Forever Knight (Season 3 Ep 8) - "Trophy Girl"
They say no 2 persons are alike. Never is that more true than when it comes to our desires. Some cherish what others abhor. One man's precious cargo is another man's poison. Some prize what others revile.
LaCroix:Prize what you will. Prize what you can. But always remember, even he who dies with the most prizes still
LaCroix:dies.
Rachel:Hi. I'm Rachel.
Matt:And I'm Matt.
Rachel:And this is Come in 81 kilo.
Matt:A forever night podcast.
Rachel:Alright. It's time for another episode, Season 3, episode 8, trophy girl. Or as I like to think of it, Nick saw silence of the lambs. It was like, oh, shit. I wanna try that out.
Rachel:Because it's like the slight the the most infinitesimal of provocations. And he's like, I think I should go meet this serial killer in in prison.
Matt:Yes. And and get advice from him about this case.
Rachel:Pick his brain about this person who we only found one body, and we don't have any kind of a clear pattern to indicate they've done this before. And we have literally nothing to say that this was anything other than an attempt to hide her identity. They literally find a body in the water with no head and no hands, and Tracy isn't there to tell him to to keep it together. So he immediately is like, I think it's a serial killer. I don't need to go to this prison and talk to this other serial killer because it might be a copycat.
Rachel:And they're like, yeah, Nick. That's fine. Go ahead. Least it'll keep him out of our hair while Tracy is on vacation. Anyway, we open on a dead woman being prepared, kind of like in love you to death.
Rachel:Remember love you to death when she's bathing and there's candles? But she's not really bathing. She's getting bathed. And then those kids find her at the park because she's been
Matt:sitting on this bench.
Rachel:Yep. Yeah. A little bit like that, except, there's a bit more of a gruesome ending, I guess.
Matt:The knife.
Rachel:Yeah. Because, you know, we see, this woman is, we bury the lead a lot bet a lot better in love you to death because this woman, it's clear pretty much immediately that she's deceased. And so this guy is, like, running, like, cutting off her stockings, running his hand along her skin, and then he picks her hand up and he starts marking the bottom of her hand, like, for surgery? Yes. Yeah.
Rachel:And they were really enjoying this, hey, we get to be the sexy new vampire show with
Matt:Oh, yeah. They were pushing hard
Rachel:Yeah.
Matt:Into we are the edgy, like, risque show to be on broadcast television.
Rachel:Yeah. We would get it once or in a while in season 1, and then it kind of disappeared in season 2. And now season 3, we've dialed it up to 11. Absolutely dialed it up to 11, which makes it make more sense that, hey. Did you know Kerwin Davies got interviewed for Playgirl Magazine about Forever Night?
Matt:Because vampires are sexy.
Rachel:Maybe have bought that issue and it's on its way so he can read the article. Maybe that will be a patriotic exclusive episode in which we discussed the contents of said article. Maybe the contents of the rest of the play girl, just depending on
Matt:how it's going.
Rachel:It's nineties. It's literal nineties porn, not like the seventies quote porn that we've been watching for Strange and Beautiful Book Club and the occasional quote porn that Meg describes as porn, which is just Garrett's over the top, like, the fact that he always plays a character that gets with somebody is actual literal porn. So we'll just see how that goes. But I just was like, wow. At one point, forever night was so popular.
Rachel:People were writing articles about it in publications like Playgirl.
Matt:Right. Because Nick was the the hot thing on TV.
Rachel:Yeah. About an actor who is never nude. We don't ever I've never even seen this man's shoulder, maybe once or twice. Maybe his but, like, his forearms are never even bare. Nothing.
Rachel:Like, layers and layers and layers of clothing, and somehow he ended up in playgirl. I guess, what's left to the imagination can sometimes be better. I don't know. I don't know. I'm just gonna leave that right where that is.
Rachel:So it ends with our intro ends with this guy revving up a bone saw, which I really hope he cut through her skin first because otherwise that's gonna be real messy.
Matt:Yeah.
Rachel:Yeah. And then we go to the intro. Bada bada bada. And when we come back, someone is flying around the city.
Matt:Somebody.
Rachel:Somebody. And we see somebody flying around the city, which means there's at least 7 more sightings of the Toronto mothman today. And then we hear, like, panting sounds and we see a guy climbing a a ladder, and then we go back to flying. And it turns out that Nick and Tracy are chasing a couple of guys. And so Nick catches his guy because he just pushes up behind them.
Rachel:And Tracy is actually chasing hers down an alley, which they should know Shit never goes every shit goes awry in alleys. Like, it's just a thing. We can't every time an alley appears in this show, it's like a wild, oh, no. Someone's gonna get shot and then have a crisis about it.
Matt:It's because alleys are easy and, I guess, quick and cheap to construct on a soundstage.
Rachel:Yeah. Yeah. Space between walls? Absolutely. So Nick appears and stops his, but then Tracy gets into a shootout with hers, and she ends up shooting the guy.
Matt:I wonder if this is the same alley that Skanky almost discovered Nick.
Rachel:I'm sure they've taken that down. It up.
Matt:But they just took the they probably just have, like, ready made alley walls, and they just, like, take ladders down, put windows in, whatever.
Rachel:Yeah. Take out the Just the junked car. It up. Yeah. Well, he gets shot against a a dumpster.
Rachel:I don't know. Because she's like, freeze, and she comes out to try to to try to get him. And, well, he ain't going anywhere because she shot and killed him.
Matt:Yeah. He says over my dead body, and he doesn't say that. He says it with his actions.
Rachel:I guess. And I was like, oh, close call much because a shooting on the job leads to a partner crisis of faith that sends them into a dangerous spiral that leads to them going directly to talk to a killer. In close
Matt:call very slow.
Rachel:It was just going to talk to Lacroix, who is a serial killer. So in both in both instances
Matt:Technically, Nick is a serial killer.
Rachel:Yes. Technically, literally, absolutely.
Matt:Which the Hannibal Lecter of this episode
Rachel:Calls out.
Matt:Calls out.
Rachel:Yeah. Yeah. I wonder if in Nick's mind, is he Clarice? Or or is he Buffalo Bill?
Matt:Oh. Mhmm. Oh. Yeah. It puts the lotion on the skin where it gets the hose again.
Rachel:It gets the hose. I mean, at one point, he did keep women in his basement, but we don't get that there yet. We're not there yet. We're not there for a while yet. Thank god because it's a really awkward episode.
Rachel:That's the one with Hayden Christensen in it. Okay. Well, we're gonna get there and we're gonna talk about it when we get there and probably we'll bring this back up. But Tracy's in her shootout and then Nick gets there, and he's like, Tracy, you okay? And she's like, yeah.
Rachel:Yeah. Yeah. No. I'm fine. I'm fine.
Rachel:Hey, Tracy. You didn't see anyone or anything flying. Oh, and do you wanna go wash my car today? I'm sorry. That was a reflex.
Rachel:I just couldn't help it.
Matt:So it it was a thing Yeah. With me and Skanky.
Rachel:Yeah. Oh, he just had a moment.
Matt:I'm I'm I'm not ready to talk about it.
Rachel:It's happening again. But he assures her. He gets her in his car because the best place to be when you're having a crisis of faith is in a classic Cadillac with the top down.
Matt:And she's like Cruising the streets of Toronto.
Rachel:And she's just not I don't know. I have in my notes Tracy is Spacey. She's just off, you know, this kind of processing. And he's like, I don't think there's gonna be any kind of a problem with IA because it's pretty clear. You know, there was a shootout.
Rachel:You defended yourself. I don't think anybody's gonna say anything about it, but you probably are gonna have to at least ride a desk for a couple of days while they, you know, talk this through. And she's like, yeah. Yeah. No.
Rachel:No. I get it. I mean, she's from a cop family.
Matt:Right. But isn't this her first on the job kill? Yes. I think that's why it's traumatic for her.
Rachel:Yes. It is. I'm sorry. It is. We actually we watched ahead.
Rachel:And I think in the next couple of episodes, she kills somebody.
Matt:Yeah. I think Rachel's remembering later in the season when Tracy does her, like, Rambo impression.
Rachel:Yeah. Well, yeah. I think this is the first time we've for justice. I'm pretty sure this is the first time we've seen her kill somebody on on screen. I mean, clearly, she's
Matt:a aiming gun.
Rachel:Yeah. Well, it it obviously bothers her. That's what matters. So whether it's her first one or not, this is something that she's not okay with. She does probably doesn't see herself as a killer because a lot of cops go their entire career without ever having killed anybody.
Rachel:There's a good chance that someone in her family, because most of them are cops, have gone their entire career without ever having to draw their weapon. And yet here she is, what, like, 4 weeks into the job? 8 weeks 8 weeks into the job. She's already shot somebody. And Nick has tried to be really helpful.
Rachel:He's very supportive for a nineties guy. He's like, I could drive you home. And if you want, I could stay for a while. Like, we could watch a movie together and do some Rubik's cube, Tetris, whatever. You know, the things that are that are proven to prevent PTSD if done within a certain amount of time after a traumatic event.
Rachel:And she's like, yeah. No. It's okay. You just take me home. It's fine.
Rachel:I'm alright. And Nick's like, well, if you wanna talk about it, and she goes, thanks, but I'm alright. And then they get a call for come in 81 kilo, and it's for a body in the water. They need to get down to the river or the lake, the waterfront to come and take a look at this body that they found. And Nick is like, okay.
Rachel:Well, I'll take you home first. She's like, no. My my apartment's out of the way. I could use the distraction. Just take me to the dead body.
Rachel:That is clearly what I need right now that will help me get through this traumatic event. And he's like, oh, okay. Cool. And so he just takes her straight to the water and Natalie meets them. She must meet them when they first get out of the car because they're walking up to the to where the body is, and she's like, oh, this one is not pretty.
Matt:And Natalie is not reading the room.
Rachel:No. No. She's just like, what was the one where she was super excited about the body, and it felt really awkward? Do you remember the episode I'm talking about? Anyway, that's what it feels like again.
Rachel:She's like, whoo. This one is not pretty. It has been in the water for a long time, and this tugboat captain found it. And, it's it's gonna be a doozy. Y'all
Matt:already have a look.
Rachel:Come take a look at this. And so Nick's like, how long? How long has it been in the water? She's like, you're asking me? I just got here.
Natalie:Brace yourselves. Tugboat captain found her divers brought her in about 20 minutes ago. I'm told it's not an extremely pretty sight.
Nick:How long has she been in the water?
Natalie:You're asking me? I just arrived. One thing for certain though, she did not drown. She was decapitated.
Rachel:So Natalie must have just rolled up, and Nick was like, give me all the facts. And she's like Yeah. I haven't even looked yet. Sorry, Nick. I got nothing.
Matt:Sorry. I haven't gotten the facts. I have a summary.
Rachel:But she does say, I do know she didn't drown on account of she ain't got no head and she ain't got no hands. So I can tell you one thing straight off the bat. This is not a drowning death unless snapping turtles ate off her hands and ate off her head. Highly unlikely. And Natalie immediately notices, luckily, that Tracy is more uncomfortable than usual around this probably fairly graphic looking body.
