Come in 81 Kilo: A Forever Knight Podcast

Come in 81 Kilo: A Forever Knight Podcast

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Forever Knight (Season 3 Ep 21) - "Ashes to Ashes"

/ 01:52:02/E73
Divia:

Hello, Lucius. It's been a very long time.

LaCroix:

Shouldn't all good little girls be in bed by this time?

Divia:

But I'm not that kind of girl. You know that.

Rachel:

Welcome back, friends.

Matt:

Welcome back.

Rachel:

It's time for another episode.

Matt:

Almost the last episode.

Rachel:

I know. So hi. I'm Rachel.

Matt:

And I'm Matt.

Rachel:

And this is Come In 81 kilo.

Matt:

A forever night podcast.

Rachel:

We just finished watching Forever Knight season 3 episode 21, Ashes to Ashes.

Matt:

And I feel so close to you right now.

Rachel:

Because you physically are. Because you rearranged the pod lab, and now you're right next to me. You should this okay. How do you feel after watching this episode? Besides being like, oh, but that's the last time Tracy's gonna see Vashon, and then when he died going fucking called it.

Rachel:

Just lame, honey. Lame.

Matt:

When they were leaving when Vashawn and Erz were leaving the Raven, I knew. I was like, vibes are off. Vashawn's not gonna survive. Urs has a chance, but I I wasn't convinced.

Rachel:

You were like, oh, at least Urs isn't gonna die. And I was like, oh, this is so hard. How hard it's been to keep this a secret. I don't know. This episode always gets me.

Rachel:

Like, I just I I feel during this episode. As much as I rag on Vashon's hair, the whole, like, Tracy crying over him, and I feel like that that's all really sad. And I have some problems with how it all goes down. And, of course, we're gonna talk about it because that's literally what we do, but also just like, you know, it feels like the beginning of the end.

Matt:

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. When when we're killing off main cast.

Rachel:

Yeah. It feels like, oh, shit. They got this is yeah. I mean, it's slightly a cleverly disguised elevator episode because the actual flashback is actually And then the rest of the flashbacks is actually recycled, more permanent hell flashback, which is a bold choice because

Matt:

Katherine Long is flashback.

Rachel:

Katherine Long, Divya is 13 when she films more permanent hell, and she's like 16 when she films this. So she's actually grown up. So it's like a bold move to be like, oh, yeah. By the way, she used to be littler. Oh, that that's okay.

Rachel:

That's fine. That's fine. Yeah. I just Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it.

Rachel:

In fact, that we're gonna get there. We're gonna get there. So we open we'll just we'll just get started because I feel like we have a lot to riff on in this episode, and we might as well just get to it. So we open on a guy in an Egyptian tomb, and he's breaking into this tomb. We, like, see an opening and we see his, like, light in his eyes pop up into the opening because these dudes are grave robbers, and they are, they've broken into

Matt:

this tomb.

Rachel:

Is it the tomb of Akhenaten? Ahahotep. Ahahotep. Okay.

Matt:

And I feel like this room is, like, an exhibit at an interactive children's museum or something like that.

Rachel:

Yeah. And they just hijacked it.

Matt:

And they were like, hey. Can we film for, like, 5 minutes in here?

Rachel:

We'll have our we'll have our 2 scenes in and out. Yeah. That'll be fine. Yeah.

Matt:

We just gotta film real quick. Yeah. Because it seems like a bit more work than they usually put in because of all the all the hieroglyphic stuff painted on the walls, but maybe they just went in, went hard on the sets.

Rachel:

Yeah. Actually, this is a set that they built, and it was modular. So they could remove walls to set cameras outside of it to make the set look larger than it actually was. So yep. And it's supposed to be the tomb of Ayahotep and then, who was a priest of Akhenaten.

Rachel:

And just like a minor quibble here, Aken Aten, who is actually the father of Tutankhamun, who started life as Tutank Aten, is notorious as being the 1 Egyptian pharaoh that was like, actually, guys, I think there's only 1 god, and it is the sun god Aten, which is why he was Aten Aten and why it was Tukan Tukanq Aten because he tried to make it monotheistic, and he actually changes the art. He changes the way Egyptian art looks, which is why I know all of this because I have, like, an art degree. But he is the 1 that makes all the Egyptian artwork. Look. If you've ever seen Egyptian art where they have, like, a little like, a pooch, like a little belly, like a dad bod Mhmm.

Rachel:

That's from Achan Aten's reign, and he was actually killed, probably killed, because he was trying to change the way the religion worked. And when Tutank Aten changed his name to Tutank Amun, he was changing his name to Amun Ra, which was the sun god of Egypt, the legit 1, the previous 1. So it was like, hey, guys. I'm cool. We're all cool.

Rachel:

Look. I changed my name. So, the priest of Aqen Aten would not have had the sun god Ra on the sarcophagus and probably would not have had any kind of an actual burial because they were sort of all disgraced.

Matt:

Well, he got buried this way as a punishment and way to contain him.

Rachel:

No. No. She buried her master in

Matt:

this tomb. The symbol was already there?

Rachel:

Yeah. The symbol was already there, and she shoved him in there because she was like, it'd be cool. Because, you know, symbol was already there, and she shoved him in there because she was like, it'd be cool. Because she says, you know, he's flanked by 2 other priests or at least that's what they think. But it was or whatever, the her master.

Rachel:

Is But it was Cara or whatever, the her master is actually who's in the tomb. Right.

Matt:

I thought he was the priest.

Rachel:

I mean, he could have been the priest.

Matt:

A hotend.

Rachel:

But the whole point is that, that's the wrong god. They won't do it. It wouldn't have been it wouldn't have worked. Anyway, our great Robert, thank you for joining me in Rachel's Egyptology lesson of the day.

Matt:

Thank you.

Rachel:

You're welcome. I really, really like Egyptology. So he says he can see through the stone and that they need to open the tomb in the center, look for the sun god. And he's like, okay. Cool.

Rachel:

Like, I see it right here. And then the grave robber is like, hang on. What about the legend? The legend of the tomb. What if, like, Ray believes that, I'm not worthy and I end up getting destroyed?

Rachel:

Like, what if I end up dying? And the guy's like, dude, it's fine. Don't

Matt:

worry about it.

Rachel:

The only legend that concerns us deals with the treasure. And he's like, oh, you make compelling arguments. And then he just whacks the seal 1 time with a hammer and it breaks seal. Lid splits. The whole lid splits, and then it starts sliding open all by itself, and then it starts to glow with an inner light.

Rachel:

And, like What

Matt:

is that?

Rachel:

At this point, I would be like, the curse is real. I just fucking did, but he's like, oh, no. Oh, no. And he, like, runs around to the front of it, and then we see the glow reflected on this guy's face, and he actually looks up like we track his eyes up as if something is rising out of the tomb, and then he starts screaming, and then we go to the intro. Yep.

Rachel:

And that's our opening. And, you know really,

Matt:

really scared.

Rachel:

I feel like we couldn't have. The second to last episode couldn't have started on a better, more melodramatic. Like, what if we raise something from the dead in Egypt and it comes back to fuck with Lacroix? Hell, yeah. Let's do that.

Rachel:

I mean, what what else? You know?

Matt:

Yeah. Lacroix finally gets a taste of his own medicine.

Rachel:

Yeah. You can go out with a whimper or you can go out with a bang, and they were like, fucking bang bang, motherfuckers. We're about to go. So that's how we start. And then we go to the the raven.

Rachel:

Well, actually,

Matt:

depending on the the opening for, like, every other episode, we're pretty sure this guy dies.

Rachel:

Yeah. Oh, yeah. No. He definitely did. Yeah.

Rachel:

With the screaming and the light and the the I mean, he could have been being transformed. Egyptian curse and and whatnot.

Matt:

Turned into a frog? Burbot.

Rachel:

Yeah. I don't think we're gonna introduce actual magic right now. Like, right now, episode 21 That'll be in the reboot. Yeah. In the reboot.

Rachel:

We'll have

Matt:

no. We'll have the witch arc. No. No. After the werewolf arc.

Rachel:

No. Don't even I know you're kidding, and that's the only reason that I'm not going to get even more mad than I already am right now.

Matt:

Right before the mummy arc.

Rachel:

We do not do not muddy the waters. Do you know how much I fucking hate it when we throw okay. Okay. Okay. What Matt is referencing is my general dislike for when you get me a good vampire show, and then you're like, look, guys.

Rachel:

Now there's werewolves and witches and and and now you have the vampire diaries, and nobody cares anymore. So, I mean, lots of people cared about the Vampire Diaries. I'm not shitting on the Vampire Diaries. I personally didn't like it because if everybody gets to be a supernatural beastie, where's the fun? Where'd the fun go, y'all?

Rachel:

The fun has left the room. It left the building. I'm done. There's no fun. Yeah.

Rachel:

And if you can get transformed back to a human whenever you want.

Matt:

Yeah. Where's the where's the risk? Where's the danger? Yeah. Where's the Existentially.

Rachel:

No. No. That's okay. Not now. Not now.

Rachel:

So we start at the Raven, and Lacroix actually is alone. He is not with Nicholas. He is not with anyone else. No 1 is coming in to ask him for information. He is not giving anyone information.

Rachel:

He's not sitting at the bar drinking a glass of blood. He's not he's literally just he went for a walk. And do you know how much the show would have improved if we had spent any time showing characters like Lacroix doing normal ass shit, like going for a walk instead of every single time we see them, they're in their context, and they're, oh, Lacroix is evil. He's doing evil shit. Well, like, you you look at how much more depth his character feels like it has after 1 single episode.

Rachel:

1 single episode where we actually got to see him do something other than twirling his mustache and podcasting, and he's suddenly a way deeper, way better character. We're gonna do this earlier in the reboot. That is something we will be doing in the reboot.

Matt:

Yes. Establishing backstories.

Rachel:

Yes. Establishing backstories. I mean, we know his backstory, but we don't know, like, who he is. We don't know anything more about Lacroix than how he relates to Nicholas. Right.

Rachel:

Yeah. So he actually goes up to the door of the raven, and then he turns around, like, what? Hold on. Did I is it did I hear something? Like, he senses something.

Rachel:

And then we see Lacroix through someone else's night vision. It's like heavy breathing.

Matt:

Right.

Rachel:

Red overtones. Like, the the Divio weird bat sounds that she makes all the time, which I can only imagine is because she's closer to the first vampire. Maybe they were more bat like, and that's why every time she does anything, it's like So much so that our cat kept getting freaked out. Pippen was like, what the shit?

Matt:

No. That's just Divya.

Rachel:

Oh, yeah. No. Maybe it's just Divya. Yeah. That's true.

Rachel:

And then we go to the precinct, and it's Tracy and Reese, and they are debating about who is the most deranged serial killer.

Matt:

Yeah. And Rachel has a lot more insight into this than I do.

Rachel:

I just like, what what is it? I I think the purpose of this is evil exists everywhere and in everyone. And I'm re listening to Good Omens, and we just got to a really poignant part. There's actually quite a few poignant parts in good moments, and there's a part where Crowley is talking about how he doesn't really see heaven and hell as good and evil. They're just opposite sides of the cosmic chess board and where good and evil actually exists is in humanity.

Rachel:

Right. That angels are not inherently good and demons are not inherently bad. They are just opposite forces, and the truly depraved things only come from human minds. And that's kind of what Tracy and Reese are talking about is, like, there are evil people. They're kind of, like, throwing out names of who's more deranged.

