Review: Blood Ties--"Drawn and Quartered"
http://firefox.org/news/articles/891/1/Review-Blood-Ties--quotDrawn-and-Quarteredquot/Page1.html
Mara Greengrass
I'm a 30-something work-at-home mom. I divide my time between working as a freelance editor, taking care of my husband and daughter, and various fannish pursuits.
In my past life, I was a writer, editor, PR flunky, administrative assistant, and archaeologist. (No, not at the same time.) By Mara Greengrass
Published on 11/17/2007
There's plenty to love about "Drawn and
Quartered," as long as you don't think too hard about the anticlimactic
ending and unresolved plot points...
An artist takes the concept of "sacrifice" a bit too literally.
There's plenty
to love about "Drawn and Quartered," as long as you don't think too
hard about the anticlimactic ending and unresolved plot points.
Maybe it's just me, but I found the mystery of what Henry saw in Maya to be much more interesting than the mystery of who was killing the pretentious gits...I mean, the corpses of the week.
As Vicki noted, Maya didn't exactly fit the description Henry gave, and that got me curious. I was pleased that the answer was something much more interesting than his having fed from her or slept with her. This storyline gave us a new understanding of the difficulties of his life and he gained a depth this week that I enjoyed seeing.
Poor guy! He remembers Maya as a sweet little girl who he obviously adored, and he was thrown out of her life like a divorced father. His reactions made perfect sense and were touching to see.
And the scene where Maya describes the monster in her painting and her dream...that was amazing. I gasped when I realized that the monster was him. I absolutely didn't see that coming and it brought a tear to my eye for Henry.
On the other end of the emotional spectrum, the opening scene with Henry and Vicki breaking and entering was hilarious. From Henry's comment about the rats mating to Vicki's dazed look to her coming back to her senses, I loved the entire thing. It's very Vicki that his vampire powers don't work on her, but she can be completely thrown for a loop by a compliment and a request for a date.
I also liked Henry saying "You'll give me an honest opinion." I just wish we'd gotten to hear that honest opinion, because I was curious.
Which leads me to my biggest peeve with this episode: The rushed ending and the lack of resolution for several storylines. After all the buildup, Henry running in and ripping the canvas was a letdown.
And I still don't understand several things. For instance, why did the Edward Franklin kill those two men? Sure, they were pretentious gits, but is that why they were killed? For that matter, if Franklin was haunting the blank canvas, how did he get into the others?
And what was the meaning of Maya's final painting? She looked happy, so presumably we were supposed to understand that she'd finally healed, but how and why? If she understands that the monster from her dream is Henry, shouldn't she be freaking out instead of smiling? And what in the world helped her heal? She wasn't there for the showdown, so as far as she's concerned, there's still a murderer out there killing people in the art community, two of them men she'd slept with!
Lastly, the episode closes with a final corpse and no explanation of how Mike is going to close a case in which the murderer was a dead painter's ghost stuck in a painting. Even a moment in which we see him say that he can't close the case would have been enough, but we didn't get it.
I think the problem is that this episode tried to do too much. In 44 minutes, the writers tried to advance Vicki and Henry's relationship, give us insight into Henry's life and past, show the problems Mike is having with all the spooky stuff, give Coreen a moment in the spotlight, and, oh, also have some murders and explain who the murderer is. "Drawn and Quartered" is a nice attempt, but it doesn't quite pull it off.
Having said all that, I still enjoyed the episode. If nothing else, getting to see Vicki in a dress made it worth it! And I loved Coreen's storyline, even if I knew immediately that Tyrone was going to be the bad guy.
Her first scene at the showing with Tyrone was Coreen being introspective about her goth lifestyle the way I wanted her to be in "Bugged." I loved her insight about the art and how it's all "trying too hard, look at me, I'm dark, I'm depressed, I'm gonna cut my ear off."
And Dr. Mohadevan's short scene was fabulous as always, cracking me up with "It's impossible. Isn't it grand?"
Even though I knew immediately that the painting was evil, it was still a spooky episode. Seeing the face come out of the painting made me yelp, and I jumped when Pretentious Git #2 was yanked into the painting.
There was so much going on in this episode that I could probably come up with five different take-home messages. But I think in the end it all comes down to something Vicki said: "Talismans don't kill people. People kill people."
Maybe it's just me, but I found the mystery of what Henry saw in Maya to be much more interesting than the mystery of who was killing the pretentious gits...I mean, the corpses of the week.
As Vicki noted, Maya didn't exactly fit the description Henry gave, and that got me curious. I was pleased that the answer was something much more interesting than his having fed from her or slept with her. This storyline gave us a new understanding of the difficulties of his life and he gained a depth this week that I enjoyed seeing.
Poor guy! He remembers Maya as a sweet little girl who he obviously adored, and he was thrown out of her life like a divorced father. His reactions made perfect sense and were touching to see.
And the scene where Maya describes the monster in her painting and her dream...that was amazing. I gasped when I realized that the monster was him. I absolutely didn't see that coming and it brought a tear to my eye for Henry.
On the other end of the emotional spectrum, the opening scene with Henry and Vicki breaking and entering was hilarious. From Henry's comment about the rats mating to Vicki's dazed look to her coming back to her senses, I loved the entire thing. It's very Vicki that his vampire powers don't work on her, but she can be completely thrown for a loop by a compliment and a request for a date.
I also liked Henry saying "You'll give me an honest opinion." I just wish we'd gotten to hear that honest opinion, because I was curious.
Which leads me to my biggest peeve with this episode: The rushed ending and the lack of resolution for several storylines. After all the buildup, Henry running in and ripping the canvas was a letdown.
And I still don't understand several things. For instance, why did the Edward Franklin kill those two men? Sure, they were pretentious gits, but is that why they were killed? For that matter, if Franklin was haunting the blank canvas, how did he get into the others?
And what was the meaning of Maya's final painting? She looked happy, so presumably we were supposed to understand that she'd finally healed, but how and why? If she understands that the monster from her dream is Henry, shouldn't she be freaking out instead of smiling? And what in the world helped her heal? She wasn't there for the showdown, so as far as she's concerned, there's still a murderer out there killing people in the art community, two of them men she'd slept with!
Lastly, the episode closes with a final corpse and no explanation of how Mike is going to close a case in which the murderer was a dead painter's ghost stuck in a painting. Even a moment in which we see him say that he can't close the case would have been enough, but we didn't get it.
I think the problem is that this episode tried to do too much. In 44 minutes, the writers tried to advance Vicki and Henry's relationship, give us insight into Henry's life and past, show the problems Mike is having with all the spooky stuff, give Coreen a moment in the spotlight, and, oh, also have some murders and explain who the murderer is. "Drawn and Quartered" is a nice attempt, but it doesn't quite pull it off.
Having said all that, I still enjoyed the episode. If nothing else, getting to see Vicki in a dress made it worth it! And I loved Coreen's storyline, even if I knew immediately that Tyrone was going to be the bad guy.
Her first scene at the showing with Tyrone was Coreen being introspective about her goth lifestyle the way I wanted her to be in "Bugged." I loved her insight about the art and how it's all "trying too hard, look at me, I'm dark, I'm depressed, I'm gonna cut my ear off."
And Dr. Mohadevan's short scene was fabulous as always, cracking me up with "It's impossible. Isn't it grand?"
Even though I knew immediately that the painting was evil, it was still a spooky episode. Seeing the face come out of the painting made me yelp, and I jumped when Pretentious Git #2 was yanked into the painting.
There was so much going on in this episode that I could probably come up with five different take-home messages. But I think in the end it all comes down to something Vicki said: "Talismans don't kill people. People kill people."