Midnight, Texas Recap: Pilot
We first meet Manfred Bernardo as he’s doing a reading for a client. Manfred is a medium, and although it’s clear that some of his patter is well practiced showmanship–he’s the real thing. He summons the spirit of the woman’s dead husband, who then takes possession of him to try to kill his wife when she says she’s begun to see his old business partner.
Manfred looks interesting, but we notice the differences between book Manfred and show Manfred–he’s not the heavily pierced goth boy described in the books. He has a bad boy air to him, but he looks fairly clean cut.
Manfred is also running away from someone he owes money to. Someone that sounds like they probably want him dead. That someone (the caller ID says ‘Hightower’) calls again later in the episode.
Running away to nowhere
He’s driving his caravan, wondering where to go when his dead grandmother Xylda (also a medium) shows up in the passenger seat to tell him that the tiny and remote town of Midnight, Texas is the perfect place for him to hide. He’ll be safe there.
Fans of True Blood and the Charlaine Harris books know why–it’s a town full of supernaturals, which we quickly find out.
Some of the residents knew his mother when she lived there for a bit–like the resident vampire, Lemuel. He is the night manager for a pawn store where he lives with his girlfriend Olivia, a contract killer. The daytime man is Bobo, and it’s from Bobo that he rents a small house right near the pawnshop.
Right away, he gets a crush on one of the residents–Creek. She works both at the town restaurant and at her father’s gas station. She invites him to the town picnic.
Picnic with the town weirdos
At the town picnic, Manfred meets more of Midnight’s oddball residents–Fiji the witch, the Reverend (it’ll be interesting if he is in the show what he is in the books), Chuy and Joe (the couple that own the tattoo parlor and nail salon), and Madonna, the restaurant owner.
A body is found in the nearby creek, and it’s discovered that it’s Bobo’s former fiancee, Aubrey. She’s been shot and left in the creek.
The police from the next town over immediately suspect Bobo, since he’s the ex. Manfred, of course, knows what’s coming. He begins to see Aubrey, and as Aubrey chokes up creek water trying to tell him who killed her Manfred realizes the only way he’ll get any peace is to take control of the situation.
Manfred is also getting a bit closer to Creek, and he discovers Creek’s father is the protective type.
Speaking with the dead
Manfred offers his aid to the police once he gets answers from Aubrey–after setting up a seance of sorts where he sits inside a circle and Aubrey uses a Ouija board to point out the name of the bridge her murderer threw the gun from to get rid of it. The police are skeptical at first, but they warm up to Manfred when they find the gun. One problem–the gun comes from Bobo’s pawn shop.
It’s discovered that Aubrey’s former husband was a member of a vicious biker gang, and even though the husband has plenty of motive for wanting to get back at her for leaving him and shacking up with Bobo, the police are too attached to the fact that Bobo had access to the murder weapon.
During Manfred’s seance, we also see that the town is full of ghosts that want his attention, and it looks like most are willing to play dirty to be heard. Manfred keeps living in his caravan–there’s no way he can sleep in that house.
The biker gang is also convinced Bobo killed Aubrey and is hiding money and weapons, and they send men in to mess up the shop and attack Bobo. Lemuel and Olivia make short work of them.
Crushed
We also see that Fiji’s familiar (an orange cat named Mr. Snuggles) talks.
When the police come to take Bobo away, Fiji makes an…impression. Directly on the cop car. Manfred promises to stay and help clear Bobo’s name.
JL Jamieson is a strange book nerd who writes technical documents by day, and book news, reviews, and other assorted opinions for you by night. She is working on her own fiction, and spends time making jewelry to sell at local conventions, as well as stalking the social media accounts of all your favorite writers.