It feels like forever since the last new episode of “Moonlight”, and it did not disappoint. Under better circumstances, this would have been the midpoint of the season; instead, it’s a prelude to the apparent season finale. Whatever the case, there are major changes to the status quo, and some unexpected consequences emerge for Mick and Beth.

The plot details surrounding Josh in this episode are largely inconsequential. It only matters that Josh has invited several attempts on his life, directly or indirectly, and Mick is caught in the middle. At first, the threat is leveled at Beth, and Mick manages to save her life, at the cost of Coraline’s blood sample (which wasn’t giving him the answers he wanted anyway). This is something that continues to draw Mick and Beth closer, even if her main concern is still Josh and his safety.

Before long, however, the episode moves to a completely different level when Josh is kidnapped. Beth’s frantic chase to find and save Josh, with Mick helping in every way possible, is disturbing in all the right ways. But it’s simply a prelude; the core of the episode itself is the long and brutal attempt to save Josh’s life.

Most shows would have let him die quickly, but the writers make the perfect move by lingering over every single opportunity to keep him alive. It’s important to show Mick scrambling for every option, because it forces the audience to come to the inevitable conclusion long before Beth is ready to make her request. And of course, one realizes that if Mick was going to turn Josh, he would have done it before all those other measures were taken. It’s abundantly, painfully clear that Mick will not turn Josh under any circumstance, even with so much blood tempting him.

And it is that choice that finally drives a wedge between Mick and Beth. This is ironic, because Josh was always the annoying barrier to the two of them getting together. Fans hated Josh. Yet his purpose is now obvious, and from a plotting perspective, this is a brilliant move. The writers couldn’t put anyone else in Beth’s life in similar jeopardy without weakening the point to be made. This is how Beth learns that Mick will not turn a human (even if I believe he was glossing over a complicated truth when he said he wouldn’t turn Beth).

Looking back at the previous few, this is just another in a long string of solid episodes for the freshman series. “Moonlight” has managed to carve out a devoted Friday night audience and plenty of momentum from a People’s Choice Award. In fact, if more people came to the show after it won that award, just to see what they were missing, this was the perfect episode for them to see. There’s no reason to think that the series won’t live on for another season, once the writers’ strike is over.