Baby, Baby (B,B or BB)

Vollmond

Week starting July 9th, 1995

Morrie Ruvinsky

Geraint Wyn Davies

Denise Virieux as Serena & Page Fletcher as Calvin Trilling

The episode opens at an off-line plant construction site, centering on the food wagon. We hear a scream and a thud as startled workers react to an off-camera accident. We cut to Nick and Schanke arriving at the scene. Schanke identifies the deceased as Stan Erickson, a steelworker, and explains that it could be a suicide, but witnesses claim Erickson's last words were "I was pushed."

As Schanke expounds on the horrors of falling to one's doom, Nick reaches into the dead man's hand, wrinkling his nose in distaste as he lifts a cross by its broken chain. As the cross dangles in front of the camera, the focus shifts to an exotic brunette dressed out in full welder's gear. Seeing Nick, she leaves quickly.

Schanke explains that the deceased had a disagreement with co-worker Calvin Trilling; Trilling insists he was with his girlfriend, Serena. As usual, Schanke turns around to find that he's talking to thin air again - Nick has disappeared.

We cut to some exceptional footage of Nick's vampiric pursuit of Serena around corners and down an alley. He finally catches up with her - and she isn't happy to see him.

At the Precinct, Nick questions Calvin Trilling. Trilling admits that the cross is his, but says he lost it last week. We cut to Schanke questioning Serena in another room, as Nick and Cohen watch the interview from behind the one-way glass. As Cohen leaves, Nat arrives. Nick finally admits that he knows the woman. When Nat asks him who she really is, he replies, "A Mistake."

Nick flashes back to a Paris café, sometimes in the 1920's, where Serena, hair slicked back and dressed in men's clothing, shares a table with a couple. The wife is very pregnant, and invites her to feel the baby kick. Serena is enchanted by this "miracle." She leaves the table to get another drink from the bar. As Emil, the bartender, pours her drink, Nick {looking quite chic in a red scarf} enters. He orders his usual from Emil, and learns that Serena has already claimed his tab.

Back in the present, Nick intercepts Serena as she and Trilling are leaving the Precinct. In frustration, Nick grabs Serena's arm; she shakes him off, leaving him flustered and embarrassed.

Cut to the Nightcrawler discussing whether emotional pain is the worst pain of all. Nick is sitting in his Caddy, parked at the construction site. As he drinks up Lacroix's words, his thoughts slip back to sitting alone at a small table in the same Paris café, as Serena slips in beside him, singing "Me and My Baby" (a piece written by GWD). She tells Nick he is her "perfect" man. Their kiss dissolves into the kiss of another couple at the Raven.

We move past the kissing couple in the Raven, through the chains, to see Nick and Janette discussing Serena. Janette moves left, disappearing behind Nick, and we cut back to the Paris café as Serena steps out from behind Nick, completing the motion begun by Janette. She asks Nick to give her eternity.

Back at the Precinct, Schanke tells Natalie that he understands what Nick is going through. He explains his sixth grade crush on Julie Dershowitz, and its humiliating outcome. While commiserating with Schanke, Natalie checks the computer and finds that Trilling was part of a prison study group - he has the extra "Y" chromosome. Cohen authorizes a chromosome work-up.

At the construction site. Nick is stalking Trilling, spying on him and Serena. Watching them kiss, his mind wanders back to his past lovemaking with Serena. Consumed with jealousy, he goes back to the loft, where he slugs down a bottle of cow blood as he remembers bringing Serena across. Desperate now, Nick asks Lacroix for help. Lacroix recalls that Serena had wanted Nick to give her a baby, not bring her across. They discuss whether that's still what she wants. Reluctantly, Lacroix explains the legend that claims a vampire female can mate with a "special" mortal man, under certain conditions.

Nick goes to see Natalie in the morgue, and is frustrated that she can't shed any light on this old "vampire wives' tale" of sex and mortality. Schanke arrives as Nat gets the lab results: the chromosome work-up implicates Trilling.

