| Episode 13 - Mourning After |
| The music is playing as the picture fades in. Stone stands outside a shop window. He sees a snow globe, a bride and groom with the word ‘Forever'. He flashes back to moving into an apartment with Roz This scene is shot in black and white. He comes in through the door, carrying three boxes stacked on top of each other. "Hey.." he says, "Hey?" "Yeah?" she answers, seeing the top box starting to fall. "Help!" "Oh no.. Watch out!" she runs and catches it, holding it protectively. "Got it?" "Yeah." "Thanks," Zeke says as he sets the other two down. "Tell me there is an air conditioner in one of this box." "No," Roz answers, straight faced. They laugh together. She goes to the refrigerator. Stone closes the door and collapses into a chair. "You couldn't have found an apartment on the first floor?" "Well, but it was your idea." Roz opens the beer she got from the refrigerator. "Oh, I chose it now, huh?" he laughs. "Don't say I never gave you anything," she says as she hands him the beer. "Oh, bless you." Stone holds it to his forehead fore a moment as he asks, "What's in the box?" "What?" "What's in the box..." "Nothing." "that you grabbed so desperately?" he continues. "It's none of your business." "Huh?" "It's not important," she says. "What in the world...let me see." They play fight over this for a moment as Zeke climbs out of the chair to sit next to her on the floor. Zeke asserts that he is a cop and needs to know, and pulls out a snow globe with a carousel pony. When she takes it from him, he pulls out a second and third, all of which are shown in color, a sharp contrast to the black and white of the scene. "Cute," he laughs. "Do you really mean that?" she asks hopefully. "No," he laughs, "I mean..." Stone can not finish the sentence. "Fine," she says, taking the globes from him, "I'm going to kick your ass." She knocks him to the floor. Still laughing, he asks, "You're going to kick my ass?" "Yes," she says as she pins him to the floor. "All right, all right," he says. "You know what?" Roz pins his arms to the floor. "What?" "You can kick my ass any time you want." Laughing and holding each other, they kiss. We see this reflected in the snow globe, which then zooms out, in color again, to see Stone looking at it in the shop window |
| A woman leaves the store. Stone follows her home, and we realize it is Roz. He watches her from the bushes. The Devil shows up and questions what he is doing there. He tells Zeke he shouldn't be there, it is a bad idea. The Devil disappears, and there is a cobra there. It bites Stone, "Ow!" he says, realizing if he was hurt, it must be by a damned soul. <opening credits> Stone comes home,. Maxine is vacuuming in the lobby. She has received a Valentine's's Day from her new boyfriend Rod, but she won't open it. Stone tells her about being in love, she wants to know who the woman who made him feel that way was. He tells her his ‘ex-wife', fifteen years ago. She tells him he should call her. In his room, Stone practices what he would say. "Hey Roz. It's Zeke. I'm back." Stone visits the shop with the snow globes again. Stone walks down her street, heading to her house. A gardener stops him, and of course turns out to be the Devil. Stone accuses him of sending the snake last night, but the Devil denies it. Stone is determined to see Roz. That night, Stone watches outside her house. A car pulls in the driveway, and he approaches. A man gets out. Stone tells him he is looking for Rosalyn Stone, the man introduces himself as Barry Ceniza, Roz's boyfriend. Stone is shocked. <commercial> Barry invites him into the house. Stone has told Barry that there were reports of suspicious activity in the neighborhood. Stone looks at pictures of Barry and Roz. They both agree how beautiful she is. Stone asks how long they have been together. "Not long," he says. He was just in the neighbor hood selling property, they met, and clicked. Stone excuses himself, not wanting to wait until Rosalyn gets home. In a bar, Stone asks Max about Rod. Rod is angry because about the present, which she still hasn't opened. They drink a toast to Valentine's Day. She tells him about Italian women that watch out their window on Valentine's Day, because they think the first man they see will marry them within the year. Max tells Stone he was the first man she saw today, so it is a good thing they are not Italian. Back at Maxine's apartment building, she is drunk and Stone is helping her find her way to her place. She tells him they both have problems they need to work out, her with Rod, him with hie ex-wife. She tells him to march to his ex-wife's house right before she runs inside and pukes. (I personally can not hear this, but my close captioning says it. It also make more sense for her to have a reason before she slams the door in Stone's face.) Stone goes back to the elevator. In the elevator, he hears a hissing. Snakes begin to drop down from the ceiling, and on top of him. He is fighting with one as the door opens. An old man stands there and watches him as he stands there fighting with an imaginary snake. Stone realizes none of it was real. The elevator closes. Barry and Roz are talking. He tells her that it is okay that she loves still him, but to remember where she is and who she is with now. They kiss, and Stone comes up to the house and sees them through the window. As he walks away, he