01x08 - Periculum

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Previously on Witchblade: Common sense has never been a reliable guide to understanding the universe.

You're from a line going back through time and into the future.

Part of a warrior bloodline.

It's written that Joan's sword seemingly came to life during her battles.

After her capture, her w*apon disappeared.

The Witchblade has a way of slipping from its wielder's grasp just when it is needed most.

The last wearer of the Witchblade was Elizabeth Bronte.

An American spy in World w*r II.

Letters indicate that Elizabeth Bronte's intel was key in breaking the Enigma code.

Which won the w*r.

Cathain was an ancient Irish w*r goddess.

But her legends must have some basis in fact considering she wore the Lann Cailleach.

The Witch's Glove in your song, what did that mean?

Part of Cathain's legend.

She wore a gauntlet.

Made her invincible in battle.

But it also cut her off from the world.

I believe the next chapter pertains to the death of Conchobar.

- He dies?

- Mm, rather painfully, I fear.

No! Is it testing her?

Is it the Periculum?

No.

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.

Sara has not left her loft in four days.

She has not bathed.

She has not called anyone.

She has not eaten anything.

Last night, while she slept I filled her kitchen with all her favorite foods.

Whether she accepts the nourishment is anyone's guess.

Police are still without a suspect in the sh**ting deaths of three Northern Irish counterterrorists and a rock poet.

I'm Blake Williams for the Vorschlag Channel.

Your appraisal?

I am concerned for her.

Pezzini, go.

Sara, pick up.

Come on, I know you're there.

Pez, it's your partner.

What is your analysis?

Deep depression.

Desperate grief.

A broken heart.

She may try and end her life.

I'm not saying I can't handle things without you.

I'm just saying Sometimes work is the best antidote for the kind of loss you're going through.

Take it out on the bad guys, you know?

Pez, it all comes down to this.

Conchobar is the one who d*ed, not you.

Are you sure?

What is your recommendation?

I should watch her closely.

The great test may be at hand.

You are a good and faithful servant, Ian.

But you know not your master.

Yeah.

All that's in the report.

Hang on a sec.

McCartey.

Yeah, I know.

Hey, I'll try to get up there later today, man.

I'm crazed right now.

Yeah, later.

McCartey.

Yeah, yeah.

Hey, man, I'm in the vortex.

Let me hit you on the hip.

I'm back.

Hello?

It's a pretty long ride from the Banzai Pipeline to all this, huh, surfer boy?

Yeah.

It's this damn Irish m*ssacre.

I can't get caught up on the paper.

Oh, it's a tough case.

Especially without a partner.

Ah, I got Lubin and Hellstrom working with me till Sara gets back.

How is, uh, Miss Pezzini?

- Good.

Better.

- Good.

She'll be back soon.

Maybe even today.

Wow, great.

- Yeah.

- So, what is she?

Uh sick?

Injured?

What?

Food poisoning, we think.

So I guess all that Irish food doesn't really agree with her, huh?

Excuse me?

That roomful of, uh, dead micks down on the Hudson?

It looked like a Like a slaughterhouse.

I don't know what to tell you, captain.

You could tell me if you have any knowledge that Sara Pezzini was at or near that m*rder scene.

No, sir.

None at all.

You know what you are, Jake?

You're a window.

And I wanna know all about it.

Pezzini, go.

- Pezzini, it's Gabriel.

- Gabriel.

I know you gotta be really bummed about losing Conchobar.

I know you guys were tight.

I just wanted to do something to make you feel better.

So, uh, I dug up some new information about that bracelet of yours.

I think you wanna know.

Call me.

No, no, don't hang up.

Now, I don't know where your loyalties lie, McCartey.

But those dead Clancys weren't thugs or crooks.

They were cops.

Counterterrorists working for the Belfast P.

D.

They may also have been thugs or crooks.

Not my problem.

And the one dead man among them who wasn't one of us?

