01x03 - Conundrum

[bunniefuu]

ANNOUNCER: Previously on Witchblade.

Your future with this department is riding on the decision of this board.

We'll try to be quick, Miss Pezzini.

JAKE: You are my partner.

- Ex-partner from the looks of it.

You're wearing the Witchblade.

That's the reason why you can see me.

Keep it on.

- Let her walk on this.

Let the feud die.

- I can't do that, Joe.

- Homicide, McCartey.

- Yeah.

Got any info?

Good news, partner.

You're back on.

NARRATOR: Sara Pezzini, a New York City detective drawn into a chance encounter with a supernatural w*apon.

Each day, each mystery, each encounter, will ultimately reveal her true destiny.

Let's do it.

It's your fantasy.

It's your fetish.

PHOTOGRAPHER: Good, work it.

Don't shirk it.

WOMAN: Beautiful.

Now you fight it.

Just surrender to it, hon.

- Yeah.

- Karen, lick your lips.

Now, you're drawn to it, honey.

You're drawn to it.

Watch.

Remember the hat.

Get the line, hon.

You're repulsed by it too.

Same time.

Work both ends of that, hon.

More sex, hon.

Embrace the snake.

Yeah, let it coil around you, honey.

Tighten it just a little bit.

Surrender to it, hon.

Fight it and then surrender to it at the same time.

Fight it.

Play with it.

Tighten it a little bit more.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I want you to tighten it more.

Now.

Do it.

- Excellent.

Now, let it take you, baby.

- [CHOKING]

No.

Stop.

[GROANING]

No.

Yes.

We got it.

Okay.

You are a goddess.

You are a goddess.

Come here, honey.

Come here.

- Come here.

Let me give you - What the hell was that?

Where are you going, love?

That was great.

Come on.

That was great.

JAKE: Hey, can I ask you a question?

SARA: Can I stop you?

JAKE: The department shrink, Dr.

Slonaker, you know her?

No.

But I'm supposed to have a meeting with her.

- You'd like her.

I mean, she's - A tasty little betty?

- A total hottie?

Babe-o-rama?

- She's smart.

Oh.

Besides, I dig chicks in glasses.

- Really?

- Yeah.

Ask her out.

- You think?

- Absolutely.

Great idea.

Date the department shrink.

[PHONE RINGS]

Yeah, Homicide.

MAN [OVER PHONE]

: There's been a m*rder.

- Who is this?

- In the park.

The 88th Street entrance on the west by the band shell.

Hurry, Detective Pezzini.

[DIAL TONE HUMS]

- She's posed.

Set up.

- Yeah.

No 911.

No dispatch.

The call-in came to me direct.

He even knew my name.

[MONKEYS SCREECHING ON TV]

What is it?

It's a cobra.

IRONS: She's in danger.

Find her.

Ian watch over her.

VICKY: Yeah.

I've never seen anything quite like this.

But bottom line, she was, like, soaked in acid or something, right?

Well, I would guess so, since the bones are all scoured clean.

- Well, what kind of acid?

- Pez, are you training this guy?

- Trying.

- Mm-hm.

Try harder.

[SIGHS]

Let's get out of here.

I know who it is.

We'll check back with you later, Vicky.

- Uh-huh.

See you.

- I know she's busy, but I know who it is.

- What?

- From a missing-persons report.

The victim, I know who she is.

Okay.

PHOTOGRAPHER: Nice.

WOMAN: Okay.

Hands on your hip.

Excuse me.

Dominique Boucher?

A very busy Dominique Boucher.

Detective Pezzini, N.

Y.

P.

D.

This is my partner, Detective McCartey.

You filed a missing-persons report on Gina Maris.

Oh, yes, did you find her?

Under distinguishing marks, the report mentioned a pierced tongue.

Do you happen to know if this is the stud she wore?

When she was 21, I gave this to her.

I'm sorry, Miss Boucher.

But I do believe that we found Miss Maris' remains this morning.

- You believe?

- We can't be certain yet.

It can't be.

Let me come and identify the body.

- I'm afraid that won't be possible.

- Of course it's possible.

Gina was like a daughter to me, do you think I wouldn't know her?

I believe a picture might help us.

PHOTOGRAPHER: That's it.

Uh, for ID purposes, what color was Gina's hair?

Blonde.

Shoulder length.

- Did she have any problems?

dr*gs?

- Absolutely not.

I teach my girls their bodies are their fortunes.

Here she is.

Was she seeing anyone?

Boyfriend?

Girlfriend?

I don't think so, but her roommate might know.

Karen Bronte.

She's working.

Hey, Jake We'd like to meet her roommate.

NOTTINGHAM: Everything is connected, sir.

