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Janette duCharme

The Janette FAQ

by Amy R.

original in 1996;
Last modified September 1, 2004

[ Text-only Version ]

 

Frequently Asked Questions about Janette:

  1. Who is Janette?

  2. What is Janette's full name?

  3. Who plays Janette?

  4. In which episodes does Janette appear?

  5. What is the FORKNI-L affiliation for Janette?

  6. What is her status as of the last time she was seen?

  7. How old is Janette?

  8. Does Janette have any relatives?

  9. What are her non-familial relationships and contacts?

  10. What does Janette look like?

  11. What kind of personality does Janette have?

  12. What occupations has Janette had?

  13. How has Janette's life history unfolded?

  14. What is the deal with "The Human Factor," anyway?

  15. Special Notes

  16. Janette-focused Episode-descriptions

 

  1. Who is Janette?

    A character on the syndicated fantasy television program Forever Knight (1992-1996), Janette is a member of the core vampire "family," proprietor of the Raven nightclub, and intimately connected to the protagonist, Nick Knight.  Janette is one of the primary characters in the program's first two seasons, but the third season reduces her to "guest star" status.


  2. What is Janette's full name?
    The character uses "Janette DuCharme" while living in Toronto in the present.  She always uses "Janette" as a personal name, but rarely gives a family name in the past, and while "DuCharme" appears as early as 1229 (BMV), it does not necessarily bear any relation to Janette's human origin.  In "The Human Factor," she uses the surname "de Brabant" (Nick's human family's name).  No other aliases are known.


  3. Who plays Janette?
    Deborah Duchene is the actress who depicts Janette.  Her other significant acting work has largely been on stage.


  4. In which episodes does Janette appear?

    Season One Season Two Season Three

     

  5. What is the FORKNI-L affiliation for Janette?
    Janette's followers on the forkni-l discussion list call themselves "Ravens" and "Ravenettes."  ("Ravenette" combines the Raven club's name with Janette's name, of course, and is not intentionally gender-specific.)

    The couple affiliation for Janette and Nick is known as the "Immortal Beloveds;" that for Janette and Lacroix is the "Seducers."  The affiliation for Janette and Natalie is the "Nanettes," which may or may not be a couple affiliation at any given time, depending on interpretational trends and individual preferences.  Someone once jokingly suggested an affiliation for Janette and Schanke, to be called "LaCroissants."  Janette is also advocated in the triple affiliations known as "Fang Gang" or "Dark Trinity" (both invoke Lacroix, Janette and Nick), and "Unholy Alliance" (Lacroix, Nick and Natalie).

    When HF first aired, a few fans -- mea culpa -- briefly and inconsiderately claimed the affiliation name "Nevermore" for our (incorrect) contention that Janette died in HF.  (Please consult the "What's the deal with HF?" section, below.)


  6. What is Janette's status as of the last time she was seen?

    The last time Janette appears on screen in the present day (HF), she is mortal, human, fatally injured and dying in Nick's arms.

    However, by the end of the episode, off-screen, she is overwhelmingly believed to be alive as a vampire; this is the dominant interpretation of the fandom.  Risking the intentional fallacy, it is also the status the makers of that episode claim to have depicted.  (Please consult the "What's the deal with HF?" section, below.)


  7. How old is Janette?

    Though historical reasons exist for supposing Janette to have been younger, Ms. Duchene's own age suggests Janette was perhaps 26-30 when brought across as a vampire in the eleventh century (circa 1070-1100, AFWTD).  Thus, Janette is around 900-1000 years old during the present of Forever Knight, approximately half Lacroix's age, and two-hundred years older than Nick.


  8. Does Janette have any relatives?

    Nothing conclusive is known of Janette's human family or forebears.  Some have mistaken Janette's description of her friend Anna's circumstances to Nick for an admission of her own (AFWTD), but careful scrutiny confirms that Janette describes Anna's family situation specifically.  Daviau, the medieval pimp, tells Lacroix that Janette is "of noble blood," but this source is highly unreliable; confronted with that description, Janette says, "I can be anything you want me to be."

