Loveday Writing

Harrow and Nichols go to the church, St Hilary’s, and speak with Reverend Mercado. He informs them that the cross has been displayed for years without it being stolen up until now. He also knew about Sebastian’s death prior to Harrow and Nichols arriving. As they are leaving they spot a teenage boy and his dog – the boy knows Reverend Mercado and is rude to him, and his dog is trying to dig up the church garden, much to Mercado’s chagrin.

Later, while Harrow, Grace and Edwina are conducting the autopsy on Sebastian, they discover that his “fangs” are dental implants, he was consuming animal blood (which was also the blood found in his cabinet), and whoever committed the murder worked with bones and tissue before. While Grace gets a phone call in the middle of the autopsy and has to leave, Harrow and Edwina also discover that Sebastian had Erythropoietic Protoporphyria – a rare blood disorder that consists of chronic anaemia, sensitivity to light, and liver damage. Harrow explains to Edwina that treatment for this disorder use to be avoiding daylight and consuming animal blood, which would explain Sebastian’s lifestyle as a vampire. Later, Harrow meets Grace’s ex-husband, Ben Patterson, in the hallway at the Institute.

When Sebastian’s mother comes to identify his body, she explains to Harrow and Nichols that the “vampire thing” started when he was a kid, as he needed blood transfusions from the age of seven, and that he was diagnosed with his blood disorder after an incident at a local pool. Harrow and Nichols end up speaking to Sebastian’s friends, whom he meet in an online vampire forum. They explain to them that Sebastian got the blood he drank from his girlfriend, Monika, a butcher, and that he was constantly harassed by his neighbours for his lifestyle.

Nichols eventually finds Monika and brings her in for questioning over the fact that $28,000 was found in her account transferred from Sebastian. She tells them that she broke up with Sebastian a week ago, the money was a gift, and is otherwise uncooperative. When Nichols informs her Sebastian is dead, she says that she won’t be saying anything more to them without her lawyer. Harrow doesn’t believe Monika killed him as she doesn’t believe in vampires, whereas the murderer did believe they were real. When Harrow realises that traditionally a vampire’s heart would be buried in sanctified grounds, he realises it has been buried at the church. When he goes there, he runs into the teenage boy and his dog, Cannoli, again. He tells Harrow that he saw the Reverend outside of Sebastian’s house two nights ago, as Sebastian caught the Reverend leaving hate mail on his doorstep. When Harrow sees Cannoli digging in the garden, he finds Sebastian’s heart buried in it, and the stake used to kill him a few feet away.

Shortly after his discovery, Fairley forces Harrow to autopsy another body, which he brought to Harrow’s attention earlier – a woman who has a vampire-like snakebite on her neck. Harrow jokes that perhaps the bite is the work of a vampire, with Fairley countering that if it was, she would be alive not lying on the table dead, only for her to wake up screaming. It turned out that the woman, Mrs. Kovacs, had been bitten by a snake at her home, her husband called their doctor who couldn’t find her pulse so he declared her dead, but her pulse was suppressed by snake venom which put her in a death-like coma. After reprimanding them, Renae tells Fairley and Harrow that Mrs. Kovacs needs to be escorted home as she doesn’t want to go home in an ambulance and her husband doesn’t drive, Edwina offers to take her home. Renae asks Fairley and Harrow to get a statement from Mrs. Kovacs’ doctor.

Harrow calls Mrs. Kovacs’ doctor who tells her that her husband had been yelling at him in Romanian and Harrow realises the doctor misinterpreted Mr. Kovacs’ Romanian – Mr. Kovacs kept saying that his wife was bitten by a vampire, not a snake. The doctor also tells him that Mr. Kovacs works as a groundskeeper at St Hilary’s Church. Harrow tries to call Edwina to warn her to no avail as she has left her phone in her car.

When Edwina escorts Mrs. Kovacs (Ruth) to her house and is invited in after being introduced to Mr. Kovacs (Andrei), she compliments a painting in their home, Mrs. Kovacs’ informs her that the painting belonged to Andrei’s mother, which has its title on a plaque in the frame, “Crisana Transylvania”. When Edwina sees this and questions where in Romania Andrei is from, he knocks her out. Just as Andrei is about to kill his wife with a stake, Harrow stops him.

After Andrei is arrested, Harrow asks Nichols if Andrei confessed to killing Sebastian, Nichols said he did. Nichols tells him that Andrei wasn’t too thrilled about a vampire moving into the neighbourhood and when he saw the snakebite in Ruth’s neck, he thought Sebastian killed her, so he killed him.

