no. 21 - Traitor Among Us

(Last Episode of Season I on Showtime)

Actors

• Derek de Lint - "Dr. Derek Rayne"
• Martin Cummins - "Nick Boyle"
• Robbi Chong - " Alexandra (Alex) Moreau"
• Patrick Fitzgerald - "Father Philip Callaghan"
• Helen Shaver - "Rachel Corrigan"

• Philip Granger - "Sir Edmund Tremain" (sp?)
• Susan Hogan - "Clare Spencer"
• Lawrence Dane - "Charles Banyon" (sp?)

Director - Brenton Spencer

Producer - Brent Karl Clackson

Writer - Bill Froehlich with Excerpts by - Bill Bleich, Robert Masello, Fred Rappaport, John Shirley, Garner Simmons, Brad Wright

Derek Rayne, Precept of the San Francisco Legacy House for fifteen years, sits in a room alone, writing in his journal (with his left hand) of a betrayal and the accounts of the event...

Derek has just returned from a mission in the Gobi Dessert. He and Nick walk into the castle where they are greeted by a man and two bodyguards who take Derek by the arms to escort him to seclusion. Before they do so, Derek turns to Nick and asks the ex-SEAL to trust him when he asks him to do something.

A Legacy Tribunal is held in one of the rooms of the castle. All of the SF Legacy members, save one, are in attendance. The older gentleman charges Derek with conspiracy to bring ruin to the SF House and death to its members. Derek does not make a statement. The man continues on to say the members of the tribunal will examine evidence and for the records. Then the tribunal members state who they are and which house they belong to. The forty-ish, stately blonde woman is Clare Spencer - Precept of the Hong Kong House. The younger dark-haired man is Charles Banyon - Precept of the New York House and the older, white-haired man is Sir Edmund Tremain - Precept of the Ruling House in London. The latter states that the accuser of Derek Rayne is a member of the SF House itself. If Derek is found guilty, the consequence is that he'll have to step down as Precept and leave the Legacy forever. Sir Edmund goes on to tell them that damning evidence has already been gathered and any member of the Tribunal may call up any of the SF House members and review their journals. In a locked box, is placed the name of the member who accused Derek Rayne. Members of a monitoring committee that received the note are the only ones who know who the accuser is and they assembled the Tribunal to investigate and rule on the matter.

Rachel protests, "How can he not know the name of his accuser?" Sir Edmund overlooks her outburst this time and goes on to tell them that even before the time of the druids, in the Legacy, it was necessary to guard the accuser against the evil.

The first journal that is reviewed is Julia Walker's. [Flashback to the fifth sepulcher "chest."] [Derek remembers his father's death in Peru.] Julia Walker says, "We have been sitting on a powder keg of evil," when Derek reveals a hidden room in the bowels of the castle and explains what they are looking at, "my father died in vain retrieving this one, and after that, the burden of finding the others fell to me."

Nick's journal.
Recounts that Derek split up Julia from them in Ireland and he shouldn't have. Clare asks if the splitting of the forces lead to her death. Derek says yes, it did.

The next morning.
Clare and Charles meet up with Derek outside the hearing. Charles warns Derek that the journals are damning. He says Derek helped him to become precept and he'll help out if he can but if the evidence is there, he will convict. Clare lingers behind to talk to Derek after Charles leaves the room. She tells Derek it's difficult after all these years, that her perception is different of the same memory (?) now she'll do what she has to do.

Sir Edmund talks with Alex and brings up the damning statements against Derek to which Alex protests. "Within that lies a seed of truth." Edmund tells her that he worked with Winston (Derek's father) who was a seeker of truth. [Flashback to The Tenement episode.] Derek had sent Alex alone to "test" her and Sir Edmund asks if she was indeed "tested." [Flashback] Sir Edmund goes on to say Derek knew a serious condition existed. [Flashback to confrontation between Derek and Alex and the end of The Tenement] "I want him alone," Alex says through her teeth to Derek and Nick, referring to wanting to talk to her precept. "How did it go, Alex?" Derek asks. "You know damned well how things went - you knew what I was up against!" Alex accuses quietly. "Maybe I did...and maybe I didn't," was Derek's cool reply. Sir Edmund suggests that maybe this "testing" her without backup was to make sure she did not return to the house alive.

Rachel and Nick are outside the hearing room, waiting. Worried about Derek, Rachel says to Nick, "It's like a death sentence - it'll kill him." Questioning to see if Nick is the accuser, she states that he has never forgiven Derek for Julia's death. He brings up that maybe the "Judas member" isn't there...Philip.

At the tribunal.
Almost all the members are present with only one empty chair left. Father Philip Callaghan walks in and takes that last seat. Nick gets upset and asks why he wasn't there from the beginning. The others leave and a private interview with Philip & the Tribunal members begins.

The evil among them is having its affect - bonds of trust are breaking in the SF Legacy House.

Derek waits to see Nick for a brief moment. He asks Nick to get his father's journal (Winston Rayne's.) Nick asks what he's trying to hide, Derek just says he needs it.

At the tribunal.
They read from Philip's journal about his concern that Derek had allowed a scroll to be kept and studied at the Legacy House that was given to him by a known enemy (Randolph Hitchcock.) "He was known to be a sworn enemy who had turned his back on the Legacy," and then they go on to state that Nick and Philip were left to study the scroll alone. [Flashback to "Twelfth Cave" in the control room where Nick and Philip find that the scroll is made from human skin and that the ink is blood...that's still alive.] It's remarked that Derek had the mark of Cain on his forehead - "a clear sign of the presence of evil?" the tribunal asks. Philip says, "Yes. Exile, madness and death to whoever possesses the scroll." Sir Edmund askis if once the mark of Cain is bestowed, could it be burned into the soul forever.

