For I Have Sinned (FIHS)

Der Racheengel

Week starting May 10th, 1992

Philip John Taylor

Gerard Ciccoritti

Maria del Mar as Magda & Michael McManus as Father Rochefort

Three girls are brutally murdered. One is decapitated, one disemboweled and the third is found nailed, crucifixion-style, to the macadam in a parking lot. All are suspiciously low on blood volume. Were they merely killed somewhere else or was a vampire involved? Nick and Schanke go to the Raven so Nick can ask Janette if she's heard anything on this. She tells Nick she knows nothing of anyone of their kind doing anything remotely connected to this. Nick had told Schanke to stay outside, but he comes in anyway and is quite smitten by the beautiful and exotic Alva, a night-time acquaintance of Janette's. Nick drags Schanke out before he makes a very bad mistake.

Nat shows Nick a gold cross on a chain that the third victim had been wearing. All three girls were wearing similar ones. The sight and proximity of the cross makes Nick feel nervous and weak. Later, alone in his loft apartment, Nick holds one of the victims' crosses in the palm of his hand. It hurts, but not excruciatingly so. It leaves a blister but there are no flames and very little smoke. Nick is very encouraged by this visible progress.

At a nearby Catholic church, a man enters the confessional Father Broadford is waiting in to hear confessions. The unseen man confesses that he is doing God's work and purging the church of female defilers. Broadford knows about the murders - he officiated at the funerals for the victims. He knows he has the killer on the other side of the screen from him, but before he can see that man's face, the killer runs off. Broadford goes outside, where other church members are preparing the stage for an Easter pageant. He finds his superior and asks if it is ever morally justified to break the vow of silence of the confessional. "What if it will save lives?" He is told, "No. NEVER."

Meanwhile, Schanke has been dwelling on the lovely Alva and goes back to the Raven to see her again. Alva takes him into the back room and is about to bite his neck when Janette comes in and puts a stop to it. She tells Schanke, "Alva is not the kind of girl you want to get involved with. It could have FATAL consequences." Schanke assumes she meant Alva has AIDS, and he gratefully and quickly flees.

Nick goes to talk to Father Broadford, who tells him that all three victims were members of his church. He also wants to tell Nick that the killer is too, but he struggles with his conscience vs. his vows of faith, chooses keeping his vows and doesn't give up the information he has.

Later, at the office of a phone-sex company, one of the working girls, Magda, who is also a member of Father Broadford's church, gets a frightening and threatening personal call from the killer. Very shaken, she leaves work early but the killer is waiting in the hall for her. Nick is driving by and hears her screams and rushes in and saves her, but the killer has a gun and shoots Nick. He sends Magda off on the pretext of calling 911 and when she is out of sight, and can't see Nick isn't really hurt, he chases after the killer. But the running man he catches in the alley outside is Father Broadford!

Back at headquarters, the Father explains that he knew about Magda's job and guessed she was the next target and he was only there to protect her. Nick knows he has information on the killer but Broadford invokes the confidentiality of the confessional and refuses to divulge anything. Magda offers herself as bait to catch the killer but Nick refuses to do this and sets her up in a hotel room with a police guard.

Nat and Nick go to the loft and Nick shows her a crudely handmade wooden cross that once belonged to Joan of Arc. He tells Nat what he learned from Joan about faith. She asks him why vampires are afraid of crosses and he tells her it is because the cross is the symbol of the one true light and vampires are creatures of the dark.

At dawn, in front of the church, Schanke calls Myra just to say he loves her. He is feeling very guilty about his attempt to cheat on her. Nick says he'll stake out the inside of the church and Schanke can watch the outside. Nick is uncomfortable inside. He has to avoid the light coming in through the stained glass windows and even more critical, the light streaming in every time a worshipper opens the big doors to enter! He finds the secluded and darkened confessional to be an ideal place to spend the day. While he is hidden in the priest's side, a woman parishioner comes in to confess. Nick pretends to snore and the woman giggles and says "That's OK father! You just rest. Why don't I give myself 20 Hail Mary's?" He grunts and she happily leaves.

The day passes with Schanke chain-smoking outside, thinking about what a terrible thing he almost did to Myra. He goes inside, enters the confessional, and not knowing Nick is in the Priest's side, begins to confess his lust for Alva. Nick pretends to be an Irish priest and answers Schanke but soon takes pity on his poor partner and says things to clue in Schanke that it's him in there!

Later that night, Magda gives the slip to her police protection by going out the bathroom fire escape. She goes to the church. Schanke sees her go in but before he can relay this information he is knocked unconscious by an unseen assailant. Magda sits in a pew to pray and the killer sits down next to her. Chaos ensues... Nick finds her outside tied to the big wooden cross on the Easter Pageant stage, surrounded by a pile of fire wood, the killer is holding a torch and is just about to light it all. Nick fights with the killer and the stage gets set on fire. Scenes flash back and forth rapidly between Magda and Joan of Arc, both in the same predicament. Nick knocks out the killer and flies across the fire and saves Magda. As they cringe on the ground together, she asks him how he DID that? Nick tells her, "A little adrenaline and a lot of faith."

