3.22: Last Knight

[EmilyH]

Episode 3.22: Last Knight

Is anyone else planning to watch this when it airs next week? I never did see the end, but heard about it online. I remember seeing about some of it, then it ended with "to be continued..." but I never got to see the next part.

 

[Highlander II]

Well, I plan to watch it -- but what I might end up doing is tapin' it and waiting until I see the whole series --- b/c, I'll admit, I'm a little lost viewing all the stuff at the end here --

So, I might wait until it comes back around to the end b4 I actually watch it ---

 

[Gryffon]

I'll probably watch it...perhaps not when it's on, but sometime that week. Before I'd seen it the first time, I already knew, more or less, what was going to happen (I found out online), so maybe that's why I'll still watch it...I honestly don't know.

 

[EmilyH]

Highlander, you're probably better off waiting. However, if you want to be spoiled beforehand, just do a web search on "Last Knight."

 

[Highlander II]

nah - i'll wait --

i'm not that impatient ---

 

[EmilyH]

Contains minor spoilers. No details though.





S
P
O
I
L
E
R

S
P
A
C
E




Well, I watched Last Knight, even though I knew it was probably going to make me cry, and it did. Mostly I watched it because I have a plot bunny bouncing around in my head, and I wanted to see the episode before I started the story.

I noticed something about Last Knight. I knew I'd seen it the first time, but I guess I needed a memory refresher. The whole episode is weird. It's like a dream or one long flashback. If that's true, perhaps there is some hope for a happy ending...at least, in fan fiction.

 

[Smitty]

A lot I liked about this episode, a lot I didn't. :\

For the record, I was not a big fan of the 3rd season. But that was mainlu due to John Kapelos (Schanke) and Deborah DuChene (Janette) leaving the show. I was not happy about.
Not really a fan of Tracy Vetter's. Though her last word to Nick ("You could've trusted me") packed an emotional wallop.

Pros: LeCroix's reading of thhis sonnet was great and the way they used it to intro each segment was really good. I liked that.
Nick as he handed the stake to LeCroix, when he told why ("Because you are my oldest dearest friend") also packed an emotional wallop. I liked that as well.

Cons: Natalie Natalie Natalie. Her selfish b*tch attitude, I was glad when she layed on the floor dead. Good riddance.

But still a really good episode and I still consider it one of my favorites, even with the faults, ie Nat. Ugh.

-cs

 

[EmilyH]

I personally liked Nat.

She was a strong character, true, but so many sci-fi shows either have the damsel in distress or else the stereotypical "chick in chainmail" archetype. It was a refreshing change.

I didn't think Nat was b----y at all.

 

[Smitty]

I'm just talking about that episode.

Recall Tracy dying in the hospital and Nick considered bringing her across?
Nat says,"you can consider it for her but not for me."
I was like 'shut up'.
Frankly, I didn't like her attitude during LK.

But, I'm not a Nick/Nat packer anyway. I would've rather seen Nick and Janette get back together. But Deborah Duchene deciding to leave before the 3rd season threw that out the window.

-cs

 

[EmilyH]

Recall Tracy dying in the hospital and Nick considered bringing her across?
Nat says,"you can consider it for her but not for me."

True. However, at that point she was hurt, thinking Nick didn't love her. To Nat in her state of mind, Nick bringing her across would have been a show of love. To Nick, he was expressing his love by protecting her innocence, just like with Fleur. Once a knight, always a knight.

I'm also one of those who firmly believe the entire ep was a flashback or bad dream, possibly caused by Nick drinking one too many of Nat's concoctions. Or else it was Nat's flashback, having survived and remembering it later on. Otherwise, why go to the trouble of shooting so much in slow-mo, if not to show it as surreal? I'll have to watch it again sometime soon. Have it taped. Don't like to watch LK, as it always makes me want to cry.

 

[Smitty]

Originally posted by EmilyH
I'm also one of those who firmly believe the entire ep was a flashback or bad dream, possibly caused by Nick drinking one too many of Nat's concoctions. Or else it was Nat's flashback, having survived and remembering it later on.

It appears we are on the same page Em.
Actually I see the entire final season to be a longer drawn out version of Curiouser and Curiouser. Think about it.
It starts with Schkanke and Cohen "dying", Janette leaving but later coming back mortal. Sounds like Nick was projecting an aspect of himself on Janette, a disease threatening to kill all vampires, lot of transpositin in those 2 examples. Nick possessed by a "demon", what a great way of personifying his internal 'evil'.
Notice Tracy Vetter, she was pirtrayed by Lisa Ryder, who also portrayed a campaign worker in the 1960s in which Nick worked security. More of Nick's guilt and anger projecting itself and just like the campaign worker she portrayed, she dies without reason. I bet it's eating Nick up inside. Oh and 'Tracy' knows and keeps a vampire's secret, sounds like more role projection on Nick's part.

