When last we left Mick, he was temporarily mortal, and staring moodily at Beth over Josh's casket at his funeral. Now, he's out and about, enjoying his mortality the way anyone who hadn't had been sunbathing in fifty years might: he goes to the beach.

The opening scenes were bubbling with Mick's obvious joy. So much so that I was giggling with glee, and excited right along with Mick as he has his first hot dog in years.

And it gets even better when we find out that the reason that he is at the beach is that he and Beth are on a date. During their ocean-side picnic, Beth tells Mick that she's sorry she blamed him for Josh's death, and that she's no longer wearing the engagement ring because she couldn't have married Josh. She's done some thinking and there is someone else.

Woah! Way to hit the reset button show! I think I might love you just a little.

Of course, things can't stay sunshine and hot dogs.

Mick goes to see Josef, and the two discuss Beth. It's nice to see Mick and Josef talking even if Mick is temporarily not of the fanged persuasion. Alex O'Loughlin and Jason Dohring convey this deep and abiding friendship that transcends boundaries of mortality. I love that I can feel that these two have a friendship based on the fact that they genuinely like each other as people, not just because they're on the liquid diet.

That, and when they're together, they are just guys being guys. They talk about sex (vampires and mortals can do it) and interspecies dating (some girls like the biting thing). In an earlier episode, they mentioned playing poker (and in a wonderful bit of continuity, we actually saw one of Josef's poker games). Mick jabbed verbally at Josef by telling him that he was his only friend who wasn't out for his money.

In a show that has given us both the fledgling relationship that is Mickbeth and the scary obsessive, all consuming, lose your sense of identity, dark crazy love that is Mick and Coraline, the friendship between Josef and Mick is the most solid, nurturing, warm relationship that I've seen.

Meanwhile, Beth gets home, only to receive a call from Maureen down at Buzzwire. She's got a hot story, and she wants Beth there ASAP. On a side note, Buzzwire is suspiciously empty. I'm thinking that Maureen may as well be wearing a red shirt.

Beth arrives at her office, only to find that Maureen has been murdered. Poor girl. This has not been an easy month for her.

No sooner has she called the police than the newest Assistant to the District Attorney's Office, Benjamin Talbot, shows up and speaks condescendingly to her. Presumably, he's in charge of Maureen's murder investigation.

Let me say right now that I do not like this guy. It has nothing to do with Mickbeth. I like Coraline. I liked Josh. I do not like this guy.

For one thing, he's just taken Josh's job. So presumably he knows who Beth is. Plus, she's a witness to a major crime. Despite this, he treats her like a skeezy tabloid journalist.

I've heard rumors that Mr. Patronizing (who looks like he should be modeling shirtless for Jocky, with the perfect hair and the Dick-Tracy-chiseled jawline) was brought onto the show to be a new love interest for Beth. I really hope not. If she falls for someone with a superiority complex like that, then my estimation of her is bound to drop a few notches.

Mick shows up, and Mr. High-and-Mighty tells them both to stay out of this. Shouldn't you heed your own advice, you control freak? I was under the impression that solving crimes was the job of the police, and the ADA wasn't involved with a case until it was solved, an arrest had been made and there was someone for the DA's office to actually prosecute?

But that could just be years of watching Homicide: Life on the Street talking. Speaking of which, does anyone else think that Pembleton and Kellerman would have already wrapped up this case? And Munch would have told this ADA Talbot where to stick his briefcase the moment he started poking his nose where it didn't belong.

Mick and Beth set out to find Maureen's killer. They go to the morgue, and meet up with Guillermo, who tells them that while Maureen was shot at close range, the shooter was a vampire.

Of course he was. At this point, I'm convinced that there are more Vampires in LA than people. Maybe LA is the perfect stomping ground for the fanged and fabulous. After all, there are a ton of beautiful people, and most of them work all night and sleep all day. More than one of them is trying some kind of freaky grapefruit/low fat/low carb/low food diet. So who is going to notice a few more?

Also, in the world according to Guillermo, Mick's being human is not natural and what is he going to do with all that type-A blood that he's been saving for the PI?

Their next stop is Maureen's apartment, where they rescue her cat and find her flash drive. I love the little moment where Beth tells Mick where women hide things that they don't want people to find (in the tampon box). I love Mick's yeah-buh-wha? face.

Then it's off to see Logan, the vampire computer guru who never leaves his basement. Logan is pretty sure that Maureen's cat is a snack, and given that I recently wondered why vampire poker didn't involve kittens, I've got the giggles again. He breaks into Maureen's flash drive and gives them three avenues to look for the killer: a donut diet guru (their supermodel spokeswoman recently died. Was it the donuts?), the suspicious death of the wife of mayoral candidate Kent Morrow, and a shady charity that Josef is involved in.

Given the way that this show likes misdirection and twisty plots, I'm going with the donut diet guru.

