At yet another SFT generically named college, “Geneticist Anna Adler [1] is conducting a series of intensive experiments in an attempt to discover what specific hereditary traits are transmitted in animals.”
Two years ago, Dr. Adler discovered that her lab-rats were so sensitive to high-pitched sounds that they were driven into a frenzy. “By careful breeding, the professor developed a pure strain of these mice.” Now, eight generations later, she has bred vermin that react crazily to an ultrasonic whistle. Congratulations for ending up where you started. A government grant must have been involved.
Dr. Hughes tells her, “Congratulations, you’ve created an inherited characteristic!” Well, didn’t the fact that it was enhanced by breeding mean that it was already an inherited characteristic? Breed circumcised baby boys, then you’ll impress me.[2] No, seriously, [2] now.
Hughes has also made some breakthroughs in breeding with Dalmatians. C’mon man, you know what I mean. He has a pup that is constantly sniffing around the corner of her cage. He says that is where the pup’s grandfather had his food dish; or maybe where he dragged his ass. His conclusion is that she inherited that memory.
Dr. Adler says it is preposterous to think that memory can be transmitted through genes. Dr. Hughes says this accounts for deja vu, although they were afraid to use that exotic word on TV in 1956. She challenges him to find a family with 100 generations of written memories to test his theory.
A hot blonde walks in and busts them for quarreling as usual. Frequent SFT viewers know that scientists on this series frequently have hot daughters, and often the daughters date their father’s proteges. Although there have been many female scientists on this series, I think this is the first with the cliché daughter. Dr. Adler says her daughter Marie disproves the genetic memory theory. “Distinguished scientists on both sides of the family, and Marie has not one brain in her head. How do you explain that?” Marie says, “I’m a throwback to Aunt Elenora. She didn’t have a brain in her head either”.
Anna goes to teach a class, and Marie invites Dr. Hughes to go to a fencing match with her. Marie says Joe Castle is just as good a swordsman as his father, which is the plot of a video I just saw at Pornhub. Hughes starts thinking maybe genetic memory has something to do with it. After the exhibition, Castle’s father says his son is training for the Olympics despite only fencing for a year. Hughes excitedly asks him, “How did you feel when you first picked up a foil? Did you have any sensation of having fenced before? Or dueled before? Did you have a feeling the movement or stance or holding of the foil came instinctively?” Joe says literally, “What, who, hunh?”
Marie tells him about Hughes’ genetic memory theory. Fortuitously, Castle Sr’s hobby is genealogy. Back at casa de Castle, the father shows Hughes paintings and scrapbooks going back to the 1300s. They are so old, he used 23 and Thee to do the research. Hughes notices that Giuseppe Castillo looks exactly like Joe Castle. Not only that — and I am serious here — he takes it as a confirmation of his theory that Joe Castle’s name is the anglicized equivalent of Giuseppe Castillo.
Shockingly, Dr. Adler is skeptical. Hughes angrily demands that she wake up and smell the coffee. [3] “The almost identical facial structure — the chin, the nose, the eyes! The enormous similarity in their personality! Both men fearless to the point of recklessness! The both of them rebels against social convention! And both of them wonderful swordsmen! Genes can carry memories!” Well maybe memory could play a part in the fencing skills, but the rest of his tirade does nothing to support his hypothesis.
Hughes also makes a plausible point by observing that Giuseppe Castillo raced a horse called Esmeralda, and Joe Castle named his race car Esmeralda. However, he squanders this bit of credibility by predicting Joe Castle’s death. Giuseppe Castillo died after being thrown from his horse Esmeralda in a race when he was 22 years, 180 days old. Joe is racing his car next week when he will be exactly that age. This load of Esmeralda-manure gets Dr. Adler starting to believe in genetic memory even though it does not seem relevant at all.
Joe sits out the race. When there is a crash in the race, all agree that is a sign that if Joe had been in the race, he would have been killed, but that it would have been great TV.
This one was painful to sit through. The premise was Ludacris, and the ideas presented to support it were infantile. Dr. Adler sports a heavy German accent. She calls her own daughter out as a moron and the girl has no reaction. Peter Hanson (Dr. Hughes) has an annoying style of shouting his lines when he is the least bit angry or excited. Joe Castle is portrayed as a muscle-head boob, then at least sharp enough to race cars, and ultimately Hughes gives him a lab coat and recruits him onto the research team.
Just a mess.
