tranger than Fiction
tranger than Fiction
Life imitates fiction when Emily Weiss, the best-selling author of a series of vampire novels, is attacked by a crazed fan. Her works are amazingly tru to life, leading Nick to believe that she may know more about the vampire community than she says. LaCroix, the leader of the community, sees her as a threat and declares that she must die and Nick must carry out the decree.
Nick, however, finds that he is falling in love with this woman. She is the only mortal capable of understanding what it is like to live in eternal darness, and she would go willingly into his waiting arms if asked. The time has come for the truth and the fiction to become one, and her fate rests in Nick's hands.
I have to start out by mentioning my favorite scene: Janette and Emily talking at Nick's place. Nick has told Janette that he trusts her to guard Emily, but Janette has already expressed her feelings: that Emily is a danger to the vampires and must be destroyed. Watching Janette struggle against her desire to drink Emily's blood, while trying to imitate a normal conversation (Emily: "would you like a drink?" / Janette: "I'm debating that"). Janette cringing slightly from the fire as Emily heats up some water.
Janette also asks Emily if she's falling in love with Nick, just as she asked Natalie in the previous episode. Does this mean she's jealous? I'd assume that jealousy was a human emotion. Besides, after eight hundred years, wouldn't jealousy dissapate? Or perhaps Nick's increased mortality is affecting her similarly -- and maybe LaCroix, which would further his desire to keep Nick a vampire.
Larissa Lapchinski plays Emily Weiss, a socially repressed writer. Apparently she feels that she caused a friend's suicide in her youth, which is why she's so closed. But why does she open up to Nick so freely? Attraction could be that rapid, but if you hadn't really talked to anyone in years, it wouldn't be that easy.
So my biggest question is: why doesn't Emily realize that Nick is a vampire? She got several clues while staying at his place. In her "flashback" (into the story, so it's not quite a flashback) she pictures Nick as the vampire. She even whispers "you are my vampire" in his ear near the end. She's just a bit too blind, considering that not only does she write about vampires, but she writes accurately (even LaCroix notes that she's too close to the truth).
Still, there are a lot of nice mirrored actions going on, where reality seems to be reflecting "The Denied" (Emily's book). Interesting, since *all* the major characters are reading the book, even when it's against their basic character -- Schanke, reading a book? And oddly enough, in each of their "flashbacks" into the story (with the exception of the opening one), everyone puts Nick into the role of one of the vampires. Was this decided by the producer ("people will accept him in that role"), or by the author? If the latter, then they're all thinking that if vampires really did exist, Nick would be ideal as a vampire.
Personally, I just thought this was a fairly average episode. Not bad, but not great. While watching it I was continually reminded of the Anne Rice novels (odd, since I've never read them...). However, this is the first episode that my roommate openly admitted to enjoying, and it's very well rendered. So you may enjoy it more than I did.
Episode rating (0 to 10): 6
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