Ten Thoughts on Witchblade‘s “Periculum”

Your favorite summer TV binging couple is back for more! Last year, my boyfriend Frank and I tackled the first season of SyFy/Amazon’s The Expanse together – – two different perspectives on the same show, one from one person who’s seen it, the other watching it for the first time. Who just happen to be dating.

This year, we’re taking a look at the TNT adaptation of Top Cow’s Witchblade comic, which aired on the network from 2001 – 2002. And just like last year, this is a show Frank has watched, and I haven’t. Hilarity is bound to ensue (again). The series follows NYPD detective Sara “Pez” Pezzini and her adventures with the titular Witchblade, which gives her powers to fight supernatural evil and those who want the Witchblade for themselves.

In the aftermath of Conchobar’s death, the Witchblade tests Pez in unexpected and powerful ways. It should go without saying at this point given age, but spoilers within.

Kate’s Five Thoughts

1. The Periculum

There are quite a few definitions for “periculum” floating around the Internet. One suggests that it means danger or risk. Another has it as “accident or casus, as distinguished from dolus and culpa, and hence relieving one from the duty of performing an obligation.” Both of these work to add context to the Periculum at hand here: a test from the Blade to determine Pez’s worthiness, a test that is mandatory and one where Pez won’t have a say in the matter. The Blade needs to test Pez to determine if she is still worth the risk of wielding the Blade, to see if she needs to be relieved of its duties and obligations.

2. Goes Both Ways

We’ve talked at length about how Kenneth and Pez have a psychic connection, allowing Kenneth to see and feel what Pez sees and feels. (Whether or not Kenneth uses these for benevolent means continues to be up for debate, of course.) Up until now, he’s had control over these thoughts and feelings, wielding them like a tool. The Periculum test puts Kenneth in a different arena: as Pez is without her control in this situation, so is he. And may God strike me down for this moment of schaudenfreude, but seeing Mr. Irons writhing in pain after watching him be creepy and controlling the past couple of weeks had me happy that the Blade exacts some of its own agency on him as well.

3. Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey Stuff

Throughout the Periculum, Pez meets with her “past” lives: first Joan of Arc, then Cathain, then Elizabeth Bronte. While each imparts some form of wisdom on her – – Joan of Arc explaining the test of the Periculum, Cathain the true nature of her relationship with death – – it’s Elizabeth Bronte’s counsel that provides quite a few important pieces of information:

Kenneth Irons killed Elizabeth Bronte.
Kenneth Irons is not actually after the Witchblade, but Pez’s blood. As Kenneth owns a company that dabbles in genetics (remember “Diplopia”?) knowing this starts to put more of the mystery of Mr. Irons together.
The Witchblade comes from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

The one piece of information Bronte gives that seems to give Pez a form of peace is about the nature of time – – what we now call today “wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff” (thank you Doctor Who). Elizabeth Bronte is not Pez’s grandmother. She is Pez, and Pez is her – – just as Joan of Arch and Cathain are also Pez, and vice versa. Parallel universes. Multiverses.

These slips through time, gaps through time, are what clearly has Pez spooked the most.

The conversation with Bronte is the most relaxed of the three. Perhaps it’s because they’re more contemporaries, even though they’re separated by more than sixty years. Perhaps it’s because the questions of time slips that have bothered Pez the most have some answers. Perhaps it is because Bronte shares the most information with Pez, whereas Cathain and Joan of Arc talked more in riddles and vague concepts. Whatever it is, Pez finally lets her guard down, admits her fear, and in that, finds her resolve to continue her work. She has passed the test of the Periculum by accepting the link she and the Witchblade share.

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4. What Price Pez?

Jake’s also getting a bit of a test too here: an invitation from the Captain to join an NYPD secret society called the White Bulls. The White Bulls deliver vigilante justice when and where it is needed, conveniently with branded bullets with bulls on them.

Hm, where have we seen that before?

It appears Jake accepts the Captain’s invitation, but what are his motives? Is it to take down corruption from the NYPD from within? To protect himself? A bit of both? And will those motivations change when he finds out Pez will be part of his initiation process?

I like to believe in the good of people (probably against my better judgment), so I am hopeful Jake’s decisions will be in the best interest of his partner and of the greater good of law enforcement. Don’t let me down, Bucky With the Good Hair.

5. Meet Me Halfway

Frank pointed out to me after we finished this episode that (removing the TV movie pilot), we’re at the halfway point of the first season. Pez’s character journey syncs with this beautifully. She descended into the depths of despair and madness with Conchobar’s kidnapping and death, the lowest of the low. The test of the Periculum pushed her down even further. With guidance from her past selves that vanquished some of her own inner demons, Pez comes out of the Periculum fully trusting in the Witchblade’s guidance and power.

Up until now, Pez didn’t pick a side, mortal or supernatural. Human or Witchblade. Now that she has, she can move forward in confidence. Let’s just hope she can live with any consequences that come out of that decision.

