Episode: 1.11
Air date: September 19, 2003
Cast Members: Desi Stark, Doug O'Donnell, and JD 

Previously on Slaying Here in Allentown

• Abe Solomon explains that a demon with a personal name, like Aristartes, is powerful. And if he has a title, he's even more powerful still. [Episode 1.10]
• Desi finds a label on the frontispiece of one of Abe's occult books that says, Ex Libris Philippus Vitreus. [Episode 1.10]
• JD is told that she has a curfew of 9 p.m. The last scene of that same Episode shows her in Coyote's hospital room at 9:15 p.m.  [Episode 1.10]
• Kevin takes charge and performs basic life-saving maneuvers when Ghost goes into shock. [Episode 1.10]

Teaser

• Exterior establishing shot of an office building, evening. Cut to an interior shot of a security officer's booth. The booth is open on all sides, like an island, and in the center of the lobby. A uniformed rent-a-cop is sitting in the booth, reading a magazine.
• A shadow falls over the rent-a-cop. He looks up and, after a second, looks very surprised. "Mr. Schuler!"
• James Schuler: How is everything going, Officer Bleistein?
• Officer: Fine, thanks. It’s been a routine night.
• Evening shiftworkers begin to enter the building. Mr. Schuler steps off to the side so as not to block the officer’s view of them. After they’re gone, he says, "I believe Officer Troxell is working tonight, correct?"
• Officer: Yes, he is. He just ran next door to get coffee for the crew. He’ll be back in a few minutes, I’m sure. (Pats a chair next to him.) Why don’t you have a seat? I’m sure he’ll just be a moment.
• Cut to an exterior shot of a convenience store. The camera has taken someone’s point of view: it’s walking along, parallel to the front of the store. It looks into the large, storefront window. Kevin (in uniform) is at the counter, paying for a tray of coffees. The camera stops for a second. Then, before Kevin turns, the camera ducks back the way it came, past the edge of the window. It turns and watches the door of the convenience store. As the door opens and Kevin steps out, the camera ducks further back, behind the corner of the building.
• Cut to an objective view of Kevin walking along the storefront window of the convenience store. He gets past the window. As he passes the corner of the building, a figure glides out from the shadows behind the corner and grabs Kevin by the shoulder. Kevin whirls and, remarkably, does not spill the coffees. Kevin is face-to-face with Ghost.
• Ghost: I’m sorry, man, I… I, uh, was gonna say yo, but I don’t know your name.
• Kevin: (sighs in relief) Kevin. (smiles and shakes Ghost’s hand) Do you always sneak around like that?
• Ghost: Yeah. That’s how I got my name. ’Sides, it’s dangerous to be seen by the townfolk nowadays.
• Kevin: You live around here?
• Ghost: No.
• Kevin: Just hanging out?
• Ghost: No. On my way to Coyote’s funeral.
• Kevin: Oh… Hey, I’m sorry. (trying to be upbeat) You’re… You’re looking a lot better than last time I saw you. Ghost, right? I remember hearing that in the car on the way to the hospital.
• Ghost: Yeah, Ghost. That’s why I stopped you, actually. I never got the chance to thank you for saving my life. Thanks, man. (Ghost extends his hand again. Kevin takes it.)
• Kevin: Hey, no proble-- (Ghost pulls Kevin into a street hug. Kevin, surprised, just stands there.)
• Cut to a longer boom shot of Ghost’s and Kevin’s embrace. Then cut to an even longer shot, looking down at an angle on the pair. Then cut to a longer shot still, where Kevin and Ghost are rather small. And in black and white. The camera zooms out to show that we’re seeing their image on a tiny monitor. A security monitor. Staring intently at the monitor, his face coldly expressionless, is James Schuler inside the security booth. 
• Cut to black. Roll theme song and title sequence. 00:08:00

Continuing

• Cut to the interior of JD's home
  • JD's foster father, Stephen Katsaros, is reading aloud a letter from Mrs. Vandegrift. "She will be coming by every Tuesday to meet with you, to check on your status, blah, blah, blah." He puts the letter down. He explains that until JD learns to be responsible, she's grounded. The only two places she's allowed to be are at home and in school -- when she's not in one, she has to be in the other. She may not talk on the phone for more than 15 minutes per day. She may not leave the house after school. "Do I need to repeat how important it is that your performance in some of these areas improve?"
  • We cut to JD, who's slouched in a chair, looking remorseful. "No," she says.
  • The camera cuts to the clock on the kitchen wall. It reads 8:55 p.m. JD says she has homework. Mr. Katsaros excuses her to go to her room to do her homework.
  • Cut to the interior of JD's bedroom as the door opens. JD enters, turns on the light, closes the door, and leans against it.
