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fridaythe13ththeseries · 2 years

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Eye of Death

Episode Recap #39: Eye of Death Original Airdate: February 4, 1989

Starring: John D. LeMay as Ryan Dallion Louise Robey as Micki Foster Chris Wiggins as Jack Marshak

Guest cast: Tom McCamus as Atticus Rook Brooke Johnson as Abigail Bodine Jack Creley as Edward Easton Patrushka Sarakula as Lydia David Bolt as Colonel Danny Pawlick as Wounded Soldier Bernard Behrens as General Robert E. Lee Al Koslik (as Al Kozlik) as Murphy Richard Waugh as Zack Bodine Reg Dreger as Detective Howard Michael Beattie as Photographer MacLeod

Written by Peter Jobin & Timothy Bond and Roy Sallows Directed by Timothy Bond

Open with a man writing a letter to Jefferson Davis about the casualties his troops are suffering, and the further trouble ahead for them with advancing Union troops. Turns out the man is Robert E. Lee and this is the Civil War.

We see shots of people around this camp, many dead, dying or severely wounded. In a house used as a make-shift hospital, it is more the same, the horrors of war. A man is trying to convince Lee that they need to retreat, but Lee won't hear of it. Then a strange man approaches and tells them they will be safe if they stay. Lee seems to know this man, and while he is apprehensive, he listens. The man, Mr. Rook, asks if has ever been wrong before?

More shots of wounded and dying, then Rook stealing from a dead soldier. We meet a wounded soldier, Zack, is being tended to by his wife Abigail. Rook arrives saying he is the doctor and sends Abby for supplies. He takes the flask that stopped the bullet from killing Zack, then twists his neck and runs off. He is shot at and chased but vanishes into a square of light.

Rook then appears and runs out of a Civil War slide photo projected on a wall. He dumps out his bag of all the items he stole from the past and calls Edward, telling him he got a shipment of pristine antiques.

Cut to the auction, and Jack is admiring the flask with the bullet hole, while Micki and Ryan scan the crowd for Rook. Jack calls Rook a picker, like himself, who find items to sell. Jack thinks Rook would have sold the magic lantern from Curious Goods.

Rook is admiring an antique slide, but the owner says its not for sale. The man says Rook should make $100,000 at least, tonight. Micki spots him and wonders if Rook is aware of the curse. The auction begins, the flask the first item. Ryan chats up Rook's date. The flask sells for $15,000.

Rook asks Edward, the auctioneer, what Lee's broken sword would get. Edward says about a half million. Jack appears and Rook recognizes him. Jack compliments his good fortune and tells him he took over Louis' store, mentioning that he knows Rook was a customer. Rook and his date leave, Ryan relates that the woman said Rook has been in town for weeks, but Micki is confused. He never answers his phone. Ryan goes to follow Rook.

Rook and his date, Lydia, head to his place. Ryan watches. Having a drink, she is surprised by Rook in his old-time outfit. He says it is for a history lesson. He shows her the lantern, lights it, and tells her it lasts three hours and lets him go anywhere. The slide he puts in is from 1862, and says 22,000 men died, leaving a fortune in antiques. He creeps Lydia out, then snaps her neck so the cursed item will work. Outside, Ryan sees Rook dump her body in the trash. Back in the apartment, Rook prepares to enter the slide when Ryan jumps him, and they are both transported to 1862. They struggle, Ryan falls and Rook takes off. Ryan is shocked by the sound of gunfire, then knocked out by Rook.

At the store, Micki and Jack are frustrated reading on the lantern and worried about Ryan. Micki speculates on how Rook specializes in one specific year and battle. Jack guesses how the curse works and they rush off.

Ryan wakes in a bed, bandaged. Abby and her father saved him, but when Ryan says he is from Chicago, the old man grabs his rifle. Abby stops him, and they question Ryan, who says he's looking for Rook and they think Ryan is a bounty hunter. They wonder if he can help them find the man who killed Zack, unaware Rook is that man. Ryan clues them in. Ryan says he has to see Lee.

Abby gives Ryan some appropriate clothes that were her late husband's. Abby also gives Ryan Zack's gun, hoping he can kill Rook with it.

