(S01E16) "Leeroy Jenkins!!!!"-- Logan Griffen
I deliberately chose a humorous quote to help us say farewell to Moonlight, rather than a more somber one. But other quotes in the running were: "Can my code name be Lando Calrissian?" and "It's going to be a freaking vampire apocalypse." It is not a spoiler but a fact that CBS decided earlier this week not to pick up Moonlight for a second season. The fat lady hasn't finished quite singing yet, though: Our own Brett Love reported that Nikke Fink thinks the CW might pick up the show after all. So, keep your eyes pealed for that possible announcement.
In the meantime, however, we have the season (and, thus far, series) finale to contend with. I don't know whether the writers suspected that the series would be ending, but surely they knew (along with everyone else) that the show was on the bubble. So, they ended the season in a manner that would provide some closure for us all, while also keeping things open in case it was continued. I, for one, appreciate that.
It wouldn't be Moonlight without a mystery to solve before we can get to the good stuff with Mick and Beth. Beth defines their dates as any time they go out when there's no murder involved, so counting tonight's episode, they have been on a grand total of three dates. But maybe three times is a charm.
Josef is opening a sports wing named for his human love, Sarah Whitley, at Hearst College, which he established after losing a bet with William Randolph Hearst. As fellow TV Squad writer Keith McDuffee pointed out to me, Hearst College was the school on Veronica Mars, too... which featured Jason Dohring, who plays Josef. I love it when TV shows get all meta.
At the reception, one of the school's star basketball players winds up dead in a hot tub. Josef's lawyer, a human "freshie" who also feeds him blood on a regular basis, is in the bathroom when he is hurtled into the tub, and becomes the first suspect. Simone may be a freshie, but she isn't a murderer, which is quickly established. Unfortunately for Beth, it's established after Mick tastes her blood to make sure the blood found on Dominic the basketball player's body isn't her blood type.
Of course Beth had a right to be pissed about what she walked in on. Of course she did. You have penetration and exchange of bodily fluids, not to mention bugged out eyes and fangs. It's a very sexual thing: and just like all sex, it can either be highly significant or, as some people insist, "Not a big deal." It's probably both, because it seems to be largely contextual. In Josef's case, he drinks from Simone. There is a symbiotic relationship, because she is literally feeding him. Mick was simply taking a taste. The act, however, is the same. It is intimate and so to dismiss it easily as nothing is highly contradictory. I suppose it matters, though, that Josef took the proprietary act of actually piercing her skin, before offering it to Mick. But that objectifies both women and humans in disturbing ways. Simone seems to accept her insignificance in the vampire world, but Beth won't.
In another supposedly non-significant act, Emma starts sleeping with Dominic to feel young again. The tables are turned: An old female vampire is using the same excuse for infidelity and dalliance that middle-aged men use. In this case, a man has been objectified (Dominic) and another one has been betrayed for, as Jackson notes, "Nothing." I loved how Emma and Jackson spoke in their visit in frequencies that humans can't hear, for privacy. There were so many nice little vampire developments every week with this show. It's sad to see it go.
Of course, Emma, in her infinite selfishness (and legitimate fear of going to prison), threatens to expose every vampire in Los Angeles unless Mick breaks her out of prison. She blames Mick for putting her there rather unjustly: If she had exposed them in front of Talbot when she was tearing apart the room, she might have been executed anyway for putting all of the vampires at risk. Even revealing her identity could serve as confirmation of their existence, which would lead to a hunt for others. Of course, the groundwork was laid for this investigation to happen because Talbot received a list of all of the vampires in L.A. You can bet he'd try to connect the dots between Mick and Josef and the rest of the people on that list.
Can we talk about how great Logan is? I loved him -- he won my award for funniest vampire this episode, not only by insisting on being called Lando Calrissian during Mick's Ocean's Eleven-type scheme. The other reason he was so funny was because he yelled, "Leeroy Jenkins" as he went to stop the prison vehicle. Leeroy Jenkins is a nod to his obsession with World of Warcraft; Jenkins is a character who often ruins missions for others by running into the fray, yelling his own name (thank you, Wikipedia). His glee when the van flipped was very contagious.