• Cut to the interior of the funeral hall
  • There are maybe 30 or so people in the funeral hall. All of them are young, but not all of them are Carmines. Coyote's casket is open and rests along the far wall. The camera does not show the body inside the casket.
  • The tone of the attendees is somber, but there's a hardness to it. The Carmines are familiar with death. The atmosphere here is more like what you'd expect from veterans attending the funeral of a fallen comrade, rather than young adults mourning a friend who was struck down by tragedy in the prime of his life. A few of the girls are crying, but most of the eyes are dry. Spyder and several of the larger Carmines are standing near the door, in case the Lobos show up and try to disrupt the funeral.
  • The funeral director is wearing a suit and tie. He glances about in obvious discomfort at the mourners, who are wearing stocking or baseball caps, baggy clothes, and flashing gang insignias. Clearly the funeral director feels out of place. He's also the oldest person present. 00:19:30
  • Nina leans over to Ghost and asks him in a whisper where JD is. Ghost replies that he doesn't know; he hasn't seen JD in a while.
  • Seconds later, JD enters the funeral home. As a sign of respect, she's wearing a nice black dress. Perhaps not surprisingly, almost everyone else at the funeral is wearing red, the color of the Carmines. Anticipating this might be the case, JD is also wearing red earrings. This is a vivid illustration that JD walks the boundary between two worlds, but belongs firmly in neither.
  • Nina sees JD before any of the Carmines do; she goes to JD and hugs her. When Nina expresses her fear that she thought perhaps JD wasn't coming, JD explains that there were some things she had to attend to. She wouldn't miss Coyote's funeral.
  • JD looks at Ghost. JD has never seen Ghost look shaken before. One of the reasons that Ghost was Coyote's favorite advisor was because Ghost always kept his cool. Tonight, his eyes are dry, but it looks as if he's just barely holding together. This particular form of stress is not the kind that Ghost is accustomed to dealing with.
  • JD approaches the casket. She squeezes Coyote's hand again, much as she did last Episode when she was trying to comfort Coyote as he lay dying. Coyote's face looks very peaceful. It's a jarring but not unwelcome change from the hard, angry look that we were accustomed to seeing on him.
  • We cut to the end of the funeral. JD, Ghost, Nina, Ice, and a fair number of Extra Carmines are the last to leave. JD tells them she has something to show them. She walks them back into Carmines territory. She stops at a vacant lot not far from the Carmines' headquarters. On the exterior walls of one of the buildings adjacent to the lot is a huge spray-painted mural. It shows the rise of the Carmines and Coyote's leadership over them. No acts of violence or illegal activity are depicted in the mural. In one of the scenes of the mural, Coyote is being carried triumphantly on the shoulders of the red-clad Carmines. This is JD's memorial to Coyote. 00:24:34
  • The camera pans across the faces of the Carmines as uplifting music plays in the background. Their spirits are clearly buoyed by what they see -- with one exception. When the camera comes to Ghost, with Nina and Ice by his side, he's moved to the point where he finally loses his composure and breaks down. Ice and Nina comfort him as he grieves.
• Cut to Doug inside Pete's Gyros
  • This is where Doug first encountered Priscilla. He's nursing a gyro that appears to have been sitting before him for quite some time. Whenever the door opens, he looks over as if he's waiting for someone specific to enter. Whoever it is he's waiting for doesn't show, and the proprietor's patience grows thin. Finally Doug gives up, pays his bill, and leaves.
  • As Doug leaves the building, a rattling sound catches his attention. He whirls around to see an old homeless person rooting through one of the trash cans on the sidewalk. The gender of this person is indiscernible because he or she appears to be wearing every piece of clothing he's ever owned. The wind changes and we can tell by Doug's facial expression that this person has a serious odor problem. Since the homeless person is clearly not a threat in any way, and in order to distance himself from the source of the smell, Doug turns to walk away -- and almost walks directly into Priscilla.
  • Priscilla inhales deeply and smiles. She begins to move toward the homeless person, almost lost in thought. Then she stops and turns toward Doug. "I know you. You're a friend of Desi's."
  • Doug explains that he was looking for Priscilla. He wants to know more about her. Is she a demon? Why is she here? She explains that Aristartes summoned her with the promise of a large number of dead bodies. However, he's failed to deliver on that promise, so she's exerting her independence by avoiding him. When Doug asks if Priscilla dislikes killing her own (meaning other demons), she replies that she doesn't like killing at all. It's not for her to "create" the bodies; it's for her to put them to a good use. And even though she's adaptable and some of her children are just as capable of feeding off of living flesh as they are of feeding off of dead flesh, that doesn't change the fact that Aristartes owes a debt. It's the principal of the thing. This leads to a brief discussion of heavy metal music. 00:36:00
  • Eventually, Doug asks Priscilla what stance she would take if someone were to attempt to destroy Aristartes. Priscilla explains that if Aristartes were to pay his summoning debt, she'd be forced to obey him. But beyond that, she doesn't care one way or another what happens to Aristartes. She does warn Doug that Aristartes has been around for a very long time, and he's handily survived many other attempts against him. Priscilla also points out that, in a sense, Desi owes her life to Aristartes. While the veil has concealed the true nature of the demons, it has also concealed Desi's true nature. There were entities who were looking for people like Desi, and because of the veil, they never noticed her.
