Drew: You're walking through town alone at night with Joshua. We went to a lot of trouble to put you in this situation -- except for the part about being covered in your own vomit -- so make the most of it.
--2.14 It Came From the North
2.1 Mythology
Written and directed by Tim Ballew.
The events of this episode take place on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, September 4-6, 1991.
While out on patrol, Slayer Club spots a group of vamps in suits and shades escorting a hooded figure into the mall. They follow and find the vamps in various stores trying on clothes. Sam, Tori and Hartsdale ambush and eliminate one group of vamps but Drew, Joshua and Kevin are less successful. The vamps pull guns(!) and open fire. In the middle of the firefight, Michael Saiyer (from ep 1.6) shows up and joins in. The vamps are dusted but the robed figure escapes. The cops arrive and Slayer Club has to flee before they can find out what brought Michael back to town. At school the next day, they find out. Michael is their new teacher for mythology, now a required course for all juniors. After class, Sam asks Michael to meet them at the Sacred Grounds after school.
At the Sacred Grounds, Michael tells Slayer Club about a mass escape from a demon prison somewhere in the middle east. Many of the escapees are believed to be heading for Solomon, what with it being a hellmouth and all, and his Order sent him to recapture any that show up. His cover as mild-mannered mythology teacher lets him give his mundane students information on how to defend themselves against demons and vampires, without raising any suspicions. The TV news' lead story is on the "gang war" at the mall, including footage of statues which appear to be several security guards. As one of the prison escapees was a Gorgon demon, a medusa-like creature, Slayer club plans how to recapture or take her out. Also on the news -- an escape from the local mundane prison and a murder at Tori's house! Tori rushes home. Sam and Drew follow. Joshua calls around to parents to inform them that people will be late but finds no answer at his aunt and uncle's house. Worried, he heads home, too.
At Tori's house it turns out that the butler did not do it, as the butler is dead in a rather gruesome manner. Tori's father says that the mundane prison escapee, Sylvia Franco, has mob connections and is probably out to get him. He also knows about Joshua's family's vacation cabin and warns Tori not to spend so much time with "that sort of element." Meanwhile, Joshua finds Sylvia holding his aunt and uncle hostage. She believes that Tori's father intentionally threw her defense and blames him for sending her to jail. She admits to killing the butler and trying a post-mortem interrogation. However, it didn't work -- he was resistant to the spell because he was a demon! Joshua extracts a promise that she won't hurt Tori's family and he takes her to the Old Salem Brewpub where she sets up her hideout. A call to Tony reveals that Sylvia is a Family associate answering to an unrelated "power" back in Italy. He hints that supernatural forces were involved in her escape and that Joshua should be careful around her during the full moon.
Michael and Hartsdale conclude that the luxury-loving Gorgon demon is probably staying at the Orchards, the only high-class hotel in Solomon, and they guess that the vamp-minions' "peril-sensitive" sunglasses protect them from her gaze, so Tori heads back to the mall to retrieve a pair from the lost and found. The next day after school, Slayer Club goes to the Orchards. Michael finds out that the Gorgon demon is registered under the name Athena Petrakis and he pays cash to get the room just above hers. Slayer Club plans to do a subtle infiltration and show the Gorgon her reflection, but her minions have other ideas. After much chasing up and down the elevator and stairs, Kevin and Erik (without peril-sensitive shades) find themselves on the fifth floor with the Gorgon Demon in the hall. They cover their eyes when the elevator door opens and Kevin attempts a blast of magical energy blind, which stuns the Gorgon long enough for Sam to get there. Able to see thanks to the magic shades, Sam has no problem picking up the stunned demon and dragging her in front of a mirror.
2.2 Adventures in Babysitting
Written and directed by Tim Ballew.
The events of this episode take place on Friday and Saturday, September 13-14, 1991.
Michael receives a tip that a "special delivery" is being brought to Solomon, so Sam, Drew, Erik and Joshua go to the train station. They intercept three vampires, one of which has an old-fashioned valise handcuffed to his wrist. They slay the vamps and take the valise back to the Theater. Inside, they find what looks like a snowglobe with a tower in it, which veritably pulses with magical energy. Even Sam can tell this thing is seriously powerful, but they have no idea what it does. Elsewhere, Tori is mortified to learn that her father has hired bodyguards for her. While they are following her, she can't go anywhere near the Paradise Theater, or her father will find out. In disgust, she calls some of her popular friends to go to the mall and they make the goons carry their shopping.
Meanwhile, Kevin is spending the evening baby-sitting Ilia, the eleven year-old daughter of two members of his coven. Ilia is being passed around the coven while her parents are "on extended vacation" recuperating from the effects of one of her spells. Kevin takes her to see Kevin Costner's Robin Hood, but Ilia sneaks off. He catches her looking for spellbooks in an occult bookstore. They meet Sylvia, also shopping at the mall, who makes cryptic comments about Ilia and asks to speak to Kevin the next day. While they're talking, Ilia sneaks off again and literally runs right into Tori's bodyguards. In the confusion, Tori gives her guards the slip. Joshua checks on Sylvia at the Brewpub and she tells him that Mr. Clark is importing "people and things" into Solomon, although she doesn't know details of who or what. Perhaps the snowglobe is the item Mr. Clark was waiting for? After the movie, Kevin takes Ilia to the Sacred Grounds to hear the latest band that Moira has booked. There, they run into Erik, who tells Kevin about the snowglobe and asks him to come take a look at it when he has time. While they're talking, Ilia slips away again. She follows Erik back to the Paradise Theater, where she can sense the powerful magic emanating from the valise from two floors away. Sam distracts Ilia with a display of martial arts while Kevin examines the snow globe, but he learns nothing and the gang decides to call it a night.
The next day, while Sam is at work, Drew, Erik, Joshua and Kevin find a St. Germain's professor snooping around with some sort of scanning device. Figuring that he's looking for the valise, Drew and Erik grab it while Joshua distracts the professor with a bit of fast talk and lifts both the device and his wallet. They stash the valise at the Sacred Grounds so that it won't lead any other St. Germain's people to the Theater. Tori discovers that after she ditched them at the mall, her father fired her security guards. He warns her to be careful and gives her $100 by way of apology. Joshua is suspicious of Mr. Clark's gift and exchanges the $100 bill he gave her for five $20s from the St. Germain's professor's wallet, then goes to return the wallet. Then he and Kevin go to meet with Sylvia. Tori insists on going along to meet the woman who is stalking her father. Sylvia reveals that her magical specialty is astral projection. In Italy, people with this very rare talent belong to a special order and receive very specific training. She says that Ilia has the same talent and wants to make sure that the girl is being trained properly. Sylvia and Tori exchange barbed comments and Sylvia mentions Mr. Clark's smuggling, adding that he's working with people from St. Germain's. Meanwhile, Drew and Erik do research on the snowglobe. They learn that it is 'Virmon's Orb of Confidential Conveyance' -- a pocket dimension, accessible either through astral projection or via spell. They recover the valise from the Sacred Grounds and take it to Sam's garage, where they try to find some way to shield it from the magic scanner, but without success.
When Joshua, Kevin and Tori return, the group decides to go to Solomon Heights where they won't be disturbed and try the spell to get inside the snow globe. Erik and Joshua stand guard while Kevin does the spell and he, Sam, Drew and Tori are transported inside. They find themselves in a desert outside the stone tower. The sun is just setting. They knock on the door but get no answer. Sam jumps up to a second floor balcony and climbs up to the roof, where she finds an earth elemental guarding the upper entrance. It takes a swing at her. Sam dodges, keeping out of its reach, and finally tips it over the parapet to crash to rubble on the ground below. Then, she lowers a rope and the others climb up. They search the tower, finding an alchemical laboratory, several books in Hungarian, a storeroom full of bags of blood, and a torture chamber complete with an iron maiden and a dead girl. The iron maiden reminds Drew of something he read in one of the old Watcher diaries and he guesses that the tower's occupant is famed sixteenth century Transylvanian Countess Elizabeth Bathory, known for bathing in the blood of virgin girls and responsible for the death of at least one Slayer. However, the Countess is not in residence. On their return to the outside world, Erik and Joshua tell them that, just after they entered the tower, a beautiful woman appeared outside the snow globe, turned into a bat, and flew away.
2.3 Slayer Club
Written by Greg Pearson and Jodi Roosenraad. Directed by Greg Pearson.
The events of this episode take place on Friday and Saturday, September 27-28, 1991. Sort of.
One of Michael's prison escapees, a siren-demon, takes up residence on the bluffs overlooking the Green river, luring canoers onto the (very small) rocks. Slayer Club to the rescue! After quickly defeating the creature, Sam and Drew are unsatisfied. They leave to go "patrolling." Erik and Joshua roll their eyes and decide to show Michael and Anne around the Paradise Theater, which they have not seen since Slayer Club took over and refurbished it. However, when they arrive, they are surprised to find Sam and Tori sparring while Drew watches. But not as surprised as Sam and Tori, who seem shocked at the intrusion and insist that the others leave immediately. Confusion ensues. Sam recognizes Michael, but no one else, and she calls him an efreet, much to his surprise. After some heated discussion, it becomes clear that Sam, Tori and Drew are from an alternate universe, where Erik is dead, Anne disappeared from school months ago, nobody remembers Joshua, Sam and Tori are vampires in Britta's gang, and they use the Theater as their lair. To add insult to insult, Sam calls Britta's gang "Slayer Club" and denies Anne and the boys memebership. While Sam and Erik argue about who belongs in the Theater and who doesn't, Tori offers Joshua a tour as a pretense for getting him alone. In between fending off her heavy-handed advances, Joshua finds several sleeping mats in the storeroom, some bloody mugs in the sink, and fewer than expected books in the library, suggesting that his group are the ones in the wrong universe. When Joshua returns with a disappointed Tori, Sam encourages the interlopers (with a sword) to leave before Britta and the rest of "Slayer Club" get back.
Once they're gone, Sam casts a spell to let her track them to Michael's apartment, which they find completely empty. Then to Martense's library. Michael tries to send an email to himself, except that his internet account doesn't exist. It was deleted around the time of his first trip to Solomon last year. However, he still has access to the superuser account on his organization's system, so he leaves a message there. The group returns to Solomon Heights, trying to find evidence of a dimensional portal they might have fallen through. Sam catches up to them there. They do their best to lose her, but thanks to her tracking spell, she is able to follow them back to the library while remaining out of sight. Michael finds no response to his message. As they consider their next move, a globe of light flies in the door and hovers over Erik. A few moments later, the light is followed by Juanita, who gives everyone a quick quiz and is relieved that they all remember the same reality that she does. She woke up a week and a half ago to find everything profoundly different. Then, this morning when she woke up, her boa constrictor was dead and she had parallel sets of memories -- "New" memories where Britta's vampires run the town and lots of people are dead, and "old" memories where Solomon is a much nicer place, and the old memories are fading. Afraid that she was running out of time, Juanita cast a spell to summon "the ones who were lost" -- Erik, Joshua and Anne (because she's seen them deal with weird stuff in the past) along with Michael (because, as mythology teacher, he knows about weird stuff). She tried to summon Kevin, too, but the spell didn't work on him. Joshua is none too pleased with her for summoning them. He is even less pleased when she hints that, in this reality, she's dating Cora. Michael expresses concern that vamp Sam knows his true (Djinn) nature. Tired after an extra-long day, the group heads to the Orchards where Michael pays cash to get them two rooms for the night. Sam follows them there but leaves after they spot her in the parking lot. Juanita refuses to sleep and warns the others that they shouldn't either, but only Michael takes her advice.
