Date of airing: October 19, 1999 (CBS)
Nielsen ratings information: 15.63 million viewers, 11.5/19 in Households, 4.8/12 with Adults 18-49
written by: Paul Karon
directed by: Ken Olin
This episode is proof that nepotism always existed, and will always exist, on broadcast network television. This episode was written by Paul Karon, who is married to co-creator and showrunner Barbara Hall, and like his boss on the show (and at home), Karon decided to go down the route of dark drama. While Hall dealt with her own real-life assault by writing an episode for CHICAGO HOPE ("Cabin Fever," 1997) and a novel titled "A Summons to New Orleans" (published in 2000), as well as finding Catholicism for herself, Karon may have followed his wife's ways of dealing with the darkness that is humanity, even if he may not have experienced what Timothy experienced for years in this episode.
This was an especially good episode, and this time around, it delivered a story that hit home. Who would have thought that Maxine’s story eventually turned out to predict the infamous Austrian abuse cases that were to invade international news throughout the next years? It was a terrifying story, a touching story, and a disgusting story. And seeing it in a family drama that could not be more PG-rated makes it even more special. Although I do wonder why the writers decided to include these kinds of stories into the series (and this early in the series' history, no less), and if this might be a case of telling the audience the signs of abuse cases in families, kind of like how Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted the storyline of one of the kindergarteners in KINDERGARTEN COP being abused by his father, so that the audience knows that such cases do exist and this is what they may look like.
I felt with Maxine when she found Timothy in his basement cell, and I felt a lot dizzier after that, since I have the hindsight to remember the Kampusch kidnapping case, as well as the Fritzl case. Those real-life situations had suffering children, while Hollywood was creating storylines around their yet-to-be-discovered situations. Consider me for the death penalty when it comes to what kind of punishment parents, who lock up their children in dungeons, deserve. There is no reason to let them live, since they did not give the children a chance to live.
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| Amy does not feel welcome in this room full of mothers. |
Maxine’s story somewhat fits with the theme of the episode: Halloween. You have ghost stories, you have a witch trial going on, and then you encounter the worst in humanity and find a ghost being locked up by a demonic family, and all this in 43 and a half minutes. Plus stacking it up with all the emotional drama – it almost makes for perfect emotionally manipulative television, at least for me. Unfortunately, it was not a great hour of television, because the actions taken by DCF in that matter were just absurd. Maxine had a case, she voiced her concerns and suspicions, yet no one was listening to her. If no one listened to what Maxine had to say, then they all do not deserve to handle sensitive cases involving children and families in the first place.
Susie Nixon was not listening
to anything Maxine had to say, and the thing is, I do not believe this is
close to reality. When it comes to children and families, even the
slightest shred of doubt and suspicion would lead to police involvement
or at least an investigation. I just cannot believe that Susie
shrugged off Maxine as a lunatic, telling stories and seeing ghosts,
both literally and figuratively. That part of the story was the worst,
and it pulled down the realism of the episode. Maybe Susie Nixon is the
devil. Maybe the Scoobie Gang in Sunnydale, California should come to Hartford, Connecticut for a couple of days and investigate and neutralize this threat.
And here I was, listening to Vincent’s story about how his former college “enemy” Hilary was the devil in disguise, ruining his life in the past, present, and probably even in the future. Other than that, Vincent’s story was a bit forgettable, even if he may have made the move towards getting (and retaining) an agent for his literary work, as that one continues to make its way through the episodes, keeping the character busy and giving the writers an opportunity to tell a story about writers.
The scribes made the mistake to write Hilary as a potential love interest for Vincent though. Having someone from his past is a good idea, having him hate her to death is a funny idea (which was then turned into a serious issue, as he made it clear to the publishing dude that working with Hilary is a dealbreaker for him), but she was throwing herself onto him in one scene, almost nullifying the conflict they had during college, and making the present storyline a bit of a farce. That is why I was slightly happy that Vincent stood up and did not redefine his opinion of Hilary. He continued to see the devil in her and he made sure that he would never work with her, even if it meant that he would not get a publishing deal. Although seeing Hilary as the devil is cute, considering who the real devils were in this episode, who were stopped by Maxine to continue making life a living hell for a child.
In the meantime, Amy’s witch case was interesting to watch, and even a little hilarious at times. At first, the case was on the downlow, needing to confuse Amy and make her forget all about the “stand back and observe how fast I can work when my stomach's involved” comment, revealing Anne Featherstone’s religious beliefs, and everyone making fun of it in their minds. Even Amy’s repeated mention of the fact that this is a case about parental rights did not make it less hilarious. But as soon as the case went to trial and Amy's stomach had to wait a bit longer, the seriousness of the premise was present, and I was glued to the story.
I knew from the beginning that Amy would have difficulties in keeping the facts straight – witch trials are not only hard to grasp in the legal system, but writing about them for a fictional family drama on a broadcast network is even harder, since you cannot make fun of the Wiccan community (and the episode tried its hardest not to do so). All the witnesses Amy had to see were pretty much useless for the case, turning this case into ridicule that is being talked about all over town.
That Anne Featherstone would surrender her parental rights was a twist that did not have much meaning for the story or even needed to be here, although I get that her getting chased out of town was the moral of the story, and reminiscent of witch trials in American history, with the only difference that witches were not run out of town back then. But the conclusion of the case had a little bit of meaning for Amy as a character, as she has seen once more how much it can hurt when a parent feels like it is the right choice to give up parental rights to their child. Once more she is not happy about the outcome of one of her cases, and once more she has to make her opinion sound in front of the involved. It certainly makes Amy a great character, but it is not the first time that has happened, which means it will happen a couple more times throughout the show’s run.
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| This terrible, horrible, no good day must end with pancakes! |
And finally, there was Lauren, who feared being locked in a dungeon after having heard a ghost story. Again, it is the story that connects back to Maxine’s, as it is the fantastic and imaginary version of the incident in Maxine’s work life, and it is a story that neatly packed some realism into the story of a first-grader. I have no idea if I was scared of ghost stories when I was seven years old (I watched A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET when I was around that age, and I do remember having had nightmares immediately after – those did not last long and I quickly became a movie buff), but I could imagine that I would have reacted in a similar way to Lauren, minus the cutting of my hair. Plus, it was nice to see that the writers were able to give the youngest cast member a believable story, and that Karle Warren was able to naturally act her way through it. It is almost like she was a natural on the job.
