Wearing just his suit jacket, Raymond Dalton is stumbling through a blizzard.  He is thrilled to come across a Thomas Kinkade matte painting.

Through the requisite lit window, he sees people having a party.  When he tries to enter the yard, an electrical charge knocks him on his cold as a well digger in Montana’s ass; which is the same reception I usually get.

Luckily, during the credits he has been dragged inside the house and is being attended to by nurse Gina Beaumont (Jessica Steen from Earth 2, which I need to rewatch someday).  For some reason, the first thing she gives the freezing man is ice-water.

Exhibit #1 why this is a dream.

She is promptly chewed out by both the doctor and the leader of the group for lowering the barrier and allowing Dalton in.  Leader Sanford Valle (M. Emmet Walsh) welcomes him to the titular refuge. He says an oil company drilled a little too deep and released a bacteria that polymerized the water like Ice-Nine.

This caused water to freeze at 40 degrees rather than 32 and to not melt until it hits 90 degrees.  Seems like the melting and freezing point should be the same, but I ain’t no expert on polymerized water.  That led to Florida being the tundra they see out the window.

As always in isolated groups of weirdos, dinner is a Downton Abby level of affair. Everyone dresses and acts like they don’t do this same thing every night with the same people.  Dalton meets Valle’s wimpy son Thomas and his floozy wife Justine.  He meets Walsh’s wife Debi who is so hot that it gives away that this just be a dream; or that Walsh has big bucks. Last to join them is dour Sister Angelique who accuses Debi of dressing like a whore.

Exhibit #2 why this is a dream.

Later Justine comes on to Dalton.  He pushes her away after Gina sees them.  Justine then goes then next room down and beds down with her father-in-law. Thomas catches his wife in bed with Walsh and points a gun at him, but Walsh has a derringer and shoots Thomas first.  Dalton attacks Walsh and suddenly finds himself transported downstairs.

When he awakens, Thomas and the doctor have changed bodies, Justine is Gina, Debi is Justine, Angelique is now Walsh’s babe, and Gina is now Sister Angelique.  Got that?  It is revealed that Walsh is controlling the changes, but he doesn’t understand why Dalton is immune.

After the next change, Gina is Walsh’s new squeeze.  Dalton attacks Walsh and ends up waking up in a lab.  He sees that all the other people in the house are cryoginacally frozen in tubes.

Exhibit #3 why this is a dream.

Dalton was thawed out because his brain tumor was now operable.  While on the outside, he does research on the other house-members.  He lawyers-up and gets them to re-freeze him so he can use the information to break Walsh’s hold over the others.

Another good episode.  Walsh is always a hoot and I’m a Jessica Steen fan from way back.