Other Stuff:
- [1] Oh, I get it. She is named after Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler. Or maybe famed acting coach Stella Adler. No, definitely Alfred. [1a]
- [1a] Cheap shot as usual; Virginia Christine had a huge career.
- [2] I didn’t really want to go there, but couldn’t figure out how to describe how women could be bred to naturally have boob jobs. I mean, they couldn’t be born that way. It’s just creepy.
- [3] Virginia Christine went on to appear in Folger’s Coffee commercials as Mrs. Olson for 21 years.
Alice and Mildred are walking out of a theater. Mildred says it is amazing what they can do with the bible, and Alice mentions how long the movie was. I figured it was The 10 Commandments, but we see part of a sign advertising The Wives of Solomon. That does not seem to be a real movie. The IMDb auto-complete returns The Real Wives of South Boston. If 10 commandments take 3.5 hours, how long would Solomon’s 1,000 wives take? Give the answer in square cubits.
The next morning, Alice gets dolled up to go to the police station. We also meet her daughter and son-in-law who are living with her, having just moved back from California. Leo seems to be a layabout who should be out looking for a job. Mabel is . . . well, I don’t know what she is, but she insanely hot. Way too good for Leo or the name Mabel.
She meets with Lt. Meade who is wearing a tie so thin it makes a bolo tie look like a lobster bib. Alice says she got a good look at the man’s face. Meade gives her a stack of mugshot books to look through. Alice methodically reviews the hundreds of photos before she finds one that looks familiar. One of the men looks just like Leo, but the name on the mugshot is William Draves.
Back at the house, Leo is nagging Mildred to give him $20. When she refuses, he tells her she spends more than that on a permanent even though she appears to have never had a permanent unless it was a temporary. She tells him she knows he will just take the $20 and waste it at the track. Leo is lazy and a mooch, but is wearing a tie; and, unlike Lt. Meade, one with two dimensions. He claims to have been a stockbroker in California, so tries to get Alice to give him $20 to “invest”. Mabel tells him to beat it.
Alice asks what Leo did for a living in California. Mabel says she has told her mother several times that Leo was a successful stockbroker. That’s how she got her furs and jewelry. In a way-too-long scene, Mabel assures her mother that Leo is a good man. He just needs time to get established in the east. Alice is still worried about that mugshot, though.
Blah blah blah. There is a lot to like in the episode. The actors, especially Alice and Meade, do great jobs. The twist is excellent, and atypical of what we usually get with AHP. Unfortunately, it just feels bloated in more than one scene. Still, despite dragging a little, it is worth watching for the ending. Rather than reading this, you should watch the episode; or do just about anything else, really.
SPOILER:
Inexplicably, the final shot zooms in on Mabel alone as she approaches a door frame and pounds it, looking completely beaten. She’s a crook, no better than Leo. She does not deserve the focus of the last shot. We should have ended up on Alice’s face. She is the center of this scene. Not only has she learned her daughter — who she clearly loves — is a criminal, but she is responsible for sending her own daughter to prison. Ya got tragedy, anguish, guilt, helplessness, and just plain old bad luck. There’s your last shot.
The screaming! My God, the screaming!
He stands silently outside the adit [1] for a moment, appearing to be dazed. Then he suddenly starts shrieking again. I see where Stevie gets it. One of the good samaritans holds him back from returning to the mine.
Next thing we see is Cammy picking up a dude in a bar. Hunh? That’s out of nowhere. Ford catches them together the next morning, and shoots the guy. But the guy is not what he appeared to be. And Ford and Cammy are also not what they appeared to be. But they are not the same as the guy, if that’s vague enough for you. This introduces yet another genre to the episode; maybe two.
He might be right. Ronnie spends the next day busking, then playing outside for a crowd. He inexplicably returns home during school hours and finds Hank helping Joe pack up his possessions. He is moving to Silver Sunset. They get Joe moved into the home. All seems well, but Dr. Adler ominously tells Ronnie that he must call before he visits.
Ronnie also sees a change in his father. He has quit his job and says he wants to go into business for himself. To this end, he has bought a computer which prompts a couple of bizarre responses. Ronnie and his mother both question whether Hank can use it. This seems like a sober, responsible guy who has provided a fine home for his family. Why do they suddenly think he’s an idiot? Then his wife reacts like it was a crazy purchase, like she has no idea what one costs, or if it will put someone’s eye out. This is made even stranger by the fact that we saw a computer in Ronnie’s bedroom earlier. This isn’t Gilligan buying a UNIVAC.