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The Screed and Bourbon FAQ by Amy R. original
in 1997; |
Frequently Asked Questions about Screed and Bourbon:
- Who are Screed and Bourbon?
- Who play Screed and Bourbon?
- Are there FORKNI-L affiliations for Screed and Bourbon?
- In which episodes does each appear?
- What are their fates, as of their final appearances?
- What do Screed and Bourbon look like?
- Screed is a carouche; what does that mean?
- What dialect does Screed speak?
- Does Screed really live in a sewer?
- a. What else do we know and guess about Screed?
b. What else do we know and guess about Bourbon?- Special Notes
- Screed-and-Bourbon-focused Episode Descriptions
- "Black Buddha, Part 2" (BB2)
- "Blind Faith" (BF)
- "My Boyfriend is a Vampire" (MBIAV)
- "Hearts of Darkness" (HoD)
- "Let No Man Tear Asunder" (LNMTA)
- "Fever"
- "Ashes to Ashes" (AtA)
- Who are
Screed and Bourbon?
Screed and Bourbon are recurring minor characters in the third season of the syndicated fantasy television series, Forever Knight (1992-1996). They are part of the character Vachon's vampire "crew." Screed appears in the present as well as in flashbacks; Bourbon appears only in flashbacks.
- Who
play Screed and Bourbon?
Greg Kramer depicts Screed; Normand Bissonnette depicts Bourbon. Bissonnette also appears in the second-season episode "Stranger Than Fiction" as the character Christian.
- Are there FORKNI-L
affiliations for Screed and Bourbon?
Screed's followers call themselves "Ratpackers," and symbolize their affiliation with a fang-bitten band-aid over a rat; in FKFIC-L Wars, they usually join with the Mercenaries. No affiliation exists for Bourbon.
- In which
episodes does each appear?
Screed appears in the present-day of "Black Buddha, Part 2" (BB2), "Blind Faith" (BF), and "Fever." Other characters mention Screed in the present-day of "Let No Man Tear Asunder" (LNMTA) and "Ashes to Ashes" (AtA). Screed appears in the flashbacks of "My Boyfriend is a Vampire" (MBIAV) and "Hearts of Darkness" (HoD).
Bourbon appears in the flashbacks of "My Boyfriend is a Vampire" (MBIAV) and "Hearts of Darkness" (HoD).
- What are their
fates, as of their final appearances?
Screed dies in Vachon's arms, brought down by the virus in "Fever." Vachon buries his friend by the waterfront, as Screed requests. When Vachon dies, Tracy says she will bury him next to Screed (AtA).
Bourbon is seen only twice, most recently in 1895 New Orleans. That he has not been seen in the present has led to speculation on his fate -- Is he dead? Did he quarrel with Vachon? -- but there no on-screen evidence of any sort exists beyond Vachon's admonition to Urs in "Black Buddha, Part 2" that "We aren't running as a crew anymore."
- What do Screed and Bourbon
look like?
Screed is tall, thin, and completely bald, with a narrow face, a prominent, slightly-hooked nose, red eyebrows and a smile that displays large, square teeth. Screed speaks a variety of Nadsat in the present day, through a broad British accent.
Bourbon is shorter than Screed, with plenty of brown hair, an aristocratic demeanor, and a face described as "handsome" in the MBIAV script. Bourbon speaks with a slight French accent.
- Screed is a
carouche; what does that mean?
In the Forever Knight story, a carouche is a vampire who prefers to feed on animals rather than humans.
This concept is barely explained on screen, but apparently whatever a new vampire feeds on in his or her first hunger is what he or she will hunger for ever after (Fever). Carouches are "a lower form of vampire," according to Nick, and "feed off vermin, mostly" (BF). He calls Screed a carouche, but clearly does not consider himself one, so the designation must be tied to a natural inclination or preference for animals, not the willingness to feed on their blood. We do not know if being a carouche is at all related to whether one's master is a carouche; audience interpretation generally assumes that is not a factor, and that being a carouche depends entirely on one's first feeding. However, as vampires are capable of drinking animal blood (Nick), so carouches can feed on humans (MBIAV).
- What
dialect does Screed speak?
Screed speaks a unique combination of Nadsat, Cockney rhyming slang and Elizabethan British slang. Nadsat is a slang/language invented by the author of The Clockwork Orange. It includes a number of Russian words, which renders it essentially incomprehensible to many people and causes many difficulties for viewers attempting to understand Screed. The Screed homepage includes a link to a Nadsat/English dictionary.
- Does Screed really live in a
sewer?
While Screed's dwelling is almost-universally referred to as a "sewer" among fans, it is designated that only once on screen or in scripts: by Tracy, when Vachon removes the gag from her mouth in "Black Buddha, Part 2." Does she choose that word out of accuracy or anger? Characterized by pipes and odd concrete structures, it is called "Screed's Place" (BF), "Screed's Alleyway," "Screed's Squat" (BB2), and is described as "a tunnel" and a "labyrinth of tunnels underground." Screed is described as entering his "squat" through a "grate" in his "alleyway." Tracy calls it a "rat-infested hell-hole" and refers to the "diseases" present (BB2), but no water or sewage is ever in evidence. If Screed's dwelling is part of the sewer system, it is not currently in use for that purpose. Screed may live somewhere in the service tunnels beneath the city -- part of the same tunnel system where Vudu planted the bombs in BB2 -- or in a basement or cellar of some sort.
