While I respect your viewpoint, you and I will never agree. It is one of the many impasses in life. In Christian theology, suicide is the one unforgivable sin, and self-sacrifice is the greatest good. I have no idea where the line is drawn. I'm not God.
I'd say the line would be quite firmly drawn through motive.
If Nick gave up on life because he could no longer bear the pain of living, then his death is suicide. A self-motivated act, to escape the guilt and the torment, to seek release and relief rather than redemption (say that three times fast).
If Nick gave up his life as a deliberate means of protecting others from what he had become, and to keep his very existence from hurting those he cared for (an idea that had been explicitly referred to earlier in the episode), then his actions are motivated by a sincere desire to avoid doing more harm.
The question comes down to this - was his self-chosen death in that time and place, under those circumstances, an act of cowardice, or extreme courage? If he was a coward, seeking the easy way out to escape guilt, pain, and loss, then he's a suicide. If his sacrifice - much like Joan of Arc's (hey, remember that flashback?), was motivated by courage, and a willingness to accept death to make the world a better place, then it was sacrifice.
In that sense, while a human may be damned for committing suicide (because they are throwing away their God-given life and defying His will), perhaps the only way any vampire can EVER be redeemed is to commit willful suicide (choosing to end their own unnatural and evil life, rather than cling to it until it is taken away by someone else).
Personally, based solely on his reactions and the things he says at the very end, I have trouble seeing his death as anything other than a suicide. It seems clear he's not making a noble sacrifice as much as he's finally breaking under the weight of centuries of guilt, and his despair over the death of the woman he loved (at his own hands).
Whether that means he's damned, redeemed, reincarnated (like Francesca), or reduced to nothingness (who says there's actually an afterlife? As LaCroix suggests, the only sure answer to that question can only come after it's too late to turn back. Maybe there's nothing there but ghosts and echoes), is a question left up to the individual viewer.
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pmiano100
14 years ago
I don't think his motive is so obvious. If he is not of sound mind, and who would be under those circumstances, then he is still not responsible for his suicide. Also, it is my opinion that there is an afterlife, but only my opinion. I can't prove it anymore than a non-believer can disprove it.
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