Rachel:

And finally, Reese is like, how about this serial killer who murdered kids in front of their parents, and then the parents committed suicide because they were so traumatized. And Tracy's like, what the fuck? And then Nick goes, why would she do that? And Reese goes, oh, she just said it was fun. And Tracy goes, you're making this up because I would read about that.

Rachel:

And he's like, no. You don't understand. Back in those days, that kind of sickness was like in the tabloids. That wasn't something that we weren't making

Matt:

serious journalists didn't cover it.

Rachel:

We weren't making Netflix movies about these guys back then. You know, we bitch about the press right now, but at least this stuff is more visible. Visible. And the first defense against evil is to open your damn eyes.

Speaker 4:

1st defense against evil, open your damn eyes.

Rachel:

Wink. And then Blue Mancuma winks and gives a little smile at Tracy. I think this is a really sweet little moment and it feels impromptu. It feels like something the actor just did in a like, open your damn eyes because he's read Nick's file. He knows who her partner is.

Matt:

He knows that all she needs to do is open her eyes. Yeah. And especially after the past lives episode Yeah. She should know this. There's something right in front of her.

Rachel:

Yeah. There's something in front of you that you are missing. And then Nick gets a call and all it is is a girl who goes, there's a corpse at the Raven. Kick kick. Because Nick is like, what?

Rachel:

Who is this? And then we just hear the dial tone, but you don't hear anymore. But that was the sound that the phone made when the person on the other end hung up, the dial tone. Also, the busy signal. Well, sometimes you still get a busy signal, but not so much a dial tone.

Rachel:

It just told you that the phone was active, but not in use. And then we go back to Lacroix, and Lacroix is doing his, like, vlogging glide that he does sometimes when he's alone and sometimes just when he feels like it where he just glides. And he's gliding through the raven, and he ends up finding Urs and Vashon asleep on the couch in the fuck pad.

Matt:

You mean their apartment?

Rachel:

It's not their apartment. It's the room it's the room that has a

Matt:

has a place that he lives. Yeah. He just doesn't like to stay there.

Rachel:

Right. And Urs stays downstairs. So this is not where anybody normally sleeps. And Urs is like, oh, ho. This is not what you think it is.

Rachel:

And LaQuad just goes, how disappointing. Like, I don't give a shit. He doesn't care. He's like, I didn't think anything of it except that I don't want you in here, and I don't want you talking to me. I haven't had my morning coffee yet.

Rachel:

Like, I'm just fucking not ready to talk to anybody. And Urs is like, oh, it's cool. It's cool. Like, I asked Vashon to come over because I was having scary dreams about headless children, and then I woke up and, like, I saw a for realsies headless child.

Matt:

Foreshadowing.

Rachel:

And Lacroix is like, like, he gets really uncomfortable. He, like, turns away really fast, and he's like, I'm just getting my blood. Don't think about it. Don't think about it. Especially when she starts to mention that she's been feeling an evil presence.

Rachel:

She's like, there's something evil here. I can feel it. And Lacroix is like, yes. Yes. Well, this is all very interesting, but I do have a club to open.

Rachel:

So, like, can you GTFO also, like, evil? Of course. This is a vampire club. Please get the fuck out. So they leave, and then we see that someone is watching Vashon and Urs leave because we get more heavy breathing heavy breathing and night vision.

Rachel:

And then the same person actually watches LaCroix come out with a couple of bottles. And this is when LaCroix is, like, again, looking around, like, hang on. I think I sent something, and then he pauses and looks around. Like, he goes behind the counter and he puts the bottles on the counter, and then he pauses, like, hold up. That does not smell like the beer fridge.

Rachel:

And so he opens the beer fridge to find a headless body in the fridge. And then he closes it and looks over, and there's a box on the floor, and Matt goes, what's in the box? Rude. So rude. Of course, this we know.

Rachel:

We all know what's in the box. He picks up the box, and he sets it on the counter. And Matt goes, I wonder how they're gonna cover up the hole in the counter later because they have the actor stick his head through the box. Yeah. They don't need to.

Rachel:

It's fine.

Matt:

It's the last time they're gonna need it.

Rachel:

Right? They got they got this set for 1 more episode. It's perfectly fine. And so he opens the box, and, actually, the first thing on the top is Divya's cameo as if, like, Divya was buried with this cameo. And

Matt:

Cameo as in like a pendant.

Rachel:

Yeah. A necklace with her, image on it. And actually, he has this cameo in a more permanent hell. Because at the very end, when he's like, damn you, Divya, he holds up the cameo. Like, he's podcasting holding the cameo in his hand.

Rachel:

Yeah. So are there 2? Did she break into his house and get it? Did he have another 1 made?

Matt:

She broke into his house to stash the body.

Rachel:

Yeah. So did she go get the cameo and then, like found it there?

Matt:

She was just poking around. Oh, great. This is perfect. The perfect addition to the box.

Rachel:

I mean, of the things that have no explanation in this episode, this is literally the smallest of the small things. Plus, the setting is different on the cameo that he pulls out of the box. The 1 that she has in the flashback and the 1 that he has in a more permanent hell has 2 points of connection. So, like, the, broach piece could never twist, and then when the 1 that he pulls out is only attached at the top. So I don't know.

Rachel:

It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. But, again, like, didn't anybody watch season 2? Because I watched season 2. So he picks that up, and he's holding it.

Rachel:

And then he lifts the next layer, and it's the head of the Egyptian guy from the tomb. And

Matt:

Who is a stranger to him?

Rachel:

He has

Matt:

no idea.

Rachel:

He has no idea who that guy is. And then we get a flashback to Divya and Lacroix in the tomb, and she's like, can you feel the presence, father? And he's like Father. Father. And he's like, yes, Divya.

Rachel:

I feel evil. And then we come back, and we actually see him, like, from the point of view of the cameo. Like, the cameo is in the foreground just as the police arrive. Like, Nick arrives at the Raven with a bunch of other police officers, and he pockets the cameo just as Nick tells him to keep his hands where they can see them, and then he goes, please. Like, he can't order Nick.

Rachel:

He can't look order LaCroix around. Father. He can't order LaCroix around even to say face and froth. He's just like, can you keep your hands where you can see them, please? Like, please don't I think the please is also, like, do not make this a thing.

Rachel:

Like, I need you to hold it together because if you lose your shit, I could lose my shit, and then I'm out. Like, I have to leave. I can't stay in this job anymore. So please, please, please pretend to be human for the length of time that you have to interact with me in front of other humans. Do you think you can handle that?

Rachel:

And so Lacoste just like, I think you'll find what you're looking for here and also over there because it's in 2 places. I do like when he pulls it back and it's the head, and he's like, ugh. And it's not like a, oh, I'm grossed out by this head. It's like, oh, no. This is really melodramatic.

Rachel:

I think I know who this is. It's just like, oh, god. No. Not fucking Divya. And then we get Laquotte, the precinct, and I have been waiting for this for so long.

Rachel:

It's like 1 of my favorite scenes. That's good.

Matt:

You brought this up so many times.

Rachel:

I love this. I love it. Like, I just love it. Just like in the episode where we got remember when they brought in Jennette and Skanky had to question Jennette in the precinct? Yeah.

Rachel:

Seeing a character out of contact context and interact with characters that they don't normally interact with is just, like, so good. And this is it's everything you want because it's Lacroix at the precinct. It's Reese trying to question Lacroix. It's Reese trying his usual heavy handed tactics, but on the dude that's, like, 2000 years old and gives so few shits, he'd probably rather just kill everyone in this building so he could go home and take a nap. And Reese is like, so you have no idea how the body got there or who it could be?

Rachel:

And LaCroix is like, no. I don't know how it got there, and no. I don't know who it was. And so they ask, like, who has access to the club after hours? And LaCroix is like, no 1.

Rachel:

It is completely empty. And in the background is Nick, like, bullshit. Bull bullshit. Oh, god. Bullshit.

Rachel:

Like, he just his face is just like, oh, god. That is a lie. That is a lie.

Matt:

Oh, yeah. Look why? What about this key you gave me?

Rachel:

No. They're like, does does Nigma have a key on his key ring? And they're like, what are you talking about? And Reese is like, what about the staff? Like, surely, you have staff.

Rachel:

And Tracy's like, yeah. Didn't someone stock up the beer fridge at closing time? And Lacroix was like, yeah. We close at 6, but I really feel like someone would have mentioned if they found a decapitated corpse in the beer fridge. Like, I don't I don't know what to tell you.

Rachel:

No. It wasn't there at closing. And Reese goes, okay. Yeah. Assuming you didn't put it there.

Rachel:

And he's like, yeah. Assuming that assuming that, of course. And then Tracy's like, well, did you spend the night at home? Did you leave? Like, they're trying to figure out when was the opportunity for someone to get in there and put it in there.

Matt:

Right.

Rachel:

And LaCroix goes, well, I live at the club. Like, that is my home. But I took a walk right around sundown, and they must have snuck it in then.

Matt:

I meant to look up, like, in Toronto in the city, are you allowed to have a shared, like, business residence?

Rachel:

Well, it would have been different in the nineties anyway.

Matt:

Right.

Rachel:

Yeah. And so Reese goes, right. So someone just broke into your club, put a body in the fridge for the hell of it? And this is my what? LaClaw?

Rachel:

LaClaws? I kinda thought that discovering a motive was what you guys did. You know, your fucking job.

Speaker 4:

Someone breaks in, stuffs a corpse into a fridge, and gift wraps its head for you just for the hell of it.

Rachel:

It's my understanding that discovering a motive is your job. I mean, he's not wrong. He's not wrong. He doesn't have to answer that question. That's not even a question.

Rachel:

It was just a supposition. Right. I think, you know, somebody broke in. So you're saying somebody broke in and did it for the hell of it, and he's like, isn't that your job to figure it out? I'm just telling you what I know for for a fact, which is I didn't do it.

Rachel:

And so Nick goes, perhaps you should get yourself a lawyer. And this was when Reese is like, yeah. But if you did that, we'd have to charge you with something, and the charge would be murder 1. And LaCroix is, like, oh, honey, one's one's way off. Lacroix is, like, uh-huh.

Rachel:

Okay. Sure. Yeah. So you could charge me with a crime if you wanted to. I mean, the evidence is pretty good.

Rachel:

And then Reese and Lacroix just have this really long look, and Reese backs down. He goes, I want him held as a material witness, and then Tracy and Reese leave.

Matt:

Mic drop.

Rachel:

Except he didn't. She was like, I'm gonna charge you with murder, and Laquaza was like, then do it. And then they stared at each other for a minute, and he's like, okay. Well, at least wanna hold him as a witness, and then they they leave. And Lequois is like, wow.

Rachel:

I really like your little friends. They are not without character. And Nick goes, and your associates say the ones that live in the basement? And Lacroix is like, oh, come on. You know it wasn't them.

Rachel:

And then he goes They're professionals. He goes, so actually, Nick, by the way, how did you know to come to the Raven? Raven? Like, what what prompted that little visit? And Nick goes, an anonymous tip.

Matt:

And I figured I was expecting Nick to say, yeah. We got an anonymous tip, and, like, they called me, and it sounded like a little girl.

Rachel:

He didn't have time. Because pretty much as soon as he says an anonymous tip, they come in to take LaCroix to lock up. And then we see LaCroix walking by, like, in front. Nobody is holding him. Nobody is leading him.

Rachel:

He is literally just walking in front of the group to lock to lock up.

Matt:

He and his entourage Yes. Are strolling to lock up.

Rachel:

He walks by Reese. I love this so fucking much. This whole scene brings so much joy to my heart because Reese goes, he may not be guilty of this, but he sure as hell is guilty of something.

Speaker 4:

He may not be guilty of this, but he sure as hell is guilty of something.

