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Dr. Death Takes a Powder by natalie (little n) |
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Okay, I disliked this show with a passion but well . . . . Will also say that it was very uneven in presentation. I have the script so I know what they wanted to do but either the actors put in a lot of two cents and the subsequent editing screwed up a few things or else the director and writers wanted to change things as they went along. I like the former theory better. This summary is also a bit uneven since I still don't feel well but I do have a lot of stuff from my own re-write of the episode. And mysteriously absent from this show was Merlyn. Not that I care since I don't like her but where was the b^&** , huh? Somebody's finally sticking up for her and she hides in a cesspool somewhere. Oh well. Since this is part summary and part actual dialogue, it's sort of long. It's a sunny day in Trinity but the sun is illusory. The air is cold. We see the front of the sheriff's station in full sunlight, the sheriff's car parked out front. Matt Crower looks up at the front of the station. He's in two gray t shirts to ward off the cold, topped with a charcoal grey blazer. He takes a deep breath and walks into the station. Ben is behind the counter, cutting out coupons. Slam! An x-ray of a skull, side view, is plopped on the counter. "Look at this", the soft voice of Dr. Crower says. "Look, if you're here on official business, fine, but if you're not, the sign is 'gone fishing', an uncomfortable Deputy Ben Healy says. "These are the Coroner's x-rays of Merlyn Ann Temple, Caleb's sister." "I know who it is. . . was." "I found the original plates at the hospital. They blow a hole in the official story." Matt looks at Ben. [Amazing don't you all think, given that we all know that the Coroner didn't do squat with Merly, let alone take any x-rays.] Ben fidgets. "Now Dr. Crower, we've been down this road already. Merlyn's father hit her in the head with a shovel and she died. And that's the end of it." "No Ben, even in Trinity, there's no statute of limitations on murder." "You branching out into the legal profession, doc? I thought you had your hands full with medicine." Lucas has walked in and peers over the shoulder of Dr. Crower. "I do. Caleb's mother. Caleb's father. Caleb's sister. Each one a medical mystery just waiting to be solved." Matt turns to face Lucas. Cocks his head to one side. Lucas reaches around Matt and takes the x-rays, looks at them. "So, what do these prove Sherlock?" "That Merlyn died from a lesion at C-5 on her spinal cord. A trauma that couldn't possibly have been caused by a shovel, as you've always claimed." "So Gage Temple hit his daughter in the head with a shovel and broke her neck with his free hands. As we both said when we arrived." Lucas gives Ben a "meaningful" look. Matt slowly turns around and looks shocked at Ben. "You were there?" Ben seems to wilt under Matt's gaze. Lucas interrupts. "Speaking of head trauma, doc, you still having visions? People are concerned." "I'm over it. I suggest you get over it too." Matt takes the x-rays back and walks out. Lucas frowns. A gust of wind blows the papers on the counter around. "He may be cured but his personality hasn't improved any. Do me a favor Ben. Call Judge Streeter. I need to schedule a competency hearing. " Ben looks very unhappy. Lucas, a frown on his face, stalks out of the office. A stiff breeze is kicking up outside. Lucas stops to flirt with a couple young girls. Across the street, a woman in a black suit who is sitting on a bus bench, pulls a handgun out of her purse and aims at Lucas. Her hands shake. Lucas has his back to her and appears to be oblivious. Matt, who is a little ways down from the bus bench is speaking to an elderly couple. He looks up and sees the woman with the gun. He slowly follows the barrel of the gun and realizes who she has lined up in her sights. He takes off, grabs her wrist and takes the pistol away from her. After a brief struggle, she collapses to the ground. Matt watches Lucas, apparently unaware of all of this, get into his Crown Victoria and drive off. [Now, do any of you buy the idea that Lucas was really, truly unaware of all of this stuff? We segue with Matt back in his office, examining a computer program of a human skull and neck. [And where did the technology mysteriously come from? All this time our Dr. Matt is in Trinity and there was never, ever a computer on his desk.] A cut out article of Merlyn's death is on Matt's desk. He fidgets with the mouse and has the skull doing a dance on his screen. A young, blonde nurse named Sarah enters the office. She tells Matt that she has the woman's test results and that she was placed in room 105. "Does the woman in 105 have a name?" he asks