Back at headquarters, Magda tells Nick she feels sorry for the killer. When asked why she would feel bad for such an evil person, Magda answers, "She who forgives little, loves little." Despite her line of work she still believes in the teachings of the church. Nat hands Nick one of the victim's small gold crosses and he holds it with a lot more success than he had only a few days ago.

1430 France in a church... Nick meets Joan of Arc. She has successfully lead the French army to victory but she knows her time is short. God had told her to dress as a boy and lead the army, but because she admits to speaking personally with God, the church is looking to get rid of her. She knows about vampires and knows Nick is one but she is not afraid of him. Nick is very tempted to bite her but he stops himself. She is under God's protection and he reluctantly accepts this. After she leaves, Nick tries to touch the cross at the alter. His hand bursts into flames.

One year later, 1431, in another French church... Nick and Joan meet again. She has now been declared a heretic by the Church and knows she is about to die by burning at the stake. Nick offers to bring her across but she refuses. She knows she is in God's hands and is not afraid to die. She explains to Nick what real faith is. She leaves, and Nick, knowing exactly what she was talking about, kneels before the cross at the alter.

The last we see of Joan and Nick together is in rapid flashes, back and forth from her to Magda, both tied to burning crosses, 560-odd years apart. As much as he wants to, Nick can't save Joan. She never wanted or needed to be saved. Nick has to watch in horror as she dies but he understands what Joan is doing and he admires and respects her reasons why.

"The Maid of Orleans", Joan of Arc, was born in 1412 in the village of Domremey in France. She was always deeply religious and had a strong belief in God. When she was 13, she heard the voices of several saints talking to her. At 16, the English attacked France and God told her she was to lead the French army to victory against England. She dressed as a man and passed herself off as a man to gain the confidence of the troops who would never, at this time in history, have followed a woman, let alone a teenage girl. She succeeded for a year and was winning all her battles when the French government stopped financially backing her. In 1430, after several losses, she was captured by dispatriot Frenchmen and sold to the English. At this point, France was now badly losing the war.

To destroy her in the eyes of the patriotic French who considered her already as a saint, the English allowed her to be tried in a now English-friendly French court under charges of sorcery, for dressing and acting as a man, and for claiming she was getting direct orders from God, rather than from the leaders of the Church. The French found her guilty and gave her a life sentence in jail, but the English of the time saw her as the big threat history has proven she really was and retried her in an English court as a witch, citing that even in jail she refused to denounce her communication with God and refused to dress as a woman. The English shortly after, in 1431, burned her at the stake as a heretic. Supporters of Joan, backed by public opinion against her unfair execution, got her declared "officially" innocent in 1456... she was formally made a saint by the church in 1920. Her faith in God never wavered.

At the time Nick met Joan of Arc, he was not yet determined or committed in his goal to redeem himself. At his first encounter with her, he looked upon her as an enemy and just more food. But she was a huge influence on him in his decision to overcome his vampire nature and be admitted once again into the light. His few conversations with her made a dramatic impression on him as to how much better it was to be mortal and die, even if you DID die a terrible death. She showed Nick the advantages in knowing you were God's creation and were going to an eternal, loving light, rather than to an eternal evil darkness.

Nick saw Joan's way as a much better deal. He saw proof of what Joan had told him in Magda and Schanke. They both were mortal humans doomed to fail and fall once in a while, but he saw further proof in them, beyond what Joan already showed him, of how most mortals have faith in the love and forgiveness of God. Most mortals know they can redeem themselves of the terrible things they've done, with both God and their fellow humans... a task that Nick is finding to be a lot harder for himself to accomplish than for the rest of us ordinary mortal people out here, only because we have never chosen to give up our right to access of the light. Many of us mortals often ignore the fact that the opportunity is there, that we can always make up for our sins. We haven't burned our bridges yet, like Nick did when he was brought across and finally embraced the vampire life.

FoDs	Schanke succumbs to the temptations most long-married people feel but, with help, stops himself in time.
Knighties	Nick's repeated and more and more successful attempts to hold a cross in his hand, as a gauge to his progress in atoning for his evil past, are wonderful to see.
Dark Knighties	Nick is initially very contemptuous of Joan of Arc's faith and it is only her faith that saves her from becoming his dinner.
Immortal Beloveds	Janette is uncharacteristically patient and kind when she saves Schanke from the clutches of Alva. She is obviously annoyed at the inconvenience but her love for Nick is evident here. She doesn't HAVE to rescue Schanke, but she does because she knows Nick cares a lot about him.

Schanke to Nick:	(regarding Alva) "What are ya DOING? I was just about to SCORE!"
Joan of Arc to Nick:	"You who choose to live forever, live in constant fear of death."
Nick:	(holding a small gold cross) "The garlic pills are definitely an improvement!"
Nick to Schanke:	"When a man sends his wife flowers for no reason, there's usually a reason."

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