Episode 5
"Bad Blood"
Chicago – Present Day
As the episode opens a black SUV pulls to a stop in an alleyway and the driver gets out and opens the door for two beautiful women, one blonde, one brunette. As they walk away from the car, a white van screeches to a noisy halt at the end of the alleyway and masked men in black combat gear leap out, wielding crossbows and guns. As the women run for cover in a doorway, the driver/bodyguard is shot in the chest with a crossbow bolt. The masked men fire automatic weapons at the women’s hiding place, and the dark-haired woman fires back with a handgun, dropping one of the attackers. Grabbing their fallen comrade, the men retreat to the van and it drives off hurriedly, the dark-haired woman firing after it with the fallen bodyguard’s automatic weapon.
In Harry’s apartment, he and Laura are watching a movie in French on a portable DVD player. Though she is sniffling at the sad film, Harry seems less than enthralled. In the background, Bob sighs emotionally as he watches over their shoulders, tears running down his cheeks. There is a pounding at the door. Harry goes to answer the door, declining Laura’s offer to pause the film and having to gesture pointedly at Bob before the ghost reluctantly tears his eyes from the screen and walks through the wall, out of sight. Harry peers through the window and finds on his doorstep the dark-haired woman from the attack. He’s surprised to see her; it’s obvious they know each other.
He opens the door a crack and acknowledges her, “Bianca”, telling her it’s not a good time. She tells him she’s in trouble and she needs his help. He’s reluctant but she tells him she has nowhere else to go. Laura is less than thrilled by the new arrival and packs up her DVD player, saying she has an early shift tomorrow anyway. Harry tries to tell her this won’t take long but Laura tells him that she feels like she doesn’t know him the way she wants to, effectively breaking up with him. Harry is short with Bianca, wanting to know what she wants, and her answer is simple; she wants to hire him. Harry tells her to forget it but Bianca is resolute, reminding Harry of what she did for him and telling him that it’s payback time... her eyes turn black and her smile reveals pointed fangs.
Chicago - Five years ago
A man staggers down a backstreet filled with couples exiting a nightclub. He’s hunched over, groaning, seemingly in pain. There’s blood on his hand. He stumbles awkwardly between two partygoers and they turn to watch him stagger to a nearby wall and lower himself painfully to the ground beside a fire escape; one half of the couple is a tall African-American man, the other is Bianca. She tells her partner significantly, “That’s Harry Dresden”.
Harry is huddled against the fire escape steps, looking battered and shaken, his face cut and bruised. Bianca crouches beside him and introduces herself, offering to help him; Harry tells her to leave him alone. Bianca’s partner, Jake, takes Harry’s arm and helps him unsteadily to his feet.
Chicago – Present Day
Bianca explains to Harry that someone tried to kill her – an organised hit. Bianca is worried the hit might have been sanctioned by the High Council and wants Harry to find out for her if anyone in the Council is gunning for her. Harry tells Bianca pointedly that he doesn’t trust her. He is sceptical about accusing the Council with only her word to go on, pointing out that she has treaties and could go to the Council herself... but Bianca replies that the treaties could have been broken without her knowledge. She tells Harry to come to her club where she will provide evidence of the attack.
In the lab, Harry gets his equipment together, polishing a lens. He tells Bob that Bianca has an eye witness to the attack. Bob tries to tell Harry that helping Bianca is a bad idea, suggesting that as a vampire she will be true to her nature and will kill him. Harry ignores Bob’s pointed remarks, saying he’s taking the case and that’s that and that Bianca won’t kill him. Bob tells him he can’t be sure of that and Harry replies that she had the chance to kill him 5 years ago and didn’t take it. He doubts if she would now.
Chicago - Five years ago
Harry wakes up in a 4-poster bed in an opulent room. He’s bare-chested under the silk sheets, a pentacle charm on a thong hanging around his neck. Bianca sits beside him on the bed and greets him by name. He asks where he is and Bianca tells him, “You’re at my place.” Harry says he has to go and tries to rise, only to be stopped short, his face creasing in pain. Bianca asks him what happened to him, telling him she is good with secrets. He wants to know how she knows him and she tells him he has “quite the reputation”. Jake opens the door to tell Bianca that Morgan is downstairs in the club. Harry looks concerned and Bianca reminds him that she is good with secrets.
In the club Morgan asks Bianca if she’s seen Dresden. She asks why and is told that Dresden’s uncle, Justin Morningway, was murdered with black magic. Morgan tells her to let him know if Dresden shows up looking for help.
Chicago – Present Day
Back again in Bianca’s bedroom, Harry is introduced to Bianca’s companion, Natalie. She’s the blonde woman from the night of the attack. Dresden asks what happened to Jake and Bianca explains that she and Jake had had different plans for the future; he left. Natalie hands Dresden a box containing the “eye-witness”, the eyeball of the dead bodyguard from the attack. Using magic, Harry looks into the eyeball through the lens he brought with him and sees what the bodyguard saw, confirming, “Yeah, that’s Clive.”