• Exterior nighttime shot of a tent in a backyard
  • Cut to the interior of the tent, where three 14-year-old boys are bedding down for a sleep-out.
    • Boy #1: Dude, you have all the covers!
    • Boy #2: No, I don't! (Flashlights move wildly about as one of the boys surveys the interior of the tent.)
    • Boy #1: Ouch! Watch where you're swinging that thing!
    • Boy #3: What was that?!
    • Boy #2: You guys are just trying to scare me!
    • Boy #3: You're such a baby!
    • Boy #2: No, I'm not. (beat) I have a headache.
    • Boy #1: Shut up! This is going to be one of the last nights we're going to be able to sleep out. It's getting too cold at night.
    • Boy #2: I think there's something in my sleeping bag with me.
    • Boy #1: Shut up! Mom's gonna come wake us up for school tomorrow, so you better get to sleep.
    • Boy #3: Is that Mars up there?
    • Boy #1: Yeah. (pointing) And so's that. (beat) OK, lights off. (all goes dark)
    • Boy #3: (moaning) Oooooo, ooooooo!
    • Boy #2: Shut up!
• Cut to Desi's health class the next morning 00:41:00
  • We're a week or two into the semester. The teacher is covering the basic systems of the human body.
  • Desi is there, taking notes. In every other class, we've seen Desi in the front row. But this time, she's sitting in the back, next to JD and Doug. The words of the teacher, Mr. Gibson, are indistinct as he drones on in the background.
  • Doug tells the group of his meeting with Priscilla and his conclusion that she wouldn't be upset if Aristartes were killed.
  • At that point, another student, Brianna, raises her hand. She asks Mr. Gibson if she's going blind, because she sees "things," like dust but not dust, floating in the air, and only she can see them. Mr. Gibson explains that what she's seeing are called floaters, clusters of cells left over from the formation of Brianna's eyes while she was still an embryo. Floaters, as their name implies, float in the vitreous humor, the fluid inside the eye. When someone asks about the vitreous humor, Mr. Gibson states that it gets its name from the Latin word vitreus, which means "glass."
  • Suddenly, it hits Desi: Ex libris Philippus Vitreus. From the library of Philip Glass! She gasps loudly as everyone in the class looks to see what's wrong. Doug helpfully offers, "Cockroach."
• Cut back to the exterior of the tent in the backyard 00:48:00
  • Cut to an interior shot -- in essence, a shot with one of the walls of the tent removed. We're looking at the boys sleeping within, but the camera is at ground level, so only the boy nearest the camera is visible. The interior is initially dark, but through the magic of time-lapse photography, it lightens rapidly as we watch. The sleeping boy is facing us. In the dialog earlier, this was Boy #2.
  • The boy's body is inside his sleeping bag and underneath a blanket. As we see his face more clearly in the growing light, there appear to be some kind of marks on it. Without opening his eyes, the boy feels around the tent floor at his head. "Where's my pillow? Who took my pillow?" Still with his eyes closed, he reaches behind him to where the other boys lay and tugs on something we cannot see.
  • He liberates a pillow from the grip of the boy behind him and brings it over his head. What the audience clearly sees, but the boy does not, is that the pillow is covered with blood. The boy raises his head, puts the pillow underneath him and lowers his head. He immediately feels that something is wrong. He opens his eyes and looks at the pillow in horror for second. Then he turns to look at the boys behind him.
  • Cut to an exterior shot of the tent and a voice-over of the boy's scream.

Act 2: Back in School

• Desi, JD, and Doug are at a table in the cafeteria, eating lunch
  • Desi explains her realization in Mr. Gibson's class: Mr. Solomon has Mr. Glass' books! But Mr. Glass was calling Desi from Florida. What's going on here?
  • Desi and Doug decide to ask Mr. Solomon where he got the books.
  • They also bring JD up to speed on who Aristartes is. They explain that, according to Abe Solomon, Aristartes must be a powerful demon because he has a personal name and a title, "the Opener." JD relates what she heard from Pedro, that among the Lobos, Priscilla goes by the name of Rosita, and she and Ernesto/Aristartes are on the outs. Desi also points out that she doesn't trust Abe Solomon; she just doesn't know him well enough to trust him. Desi asks Doug to look up in his books what a Slayer is -- and to keep quiet about it, because she doesn't want anyone finding out. Desi and Doug agree to stop at the Occult Emporium after school to ask Abe Solomon about Philip Glass. JD decides to come along.