Matt:Yeah.
Rachel:And so Tracy gets up and walks away, and Natalie just looks at Nick, and Nick's like, she got out of she got into a shootout tonight. She won. And then Natalie, and Nick well, Nick talks to Tracy for a second. He's like, I'll I'll get a uniform to take you home, and Tracy does not argue. She's like, yeah.
Rachel:Actually, that's best. This was totally a mistake. I should not have come here. And so then
Matt:My apartment wasn't that far out of the way.
Rachel:Oh. Nick and Natalie go back to the morgue because they must have already moved the body there, which I learned from doctor g medical examiner. The medical examiner owns the body and they get to make the decisions about the body at the crime scene, but the crime scene technicians and the police own the the crime scene. Okay. So Natalie could have released this body as soon as she was like, I'm not gonna find out any more information from it being here.
Matt:Right. Because it wasn't this person wasn't killed here. The first one was killed or there.
Rachel:Oh, yeah. Somewhere else. And then they got brought to here.
Matt:And this is where just the body got transported.
Rachel:Yeah. Because this is where the tugboat captain pushed it up on the lake, on the land. I don't know how that worked out. But Nick is like, well, I've heard about this kind of thing happening in Central America, or maybe it could be a mob hit. And Natalie's like, well, I don't think it's Central America because this is Toronto.
Rachel:So that's probably about it. And she says, I don't think it could be a mob hit because it's too clean, which is absolutely not a reason to rule out the mob. What what if they
Matt:hire Professional mob hit hitters, hitmen? Yeah. Are professionals.
Rachel:What if they hired Johnny to clean-cut to clean-cut to commit to that? I mean, there's literally no reason to rule the mob out. They could have literally just hired a professional, the butcher or the surgeon or whatever to come and take care of this woman. But Natalie's like, nope. Couldn't be the mob.
Matt:Nah. They're too messy. Yeah. For this kind of work.
Rachel:They would have hacked her head off with a Thompson submachine gun. I don't know what but they can't wield a knife because it's really well done. There was no splintering of bone. It was surgically removed. I hope you enjoyed that plotline because it's never coming back.
Rachel:Because the bad guy is a real estate broker who owns a lab coat. That's it. He is not a surgeon or
Matt:a butcher
Rachel:or anything.
Matt:We're never mentioning.
Rachel:We're never mentioning how cleanly it was
Matt:done. Again.
Rachel:No. It has nothing to do with who did it. Nothing.
Matt:I wonder if they just, like, combined 2 scripts.
Rachel:I don't know.
Matt:And one person started the episode, and they said, hey. We need you to finish this. Here's the first half. I don't need to read it.
Rachel:It's another one where did hard hitting police work lead us to this person, or did they just bumble along until they literally got captured by the bad guy and the bad guy revealed themselves that way? Oh, wait. It's the latter. It's a little bit like My Boyfriend is a Vampire. Actually, every single episode so far where they're pretty sure they know they have a direction, and they just speed headlong in that direction until they stumble across
Matt:it. And make themselves the most attractive target.
Rachel:Yes. Until the bad guy is so threatened by their, velocity, but not direction, just velocity that they ultimately capture them and threaten them. And then that is how they discover who the ultimate bad guy is because what oh, yeah. So Natalie says you're looking for someone with surgeon skills, but that could mean a med student, could be a butcher, could mean a surgeon, could mean a real estate broker who dabbles extensively in anatomy, I guess.
Matt:Well, if you've been, like, capturing and killing small animals
Rachel:since
Matt:you were 10
Rachel:You could do that.
Matt:And you're, like, 45 now. You got 35 years of experience.
Rachel:Right. So that was another assumption that was just totally a lot out of left field. Couldn't be the mob because it was too well done. It had to be a surgeon, except it's neither one of those things. And then Nick is like, and we're sure there's no evidence of, like, sexual assault?
Rachel:And Natalie goes, oh, no. No evidence of sexually assault, but that doesn't mean it wasn't sexually motivated. Except this body we find out has been in the water for, like, 72 hours. There's no evidence of anything left after this body is in the water for 72 hours, unless she had actual extensive physical damage to the areas you would associate with physical damage for sexual assault. So there's absolutely no way to conclusively say one way or the other.
Matt:Right.
Rachel:Well, she just says there's no evidence. She doesn't say, and she does admit it could still have been sexually motivated. So, I mean, I guess we get that at least. And she does say she had minor scarring on her back, like she just had surgery. I mean, this water this body's been in the water for 72 hours.
Rachel:It's unless this water is cold.
Matt:It is Toronto.
Rachel:It is Toronto. It could have been cold. If it was cold, okay. Yes. You could see the scarring on the back, and that's kinda where we leave it.
Rachel:She had her head and hands removed. We don't know who she is because she had her head and hands removed. They were done really well, which leads me to believe it cannot be the mob, and it cannot be anybody but a surgeon, a med student, or a butcher. Okay. Thank you, Natalie.
Rachel:That was the most unhelpful. I mean, honestly, it's not her job. She just reports the facts. She does engage in supposition with Nick, but her job primarily is to cause and manner of death. So cause of death, not the head cutting and the hand removal.
Rachel:So she died of something else. And manner of death, homicide. So that's it. It's her whole purpose, and she's still working on, like, a talk screen to see if they can figure out what actually killed her. So in the meantime, we go back to the precinct and Reese and Tracy and Nick are having a conversation because Tracy is like, you can't fucking do this to me.
Rachel:And Reese is like, I'm pretty sure I fucking did. And Nick's in the back going, yeah. He did because I told him to. Because he's got his fancy suede jacket back on, and he's like, dad, my dad had this jacket. So every time I see this jacket, I think about like, this is such a 9 late nineties man jacket.
Rachel:And Tracy is like, I don't wanna take time off. And Reese is like, this is the book. The book says I have to give you 3 days off. And she's like, it also says it's up to your discretion. And he's like, yeah.
Rachel:And I have distressed that you are taking 3 days off. And she's like, put
Matt:me my job.
Rachel:Yeah. It's my job to read the room.
Matt:Tell me how to do my job.
Rachel:I'm reading the room, and Nick's behind him, like, yeah. That's right. She's going home for 3 days. She needs to take this time off because she could just be on desk duty. There's a variety of options, but they've decided to give her 3 days off.
Rachel:And she's like, I don't think I deserve a suspension. Reese is like, this is not a suspension. It is a vacation. I'm trying to send you home. Remember how in the past, all that shit happened to Natalie, and we just expected her to come back the next day to work like nothing happened?
Rachel:Look what
Matt:happened to Natalie. Have you talked to her lately? She's so damaged. She's kinda let's listen. She has permanent psychological scarring, and we just don't talk about it.
Rachel:And the only thing we can do right now is just make sure she always has an attendant on staff to keep her, like except she doesn't. She works alone. Why do you think she works alone, Tracy? Because listen. I'm trying to help you avoid this fate.
Rachel:Go home. And Tracy's like, why? Is it because I'm a woman? Because I'm a rookie? You don't think I can handle this?
Rachel:And Nick literally goes, it's just 3 days, Tracy. I killed someone. Line of duty, self defense, whatever. I killed someone, and I can handle it. What?
Rachel:I'm a rookie? A woman? What?
Nick:It's just 3 days.
Rachel:Like when his partner was killed, he couldn't stay out of the precinct. In Black Buddha, he's supposed to be taking time off. And every time Reese comes in, he's in doing work. And he's like, go the fuck home, Nick. And Nick's like, no.
Rachel:And then as soon as it's Tracy's time, he's like, come on, Tracy. It's just 3 days. You've got this.
Matt:You just have to stay out of the precinct for 3 days. Like, it's hard.
Rachel:Come on. I I could do it.
Matt:I mean, you've never seen me do it, but I could I I really could if I really wanted to.
Rachel:What leg is hard? But Tracy storms off. She storms off because she's mad. Of course, she's mad. She feels like she's being pandered to.
Rachel:She's probably hypersensitive to being pandered to because, a, she's a a woman in a traditionally masculine role, especially in the nineties, and her dad is a police commissioner. Everybody treats her like she's made of glass and she probably is really tired of it. And she is a good cop. She's been in a lot of hairy situations over the last couple episodes, and she's done a really good job with it. She got threatened on a police set.
Rachel:She got beat up by a woman with multiple personality disorder. She's had a real busy couple of weeks. Okay? And now this is it. This is what gets her 3 days off.
Matt:Well, it's because getting beat up by somebody in the rule book doesn't say 3 days off. Yeah. Killing somebody with your police issued gun
Rachel:Yeah.
Matt:Says 3 days off. Yeah.
Rachel:Up to, but no greater than 3 days off. They get
Matt:Per the discretion of the captain.
Rachel:Hopefully, none. Just send them straight back to work. They're gonna be fine. Don't even offer counseling. It's the nineties.
Rachel:And so
Matt:And track your productivity metrics.
Rachel:So Tracy storms off, Nick walks into Reese's office, and Reese gives his patented Reese, I just don't understand people like this. You can't tell me anybody understands people like this. This is just the worst. I can't believe this is happening. And the same speech he gave in Black Buddha, which is like these I don't get it.
Matt:To which Nick responds, oh, yeah. Yep. Yep. I can't touch anybody, like, rational being able to, like, empathize with this kind of situation. That would be that's totally out of the realm of normal behavior.
Matt:Like, no one should ever have the kind of lived experience that they could use as a reference point for what it would be like to be the kind of person that would commit these kinds of atrocities. Like, what's going on, Reese? I totally am vibing with you right now.
Rachel:Yeah. Reese just blinks. What? You doth protest. But I wanna point out that at this point, all they have found is a body in the water that doesn't have a head or hands.
Rachel:There was no evidence of any kind of assault. We don't even know how she died. We don't know who she is. We know that it was cleanly done, so they have at least some kind of training and or practice in having done this, possibly just training. So we have no idea of the motivations.
Rachel:We don't know if this is a one off crime. Nothing. And the first words out of Nick's mouth after Reese says, no one's going to tell me that they understand this, is maybe I need to go talk to someone who would understand this. And then he hands them a piece of paper, like he's prepped for this. And he goes
Matt:I bet
Rachel:there's like this guy.
Matt:I bet Nick has a list of, like, serial killer, like, criminal types that are, serving life sentences. And he's like, I'd really like to meet this person just to
Rachel:He's terrific.
Matt:Just just to have someone to bounce some ideas off of to, like, do my own internal work. Yeah. Because I I need somebody that I can, like, resonate with that's not Lacroix, and and since there's no one around me that can provide that kind of Yeah. Like, conversation tool, Here, I I keep a list of
Rachel:Yeah.
Matt:He's straight Serial killers.
Rachel:He straight goes. Yeah. Yeah.
Matt:And he's just waiting for the right opportunity to, like, do it in a way that's as least suspicious as possible. Right.
Rachel:He let he straight goes, oh, Reese. Yeah. Okay. Uh-huh. Yep.