Clive, he explains, is a contract killer for the High Council who takes care of creatures like vampires. He is supposed to be retired. Having identified Clive, Natalie is all for killing him but Harry warns them that Clive is a nasty piece of work and can’t be found unless he wants to be found... and that, even though it looks that way, they don’t know for certain that the High Council was behind the attack. Bianca asks him to talk to Morgan. Harry interrupts Morgan’s weekly staff meeting at a fancy dining club, overhearing Morgan talking about Darius and something called “Third-eye”. Morgan is less than impressed at Harry’s interruption, even more so when he finds Harry is working for Bianca, but claims the Council’s truce with the Red Court still stands and that Clive has not been “sanctioned for any wet-work”.
So Harry spends three hours pounding the streets, spreading the word that he is looking for Clive; resulting in him being zapped with a stun gun and dragged into a white van by a team of black-clad men. He awakens in a gloomy warehouse, handcuffed to a chair. Clive wants to know why Harry has been asking about him and Harry explains about the attempted hit on Bianca. Clive tells him vampire hunting is a young man’s game and that he’s retired; he’s a grandfather now. They are interrupted by a crashing sound and Clive berates Harry, “You’ve brought them here!” to which Harry shouts back, “You brought me here, you idiot!” Clive’s men drag Harry’s chair into a storeroom full of supplies and weapons and lock him in while they move to defend the warehouse. As screams and gunfire resound from the main room, Harry uses magic to break free of the handcuffs and arms himself with a crossbow. He leaves the storeroom to find everyone dead or dying, including Clive, their throats ripped out by vampires.
Furious at Bianca, thinking she used him to find and kill Clive, Harry storms into her room at the club, threatening she and Natalie with the crossbow. Bianca claims to know nothing about the attack on Clive, saying she and Natalie had been together at the club for the last several hours, along with several witnesses. Bianca asks Harry if he’s going to kill her, “after all we’ve been through”.
Chicago - Five years ago
Harry and Bianca sit at the bar in her club, Harry morosely knocking back shots and Bianca listening as he tells her about his family; his mother dying and his life on the road with his father. He is bitter, saying he always complained about their life on the road, saying there is something wrong with his family, that they don’t know how to appreciate love and life. He starts to speak of his uncle, before breaking off, and Bianca tells him that his uncle was an ambitious man. Harry says his family is screwed up, he is screwed up and someone should just wipe them all out. Bianca tells Harry about her own tragic history, how her life and her future were taken from her when she was made a vampire. She tells him they are both orphans of the world; having lost everything they ever cared about. She leans in to kiss him.
Chicago – Present Day
Back at Harry’s apartment, Bob remonstrates with Harry for not killing Bianca when he had the chance. Harry is mad at himself for being fooled by Bianca and accuses Bob of enjoying saying, “I told you so.” Harry still thinks Bianca used him to get to Clive and kill him. “That b*tch!” Bob comments sarcastically. They are interrupted when the door slams open and Morgan enters with two Council enforcers… followed by Ancient Mai.
Harry’s voiceover explains that Ancient Mai is the Council’s top dog. She only gets involved when it’s a serious matter.
Mai interrogates Harry, asking him where Bianca is, if he’s hiding her and if he led her to Clive, slapping him across the face when his answers don’t please her. She then asks him if Bianca ever mentioned Third-Eye. Harry explains that he has no idea what all of this is about and asks what Third-Eye is. Mai ignores his question, giving him an enchanted wrist-lock to use when he next sees Bianca… when the lock closes, Mai will know and will be there. Mai and the Council enforcers leave... and Bianca steps out of the shadows of Harry’s apartment.
Harry is incredulous, asking if she’s trying to get him killed, but Bianca is adamant she is being set up. Harry doesn’t know what to believe anymore; Clive was retired and was not working with the Council anymore and yet they were investigating his death within 2 hours. There is more going on here that meets the eye. Bianca wants to work with Harry, saying they are in this together; he asks her about Third-Eye. She explains it is a highly-addictive, rage-enhancing drug made by vampires for vampires. She disapproves and won’t have anything to do with it. Harry is sarcastic, saying it’s nice to know she has limits, and Bianca points out that he already knows that…
Chicago - Five years ago
In Bianca’s opulent bedroom, Harry and Bianca make love. He pulls her head to his neck, asking her to “just kill me” but she refuses. He yells, “Kills me!” but she tells him she is not done with him yet.
Chicago – Present Day
Harry’s voiceover asks what it is about bad girls, why men can’t stay away from them even though they “lie, cheat, won’t suck your blood even when you beg them to.”
Harry and Bianca investigate Clive’s warehouse, only to find it stripped clean, with no sign of the earlier massacre. Bianca talks of her adventurous life – and death – and Harry apologises for sticking a crossbow in her face. Harry casts a spell to “capture peak emotional moments”, the effort seeming to pain him as he fine tunes the spell to reveal a frozen picture of Clive being attacked by a vampire – clearly not Bianca. She tells him the vampire shown is a Black Court vampire named Arvin. She is Red Court and they do not get along with the Black Court.
