Tonight, from 1976, we have The Paul Lynde Halloween Special.
In this special, actor and comedian Paul Lynde celebrates Halloween with Betty White, KISS, Donny and Marie Osmond, Florence Henderson, Billy Barty, Margaret Hamilton (the original Wicked Witch of the West), and I’m going to guess a mountain of cocaine that was probably sitting backstage.
This special is definitely a product of a very certain era in America’s cultural history.
Having survived the Horror of Fang Rock, the Doctor and Leela resumed traveling through space and time. Along the way, they picked up a new companion named K-9. Here is the rest of the fifteenth century, which began in a British lighthouse and ended on Gallifrey.
The Invisible Enemy (1977, directed by Derrick Goodwin)
This the one where K-9 makes his first appearance.
As a story, The Invisible Enemy is no great shakes. The Doctor (Tom Baker) and Leela (Louise Jameson) materialize on a spaceship that has been infected by a sentient virus. Everyone, except for Leela, gets infected. The virus wants the Doctor to lead an infection of the entire universe. When the virus orders the Doctor to kill Leela, he breaks free from its control. He and Leela go to a space medical center, where Prof. Marinus (Frederick Jaeger) uses Leela’s natural immunity to help create a cure for the virus. At one point, the Doctor and Leela are cloned and the clones are injected into the Doctor to fight the virus. It’s a fantastic voyage for all.
Prof. Marinus’s assistant is a boxy robot dog named K-9 (voice by John Leeson). Since Marinus has to go back to Earth, he gives K-9 to The Doctor and Leela as a gift.
How you feel about K-9 says a lot about how you will feel about the remainder of Tom Baker’s time as the Doctor. Some fans consider the introduction of K-9 to be the show’s jump the shark moment. A lot more, myself included, have always liked K-9 and view him — along with the sonic screwdriver — as being an essential part of the original show’s charm. Love him or hate him, K-9, who come figure out any puzzle and who could shoot a loser from his nose, became one of the most recognizable symbols of the Tom Baker years.
Image of the Fendahl (1977, Directed by George-Spenton Foster)
The Doctor and Leela are drawn back to modern-day Earth, where scientists, witches, and cultists are all being influenced by skull that is estimated to be at least twelve million years old. The scientists assume that the skull is human but actually, it’s the skull of a Fendahl, a race of psychic vampires who developed on the legendary “Fifth Planet.” The Time Lords tried to destroy the Fendahl but one escaped in the form of a skull. It first killed all the life on Mars. (But what about the Ice Warriors and the Pyramids? Doctor Who continuity rarely added up.) Then it landed on Earth, where it influenced human evolution to create a race that it could use to its own advantage.
Image of the Fendahl feels like a spiritual descendant of The Daemons, with the same emphasis on rural British atmosphere and paganism (Leela teams up with a white witch) but without the assurance of UNIT waiting on the sidelines to take care of the threat. Image of the Fendahl, with its suggestion that humanity was specifically developed to be food, is considerably darker than The Daemons and Tom Baker, so often criticized for playing up the humor of the Doctor’s character, gives one of his more serious performances. When one of the scientists who has been possessed by Fendahl seeks to kill himself and bring an end to the threat, the Doctor hands him a gun.
Image of the Fendahl is yet another Doctor Who serial in which the main threat is revealed be the result of the Time Lords meddling. The Fourth Doctor spent a lot of time cleaning up Gallifrey’s messes.
The Sun Makers (1977, directed by Pennant Roberts)
The Doctor, Leela, and K-9 materialize on Pluto, where they discover that colonists and workers are expected to pay exorbitant taxes to the Company or risk being exiled to the Undercity. The Company’s tax collector is the Controller, who turns out to be a quivering mass of seaweed.
The Sun Makers is Doctor Who at its most satirical, poking fun at the British tax system. Apparently, the original script was much more pointed in its attacks on the Inland Revenue services but the BBC, being the BBC, demanded that the script be watered down. In human form, the Controller still clearly resembles Denis Healey, the then-Chancellor of the Exchequer.
The Sun Makers is Doctor Who at its most straight-forward, an enjoyable diversion from the more serious episodes.
Underworld (1978, directed by Norman Stewart)
The TARDIS materializes on the R1C, a spaceship that has been on a millennia-long quest to find a missing ship that was on its away to Minyos 2 and which contained the genetic files of the original Minyans who lived on Minyos 1.