Meanwhile, Britta and her gang return to the Theater. Sam and Tori fill them in and warn that the dimensional travellers know the location of their lair and have keys. Britta decides to relocate to the frat house that Blackwolf uses for her parties until the threat is dispatched. Sam goes back to her own house.
Erik, Joshua, and Anne all dream of their deaths: Erik at the fangs of a vamp while visiting Alex in the hospital, Joshua by Kitty during the opening of Silent Screams, and Anne jumped by a pair of vamps after a night of hacking. In the morning, Drew shows up with breakfast, wanting to compare notes and help figure out what's going on. They determine that, in this universe, on the first night she was a Slayer, Sam went to the morgue alone to look for Vivian's body and that she probably got vamped then. Because of that, she wasn't around the next day when Erik and Drew went to the hospital. Without Sam's help, Erik got killed and Drew barely escaped with his life. Drew has no idea what happened to Hartsdale, but it's clear that he believes the Watchers are evil. Tori got vamped right after being crowned Snow Queen and was recruited into Britta's gang because she's a Potential Slayer. Drew is convinced that they're "good" vamps, who drink pigs' blood and fight evil., leading Erik and Joshua to start calling him "Renfield." Joshua goes to the Clark household to talk to the demon butler, only to find that it's dead in this universe, too. He tries to talk to Mr. Clark, but is unable to get in to see him.
Anne researches the history of this universe. She learns that twenty-three people, including Joshua, died on opening night at the Paradise Theater ("a riot, caused by PCP-laced popcorn"), after which the owner and the staff vanished. Kevin, his parents, and their entire coven were killed (a "cult suicide") the night Tori died. Erik researches methods of dimensional travel, finding several possibilities: Spells, wishes, pocket dimensions created by kinks in ley lines, demons that can trap people in their nightmares and demons that can travel through time and alter history. Michael calls his organization and learns that his initial mission to Solomon failed and that he was missing and presumed dead. His superiors are unwilling to provide additional information over the phone, but promise to send a team to Solomon in a couple days to make contact, establish his identity, and debrief him. Having been up for over 24 hours and wired on caffeine, Juanita just struggles to stay awake. Drew sneaks off to call Sam and reports what they've learned. Sam says she knows a spell that can undo the spells cast by another magician but it requires an item belonging to the original caster. Drew returns to the others and offers to go to the Paradise Theater to see if he can find anything in Slayer Club's library. On his way out, he takes out their trash, pocketing one of Juanita's empty Jolt cans.
The travellers continue their research, but learn nothing more of use. Anne does a demon detection spell, which shows a pair of demons at the theater, six at the frat house, and two more at Sam's. However, the background level of demonic activity is only about half that which they expected. (Some of the demons at Martense have tenure.) Concerned about Drew, they head for the theater. Sam prepares her spell. The travellers arrive at the theater. It is empty, but in the vault they find the containers of the two efreeti that Michael had been sent to Solomon to retrieve, and a couple mysterious tricorder-like devices, which Joshua "borrows." Juanita feels Sam's spell begin to take effect. On the way out, the group raids the theater's weapons rack. Next to it, they find a trophy case which contains, among other souvenirs, the magical armbands that bind Michael to his masters. Angered, he pockets them and they head for Sam's. Sam finishes her spell with a dramatic blackening of her irises and outpouring of blood, but it fails to send the interlopers home.
The travelers arrive at Sam's house and are met by a very drunk, shotgun-toting Sam Sr. Sam stumbles up from the basement with Drew's help and sends her father away. Michael confronts Sam with the bands he recovered from the trophy case. Sam admits that Britta killed this universe's version of him to keep him from taking the efreeti back to the Holy Land. They have a staring battle of wills for a moment or two. Sam goes "Game-face," draws her katana and attacks him. Drew covers the others with his crossbow. They don't move, but Erik consults the tricorder, which Drew tells him is a magical demon-tracking device. It points to Sam, but also shows another demon upstairs. While Sam and Michael fight, the others follow the tricorder's signal to the attic. Joshua climbs out onto the roof and finds a giant, skeletal raven roosting there. He recognizes it as the dream demon they read about, makes a running tackle and knocks it to the ground. Unfortunately, the only way to end the dream is for the dreamer to kill it, and the dreamer is Sam. If anyone else does, the dreamworld will become permanent. Downstairs, Sam knocks Michael to the ground and moves in for the kill. Their eyes lock. Michael keeps repeating that he is not the dream-demon and Sam needs to wake up. Sam realizes that something is horribly wrong and lets him go. He conjures a sword -- the one that she took from Britta in the real world -- and convinces her that this is her true weapon. Sam gets a tarp and orders Drew and Erik to hold it over her as she goes outside to battle the demon in the daylight. As she fights it, Tori shows up with a blanket over her head and joins in. Sam stabs the demon through the heart and wakes up in her own bed. She remembers her year as a vampire as a particularly bad dream. Erik, Joshua, Anne, Michael, and Juanita remember their time in Dark Solomon as if they'd lived it. Nobody else remembers a thing. But Michael now has a second set of armbands and Sam has a dog, which somehow survived the transition from dream to reality.
2.4 The Lyre, the Snitch, and the Wardrobe
Written and directed by Chris Roosenraad.
The events of this episode take place between Thursday, October 10th and Sunday, October 20th, 1991.
A Renaissance Festival comes to town! Strange, because both Kevin and Erik's families, who are avid RenFest-goers, have never heard of the "Western Pennsylvania Renaissance Festival" before. But still, the whole town is excited about the event. They set up tents in the field next to Blaire's, to open Saturday at noon and continue for the next two weekends. Thursday night, Joshua spots a half-dozen vampires in the street near the Theater, hassling a bunch of kids in St. Germain's uniforms. Slayer Club goes to investigate. One of the kids, Timmy, conjures a thick fog which covers the fight. Sam, Tori and Erik take care of the vampires while Joshua falls off a fire escape, breaking his leg, and Drew gets pummeled mightily -- by a twelve (or possibly thirteen) year old St. Germain's girl. (It's a good thing that Sam doesn't know he prolonged the fight by hitting her back.) Friday after school, Sam and Drew very carefully cast the spell to go inside Virmon's Orb. They take buckets, mops, a whole bunch of Lysol (product placement!), a linen sheet, and a shovel to clean the tower, give the dead girl a proper burial out in the desert and bury every one of Countess Bathory's implements of torture. Tori has a talk with Hartsdale about whether or not she is a Potential Slayer. He searches through his books, finds a simplified version of the Potential Slayer Detection Spell, casts it, and is able to confirm that, yes, Tori is a Potential.
Saturday at the RenFest, Erik and Kevin are in their element. Erik goes dressed as an authentic Viking (no horned helmet) with sword, shield and chain-mail shirt. Kevin is resplendent in his Wiccan festival garb. Tori and her mother come in purple and red medieval-style gowns. Drew borrows one of Erik's outgrown RenFest costumes, a red and yellow jester outfit, complete with cap and bells. And Sam goes as a "time-traveler" in jeans, boots, a puffy shirt and vest, with the Kessler Sword slung over her shoulder. There is food, 30-proof mead (sold by Blaire, who makes a boatload of money from this venture), arts and crafts, weaponsmiths, jewelrysmiths, and lots of toys and games for children. A King and Queen with their court, a Kissing Wench, and a Ratcatcher. Sam and Drew find out more about their weapons from the swordsmith. Sam's sword is a German High Baroque-style broadsword, probably forged in the Rhur valley at least three hundred years ago. The smith can't date it more precisely than that. However, Drew's he's able to place as an Italian edged rapier, dating from the 1500's, and advises Drew that it should be insured for at least $80,000. Sam and Drew boggle at that number. Also, the Ratcatcher takes a liking to Drew, following him around and taunting him mercilessly. Drew's costume, his parentage, his manhood, everything is fair game except his choice of companion. Sam and Drew notice a band of blonde-haired children playing music at Blaire's, and the Ratcatcher seems to have some kind of control over them -- at one point, the band strikes up a song that has every child under the age of twelve at the faire standing around as if in a trance. The Ratcatcher goes up and whispers to the band, they change the music and all the other children return to their games and candy. Kevin takes a good look at the Ratcatcher and determines that this is no ordinary Ratchatcher. At least, he isn't human, and he is very powerful. In fact, this is the Ratcatcher, better known as the Pied Piper of Hamlin. Slayer Club does some research and finds out that there are stories from England to Syria about a man who comes to town, chases off the rats or charms something to keep the rats away, and if his fee isn't paid, he kidnaps the town's children instead. Most recently, there is a news article about a stained-glass window commemorating the events of the original story, which was stolen from the town of Hamlin. They infer that the Ratcatcher is looking for his window, and if he doesn't get it back, he could very well spirit away Solomon's children, too. There is some debate as to whether "children" would include sixteen-year olds, especially a 16-year old Slayer.
Hartsdale is visited by two of the RenFest merchants, Misha and Ivan, who offer to sell or trade him some rare books that they have in their possession. They specifically mention Hartsdale's copy of the Codex Apocalyptica, a revelation that disturbs the Watcher greatly. He puts a call in to Watcher Central, and finds out that these two men were once associates of the Watchers' Council, and the books they have were "stolen" from the Watchers in Eastern Europe, who originally "appropriated them for archival purposes" from other owners. The Council charges Hartsdale to buy them back. However, in their tight-fisted way, they only give him half of the price that the Russians want. Hartsdale's first meeting with Misha and Ivan doesn't go entirely well, as Sam pokes around in their other boxes of merchandise to see if they might have a stained glass window as well. The merchants are insulted at her meddling, and Misha draws a rune in the air, causing all the boxes to vanish. Erik is supremely impressed, and tries to copy the rune on the palm of his hand to try later. Misha gives him advice on how to draw it properly. However, the first time Erik tries the new rune back at the Theater, instead of a "vanishing" spell that sends an object (one of the mugs from the Sacred Grounds) somewhere else (back to the coffee shop), it opens up a vortex between the two points. All the mugs, as well as random papers fly through the vortex, and pieces of furniture from the Theater threaten to get sucked into the hole as well. Sam quickly plucks a hair from Erik's head and starts casting the spell she remembers from her dream, that nullifies the magic of another caster. It takes twenty minutes, during which time Slayer Club sits on the sofa and holds down the microwave and fridge to keep them from plunging through to the Sacred Grounds's dish-room. In the end, Sam is able to dispel the vortex and everyone breathes a sigh of relief. The RenFest ends on Sunday night and a new week of school begins.
