Episode 1.15 What's Left Behind

It's pretty terrible when you can't think of anything to write about an episode. It's terrible because the first 12 episodes of Moonlight were chock full of wonderings, and edge of your seat suspense and revelation, with, at the very least, one scene per episode that blew my mind. Consider the sumptuous balcony scene in 12.04, the naturalistic "I'm a vampire" moment at the end of Out of the Past, the hug of all hugs at the end of No Such Thing As Vampires, the kiss at the end of Arrested Development. Even the hot mess that was Fated to Pretend had a heart wrenching scene with Josef and Mick, with Mick's re-Turning. In fact, it seems to me that Mick and Josef are more in love than MickBeth these days. That other noisy, hot mess that was Click, had nothing to recommend it. And in comparison to it, What's Left Behind just seems prosaic.

Prosaic procedural. Like CSI with a guy who happens to be a vampire. And who isn't doing much vamping out, either. Where the issue of Mick's vampirism used to be central to each story, now he just uses his vamp superpowers to kick ass or catch the bad guy. Any tension between the use of his powers and his own desire are gone. Mick is copacetic with being a vamp. There is no longer any need to explore the subterranean recesses of his mind that recoiled from vampirism and its consequences. He's a happy guy now, and doesn't really seem to have any inner life beyond descriptive voice overs. The voice overs no longer expose his inner life because, well, now he hasn't got one.

He seems to have lost that loving feeling as well. He and Josef have it in spades, but when it comes to Beth, you no longer know what he's thinking, or if he's thinking anything. He's just busy being happy and living in the human world. In this ep, his happiness got interrupted by feelings of guilt and then feelings of sadness. Guilt that he slept with his best friend's wife, implying that he committed adultery, had betrayed his bud. Well, it turns out the bud was still alive, not dead as Mick thought, so that's why he felt guilty. Even though he thought said bud was dead. So, he made a mountain out of a mole hill. Mick becomes a drama queen. And with all that guilt, he must have been religious at one time. You never know.

Still, it's a poignant moment if you can find it amidst the clutter of happiness and averageness. The man is so sensitive to those he loves, and so honourable, that he'll beat himself up for anything he considers even the smallest infraction. Aww. It magnifies the obstacles between Mick and Beth somewhat, and directs them away from the current pop psych of "intimacy issues", towards the greater and more interesting issue of morality and conscience. Now that's epic. And at least Mick has not thrown out his conscience with his human being (unlike Beth).

On the other hand, when Beth tells him that it was okay, because it was love, it seemed like a non-sequitur. Was the "affair" okay because he loved Lilah, or was it "okay" because anything is okay if there is love? Which sends shivers down my spine, because, what if Beth believes it, that anything is okay for love, like murder, and now, betrayal? Whereas Mick still hangs in with a moral centre, Beth's seems to be drifting, or perhaps hers was never that well defined to begin with. So, thank you, Jill Blotevogel, for restoring Mick's morality to front and centre.

Perhaps this episode would have had more impact, been more meaningful, if the other 2 eps had not preceded it (and traumatised me). The baby talk between Mick and Beth seemed jarring when it shouldn't have felt like that to me. It came from left field but was very much consistent with Beth's character to be forward and blunt, while there's a subtext of feeling and feeling Mick out going on. They're wary and feeling each other out on a topic that obviously has crossed their minds. They're like, "we're a couple but we won't admit we're a couple but we're thinking about sex and babies all. the. time (though not marriage...hmmm..)" It's confusing to me that in the last two eps they've been doing the dating thing, and in this ep it's like they're largely back to being who they were before the hot mess. I'm getting whiplash.

I liked that Mick had never considered having a family. Had never regretted it because it just never came up. Faced with the possibility of a son, he felt the stirring of longing and hope. The look on his face when he would encounter Robert then, so sure that Robert was his...of such fascination and tenderness. Going all fatherly, too. So subtle. Okay, Alex is good. And the only real sense I got of Mick and Beth as MickBeth was when Beth brushed his hair with her fingers when he learned that Robert was not his, and realised, that yes, now it was a regret.

Things I'm hating:

1. I loved Beth as a reporter for a sleazy online mag. I haven't seen that one done before. And Beth had to struggle with her own ambition in not crossing that line into sensationalism; she also had to manage to juggle the idea of an expose with more serious news. She was largely her own woman and got to investigate the stories which fed her curiosity. I loved the trenchant take on tabloids as well and how she doesn't fit in.

Now she's going to be a "civilian investigator"? What makes her different from other female characters on tv now? And what background does she have that is plausible. This is so lame.

2. The Mick and Beth relationship- the inconsistency. I don't know what a shipper is. I've liked the whole MickBeth thing because it was part and parcel of the story, but not the only story. There was balance. They were integrated into the whole. Half the time, now, I don't know who they are. I don't care if they smooch or hold hands; all I care about it something that makes sense to me and not something that feels out of kilter.

It's almost as if no one can decide what this show is to be. These are more than stand alone episodes. They might as well be in different tv series. I would like to think that there is a thread running thru each episode that is leading up to something, and I used to be sure, in the past, that it would. Now, I don't know.

What's Left Behind was way better than the last two eps, but something is missing. Where are MickBeth? There wasn't one truly compelling scene between them, and in this ep, I don't think it was the writing.

3. And here is my biggest beef- apart from the loss of grand themes (for the time being only, I hope) it's the loss of noir. People tend to think it's just a visual style, but after noir got axed I realised how essential it was to the dramatic telling of the stories, how it made everything seem grand and compelling. It gave characters a greater presence and import. Everything seemed important.

Noir is not just about some shadows and lighting, it is about a consistent tone, a voice- it's a character in itself. It worked, IMO, fabulously well in ML and raised it above all other tv shows. It's an element that unconsciously sucked you in- got a grip on you and transported you into another world completely. It succeeded. It was genius. Without it, everything and everyone seems less suggestive of mysterious depths. Mick seems so average, just a PI working on a case and using his vamp powers for good. In the first 12 eps, he was way more than that. Now he's just another TV hero.