This is another story where the Doctor has to deal with the bad decisions of the Time Lords. Before adapting their policy of non-intervention, the Time Lords meddles in Minyan evolution and the end result was that the Minyans viewed the Time Lords as gods and the Minyans also used all of the Time Lord technology that they had been given to fight a civil war. The Doctor feels a responsibility to help the crew of R1C complete their quest.
The R1C eventually ends up going through a space nebula and crashing into a planetoid, where they discover the ship they were searching for. The crew of the ship is being used as slaves by the Oracle, a super computer.
Underworld is one of the more boring of the Fourth Doctor’s serials. The story feels slapdash and the idea of a supercomputer was a well that the Doctor Who had already gone to far too many times.
The Invasion of Time (1978, directed by Gerald Blake)
The Doctor returns to Gallifrey and assumes his position as President of the Time Lords. He also seems to go through a total personality change, exiling Leela and announcing that a group of psychic aliens known as the Vardans will be the new masters of Gallifrey.
Leela, even after being exiled, is convinced that this is all a part of some plan on the Doctor’s part and it turns out that she’s right. The Doctor is only pretending to be allied with the Vardans so that he can discover the location of their planet and put them into a time loop. What the Doctor does not realize is that the Vardans are themselves being used by the Sontarans, who are planning on invading Gallifrey.
In retrospect, it seems inevitable that the 15th season would end on Gallifrey. It also seems inevitable that the Sontarans would eventually try to invade Gallifrey. The main threat of the Sontarans has always been that they are so stupid that they will try to invade any planet. The most surprising thing about this serial is that Leela stays behind on Gallifrey so that she can marry Andred (Chris Tanchrell), the head of the Citadel Guard. The idea of Leela living with the Time Lords has been responsible for a lot of fan fiction and it does seem unfortunate that the show didn’t do more with the idea.
Louise Jameson had already decided to leave the show and originally, Leela was to die while fighting the Sontarans. This was changed because it was felt Leela’s death would be too traumatic for younger viewers. Instead, the younger viewers were traumatized by K-9 announcing that he would be staying on Gallifrey with Leela and Andred. Luckily, for them, the final shot of the fifteen season was The Doctor looking at a crate labeled “K-9 Mark II” and smiling.
Little did the Doctor suspect that the quest for the Key of Time was waiting in his future.
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Tuesdays, I will be reviewing the original Fantasy Island, which ran on ABC from 1977 to 1984. The show is once again on Tubi!
“Smiles, everyone, smiles!”
Episode 7.15 “Dark Secret/The Outrageous Mr. Smith”
(Dir by Don Weis, originally aired on March 3rd, 1984)
Eh. I didn’t like this episode. Sorry, Mr. Roarke, no smiles today.
Robert Smith (Engelbert Humperdinck) wants to be a singing star but he suffers from stage fright. He’s created a smarmy alter ego who doesn’t have stage fright but he wants to be able to perform on his own, without having to retreat into a fantasy world. His alter ego responds by coming to life and sleeping with Robert’s wife (Elaine Joyce). Personally, if I was the writer of this episode, I would have just ended the story right there but it turns out that Robert’s alter ego only exists in his mind. His wife walks in on Robert yelling at himself and is overjoyed to discover that Robert has finally found the confidence to perform on stage.
Just typing all of that made my head hurt.
Meanwhile, Amy Marshall (Markie Post) is married to Christopher (Larry Wilcox) but their marriage is troubles because Amy has never told Christopher that she was raped just a few days before the wedding. She never reported the rape to the police and she’s never dealt with the trauma that she still carries with her. This is a very sensitive subject so, of course, Fantasy Island screws it up by suggesting that Amy is somehow to blame for all of the trouble in the marriage because she didn’t tell Christopher about what happened. Amy worries that Christopher will leave her if he finds out. Christopher does find out and he gets mad at her for not telling him and threatens to leave, not only proving Amy’s point but also suggesting, to me, that their marriage isn’t really worth saving. Amy deserves someone better than a guy whose response to hearing that his wife got raped is to get mad at her. Then Amy’s rapist (Michael Callan) shows up on the island and attacks her again. Amy fights back and is on the verge of stabbing the bastard to death when Mr. Roarke shows up and removes the knife from her hand and instead has the Fantasy Island police take the guy away. Christopher and Amy leave the Island, their marriage stronger than ever.
