Dark Knight - The Second Chapter (DK2)

Schwarze Sonne

Week starting May 3rd, 1992

James D. Parriott & Barney Cohen

Allan Kroeker

Christine Reeves as Dr. Alyce Hunter

Dr. Hunter follows Nick to a meat butchering and packing plant, where he meets Lacroix again after many years. Lacroix knows Nick has one of the pair of Mayan ceremonial cups and admits he stole the 2^nd cup from the museum to keep it from Nick and that he did kill the guard, but that he had nothing to do with the murders of the homeless people. He baits and taunts Nick until Nick gets angry enough to show his 'vampire face', which the hidden Dr. Hunter sees. Her surprised gasp gives away her presence. Lacroix grabs her, holds out the cup and makes Nick choose between "the girl or the cup". Lacroix smashes the cup. As Dr. Hunter flees, Nick and Lacroix fight. Nick 'stakes' him on the spike of a metal meat-hanging frame and believes him to be dead. It is now morning and Nick has to brave the sun to get into the trunk of the Caddy.

Because Nick has been out of touch so long, Stonetree puts out an APB on him. The Caddy is found and Schanke drives it to the blood bank where he parks it in their underground garage. When he walks off, Nick climbs out. While Schanke is getting no answers from the staff there, only "Donor confidentiality", Nick, his presence unbeknownst to Schanke, sneaks onto their computer and learns that all the homeless victims were blood donors. He calls Nat and tells her, then gets back in the trunk. One of the workers there knows about old cars and asks Schanke about the car keys he's holding and Schanke tells him they are for a '62 Caddy, ragtop, classic. "It has more trunk space than any car made in the last 30 years." (Now we know why Nick chose it! Comfort in times of emergency sun-escapes!) Schanke drives off to get a warrant for the info the blood bank wouldn't give him, not knowing that someone has cut the brake line. He has polka music blasting on the stereo and Nick is cringing in the trunk from the noise. Suddenly, the brakes fail.

A short while later, at the police garage, the Caddy is up on a lift, scratched and dented on all 4 sides. Nick shows up from nowhere and Schanke is frantic, trying to explain what happened. Nick had already figured out what happened and lets Schanke off fairly easy and updates him on the case. They head off for another visit to the blood bank.

Dr. Hunter, who had been repeatedly trying to reach Nick at headquarters and failing to find him there, goes to the loft. Since she knows the alarm code from the Mayan panel Nick read the first time they met, she goes in. She finds the other cup, the one Nick excavated himself on the first dig at the site. A few minutes later, she also finds one of Nick's young homeless friends, all bloody, in the elevator.

Back at the blood bank, a very hungry Nick sees a whole cart of human blood and gets faint. He controls himself and asks about any employees who have both access to the donor records and who also carry a bunch of jangling keys. (While in the trunk, he'd heard the person who cut the brake line, 'jingling'.) There was one employee who fit that description, Don Fenner, whose mother had died recently from hepatitis she contracted during a blood transfusion during surgery, and yes, she was type-O. It becomes clear that Fenner assumed the hepatitis came from one of the homeless donors, so to avenge his mother he is killing ALL type-O homeless, to hopefully get the right one.

Meanwhile, back at the loft, Dr. Hunter has called the paramedics for the bleeding girl. Nick calls home to retrieve his messages and she answers the phone. He is surprised to find her there but as she explains about the girl, the buzzer rings. She lays the phone down to let the paramedics in, but it isn't them. It's Fenner, after the type-0 girl! He knocks Dr. Hunter out and a fire starts while he is fighting with the girl, trying to kill her.

Nick flies over to save the ladies, restrains himself from biting Fenner, sends the girl away to safety and leaps the fire to reach the injured Dr. Hunter. Lacroix suddenly appears and kills Fenner by draining his blood. He tells Nick, "Steel spikes can't kill a vampire." Nick is weak from not feeding and can't fight Lacroix. Dr. Hunter offers herself as food, providing Nick then brings her across. As a scientist, she welcomes the chance to live forever, to see how science progresses and to be a part of it. Nick says no and fights Lacroix anyway. He's so weak from hunger he doesn't stand a chance, but Lacroix just can't bring himself to kill his now unconscious 'son'. He grabs Dr. Hunter and drains her blood. Nick comes to and sees what Lacroix has done. Summoning his last strength, he shoves a burning wooden stake into Lacroix, who appears to burn up and die, again. Nick holds the dying Dr. Hunter.

Later, talking to Nat in the museum, Nick believes both Dr. Hunter and Lacroix to be dead. He also mentions that there may be another Mayan cup somewhere in the world and that he is not giving up hope for this cure. Nat tells Nick how she arrived at the loft, saw he was wounded and starving and told Schanke he needed a "blood transfusion" right away. Schanke, coming in from another room, tells Nick how he donated a pint on the scene. As all three leave the museum, we see a vampire Dr. Hunter gazing in at them from the skylight. While Nick was knocked out, Lacroix apparently honored her proposed deal to trade her blood for immortality.

There are very few flashbacks in this episode and those shown are short... After only being a vampire for a very short time, Nick realizes he made a mistake and asks to go back. Lacroix and Janette bring him a girl to feed on and lecture him on the glories of being a vampire until, as he listens to them, his hunger gets the better of him and he feeds and enjoys it.

We have our first insight to the relationship between Nick and his maker, Lacroix... we learn more about Schanke's personality, and Nick's as well, in seeing how tolerant, understanding and affectionately he feels towards his bumbling partner... In this first 2-part episode of the series, we can see that Nick was, is and will always be a compassionate person, whether or not he ever regains a mortal status.

FoDs	More comic relief from Schanke among the otherwise very serious and sad situations.
Knighties	Nick refuses to bring Dr. Hunter across at her own request, to save himself, even when she explains her logical and thought-out reasons for wanting it. He understands the value of mortality too well and knows she doesn't really know what she is asking for.

Schanke to the mechanic:	(on wrecking the Caddy) "Man oh man... he's gonna kill me... worse yet, he's gonna make me PAY for it!"
Schanke to Nick:	(after the "transfusion") "Do you realize you've got a pint of Grade A Schanke running through you? Now you won't be able to walk past a souvlaki stand without getting the urge!"

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