the alternative was that she wasn't embracing death and the blood-lust ... (which is the truth (i.e. serum use)) and she didn't want to give up her secret (which is ironic since those oregonian vampires no longer kill humans (they use cloned blood) so they might be good allies in the serum-use end of things)
4. Boone was involved with the vampires ... and was supposed to become one of them ... but Marcus decided he'd be better vampire-virgin fodder. now he's pissed. (I would imagine as a cop he did a lot of research that Marcus was not aware of (remember they found those old books hidden in Boone's house)
5. I believe I remember reading that in this version on vampirism ... true-blood vampires do age .... just really really really really really slowly
6. Damn ... Krista is a nice bit of hotness (and it is good to see an attractive INTELLIGENT female character for once) ... Pre-crispy Chase ain't bad ether
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7-30-2006 @ 9:16PM
techjitsu said...
I agree with the characterization of Blade as a "minor supporting-character" in this series so far. I think that is a SMART decision on the part of the producersdirectors. I am going to be polite and supportive of 'Sticky Fingaz', but he needs some tough love from someone close enough to him to tell him he needs some SERIOUS acting lessons. Sure- Snipes is NOT Denzel, Morgan, or Samuel L.; however, he is able to show 'range' both physically and vocally. Kirk is missing the mark on both of those.
Some people would say that Blade doesn't need to have a lot of dialogue to fulfill his role. Even if I agreed with that position, it still doesn't cover the OTHER GLARING HOLE: the fighting sequences for Blade SUCK! I know from a personal connection in the auditioning phase of this series that SEVERAL accomplished martial artists [with acting skills on par or above Kirk's abilities] were passed up in order to go with someone that had a 'familiar face' or resume on TV. I don't know if Michael Jai White audtioned, but he would have been 10x better in the role for both acting AND fighting. I know that this argument has been made MANY times before, so I will not try to rehash it any further.
I wasn't too much on Snipes' side when I heard he was pissed over the 3rd film and subsequent series storyline, but I am beginning to see his point. This is a 'Blade Series' in NAME ONLY. It seems like they keep Blade around only to legitimize the storyline. Otherwise, he is useless. Example:
1] Krista is on the inside; she has more access than Blade.
2] Krista IS a vampire; she has all of their abilities- plus, she is on the serum. The only thing she CAN'T do is walk in the sunlight [which I am predicting will eventually change with the storyline].
Why do we need Blade? What purpose does he serve- other than distracting the main villains?
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