Meanwhile, I had to stop myself from throwing something at the television. First off, the story suggests that somehow Amy is to blame for not telling Christopher about what happened but Christopher’s reaction showed exactly why she didn’t tell him and it also showed that Amy’s best option would have been to get a divorce. Then the show suggests that the best way to give Amy her fantasy of finding freedom from her trauma was to have the rapist nearly rape her again! Mr. Roarke, at one point, states that Amy’s safety is his number one concern and that he has his entire police force looking for the rapist. But Roarke has already been established as having God-like powers so if Roarke wanted to find the guy before he attacked Amy, he certainly could have.
As well, what is the deal with all of these criminals and assorted lowlifes making it to the Island in the first place? Mr. Roarke often brags about running a background check on everyone who comes to the Island, which again suggests that no one comes to Fantasy Island unless Roarke wants them there. So, why are there so many terrible people on the Island?
This episode …. ugh.
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Mondays, I will be reviewing CHiPs, which ran on NBC from 1977 to 1983. The entire show is currently streaming on Prime!
This week, we finally meet Barizca’s family.
Episode 4.18 “The Hawk and the Hunter”
(Dir by Leslie H. Martinson, originally aired on April 5th, 1981)
In this episode, we learn a little bit more about Officer Barizca. Played by Brodie Greer, Barizca has been an important member of the ensemble since the first season but, up until this point, we really haven’t learned much about his life outside of driving a patrol car and directing traffic at crash sites.
It turns out that Barizca’s father, Pete (Sandy McPeak), is a crop duster. When it becomes clear that Pete is getting too old to fly his airplane, Barizca takes a leave of absence from the Highway Patrol so that he can help out. Hopefully, Barizca will find the courage to finally tell his father that it’s time to retire.
Meanwhile, there’s an environmentalist nutjob named Lyle (Dwight Schultz) who is convinced that the Barizcas are spreading poison with their airplane. Lyle has been sending threats to Pete so, eventually Barizca flies over Lyle and covers him in pesticide to help the Highway Patrol arrest him. So, I guess Lyle really is going to die now.
At the end of the episode, Pete retires and Barizca returns to patrolling the highways.
This was an okay episode, in that the scenery was nice and I did appreciate that the show made an effort to focus on something other than Ponch being the best at everything. Dwight Shultz was believably unhinged as Lyle and there was an interesting tension between him and Baker as both of them were Vietnam vets. Unfortunately, the Barizcas themselves just weren’t that interesting. This episode was a case of “You’ve seen one strained father-son relationship, you’ve seen them all.”
That said, I hope next week’s episode will introduce us to Grossman’s family.
Awwww, that poor pumpkin! Well, hopefully, he’s smiling now!
This animated special originally aired on Halloween night in 1979. I would imagine that the crying pumpkin probably traumatized children across America. Hopefully, all the kids were out trick or treating when this aired. Myself, I remember that when I was a kid, I would help my mom carve a pumpkin every year. And then I would get so depressed when we later had to throw it out. Seriously, I would get really attached to those jack o’lanterns.
Anyway, this cartoon is before my time but I have a feeling that, if I had been around to watch it, I would have been depressed for a whole year afterwards.
Enjoy!
The first serial of the 15th season of Doctor Who finally allowed viewers a glimpse of an alien race that they had previously only heard about.
The Rutans are the mortal enemies of the Sontarans. Their war has gone on for centuries, with neither race getting the upper hand (or tentacle, as the case may be). Nearly every episode in which the Sontarans appeared involved an attempt to turn Earth into an outpost against the Rutans. In Horror of Fang Rock, a Rutan travels to Earth and tries to do the same thing against the Sontarans. Luckily, the Doctor (Tom Baker) and Leela (Louise Jameson) are there to stop it but not before every other character in the serial has been killed.
Horror of Fang Rock takes place early in the 20th Century, at an isolated lighthouse on an island in the English channel. Other than The Doctor, Leela, and the Rutan, the characters consist of two lighthouse keepers and the four survivors of a shipwreck. They’re all noble English stereotypes, with names like Lord Palmerdale, Colonel Skinsale, and Adelaide Lessage and none of them survive the horror of Fang Rock.
