Sam Leaps Into:
Jack Stone, a police detective working a murder case.
Objective:
Find the killer without getting killed himself.
Date:
2-28-79
Location:
Los Angeles, California
Memorable Quote:
Put the gun to your head, Jack, like this. Take the pain away. ~Dr. Crane
I don't think so. ~Sam
Put the gun to your head, Jack, like this. Take the pain away. ~Dr. Crane
I don't think so. ~Sam
Highlight:
The psychiatrist, Dr. Crane, makes for a compelling villain.
The psychiatrist, Dr. Crane, makes for a compelling villain.
Lowlight:
Those flashbacks where the little kid is walking down the hallway are super creepy. I think I saw this once when I was a kid, and then each subsequent time that it would appear in the rerun cycle my mom and I would skip it. I knew at some point during the countdown there would be the "creepy hallway" episode so I'm glad to get it out of the way. Still not as scary as a moment in a future episode (i.e. "the scariest thing I've ever seen on television" that I've teased before) -- can't wait for that one!
Other thoughts, observations, and questions I didn’t ask when I was in fourth grade:
- A few familiar MacGyver-related faces in this one:
- Alan Scarfe as Dr. Crane. We know him as another manipulative psychopath, Major Krik, in Humanity.
- Anthony Pena as a police officer. We only see him once in the very beginning and I wouldn't have noticed him if not for the IMDB credits. He was in Last Stand and Bitter Harvest.
- Kind of weird how Sam is investigating Dr. Crane while also seeking help from him. I guess that's to show how much his brain is scrambled, but even in the office when he's not holding a knife, Dr. Crane is a creepy dude that I wouldn't feel comfortable talking to.
Final Analysis:
This falls firmly in the category of "episode that is well done but is way too dark and creepy for my personal taste." Ranking it third from the bottom.
So your mom is just as averse to darker material as you are, huh? This was an oddball episode that definitely nailed the darkness theme but I couldn't understand why Sam felt invaded by the body of the woman killed or whatever was supposed to be going on there. What did I miss that was supposed to be the catalyst for their kinship? The imagery was cool though and Dr. Crane was outstandingly creepy, even though it couldn't have possibly been more predictable that he was the killer. Good acting job by Bakula as he channeled the nine-year-old boy who witnessed mom's murder but I couldn't understand why Sam was able to snap out of the hypnosis in time to shoot Crane. Overall, there was just a little too much mumbo-jumbo here for me to fully get behind.
ReplyDeleteI missed Anthony Penya completely which surprises me because I figured he'd be obvious to spot with his distinctive look. I picked up on Alan Scarfe right away though. Talk about an underutilized character actor for the creepy villain role. Interesting that as dark as this episode was, Crane's single gunshot wound to the chest was still less dark than Major Krik getting blown to pieces by a live grenade. I'll rate this one between "Play Ball" and "Nuclear Family".
Yeah, that must be where I get it from. I agree that some of the plot elements were a little kooky -- between this episode and the last episode with the chimp (which I admittedly loved), maybe the series reached the point where it started to try and reach for new and creative angles with mixed results. Season 5 has a lot of that including Lee Harvey Oswald, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, an Evil Leaper, and a Civil War episode.
DeleteAnd you're right about Alan Scarfe -- great actor.