Near Death (ND)

Man stirbt nur zweimal

Week starting July 2nd, 1995

Phil Bedard & Larry Lalonde

Nicholas J. Gray

Julie Stewart as Dr. Dianna Linsman

The episode starts with a man running in a field. He looks behind him, like if he was being chased. Then he falls, dead. When Natalie, Nick and Schanke are together after the body is found, Nat tells Nick and Schanke that she will have to wait for the toxicology test results to see what could have caused his death, since there was no apparent cause of death on the body of Dr. Julian Welner.

Back at the precinct, Schanke tells Nick that it's Mira's birthday and that birthdays make him think that he is another year closer to the end. He's talking like if he is afraid of death and has questions about death at the same time. While they're talking, Captain Cohen interrupts to tell them that Natalie is requesting their presence at the morgue.

Natalie tells Nick and Schanke that the toxicology test results came back clean. What she can tell is that the victim's brain stopped functioning and that the only thing that can do that to a person is death. She also tells them that she knows he didn't die where they found him because there was no trace of dirt on his shoes. She thinks that he died indoors and somebody moved his body. Having heard Nat's analysis, they decide to go where Julian Welner was working, at the McCallum Neurological Institute, to investigate his death. The place being a neurological institute, Nick and Schanke decide to bring Nat along so that she can translate all the scientific words.

At the institute, they discover the Cortecoptimography Apparatus, a device that's supposed to measure synaptic transmissions. But, as Nick finds out after he decides to go see Dr. Linsman at the institute later, the Cortecoptimography Apparatus does a lot more than measure, it controls. It functions as a Synaptic Field Damper, a device that deliberately induces brain death without harming the body. The device actually brings people between life and death and, if they have a disease that they can't be cured of, they might be able to fight it and come back to life cured. That's how Julian Welner died. He wanted to be cured of his cancer, tried the device and died.

After Nick finds out about the device, he figures he could try it to see if it would put him in the situation he had been 800 years ago when he decided to become a vampire. He thinks that if the device works, he might be able to choose to die as a mortal, this time. He finally decides to tell all about it to Natalie, but she doesn't agree with him. She doesn't want Nick to use the device and wants him to stop those experiments.

Nick decides to go against Natalie's advice and tries the device. He calls Dr. Linsman who already offered him to try the Cortecoptimography Apparatus and tells her to bring the equipment at his place so he can try it. She brings it to Nick's loft and hooks Nick to it. Then, she tells him how happy she is that he has accepted to try the device and explains what he's going to feel. Not long after she turns the power on, the device starts malfunctioning and stops. There's nothing she can do other than try to explain to a dead Nick that she didn't want to kill anybody and that she wants to keep experimenting with the Cortecoptimography Apparatus because she still thinks it's a good device.

Meanwhile, Nat and Schanke are at the institute where another murder has just been committed. Dr. Alex Nystrom, Dr. Linsman's superior, had found out about what she was doing and had decided to stop those experiments. Since she didn't want them to stop, she killed Dr. Nystrom.

Natalie finds out that the Synaptic Field Damper is gone and guesses that Dr. Linsman and her device might be at Nick's place. She and Schanke rush there to find Nick dead. He had asked Dr. Linsman to try the device and had found out that he couldn't choose to die as a mortal right now, that he had to wait until they decided to call him. He couldn't ask for forgiveness. Dying now, for him, would mean that his soul would be damned, so he has to go back among the living and earn his forgiveness. Being dead already, he needs someone's help to bring him back among the living.

Fortunately, Natalie asks how the device works and after knowing how, realizes that Nick can be saved if she gives him little doses of rat poison. She does it with the rat poison that Nick keeps under his sink and brings him back to "life", so he can finish his task on earth and try to save his soul.

1. The first flashback in this episode was Dr. Linsman's flashback about what she saw when she was under the Cortecoptimography Apparatus. In this flashback, she was walking in a field and saw Julian Welner grabbing her foot, like he was trying to get out of the mud he was in. She was trapped there and couldn't make him let her go. When she "awakens", she starts wondering if it's her and her team who killed him.
2. While talking to Dr. Linsman, Nick had a flashback of when Lacroix offered him to bring him across. He was with Lacroix and Janette. He also had a flashback of when Lacroix bit him. (Paris, 1228)
3. At the Raven, Janette also had a flashback of when Lacroix was biting her and of when she was between life and death right after that.
4. While talking to Natalie and telling her about the device, Nick had a flashback of when he was between life and death the day Lacroix brought him across. Janette was there too. He saw the light and had to choose between stepping into it or going back to Lacroix. Lacroix bit himself and gave his blood to Nick to revive him. Nick chose to rebirth through Lacroix and live as a vampire. (Paris, 1228)
5. What Nick saw when he was hooked to the Cortecoptimography Apparatus at the end of the episode was kind of like a flashback. He was between life and death and couldn't make the choice of stepping into the light instead of coming back as a vampire because his soul would have been damned. The Guide that he saw 800 years ago was now seen by Nick as Lacroix and was telling him that he had to wait until they decided to call him.

There was no monologue on CERK in this episode.

This is a very good episode. It shows how much Nick wants to be human again and what he is ready to do to reach his goal. At the same time, it shows why Nick can't have his humanity back right now. If you want to know what happened between the moment Lacroix bit Nick and the moment Nick was revived as a vampire, this is the perfect episode.

This episode shows a lot about when Nick was brought across by Lacroix. It shows what happened to Nick right after Lacroix bit him and that he could have made the decision of dying as a mortal, but that instead he chose to rebirth through Lacroix. Nick made that choice because Lacroix had promised him a thousand lifetimes and because the Guide in the light wasn't telling what she had to offer. I didn't know that when a vampire bites someone, that person has the choice of dying as a mortal or becoming a vampire.

I really like the fact that, for once, Natalie was with Nick and Schanke to investigate the murder. That doesn't happen often and it gave us the chance of seeing her more. This episode showed a lot more of Nat and Schanke than Janette and Lacroix. I personally think that this is good because it's normally the opposite. This episode also shows Nigel Bennett in a different character (the Guide) and that is worth seeing.

1. N&Npackers: take a look at the end of the episode when Nat brings Nick back to "life".
2. Natpackers: we see Nat a lot because she has to go with Nick and Schanke.
3. Knighties: they show a lot of what happened to Nick the day he was brought across.
4. FoD: Schanke was present a lot. He was wondering about death and that made him funny during the whole episode.

Natalie:	"All right he just dropped dead, are you happy?"
Schanke:	"How can you experience death if there's no more of you to experience it?"
Nick:	"I don't know, I've never died before."
Schanke & Joey Becker:	- Schanke: "You don't do this on people do you?" - Joey Becker: "Unfortunately, that would be considered unethical." - Schanke: "That is unfortunate."
Schanke:	(talking about the Cortecoptimography) "But can it make coffee?"
Janette:	"If you call death a choice"
Natalie:	"Come on, you know what I believe. Is there an after life? Yes. Can you just knock, walk in and visit anytime you like? I don't think so."
Natalie:	"Come back to me Nick. Don't you dare leave me."
Nat & Nick:	- Nat: "So, did you learn anything while you were dying on me?" - Nick: "Yeah, I learned that I have to live with the choice I made 800 years ago, and that forgiveness is not something you ask for, it's something that you earn here, among the living."

I heard a blooper where, for the last line of the episode, Geraint said: "Yeah, I learned that I have to live with the choice I made 800 years ago and that...... I have a drinking problem!" Then both he and Catherine Disher burst into laughs.

Not available