Nick and Schanke arrest Trilling (after a scuffle in which Schanke is punched) at the construction site - and Serena is mightily displeased. She visits Nick at the loft later to play the "angst" card. According to the legend, if she becomes pregnant, she will become mortal.

Serena goes to the Precinct and hypnotizes the guard to release Trilling. She plans to take Trilling to a place "higher than high," as per the legend, to consummate their relationship during the full moon.

Meanwhile, Schanke visits Holding to find Trilling gone, and the officer on duty thoroughly whammied. Nick slips away to find Serena and Trilling. His first stop is at CERK, to wheedle more information about the legend out of Lacroix. Finally, and with great distaste, Lacroix recites as much of the "bad Celtic poem" as he can remember. When Nick presses him for a location, he replies, "Legends don't give zip codes." Lacroix urges Nick to leave Serena alone - to give her what she wants - but isn't surprised when Nick ignores his advice.

Communicating via phone, Nick searches one location after another, as Schanke examines Serena's apartment for some hint of where she may have taken Trilling. Schanke finally finds the info Nick needs - on a postcard stuck on Serena's fridge.

At the top of the "World's Tallest Freestanding Tower," Serena and Trilling are heating up. Nick appears, nearly spoiling the mood, until Serena again plays on Nick's never-ending guilt - reminding him that she is trapped in this undead existence only because of him - and begging him to let her have this one chance to become mortal.

Predictably, Nick acquiesces. His behavior, however, is inexplicable: instead of leaving, he simply turns his back on the lovebirds while standing just a few feet away. (Ewwwww...) As Serena coaxes Trilling back into the moment, Nick stoically stands his ground, wearing the agonized expression of a conflicted voyeur. Hormones prevail, and Serena and Trilling immediately proceed as if there's no tomorrow. For Trilling, there isn't. Serena survives the encounter, weeping copious blood tears as she realizes that it was only a legend. There is no mortality for her, no baby. And there is no love lost for Nick. She rebukes his offer of help, preferring to clean up her own mess and her own life, as far away from him as possible.

Minutes later, a defeated-looking Nick meets Schanke at the gate to the tower, telling him that, "if Serena and Trilling were ever there, they're gone now."

Epilogue:
Afterward, at the Precinct, Schanke visits with Cohen. Frustrated when Schanke stumbles over her questions, Cohen finally tells him to go home and get some rest. We cut to Nick at the loft, dwelling on Serena, and ending with a memory of her raising her glass to him in salute.

All flashbacks in this episode center in Paris, sometime in the 1920's, and focus on Nick's meeting and subsequent romantic entanglement (and ultimate communication disaster) with the notoriously independent, unconventional beauty, Serena. There is substantial intercutting between flashback and real-time action, a technique which serves to advance the story while simultaneously providing background information.

Geraint Wyn Davies does a commendable job directing an episode fraught with problems, including high winds on the tower, cast members with height phobias, technical difficulties, a disjointed script, and brutal editing for time constraints. With his fluid and imaginative segues, he manages to form a cohesive base to the story. Several of the photographic sequences are exceptional - GWD uses every technique at his disposable to make this episode work - and to make it memorable. He succeeds. It's a "different" script rhythm than most Forever Knight episodes - but it works. The images remain long after the episode is finished.

Lots of Nick (is there EVER enough?), not enough Schanke, and ironic seasoning from Lacroix, balanced by a little bit of Natalie, a littler bit of Janette, and a dash of Cohen.

Lacroix:	"Whatever did you see in her, Nicholas? The cut of her suit?"
Schanke to Natalie:	"This is a classic Julie Dershowitz if I ever saw one."
Lacroix & Nick:	Lacroix: "As I recall, what Serena wanted then was a baby." Nick: "She said she wanted eternity." Lacroix: "Ah, tripped by metaphor once again."

Lacroix's monologue discusses the pain and risk inherent in love. In keeping with this theme, he asks whether "emotional pain isn't the deepest pain of all?" As Nick sits in the Caddy at the construction site, Lacroix whispers, "The most painful things in the world are those mistakes of the heart."

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