lack Buddha (part 1)
lack Buddha (part 1)
When an airplane transporting a bombing suspect explodes, the victims of the tragedy include officers from Nick's department. Racked with guilt for letting his partner accompany the prisoner on the plane instead of going himself, Nick turns in his badge, ready to move on to a new life. But as bombs explode at police stations in other parts of town, and a device mysteriously turns up on his captain's desk, Nick rejoins the effort to catch the killer.
The pre-intro for this episode was proof positive that this show is being altered for the USA network. The pre-intro was much steamier than I recall any previous episode being. And (if I'm not mistaken) the intro was just a bit longer (and the music slower) than last season? More names to list? But any new season takes some getting used to.
At least the introduction of the characters was a lot more coherent than it was in "Killer Instinct". They actually show us that Nick is a vampire, and slowly ease his new captain and partner into their roles. Then again, two hours gives a lot more opportunity for decent character development.
At the beginning of the show, Nick seems a lot more animated, more alive, than he was last season -- joking with Schanke about fooling around with Myra, smirking at one of the new captain's jokes. Just as in the first episode from last season, he starts out a lot more human than before.
I didn't fully understand this "bomber" thing. Nick's a hero, and Schanke and Cohen are on the plane, because Nick caught some bomber last week. Right? But when they finally find out that the plane went down because of a bomb, it seemed like Nick suspected the same bomber, or that he had captured the wrong person. The second half clears this up, but it was very confusing at the time.
Since Nick is so alive in the beginning, it makes sense that he would feel quite depressed after hearing of Schanke and Cohen's deaths. In fact, the scene where he's slumped in the corner, holding his window-shade remote, with the sunlight hitting the wall just next to him -- was that an attempt at suicidal behavior? Finding out that Janette had moved away was close to the final straw, but I think he really decided to resign after his confrontation with Natalie over the "black buddha" idol, and her refusal to even consider that the crash was his fault.
So he resigns, and packs up all his stuff. He has one last heart-wrenching talk with Natalie. And then, after deciding that he can move away and start over again, he saves the new captain from the bomb. Fine. He could easily disappear and it would be presumed that he had died in the explosion. But instead he decides to come back and stick around. Why? The only person left there that he really cares about is Natalie. Certainly, her final argument was quite a masterpiece: rational, yet emotionally charged enough that you had to believe her. But to suddenly reverse his decision to move away?
By the very end of this episode, Nick's left a fair number of hints to the new captain that he's something other than human. Shortly after getting off the phone with him, he flies over to the precinct, and when Reese asks him how he got there so fast, he just says "I flew". Then there's the way he survived the explosion that practically destroyed the police station. Jumping out into the alley might have saved him, but you'd expect him to be slightly singed, or injured in some way. Add in the way he threw around the huge pieces of metal from the airplane and he's obviously some sort of superman.
The end of the show was much too fast for me. The alternating scenes between Nick at the precinct and Tracey with the vampire were fast, and almost incoherent. I had to watch that part three times before I could figure out what was going on.
Lots of loose ends in this one. I mean, they didn't even get a clue as to who the bomber was. Still, it will all be resolved in the second part.
Damn, I'm going to miss Janette.
Episode rating (0 to 10): 4
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