Debt

Charles’s roommate loses his head, and the group decides to take on the grim reaper. As it turns out, getting financing from a bank costs more than just an arm and a leg.

Starring

Drew Fuller as Luc Rousseau		Tom Welling as Jean Rousseau

Morena Baccarin as Ileana Petru

Also Starring

Selma Blair as Willy		Ben Foster as Charles

 

Mila Kunis as Vivianne Rousseau		Nicole Kidman as Mireille Rousseau

 

Michael Pitt as James		Kate Mara as Stephanie

 

Julie Delpy as Chief Librarian Kesterson		Aaron Ashmore as Jeff

 

Cloris Leachman as Aunt Griselda

• Episode 2.03 – Debt – Quotes
• Director’s Commentary for Episode 2.03 – Debt
• Episode 2.03 – Debt – Ileana’s Journals
• Episode 2.03 – Debt – Vivianne’s Journals

Episode 2.03 – Debt – Quotes

Luc: after decimating a tombstone with a missed lightball “Oh shit! I’m not paying for that.”
Willy: “Go for the spare! Go for the spare!”

Jean: stake & crib notes in hand, grappled by a vampire “What part of me patrolling on my own didn’t you people understand?!”

Ileana: “I don’t play well with others.” bites a vamp’s throat and rips it out, basically decapitating it and causing the vampire to ash.

Ileana: “When will the vampires in this town learn these are MINE!” kicks and punches a vampire that had just attacked Willy.

Luc: “What did he sell his soul for?”
Ileana: “What doesn’t matter as much as who he sold it to. Jean will want to kill something.”

Luc: “So is there… a neighborhood… soul buyer?”
Ileana: “I thought you were the smart one.”

Frat Boy: “Say that one more time!”
Jean: “What? That your daddy didn’t put the stem on the apple?”

Charles “The X”: “What am I gonna tell the cops? They’ll think I’m crazy if I tell ‘em the grim reaper did it! They’ll take away my iPod!”

Luc: to Ileana about the source of the Rousseau power “Weren’t you there? Oh, no, you were leaving dead people on our doorstep.”
Willy: elbows him hard

Ileana: about Luc’s phone conversation with his mother trying to determine if his family sold their souls “I’ve had more comfortable conversations with the man that made me a vampire!”
Luc: “Obviously he was a pretty friendly guy.”
Willy: “New rule—run everything you want to say to her through me first.”

Jean: “Can you drive stick?”
Willy: “Let’s find out.” sticks her hand in his pants pocket
Luc: looks freaked out
Jean: “Woah!”
Willy: pulls out Jean’s truck keys
Luc: looks relieved
Jean: “We Rousseau’s may be a lot of things, but we’re not swingers!”

Jean: “They’re thinking that maybe he sold his soul for that stuff.”
Charles “The X”: “For financial aid? That blows!”

Jean: “He said he bought a lot of pizza.” pause “He got it from Al’s Electronics.”
Luc: “The pizza?”
Jean: “No! The electronics!”

Al: “I thought you wanted to buy a tv! Don’t get cold feet on me now!”
Jean: “But I didn’t want to sell my soul!”

Jean: “I gotta make sure… I’ll buy the tv anyway.” explaining why he’s about to shove a lit flare into the bank deposit box.
Al: “Boy… this is the hardest sale I’ve ever made, but… well, alright.”

Jeff: “So, you want me to take this class?” to Ileana at 10 after the class starts
Ileana: glances at the clock “One of my students sold his soul for a tv, so if you wouldn’t mind.”
Jeff: “Geez, a simple yes would do.”

Ileana: “So long as the debts are paid it should be fine. I guess that’s one way to solve America’s debt problem.”

Jean: on discovering the bank is open at 7:30PM “Well, they had to be demonic. Ain’t no bank open past four.”

Jean: “I’m not waiting much longer. I’m gonna get my papers back.”
Luc: “I can make you wait.”