At Rook's apartment, the cops are swarming because of Lydia's found body, and one stops Jack and Micki, asking if they live in the building, Jack says yes, calling himself Rook, and Micki his daughter. The cop asks if they recognize Lydia, they say no. They enter the apartment and find the lantern in use. Jack stops Micki from interrupting the lantern, and they look at the picture on the wall. Jack finds blood on the floor, then tries to figure out the lantern.

In 1862, Abby's dad catches Rook with his rifle and leads him off.

Micki finds a book Rook was reading to learn about the past. Jack says the lantern will burn for awhile, and tells Micki it might be Ryan's only way back if he did end up in the past.

Rook tells the old man he has plans for Lee, then tricks him and kills him. Ryan watches and shoots but Rook escapes back to the present and blows out the lantern, trapping Ryan. Ryan tries to rouse the old man, but soldiers spot him and chase and shoot after him. Ryan hides in a tree.

At Curious Goods, Jack and Micki do research on that specific date. Micki wonders if Rook kills to go forward in time, too. Jack thinks so. Then Micki finds Ryan in photo from 1862 with Lee. Jack tries to explain how Ryan could have died in the past to a confused Micki.

Ryan listens as Lee continues to disregard his aide in favor of waiting on Rook and the promised plans from the Union side.

The cop knocks on Rook's door and wants a statement about Lydia's body. The cop doesn't seem to remember Jack pretending to be Rook, but asks for ID. Rook overpowers him, strangles him and kills him. But the slide is broken in the struggle.

A soldier show's Abby her father's body and the description of his supposed killer shocks Abby. She rushes off to find Ryan first.

Rook calls Edward, saying he can still get the sword if the man can get the money.

Ryan startles Abigail, and says Rook killed her father. She grabs the rifle, unsure. Ryan tries to come clean and explain that he is from the future. He shows her items from his wallet. She is confused.

Jack and Micki drive back to Rook's and see him leaving. They follow.

Abby is having a hard time believing Ryan, who tries to convince her that her family didn't die in vain. He says he needs to stop Rook from getting Lee's sword. His plan is for her to turn him in to Lee.

Edward can't get the money at night, but Rook says he can take antiques instead, and tells the man to get the other slide from 1862. When Edward does, Rook puts it in the projector, then kills the old man. Before he can step into the past, Micki tackles him and they both vanish. Jack is too late and remains in the present.

Rook punches Micki and takes off. A photographer wants a photo of Lee and his aides. He takes one and wants another as Abby leads Ryan at gunpoint to Lee, who asks why she think he's a spy. As Lee, his men and Ryan enter the building, the photographer snaps a photo. The one Micki saw in the book.

Micki wanders, looking for Ryan and finds a stray horse. Jack checks on the flame, which is still burning.

Lee questions Ryan about Union plans, but Ryan has a hard time remembering his history. Rook appears and gives Lee the plans he promised. Ryan tries to dissuade Lee, but he has Ryan taken away. Abigail sees Ryan hauled off and Rook leave with Lee's sword. She follows.

Micki races to camp on horseback and rushes up and rescues Ryan.

Abby shoots toward Rook, who tries to stop her, then grabs the gun that goes off and shoots Abigail. Ryan hits Rook, then rushes to Abby who dies. Ryan wants to kill him, but Micki stops him. She tells him they have to run to the square of light to get back, which appeared when Abby died. They rush off with Rook chasing them. Ryan and Micki leap through into the present, with Rook following and shooting. Jack does the only thing he can and blows out the lantern. Rook is caught in the wall, dead.

Later, Ryan is amazed to see his photo in the Civil War history book. Ryan wonders if anything Rook or he did in the past changed things. Jack says maybe the past happened as it was supposed to. Micki thinks Lee's sword should be worth something. Jack says maybe a couple of bucks, cause everyone knows Lee broke his sword. This one would be seen as a fake.

My thoughts:

I've always like this episode. I think they handled the scenes in 1862 very well, doing their best in their budget to make you feel like you've gone back in time.

Also like the cursed item. Quite a potential with this one, imagine going anywhere in time as long as you had a slide for the projector?

Rook could have been a little more subtle in his actions. He kills Zack in the midst of people, kills Lydia and dumps her right outside his building. Playing with fire, this guy.

Ryan wonders if they affected the past. Well, who knows what was changed with Zack, Abby and her father being killed. Maybe they would have changed history, or one of their descendants could have? But as Jack speculates, maybe history played out just as it was supposed to.

