Black Buddha I (BB, BB1)

(Not aired yet)

Week starting September 13th, 1995

James D. Parriott

Geraint Wyn Davies

Tamara Gorski as Claire Gibson & Stuart Hughes as Vudu

The episode begins with shots of a man and a woman making love juxtaposed with shots of the man preparing a bomb concealed in a music box. He wraps the box as a gift and later gives it to his lover who is an airline pilot. He tells her not to open the gift until she is airborne.

Just before it's time to get ready for work, Nick wakes from a dream of a past adventure on board a famous ship that had a very unhappy fate. After joking with Schanke on the telephone, and a brief visit with Natalie at the lab to discuss his "condition," Nick goes to the precinct to report to his temporary captain Joe Reese. Schanke and Cohen are escorting a bombing suspect to another jurisdiction. Reese assigns a reluctant Nick to a rookie detective while Schanke is away. The rookie is Tracy Vetter, daughter of the police commissioner.

Nick and Tracy go for a cruise in the Caddy and get acquainted with each other. It's a fine evening so they ride with the top down, and unknowingly drive right past the mad bomber who is waiting at the side of the road with his remote control at the ready, waiting for the right moment to activate the bomb he made. The bomb detonates when his lover, the copilot of an airplane, switches her music box off. Tracy and Nick see the fireball explode in the sky and the plane go down.

Nick and Tracy arrive on the scene and frantically search for victims. Nick tosses a piece of fuselage aside and finds a tiny baby - the only survivor. Nick also finds a piece of paper (plane ticket) that he recognizes as belonging to Schanke. After a break, we return to the scene of the plane crash, which has now attracted onlookers as well as police and the coroner's office. Natalie comforts poor Nick who is devastated over the loss of Schanke - he thinks it's his fault for not being on the plane instead of Schanke.

Nick leaves to pay his respects to Schanke's family, and spaces out to his former adventures aboard ship, leaving Tracy to ride back to the precinct with Reese. On the way to Reese's car, Tracy sees one of the dead bodies blink its eyes. This is Vachon. Reese observes that Vachon is "stone cold," but as Tracy and Reese walk away, Vachon blinks again and then runs away from the scene. From the corner of her eye, Tracy sees him leave.

The next night Nick reports back to work to find the police off the case and Reese more permanently installed in Cohen's office - her stuff is in a box. Reese tells a teary-eyed Nick to take a few days off. Instead of going home Nick visits the makeshift morgue. Tracy is already there. They speak with Natalie and then leave. On their way out Tracy hangs behind Nick and Natalie and discovers Vachon looking for missing body parts. At the sight of him, Tracy faints.

Meantime, Natalie tells Nick the cause of the plane crash was a bomb. Natalie is a bit upset herself after examining all the carnage, and she and Nick comfort each other in the hallway. Then they return to Nick's apartment where he shows Natalie a jewel-studded but magically cursed little statue called the "Black Buddha." By a process of convoluted reasoning, Nick has convinced himself that the "Black Buddha" caused the plane crash. Rational scientist that she is, Natalie rejects this idea. Disgusted with Nick's superstitions, Natalie lets him have it and stomps away.

Tracy and Vachon get better acquainted driving to her place in her car. At Tracy's apartment, Vachon has a shower and kisses Tracy, but has to leave hastily when the vampire threatens to come out. Desperately in need of someone who will listen to him, Nick goes to the Raven looking for Janette, but finds Lacroix in her place as the new owner of the Raven. Jeanette has left town suddenly without saying goodbye to Nick, who now is very sad and confused indeed.

Nick returns to the precinct to listen to a tape of the cockpit voice recorder. His extra-sharp hearing allows him to hear the sound of the music box. The problem is that no one else can hear it. Reese, now permanently assigned as captain of the 96^th precinct, gets impatient and orders Nick to stop wasting time on that. Next Nick starts to clear out Schanke's desk and comes across the "Partners of the Month" plaque. Well, now he's had all he can take. He decides to resign the PD and leave town.

Natalie catches up with Nick again, finding him in his apartment drowning his sorrows with a bottle of the red stuff and a mournful tune on the piano. Very disappointed in our troubled hero, she gives him another good scolding, calls him a quitter, and then walks out on him again. Poor Nick looks just about ready to cry - sniff!