    As a vampire converted by Lacroix (AFWTD), Janette is vampirically related to him and all his bloodline (Divia, Francesca, Nick, Alyce, etc.).  After "The Human Factor," assuming Nick reconverts Janette to vampirism following a period of humanity, Nick is Janette's vampiric "master," and through him she is sister to his only-known other living "child," Serena (Ba,Ba), and related back again, more distantly, to Lacroix.  Most believe that Janette converted the Baroness (ILCK), and is thus vampiric mother/master to Sofia Jurgen, but this interpretation remains disputable (IWR).


  9. What are Janette's non-familial relationships and contacts?

    • Anna:  friend,  and  Daviau:  pimp  (AFWTD)

    • Erica:  long-time acquaintance, possibly old friend (LA)

    • Natalie Lambert:  Janette meets Natalie in Nick's loft early in first season, but had heard about her from Nick beforehand (CB).  Though Janette protests that Natalie is "not [her] friend" (AMPH), she admires Natalie as a "surgeon" (AFWTD) and is solicitous of her safety and well-being (AMPH, FaFo), though she also teases her mercilessly on occasion (FaFo).  Janette sometimes calls on Natalie when Nick is in trouble (FtB), and obliquely references her to Nick (IWR).

    • Don Schanke:  Janette meets Schanke for the first time on screen when he gets involved with Alma in the Raven, but Janette knows his name on sight, and he seems unsurprised at her knowledge (FIHS).  She initially forbids him ever to enter the Raven again, but later shelters him in the club while he hides from an assassin ("Hunted") and once commiserates with him over love relationships at the Raven's bar (PotM).

    • Robert and Patrick McDonagh:  lover and ward (HF) ("I was in love with him," "I'm his mother, his official guardian")

    • The Raven Community:  Named denizens of Janette's Raven include customer and decorator Alma (FIHS, LYTD), bartender Miklos (AFWTD, BaBl), customer Mirah (FIHS), and employee Brianna (AMPH).  The actress who played the goth, human customer in FtB may reappear in "Sons of Belial" as the vampire Eva; a woman resembling her is frequently in Raven crowd scenes on the dance floor.  Janette's other contacts include Larry Merlin, vampire computer expert, and an unspecified number of unnamed vampires living in the basement of the Raven ("Hunters").   Janette regularly offers human female prostitutes shelter in her club, while forbidding entrance to the exploitive men involved in that business (AFWTD).  Nick treats Janette as if she possesses connections with all aspects of vampire existence, in addition to her substantial human business connections, both legitimate and illegitimate (BM, FD), and regularly comes to her for information on police cases.


  10. What does Janette look like?

    Janette is 5'8", around 130 lbs, and routinely described as attractive by other characters.  She has blue eyes and black hair, which, in the present day, she wears cut shoulder-length and frequently swept up in accord with contemporary trends.  Her hair has never been seen shorter than shoulder-length in any era, but regularly grew longer in the middle ages.  Janette's mouth is wide and expressive (some have jokingly observed that she is possibly the only one of the Forever Knight vampires who could actually open her mouth sufficiently to successfully feed on someone's neck).

    In flashbacks, Janette usually dresses at the height of that era's fashion, a trend that commences with the Renaissance.  In the present, her clothing always suits her situation: semi-formal "goth" as the owner of the Raven, "contemporary casual" in Montreal.  Janette wears black and red fabrics almost exclusively; the only exceptions are DK1 past (white), FaFi past (white-cream), AFWTD past (brown), ND past (grey), and HF past and present (white, gold, patterns).  Janette almost always wears earrings, frequently wears choker necklaces in the Raven (throughout first season), and was once seen getting an elaborate rose tattooed on her shoulder (FaFo).  In the first season present, Janette wears black almost exclusively.  In the second season, she frequently wears red dresses with gold accents.