Rachel:

You are correct. Good instincts. Good instincts. It kinda reminds me of in Dexter when he's like, wow. This entire building full of people trained to recognize killers, and only I only give 1 guy the creeps.

Rachel:

Kinda like that. But Tracy's kind of sus. Like, she watches LaCroix walk by, and she's not an idiot. She's like, oh, that dude's a vampire. So she calls Vashon, and she goes out to meet him by her car.

Rachel:

And she's like, thanks for coming in such short notice, and Vashon just being an absolute dickhole. I don't know why. He's like, you forget time is relative. The fuck does that mean, Vashon? Does that

Matt:

mean trying to be profound.

Rachel:

Does that mean that it's a longer minute for you, or is it a shorter minute for you? Or was it not actually short notice, or was it really like, what is that supposed to mean? Time is relative.

Matt:

He's just trying to sound aged and wise.

Rachel:

Okay. That's why he's sitting there flipping a coin.

Matt:

Yeah. And he's trying to look nonchalant too. Noir flick. He's not good at it.

Rachel:

Okay. Fine. Well, Tracy tells him about the crime at the Raven immediately. She's like, listen. Here's the tea.

Rachel:

So we were at the Raven, and there was a dead body, and it was headless, and it was in the beer fridge, and then there was a box in the box that it had in it. And blah blah blah blah blah. And, oh, by the way, we're also holding Lacroix, and then somebody comes out and Vashawn whooshes off. And she's like, oh, shit. I didn't actually get to talk to him.

Rachel:

And then he taps on the window behind her because he's in the car. So she gets in the car with him, and he's like, it's warmer in here. Okay. That's fine. And then she's like, so, Vashawn, is LaCroix 1 of you?

Rachel:

Like, is he 1 of you? And Vashon just stares at her like bloop bloop. Like the Korean drama, like, blink sound, the bloop bloop, and then he goes, nope. And Tracy says, oh, well, I could feel an evil presence when I was there, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't Lacroix, so what could it have been? And Vashon makes a crack about her feeling rattled just because she saw a severed head, and she's like, don't run me around, Vashon.

Rachel:

Like, don't infantilize me. Give me some credit here. I know you know evil. It's a part of you, and maybe it's why we would never work. Wow.

Rachel:

That she's been stewing on that because she's gotten really serious. We went from her being real kind of perky and bubbly and funny. And then in the last couple of episodes, she's gotten increasingly dark, like, just not not Tracy, not the Tracy we've been getting to know over the last 20 some episodes. It's just a more morose, like, she's realizing that she may have romanticized the idea of Vashon, but in the end, he's just kind of a doofus.

Matt:

Maybe it's the the past life memories of the violinist.

Rachel:

Yeah. Yeah. Well, she has been seeing a past life therapist. So Yeah.

Matt:

We don't know

Rachel:

how We don't know.

Matt:

Many sessions she's had with that therapist.

Rachel:

Yeah. She's like, you know, I was killed by a vampire in my former life. I'm just saying. I mean, that would be a reason for

Matt:

me to be mad. That changes things.

Rachel:

It's kinda like when I have a dream about you doing something and it makes me mad at you and the dream, and then I wake up and I have a hard time not being mad at you.

Matt:

Uh-huh.

Rachel:

Kinda like that. Like the 1 where we were trying to escape a volcano and you kept not taking the turn I was telling you to take. So we were driving straight at the volcano instead of turning away from it.

Matt:

I must have had a plan.

Rachel:

Okay. Anyway, she's like, it's a part of you, and maybe that's why we would never work. And Vashawn's just like, bloop bloop. What? He's like, what?

Rachel:

What do you mean? What does that have to do with anything right now? And she's like, I can feel it. Like, I can feel it in you, and it scares me. And Sean goes, he does not deny it, which I find curious.

Rachel:

He just goes, okay. So what does this have to do with the current crime? And Tracy's like, I don't know. It's just a feeling. And Tracy tells him, you know what?

Rachel:

It's whatever. Like, you were really super just so fucking helpful, Veshan, so you can go. It's fine. And, can you call me when you get home? Like, she's worried about him, which is really sweet.

Rachel:

He's like, sure. Okay. And then the watcher is back because we see the red eyed night vision, heavy breathing vision of Veshan, and then he flies off and lands somewhere in the vicinity of his house. I don't know why he lands here in particular, but, he can't help but hear a girl crying in the alley, and I don't think that's why he landed there. So I don't know.

Rachel:

Divya is inscrutable. Who knows how she knew where he was gonna be?

Matt:

This is the 5th checkpoint along Bashan's return path that she's she tried to lure him.

Rachel:

He's just been trying to to for, like, weeks, but he just doesn't give it. He just

Matt:

gives crying because she's so frustrated, but she can't give up.

Rachel:

She's like, I have to do this to stick it to my dad, but Vashawn's such a doofus. He's so unreliable. She's tried calling for help, and he's just like, well, somebody else is gonna take care of

Matt:

that. ADHD vampire.

Rachel:

He's definitely gonna go help, but then something happens along the way, and he gets totally distracted, and he forgets he was going.

Matt:

And your Divya misses another chance.

Rachel:

She's like, goddamn it. Well, this 1 works because guess what? The girl crying in the alia is alia. The girl crying in the alley is divia. And as soon as he walks up, she, like, throws off her tarp or whatever she's got over, and she's like, 'tis I.

Rachel:

And he's like, a boss. Who you be you? I just go he doesn't know who she is. Literally, this, like, child vampire is just like, meh.

Matt:

Right. Like, Lacroix isn't even his sire. No. So it's just because,

Rachel:

like, he emptied out

Matt:

of the raven

Rachel:

Yeah.

Matt:

He got targeted.

Rachel:

Yeah. He happened to be there the morning that she arrived, and he she was like, oh, they're best friends. Oh, yeah. They're fuck they're definitely best friends. Maybe they're even together together.

Rachel:

I don't like this at all. So then Divya and now this is really I'm gonna spend some time discussing this. Divya's method of killing these vampires.

Matt:

I was I was going to bring up just Divya in general. Divya has been in a sarcophagus for roughly 2000 years because it's 20 years after she turned LaCroix into a vampire.

Rachel:

Yeah.

Matt:

They've been fucking around the Middle East Yeah. Northern

Rachel:

99, 80.

Matt:

Africa. Whatever.

Rachel:

Yeah. 1900 years, she's been in there.

Matt:

So how does she know English?

Rachel:

Maybe she can hear things that are going on around her?

Matt:

I'm wondering if

Rachel:

Maybe she ate a bunch of English speaking people.

Matt:

Oh. 0, that would solve the problem. Yeah. If she just kept drinking everybody's blood along the way and incorporating their memories to, like, absorb all of the cultural context and languages and stuff, that would explain how she's able to acclimate herself so quickly to modern society

Rachel:

Yeah.

Matt:

If she has just been on a rampage through, like, probably northern Africa through Europe. Then, I guess, England and then

Rachel:

No. 24 hours.

Matt:

Greenland, Iceland. It's 24 hours. But she's, like, fly hopping.

Rachel:

Oh, okay.

Matt:

Just eating, like, oh, there's a city. I don't know what direction I need to go to get closer to Lacroix.

Rachel:

Yeah. How does she find him so well, they can sense each other. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Rachel:

That's fair.

Matt:

I answered that question. Double bond.

Rachel:

They do. Gross.

Matt:

Well, she wanted it to be a triple bond.

Rachel:

I know. Daughter, mother, lover. Why can't I be all 3, which I think I've actually said on the podcast if you didn't catch it.

Matt:

Oh, no. I'd I've I've heard you say that several times,

Rachel:

and I

Matt:

knew what you meant by it.

Rachel:

Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I You

Matt:

revealed that.

Rachel:

I try so hard, and sometimes I just don't make that.

Matt:

Me years ago

Rachel:

Okay.

Matt:

When you after you had given up on the idea of me ever watching all of her.

Rachel:

Oh, okay. That's fair. So yes. So there's a really good, really entertaining book series called the Greyfriar series, and it is by Clay and Susan Griffiths. And in that, it's like a steampunk alternate history, where there are vampires and humans, but vampires are entirely separate species.

Rachel:

And they're actually really, really good at learning languages because it's part of how they hunt. So 1 of their adaptations is they're just super good at picking up different human languages. Mhmm. And maybe it's kind of like that. Maybe they're really, really good at adapting to language because it would be essential for them in order to be able to, like, move through the centuries seamlessly.

Matt:

Right.

Rachel:

Because I know in Anne Rice's vampires, every once in a while, they'll go to ground for a while to just, like, take a minute.

Matt:

Right. They need to do a psychic reset so

Rachel:

they can

Matt:

absorb new knowledge.

Rachel:

They need a fresh fall of snow. So they'll go, like, hang out, and then when they come back, they gotta catch up. And so they can catch up really quickly because it's kind of part of how they work. But what I really wanted to address here is how Divya kills people, because Divya kills people with either sheer evilness or psychic assault. So vampires, as we have more or less established without actually trying to establish anything, but just sort of by never ever clarifying how certain things work are slightly psychic.

Rachel:

Not psychic and like, although every once in a while, Lacroix implies that he can read Nicholas's mind. So that would make him a real, real psychic.

Matt:

I'm pretty sure he's just fucking with Nick, because he just knows Nick so well, and he can predict Nick so accurately.

Rachel:

I would argue they are empathic, that they can sense each other's emotional shifts.

Matt:

Yeah.

Rachel:

Which is why they wouldn't know when people are afraid or whatever. So they are slightly psychic. And when they share blood, they share sort of not just the blood, but what I would argue is almost a psychic link because that would be how they would be able to learn everybody's emotions and all that stuff just from the blood. So there's a little bit of mystical psychicness happening here. So in that situation, would a nonconsensual sharing of memories be considered sexual assault?

Matt:

Like, if she forced her blood into

Rachel:

Vashana? Like, scratching them and then biting them, and then they are seeing her memories. So she is in some way sharing her memories with them.

Matt:

Right.

Rachel:

And the sheer overwhelming evilness of who she is destroys them. Like, she destroys their minds, basically Mhmm. With a nonconsensual, psychic connection. And if psychic connection is effectively how they have sex, then a nonconsensual psychic event like this would be considered like assault.

Matt:

Oh, it would definitely be assault.

Rachel:

Like a sexual form of assault?

Matt:

Maybe.

Rachel:

I think that argument could be made. I think it makes her a lot more evil when you go that far. Mhmm. I mean, clearly, she was not above fucking her own dad. So why not the man mullet?

Rachel:

I mean, come on. So, like, I think it just, you know, I don't think that's what they were going for. Of course, it's not. They're just like, oh, she's so evil. She's capable of biting.

Matt:

Them, and they become infected by her e there.

Rachel:

And then they die, which I love how Urs is just like, oh, fuck it. I did. And Vashon lingers. Vashawn lingers for a while, and Urs is just like, I'm out. I'm out.

Rachel:

I don't want this. I'm done. I already didn't wanna be here, so I'm just gonna leave. So what happens, however you wanna describe it, Vashawn gets assaulted by Divya and is capable Divya's whatever. However Divya is capable of doing

Matt:

this. Infected by her evil.

Rachel:

Infected by her memories and her

Matt:

Would that be a sexually transmitted disease?

Rachel:

I guess. Well, it wouldn't be considered sexually transmitted disease if it was consensual, but it's nonconsensual. You didn't ask for this.

Matt:

Well, even if it was consensual and he got infected by her evil.