Outside the tribunal, Philip talks to Nick. He's worried because the tribunal has them all doubting each other. "Someone or something is trying to divide this House and single Derek out," Nick says. Philip replies, "I think Derek would say we should be for the truth, even if it's not what we want it to be."

Charles offers his help to Derek again and says, "don't wait to long because [the damning evidence in] the journals are hard to ignore."

Sir Edmund says to Derek that he's glad Winston's not alive to see this - "how wounded he would be. If you are convicted - it will be by the words of those in your own House," and then goes on to say Derek never should have joined the Legacy.

Nick passes by Derek (who is on his way to the room where they guard him from any contact with the others) and says, "you might feel better if you sat down in your room." When Derek goes there, he immediately looks at the bottom of the chair at the desk and finds the journal of his father's that he requested earlier.

At the tribunal.
Charles is interviewing Nick. "There are more entries [in Nick's journals] damning Derek than any other member's. Why is that?" Charles asks. "Don't always see eye to eye," Nick replies. "You're not shy about confronting him," responds Charles. In reference to "Sins of the Father," an excerpt is read from Nick's journal, "His narrow vision won't allow him to see the danger that this kid was in." Nick says Derek was right after all, in the end. Derek took the child to the Legacy House in hopes the entity would manifest itself, which it did - hurting all of them and killing Damon. Sir Edmund says the boy and the Legacy were put at risk - anything could have happened and they all could have been killed. As they are going on about this, Nick imagines pulling out his gun and shooting all the members of the tribunal. Charles asks if he considered it a success that a man died but he then goes on to suppose that maybe it was just a case of bad judgement. Clare brings up the point that if Derek had made a pact with the darkside (sounds like Star Wars, eh?) he would be spared.

Rachel ponders that it might be any one of them who betrayed Derek. "Faith has need of the whole truth," she quotes. (Rachel is allowed a brief moment with Derek in his room.) Derek asks her to ask Philip to bring his shaving kit with his mirror to his room and Alex to bring "the files on possession" and from the vault, "twin daggers of ______." Then they are interrupt by the guards and Rachel has to leave.

At the tribunal.
Nick tells them to "factor the good with the bad and until then, it's thumbs down, I'm not buying it cause Derek saved my life." [Flashback to "Do Not Go Gently"] Derek went under hypnosis and refused to come out of the trance, which could have killed him, until Nick and Liz were safe. Sir Edmund reads Nick's words from his journal, "I don't think I can ever forgive him for causing Julia's death."

Philip and Alex are talking, he says he'll take the things to Derek and after she gives him a doubtful look, he tells her he's not the one to be feared. Nick warns them that the tribunal is trying to open up old wounds and it's "not gonna work with me."

At the tribunal.
Rachel is being interviewed. Rachel says she has repeatedly thown himself into evil to save other lives, including her own daughter. Sir Edmund states that Derek allowed her to go down South and be threatened by a dark spirit. ("The Inheritance") Clare says, despite all that, Derek let her stay. "To face my fears," Rachel explains and goes on to tell the tribunal that Derek sent Nick to help her. Frustrated with the accusations that keep getting thrown at her precept, she tells them that they can trade stories all night but they have already obviously decided to convict him. Clare says its's not allowed to ask questions of the tribunal. Rachel tells them she refuses to go on with the proceedings until she can face Derek's accuser. The tribunal says her refusal is in contempt. All of the SF Legacy members (except Derek) stand up and say they risk contempt until they can face the accuser. Derek stands up and states that the tribunal will find his name on that letter in the locked box - he is the accuser. They all stand there in disbelief.

Sir Edmund asks Derek why he brought those charges against himself. Derek tells them, "I have risked my very life's blood, my membership in the Legacy, to save it from great peril - a growing cancer in the Legacy, but not in this House. This was the only chance to lure evil into the open. 'Evil spirits could be masquerading among us, reading our thoughts,'" he quotes from Winston's journal. Sir Edmund asks for him to name the evil and provide proof of what he says, which Derek cannot. Clare asks "On what do you rest your case?" Derek replies only, "On the journals." Sir Edmund concludes the session.

With a mirror set up on his writing desk focused on the doorway, Derek asks to see Charles. When Charles shows up, Derek takes a look at the mirror and sees no reflection of the NY precept where there should be one. "I will also do what is necessary," Derek says.

The Tribunal delivers their verdict..."guilty." Derek invokes his right to a final statement. Addressing Charles, "In dark of night you arrived and the guard always closed the shades and now he stands accused in the dark." In voice which grows louder with every word, Derek says, "To cut through the bonds of evil and let in the light of truth!" as he stakes Charles hand down to the table with a swift stab of the twin daggers of ______ and rips the shades off the window to let the sun stream in. Charles shrieks in hatred and curses Derek as he disintegrates into charred remains in the good old-fashioned way vampires bite the dust when struck by the sun's rays.

Derek goes on to explain how he suspected something was up when Charles gave himself away with a firm handshake - seeing as how he had a damaged right hand before. Clare and Sir Edmund embarassed by what they almost did to Derek, apologize profusely. Derek says, "All it takes for evil to [can't read my writing here] is for people to do nothing." He thanks his team for their trust.

Copyright on my web page design and original graphics. © 1996, 1997 Clarianna Demonbreun. All rights reserved. This and all the episode descriptions are for your personal use, not for posting on other webpages. Thank you! "Poltergeist: The Legacy" was created by Trilogy Entertainment (executive produced by Trilogy partners: Richard B. Lewis, Pen Densham and John Watson) with ShowtimeOnline and MGM/UA

Last revised 1/17/97