  11. What kind of personality does Janette have?

    Janette is the most enigmatic of the major Forever Knight characters.  Her mystery comes, in part, from her relative lack of screen time, but more significantly from her apparently reticent nature; Janette rarely talks about herself, and Nick remains strangely uninformed (IWR, AFWTD, ND) about her past after eight centuries of acquaintance.  Until "The Human Factor," Janette always enthusiastically embraces her vampirism -- "I like what I am" ("The Fix") -- and never seeks mortality, though she eventually reconciles herself to Nick's desire for it (AFWTD).  Janette repeatedly embraces vengeance, enforcing her own justice from Daviau (AFWTD) to Larouche (HF).  In the present, Janette has created a society around herself, through the patrons, employees, and inhabitants of the Raven; she often appears the very symbol of the vampire community, concerning herself with its customs and continuance more than any other character.  In fact, Janette almost never appears alone, and she expresses a desire to cling to her "homes," once she finds them (FD, HF).  Janette acts with a closeted kindness both to Nick's human friends (Hunters, AMPH) and to the mortal prostitutes she shelters at the Raven (AFWTD).  Despite frequently mocking Nick's involvement with the mortal world with her sly, barbed humor, Janette not only interacts with mortals herself more than strictly necessary in the course of her business -- supervising the Raven nightly instead of hiring a manager, doing taxes when she has an accountant (CR,CH), reading newspapers and tracking her competition (BM), worrying about government inspections and reaching an understanding with the local organized crime group (FD) -- but also seems to welcome vibrant humanity as part of her milieu (ILCK).  Janette shows herself supremely adaptable to circumstances through the centuries, and seems to consider herself practical and rigidly realistic, even while sustaining a more tender, nurturing side safely out of sight.  Above all, Janette is a survivor.


  12. What occupations has Janette had?

    Past Human c. 1070-1100 Prostitute; others possible but unknown
    Vampire c. 1100-1970 Aristocrat, socialite; others likely but unknown
    Recently Vampire c. 1970-1996 Owner of the Raven nightclub; others certain but unknown


     

  13. How has Janette's life history unfolded?

    Janette's early human origins and experiences remain unknown.  Few, if any, clues emerge besides the tantalizing indication that she is fluent in both English and French in 1228 -- speaking easily with the Englishwoman Anna before Daviau intrudes, speaking French -- and the claim of her "noble blood" (AFWTD).  Lacroix ended the adult Janette's situation as a prostitute by converting her to vampirism with the promises that no mortal would ever touch her again without her consent, and that he wanted her to be "so much more than mere nobility" (AFWTD).  One or two centuries later, she seduced Nick and opened the door to Lacroix, who then converted the Crusader (DK, ND, DBTLOTM).  Janette traveled with Nick and Lacroix for most of the following eight centuries, leaving them for a time in the Renaissance to reestablish her independence (PotM), as well as other, unexplained absences.  Janette usually appears to live as an aristocrat or socialite, a lady of means and leisure; her specific locations and chronology can be easily gleaned from the timeline and episode descriptions.  Janette's relationship with Nick has flared and cooled over the centuries, but the two have rarely been together without an intimate attitude.  Janette moved to Toronto in approximately 1975, according to Lacroix (BB1), but no independent confirmation exists.  She operated the Raven for at least three years before Nick first visited her there (DK).  In 1995, Janette left Toronto for Montreal (HF).  While there, she fell in love with a human man, and when he was killed, somehow became mortal herself.  Later, as Janette lay dying in Nick's arms, he pleaded with her to let him reconvert her to vampirism; she refused.  Crying out in anguish, Nick apparently brought her back across anyway.  Somewhat ambiguously, Janette then apparently murdered the men who had murdered her human lover and departed without a word, leaving Nick the Divinci portrait of her he had insisted on keeping when she first left him in the Renaissance, and which he had returned to her with apologies and reconciliation the year before (PotM).


  14. What is the deal with "The Human Factor," anyway?

    In controversy, "The Human Factor" (HF) stands second only to "Last Knight" (LK), Forever Knight's brutal finale.  Widely considered a painful character assassination since it first aired, this last -- and arguably most substantial -- Janette-focused episode later gained notoriety as the very seed and driver of the disastrous choices of LK.  HF's ambiguity caused many heated debates, with great passion on all sides.  In interpreting Janette, one must acknowledge that the episode covers less than a year in an existence of a thousand years.  In interpreting Forever Knight, one must understand that this episode fundamentally disrupts some earlier themes and constructions.