Director’s Commentary for Episode 2.03 – Debt

This is the first episode I’ve written where I decided to build it around a real life concept that most folks deal with when growing up and going to college – debt. I originally got the idea when Hillary (Ileana’s player) mentioned that she wanted to see about getting some funds to reopen the local magic shop. As I thought about credit and my own struggle to be debt free I started expanding on the idea on how evil credit lenders can be regarding how they prey on college students. After graduation, students find themselves with such a heap of debt that it’s almost as if they sold their souls for the privilege of living outside of their means.

That’s when the idea hit me to have a demon banker who specializes in giving out money in exchange for a person’s soul. Of course, such a contract would have to be mired in legalese to hide such a deal but that shouldn’t be hard. Who actually takes the time to read all that complicated lingo, anyways? Since most binding contracts with demon supposedly require blood I contrived a special pen that nicks the signer causing a drop to fall upon the paper when it’s signed. It’s hokey I know but it’s also very Buffyesque.

As for how souls are collected, I decided to go with the classic grim reaper figure. It wouldn’t really be a demon that would be summoned, more of an entity since the grim reaper should be able to appear nearly anywhere. It was also fun expanding the Grim Reaper lore as a creature that is key to retrieving souls when a person’s “time is up” due to some demonic contract. However, in case it came down to the gang having to deal mano y reaper, I decided to borrow a page from Supernatural (the TV series) and say that they can be warded off with special herbs but it was a temporary solution to put off the inevitable if one’s time was truly up.

This was also one of the first episodes where I personally did not have a plan on how the gang would save the day and deal with the tricky contracts that the demon banker possessed. I had them worded where souls would be lost if the issuer of the contracts (the demon) was killed so they couldn’t just knock him off. Of course the contracts were safely secured “somewhere” and he had no incentive to just hand them over. So, after a run in with the banker they decided to go to mommy dearest for assistance. I hadn’t really considered the option but after thinking about it for a bit I came up with a great idea that I don’t want to spoil. Needless to say, mom came through for her boys and their friends but it came with a price that may have them wondering if they came out ahead in the end!

Episode 2.03 – Debt – Ileana’s Journals

Jean is the most reckless, pig-headed man I have ever met.  He’s decided to take it on himself to start patrolling at night.  Now, I have every confidence in his abilities to combat vampires.  I’m not concerned on that at all, but Willy called, and she sounded scared… like there was something else involved.  When I found him, he was sitting in a graveyard reading a piece of paper he’d scribbled on over and over.  That was fine enough, and it turned out to be a passage from El Codice de la Cruz Herida which is even better, but the man has to learn not to split his attention.  If he’s going to study, he should study.  If he’s going to fight, he should fight.  He absolutely drives me crazy.  He doesn’t pay any attention what so ever.

So when he didn’t see three vampires about to jump him, I had to warn him.  Let him hate me I suppose.  As long as he’s alive…  At least he has good military training.  Shout for him to watch his six, and he’s ready for action immediately.  It’s really kind of…  Anyway, suppressing the demon inside is harder than I care for.  I’m just too weak.  I can’t help them without her power.  Maybe I shouldn’t be helping them at all.

Luc and Willy had come to find him to tell him that one of Charles’s friends had been decapitated by a grim reaper.  We got back to Willy’s room to plan what we were going to do.  For Jean, that meant taking Charles to get drunk.  For James and Stephanie, it was checking out Ronnie’s (the boy who lost his head) room.  For the rest of us, research.

It didn’t take long to find the information we needed.  Grim reapers aren’t demons, they’re entities that are summoned to collect on a soul contract.  Case closed.  Ronnie shouldn’t have made a deal with a demon.  Of course, that also meant that Jean would be upset he didn’t have something to kill.  On the note of killing, it was hard to resist the temptation to rip out Luc’s throat!  I don’t know how a boy could be so intelligent and so daft at the same time.  What Willy sees in him, I don’t know.

Luc was nervous his family had sold their souls, so he reluctantly called his mother to warn her.  I can’t believe how awkward he was on the phone with her!  I know that Jean has some issues with her, but she’s still their mother.  They should really be ashamed.