Monday at school, Prof. Saiyer is out of town, so Hartsdale fills in as substitute. He gives a rousing lecture about the legend of the vampire. Their origins (Eastern Europe, Vlad the Impaler, Countess Bathory, etc.), turn-offs (stakes, crosses, sunlight) and turn-ons (long, slow bites that last for days). He is very pleased that at least the American horror movies have done their job in that most of the class is aware of what vampires are, and the rudiments of how to deal with them. After school, Slayer Club debates methods of dealing with the Ratcatcher and the Russians. From what else they could exchange for the books, to how they might steal them. With Joshua laid up with a broken leg, stealing them is not going to be an easy task. Drew vetoes the idea of giving up Virmon's Orb. Sam won't even consider giving up Michael's armbands. A plan is hatched -- post some of the group to watch Ivan and Misha's van, while Hartsdale goes to the booth to negotiate with them. Sam goes with him, to provide meddling again if needed. If the merchants vanish their boxes again, the rest of Slayer Club would hijack the van and make off with them. The merchants have 20 volumes, price -- $7.3 million. Cash the Watchers cough up -- $3 million. Hartsdale adds a list of books from his own library that he is willing to part with -- not the Codex Apocalyptica, obviously, but some other titles that the Russians might be interested in. They haggle back and forth, with the upshot that Hartsdale gets ten books and the stained glass window from Hamlin (which the Russians do have). The Russians get the cash and a number of Hartsdale's books in exchange. Hartsdale asks them, if they talk to his fellows in London, not to mention that "these two" were part of the deal -- two spellbooks that Hartsdale keeps for himself. The Russians are pleased to do business with him. Sam returns the stained glass window to the Ratcatcher, who is delighted. She asks him if he'd be willing to free the Slavenkinder, if he were paid the long-owed fee from Hamlin town. He shakes his head. "That is a deal long concluded. They have lived happily with me for 700 years. They are out of their own time, and besides, the families who mourned them are long dead. Would it be a boon, or a pity, to give them freedom now?" Slayer Club has to agree that the children are probably better off in the life they know with the Ratcatcher.
Just before the RenFest packs up tents to move on, the Ratcatcher finally gets Drew to try out his flute. But as soon as Drew touches the instrument, he has a vision of rats -- thousands of rats, towns and towns of rats, all jumping into the ocean, rivers, lakes, ponds, streams. The Ratcatcher has been doing his job for a very long time, and is very good at it. Sam catches Drew on the way to the ground and prizes the flute from his fingers. The Ratcatcher apologizes profusely that if he'd known that Drew gets visions, he wouldn't have offered. This has not been Drew's best week and he now has an odd craving for cheese.
2.5 Tricky Treats
Written and directed by Tim Ballew.
See also Michael's Report on these events.
The events of this episode take place on Wednesday and Thursday, October 30-31, 1991.
The Slayer tries to investigate Countess Bathory, to find out where she's made her lair, but the vampires are not helpful; none of them talk before being staked. Blaire does report that a new pack of vamps have holed up in an abandoned farmhouse just outside town, but she thinks they are a bunch of poseurs -- bought into the Hollywood Vampire Shtick. This said with a straight face, as she hangs fake cobwebs and turns on her electric jack-o-lantern. The Halloween decorations encourage college kids to come in and spend money, and Blaire will do anything, even break the undead's traditional anti-Halloween stance, in order to make more cash. Slayer Club finds the farmhouse and begins recon, when the sound of hoof-beats approaches. It's a headless horseman, right out of Sleepy Hollow, with a pumpkin under one arm and a wicked-looking sword. Five vamps come out of the farmhouse, the woman in the middle carrying a lantern and a skull, and chanting. Sam and Drew go for the vamps. Erik stabs the rider. Tori shows off her improved cutlass-work, and Michael cuts right through the pumpkin, bisecting the Headless Horseman. Drew shoots a vamp with his crossbow; Sam decapitates another, and then administers a dose of Holy Water to the leader, forcing her to swallow and dissolve in a puddle of goo. They quickly dispatch the rest of the vamps. Inside the house, they find a scroll written in Shakespearean English with copious marginalia, books of blood poetry, extra black capes, and other "vampire" paraphernalia. They take the scroll, the skull, lantern, and the rider's sword, and go back to the theater. Some research reveals that there's a whole clan of headless demons, assassins who can be summoned and directed with the proper ritual. Later that night, Sam has another nightmare -- she is trapped inside an Iron Maiden, while outside, a darkly beautiful woman gloats about her victory over "the Slayer." Sam realizes that she is Ildiko Galert, and the woman must be Countess Bathory. Sam now knows what her enemy looks like. Sleep is scarce for the rest of the night.
The next day, Halloween. Kevin takes Ilia trick-or-treating (she's dressed as Strawberry Shortcake) and then to the Old Salem to meet Sylvia for her first lesson in how to be a Benandanti. Solomon High is decorated for the Halloween Dance. Erik tries to ask Tori, but so clumsily that she doesn't realize it's a date. Sam and Drew give him grief about this. Everyone coordinates costumes. Sam and Drew go as Wonder Woman and Spiderman; Erik and Tori are a pirate and a pirate wench (so Tori can wear her cutlass, as well as show plenty of cleavage); Cora is Florence Nightingale, and Joshua a wounded soldier; Kevin goes as "Vampire Hunter D;" Michael as a Bedouin, complete with falchion and (loaded) musket; and Juanita teases her hair way, way out as a '70's Blaxploitation character. The gym is decorated with jack-o-lanterns and orange and black streamers. The music is Celtic Rock, and the "Bountiful Harvest" catering company has pulled out all the stops -- the buffet table groans under a load of apple pies, a cornucopia, candied apples, cookies, cake, and a large bowl of cider-punch. Everyone is having a wonderful time... perhaps a tad too wonderful. While Drew and Sam dance, Joshua and Erik indulge in apple pie and punch, and then take to the dance floor. Erik suddenly gains self-confidence, literally sweeping Tori off her feet, but she abstains from the treats. She appreciates his attention, but doesn't return it fully. Joshua dances on crutches with both Juanita and Cora. Couples seldom separate except to get more food and drink; even the teachers are getting into the Halloween fun. Michael, who also decides to fast for the evening, is busy separating couples, and strategically spilling ice water to get his colleagues apart. Something is definitely not right. Suspecting that it's something in the food, he disguises himself as a student and goes to the kitchen to investigate the caterers.
Arriving late from dropping off Ilia, Kevin notices some abandoned ritual paraphernalia next to the front door of the High School. He circles the building to find more -- black candles, brown chalk drawn in a key-shape, old European coins, and most disturbing of all, the ley-lines around the school have been bent out of place. Sam, Drew and Tori meet Kevin and Michael outside the gym. Erik and Joshua (and the rest of the class) are feeling no pain. They don't even notice when Sam pulls the fire alarm, or Kevin levitates a candle to set off the sprinkler system. The caterers bring more food to replace the empty platters, marshaled by a severe-looking woman with black hair pulled back in a bun. Sam has a moment of deja-vu. The last time she saw her, was in a dream... Kevin confronts the woman, accusing her of ritual activity, which she haughtily denies, and tells Kevin to "sit down and be quiet." He's held in his chair, unable to move or talk. Michael swings a two-handed punch at the woman. She looks surprised for a moment before she fades out of view and his fists swish harmlessly through the space where she was. Four of the caterers show their game-faces and attack. Using knives, a cleaver and a lemon meringue pie grabbed from the kitchen tables, Slayer Club defend themselves and dust the vamps. Midnight passes. Menacing shapes move in the shadows around the gym and through the halls. Sam finds Stephie, Callie and Marcy smoking a joint in the girl's bathroom. She warns them not to eat any of the food in the gym and suggests they go to 7-11 to take care of their munchies. As they leave, Stephie says that the shadows are waiting for a sign, something to do with the pumpkins. Outside, a thick fog looms and wolves howl. In the gym, the music takes on a frenetic rhythm, and some students start doing a peculiar dance. Erik and Joshua come out of their treat-induced high. Cora warns that the dead are closing in. Joshua grabs the punch-bowl and throws punch all over the sound board. The music fizzles and dies, but all the jack-o-lanterns in the gym have been smashed. Slayer Club decides to get everyone out. All those not affected by the food go around smacking those that are, until everyone snaps out of the daze. Erik gets a really good punch on the captain of the football team, and Joshua wishes he'd thought of that! The shadows grow even more restless. Somewhere out in the school, a student screams. Michael marshals the faculty to get all the students into the library. Most of Slayer Club hurries ahead to research Halloween disasters, while Sam and Drew go look for the student in trouble. They find a red-eyed wolf mauling a frosh. Sam cleaves the wolf, freeing the student. He's bleeding, but more scared than hurt, so they send him to the library. Sam spots a little girl with red hair and a pink dress, holding a long stalk of fennel. Rearing above her is a half-human, half-wolf shape, swinging an iron whip. Sam twirls her Wonder Woman lasso, and snares the wolf-woman. Ilia says "That's Sylvia!" Sam un-snarls the noose and apologizes, watching as Ilia wields her fennel-stalk against four of the shadow-creatures, dispelling them. Ilia says that they've got the shadows -- Sam and Drew should go protect the rest of the students. On the way back to the library, they collect Pyro Pete, the chemistry teacher, who has cobbled together a massive flame-thrower by linking all the gas-jets in the Chem. Lab. With this, he dusts several vampires, but like most people in Solomon, he'll rationalize it away by the morning.
Back in the library, Michael finds an account of a Halloween episode in Hungary in the 1700's, when things went horribly wrong -- it began with an unusually abundant harvest. The townspeople ate more than they should, instead of setting food aside for the winter; the town guards were lax; jack-o-lanterns were smashed, scarecrows were desecrated, the dead were not honored as they should have been. All the small lapses in tradition accumulated, until on Halloween night, everything that could have gone wrong, did. Cattle dropped dead in the fields, the harvested fruits rotted. Wolves were stealing children as well as sheep. It got so bad that the denizens of the town resorted to sacrificing one of their own, in hopes that this would appease the evil spirits. Instead, the entire town was slaughtered. It was the last big push by the Dark Side to retake Halloween. Ever since, October 31st has been a day of neutrality in the War of Light and Dark. Which is why no undead (except Blaire) goes out then. So far, all the signs have happened again, except the human sacrifice. Michael just finishes reading the account, when the skylight in the ceiling smashes, and a cloud of bats flies in. They gather up on the second-floor balcony and coalesce into Countess Bathory. Sam races up the stairs to confront her. None of the students or teachers can die, or history would repeat. Sam and the Countess trade barbs, but Bathory topples a stack of bookshelves in between them, so Sam can't get to her. She looks down, and spots the four transfers from St. Germain's. "She will do nicely." Although Sam tries to distract the Countess, Kelly Hargrove slumps to the floor and Countess Bathory vanishes again. Sam jumps down the stairs to aid Kevin in giving Kelly CPR. The fate of Solomon hangs in the balance. Whether it's the CPR, or Sam's devout prayers that does the trick, Kelly gasps and comes to. Through the broken skylight, dawn trickles in. The night is over, but when the students and faculty leave the library, they find other horrors outside. The families of the four St. Germain's transfer students have been ritualistically slaughtered, as well as a young man who worked at the 7-11. He turns out to have been the bottom student in the St. Germain's class of 1991. Devil take the hindmost -- one of the old policies re-instituted by "Dean Bathory" who recently returned from a very long "overseas sabbatical." Sam asks Kelly and her friends to "tell me everything about the Dean" and they sit down to talk. Slayer Club decides that it's best to get the four girls out of town. Michael volunteers to take them to Israel, to the sanctuary of his employers at the Temple of Solomon. If they can't keep the girls safe, no one can. This denies Bathory at least one of her goals -- she wants the girls dead. This is also All Saint's Day, when St. Germain's holds its yearly harvest festival. Slayer Club decides that it's time to take the battle to Bathory; just what to do about the Festival is unknown. Erik tries to talk to Tori about the events of the dance, but she "reassures" him that she knows it was just the spell and that she doesn't take it seriously. Reflecting back on the events of the last couple days, Drew tells Sam that, although he's enjoyed being her chief sidekick for the last year, now that they know Tori's a Potential Slayer, he should really fade more into the background and let Sam mentor Tori. Sam doesn't like this idea. She's also gotten very comfortable having Drew nearby, but she agrees that Tori could use some more practice and patrol-time. However, with this current crisis, one thing that Sam wants to do immediately, is go to church. to honor the dead as best she knows how in the Catholic tradition, and suggests that everyone else do likewise in their own traditions.