    Considerable controversy once surrounded Janette's fate at the end of HF but, canonically, she did survive.  Not only is that explicitly the intention of the episode's creators, as stated at conventions, it can also be pieced together as the most logistically likely scenario encompassing the slivers of evidence on screen.  The fact that Reese impatiently calls Nick in for his shift, after Nick had "booked off" sick the previous night, indicates that the tag scene of HF occurs the night after the rest of the episode.  Because of this -- and that phone call from Reese becomes the key evidence of Janette's survival -- Nick's comment that Janette "must" have brought the portrait "today" indicates that she survived the final scene before the tag.  Lacroix's remark that he "lost a daughter, and regained a son" therefore indicates that Janette is now Nick's "daughter," and Nick's willingness to choose vampirism for Janette brings him profoundly closer to Lacroix's views and practices.  Forever Knight fandom overwhelmingly accepts this interpretation.

    When HF first aired, a competing interpretation, now discarded, held that as Nick could never have stolen from Janette the humanity for which he longs himself, he therefore must have allowed her to die, and, in blind grief and fury, killed the two arsonists who murdered her.  In this interpretation, then known as the "Nevermore" theory, the human Janette brought the portrait to Nick's loft while he slept, the day she first arrived, and Lacroix's comment that he "lost a daughter, and regained a son" indicated Janette's loss through her death and Nick's return to killing human beings -- albeit "the guilty," in accord with his earlier code.

    Another, more recent, alternate interpretation posits that Janette never truly achieves humanity in HF, but is deluded in her grief, manifesting merely psychosomatic, surface symptoms of mortality, and is therefore unable to die, though Nick would have let her.  In this construction, as in the accepted interpretation, Janette kills the arsonists in revenge.  Supporting this theory, HF never shows the mortal Janette in the sun or consuming human food.  Contrarily, HF indicates she had a sexual relationship with a human without killing him or making him a "zombie," which should be impossible for a Forever Knight vampire according to previous testimony (ILCK, CL, Ba,Ba).  This interpretation's attraction lies both in its reconciliation of Janette's survival with Nick's willingness to obey her wish, and its refutation of "true love" as a cure for vampirism, but it runs into difficulties with Lacroix's enigmatic final remark.

    By presenting romantic success, "true love plus sex," as a cure for vampirism, HF symbolically locates salvation in the hands of a fellow creature.  It wantonly undermines struggles within one's own soul, devalues sacrifices for the good of all, and discards loves other than the physical.  It diminishes the previously bold metaphors of Forever Knight, miniaturizing them in the omnipresent shadow of "romantic love conquers all."  HF churned Forever Knight interpretation, allowing the crashing tsunami of LK to form, both as story in the hands of the creators and within the transformed psyches of the characters.  Even with Janette's survival assured, nothing was ever the same after HF.


  15. Special Notes

    • Language, Pronunciation and Naming

      • Janette has been documented speaking English and French fluently in many eras; her presence in Renaissance Italy and nineteenth-century Germany likely indicate fluency in Italian and German as well, at least in those periods.  In AFWTD's flashbacks, the movement between English (spoken with the Englishwoman Anna) and French (spoken with all the other characters) indicates that Janette already possessed fluency in both these languages during her mortality.

      • Janette almost always pronounces Nick's name "Neek-o-la," which is probably the French "Nicolas," though it may be an affectation of the Italian nickname "Nicola."  During the first season, she very occasionally calls him "Nick" and "Nicky."  She refers to Lacroix as "Lucien" in one very recent flashback (HF), but otherwise calls him "Lacroix."  Janette never calls Natalie "Nat," and usually refers to Nick's human associates as "Detective Schanke" and "Doctor Lambert."

    • Introductions

      • Lacroix's first words to Janette: "Daviau tells me you are of noble blood."  (AFWTD)

      • Janette's first words to Nick: "How much do you want me?"  (DBTLOTM)


  16. Janette-focused Episode-descriptions

    • "Dark Knight"

      In the present, Nick visits Janette at the Raven for the first time, even though he has been in Toronto for three years.  He seeks information about the media-dubbed "vampire murders;" Janette tells him that Lacroix is not responsible.  In 1228 France, Janette leads Nick to his first meal as a vampire: "Drink, my love."

