Clyde, like all guys named Clyde, is a criminal.  Being chased by guys with dogs, he runs to the door of an old gothic mansion deep down in Louisiana close to New Orleans. Although, to be fair, he started in Louisiana, so that part is no big deal.

An old woman lets him in.  He says the sheriff is after him for fooling around with his young daughter.  In no time, the sheriff is at the door with a different story.  He says Clyde “is a killer.  He preys on old people like yourself!”  Strange things were afoot at the Circle-K and a man died after a fight with Clyde.

This one hinges completely on the twist, so I hate to give it away.  The gothic setting is entirely irrelevant — the episode could have taken place anywhere.  I’m no judge of accents, but Rachel Ticotin seem to pull it off much better than D.B. Sweeney.  There really is no plot, but more of a device.  And it is a good one, but a little obscured by the trappings.

A few minutes into the episode, it seemed obvious where it was going.  I was baffled why Teller (of Penn & Teller) would have been involved in such a mundane story.  But it became perfectly clear as the episode went on.  There is a trick, a gag, a prop — there is probably a magic term for it — a McGuffin?  used that sits right in the middle of those titular stairs.  It put an unexpected twist on what seemed to be an old story.  That is Penn & Teller in a nutshell.  Then that narrative is completely subverted by a surprise ending.

Sadly, although Rachel Ticotin and R. Lee Ermey in a cameo are very good, the setting and accents just didn’t land for me.  Also, making Clyde a killer was pointless.  The off-screen murder was not emphasized enough to make me want to see Clyde killed for it.  The ending didn’t have the irony that would have existed if he was just fooling around with the sheriff’s young daughter.  But maybe death would have been too harsh a comeuppance for that crime.  Depends on how young, I guess.

However, the twist employed is so interesting that I am still thinking about it.  Rachel’s explanation of it accompanied by illustrations along the stairway in oil and other viscous liquids is also clever.  It’s too bad the opening TFTC Magazine cover gives away part of the surprise.

Footnotes:

• Rachel Ticotin had the funniest line in Total Recall.  The original, not the remake which was ruined, like every movie with Colin Farrell’s presence, by Colin Farrell’s presence.