Games Vampires Play (GVP)

(Not aired yet)

Week starting January 28th, 1996

Naomi Janzen

Nicholas J. Gray

Catherine Bruhier as Rita Scott

A young man is sitting at a computer, playing a virtual-reality vampire game and tweaking the programming. A seductive female vampire in the game invites him to play. In the game, the virtual vampire touches his face. In reality, someone puts a gun to his neck and kills him.

The murdered man was R.H. Lo, creator of the virtual-vampire game. During the initial investigation of the case, everyone is disgusted with Nick because he is spaced out and detached, but he seems unable to snap out of it. Back at the precinct, Nick examines the game, and when he sees the virtual vampire, he nearly vamps out himself! Lo's partner, Rita Scott, a software engineer and model for the virtual vampire, is questioned. She claims to know nothing about her partner's death.

Later, Nick sneaks into the property room to examine the game again. This time he really gets into it. The game is interactive, hooked to a mainframe via cell-phone, so while Nick plays the game, Rita Scott actively inputs the responses of her alter-ego, the virtual vampire. In seductive tones, virtual Rita explains that the goal of the game is to kill victims and drink their blood. (But Nick already knows that part!) She also tells Nick that she killed Lo - but is a virtual confession admissible in a court of law? She doesn't think so! When Nick tells Reese and Tracy about this confession they scoff at him.

While playing the game, Nick encounters virtual beauties and fights with virtual enemies. Then he drinks their blood. The places in game are modeled on real locations, which Nick visits after seeing them in the game. At these places Nick finds and retrieves odd items, which he takes back to the precinct. Tracy and Reese think it's ridiculous to consider these things as evidence, but Nick insists they are clues. Despite their objections, Nick continues to play the game and search for evidence to prove that Rita Scott killed R.H. Lo. As Nick is drawn deeper into the game, the distinction between the game and reality blurs. He loses some measure of control over the vampire inside him. Natalie worries that playing the game will cause Nick to lose ground in his quest to become mortal. Even Lacroix seems concerned that playing the game may cause Nick to revert to being a full-time vampire again.

Eventually, the clues lead Nick to a local church, where he encounters Rita once more, in the game and in reality. Rita thinks she's got everything under control, but she didn't count on one little thing! She shoots Nick in the chest and knocks him down. Then she turns her back on him - a big mistake! Fully vamped out, Nick seizes Rita, bends her head back, and almost sinks his fangs into her. He struggles with himself, and then gains control. At the next moment, Reese, Tracy, and other police enter the church. Rita is led away in handcuffs.

At the end, Natalie is with Nick in his apartment. Nick wants to keep the game, but Natalie points out that virtual killing may lead to real killing. She warns Nick that games can be addictive. (Look what happened to Rita Scott!) Nick reluctantly allows Natalie to destroy the game by throwing it in the fire.

No flashbacks.

No monologue.

This is an absolutely wonderful episode! Just pure entertainment! No deep themes here, except maybe, that there is danger in self-indulgence. But it sure is a lot of fun to watch. The action in this episode is very fast-paced and exciting. Every time Nick puts that game gear on, we know he is risking a disaster! Especially when he does it in public places like the precinct and the mall. The interactions between Nick and the other characters are almost comic. In previous episodes Nick's thick-headedness has been an amusing aside, but in this episode he really becomes a foil for the other characters. Rita Scott, the gamester and murderer, recognizes immediately that in Nick she has found an opponent she'll really enjoy toying with. Both Tracy and Reese are exasperated with Nick, thinking him an idiot to take the game seriously. They worry that he's lost his mind as well. And then, in the middle of the episode, there is that wonderfully amusing scene in which Lacroix takes his turn to toy with Nick. Gently but masterfully, he questions Nick about the game. Then with a whoosh he's gone, leaving Nick to ponder what the game is doing to him. But our Nick is not the type to waste time thinking! He immediately gets back to the game, after which we see that his eyes have turned green and he has an urgent and greedy need for some red stuff. Well, it may be true that they all are a lot smarter than he is, but in this episode Nick gets the better of them anyway, through his dogged persistence!

I'm not completely familiar with the FK affiliations, but I would say that because this episode is almost all Nick it should appeal to fans of Nick (Knighties). Since we see Nick sink his teeth into several virtual victims, and enjoy a sip and gulp of the real stuff instead of his usual cow's blood, this episode should also appeal to Dark Knighties, who like to see Nick as a vampire, instead of the sweet, gentle fellow that he really is. Tracy is prominent in several scenes in this episode, and has a few pretty good lines, so this episode is a good one for Tracy fans as well.

Virtual Rita to any player:	"Did you come to work, or would you care to play?"
Tracy and Nick:	Tracy: "What is wrong with you lately? You are so out of it!" Nick: "Out of what?"
Rita Scott to Nick:	"Let me see if I've got this straight. I'm here as a suspect in Lo's murder, because you say I confessed to you while you were playing the virtual vampire game?"
Reese to Nick:	"You're close to getting yourself an unscheduled vacation here Nick!"
Tracy to Nick:	"Nick! Reese is going to blow an important blood vessel if you don't stop pushing this!"
Nick and Reese:	Nick: "There's a clock on this. Time's running out. I need to get to the next level!" Reese: "You are on the next level, if you ask me!"
Tracy to Rita Scott:	"So Rita, there's no get-out-of-jail-free card where you're going."

Not available