    • "For I Have Sinned"

      In the present, Nick goes to the Raven seeking information about two gruesome murders.  Janette says that he should know by now that she doesn't care about "them" (humans), and that he should not care, either.  She comments that Nick will never realize that he is not "people," and dips her finger into her glass of blood, tempting him.  Later, Janette interrupts Alma before she can bite Schanke, and warns Nick's partner never, ever to come into her club again.

    • "Last Act"

      In the present, Nick discovers that Erica has committed suicide.  Janette is unsurprised that Erica has finally taken this step, and agrees to take Nick to Erica's apartment; she does seem surprised by the desolation they find there.

    • "Dance By The Light of the Moon"

      In 1228 Paris, Janette introduces herself to the still-human Nick with the question, "How much do you want me?"  In the midst of passionate involvement, Janette triumphantly insists that Nick must now realize that "the light will never satisfy" him.  At the end of the episode, Janette opens the door to Lacroix, who will convert Nick to vampirism.

    • "False Witness"

      In the present, Janette urges Nick to give up his pretense of mortality, and tells him that his soul was lost when Lacroix first brought him across to vampirism.  She learns that Nick killed Lacroix; confusingly, she reacts with both scathing fury and warm laughter, telling Nick he is "pathetic," that he belongs nowhere, and is not true to anyone, even himself.  In 1828 Britain or Ireland, Janette murders a girl musician Lacroix had taunted Nick over, suggesting that Nick intended to feed on her, and complimenting him on his "taste."

    • "Cherry Blossoms"

      In 1916 San Francisco, Janette accompanies Lacroix as they burst in on Nick, who is undergoing acupuncture as part of his search for humanity.  Lacroix murders the acupuncturist.  In the present, Janette rescues Nick from the vengeance of the acupuncturist's son by telling him that Nick has not killed in a hundred years.  Nick and she seem on the verge of passionate involvement in the tag, but Natalie accidentally interrupts them.  This is the first time Janette and Natalie meet; Janette says she has heard about Natalie from Nick, and they must get together sometime to talk.

    • "I Will Repay"

      In the present, considering bringing Natalie's brother Richard across, Nick consults Janette for advice, asking if she has ever converted anyone to vampirism.  Janette tells him she has not, that she is "just not the mothering type."  "Well, I'm not!" she protests, at Nick's look of indulgent skepticism.  "I've never managed to stop in time," she continues.  "I guess I'm just too much of a glutton."  Janette asks Nick if he is prepared for the eternal bond that will tie him to the one he brings across; he says that he does not believe it has to be like that.  Janette reminds him of Lacroix.  When Richard later runs amok, Janette tells Nick it is his responsibility.

    • "Dead Air"

      In 1440-1460 Europe, Lacroix tortures a man.  Janette observes that he looks like Lacroix's father; she is "vamped out" when Lacroix is, as the torture increases.

    • "Hunters"

      In 1840 Britain, vampire hunters chase Janette, Lacroix and Nick.  Janette falls behind, and Lacroix urges Nick to abandon her; Nick refuses, and rescues Janette.  In the present, an old adversary hunts Schanke, and Janette both allows him to stay at the Raven and encourages him to fight back.

    • "Dead Issue"

      In the present, Nick goes to Janette at the Raven for information regarding a case.  Janette asks him what he would do without her; "I don't want to ever have to find out," Nick replies.  "That is the correct answer," Janette smiles in return, and then points out the suspect.

    • "Father Figure"

      In 1941 London, a street urchin steals Janette's purse.  Nick catches the boy and restores the purse to her; Janette inquires if the child has anywhere to go.  He does not, and she asks to take him in -- just for a little while.  Daniel becomes dear to both Nick and Janette, and Janette enjoys the feeling of being "a real family."  Lacroix then leads Nick to fear that either Lacroix or Janette will bring Daniel across, taunting Nick that Janette's "interest" in the boy is other than "merely maternal."  To save Daniel, Nick sends him away, earning Janette's displeasure.  But the child ends converted to vampirism anyway, presumably by Lacroix.

    • "Dying For Fame"

      In one of Nick's nightmares, Janette appears as a waitress, serving him food covered in blood.  (This scene may originally have been filmed for "Feeding the Beast.")