Rachel:

And she bites them all. Like, she and 1 of the things we avoid talking about, but it's sort of like the elephant in the room is the inherent, like, sexual assault nature of the vampire's nonconsensual feeding. Mhmm. And so this is the, like, 1, 2 punch of, like, a psychic invasion and a physical invasion.

Matt:

Right. And she marks them all by scratching their faces too.

Rachel:

Yeah. In a very, like, public, like, can't help but see it weigh. Yeah. All of them. Anyway, it's something to think about.

Rachel:

It makes Divya way grosser. I mean, Divya can kinda be a joke. She wants to fuck Lacroix, whatever. But, I mean, when you think about it that way, she's she's real not great. Like, real real not great.

Rachel:

And then we go to the morgue after Vashon collapses in the alley. Divya leaves and leaves Vashon. Like, I assume she thinks she's left him for dead. And then we go to the morgue, and it's actually Reese on speakerphone, and he tells Tracy and Nick and Natalie that the guy in the fridge was actually an Egyptian grave robber and that he was last seen at the tomb of Ayahotep in the Valley of the Kings 24 hours ago, which means Divya can cross the Atlantic in less than a day while carrying a body. So she real, real fast.

Rachel:

Yeah. Yeah.

Matt:

Now the question is

Rachel:

Okay.

Matt:

Did she track down the quad and then like, solo and then think, but I gotta fuck with him. And then go back and get the body body and then take it to Lacroix, or did she have that planned the whole time?

Rachel:

You know, August, he was there 24 hours ago. It's because, say, she could've kept him alive and then killed him and then put him in the beer fridge, and then she wouldn't have been lugging a dead body around.

Matt:

Yeah.

Rachel:

But he went missing 24 hours ago. So at most, she's had possession of his physical form, alive or dead, for 24 hours. And she either went 12 hours there or let's see. 24 divided by 3. So 8 there, 8 back, and then 8 back.

Rachel:

But some of that would have been during the day. Underwater? Underwater. Yeah. I mean, they are capable of propelling themselves at speed through a physical medium.

Rachel:

There's really no difference between the the air and the water as far as that's concerned except density, which means she might be slower under the water but would be no less capable of, like, mentally propelling herself.

Matt:

Right. Does the body have any wind burn?

Rachel:

From going that fast. They're like, wow. It's really weird. He's covered in, like, bird shit and feathers. Like, he flew through a flock.

Matt:

What is his eyeballs?

Rachel:

It looks like a birdcouch, ditto. What the fuck? But what I love about this scene more than like, I love what they're chatting about. Like, it's this is good. But, also, if you'll notice, the music in this whole episode is extremely somber.

Rachel:

Like, it's very. Yeah. Like, it's sad. Reese is like, well, what do we know about the body now? And Natalie goes, well, we know he's been dead for 24 hours, which I could've told you before, but also, like, confirmation, so great.

Rachel:

And, not to get too technical, but he was torn to motherfucking shreds. And she goes, you know, if you hadn't told me he was in a tomb 24 hours ago, I would have said it was an animal. And then Reese goes, well, an animal didn't sneak him into Canada, so we gotta figure this out. Then they hang up on Reese, and Natalie is like, everyone just looks at each other for a minute, and Natalie finally goes, there has to be a rational explanation for this. Like, there does not actually have to be a rational explanation for this.

Matt:

Room with a vampire.

Rachel:

Yeah. So just Rational has left the building. Rational is no longer answering our calls.

Matt:

Your pretenses.

Rachel:

Yeah. Rational has ghosted us. Literally, no 1 can get ahold of Rational, so that's done. And Tracy's like, I guess that means LaCroix is off the hook. What?

Rachel:

It doesn't.

Matt:

Brilliant. Police deduction.

Rachel:

Doesn't actually mean that. It just means that the guy was in Egypt 24 hours ago, and now he is here. He could have traveled here, and then Lacroix could have killed him and stuffed him in the beer fridge.

Matt:

Right. Right. Because I'm presuming Lacroix has an alibi leading up to the audience.

Rachel:

At the club, and then he went walking by himself. So I don't know. Then we go to LaCroix in lockup, and again, they says fucking thank you. I love this shit so much. Because Lacroix is in lockup, and we start by looking at all the other people in lockup, and they are all hunched over in the corner.

Rachel:

And then as we band around, there's this big empty space, and then Lacroix is just standing there. And so everyone is actively avoiding being being near him, and then Nick walks in, and Lacroix goes, clearly, I have a future in, like

Matt:

A sobering influence on the the delinquent or the

Rachel:

Yeah. On the delinquent population or whatever. Like, basically, I I could scare people into

Matt:

Scare them straight.

Rachel:

Yeah. Scare them straight, like, in crime. Like Yeah.

Matt:

Yeah.

Rachel:

Like, crime wise. So Nick is like, well, you're to be released for lack of evidence, and LaCroix is like, mhmm. Okay. Like, oh, we all knew that was gonna happen. And then Nick actually tells him all about it.

Rachel:

He's like, listen. Here's the sitch. He was an Egyptian guy. He was in Egypt 24 hours ago. He broke into this tomb, and then he disappeared.

Rachel:

And Lacroix is like, oh, weirdest thing. And then he goes into the flashback, like like, oh, shit, Egypt. And he actually goes into the flashback when he hears that it's the tomb of Iahotep and then Dhivya and Laqoire in this tomb in the flashback. And she's telling him about this is the chief priest of Akhenaten, which as previously described, creates a problematic thing here. I figured they just thought Akhenaten was easy to say, so they went with that, so whatever.

Rachel:

And she says that her master, Ka'a, was said to be 1 of the first vampires and was actually older than the pyramids and that she killed him. She's like, yeah. No. He died. He got staked and left out in the sun, and then somebody, like, put him in this tomb.

Rachel:

And Lacroix is like, oh my God, we have to track that person down and kill them. And she's like, tis I. I did it because he wanted to control me and nobody puts Divya in a corner. And Lacoste is like, oh, okay. I feel like this is a moment of revelation for

Matt:

him. Of general Lucius. I feel

Rachel:

like this is a moment of revelation for him because he's like, oh, he she killed her her vampire dad. I am also married.

Matt:

Called her true father.

Rachel:

Yeah. And I'm her, like, second in line father, so she is just as willing to kill me. Oh, no. Like, this is not good.

Matt:

I'm in danger.

Rachel:

Kind of. Yes. That's,

Matt:

I think Ralphie from the Simpsons.

Rachel:

Oh, yeah. No. Yeah. No. I got the reference.

Rachel:

I did. Yeah. I was just thinking about, like, this isn't the moment where she tries to come on to him, but, also, I was thinking she's a predator in more than wait. Then 1. It's just I I don't know why these choices were made about Divya.

Rachel:

I'm not mad about it. It's fine. I just think it's like they couldn't like, they were like, okay. We need something that will be too far for LaCroix. We need a line, y'all.

Rachel:

We need to know what LaCroix's line is. Where is his line? Like, they're in the writer's room. Everybody's sitting there. Someone's crying.

Rachel:

Someone's eating eating donuts. There's, like, 6 cups of coffee in the middle. No 1 can remember whose is whose. There's a pen in 1 of them, and they're like, the line, y'all. We gotta find the line.

Rachel:

And somebody just goes, maybe he wouldn't fuck his own daughter. And they're like, yes. Yes. Get that yes. Get that man a trophy.

Rachel:

Get that man another donut. Get that man a tissue. He wouldn't fuck his own daughter. That's it. We've got it.

Rachel:

And then they were like, well, who do we bring back? And they're like, we already had he has a daughter, sir. He remember Divya? And they're like, fucking Divya. And so then they had to track down Katherine.

Rachel:

They had to, like, send a pigeon. She just appeared in a puff of smoke, and she was like, I'm prepared to be Divya again. I'm pretty sure that's some sex.

Matt:

Prepare my white robe.

Rachel:

Do live, Divya. Okay. So anyway, that that all went through my mind. So just okay.

Matt:

And then we get Nick, like, hey, Lacroix.

Rachel:

Woah. Woah.

Matt:

Lacroix over here. Hey. You you kinda had a flashback there.

Rachel:

Yeah. No. I saw what you were doing. I do it all the time, but also, like,

Matt:

Eyes over here.

Rachel:

Eyes over here.

Matt:

Attention.

Rachel:

Yeah. I think Nick looks so jazzed to see Lacroix lock up. Like, this is the funniest thing he's ever seen in his life. And he's like and Lequois just goes, can I go? And Nick's like, oh, yeah.

Rachel:

Sure. Sure. You know, come over here with the keys, dude. Unlock the store. And then we get Erz going to see Vashon.

Rachel:

I have to imagine Vashon's not doing his usual check-in or maybe she tried calling him on his cordless phone that he has because he uses it later, and he didn't pick up. So Urs comes to check on him, and when she sees him at the church, he's, freaking the fuck out. He's, like, throwing himself around. He kind of attacks her, and he starts screaming, the killing. I can't stop the killing.

Rachel:

Well, that's notable because, actually, his entire purpose in life was to stop senseless killing in the world. Remember that?

Matt:

According to his back story as related by Vashon.

Rachel:

Yeah. And the Inca who spoke Spanish and also English, but also Spanish. But the grossest, I mean, the grossest part about this scene is he's like, I can see you the killing, all the killing, children, children killing children. And then he goes, I can't stand the pleasure. Don't.

Rachel:

Just dude, yell something else. I can't stop the killing. That was fine. You could've left it there, but not the I'm so hard right now.

Matt:

I'm wondering if if, Star Wars episode 2 was it episode 2 or episode 3 where Anakin kills the younglings? I guess, either there are 3.

Rachel:

Yeah.

Matt:

I wonder if they got the

Rachel:

The chosen

Matt:

1. The men, the women, and the children too from Veshon here because Yeah. That's what he says. The men, the women, and the children too.

Rachel:

Yeah. I mean, it's not a real complicated line. It's fine. Yeah. Maybe the guy who was crying in the writers room went on to be in the Star Wars writers room.

Matt:

Hayden kept watching forever night after he starred in

Rachel:

Oh, it's Hayden. Yeah.

Matt:

He's like, Vashon had a really good line about, like, struggling with the emotions of killing a bunch of people.

Rachel:

Yeah. Except he didn't end with, I can't stand the pleasure.

Matt:

Hey. God. That was gross. George Lucas was like, no, dude.

Rachel:

I mean, I get it. It's supposed to be the, like, there's a part of them that, like, that is their joy in life. That is their longevity.

Matt:

Pleasure of killing Yeah. Men, women, and children.

Rachel:

Right. Yeah. It's layers of gross is what it is.

Matt:

And the reason it's so hard to handle is because he doesn't usually feel that amount of pleasure from killing.

Rachel:

Or he doesn't normally he doesn't normally deal with his emotions. He just, like, feels them and moves on or runs or whatever. And it's something

Matt:

from them.

Rachel:

I mean, it's something we're gonna kinda confront later when, we find out that this method of killing don't work on Nick.

Matt:

So Because he's done some shadow work.

Rachel:

We will table it until then. We're just gonna table it. Okay? It's right there on the table, and we are actually going to revisit this dish. I promise.

Rachel:

Okay. Yeah. But Urs is like, who did this to you, Vashon? Like, what's going on? Who did this?

Rachel:

And he's like, she's so small but evil, but she's just a child. And he keeps seeing Divya's memories. We keep seeing flashes of Divya's memories, and he ends up kicking Urs out. And he threatens her with the same thing Divya did to her master. He's like, get out before you are staked and left to turn to ashes in the sun, and Urs is like, oh, yeah.

Rachel:

This is I'm not here. No. No. This is not my moment. So Urs just leaves.

