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"Birds of a Feather" was the first broadcast episode of The Dresden Files on the Sci Fi Channel. Although it was the first episode broadcast, it was the third episode produced by the series creators.
Spoiler Warning: Plot details and/or information about the ending follow. If you wish to enjoy the work first, stop reading here and return at another time.
Snapshot
We are introduced to Harry Dresden, a wizard and detective. A young boy comes to Harry claiming that monsters are after him and his mother.
Plot
Scene 1: Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1981. We are in young boy's bedroom, and there is a poster of a stage magician on his wall.
Voiceover: When I was a kid, my father told me there was no such thing as monsters. My nightmares were just figments of my imagination. As I got older, I had to wonder: Was he lying to me . . . or just wrong?
The boy wakes as the closet door ominously opens. The boy calls for his father. The father comes in, a bit exasperated, and says that he has to fix his "wing finale." He checks the closet, and reassures the boy. He gives the boy (Harry) a "shield bracelet" that was the boy's mother's. He explains that the bracelet is for protection, and that the boy's mother wanted him to have it. The boy asks why it didn't protect his mother. The father answers that his mother wasn't wearing it. When the boy asks why not, the father evasively says that he doesn't know.
Young Harry: Whatever killed Mom, I'm gonna find it. And when I do, I'll rip its heart out.
The closet door slams.
Scene 2: We cut to Harry as a sleeping adult in bed with a woman (Laura). The woman kisses him and asks what time it is. It's ten o'clock in the morning, and she realizes she is late. She asks Harry if he'll drop by the diner later.
Scene 3: Harry is calling out, asking Bob where his keys are. He has apparently left his jeep at the diner from the night before, parked on the wrong side of the street (presumably a restricted area for street cleaning).
He walks into another room, where we see magic symbols floating in the air. They are being worked on by Bob who peevishly cautions Harry not to walk through them. This being threatens to "start belting show tunes from the sixteenth century" if Harry walks through them. The room is filled with candles and apparent magical apparatus. In the conversation, Harry mentions that he had a dream about his father for the third time this week. Bob says that they are moving out of the realm of dreams and into "signs and portents." Harry recognizes the symbols, and explains that he is reworking a spell to create a "doom box." The spell had been in the ghost's first grimoire, which had belonged to Harry's father. The ghost says that the grimoire served Harry's father well, as had he, until Harry ". . . self-defenced him to death." Offended, Harry orders the ghost (Bob) back into his skull (which is sitting on a table covered in symbols), and leaves.
Article to be continued . . .
External Links
Official SCI FI site. See more images from the episode.
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