  • Doug passes along what Priscilla told him, that the veil prevented others from seeing Desi for what she really is. This information does not sit well with Desi, who is now beginning to wonder if she might be some kind of demon. Desi mentions that Priscilla told her she was a Slayer, and that she'd be in great danger as long as she didn't know what she was.
• Inside the Occult Emporium 00:56:46
  • The place is its usual mess. There's no obvious sense of organization to any of the goods here. Desi locates one of the books she was reading last week, with the frontispiece sticker Ex libris Philippus Vitreus. Doug takes the book up to Abe Solomon at the front counter. From Abe, they discover several surprising things about Philip Glass:
    • Philip Glass was murdered in his apartment a few months ago, apparently with an axe. He had been a regular customer of Abe's. As far as Abe knew, he was a collector of rare books. Abe bought up his books at the estate sale.
    • Mr. Glass lived in Allentown, not in Florida, as Desi had thought.
    • Mr. Glass was paranoid and had several different identities. His obituary appeared in the paper under the name by which Abe had first met him: Arthur Livengood.
    • Abe knows that the Philip Glass persona believed in all this occult stuff. He also was on a mission to find someone: the Slayer. Abe never found out whether Mr. Glass was able to find her. When Doug questions Abe's use of the feminine pronoun, he replies, "The Slayer is always a her."
    • Doug asks for more information on the Slayer, so Abe produces another Philip Glass book. From it, he reads: "Into every generation there is born one girl with the strength and skill to fight the vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness. She is the Chosen One. She is the Slayer." The gang is surprised to discover that vampires are real, too.
  • Doug turns to Desi and says, "Now we know what you are." Abe immediately catches the significance of this. He asks Desi to leave and tells her she can't return to his store, because "the Slayer attracts... things. I don't need that kind of visitor. I sell things. I just sell things!"
  • Desi asks how many of Mr. Glass' books mention the Slayer. Abe says he's found three. Desi promises to buy them when she gets her next paycheck.
  • In order to get Desi and her fiends to leave his shop, Abe gives them the address of the apartment where Philip Glass lived. "Here. I doubt they've rented it out yet, with the publicized axe murder and all." The crew decides to leave.  
  • But then Abe remembers he's found some additional information on Aristartes. He found a reference that says Aristartes is summoned by powerful sorcerers, and in return for something, he will increase the sorcerer's power tenfold. Sort of like the Energizer bunny, Desi points out helpfully. Abe doesn't know what the "something" is, though. 
  • Doug muses that such a sorcerer should be easy to find; he should leave a magical trail of some sort, now that the veil is down. Doug suggests locating and going after the sorcerer.
• Cut to an exterior establishing shot of Aegis Security later that day 01:13:00
  • JD paces outside the building a few times, hoping to catch sight of someone. She apparently doesn't see who she's looking for, because she finally resolves to enter.
  • Once inside, JD asks the receptionist, Marcie, if Kevin Troxell is working. Marcie gives JD the once over and notes her ragged-looking clothing. At JD's request, Marcie calls Kevin's extension and tells him that "Jewel is here to see him." Kevin practically dashes to the foyer to see JD. He's in uniform. He greets Jewel (as he knows her) with a handshake. JD asks if she can talk to him for a minute. He leads her to a set of comfy chairs in the lobby. JD then, in her own way, thanks Kevin for having saved her life [from the possessed cops in Episode 1.08]. Unfortunately, her expression of gratitude is witnessed by both Desi, who has just entered the building to collect her paycheck, and James Schuler, who has just stepped out of his office. JD quickly leaves Kevin (who in his surprise notices neither Desi nor Mr. Schuler) and literally walks into Desi on her way out. JD says hi, but Desi doesn't reply. JD stops and waits while Desi collects her paycheck.
  • Mr. Schuler turns and, his stride one of grim determination, walks to a cipher-locked door labeled Security. He punches a code into the cipher lock, enters the room, and closes the door behind him.
  • Out in the parking lot, JD mentions to Desi that things weren't what they just appeared to be. Desi asks Doug, who was waiting in the parking lot, to take JD home. Desi says she'll walk home. Doug suggests maybe Desi and JD should talk first, but Desi declines and takes off before anyone can stop her. JD suggests that Doug follow Desi, since she doesn't seem to be thinking clearly.
  • Cut to a shot of a room filled with electronic equipment. Close-up of a hand operating a joystick. Cut to close-up of Mr. Schuler's face, bathed in a bluish glow. Cut to a close-up of his other hand as it presses a button labeled Print. Cut back a close-up of his face and its expression of barely contained rage, then to the video screen that he's watching. He's positioning crosshairs over the image of JD's face as she's speaking to someone in the parking lot. As soon as the crosshairs are centered on the close-up of her face, Mr. Schuler presses the Print button. And again. And again. In the background, we can hear some sort of printer-type device spitting out a page. Cut to the printer as it produces a close-up of JD's face, printed from the image captured by the security camera in the parking lot.
