Moonlightaholics

Yes, it's the blood drinking that I think Mick hates the most about being a vampire. It's just that that line is SO heavy. "the one thing that would make life unbearable". That 'one thing' has to be absolutely horrible which is why I thought he might actually mean that he will somehow drive Beth away or actually kill her because I think it's the absence of Beth that is unbearable.

Lisa, I thought that's what you wanted. I know there is a clearer picture out there somewhere of those slippers but I couldn't find it.

GuardianAngel wrote:Yes, it's the blood drinking that I think Mick hates the most about being a vampire. It's just that that line is SO heavy. "the one thing that would make life unbearable". That 'one thing' has to be absolutely horrible which is why I thought he might actually mean that he will somehow drive Beth away or actually kill her because I think it's the absence of Beth that is unbearable.

Lisa, I thought that's what you wanted. I know there is a clearer picture out there somewhere of those slippers but I couldn't find it.

Yeah, I think he IS worried about what this experience will do to Beth... and her opinion of him... so it's the blood sucking but I think also the extreme vulnerability. He's a guy. So far around Beth, except for the reveal moment, he's kinda been Superman, with vamp abilities and, tho he hasn't used the words yet, perpetual cool. And as you said earlier, he's really been alpha-maling it thru this ep... until now. Now he's a supplicant. And for blood of all things. To Beth of all people.

He may worry about killing her too... but I didn't see that. I saw extreme need and humiliation. And the fear that this changes everything. That she will run. She will gross out. She will find it painful. She will find him weak. She will find him creepy.

He later on in the ep says he has to stay away from her, for her own good. I don't get that. He didn't hurt her. So how does that have anything to do with her own good? I think he's just uncomfortable with it. With her most of all.

For me, it was always simple...Mick was horrified by the thought that he had to feed from Beth. Beth is more than a person to him...she represents all that is good in the world. She represents life and hope. For him to intrude on this vision he's been comforted by...compelled to exist because of...for him to intrude on that, especially, good God!, to feed??? It's so unimaginable, it doesn't occur to him what she is doing...it takes a few seconds for it to even dawn on him as she exposes her neck. Beth has to make him see reason, she holds his head in a firm grip...convinces him that it is SHE who wants this...she gets through the feverish haze and convinces him he needs to do this to live and...the reason he dutifully complies...that she wants him to do it.
We see how the feeding affected them both, spiritually in ways that they can't comprehend. The need to reconnect was so strong, Beth went to him and Mick hid from it. What had happened would have caused a major physical coming together had Mick opened the door. He knew...for both their sakes, to stay away from her.
A powerful episode...the kitchen, the bathtub and then finally, two souls...desperate to unite.

Raven wrote:For me, it was always simple...Mick was horrified by the thought that he had to feed from Beth. Beth is more than a person to him...she represents all that is good in the world. She represents life and hope. For him to intrude on this vision he's been comforted by...compelled to exist because of...for him to intrude on that, especially, good God!, to feed??? It's so unimaginable, it doesn't occur to him what she is doing...it takes a few seconds for it to even dawn on him as she exposes her neck. Beth has to make him see reason, she holds his head in a firm grip...convinces him that it is SHE who wants this...she gets through the feverish haze and convinces him he needs to do this to live and...the reason he dutifully complies...that she wants him to do it.
We see how the feeding affected them both, spiritually in ways that they can't comprehend. The need to reconnect was so strong, Beth went to him and Mick hid from it. What had happened would have caused a major physical coming together had Mick opened the door. He knew...for both their sakes, to stay away from her.
A powerful episode...the kitchen, the bathtub and the finally, two souls...desperate to unite.

Love that Rav!!

I'm agreeing with all this...and wanted to add, the shame Mick feels over his "condition"--so evident int OOTP, and intensified here. He is, as indeed such an alpha male, ashamed that what he is makes him both vulnerable and outside normal human society. What he's not realizing, on some visceral level, is that the goodness and humanity inherent in his nature overrides any lingering "monstrousness" of vampirism. Like any other sentient being, he has the ability to choose good or evil in his actions, and he's chosen good. He could have been Lance, or Lola...but he isn't.

