CHRISTINA: Help me! ANNOUNCER: Previously on Witchblade:
DANNY: Hey, hey, hey.
What's going on? Take it easy, punk, all right?
[DANNY GRUNTS]
[GASPING]
You did your task well.
Thank you.
Where is he?
Your partner was buried before he was dead.
You have the knowledge you need.
Believe in the Witchblade. It will help you.
[GRUNTING]
SARA: Danny!
[GASPING]
NOTTINGHAM: You have the knowledge you need.
Believe in the Witchblade and it will help you.
Believe.
WOMAN [WHISPERS]: Sara.
Sir!
IRONS: You can use the Witchblade to pierce the veil of the senses.
To see in an entirely new way.
To extract more information from the universe...
... than the normal human sensorium allows.
To experience ultimate realities.
PRIEST: Dear friends, we are gathered here today...
... to remember the life of Danny Woo.
- be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done...
... on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day...
The Witchblade is not mine to wield anymore.
So I've found an alternative weapon to effect my grand design.
The lance has arrived.
Each power, each source of energy in the universe...
...has its converse, its opposite.
Even someone as steeped in empiricism...
...as Isaac Newton knew that for every action...
...there is an equal and opposite reaction.
So too with the Witchblade.
Wallet, watch, and cash, bitch.
Risky line of work you're in.
- Do you want me to kill you? - Kind of.
Well, I'm game. Now give me what I asked you for.
I'm gonna give you more than what you asked me for.
I'm gonna give you your life.
[SCREAMS]
[BAT SCREECHES]
[WINGS FLAPPING]
[THUD]
Who's there?
[GRO ANS]
Thank you, lan.
I was growing rather impatient.
Sara.
Hey, partner, how are you feeling?
Well, like I just emerged from the most psychotic nightmare...
...I ever had.
Pez, what the hell happened?
I was hoping you could tell me.
I just have a few little questions.
Like who the hell jumped me, why they jumped me...
...how you found me, how you got me out of there?
Look, all I know is I got this mysterious message...
...saying you were at the cemetery, and I went and got you.
Pez, is there something you're not telling me?
Is there something you're not telling me?
It just doesn't compute, all right?
[KNOCK ON DOOR]
Yeah.
Sara, it's Orlinsky, Line 1.
- He's down at the docks. - Thanks, Jake.
Yep.
Orlinsky.
All right, we'll be right there.
[SIREN WHOOPS]
DANNY: What do you got? ORLINSKY: Male, Caucasian.
Nothing unusual.
Except there's a 4-inch gash through his chest.
SARA: Through? ORLINSKY: Yeah.
By the looks of it, it pinned him here...
...before it was, uh, yanked back out.
SARA: Ooh.
Why did you call me?
Well, you got a rep for having an affinity for the weird. Ha, ha.
And besides, I haven't seen your mug in a while.
- Weapon? - No.
Any ideas?
Well, whatever it was, it wasn't too sharp.
Look.
Look at the wound.
And after the crate...
...that blade must be duller than Hillary Clinton's libido.
[SCOFFS]
Still using the same old jokes, huh?
[ORLINSKY CHUCKLES]
[SIGHS]
WOMAN [VOICE ECHOING]: See how he died, Sara?
He has come. He has come.
It is time. It is time.
[MAN SPEAKING IN GERMAN]
[YELLING]
[SIGHS]
I gotta go.
I'll catch you later.
Where are you going? I gotta... I gotta ask you something.
[SPEAKING IN GERMAN]
- Mr. Irons? - Yes.
I'm Detective Pezzini, N.Y.P.D. Homicide.
There are some questions that you better answer.
I consider myself a good citizen. How can I help?
Your employee, boy toy, henchman or whatever the hell he is...
...lan Nottingham has been stalking me for several days.
I had no idea.
- He tried to kill me. - Lan is a gentle soul.
Why would he try to kill you?
To get this back for you.
I'm sure you've lost me, detective.
He attacked me with a sword.
A sword?
Do you know where I can find him?
No.
Does this belong to you?
Stop playing games, detective.
Even if I said it did, you wouldn't return it to me.
You know what it is, and you know what it can do.
If that bracelet did belong to me, you can be assured...