  • Back in the parking lot, Doug points out that there's no need to follow Desi because no one will mess with her. No one she can't handle, anyway. And besides, Doug has an appointment to meet Priscilla. JD agrees and says in that case, she needs to go home. Doug offers to drop her off at her place.
  • Back inside Aegis, after Kevin crosses the frame (oblivious to the fact that JD's kiss has been seen by Desi or his uncle) to return to the cubicle area, Mr. Schuler emerges from the Security room. He has a stack of papers in his hand. "Marcie, hold my calls," he barks as he enters his office. He closes his door, walks to his desk, picks up his phone and dials a number. It's answered on the third ring by Aristartes. Stone-faced, Schuler says, "I have a job for you." He sets the stack of papers on his desk. That's when the camera clearly shows that every page in the stack is a print-out of JD's face.
• Cut to an exterior shot of JD's home. 01:26:01
  • As Doug's car pulls up to the curb, we see that JD's foster father is already standing in the doorway. Doug has never met the man, so he assumes it's JD's father. Apprehensively, JD enters the house. Almost as soon as the door closes, Doug hears the sound of a male voice shouting, followed by the sound of something breaking.
  • With that sound, cut immediately to a punching bag with a bow-tie on it as Desi lands a series of blows on the bag. Michael Chen watches on, impassive yet clearly cautious. Desi is complaining to Michael about men. Fortunately, the topic turns to Desi's plans for her first paycheck, and how the job at Aegis is going. Talk of the paycheck reminds Desi of something, and she informs Michael that she's pretty sure he won't be hearing from Mr. Glass again. She offers to assume the payments, and Michael offers to come up with terms that will be affordable to her. After all, she is his best student, and he doesn't want to lose her. At this, Desi says, "I shudder to think what I would do on days like today if I hadn't learned discipline." Michael, inspecting from a distance the chain and rafter supporting the punching bag, concurs.
  • Cut back to the exterior of JD's home. Doug has cautiously approached the front door. He's listening from outside. He hears shouting and occasionally the sound of things breaking. No shouts of pain, though. JD is being chastised for not having come home directly from school, as she was directed. Through his eavesdropping, Doug discovers several things: That JD is now grounded for a month, that the man is JD's foster father, and that JD will be returned to residential (adoption-speak for "sent back into the system") in Pittsburgh if she doesn't shape up. He also surmises that JD has a rather turbulent home life. But since he hears nothing that indicates JD is any danger (no threats or sounds of physical violence), he returns to his car and leaves without being discovered.
• Cut to the interior of Pete's Gyros 01:36:23
  • Priscilla is already there, slurping down a coffee (which none of the patrons seems to notice) and in quite a good mood. Doug enters. Priscilla notices his demeanor and asks him what's wrong. He vaguely mentions problems that his friends are having, then turns the conversation to Desi and her unhappiness at being the Slayer. Priscilla corrects him ("She's a Slayer, not the Slayer. There's more than one now."), comments on there being nothing more dangerous than a Slayer without a Watcher, and then goes on to explain what Watchers are.
  • Doug then turns the conversation to Aristartes. He asks if there's anything she can tell Doug that would help them send Aristartes back to where he came from. Priscilla says he'll return when his mission is complete. But since Aristartes was summoned before Priscilla, she wasn't present for his summoning and therefore doesn't know what the terms of his summoning were. Doug asks how they could find the sorcerer who summoned Aristartes. Priscilla replies that Aristartes hasn't shared that information. But any sorcerer that summoned Aristartes should be fairly easy to notice because he'll experience a dramatic increase in power. She says a Watcher would know how to find the sorcerer. So would another sorcerer. So would Aristartes. But none of these answers are of any help to Doug.
  • Priscilla says that she could look around and try to find some information on the sorcerer, but what would Doug be willing to give her for it? Doug asks what she wants. Priscilla replies, "Anything fertile. But you have to provide it. Just pointing the way won't cut it."
  • Doug declines, citing that it wouldn't be appropriate for him to do that, with his being "one of the good guys." Priscilla takes umbrage ("What have I done that's so reprehensible?") Doug admits that he knows of nothing specific, and Priscilla is even charming as demons go, but demon culture seems to be spattered with Evil. Priscilla quickly recovers and says he should let her know if he changes his mind. She recommends that in the meantime, Doug avoid Aristartes. Doug accepts the advice and then, out of the blue, asks, "Are there any vampires?" Priscilla rolls her eyes and says, "Are there!" then we cut away
• To the interior of James Schuler's office. 01:43:50
  • Mr. Schuler is seated behind his desk. His expression is impassive. Seated opposite Mr. Schuler is Aristartes (also called Ernesto by the Lobos), who's looking through the images of JD's face that Mr. Schuler printed out from the security camera.