    • "Unreality TV"

      In the present, Janette informs Nick that a human with physical proof of the existence of  vampires (photos or videos, for example) will be able to resist hypnotism asserting the contrary.  She informs him that if he had spent more time among his own kind in the past century, he would have known that.

    • "Feeding the Beast"

      Nick, falling off the wagon from a twelve-step program for addictions in the present day, goes to the Raven seeking vampiric entertainment.  Janette intervenes before he can bite a mortal or do anything else he will regret later, and calls Natalie to the scene.

    • "If Looks Could Kill"

      In 1805 Germany, Janette appears next to the newly converted Baronness Sofia Jurgen, saying "Sometimes it takes a woman to know what a woman needs."  Whether Janette converted Sofia herself remains canonically disputed because of contradictory evidence in "I Will Repay," but this episode indicates she did.

    • "Love You to Death"

      In 1890 Paris, Janette accompanies Nick to the ballet and observes his adoration of the dancer Sylvaine.  In the present, she finally learns about Sylvaine's fate, and that it was the ballerina's death which made Nick pull away from her and Lacroix and renounce all killing.  Nick is quite distressed, and Janette feels his distress -- "the strings which bind us together as the children of Lacroix have been vibrating."

    • "Killer Instinct"

      In 1228, in the Paris Catacombs, Janette witnesses Nick's first lessons in vampirism, and she feeds in the background.  In the present, Janette visits Nick in jail, encouraging him to flee Toronto lest he and the vampire community be exposed, even though it may be a long while before they meet again.

    • "A Fate Worse Than Death"

      Faced with a young prostitute who seems in imminent, extraordinary danger from her pimp, present-day Janette remembers the end of her mortal life, circa 1070-1100, when she was a prostitute in Paris.  With her friend Anna pregnant and near term, medieval Janette offers to work enough to sustain them both while Anna cannot.  However, Daviau, their pimp, apparently murders Anna as a more efficient solution.  Janette tries to flee some unwelcome attentions, but is refused help at every turn, including by a priest.  She fights, but in the end, only Lacroix saves her.  Not long after, he converts her to vampirism, promising that "no merely mortal man" would ever touch her again without her permission.  Janette's first vampiric feeding is on Daviau: "the best revenge is revenge."  In the present, Janette makes a similar offer to the girl she tried to shelter, but is betrayed when the girl turns out to be the murderer.  The girl shoots Nick and Janette; Natalie removes the bullets and Janette tells Nick his "friend is an excellent surgeon."  Nick and Janette end the episode in each other's arms, discussing freedom and captivity; viewers should remember that this episode immediately follows Lacroix's return from the dead in "Killer Instinct."

    • "Stranger Than Fiction"

      In the present day, horror author Emily Weiss receives police protection from a stalker who may be a vampire.  When Nick cannot stay with her himself, he leaves her in Janette's care in his loft.  Willing but unhappy, Janette struggles to make small talk instead of draining the author, teasing her about Nick and vampires.  Janette considers killing Emily several times, until Lacroix appears above the skylight and warns her off.

    • "Hunted"

      In 1828-1850 England, Nick, Lacroix and Janette hunt a poacher/woodsman for sport.

    • "Faithful Followers"

      Concerned about Nick, Natalie goes to the Raven to talk with Janette, and observes her getting an elaborate rose tattooed on one shoulder.  The artist complains that Natalie's interruption means all his work will vanish before he can complete it, but Janette assures him he may start from scratch again the next night.  Hearing Natalie's concerns about Nick's susceptibility to cult in which he has gone undercover, Janette lightly taunts her about Nick and "love," saying, with both reassurance and condescension, that Nick is a wolf among poodles.

    • "Father's Day"

      In 1925 Paris, after another confrontation with Lacroix about his quest for mortality, Nick decides to leave, and urges Janette to come with him.  She declines, unwilling to leave her home, but arranges for Nick to go from Paris to Don Constantine in Toronto.  She attempts to resist telling Lacroix where Nick has fled, but finally reveals the destination after a combination of coercion and appeal to her concern for Nick.  She accompanies Lacroix to Los Angeles to recover Nick, forced to leave her home after all.

