ueen of Harps
ueen of Harps
When Nick is unable to obtain a harp with magical properties tied to his mortal past at auction, his actions are less than legal. When the auctioneer is found murdered, Nick finds himself in a precarious situation, caught between the harp's longing and his own desires.
This whole harp thing has me confused. Why won't Nick let the harp go "after so much time"? After all, after seven hundred years, another century shouldn't be so bad. Or, with all his money (and artifacts collected over the years) he should be able to bribe it away from whoever bought it. And if he really needs it so badly that he'll go against "human laws" to steal it, why didn't he just steal it a long time ago? Odd that he would resort to his vampiric powers to get a reminder of his mortal days.
And then, for some reason, Nick gives the harp to Johanna Shea (played by Brenda Bazinet, who also played Gwyneth in the flashbacks) -- even though he did all he could to posess it for himself. I can understand him getting her a good lawyer (after all, he practically framed her for murder), but giving the harp to her? A laudible gift, and well within his character, but definitely odd.
I was also amazed at Natalie's refusal to help Nick after he stole the harp. "I don't know how you're going to work this out," she says, and then later (after determining the time of death as after sunrise), "that lets you off the hook." I suppose she's trying to indicate that she'll help him when he's trying to bring justice to criminals, or trying to regain his mortality, but not if he blatantly takes the law into his own hands. Either it's some tricky moral hint on her part, or she's much more of a fair weather friend than I had suspected -- probably the former.
For a harp with "ten thousand songs", it seems to sing but one song, over and over. But that's an understandable move on the part of the director to try to build a musical association with the past.
All in all, it was a good idea for a story, but the presentation didn't do much for me. Too many predictable, boring scenes filling in the time. A nice enough tune, at least.
Episode rating (0 to 10): 4
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