On the Threshold of Trembling Possibility: The Mortal Cure Ep 1.12

Before I talk about how we don't need another hero, I want to just to reiterate what I mentioned in another thread:

I can stand a bunch of months without ML, knowing that TPTB did not abandon the fans to a miserable fate. I don't feel deprived. I feel there was much honour in this ep. And integrity. Not a sell out. No manipulation of the fans. Major kudos to all involved. I am in love.

I am crazy in love after this episode! When your heart is this full, the words don't come easily. I still can't find the words....

So, a few thoughts:

1. The Archangel Michael is known as the protector of humankind (and a spiritual warrior). Mick surely lives up to his namesake- it is the essence of him and of who he is as a man. That Mick is on a journey, there is no doubt now, just as Beth is on one. I find him to be a novel character, whose mystery deepens with every episode. And if he were to be labelled a hero, then I think it is in this- not that he's a fighter (of which there are a dime a dozen in imagined worlds) but that he dares to be happy.

The vampiric world is loaded with cynics (as is the human world). He pretty well stated why Coraline has come back: because she can't stand to see him happy. Almost no one understands his longing because what could be better than power, strength, eternal life, and seeing flying cars? This makes him amazingly courageous in the face of so much hollow desire amidst endless emptiness and darkness. He is fiercely single-minded in this pursuit; only Mick holds out humanity as being a treasure, a source of hope. Even Beth is not so sure.

IMO, Mick is not a hero so much as on a heroic journey (as is Beth) - a guy trying to liberate his soul from the prison of vampirism so he can feel and be whole again.

2. Loved that the cure is an organic compound. This fits again with a magical realism approach- where its existence lies very much within the realm of possibility, though its effects seem magical, suffused with extraordinary potency. It also emphasises the idea that vampirism is akin to a disease/disorder, a sickness, rather than anything demonic. Not a new idea, but still, cool.

But it makes me wonder: why was no trace of the compound found in Coraline's blood? And did it change her blood into pure child's blood? Or...is there something more sinister at work?

3. Hey, how about that Coraline? Damn, she's good! Ever the seductress, the temptress, the liar. BFF and I texted each other: Mick's a fool.

Coraline knows of his almost blind desire to be human. We've seen his single minded pursuit of it for many episodes now.

Why did she become human: "For you, Mick, you seem to like the human girls". Shyeah. Well, that didn't work, just like offering the child, Beth. didn't work. Now she's telling him: perhaps there is no love without mortality. Shyeah. That since she took his life away, she was going to give him give it back to him for a while. Shyeah. Feeding into all of his desires, tapping into his "weakness". Man, she even sacrificed herself for him! Big, fat, shyeah!

I'm guessing she wanted him to administer the compound. Perhaps he is another step of the experiment? Or more likely, so she can better have power over him. He knows her well, She knows she is master of the setup. He even accused her of it. A human Mick is much easier to terrorise.

3. Why does Coraline want to find a permanent cure? Oh, I am sure it is to save vampires from the misery of their lot. Shyeah. Is her brother so naive, this ancient and powerful vamp, that he wants the compound merely to preserve it and to save him from another Reign of Terror?

The ultimate power is to be able to turn vamps who oppose you into humans, a cleansing, if you will. Then, you rule the vampire world. Now, wouldn't that be just like Coraline?

4. We now can guess how Coraline escaped the fire. So, how did Josef? And for a guy who gets around in the vamp world, he knows precious little about what's happening.

5. Oh, that Mick! Just keeps surprising me. He takes the cure and then has the presence of mind to draw his own blood. His singularity of purpose is astounding. I can't imagine it won't get him into trouble. But his motives have become very clear. He doesn't seem too broken up about Coraline, either; she's been a means to an end. Just when I think I have him figured out, something unexpected happens. He seemed such a nerd in the 50's. He's been angsty. He's gotten hurt a lot in fights. He keeps changing. With consistency. Into someone more defined, and stronger. Coming into his own, perhaps.

6. Loved the way Beth's grieving over Josh was handled. It's not some guy she's over in a couple of days. This episode kept Josh alive, with his emails, with the ring....honoured him, and we've gotten to know him better dying and dead than when he actually was living. We learn what a great guy he was, what Beth saw in him. Lingering on Beth's mourning brought greater dimension to her character and history as well.

7. When he sniffed Beth's presence... the brightness that switches on in his face ....oh my. Why is Mick attracted to Beth? Well, I am sure we could explain reasonably. But maybe it's beyond reason- she makes him happy. I've never seen such a happy vamp. Yes, I think Mick's greatest attribute is that he dares to be happy.

And she came to him in her sorrow, needing a friend. And all she could see was the welcoming light in his eyes. Geez, talk about coming home.

The hottest thing he's ever said to her, in all the eps, is "Come here". Better than an embrace, better than a kiss, more intimate and effective than sex. It encompassed entire worlds of love and knowing. Sigh... the power of words. Geeeeez, it took my breath away, felt8. Finally, the last scenes in the graveyard. When he limps towards Beth, beaten and broken, and so tenderly, painfully, and triumphantly human .... They say when you wrestle with darkness, you are never victorious without sustaining some permanent damage- its the damage that makes you human, brings you home to your own mortality.

It seems that death is, indeed, the great equaliser. Beth and Mick are equals now. And their faces show, what? Under the sun's radiance, they are suffused with light. Mick and Beth are poised delicately on the threshold of trembling possibility.... We don't know what will happen. We don't know if it is a dream. We know their time is fragile. But with the last view of their faces, we know this much in the moment- that anything is possible. At that moment, they have laid some ghosts to rest. At that moment, neither is afraid. Everything is whole. Everything is pure. It's that moment that we want to capture and freeze for all time, before it begins to change and decay into something else, and becomes past.

And that's what makes me happy. For a moment, they are captured in time, and we can dream big dreams for them. And we know that Mick is whole and happy and they are together, there. I couldn't ask for a better ending. No matter what, we can dream big dreams for them and not despair.

9. I used to think Alex was not much of a presence as an actor, but then I had come in on bits and pieces of Moonlight and didn't see it from the beginning. I will eat those words happily. He brings such vitality and quiet depth and subtext to the role. When I finally did get to see the first few eps, I realised that all he said about knowing and understanding the character was true- he nailed it from the beginning. He inhabits that character like nobody's business and I can't imagine anyone else filling Mick's shoes. It just wouldn't be Mick, the only vampire I've ever come to admire and adore.