Rachel:I hear you. So, while I'm looking into missing persons, which I mean might take a while, let's all be honest. Can I go meet this guy? And he just hands him this piece paper with the serial killer, the mortician whose name is Christopher Sheer, apparently, and he's over in Oak Ridge. And he's like, I think I could just go talk to this guy, and he could really give us some insight about, you know, who this person is and how we can stop them.
Matt:He can give us a a psychological profile of the killer.
Rachel:Yeah. Can I go talk to him? Can I go talk to him? Maurice is like, we're not in the position to offer this guy anything. Like, he's he's gonna be in jail until the second coming.
Rachel:I can't get him out. I can't get him anything. You have nothing you can give him, and Nick is like, I mean, semantics. Can I just can I can I go talk
Matt:to him? Shot at least.
Rachel:My partner's gone for a couple of days, and they I have to imagine Reese is like, yeah. He'll be gone for a couple of days. So someone will bleed off a little bit of that intensity for a little bit. Sure. Yep.
Rachel:You know what? You go right out of the head, man.
Matt:This is totally a gambit by Reese just to improve the morale of the station.
Rachel:It's like our daughter is adorable, and I love her to death, but she talks nonstop. Where could she have possibly gotten that? And so every once in a while, after 72 straight hours of listening to a monologue, you just you're like, hey. Do you wanna call your friend? You want my phone?
Rachel:You call your friend. Go ahead. That's the that's what this is. Oh, you wanna go talk to somebody, Nick? Okay.
Rachel:Fine. Go ahead. Yeah. You know what? Have a great time.
Rachel:Don't come back. Just go eat lunch out and then go home. It's fine. Have a good time. I'll sign that.
Rachel:Where's the form? I'll sign it. You just give it to me. I'll sign it. Well, actually, we don't have any evidence that Nick interacts with anybody else.
Matt:Or just maybe a big a collective sigh of relief.
Rachel:Like, oh, thank god. Well, maybe they get a chance to close some cases, and maybe they can actually have a meeting with Reese. Because every time they go in there, Nick is just in the room with Reese
Matt:Yeah.
Rachel:Like Wormtongue and King Theoden. Just all the time. You can tell them no, Reese. You're the captain. That's right.
Rachel:I am the captain. Yeah. You're the captain. You do what you want.
Matt:You have no power here.
Rachel:I have no power here. But Nat comes in as Nick is leaving, and she has an ID on the woman who died. And her name is Deanna Ellis, and she's from an escort agency. And the whole purpose of this is for Tracy to be outside, not having left, just lurking about the department.
Matt:Eavesdropping. Eavesdropping.
Rachel:And she overhears, that this woman was working at this specific escort agency and but the cause of death is still unknown. So we don't know how she died, but at least we know who she is now. And Natalie asks where Tracy is because she looks between Reese and Nick and she's like, where's Tracy? And they don't answer. They just look at each other and walk off.
Rachel:If you don't think you've done anything wrong, then you have no problem telling people what you did. This smacks a little guilty conscience. It smacks a little guilty conscience because they're like, oh, and they just
Matt:Which which only reinforces Tracy's outrage?
Rachel:Yeah. And because they could have just said, oh, she's taking some time off. You know? She had that incident, and so we thought it best for her to just have a couple of days to relax. That was not hard to say, except then they have to say, like, not like we didn't give that to you, Natalie, because you're you're tough.
Rachel:You're you're like a man. You don't need breaks. You don't have emotions.
Matt:Well, so technically, Natalie would not be
Rachel:How about the time she got a rope put around her neck with a gun on
Matt:the other end? But it's it's not Nick's or Reese's job to manage Natalie.
Rachel:Right.
Matt:That's a whole other division of the city.
Rachel:Right.
Matt:Government, like, whatever, organizational structure. Like, Natalie should have gotten time off.
Rachel:How about the time she got chased through a building by a serial killer?
Matt:But it's not Reese's fault or Nick's fault that Natalie didn't get any time off.
Rachel:How about the time her brother got killed in front of her twice?
Matt:It's not Reese's or Nick's fault. We need to be mad at Natalie's manager.
Rachel:We do. But Natalie actually goes over to Tracy after this because how hard is it to figure out what's going on? None. She just has to go ask Tracy. And so Tracy tells her she must tell her off camera because she's going through these.
Rachel:She's going through files for some reason. And Natalie is like, UK, Tracy? And Tracy's like, I don't need any special consideration. And Natalie's like, 3 days off isn't special consideration. It's fine.
Matt:It's literally the standard response.
Rachel:Yeah. And Natalie offers to talk to her about it, but Tracy actually says no. Probably never. Everyone else, she's dodged. No.
Rachel:Not right now. No. Maybe later. But, Tracy to Natalie is like, nope. Not gonna.
Rachel:Probably never gonna, which is interesting because she's far more candid with Natalie. Like, I'm not gonna talk to you about it. Sorry. Yeah. Instead of, you know, at least trying to keep smooth relations, I guess.
Rachel:But she goes to the locker room to pack up because she's looked through enough files. She can't she can't legitimately excuse her still being in the precinct any longer. So she goes to the locker room, which is the first time we've seen the locker room in like forever, But she goes to the locker room, and she has, like, a breakdown in the locker room because she she's flashing back to that moment when she killed the guy, and she starts to cry because it was hard on her. And they made the right call giving her time offer. Maybe they should have also given her, like, go talk to this counselor instead of just go home and have some tea about it.
Matt:Right.
Rachel:But that's fine. And in the meantime, Nick goes to the escort agency and talks to the dominatrix from false witness. Apparently, she's diversifying.
Matt:A career change.
Rachel:A career change. And she's not the same character. She's just the same actress. Making sure that's straight. Just to clarify.
Rachel:Just to clarify. She is the woman who plays the the evil dominatrix in false witness who had a VCR tape hidden in her flower pot. And Nick asks for a list of clients and employees, and she's like, listen. Everything I do is legitimate. Everything I do is above the board.
Rachel:I am just an escort agency. I screen my clients. I screen my employees. I am above board, and it goes, yep, and I think you protest too much.
Quote:I take care of my girls, detective Knight, just like I take care of my customers. Everything about my business is legitimate, totally above board. I run a dating service, period.
Nick:And you protest too much. No one's accused you of anything yet.
Matt:I would know. I would know.
Rachel:I recognize that dodge. The the the side dodge of no. Nope. Everything I do I need a list of your clients. My clients are legitimate.
Rachel:I didn't ask that. I just asked for a list, but thanks for the information. And she gives them a master file. It's already printed and on the desk. And she's like, go through that.
Rachel:That's everybody. And he tells her thank you, but can you please tell me if there are any updates? And she's like, yeah. Absolutely. You'll be the first one I call.
Rachel:And then she immediately hires somebody and doesn't tell him. And guess who she hires? Tracy. Tracy. Who is Tracy?
Matt:Who is taking 3 days off of work.
Rachel:Yeah. To get a side hustle.
Matt:But as herself?
Rachel:Like Well, no. She's Tracy from Vancouver. And she worked at the Blackbird Agency there.
Matt:This is this tactic usually works where you just say, yes. I have this experience. Like, here's my credentials, whatever. And they're just like, okay. That looks really good.
Rachel:Yeah.
Matt:I'm not going to verify any of that. Nowadays, it's so easy to verify Yeah. That you you just always do it.
Rachel:Hi. I'm Tracy Smedder from Vancouver. Maybe she just gave her her first name. And, of course, when she called the other agency, they were like, does a Tracy work there? And they were like, yeah.
Rachel:There's, like, 6. Which one?
Matt:Is there one that just left and moved to moved away? Yeah. Yeah. 2 of them did.
Rachel:Yeah. You're not narrowing it down, but the escort lady actually tells her, we're always looking I think her name is Ingrid Ingrid something. And she's like, we're always looking for fresh faces. That's how we stay alive in this business. Interesting choice of words for someone who ultimately isn't involved even remotely except by proximity.
Matt:Yeah.
Rachel:And so meanwhile, Nick is like, oh, yeah. It's time. And he goes to the prison. I wonder if he rewatched
Matt:I'm so excited.
Rachel:Did he rewatch Silence of the Lambs before he went? Like, yes. I am Clarice.
Matt:I am Clarice.
Rachel:Alright. Clarice. And he goes to see this guy, the mortician, whose name is Chris, which I think is funny. And he's talking to the guard, and the guard is like, this dude really fuck creepy. He's real fucking creepy.
Rachel:We've had guards clit because they think he's telepathic because he just gets in your head and he says stuff. He says stuff to just rile you up. And Nick's like, oh, yeah. I know somebody like that. Mhmm.
Rachel:Yeah. It's fine. Nope. I got it. I I
Matt:have plenty of mental defenses against that already.
Rachel:He doesn't, though.
Matt:100 of years worth.
Rachel:He does not. Because He
Matt:he thinks he does.
Rachel:He thinks he does, but Lacroix just always knows. He may have just given up and just been, like, he's always gonna
Matt:know. How about this? He has mental defenses, but it's this continuous escalation of psychological manipulation. Defend against that psychological manipulation, and Lacroix is always innovating Yeah. And adapting and tuning specifically for Nick.
Matt:And so Nick is actually extremely resistant to any psychological manipulation from anybody except Lacroix.
Rachel:Except Lacroix.
Matt:Is the only one that knows his defense.
Rachel:It might be the point.
Matt:That might be the point. I could see that as a strategy by Lacroix Yeah. To just help Nick, like, survive better in the world
Rachel:Yeah.
Matt:But also be susceptible to Lacroix all the time.
Rachel:Yeah. Well, that's the whole point. He can't guard him against himself. Then who who will he play with for for eternity? Yeah.
Rachel:But he's talking to the guard and basically is like, yeah. It's it's gonna be fine. And then as soon as they walk in, Christopher, the mortician stands up and he's like, oh, a writer. Are you sniffing around in the sewer for your next award winning expose? And then he pauses and he's like, or am I mistaken?
Rachel:Are you here for something else? And he's supposed to be, like, creepy and
Matt:He does a decent job at all. Intuitive.
Rachel:Yeah. He does it really. He does. I like this character. I like this interaction.
Rachel:I like this episode. Is it a funny contrived plot where clearly somebody saw Silence of the lambs and then just shoehorned it in there? Because they were like, what if Nick went to the prison and met another guy, and we got the cool crazy love style interaction? Because remember in crazy love when he's talking to the unhinged psychologist and she's like, death and sex and sex and death, and Nick is just like, oh, I
Matt:need to call Janette.
Rachel:And so he used to call Janette. The same thing happens, except he has no Janette to call. Yeah. And he's a little bit less obvious about his just overwhelming arousal by talking about death with this guy. Yep.
Rachel:Yeah. Because Christopher is like, well, it's a shame, actually, because he won't talk unless he gets inside with me, and we all know they won't allow that. So it's an easy dodge. Sure. I'd tell you everything you needed to know, but you have to get in here with me, and that's not gonna happen.
Rachel:And so Nick just turns to the guard and is like, let me in the cell. Bubble. Bubble. Bubble. Bubble.