    • Schuler: Her name is Jewel Davenport. I don’t have much information for you. (hopeful) I don’t suppose she’s a gang member?
    • Aristates: Not by her clothes.
    • Schuler: Too bad.
    • Aristartes: (hopeful) What would you have me do if she were in a gang?
    • Schuler: She hangs out with the wrong crowd. Now she has Kevin hanging out with the wrong crowd. She’s put him in mortal danger. If this continues, he’ll lose his life. Or his soul. Or both. (beat) I don’t want her to ever speak to Kevin again.
    • Aristartes: So you’re relaxing the rules?
    • Schuler: No. Use your discretion, but the rules still stand.
  • Aristartes exits the office.
• Desi and Doug ask to be shown the apartment that once belonged to Philip Glass 01:46:00
  • The landlady shows them the apartment. They immediately notice the very large, dark stain in the center of the wool rug in the living room. Desi tries to check out the apartment while Doug leads the landlady off to the other rooms. The room is still furnished, but all smaller personal possessions are gone. There are are large bookcases on several walls, but all of them are empty.
  • Desi searches for clues, any type of lead, but finds nothing. As she's picking up the cushions of the couch, the camera shows an envelope under the last cushion -- just as the landlady reenters the room. Desi puts the cushion back down so quickly that Desi doesn't see the envelope. However, Desi then does notice, sticking out from underneath one of the bookcases, an envelope. She pulls out the envelope and tucks it into her purse. The landlady concludes the tour and shows Desi and  Doug out.
• Cut to Desi's stepfather is he watches the evening news in his home. 01:55:00
  • JD is watching as well. The newscaster reports that two teenage boys were found dead in a tent in their backyard this morning. Their bodies were entirely drained of blood. A third boy survived the event and is working with police to try to determine exactly what happened. There's a videotape of a reporter brusquely confronting a blubbering 14-year-old boy. JD recognizes the neighborhood as an affluent one on the West Side of Allentown, near the No Fun Park.
  • JD excuses herself to her room. She calls Doug and tells him about the death of the kids. Drained of blood. They wonder if the surviving kid is a vampire. JD asks Doug to meet her outside her place. Citing the fact that JD is grounded, Doug is reluctant to do anything that would get her in more trouble. However, JD convinces him that everything will be aright, so he agrees. Both Doug and JD arm themselves with a cross and head toward their meeting place (JD by way of her bedroom window).
  • On the way, JD runs into Pedro. He says hey, then in a conspiratorial tone, informs JD that Rosita (the name by which the Lobos know Priscilla), Ernesto's "squeeze," hasn't been at the Lobo house in about a week. It looks as if she's run out on Ernesto. And yet, Ernesto doesn't seem to be very concerned. Pedro says he overheard someone ask Ernesto where Rosita was, and Ernesto replied, "I gave her a job to do." For his part, Ernesto seems to be distracted lately. Pedro thinks Ernesto is cooking something up. Pedro and JD part company with an amicable "Watch your back."
  • Pedro watches JD leave. When JD passes out of sight, someone suddenly steps into frame from behind Pedro and drapes his arm over Pedro's shoulder. It's Ernesto!
    • Ernesto: Who’s your friend, Pedro?
    • Pedro: Just a girl
    • Ernesto: I picked up on that. How do you know her?
    • Pedro: She, uh… There was this mob a few weeks ago, and I, uh… helped her get away from them.
    • Ernesto: I see. She looks like somebody I’ve seen hanging around with the Carmines. You hanging with Carmines now, Pedro? (Ernesto caresses the side of Pedro's face. We've seen Ernesto do this once before -- to Lupito in Episode 1.03. Two Episodes later, Lupito was found dead with a big chunk of his skull gouged out.)
    • Pedro: She ain’t no Carmina!
    • Ernesto: How do you know? You only met her a few weeks ago. (Ernesto has slid his hand up Pedro's face. His hand is now on the side of Pedro's cranium.)
    • Pedro: But I seen her before that. When we were in juvie. She wasn’t in no gang then. She ain’t in one now.
    • Ernesto: (Stops his caress. His hand drops. Now his arm is just hanging over Pedro's shoulder.) Is that so? (Ernesto seems mysteriously pleased. After a moment:) I’d be careful if I were you, Pedro. Some people judge a man by the company he keeps. (Ernesto pats Pedro's back and leaves. Pedro breathes a deep sigh of relief.)

