Part 1

by Kelly

Hi everyone...sorry I'm so damn late with this.....anyway here goes...

The episode opens with Caleb at his father's grave, telling him that he forgives him. Obviously this is being done at Merlyns urging, as she is standing behind him looking on. We get the impression that Caleb doesnt mean a word of what he is saying.... Merlyn then proceeds to give him one of her pep talks, telling him that his anger, resentment and bitterness will lead him to violence. Caleb flounces off in one of his usual huffs, and Merlyn turns to find Lucas standing behind her. He tells her that its nice to hear her talking sense, and that what she had earlier said to Caleb about resentment being a slow acting poison on the soul, was very poetic. Merlyn replies with "yeh almost as poetic as you referring to my death as a mercy killing". Lucas says "I put you outa your misery yeh, but unfortunately I didn't finish the job" Lucas then attempts to strangle Merlyn, but Merlyn, whose powers are obviously at a premium in this episode, repells him, causing him to be thrown forcably backwards, onto the ground. To say that Lucas was unimpressed by this little show of strength is an understatement of epic proportions, and he vows revenge. Note ....Gary Cole, as he tries to get to his feet, kind of trips over that long coat he was wearing..... He is human after all..hahaha.... Anyway, where was I... oh yeh, Lucas has a brain explosion and decides to summon back the Boston Strangler from his final resting place (I think that could just have been hell)... to help him get rid of Merlyn, once and for all. Albert Desalvo assures Lucas that he will kill her, saying "when the dead kill the dead, well they just become nothing, sort of like anti-matter". He tells Lucas, if he hadnt been stopped in Boston, he would have killed far more than 13 women. Lucas tells him in no uncertain terms, "just make sure you only get the 1 in my town".... Desalvo, poses as a hospital cleaner, where he proceeds to eye off every female he sees. We have a fair idea what is going on in that evil mind of his as he looks at the nurses and the other workers in the hospital. He gets himself into the boarding house, posing as a refrigerater repairman, and pumps Caleb for information. Meanwhile back at the sherriffs office, Lucas is leaving for a couple of days to attend a conference, and hopefully bring back the Sherriff of the Year award .. that still makes me laff..lol.. Anyway, just as he is about to leave, some dropkick who has committed a robbery is being interviewed by Ben and Floyd... this guy refuses to admit his guilt and proceeds to spit in a garbage bin, which just happens to be next to Lucas's feet. Lucas picks up the bin, wacks it down on this guys head, tells him he better confess or else, and then gives him the full treatment, much to Ben and Floyds complete shock. This has got to be one of the best scenes in the series, I think. Always sticks in my mind when I think of some of the better ones. Ben tells Floyd to take the suspect down to cell 3. Floyd seems to resent being told what to do by Ben, but finally does it. Lucas taking all this in says to Ben, "you know you ought to sharpen up your powers of persuasion there Ben". Lucas leaves.. leaving Ben in charge... I think this was the only episode where I questioned Lucas's judgement. He must have been naive to think that after he left for a couple of days, Desalvo wouldnt have gone after any and all woman in Trinity, and Lucas never struck me as someone remotely naive, so I just didnt get it. Actually this episode veers off the track a bit in my opinion. I cant quite put my finger on it, and no, its not just the fact that Lucas wasn't in it much. Actually, this was the only episode that was shown here in Sydney, which came with a really strong violence warning at the beginning of it. Some of the scenes were truly quite horrible I must say. Desalvo, stalking and killing those two nurse, not to mention the violent scene where he tries to strangle Gail. Why Lucas would have remotely put Gail in that dangerous pridicament, is truly puzzling to me. Maybe this episode was to highlight Ben finally taking some degree of control, I'm not too sure... Anyway my memory is kinda hazy on certain aspects of this episode, maybe cause it just wasnt one of my favourites at all... I think the only reason I picked this one was cause I didn't want to get stuck doing the Potato Boy hhahaha... sorry to whoever reviewed that ep..lol... To cut a long story short,there is a final confrontation with Merlyn, which ends with Caleb coming to her rescue and Desalvo disappearing into the ether from where he has come.... Merlyn says to Caleb, that the power he used to save her, will be the force that one day destroys him. Dont you just get a bit sick of her peachings sometime...... (Well if anyone wants to fill in the blanks here, please feel free.) Lucas finally returns, to find Ben has done a remarkable job in his absence. He seems dumfounded by this, not to mention slightly peeved. Maybe he was hoping to comeback to a town in complete disarray. I'm not too sure... But the most important thing of all was that Lucas was chosen as Sherriff of the Year.... and so say all of us... hahahhaha..... Sorry I was so late with this everyone, I promise to do a more thorough job of Requiem/The Buck Stops Here... thanks for your offer of help by the way Fiona. I appreciated it.. and thanks as always to you Natalie for helping me fill in some gaps hahah...

PART 2

1. August 2002