Rachel:And the the guy hesitates for a moment, and he's like, open the door. Let me in. And the guy and he's like, and you don't need to come back and check on this. And so Manny, I think is the guy's name, opens the door and lets them in, Let's Nick in and then shuts the door and walks away. And Christopher's like, that's pretty fake.
Rachel:Sweet. It's like, pretty pretty I know he never does that.
Matt:Can you can you show me that trick?
Rachel:He doesn't know. He doesn't say anything about it. He's just like, wow. He's not usually that agreeable. Yeah.
Rachel:Weird. Which gives us some interesting things to think about considering we find out that what he wants is to reconnect with his Internet buddy, Rosebud. And his Internet buddy, Rosebud, is someone that we know well, someone that Nick knows well, which means he's just been chatting it up with LaCroix for long enough that they have real rapport, which maybe it chafes. Does does LaCroix ever email Nick? Does he ever talk
Matt:to you? Does does Nick ever read email?
Rachel:Yeah. He's bound to, which they kind of imply that Christopher or the mortician guy, that he can have a computer in his cell, but he doesn't have the Internet in his cell.
Matt:Right.
Rachel:And so he's literally giving files to be sent over the Internet, which they screen before they send them. But then when we see him later, it's clear he's posting in, like, a forum.
Matt:I think he used to have Internet privileges, but they were revoked.
Rachel:No. He's no.
Matt:Because he said He wants his
Rachel:He says, I don't understand why. He says, I don't under no. He has lost all computer privileges. And he says, I don't understand why I don't even have the Internet on my computer. They were screening everything that was sent was getting sent out.
Rachel:There's literally no reason for them to have taken them away, which means that this poor warden has to go on the serial killer forum and post check, like, copy and paste chunks from a Word document to put them in there. I don't know. I think it was just a basic misunderstanding of what's
Matt:of how technology
Rachel:or how technology works. Yeah. Which is not, I mean, yeah, I didn't have a home computer until like 2,000. So the odds of the people working on this being intimately aware of how to interact with the Internet is slim. It's pretty slim.
Matt:I meet people now that still don't know how the Internet works.
Rachel:Well, I mean, people don't know how the Internet works, but they know how to work the Internet. Yeah. Yeah. The most important part of that, this honestly, is Nick's little striped shirt. He's got like he's got a, vertical striped shirt on, and it's like gray and black, and he normally wears solid colors.
Rachel:So I just wanna put that out there. He's wearing a striped shirt. It's not even his bacon shirt, which we retired sadly after season 1.
Nick:Aw.
Rachel:I know. But we actually get some, like, a pattern. I wonder if Natalie bottom that shirt because she's also wearing a striped shirt earlier in the episode.
Matt:She's wearing a striped blouse. Style right now.
Rachel:Maybe. And as he's walking into the cell, he's like, I'm in no danger anyway. Am I? And Christopher Shear is like, oh, no. No.
Rachel:Oh my gosh. No. No. You're perfectly fine. Like, what am I gonna do?
Rachel:Kill you with my cardigan? I don't know. You're fine.
Matt:You're you're not my type.
Rachel:And he tells him he wants information. And Christopher goes, no. You want insight.
Matt:But he does it so dramatically.
Rachel:You want insight. Let me cut back to Tracy's point of view because, of course, Tracy is off doing Tracy shit.
Matt:And she's actually Nobody's checking up on her.
Rachel:No. Nobody's like, hey. Should we call Tracy? Hey.
Matt:Hey, Reese. This is the counselor that you appointed for Tracy Vedder. Yeah. She didn't she hasn't called in, and she didn't show up for her, like, first scheduled appointment at 10 AM. Yeah.
Matt:Have you heard anything from her? Is she okay? Maybe we should send somebody to her apartment to make sure she's not, like, having a traumatic episode or, like, has killed herself or something.
Rachel:Yeah. Her police commissioner mom and dad. Her police commissioner mom and dad aren't like, oh my god. Our baby you know what? Maybe not.
Rachel:Maybe they're like, you need to nut up. We can't
Matt:believe commissioner would have the numbers on, oh, yeah. Each officer, like, the first time like, after their first kill
Rachel:on
Matt:duty has a 40 to 80% chance of, like, getting PTSD from that.
Rachel:Yeah. But it could be a not my daughter situation. My daughter knows what it's like. She's not gonna that's not gonna
Matt:be there. Too deep into the situation.
Rachel:Well, he's also the guy that doesn't like chocolate because he thinks it acts as a bacteria collect a germ collector in your throat.
Matt:That's a good point.
Rachel:So I'm not thinking we're working with somebody who looks at the scientific evidence and goes, that's true. I I don't I think that's a thing of
Matt:a fact. Use that information and update my premises.
Rachel:I mean, if she's a female police officer in a family of male police officers, she has to she probably feels like she has to be tougher than they ever were.
Matt:Yeah.
Rachel:Because in order to be perceived as a 100%, you need to be operating at a 120. Otherwise, every little thing that happens, it's gonna be like, oh, is Tracy gonna be hysterical about this? It probably adds to the, please don't give me this time off. They're gonna perceive this as you seeing that I needed time off and I'm never gonna live it down that I finally shot somebody and I couldn't hack it.
Matt:Right.
Rachel:I mean, it adds a whole depth to the whole why is she freaking out because he's following regulation. It's, like, because he had the discretion to not do it, and she should've she should've given him the impression that she was fine, and she didn't.
Matt:Right. And there's no indication that he has exercised, or there's every indication that he has exercised this discretion for every male officer.
Rachel:Right. And look at, he gave Nick time off, and Nick just kept coming into work and doing shit.
Matt:Until he quit.
Rachel:Until literally he quit, and it worked out really well for him because he got his job back immediately. So from Tracy's point of view, this is what you do. You do not accept when you are given time off. You continue to fight to be taken seriously even after something traumatic happens to you. And that's what she's doing, and she's going through this woman's desk, and she's supposed to be wearing this dressed to kill sex outfit, which is a knee length black dress and the little bolero cardigan with bell sleeves.
Rachel:And I want to be able to be nineties enough to see this as like, Oh, look how sexy she's dressed. She should have kept the outfit from my boyfriend is a vampire, the tube top, mini skirt, leather jacket combination. That would have been because it really looks like I'm trying to get dressed up to be an escort, but I haven't bought a dress since middle school. So let me just put this on. And maybe if I do the zigzag part, I'll look real edgy, I guess.
Rachel:But then she hears
Matt:On the other one, she had she had people helping Yeah. From the talk show.
Rachel:Well, it must seem fine because the escort agency lady comes in and she's like, okay. Good. You're here. You're ready. I have got the best thing for you.
Rachel:This guy needs a date. He's loaded. You're gonna have a great time. He wants you to meet him at this little edge of the envelope club over on the other side of town called the Raven. And Tracy's like, the raven?
Rachel:And she's like, yeah. It's weird, but he he works near there. So he'll meet you there, and then you guys will go off to your actual event. Cool? And she's like, I'm, well, he she goes, he just needs somebody to be seen on his arm.
Rachel:You know you know what I'm getting at here. And she goes, yep. Trophy girl. And she goes, what what did you say? And she goes, I said I'm his girl.
Rachel:But then Tracy drives off in her sensible Ford. I just love her sensible little car. Skanky also drove a sensible car. Not that they ever drive it around ever because they're always in Nick's Cadillac.
Matt:But we only ever see it when, like, they're meeting Nick and they get in the Cadillac.
Rachel:Yes. And then we find out she's being watched. We've seen a guy watching her through a telescope throughout this whole interaction. He's watching her go through the desk, and then he watches
Matt:his right arm. The escort agency office.
Rachel:Yeah. As if that is where he is picking his prey from. Right. Which is exactly what he's doing. And then, Nick, we come back to Nick is in the cell with Christopher, and he's showing him crime scene photos, which is not even crime scene photos.
Rachel:There's pictures of the body because we don't know the where the crime scene is. And Christopher is like
Matt:Mouth like, mouth watering, drooling, drooling over these pictures.
Rachel:He's like, oh, yes. Can I keep these?
Nick:Oh, some nice piece of work. Real sticky. No. Downhill, do it again. Do you mind if I keep these?
Rachel:Nick's like, fucking no. Oh, I mean, you you came to a serial killer, an unrepentant serial killer who was convicted and is clearly living his full serial killer life in this prison cell. And then you're like, here's some here's some graphic imagery. And then the guy enjoys it, and he's, like, weirded out by it. Of course.
Rachel:What did you think was gonna happen? You you watched Silence of the Lambs. Right? Come on. Obviously, you did because you wouldn't be here otherwise.
Rachel:And Christopher goes, you didn't come here just to give me a thrill. Why are you here? And Nick goes, I wanna know why. I wanna know why this guy is doing this. Like, first of all, again, we don't know that this is a serial killer situation yet.
Matt:All we had to do was put in a couple lines from Natalie or from Reese.
Rachel:And we do later. We do later. We've we come back and they're like, yeah. We've got a pattern. We found this guy in these previous places.
Matt:Right.
Rachel:And he's been doing this and then moving for a while, but we needed to move that.
Matt:Right.
Rachel:Put that Before.
Matt:Put that before the meeting Yeah. Where Nick says, hey. I'd like to talk to this serial killer in prison Yeah. For some insight because we know that this is a pattern of killings.
Rachel:Have a Cohen style walk and talk where she's like, I've heard about this kind of thing happening in a couple of other precincts.
Matt:Like, I put out some feelers, and I just heard back.
Rachel:It looks like we've got a serial killer on our hands, gentlemen. We need to get this caught fast, just like we did in Be My Valentine.
Nick:Mhmm.
Rachel:Where they were like, yep. This has happened before. We need to catch this guy and we need to catch him fast. We could have just thrown that in at the beginning, given those lines to Reese, and it would have made this make so much more sense. But it's alright.
Rachel:It's fine. Is it still a good episode? Yeah. Still really like this episode. I like that Nick goes and talks to this guy, and this guy immediately pegs him for a killer.
Rachel:He's like, you aren't scared of me at all, and it's because you see yourself in me. It's because you're a killer too. Don't deny it. I know you are.
Nick:You're not afraid of me. No fear at all. Why should I fear you? Why? Because I'm a killer.
Nick:Killing is what I am. And so I ask myself, what is it which we fear the least we fear the least that which we recognize?
Rachel:Because
Matt:Like knows like.
Rachel:Yeah. Like like knows like. Exactly. And he actually tells him the cops that hunted me down now crawl back for me for insight. Rosebud would really like that.
Rachel:And Nick is like, okay. Fine. I'll bite. Who's Rosebud? He's like, my Internet pen pal, my efriend.
Rachel:It's so hard to find like minded souls when you are unique. And Nick is like, okay. So you wanna trade information for Internet access. So, okay, if the and he actually leaves and talks to the warden and he comes back and he's like, if the information that you give leads to an arrest, you can have your Internet privileges back. And Christopher is like, I knew you were like me.
Rachel:I could tell. We're like bros. And Nick goes, I am nothing like you. She was like, oh, okay.
Matt:The only one you're lying to is yourself.