PHOTOGRAPHER: Oh, yeah.

Hold that sh*t.

WOMAN: Good, good.

Oh, good.

Karen.

Excuse me.

[CLATTER NEARBY]

[DOOR OPENS]

JAKE: Where'd he go?

- Not a clue.

- That was our k*ller, right?

Had to be.

- I don't think so.

The guy has your number.

He knows your name.

Hell, he even called in the m*rder.

Some freak is trying to impress you, Sara.

Look, we need to go talk to Karen Bronte, the roommate.

- Can't.

- What do you mean we can't?

At least not now.

Dominique Boucher took her girls to the front of the lobby.

She's loading them into cabs.

Said she didn't want a repeat of Gina Maris.

JAKE: So we still don't know what acid we're looking at.

No.

I sent the bone scrapings out for testing.

- Best I can say is it's hydrochloric-based.

- Well, there you go.

No.

That doesn't mean anything.

It could be anything from industrial cleaner to, you know, your own stomach acid.

- Stomach acid?

- Mm-hm.

Timeframe?

I'll have the samples back from the labs tomorrow and I'll x-ray the bones tonight.

But this is what's weird.

A lot of the bones look, I don't know, um, crushed or compressed.

There's all these stress fractures.

I've never seen anything like it before.

Jake, why don't you check with the roommate?

I'll catch up.

Okay?

All right.

- Hey, Vic?

- Mm-hm.

When did you start drinking at work?

Look, I I don't blame you.

This place, this work.

It's enough to make anyone wanna get soft around the edges but, uh, if the job's getting to you, get help.

Work it out.

- Thanks, Pez.

I'm coping.

- Sure.

KAREN: I'm really not that different from all the other girls.

Just your normal, everyday international cover girl.

I work hard, play hard.

Just like Gina.

So I guess you meet a lot of unusual people?

Gina sure did.

Well, you should start making a list of those people.

- Who are you?

- My partner, Detective Why are you looking at me like that?

Sara, ease up.

[SCOFFS]

[CROWD CHANTING IN GERMAN]

[WOMAN MOANING]

Dominique Boucher has been lurking.

Watching.

Waiting for her chance to get the Witchblade back.

NOTTINGHAM: So it would appear.

- You and she?

- My case was different.

I placed it on my wrist for one instant only.

At the dark of the first new moon of the second half of the last century.

And lived a lifetime in that one instant.

Dominique took nothing from her brush with the blade but pain and lust and ambition.

- The addict loves her needle?

- Hmm.

That she does.

But she risks inadvertently giving Sara Pezzini knowledge for which she is not yet prepared.

More accurately, knowledge you're not yet prepared to share with her.

I suspect Sara Pezzini's a more worthy vessel than we You give her credit for.

On what do we?

You base this opinion?

She located the Bronte girl.

It couldn't be stopped.

- Who is this?

- My grandmother.

The little girl is my mother.

- I'm gonna take this and make a copy.

- No.

I'll I promise I'll keep it safe, okay?

I want Detective McCartey to stick around you for a while to make sure you're okay.

- I don't wanna be any trouble.

- No trouble at all.

Zero.

While you're together, talk about Gina.

You never know what little detail might break this thing open.

Got it.

This is a play that must not be allowed to reach its final act.

Give Sara Pezzini a taste of her heritage, but only a taste.

Then break off all connection between them.

I didn't mean to scare you.

- And you call yourself a ghost.

- No, Pez, you call me a ghost.

Wanna talk about it?

- Well, when I try to use it, nothing.

- You are using it.

And then when I least expect it, wham, I'm having hallucinations.

I'm not a hallucination either.

Okay.

And then I find my picture on someone else's wall from 50 years ago.

Okay, Jake saw it too, so I know it wasn't a vision.

Ha, ha, you tell them sister.

[WOMAN LAUGHS]

Is this some sort of karma thing?

I know you're about to tell me that there's nothing you can tell me, but is there anything you can tell me?

Come on, Pez.

You really don't wanna hear what I have to say.

- Tell me something.

- I already have.

[PHONE RINGING]

Yes?

DOMINIQUE [OVER PHONE]

: The right girl this time.

[DIAL TONE HUMS]

- How much do I owe you now?

- Twenty million dollars.

Make that 21 million.

Or you can explain the business with the photo to me and we'll call it square.

I wish I could.

It was like my grandmother stepped right out of that picture.

I can tell you one thing.

It can't be an accident.

- Do you believe in mystical connections?

- No.

But that was weird.

- So tell me about your grandmother.

- Her name was Elizabeth.

I didn't really know her, but, uh, she worked with the British during World w*r II.

Some kind of spy.

- Sounds cool.

- Not really.

It got her k*lled.

- So, uh, your partner.