    • "Bad Blood"

      In 1888 London, Janette aids Lacroix after his unfortunate encounter with Jack the Ripper.  In the present, she houses Lacroix at the Raven and, at Lacroix's behest, entices Nick over just before dawn, trapping him for the day while Lacroix's plot endangers Natalie, Schanke, Bridget and Liam.  Caught in the Raven, the three vampires wait for sunset.

    • "Can't Run, Can't Hide"

      In the present, Nick goes to Janette hoping for a clue to his case.  Nick asks about Lacroix's involvement in southeast Asia; Janette muses on the great extent of Lacroix's former plantations in that area.

    • "Be My Valentine"

      In 1229, Janette comes to Brabant with Nick and Lacroix.  She reprimands Nick for endangering them in his desire to visit his mortal family.  Later, she encourages Nick to leave Lacroix and Fleur to each other, noting that "the attraction seems mutual."

    • "The Fix"

      In 1857 Germany, Janette warns Nick about the dangers of his quest for mortality, especially with this particular mortal quack.  Unable to endure what he is or resist the hope offered, Nick does not listen, and she and Lacroix must rescue him.  In the present, Nick, believing himself cured of vampirism, rushes to the Raven to share this treatment with Janette.  She objects on multiple levels, insisting that she likes what she is and certainly will not be a guinea pig.  Implicitly, she warns Nick that the Enforcers will not be any more happy with this discovery than she is; Natalie's reaction reveals that she had not previously heard of "those who protect [vampires'] secret."  Janette informs Natalie that she has been down this road with Nick before.  "Oh, Nicolas, you are such an eternal boy."

    • "The Fire Inside"

      Janette is with Lacroix in South Carolina in 1853-1860, and meets up with Nick for the night at an abandoned shack that turns out to be a stop on the underground railroad.

    • "Blood Money"

      In 1790 France, Janette witnesses Nick's duel over the ill-gotten money.  In the present, she is familiar with the criminal in question, and admits to keeping up with contemporary news and events.

    • "Partners of the Month"

      In 1500-1519 Italy, Janette leaves Nick after ninety-seven years together, "longer than the Medicis, longer than any mortal marriage."  Nick demands possession of the Divinci portrait of her, and she retorts that she will commission another.  "This does not mean that I don't love you," she tells him.  "That our time together hasn't been wonderful."  When he asks why, then, she has to leave, she replies, "Because I am bored, because I feel the need to move on, because you probably feel the same but cannot admit it."  After she leaves, Nick broods by a window, and Lacroix taunts him when he confesses, "I loved her."  In the present, Schanke gets quite drunk at the Raven, and Janette reminisces over Nick as Schanke reminisces over Myra.  In the end, Nick returns the painting he took in the Renaissance, asking, "Eternal friends?"  "Maybe more," Janette answers, kissing him.

    • "A More Permanent Hell"

      As present-day society dissolves in apocalyptic fears before the approaching asteroid, Janette observes "the end of the savings account and safe sex."  She tells Nick that there is nothing he can do to stop it, and that he had better to worry about the fate of vampires than humans, for though he is "used to depriving" himself, they will still starve once the mortals are gone.  When Natalie, drunk and looking for conversion to vampirism, finds trouble, Janette intervenes, and has her lay down in a back room.  "She is not my friend," Janette indignantly informs Brianna, who gives her a knowing look.  Later, when Natalie incautiously leaves with a young vampire named Spark, Janette saves her life by notifying Nick.  Nick informs Janette that they have just proven the asteroid prediction a fraud -- "it's not going to hit us" -- and Janette visibly exhales with relief.

    • "The Code"

      In 1849 in the US west, a wanted poster in the possession of a bounty hunter pictures Janette with Nick and Lacroix.  The drawing is not flattering.

    • "Curiouser and Curiouser"

      In Nick's delusion, which he characterizes as "what I've denied them," he is married to a mortal Janette, and father of her infant child.  This Janette visibly struggles to keep her family together, but whether it is because she knows about her Nick's affair with Captain Lambert, or because of his erratic behavior and poor job performance, or both, is not known.  In reality, after the shooting at the Raven, Janette tells Natalie to let Nick brood: "It has always been his way."