Okay, and the other phone thing I mentioned earlier. Beth gets a call from MICK'S phone, looks at her phone, which would have clearly id'd the call as coming from him, and answers as though she's expecting it to be a telemarketer. She thinks he was blown up in a car, so she had to have thought his phone would have been on him, and destroyed.

I'd have expected her to be shouting "Mick! Is that you!" into the phone, not saying "Hello" quietly.

Lucky

ETA: We know her phone would recognize his number, she'd called him at the beginning of the ep. And we know Leni had no phone, or she wouldn't have stolen the cop's phone to call Mara--even if she still had it, that was a flip phone, and she's shown using an iphone to talk to Beth.

librarian_7 wrote:What he's not realizing, on some visceral level, is that the goodness and humanity inherent in his nature overrides any lingering "monstrousness" of vampirism. Like any other sentient being, he has the ability to choose good or evil in his actions, and he's chosen good. He could have been Lance, or Lola...but he isn't.

*nods vehemently*

I've always seen Mick as being about control and choice (hence the perpetual stumbling block between him and Coraline that their mutual passion could never quite overcome - she took away his choice). He chooses every day, but just doesn't realise that all of those daily choices and struggles add up to a good person.

Red

librarian_7 wrote:
Okay, and the other phone thing I mentioned earlier. Beth gets a call from MICK'S phone, looks at her phone, which would have clearly id'd the call as coming from him, and answers as though she's expecting it to be a telemarketer. She thinks he was blown up in a car, so she had to have thought his phone would have been on him, and destroyed.

I'd have expected her to be shouting "Mick! Is that you!" into the phone, not saying "Hello" quietly.

Lucky

ETA: We know her phone would recognize his number, she'd called him at the beginning of the ep. And we know Leni had no phone, or she wouldn't have stolen the cop's phone to call Mara--even if she still had it, that was a flip phone, and she's shown using an iphone to talk to Beth.

OH that does drive me crazy every time... She knows it's his phone earlier and then doesn't seem to have a clue because it was Leni who punched in the numbers? Or her eyes were filled with tears? But hell yeah, she'd've snatched up that thing and screamed his name into the phone!!!!!

I've always seen Mick as being about control and choice (hence the perpetual stumbling block between him and Coraline that their mutual passion could never quite overcome - she took away his choice). He chooses every day, but just doesn't realise that all of those daily choices and struggles add up to a good person.

Beautifully stated, red.

I couldn't agree more, or add anything else. That is Mick's essence.

Excellent conversations gang. I just stopped in for details. I'll have a new story to post after the move.
hugs all.

MS

librarian_7 wrote:Okay, and the other phone thing I mentioned earlier. Beth gets a call from MICK'S phone, looks at her phone, which would have clearly id'd the call as coming from him, and answers as though she's expecting it to be a telemarketer. She thinks he was blown up in a car, so she had to have thought his phone would have been on him, and destroyed.

Did she look at her phone before answering it? I didn't think she did, which is why she didn't answer with enthusiasm, because she didn't see the Caller ID.

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I was just re-watching Fever the other night, and watching Beth alone in her apartment crying over Mick, I wondered about something: Is Beth only crying over her lost friend, or is she also crying because the world has suddenly become a lot more uncertain and scary with Mick gone from it?

She has only recently learned that vampires exist. Mick is the only vampire she knows (that she knows of--as Mick points out in a later episode when she asks if the friends of his she just met are vampires, "Can't tell, can you?--Scary"), but she is aware there are more out there. Mick is an atypical vampire--others are not necessarily like him in terms of his moral code and dealings with humans. In Dr. Feelgood, when he says the case is going to be dangerous, she replies cheekily, "Then it's a good thing I've got you around."

Now, suddenly, she doesn't have him around--and there are still vampires out there...