as he takes the folder. "Mrs. Smith." "She could've been a little more imaginative. " Sarah's eyes alight upon the pistol, which Matt has on his desk. She asks Matt if he was going to report her. People were saying that she tried to shoot the sheriff. Matt looks at her. "What would you say if I told you yes she did." "I'd say she committed a moral sin." Matt ignores the response and looks in Mrs. Smith's file. "Wow", he says as he reads it, chewing thoughtfully on his gum. Matt goes off to check in on Mrs. Smith. He introduces himself, checks her pupils with a pen light. He tells her that they met outside the sheriff's station. Mrs. Smith is irate. "You stopped me." Matt tells her that she didn't mean to shoot him. She glares at him. "How dare you condescend to me. You know nothing about me." Matt places a second pillow under Mrs. Smith's head. "I know you have a tumour the size of a golf ball in the fourth quadrant of your brain." Mrs. Smith tries to get up, muttering that she has to do it. Matt gently pushes her back into the bed. "Shh, shh", he gently tells her. He asks her why she would want to kill a man, that she has no right. "The laws of men don't apply to him. He's hardly human." Matt looks at her. He quietly tells her to try and get some rest and he leaves. The story shifts to the classroom with Selena and Peele trying to explain influenza. Selena looks mousy. She offers to go first with an innoculation shot [sort of like the tetanus shot Matt gave her in the pilot.] Peele and Selena make eyes at each other . We then shift to a couple talking about paying tuition for their kid and the woman keeps saying how she can't pay. Lucas "appears" and the woman leaves. The man turns out to be Judge Streeter. He listens to Lucas tell him that Crower isn't quite right after his problem a short time back. Lucas says he wants him to sign a power of attorney for him. Streeter has figured out Lucas and refuses. Says that others have always wanted to misuse power to put down dissention, that that's what was done in Russia - dissidents were carted off and put into an asylum. Lucas isn't too happy. Lucas mentions Streeter's wife and tells Streeter not to be too proud to ask for help with "lady luck". Back at the hospital, Matt checks back on Mrs. Smith. She continues to badger Matt about how bad Lucas is. She gives an analogy of being approached by some kid selling a third rate water color and later finding out that the little twit will exterminate 6 million Jews. She asks 'What do you do?' Matt tells her that Lucas is corrupt and manipulative, and probably psychopathic. Smith interrupts him and says that psychobabble doesn't explain Manson, and others and that only pure evil explains people like them. Matt finally asks her how she knows . Mrs. Smith tells Matt that she's Lucas' mother. Matt seems a bit floored by this bit of news. [I found his gullibility a bit hard to swallow.] Back at the boarding house, he finds Miss Holt reading a book on the sofa - Hawthorne. He goes to the bookcase that she has locked up and asks if he can see one of the books. Miss Holt asks Matt what on earth he would want any of those books for. He indicates that he has a patient who is very troubled. Miss Holt informs him that he surely has medical books that deal with her problem. Matt tells her that actually no, he doesn't. That she seems convinced that there is evil out there and that she seems possessed. Or maybe obsessed about the matter. Miss Holt then tells him that some say that obsession is the first step to possession. [This is an interesting statement that actually seems to apply to Matt in this show.] Miss Holt looks at Matt [and what an interesting look those two were giving each other, eh?] and then allows him to take one of the books. She warns him to be careful, that sometimes, evil's greatest trick is getting a person to believe that it doesn't exist. He looks at her and heads upstairs with the book. She looks back at him as if she's worried that something will happen. [So how come she let him have the book?!] Meanwhile, Lucas was able to trick Mrs. Streeter into wagering a large sum of money on a losing hand of cards. [Sorry guys I thought this part of the story really sucked.] Back to Matt in his office going through magazines about Hitler and staring pop-eyed at the drawings. Sarah comes in to say that Mrs. Smith can't get warm. Sarah tells Matt about the "curse" of room 105 and how Caleb's mother was afraid that someone was trying to take Caleb away from her. Sarah sits on the desk and seems to be vamping Dr. Matt. He doesn't notice. Matt goes up to Smith with a blanket and he admits that Lucas has put him through some things. Smith says that Matt is in Lucas' way. Matt says that there are no demons in Carolina. Smith brings up "the boy" and claims that Lucas will destroy Caleb. Matt says that killing Lucas would be an act of evil. Smith says that it would be an act of love. Matt leaves. We then have to put up with Selena flirting with Billy. And Lucas acts like a "buck" who has lost one of his does from his herd. We shift to Streeter's house and his wife is in the tub with blood coming out from under the door. Then we're back to Matt remembering everything that has occurred in Trinity