Luc called Jean after that and tried to explain things, but he was too drunk.  We went to pick him and Charles up, and that was all we could do for the evening.  As far as I was concerned, the matter was closed.  I walked Willy home so I could talk to her—again Luc was acting like an ass.  I could see how nervous he was about letting us go off alone together.  He doesn’t trust me anymore… if he ever did.

I told Willy about my plan for the Three of Cups, and she almost exploded from excitement.  Apparently business is her minor, so she was more than happy to take on the task of paperwork and legalities.  After that, we went our separate ways.  She was going to meet me after class the next night, but instead decided to show up before class.  She was completely done with the business plan and paperwork already.  WEIRD would have to incorporate into a fraternity basically, but I didn’t see a reason for that to stop us.  As far as I know, none of the kids are in another one right now anyway.  Fraternities generally have more responsibilities on campus though, so that may be problematic, but I suspect it will work out.

Jeff ended up having to take my class once more because Jean, the magnificent fool that he is, sold his soul for a tv.  Well, he did it trying to learn more, but still… I can’t believe he would do something like that!  He of all people knows a soul is too important to risk even in the slightest!  He did at least accomplish his goal though.  The bank was responsible—which meant that Willy and Charles had sold theirs as well when they got financial aid.

I called James to pick us up, and Willy got her carbons before we all went to the hotel room Jean and Luc are staying at.  When I saw Jean there sitting on the couch… I wanted to just… so I slapped him instead.  Willy’s contract made it very clear that we couldn’t kill the demon lender without killing everyone who’d signed a contract, so I suggested we break into the bank and steal the contracts to destroy them.  I was hardly surprised to find that the bank was open when we arrived at half past seven.

So, I signed in to see a banker, and we waited.  Willy and I went in to sit with him with the business plan for the Three of Cups.  She was fairly nervous, but the lender didn’t seem to notice or mind.  He was about to deny the loan when the phone rang.  It was the bank president.  He said that I was a vampire with a soul, so approve the loan.  The lender hung up and happily approved me, and I proceeded to make him nervous by asking too many questions—mainly about how my soul would be harvested.

He pointed me to the president’s office, and that’s when Jean lost his patience.  He saw 6 security guards coming, and he pulled out his axe.  Three went to attack him, and three went to grab me to take me to the president—which was what I had in mind.  If I could at least see who was summoning the reaper, I might be able to figure out how to deal with him.  Unfortunately, I was at a loss when I did see him, and Jean was just about panicked that I was going with them.

The president, on the other hand, was actually almost pleasant.  He wanted to “sweeten the pot” to get me to sign the contract.  I brushed him off completely until he told me he could make me mortal for a full year before he collected.  That caught my attention, but as I pointed out, I was rather fond of my current condition of not being dead.  He was about to propose more when Jean burst into the room, followed closely by Luc and the others.  They quickly dispatched the three security guards—which were all vampires mind you—and I went back to business with the demon.

In the end, we just had to leave.  There was nothing that any of us could offer save our souls, so I went to the only place I knew that could save them—Mireille Rousseau.  She actually seemed genuinely pleased to see her boys, not that they could tell, I’m sure.  I asked to speak with her privately.  Once again, Jean got mad at me.  I don’t think he’ll ever forgive me.

I showed her Willy’s proposal, and she was fairly impressed.  No bank would ever agree to what I was proposing, but she was no bank—she was a mother.  She handed me a check and sent me to the banker with a message.  I knew the Rousseau’s were powerful, but I had no idea…

The ferak demon wasn’t pleased.  He took his money, vowed to get my soul, then disappeared, along with the bank.  I call a WEIRD meeting and tell the kids tomorrow.  We should get started quickly.  We’ll need to take stock of what’s in the store, and get started cleaning it up.  Jean may be her son, but I want to be certain she’s paid back.  I don’t think Jean could be happy if he didn’t.

That demon gave me one thing I didn’t pay for though.  He told me he could make me mortal again, which means it’s possible.  I was so depressed when I was turned, I barely looked… but now… if it’s possible, I know someone who can do it.  All I have to do is find the right spell and not die in the meantime.