What's her story?

- I don't know her very well.

We've only been partners a couple weeks.

She's, uh, very private.

- Great cop.

- So you dig her.

Hey, it's work.

Work and play don't mix.

Right.

- Excuse me.

- Sure.

- Nice sh*t.

- Thanks.

I believe there's information in here about your birth parents.

Jim Pezzini was my father.

I could care less about some stranger who left me on a doorstep.

My hand is near my a*t*matic.

The safety is off.

No jury in the world would convict me if I blew your head off.

Fragments of your history.

But not the piece you seek.

Yeah.

Well, peace is overrated.

That is trash.

This This is treasure.

The whole of your history.

Oh, no, not again.

Don't start with that mumbo jumbo.

It's never a man, you know.

It's always a woman who gets to wear the Witchblade.

- Do you ever wonder why?

- Because we're better.

Because you can stand pain.

The same reason you can bear children, give life.

Life is born of pain.

Wow, deep.

You're disturbed.

- You feel you've lost control.

- Heh.

Yeah.

No kidding.

Don't worry.

You never had any to begin with.

Believe in the Witchblade, Sara.

It believes in you.

Cherchez la femme, Sara.

Cherchez la femme.

I can't tell you how nice this is.

What?

Kicking my ass?

- Spending time with someone so - Stimulating?

- So real.

- Ah.

I don't know.

I just I just feel so safe with you.

Not too safe, I hope.

Just safe enough.

Excuse me, sir.

[JAKE GRUNTING]

[JAKE YELLS]

KAREN: Are you okay?

- Yeah.

- We should take you to a hospital.

- I'll be fine.

I've seen him.

Now I've got him.

McCartey, Homicide.

I want an all-units alert.

[GRUNTS]

Fifty-nine?

La femme.

La femme Dominique Boucher.

Sorry that turned out so scary.

I got a good look at the guy and the fact that he has a missing hand should really narrow the field.

- Stay.

- You'll be safe.

There's an all un What did you say?

Please stay with me tonight.

I'm a little scared.

You'll be fine.

So will you.

I really ought to have this looked at.

Okay, Jake.

But don't say I didn't ask.

I won't.

You're a really good guy.

Even though your pool game needs a little work.

[LAUGHS]

Thanks.

You're gonna be fine, really.

- Good night.

- Night.

What the hell am I thinking?

[CLEARS THROAT]

[KNOCKS ON DOOR]

Karen, it's me.

[GRUNTS]

Thank God, I thought I was losing [GASPS]

You and Dominique Boucher.

Tell me about it.

An old friend.

We passed a pleasant time once.

A girl got m*rder*d.

I got a handful of dots.

But I can connect one to you: Dominique Boucher.

Dominique was with me when I first owned the Witchblade.

She yearned to wear it, so I let her try.

What a guy.

But she was a pretender, not a destined wielder.

And the blade is not kind to pretenders.

It's not kind to anyone.

Reserve that judgment.

As for Dominique, the Witchblade took hold of her shook her around, discarded her like a damaged doll.

I don't believe she ever recovered.

She didn't seem to notice me wearing it.

Oh, she noticed.

Dominique Boucher is a painted veil.

Do you know Shelley's sonnet?

Lift not the painted veil Which those who live Call Life: Though unreal shapes Be pictured there "Unreal shapes.

" Seen any lately, Sara?

[SPEAKS IN FRENCH]

[CELL PHONE RINGING]

What?

I'm on my way, Vicky.

Pez, Karen Bronte's gone.

Last night.

- I'm learning this now?

- Yeah, I've been up all night.

The guy who did Gina Maris clocked me and got Karen.

But I know his name, John Sansmain.

NYU medical set him up with a steel hand five years ago.

- And he knows how to use it.

- And the marks in the snow.

And the slashes in the bag.

He's got a West Side address and a list of ugly priors.

- Go drag the neighborhood.

- All right.

SARA: Hey, McCartey?

- Yes?

Nice job.

Vic?

Vicky?

[SIGHS]

Pez, hey.

Sorry.

Yeah.

Okay.

This one This one's straight out of Ripley's.

We got traces of an organic digestive acid.

It's not mammalian, it's reptilian.

Possibly a snake.

But it's not a perfect match.

Hey.

By a snake?

Like I said, it's not a perfect match.

You're saying she was eaten by a snake, Vic.

That, or you've got a very elaborate setup here.

Her ribs all show compression fractures, indicating she was crushed or constricted.

By a snake?

That or she was crushed in a carpet roller and her body was dumped in a bin that contained digestive acids mixed with other solvents.

But why would someone go to all that trouble?

Search.

- Boucher.

Safari.

COMPUTER: Accessing database.

Downloading image.