Loved Micki riding in on horseback to save Ryan. She has come a long way from the beginning. Also loved Jack not just grabbing the latern, realizing they needed to proceed cautiously to make sure Ryan could get back.

The cop investigating Lydia's death was not great, and in fact reminded me of the cop from Badge of Honor.

Also, what the heck did the landlord and cops think when they found Rook stuck INSIDE the wall? Good thing Jack didn't give them his real name.

And very cool to have a photo of Ryan from 1862!

Next week: Face of Evil

#episode recap #friday the 13th: the series #80s tv #micki foster #ryan dallion #louise robey #john d. lemay #jack marshak #robey #chris wiggins #curious goods #season two #projector #time travel #civil war

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byneddiedingo · 1 year

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Jacob Tremblay and Brie Larson in Room (Lenny Abrahamson, 2015)

Cast: Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Sean Bridgers, Wendy Crewson, Matt Gordon, Amanda Brugel, Joe Pingue, Tom McCamus, Joan Allen, William H. Macy. Screenplay: Emma Donoghue, based on her novel. Cinematography: Danny Cohen. Production design: Ethan Tobman. Film editing: Nathan Nugent. Music: Stephen Rennicks.

As emotionally affecting as Room is, and as brilliant as the performances of Oscar-winner Brie Larson and the equally worthy Jacob Tremblay are, the film left me dissatisfied. The premise is an intriguing one: Joy (Larson) was abducted at the age of 17 by a man (Sean Bridgers) who locked her in a shed, where she gave birth to Jack (Tremblay), who has just turned 5 when the film begins. Left alone together for all this time, with only periodic visits by the captor for sex and to bring supplies, mother and son have bonded uniquely. She has allowed Jack to believe that the shed, which they call "Room," is the only reality -- even the people they see on the television set the captor has supplied are just colorful shapes; they are "TV." The sky they can see through Room's one window, a skylight, is "outer space." The only other entity Jack knows about is "Old Nick," the captor, and Joy keeps the two of them separated as much as possible, shutting Jack in the closet when the man visits. We are in Plato's Cave here, and to follow up on that fable, which is beautifully established in the first part of the film, we need an awakening to reality that is both dramatically and thematically powerful. We get a good start on that when Joy, thinking that Jack is old enough for the truth, begins to break down the myth of Room and suggest to him that there is in fact a world outside. Jack responds with something like the Kübler-Ross stages of grief: He denies what she is telling him, grows angry and depressed, but finally accepts it as truth, which then allows Joy to enlist Jack in an attempt to escape. Unfortunately, after the excitingly suspenseful escape succeeds, the film begins to disintegrate into an often sketchy and unconvincing tale of recovery, and concludes with a tenuous "happy ending." Jack, a doctor tells Joy, is still "plastic," a word that Jack overhears and indignantly rejects: He's real, not plastic. But Joy sinks into a deep depression, partly aided by the fact that the world is going to test the bonds she has formed with Jack, and by the fact that things are not what they were before her abduction. Her parents, for example, have divorced and her mother (Joan Allen) has remarried. Her father (William H. Macy) has moved far away and can't bring himself to accept Jack as his grandson. She and Jack move in with her mother, Nancy, and stepfather, Leo (Tom McCamus), but the tensions of the household grow as they are besieged by reporters, and when an interviewer awakens feelings of guilt and responsibility she has repressed, Joy attempts suicide and is hospitalized. The problem with this part of the film is that there are no easy solutions to the crisis it has created. Moreover, we don't know enough about the characters it introduces to understand their behavior: Why, for example, is it so hard for Joy's father to accept Jack as his grandson? As brilliant an actress as Joan Allen is, she doesn't quite make the loving, gentle grandmother much more than a stereotype. How much hope can we hold out for Joy's full recovery and Jack's successful integration into a world he had previously never envisioned? I haven't read Emma Donoghue's novel, so it's possible that this part of the story is better developed and the characters are more plausible on the page than they are on the screen, although Donoghue also wrote the screenplay. There is, however, a scene at the end, in which Joy and Jack return to Room, now about to be demolished, that provides a kind of closure to the film that's satisfying artistically -- if not psychologically.

#Room #Lenny Abrahamson #Jacob Tremblay #Brie Larson

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