Episode 2.03 – Debt – Vivianne’s Journals

Dear D,

Ok, so things aren’t as spiffy happy as I first thought. It seems that Jean isn’t on leave—he’s out. He and Susan had their break up a few months ago when he got out—and Mom wouldn’t teach me a hex for her then either. We’re not in Coldspring and Dad’s not on business… well, he may be, who knows. Oh, and Charles isn’t one of Jean’s military buddies, and Stephanie, James and Willy don’t go to school in France with Luc. Oh, and the reason Mom didn’t hide spells from anyone is that they all already know thanks to Luc (he finally did something right). In other words, I’ve been in Blackstone, TX, this whole time, and Mom brain-whammied me.

It was really Thanksgiving though. Apparently, Jean decided to go to school with Luc—bad ass!! I hope he graduates Magna Cum Laude and shoves it in Mom’s face! In a good way that is. I don’t know what exactly happened that Mom brain-spanked me, but it must have been really bad. I’m sure it was something about Jean.

OH! Here’s what’s whack—we’re stuck here!! There’s some spell over the entire freakin’ city that keeps people from leaving, and not even MOM could break it!! I wonder if she really can, but she doesn’t want to forget about Jean and Luc again—which apparently happened while we weren’t here with them—so she opted to stay instead.

So I’m enrolled at Blackstone University with my two big brothers. It’s kind of cool—all of us going to school together. It’s like we’re becoming a real family… I just wish Dad was here. I hope he doesn’t forget us!! That would be AWFUL!

Anywho, Mom is keeping me on a strict schedule because Jean corrupted Luc and now the two of them are saving the world… that makes so much sense. She thinks they’ll corrupt me too. She also made sure to point out that she had no qualms mem-wiping them or their friends if I misbehave. Auntie Griselda picks me up from school every day at three. Man… this really sucks. Oh, and Mom says that if I do well I *might*get an extracurricular next semester. Hellooooo! I’ve been at college a year already, and I have all A’s!! Like I won’t do well. Sheesh.

Calm… I’m enhancing my calm… So they came over to visit, but it wasn’t all social. Apparently Jean sold his soul or something, and there was a bit of a bind, but then that cute woman that he likes so much—OH!! That’s something too!

So I ran into Jean and Luc at school, and I told them what was up with me and whatnot. Then they started telling me the truth about what happened and stuff. Then that woman that came by the house to help them kill that Thanksgiving demon came up. Jean got really sour, and Luc said there were issues… then he snapped at Jean about it!! OMG! It was SO cool! I don’t know what Willy’s done to him, but it’s a good thing. Anyway, there’s something more issue-wise between them than her being a vampire—which she is. Like… I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen Jean that up in knots about a girl, and he really is with her. I don’t know why he doesn’t just ask her out. She *obviously* likes him.

Oh right, so she came over with them to talk turkey with Mom about some business proposal that Willy helped her come up with. I don’t know what’s entailed, but Ileana left with a check to take care of things—including buying back Jean’s soul, and apparently Willy and Charles’s too. Poor Charles… his friend got beheaded.

Oh, and whatever the business plan was, Mom was impressed, and she credited it all to Willy. So kudos there! We started trying to talk. Auntie Griselda had even made cookies for everyone, but Jean made things an issue *really* fast. I know he’s going to be angry with her for awhile… but it would have been nice to just pretend for a little while that everything was ok.

Oh yeah, I am, apparently, allowed supervised visits with my brothers. Yet Mom’s library is strictly off limits. Freakin’ Nazi… I bet they’ve done it… Willy and Luc I mean… or they’re about to. And Jean seriously needs to relax a little. I don’t know any of the specifics, but he is WAY too stressed out. I’d say he needed to get laid, but I’m not sure that would do anything good for him and his vampire girl. I hope he at least tries to talk to Mom without yelling. He *really* hurt her feelings today. He forgets that she loves him whether they agree or not.

Oh well… I’m sure everything will turn out fine in the end. That’s how it’s supposed to work for good people.