TO BE CONTINUED...
2.6 The Day of the Death
Written and directed by Tim Ballew.
The events of this episode take place on Friday, November 1, 1991.
Morning light and birdsong find the Solomon High library. Most of the students and teachers can't believe what they've just witnessed -- a woman who turned into a flock of bats and flew out the window; shadowy spirits attacking students... The whole experience is chalked up to hallucinogens in the food. A lawsuit is almost inevitable. Everyone goes home, except Slayer Club and the St. Germain's transfer students. Sam is pissed. She's all for storming St. Germain's and demanding that they turn Bathory over, so Sam can personally ream her inside-out. Kevin advocates a more careful approach. With a few weeks of research, he thinks his coven could perfect a spell to paralyze Bathory and drain the blood-power out of her. Michael is most concerned with getting the four St. Germain's girls out of town immediately. Sam agrees. He leaves a contact number and calls a cab to take them to the airport. Kevin and Erik leave to pick up Ilia, check on Sylvia, and contact the coven. Sam and Drew go to early Mass at St. Catherine's to light candles and pray for the souls of previously departed Slayers, especially Ildiko Galert, the Hungarian Slayer whom Bathory killed -- for hours -- inside an Iron Maiden. That scene haunts Sam's dreams; one reason why she is so wound up. There are no flashes of light or spectral voices, but Sam gets a handle on her emotions and Drew catches a few zzz's. When Slayer Club meets back at the Sacred Grounds, Tori says her father is defending the caterers, although he doesn't like having to take the case. The local news reports that Marcy Lee, Stephanie Newberry and Callie Marshall are missing. The police are out in force looking for them. Drew is concerned that, since they went to 7-11 for snacks after they left the dance, Bathory might have them. Juanita casts a locator-spell to find Marcy and it points toward the Harvest Festival. Not trusting the police to be able to find them, Slayer Clubs heads for the Festival in search of the missing girls.
At the Festival, Cora says the ghosts look just like living people. Drew pretends to talk to her so she can talk to them unobtrusively, but when he accidentally steps through a ghost, he has a vision of being blown up in a chemistry lab and passes out. Juanita's locator-charm points toward the fortune-teller's tent, so Slayer Club starts their search there. The medium predicts love for Tori -- a tall, blond man -- a doctor, or lawyer, or possibly an actor -- from a good family. When Sam shows her palm, the medium says her life-line is very short, but the signs have never been so clear. There's a powerful enemy nearby, and also a knife -- but whether it's a literal knife, or symbolic, she can't tell. In the back of her tent, a concealed flap opens to another chamber. Sam investigates while Drew is having his tarot read -- the medium says that he's slated to make a billion dollars some day, not realizing that his dream is to be an astronomer. In the other room, Callie and Stephie pass a joint while a dark-goateed man draws a tattoo on Marcy's back. The design is geometrical, and probably arcane. (Later, when Erik tries to draw the symbol from Sam's description, a small lightning bolt nearly singes his eyebrows off.) Tori and Joshua go to tip off the police as to the girls' location and then talk to her father. Cora and Juanita go with, while Sam and Drew watch the tattooist's chamber to make sure the girls don't get away before the police arrive. Sure enough, they try to leave. Sam and Drew stall them by asking about the "robbery." Callie says that it was a demon with horns, red skin and a pitchfork. Stephie remarks that they were invited to come to St. Germain's, and are transferring at the end of the semester. Drew "opens up" to Stephie's mind-reading to tell them quickly what Slayer Club knows about St. Germain's and warn them about Bathory. Now convinced that they're all on the same side, they dodge the police and hide in concealed "back-rooms" among the Festival tents, including a clinic for magical diseases (they leave quickly) and a purveyor of magical robes, who tries to fit Sam in a purple and gold cloak with hidden pockets. Sam politely declines. When the coast is clear, they split up to meet back at Sam's truck and she drives the girls home.
At the Clark house, Tori tells her father straight out that she and her friends know about Elizabeth Bathory, and intend to do something about her. He appreciates her candor, and confirms what the ghosts told Cora -- in the St. Germain's class of 1971, Thomas Clark graduated dead last. If Bathory has her way, that description would be literal. He provides a list of St. Germain's faculty who oppose Bathory's new-old policies. They might not fight openly, but can give support and information. Mr. Clark also has a present for Sam: a blue-steel poniard set with black opals which cuts through magical defenses, but only has a limited number of uses. After Tori finishes, Joshua hires Mr. Clark for half an hour so they can discuss Sylvia under attorney-client privilege. Joshua offers to set up a meeting so they can come to a non-lethal resolution of their problem. Mr. Clark agrees. Slayer Club meets back at the Harvest Festival to find the teachers on Mr. Clark's list and Tori gives Sam her present. They find Joshua Abernathy, professor of Applied Theology, watching the freak show. Sam and Tori open a conversation around general topics: school, mythology, etc. Then Drew asks the Professor if he could give him some help on a 'term paper' about Elizabeth Bathory. The name causes several people to look their way. Abernathy gently chides Drew for his lack of subtlety and they go to talk somewhere else. Abernathy cannot admit he had this conversation, but points them in the direction of the St. Germain's graveyard, where they should 'hypothetically' be able to find Bathory alone in her 'laboratory'.
At the graveyard, the largest crypt opens to a series of underground rooms -- grisly laboratories/torture chambers/bathing rooms -- guarded by a pair of vampires. Sam and Erik dust them without raising the alarm, but while trying to be sneaky, Sam knocks her head against a brazier hanging from the ceiling. A horde of vampires descends on them. Sam, Drew and Tori wade in, swinging swords. Joshua has Sam's crutches -- the ends sharpened to make fine stakes. Juanita begins chanting. When she finishes the spell, flames scour the hall ahead, toasting the vampires. At the end, the passage opens into a two-story library. The Countess stands in the middle, chanting from an open book, her free hand raised in a ball of light. Sam draws her hunting knife and throws it, impaling Bathory through that hand and disrupting the spell. Bathory "bats-out" and rises to the second tier, searching for another book. Sam jumps to join her while Drew and Tori take the stairs. Juanita TKs a shelf of books onto the floor to slow Bathory down and Erik guards the entrance against skeletons armed with shovels and various weapons from the labs. Sam stabs Bathory with the magical knife. Acute pain takes the necromancer by surprise. Drew attacks from behind, but she ducks just enough that instead of her head, he cuts off her hair. With the Countess's blood pouring over her hands, Sam finds her anger draining away. She'd planned a great speech to finish with, but only hisses "Ildiko wants her blood back" before sending the Countess to her long-deferred final reward.
Interlude: The Trials of Kevin
Written by Dave Hacker.
2.7 The Inspector
Written and directed by Chris Roosenraad.
The events of this episode take place on Thursday and Friday, November 14-15, 1991
Michael and the four St. Germain's transfer students take an El Al jet to Tel Aviv. (Montage of scenes from Israel) The girls decide that they cannot go back home for a little while. Their families are dead, and they don't know where their lives are going to go from here. The Temple agrees to protect them until they get back on their feet, so Michael leaves them in his employers' care, makes his report, and gets on a plane back to the U.S. He arrives in Solomon on the bus, next to a woman holding a screaming baby, gathers his satchel and trudges up the street to his building. In his apartment, he finds a man sitting on his sofa: chisel-featured, balding, impeccably tailored (and bearing an uncanny resemblance to Pete Postlethwaite). This is the Inspector from the Temple, who has arrived earlier than expected to examine the situation in Solomon and evaluate Michael's recommendation to establish a permanent Temple presence here. As Michael is jet-lagged, hungry, and not in the best temper for a civilized discussion, they arrange to meet the next day in the school teacher's lounge to talk in more detail.
At school, Slayer Club greets Anne, who is in town visiting from her new boarding school, where she's established herself as the go-to student for all things computer-related. She knows more about the machines than the computer science teacher, and so has been allowed to help the administration with digitizing school records and other projects. She's also gone preppie, with long, manicured nails and color-coordinated clothing. Erik swears they are going to have to take Anne out and get her properly dirty, while Drew speculates that she and Tori have traded personalities. In their lockers, every member of Slayer Club finds an invitation to meet the Inspector in the Conference Room at the Orchards at 5:30 that evening. Kevin determines that the invites are not magical, but had a spell cast in their vicinity to tell which lockers to put them into. Michael is given the reports from the substitute teachers who filled in while he was in Israel, rather a lot of them, as most quit after a few days of trying to handle his classes. The Inspector meets him at lunch under an audible glamour that makes it sound like they are discussing the weather back home in Israel -- in Aramaic.
After school, Slayer Club takes Anne to the Theater, where Anne and Tori spar to see how much Tori's swordplay has improved while Anne was gone. As the bout goes on, the girls are evenly matched, but in the end, Tori beats the former SCA fencer in points, and Anne breaks a nail. Then Slayer Club goes to the Orchards to meet the Inspector. After Michael vouches for his identity and mission, the Inspector gives Slayer Club a written test of their knowledge of things paranormal. Then, for the practical test, the Inspector gives them a map marked with the location of a new vampire nest. Slayer Club goes to take them out. However, the map is out of date. The place that was once a wooded hillside is now the parking lot of the Solomon Mall. Undeterred, Slayer Club removes a manhole cover and goes down into the sewers with weapons and flashlights. After trudging through muck and slime, finding a partially decomposed human arm without a body attached, and tapping walls at a couple of dead-ends, they find the nest of five vampires, armed with blinding lights and Molotov cocktails. Drew shoots the vamp with the cocktail, who drops it, setting himself and another vamp on fire, and so dusts two with one crossbow bolt. Sam throws another vamp at Tori's feet, and with Kevin's help, Tori dusts it. The fourth vamp manages to get Sam in a choke-hold and bites her, but she knees it and then stakes it through the back. Realizing the better part of valor, the final vamp flees up into the parking lot. Sam is right on his heels. With a tackle and roll behind a car to avoid witnesses, she dusts it. In the nest, Slayer Club finds five grimy bedrolls and the wallets of several "missing persons" which they anonymously send to the police so the next of kin can be notified. All this activity was watched through a scrying spell by the Inspector, who says that he is pleased with the results and will support Michael's recommendation for the Temple outpost.
2.8 Royalty
Written and directed by Greg Pearson.
The events of this episode take place between Friday, December 20th and Monday, December 23rd, 1991.