After Natalie leaves, Nick gets a call from Reese who has a question about one of the plane crash victims. While they chat, Reese opens a gift-box of chocolate candies and prepares to have a piece. As he does, music is heard. Nick recognizes the tune as the same as the one on the music box, and deduces that the candy hides a bomb. He tells Reese not to move and call in the bomb squad. Nick flies over to the precinct. Everyone is being evacuated. Nick takes Reese's place at the candy box, and detonating it, he saves the whole precinct from disaster and emerges totally unscathed-of course!

Meantime Tracy has tracked down the address of one of the missing persons from the plane crash. It is an old church, and there she meets with Vachon again, as he rescues her from the clutches of another young vampire. We learn that like Natalie, Tracy is a resistor and Vachon cannot make her forget.

At the epilogue Nick and Natalie are together in his apartment, discussing the Black Buddah, and enjoying the happy news that the baby who survived the plane crash was reunited with her father. But the bomber is still on the loose, and the case won't be solved until the next episode, "Black Buddah II."

It was not a surprise to learn that Nick was a passenger on the Titanic, but it was disappointing that Lacroix wasn't with him. Oh well, it was entertaining enough to see how Nick was charmed into accepting ownership of the "Black Buddah," in return for giving a masterful young lady a chance at immortality.

In his monologue, Lacroix discusses dealing with the death of a loved one, and how those who live forever most keenly feel the weight of this burden.

The first of a two-part season opener, this episode introduced a few new Forever Knight characters, disposed of a few old ones, and set the general tone for the third and last season of Forever Knight. That was quite a lot to accomplish in one hour of television. Was it a success? I'd say generally yes. An airplane blown up in mid-air by a psychopathic serial bomber was a handy way to dispose of Schanke and Cohen without having to show either character. This also provided an interesting and suspenseful case for the police to work on even though having Schanke and Cohen seem to be following a continuing case may have been an unnecessary and somewhat confusing contrivance. (As new viewer during the third season, I assumed this episode left off where a pervious episode had ended. Fans who saw earlier seasons may have wondered if they had missed an episode somehow.) Typical of the third season, this episode focused more on police work and less on characters and relationships, as compared to episodes from previous seasons. The addition of a more youthful element to the cast -- the fresh, bouncy and very perky Tracy; and Vachon, a scruffy, somewhat irresponsible young fellow with a certain wide-eyed charm -- introduced a youthful element to the cast, which is generally appealing as only youth can be. The (slightly) new Nick of the beginning of the third season is less quaintly dressed than before, and sports a short haircut, which makes him look older and more mature. Indeed, for the first time there is even a faintly paternalistic aspect to Nick's character, as he shows Tracy the ropes. Feeling guilty and angst-ridden over the death of his friends is familiar and perfectly in character; as is the irrational but firm belief Nick has in the power and curse of the Black Buddha. But Nick deciding to leave his friends and job as a detective, is not consistent with the Nick of previous seasons. At the start of season two, Nick was concerned he might be forced to leave his friends before he was ready. Now he can't take the guilt and angst? In previous seasons he seemed to revel in it. A good scolding from the long-suffering Natalie was long overdue, and was probably much enjoyed by some old fans. The manner of disposing of Janette was very unsatisfying. The only positive consequence of losing Janette was that Lacroix became more prominent, seeming to incorporate part of her role as a disapproving but concerned friend and confidant. Of course, that is way out of the original character of Lacroix -- but only older fans would notice that. Altogether, this is a decent, fast-paced episode, with a plot that holds together, plenty of action, and several gorgeous flashback sequences.

Natalie looks very good in this episode (check out that very nice pink suit), and she gets to speak her mind for once, which her fans should appreciate. Fans of the new third season characters Tracy and Vachon will like his episode, which focuses indirectly on them both. But this must be a very sad episode for fans of Schanke, Cohen and Janette, who (except for Janette) are not to be seen again except in re-runs.

Tracy to Reese:	"Oh gosh! I'm sorry -- sorry. I guess I'm just more of a day person."
Tracy to Nick:	"They really allow you drive this fossil?"
Reese & Nick:	Reese: "For what it's worth, things like this never make sense. We're all gonna die, one way or another -- it's inevitable." Nick: "I sincerely hope you're right."
Nick to Tracy:	"Would this be Tracy-I-never-use-my-father Vetter?"
Reese & Nick:	Reese: "How the hell did you get over here? We just got off the phone!" Nick: "I flew." Reese: "Say that again?"

Available