There were so many things in Season 3 to suggest it was a Nick "guilt trip".

I've read many fanfics concerning LK. but I've never read one that works this angle.

Hmm, do I dare put fingers to keys and type it out. >_>
Stay tuned.

-cs

 

[EmilyH]

Yes, type it up! <g>

I'm still working on my latest, which takes place immediately after LK. I was hoping to get it done in time for the Raven Awards.

 

[Smitty]

And who can forget this from LeCroix.

Life is a gift, as sweet as the freshest peach; as precious as a guilded jewel. I have never understood the logic in willfully surrendering such a treasure. What is there to gain? How dark can your existence be when compared to an eternal void? Or do you have faith that there is something beyond?
What do you see from where you are? A bright light at the end of the tunnel? Is it a ray of hope? A glimmer of something better? Or will it burn you like the morning sun? Are the sounds you hear, the trumpeting of St. Peter's angels, or the screams of Memnoch's tortured souls?
You can't answer that, can you? Because you will never know the answer, until after the deed is done. And is your faith really that strong?

My favorite Lecroix speech.

-cs

 

[EmilyH]

Not a bad one. I still like the one he made about love -- was it the Valentine ep?

 

[Smitty]

You mean this?

Love exists, rages within.
A silent scream of endless pain.
A hellish alchemy indeed. Without equal.
Not death, not hell itself.
But a precious, precious flower.
Long withered, gone.
-- LaCroix, Be My Valentine


-cs

 

[EmilyH]

I think it was this LaCroix quote (as the Nightcrawler):

Love. It warps our senses, twists our souls...can take us past hope, past cure, past help. I know about love: it's suffering, it's anguish, it's pain. Heaven makes means to kill our joy with love. And yet we must have it, at any cost. But are you so enamored that you'll overlook your love of life? And you do love it. I've seen you smell the sea, gaze at the stars at night. Are you willing to sacrifice one mistress for another? Look into your heart and tell me that you're willing to make the choice.

It was from Last Knight. Which reminds me, as sad as it was, it was also one of the more romantic eps in a way. I mean, not the whole depressing thing but Nick's love for Natalie. The directors originally wanted it to be like Romeo & Juliette.

I heard through the rumor mill on forkni-l that Catherine Disher tried to move, to let the audience know that Natalie was still alive, and that was edited out. There was a conflict because James Parriott's vision wasn't the same as Ger's, who was directing at the time. So they compromised by ending with LaCroix holding the stake, but we never see Nick die. Which, of course, lends itself to all sorts of interesting possibilities with fan fiction.

 

[Highlander II]

Okay - just to let you know how unimpatient I am - I've had this ep on tape for like a year ---

I just watched it the other day - and let me just say I was severely disappointed.

I knew what was going to happen as soon as they said that Natalie was friends with the woman who had killed herself. Lame ending. What's the point of ending a show by killing off all the characters?

And doesn't what Nick did at the end completely deny everything he's been working for for like a few centuries? Does this then mean he never beleived it? Or that LaCroix convinced him, finally, that vampires can't be good, despite the crazy bit w/ Janette becoming human by feeding on her lover? I was just mostly disappointed by the ending. It wasn't dramatic to me, it was more like a cop-out. Like the writers couldn't come up with anything smashing, so they just did this ---

 

[EmilyH]

Last Knight didn't happen. It was a dream. That's my theory, anyway. Why else go through all the trouble of making it seem so surreal? There was no need for the weird slow-motion effects otherwise.

I also remember hearing on the e-mail list -- there's a mailing list for the fandom -- that Ger (Nick) directed it, and had done everything he could to make it seem like the characters were still alive, but the scenes got cut when James Parriott found out. He was very upset at his show being cancelled, I think.

Even if you interpret LK as not being a dream, there is still a chance -- a very small chance -- that Nick could be alive if LC had changed his mind at the last second. IIRC, we never saw the stake go completely down. The scene goes black before we see it. At that moment, someone could be waking up from a dream. But we don't know. Besides, in fanfiction, anything is possible. There are countless fans (myself included) who hated the ending and wrote alternate endings.

 

[Highlander II]

Yes - fanfic can make things better --

but that still doesn't excuse a really bad episode - this was one of the WORST final eps I've ever seen. It's running neck and neck w/ the final ep of Highlander --

What is with these ppl? If the show's gonna get cancelled, it's gonna get cancelled, so don't do a half-@$$ed job on the last show -

It didn't seem 'dream-like' to me - it seemed like a 'retelling' - almost like someone was talking about the whole thing in the past tense ---

 

[EmilyH]

Yeah, that's another theory. Nat survived, is now a vampire, and was retelling it, partly through the images she got from Nick's blood and partly her own memories. Or it could possibly be LaCroix also.