Rachel:Actually, what he says is, I don't believe that You've killed many times, and you've known death in all its glory, and it thrills you and frightens you. And Nick is like literally, he faces a moment we hear where he's like, okay, I can continue to deny this or I can just lean into it. We form a little bit of a friendship here and I get what I want. So he goes, okay. You're right.
Rachel:We understand each other. Can we, can we get on to the, like, can we have the thing now? Can you make a weird noise with your mouth? I'm trying to work out a fantasy here, and I need you to help me with this. And this is when Christopher's like, I don't see the problem of letting me have a computer.
Rachel:It doesn't even have a modem. There's no phone line in here. That's what he says. There's no phone line in here. The computer they give me doesn't even have a modem.
Rachel:I have to hand everything over and get it screened anyway. And Nick is like, okay. Well, you know, I'll get it for you, but let's go ahead and chat about the killer. And so Christopher's like, okay. Well, let me ask you a question.
Rachel:Have you ever had anything so precious you didn't wanna let it go? And this leads us immediately into the flashback.
Matt:This one took a while.
Rachel:And what I'm gonna do is cover this flashback all in one go because, honestly, it's not okay. On the ranks of great flashbacks to what the fuck flashbacks? What the flashback? We have Oedipus, which I will never let go, which is honestly low. It's on the it's the what the flashback bottom out.
Rachel:Mhmm. And then we have, you know, some of the better flashbacks, like the one from love you to death or the one with the nun, some of the ones that you're like, oh, yeah. That's a great flashback. And we're gonna get some good flashbacks again. This one felt like we haven't had a Lacroix Nick flashback in a while, and we need to make sure we because we've had some Vashon flashbacks.
Rachel:We've had some Urs flashbacks, but we haven't had any good, like, Nick and Lacroix flashbacks in a while. So they decided that this one was gonna be a Nick one because he's gonna get triggered by the serial killer guy that he volunteered to go see. And what it is is him remembering this time that Lacroix was wining and dining this lady, and he's giving him a lesson. We don't even get a real good time stamp on this.
Matt:Right. This is just at some point.
Rachel:At some point in the past, while he's still sort of learning the ropes and he hasn't quite gotten his morality bit together yet because he's like, oh, yeah. She's hot. What what what's your plan? Is he gonna bring her across? And Lacroix is basically like, well, you know, you gotta sweeten the deal.
Rachel:You gotta give them stuff that you can't imbibe yourself so that they taste like it. So I've been force feeding her bacon for weeks. Bacon and good wine and
Matt:Is that why she smells so good to Nick?
Rachel:Apparently. Because, Nick is like, cool cool. Are you gonna bring her across? And he's like, no. She's an idiot.
Rachel:There's no way I'm bringing her. I don't wanna spend eternity with her. I just wanna, like, do it and then be done. You get where I'm going with this? And Nick is like, oh, okay.
Rachel:Cool. And so then he comes back later after Lacroix left, and he wakes her up, and he's like, you gotta go. You gotta leave. You gotta get going. You gotta get out of here because Lacroix is just gonna kill you, and she's like, oh, hey, Nick.
Rachel:I didn't know you're gonna stop by. I mean, your dad's hot, but you're hot too. I'm totally into families right now. And he's like, you are? That's kinda cool.
Rachel:And then he ends up killing her because she must smell straight like bacon. Because he's like, oh, I can't. So he kills her. And then
Matt:That explains the licking.
Rachel:It's just coming out of her pores. And this is when the clock comes back, and I will talk about that when we get there. But it's really to foreshorten this this this flashback does not cheapen it at all because it's just kind of like a remember that time Lacroix had that had that woman that he was prepping and you ate her instead? It's not even a precious thing that he didn't wanna let go. It's literally just this woman
Matt:that is hot liquor wine in
Rachel:the dining.
Matt:He fundamentally confused the urges within himself to, you know, kiss or bite.
Rachel:Kiss or a killer?
Matt:Yeah. Yeah. And and he got hungers mixed up. He got his hungers mixed up.
Rachel:Yeah.
Matt:Yes. And so he got real deep into one hunger, and the other hunger joined in.
Nick:And then
Rachel:he fucks LaCroix sandwich, and here we are.
Matt:He he almost he almost fucked LaCroix's sandwich, but he ate the sandwich before he could fuck it.
Rachel:That's a what we do in the shadows reference. If you don't get that, go watch what we do in the shadows. It's an excellent movie and a good television show all rolled into 1. But he must go off into this flashback and have this just dreamy look on his face because when he comes back, Christopher's like, I fucking saw that. He's like, you were fantasizing right now.
Matt:He goes It's like in,
Rachel:And they gave you a badge.
Matt:In was it Fleabag Yeah. TV show where she's always breaking the 4th wall.
Rachel:Oh, yeah. And only the one guy notices.
Matt:The one guy's like, what was that?
Rachel:What did you do just now?
Matt:Where did you just go?
Rachel:What? What what do you mean? You just went off somewhere. Where was it? And then he at one point, he'd, like, leans over and looks at the camera when she's looking at the camera, and she's like, stop that.
Rachel:Yeah. That's a really good show too, Fleabag. But he goes, they gave you a badge, and he goes, you protect and serve. I protect and preserve. Those were heady days.
Rachel:He's just, like, reminiscing about when he used to get to taxidermy people. And he's like, and now I've got a copycat. Well, they don't know that. They can't know that. They don't know that this guy keeps his stuff.
Rachel:Again, this is when we needed some establishing dialogue to get us here.
Matt:Right. Maybe the maybe the scenes just got mixed up. It like, the order. They had a hard copy of the the script, and they dropped it. And they put the pages back together, but they moved one page to the end.
Rachel:Little bit like Black Buddha part 1 and Black Buddha part 2, where at the end of Black Buddha part 1, the precinct gets blown up. And by Black Buddha part 2, it never got blown up. And, honestly, I did not notice until we went through it this time because you just accepted things. Oh, okay. This guy's a serial killer.
Rachel:Okay. Our standards for establishing were not high in the nineties. This would have been perfectly fine. It still is perfectly fine. I'm still fine with it.
Rachel:I'm only nitpicking it because we do this for a podcast. Were I just watching this casually, I would go, okay.
Matt:That's fine. Yeah. This is where you suspend your disbelief.
Rachel:Yeah. Maybe this is why my standards are so low because I was trained in the nineties where you were just like, yep. Sure. I mean, in a book, I would expect this to be established. Right.
Rachel:I would never
Matt:accept this in the book. Scrutiny. You spend a lot more time
Rachel:Yeah.
Matt:On the book. There's a lot more scrutiny because it's purely written.
Rachel:And in a modern television show, I would expect this. I DNF'd the Wheel of Time television show because we had that one shitty episode where they needed everybody to get together, and they were just like, hey, everybody. We bumped into each other in the street, and now we're all in this room together. No. No.
Rachel:No. No. No. You add one more episode to the season and you show me that. Had that happened in a nineties television show, I'd have been like, cool.
Rachel:I'm glad we're all together now. Standards change based on what I'm expecting out of that era.
Matt:Right.
Rachel:And I think if the our journey through the seventies has taught me anything, it's that nobody can expect the seventies. So you just endure it or enjoy it depending on the show. And then the eighties, I don't know. I've not really watched a ton of television from the eighties, but in the nineties, it was like we are getting bigger, but there's still a certain amount of narrative flexibility where we can expect our viewers to be like, okay. Sure.
Rachel:Nick needed to go talk to this guy. It's great. I'm enjoying this interaction so much. I honestly don't care how he got here. I was looking for this to happen.
Rachel:I was waiting for Nick to have a a a meeting of the minds with another killer where they recognized him as a killer. It's good. It deepens our mythology about Nick, especially when we start getting the lines where he's like, you know, this guy probably fights his nature for a while, and then he can't anymore, and he gives into it, and then he has to move. And so he probably has a lot of financial resources. He probably moves frequently.
Rachel:And is he talking about the bad guy, or is he talking about Nick?
Matt:Right.
Rachel:And so you're kind of planting this mental seed in the viewer's mind that, like, Nick may fight his instincts for a while, but will there come a point where he can't fight them anymore? And what happens then? Yeah. So that's the whole point of this episode, and it's a great point. And it's a good thing because we have had unshakable faith in Nick to do the right thing, and it was time to shake it up a little bit.
Rachel:Like, maybe Nick doesn't always do the right thing. Maybe he's trying to, but maybe at heart, he's no different from this guy.
Matt:Right. His it's like Paarthurnax, the dragon in Skyrim. Yeah. You get to a point in the game where you meet this dragon. And in in the history, all the dragons at some point were murderous evil creatures.
Matt:And this guy, this dragon, Parthenax, is like, I'm on your side. Yes. I did some bad things. But and then he there's this quote that he's famous for where he says, is it better to be good by nature and not do evil things or to be evil by nature and through hard work, turn yourself into a good person. Yeah.
Matt:And that's a good question.
Rachel:It's a good question, and it's the question we're posing in this episode, which is why as much as I will make fun of the setup, I love this episode, and I'm not mad at it. I feel like every once in a while, I just need to point that out. We nitpick the episodes because we do this for a podcast. I still love this series and I love this episode, and this is one of my favorite character interactions, the go and talk to the serial killer, Because I love any time Nick gets to let his mask slip a little bit, and he does in this moment when he's talking to this guy because it helps him get what he wants. So he gives a little and gets a little.
Rachel:But to kinda break the tension of this moment, we go to the raven because Tracy has arrived at the Raven, but we don't see it from Tracy's point of view. We see it from Vashon and Erz who are having a blood aperitif at the bar. And we spent an entire episode, an entire episode digging into Urs's backstory and discussing how Urs is, like, a tragic character. She asked for death, and she wasn't given it. She was actually given immortal eternal life instead, and Vashon really fucked her up.
Rachel:I mean, a whole fucking episode. Right? And now immediately, whoop, we're back to, oh, she's the cute dumb blonde that hangs out with Vashawn. Because Vashawn goes because Tracy says or no.
Matt:I was I was gonna say, and we kind of established that she kind of has this parallel story to Nick
Rachel:Yeah.
Matt:Where she doesn't want to be this, you know, evil, murderous creature. Yeah. She wants to be a good person.
Rachel:Yeah.
Matt:And then you said, oh, no. She's the dumb blonde that hangs out with Vashon Just like Nick is the dumb blonde who hangs out with with whoever with Skanky.
Rachel:Naive. The naive blonde. Yeah. Both of them really are supposed to be naive characters, but Urs spots Tracy. She's like, isn't that your friend?
Rachel:What's her name? Nick's partner? She doesn't even know Tracy's name, which I love. And Vashon goes, it's either her or it's her evil sister, and Erz goes, she has a twin. Hey.
Rachel:Isn't that you know who? Nick's partner?
Matt:It's
Nick:either her or her twin sister.
Rachel:Do you have the twin sister? Which is funny and it's a really funny moment and I really love this little moment. Had we not just had the whole episode where Urs was like, I think I want to kill myself. And then immediately, she has a twin? Well, it's funny.