Christmas is in the air! And also Winter Solstice, Yule, Erik's birthday, the full moon, and literally tons of tinsel, with which the city council has seen fit to decorate the entire downtown. Drifts of tinsel blow in the wind like small tumbleweeds while the three contestants for the Solomon Snow Queen pageant go door-to-door with trays of baked goods, plying downtown merchants and clerks at the mall to try to get their votes. Tori, defending champion, baked her own chocolate-chip cookies. Marcy Lee has bakery-bought cookies. But neither can hold a culinary candle to Andrea Czarbach's gooey double-fudge brownies, which are the talk of the town. Kevin is away with his parents, celebrating the Yule holiday with Wiccan festivities. After receiving the class's term papers, Michael left to spend his holiday in a warmer climate. It seems as if the local vampire population has also taken a vacation from the below-0 cold. Nary a fanged one is seen, even though Sam goes out patrolling every night. On Friday, the weather warms to just above freezing and Sam and Tori spot a vampire in Greenfields Cemetery. It calls Tori "that Leather-Face chick" and seems more frightened of her than of the Slayer. Sam gives chase, and stakes it, and then explains the movie reference to Tori. On the way back to their cars, they find a poster nailed to a light-post, a picture of Tori in last year's Snow Queen pageant, with sash and tiara askew, covered in demon ichor, with chainsaw in hand and a dazed look on her face. The caption reads "Is this the image we want for Solomon? Vote for Marcy for Snow Queen." Sam tears down the poster, but Tori just lifts her chin. "If that's the way she wants to play it." As the two girls walk back to the school parking lot, there's what seems a moment of peaceful silence as the snow settles and the tinsel blows by.
However, backstage at the Slaying Solomon set in Hollywood, there is no peace, no silence. Telephones ring off the hook. "I want my agent!" is the rallying cry among the cast. The actress who plays Tori is locked in her dressing room, in tears. "How can you do this to me?!? I'll never be able to show my face at a SFCon without that... that... song playing in the background." The song in question was chosen by the director, and inserted into the soundtrack in post-production at several points when Tori is on-screen -- "Daydream Believer (and a Homecoming Queen)" by the Monkees. Thus, the racket on the phones and threats of lawsuits.
Under her windshield wiper, Tori finds an envelope. ("Oh, what can it mean?" warbles in the background) Inside is a computer-printed note -- "Chainsaws won't help you. Quit the pageant while you still can." A threat? Or a warning? On Saturday, while Sam is obligated to work with her father at the garage, Callie Marshall shows up at the Theater and shows Erik a similar note that Marcy received -- "Superpowers won't help you. Quit the contest while you still can." This points towards Andrea, trying to threaten her rivals into quitting. Erik and Drew test one of Andrea's brownies with the magic-detection device that they got from Dark Solomon (see episode 2.3). It shrieks and all the dials go crazy. Yep. The brownie is magical, all right. They get an unsuspecting Jonathan to eat the brownie and try to test it again, but that test is inconclusive. More evidence is needed, so, since Joshua is spending some "Quality time" with Cora before he leaves for NJ for Christmas with his folks, Drew and Erik get Hartsdale to go with them to Andrea's house while she and her father are out campaigning. Their attempt to break in is successful... thanks to Erik finding the spare key under the door-mat. Even so, they leave so much evidence (footprints in the snow, etc.) that Joshua would have been embarrassed if he'd been there. In Andrea's room, the burglars find magic textbooks from St. Germain's, an ineptly-drawn circle on the floor, and several of Andrea's papers and quizzes, all with dismally low grades. In the trash can is a note that reads "Magic won't help you. Get out of the pageant while you still can." All three contestants told to quit? Who could be sending the notes, and why? (Fortunately, Tori is out campaigning herself, so no Monkees music in this scene.) They leave Andrea's house and return to the theater, where Sam meets them after work. That afternoon and all day Sunday after church, Sam follows Tori around, playing bodyguard. No one attacks Tori, but they meet Andrea and her father at the mall. Andrea seems like a pleasant enough girl but, although her brownies are outstanding (magically delicious?), she's not as pretty as either Tori or Marcy, and she doesn't seem very gung-ho about the campaign. Both Tori and Sam get the idea that she really doesn't want to be doing this. In fact, they learn that Andrea and Marcy were offered extra credit in their drama and public speaking classes if they ran in the pageant, and A's if they won. Marcy needs the credit, and Andrea is desperate for it -- She's at the bottom of her class. Although only a sophomore, the "devil take the hindmost" policy has panicked all St. Germain's students who graduated (or might graduate) last. Sunday night, Tori prepares for the Snow Queen's dinner, showering, dressing, her mother doing her hair (with "Daydream Believer" playing in the background). Tori is radiant in a white, sequinned gown. She goes to the dinner alone. The other contestants are dateless, also. Marcy wears a dress that is low in the front, showing off her cleavage, but high in the back to cover her tattoo, with blue sequins and seafoam-green organdy around the shoulders. Andrea wears a white eyelet lace dress with silver snowflakes embroidered on it. The dinner is catered by the Foundry, and there are lots of photographers from the local paper, the Boston Globe, even a TV cameraman, since the Emcee of the show is congressman Sorensen, Erik's grandfather, who's running for re-election in 1992. Outside, in the cold courtyard of the town hall, the rest of Slayer Club investigates the stage where the contest will conclude after the parade on Monday. They gaze up at the thirty-foot tall artificial christmas tree that the Council has erected over the fountain and comment on how ugly it is. Christmas trees shouldn't have corners. Then, Erik notices that it seems to have too many corners. Sam circles the tree, counting sides. "It's a pentagram!" Lightbulbs go off over everyone's heads. The tree is a pentagram! There's going to be a ritual, and the Snow Queen contestants are going to be... sacrificed to feed the tree? More questions -- who put it up? What's going to happen, and how do we stop it? Joshua goes to the Town hall and breaks into the Records room. He finds out that the tree was built by Fun Times Party Supplies and paid for by Councilman Bright. He, Erik, and Hartsdale leave to investigate Fun Times, While Sam and Drew remain to watch city hall until Tori comes out. At the warehouse, Joshua foils the electronic security system by picking the lock on the nearby ConEd transformer and throwing the manual switch, betting that on the weekend before Christmas, they're not going to send someone out to investigate a small power-outage immediately. In the Fun Times office, they find records of the proposal, building and sale of the tree, and two floats for the parade, one for City Council, and one for St. Germain's. There are no blueprints for the tree itself, but there are for the stage next to it -- strangely, the end farthest from the tree is a couple of inches taller than the other. Easier to get snow off it, so they say. Or easier for a liquid, say blood, to flow down towards the tree.
The next day is the parade and the pageant. Slayer Club is as close to the stage as they can get. Tori is riding on the City Council float with the Congressman and Councilman Bright and the other two contestants. Joshua manages to get himself into the parade by convincing the driver of the Solomon Seals float that there's going to be a secret locker investigation this afternoon. Since school is out and there are police all around anyway, it'd be easy for Assistant Principal Teatart to open all the lockers, to be sure there aren't any "proscribed materials" in them. The driver, an outside linebacker on the football team, leaves to visit the Boys room, and probably clean out his locker, just in case. The Parade winds through downtown without incident, and the contestants arrive on the stage with much smiling and waving. Hartsdale, among the merchants at the back of the stage, turns in his vote for Tori, and Congressman Sorensen steps up to the podium to make his speech. Slayer Club has been scanning the area with binocs, trying to spot anyone who might be the instigator of the ritual, when Drew notices that the top of the Christmas tree has an unusual decoration -- usually a star, this year there's an angel. Focusing his binocs closer, he points out to the others that the angel looks very, very familiar -- her face is just like Bathory! Joshua hands off his gun to Erik and steps up, trying to make a scene, pointing towards the top of the tree and yelling about there being something evil up there. Erik panics and tries to find a trashcan to dump the piece. Two of the Congressman's bodyguards make their way to Joshua, while on stage, Andrea starts bleeding from the ears, nose and mouth, and faints. Tori and Marcy also have nose-bleeds. Sam jumps up on stage and picks up Andrea. That spurs the rest of the bodyguards to pile on Congressman Sorensen and get him away. Sam hands off Andrea to the EMT's that come to her aid. Hartsdale grabs Tori, who makes sure that Marcy is also moving off the stage, but their bleeding increases from eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. Drew tries to help Marcy, while Sam and Erik and use their mittens, hats and snow to stop the blood from flowing off the stage, and they get most of it, but not all. Erik monitors the tree with the magic-tricorder device. It's still humming with magic. Sam takes a running jump, and flies feet-first through the lattices of the tree, breaking a hole to the interior. It's dim and empty. Aluminum slats rise above her, and she begins to climb. Near the top, the lattices get closer together. Sam stops when she is within arm's length of the peak, and punches another hole in the woven greenery. She reaches through and grabs the angel from its perch. The body and wings are plastic, but the head is carved from wood. Bathory's features have a Madonna-like smile. Sam clings to the lattice with her legs, rips the angel into two pieces, and throws them out the hole as far as she can. As soon as the angel is out of the area of the pentagram, Erik reports that the magic level is less, but isn't gone. Sam drops to the ground and emerges from the tree. They have to take the whole thing down. She grabs the pieces of the angel to take with her, and goes to her truck, returning with a coil of rope, which she wraps around the tree, and attaches it to the Solomon Seals parade float. Erik grabs the wheel of the float, and drives away, pulling the tree down the street to the fence above the river. Just before they hit, Erik jumps clear and both Seal and pentagram-tree crash through, tumble down the bank, and break through the ice on the Green River. Back at the City Square, Councilman Bright finishes hastily counting the votes he has collected, and heaves a sigh of relief. He crowns Tori Snow Queen for the second year in a row. For the last time (we hope) the Monkees' "Daydream Believer" plays over the final montage, of the float sinking into the river, Tori and the other girls covered in blood, and lingering over the pieces of a broken Christmas Angel with a necromancer's face.
2.9 Hunted
Written and directed by Tim Ballew.
The events of this episode take place on the night of Friday, January 24th, 1992.
Teaser: The rumble of a chainsaw, the twang of a crossbow. Snow and sleet blow sideways before a nearly gale-force wind, but Slayer club is also out in force. Tori, Drew, Sam, Joshua, and Hartsdale stand in a clearing on Solomon Heights. Opposite them shuffle almost a dozen one-eyed snow-demons, covered in white fur, each with a long, curved horn on its forehead. The snow-demons charge. Erik flies overhead on a snowboard, decapitating one of the beasts and getting showered by blue goo. Drew gets tackled and both he and the demon fall though the snow into a small cave. Drew falls on top, stunning the beast, and skewers it in the eye. More goo erupts and the hole he fell through collapses. But from another passage, Drew hears singing and follows the sound. The cave widens and he finds a hot-spring pool, with about a dozen beautiful, scantily clad women lounging in the water or fletching arrows along the side. A tall, willowy redhead with slightly Elven features spots Drew spying on them and cries out. All the women spring to their feet and draw bows. The leader raises her hand to stay the attack, looks Drew in the eye and says "Run!" Drew is dumbstruck by her naked beauty, but then shakes himself and runs down another passage, out onto the side of Solomon Heights, and down the trail. (Commercial Break)
Drew's downhill flight is halted by three heavily-bundled figures with flashlights coming up the trail. Not rangers or police, the shortest of the three carries a sword and an axe, but more like a porter than a warrior. Sonia Thompson is round-faced, college-age, and seems dumbstruck by Drew's arrival. The other two are Samira, a kohl-eyed woman swathed in black with red roses embroidered around her hood, and Malachi O'Malley, a six-foot-six bear of a man, with one glove on his right hand. The left sleeve ends, empty. Both speak with Middle Eastern accents and question Drew about what he is doing here, so late at night. Drew throws their questions back at them, but eventually admits that he'd been fighting 'Abominable Snowmen'. At his description, Samira nods and claims to have hunted such demons in Kurdistan. Drew leads the trio back up the mountain toward the snow-beast clearing, where they meet the rest of Slayer Club, who were looking for another entrance to the cave to find Drew. Sam is relieved to find him, but something is odd - he looks different. Although he's wearing the same maroon parka that he always wears, he's taller, broader through the shoulders, his face rugged and handsome, rather like a young Antonio Banderas. And, Sonia can't keep her eyes off him. This oddity is shelved, for the moment, while Slayer Club quizzes the newcomers. It is established that Malachi is from Israel (his father was Irish) and Samira is Syrian, by way of Cairo. They came to Solomon to contact Michael (who is out of town) and the Slayer. From his perch in a tree, Joshua spots several women watching them from up the hill - some are vampires in game-face, and too many to take on right now. Sam admits that she is the Slayer, and suggests they go someplace warmer to talk. When they reach the cars, Sam pulls "Drew" aside and kisses him. He kisses just like Drew, but when they come out from behind her Jeep, his face has changed again. He looks older, about thirty, still handsome, but less rugged, more refined. His nose is aquiline, with deep, brown eyes, olive complexion and glossy, jet-black hair that falls to his shoulders.
