Midnight Texas, Season One, Episode Four: Sexy Beast

This week's monster is a man eating succubus. We've been warned that the end might be nigh by the resident angel Joe and proof of that is the fact that more than ever, supernatural creatures are being drawn to the area. So, there the succubus is sitting by the side of the road when she's picked up by Ted, a dudebro who might as well have asshole tattoos on his forehead.  We're conditioned not to have any sympathy for dudebro because it seems that he's stolen and sold his father's Rolex. Predictably, when the dudbro is coerced into pulling over, he becomes snack food for the succubus. 

Creek and Manfred are getting all domestic though Creek is still very much adamant that their relationship needs to stay on the downlow because her father is certain that Manfred will break her heart. I'm getting kind of tired of the policing of Creek's sexuality at this point and it seems that it won't end anytime soon.  Manfred says that he's not a bad guy and that he might be entitled to catch a break after saving them all from vampires.  Yeah, I'm team Manfred on this one. When Creek leaves, Manfred checks his phone only to find some ominous messages from Hightower. Yes, Manfred is on the run but only because he's being held responsible for his grandmother's debt. At any rate, Hightower reaching out to Manfred is enough for Manfred to decide that he needs to make some cash.

Ted's sister Patsy shows up to hire Manfred, to see if she can find out where Ted is and if Ted has the Rolex.  Manfred starts to turn Patsy down but when she offers 5K, Manfred takes the job. Manfred does his thing and he sees Ted's spirit, who talks about being snacked on "like a taco" by a hot blonde woman.   Manfred decides to investigate and when he finds the succubus, she is cleaning up in a truckstop bathroom after killing yet another man. When the succubus makes her play for Manfred, he's quick to take his leave, declaring that he's just not into her.

Back in Midnight, Fiji is getting ready for a dinner date that she's planned with Bobo.  Fiji asks Olivia to join her but Olivia declines because she has a job to do. Olivia points out that this is the perfect opportunity for Fiji to get with Bobo and recommends that Fiji step away from the peasant gear for the night. Later, as Fiji is setting the stage for her romantic dinner, she gets a call from Bobo saying that he'll be over as soon as he changes out of work gear. Of course, Bobo isn't getting ready for a hot date but trying to meet up with bikers now that he knows that they've killed the sheriff. 

Olivia's job is to kill a man who has robbed people of their 401Ks. The mark tries to plead that it was only money but he doesn't get any sympathy from Olivia on this. Olivia points out that families can be ruined by having their life savings stolen.  Olivia does the deed and leaves the building but pauses when she notices a man who was watching her when she was in the building is now sitting outside in his car.  For Olivia, this is too much of a coincidence and so she drugs him and carts him back to Midnight for a little casual waterboarding. It doesn't take long for the man to admit that he was hired by her father who supposedly just wants to keep track of Olivia and ensure that she's okay. Olivia becomes emotional and asks Lemuel to feed from her.  Lemuel is happy to oblige but he's concerned that Olivia is so upset.  After Lemuel feeds, Olivia is back to her normal self and doesn't want to discuss it.

Mr. Snuggly (oh how I love that talking cat) is facing reality faster than Fiji.  Mr.Snuggly makes his bid to have Fiji feed him some Sheppard's pie because it's become clear that Bobo isn't going to show up. Fiji holds onto hope until Joe calls and finally cancels. 

It's time for a meeting of the Midnight supernatural club.  Manfred describes what the succubus looks like to Joe, who does a sketch.  They're able to identify the succubus and Joe claims that succubi are attracted to men who've harmed women. So you know damn well that this gets Creek's attention because all the men in her family are suspicious of Manfred. At any rate, this is when Creek's little brother Connor shows up. It seems that Connor has been following Manfred all over town to see what he's up to.  Yeah, that's creepy as all get out and I don't care that Connor is only 17.  Creek is quick to send Connor on his way. 