What would happen in a second season is anyone's guess: Mick declared himself to Beth and made it pretty clear that he wasn't going to allow any obstacles to stand in their way. It would have been pretty devastating to leave things with her crying against the wall and him leaning his head in the hallway, so I'm glad he went back in light of the series cancellation. Yet, in some ways, if the series had been picked up, it would have been better, more honest, and more bittersweet to leave them apart.
Good night, Moonlight.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
5-17-2008 @ 2:15AM
Jeff N. said...
It's a good show and it deserved to be picked up for a second season.
Reply
5-17-2008 @ 3:28AM
Luis Palacios said...
CW need this if they want to at least have a boost in there name saying.
though what dose that say when CBS demote it toward CW
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5-17-2008 @ 5:37AM
Cj said...
YES MOONLIGHT DESERVED TO BE PICKED UP FOR A SECOND SEASON. CBS'S LOSS I HOPE CW DOES PICK IT UP I WATCH SUPERNATURAL. LOVE THAT SHOW BUT THIS ONE IS SPECIAL LOVE IT. MICK IS HOT HOT HOT
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5-17-2008 @ 6:49AM
Emjay81 said...
I adore Moonlight, and I think that it ended the right way. They had built a whole arc for the second season before the cancellation, so surely the ending was worked out to fit with it.
Save moonlight!
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5-17-2008 @ 7:03AM
Marcia McAtee said...
I can't believe all the great actors tonite beside the regulars. Claudia Black as the cleaner?? awesome and Jonathan LaPaglia, some great SciFi greats on the show tonite! How bittersweet that this show just keeps getting better and better and now it's over!!! Please CW make our dreams come true!!!
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5-17-2008 @ 10:05AM
Lenny said...
I really like Moonlight and hope it finds a new home, but in an article on SciFi.com about CBS's new fantasy and supernatural shows, it was reported that Moonlight would not be going to the CW. Here's a snipped from the article:
"Explaining the cancellation of Moonlight to reporters, CBS entertainment president Nina Tassler confirmed that the network's experience with Jericho, which lost viewers after it was renewed for a second season, affected the decision regarding Moonlight. "We had a very passionate fan base, and that's a good thing," Tassler said. "We just had to make a lot of tough calls." Tassler also stated that Moonlight would not resurface on sister network The CW."
Link to article: http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=0&id=54090
I hate to hear this, but it's probably the way things will turn out.
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5-17-2008 @ 11:59AM
witchyvamp66 said...
Lenny thanks for the post.
Unfortunatly it proves the Nina Tassler and the execs at CBS are idiots. Using Jericho as an excuss for not renewing Moonlight is comparing apples to oranges. Jericho (a show I loved) had an uphill battle from the start and the writters strike didn't help. It was so long and uncertain between S1 and S2 that most of their addience had gone on to other things.
Announcing Moonlights move to the CW would mitigate the "long and uncertian future" fallout. As well as the fact that shows on the CW need to pull in fewer ratings numbers than the networks to be a hit.
What MS Tassler is really saying is, "We had a very passionate fan base, and that's a good thing," but FU. Just another example of CBS shotting itself in the foot again.
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5-17-2008 @ 12:08PM
Jeff N. said...
Witchyvamp66 your comments are right on the button. Comparing Moonlight fans to Jericho fans is pretty stupid.
6-13-2008 @ 4:24PM
ladykat said...
I knew Jerico would be used as an excuse the first time I heard rumors of cancellation. The comparison is bogus. Jerico lost 1-2 mil viewers when it came back. Moonlight retained it viewers while other shows ratings declined, after 4 months of no new episodes, thanks to fan promotion. No, back room politics cancelled Moonlight, not ratings.
5-17-2008 @ 8:26PM
La-Di-Dah said...
This episode made me proud. It was really good, kinda funny, kinda bittersweet, kinda reminded me that I would miss seeing buff Mick playing basketball and flirting with the cheerleader, after (or is it before) he got in trouble for sucking bodily fluids out of the freshee. I was so glorifiedly happy to see how mad Beth was at him. I hope someone picks up this show because this episode was good and tart, and if they will hopefully get better next season. Peace, moonlight.
