Oh, One Step Beyond, every week I find something to compliment you on.  It might be the direction, the set design, the use of stock footage, or Cloris Leachman’s slinky dress.  But the visual triumphs are always in service of a slice of the genre pie that is shrinking every week.  Honestly, after this week’s slight entry, I don’t know how much lower OSB can go.

Dude, you never go full-Biden!

In 1901, rambunctious 11-year old Lisa is being hunted down for her ballet lesson.  The maid and her French personal ballet instructor find her on the veranda.  So, yeah, her widowed father has money.  When Lisa sees her father watching, she runs to him and he goes full-Biden, hugging her and picking her up.  It is a little strange because the 11 year old is played by a 15 year old who is a little too curvy for the part and a little too chunky for the ballet.  Oh well, in 5 years, Hollywood will be casting her as the mother.

She shows off her skillz for her father, ending up with a series of pirouettes.  Frenchie implores her to go faster, faster.  When she is about to burst into flames, the teacher tells her to slow down.  But Lisa seems to be in a trance.  She continues spinning and can’t stop even as she sees the ceiling begin to crumble and a large chandelier crashes down on her.  This is one of those visual touches that make the series bearable — really well-done.

As the title of the episode might spoil, this did not really happen — it was the titular premonition.  And it is the only premonition in the episode.  It ain’t exactly a train derailment or the Titanic.  See what I mean?  Lisa collapses, and a doctor is called.  He asks her father if she suffers from Vertigo.  I know it left me unconscious the first time I sat through it.

Lisa awakens and begins screaming that the chandelier fell on her.  This is a high-pitched killer of a scream like the kid in the OSB episode Epilogue.  And this caterwauling goes on for almost a full minute.  John Newland, who directed both Epilogue and this episode had no idea how to restrain kids.  I find a 6 mm nylon line perfectly adequate.

That night, Lisa goes to see the chandelier and gets hysterical at the sight of it.  Any time she must enter the room, she will not walk under it.  The sight or her father or maid walking under it gives her a conniption.

Ten years later — I repeat, ten years later — her caring father has a carpenter finally examine the chandelier fixture.  The carpenter says it could withstand an earthquake.  He calls Lisa in so she can hear that for herself.  She is still terrified of it, though.  Her fiance tries to convince her that they can safely dance under it because he was not in her vision.  He’s really a dick about it, reducing her to tears.  But he finally waltzes her beneath it and she is even able smile about it.

We skip ahead to 1947 — I repeat, 1947 — and Lisa is having a coming-out party for her grand-daughter, which meant something completely different back then.  She seems very happy with life until she hears the chandelier rattling in the ballroom.  Lisa rushes into the ballroom, but we just get a shot of the back of John Newland’s head.  We hear a scream and the sound of the chandelier crashing to the floor.

But who was killed?  Lisa’s grand-daughter was pointlessly also named Lisa.  So was that old Lisa screaming or young Lisa?  Was the premonition 46 years ago just that someone named Lisa would die?  Newland even f*cks with us, delivering his usual, “We know to whom it happened, we know when it happened . . . ” spiel.  Well, spill it dude — who was killed?

Again, there were great elements to the episode.  An Analytical Guide to Television’s One Step Beyond (AGOSB) discusses how cleverly the chandelier is photographed much better than I can.  On the other hand, the book also says this is a high point of the 1st season.  I just find it hard to get excited about a premonition that comes true 46 years later.  She could have predicted a World War and been right twice.  A lot of things can happen in almost half a century.

So, well-presented, but these stories need work.

Miscellaneous

The real mystery is, who is Debbie?

• The episode description on Amazon says, “Debbie is haunted by the fear of her own demise at the hands of a chandelier in her home.” ^[1]
• AGOSB refer’s to Debbie’s vision of the ceiling cracking.
• The cast list in AGOSB includes “Pamela Lincoln (Debbie).”  Strangely, none of the other actors have their character name included.
• Per IMDB, Pamela Lincoln plays “Older Lisa Garrick.”
• There is no question that the girl with the visions and her name-sake grand-daughter are both named Lisa.  So where is this Debbie coming from?
• [1]  Hands of a chandelier?