Eerie, Indiana rewatch 2015: episode eight, the Dead Letter

[froodle]

Put aside your history paper on the jackalope and it's relation to the federal deficit; tonights tale is about how messing with someone else's post gets you harrassed by the ghost of Tobey Maguire. Garlic won't save you from... the Dead Letter!

Comments

[froodle]

I want to know more about the "small animals of eerie" exhibit. also, way more about the eerie library, specifically why a municple building needs fast cash to pay for renovations, which makes it sound like whatever happened happened suddenly rather than just the need for regular maintenance.

"simon.. its her... my love interest that we will never see again after this episode..."

oh my god tobey maguires face, so dreadful. "what was he?" and "marshall, run away" are such pefect reactions to tmag.

and why does he look at the letter and then make it spin? that accomplishes exactly nothing.

I also want to read the lifestyle section of eerie high schools newspaper.

"we can put marshall in the basement!"

I would love to see mars punch out a ghost. esp. tobey maguires ghost.

love how the tellers are just.instantly like, "oh yeah tripp is our favourite son!"

the dream sequence is amazing. the thick ground fog, the old fashioned card catalogue, the music box music, the disembodied are you afraid of the dark style laughter. andrea in a flower maiden dress on a rope swing in a bower, rocking horses, raven with a nappy. the tellers bike for three and 'we love tripp more than we love you'.

but esp. Simons insane pillar, giant cigar, weird laugh,business suit, and 'i hate being second banana on this show.'

theres something really unsettling about the number of black n white photos in mary b carters house. like, surely someone with that many memories isnt still hung up on some old crush who died 62 years ago.

once again,mars, garlic is specifically only for vampires. learn some other basic monster defences, kid.

love how unsympathetic mars is about tripp getting kb'd by mary b carter. theres a ghost crying his broken dead heart out in front of him and mars is like, "meh, walk it off."

yet another milk truck related fatality in eerie. someone needs to teach those milkmen how to drive safely.

[deifire]

I've always had the feeling that the Eerie Public Library is one of those libraries that frequently exceeds its annual budget due to the needed repair work that happens when patrons read certain books aloud. I am torn between being sad that there was never a library set, and thinking that maybe it's for the best, because nothing the show would have had the budget for would match what is in my head.

I want to read Simon's report now.

There has got to be something about young Spiderman's ghost that really, really reads as Wrong to Marshall. Marshall not only wants nothing to do with trying to help him out, he completely gets the garlic thing mixed up. That is a rookie mistake that I do not expect a weirdness investigator with Marshall's level of experience to make, and completely out of character for him when compared with most other episodes.

I still don't understand why, if ghost!Tobey had such influence over the rest of Marshall's family, he couldn't just have one of them deliver the letter instead.

Disturbing dream sequence is disturbing. Love all of it, especially Simon leaning so hard on the fourth wall.

"Kinda dead, Mary" and "Six times" still crack me up every time.

I'm glad the two ghost lovers got their happy ending, such as it is. The Titanic ending before Titanic was a thing.

Eh, Marshall's one-episode love interest. Still alive at the end of the episode, but somehow it never worked out. I also wonder if the show was planning to do more with young Mary and just never got around to it.

Along with "Just Say No Fun" this is one of the episodes I tend to remember least between re-watches. I think its because they're surrounding and eclipsed by "Heart on a Chain."

[froodle]

there is so much fun to be had with the eerie library. I basically headcanon it as sunnydale high library only with simon and mars instead of buffy and the slayerettes. idk who would be giles tho. john astin radford if giles was a bit sketchy, maybe.

why is a nine year old writing a paper on the federal deficit? and also, what DO jackalopes have to do with it?

Along with "Just Say No Fun" this is one of the episodes I tend to remember least between re-watches. I think its because they're surrounding and eclipsed by "Heart on a Chain."

I think as well it doesnt help that this ep and heart on a chain are essentially telling stories around the same theme, one right after the other, except heart on a chain does it better and with more interesting characters. also, no tobey maguire. I basically remember this ep because I am endlessly horrified by tobey maguires face and the fact that he was just as horrifying at 13 as he is now.

I am totally invested in mary c carter and andrea as a couple. no, I dont know why. I thiught maybe I read fic about them ages ago but I went through the comms old posts and dint find any, so who knows?

love that simon complains about being second banana, but when they finally try to kill mars off in RTAH, he still doesnt get to be the star!

[deifire]

I only image it is not quite as lethal as the Silas library in Carmilla because Dash does survive through Mr. Chaney and doesn't look particular singed or anything in the next scene. (Then again, maybe the library just really likes him.)

Off to the prompt meme to request library fic in a bit.

I am totally invested in mary c carter and andrea as a couple. no, I dont know why. I thiught maybe I read fic about them ages ago but I went through the comms old posts and dint find any, so who knows?

OMG, if you do find this, let me know! I haven't seen it, but I so very much want to read it if it exists.

[froodle]

JP likes the bolshy ones, I think - if anything sketchy was going on, I reckon hed have let Dash know. the eerie and silas.libraries are, however, calm pools of benign knowldge compared to the Night Vale library.

