Father Figure (FF, FaFi)

Väterliche Gefühle

Week starting October 11th, 1992

Michael Sadowski

Gary Farmer

Chantellese Kent as Lisa Cooper

The prologue begins when a young girl steals several comics from a magazine stand. As she rounds a corner leading into an alley, she bumps into an older man, causing his briefcase to fly open. As the girl glances back from the safety of several large trash bins, she sees two men jump out of their car and shoot the older man, who was picking his papers up off the street. As the girl moves further into the alley, the killers see her and are forced to flee.

After the opening credits, we see Nick driving up to the crime scene alone. The detective already at the scene walks up to the car and explains to Nick why Schanke isn't around, which leads into a short discussion of fatherhood. Walking over to the scene, they join Natalie as she is finishing up her preliminary of the shooting. Nick hears a heartbeat coming from the back of the alley and moves to investigate. Natalie, noticing Nick's interest for the alley, follows him. Nick moves close to the dumpsters and coaxes the person out. It's the young girl!

As Natalie and the girl are sitting in Nick's car, the two killers use the scope from a gun to obtain the license number of Nick's car. Nick and the detective talk briefly about kids, which triggers the first of several flashbacks for Nick. At the precinct, Stonetree orders Nick to assume protective custody of Lisa while Schanke runs her family down. Nick joins Schanke as he interviews the baby-sitter, Mrs. DeMarco. After obtaining some background information on the girl, Nick officially takes responsibility for Lisa Cooper.

Driving through town, Lisa and Nick start to get acquainted. During the drive, Nick notices a car following them, which turns out to be the hit men. They shoot out the driver's window, wounding Nick in the shoulder. He calls in the incident and takes Lisa to his loft. Walking into the loft, Nick calls Nat, asking her to come over and remove the bullet, and Schanke, to bring the kid some food and any new information on the shooting. Lisa and Nick talk as they wait for Schanke.

Yelling "Pizza Cop", Schanke arrives with Lisa's dinner and snacks for later. Throwing one liners back and forth, Schanke mentions poker to Lisa. Shortly after, Lisa has cleaned him out. Natalie arrives and she and Nick move to the bathroom to take care of his shoulder. Walking into the room, Nick removes his shirt and sits down in front of the mirror. They talk about the treatments, his reflection, and having a kid around. Nick begins to tell Nat about Daniel, a young boy from his past shown in flashbacks.

Later, Nick carries Lisa upstairs and lays her on his bed. After soothing her fears about the hit men, he sits with her until she falls asleep, then goes back downstairs. When Lisa comes downstairs in the morning, she finds him asleep on the couch. Opening the blinds a little, she plays with a mirror, shining a reflected beam on Nick's face. He bolts awake in pain and stumbles around the loft, trying to hide the vampire that has appeared. Rushing into the downstairs bathroom, he yells out "I'm blind!" as Lisa becomes distraught.

Still blind, Nick hears someone trying to break in. Walking toward the kitchen with the vampire still evident, he tells Lisa to be quiet and still. When the gunman blows the lock off the backdoor, Nick flies up to the closest corner and waits for the guy to walk by. Throwing the gunman around, Lisa sees Nick as a vampire. Nick rushes to the second gunman when he drops through a skylight onto the second floor. Nick hypnotizes Lisa into forgetting the vampire, just as Schanke and several policemen storm into the loft.

After Lisa's dad arrives, everyone says their good-byes. They had all come to like Lisa and enjoyed her company. After Nick and Lisa hug good-bye, the Coopers leave and Schanke and Natalie grab up the comics and start reading them.

All the flashbacks are based during World War II, most probably 1941-42. Nick remembers another young child that entered his life while he was still living with Lacroix and Janette. As Daniel grew on them, Nick became worried about Lacroix bringing Daniel over.

I liked this episode. It showed a side of Nick that we don't normally see. A small piece of his dream about mortality was revealed during this episode. Even though he seemed a little nervous with Lisa, he really seemed to enjoy having her around. The flashbacks were interwoven through the story very well. We see how important children are to him when he's ready to defy both Janette and Lacroix over the boy, Daniel. I enjoyed the bathroom scene between Nick and Nat very much. Seeing Nick relaxed around Nat enough that she could give him a shoulder rub was very telling how far their relationship had come, not to mention that he was willing to tell her something from his past. The play between Schanke and Nick was great fun to watch too. The ribbing and joking showed off another facet to their relationship.

FoDs	Schanke gets to play like a kid during this episode. His banter with Nick is light-hearted and fun. He displays his love of one-liners yet again. Not to mention that we finally get a glimpse (however brief) of his home during this episode.
Nick&NatPackers	The scenes between these two show their relationship growing.
Knighties	Nick displays warmth and gentleness with Lisa and his friends.
Dark-Knighties	He's forced to let the vampire out when he's injured. Then when the gunmen invade his home, the vampire deals with the danger.

Natalie:	"In like a sportscar, out like a semi!"
Schanke and Nick:	Schanke: "You don't like kids, Nick?" Nick: "Yeah, ah, yeah, I like...." Schanke: "You're instincts will kick in, don't sweat it. After a few hours with that little angel, you'll probably... get the biological urge to have some of your own. How old are you, anyway?" Nick: "I'm a lot older than I was five minutes ago."
Nick to Nat:	"You know, I have to stop getting shot. Sometime, someone's going to notice for good."
Schanke to cop:	Schanke: "Got any kids?" Cop: "No." Schanke: "Get some. That's an order."

• The scene where Nick and Nat are walking to the bathroom was cut.
• The scene where Nick's rolling up his sleeve was cut.
• The scene where Nick's sitting at the dining room table, filling his bottles with a ladle and strainer.

Available