Rachel:

She's like, this is I'm going. Fuck you, Vashawn. Oh, she goes to get help. She keeps off to get help. Yeah.

Rachel:

And Vashawn actually calls Tracy because that's exactly what he needs to do at this moment. He calls Tracy, and he's like, I know who did it. I know who did it. He, like, falls around the floor and starts screaming and then leaves the phone off the hook.

Matt:

Tracy thinks, oh, a vampire called me, sounding like he was struggling. And then he screamed in torment and agony. I need to go visit him.

Rachel:

Yeah. Well, she trusts Vashon. For reasons unknown to most of us, she trusts Vashon Vashon. She rushes off to help him. And then we go to Nick because Nick's at his house and he's listening to the nightcrawler.

Rachel:

And this is when we get the flashback from a more permanent hell, and, like, we get the whole thing, like, the whole thing.

Matt:

We don't we don't get the part with Lacroix telling the other people about the statue carver, the bust carver.

Rachel:

We don't get that part. We don't get the part where he's like, is it true? Over and when she wakes him up, he's sleeping and she, like, creeps into his room, and she's like, father, is it true you let your men rape the women? And he's like he's like, yeah. What are you doing in here?

Rachel:

Of course, I did. It was to demoralize the people and to reward my men, and she's like so she was like, oh my goodness. Thank you, father. Yes. So this is actually the part where he's talking to Celine, his wife, and he's like, oh, so what's up with Divya?

Rachel:

I heard she was sick. And she's like, yeah. She was sick, but then this dude showed up, and he was like, I think I know what to do. And I was like, cool, and now she's fine. And then the other senator comes over, and he's like, yeah.

Rachel:

If she's fine, I'm a gladiator.

Matt:

And he's not a gladiator.

Rachel:

Yeah. And we go all the way through to where he sees Divya come out, and he's like, Divya, and he holds his arms out to hug her, and she's like, nope, and she leaves. And then we come back to him still podcasting, and he's like, a child's innocence and purity knows no bounds, but neither does its cruelty. When he's about to sign off when Divya actually, Nick is about to turn the radio off when Divya calls into the show, and she's like, hello. Hello, father.

Rachel:

Hello. And LaCroix goes, shouldn't all good little girls be in bed? And she goes, I'm not that kind of girl. I'm trying to prep for the Divya voice. This is a long 1.

Rachel:

Hang on. Do you know what it's like to be betrayed? Do you know what it's like to be betrayed by your own child? Not yet, but I'm gonna get you a father. Really, she's like, I'm gonna kill your friends.

Rachel:

I'm gonna kill your family. I'm gonna kill everyone who knows you, and I'm gonna leave you alone. That little dog too. And in the dark and cold, just like you let me father. And the claw's like, oh, no.

Rachel:

And this is when Nick gets a visitor. Nick gets a visitor, and it's ers. And we know because he hears that rah rah. Like, somebody's buzzing his his doorbell until he

Matt:

gets over. Night vision of Erz in the elevator.

Rachel:

Well, first, he goes over to his giant monitor, and he, like, click click, like, clicks the monitor button. And it's like, oh, hey, Nick. It's me, Erce. Can I come up? And he's like, oh, yeah.

Rachel:

Sure. And so he just turns it off. She's like, I need to talk to you. So he buzzes her up so she can come up the quote elevator, which we haven't used the elevator very much in this season at all. And she actually

Matt:

If I recall correctly, this is the first scene that we've had in the, quote, moving elevator.

Rachel:

Yeah. From above.

Matt:

From above.

Rachel:

In a while, at least.

Matt:

I don't think I don't recall any other scenes where people are in the elevator, and we're seeing them in the elevator while the elevator is moving.

Rachel:

That's fair. If you guys remember 1, let me know.

Matt:

The first time we get this scene, this, like, part of his living structure

Rachel:

Yeah.

Matt:

Is the second to last episode.

Rachel:

Correct.

Matt:

In the reboot, it will be a real elevator.

Rachel:

Yeah. It will be a real elevator. We'll have a real elevator. Yeah. But she and will be able to ride the motorcycle.

Rachel:

But she gets attacked and killed in the elevator, which is a real shame because she's wearing this banging red leather outfit thing. And her hair looks really good too. It's really sad. And then we got to Tracy because Tracy's at Vachon's, and he's all vamped out when she comes in. But then when he turns to look at her, he's, like, composed himself until he tackles her.

Rachel:

And he's like, 00I got a lot going on in my head right now, and then he kinda backs off and she leans in and hugs him. Like, this dude just attacked you, and then he kinda gave you some breathing space so you could run, and then you lean in and hug him. And she's like, it's okay, Vashon. You're gonna heal. And he goes, I'm not healing.

Rachel:

I'm dying. And he's like, why are you here? When she first arrives, he's like, why are you here? And she's like, you fucking called me. And he's like, oh, yeah.

Rachel:

You need to leave. And he's kind of trying to it's the get away from me. I'm not safe, which usually as someone who likes vampire stuff I mean, that's something I'm normally here for. The, you have to go, I'm not safe. Like, oh, yeah.

Rachel:

Just to say it again. You're not safe? You know, that's you know, if you like vampires, you know what I'm talking about. But it's Vashon, so, like, I want this from Nick, and I didn't get it from Nick. So goddamn it.

Rachel:

That's fine. And he's like, I'm not healing. I'm dying. Oh, no. So then we cut to Nick at the morgue because he opened his elevator.

Rachel:

He saw Urs was there, and he was like, well, that's gonna stay in the carpet.

Matt:

Oh, I saw, on a related note

Rachel:

Okay.

Matt:

I saw a thing about, like, in addition to the the saying of spill the tea, it was someone explaining that they were telling their mom what spill the tea meant, and her mom responded. She said with the best, like, extension of the spill the tea idea, which is, well, be careful because tea stains when you spill it.

Rachel:

Oh, that's a good 1. Well, Nick has never heard that because he was looking at Urs's body and he did not try to help her bring her back. He was just like, oh, that's not great. And they took her body to the morgue because Natalie has Urs's body. Did he call it in?

Rachel:

Is this an o fish? Is it is she officially here? Or did he just bring the body in and he was like, nah. I got 1 for you.

Matt:

Does Natalie need to fake an entire autopsy to look human? Did he just make, like, a ton of extra paperwork for her?

Rachel:

Yeah. Or did he just bring the body there?

Matt:

Does Urs even exist on paper?

Rachel:

Right.

Matt:

As a resident of Toronto?

Rachel:

Yeah. Or is this another instance of him just walking in with the body and being like, oh, can you tell me what killed her?

Matt:

And, like, people would have seen him carrying a body into

Rachel:

the morgue. Had to carry that body into the morgue, and then Natalie had to perform a whole ass autopsy when she has probably lots of other bodies she needs to process that day. And what did anybody come in while she was doing it? Well, I don't we nothing. We covered she he didn't call Natalie to his apartment.

Rachel:

He took Urs's body to Natalie. And since we don't reference this later at all, in fact, we don't cover how they just how they say this is solved. Like, we don't talk about how they wrap this case up.

Matt:

We we don't talk about how the case how they spin the case.

Rachel:

So we don't know if the fact that Erz's body was found at Nick's apartment is part of this case or not. Did he take her body somewhere else and then was like, oh, y'all. I found a body in an alleyway way far away from my house. We don't know anything about it. But Natalie's like, I mean, we still don't know what killed her.

Rachel:

Like, we still don't know what this is. We I can tell you it's the same it's the same MO, but I couldn't tell you what did it. I mean, it could be the thing that killed the Egyptian grave robber. So, yeah, maybe they're related. And Nick is like, what I don't get is why didn't Urs regenerate?

Rachel:

How can she be killed if she wasn't staked or decapitated? Nick, we are all asking the same question. This could have been solved by just giving Divya a stake, but you know what? Then you don't get to get Nick out of it. Right.

Rachel:

Yeah. So Natalie is like, could it be some new breed of vampire that's capable of doing this? And Nick goes, or something very, very old. And this is the part where I wanna point out because it's gonna be relevant later if Lacroix is. So Divya was changed by 1 of the first vampires.

Matt:

Yep.

Rachel:

So if we have, like, patient 0, she is the direct like, the first infected of patient 0. So then Lacroix is, like, second, and then Nick is 3rd. So Nick is only

Matt:

I would increment that out by 1 and say Ka'a was probably the first generation of infected from patient 0.

Rachel:

Okay.

Matt:

And then Divya would be, like, wave 2, level 2.

Rachel:

Yeah. 3 and then 4. Yeah. So Nick is only, like, 4 steps removed from the original vampire.

Matt:

Right.

Rachel:

We don't know how far out Vashon was. We don't know. And then Urs would have been 1 step farther. So if the relative ability of vampires decreases, the farther you are away from the initial and, like, the original vampire

Matt:

diluted or whatever.

Rachel:

Then then it kinda makes sense that Nick was able to come back because he's literally more powerful than the other ones.

Matt:

Right.

Rachel:

Yeah. Something to think about. That pops up sometimes. I mean, that's not a unheard of vampire lore. The not only the older you are, but not and it's not just the older you are in terms of chronology, but that puts you closer to, like, the OG vampire.

Rachel:

Yeah. Yeah. And then Nick goes to confront Lacroix because this feels like the moment. And he's like, who is she? And LaCroix's like, who what?

Rachel:

Who's she? What? What? He's like, the young girl, who is she to you? What is it?

Rachel:

And Lacroix goes, it. Wow. Yeah. It is something that I've never told you about, something that's too painful for even me to talk about, and Nick's like, oh, shit. You brought her across.

Rachel:

Like LaCroix would be ashamed of bringing across a child. Like, he hasn't done that. What about Daniel? Or was it David? The deep guy.

Rachel:

I don't know. The cockney kid. What about that dude? Yeah. Like, whatever

Matt:

happened to him anyway?

Rachel:

Yeah. No. It's fine. It doesn't matter. He's he's out there killing people with his psychic assault because that's a children thing, maybe.

Rachel:

I don't know. He's like, it's something too painful for me, even me, to talk about. Nick immediately is like, oh, shit. You brought her across, didn't you? Because I heard her on your radio program, and Lacroix goes, you're still listening?

Matt:

I'm flattered.

Rachel:

I'm flattered. And Nick is like, Lacroix, fucking focus. Urs is dead. And Lacroix's like, oof. Yeah.

Rachel:

I kinda saw that coming. You see what she's doing? She's making me as alone and isolated as I left her, and she will kill all of you because of me. And Nick's like, yeah. Because you brought her across.

Rachel:

And he's like, no. I didn't. I didn't bring Divya across. Quite the opposite. And then we get the flashback, which is the, let go of your mortal bones, father, when it's, you know, Pompeii is erupting and Lucien Lacroix is like, Lucius Lacroix?

Matt:

Lucien.

Rachel:

Well, he's Lucien now, but I think he's Lucius when he's the general. Yeah. And he's like, you can't defeat me. I'm more powerful than the gods. And then his statue falls over, and he's like, oh, no.

Rachel:

My statue has fallen over. And Divya's like, you gotta choose now. If you wanna die, you're gonna die with everybody here or you can live. What's your decision? And he's like, to live, Divya, to live.

Rachel:

And then she turns him into a vampire, and then we come back, and Nick is just like bloop bloop. There's a lot of, oh, shit moments in this episode, so it makes sense to do the blink blink sound. And he goes, why did she save you? Like, why did this random child save you? And, LaCroix goes, well, because she was my daughter, and now you see why I never told you who my master was?

Rachel:

And Nick is, like, yeah. No. I get it. Yeah. LaCroix goes, 20 years after Pompey, I thought her dead and buried.