...that it would not be on your lovely little malnourished arm...
...and you can be further assured your arm would be a great distance from your body.
SARA: Mr. Irons.
Where were you last night?
Temporally or metaphysically?
Around midnight.
In a reverie.
What the hell does that mean?
You should know, detective.
You were a part of it.
Sooner or later you'll get the point.
Gentlemen, I've invited you here today to deliver a message of great import.
I'll be brief.
Vorschlag Industries suffers from a cancer within.
A pox, if you will, which means to undermine our autonomy...
...in the bio-technological field.
A disease which means to destroy me.
But, Mr. Irons, we posted a 200 percent operating profit in this last quarter alone.
Success does not necessarily indicate health.
In the days of the Republic when Caesar learned of a plot against him...
...he offered the guilty the option of suicide and clemency for his family.
But the Republic perished, didn't it?
When Rommel was discovered to have been a part of the cabal...
...which attempted to kill the Führer...
...as the more erudite amongst you know...
...he was allowed to choose his own poison.
But Hitler spared his family.
The two of you will not enjoy such benevolence.
Paul, this is your house burning down this morning.
I had the doors sealed. Your family is ash.
[SOBBING]
Sidney, I'm reminded of a baptism by the manner...
...in which your wife and child entered the next world.
Oh, no.
I will not be betrayed.
And I will destroy the heretics of my vision.
[IRONS YELLING]
[IRONS PANTING]
OFFICER 1: Hey, Robinson.
OFFICER 2: Tape off that area over there to the left.
[COUGHING]
OFFICER 2: Over here.
SARA: Hey, Turnbull.
What's up?
Two white males, 50, 60.
Both stabbed clean through the chest between the fourth and fifth ribs.
Clean wounds?
Sloppy and savage.
Bad day at the office, it looks like.
They both worked for Irons.
[VICKY HUMMING]
DANNY: Po-Po. SARA: Vicky.
Same killer?
I need any forensic similarities you can get.
[HUMMING]
Earth to Po, are you with us?
No, I'm most decidedly not with you.
Well...
Well, well, well. Ha, ha.
What do you think of that?
[DANNY SIGHS]
Please, the damn formaldehyde in here is gonna kill me before R.J. Reynolds.
You can spare me the little looks.
[LIGHTER CLICKING]
Three murders, same weapon.
These guys got incredible piercings.
Hundreds of pounds per square inch of force.
But here's the clincher.
At first, I thought the wood fibers around the exit wounds...
...all came from a local source.
No.
Uh, well, I figured it was the crate for the customs guy...
...and, you know, a table or tree for these two, but it's not.
Its wood wasn't deciduous.
It was cedar.
So you're telling me someone took apart their closet...
...to kill a customs agent and two businessmen.
This variety of cedar comes from Lebanon and Syria.
And get this, the species of cedar that came up...
...has been extinct for over a thousand years.
SARA: So where does that get us?
- Well, nowhere. - Come on, Vic, don't...
But, but, being a bit of a type-A personality...
...I took the small metal fibers from the wound...
...carbon-dated them and I got a pretty accurate date for the blade.
- And? - And it's an alloy of tin and copper.
It's got plenty of impurities.
And it was forged sometime between 10 and 70.
Ten and 70 what?
Anno Domini.
Sometime between the year of our Lord, 10 and 70 A.D.
DANNY: Let's go see Irons.
Talk about gothic.
[GRUNTING]
[PANTING]
You okay?
Uh, yeah. I must've just slipped.
Aah, Danny.
Pez, what the hell is going on?
You're talking to yourself, you're falling down, you're acting weird.
I know you're not giving me the full story about what happened yesterday.
What is up?
I'm okay.
Where's the love?
Come on, Sara. If you don't talk to me, how can I trust you?
There's nothing to tell.
You decide whether or not you're gonna tell me what's going on.
Danny.
And I'll decide if you're still my partner.
Danny, there's nothing going on.
Nothing.
Bull.
Find a new partner.
Danny.
Nice pose.
Nice bracelet.
What?
- Ahh. - What?
It's a nice bracelet.
Uh, do I know you?
Perhaps, I guess if you believe in reincarnation.
