Forever Knight: Why the Finale Was So Controversial

The final episode of Forever Knight, “Last Knight,” remains one of the most controversial television series finales in history, nearly 25 years after it first aired. It is still remembered today precisely because of how badly received it was by the show’s fandom, inviting comparison to the series finales of Dexter or Angel. It is also remembered because of the reaction it inspired on-line in the early days of the Internet.

Forever Knight centered around the adventures of Nicholas de Brabant, a 13th century Crusader who became a vampire. After centuries of decadent behavior, Nicholas began to seek redemption by using his vampiric powers to save lives, most recently by working as a homicide detective in Toronto. Nick was aided in his quest by Dr. Natalie Lambert, a medical examiner who sought a cure for vampirism and was the only mortal who knew Nick’s secret. Nicholas was opposed by his vampiric sire Lucien LaCroix, who tried to convince Nick that aspiring to mortality was pointless or, failing that, thwart whatever progress Nick made toward curing himself.

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“Last Knight” opened with Natalie in dire straits, as a psychiatrist colleague had just committed suicide. Rather than a traditional suicide note, the colleague had written a letter to Natalie, urging her not to waste her life by throwing herself into her work like she had. This prompted Natalie to affirm her love for Nick and ask him to turn her into a vampire  At first Nick refused, saying that he couldn’t condemn Natalie to the same hellish existence that he endured or risk accidentally killing her by drinking too much blood.

Eventually Nick did agree to attempt the one method of curing his vampirism that they had learned of but never considered; making love. It was revealed in the season 3 episode, “Human Factor”, that a vampire could regain their mortality by slowly feeding on a mortal who truly loved them and whom they loved in return. Natalie insisted that she wanted to try and cure Nick in this method, and that if it didn’t work, he could always bring her across and they could spend the rest of eternity searching for a cure together. Unfortunately, Nick had subsisted for so long on animal blood that the first taste of human blood sent him into a frenzy, and he drained too much from Natalie too quickly.

LaCroix showed up at Nicholas’ apartment just before dawn to discover a despondent Nicholas kneeling over Natalie, who was on the brink of death. Nick decided he could not condemn Natalie to share his curse, saying that she had faith in him and an afterlife of some kind and “that this would be a beginning, not an end.” LaCroix did not pretend to understand Nicholas’ attitude, but did accept the walking stick with a pointed shaft which Nicholas offered him, as he said that he had come to realize that LaCroix, rather than the devil who condemned him to darkness, was truly “my closest friend.” The episode ended with LaCroix raising the staff and growling “D*mn you, Nicholas“, before a quick cut to the rising sun outside.

“Last Knight” inspired levels of anger in Forever Knight fans comparable to those expressed by fans of Game of Thrones in response to that series’ final season. Natalie’s sudden desire to become a vampire and master manipulator LaCroix’s agreeing to simply kill Nick were considered to be as wildly out of character as Daenerys’ burning of King’s Landing. This resulted in a mass-rejection of the episode by the fandom, and the formation of an entire sub-genre of Forever Knight fan fiction devoted to undoing the effects of “Last Knight”, either by ignoring it completely or twisting the ambiguous ending so Natalie survived as a vampire or Nick became human. While televison fanfic had been around for decades even then, this marked the first time that multiple alternate realities were published on the Internet by fans who had their own ideas about how their favorite show should have ended.

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