Rachel:

And then he goes into the flashback where it's Lacroix and Divya in the tomb. And she's like, oh, you're mad at me now because you found out I killed my master. Oh, no. I mean, you you think I'm weird now, don't you? Well, let's do this.

Rachel:

I have an idea. This will bring us closer. This will get us over this little emotional hump that we're all feeling right now. Let's, let's bang.

Divia:

Let us do what must not be done. Make love to me,

Matt:

father. To be a nun.

Rachel:

Kvaa's like, well, I'm sorry. What? And she goes, let's explore our natures. You know? You get what I'm saying?

Rachel:

Well, wink wink. Explore our natures. Literally, no 1 can stop us. Everything we left at lust after can be ours. I love how we're showing the clause increasing discomfort from, like, a 3 quarter below angle.

Rachel:

Mhmm. As if we're seeing him from Divya's point of view, and he's just, like, like, gross. And she goes, how can you sit in judgment after all I have done for you? And I wanna take a moment and address the bedazzled collars that they are wearing. And I remember watching this on the CRT TV and being like, oh, yeah.

Rachel:

They have on gold collars, and you look at it now, and it's like a couple of jewels and some upholstery trim. Mhmm. Like, bless. Like, I would almost had rather they didn't go for it at all. Like, just give us a white robe.

Matt:

Yeah.

Rachel:

Oh, this looked a lot better on the CRT TV. So give it give it some grace. Okay. Give these collars some grace. We can give grace to something in this episode.

Rachel:

It's the awful collars they're wearing. And this is the part when she does the daughter, mother, lover, why can't I be all 3?

Divia:

Daughter, mother, lover, why can't I be all 3? You need someone to love, Lucius, and I need you.

Rachel:

And he's like, and he actually vamps out because he turns around, like, in a, and he finds us, like, a scythe. And he's like, oh, yes. So he turns around and snarls at her. He turns around and snarls at her, which is the universal vampire symbol for let's get it all. So she goes, yes.

Rachel:

Come touch me. Then Le Qua cuts her head off, and we just see it in shadow, like, spink, and then her head pop her shadow head pops off of her head. And then he puts her in the tomb, and he's like, yeah. I put her in the tomb, and then the sun god worked on her kinda like the cross does on us. You you hear me?

Matt:

Imbued with a lot of religious belief by by the people that made it, so it's a really powerful symbol.

Rachel:

Yeah. It was good. So Nick is like, well, you had no choice, clearly. And LaCroix is like, yeah. I did.

Rachel:

I had choices. I could have done what she asked, and Nick's like, yeah, and despised yourself for doing it. I ought to know. I've done a lot of things that you asked me to do in the name of keeping peace, and I regret a lot of them. I am speaking from experience right now, and Lacroix answers with, yeah.

Rachel:

Okay. I might have despised myself if I'd done it, but I despise myself now because, as a general, I did some really fucked up shit, and yet there was an evil in my own child that I couldn't bear to look at it, and it was an evil she got from me, magnified by the 1 who made her. She was my beautiful daughter. I loved her. She was my child.

Rachel:

She was my fucking flirt. I loved her, and I couldn't see her for who she was, and the moment I saw her for exactly what she was, I couldn't handle it, and I killed her. What does that say about me? And it's a legitimate question. He doesn't ask that, but that's what it begs the question.

Rachel:

Who was in the wrong how did Divya get to the point where she's in an Egyptian tomb begging her father to make love to her? I mean, at this point, Divya's in her thirties. Maybe not physically, but intellectually because she's that old. So she's making choices. It's kind of like, in Interview with the Vampire where she's well, in the movie, she's 8, and in the book, she's, like, 8.

Rachel:

But in the new television show, they aged her up, which, thank Christ, so much better. Yeah. Claudia. Her name is Claudia. And so she grows up, but she doesn't physically grow up.

Rachel:

I don't know. This is a complicated thing because, like, even if she's physic like, mentally growing up, who else is she going to find to be with her who isn't the type of person that will be with a child? Yeah. So which I feel like Divya would I don't know. You know what?

Rachel:

I'm not gonna make any suppositions in that direction whatsoever. But you have to understand how Lacroix feels in this moment, which is, like, I loved her, and I couldn't handle who she actually was. And what kind of parent can't accept their child for who they are? But this is the part where Nick is like, how did she survive? Like, you cut her head off and you sealed her in a tomb and she was in there for 1900 years.

Rachel:

How is she back?

Matt:

Don't worry about it.

Rachel:

I love this show. I love this show. This show is, like, literally, they have him go, meh. He goes, honestly? No fucking clue.

Rachel:

Maybe the evil in the tomb sustained her? Who knows? Who cares? Does it matter?

Matt:

Nope. Well, she's an elder generation of vampires.

Rachel:

Yeah. That's what we'll go with.

Matt:

And he threw the head back into the back in the tomb with her body. Yeah. And so I'm guessing it just reattached.

Rachel:

It may be less that decapitation kills you and more that decapitation permanently incapacitates you

Matt:

because long as you stay decacitated.

Rachel:

You stay separated from your head.

Matt:

Right. And maybe if the head and body had stayed separated long enough

Rachel:

Yeah.

Matt:

It would have killed her. But if you just, you know, shink Yeah. Lift, yoink. Donezo. Shut it.

Matt:

Yeah. Then her

Rachel:

she may have been able

Matt:

to, like, use her tongue and, like, roll her head back over to her body, have it reattached, which means she could have healed, like, immediately. Like, within within a couple hours,

Rachel:

she could have been,

Matt:

like, stored bodily. Yeah. Which means she was conscious

Rachel:

for that 1900 years. Yeah.

Matt:

But she could have also, through the link to Lacroix Experienced what

Rachel:

he was experiencing.

Matt:

Experienced somewhat what he was experiencing.

Rachel:

Kinda like Nick and Lacroix. Like, how they connected. Yeah.

Matt:

Yes. Because Lacqua always knows how Nick is feeling.

Rachel:

And maybe the closer connection is also a result of being closer to the OG vampire because I feel like Nick and LaCroix's connection is far stronger than, like, Vashawn and Erz.

Matt:

Oh, yeah.

Rachel:

Yeah. Vashawn is kinda like, well, I'll be there if you need me, but it's not like I'm literally feeling everything you're feeling at all times. So that would make a lot of sense because she could be even more connected to LaCroix than Nick is Right. Especially because

Matt:

of the family relationship.

Rachel:

Yeah. Because they're already daughter and father. Yeah. That's an interesting I read a book 1 time, and, honestly, I can't remember the title of it. And I wish I could because I kinda wanna reread it because I read it when I was too young, and I want it's you ever read a book when it's too young and it has like, it's weird in your head, but you're like, it's probably not as weird as I thought it was.

Rachel:

I was just too little to read it. And it's this vampire.

Matt:

Happened to me with a book called, Chthon Okay. CHTH0NI read it in, like, freshman year of high school, and it was just, like, weird. And then I reread it a couple years ago, and I was like, okay. It was a little weird, but it wasn't, like, as weird I as I remember it. Yeah.

Matt:

But I had more Yeah. I had more, emotional ballast.

Rachel:

Yeah. This guy is like a evolutionary offshoot kinda thing, and it's sort of the legend like, the origin of the vampire legends. He's not specifically a vampire, really, but he has vampire like traits. But he cannot die. He physically cannot die, and at 1 point, he gets decapitated and, like, his skin seals over at his neck and then underneath his head.

Rachel:

And then he's able to control his head and body separately to get himself back together. Oh. And, like, not only does the skin seal, but, like, his body will adapt to continue providing itself with what it needs. So, like, he can breathe through his pores when his head is not attached. Oh.

Rachel:

And it it was just an interesting story. There was more to it. Like, he only died because of wood because his body couldn't differentiate between wood and itself. And so he could heal from other things, but he pierced his heart with wood, it would just leave it there. If you took the stake out, he'd get better.

Rachel:

Yeah. Anyway, we kind of established that staking is pretty final because not only does Divya die when she gets staked at the end, but she staked Ka'a, and he stayed dead.

Matt:

She staked Ka'a and then left him in the sunlight.

Rachel:

Right. And then buried him.

Matt:

Put his ashes in this tomb

Rachel:

Right.

Matt:

With this really powerful religious symbol above it.

Rachel:

Right. But he didn't come back. They didn't feed off of each other, and he came back. Only she came back.

Matt:

Right.

Rachel:

So staking feels like donezo, but maybe the head thing is really just mildly inconvenient.

Matt:

For that generation of vampires. Yeah. And but then Lacroix gets staked And burned. And burned, and he comes back. Yeah.

Matt:

And so it may be, like, staking incapacitates you similarly to decapitation, but you really need sunlight Yeah. To finish him off.

Rachel:

Yeah. Maybe he buried his ashes.

Matt:

Or complete completely burning because Lacroix is throwing, Divya into a fire pit at the end.

Rachel:

It kinda feels like maybe LaCroix didn't get staked straight through his heart. Maybe more like

Matt:

And he just, you know, yeeted out real fast.

Rachel:

Yeah. I don't know. You know what? We're gonna pull a forever night here, and we're just gonna go.

Matt:

Don't worry about it.

Rachel:

Meh. Meh. Who cares? No 1 cares. It's fine.

Rachel:

And Nick is like, oh, okay. I fully accept that explanation. Thank you so much, Lacroix. And he goes, do you think she'll come for you? I love this scene for several reasons, and 1 is because we get the badass bisexual lighting back from, like, the OG raven.

Rachel:

Mhmm. And it makes me so nostalgic for the, like, vibe of season 1, the, like, cowboy, we do what we want vibe of season 1, and I just miss it so much. But he's like, no. She's not gonna come for me yet because she's got more people to kill. And Nick is like, heard.

Rachel:

So he goes to leave, and then he does this little pause where he puts his hand on Lacroix's shoulder, and he goes, if you need anything. And Lacroix goes, thank you, Nicholas. If you need me, thank you, Nicholas. And then he just gets this look like, oh my god. He really does like me.

Rachel:

Like, this was a moment of tenderness that LaCroix was not expecting. Because Nick came in, like, who the fuck is she? You turned her, didn't you? And now she's here to kill you when you're making it all of our problems. And then as soon as he finds out that, like, oh, this is your daughter.

Rachel:

Oh my god. And she's the 1 who turned you? Oh, shit. That explains so much about how fucked up you are. Oh, no.

Rachel:

And then he's like, oh, I am you know, I have misjudged you. If you need anything, you just let me know. Thank you, Nicholas. Like

Matt:

So I've noticed the last few episodes, Lacroix calls Nick Nicholas and has stopped calling him Nicolas.

Rachel:

Really, only Jennette calls him Nicolas? Nicola. He's pretty much always Nicholas or not even really Nicholas.

Matt:

Maybe it's just been in flashbacks. He calls him Nicola because they're ostensibly speaking a different language. Yeah. Yes.

Rachel:

Anyway, nothing can take away the joy of that moment from me, and I love it so much. And I haven't been able to watch this episode for a year and a half because we've been doing this podcast, and I'd have to watch it when you weren't there and you're never gone.

Matt:

Wonders of working from home.

Rachel:

So then we come back, and Vashan is telling Tracy, oh, I'm I'm losing it. I'm not gonna get better. I'm only gonna get worse, and you have got to kill me. And there's a stake. It's over there.

Rachel:

It's in the bottom drawer on the left hand side. It no. Not that 1. That get over no. In the the other chest.

Rachel:

The yeah. No. The yes. That chest. Yeah.