Actually, I saw your picture in the paper last week after the shootout.
Oh, oh. Is your boss around?
Yeah, you're talking to him.
Oh, uh, I'm sorry.
Uh, Detective Sara Pezzini, Homicide.
Are you buying or selling?
- Excuse me? - Ha, ha.
Do you have a talisman you wanna sell or looking for something to buy?
- I get Homicide cops in here all the time. - No, sorry. I'm here on police business.
Hmm.
Um, do you know a man named Kenneth Irons?
Yeah, don't everybody?
You know, actually, I'm not sure but I think he may be a client of a client of mine...
...who buys a lot of stuff from me, mostly religious relics.
Where were you yesterday afternoon?
Uh, uh...
New Jersey. I went to buy a guitar string Bruce Springsteen busted...
...while he was playing a gig at the Stone Pony...
...an Ernie Ball Slinky, uh, bronze, medium-light.
Hold on, I got a bus receipt right over here.
Yeah. Um...
It was Route 111. Left at 1 p. M...
...and I got back around midnight.
What was the last item that Mr. Irons' supposed middleman bought from you?
Some piano keys from an old Bosendorfer...
...that supposedly belonged to this World War II spy, Elizabeth Bronte.
You ever heard of her?
The name rings a bell.
Did you ever procure him a spear, an ancient spear?
You're talking about the Longinus Lance, aren't you?
SARA: Yeah.
What do you know about it? What can you tell me?
GABRIEL: Well, it goes by many names. Come here, I'll show you.
The Spear of Destiny, the lance that killed Jesus Christ.
Uh, wrong. It's, uh...
...the lance that helped preserve his status as the Messiah.
I thought that a Roman soldier, a centurion, or whatever it is...
...stabbed him to prove that he had already died.
Okay, uh...
Hebrew legend was that the true Messiah cannot have his bones broken.
Now, the two thieves on Christ's right and left side...
...had their legs broken so they slumped over and suffocated.
It was considered merciful.
Now, Longinus, a Roman soldier fearing that others...
... would break Christ's legs in a similar fashion, lanced him in the side...
... possibly effecting, but certainly proving Christ's death.
Thereby avoiding the mutilation of his body...
...and thereby preserving his status as the Messiah.
- It's an interesting tale. GABRIEL: Longinus was almost blind.
And as legend tells it...
...some of Christ's blood splashed into his eyes and restored his sight.
- Beats LASIK surgery. - Ha, ha.
So, what are you getting at?
Well, throughout the ages, men who carried the lance were blessed...
...with great power and victory on the battlefield.
They became kings.
The Emperors Constantine and Justinian valued its possession above all others.
Charlemagne claimed that it was responsible for all of his victories on the battlefield.
He also claimed that his only great defeat came when he dropped the spear in battle.
- And after Charlemagne? - Uh, it was handed down through the ages.
From king to king, vanquished to conqueror.
Uh, now, if it was dropped, defeat was ensured.
Eventually it came into the possession...
...of one of history's greatest little miscreants, Adolf Hitler.
So the lance can be carried by both king or villain.
Sounds a bit amoral.
GABRIEL: Well, it knows only power.
And it only works for those who are preordained to carry it.
So where is it now?
About a month or so ago...
...the same client, the guy who I think buys all the stuff for Irons called...
...asked me if I could get him the spear.
I can get anything anyone asks me to get...
...but I told him there is no way I could help him on that.
Then about two weeks ago it was stolen...
... from the Hofburg Museum in Vienna.
I have a very strong suspicion that Irons' buyer...
... decided not to take my "no" as an answer.
I think Irons has the spear.
And I also think that he intends to come looking for you.
- Me? - Yeah.
[SIGHS]
You're the wielder of the Witchblade.
How the hell do you know about this thing?
It's my job to know about objects of power.
That came from the Joan of Arc display at the museum, didn't it?
It supposedly changes forms.
Am I right?
Got me.
May I?
Sure.
That amulet is an icon of tremendous power...
...that can supposedly only be worn by a woman.
A chosen woman.
Now, what that necessarily means...
... is that there are people who are probably trying...
... to take it away from you or to control you.
You believe in all of that?