Sam likes this version of Drew. At the Sacred Grounds, she can't keep from running her fingers through his hair and leaning close to whisper and nibble at his ears. Drew loves the attention and returns it in full measure, up to the point when he has to go to the men's room. When he comes out, the first person who sees him is Joshua, who is talking to Cora, but does a full-swivel head turn to watch Kelly LeBrock from Weird Science walk past - wearing Drew's flannel shirt, unbuttoned over a white T-shirt. Cora is not amused, and slugs Joshua in the stomach before storming out. Drew is bewildered. In the mirror in the men's room, he'd only seen himself. When he returns to the table with Joshua alternately staring at his chest, and shaking himself to stop it, Sam is taken aback. They figure out that whenever Drew is alone, the first person who sees him, he appears as their ideal of beauty. So, Sam takes Drew down to the basement to be alone, and they don't come back until Hartsdale calls down that there are vampires and Sam has to come kill them. Tori calls the contact number that Michael left, and confirms that Malachi and Samira are agents of the Temple of Solomon, on the trail of an immortal witch who broke out of the Temple facility and was responsible for the loss of Malachi's hand. Melina Demetra hunted demon-hunters (also witch-hunters) throughout Europe in the 16th century and was known to be adept with glamours and shapeshifting. Her description matches the Titian-haired beauty who gave Drew a head start. Slayer Club decides to research a way to get Drew un-glamoured, (not that Drew or Sam are complaining) but at the back door of the Theater they find a nasty surprise: Tony, Joshua's "Family friend," shot in the back with arrows. The blood is still tacky. Nearby is a manila envelope, which Joshua scoops up as he scans the street around them. Nothing stirs. Erik picks up Tony's body and everybody hurries inside. In the envelope are photographs of other bodies shot with arrows, which Joshua says are associates of Tony's, couriers that sometimes brought information to Solomon. There's a photo of a building, which Malachi identifies as the place where he and Samira rented an office. The final photograph is of Vivian. The warning is unmistakable, and fresh. Vivian is allied with Melina and her handmaidens, and they are coming for Slayer Club. Soon.
Footsteps sound on the roof. Malachi, Samira and Joshua go up, a bewildered Sonia with them. When the Martense College work study office sent her to be Malachi's assistant, she thought she'd be typing and answering the phone, not carrying an axe and following him into battle. Erik and Tori cover the back door. Hartsdale covers the front by himself. Sam and Drew swear that they'll be right there, as soon as he needs help. Just a few more minutes... Joshua jumps out on the roof, guns blazing. Samira proves to be an excellent knife-fighter and beheads one of the elfin Semitan demons, which dies with a crackle of electricity and a piercing scream. Hartsdale goes back into the theater, shielding his eyes against the sight of his protege and her paramour, more undressed than he would really prefer seeing them, and asks Sam to close her eyes. She does, and feels the flesh under her hands soften. Sam jumps back. Looking up at her is Diana Riggs, as she appeared in The Avengers. Sam throws Drew's shirt at her and quickly ties her own closed. Hartsdale swears he will explain later, but now threre's the sound of breaking wood, as Vivian kicks in the boards across the front window, and vampires pour into the theater. In the fighting, all eyes are off Drew for a moment, but the first person to look his way is Tori - and Drew is male again, with supple muscles and short, brown hair, blown dry and probably moussed. His face looks just like Joshua, if Joshua had a slightly bigger chin. The fight continues until there's only Vivian and Melina left. Vivian looks ready to jump in, but Melina stops her. Drew catches the witch's eye, and says, coldly "Run." Melina smiles, and she and Vivian disappear.
2.10 Karma
Written and directed by Tim Ballew.
The events of this episode take place on the Friday and Saturday, January 24-25, 1992.
We open at the Paradise Theater, exactly where Hunted left off. Michael arrives back from Boston, greets Samira and Malachi as old friends, and comments on the "new decorations" - broken boards and such. Drew looks like Joshua (thanks to Tori), but Sam quickly pulls him into the cloak-room to reset his appearance to her liking. Tori glares daggers at Sam. Research is needed to find out what kind of curse is on Drew, and how to break it. Samira and Malachi return to their office. Most of Slayer Club goes through Hartsdale's books, and then over to Kevin's house. Joshua calls his father from a pay-phone to tell him what happened to Tony, and then goes to the Old Salem to tell Sylvia. Sylvia recognizes Melina's name - before she 'went bad' in the late 1500's, Melina Dimetra was one of the founders of the Benandanti, and she can do everything that Sylvia can do (Astral project and go wolfy at will). But, she still killed Tony, and that just doesn't sit right with Sylvia, who promises to track Melina to find out where her lair is. Michael also recognizes Melina, for he was the one who arrested her. He remembers that she once loved a demon-hunter named Donovan, and surmises that Donovan broke her heart, precipitating the murderous rampage against other demon-hunters all over Europe. But it was a long time ago, and Michael doesn't remember the details. He remembers tracking Melina down, and cornering her in a castle before placing her in the custody of the Temple, but that's all. At the Vastarley house, Kevin is babysitting Ilia, when Melina arrives and asks to speak to "Astar" (Kevin's mom). Kevin takes a message, but won't let her in. Melina says that she is mentioned in The Black Sutra, and then leaves. The Black Sutra is a collection of curses in many languages, one part of which Melina wrote in Ancient Greek, about "The Curse of Actaeon" - which sounds exactly like what happened to Drew. Unfortunately, the only ways to break it are by killing the victim or by reciting an invocation known only to the caster. Michael suggests stopping Drew's heart for a few seconds and then reviving him, but Drew objects to this idea. An unfortunate spell by Ilia knocks everyone out for a moment and, when they come to, the first one to see Drew... is Erik, who blushes mightily and goes to stand out on the porch. Sam looks up to see - herself. Only, more... comic-book like. Erik is embarrassed. Sam is both shocked and amused. She had no idea Erik liked her that way. Drew is confused, until Sam pulls him away to "reset" him again and explain what happened. Michael mutters about "King Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot." Afraid to be seen by his parents, Drew decides to spend the night at Kevin's house. Kevin's mom comes out with a horse-tranquilizer and shoots Sam in the arm, "So Drew can get some sleep." Michael promises to take the unconscious Slayer back to her own house.
In the morning, there's great debate as to who should first see Drew when he comes out of the guest room. Kevin doesn't want to do it. Kevin's mom and dad refuse to do it. So, they call Cora, a supposedly neutral party. Not! Drew becomes the image of Tori, and Cora seems very friendly with 'her.' Kevin manages to get Cora to go downstairs, where his mother employs the trank-gun again. Next, they call Juanita. Surprise! Drew becomes himself. However, Juanita won't let go of him. After a brief scuffle, they manage to get her tranquilized, too. Drew is pleased to have his own face again, but mightily disturbed that it was Juanita who brought it out. At the Kessler house, Sam wakes up, strangely more clear-headed than she's felt in days. A note pinned to her shirt says "see me first - Michael." On the way to his apartment, Michael meets her on the street, glassy-eyed - the building where Samira and Malachi had their office was blown up, and Malachi is dead. The explosion brings Joshua running from church, where he was praying for Tony's soul (which would take a lot of praying). Worried that there might also be a bomb at the theater, the three go there. The theater is being watched from the shadows by several vampires, with Vivian and a tall red-head, Melina's second-in-command. Joshua and Michael stay to keep an eye on the vamps watching the theater, and Sam heads for Kevin's house to get the others. Vivian intercepts her in an alley and they engage in taunts and fisticuffs. The vampires at the theater are drawn towards the fight. Michael manages to kill one of them and take her place. Vivian and the others run away. Slayer Club meets at the Sacred Grounds with Sylvia and Sal, who came up from Jersey to get Tony's body. Sal says that the Family courier in the photo was supposed to be carrying a wooden box that the Family had kept in Sicily for centuries. No one knows how old it is, or what it's for, but it's never been opened and is practically indestructible. That box was supposed to be brought here in hopes that Slayer Club could shed some light on the mystery of it. But now, evidently, Melina has it. Sylvia found Melina's lair - an abandoned church on Martense grounds, and she also brought a book of Benandanti lore with a picture of Melina and her long-ago lover, a Watcher named Donovan Kavanaugh. Everyone stares - Donovan looks like an older version of Drew, with a goatee. And in the painting, Melina looks like a certain comic-book heroine that Drew admits he's always had a crush on - Wolvesbane, a character whose powers also bear an uncanny resemblance to Melina's. He digs out the comic, and the picture on the cover is an almost exact match of the picture in Sylvia's book. Kevin calls it a "Karmic Circle." Drew decides that he has to talk to Melina. Because if he really is a reincarnation of this Donovan - and he cringes at the thought of having been a Watcher in a previous life - then she thinks that he's him, and that's why she cast the curse on him, and they really, really need to talk. Slayer Club goes to back him up, but Drew walks into the church alone, except for Kevin's family raven perched on his shoulder. He even leaves his sword with Sam, but she won't let him go without a kiss.
In the church, Drew is met by Michael, still disguised as a vampire, and gets escorted down to the crypt, where Melina is. But halfway down the stairs, they meet Vivian coming up. Vivian decides that Drew looks too tasty to pass up a little bite. Drew pushes her down the stairs, and she pulls him down with her. The raven flies out, and that brings in the cavalry. Joshua, who climbed up the bell-tower into the organ loft, lets loose with a stream of automatic weapons' fire until he runs out of bullets. Sam bursts in the church-doors and races down the side-aisle, barely pausing to cut down a couple of vamps who get in her way. Tori, Kevin, and Erik follow, while the mobsters deal with the remaining minions. Down in the crypt, Drew finds a fountain of water and eerie-looking lights, and an open box that seemed to have contained many small objects that left indents in the velvet lining. Each indent has a different-colored shimmering residue in it. Vivian tackles him, and he falls in the water. Picking himself up, he picks up the box and is engulfed in scintillating lights and otherworldly music. (An alert viewer will recognize the theme from Quantum Leap.) Drew comes to when a large hand grips him by the collar, yanks him up out of the fountain and sets him on his feet. Drew wipes the water out of his eyes, and sees Michael, dressed in Arabian scale-mail with his falchion sheathed across his back. Behind him stand several other figures, in clothes appropriate to the 1500's. Drew reaches up to his chin, feels the goatee there, and quietly murmurs, "Oh, Boy."