GuardianAngel wrote:A lot of grief over a man she's known for a relatively short time.

i watched it last night, it's my favorite so far, i love it when it's get darker.

Jade wrote:i watch it last night, it's my favorite so far, i love it when it's get darker.

I'm so pleased Fever is your favourite so far Jade. I think this ep is in everyone's top three.

I agree with most of what you've said so far (positive and negative), so I won't repeat it. Except I don't think the fireladder needed the kick Mick gave the lever - but bending down and moving it by hand wouldn't have been so manly (vampirely?)... But why was the ladder up in the first place?

The ice cubes don't even bother me (well, they would if everything else was perfect) - what bothers me to the point where the episode is NOT one of my favorites (despite all the great scenes) is the fact that nearly everybody behaves as if they had a death wish:

Leni calls the daughter of the man who wants to kill her (and shouldn't the girl be in bed by 10.30?) apparently never thinking that Mara might let something slip (which she then does at the first opportunity...).

Mick's estrogen remark and not-climbing down the ladder have already been mentioned (and in Mick's case I've often wondered whether he DOES have a death wish). And shouldn't he have learned in is 85 years that you don't make any threatening moves when somebody points a gun at you? For Leni doesn't twitch because the coach drives off - Mick lowers his hands, makes half a step towards her and then she shoots him (and if she had learnt how Mick would have to explain away a bullet in his chest).

And why does Leni trust Mick so quickly? Gorgeous looks are not really a guarantee for honesty. Shouldn't she at least call Josh to check whether he's really sent a private eye after her? (Regarding the cell phone coverage at the bus station - why is the Victorville bus station out in the middle of nowhere, anyway? - I wonder whether they haven't put the scenes in the wrong order and Leni and Mick had already driven off when Beth tries to call them. Then she wouldn't have to sits several hours on the couch either...)

The traitor officer calls Fayed in an open plan office - I mean, really...

But what has really, really bugged me from the very first viewing is that Mick and Leni should never have walked across the desert. One of the basic desert survival rules is to stay immobile in the shade during the day and move at night - walking for several hours under a glaring sun without water can easily be deadly for humans, too... And what were the chances of finding that motel, anyway (and why is there a motel in the middle of nowhere)? That's the kind of idiotic behaviour that spoils the whole episode for me.

Beth feeding Mick without at least asking how much blood he needed - or how to stop him - wasn't very clever either, but I'm willing to forgive her for panicking... But it wasn't even necessary - Mick's dinner was already on the way and Mick knows it ("He's coming" - how does he know?) Of course, "Take Leni, drive off and let me eat in peace - you don't want to watch that" would have been much less meaningful for the relationship...

Bye, Kade

Kade - Fire ladders are designed to allow people to get down from a burning building. Unfortunately, some of the more clever crooks had figured out they could also be used to get up into buildings. As a countermeasure, they started designing fire ladders so that their out-of-use position has the ladder out of reach from the street (unless you could do the sexy vampire jumping thing). Some operate using a release (like the one Mick kicked) and others have a counterweight system that allows the ladder to lower when it has the weight of an adult on it. Even in their fully extended position, some fire escapes do not reach all the way down to the street (but it would be about a six inch drop if you were hanging from the bottom rung).

Short answer, it is a security measure.

nutmegger911 wrote:Kade - Fire ladders are designed to allow people to get down from a burning building. Unfortunately, some of the more clever crooks had figured out they could also be used to get up into buildings. As a countermeasure, they started designing fire ladders so that their out-of-use position has the ladder out of reach from the street (unless you could do the sexy vampire jumping thing). Some operate using a release (like the one Mick kicked) and others have a counterweight system that allows the ladder to lower when it has the weight of an adult on it. Even in their fully extended position, some fire escapes do not reach all the way down to the street (but it would be about a six inch drop if you were hanging from the bottom rung).

Short answer, it is a security measure.

And after Leni had lowered it to escape, it returned to the top by means of...?

Red