Rachel:

It's in that 1, and you gotta kill me. You gotta put that stake straight through my heart. And so she walks over with the stake, and she, like, puts it on his chest because he pulls his shirt open. And then she's like, I can't do it. I can't do it.

Rachel:

Like, I can't do it. This is so unfair of him to ask her to kill him.

Matt:

Right.

Rachel:

Deeply unfair. He could have gone out in the sun just like his master did.

Matt:

He could have done full self-service on his demise.

Rachel:

Yeah. He could've staked himself. If he can't get it up under his own breastbone or if there's some whatever. He could've put it against his chest and run into a wall.

Matt:

Himself onto the stake anyway. Yeah. So he could have thrown himself onto the stake without Tracy there.

Rachel:

This feels like I don't wanna be alone right now, so I want you to do it because then I won't have committed like, I won't have done it. Right. And you'll be here when I die. But this is so fucking unfair to Tracy, and she ends up walking away like, I can't do it. I can't do it.

Rachel:

And he snarls and rushes at her, and she stakes him out of reflex, and he's like, made you do it. And then she has to hold him as he dies. And he's like, Tracy? And she goes, yes, Javier? And he goes, wish me luck.

Rachel:

And then he dies. That's a good parting line though. Wish me luck. That's not a bad 1. I mean, considering all that he's done in his life.

Rachel:

I don't know if we self actualize and we only get punished for the things we feel guilty for, he's fine.

Matt:

No regret?

Rachel:

No regret. No regrets. None. So then we go back to the precinct, and Nick is like, yeah. So we got nothing on Lacroix.

Matt:

Like, he barely exists

Rachel:

on the periphery. Wait. Are you telling me Lacroix doesn't even exist? And Nick goes, well, not to us he doesn't. He's clean.

Rachel:

Everyone's accounted for and clean. I did it myself personally. And Reese is like, so we what? Write it off as ghosts or aliens or something? Come on, Nick.

Rachel:

The truth is out there.

Matt:

And I checked X Files started in 1993. So this may be

Rachel:

I wanna know if if X Files was taking their time slot. Like, I wanna know if that was what was happening. And it goes, yeah.

Matt:

Or maybe, Blue Man Kuma was just a big fan of The X Files Yeah. And he slipped that in.

Rachel:

Slipped it in. The truth is out there. And then Nick goes, yeah.

Matt:

Throws in a bunch of supernatural stuff, aliens. The truth is out there. Believe.

Rachel:

Yeah. But maybe not in our jurisdiction. Yeah. That's what Nick says, which he literally he means he means literally in this point, because this is vampire justice. Like, vampires are gonna handle this.

Matt:

Oh, so in the reboot, Nigel Bennett should come back as an enforcer.

Rachel:

We're just gonna put Nigel Bennett in every scene. Like, he's just gonna be like, he's the we're going to go meet John Caplos, at a con coming up pretty soon. So we'll have met Katherine Disher. We'll have met Garrett Windavies. We'll have met John Caplos, and then there is the respectfully stated great white whale, which is Nigel Bennett.

Rachel:

He does not go out on tour to like, that I can see to any cons anymore. And, like, how do you find this man to get his like, I I can't have a whole cast signature on my poster if I don't get him. So anyway, Nigel, if you're listening, you can go on our website, and you can contact me through the form, or you can send me an email at rachel@strangeandbeautiful.club.

Matt:

Links in the show notes.

Rachel:

Links in the show notes. So anyway

Matt:

And they work now.

Rachel:

They do. I fixed all the links. I fixed all the links. I'm good at what I do. Okay?

Rachel:

So after we get the, yeah, but maybe the truth just isn't in our jurisdiction, he goes, Nick says, where's my partner? And Reese's go Reese says, oh, well, she didn't tell you? Of course. Why would she tell you? She's your partner.

Rachel:

She said she was going to see a snitch, and Nick is like, oh, shit. She literally only has 1 snitch. So he

Matt:

She thinks she's being clever.

Rachel:

Yeah. So he yeets off to go, and he actually witnesses this moment between Tracy and Vashawn or actually really Vashawn's body. And she's like, I never got to tell you how I felt, but maybe you knew. I hope you know. I hope you knew because you changed me.

Rachel:

You opened my eyes, and I'll always love you for that. And she says she'll take him to see Screed, so he can be with his friend, and not to ruin this really sweet moment, but that means she has to lug his body across town, dig a hole by the river, and bury him in it. And I don't wanna shit on this moment, but, like, that feels like something Nick should have helped her with and then been like, I didn't do any of this. Just you know.

Matt:

I'm just imagining Nick being like, oh, okay. And then he, like, whooshes off and comes back and drops off a, like like, the big, carts you get at Lowe's. And then he whooshes on down to the river and digs a grave.

Rachel:

Yeah. Just Yeah. And then just puts, like, for Vashon and just, like, leaves it. Like, don't don't tell anybody. It's fine.

Rachel:

Yeah. Ugh. So we go back to the morgue, and Nick is standing there and he's talking to Natalie and he was like, there's nothing I could do for her. There's no 1 she can talk to about Vashawn. He's still not willing to reveal what he is, so she has no 1 and no 1 no 1 to talk to about this.

Rachel:

And Natalie's like, you know I'm in the exact same fucking boat. Right, Nick? And you got a 2, 000 year old little girl who's out to kill everyone connected to her daddy and no 1 is closer than you. Because even if Nick gets killed, Tracy and Natalie would have to reveal to each other that they knew vampires existed but didn't tell each other. And other if they don't do that, then even they can't talk to each other if they both lose the vampire they love.

Rachel:

And then we get this moment in the doorway where he puts his hand on Natalie's cheek, and he's like, don't worry. I'll watch my back.

Matt:

Don't worry. I'll watch my back.

Rachel:

And you know Natalie's not reassured because she's been through his bullshit backwards and forwards in every which ways. She knows exactly how this is gonna go. Because kind of in the very next scene, Divya shows up at his house to kill him. Yeah. And this is actually really a good part, because she could have just shown up and been like and killed him like she's done with everybody else.

Rachel:

I don't know. I don't know. Father's son. Oh, it's Nick. Yeah.

Rachel:

It's Nick. And she actually comes out and she's like, hello, brother. Hello? Because he goes, ah, Divya. And she pushes aside his paint his paint table, and she's, like, you understand that I have to do this.

Rachel:

It's not personal. It's about my daddy issues, and you are his favorite son. And this is happening, so it can happen the hard way and it can hurt a lot, or it can happen the easy way and it can hurt less. So you ready? And I love that ready.

Rachel:

Like, I love the ready. Here we go. And then we get a vampire showdown, which is just blah blah blah blah. Jump on table, fall down. Nick lights on fire for a little while, takes the jacket off.

Rachel:

And then she

Matt:

Rick Forsyth throws the jacket off.

Rachel:

Yeah. His his stunt double with a really bad wig. And then she grabs him. You know, she, like, scratches his face, which is part of her mode of operation, and then she ends up biting him and tossing him to the side, and he falls on 1 of his sun paintings. And we get this, like, oh, shit.

Rachel:

Nick is dead. Because we zoom slowly away from him. And then we get a moth band flight. So canonically, there was another sighting of the moth band, but this time, moth woman was smaller. Weird.

Rachel:

I don't know. They move so fast.

Matt:

Moth girl.

Rachel:

Moth girl. I was trying to figure out if there was a superhero named moth girl, and I think there's just the moth from the tick. So Yeah. Yeah. Not

Matt:

not a popular superhero avatar.

Rachel:

Not really. Although I love the tick. But anyway, so we go to LaCroix at the Raven, and this is when Divya arrives, and she comes up from behind this curtain. And LaCroix goes, if I didn't know better, I'd almost say that you'd grown, my dear, which is actually an in joke because, Catherine Long had actually grown between her 2 appearances on the show. Yeah.

Rachel:

And so she grew up. This is their wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Get it? I mean, she spent 1900 years in this tomb being mad. It made her grow a little.

Rachel:

I don't know. And she decides to try to needle him a little bit. She's like, I never imagined you would rise to the lofty position of innkeeper. It's like that's not that's not the burn you think it is. It's fine.

Rachel:

I own a whole club. I have a podcast. Okay?

Matt:

Cool following.

Rachel:

Cool people have podcasts.

Matt:

With an Internet following.

Rachel:

With an Internet. I got look. I put up a poll and I got responses. Okay? Like, people

Matt:

Rachel did.

Rachel:

People voted. Yeah. I did, personally. Me. I'm micro famous.

Rachel:

Isn't that the joke now? Micro famous. Micro famous. I'm famous in my own head. Okay?

Rachel:

So, anyway, after that real, real, real deep dig of, the lofty position of, independent successful business owner, but the modern world is full of disappointments. Oh, and by the way, I've won. And Lacroix is like, oh, you've come to gloat, Glivia? Great. Fine.

Rachel:

Whatever. I fucking hate you. And she's like, you cannot imagine how much I hate you because I was going to spend centuries loving you, like, loving you, but here we are. And Lacroix is like, you know what? Actually, she slaps him around a little bit.

Rachel:

They get into a bit of a tiff here. And then he's like, you know, I always thought evil had its limits, Divya, but you take the fucking cake because even I have my I have a line. Okay?

Matt:

In test.

Rachel:

It's the line. It's still a line. It's the line. It's still a line. And she goes, and that's why you're as weak as those we prey upon.

Rachel:

And he's like, okay. So the only thing you really have left to do is kill me. Like, you've done everything else to me. You've made everybody leave. I'm here all by myself.

Rachel:

I had to close the club. You killed Vashon and Urs, who I honestly gave less of a shit about than you could possibly imagine, but, like, cool cool. You killed them. That's fine. You should probably just go ahead and kill me.

Rachel:

And I have to wonder, is he provoking Divya to try to get her to kill him before she goes and kills Nick? Maybe. Like saving Nick by getting her to abbreviate her plan and just go ahead and count him. Yeah. It kinda feels that way because he feels like he's goading her, and it doesn't work because she's like, oh, you mean kill you right now and deny you the pain and loneliness that I have felt?

Rachel:

I don't think so. You must exist forever with the knowledge that you destroyed everyone who was dear to you. And then she goes, including your son. And this is the part where LaCroix is like

Matt:

Oh, no. She didn't.

Rachel:

What do you mean? And she goes, Nicholas, I think, was his name. 1 always recognizes family, And Lacroix is like, oh, hell, no. You did not kill Nicholas. And she goes, yeah.

Rachel:

No. Your son is dead. How does that feel? Tell me how that feels. And then he's like, I am not gonna let you leave here because there is enough misery in the world.

Rachel:

And she's like, nah. There's always room for more. And then she ends up grabbing him by the neck because she's like, oh, okay. You're gonna stop me? You and as they say, whose army?

Rachel:

And then she throws him through the glass into the pod lab. In my notes, I wrote, not the pod lab. How rude. How rude. And then Divya is, like, monologuing while she's pressing his neck to the broken glass, and she's like, say you're sorry.

Rachel:

Tell me you don't like, tell me you're sorry. And then Lequois goes, if you kill me right now, my suffering will be over. This is a really tense part. There's a lot of tete a tete in this part. There's a lot of back and forth, and she's like, maybe, but also maybe you'll be damned, And, oh, look, I brought the scythe that you killed me with.

Rachel:

Oh my God. Weirdest coincidence. Lacroix responds to this. He goes, when I was mortal, I loved you more than the gods, but now how could anyone love anything as grotesque as you? That's a pretty that was better than the innkeeper line.

Rachel:

So Divya has some,

Matt:

some LaCroix 2, Divya, maybe 1 None. 0?