When I first saw this serial as a kid, it actually left me feeling rather depressed. It certainly didn’t seem like everyone deserved to die. Even my mom, who rarely watched the show with my dad and me but who did sit through the first 25 minutes of Horror of Fang Rock before finding something better to do, was surprised when I told her that no one had survived.
When I recently rewatched this serial, I better appreciated just how efficiently Horror of Fang Rock is put together. It mixes traditional gothic imagery (like the fog-covered island and the dark lighthouse) with aliens and it does a good job of it. The Rutan itself turns out to be a glowing green mass. It looks convincingly evil and extraterrestrial. As soon as it appeared, I understood why the dull-witted Sontarans never seemed to be sure how to defeat the Rutans. The Rutan was a creature totally unlike the usual humanoid aliens that populated Doctor Who. It also made sense that only the Doctor and Leela would be able to survive a confrontation with the Rutan because the Rutan was so alien that rest of the inhabitants of the lighthouse had no idea how to respond to it.
At the end of this serial, the Doctor causes the Rutan mothership to explode. Leela looks straight at the explosion and, as a result, her brown eye turn blue. Louise Jameson’s eyes were always blue but they weren’t considered to be the right color for the savage character she was playing so, for her first few serial, she had to wear extremely uncomfortable contact lenses. One of her conditions for returning for Season 15 was that she would no longer have to wear them. The show’s producers gave in and that was the right decision. By the time Horror of Fang Rock came along, Baker and Jameson had moved pass their initial awkwardness and were now a strong team.
holds up well as one of the few Doctor Who stories to actually be as scary as the show’s critics claimed. Tom Baker and Louise Jameson are at their best and the Rutan proves to be the rare Doctor Who alien to live up to the hype.
Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Mondays, I will be reviewing Miami Vice, which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1989. The entire show can be purchased on Prime!
This week, Castillo gets an adventure of his own.
Episode 5.3 “Heart of Night”
(Dir by Paul Krasny, originally aired on November 18th, 1988)
This is season 5’s Castillo episode.
Castillo got to be at the center of one episode per season. Usually, it involved someone from his past resurfacing and Castillo having to go full samurai (or ninja, as the case may be) to protect them. That’s certainly the case here, in which Castillo’s ex-wife (Rosalind Chao, replacing Joan Chen) approaches Castillo because she and her husband (James Saito) are being targeted by Rivas (Bob Gunton), an Ecuadorian drug dealer who — *sigh* — has connections to the CIA.
This episode wasn’t really bad. It just felt awfully familiar. Even Edward James Olmos, who usually shined whenever he got a solo adventure, seems kind of bored in this episode. At this point in the series, there was really nothing surprising about the revelation that a South American drug lord was working with the CIA. Just about every drug lord on the show was portrayed as working for the CIA. It’s also not a surprise when Castillo’s ex’s new husband turns out to be corrupt. The episode ends with Castillo watching as the women he still loves walk away from him and, again, been there done that. Almost this entire episode felt like Miami Vice on autopilot.
Crockett appeared for about two minutes in this episode. He has his memory back and he’s working for the Vice Squad again. Castillo points out that Crockett is still being investigated for numerous murders and he suggests that Crockett take some time off. Crockett reluctantly agrees. Shouldn’t Crockett be in prison right now? The man was the biggest drug lord in Miami. He killed a cop (albeit in self-defense). I’m surprised he would be allowed back into the Vice Squad with all that hanging over him. If not sitting in jail, Crockett should at least be under suspension.
It’s just another weird day in Miami.
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Sunday, I will be reviewing the Canadian series, Degrassi: The Next Generation, which aired from 2001 to 2015! The series can be streamed on YouTube and Tubi.
This week, Emma tries to destroy someone’s life.
Episode 1.10 “Rumors and Relationships”
(Dir by Paul Fox, originally aired on May 20th, 2002)
This episode features Spinner at his best and Emma at her worst.