- a. What else do we know and guess about
Screed?
He is "about 450," Vachon says (Fever), and "he runs off to Vegas whenever he has some cash" (BB2). Vachon calls Screed a "sailor" (Fever), and most assume that was his mortal occupation. Some speculate that he was brought across on a rat-infested ship (thus his inclination for rats), and many have speculated that Vachon brought him across to vampirism, but no on-screen evidence exists for either speculation. If Vachon brought Screed across, he did so when he had been a vampire for around fifty-five years, circa 1580. We do know that Vachon and Screed are friends and companions for centuries, and that Vachon does not hesitate to offer Screed his wrist when Screed is starving. When Vachon decides to leave Toronto in BB2, he tells Urs that when he finds a place he can be contacted, he will get word to Screed; whether this implies closeness between Vachon and Screed or Screed's place as a responsible member of the "family" or something else entirely is not known.
Screed is mercenary in his dealings with Nick, and interested in what he can get for his scavengings at "the swap meet." Despite living in a "sewer," he is fairly neat, and one of the last things he says is an apology that he had not "cleaned up the place." Over Screed's grave, Vachon says that he "tidied up a bit" and "may even move in there" (Fever). Though he is still at the church in the latter episodes of the season (Francesca, AtA), this may be a way Vachon deals with grief for his friend. Screed seems to want to avoid trouble with either the Inca or the Enforcers (BB2) and promises Nick that "good-citizen Screed" will put down the vampire dog (BF) if he encounters it. In BF, Screed drains rats pinned to a clothesline; in "Fever," there a neat, three-feet-high mound of drained rats rises near the entrance to the sewer. In MBIAV, he states a preference for feisty (or, in a bleaker interpretation, unwilling) women.
b. What else do we know and guess about Bourbon?
The script of "My Boyfriend is a Vampire" describes Bourbon as "a handsome, arrogant, former Musketeer." He takes offense at Vachon's statement that he is not a "gentleman," and when Screed, the carouche, throws an arm around his shoulders and comments on "the only life for a man, being a vampire," Bourbon removes the arm and gives him a disapproving look (MBIAV). Bourbon approaches the mortal Urs in HoD, but allows himself to be waved off by Vachon; he possibly fancies himself a ladies' man. He is with Screed and Vachon in 1792 Spain and 1890 New Orleans; though he is often assumed to be one of Vachon's "crew," and thus part of the continual flight from the Inca, there is nothing else to document that. In MBIAV, he states a preference for docile (or, in another interpretation, willing) women.
- Special Notes
A webpage devoted to Screed may be found at: http://users.LMI.net/callalily/screed.html .
Vachon's crew is overtly multi-national. Vachon is Spanish; Screed is English; Bourbon is French; Urs is American. The Inca and Angel are South American, and Tracy is Canadian.
Screed has a small, white television with old-fashioned dials; it can be seen briefly in "Fever" when Vachon throws Screed against the wall.
- Screed-and-Bourbon-focused Episode Descriptions
Vachon brings Tracy to Screed's sewer, and Screed tells him that if the girl resists hypnotism, then Vachon should kill her, rather than being an "imposition" on a friend. When Vachon reveals that the Inca is in town, Screed promptly and forcefully orders Vachon out of his home. Scavenging in the sewers, Screed finds the disguised bombs, which he thinks are "cellular transponders" he can sell. Returning to his sewer, he finds Nick interrogating Vachon, and asks Nick if he is an Enforcer. Nick growls at him, and he apologizes. As Vachon is telling Urs he plans to leave Toronto, he says "I'll let Screed know when I find a place to check in." Screed, for pay, helps Nick and the Inca find all the bombs. Looking for Vachon, Tracy first goes to Screed's sewer; finding Vachon at the church instead, she asks where Screed has gone and is informed that he "always" heads to "Vegas" when he has ready money.
The body of a rapist is found "several quarts low," but with the appearance of having been mutilated by a wild animal. Suspecting a carouche, Nick visits Screed, who is running a fan in his sewer and singing "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" while draining rats suspended from a clothesline; he employs a very large knife and what is apparently a baby-food bottle in the task. Sensing an arrival, Screed vamps out; when Nick appears, Screed complains that startling him like that is "not gentry" between "birds of a feather." "I'm not one of your kind," Nick replies shortly. "Let's talk about dogs." Screed says that they are not his favorite: too much drool. Nick asks if Screed has brought a dog across lately; Screed is not forthcoming until Nick hands him a hundred-dollar bill. Screed says that he has not himself, but the "word" is that another carouche is in the area, a disreputable "cattle mutilator" type. Screed promises to stake the dog if he sees it, "good-citizen Screed," and invites "Dicky Nick" not to be such a "stranger." Nick departs in an impolite flash as soon as he has the information.