Harry and Bianca search Arvin’s apartment and find a black flak vest similar to those used by Clive and his team... and Arvin, coming down from a Third-Eye high. Bianca interrogates Arvin, finding only that he never saw the person who hired him and that he was paid in Third-Eye, before brutally snapping his neck. Harry starts to run through where they go from here when Bianca notices something in Arvin’s hand. She reaches for it but pulls back in horror as a broken vial of Third-Eye falls to the floor – the vial has cut her hand and Third-Eye has gotten into the cut. Her eyes turn black and she snarls at Harry as he backs away, his hockey stick held out in front of him. He tries to reason with her but is forced to blast her with energy from the hockey stick as she moves to attack him. He pins her to the wall with the stick but she still snaps and snarls, unable to fight the influence of the drug. In desperation, he slams the stick into her face, knocking her out.
In Harry’s apartment, Bob lectures Harry on his irresponsibility in bringing Bianca there, warning them that if the Council catches Bianca with Harry, “you’re dead, she’s dead and I’m homeless!” They argue as Harry tends to Bianca’s bruised forehead, she pointing out to Bob that she can hear what he’s saying about her and Bob responding snidely, “Oh, I want you to hear me!” before telling Harry he’ll be in the lab, “if you need me”. Bianca tells Harry he doesn’t need to fix up her injury and the bruise heals before his eyes. She thanks Harry and makes to leave; she has worked out who set her up and tells Harry it’s no longer his concern. Harry is angry, telling her he is stuck in the middle of this thing because he’s trying to help her and that she’s not going anywhere without him. He realises suddenly who it is who is setting Bianca up – Daruis, the name her overheard in Morgan’s meeting. Bianca agrees, explaining that Darius is Jake’s surname.
Chicago - Five years ago
Jake knocks on Bianca’s door and tells her he’s made arrangements for Harry to be smuggled out of town, that he has to go. She accuses Jake of being a jealous lover, he maintains his concern is that of a business partner; Dresden’s presence threatens their plans. Bianca reminds him that she doesn’t share Jake’s plans.
Chicago – Present Day
Bianca explains that Jake wanted to sell Third-Eye out of her club, she refused and paid him to go away. Now it seems he’s back and he wants Bianca’s club, so he set her up, hoping the High Council would deal with her and leave him free to take the club. Harry suggests they arrange to meet with Jake.
At Clive’s warehouse, Jake and a bodyguard meet with Bianca – and Harry, armed with his hockey stick and a crossbow. Jake asks why the meeting and why that location and Bianca tells him it’s poetic that Third-Eye will die in the very warehouse where Jake (or technically the Black Court junkies he hired) killed Clive. Jake claims to know nothing of all this. Harry warns him that if anything happens to he or Bianca, the High Council have all the details of the plot so there is no escape. Jake continues to claim innocence, admitting he wanted to sell Third-Eye from Bianca’s club three years ago but he has moved on since then and done well for himself. He wants the Gulf Coast, not Chicago, and is only in town as he may have a buyer for a shipment of Third-Eye. Bianca begins to ask who the buyer is when there is a whistling sound and Harry cries out in pain, dropping his crossbow and hockey stick and crumpling to the ground with two crossbow bolts sticking out of his back. Two thugs step into the room behind Bianca, armed with crossbows and the mysterious buyer enters, armed with two handguns.. it’s Natalie.
Bianca is surprised but Natalie claims she is only doing what Bianca taught her – being ruthless. Asked why the elaborate scheme, why not just kill Bianca herself, she reminds them that the Council dislikes power plays and that they have their rules and ways.. ways she is planning to change. Covering Jake and Bianca with her guns, Natalie demands to know how Bianca was planning to let the High Council know the details of “Jake’s” plan to set her up. Bianca refuses to tell, knowing Natalie will just kill her anyway.
Natalie’s two thugs are suddenly taken out with crossbow bolts and Natalie realises that Harry is gone, his coat lying empty on the floor with the crossbow bolts still sticking out of it. Bianca uses the diversion to escape, moving too quickly for Natalie’s shots to hit her, and Jake runs for the exit, shielding himself behind his bodyguard. While she’s busy shooting at Jake, Harry’s hockey stick spins through the air and knocks Natalie from her feet. Harry crouches over her and locks Ancient Mai’s wrist-lock over her hands, the magic symbols lighting up as the locks close. Bianca reappears, punching Natalie in the face, and Harry struggles to keep them apart until Ancient Mai appears. Harry tries to explain to Mai what happened but she’s already worked out that, “the novice wants the master erased”.
Back at Harry’s apartment, Harry pours red wine for he and Bianca. They banter comfortably, dancing around their mixed up, dark pasts, and Bianca tells him she lets Harry think that one day he will be able to save her from herself – she gives him hope. He says all he wanted was to make them even, all debts erased. She promises not to bother him again but he says she doesn’t bother him. She leans in closer, asking him if she frightens him, and he says no. “That,” she tells him, “is why one day I just might have to rip your throat out.” She thanks him for the wine and he points out she didn’t have any. Bianca leans in and kisses him, telling him with a smile, “Oh, yes I did.”
Telling him to take care of himself, Bianca picks up her coat and goes, leaving Harry alone in his apartment.