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5-18-2008 @ 12:57AM
Argus said...
Wow, you're getting really good with the anaylisis of Vampire symbolism there Jen. I hope that I helped with that. This was a really good episode. At first I was concerned that there wouldn't be much of a move towards a grander overall plot but Moonlight came through in the end. My only criticism would have to be the abandoning of the Coraline thing entirely, as I believe a serialized format would have kept viewers more.
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5-18-2008 @ 5:44PM
hippiemoon said...
Moonlight deserves a second season. I've watched this show since the debut and it just kept getting better. There are so many other shows (namely reality shows) that are truly awful and deserve to be cancelled. But not Mick and Beth. What's wrong with CBS? Can't they give this show a chance?
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5-20-2008 @ 12:14PM
tom said...
You can say that again...It a good show..
5-19-2008 @ 6:35PM
tom said...
Keep Moonlight and dump some of those Reaity Shows
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5-19-2008 @ 9:19PM
Eric W. said...
Another CBS mistake. Two top shows cancelled in Q1...really bad decision making.
Bring back Moonlight or allow it to go so some other network.
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5-20-2008 @ 6:39PM
tagrhm said...
Greetings, Thanks for the articleI. We have heard from other ones that our campaign we have organized is nothing special. I respectfully disagree that this show and our promotion of it is the same old thing as what occurred with other shows.
You see before I started googling Moonlight and checking out the sites out there, I thought I was alone in my addict to this show but have found there are many many more of us out there.
I am 39, female, Application Developer, and before this show I have never emailed, called about a program, Blogged, had a myspace account, or watched a You Tube Video. I did all these things because of my love of Moonlight. I found on the Moonlight forums that this is a similar story for a great many of the shows viewers.
CBS has hit a vein of viewers who have tuned out of Network TV.
A demograhic ranging from 15 to 85, fans from USA, Portgual, Ireland, Canada, France, UK, who have all posted on forums, began calling other networks, emailing, etc.
They are buying the show from Amazon.com and Itunes.com, they are watching each episode online etc. 4 or more times.
They all came back after a hiatus of several months, they won the time slot for CBS, they won the demographic.
Moonlight is not Jericho and shouldn't be compared to or hindered by it.
This fan does not send emails about shows except Moonlight. As Moonlight goes so does the fans.
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5-20-2008 @ 10:08PM
DONNA said...
MOONLIGHT JUST HAS TO BE SAVED OR PICKED UP. IF THE CW PICKS IT UP I WILL SAY GOOD BYE TO CBS
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5-21-2008 @ 1:27AM
Dennis Myers said...
My wife and I have watched Moonlighting since it's beginning and really enjoy the show. With all the crap on TV these days, it's too bad a great show has to go away.
I guess it's all about the bottom line and the cheap shows, and the people who watch mindless Reality shows will always win out.
I will think twice before investing time in a new show this fall as we are usually dissapointed when we find something we like and it gets cancelled without a finish.
All the networks are at fault. I remember back when Hill Street Blues started, It was nearly cancelled because of low ratings, the network decided to go another season, it became a top rated show, just took awhile.
Shame on you, CBS, for taking away a truly great show!!!
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5-22-2008 @ 7:57PM
Steve said...
Hey I like this show, lets start a campain for CBS to give them a second season
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5-24-2008 @ 7:49PM
Cj said...
I AGREE LET'S DO IT. TELLME HOW TO HELP. I'VE EMAILED CBS SO MANY TIMES. I LOVE THIS SHOW. WE HAVE TO SAVE IT. AND I DO AGREE GET RID OF SOME OF THE REALITY SHOWS. I WATCHED GHOST WHISPERER THAT'S A GOOD SHOW. BUT MOONLIGHT WAS BETTER . IT WAS A GOOD LINEUP ON FRIDAY NITE. LET'S GET PEOPLE MOVING. COUNT ME IN STEVE..................