Act 3: That Night

• Cut back to Desi in her bedroom 02:04:00
  • She's looking at the envelope she found in Philip Glass's apartment. It's the monthly bill for a cell phone. The account is with a cellular company in Florida. Consequently the number for the cell phone is a Florida number. The number that's most frequently called by this account is Desi's home number. The dates and times coincide with Desi's last lessons with Philip Glass. It's because of Mr. Glass's phone number (among other things) that Desi thought he lived in Florida. Desi looks out her bedroom window and finds herself thinking, "He could have been watching me through the window all that time." She practically jumps out of her skin when the doorbell rings at just that instant.
  • Desi comes downstairs and sees Kevin talking to her father. She immediately turns around and heads back up the stairs. Kevin and Mr. Stark are surprised. Mr. Stark goes after Desi and asks what's wrong. He quickly realizes that Kevin has hurt Desi somehow, but he can't get any information out of Desi. Still, no one hurts his little girl and gets away with it! Mr. Stark returns downstairs and gives Kevin a firm (but somewhat distorted, because I didn't want to have to make up the dialog) Talking To. He then shows Kevin out. Kevin is taken aback by all of this.
• At the No Fun Park
  • Doug and JD deduce which yard the tent is in. They find it easily. There's still police tape up. Doug and JD sneak into the backyard and look through contents of the tent. The sleeping bags and personal effects are still in here. There's quite a bit of blood on the bedclothes -- but not enough to make two teenagers' worth.
  • In the tent are also the personal effects that one would expect on a camp-out: a battery-powered lantern, an alarm clock, toothpaste and toothbrush, a half-empty bottle of Tylenol, several empty Coke cans and two that haven't been opened yet, mouthwash, a flashlight -- things like that. There are no footprints, but there's evidence of something having been dragged through the blood pools. The blood is already quite dried, and in one spot there's a strange texture pressed into the clotted blood. It looks almost tentacly. They're not sure what a vampire would leave behind, but nothing here screams "vampire" to them -- perhaps aside from the blood.
  • JD and Doug get back to the street at the front of the house when the front door opens. The kid they saw on the newscast (the survivor of the camp-out) dashes to the sidewalk with a bag of trash. He gets the bag to the curb with a lob worthy of an Olympian, then turns to run back to the house as if the devil were chasing him. That's when the kid runs smack into JD -- and screams.
  • JD and Doug calm the teenager, whose name is Jason Kratsky. He's a nervous wreck and asks then to walk him back to his front door, which is all of 20 feet away. He's hyperventilating. When JD asks him to calm down, he says, "Sometimes I get so upset I throw up. I almost always get a headache when I'm stressed, but sometimes I throw up, too." 
  • Partly in order to change the subject, they ask Jason what happened last night. He says he didn't see anything, but something sucked the blood out of his friends. Doug then notices that there are strange marks on Jason's face. Like several tiny incisions. JD asks him about the marks. He doesn't know what they are or how they got there. He laments that this was going to be their last camp-out of the season because the nights are getting too cold.
  • JD gives Jason her cross pendant. He accepts it and asks what it's for. She says he looks like he could use it. "It'll protect you." Jason puts the pendant on and tucks the cross under his shirt, against his skin. He thanks JD and then goes back into his house to lie down, in the hope that doing so will help his headache.
• Here's a super-abbreviated summary of the next few scenes:  02:21:15
  • JD and Doug decide to check out No Fun Park. ("If I were a vampire, that's where I'd hang out.") They find nothing but creepy-looking trees that sway in the breeze. During a break, while they're trying to figure out what to do next, Doug is leaning against the remains of the wall of a garage which is being demolished. It appears that the owners intend to build a new garage in this spot -- perhaps a larger one. They're talking about Desi being mad at JD and Kevin. 
  • Suddenly something above Doug detaches from the wall and drops down onto Doug. The thing is huge -- about the size of Doug's chest -- has many legs. It latches onto the front of Doug's shirt. It's a sickly gray color, and Doug can feel its hooked feet pierce his shirt. Doug is paralyzed with fright as JD picks up a 2x4 from the construction and smacks the insectile form that's clinging to Doug. The creature goes sailing off into the darkness of the park. Fearing there may be more of them, Doug and JD flee.
  • Desi hears rattling at her bedroom window and discovers that Kevin is tossing pebbles up at it in an attempt to get her attention. While Kevin is looking for his next batch of pebbles, Desi opens the window and shouts down to him. He begs her to talk. She slides out of her window and perches on the edge of the porch roof, looking down at him. Desi wastes no time in accusing Kevin of being a sleazebag. He doesn't know what she's talking about. Desi mentions the incident in the lobby at Aegis. "Or are you going to tell me it wasn't what it looked like?"