Rachel:It's funny. It's fine.
Matt:Well, this is the kind of thing I might say, as as an attempt to just, like, make sure you're actually listening to what I'm saying is to just say something outrageous. No. That's like a literal interpretation of
Rachel:because Vashon gives her an exasperated look like, keep up. Learn sarcasm,
Matt:ers. Yeah.
Rachel:The most relevant part of this is that booty cake booty short beefcake man booty cake. I kinda maybe we'll just shorten the booty cake. Booty short beefcake man is dancing on the stage behind Vashon's head. So when Vashon finally moves his head, you could see him. And he's dancing to, like, a different rhythm than everybody else because he has these really short jean cutoffs and this
Matt:He probably limits his mobility.
Rachel:And he's just like, yeah, dancing on the stage. So there's our sighting for the episode. But Tracy leaves with a guy. A guy walks up, talks to Tracy, and she leaves. And Vashon's like,
Matt:is it me? Not in my club.
Rachel:He goes, is it me, or did that look weird? And Tracy, Urs is like Urs must be like, oh, no. That Sean leave it. And do me a favor. If she asks for death, just kill her.
Rachel:Okay? So
Matt:It's not a euphemism.
Rachel:It's not it's not a euphemism. Listen. When she's talking, listen to her. Can you promise me that you'll at least listen to the words that come out of her her mouth? And Vashawn's like, yeah.
Rachel:Yeah. I'm really good at that. And he leaves to go after to go after Tracy. And Tracy is talking to her date, and I think this is really interesting because she goes, wow. There's an unusual mix of people in there.
Rachel:And he goes, yeah. It's good people watching and whatever else they are. Maybe they're not hiding it as well as they think they are. Maybe all these vampires hanging around, drinking blood, all everyone in the club drinks red wine. It must be like, what is this?
Rachel:Is this like a what kind of fun is this?
Matt:If you go order, like, the house red
Rachel:Yeah.
Matt:To to the is the bartender a vampire and they have to, like, soul gaze you and, like, do the heartbeat thing to check if you're actually a vampire or not?
Rachel:But what if you're
Matt:ecotene, Nichola. Like, you Oh. The I'm sure. But what if you're really good at, like, suppressing that?
Rachel:Yeah. We do.
Matt:And you go order the house red, and the bartender's like, no. You're not a vampire. Red wine. I'm not getting the vibe. I'm gonna give you actual red wine.
Matt:Yeah. And then they come back. What is this? I ordered the house red. House red.
Matt:Oh, I totally missed that. Sorry, man.
Rachel:I want blood in a cup. Okay. Fine. And I'm sure that at the gift shop where you can buy fake fangs and capes and bad bat, like, bat enamel pins and shit. I'm sure that's not helping the whole vibe.
Rachel:Enter through the gift shop. But, but, but Sean walks over and interrupts them getting into the car and she's he's like, oh, hey, Tracy. Sup? And she's like, oh, Javier. This is my friend.
Rachel:It's nice to meet you. Get the fuck go. Get the fuck away. And Vashawn just turns to the guy she's with and sends him away, like hypnotizes him. He's like, get lost.
Rachel:And so the guy gets in the car and drives off, and she turns to Vashon, and she's like, you need to keep that hypnoshit in its holster. And he goes, sorry. It gets away from me sometimes. Jeffrey? Jeffrey?
Rachel:You know, you wanna keep that hypno thing in your holster.
Nick:I'm sorry. He gets away from me sometimes.
Rachel:Is he okay? Sean, read the fucking room. Nobody can read the room. Nobody. None.
Rachel:It's just the whole cast of characters that have no situational awareness because
Matt:Tracy is probably the best at reading the room.
Rachel:Yeah. He does try to lure her away first. He's like, Tracy, can you come over here and talk to me? It's about that private matter. It's about that rash.
Rachel:Tracy, can you come over here? It's about the rash. And he tells the guy, this lady is a good friend, get lost. So when he leaves, she yells at him, and Tracy says, why does everyone assume I need their help? I am a cop for God's sake.
Rachel:Fair point, Tracy. Fair point. This weird little dude has attached himself to you, and every time he sees you, he just fucks up whatever's going on, except when you actually needed him. And then he was only there because Nick threatened him. And he does not deal with the consequences of this decision either.
Rachel:Because instead of going off on this date where she would have been perfectly fine, she ends up storming off alone back to her car, which she finds out has a flat tire. And so she's trying to change the flat tire. And, of course, Vashon does not go with her or follow her or protect her.
Matt:Right. You're keeping an eye on her.
Rachel:In any way
Matt:interrupted her plan.
Rachel:He's like, oh, shit. I'm sorry. Oh, you were undercover? Whoopsies. You need to wear a pin or something.
Rachel:Let me know. And so this guy comes up to her, and he's like, oh, are you are you changing the tire? You want some help? And she goes, no. I don't need help.
Rachel:I'm a cop. And he goes, oh, then I'm safe, which is the creepiest, oh, I'm safe. And Tracy doesn't pick that up for once. Tracy is like, oh, yeah. You know, it's weird.
Rachel:I'm sorry. I just, like, announced that. I could have, like, kept that to myself.
Matt:I Oh, yay. I'm safe. I hate it when there's 2 serial killers in the same place.
Rachel:And so he's like, I'll help you, you know, loosen those nuts, whatever. Maybe the gym's paying off. So he takes his jacket off, and he does do this cool move where he tries to hand her the jacket. And she goes to take the jacket from him, and while both of their hands are under the jacket, he stabs her with a needle. Yep.
Rachel:And he goes, I got you, beautiful. And he, like he doesn't lick her, but I have to imagine off screen he does cause it just feels like the way the season is going, somebody gets licked. And in the meantime, Nick has secured the deal to get this guy, his computer privileges back. So they're off to the races. It's time to really get down and talk about this serial killer for 15 minutes, maybe in total.
Rachel:And he's like, okay. So your your guy, he's a collector. He's got financial resources, but he's restless. He's always searching for new challenges. He moves around.
Rachel:He fights the urges for a while, then he gives in and has to move, and he's like, those were the days. And Nick is like, shit. Sounds like me.
Matt:Yes. He's giving a psychological profile of Nicolas.
Rachel:Yeah. And he's like, he probably has a private facility because he needs space and time and privacy to do the things that he wants to do. And he actually goes, oh, I miss those days. They were so sensual. Gross.
Rachel:It's like saying moist penetration. Oh, that's just awful words. Sensual. It was, it's delightful to take one that's been right under your nose is what he says because there's pleasure in the anticipation. And this is when we go back to the flashback.
Rachel:So Nick is so turned on by this. He disassociates slightly. And this is when Lacroix is like, no, I'm not going to turn her. She's way too annoying. Yeah.
Rachel:And Nick is like, oh, but if you just kill her, it would be a tragedy. And Lacroix is like, I'm not receiving the word tragedy and don't doesn't have anything to do with my business, and it's not a word that I like.
Matt:You're giving judgy vibes
Rachel:right now. I feel a little judged, and I don't want you to use the word tragedy around me ever again because it's triggering. Okay? And so we come back to the present, and Nick is, like, leaning against the bars, and Sheer is like, you you're enjoying this, aren't you? Nick is like, nope.
Rachel:Nope. I am not. But he must be because it spontaneously encourages, LaCroix to start podcasting because LaCroix is now in his booth, and he has the Metropolitan Examiner, which is, like, the second episode where we've used an article in the Metropolitan Examiner as a catalyst for some like a plot device for something to happen. And in this case, it's for Lacroix to talk about, the nature of keeping things and collecting things and how in the end, prize what you will, prize what you can, but he who dies with the most prizes still dies. And then we go back to the flashback.
Rachel:We get most of our flashback real quick. Like, we get one little snippet and then we get chunks real quick while Nick is talking to Christopher Shear. So they must have been saving it up to, like, eke it out while he's talking to the serial killer because this is the one where he steals Lacroix's cookie right in front of him. Because while he's he's trying to save this woman.
Matt:Dusting the crumbs off his jacket as Lacroix walks in.
Rachel:No. He's watching him. Like, he watches him bite this woman. And he's like, oh, I'm gonna fuck goddamn it. And as soon as this woman dies, he comes in and, like, grabs Nick and pushes him up against the wall, and we get this, like, drip of blood that comes out the side of Nick's mouth.
Rachel:And this is when Laqueille, like, rubs the thumb, like, rubs his thumb through the blood and then licks it off his own finger and then goes intoxicating, wasn't she? Do you know how much of a power move it would have been if they'd let him lick that blood off of his face?
Matt:Just straight up lick it off of his tongue.
Rachel:Just straight like whoever's writing the reboot, take note. Do you know how fucking amazing that scene would have been to be like, you know, it's it's impactful enough that he's pushed him against the wall and he licks it off his finger. That's fine. But you know how just you want LaCroix to look like like a total power move? Have him lick the blood off of Nick's face.
Rachel:And then he's like, intoxicating, wasn't she? And then we come back to the present because he's actually bridged the gap between being in the prison and leaving. And I don't think we ever go back to the prison because at this point, he's sitting in his car and Vashawn, like, flies into his car. Yeah. And I wonder if after this, Nick is gonna start putting newspaper on the back seat.
Rachel:So if Vashon shows up So it crinkles? Let's hope it shows up again. Veschon doesn't get the seat dirty.
Matt:Oh.
Rachel:And Veschon is like, cars are sexier with fins, don't you think? More predatory. And Nick is like, yeah, it's a question of trunk space. And he's like, pragmatist.
Nick:Cars are sexier with fins. Don't you think?
LaCroix:More predatory.
Nick:For me, it's a question of trunk
LaCroix:space. Pragmatist.
Rachel:I bet you listen when women talk too, don't you? You don't just think they're making cute noises like those dolls you tip back and forth and they go, mama. And he actually says, what's up with your partner? Like, what's up with Tracy? And Nick is like, oh, yeah.
Rachel:She was in a shooting. She's off for a couple of days. You know, she's just kinda getting over it. She won't talk to me, but maybe she'll talk to you. Oh, Nick is trying to play matchmaker.
Rachel:He's like, maybe you could go over and talk to her. That might make her feel better. And Sean is like, yeah. Actually, I don't think she's gonna talk to me anytime soon. What does he say?
Rachel:He goes, I've something about being alienated. He's like, yeah. She's we're alienated. I think that's the word for it is what he says. He's like, yeah.
Rachel:I don't know what the word for it is, but she's real pissed at me right now. Gotta what is that what is that when a woman is like, fuck off. Don't talk to me ever again. Is that like a is that like a pickup line? I need some guidance here.
Rachel:Like, I'm not sure what she's trying to say to me. But but, basically, she was trying to date this guy, and I ran him off. I don't know. It's weird. And Nick is like, stop.
Rachel:Use your real word. Big boy words. Big boy words, Vashon. And Vashon was like, oh god. She was at the Raven.
Rachel:She She said she was working for this escort agency undercover. I may have run her date off. I don't know. Maybe you should check on her. And Nick is like, okay.
