April 28th, 2006 Archives

Ghost Whisperer Recap: Free Fall

This is one of the best episodes of this series to date (which is to say, all of them). The ghosts were downright spooky, the mood was haunting. I’m impressed.

First, we see a bus full of ghosts who look like the stepped out of The Scream - only the ghosts may not have been ghosts, but they were people who had ghosts super-imposed on them or something. Then the house and shop are haunted by the captain of the plane who hangs out in the shadows. The faceless ghost is hanging around, as is Chuckles. Very cool.

The only complaint that I have is that Melinda doesn’t really seem very good at deciphering some of the clues. I mean really - she does do this regularly, right? How could she not figure out that the captain had died because he had frozen and the rest of the passengers were getting there, yet the plane was still in the air? I’nm not a golf fan, but has she never heard of Payne Stewart?

Next week’s season ender looks good, too, with a couple hundred ghosts milling around town. The only unresolved question is if Andrea’s brother is on the plane. My money is on “no”, but then if he isn’t, why would his watch have been having such problems with time?

Arthur Curtis steps into his office one morning, only to find that he’s not really Arthur Curtis at all, but Gerry Reagan, the actor, playing Arthur Curtis. Not quite as fun as Showdown with Rance McGrew, which has a similar premise, but entertaining in a more manic sort of way as he tries to find his way back to his “real” life.

When a “meteor” passes over Maple Street one afternoon, Steve (Claude Akins, also in The Little People from Season 3) and Charlie (Jack Weston of Dirty Dancing fame) are prompt to dismiss it, almost as easily as Ms. Barnes discusses alternates planes of existence in Mirror Image.

Unfortunately, we aren’t always willing to let things go, and when they find out that the power is out, the phones are out, and even portable radios and cars don’t work, the panic begins to set in. It just gets worse when the neighbor boy explains how this is how the aliens start their takeover, by shutting down everything, and only the alien-planted families can do anything, so then everyone tries to figure out who has that ability.

When the neighbor’s car starts and stops by itself, they think they’ve found the plant, and when another neighbor, who went to the next block to check on their power, returns, he gets shot dead by Charlie before they figure out that he is not indeed the monster. Naturally, this makes everyone else think that it is Charlie who is hiding something, and he in turn points his finger to Tommy, the kid with the comic book theory.

At the end, we see the true aliens, who are controlling the lights from afar, and they manipulate the power, to start turning things on and off, and that sets the street off, with everyone against everyone, and that is their true plan - to set us agaist one another, so that they don’t have to fire a shot. A truly classic episode, well worth watching.

The Twilight Zone Recap: Mirror Image

Millicent Barnes waits for the bus to Cortland, only to find out that her double is waiting for it too. First the bus terminal attendant accuses her of asking when the bus will be in too many times, then checking her bag while asking about who it belongs to because it looks similar to hers, then the restroom attendant asks if she is okay because she was just in there.

Unfortunately, the police are called in to take her away because she spots herself already seated on the bus. In a neat twist, the compassionate young man, who these days would probably be a love interest (and might have been then, if she were sane), ends up getting his own mirror image, and chasing him down the street when the image takes his case from the floor.

The only strange thing is a “private secretary” (Ms. Barnes’ declared profession) in 1960 and she talks about alternate planes of existence and the like. That might seem a little odd. Still, a good tale, fairly well executed.

Schoolteacher Helen meets a young girl on the hallway of her building, only to find out that the girl is a younger version of herself, returning to remind Helen of the man who murdered her mother. Coincidentally, the man has come to visit her, and he ends up dead at the bottom of the stairs. A little hard to follow, but not a bad concept. Just not that well written or pulled together or something.