Moonlight: Fleur de Lis

By Heather Cee

To paraphrase Dinosaur Comics: Beth Turner is boring, Coraline is awesome.

When’s the last time you watched a show that so effortlessly flipped its own loyalties, and – probably – without meaning to? With the Mick/Beth relationship stretched to its complicated limits, and Mick’s angsty, romantic bastard routine playing itself out like a one-note pop song, the return of Coraline was like seeing Julie Andrews sway over the crest of a hill. Suddenly Beth was icy, Mick anything but, and the dark beauty with the fleur-de-lis tattoo was wreaking some intriguing emotional havoc in the span of a single hour.

This week it’s crystal clear that it was never the circumstances surrounding Coraline’s death that had such a hold on Mick, but the woman herself lingering in the P.I.’s bloodstream. We knew St. John and Coraline were given to spontaneous combustion at the start of their courtship, but to see their chemistry in full-blown action after her delusional attempt at winning him back and his setting her on fire?

Think about it: he set her on fire. Setting aside the limited options of tried and true vampire disposal, Mick’s breaking point – the kidnapping of Beth – leads him to dole out the most painful, horrific death possible to the woman he loves and hates in equal measure. She’s the demon he’s desperate to exorcise. And now she’s back, and human; the woman who was once the primary roadblock to Mick’s redemption may now be his best shot at salvation. And the girl who seemed to be his rescue from Coraline’s grip is now the woman who’s plunged a wooden stake right into that second chance’s heart.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves: Beth Turner is our narrator this week, and she is pissed. She’s parked outside of Morgan’s apartment, binoculars in hand, when Mick meets her for a heart-to-heart on the particulars of his ex-wife. Mick may have half-heartedly convinced himself that Morgan is not Coraline, but Beth can’t shake her suspicions – particularly with Mick so enthralled with the mysterious photographer. Taking what little information Mick reluctantly offers up, Beth begins digging into Coraline/Morgan’s past, while Mick and Morgan join forces to tail a rich man’s wife suspected of an affair.

And by joining forces, I mean they generally fill any space they’re in with mad-crazy sexual tension and a tangible sense of personal history, even before Coraline gives up her game. Feel free to ignore the specifics of the case they’re working – the ‘ole rich husband thinks trophy wife is cheating, wife is cheating with rich man’s son, and our crack investigative team thinks the husband’s about to murder the wife, but in fact it’s the adulterous couple who are planning to kill the rich guy (your brain’s hurting from all that originality, innit?). It’s all about the sparks, and Mick’s surprisingly restrained unveiling – beyond a shadow of a doubt – of Morgan’s true identity as she showers in his apartment.

Coraline really is human, and major props to Alex O’Loughlin for nailing a cornucopia of emotions in one fell swoop at this realization – confusion, desire, joy, and utter wonder that Coraline may be the key to “curing” his vampirism. The desperation underlying his hope is almost painful. Well played, show.

In the meantime, Beth researches the fleur-de-lis, flesh brand of choice for criminals (including courtesans like Coraline), and breaks into Morgan’s apartment, where she discovers photos of Mick from the fifties. A visit to Josef reveals the complexity of the Coraline/Mick dynamic in blunt, uncompromising detail, and Beth’s final straw is the discovery of Coraline’s house of glass, where she finds surveillance photos of her and Mick on a desk and a little girl’s full-on dream bedroom tucked away downstairs. Creepy! Confronted with this reality, memories of her time in the room come flooding back, as well as Coraline as her captor. Enraged, Beth smashes a wooden chair and stomps out of the house with her impromptu stake in hand.

As much as I enjoyed this episode – the casual sensuality of Coraline, her owning the role of the villainess, and the genuine hotness of Coraline/Mick shower action (hello!) – I find myself supremely annoyed with the turn Beth’s character takes as the episode reaches its climax. She has every right to her fury; Coraline is the woman who traumatized her as a child, after all. But with an endless stream of snide comments about Morgan, her ultra-possessiveness of Mick, and then barging in on Mick and Coraline in a state of undress, her motives are tainted with petty jealousy rather than righteous anger.

And, in that case, where the hell does she get off? She’s been putting the moves on Mick, yet has never offered to relinquish Josh, nor has she laid her feelings out there in plain terms for Mick. Sure, there have been allusions, and there was that whole weepy balcony scene when Mick’s role in her kidnapping was revealed, him being her “angel,” blah, blah, blah – but come on. Are we really supposed to feel sympathy for Beth when she reels on Mick with a “How could you?!” the moment she spots a half-naked Coraline slinking down the steps? Not “how could you betray my trust after what she did?” but “how could you sleep with her, you bastard?” And then the claws come out in the form of a wooden chair leg to Coraline’s human chest.

Ugh. All’s fair, girlfriend – Coraline may have been playing head games with Mick, but at least she acknowledges it. You’ve had the guy on a yo-yo for weeks.

Stop defining Beth with Mick, show. It didn’t work at the beginning, and it’s weathering the storm of romantic complications badly. Until I can make myself care about Beth Turner as a person, I’m not buying what you’re selling – except the stuff with Coraline, and Coraline with Mick. I’m not sure what’s hotter: Coraline’s powerful hold on Mick’s psyche, or the hints at just how bad Mick can be when Coraline’s in the picture.

Mmm. Bad Mick. Yes, please.

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Heather Cee has been writing for music sites for several years but genre media is her original fandom. She’s a History major dropout, loves music, Batman, and the color green, and thinks Laura Roslin is the most kick ass woman on television. She currently works as a website editor in Tucson, Arizona, where she lives with her husband and a ridiculous amount of CDs, records, books, and DVDs. One day she hopes to own grown-up furniture and pants other than jeans.

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