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TRANSCRIPT:
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Act I

Opening: Metallic snake head being held by a female hand.

Shift to shots of models posing indoors for a photographer.

Shift to an elegant-looking middle-aged woman in a business suit looking on at the models.

Cut to an exterior night scene. A figure in a long dark coat drops a medium sized garbage bag to the snow-covered ground.

Cut back to the model shoot. A beautiful blonde is holding the metal snake head up to her face. The body of the snake trails around her shoulders.

Shift to group of models, including the blonde with the snake.

Cut back to the exterior shot. The man with the long coat is walking with the garbage bag.

Cut back to models posing for the camera. The girl with the snake takes center stage.

Cut back to the man walking. We can see he's wearing a brimmed flat-topped hat and has hair just past his ears.

Cut back to the woman in the business suit concentrating on the shoot. The girl with the snake kneels with other models near her. She looks like she may kiss the snake.

Cut to man carry the bag through the snow.

Cut back to models being shot against a white backdrop. Camera flashes are going off. Stills of the photos being captured are being shown. The photographer gives general encouragement to the models.

Woman in business suit to girl with snake: It's your fantasy. It's your fetish. Work it. Beautiful!

Flashes of light going the whole time as other models pose.

Cut to man carrying bag down a sidewalk covered in snow.

Cut back to photo shoot.

Business suit to snake girl: Are you fighting it? Surrender to it, hon.

Girl touches snake.

Photographer: Yeah.

Photographer snaps pics.

Business suit: Karen, lick your lips.

Karen holds the snake and strokes it with her other hand, body of the snake still lying on her shoulders.

Brief cut to exterior scene of man walking.

Cut back to photographers.

Business suit to Karen: You're drawn to it, honey. You're drawn to it. Watch the brim of the hat. Get the light.

Quick cut back to man. It can be seen his right hand is a metal hook. Back to photo shoot.

Business suit to Karen: You're repulsed by it, too. At the same time. Work both ends of that, hon. More sex, hon. Raise the snake. Yeah - let it coil around you, honey.

Karen poses ever more suggestively with the mechanical snake.

Quick cut to man walking in the snow. Slow shot of his hook hand.

Back to photo shoot.

Business suit to young black man with radio controls: Tighten it just a little bit.

The snake on Karen moves.

Business suit to Karen: Surrender to it, hon. Fight it and surrender to it at the same time.

{OK - enough of this. I know that the woman's name is Boucher and that's what I'm using from now on.}

Boucher seems enthralled with what she's seeing from Karen.

Cut back to man with bag. He has reached some kind of bridge underpass. He drops his bag and uses his metal hook to slash at the garbage bag.

Back to the photo shoot.

Boucher to Karen: Fight it. Play with it.

Boucher to radio controller: Tighten a little more.

The radio control operator gives her an incredulous look, but she's obviously the boss. Karen starts to look nervous, her left hand already at the snake around her neck as if to pull it off.

Boucher: Yeah. Yeah {"absolutely"? - something like that here}

Cut to man at underpass. He seems to be pulling bones out of the bag.

Cut back to the photo shoot.

Boucher to radio controller: I want you to tighten it more.

He gives her an even more incredulous look this time.

Boucher: Now! Do it!

He manipulates the controls for the snake. The snake constricts around Karen's neck. She now has both hands at the snake. Her mouth is wide open and there is a panicked expression in her eyes.

Boucher to Karen: Excellent! Now let it take you, baby.

Karen: No ...

We get still flashes of Karen choking.

Cut to man at bridge underpass. He lays a spine in the snow. He drops his hook to the snow, leaving an indentation.

Cut back to the photo shoot. Karen is still choking in freeze-frame shots. Various gasping sounds coming from Karen. Quick cuts between Karen choking with the man laying out precisely, posing even, parts of the skeleton. It ends with his placing long blonde hair next to the skull.

Back to the photo shoot.

Boucher: Yes! We got it! Okay!

Boucher is ecstatic.

Cut to the man at the bridge. He lights a white candle near the body.

Back to the photo shoot. Karen is unwrapping the snake from around her neck.

Boucher: You are a goddess! You are a goddess! Come here, honey. C'mere ... c'mere.

Karen finally frees herself from the mechanical snake.

Karen: What the hell was that?

Karen stalks off.

Photographer to Karen as she passes by: What are you talking about? That was great! C'mon - that was great!

Cut to overhead view of man at bridge. He has finished assembling his skeleton. He has lit several candles around the body. He picks up the garbage bag with his hook.

Fade

Intercut scenes of a woman (all right, we know it's Sara) riding a motorcycle with scenes of New York.

Cut to Sara and Jake's precinct.

Jake (off screen): Hey - can I ask you a question?

Jake and Sara enter and walk through the department.

Sara: Can I stop you?

Jake: The department shrink, Dr. Slomacker, do you know her?

Sara: Nope, but I'm supposed to have a meeting with her.

Jake: You'd like her. I mean she's ...

Sara: Tasty little Betty? Total hottie? Babe-O-Rama?

Jake: She's smart.

Sara: Oh.

Jake: Besides - I dig chicks in glasses.

Sara (turning and giving him a "learn something new everyday" look): Really?

Jake: Yeah.

Sara (with a one-shoulder shrug): Ask her out.

