Title: Periculum (Go to glossary for definition)

Original Airdate: July 24, 2001
Season: 1
Episode: 7

Writers: Roderick Taylor, Bruce A. Taylor
Director: Neill Fearnley

Music:
Time Has Come Today - The Chamber Brothers 56K
Do You Believe in Magic - Lovin' Spoonful [Lyrics] 56K

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Guest Stars:
Nestor Serrano as Captain Bruno Dante
John Hensley as Gabriel Bowman
Kim De Lury as Conchobar

At Vorschlag. Ian reports on Sara's condition. Sara hasn't left her loft in four days, hasn't called anyone or eaten anything.

At Sara's loft. Sara's pacing and thinking of Conchobar. Conchobar's death is on the news. Her phone rings. She lets the machine pick it up.

It's Jake, who's at the office, telling her to pick up.

At Vorschlag. Ian's thinks Sara's in a deep depression, in desperate grief and may end her life.

Jake is swamped with work, but doesn't let Sara know. He calls and tells her the best anecdote is to get back to work.

Sara undresses and goes to bed.

Irons looks at his watch. Irons asks for Ian's recommendation. Ian suggests that he watch her closely. Irons raises his hand slightly. Ian, anticipating a slap, raises his to protect himself.

Sara is asleep under the sheets. She awakes and tries to get up. She moves the sheet and sees that tentacles stemming from the Witchblade has coiled around her.

Jake is at the office with stacks of case files on his desk. Dante enters and asks where Sara is. Jake lies and says she has food poisoning. Jake denies that Sara was at the Irish massacre.

At Sara's loft. Gabriel calls and leaves a message telling her he's found some new info about the Witchblade. Sara can't reach the phone to ask for help.

Dante tells Jake that the Irish militants were counter-terrorists working for the Belfast police department. The one dead man that wasn't a police officer was Sara's boyfriend, Conchobar. Dante tells Jake he's got a school boy crush on Sara when Jake doesn't think that Conchobar was Sara's boyfriend. Jake lies and says Sara was questioning Irons on another case during the Irish massacre. Dante tells Jake to meet him after his shift for a drink.

Sara desperately reaches for a knife on the night stand, but it drops to the floor. Danny appears and assures her that she didn't abandon the Witchblade, but that maybe she shouldn't have taken it back. A Witchblade flashback reveals that Sara didn't take it back. Ian returns it to Sara after the Irish massacre.

Ian walks Jake through the halls of Vorschlag to meet Irons. Irons is looking at a screen of weather changes across the globe. Jake tries to introduce himself, but Irons interrupts and mentions that a record seven major storm systems are occurring around the world. Irons tells Jake that Dante called and he had already corroborated his lie. Irons walks Jake to the door. The door to his office closes in front of Jake.

At Sara's loft. Danny tries to calm Sara. Danny takes her hand and kisses it, surprising Sara, who hadn't been able to touch Danny since his passing. Danny tells her they can touch each other because she's dying.

A storm is looming and the Vorschlag office is dark. Irons appears to be in some discomfort. Ian walks in. Irons tells him that the Periculum has begun. The Periculum trial will test Sara, and her failure will end her life. Irons doesn't have another thirty years to wait for another wielder; however, if fully empowered by the Witchblade, Sara may become impossible to manipulate. Irons was never able to control Elizabeth Bronte. He killed her. Ian wonders why Irons isn't enjoying the moment more. Irons tells Ian to leave, but Ian, perhaps concerned for his master's current state, doesn't leave. Irons tells him that it's what he wants anyway. Ian goes.

At Sara's loft. Sara lies flat on the bed. She wakes with the tentacles coiled all over her arms, legs and body. All of a sudden, the Witchblade tentacles bend her knees and pull her to her right side.

Irons falls from his chair to the floor and is forced into the same position as Sara.