[SIREN WAILING]

Where's the girl?

[LAUGHS]

Where is she?

[GRUNTING]

Here's what I tell Internal Affairs.

Obviously you came at me with that hook of yours.

I got the cut on the hand, the bump on my head.

I own you.

Dominique Boucher.

Take him in.

IRONS: Unreal shapes.

Seen any lately, Sara?

It's all about this, isn't it?

You had it, you lost it, and you want it back.

Right?

Nothing is ever as it seems.

Yeah, yeah, a woman scorned.

Kenneth Irons dumped you when he found out you weren't chosen.

And he took the Witchblade with him.

You want the bracelet.

I want Karen Bronte.

The Witchblade can't be passed along like grandmother's pearls.

It has to be earned.

Besides, I've gone to some trouble to draw you to me in a fighting mood.

By using Gina Maris as a lure.

Heh, actually, Gina was a mistake.

My assistant went after the wrong girl.

Hard to find good help.

At least he's loyal.

I let him wear the blade once.

It cost him his hand, but it guaranteed his undying loyalty.

And the right girl, Karen Bronte?

A m*rder crafted to appeal to your weakness for vulnerable young women.

And a blood-heir to the Witchblade eliminated.

[KAREN GASPING]

[YELLS]

Get me out of here.

Okay.

You don't mind me taping this for Kenneth?

Calling me a pretender to the blade.

Can you believe that?

[GRUNTING]

[SCREAMING]

Help! Help! Where is Karen Bronte?

[SCREAMING]

Why don't you use it?

You're afraid of it, aren't you?

Afraid to leave your safe, solid, familiar world.

Does it terrify you when the lines blur?

When the Blade takes you behind the shadow play and you can't trust your own eyes?

Where is the girl?

Where is she?

DOMINIQUE: Oh! [DOMINIQUE GRUNTS]

[KAREN YELLING ON TELEVISION]

Help! [SIREN WAILING]

[LAUGHS]

Maybe if you rub it like Aladdin's lamp.

The Witchblade belongs to me, Sara.

In times past and yet to come.

It always returns to me.

NOTTINGHAM: Believe in the Witchblade, Sara.

It believes in you.

KAREN: Anybody?

Help! Help me, please.

You get this.

I get the girl.

[GASPS]

None of your bloodline ever really could command Digitabulum.

[SIREN WAILING]

Help me.

Somebody, please.

Help me, please! Now, where is she?

You serve me.

Tighten.

[GROANING]

Tighter.

Tighter.

[YELLS]

KAREN [ON TELEVISION]

: Get me out of here.

Get me out of here.

Karen?

Karen?

- Karen?

- Hurry, please.

Over here.

Please, hurry! Help! Sara?

Karen?

KAREN: Somebody.

[YELLING]

[SARA GRUNTS]

DOMINIQUE: Nothing is ever as it seems.

SARA: Good evening, Miss Boucher.

My God, what's happened to you?

- It's this, isn't it?

- Is this an official visit, Detective Pezzini?

You know things I need to know.

You wore the Witchblade once.

You were Kenneth Irons' lover.

And I'm gonna spill all my secrets for you out of the goodness of my heart.

You're forgetting an important fact, Miss Pezzini.

I don't want you to succeed with the Witchblade.

Better me or Kenneth Irons?

Look it up.

Try the Internet.

Maybe under "charms," "talismans" "fairy tales.

" Suit yourself.

But that bunk has gotta feel like hell around midnight.

Especially at your age.

JAKE: I don't understand why Karen kept mumbling something about a snake.

SARA: It's probably post-traumatic stress.

We'll ask her.

- There's a lot of things I don't understand.

- Yeah.

Welcome to the club.

Why would Dominique Boucher go through that trouble to make it seem like a snake k*lled Gina Maris?

- Acid, a carpet roller.

Vicky was right.

- Was she?

I also don't get how Boucher's wrist was crushed beyond repair.

We fought.

She fell into something.

- Man, working with you is - Educational?

Hey, Jake, maybe you should ask Dr.

Slonaker.

Maybe she could explain it to you, you know, her being all smart and all.

We have a date tomorrow night.

[BOTH LAUGH]

IRONS: This world is a dance of predator and prey.

The strong take the weak, and are taken in turn by those still stronger.

To overestimate one's strength is to place oneself constantly at risk until finally one's true measure is taken, and one's life force extinguished.

This was the true tragedy of Dominique Boucher.

To underestimate one's power is to shortchange greatness to reject magnificence.

I know my true stature, and I strive each day to expand it.

Sara Pezzini does not begin to comprehend the limitless vistas lying just beyond the narrow visions in which she imprisons herself.

If she ever realizes her true nature, God help us all.