Jake (earnest): You think?

Sara: Absolutely! Great idea - date the department shrink. (Nods to herself.)

The phone rings. Sara picks it up.

Sara: Yeah - Homicide.

Man's voice: There's been a murder.

Sara: Who is this?

Man's voice: In the park, near the 88th Street entrance on the west by the band shell. Hurry, Detective Pezzini.

He hangs up.

Sara looks at the large red jewel in the Witchblade bracelet. An inner light swirls through the gem.

Cut to the bridge underpass. The area has been cordoned off with yellow police tape. Several gawkers have gathered, with uniformed police to shoo them back.

Close up on the skeleton lying in the snow. Sara is crouched over it.

Jake (walking up behind Sara): She's posed.

Sara (nods): Yeah.

The forensics team is taking photos of the entire scene. Sounds eerily like the models' photo shoot.

Sara: No 911. No dispatch.

Sara stands.

Sara: The call in came to me direct. Someone knew my name.

Sara turns to view the crowd. A man in a yellow knit cap seems to disappear when an officer passes between him and Sara.

Several officers, plain clothes and uniform, are going over the site. Jake notices the holes in the garbage bag, which has been draped over a bush. He also notes the indentations in the snow left from the killer's hook. Also the groove left in one candle's side where it had been held too tightly by the hook.

Sara is examining the skeleton and notes an object inside the mouth.

Cut to Kenneth Irons' office. Close up of a scar on his right hand in the shape of two interlocked circles. He glances up sharply and begins to rise from his desk. In the background monkeys can be heard.

Brief cut to Ian Nottingham wearing a suit. He watches Irons. Irons walks briskly to a window. The monkeys are on a TV screen. Close up of Irons' face. "Witchblade vision" effect and then cut to Sara.

Sara uses long tweezers-like instrument to remove the object from the skeleton's mouth. She holds it up in front of her. It's some kind of piercing stud in the shape of a snake. "Witchblade vision" of various snakes.

Jake crouches next to Sara.

Jake: What is it?

Sara: It's a cobra.

Pull back to wider shot. The two of them are kneeling by the skeleton. Other police are still combing the site.

Cut to exterior shot of Irons' office building.

Cut to interior of Irons' office. Nottingham moves to stand nearer his boss. The suit he's wearing is ill-fitting, almost like a boy who's trying on Daddy's clothes. His pants bunch at the bottom and we can see that he wears not a businessman's wingtips, but rather something closer to combat boots. He stands with his hands clasped in front of him, his legs braced wide.

Irons (still at the window without turning): She's in danger. Find her.

Ian turns, preparing to go. He pauses with his hands behind his back when Irons speaks again.

Irons: Ian - watch over her.

Ian walks out of frame, Irons still at the window.

Cut to medical examiner's office. Sara is looking at the skeleton laid out on a table. Jake is leaning against a counter in the background.

Female voice (off-camera): Yeah. I've never seen anything quite like this.

Jake: But, bottom line ... She was like soaked in acid or something, right?

Sara has a small notebook out writing something.

M.E.: Well, I would guess so since the bones are all scoured clean.

Jake: Well, what kind of acid?

M.E.: Pez, are you training this guy?

Sara: Trying.

M.E.: Um hm ... Try harder.

Sara takes the cobra stud in a little plastic baggie out of her pocket {hey - shouldn't that be in evidence lock up?} and looks at it again.

Sara to Jake: Let's get out of here. I know who it is.

Sara to M.E.: Uh, we'll check back with you later, Vicky.

Vicky (not even looking up from her microscope): Uh huh. See ya.

Jake: Pez, I know she's busy, but we need to know ...

Sara: I know who it is.

Jake: What?

Sara: From a missing person's report. The victim - I know who she is.

Jake (softly): OK.

Cut to photographer's studio. There are several models under bright lights against a white background. Karen, her clothes and makeup different, poses for the camera.

Sara and Jake walk up to Boucher. Boucher is now wearing a shiny black vinyl dress.

Sara: Excuse me? Dominique Boucher?

Boucher: A very busy Dominique Boucher. {See, I told you her name was Boucher.}

Sara is visibly taken aback for a moment.

Sara: Detective Pezzini, NYPD. This is my partner, Detective McCartey. You filed a missing person's report on Gina Maris?

Boucher (all concern now): Oh, yes. Did you find her?

Sara: Under "Distinguishing Marks" your report mentioned a pierced tongue.

Sara brings out the cobra stud and hands it to Boucher.

Sara: Do you happen to know if this is the stud that she wore?

Boucher: When she was 21, I gave this to her.

Boucher hands the stud back.

Sara: I'm sorry, Miss Boucher, but I do believe we found Miss Maris' remains this morning.

Boucher: You believe?

Sara opens her mouth to say something, but Jake beats her to it.

Jake: We can't be certain yet.

Boucher looks between them.

Boucher: It can't be. Let me come and identify the body.

Sara: I'm afraid that won't be possible.

Boucher: Of course it's possible. Gina was like a daughter to me. You think I wouldn't know her?

Sara: I believe a picture might help us.

They all walk towards Boucher's office, past a large glass container with a huge snake in it.

Jake and Sara pause by a large Indian painting. In the painting is a woman with a cuff bracelet with the Witchblade jewel in the cuff.