Sara is in a dreamlike state. She's asleep on the ground surrounded by armor and carnage. Sara's wearing a white dress. Joan of Arc, who has her face, walks up and taps Sara with the sword to wake her. Joan of Arc tells her that she's in the Periculum. The Periculum tests her worthiness to wear the blade. A wielder arises when dark forces reach a critical mass and the reverse is also true. Sara asks if the blade is evil then. Joan replies that the blade arises to balance the darkness. If Sara fails, then the dream has no awakening. In Joan of Arc's time, her nation was under the lash of a foreign army. Joan of Arc asks what Sara crisis or battlefield is. Sara citing some examples (kids killing each other at school, pregnant mothers shooting smack, etc.) thinks the whole human race has gone insane. Joan of Arc says that insane is from the Latin unclean and that Sara is the cleansing. The Witchblade abandoned Joan of Arc, and Sara is concerned that the blade's abandoned her. Joan of Arc swings her sword at Sara. Sara blocks it with the Witchblade gauntlet, proving the blade has not abandoned her.

Jake and Dante are having a drink at a restaurant. Dante wants to get Sara because it first started with her father. Dante tells Jake that Jim Pezzini got hooked on a hooker and shot his partner in a vice raid over the hooker.

Irons is still lying on the floor. His watch is at 11:11.

The Witchblade forces Sara into a cross position with her arms spread. She's awake to see a tentacle crawling across her forehead.

Irons is lying on his office floor in the same cross position as Sara.

Gabriel knocks on the door. A tentacle covers her mouth.

Gabriel talks to Sara outside her door and tells her that there's a test of worthiness, which isn't pretty, especially if she fails. Sara tries to call out to Gabriel, but the tentacle muffles her screams. The clock on Sara's wall is also at 11:11. Time is frozen.

In the Periculum. Sara is walking in the woods. Cathain appears and stabs her sword into the ground. Cathain says to Sara that it's not death that follows her, but it's her who follows death. Thinking of death as evil and evil as death is a falsehood. Sara answers yes when asked if she's willing to sacrifice her life to achieve her destiny to return sanity to the race. Sara asks if she can get Conchobar back. Cathain answers yes, but the Periculum takes her away before she can ask how.

Ian's watching over Sara outside Sara's window. Ian finds out that he's not the only one looking out for her when he sees Danny's reflection in the window from a lightening flash. Ian tells him to watch her well and leaves.

Dante wants to know why Jake's a cop. Jake says he's a neat freak and wants to make his little corner of this whole insane world a little more orderly. Dante tells Jake that Sara threatened to report Orlinski to IA and to his wife when he cut a deal with a local pimp to let go of one of his girls whose parents were looking for her.

The time is still 11:11. Ian enters Irons' office. Irons wants to know why he isn't with Sara. He can protect her from others with mal-intent Ian doesn't think he can do anything for her. She already has a guardian angel. Irons tells Ian that he never used to second guess him. Ian, filled with anger, replies that he's nothing but what Irons made him and that now he has the capacity to evolve only because Irons gave it to him.

Dante says they should embrace the Praetorian Guards, who were Roman soldiers powerful enough to overthrow the Caesars. Dante invites Jake to join the White Bulls and describes it as a group of policemen who know the gravity of their jobs and reap the harvest fairly. Dante shows Jake a bullet with a black bull engraved on it. They use bullets like that when someone's obviously guilty and the system can't be trusted to administer justice. If one of their members sees a White Bulls casing, they walk away.

In the Periculum. Sara is standing in a bedroom with a man asleep in the bed. Elizabeth Bronte walks in and tells her that they are related, but not the way Sara thinks. They are the same person. Reincarnation misses the main point of time. Bronte tells her to break the old paradigm of time. Both past and future are contained in the eternal present like a reel of motion picture film. Each frame is a lifetime, but all of them exist at once. If run in a projector of human consciousness, the illusion of continuity is created. Thinking of a reel wound, all frames can be reached, but they all exist at once. This is why time's been slipping sometimes backward and sometimes forward for Sara. Bronte tells Sara that she never learned to control this gift. The background changes to clips of war and memorial. Both of their lifetimes exist in the present. Sara asks whether they're alive or dead. Bronte asks how Sara would feel if she told her she was dead. Sara says she would feel released from the load of fear that she walks around with all the time. She would also feel disappointed because there's still so much she wants to do. She realizes that she hasn't finished yet. Bronte tells her that she's become a true warrior and to trust the Witchblade.