Sara Pezzini's boyfriend, Conchobar.

I wouldn't call him a boyfriend.

That's because you got a schoolboy crush on the woman.

Come on, wake up, will you?

They were shtuping.

How do you know that, captain?

She tell you?

He tell you?

You're right.

- Informed speculation.

- Yeah.

But I do know this.

On or about judgment day, Miss Pezzini was in here online researching the brother of her dead squeeze.

A brother who happens to be an I.

R.

A.

t*rror1st.

I already know that, sir.

I also know Pezzini is fully and reliably alibied for for the time of the murders.

- By?

- Kenneth Irons.

You ever heard of him?

Yeah, businessman guy who owns the world, right?

That's the guy.

Sara was questioning him for background on another one of our cases when the Irish m*ssacre went down.

You and I are going out for a drink tonight.

I'm on duty.

Meet me after your shift, huh?

Come thirsty.

- Nice outfit.

- You too.

This thing has gone crazy, Danny.

You gotta help me.

That's why I'm here.

Why is it doing this to me?

What do you think?

What do?

I don't know.

Maybe, um Maybe the Witchblade is punishing me for abandoning it?

You didn't abandon it.

I gave it to someone.

Here.

But you had to.

Maybe you shouldn't have taken it back.

I I didn't.

I, uh I I woke up and it was It was back on my arm.

Danny I'm really scared.

- Mr.

Irons - Seven major storm systems roam the globe as we speak.

- Seven.

- Detective McCartey, N.

Y.

P.

D.

Homicide.

It's a record.

A fluke or a miracle.

What do you think it means?

- Partners with Sara Pez - I know exactly who you are.

Well, in that case Don't worry, I've already corroborated your lie.

Excuse me?

Your captain called me.

- Sir, if you'll just give me - It's all taken care of.

Sara Pezzini was here that day, taking my deposition in the Dominique Boucher case.

All day.

Why did you back up my story?

I have the utmost respect for Sara.

If her partner needed to account reliably for her whereabouts at a given date and time, I'm sure there was a very good reason.

- There was.

- Well, don't thank me, detective.

When I need a favor in return, I won't hesitate to ask.

If you'll excuse me.

I know this is gonna sound lame, but you have to relax.

You're not gonna help by fighting against it.

Easy for me to say, huh?

Just think of your breath.

There's no effort involved.

Just make a place for it and the air will flow into you.

Let your heart find its own rhythm.

- There's nothing to be afraid of.

- Okay.

Okay.

Oh, my God.

What?

My hand.

You're You're holding my hand.

Does that bother you?

Yeah, it bothers me.

I haven't been able to even touch you since You know.

Since I d*ed?

We can touch each other now, Sara.

Because you're dying too.

The Periculum, it has begun.

Then Sara's a true wielder after all.

I believe the trial entails some testing.

Do we want Sara to succeed or do we want Sara to fail?

Pezzini's failure would end her life.

I don't know if I have 30 years to wait for another wielder.

In that case, to Sara's success.

Yet throughout her initiation she has been intractable, headstrong, stubborn.

If fully empowered by the Periculum, she might become impossible to manipulate.

You controlled Elizabeth Bronte.

I k*lled Elizabeth Bronte.

Why aren't you enjoying this moment, sir?

You've waited 30 years for it.

Go to her.

She needs you.

I don't.

Go on.

It's what you want, anyway.

Fear not.

Who are you?

I am the one who walks beside you.

You're Joan of Arc.

But you have my face.

Your heart as well, and your soul.

Uh Where am I?

What's happening to me?

This is the Periculum.

The test of your worthiness to wear la Lame de Sorcière.

The Witchblade.

A trial by fire.

Life or death.

Are you ready?

Do I have a choice?

No.

Let us begin.

Sara Pezzini, you were chosen by the Witchblade to wear it, to wield it, to serve it.

Of all the women of your time, you.

I understand that.

I do not understand why.

