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.
Tom Cooper stumbles into a homeless shelter. He is carrying a box that he says contains all his memories. His credibility on that point is pretty iffy as he immediately has a flashback about escaping from a facility. He opens the box and takes out a fabulously-designed injector. He plunges it in into his neck which either leaves a scar or gives him impetigo; it’s a nasty mark.
He asks the world’s oldest station master if any other strange men have come through lately; men who strangely hang their heads out of trains, I guess. He slips the porter $20 and tells the old man to call him at the Grand Hotel if any strange guys show up at the train station — a bribe known in the train business as a “Kevin Spacey.”
What was the point of the model sailboat in Spengler’s office? Louden seems to know that Spengler had never removed the cash from the bank. I guess Spengler could have bought it as a reminder of his retirement the way I keep cans of cat food and a refrigerator carton.
An agrarian society on the other side of a mysterious portal which is being secretly researched by the military. Night Visions knew what to do with that premise — an awesome episode entitled 
Slater says two months ago, this facility was a particle physics lab, nothing unusual. During a wormhole experiment, there was an explosion and they discovered this phenomenon. They put on some welding goggles and Slater opens the vault door. The awe-stricken McAndrews gasps. “My God!”, even though all he can really see is a bright light. Slater says they brought in top scientists from all over the place — Cornell, NASA, JPL — but they are baffled by the quantum fluctuations, the gravitational anomalies, and talking to girls.
He is outfitted in a spacesuit and climbs through the gate. He loses contact with the general within seconds and collapses. He awakens in a wooded earth-like area, and finds one of his predecessor’s gloves. He soon meets Captain Kincaid and a woman who appears to be Amish. They take him into a farming community. McAndrews asks, “What is this place?” Kincaid answers, “Call it Heaven!” but I notice he’s stepping pretty gingerly through that cow pasture.