“Moonlight” has been one of the truly pleasant surprises of this unpredictable season. Despite an endless array of negative reviews and portents of doom, the series managed to correct its early mistakes. Now the series is delivering strong content with every new episode, and it closes its first season with a strong finale (assuming the writers’ strike keeps production from resuming).

This episode is packed with a lot of information, but it never gets bogged down in Exposition Hell. Instead the revelations feel like the logical conclusion to the story that began in the pilot. Mick has wanted to restore his mortality, and thanks to Coraline and her “family history”, he has hope for a true cure. In turn, that complicates his relationship with Beth, as one would expect.

Setting that relationship aside for a moment, I must commend the writers for keeping the “cure” in play. It would have been easier to expose the cure as a fraud, thus maintaining the status quo while reaping all or most of the short-term dramatic benefits. Instead, they chose to make the “cure” an important part of Coraline’s personal history with a clever side trip into the French Revolution. It explains a lot about Coraline and adds depth to the vampire mythos of the series.

That family connection puts Mick in serious danger in this episode, but more than that, it sets the stage for future confrontations. Coraline’s family doesn’t want the “cure” to be available to anyone else, it seems, and Mick’s intentions will face that obstacle. It could also make for some interesting conflicts with Josef. Mick could be in a position where development of a “cure”, however temporary, could leave him unable to defend against future attacks to destroy it.

For now, Coraline made the decision to leave Mick for his own sake, granting him a taste of mortality in the process. That gives him a unique opportunity to connect with Beth, but things were left unsettled between them after Josh’s death. Beth’s subplot seemed to be about acceptance, forcing her to admit her feelings for Mick and the resulting troubles with Josh. Josh was going to propose, but he never had the chance. His death relieves Beth of the burden of making the choice between Josh and Mick, and that realization helps her come to terms with Mick’s actions.

The result is a meeting at Josh’s funeral that serves as the beginning of a new chapter for Mick and Beth. If this series has felt like the television equivalent of a paranormal romance novel, then this would be the end of the first volume. Mick has hope for a permanent cure, however slim that hope might be, and Beth must decide what that means for their future. Will Mick’s possible restoration be enough for Beth, or will she continue to be tempted by the vampire world? Hopefully the show will be given a second season so we can all find out.