finds a snake skin on the lawn. In the morning, Barry comes out of the bathroom and finds Roz holding a picture of her with Zeke. She apologizes, and he presses her for details. She tells him last night was fun, but it was a mistake. "It's still him, isn't it?" he asks. "Yeah," she says, sounding frustrated, "Yeah, it's still him." Max finds Stone drinking in the bar, empty bottles lined in front of him. He is working on accepting the fact that he will not get back together with his wife. He leaves, telling her he has to get back to work. Stone finds out that the snake is a Egyptian cobra, that there have been several attacks in Highland Park. He gets a list of the victims. Stone visits Barry's work, identifying himself as Detective John Gonner. Melinda, one of his associates, tells him Barry is at lunch, and he has sold all three of the houses where the snake bites happened. He is also about to buy a house right across the street from his girlfriend. Stone breaks into the house, 452 Euclid. He finds muddy footprints leading to a tunnel in the basement. Inside the tunnel, he finds more snakes, and Barry comes up behind him. Barry admits he is from hell, and when Stone fires his gun, Barry kicks the support holding up the tunnel. The tunnel collapses on Stone as Barry runs up the stairs. Barry sneaks into Roz's house, where she is sleeping in the bedroom. Stone tries to did himself out of the tunnel. In the bathroom, Barry looks into the mirror and changes his form into that of Ashur Badaktu. Roz wakes up and hears a noise. It is Barry, trying to patch things up. She tells him that they have already had this discussion, and that he should leave. "Roz, please. There is something I really want to talk about. I was really hoping that we had a future together. After last night, I was hoping that I could take you away from him. I wanted to break his heart like he broke mine. But I can see now, that's just not going to happen." "What are you talking about?" Roz asks. Barry kisses her again, but when his brings his/her face away, it is now Detective Ash. "Zeke, baby. I'm talking about Zeke." Roz is shocked, and Ash knocks her down. Stone breaks through the front lawn, gasping for air. Ash is painting a single vertical strip across Roz's right eye, using blood from her wrist. Ash then paints a stripe across her own left eye. Stone gets into the house, and sees Roz standing there in a trance. Snakes are crawling around her bare feet. "Careful Zeke," Barry says, "You don't want to hurt Rosalyn." He is holding a cobra in his hand, holding it near Roz's neck. "Hey, Ash," Stone says. "Sexy and smart," Barry replies. "Yeah, there are too many snakes." "You know Zeke, I finally understand something that I never did until now." "And what's that?" Barry kisses Roz at the base of her neck. "This is why you are so," Barry starts, then switches to Ash's voice, "obsessed with this woman." She morphs into Ash, the stripe of blood still over her eye. "I understand intimately. We both heard that little moan she makes, just before sh...," Ash laughs, "you know what I'm talking about." "Let her go. Now." Ash's cobra bites her in the hand, and she moans. "I don't think so." Stone raises his gun and fires at the snake, killing it. As it dies, Roz seems to slump. Ash catches her, and puts a knife to her neck. "Damn it, Zeke, you're ruining it." "Why are you doing this?" "For us." "Us? There is no us, Ash. There never was." "But there could be." "What do you mean? You just tried to bury me alive." "No. Zeke, that's the point. You're dead, like me. She's alive, and you can never have her again. I know you love Rosalyn, so I'm going to become her. Then the two of us can finally have what we both want." "No. You just don't get it," Stone tells her, raising the gun. "I could be her, Zeke," Ash pleads, "I really could." Stone lowers the gun. "Never." Ash pushes Roz's body at him, and jumps out the window. She lands in a crouch on the lawn. Stone points the gun at her but again does not fire. Her eyes flash green hellfire, and she changes into some kind of energy, and moves away along the ground. Stone watches her go, and holds Rosalyn. He carries her across the street and lays her on the couch. He touches her hair, but she is still passed out. Kneeling before her on the couch, he tells her, "You almost died because of me, Roz." He kisses her. "I can't risk that again." He puts a small present, wrapped with a bow, into her hand. "Good-bye, Roz." He walks out of the house. Roz wakes up. She looks around, and feels the dried blood on her face. She sees the present in her hand. The music fades in, the same song as at the beginning of the episode. The Devil approaches him on the street. "Happy Valentine's day, Ezekiel. Well, I called it, didn't I?" "So you were right." "As usual. And you are still wearing Ash's name, aren't you?" "Yeah." "Third time is the charm?" After a pause, Stone says, "It will be." "If it means anything, I'm sorry. Sort of. Well no, I'm not." Roz comes out on the porch. "Look, there she is." A garbage truck goes by, and Stone hops on. Roz looks around, not seeing anyone. She opens the box and takes out a snow globe, showing a bride and groom cutting their wedding cake, with the word ‘Forever' underneath. She gasps. She drops the box to the ground, and holds it with both hands as she begins to cry softly. Stone rides away, not looking back. |