Fangs For The Fantasy

In an interesting beginning, Vicki and Henry are discussing the pros and cons of vampirism – the power it gives, the amazing senses; things Vicki would love to experience. But it comes with costs – sunlight, loss of friends and family and, of course, loss of Henry since vampire territorial nature prevents them from coexisting in the same city.

And the case of the week a woman, a cat burglar, robs a man’s house. The man is clearly a hunter with a like of taxidermy given the many many heads stuffed on the walls – including head of a black panther of some kind which attracts her attention. But not nearly so much as him coming home, grabbing a gun – then being mauled to death by, what sounds like, a big cat. She fills her bags and then leaves. The dots seem pretty clear so far.

Since Melville, the dead man, was a friend of the mayor’s there’s rather a lot of pressure for the police to solve this case – in particular there is a lot of pressure on Celluci put there by Crowley, his boss (and she who dislikes Vicki because, of course, a strong female character must be universally hated by at least 75% of all other women in the world, and 100% of other strong female characters). And they have a suspect – Felicia, the thief, who was seen in the area at the time of death and ran from police. The problem is that Melville was mauled by claws, consistent with a big cat and it’s unlikely Felicia would have been able to rip off his head and place it on the table (nice touch, I have to say). Celluci excellently points out how concerned his boss is because the victim was prominent – it’s all about placating the press, not justice.

Of course, a lot of this is undermined when Celluci declares to the doubting Kate that he knows Felicia is guilty (that would be those magical gut reactions).  Time for some questioning of Felicia and her story is not so much full of holes as one big hole. During Celluci’s menacing little interrogation (where are the lawyers?) Felicia’s eyes glow.

Celluci, of course, knows who to call with spooky stuff – Vicki and Henry. Except he’s been playing awkward sceptic for the last season so both of them get to poke and needle him about him finally asking them for help – which is truly glorious to watch. Oh yes yes it is.

Celluci and Kate’s questioning doesn’t get much further except Felicia has pulled out some extra levels of creepy – and dropped hints about how very wrong and inhuman it is to take someone’s head. Lots of verbal back and forth, including references to keeping a big cat as a pet – which brings a tear to Felicia’s eye – but no clues from her.

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