    • "Near Death"

      In the present, Janette recalls for Nick what it was like when Lacroix brought her across; at first she felt "nothing.  I was, after all, dying.  Then -- everything."  Like Nick, she saw a door (though hers was on a grassy plain rather than a sand dune) and felt she was given a choice, "if you call death 'a choice,'" which she did not.  In the past, 1228 Paris, Janette stands watch over Nick with Lacroix, and fears that he will choose to step into the light.  "Oh, I want him," she says, and when he awakens, he gives her a kiss that obliges the sentiment.

    • "Baby, Baby"

      In the present-day Raven, Nick tells Janette that Serena was an innocent; Janette replies, "so were we all," and unsuccessfully encourages him not to blame himself.  Janette suspects that there is something more than professional to his interest in Serena; she says that if the mortal Serena is involved with is still alive, then "it is not about sex," and wonders why he cannot see that, as he has already said Serena shared his "soul," she likely also shares his quest for humanity.

    • "Close Call"

      Schanke suspects something odd about Nick, and rummages through Janette's things in the Raven.  She wakes up "vamped out," but hides it, and tells him that the picture of her, Nick and Lacroix from a century ago is, in fact, of their great-grandparents.  She tries to hypnotize Schanke, but the suggestion fails stick.  Later, Janette and and Nick stand in the CERK hallway as Lacroix guides Schanke in talking himself back into his disbelief in vampires.

    • "Crazy Love"

      Nick, tormented beyond his limits by his hungers for blood and possession, turns to Janette.  They meet by the lake twice.  The first time, Nick almost immediately bites Janette, and later apologizes for using her.  Janette asks him to sleep the day with her, hoping things can be like they were "before," if only for a little while, but he declines.  The second meeting ends the episode in a passionate kiss, not a bite, surely an extended apology for the previous encounter.

    • "Black Buddha, Part 1"

      In the present day, Nick goes to the Raven looking for Janette, as he has so many times before, but she is gone.  Lacroix says that Janette had been in Toronto for twenty years, and it was time for her to move on; he notes that it has been "at least a month" since Nick was last around to notice such things.  Lacroix says he does not know where Janette is, and encourages Nick not to follow her.

    • "The Human Factor"

      Flashbacks reveal that Janette left Toronto because of "what [Lacroix] fear[s] most: doubt."  Knowing that being a vampire was no longer as simple for her as Lacroix thought it should be, but unwilling to end up like Nick, Janette asks Lacroix to take the Raven, and ensure there would always be a place for the "strays."  Janette then moves to Montreal: "a taste of Paris, but not too far from the family."  While there, a human firefighter named Robert McDonagh rescues her from a fire, and she comes to love him "more than [Nick] can ever imagine."  While with Robert, she also becomes his son Patrick's legal guardian ("I am his mother. His official guardian").  Somehow, Robert and she make love without her draining him.  Robert is shot, and as he lies dying, Janette finds herself unable to convert him to vampirism.  The pain of his loss and her inability to prevent it "was as though eight centuries of repressed emotion were being released.  I thought I was going to die.  I hoped I would die."  Instead, she becomes human.  Following those who killed Robert, Janette returns to Toronto with Patrick, and after killing Larouche, Robert's murderer, asks Nick for help.  She tells him that while she fled to "reaffirm the vampire in" her, she realized, through Robert, "that [Nick's] quest to become mortal again is right."  Nick does not grasp that she is no longer a vampire until she is shot; Natalie treats the wound.  Robert's killers take Patrick hostage, and Janette is shot just before the house bursts into flame.  Dying in Nick's arms, she responds to his pleas to bring her back across with, "I've got to go. . . . No.  No.  No. . . .  No.  Don't!  Don't!"  Screaming out in the utmost emotional agony, Nick brings her across to vampirism, anyway.  Janette is not seen after that, though she is presumed to be behind the fang marks in the criminals' corpses.  In the tag, Lacroix and Nick hold a sort of vigil over Janette's Divinci portrait, which she has returned to Nick's loft -- whether as a gesture of reconciliation or defiance is not known.  Lacroix remarks, "It seems that I have lost a daughter, and regained a son."

    • "Last Knight"

      While draining Natalie, Nick remembers kissing Janette the night he came across (ND).  Earlier, he recalls their final confrontation in his loft (HF).


 

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