Extended "Witchblade vision" : Men with torches in a tunnel wearing black robes. Female in armor removing a helm or cap. Female with a sword in her left hand with a Witchblade cuff bracelet. Painted male lancers. Female in armor and coif using the Witchblade gauntlet. Back to the painting in Boucher's place. Figures in metal masks. Female in armor again.

Back to Sara staring at Boucher's painting.

Sara: Uh ... For I.D. purposes, what color was Gina's hair?

Boucher: Blonde, shoulder length.

Boucher looks among photo portfolios.

Jake: She have any problems? Drugs?

Boucher: Absolutely not. I teach my girls their bodies are their fortunes. (She finds Gina's folio) Here she is.

Sara starts flipping the pages in the portfolio.

Sara: She seeing anyone? Boyfriend? (Raises eyebrows) Girlfriend?

Boucher: I don't think so. Her roommate might know. Karen Bronte. She's working.

Cut to Karen still posing for the photographer.

Cut back to Gina's photos. Sara finds a photo that matches the same pose that the skeleton was found in.

Sara: Hey, Jake.

Sara (nodding to Boucher): We'd like to meet her roommate.

Boucher nods.

Cut to Irons still standing at the window in his office.

Irons voiceover: Everything's connected, Sara.

Cut back to photo shoot.

Boucher (motioning to Karen): Karen. Excuse me.

Karen walks towards Boucher, and freezes with a disbelieving look when she sees Sara.

Sara frowns at her look.

A loud noise above and behind Sara causes her to turn and look up. She sees Ian in a long dark coat and knit cap on some kind of raised walkway. He exits by way of the roof door. Sara gives chase. When she, gun drawn, gets to the roof, it's empty. Sara looks over one edge and sees a blonde girl about 7 or 8 years old sitting with a teddy bear on some metal steps at ground level. The girl gets up and leaves. Jake comes through the roof door, also with gun drawn. They have a tense moment with guns pointed at each other before they each realize who the other is.

Jake: Where'd he go?

Sara: Not a clue.

Jake: That was our killer, right? Had to be.

Sara: I don't think so.

Jake: Guy has your number. Knows your name. Hell! He even called in the murder. Some freak is trying to impress you, Sara.

Sara: Look, we need to talk to Karen Bronte, the roommate.

Jake: Can't.

Guns being put away.

Sara: What do you mean we can't?

Jake: Least not now. Dominique Boucher took her girls to the front of the lobby. She's loading them into cabs. Said she didn't want a repeat of Gina Maris.

They enter the building through the roof door.

Cut to M.E.'s office.

Jake: So we still don't know what kind of acid we're looking at.

Vicky: No - I sent the bone scrapings out for testing. But I can say it's hydrochloric based.

Jake: Well, there you go.

Vicky: No, that doesn't mean anything. It could be anything from industrial cleaner to ... your know ... your own stomach acid.

Jake: Stomach acid?

Vicky: Um hmm.

Sara: Time frame?

Vicky: I'll have the samples back from the labs tomorrow, and I'll xray the bones tonight, but ... This is what's weird - a lot of the bones look ... I don't know ... um ... crushed, or compressed. There's all these stress fractures. And I've never seen anything like it before.

Vicky takes a drink from her blue coffee mug. Sara notices a vodka bottle in the waste paper basket.

Sara: Jake, why don't you check with the roommate. I'll catch up, OK?

Jake: All right.

Sara (sighs): Hey, Vicki?

Vicky (checking papers): Um hmm?

Sara: When did you start drinking at work?

Vicky looks up shocked.

Sara: Look ... I, I ... I don't blame you (little chuckle). This place, this work ... It's enough to make anyone want to get soft around the edges, but ...uh ... if the job's getting to you, get help. Work it out.

Vicky: Thanks, Pez, I'm coping.

Sara: Sure.

Cut to scene of Sara on motorcycle.

Cut to Jake and Karen in her apartment. Jake looks at a photo of Gina.

Karen: I'm really not all that different from all the other girls.

Jake: Just your normal, everyday international cover girl.

Karen: I work hard, play hard. Just like Gina.

Jake (nodding): So I guess you meet a lot of unusual people.

Karen: Gina sure did.

Sara walks in.

Sara: Well, you should start making a list of those people.

Karen (incredulous look): Who are you?

Jake: My partner, Detective ...

Sara: Why are you looking at me like that?

Jake: Sara, ease up.

Karen gets up, walks to her mantle and picks up a framed picture. She hands it to Sara. They all look at the photo of a woman and a little girl. The woman looks exactly like Sara and the girl looks like the one Sara saw while looking down from Boucher's rooftop.

End Act I

Act II

Open where Act I left off : Sara looking at the photo of her double.

"Witchblade vision": The little girl in an old white car, Sara's double with her. Both are happy. Little girl looking up from the metal steps again. Nazis on parade. Nazi uniform up close, cigarette burning in the background. Sara's double having sex with the Nazi the uniform belongs to. She's wearing the Witchblade bracelet.

Back to Sara.

Cut to a painting of the Garden of Eden. The Snake, wrapped around a tree, is offering fruit. Pull back to see this is shown on a TV in Irons' office.

Irons to Ian: Dominique Boucher has been lurking. Watching. Waiting for her chance to get the Witchblade back.

He turns to Ian.