  • Kevin tries to explain that it wasn't what it looked like. JD showed up, thanked him for saving her life, told him not to do it again, kissed him, and left. Even now it doesn't make any sense to Kevin. After further discussion and many apologies from Kevin, Desi accepts his explanation. She leaps down to the ground to join him and he explains his real reason for coming there. (It wasn't to apologize because he didn't know he was in trouble.) It's because he needed someone to talk to. 
  • Kevin says that his uncle, James Schuler, has been very unhappy with him lately, and he doesn't know why. Desi's good at reading people. Maybe she's noticed something that would help Kevin understand what's going on with Jim? As they're talking, they begin walking around the block. Kevin feels as if he's been accidentally hurting a lot of people lately. He doesn't like the idea of being responsible for anyone's pain. Which is kind of ironic; it's not as if Jim hasn't caused his share of pain. When Kevin was 10, his uncle disappeared. Didn't come home one day, just left without a word -- and didn't resurface for more than a year. Then he reappeared. He explained his year's absence by saying he had to "find himself." He found religion as well. According to Kevin's mom, Jim had been pretty much a loser before he vanished. When he came back, he was considerate, and ambitious, and cared deeply about his family. Even though Jim has apologized several times for his disappearance, that doesn't make all the pain go away.
  • JD and Doug decide they need Desi's help. They jump into Doug's car and head over to Desi's house. They're not aware that Desi isn't home; she and Kevin are out walking somewhere. Doug and JD have a brief argument about who should go to the door to get Desi. Referring to the hour, Doug says, "Damn monsters. They're so inconsiderate." Suddenly someone is outside JD's door. It's Ernesto! "You think?" he says, as he reaches through the window and pulls JD from the car. He tosses her into a utility pole. She crashes to the ground at its base. He starts to walk toward JD. 
  • Doug zips out of the car and swings at Ernesto with a heavy flashlight. He misses as Ernesto dodges handily. In one fluid motion, Ernesto delivers a spin kick to Doug's head and sends him sailing. Ernesto then turns back to JD, who tries to throw her knife at him. JD then turns and runs. Ernesto starts to follow when Doug calls to him. When Ernesto turns, Doug brandishes the tooth he's been wearing around his neck [Ernesto's tooth, which Desi found in Episode 1.02] and attempts to taunt Ernesto with it. He wants to give JD time to get away.
  • Ernesto regards the tooth. "A trophy," he says. "How quaint." Ernesto reaches toward Doug, and there's the sensation of movement coming from Ernesto's hand. The camera closes in on Doug's face as we see a look of agony there. At the same time, we hear a nasty crunching sound. Doug falls, and we cut to a medium shot of Ernesto. He raises his hand to inspect the bloody severed finger that he's holding. "A trophy," Ernesto says with a smile as he puts the finger in his breast pocket. 
  • As JD flees, she crosses paths with Desi and Kevin. JD points to Ernesto. Kevin steps forward to put himself between Desi and Ernesto. Desi pulls him back and tells him that bystanders have to stay out of the way. Combat ensues between Desi and Ernesto.
  • Many blows are traded and much smack is laid down. Ernesto gets a good bite into Desi, but is also taking a beating of his own. Kevin is starting to lead JD away when JD explains that Doug was right behind her. Kevin tells JD to stay put and heads back toward the battle to look for Doug. JD, never one to follow orders, follows Kevin. Ernesto tosses Desi onto a fire hydrant and grabs JD. Kevin moves to intercept. In order to give Desi something else to worry about, Ernesto strikes out at Kevin. Ernesto's fangs-in-his-hand strike Kevin in the neck. Kevin clutches his throat as arterial blood sprays through his fingers. Kevin then falls unconscious. Ernesto's intent is clear: Desi has to decide tonight who will live and who will die.
  • Desi, now furious, kicks an expensive car in the driveway next to her. The car alarm goes off. Desi's father rushes out into the driveway because of the alarm. He finds Kevin and immediately dials 911 on the cordless phone he carried out from the house. Mr. Stark tends to Kevin as he reports on Kevin's condition.
  • Desi catches up with Ernesto and presses the combat. More blows are exchanged. JD tries to get away, but her ankle is sprained; she can't cover much ground. Still, Ernesto has had enough. He mutters something in a language we don't understand. The camera takes Desi's point of view: Ernesto divides into two identical selves. Then these selves divide again. And then again. Within seconds, Desi is surrounded by Ernestos. Some of the Ernestos begin to glow. As Desi focuses on the glowing Ernestos, they blur. Their outlines shift. The illusions of Ernesto shimmer and take the form of... a car. Desi's wandered into the street! By the time she realizes this, it's too late for her to dodge She bounces over the hood of the car and comes to rest on the pavement. Desi's out cold.
  • Ernesto turns, easily catches up to JD. "Now where did we leave off?" he asks, as he scoops her up and walks off into the night. Cut to black. Roll end credits.