JOAN: A wielder's genesis is complex.

She always arises when the dark forces reach a certain critical mass.

The reverse is also true.

Whenever she arises, dark forces reach a critical mass?

So you're saying this thing is evil?

The blade arises to balance the darkness.

But neither is it good as you understand good.

It is governed by a different pair of opposites.

What opposites?

You must answer questions now, Sara, not ask them.

The Witchblade has been initiating you.

It has deemed you worthy of our examination.

So answer well and truly for on your answers hangs your fate.

What happens if I flunk?

Then this dream has no awakening.

In my time, my nation was under the lash of a foreign army.

Other of our sisters chose revolution, enslavement, genocide.

They chose?

I didn't choose any of this.

Of course you did.

So I ask you.

What is your crisis, Sara?

What is your b*ttlefield?

The whole damn world.

Kids m*rder each other at school, a pregnant mothers sh**t smack the water is poison, the air is pois Symptoms.

Name the disease.

The root, the cause.

You don't understand.

The whole human race has gone insane.

Well-named.

What?

I I can't do anything about that.

Insane.

From the Latin, unclean.

You are the cleansing, Sara.

You will make them pure.

The Witchblade abandoned you.

You were b*rned at the stake.

How do I know it's not going to abandon me?

How do I know it hasn't already?

You are not abandoned.

Captain?

Hey, hey, hey, sit down.

Thanks for coming.

I bought you a beer.

- You like beer, don't you?

- Oh, yeah.

Did you get some paperwork off your desk?

- Yeah, I'm making some headway.

- Good, good, good.

I gotta hand it to you.

I really thought I had her this time.

Why do you want her so bad?

Well, Pezzini and me, we go way back.

I mean, actually, her dad and I go way back.

Yeah, he didn't have the, uh, talent to do his job and rise.

So, uh, he always stuck his nose up everybody's ass all the time.

That's not Sara's fault.

Yeah.

She's got the gene, though.

I can smell it.

Whatever.

Yeah, ha, ha.

Yeah, whatever.

- He sh*t my partner.

- What?

Yeah, yeah, Jim Pezzini got hooked on a hooker who happened to be a favorite of a guy I was riding with.

- Get out.

- No.

Yeah, it was one of those, uh, lover's quarrels, you know?

Romantic triangles.

Yeah.

And on a Vice raid Jim Pezzini put one right between Ralph's eyes.

Yeah, the review board whitewashed it as, uh, an accident.

Okay, but persecuting Sara doesn't make any You know what?

I really admire your, uh, loyalty, McCartey.

I really do, even if it is misplaced.

I'm just saying she ain't right, that one.

Huh?

I can take care of myself.

Mm, mm-mm.

I know that you can.

So could Danny Woo.

Hey, Sara, it's me Gabriel.

Open up.

Hey, you alive in there?

Open the door.

Well, like I said, I found out some more about the blade.

Something about this gnarly test of worthiness it forces on its users.

It ain't pretty, especially if you fail.

Hello?

Well, look, if you, uh You wanna talk or get a cup of coffee or something just, um, give me a call, okay?

Hold fast.

Cathain.

You know my name?

Why are you crying?

Because death follows me.

No, Sara.

You are the one who follows death.

It was your life's work before you ever encountered the Lann.

Remember?

But anyone who ever gets close to me dies.

You think of death as evil and evil as death.

That is a falsehood.

You could've fooled me.

What are you willing to sacrifice to achieve your destiny, Sara?

What destiny?

Uh, okay, something about returning sanity to the race, but Would you be willing to give up your life to achieve this goal?

Sure.

Conchobar.

We both loved him.

Can I get him back?

Yes.

No, wait, you can't leave now.

I have to know! So I'm not the only one looking out for her.

Watch her well.

- Why are you here, Jake?

- Because you told me to meet you.

No, no, no.

I mean, why are you here?

Why are you a cop?

- Seriously?

- Yeah.