I had a feeling it came from fic_on_demand but when I went over there and checked out their EI tag there wasnt any femmeslash. BUT I did find possibly the first EI fic I ever read http://fic-on-demand.livejournal.com/337465.html and I am totally just filled with nostalgia right now

[slinkhard.livejournal.com]

I'm sure there was an author on that comm who removed their work (lizzypaul, iirc) cause I remember a Mars/Dash fic where Mars talks with three different characters including Simon and Elvis; but it's not there now.

[froodle]

Im pretty sure I remember that one - did it end with mars inviting dash over for dinner?

[slinkhard.livejournal.com]

Yeah! I might have to pm the author or something and ask if it's still archived anywhere, there's so few Eerie fics it seems a shame to lose one. :(

[froodle]

I think it might have been ravenbell - I found an old entry on my lj talking about how happy I was that shed written ei fic but the link, which was for a post on FoD, didnt work.

[froodle]

also the newspaper seller kid makes me laugh every time with his hilariously dramatic scream.

simon and his insane moustache disguise. "my name is max how are you". and when mary c is all like, havent I seen you before and simon does the frantic headshake cracks me up.

wait, so the world o stuff was open at Midnight nov 10th 1929? isnt that during the depression? how much business did the harvest king generate for this town anyway?!

okay, why are mars and mary b sneaking out the window? do they not realise its her house? she is totally free to leave... or ISNT SHE?!

im.pretty sure the hoodie simon wears in the reunion scene at the world o stuff is one mars wore.earlier. so his disguise is just... wearing marshalls clothes and a silly tache? also, are the doors not locked when the store is closed?

"Ive been kinda dead, Mary."

Six marriages, damn. thats a tale that needs to be told.

see, even syndi, lover of normal, knows garlic is a vampire-specific defence. get your old movies out and do some research mars.

good to see simons massive wheel is still outside the world o stuff in case he needs to sit on it and spin around for no reason.

In the scene where mary b and tripp are sat at the booth together a.girl walks.by in the background carrying what looks like a.whole suckling pig. because why not.

andrea is like meg in phantom of the opera - shes set up like shes totally significant to the story, but then actually happens with her.

[slinkhard.livejournal.com]

This episode is so bizarre because Trip is set up as a sort of proto-Dash rival for Marshall (except as a rival for his family’s affection rather than as a personal/ethical opposite) when they’re not arguing over anything in particular.

Especially the parallel to Dash's Terminator references and Trip's 'Okay, but...I'll be back'; the whole invasion of someone else's dreams like in 'Zombies in PJs' and Mars' 'What, is he a ghost? Did he just beam down from the moons of Saturn?’

I also think it's funny how again, a relationship about a girl just centres around dudes - Mars' 'I'd sure like to meet her!' is accompanied by him kneading Simon's shoulder (and the end when he pursues Andrea, Simon's wearing his hoodie, iirc.)
The dream as well is so weird, like his crush on this girl is accompanied by 'I don't want to grow up!' and he seems to have more of a hatecrush on Trip than anything ('You’re not supposed to be in my dream!' 'Not yet. Not til I tell you what you have to do for me.' and 'It’s like he got into my mind. Why does he wear those goofy golf pants and have that dweeb haircut?')
And then at the end when he approaches Andrea, he's suddenly shy, and is taking the place of Trip when Trip tried to get his attention previously.

In general, it just seems like it's done before with the Heart on a Chain (dead boys fixating on their pre-teen true loves - Trip comes off even odder than Devon, with the whole 'he sees what he wants to see, so Mary's now a kid again to him'), and then there's similiar themes (ghosts and guns! Mars the firebrand to Simon the pacifist!) later on, with this one being the weakest. (Not helped by Tobey Maguire being the worst, even as a kid.)

I do like Trip burning the Tellers with 'C’mon, it’s not that hard', much as I like them. Also cute to see Simon in another disguise, as well as more breaking the fourth wall, and 'Well, I've been kind of dead, Mary.'

[froodle]

totally agree on how its basically a less good, t-mag infested version of heart on a chain. I think id find it pretty weak even if I didnt find tobey maguires face so unsettling.

and yes, now that youve pointed it out, I can see how he was like an early test run for dash's character... which makes me so glad we got what we got and not tripp mcconnells creepy peeping tom head staring at us every week!

basically, things that were awesome in this ep:

jackalope
simons disguise
the dream before tripp showed up
andrea and mary c carter being in beautiful love even though there is no interaction between them
mind controlled tellers

[slinkhard.livejournal.com]

Now I'm thinking of Eerie femslash, there's so much potential there really, considering how the female roles were pretty small. Janet, Melanie, Syndi, Andrea, Mary...

[froodle]

yes. yesyesyes. all the femslash, forever!

[deifire]

Yes! I vote for this as a future challenge!

[froodle]

YES! eviinsanemonkey and I were talking before and because eerie used to air on a sunday, how about a random challenge every sunday?