The Selfish Redemption

We have previously talked about how Redemption narratives are so often flawed in the genre by being too easy and too fast. The Redemption Train gets moving and before you know it your wicked evil villain is now team good guy and you’re left wondering when the moral shift happened.

But it’s far from the only flaw we have with Redemption Narratives - because we also see another thread of redemption stories: one that is awe inspiring in their self-centredness. Rather than redeeming a villain to the side of good, these Hero Redemptions usually follow a main character or protagonist who has done terribad things and needs to be “redeemed” (which, I guess, is better than protagonists who do terribad things and everyone just kind of runs with it or ignores it). In theory anyway - in reality the redemption is usually just a way to have them play in another plot line and have our sexy actors practice their soulful gaze in front of the cameras and make something else All About Them.

The most classic of these Self-Centred Redemptions is Martyrdom. How many protagonists are there out there who don their hair shirts and wail their self-loathing to the skies? There can be no greater example of this than Louis de Pointe du Lac from Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicle series. Louis’s entire character is about his suffering, even though he explicitly chose to become a vampire. He wanders through the years viewing himself as a member of the cursed due to his disconnect from humanity. It harms his senses that in order to live he must take life and so he searches for some greater meaning in his existence or at least a different food source. The fall from grace is the fall of a century causing him to reflect nothing but sadness. Those who do not mirror his depression are thereby judged to be not moral or beyond redemption. It is why he can so easily turn his back on Lestat in Tale of the Body Thief when Lestat turns to him for help in retrieving his immortal body. Humanity, to Louis, is the only form of redemption in existence.

Louis was, of course, the first but he formed a template in which innumerable Musty Vampires followed. From The Vampire Diaries to True Blood to Angel and Buffy (who has medals in this) we have a genre that is positively in love with Evil Vampires Who Did Evil and Now Feel Sad About It. It’s a virtually a religion among vampires and its sacrament is Sexy Brooding.

What connects them is that while all these characters are happy to crawl in a corner and moan about how cursed they are, their pain takes centre stage. Even when these characters are actively trying to do good as well, this seems rarely to be the point. The point is their pain - their pain is beautiful, their angst supposed to pluck our heart-strings. The focusing on their guilt makes these characters sympathetic; not deeply flawed people who have a long road back to being acceptable.

Related to this is the redemption quest - the terribad protagonist decides he simply has to make up for the evil things he has done by partaking of an epic quest. In extreme instances this need for redemption becomes so all encompassing that it literally causes even more problems for the team - including people who were victims of their evil acts in the first place.

Take The 100 where we have Bellamy on a quest to get essential equipment to try and protect people against the oncoming nuclear apocalypse (The Renuking! Even More Nuclear!). Without it their plan can’t possibly work - as he very well knows. But faced with a choice of claiming the device or freeing slaves… he choses to free the slaves, jeopardising a fragile alliance and destroying the equipment. And let’s be clear here, this has nothing to do with any kind of moral outrage over slavery - we’ve already seen Bellamy play some heavy “end-justifies-the-means” games: No this is because Bellamy followed Pike and now has All The Guilt. Bellamy needs redemption. Bellamy needs to be good again - and his need for a redeeming act completely supersedes actually saving everyone - including the people he hurt with his support for Pike in the first place.

The Vampire Diaries in its closing season positively revels in this. Stefan in particular is utterly driven to make up for his many many many many many many oh-so-many massacres. So he demands he be the one who takes various active roles in bringing down Cade and/or Katherine. Despite being human and therefore being slower, weaker, more fragile and with duller senses than his still vampiric brother. In fact, despite them literally fighting desperately to save the entire town and possibly the world from hellfire and damnation, Stefan actively incapacitates Damon not once, but twice. On two occasions he removes one of their most powerful assets and insists on stepping in himself, despite being far less capable - just because his redemption is more important. His Redemption Quest takes precedence over the very survival of the other characters - including his victims.