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Second verse, same as the first

Okay, I know, everybody does a Groundhog Day ep. But -- like Coreen watching Henry do his vampy thing (and was it my imagination, or did she actually get a smile out of him for that comment??) -- I just don't get tired of 'em. Mind you, nobody is EVER gonna top Xena nailing Joxer with her chakram and going back to sleep. Just not possible. But I digress.

I was actually suprised -- on reflection, pleasantly so -- by how tightly this was structured. My primary question going in was "How many different ways are they going to kill everyone?" Which would have been the obvious way to go, in a peril-fraught world in which our heroine has been branded her own walking Hellmouth. The time-loop device is an all-too-tempting excuse to pull out all the wild and crazy things you can't do in a normal episode without turning your universe inside-out. But once Vicki was latched onto the problem, of course she would never be distracted until it was solved. It was such a foregone conclusion that I, er, may actually literally have smacked myself in the forehead for thinking it could be otherwise. (But nobody saw me. There's no proof!)

I had to stifle a groan when I walked in the door last night to find hubby watching the last couple minutes, just in time to hear Vicki ask Mike how the date with Kate went. I deliberately tuned out the rest until I could watch the ep, so I was very relieved that the "date" was only a date in Vicki's stressed-out imagination. (And the utter lack of logic involved in the whole "lucky tie" hamster-wheel spinning in her brain was... well, apparently all her rational faculties were tied up in the case.) Having just commented in the discussion thread on phantomminuet's post last week that I was happy to see they didn't seem to be going there with the Mike-Kate partnership, I would have been pretty peeved if they had, in fact, promptly gone there. Seriously, Mike and Kate's professional relationship is quite complicated enough, TYVM! So I loved, loved, loved the slightly freaked "WTF??" tone of Kate's reaction to the notion of Mike asking her out. Vicki must be beyond relieved that all the mortifyingly embarrassing things she said as a result of that particular bizarre bugaboo of jealousy got wiped out for everyone else. And is probably still going to turn fourteen shades of red every time she thinks about it for some time to come.

Interesting -- and so very Vicki -- that she started the whole marathon fatigued, having instructed Coreen to limit her to a half-hour nap. Watching her get more so on each successive reset was outright painful; at one point I actually said out loud "Honey, if you do this too many more times, your brain is just going to disintegrate!"

And it's after all this is over, and we're back to playing for keeps...that they pick as the moment for her to choose to allow Henry to feed from her under non-emergency circumstances. *jawdrop* It makes sense for so many reasons: What she's just stated overtly, i.e. gratitude for his faith in her and for giving Mike back to her -- even though the Henry standing next to her didn't actually live that choice, she knows he would. That it's one of those rare moments where he's giving the charm and the arrogance a rest (contrasted with, say, "I don't need sexual advances. I am one." *eyeroll*), and just talking honestly, and when he finally asks it's so quiet and simple it's hard to even remember what a huge step it represents. And that she's just plain too exhausted to really care.

That last, and Henry's complete inability to keep his attention off her neck for most of the conversation, makes me think maybe he was hungrier than he was really letting on -- not desperate, but on the road to it. I'd be pretty annoyed with him if I thought otherwise, or if there had been any of his usual cockiness in the request, because Vicki's defenses were so completely shot (not to mention taking any amount of blood from someone that tired = not the wisest of ideas). As it is, I can't call it entirely fair, but with everything taken into consideration he deserves a pass. But I'm still watching you, buster.

One vital thing lost in the final reset: Henry's realization and acknowledgment of just how important to her Mike really is. With the reset, he's back to being able to say what he did in an earlier loop, to the effect of "good for him for moving on, maybe you should give it a try." What he learned in the penultimate loop is that she...really can't do that. Sooner or later, he's going to have to learn it again.

Poor Mike. He must think Vicki's finally gone completely round the bend. But was there anything cuter than that hug, EVER?

Love the last "waking-up" scene, with one irritating exception: I understand the need to have it be plausible for Vicki to be half afraid she's reset again. It's tradition, after all. But of all people, Coreen wearing the same outfit two days in a row??? Knocked me right out of the scene, I kid you not. I'd chalk it up to her pulling an all-nighter obsessively researching something, except for the part where it's evening. *sigh* Maybe she just napped in the office too...

Once again, no promo for next week. Clearly Lifetime doesn't love me. *pout*

[xposted to bloodties_tv]



Dec. 9th, 2007 12:35 am (UTC)
Re: on Henry's attractiveness and lack thereof
I can't point to anything specific like you're asking for, but oddly, I do find Vicki's attraction to him more comprehensible as we go along. Couldn't begin to explain why, but at some point I did stop blaming it mostly on her self-destructive streak.

I'm not sure that "she just wants a fling" is exactly accurate, but it's probably in the ballpark, at least in an attempt to consider it aside from her (recently less insistent) insistence to herself that she doesn't want anything from him romantically.

There's an interesting contradiction going on, in that he's both accepting of her recklessness and determined to protect her, that I think figures into the mix somewhere.

There's also a lot of it that I think comes from his fixed focus on her. For all that she mocks him about "snacking on a different girl in his bed every night," she does recognize that he made a big emotional investment in her pretty much right off the bat (which seems to be something that comes naturally to him, and of course not at all to her). That's a tough thing not to be impacted by unless you really have zero attraction to the person.


Valerie - Postmodern Pollyanna
WiliQueen's Woods

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