Ian: So it would appear.

Irons walks past where Ian is sitting, passing close enough that Ian has to pull back his head or be brushed by Irons' shoulder.

Ian: You and she?

Irons: My case was different. I placed it on my wrist for one instant only - at the dark of the first new moon of the second half of the last century.

Irons extends his right hand, looking at the scar on the back of his hand.

Ian: And lived a lifetime in that one instant.

Irons: Dominique took nothing from her brush with the blade but pain and lust and ambition.

Ian: The addict loves her needle?

Irons: Hmmm … That she does.

Irons walks to the window, his back to Ian.

Irons: But she risks inadvertently giving Sara Pezzini knowledge for which she is not yet prepared.

Ian (over his shoulder to Irons): More accurately, knowledge you're not yet prepared to share with her.

Irons turns around to look at his henchman. Ian turns back around away from Irons, a look on his face saying "I can't believe I said that!"

Ian (eyes darting back and forth): I suspect Sara Pezzini's a more worthy vessel than we - you - give her credit for.

Irons: And on what do we - you - base this opinion?

Ian: She found the Bronte girl. It couldn't be stopped.

Cut to Karen's apartment.

Sara: Who is this?

Karen: My grandmother. The little girl is my mother.

Sara: I'm gonna take this and make a copy.

Karen: No …

Sara: I promise I'll keep it safe, OK? Look, I want Detective McCartey to stick around you for a while to make sure you're OK.

Jake does not seem displeased with the idea of hanging around a super model!

Karen: I don't want to be any trouble.

Jake: No trouble, at all. Zero. (shakes his head)

Sara: While you're together, keep talking about Gina. You never know what little detail might break this thing open.

Jake: Got it.

Karen nods.

Cut to Irons' office. Ian is sitting. Irons walks up to just behind his left shoulder. Ian is looking down, chin nearly on his chest.

Irons: This is a play that must not be allowed to reach its final act. Give Sara Pezzini a taste of her heritage, but only a taste.

Ian turns to go.

Irons (steel in his voice): Then break off all connection between them.

Ian leaves.

Cut to Sara walking along a busy sidewalk, snow piled high to either side. She has Karen's picture in her left hand. Her dead partner, Danny Woo, joins her.

Sara gives a loud exhalation.

Danny: I didn't mean to scare ya.

Sara: And you call yourself a ghost?

Danny: No, Pez, you call me a ghost.

They continue walking.

Danny: Wanna talk about it?

Sara (pointing to the Witchblade bracelet): Well, when I try to use it - nothing.

Danny: You are using it.

Sara: And when I least expect it (glances up and down the sidewalk and then gestures at Danny) … Wham! I'm having hallucinations.

Danny: I'm not a hallucination, either.

Sara: OK, then I find my picture on someone else's wall from 50 years ago!

Sara brings the photo up to show Danny. Camera shifts so all we see is Sara brandishing the photo at empty air. A passing black woman looks around.

Sara: OK, Jake saw it too, so I know it wasn't a … "vision."

Black woman chuckles: You tell 'em, sister.

She chuckles some more and walks on. The other passersby didn't even pause - this is New York, after all.

Shift camera again. Danny's standing with Sara again now. Sara gestures at the departing woman and Danny laughs.

Sara: Is this some sort of karma thing? Yeah, I know you're about to tell me that there's nothing you can tell me, but is there anything you can tell me?

Danny: C'mon, Pez, you really don't want to hear what I have to say.

Sara: Tell me something.

Danny: I already have.

Sara closes her eyes. When she opens them again, Danny is gone.

Cut to a dingy apartment. The man who placed Gina's skeleton at the bridge underpass is standing by a window. The phone rings.

Man (pushing speaker button on the phone): Yes?

Woman's voice: The right girl this time?

Cut to a pool hall. A ball is sunk in the corner pocket.

Jake (to someone off-camera): How much do I owe you now?

Karen: 20 million dollars.

Karen lines up the 8 ball in the side pocket and then sinks it.

Karen: Make that 21 million.

Jake rubs his head and nods.

Karen: Or you can explain the business with the photo to me, and we'll call it square.

Jake: I wish I could.

Karen: It was like my grandmother stepped right out of that picture.

Jake: I can tell you one thing - it can't be an accident. Do you believe in mystical connections?

Karen: No, but that was weird.

Jake racks the balls for another game.

Jake: So tell me about your grandmother.

Karen: Her name was Elizabeth. I didn't really know her, but she worked with the British during World War II. Some kind of spy.

Karen breaks, but no balls drop.

Jake: Sounds cool.

Karen: Not really - got her killed.

We see Gina's killer walk behind Karen. He has a cue stick and is playing nearby.

Karen: So … uh … your partner - what's her story?

Jake (lining up a shot): I don't know her very well. We've only been partners a couple weeks. She's … uh … very private. (Jake takes his shot and misses) Great cop.

Karen: So you dig her?

Jake: Hey, it's work. Work and play don't mix.

Karen (disbelievingly): Right.

Karen moves to line up her shot, passing close to Jake.

Karen: Excuse me.

Jake moves. Karen takes her shot, an expertly banked shot to the corner. Jake has a look on his face like, "I'm in serious trouble here."

Jake: Nice shot.

Karen: Thanks.

Karen's smiling like she's having a really good time.