I'm a neat freak.

I wanna make my little corner on this whole insane world a little more orderly.

I've heard worse reasons.

What about you?

Nothing else ever seemed worth doing.

This is a sacred trust.

A brotherhood.

- I agree.

- Okay.

If you agree that this a brotherhood, why are you protecting Pezzini?

Because she's one of us.

- You think so?

- I know so.

I had, uh, Jerry Orlinsky run an errand for me the other day.

I cut a deal with a local pimp to turn over one of his girls.

A runaway, her parents were looking for her.

Pezzini saw Jerry picking up the girl before work.

She took pictures and she threatened to use them like it was some kind of a payoff.

And not just with I.

A.

, with his wife.

Is that being one of us?

- Why are you telling me all this?

- Because you and I are the same guy.

We're the ones who hold this whole mess together.

Underpaid, underappreciated.

- You got that right.

- Right?

Listen.

There's a lot of good cops in this unit.

Family men, huh?

Risking their lives every day and for what, huh?

For a couple of thousand dollars a year?

You can't send your kids to community college on the money that we make.

You got a solution for that?

Why aren't you with her?

There is nothing I can do for her.

You can protect her from others with malintent.

She's already got a guardian angel.

You never used to second-guess my judgments.

You were the perfect scalpel.

Sharp, precise.

Directible.

I am nothing but what you made me.

Now I have the capacity to evolve.

It's only because you gave it to me.

Hollow words, Ian.

- You ever heard of the Praetorian Guard?

- Roman soldiers, right?

Elite fighters?

The handpicked bodyguards of the caesars.

But eventually, they became so powerful that they could overthrow the caesars if they felt it was right.

Now, could you imagine belonging to a unit like that?

Big responsibility.

We already shoulder that responsibility whether you know it or not.

What I'm suggesting is we embrace it.

Maybe I've had one too many.

Could you be a little more specific?

This is a one-time-only invitation to join a group of policemen who understand the gravity of their job and who reap the harvest fairly just to make this insane world a little more orderly.

You mean, you're vigilan Thanks.

No.

Sara Pezzini is a vigilante.

She's a solo act.

These men are a team, huh?

Men of conscience.

These are officers entrusted by society to protect society.

And we protect each other.

.

45 Magnum.

I use a 9 mil.

Look closer.

A bull.

It's our totem, our talisman.

We call ourselves the White Bulls.

- Why a bull?

- Do you know what the bull symbolizes?

Power.

Masculinity.

Manure?

So how does it work?

When someone is obviously guilty and the system can't be trusted to administer justice we use one of these b*ll*ts.

Now, if you ever find a casing like this at a m*rder scene, you just walk away.

And if there's fruit to harvest, we take it.

We watch each other's backs.

Damn.

Yeah.

Hello, Sara.

I know you.

You're Elizabeth Bronte.

Oh, he can't hear us.

You were the last woman before me to wear the Witchblade.

The last real one.

You're my grandmother, aren't you?

We are related, but not in the way that you think.

We're the same person.

You mean, I'm you reincarnated?

Mm.

The idea of reincarnation comes from a natural sense that there is more to this world than we can taste or touch.

Unfortunately, it misses the main point.

- Which is?

- Time.

You think of time as if it were a straight line like a road or a train track with the past at one end and the future at the other.

The metaphor is seductive, but it's highly misleading.

The world was flat until we discovered it was round.

You must break your old paradigm of time, Sara.

Both past and future are contained in the eternal present.

Yeah, yeah, I saw The Terminator.

It made my head hurt.

It's a better example than you realize.

Think of a reel of motion picture film.

Each frame is a lifetime.

But all of them exist at once.

If you run it through the projector of human consciousness - You create continuity.

- No, my dear.

The illusion of continuity.

But if you think of the reel wound just so some of the frames touch other frames.

From one frame through another, any frame can be reached but all of them exist at once.

Wait.

Lately, time has been slipping for me.