"My Boyfriend is a Vampire" --
In flashbacks to 1592 Spain, Vachon recalls Screed, Bourbon and himself taking and draining four young women in a barn full of hay; Screed has two while Vachon and Bourbon each take one. The women seem happy and willing during the preliminaries, apparently unaware of their impending deaths. Vachon makes a speech in the process of seduction; he begins by saying that "Screed and Bourbon are not gentlemen," which offends the Frenchman enough to distract him from the neck in front of him. After the women are dead, Bourbon muses on how wonderful it is to be able to take women without ever having to marry them: "if mortal men only knew." Screed agrees: "the only life for a man, being a vampire." Bourbon reacts disdainfully to this, but whether he is reacting to the carouche's classification of himself as a vampire, or to Screed putting his arm around Bourbon's shoulders, or to something else entirely, is not known. Both seem satisfied with the encounter; Vachon seems detached from them, possibly even brooding, though he culminates the encounter with, "I love women!"
In 1890 New Orleans, mortal saloon-singer Urs flirts with her audience during her performance, particularly Vachon, who sits at a table with Screed and Bourbon. When it ends, her "patron" seizes her arm and says, threateningly, that he does not like her looking at other men. At this, Vachon, Screed and Bourbon all rise and approach them at the bar. Screed and Bourbon pay attention to Urs while Vachon hauls away and threatens the man who threatened Urs. Vachon then returns to the bar, where Urs is with Screed and Bourbon, and dismisses them -- "Pas touches" -- by slapping Screed lightly with his gloves. Screed raises his hands and backs off with, "Whatever you say." Bourbon lingers a second longer, and then goes quietly. Urs smiles after them, and then at Vachon. Shortly before Vachon brings her across against her expressed wishes, Urs says that she has heard of men who live to kill: "Is that you and your friends?" Her line probably encompasses Screed and Bourbon. Vachon replies: "We do not live to kill. We kill to live."
In Tracy's apartment, responding to her persistent questions about black-market organ transplants -- hearts, in particular -- and her conviction that he must know or be able to find out something about it, Vachon asks, "What kind of friends do you think I hang around with, anyway?" Over the rim of her coffee mug, Tracy narrows her eyes and says, "Hey, I've met them, remember?" This comment no doubt includes Screed and the Inca, whom she met in "The Black Buddha, Part 2."
Prodded, Vachon reveals, "Screed told me about something. He said that he'd heard of a group of doctors that travel back and forth between here and Rio, and some of them have connections to us -- you know, our community." "Vampires?" Tracy prompts. Vachon nods, continuing, "Anyway, they have a thing going. Millions of dollars involved. They prey on people's desperation. . . . So, they accelerate the process of procurement. That's what Screed told me. For a fee -- an astronomical fee, of course -- they find you what you need and, uh, you know, take care of the particulars. . . . Hey, I don't have anything to do with this. I'm just repeating what Screed told me." When Tracy insists on contacting this group, Vachon sighs and begins writing on a notepad on the corner of her kitchen counter. "I think his name is Walters," Vachon says. "Tell him Enrique from the clinic in Rio sent you. Tell him you'll pay him whatever he wants." The note he hands her says: "Dr Walters 336 Church Lane."
Screed drains a white rat outside a scientific institute; he seems to consider it a treat, but it infects him with an artificial virus. Tracy enters Screed's "sewer" with Vachon, looking for leads about the bitten rat, which Nick found at the scene of a potential homicide at the institute. Screed pounces on her, desperate for the "fruit in her veins," but Vachon intervenes. "First kill, any kill," Screed says, shaking. Vachon translates that to Tracy, explaining the nature of vampiric first-hunger: Screed hungers for rats, because his first meal as a vampire was a "squealer." He went for Tracy, however. "He's starving," Vachon observes, and offers him his wrist. Screed seizes it greedily, and Tracy and Vachon conclude that, contradicting everything known about vampire health, Screed is sick.
The next day -- and Vachon does indeed brave the sun, according to the script, though this is not seen clearly on screen -- Vachon goes to Nick, hoping Natalie, as a doctor, can help Screed, who he has been feeding "all morning," but who is "still starving." Natalie visits Screed and takes samples, but holds out little hope. Screed dies in Vachon's arms. His final words are: "Do us a favor, mate? One last. Put our bones down by the water, if you can. Bury them good in the sand. Never felt right on land." After almost succumbing to the infection himself, Vachon does indeed bury Screed near the water, and toasts him with a bottle of blood over his grave: "See you in Hell, sailor."
After Vachon's death, Tracy removes the stake and cradles his corpse. Among other things, she says, "I'll take you to Screed; you can be with your friend." Later, Nick tells Lacroix that Tracy buried Vachon near Screed, that "she knew what they were." Lacroix reacts as if that statement refers to their vampirism; it may also refer to their relationship. This is the only on-screen indication that Screed was known to Lacroix.
With special thanks to Bonnie, Jane and Libby.
FAQ created and maintained by Knightie Amy R.. Comments and constructive criticism are appreciated.
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