Cut to a close up to Karen's photo of her grandmother. Sara is sitting on her couch with the photo in her lap. There's a table in front of her with books, a lit candle, and a small wooden chest. Behind her is a reading lamp turned on. Further back is a slatted wooden screen in front of a window. Sara remembers Joe Siri (her old captain and friend of her father) giving her the wooden chest.

Siri (memory): I believe there's information in here about your birth parents.

Sara (memory): Jim Pezzini was my father. I could care less about some stranger who left me on a doorstep.

Back to present day Sara. She sets the picture aside and moves forward on the couch, closer to the chest. She lifts the lid and takes out a small envelope. As she tilts the envelope, a small object falls out. In the background we can see a figure pass behind the wooden screen, but no sound is made. Sara picks up the object and it turns out to be a bullet with a bull engraved on the side. Sara looks up.

Sara (not turning): My hand is near my automatic. The safety is off.

In the background Ian is standing at the corner of the wooden screen. He's looking at Sara.

Sara: No jury in the world would convict me if I blew your head off.

Ian walks into the room to the end of the couch.

Ian: Fragments of your history, but not the piece you seek.

Sara turns toward Ian and stands.

Sara: Yeah, well, peace is overrated.

Sara closes the lid on the chest.

Ian (eyes averted): That is trash …

Ian glances {hungrily ?} to and reaches his gloved hand toward the Witchblade bracelet, not quite touching it. Sara pulls her hand away.

Ian: ... this … this is treasure. (glancing away again) The whole of your history.

Sara: Oh, no, not again. Don't start with that mumbo jumbo.

Ian: It's never a man, you know. It's always a woman that gets to wear the Witchblade. Do you ever wonder why?

Sara (with attitude): 'Cause we're better.

Ian: Because you can stand pain. The same reason you can bear children, give life. Life is borne of pain.

Sara: Wow. Deep.

Ian: You're disturbed. You feel you've lost control.

Sara: Yeah, no kidding.

Ian: Don't worry … you never had any to begin with. Believe in the Witchblade, Sara. It believes in you. Cherchez la femme, Sara.

Ian raises his eyes and finally looks at Sara.

Ian: Cherchez la femme.

Ian makes a little bow, makes eye contact again briefly and leaves. Sara looks a little stunned.

Cut to the pool hall.

Karen: I can't tell you how nice this is.

Jake: What? Kicking my ass?

Karen: Spending time with someone so …

Jake: Stimulating?

Karen: So real.

Jake: Ah…

Karen: I don't know. I just … I just feel so safe with you.

Jake: Not too safe, I hope.

Jake looks to line up his next shot.

Karen: Just safe enough.

Jake's next shot is a really difficult one and he needs a bridge. He starts looking around for one and spots our friend with the hook at the next table. Flashes of the crime scene - Jake's putting it all together. He clears his sweatshirt away from his gun.

Jake walks to the man and taps him on the shoulder.

Jake: Excuse me, sir?

The man turns violently and breaks Jake's cue with his hook. Jake falls back, draws his weapon and pushes the man with his left hand. The man uses his hook on Jake's right (weapon) hand and then runs away.

Jake: Argh!

Jake drops his weapon and goes down to one knee. Jake stands, left hand supporting right wrist. There's a puncture wound in his right hand between the thumb and index finger.

Karen: Are you OK?

Jake: Yeah.

Karen: We should take you to a hospital.

Jake: I'll be fine. I've seen him … (pulls out a cell phone from his pants pocket) … now I've got him

Jake (into the phone): McCartey, Homicide. I want an All Units Alert ….

Jake grimaces in pain

End Act II

Act III

Sara, sitting on her couch, several more candles lit, is using a laptop to research Dominique Boucher. On Boucher's website {doesn't everyone have one} are several pictures. One is captioned "French Guiana '59." In it we see Boucher much as she is now with Kenneth Irons, also much as he is now. Boucher is holding a large snake and is wearing the Witchblade bracelet.

Sara (disbelieving): '59?

Sara looks at the picture a little closer and notices Irons and the Witchblade.

Sara: "La femme." (an exhalation) La femme Dominique Boucher.

Cut to the interior of Karen's apartment building, near her apartment door.

Jake: Sorry that turned out so scary. Got a good look at the guy and the fact that he has a missing hand should really narrow the field.

Karen digs her keys out and puts them in the lock. Karen has her back to Jake.

Karen: Stay.

Jake: You'll be safe. There's an All U…

He finally registers what she said.

Jake (small smile): What'd you say?

Karen: Please stay with me tonight. I'm a little scared.

Jake: You'll be fine.

Karen: So will you.

Jake (deep breath, holds up bandaged hand): I really ought to have this looked at.

Karen: OK, Jake, but don't say I didn't ask.

Jake: I won't.

Karen: You're really a good guy, even though your pool game needs a little work.

Jake (laugh): Thanks. You're gonna be fine. Really.

Jake kisses her forehead.

Karen: Good night.

Jake (nods): 'Night.

Karen enters her apartment, closes the door. Jake turns and walks about 20 feet down the hall and stops.

Jake: What the hell am I thinking?

He walks back to Karen's apartment and knocks.

Jake: Karen. It's me.

Jake is struck on the head from behind. He crumples to the floor. Karen opens the door.

