Thursday, July 25, 2019

Friday the 13th: The Series -- Season 1 Episode 24 (Pipe Dream)

It’s been pointed out that Law & Order was unusual in that many of the characters didn’t have much of a backstory.  You might get details, like a character being married or having kids, but it didn’t make for a lot of continuity in the show.  The advantage of that was that you could easily pick up the show anywhere during the show’s 20-season run and easily follow it.

Friday the 13th: The Series was similar in that regard.  There was very little history given for the regular characters.  Jack Marshak, for instance, seemed to have exactly the right skills necessary for certain episodes.  Similarly, friends and ex-lovers were introduced as necessary and were seldom heard from again.

In Pipe Dream, we meet a man who has a pipe.  It’s a cursed pipe that kills people when used.  The resulting smoke surrounds the victim and causes them to disintegrate.  We soon come to find out that the man with the pipe is Ray Dallion, father of Ryan Dallion.  Ray has just used the pipe to kill someone and steal his idea for a new weapon.

Ryan is estranged from his father, but gets a wedding invitation, ostensibly from Ray.  It turns out that the invitation is actually from his soon-to-be-stepmother, Connie.  So, Ryan and Micki go up to visit dear old dad to find that he’s finally had a run of good luck.

After a while, the truth is discovered and Ryan has a choice to make.  He can either reclaim the cursed item or he can continue to mend his relationship with Ray.  Unfortunately, things aren’t that easy.  Ray has a secret to keep and the pipe helps him do that.  This eventually causes Ray to make a difficult choice.

This is the second episode in a row that features an item that simply kills.  Usually, someone gets something like money in return for killing.  Here, it’s more that the body disappears, leaving little evidence.  (I’ve always wondered what would happen if a case involving a cursed item went to trial.  It would be difficult to convince a jury what happened.)

There’s not much in the way of family history here except to learn that Lewis was apparently Ray‘s uncle, making Lewis a great-uncle to Ryan.  It’s also exactly what you’d expect between two family members who haven’t spoken in years.  It takes a trick to get them together.  They make some progress and have a setback or two.  In the end, it either doesn’t work out or there’s a little grudging progress.  There are usually indications that, at best, it will be years before the two speak to each other again.

There are only two more episodes left in this season.  I’m kind of wondering if maybe the writers and producers weren’t trying to maybe stretch it a little.  The first season had an order of 26 episode.  It looks like they just made it.  I’d say skip the episode, but if you’ve made it this far, you’d have to have a fair amount of stamina.  Part of the reason I’ve made it this far is that I’m borrowing the series on DVD from the library, which gives me time to space it out.

In all honesty, I had to go through three automatic renewals before I started watching this DVD, which started with the previous episode.  I’d like to watch and review the episodes before my current due date, as I  really don’t want to pay any overdue fines on the DVD.


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