Rachel:

Only 1 because she killed Nick, and he she got him with that 1. But everything else, it's been LaCroix's game, and she's playing it Yep. Verbally. Physically, she's beaten the shit out of him, and then she raises the weapon. And I have to imagine, at this point, he's not fighting back simply because a world without Nick, what's the point of that?

Rachel:

Because like you said, in a more permanent hell, I will actually miss you. I just won't be able to die.

Matt:

Right.

Rachel:

And she raises the weapon, and just in time, she gets staked. And as her body falls away, we see that it's Nick. And Lacroix's look of relief when he sees that Nick is okay is like, oh, thank God. I have invested so much time and energy in you. I was really hoping you didn't die.

Matt:

And I'm I'm guessing that LaCroix would have felt it if Nick actually died.

Rachel:

He didn't feel it when Jeanette turned into a mortal.

Matt:

Well, maybe that's because

Rachel:

he didn't care that much about Jeanette. I mean And it

Matt:

may have been a different sensation, like a gradual, like, weakening of her Yeah. Like, signal.

Rachel:

Maybe Divya is, like, jamming the channels. It's like having a too powerful of a signal.

Matt:

Yeah. That could be it. It.

Rachel:

Yeah. But after she gets staked, Divya's laying on the ground and she's like, oh, father, help me. Daddy, please. And LaCroix is like, okay. Yeah.

Rachel:

No. It's fine. I forgive you everything. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.

Rachel:

I caught you grotesque. Can you give me a little girl? I'm gonna help you. And Nick is like, no. No.

Rachel:

No. And she goes, father, don't let me die. This is when Nick is like, uh-uh. Don't do it. He keeps holding him back, which is really sweet and really sad because he just wants to save his little girl, and then she does this, like, death rattles out.

Matt:

That's not bad.

Rachel:

This is fine. It's good. Yeah. And then we cut to them at this junkyard, and they're preparing to burn divia, and it's the most non human looking wrapped thing I've ever seen in my whole life. The feet look like cartoon character feet.

Rachel:

They're like, but I kinda think there might be some exceptions. And then he goes, I never thought I'd say this, Nick, but I am so glad for your search for humanity. Perhaps that's what allowed you to withstand her death by evilness. And so here's the part where we can kind of discuss why do we think that Nick was able to overcome this, because his response is just that Urs and Vashawn were young, and they didn't know how to deal with it.

Matt:

Right. And I don't think they had gone, like, as wide open as Nick had done several times on just, like, murder sprees. So Nick had experienced the just wild, bloody, like, murder sprees where he was enjoying every moment of it. Yeah. And he has, like, worked himself down from that state a bunch.

Rachel:

He's learned how to compartmentalize that?

Matt:

And he maintains that that, you know, compartmentalization of it on a daily basis.

Rachel:

And, like, it it killed Oz outright. Whatever it was killed Oz, just straight killed Oz.

Matt:

Right.

Rachel:

It didn't kill Vashon until he was staked. Right. Although he stated he was dying. Right.

Matt:

Yeah. He wasn't, regenerating.

Rachel:

I wonder if it is a lifetime of having to fend off LaCroix's psychic invasion.

Matt:

Maybe the combination of Yeah. Of just personally being able to deal with it.

Rachel:

I think it's supposed to be a combination of just simple time. He has at least 300 years on Vashon, and then his master is orders of magnitude older than most other people's masters. So the person that he learned everything that he learned from is orders of magnitude more powerful than other people's masters.

Matt:

And Nick is a a more elder generation of the empire? Yeah.

Rachel:

It's like a millennial in Urs and Vashon were all Gen z. And somebody took away their cell phone, and they just died. They just straight up died. And the millennials, like, well, I've been here before. I know how to live without a cell phone.

Rachel:

I can handle it.

Matt:

Get me that phone book and a pay phone.

Rachel:

That's fine. What what we did we watch for the checked. Oh, we just watched the Mario Brothers movie with cinematic anarchy, and they checked

Matt:

The 9394 1?

Rachel:

Yeah. And they checked their met their answering machine from the pay phone, which I thought was the most nineties combination of tasks 1 could possibly do. Yeah. I've always liked that Nick survives this. I like it because we harp on the fact that Nick is weaker.

Rachel:

He's more human. He's more mortal. He's intentionally less vampire than everybody around him, and it gets a little bit like, my my my. And it's really nice every once in a while when there were, like, there are perks.

Matt:

Right.

Rachel:

There are perks to the fact that he has focused so hard on learning to control his urges, his mental like, he's learned to control himself and to control the part of himself that is vampire. And he's done it for different reasons than maybe Lacroix has, but you have to imagine Lacroix is probably just as good at controlling himself as Nick is Yeah. Just for different reasons. And I love that this gives him a well, they were young, and so they didn't know how to deal with it. But it was fine.

Rachel:

15 minutes, I was good to go. So I don't hate it. I don't hate this moment. I love this moment. In fact, I fucking love this moment because this is when he turns to Laquan.

Rachel:

He's like, I'm sorry for your loss. I mean, because this was a loss. We all like Divya had her flaws, but he was still her child. It still hurts. What he was losing was not just the child.

Rachel:

It was the life he could have had with her had she not done the things that she did.

Matt:

Right.

Rachel:

Sometimes you don't just lose the physical person. You lose the future too, the future you would have had with them. And so he's like, I'm sorry for your loss. And this is when he says, okay. How about Urs?

Rachel:

Laquaza goes, how about Urs? And Nick goes, Natalie took care of her body.

Matt:

How did Natalie take care of a vampire body?

Rachel:

And all I can imagine is Natalie, like, dragging a body bag out at dawn and just unzipping it and just standing there and smoking a cigarette while it burns. And then, like, shaking the ashes out on the flower bed and just walking back in, cursing Nick the whole way, like, fucking Oh, no.

Matt:

No. No. No. There's a little, like, ashtray outside because it's the smoking area.

Rachel:

Yeah.

Matt:

And she just pours the bag into the

Rachel:

To the ashtray.

Matt:

The ashtray, and then she calls the facilities guy, hey. This ashtray is full again.

Rachel:

It's full. Yeah. You should probably commit them to the wind too, by the way. So then he says, well, what about Vashon? And Nick's like, well, Tracy buried him by screed.

Rachel:

She knows what he was, which reminds us that, like, LaCroix and Tracy never interacted. So LaCroix and Tracy? Yeah. He never had a chance to find out that she knew. I mean, when they met in the precinct, that was it.

Rachel:

That was their first interaction. And Lacroix goes, oh, is that gonna be a problem? And Nick's like, well, maybe we should just tell her that Vashon moved on, but leave in that he was a vampire. Like, we'll just say he was a vampire. It was his time, and he moved on.

Rachel:

And, you know, that knowledge of us was his gift to her, and we don't have any right to take it away, which is fair. And we got into a slight debate on the discord about this, about whether we felt like this was a fair like, Olga, Sean left to go get cigarettes and just never came back. Like, is that a great way to end? Like, is that better or would it be better to have left her with he sacrificed himself before he could hurt her?

Matt:

Right.

Rachel:

And I think I like this. I like the he it was his time. You had your time together, and then he chose to leave because it's technically correct. Right.

Matt:

But it removes the trauma of him kind of selfishly involving her.

Rachel:

Right. Because it makes him a better person than he was, and there's really there's no shame in that in leaving Vashon a better legacy than he would have left himself. Right. So okay. Nick follows that up with, you know, she's a resistor, but I know you know how to get around that.

Rachel:

Lacoste is like, done. Say no more. I I can handle that. He goes, but you know what? I'm gonna stay here with Divya right now until she's ash, and then I'm gonna commit her to the wind, and I might even say a prayer.

Rachel:

And this is when Nick does the shoulder grab. The, like, puts his hand up on his shoulder, and he goes, good night, Lacroix. And then they get they share this look. Why couldn't I have had this in any other episode? This, like, you know what?

Rachel:

We love a good bromance. 1 of our favorite K dramas we love because the bromance is so on point, And this could have had they look at their chemistry. Just look at their chemistry in this 1 little moment, and we could have had this bromance.

Matt:

Yeah.

Rachel:

For seasons. And instead, we get it right now because they get this look, and he just goes

Matt:

Which is worse than even doing this in the last episode. If this

Rachel:

is the last

Matt:

episode, it's like, oh, okay. Cool. That's, like, going forward. Yeah. Cool.

Matt:

We got that

Rachel:

Yeah.

Matt:

At the end. But 1 episode before the end, it's, like, wait. If this wasn't the finale, we could have had this at any other time.

Rachel:

At any other time, Except we did we didn't. And after their look, he goes, Nicholas. And Nigel, fucking Bennett packs so much into that Nicholas, and they just fucking love it so much because it's not just Nick. It's like Nicholas. He just found out that his most beloved son yes.

Rachel:

Beloved and beleaguered. Like, he he harasses Nicholas. But he does like, I have always contended. He's doing it from a place of I care about you. I'm just not real real good at figuring out how to tell you that.

Rachel:

And so I'm I'm, like, trying to relate with you, but I only have 1 method of communication, and our our love languages are really incompatible. Okay? But he is his most beloved son. He is the 1 that he is closest to. He has stayed with him for 800 years for a reason, and he thought he was dead.

Rachel:

He thought Divya had killed him, and for that moment, he lost Nicholas. He lost 800 years of trying to connect with him and never quite making it, and he lost every future possibility of ever connecting with him. Right now, when he finally felt like he was growing closer to him in a way he never had before, And then he didn't actually lose him. He shows up, and not only does he show up, he saves him. He could have let Divya kill him and then killed Divya, and he would have been free, But he doesn't.

Rachel:

He saves Lacroix, and this is a moment where they have finally, finally connected. Not only did he get his son back, but he got his son back better than before. And he packs all of that into Nicholas, because he's Nigel motherfucking Bennett. That's why. And then Nick leaves.

Rachel:

He just walks off, and he whooshes off. And LaCroix lights the body, and then that's the end. And that's the end of the second to last episode of Forever Night.

Matt:

Yep. Yeah. And I think we're gonna be doing a live watch along on the Discord.

Rachel:

Yeah. The Discord's gonna be doing a live watch along of last night, sometime next week. Haven't nailed down the date yet, but when we do, I'll put

Matt:

it up. Night next week.

Rachel:

Yep. With a k. Both of them. Kweek, KWEK. Connect.

Rachel:

Kweek. Yes. So I I don't know. I don't have a date nailed down yet, but when I do, I'm gonna put it up. I'll put it up on Instagram.

Rachel:

And, again, we'll do the same thing we did for Black Buddha where I'll record the watch along, and then I'll just offer it on Patreon if you wanna buy it for, like I think I put it up for a dollar. And then you just watch it like a riff track as you watch the episode, or you can watch it live with us on the Discord. I'll put the date up on Instagram. If I can't get a good date next week for everybody on the Discord, I may actually delay it 1 week just to make sure because a lot of the people on the Discord have been with us for a really long time, and I wanna share this last episode with them. So I'm gonna make sure we get, we get everybody who wants to be a part of it.

Rachel:

I hopefully can be a part of it. So, I guess we'll just leave it at that. I don't really I love this episode for a lot of reasons. And it's because as weird and as meh as some of the things that pop up are, this is Nigel's episode, and I respect Nigel as an actor so much. And I love that they just let him run-in this episode, and, I fucking love it.

Rachel:

And I think I'm just gonna leave it there. Do you have anything else you wanna share? Mm-mm. So until next time, friends.

Matt:

Bye. Bye.

Forever Knight (Season 3 Ep 21) - "Ashes to Ashes"

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