Karen: Thank God. I thought I was losing …

She sees Jake and then his attacker moves to her door.

Cut to Irons out jogging. There's a car following him through the snowy streets. Shortly it is revealed that Ian is the one following his boss. Another car cuts across Irons' path and stops. Irons stops and Sara gets out of her car. Ian pulls over on the street.

Sara: You and Dominique Boucher. Tell me about it.

Irons: An old friend. We passed a pleasant time once.

Ian walks up. Irons takes off his sunglasses and puts out his hand, palm out in the "stay" gesture. Ian stands head down, hands folded in front. Sara glances at Ian then returns her focus to Irons.

Sara: A girl got murdered. I got a handful of dots, but I can connect one of them to you - Dominique Boucher.

Irons: Dominique was with me when I first owned the Witchblade. She yearned to wear it, so I let her try.

Sara (sarcastically): What a guy.

Irons: But she was a pretender, not a destined wielder and the blade is not kind to pretenders.

Sara: It's not "kind" to anyone.

Irons (stepping closer): Reserve that judgment. As for Dominique, the Witchblade took hold of her, shook her around, and discarded her like a damaged doll. I don't believe she ever recovered.

Sara: She didn't seem to notice me wearing it.

Irons: Oh, she noticed. Dominique Boucher is a painted veil. Do you know Shelley's sonnet?

Irons (quoting Shelley):

Lift not the painted veil which those who live call life
Though unreal shapes be pictured there

Irons: "Unreal shapes" … Seen any lately, Sara?

Irons puts his sunglasses back on, gives Sara a smarmy smile, and leaves.

Cut to snake slithering across a floor. Karen is hanging by chains hanging from some pipes. Her feet rest inside a large concrete bowl.

Cut back to Ian and Sara standing in the snow.

Ian: Cherchez le jeune fille. (He still has trouble with eye contact.)

Ian turns and leaves.

Sara thinks for a second then her phone rings.

Sara: What?

Sara: I'm on my way, Vicky.

Cut to precinct. Sara walks through the department and punches the elevator button. Jake walks up behind her.

Jake: Pez! Karen Bronte's gone. Last night.

Sara: I'm learning this now?

Jake: Yeah, I've been up all night. The guy who did Gina Maris clocked me and got Karen. But I know his name - John Sandsman. NYU Medical set him up with a steel hand 5 years ago… (he shows Sara his injured hand) … and he knows how to use it.

Sara: The marks in the snow.

Jake: And the slashes in the bag. He's got a West Side address and a list of ugly priors.

Sara: You drag the neighborhood.

Sara turns to get into the elevator.

Jake: All right.

Jake turns back to the room.

Sara: Hey, McCartey -

Jake: Yeah?

Sara: Nice job.

Sara gives him a wink then enters the elevator.

Cut to Karen. The snake, and it's huge, begins crawling into the concrete bowl with her.

Cut to Vicky. Her head's down on her desk. Her right hand is loosely wrapped around her blue coffee mug. Sara walks up.

Sara: Vick.

Sara gets no response so she raps her knuckles on Vicky's desk.

Sara (more firmly): Vicky.

Vicky blearily raises her head and rubs her hand across her face.

Vicky: Pez. Hey. Sorry.

Sara: OK.

Vicky: OK. This one … this one's straight out of Ripley's. We got traces of an organic digestive acid. It's not mammalian. It's reptilian, possibly a snake, but it's not a perfect match.

Sara picks up Vicky's blue coffee mug and sniffs.

Vicky: Hey!

Sara: By a snake?!

Vicky: Like I said, it's not a perfect match.

Sara: You're saying she was eaten by a snake, Vick!

Vicky: That, or you've got a very elaborate setup here. Her ribs all show compression fractures, indicating she was crushed or constricted.

Sara: By a snake?

Vicky: That, or she was crushed in a carpet roller and her body was dumped in a bin that contained digestive acids mixed with other solvents. But why would someone go to all that trouble?

Sara gets a flash of a snake.

Cut to Karen. The snake is now inside the bowl Karen is standing in. We can see a camera set up near Karen. Switch view to a TV showing Karen chained up. Boucher is watching the TV.

Cut to Irons standing at his window. He turns and walks away, stretching his right hand, toward his desk.

Irons (to his computer): Search. Boucher. Safari.

The computer shows the picture of Boucher and Irons from '59 that Sara had found. Irons keeps flexing his right hand like he's in pain. Close up of Boucher's right hand in the picture holding the snake and wearing the Witchblade.

Cut to interior of Karen's apartment. It's a wreck. Sara walks in and straightens a lamp that had been knocked over. She notices the Witchblade on her wrist glowing.

"Witchblade vision" : Gina's skeleton in the snow. A painting with a snake wrapped around an upside-down man. Snake with its tongue flickering. Boucher. Karen chained up. The photo shoot where Karen was choked by the mechanical snake.

Back to Sara.

Cut to Sara riding her motorcycle.

Cut to Ian walking 2 large gray-white Irish wolfhounds down a busy sidewalk. Cut to Sandsman walking along a sidewalk. He sees Ian coming towards him and seems frightened. Sandsman turns to go back the way he came. Jake drives up in front of Sandsman. Sandsman turns to look at Ian, turns to look at Jake, and decides to jump over the side of the raised walkway. Jake pursues on foot. Other cop cars follow, sirens wailing. Jake catches Sandsman and pushes him back against the hood of a cruiser.