Lazar is putting chairs up on tables at the restaurant where Jake and Dante are talking. Dante says they never invite anyone to join who doesn't accept. Dante insists on paying the tab, but Jake throws down some cash anyway.

In the Periculum. Sara's unsure about her performance in the Periculum. Bronte tells her that there are no brilliant answers to the riddles of the Periculum. There are only true ones and answering "I don't know" is the true answer. Sara asks who created the Witchblade and where it came from. Bronte replies that it's branch ripped from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Jake and Dante are walking out of the restaurant. The price of admission will concern Sara if Jake agrees to join the Bulls.

Sara is lying with her arms crossed over her chest. The Witchblade branches retreat. Time moves forward. Sara awakes and takes a deep breath and quickly gets out of her bed. The ends of the bracelet has pierced into her wrist. Danny greets her. Sara tries to give him a hug, but Danny tells her they can't touch anymore because she's no longer dying. Sara's no longer afraid to.

Ian enters Irons office and reports that she's passed the Periculum. Irons tells him that it'll make their job more difficult. Sara and the Witchblade are now one. When asked how he feels, Ian says that he's proud of her and and honored to live in such an interesting time. They can no longer take the Witchblade from Sara, they would have to take her. Ian asks whether that's even possible. Irons tells him he has a feeling Ian will be the first to know. Irons turns and looks at one of the many screens in his office with a DNA screen savers.

Sara buzzes Jake into her apartment. Jake is surprised to see Sara looking better than he expected. She gives him a hug. Sara goes to grab a jacket. Jake sees the contents that her parents left her. Jake sees a White Bulls bullet among the contents.

• The Witchblade can form branches powerful enough to restrain the wielder, rendering them immobile
• Danny can only touch Sara when she's dying
• Wielders come along every thirty years? (Irons says he doesn't have another thirty years to wait for another wielder)
• Irons killed Elizabeth Bronte
• Pretenders experience the Periculum vicariously through the wielder (or is Irons special?)
• A wielder arises when dark forces reach a critical mass and the reverse is also true; the blade arises to balance the darkness
• According to Dante, Jim Pezzini got hooked on a hooker and shot Dante's partner in a vice raid over the hooker
• The Witchblade can hear? (Gabriel knocks on the door and a Witchblade branch covers Sara's mouth)
• Cathain tells Sara she can get Conchobar back
• Sara's destiny is to return sanity to the race
• Jake is a cop because he wants to make his little corner of the whole insane world a little more orderly
• Ian can see Danny or maybe Danny
• There could be others who want to harm Sara (Irons asks why Ian returns while Sara undergoing the periculum and tells him that he can protect her from others with mal-intent)
• Irons made Ian and gave him the capacity to evolve
• The White Bulls are a group of policemen. Their totem or talisman is a bullet engraved with a black bull. They use those bullets when someone's obviously guilty and the system can't be trusted to administer justice. If one of their members sees a White Bulls casing, they walk away.
• Wielders undergo a test of worthiness called the Periculum. If they pass, they become one with the blade. If they fail, they die. Past bladewielders come forth to test the current wielder. Time is frozen at 11:11 during this trial. Storms occur during the Periculum.
• The wielders are the same person. Their lifetimes exist in the present. Both past and future are contained in the eternal present like a reel of motion picture film. Each frame is a lifetime, but all exist at once. If run in a projector of human consciousness, it creates the illusion of continuity.
• A gift of the Witchblade is time
• Elizabeth Bronte never learned to control time
• Dante tells Jake that his admission into the White Bulls will concern Sara
• Once a wielder passes the Periculum, the Witchblade cannot be taken away without taking (killing? controlling?) the wielder. When Ian asks whether they can take Sara, Irons tells him that Ian will be the first to know and looks at a computer generated DNA strand on a screen.

Time is frozen at 11:11 during the periculum

Irons watch is at 11:11

The clock on Sara's wall is at 11:11