Well, it's all just lore, right?
Until it's not.
The fact of the matter is, there's too many convergences...
...too many coincidences to believe that it's just lore.
You tell me.
I think Irons is on a mission to confront the Witchblade.
I think he's on a mission to take your life.
WOMAN [WHISPERING]: Don't. Ahh.
Who's there?
We are. You are.
SARA: What?
[VOICES WHISPERING INDISTINCTLY]
Detective Pezzini. Hey, hey.
[PANTING]
- I gotta go. - Look, look.
- Just be careful out there, okay? - I know.
She heard voices too.
She had visions.
She claimed they were the source of her power.
History credits them with her demise.
She looks kind of sad.
A cruel destiny to be sure.
To save a nation, to be a hero and a saint...
...to die at the hands of treacherous clergymen at the age of 19.
But a destiny that mattered.
A responsibility.
A duty.
A cause.
I doubt anyone ever understood her.
How could they?
Ultimately, she was abandoned.
I think I know how she feels.
Can you help me?
No one else would understand.
I'm here to kill you.
But I can't.
Have you ever heard the old adage:
"Take the cause out of the man, there is no cause for a man"?
Look, my cause is to bring criminals to justice.
I don't need this thing.
If that was the truth, you wouldn't be standing here right now.
Sara...
...your cause is to wield the Witchblade and use its powers for good.
Your duty is to carry on the line of feminine power that balances this world.
Your destiny is to confront the lance.
But you cannot win.
How do you know that?
Even with the Witchblade, the lance is too powerful.
Irons is out of control.
Lance or not, Witchblade or not, Irons is going down.
No, Sara. Irons has already won.
Not while I'm still breathing.
He killed those two men that we found downtown.
And he was behind my partner's abduction, wasn't he?
Wasn't he?
I will leave you to your own decision.
[GASPS]
IRONS: Sara Pezzini.
You're not well.
You've lost your mind.
I don't think so.
IRONS: You shake with fear. And why not?
Who dares challenge the might of an instrument which took a God's life?
Prepare to die.
I don't fear you or the lance.
As you wish.
[GRUNTS]
[IRONS GRUNTS]
[GRUNTS]
[GRO ANS]
[SARA GRUNTING]
[GASPS]
[GROWLS]
[GRUNTS]
[IRONS YELLING]
[GRUNTING]
The sword and the stone.
[YELLING]
[GASPING]
- You've lost. - Finish it.
- Father. - Come to watch me die, son?
I told you to kill her.
You failed.
And now she will kill me before your very eyes.
Avenge me, son.
- I want none of this. IRONS: You've no choice.
How perfectly ironic.
I've sought such power all my life, and now it is denied me.
And you, who have the greatest gift, the power of immortality...
...coursing through your veins, you want nothing of it.
Kill me this time, Sara.
I cannot stand another lifetime of fruitless pursuit.
You win this time.
I do not murder.
This isn't murder.
It is sacrifice.
Aah!
[GURGLING]
[PANTING]
Father.
Father?
Father, it's lan.
Father?
What have you done?
Damn you and damn him.
You both led me here.
We're enemies now.
We were never friends.
[CROWD CHATTERING]
Dubonnet and soda.
[LAUGHING]
Just kidding. Jack and water back.
So, uh, you got something you wanna say?
Yeah.
I wanna apologize for being so, um, distant.
I've been going through a lot lately.
I mean, that's what hurts.
I feel like you don't trust me enough to tell me what's going on.
No, no, Danny, I do trust you.
And I want you to still trust me.
There are just...
There are some things I can't tell you about right now.
I really need you to be okay with that, to...
Take a leap of faith?
Exactly.
BARTENDER: There you go.
To my resurrection.
[CHUCKLES]
[GLASSES CLINK]
It's not enough I saved your life, but you wanna know how I did it?
I did the math. You saved my life 11 times.
Any way you slice it, I'm ahead of the game.
Danny, I can tell you this.
The people responsible for what happened?
Let's just say I took care of the problem.
Whatever's going on with you, I'm sure it's deep.
Blind faith with eyes wide open.
Good enough.
For now, partner.
[GLASSES CLINK]
[ENGLISH SDH]