Jake: Where's the girl?

Sandsman chuckles.

Jake: Where is she?!

With nothing forthcoming from Sandsman except more chuckling, Jake shoves him over to the side of a building.

Jake: Here's what I tell Internal Affairs. Obviously you came at me with that hook of yours. I have the cut on my hand, the bump on my head ... I own you.

Jake draws his weapon, cocking it, and places the barrel on Sandsman's upper chest.

Sandsman (after thinking for a second): Dominique Boucher.

Jake (to a uniform): Take him in.

Cut to Sara opening a door. The Witchblade glows. Sara walks into Boucher's studio. Boucher is sitting at a small table off to the side. When Sara looks at her, Boucher's image switches back and forth from model agency head in black capri pants and top to snake-haired woman in an ancient red dress. Boucher gets up and walks toward Sara.

Irons' voiceover: "Unreal shapes" ... Seen any lately, Sara?

Sara (pointing at the Witchblade): It's all about this, isn't it?

End Act III

Act IV

Inside Boucher's studio.

Sara: You had it. You lost it. And you want it back, right?

Boucher: Nothing is ever as it seems.

Sara: Yeah, yeah. A woman scorned.

Boucher starts walking away.

Sara: Kenneth Irons dumped you when he found out you weren't chosen and he took the Witchblade with him.

Boucher picks up the metal snake from a nearby table and drapes it across her shoulders.

Sara: You want the bracelet. I want Karen Bronte.

Boucher: The Witchblade can't be passed along like grandmother's pearls. It has to be earned. Besides, I've gone to some trouble to draw you to me in a fighting mood.

Sara: By using Gina Maris as a lure.

Boucher: Actually ... (laughs) ... Gina was a mistake. My assistant went after the wrong girl.

Boucher turns on a video camera mounted on a tripod where she's standing.

Sara: Hard to find good help.

Boucher: At least he's loyal. I let him wear the blade - once. It cost him his hand, but guaranteed his undying loyalty.

Sara: And the right girl, Karen Bronte?

Boucher: A murder crafted to appeal to your weakness for vulnerable young women. And a blood heir to the Witchblade eliminated.

Cut to Karen. She wakes, finds herself chained with a large snake coiled around her feet. Justifiable panic ensues.

Karen: Let me out of here!

Cut back to Boucher and Sara.

Boucher kicks off her shoes.

Boucher (softly): OK

Boucher whips the snake around and knocks Sara's gun off her hip, then slings the snake around Sara's knees, dropping her to the floor.

{There's some scenes interspersed throughout this next part of actual snakes fighting that I'm just not going to mention after this.}

Boucher: You don't mind me taping this for Kenneth, do you? Calling me a pretender to the blade! Can you believe that?!

All this time, she's been trying to bludgeon Sara with the metal snake, whipping it overhand to the floor, as Sara scoots across the floor on her backside.

Bronte continues to flail at Sara as she scoots back. Sara finally gets enough breathing room to roll over backwards, getting to her feet. Boucher tries to trip Sara again, slinging the snake in a low arc towards her feet. Sara jumps high over the snake and lands standing on a table.

Cut to Karen. The snake is starting to crawl up her body.

Karen: Oh ... ah ... Help! Help!

Cut back to the fight.

Boucher flings the snake overhand at Sara up on the table. When it lands on the table, Sara crushes it by leaping on it, then kicks Boucher in the face. Boucher falls and Sara jumps off the table.

Sara: Where is Karen Bronte?

Quick cut to Karen then back.

Boucher: Why don't you use it? You're afraid of it, aren't you? Afraid to leave your safe, solid, familiar world. Does it terrify you when the lines blur, when the blade takes you behind the shadow plane and you can't trust your own eyes?

Sara (angry): Where is the girl? Where is she?

Sara shoves Boucher. Boucher punches Sara, then turns on her TV to show Karen. Karen's lower body has snake coils and the head of the snake is going up her chest.

Cut to Jake's car, sirens going.

Cut back to Sara and Boucher.

Boucher laughs.

Boucher: Maybe if you rub it like Aladdin's lamp? The Witchblade belongs to me, Sara.

"Witchblade vision" : Snake. Solar eclipse. Witchblade in paintings. Witchblade on Sara's wrist, gem swirly. Snake. Whirlpool. Fire.

Boucher leans against the TV showing Karen struggling.

Boucher: In times past and yet to come, it always returns to me.

Sara holds her wrist up and looks at the Witchblade.

Ian in voiceover: Believe in the Witchblade, Sara. It believes in you.

"Witchblade vision" : Karen chained. Painting with the man upside down, snake coiled around him. Snake. Karen. Snake. Female in armor in a tunnel.

Sara removes the Witchblade from her wrist.

Sara: You get this ... (holds the Witchblade up) ... I get the girl.

Sara throws the Witchblade toward Boucher. The Witchblade lands on Boucher's right wrist. The look on Boucher's face is one of rapture. The Witchblade transforms into a gauntlet on Boucher's wrist as she holds her arm up. A blade extends from the gauntlet.

Boucher: None of your bloodline ever really could command Digitabulum.

Cut to Jake's car screeching around a corner.