The episode ends with Harrow believing he has been caught deleting the email with the DNA results, only to be told by Fairley that the man’s body from the shipping yard is not his son. Nichols shows him surveillance footage of James breaking into the stolen car that was towed from the yard, and tells Harrow that he believes he could be involved in the man’s death. Harrow returns to his boat to find James waiting for him.

Overall I felt this wasn’t one of the show’s best episodes, I felt it was a weaker episode in comparison to the premiere.

When I saw the preview for this episode at the end of the premiere, I cringed a little at the focus being on vampires. Generally when a non-sci-fi/fantasy show uses the supernatural, mythology, or in this case, folklore, as a motif, it can be cringy and generally plays on stereotypes. While the episode does focus on both common and most likely lesser-known facts about vampires, it is grounded in reality by the reveal that Sebastian lived his life as a vampire due to the rare blood disorder he was diagnosed with it, and the treatment required.

While I did question why there was a need for the writers’ to have an episode focused on folklore, I did appreciate the attention to detail and consistency in which the vampire motif was executed. However I felt that the reveal of Andrei as Sebastian’s murderer was poorly executed as he was introduced too late into the episode – more time was spent establishing Reverend Mercado as the main suspect (only to be a red herring), and the groundwork to establish how Andrei murdered Sebastian and his motive was shoved into the episode within its final ten minutes, and therefore rushed.

The pacing of the episode is broken up with both character development and comedic moments. Grace’s ex-husband, Ben, makes his first appearance, clearly territorial of her when he meets Harrow, and she ends up going to Sydney for a few days to sort out the sale of their old home, but not before asking Renae what her intentions are for the Institute, since Renae was also responsible for the audit at Grace’s old hospital where her colleagues lost their jobs. However I did find it a little strange that Fairley, as Grace’s uncle, had never met her husband. The restoration of Harrow’s beloved car and his emotional reaction to it was hilarious and priceless. While Fern makes another appearance briefly, asking questions about James that the viewers would have, and reminds him that James may not be who he says he is.

On a smaller note, Gruffudd did a good job in his directorial debut. I personally don’t know anything about directing film or television so I’m not going to comment as if I do. However I did find a video on the ABC’s YouTube channel providing a behind-the-scenes look at Gruffudd’s directorial debut. In the video Gruffudd talks about his desire to direct and how he felt it was a natural progression in his career, and both the cast and crew of the show stated that he had a good attitude, and a joy for his craft and directing, which I believe showed throughout the episode. Gruffudd also stated that he had Tony Tilse (who has directed three episodes of Harrow, the most recent being last week’s premiere) shadow him. While Gruffudd wouldn’t be completely green due to his extensive experience in the industry, as this was his debut, having an experienced director by his side to enable him to bring his vision to life but also provide guidance when needed or requested, was a good way to go. The ABC’s video can be found below.

Stray Observations:

Episode title translation: Damnant Quod Non Intellegunt – They Condemn What They Do Not Understand.

-Both Fairley and Harrow have been a pathologist and medical examiner respectively for 23 years.

-Nichols has a soft spot for antique furniture.

Best one liners and interactions:

• “I thought you were going to get rid of that thing?” “I’m working on it.” (Nichols-Harrow regarding Harrow’s rental car)
• “That’s an original Pembroke table, do you know how expensive those are?” “It’d be about five grand for a late Georgian. Be seven if you wanted the mahogany. What? You thought I was an IKEA guy?” “I thought you were somewhere on the flatpack spectrum.” “Yeah a simple man can still have taste, Harrow.” (Harrow-Nichols going back-and-forth on Nichols’ surprisingly good taste in antique furniture)
• “Ballsy little prick, reminds me of you.” (Nichols to Harrow on a rude teenage boy at the church)
• “You know I’m supervising today.” “Yes I got the 6,000 emails you sent to remind me.” (Fairley-Harrow)
• “I’ve booked a colour consult for 12.00.” “Hair?” “Paint” (Fairley-Harrow-Fairley)
• “Jesus Harrow, don’t go all blubbery on me.” (Mechanic to Harrow on his reaction to his car’s restoration).
• “Have either you ever admitted a live person to this morgue?” “No.” “Once.” (Renae-Fairley-Harrow, with Harrow’s answer referencing an earlier episode).
• “Why did you separate? Was it his height, I mean he’s very tall.” (Harrow to Grace about her and her ex-husband)