Frank’s Five Thoughts

1. Confront the Past to Meet the Future

It has become time for Pez to face the Periculum, the WitchBlade’s test to determine if its wielder is worthy of accessing the artifact’s full power. We find out from a variety of sources – Irons, Danny, AND Gabriel – that this test is extremely dangerous and would result in Pez’s death if she were to fail.

The test the WitchBlade sets for Pez is to come face-to-face with the three Wielders we have become familiar with in the show so far: Joan of Arc, Cathain, and Elizabeth Bronte. She is asked to explain herself, her actions with the WitchBlade, and what she intends to do. The test is not just one-way though, each encounter imparts some knowledge or wisdom to Pez which may prove useful in the future. Joan of Arc teaches her to have faith in the WitchBlade and that is has not abandoned her. Cathain tells her that what she has lost so far may not be forever gone. And Elizabeth Bronte instructs her on the nature and structure of time in the WitchBlade universe.

In the end, I did not perceive the Periculum as being particularly difficult for Pez (beyond the physical struggles the WitchBlade wrought on her). She answered the test in a straightforward manner as we’ve seen her do before, and it just shows that she was already an ideal wielder of the WitchBlade. In the end it seems that she needed convincing of this more than the artifact did, and it works giving us a refreshed and confident Pez at the end.

2. The White Bulls

With Pez out dealing with her issues, it gives Captain Dante a chance to approach Jake with a special offer. We have seen that Dante has shown a certain interest in Jake McCartey and we finally get to find out why. Over some beers, Dante tells Jake about a special team in the NYPD that he runs. This team is a group of vigilantes that take action when they feel that justice was not met properly (or at least in a way they feel is proper). This is the significance of the bullets with the bulls imprinted on them. Dante gives a pretty speech about how cops are disrespected and underpaid despite the great sacrifices they make for society (this sounds familiar even 19 years later), and the White Bulls are there to handle this issue. Why does it matter if a few million dollars seized in an arrest gets doled out to deserving police officers? It was going to be destroyed anyway. Why not let certain criminals get passes on their actions if they kick in a little to support the hard-working police? Dante also spins a story about how Pez’s father wronged Dante and his partner years before, but the solidarity of the White Bulls came through for him then.

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Jake seems like he is thinking of accepting this offer. Even when Dante informs him that his initiation would involve Pez in some fashion. Considering his order for her death last episode, it is safe to predict that the initiation would not include bringing her flowers and chocolates. His loyalty to Pez is going to be tried by this turn of events and already faces an early test when he visits her apartment and finds that she has one of the bull-branded bullets (say that three times fast!) in the items left by her father.

3. The Belly of the Whale

In Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey” monomyth, there comes a point where the hero is at their lowest point personally. This is usually after some grave loss where it seems impossible for the hero to continue moving on. Pez is facing the heartbreak of losing Conchobar and is suffering from the guilt that it may have been her fault when she willingly gave up the WitchBlade. It is here when the spirit of the hero is tested to see whether they deserve to continue being the hero. In the Hero’s Journey this point is frequently called The Belly of the Whale and it stands as the point where the hero needs to make the decision to step over into the threshold of the unknown world and continue their transformation into a hero. In WitchBlade, the Periculum is this test and deciding point where the WitchBlade puts its wielders through to see if they are worthy of unlocking the full potential of the artifact. Pez’s passage through the Periculum and the acceptance of her responsibility

4.Threshold of Death

In a world-building sense, one of the most interesting parts of this episode is when the spirit of Danny comes to Pez at the start of the Periculum and is actually able to touch her. When she expressed shock at this, he says that he is now able to because she is dying and therefore closer to the world of death. WitchBlade touches on this otherworld of death a few times, most notably when Danny brings the spirit of Father Bellamy for Pez to speak to in “Legion”. Regrettably, I don’t think the show explores this topic very much after this point. I feel it would have been interesting to see how the WitchBlade manipulates and uses death to twist fate around our characters.

5. Tick Tock

We also get a sense of urgency from Kenneth Irons in this episode regarding his plans for Sara Pezzini and the WitchBlade. When he is informed by Ian Nottingham that Sara has not left her apartment in four days and was at risk for harming herself, he notes that he cannot wait another thirty years for a new wielder even if Pez is proving difficult to control and a hindrance. We know that he has lived for a long time, looking the same in the 1950s as he does in 2001. What is not clear, yet, is exactly how he intends to use the power of the WitchBlade. Maybe he is really starting to feel his age, especially considering the trials he is going through parallel to Pez. When Pez completes the Periculum and survives he acknowledges that she can no longer be separated from the WitchBlade (in fact it appears to be fused to her) and will be even more difficult to control.

Stray Thoughts

– This show can almost work as a “Word of the Week” lesson. This episode of WitchBlade is brought to you by the word “Periculum”. Now repeat after me – Per – i – cu – lum. That’s very good children.

– I feel that the way the WitchBlade bound Pez during the Periculum was meant as a shout-out to her outfit in the original Top Cow comics which involved the WitchBlade forming twining vines of armor about her body in a very minimal fashion.