Sometimes forward, sometimes back.

Is this why?

Yes.

It's a gift of the Witchblade I never learned to control.

Perhaps you can.

Some gift.

So time is just a matter of perception?

I am not from your past, Sara, nor are you from my future.

Both of our lifetimes exist right now.

So I'm not your reincarnation.

I'm you.

As I am you.

And we are each of the other wielders.

Remember this and use it.

Are we alive or dead?

Oh, Sara, we have d*ed a thousand times and are born a thousand and one.

If I were to answer your question right now and tell you, "Yes, you are dead" how would you feel?

Released.

From the load I walk around with all the time.

The load of what?

Fear.

It's fear.

What else would you feel?

Disappointed.

Ha.

Because there's so much I still want to do.

I haven't finished yet.

I haven't finished yet.

Today, Sara Pezzini you have become a true warrior.

Walk forward in your truth.

Trust the Witchblade.

And when it guides you, follow.

The White Bulls.

Pretty damn hardcore.

Risking everything for your ideals.

Not a lot of people would do that.

Not just ideals, Jake.

What we risk everything for is people.

- That's very noble.

- No, not really.

Considering the first people we take care of is each other.

So you what, skim the first count at a robbery?

Cop some dr*gs?

Little protection here, little graft there?

Jake, what do you think happens to, uh, stolen money that we recover?

Say, you know, drug money, after a trial?

Never thought about it.

It gets destroyed.

Incinerated.

Now, why shouldn't it keep my dad out of a home or send your kid to NYU, huh?

Now, you wanna call that stealing?

- I don't.

- What do you call it?

Justice.

Balancing the scales.

Now, as I said to you this invitation is, uh, offered to you one time and one time only.

What if I say no?

Well, we'll both forget this conversation ever took place.

That sounds like a thr*at.

Oh, no, no, no.

We never thr*aten.

We have a code and we never break it.

How was I chosen?

Very carefully.

We never invite anyone to join who doesn't accept.

No, no, no, it's on me.

It's time for me to go.

Did I fail?

The Periculum?

What do you think?

I don't know.

I don't feel worthy.

I haven't given any brilliant answers.

There are no brilliant answers to the riddles of the Periculum.

Only true ones.

You said, "I don't know.

" That was the true answer.

No, wait, please.

Who created the Witchblade?

Where did it come from?

It is a branch ripped from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Hell of a day.

Yep, a life-changer.

How long do I have to decide whether to come to your party?

Well, the samurai say a decision should be made in seven heartbeats.

We're gonna give you a little longer, but not much.

If I agree, then what?

Well, every good thing has its price.

There would be an initiation of sorts.

A way for you to outwardly display the changes taking place inside you.

Kind of a baptism.

By fire?

We'll discuss it when you, uh When you accept.

But I will tell you one thing.

Your price of admission will, uh, concern Sara Pezzini.

You made it.

We can't touch anymore, Sara.

You can see into my world, but you don't live here.

What do you mean?

You're no longer dying.

You're right, Danny.

Because I'm not afraid to.

Not anymore.

It's over.

She's alive.

I assume that means she passed the Periculum.

Correct.

Sara and the Witchblade are now one.

How do you feel about that?

Proud of her.

And honored to live in such an interesting time.

That makes our job more difficult.

We can no longer take the Witchblade away from fair Sara, should it come to that.

We would have to take her.

Is that even possible?

Something tells me you will be the very first to know.

Leave now.

I'm busy.

- Yeah?

- Sara?

Come on up.

Hey.

- Something wrong?

- No, nothing.

I mean, you look great.

I'm okay.

It's just, with everything you've been through I expected you to be, well wasted.

I guess you can say I've, uh, come to terms with a few things.

- Like what?

- I don't know.

My purpose.

What's all this?

Oh, just some stuff that belonged to my parents.

I was in the mood to look at it, see if they had any stories to tell.

I'm guessing they do.