Let’s get Emma out of the way first. When Emma happens to see Liberty and Coach Armstrong alone in a classroom together, she assumes that Armstrong is hitting on Liberty. She tells Manny about her suspicions. Terri overhears and tells Sean. Sean tells Spinner. Spinner tells Jimmy. Jimmy tells Paige. Paige tells Hazel (Andrea Lewis). Hazel tells Ashley. Ashley tells Liberty. Liberty gets upset. When Emma sees Liberty crying, Emma ask Liberty about her and Armstrong. Liberty swears on her life that Armstrong was not hitting on her. Emma wonders how the rumor got started–
Uhmm, Emma …. YOU STARTED IT!
Emma promises Liberty that she will work her backwards to find the person who started the rumor–
IT WAS YOU, EMMA! YOU STARTED THE RUMOR!
Because Emma is apparently incapable of remember what she said earlier in the day, she goes from Ashley to Hazel to Page to Spinner (she skips Jimmy) to Sean and eventually she confronts Terri. Emma says that the rumor is all over the school and it’s all Terri’s fault.
Terri, quite sensibly, points out that Emma is the one who started the rumor.
Now, in her defense, Emma does feel bad about starting the rumor. When Mr. Raditch calls Coach Armstrong out into the hall to tell him about the rumors, Emma walks up and confesses that it’s her fault. But one thing Emma doesn’t do is really apologize. In fact, when she later talks to Liberty, she instead acts as if it is somehow Liberty’s fault for not telling Emma why she was in a classroom alone with Armstrong in the first place. Liberty finally admits that she had dyscalculia (which is dyslexia but with numbers) and that Armstrong — THE MATH TEACHER — has been tutoring her and helping her not to feel bad about it. Emma again asks why Liberty just didn’t tell her that to begin with.
Hey, Emma — maybe Liberty didn’t tell you because IT’S NONE OF YOUR FREAKING BUSINESS!
The episode ends with Liberty telling Emma that, when it comes to helping people, Emma sucks. And Liberty certainly has a point.
Meanwhile, in the cafeteria, Spinner discovers a bug in his food. “Boycott the caf!” he yells, “it has earwigs!” Unfortunately, no one believes Spinner. So, the next day, Spinner collects a bunch of bugs and takes them into the cafeteria. He thinks that if someone else sees a bug and reports it, they will be believed and someone will call an exterminator. Of course, the only thing that anyone sees is Spiner carrying a tub of bugs. The bugs get free and Spinner is sentenced to work in the cafeteria until he’s paid off the $300 that it’s going to cost the school to have the cafeteria exterminated.
“But it needed to be exterminated anyways!” Spinner says.
This was classic Spinner. Even when he cares about Degrassi, no one listens. It’s a little bit gross that he was carrying around a tub of living bugs but his heart was in the right place.
Spinner’s the best!
I came across this old cartoon on YouTube. Apparently, it aired in October of 1983.
It’s about bears living in Bearbank. Halloween is approaching and they’re worried about getting invaded by the monsters who live on Monster Mountain. Well, that makes sense. My question is why would you buy a house near a location called Monster Mountain? And really, shouldn’t the monsters be in the houses and the bears in the mountains? This cartoon is weird.
Anyway, the bears are getting ready to feel the city but little Ted E. Bear sets out to confront his fears! Woo hoo!
I don’t know. It’s from 1983. That was a strange year, I guess.
Enjoy!
“He was brought across in 1228. Prayed on humans for their blood.
Now, he wants to be mortal again.To repay society for his sins.
To emerge from his World of Darkness. From his endless Forever Night.”
The Prologue has a young doctor named Marilyn (Gillian Vanderburgh, The Stupids)who fails to save a patient. Troubled by guilt, she’s reassured by Dr. Cole (who rubs her shoulders) that it just comes with the job. This puts her at ease. As she takes a shower, someone pulls back the drapes. She smiles, saying “You’re crazy, you know that?” only to find her hands grabbed by gloves. With her arms pinned above her, the doctor’s wrists are slashed, her eyes go wide as she screams in terror.
A young woman walks the streets of Toronto, late at night. Heading to a nearby pier, she takes a seat on a park bench, admiring the view of the city. Pulling a hood over her head, she watches the sunrise, smoke billowing from her clothes. Within moments, her body is engulfed in flames, leaving behind her clothing on the bench.