Rachel:I will go do that. Thank you for trying to say that coherently. Are you coming with me? Are you gonna help? And Vashawn's like, no.
Matt:No. I I went on No. I only stopped to relay this story because it was kinda bugging me, and I saw your car as I was flying over. So it wasn't even out of my way.
Rachel:What do you think I'm doing right now?
Matt:I'm helping.
Rachel:I'm doing exactly as much as I feel like I really am going to do. The rest feels like work, so now you do it. I should stay out of this. And then Nick goes to the precinct to make a phone call. I don't know.
Rachel:He has his mysteriously dissing disappearing cell phone. Maybe he forgets to charge it.
Matt:Oh, yeah.
Rachel:Yeah. And she's not answering because she's a little too tied up. Bum bum bum because she's tied up in this guy's basement, and he's stroking her face with this dead hand, which is probably the grossest part of this entire episode. He has, like, a taxidermied hand or a mummified hand, and he's, like, dragging it over her face and, like, brushing her hair out of off her cheek. Yeah.
Rachel:And he immediately introduces himself. He's like, hello, Tracy. My name is Efraim Cedric, and I am the killer for this episode. And she's like, hi. I'm Tracy.
Rachel:I I
Matt:will be your murderer for this episode. Please let me know if there's anything else I can do to make your murderer better.
Rachel:So Nick is trying to he's okay. A little bit freaked out. Something happened. He knows that Tracy was out and about. He can't exactly tell Reese all of what happened because it would involve being, like, she was at the Raven.
Rachel:People might go to the Raven. People might try to talk to Vashon, but he can say, like, listen. I have been trying to reach Tracy, and I can't reach Tracy. And Reese is like, she's probably pouting. Is she on her period?
Rachel:It's fine. She's probably fine. And Nick is like, okay. I'm gonna have to do it. She might have gone undercover at the at the agency.
Rachel:And Reese is like, why didn't you fucking lead with that? You mean she was out? She was at the escort agency, and now she's missing? And this is when Reese is like, we found a pattern of this happening in other provinces at other escort agencies. And Nick is like, yeah, but I don't think it's happening directly through the agency because the woman who runs it actually does do a good job of screening her clients so that it's something happening to members of the escort agency, but it's happening externally.
Rachel:And Nick actually says, Reese, I don't want you to freak out too much. She's probably fine. She is a good cop, but maybe we need to go look for her. Like, I don't know. And Rhys goes, maybe she oh, Nick actually says, maybe she's not calling in because this undercover thing worked out, and she's actually on to something.
Rachel:And Reese goes, yeah. But then if she's a good cop and she's onto something, she should be calling in for a backup. Let's put out an APB. And Nick goes, already done. And there's this moment of hesitation from Reese because Nick came to him and was like, hey.
Rachel:So Tracy's not answering her phone. And Reese was like, okay. Is that, like, a problem? And he's like, yeah. Because she might have gone undercover and stuff.
Rachel:And he, like, meted out this information until Reese was riled up enough to say, let's put out an APB, and then Nick was like, yeah. I did that, like, 25 minutes ago. And I have to imagine it feels like, why didn't you lead with that? You led in the exact opposite direction of what you should have gone with. I put out an APB for Tracy because she was spotted, you know, at the escort agency.
Rachel:I think she's doing an undercover job by herself, and now she's missing, but maybe she's okay. But instead, he was like, maybe Tracy's okay. But
Matt:Right. Like like, if I'm doing something at work and, like, I see some situation that needs to be handled immediately, and then I need to go let my, like, project manager know.
Rachel:Yeah.
Matt:I'll be like, hey. Heads up. I just did this bullet points because of this. Here's a link to, like, you know, email thread or whatever with context, just keeping you up to date. Yeah.
Matt:That's how you can do that.
Rachel:Right. But he wasn't just keeping Rees up to date. He was telling him what he's already done. He's like, I already freaked out and I already put out an APB.
Matt:Right. So he's making Rhys spend all this, like, mental effort working through and making a decision about how to respond to it. Yeah. And then they keep saying, oh, yeah. Already done
Rachel:that. Fine, but I did put out an APP already.
Matt:But I'm I'm making you repeat mental work Yeah. That I've already completed.
Rachel:Right. It's it's a lot. And Reese is like, oh, okay. Again, he can't Nick is untouchable. He's he's got, like, the best tenure ever.
Rachel:And so Reese goes, could any of these Internet geeks be the copycat? Because they got a list of all the people that he was talking but you can be as anonymous as you want to on the Internet. And this is when Natalie pops in. She only pops into the office this episode to, like, further the plot. So she pops in and she's like, I know what killed her.
Rachel:It was phenobarbital. And she was just given a massive dose of phenobarbital. It's one of the most fastest acting barbiturates. So, you know, that's how she died. And she's walked into the middle of Reese and Nick having, like, a slight dick measuring contest, Like, who's gonna save Tracy better?
Rachel:And this is when, Nick is like, I I can't believe she did this. I don't know what's going on. And Natalie's like, Tracy probably felt like she needed to prove herself. She's probably out because she needed to prove herself, and Nick immediately turns to Natalie and goes, yeah. And you encouraged her.
Rachel:In a very accusing tone.
Natalie:Not since I talked to her on the way out. She was pretty upset with you guys about her suspension.
Matt:It's not a suspension.
Natalie:Well, she thinks it is, and she feels like she's gotta prove herself.
Matt:She said that to you? Prove herself.
Natalie:Something like that. Yeah. Yeah.
Nick:And you encouraged her.
Natalie:Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Look.
Natalie:We're all a little tired. Okay? I just offered the girl a little support.
Rachel:Which is a, a huge assumption.
Matt:Right.
Rachel:Because the only thing Natalie said was you can come talk to me anytime you want to. And b, what the fuck, Nick? She literally just walked in and was like, hey, guys. I figured out how she died. And Nick was like, you told Tracy to go undercover, didn't you?
Rachel:Jesus, Natalie. What? Natalie's like
Matt:our backs and everything.
Rachel:Natalie's like, what what? I didn't what did I just step in? I'm I just I'm the bystander here. What the shit? And this luckily, luckily, Nick is saved because a uniform pops in and says that they found Tracy's car with a half changed tire.
Rachel:Like, she left in the middle of changing her tire, and they're like, cool. So they go to the car, and Nick is like, she could be at her place. Like, maybe she got tired of trying to change her car and she walked home, or I don't know. She could be at her parents'. Maybe, Reese, why don't you call her parents and see if she's there?
Rachel:Like, she would have just left, like, left everything out and just left, and they're the the okay. Sure. That is a possibility that could have happened, but this is absolutely the moment where you freak out and then you go to the worst possible scenario first.
Matt:And work your way back.
Rachel:And work your way back. And he actually leaves Reese with the job of calling her parents, and Reese is like, how come I always get the dirty work?
Matt:Because you're the captain. That's why.
Rachel:He actually says, how come I am the captain and I still get stuck with all the dirty work? Well, didn't you know that kind of shit goes uphill? Some shit goes downhill. Some shit goes uphill.
Matt:What's that line about pass the buck or the buck stops here?
Rachel:Yeah. Except it goes up, anyway. But especially when you work with a guy like Nick, because Nick is like, you do it, and then he just drives off. He must drive, like, 20 feet, turn the corner, and then he gets out of the car and flies off because it's faster to fly, I guess. And then we go back to Tracy and the killer guy, and he's going through her stuff, and he's like, oh, it's so cute.
Rachel:You're a cop. Oh, look at your little pink shirt. And he takes the bullets out of her gun and he's just chatting with her and he's like, you know, I'm gonna go for a little bit, but, you know, don't shout or bruise yourself or cut yourself or anything. I don't want anything messing up that complexion. I'll bring you some lotion down later.
Rachel:Okay? And we'll we'll just make sure everything's nice and soft. And I would feed you, but, you know, it's not good to eat before your surgery. And poor Tracy is just like, oh, no. Because she's stuck there and she's still hungover from whatever it was that he gave her.
Rachel:But Nick has actually gone to Tracy's apartment. He's flown to Tracy's apartment, I guess, because he wanted to see if she was there, but also to get a clue as to where she might have gone.
Matt:Right.
Rachel:So he's listening to the answering machine. And first, it's her mom, and her mom's like, take all those dates off your calendar. Your dad got them all wrong. I'm gonna call you, and we'll go over all the dates again. And then the next one is the lady from the escort agency.
Matt:With the dates about With
Rachel:the dates. The dates. And she's like, I got a good opportunity for you. You come in. We'll get you off, you know, get you sent off on your newest date, which he knew she was undercover for the escort agency, so I'm not sure he didn't why he didn't go straight there.
Rachel:But he ends up contacting Ingrid. I think her name is Ingrid. And it's like, meet me at the escort agency. So by the time he gets to the escort agency, she's arriving as well.
Matt:That may have just been the next place on his list after her apartment.
Rachel:Yeah. It could have been. Plus, he heard it on the he heard it on the answering machine. So and he meets with the owner, which the poor owner walks in, and she's like, oh, hey. Let me do whatever I can to help.
Rachel:This is terrible. And he's like, the telescope. Because talking to Christopher Shear actually helped because Christopher told him that the guy probably was just using proximity.
Matt:Yeah.
Rachel:So he's stalking them and capturing them only because they're nearby. Like, he set up a place where he can anticipate who he's going to take next. So that's what he sees. And see, he has it flying over there and somehow getting into the room. He He must be able to
Matt:just He's really good at counting
Rachel:the floors. He's oh, he could see it. So he just flew straight to it. Oh, yeah. And then he had to maybe he I don't know.
Matt:He would have had to go inside the building and then come in.
Rachel:You know what? Somebody left another bathroom window open. It's an endemic in Toronto. It's all the street meat. Slape meal naked.
Matt:So, yeah, back to the meat sweats t shirt idea. Exactly.
Rachel:It's all the street meat. So the windows are all just permanently cracked. So he's he's like bathroom, bathroom, bathroom, garden, and so he just flew in. He goes in there. Everything kinda happens really quick after this because he spots the telescope, and then he walks in and this guy has an ad for his own business.
Rachel:Because remember his name is, like, Ephraim Cedric.
Nick:Mhmm.
Rachel:Well, he's got the Cedric brokerage ad on his desk in the Metropolitan Observer again. And then Nick looks over at the wall, and there's one thing that has a sold that has a sold sign on it. There's 1 house, and he's like, it's that one. And then he flies off to go to that house, which luckily for him, it is that house because, otherwise, he'd have to keep going back to the brokerage Right.
Matt:Yeah. Checking the law. Part of the video game where there's a clue on this wall somewhere. Yeah. But you just assume it's this one, and then it's not.
Matt:And, I gotta go all I gotta trek across the continent all the way back to this room.
Rachel:Yeah.
Matt:Didn't take a screenshot or anything.
Rachel:But luckily for the viewer, Tracy is rescuing her own damn self. So she gets herself untied. She gets up, and she's like, okay. He took the bullets out of my gun, but there's still one in the chamber. And so she pulls it back just enough to see that, yes, there's still one bullet in the chamber.