2.11 Quantum Leap (Vampire Hunter Drew)
Written and directed by Tim Ballew.
The original screenplay for this episode is available online.
The events of this episode take place on the night of Wednesday, October 17, 1582.
Drew picks up the open box in the middle of the fountain, and is transported four hundred years into the past. He wakes up in the body of Donovan Kavanaugh, Watcher, Demon-hunter, trainer of Valerie, a French Potential Slayer, and on-again-off-again lover of Melina Demetra, a cogent werewolf and founder of the Benedanti Order. Drew/Donovan meets his team again for the first time: Marcus Harcourt, specialist in alchemy and herbology; Ewan St. Claire, a Scottish blacksmith; Sophia Kernig, a Bavarian clockmaker and enchantress (who is in love with Ewan, and he with her); Valerie, his Potential Slayer charge; Kartovil Vastarley, a gypsy thief who was caught stealing books from the Watchers and put to work for them; and Milchamah Kashaph Sayier, the same entity who teaches Drew Modern Mythology, only four hundred years younger.
Together, the team fights vampires, living statues and demon guardsmen on their way through the corridors and torture chambers of Dracula's summer castle. Drew even crosses swords with the Count himself, and scores a hit on him! Finding Melina, he confronts her with his knowledge of the future. Melina mentions someone known as The White Philosopher, who was searching for the Orbs of Creation - seven supremely powerful items, each made with a bit of the quintessence of one of the planetary spheres. The box that brought Drew here was made by Donovan and Melina, during a time they were on good terms, to hold those Orbs and keep them safe. She agrees to join forces with him again, to stop the Philosopher from using the Orbs to make himself a god.
When the team confronts the White Philosopher, Drew gets another surprise. The Philosopher is none other than Professor Abernathy! Abernathy drinks some of an elixir made from the Orbs soaking in a chalice, but Drew shoots the cup out of his hands, and his team gathers up the scattered Orbs. Abernathy falls to what appears to be his death but Drew kows better. The team puts the Orbs back in their places in the box, and it seals tight around them.
Drew wakes up again, back in 1992, with Sam fussing over him with unnatural affection. Drew says the magic words: "I'm not him" and the Curse of Actaeon is broken, with mixed feelings all around.
2.12 Utopia
Written and directed by Tim Ballew.
The events of this episode take place on the night of Saturday, January 25, 1992.
Drew's body is once again his own, but his heart belongs to Samantha. Tori has the Potential for more than just Slayerdom, and Slayer Club runs all over town through sleet and snow and freezing rain... One would think they were trying out to be mailmen.
As soon as the Curse of Actaeon is broken, Drew declares to Sam that he loves her more than anything in the world, and he's scared to death of losing her. Sam is more than surprised, but shelves her reaction, for now, in order to focus on saving the world.
From the chapel at Martense, Slayer Club goes back to their (not so secret) hideout at the theater to get the magical tricorder so they can track where Melina took the Orbs of Creation. Magic that strong leaves a trail like a ten-foot long slug-beast and should be easy to follow. There, they find Juanita, decked out in a leather cat suit and a crossbow. She's ready to help them save the world, and coincidentally be close to Drew.
Drew explains how he saw Dean Abernathy -- a.k.a. Joseph, the White Philosopher -- in 1582, when he geased Melina into opening the Orbs' casket. Apparently, he's done it again so he can re-make St. Germain's into something more to his liking -- a version of Atlantis where he is worshipped. The school's red brick buildings are transformed into white marble ziggurats. The students are attired in white robes and sandals. Even the weather has changed from deep winter to a balmy spring evening with flowering trees and chirping birds. At the central ziggurat, they find Abernathy being adored by students and faculty, and surrounded by spear-wielding guards. Melina pulls Drew aside and tells him that Abernathy has six of the seven Orbs, but there are people who have control of him, and they have the last one. She describes Tori's father as one in league with those powers.
From St. Germain's to Tori's house, where four blue demons are riffling through her father's study. Slayer Club captures them and they confess that Abernathy sent them to find the Orb, but they didn't find it. Michael dispatches these baby-eating demons with one swing of his falchion. Just then, the phone rings; Tori takes a message for Mr. Clark to call "Ferguson." Looking through his papers, she finds mention of a Thomas Ferguson of Wolfram & Hart, a law office in Los Angeles. Tori calls her father's downtown office to give him the message. He tells her to stay at home, which of course she doesn't. Cars approach the house, so Slayer Club retreats through the back, pursued by men with flashlights, guns, and a helicopter. Behind them, they hear the howl of a wolf, and gunfire.
From Tori's house back to Martense, where Slayer Club (and Juanita, and Michael) all pile into a taxi to go to Mr. Clark's office. There, Joshua and Tori take turns questioning Mr. Clark, with Sylvia's help. She knows that W&H have Ilia at St. Germain's, and she wants her protege back. Mr. Clark won't say much, except that the Orb is in a safe. Joshua has a brain-blast, and takes off toward the theater. Sylvia takes custody of Mr. Clark, and the rest of Slayer Club goes after Joshua.
At the theater, several dozen black-suited employees of Wolfram & Hart are 'securing' the final Orb. Joshua gets to the catwalks above the stage without anyone being the wiser. He ties a rope around his waist and in an amazing show of dexterity, swoops down on the man who has a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist. Joshua swings his sword, cutting off the man's hand, then grabs the briefcase and cuts the rope behind him, which slingshots him down the aisle, where he lands, tumbling, and runs for the stairs down to the basement. Slayer Club arrives. Michael cold-cocks the guard at the back door and gives the gun to Sam. Shots ring out. Michael conjures a thick smoke for cover, and Sam wades through, firing at W&H suits and occasionally stooping to claim a fresh weapon. Michael pulls out an anarchist-style bomb that he throws out into the lobby, sending suits flying in all directions. Cars squeal away. Sam shoots out the tires of the last one, sending it spinning into a fire hydrant. The driver and a blonde woman with an 80's-style cell-phone get out just before the car explodes. Sam aims carefully, and shoots. The woman falls, shot in the leg. Sam lets the driver get away, but picks the woman up and carries her back inside.
Sirens wail. Slayer Club makes tracks to the Old Salem Brew Pub, where Sylvia has been interrogating Mr. Clark. The captive Wolfram & Hart employees are questioned -- W&H plans to force Abernathy to use the Orbs for their purposes, and Mr. Clark was promised safety for himself and Tori through a portal to an alternate dimension where they could live. Joshua overheard the blonde woman on the cell phone ask someone "if they have the girl" and "she's the only one who can stop it now." Joshua and Tori take the briefcase outside to examine and carefully open. Tori, mesmerized, takes the Orb of Mars in her hand and the old Gypsy woman's voice sounds in her mind -- "Choooooose." She is a Potential Slayer. But if she chooses, that potential could be turned to another task. She could destroy the Orb, which would nullify all of them. The seven orbs can only function with each other.
And we end, with Tori's eyes shining in the light of Mars, the choice still un-made.
Interlude: Conversations
Written by Jodi Roosenraad, Greg Pearson and Tim Ballew.
2.13 Dystopia
Written and directed by Tim Ballew.
The events of this episode take place on the night of Sunday, January 26, 1992.
5 AM, the Old Salem Brew Pub - After speaking with Melina, Drew goes back up to the parlour in search of sleep, but instead finds Sam on her knees, trying to pray. But it's not going well. She throws her rosary across the room in frustration and Drew retrieves it. When the crucifix touches his palm he's hit by a psychometric vision of Sam killing the Wolfram & Hart lawyers, and then back through time to killing Countess Bathory who bathed in the blood of virgins, to the night Sam was Called to be Slayer and led Drew to the morgue, and even further back - to when Sam was fourteen years old. She went on a hunting trip with her father and his friend, and his friend's eighteen year old son. When the fathers were out of sight, the boy turned on Sam and raped her. In a rage, she pushed him out of the hunting blind, and he fell on his own gun and was killed. Sam has been carrying guilt and self-loathing over that incident for nearly four years. Drew consoles her, saying that she is still a hero - by killing her rapist, she insured that he could never harm another girl. Then, Drew relates the story he heard from Melina - how in a previous lifetime, he allowed a massacre of hundreds of people to take place when he could have stopped it. So, they both have their own demons to face. They drag a couple of sofas next to each other, disarm their weapons, and go to sleep. Just before nodding off, Drew whispers "I love you, Sam. More than anything in the world."
8 AM - Just after dawn, Prof. Abernathy's unnatural springtime expands over the whole town, pushing before it a wall of turbulence that downs one of Wolfram & Hart's black helicopters, but the passengers escape to one of Solomon's subterranean tunnels. Melina chants a circle of protection for the Brew Pub, but it won't hold for long. Slayer Club has to move again. They gather their equipment and go to the high school. There, they find other students from Michael's Mythology class armed with crosses and stakes, holding out against the chaos outside. They even dusted a vampire that got in. The gym, with its Solomon Seal in the middle of the floor, seems unchanged, but the rest of the school is white marble and archways. Tori still holds the Orb of Mars, but is unsure what to do with it. Between Michael asking if she'd claimed the Orb as her own, and Kevin's suggestion that she meditate to ignore all distractions, Tori decides to take a shower. With Sam guarding the door to the Girls' locker room, Tori turns on all the shower-heads and sits with the Orb in her palms, listening to the faint music and voice that comes from it - "Choooose... Choooose..."
Close up on Tori's lips - "I make the choice." The orb sinks into her right palm. Red-gold energy spreads up her arm, into her torso. Her entire body is burnished sun-tan, and even her hair is streaked with sunny highlights. Tori's hazel eyes flash. She turns off the water, dries herself and dresses with a minimum of fuss, leaving her hair wild and damp. She walks out of the locker room transformed. Everyone is impressed, except Cora. Suntan and highlights don't fit her Goth image.
Slayer Club plans to "borrow" a school bus, drive to St. Germain's and confront the White Philosopher. A good plan, except that on the way to the school parking lot, they meet Vivian, a massive, horned demon, and a dozen Wolfram & Hart Black Ops lawyers who got into the school through the tunnels. With the Kavanaugh Sword made of "otherworldly" alloy, Drew opens a large gash in the demon's stomach, but he's quickly knocked down. Juanita pulls him out of the fighting and tries to administer "first aid." Drew resists, but not nearly enough. Kevin, Michael and Erik all take cuts at the demon, but its skin is impervious to their blades and it knocks them all back, roaring and swinging fists. Sam throws Vivian into the middle of the soldiers, while Joshua takes potshots aiming for their knees. Vivian picks herself up and leaps at Tori. Sword to her throat, she hisses "you're coming with me." Sam draws her sword and aims it at Vivian's neck. "I think not." Tori glares at Vivian. "Don't piss me off." She takes the flat of Vivian's sword between her palms and thrusts sharply. The pommel hits Vivian in the face and she drops her weapon. The three of them fight. In the end, Sam decapitates her predecessor and Tori claims Vivian's sword - a beautiful and well-made Chinese straight sword, stronger and more flexible than her cutlass. Two of the Black Ops lawyers shoot Sam with Taser guns, but that doesn't faze her. She thrusts her sword up into the demon's heart, through the cut that Drew made, and then turns to face the soldiers. "Leave now, and never come back." They gather their wounded, and retreat.