They quickly eliminate Josef, when he points out that if he'd been responsible for Maureen's death, they would never have found the bodies (the La Brea Tar Pits are his favorite dumping grounds. Just this week, he had the body of the director of the shady charity dumped there.) Also, he's set up a brand new charity with Oprah as the spokeswoman just to give Maureen a story. It would have been easier to kill her.

I love this little moment. Especially since Oprah once walked out of a movie theater that was showing Interview With A Vampire. Killing Maureen would have been easier than setting this up.

Beth goes on the trail of the donut diet guru. She gets a box of donuts for her trouble. Mick loves them, and she suggests he try Krispy Kreme. Really, he should. But only when they're hot.

Mick badgers Morrow at one of his campaign stops, and develops a little bit of empathy with his daughter, Bonnie. She thinks Mick is too cool to be hanging out around her dad. Given that Mick could qualify for Social Security benefits, AARP and the senior discount at Denny's, that's quite a complement.

Mick and Beth go back to Guillermo to get a look at the body of the diet's spokes model and there they develop a new lead: the plastic surgeon who was performing liposuction on the model. On the way out, they bump into ADA Talbot, who chews them both out when they ruffle feathers.

Logan tracks Maureen's e-mails to a valet who tells Mick that Morrow was driving the night of his wife's accident and he was drunk. With access to the valet's computer, Logan is able to pinpoint that the e-mails sent to Maureen were sent from Morrow's office.

Mick goes to confront Morrow, and Beth shows up with ADA Talbot in tow. She's been convinced that they need to clout of the DA's office to pursue this any further. At this point, Bonnie decides that the jig is up, her dad isn't going to come clean, and her only option is to jump from the roof of the building.

Mick chases Bonnie up onto the roof and keeps her from jumping. Beth, Talbot, Morrow and Morrow's assistant follow, and overhear Bonnie say that her dad was the one who was driving the car the night her mom died. Talbot takes Morrow into custody, all the while saying heartlessly moralistic things. I have the feeling that Talbot isn't a big fan of gray areas.

On the deadly donut front, Beth and Mick take Talbot down to confront the plastic surgeon who worked on the dead model. When Talbot threatens to subpoena the medical records, the doctor vamps out, throws Mick around like a rag doll and decides to take Beth (and Talbot) prisoner. Apparently Beth's rare blood type makes her tasty.

Mick gets up, gets stitched up, pulls out his Buffy Summers Trunk-o-Vampire hunting, and loads for bear. He starts going through his bookshelf, and pulls out almost every weapon he owns, including the knife that Sam Winchester used in the pilot of Supernatural. (So that's where it went.)

He's just about to run out and do something very manly and potentially suicidal when Josef shows up, tells Mick he can't take on hoards of vampires while he's mortal, and then proves his point by handing Mick's mortal rear to him. (When Mick is a vampire, the mortals beat him up. When he's mortal, the vampires do. It's a very inverse scale).

Mick sees Josef's reason and asks him to bring him back across. This is a heartbreaking scene on so many levels. Josef knows that Mick hates being a vampire. As a friend who loves him, the older vampire doesn't want to hurt his very best friend. Meanwhile, Mick is frightened for Beth. The desperation and the incredible love that Mick feels comes through in his voice when he tells Josef that: “they've got Beth. My Beth.”

And then Mick returns to the fanged fold and the two of them set off to rescue the damsel and the dip wad.

When Mick and Josef walk into the lab, they're obviously enjoying the fact that they're about to get into a fight. That much is obvious in the way that they chew the scenery and . . . ahem . . . vamp for the camera. The fight is a quick one, and Mick has Josef escort the ADA out of the building while he rescues Beth. All the while, Talbot is demanding to know what's going on. Couldn't Doctor Death have killed the annoying ADA?

The episode ends with Mick and Beth having a picnic on the roof. Beth tells Mick that the reason they're not together has nothing to do with whether he's fanged or not. It's more or less because he's an angsty, angsty person. She gets up to leave, and Mick pulls her into a kiss. He tells her he needs time, and she replies that he may have eternity, but she doesn't.

I love this scene. In other vampire shows that I've seen, the plot of 'vampire gains his mortality' has been done. But invariably, the show returns to the status quo at the end of the episode. Here, the story progresses. There is forward momentum. Mick and Beth aren't yet together, but there is hope for the future.

The good: Mick gets his happy on. We see some of my favorite minor players like Guillermo and Logan. There is a nice, twisty mystery. Beth is My Beth. Mick and Josef have a believable friendship.

The bad: I hate ADA Talbot with the fury of a thousand nuclear suns. It has nothing to do with his potential as a love interest for Beth. I liked Josh and Coraline both. It's more to do with his overly-moralistic stance, and the way he puts Beth down at every twist and turn. If Beth even goes on one date with this Schmuck, I'm revoking her membership to the ladies who are awesome club.

The conclusion: The show came back better than ever.