Nick Knight is struggling with his workload. With 8 other cold cases in his backlog, he’s becoming jaded with it all. He’s also grown a bit snappy with the Captain. Before he can apologize, Schanke calls out to him from another room. They have to roll, there’s a body to identify. At the crime scene, a bystander mentions someone was talking about “spontaneous human combustion” to Schanke. In the clothing, Nick discovers a ring that’s familiar to him. We’re given a flashback of Nick on a theatre stage, fencing with the young woman, who he easily defeats. After a round of applause, the cast all bow. Backstage, among an array of lit candles, the woman approaches Nick…”You, sir, are very skilled with your sword. Do you wish to run me through again?” He scoops her up in a kiss and they talk about leaving for Gloucester. She tells him there’s no rush. They’ve all the time in the world. Running her fingers through her hair, Nick kisses the woman briefly before baring his fangs, taking a bite.
“Suicide.” Schanke says, pulling Nick back to the present. “Yes.” he mutters, his focus on the ring. Schanke asks him if he’s okay, since he’s referring to a suicide at the hospital. At the Hospital, Schanke explains how he’d approach his own suicide, which would involve a full meal, fabulous lovemaking and nitroglycerin. Nick interviews Dr. Cole (Laura Press, The Pit), who explains that the shower was still running when she found her, the water scalding. Dr. Cole explains the doctor was on duty for 20 hours and that she’s seen doctors snap like that before, with all the pressures the role demands. The three catch sight of Carl Janns (Robert Bockstael, North of 60), a med student at the university and the victim’s fiancé. Schanke pull Janns aside to take him home.
At the Morgue, Natalie states the incisions are perfect and quick. When asked why, Natalie responds that only the victim really knows, and that unfortunately, there are no fast rules for suicide. Nick again reflects on the ring, and we return to the past. Erica (Torri Higginson, Stargate: Atlantis & Stargate SG-1), now a vampire, tells Nick what she saw in his memories of him in the Crusades. Nick is concerned that her memories show an obsession with death and dying, something he’s surprised to find. She tells him that there’ll come a time where her lust for life will wane, something Nick can’t believe. Erica believes that once that happens, once she can’t give back to the world, it would be best to leave and not be a burden. If this were a Vampire: The Masquerade tale, she’d make an interesting Giovanni, or an even better Cappodocian. “Are you going to take on the investigation?” Natalie asks, pulling Nick’s attention. “Yeah. If I can fit the case in.”
Knight returns home, thinking about Erica. He hears her ask whether he feels he’s a burden. This causes him raise one of the shutters and dab a pinky finger into the sunlight, listening to the sounds of sizzling flesh. Could Nick be pondering the unimaginable?
Going over his evidence in his apartment, he again hears Erica’s voice. He even sees her this time in a beautiful white dress. “Maybe it’s time to join me.”, she says. “Why did you do it? You had so much life.”, he asks. Her response was that she was a burden, and that she wasn’t giving anything back. She asks him to join her in the light, taking a few steps away before disappearing from view. Even Knight seems a bit frightened.
Back at the hospital, Nick speaks with some of the nurses, who have nothing but wonderful things to say about Marilyn (the deceased). They add that they feel something more was going on, that perhaps she was murdered, but the conversation is interrupted by Dr. Cole. The Doctor asks if there’s other things they could be doing other than spreading rumors. Nick steps in an apologizes for the nurses, and that he was interviewing them. He asks one last question on if there was anyone else to speak to. They point him to Dean (Mackenzie Gray, Man of Steel). Dean works as a clown, cheering up the sick kids in the pediatric ward. He’s also a patient undergoing chemotherapy, living in the hospital. When asked about Marilyn, Dean becomes defensive, angry at someone who would throw away their life so carelessly when he is valuing every second of the 2 to 3 months he has left. Knight accepts Dean’s photos, and leaves, wishing him well.
On the drive back to the precinct, Erica appears beside him, commenting on the beauty of rainy nights. She adds the crowded world is noise and makes her feel out of step with the times. Erica asks Knight if he feels the same way. Nick doesn’t respond, and just keeps driving.
At the precinct, Captain Stonetree tells Knight he’s going to pass some of his cases along to another Detective. Nick snaps at the Captain, but Stonetree remains cool as always. He informs Knight that he’s not happy the administrator of the hospital is leaving messages with him saying an apparent suicide isn’t being considered as such. Knight argues that there’s more to Marilyn’s demise, but Stonetree adds that he can’t afford to care why she ended her life. All the evidence says it’s what happened, but he gives Nick 24 hours to close the case or he’ll close it for him.