Slayer Club goes to St. Germain's. Sylvia takes Juanita and Cora to help Ilia fight the mages who are trying to hold her captive (and to give Juanita a little talking-to). The rest of the group climbs the stairs of the central ziggaurat. They find Abernathy in his throne room, with a succubus for a secretary. He tries to make a deal with Tori, but she won't hear of it. So, he pulls out the Orbs of Jupiter and Venus and throws lightning bolts and firehose-pressure water jets at them. Melina asks Drew to help her, takes his hand and draws enough energy to cast a spell - Peace, which disallows any forceful actions by anyone who has peace in his soul. But Tori is now the avatar of War, so she's immune, but she doesn't kill Abernathy. Instead, she gives him a lecture on morality, and knocks him out. The succubus comes to his defense, but once Melina lets the spell go, Michael has no trouble cutting the demon in two. The remaining six Orbs are placed in their case, and it seals shut. Abernathy is turned over to Michael, who vows to take him back to the Temple HQ in Israel. At Drew's suggestion, Melina is released into the custody of Sylvia and the Benedanti, who of anyone on earth, would be most capable of holding her... if they actually wanted to. They also receive the case of Orbs for safekeeping.
With the removal of Abernathy's will to power, the sphere of springtime collapses on itself, transforming all the buildings back into their normal brick, timber and clapboard. All except the St. Germain's administration building, where his throne room was. That remains a 23-story stepped pyramid that dominates the Solomon skyline until City Council can decide what to do with it.
2.14 It Came From the North
Written and directed by Jodi Roosenraad.
The events of this episode take place between Friday, April 10th and Monday, April 13th, 1992.
In the wake of Tori's father's sudden departure, her Aunt Ruth invites her mother to her beach house in North Carolina for a week of "sun and sand and daiquiris and no Thomas." Tori will come too, of course, and is invited to bring along some of her friends. Meanwhile, Hartsdale gets a call from Ivan and Misha who tell him they've learned the location of Wheelock's Compendium of Transmutations, a book that the Watchers have been searching for for decades. The book has the side effect of driving its readers insane and Ivan and Misha's employers would just as soon see it taken out of circulation...say, safely locked up in a library in England somewhere. They give Hartsdale the address of its current location, a used bookstore in Raleigh called the Quill and Pen.
Tori and her mother fly down to the Outer Banks while Sam and Drew drive in her Jeep and Joshua and Erik go in Erik's to minimize conflict over their music selections (not to mention the lingering awkwardness between Sam, Drew, and Erik). Erik and Joshua alternate between The Pixies, Joy Division, and "alternative rock" bands like They Might Be Giants and Phish. Drew prefers cheesy '80s bands like Heart and Journey, while Sam likes both kinds of music - country and western. Hartsdale drives alone to Raleigh (listening to NPR).
On the way south, Slayer Club stops in Atlantic City to spend the night at Joshua's home and pick up some folding chairs and umbrellas, a volleyball set and boogie-board. Joshua's mother Tabitha is petite and athletic, a combination of gymnastics mother and drill sergeant. She hugs her son, and then immediately starts grilling him about his workout regimen and demands to see his competition routine before he leaves again. They have a whole room devoted to trophies - Tabitha and Joshua's from gymnastics, and a double shelf of football trophies that Ron and Joshua's brother Isaiah acquired in high school and college. His father is a tall man, formerly well-muscled but gone a little to fat over the years. Chief of security for a large casino, he works long hours dealing with difficult people, so when he comes home, peace and quiet are not luxuries, they are requirements. But like most things, he deals with Slayer Club's arrival with equanimity, shakes everyone's hand, listens while Tabitha talks to Joshua and the others over dinner, and then retires to his big, leather recliner in the TV room. Sam is given Joshua's sister's room while the boys bed down in sleeping bags in the basement.
The next day, Slayer Club departs early once Joshua promises his mother (again) that he will work doubly hard to prepare for the upcoming qualifiers for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. They arrive at Aunt Ruth's "little summer place" on the island of St. Ignatius just in time for dinner. The beach is just a few blocks away, with boardwalk, sand court volleyball, "Muscle Beach," a picnic area and a small carnival at the end of the pier. At the far end of the beach, sea caves emerge with the low tide and then disappear underwater again twice daily, a promising place to explore with snorkels or scuba gear, which lessons are offered through Mr. Wong's Surf Shop, where one can also buy a custom-painted surfboard, custom T-shirts, or any kind of swimming apparel.
After dinner, Slayer Club decides to check out the carnival. Sam wins Drew a large stuffed tiger at the "Hammer-swing" and Drew wins her a teddy-bear at the water-pistol shooting range. They ride the rides - rollercoaster and tilt-a-whirl, Viking longship, carousel and cyclotron. While riding a carved dragon on the carousel, beside Drew on a winged griffon, Sam notices a very pale face moving among the animals ahead of them. The vampire has spiky, blond hair and a long, black leather coat - a dead ringer for Kieffer Sutherland. She catches his eye, and he nods politely, and keeps moving. Sam nudges Drew and points out the blood-sucker. They dismount and try to follow, but lose him in the crowd. Unfortunately, after all the motion-sickness, death-defying rides (who knows how tightly that rollercoaster is put together?) Tori has a accident, throwing up in the Cyclotron, and decides to head back to Aunt Ruth's to change her clothes. Joshua walks with her, and they talk about "things" - life, expectations of them from their parents, how Tori is holding up with her transformation to Goddess of War.
Back at the carnival, Erik checks out the tattoo artist's booth and gets separated from the others. That's when the Lost Boys wanna-be's make their move. They don't like the T-Shirt Erik had made - Bela Legosi's Dracula-face with a big, red "Not" symbol over it. Erik tries to keep them talking long enough for Sam to catch up, but the lead vampire grabs him and takes a bite - just as Sam and Drew get there. She stakes the vamp that has Erik and then makes short work of the other two while Drew tries to distract them with amazing, if unintentional, feats of clumsiness.
The next day, Slayer Club goes to the beach, modeling their new swimsuits and playing volleyball. Tori's is a red bikini that shows off her tan curves, while Sam's navy blue one-piece with the peekaboo belly displays her muscles and gives the illusion of an hourglass figure. The boys sport two-tone swim trunks in primary colors, and although they're all rather pale from the Massachusetts winter, Slayer Club activities have kept them all in good shape. Erik and Joshua take on Sam and Tori in volleyball, and manage to beat them, since Sam's Slayer-strength Tori's tactical knowledge aren't as much of an advantage there. Other teens gather to watch. A pair of girls, Chrissa and Megan, challenge the winners to another match, and this time the girl's team wins. Turns out, Megan is the captain of the UNC Chapel Hill women's volleyball team, while Chrissa is their star spiker. Also, Erik was completely distracted by Chrissa's blonde hair, big smile, and bouncy - personality. She notices him noticing her, and after the game she invites him to join her at the bonfire party where there will be a live band and fireworks to kick off the official start of Spring Break.
While Slayer Club enjoys St. Ignatius, Hartsdale arrives in Raleigh and finds the bookstore - a small, musty hole in the wall place, as most shops of that kind are. The proprietor is as musty and wizened as his wares, but he recognizes the Wheelock name, because he just sold it a few days before. Hartsdale asks him for the name of the purchaser. Anthony Neilson, of St. Ignatius. Continuing his search, Hartsdale turns east. Fortunately, it's only a few more hours on the road to reach the island. He meets up with Slayer Club on the boardwalk, explaining how his search for the Wheelock's Compendium has led him here. They wish him luck with his search but beg off, citing previous mini-golf plans. Hartsdale's eyes light up at that and he decides to postpone his book search for a little while to join them. He proves to be insanely competitive, handing out penalty strokes left and right, and mopping the floor with Sam, Drew and Erik. Tori and Joshua, far too cool to be caught dead playing mini-golf, remain behind on the beach talking.
That evening, at the bonfire, Drew and Sam dance while the others roast marshmallows and grill hamburgers. Joshua notices one of the local townies - a young man who works at the Surf Shop - getting picked on by some of the Muscle Beach weightlifters. Erik and Chrissa talk some more. She seems fascinated by his tattoos and allusions to a dangerous lifestyle, especially the fresh bite-mark on his neck. At first Erik is befuddled by this, but remembers that Chrissa was out in the sun all day, so she can't possibly be a vampire. Besides, she's cute and cuddly, and not at all shy when Erik puts an arm around her. Before long, they're exploring each others' tonsils. Sam and Drew are pleased that Erik has found someone, at least for a "Spring Fling" and that Joshua and Tori seem to be getting along very well, although there's no tonsil-hockey going on there.
The next morning, Mr. Wong at the surf shop is heard loudly complaining that Tony never showed up for work this morning, and now his daughter Amy hasn't been seen, either. It turns out that Tony the painter of surfboards is the same Anthony Neilson, purchaser of dangerous compendiums. Slayer Club looks his address up in the phone book and goes to his house, where they find nobody home, but the screen door is broken off its hinges and a trail of broken furniture and deep finger-gouges on the banister lead up to the attic bedroom. There they find Wheelock's Compendium on the floor, along with a box of acrylic paints, drying but still tacky where some of them spilled. Drew notices a pile of comic books in the corner - mostly Mighty Thor. He and Erik agree that Anthony's taste in comics sucks. Hartsdale takes custody of the Compendium, which was open to a ritual that would allow a person to take on the physical attributes of a mythological figure, but requires inscribing a symbol of the myth onto the body. Traditionally, this was done by scarification or tattooing, but paints would work as well. On the way back to the beach, Slayer club stops at the General Store and buys several gallons of turpentine paint thinner, for use in Drew and Erik's super-soakers.
The boardwalk is in chaos. Someone - or something - had rampaged through Muscle Beach, torn apart the weightlifting equipment and thrown it into the sea. All the weightlifters have bruises, and one guy has a broken arm from being picked up and thrown by a giant with red hair and a long, red beard. That doesn't sound like Mighty Thor of the comic books, but it does sound like mythological descriptions of the god, although Erik is distressed to find the reality less heroic and more barbarous than he'd imagined. The picnic tables are overturned, volleyball nets torn to shreds, and the trail of destruction leads north toward the sea caves.
Slayer Club swims into the dry caverns that pock the cliffs like Swiss cheese. The sounds of sobbing and deep, hammering of stone on stone echo through the caves lit blue and green by the sunlight coming up through the water. After some searching, Sam finds Amy Wong in one of the caves. She's crying, muttering "Stupid boy. I loved him anyway. Now my father will never let me out of the house again!" A little further on, they find Anthony - transformed into the red-bearded image of Thor, with a large hammer painted on his shoulder - pounding boulders against the back wall of the cave. His roaring is incoherent, but when he spies Slayer Club, he charges at them. Drew and Erik squirt him with turpentine, and Sam braces to stop his charge. However, Joshua runs straight at Thor and jumps, attempting to vault over him, but slips in the turpentine and instead of up and over, just slides off of his shoulders - taking most of the paint with him. With the marking gone, Thor transforms back into the skinny figure of the surf-shop assistant, much chagrined but unharmed by the process. He apologizes to Amy for kidnapping her, but in his altered state, he wasn't entirely in control of himself. They return to her father, and Slayer Club emerges from the caves, bemused but victorious. The rest of the week is uneventful. Hartsdale and Aunt Ruth spend several evenings watching Jeopardy! together, Erik and Chrissa spend much of the week together before drifting apart by the second weekend, and Tori and Joshua spend lots of time with each other.