Cut to Karen.

Karen: Help me! Somebody please help me!

Cut to Jake arriving in front of Boucher's building.

Cut back to Boucher and Sara.

Sara: Now where is she?!

Boucher tries to take Sara's head off with a backhand cut of the blade. The blade refuses and withdraws back into the gauntlet. Boucher stares at the Witchblade in shock then turns to Sara.

Sara (to the Witchblade): You serve me. Tighten. Tighter. Tighter.

With each command, the Witchblade constricts until it crushes Boucher's wrist.

Sara stretches her right hand out and the Witchblade flies from Boucher to her hand.

Karen's voice (in the background): Let me out of here!

Behind Sara, in a dark corner, Ian watches.

Cut to Karen.

Karen: Get me out of here!

Cut to Sara walking along an underground passage.

Sara (calling out): Karen? ... Karen? ... Karen?

Cut to Karen.

Karen: Hurry! Over here! Please hurry! Help!

The snake starts to slide away, out of the container Karen is standing in.

Cut to Jake entering the basement hallway Sara had just gone through.

Jake (calling out): Sara? Karen?

Cut to Sara running down the hall. She still has the Witchblade gauntlet on.

Cut to Karen. The snake has nearly disappeared through a hole in the wall.

Sara finds Karen and uses the Witchblade to cut her chains {explain that one to Jake, Sara} then holds Karen as Jake enters. The Witchblade is a bracelet again. Jake looks around and sees the jars of acid and some kind of press.

Boucher voiceover: Nothing is ever as it seems.

Cut to Sara visiting Boucher in her jail cell.

Sara: Good evening, Miss Boucher.

Boucher turns toward Sara and Sara sees she has aged greatly.

Sara: My God. What's happened to you?

Sara touches the Witchblade.

Sara: It's this, isn't it?

Boucher: Is this an official visit, Detective Pezzini?

Sara: You know things I need to know. You wore the Witchblade once. You were Kenneth Irons' lover ...

Boucher: I'm gonna spill all my secrets for you, out of the goodness of my heart?

Cut to Irons sitting in a large, but cozy room with a fireplace and low light; there is a leather couch and several chairs. He is sitting at a small round table. The table has a chess board on it with a game in progress. Judging by the number of pieces set aside on both sides of the board it is near the endgame.

Cut back to Boucher's cell.

Boucher: You're forgetting an important fact, Miss Pezzini. I don't want you to succeed with the Witchblade.

Sara: Better me or Kenneth Irons?

Boucher: Look it up. Try the internet. Maybe under "charms" ... "talismans" ... "fairy tales" ...

Sara: Suit yourself. But that bunk has got to feel like hell around midnight. Especially at your age.

Sara leaves.

Cut to Jake and Sara pulling up in front of Karen's apartment building.

Jake's voice: I don't understand why Karen kept mumbling something about a snake.

Sara's voice: That's probably post traumatic stress. We'll ask her.

They get out of the car.

Jake: There's a lot of things I don't understand.

Sara: Yeah ... welcome to the club.

Jake: Why would Dominique Boucher go to all that trouble to make it seem like a snake killed Gina Maris? Acid ... carpet roller. Vicky was right.

Sara: Was she?

Jake: I also don't get how Boucher's wrist was crushed beyond repair.

Sara: Uh ... we fought. She fell into something.

Jake: Man! Working with you is ...

Sara: Educational? Hey, Jake, maybe you should ask Dr. Slomacker. Maybe she could explain it to you. You know, her being all smart and all.

Jake: We have a date tomorrow night.

They enter Karen's apartment building.

Cut to Karen's door. Sara knocks and the door swings slowly open. They go in. The apartment has been cleaned out. Totally. Sara looks at the photo she was bringing back of Karen's grandmother and mother.

Cut to Irons' office. The big screen TV is showing a film of a lioness hunting zebra.

Irons voiceover: This world is a dance of predator and prey. The strong take the weak and are taken in turn by those still stronger.

Camera pans away from the TV screen.

Irons voiceover (cont.): To overestimate one's strength is to place oneself constantly at risk until finally one's true measure is taken and one's life force is extinguished.

The camera comes to rest on Ian and Irons. Ian is sitting in a chair in front of Irons, who is sitting on his desk. Both stare rapt at the TV. Irons is in slacks, white shirt, vest and tie. Ian is in loose pants and long sleeved black sweater; his hands are inside the sweater sleeves. Ian is leaning forward with his hands on his face near his mouth.

Irons voiceover (cont.): This was the true tragedy of Dominique Boucher.

Irons raises his right hand, palm down near Ian's right shoulder. Ian, still enraptured, leans back, hands dropping to his lap. Irons puts his hand on Ian's shoulder.

Irons voiceover (cont.): To underestimate one's power is to shortchange greatness, to reject magnificence. I know my true stature and I strive each day to expand it.

Ian glances at Irons' hand on his shoulder.

Irons voiceover (cont.): Sara Pezzini does not begin to comprehend the narrow visions in which she imprisons herself.

Camera pans to Irons' desktop, where his laptop shows the same photo that Sara has gotten from Karen. In the background Ian is now looking down.

Irons voiceover (cont.): If she ever realizes her true nature, God help us all.

Fade

End Act IV

END OF EPISODE

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