Rachel:So good job, Tracy, for holding it together and realizing you are not as helpless as you think you are. And so she gets out. She's trying to leave, and she gets a little freaked out because she's still hungover, and there's literally preserved body parts all over the basement. There's, like, heads in jars, and then she hears, like, help me. Help me.
Rachel:I'm a helpless woman. And she sees this arm going up and down in the, like, hole in the basement, and then he just tosses the hand down and jumps out, and he's like, 'Tis me. And then he smacks her over the head. And this is when Nick breaks in, and he, must be really pissed because he does not hold it together. He's snarling at this guy, bangs out, ready to go.
Rachel:He grabs him. He throws him into the electrical panel, which he knows from experience generally works.
Matt:It's a good way to unalive somebody.
Rachel:Yeah. So he just tosses his guys against the electrical panel. He which I really hope the cage around your electrical panel isn't actually electrified. That feels like it defeats the purpose, but that's fine. And he turns around, and he's he's composed himself.
Rachel:So when Tracy actually sees him, he's not vamped out. And he's like, Tracy, you okay? And she ends up shooting the bad guy because he gets up behind Nick, and she shoots him before he can get to Nick. So during the time when she was supposed to be recovering from killing the other guy, she managed to shoot a second guy. So I guess 3 day at his discretion, Reese's 3 days off.
Rachel:Maybe we're not as effective as he'd hoped they would be. And then we come back and Tracy's already gone, and Natalie's like, yeah, I sedated Tracy for the trip to the hospital. She wasn't happy about it, but we got it together. And we do not address the elephant in the room, which was Nick's immediate assumption that Natalie was the one who put Tracy up to going out. Like, they have some kind of rapport at all.
Rachel:They talk in the precinct and that's it. They're like work acquaintances. And he was immediately like, you put her up to it. I know you did. We don't go back to that because Natalie's just like, yeah.
Rachel:I don't think she's gonna be okay. And Nick's like, yeah. I guess we're getting to be good partners after all because we work together really well. And Natalie's like, you know, if anyone's proven she's a good cop, it's Tracy. And, I'm not saying Tracy is not a good cop, but she's been taken hostage twice.
Rachel:3 times. 3 times. She got taken hostage during the my best friend is a vampire. She got taken hostage by Monica. Well, actually, she put herself in a situation to be harmed by Monica directly, and then she also, defied orders to stay out of it and ended up going undercover without telling anybody and almost got killed by a serial killer.
Rachel:So I'm not saying she's not a good cop, but she maybe needs a little bit more direction in her life because she does seem to be. Also, it's not her fault that she's partnered with Nick. Everybody else is solving, like, pedestrian, you know, domestic dispute murders where, you know, like husband and wife or whatever, and they're the ones getting the serial killer and the woman who's murdering people because they're having sex with her boyfriend who also happens to co to be the host of a talk show and the multiple personality, and one of the personalities is an immortal vampire. So, in terms of the fact that she actually gets some of the most out there cases, yes, she's a good cop. Does she continuously put herself in danger?
Rachel:Yes. Also that. Far more than Skanky ever did, because anytime Nick was like, go around, Skanky's like, cool. See you on the other side.
Matt:Yes. Yes. Skanky knew that. Stay out of the way.
Rachel:Well, Nick isn't he doesn't have code words with Tracy. He doesn't he doesn't have a way of telling her to get out of the way in the same way. They don't have the same rapport yet.
Matt:Well and he I don't think he can have the same ambiguity about what Nick is capable of. Yeah. Because Tracy is onto the vampire thing. Yeah. If he does anything ambiguously superhuman, you can't just chalk it up to, oh, man, you got real lucky again.
Matt:Yeah. Like, how many times is that gonna happen?
Rachel:An infinite number. Yeah.
Matt:Tracy would pick up on it quick. So he can't he can't do the, okay, you go around. And then every time his partner meets him around Yeah. He's resolved the situation already. Yeah.
Matt:That would be really suspicious.
Rachel:Natalie also brings over the ID of Rosebud, Christopher Scheer's online paramour. Nick opens it up, and he's like, okay. And Natalie's like, what? Is it somebody important? And he's like, nope, just the claw.
Rachel:Cause then we cut to the Raven and look, why is clack, clack, clacking away on his computer in his pod lab, and he's like, dearest rosebud, you know, you caused quite a stir when you disappeared, and we're all happy to have you back. It's great to have someone with your unique sensibilities back in the fold. Your dearest friend, Rosebud. Yeah. Which means canonically, Lacroix is an Internet troll.
Nick:You
Rachel:think he's a troll or do you think he's that guy that's like on his Instagram profile, everything is somehow in that gothic font that you can do on on Instagram, and I can't figure out how to do. And it's just pictures of it's just pictures of beefcakebootyshortman on his Instagram. Like here's, here's booty cakes up on the what the fuck? Oh, he got his gold lame today, everybody. And just that's why that guy's there.
Rachel:He's Lacoste's Instagram personality.
Matt:Oh, yeah.
Rachel:Yeah. He's like great day at the Raven, and he just he puts merchandise on him. He's like, wear this cape. I'm putting it up on Instagram. Here, wear the jacket with the raven painted on the back.
Rachel:I'm putting it up on Instagram. So he's his the model for the Raven.
Matt:Yeah. But my my sense of Lacroix's Internet personality is he lurks around Internet forums and reads reads through the the either weirdly categorized forums or the uncategorized forums, and he finds 1. Oh, oh, I like this one. And then he messages them directly, and he's like, I like the way you talk about things. You need to tone it down a little bit because I was able to recognize a like minded
Rachel:soul. Come join us over here.
Matt:Yeah. Come come to this private forum.
Rachel:Follow me on Tumblr.
Matt:And he like, here's how you here's how you cover your tracks Yeah. Because I don't want to lose you. Yeah. Yeah. And that's that's my sense of Lacroix is he's sifting through the roughage and finding the gems and then collecting them.
Rachel:Yeah. But that got real hard once social media got big. Oh.
Matt:All of the all the old style forums are still there. People are still on them. Yeah. IRC still exists and is still actively used by a a section of the
Rachel:Internet. Subset of the Internet? I mean, that makes sense. I was active on forums. I enjoyed it.
Rachel:It was a different way of connecting with people, and it was far more anonymous.
Matt:Yes. But
Rachel:there were also fewer bots, which Matt and I were having discussions this morning about because I have noticed threads. I'm not on threads. I have a threads because I, whatever, joined threads, but I'm not like sometimes I'll put stuff on there, but it's just sort of attached to my Instagram account. Strange and beautiful network. Follow us on Instagram.
Rachel:And as you're scrolling through, every once in a while, I'll be like, here's the threads we think you might like, and it has gotten way toxic way fast.
Matt:Yeah. And I just saw a thing on threads just from the the random things that, like, suggested things that show up on Instagram.
Rachel:Yeah.
Matt:And I I browsed a little bit, and I found a couple conversations about how, yeah, threads has gotten a lot more toxic lately. It's interesting that all of the, like, misogynistic right wing, like, trolly, accounts just showed up on threads after threads, like, unblocked Russia.
Rachel:Yeah. Welcome, bot farms. Welcome to threads.
Matt:Yes. The bot farms are on threads.
Rachel:And I was poking around in some comment sections of, some book talk people because I wanted to go ahead and plug that. I'm going to start doing a year long reading adventure through science fiction history. So if anybody wants to follow me, I'm not sure yet if I'm gonna do anything audio or video related to it, but at the moment, at least, I'm gonna be doing reviews of books through Instagram, and you can find me at rachel_yearendbooks. And I've posted a link a couple times in in my stories on and Beautiful Network. So if you follow Strange and Beautiful Network, you should be able to pop over and follow me there too.
Rachel:So I was poking around in some comments on BookTok, and I thought this was really interesting because somebody posted a, here's a legit enemies to lovers, which I feel like Lacroix and Nick would be the ultimate enemies to lovers romance story. And so there the top comment was like, thank you for recommending these. People have recommended these other 2 extremely popular books to me as enemies to lovers, and they weren't enemies to lovers, and I didn't like them. And then the hate that this person was getting in the comments was in reply to their comment was really interesting. But the one that I wanted to point out was the, we are not here for your hot take.
Rachel:You don't need to bring negativity to this post. And it made me feel like maybe I needed to address the idea of a hot take. A hot take is when you say something potentially controversial about, like, a fact. Right? Right.
Rachel:It is not I have a different opinion. We have certain opinions about certain ones of these episodes, and they may be different than your opinion of these episodes. Lots of people like blind faith because it's the good dog episode. That is perfectly fine. I can have my opinion.
Rachel:You can have your opinion, and both of these things can exist at the same time, and I do not need to convince you and you do not need to convince me. We can all just enjoy being together and have a great time being unique individuals. So if you disagree with our opinion on some of these episodes, because as we get into season 3, some of these get a little bit more controversial. And I think just remember, it's perfectly fine to be different from other people. In fact, as I tell my children all the time, wouldn't the world be boring if we were all the same?
Rachel:It would be. So, you know, I like this episode. I enjoy this episode a lot. Is it forever night meets silence of the lambs? Yes.
Rachel:Is it Tracy acting, you know what sometimes bothers me about Tracy is they give her stuff to do exclusively to further the plot. Right. So if Tracy had just done what she was supposed to do, how would they have ever caught this guy?
Matt:If Tracy had just done what she was supposed to do, eventually, Nick may have ended up back at the escort.
Rachel:And seen the
Matt:agency and seen the telescope.
Rachel:Yeah. But it sort of accelerated our Right. Timeline.
Matt:Yeah.
Rachel:And if Sean hadn't been a dick, would Tracy have gotten caught?
Matt:Probably not.
Rachel:Probably not. Maybe eventually. I don't know. Maybe he followed every girl and just waited for an opportunity.
Matt:Oh, that's a good point. He was he was already following Tracy. Yeah. So he probably would have just waited until after the date with the rich guy.
Rachel:Right. When she came back to her car. So he would have just waited all night for as long as that took. Yeah. Yeah.
Rachel:Yeah. Anyway, on to the next episode, honey.
Matt:Oh, because he obviously, flattened her tire.
Rachel:Yes. Oh, yeah. Conveniently. That way he had a reason to approach her. Right.
Rachel:Yeah. I mean, it was great. It's fine. This is why you call AAA, and then you go sit somewhere public. Yep.
Rachel:If you're a woman, because women are surrounded by our number one predator at all times.
Matt:Or what was it you said? Women are the only creature in nature that,
Rachel:is that attracted to? Must be date?
Matt:Yeah. Dates their their number one predator.
Rachel:Yeah. Spoken like a reluctant heterosexual. Yes. So I don't know. I just I think we had a bit of a rambling in there, but all that to say, you know, we're all happy just to be here.
Rachel:We enjoy the show. No matter what we say about each up each episode, we're here for the fun. I hope you're here for the fun too, and I guess we'll see you next time.
Matt:Yeah. And don't take anything we say too seriously.
Rachel:We don't. Until next time, friends.
Matt:Bye. Bye.