Knight heads to Janette’s nightclub, showing her Erica’s ring. “So, she finally did it.” Janette says. Nick asks Janette about why Erica didn’t come to him for help. Janette’s response is that she didn’t want to ‘infect’ him with her ‘disease’. Together, Nick and Janette head to Erica’s place, which appears in disarray. Dead flower, a typewriter and covered furniture decorate the place. Janette asks Nick what he expects to find here..”The passionate tomboy with the fiery spirit? Well, she grew old, Nicholas, she couldn’t keep up.” Picking up a doll, Nick has a flashback where Erica confesses that mortals can revitalize their lives with each new generation. “Their children are their mortality.” All she has are her plays. A teenager enters the apartment, looking for Erica. She mentions that Erica had a new play she was going to premiere called “The Last Act” and that she was excited about.
Nicholas arrives home to find Natalie waiting for him as she closes the shudders from the morning rays. “Cutting it a little close, are we?” Nick explains Erica’s theory on contributions, he reopens one of the shutters and reaches for Erica’s doll. As his hand begins to smoke, Natalie pushes him away from the sunlight and they argue over Nick’s desire to see the sun. She offers a new clue into Marilyn’s death in that the doctor was pregnant. The new information comes just in time, as Schanke knocks on Knight’s door. They let him in and they discuss Marilyn’s pregnancy. Schanke bemoans Knight’s lack of food in the fridge, but decides to help interview Carl Janns during the day.
Karl tells Schanke that Marilyn was depressed and distant, though Schanke notes that her coworkers said she was bright and energetic. Karl becomes defensive, causing Schanke to both back down and mention the baby. This throws Karl for a loop, though he says she didn’t seem to want to have a baby. Schanke, Stonetree, Natalie and Nick go over the details, though Stonetree still isn’t particularly convinced. Knight, however, seems inspired. Getting up to follow another lead, Stonetree looks on with pride with a smile…”Let him go. I like him like this. Thinking again, on the case. Cop doing his job with some passion.”
Knight sits in the audience, watching Erica’s play. An old woman and a young girl dance, with the woman asking the girl to squeeze every breathing moment out of life, to enjoy it. The girl asks the woman to stay, to teach her. The old woman tells her to simply live her life and that she’ll always be there, living on through the girl’s accomplishments. A pensive Knight watches along. At the same time the play is going on, someone goes into Dean’s room at the hospital and overdoses him with a needle full of morphine.
Knight and Schanke return to the hospital, where Doctor Cole informs them about Dean. He’s not dead, but the doctors are able to stabilize him. The detectives manage to speak with Dean and discover that Marilyn’s baby was indeed his, done for him to “live on” in a way. They set up a trap, telling Karl about Dean and the baby and that he’s still alive. Additionally, Knight takes Dean’s place in his room to wait for the murderer to strike again.
Laying down in Dean’s bed, Erica comes to visit him. She asks him to follow her, but Nick refuses. “I still find life exciting and I think I’ve got more to give.” he says. Erica admires this in him, but scoffs at the idea of becoming mortal. If he dies, he says, it won’t be by his hand. Erica steps out of the door, but tells him she’ll be waiting. A nurse then enters the room and stabs Knight, who pulls the knife free. They struggle and in pulling off the wig, we find it’s Karl, who breaks through the fight and runs off, knocking Schanke off balance and darting into another room. Knight easily catches up to him and flings him around the room before holding him out a window, baring his fangs. Karl freaks out, begging not to be let go while Schanke steps into the room behind Nick, his gun at the ready but not able to see Nick’s face. He reminds Knight of the added paperwork if he lets the fellow go. Pulling Karl inside, Knight flings him to the floor, with Schanke making the arrest.
The episode wraps with our heroes at the theatre. Erica’s play isn’t a success, but Natalie and Nick enjoyed it. Schanke admits he fell asleep through it. The girl form the play thanks Nick for attending. Nick gives the girl the ring, telling her Erica wanted the girl to have it. The girl mentions that Erica had an old soul. “Not as I knew her.”, Knight responds with a smile. Natalie, Schanke and Knight leave, his spirit a bit renewed.