along with a melange of clips of skulls, Merlyn, himself, Lucas, etc. He then awakes
with a start, turns out he fell asleep reading all the books and magazines he's
managed to gather. There's a knock on the door and Gail is at the door. She claims
she's been thinking a lot about him lately. [As if.] She asks Matt if he wants
to take a walk with her and Caleb on the pier. He declines and shuts the door on
her. He goes back to the desk and Pages start to flap in a breeze that comes from nowhere. Matt startles and all of a sudden he sees the pistol that Smith had had on his desk. He picks it up and holds it up against his temple then draws a bead on a picture of Lucas that has a hairline target drawn on it. Lucas pays a visit to Judge Streeter's house. He puts on a false air of commiseration for the judge, saying how awful it was about Charlotte, that if he'd only done things "his" way, it never would have happened. Turns out that Charlotte couldn't even commit suicide correctly however and will survive. The judge looks at Lucas with some fear. Lucas then says that it's still not too late to make everything right. The judge, desperate, asks how things can be made right. Lucas pulls the power of attorney form out of his vest pocket and hands it to the judge. After some hesitation and more talk back and forth, Judge Streeter signs the form and hands it back. Lucas gives him an evil, ingratiating smile. Matt has another conversation with Mrs. Smith and she again goads him into taking Lucas out. Matt is trying to talk himself out of shooting Lucas by telling her that if he shoots Lucas, he's no better then he is. Smith says that if he doesn't, he's worse. Matt leaves. The drapes that separate patients in the room closes and Smith parts them but there's no one there. Turns out, Lucas is behind her. He says it's a cheap shot with the reference to Hitler. Lucas tells her that he never should have left her and she says she still hates him for it . Lucas gives her a pocket knife to kill him but she wusses out. [I'll spare the Lucas supporters the "kissing scene" with him and this older person.] We then realize that this Smith chick isn't Lucas' mother, she had sex with him when he was 16. Lucas looks her in the eye and tells her that she knows what she has to do. She says yes and throws herself out the window where she falls dead near Matt, who was leaving. He runs to check her. She's dead. He looks up and there, standing at the window, is Lucas Buck. Matt stares up in horror. It's morning all of a sudden and Ben arrives at the Boarding House. Gail and Caleb meet him at the door. He asks if Gail has seen Dr. Crower and she says that he's probably in his room. "What's up?" Caleb asks. "I just have some papers to serve on him." They all go up. Ben knocks. No response. He tries the door. He opens the door. No one is there. The walls are papered with pictures all over them and there are books and what not opened up all over the place. Ben notices the picture of Lucas, a bull's eye on his forehead. Gail gasps. Ben realizes that Matt is going after Lucas. [No s*&^, Sherlock] At the Sheriff's Station, people are getting vaccination shots. Peele sees Lucas and asks him why he lied about him to Selena. Lucas tells Peele that he tells Selena what to think, and she thinks it. Selena appears and tells him - 'Tell me Lucas, what am I thinking now?" She then walks over and kisses Peele. Matt walks into the sheriff's station past Peele. Peele asks him if he's okay and he says "fine." Matt goes into Lucas' office and pulls the pistol out and points it at Lucas. Lucas slowly turns around to face Matt and finds himself staring into the barrel of a gun. Lucas taunts Matt and says he won't kill him with that gun. Lucas tells him it's a 38, a "lady's gun". Ben, Caleb and Gail rush into the station and then rush back towards Lucas' office. Matt says he can shoot him in 3 places that will instantly kill him. Lucas says that if he can get off one shot, he better make it count. Gail comes in and tries to plead with Matt. She pushes Matt's arm away and he only fires when Ben gets a neck lock on him. [I hate it when people take forever to fire off their weapons and blab instead and then miss the chance.] Peele takes the gun and Ben handcuffs Matt. Lucas then addresses Ben but calls him 'deputy' and tells him that he knows what he has to do. Ben just looks at Lucas. Caleb asks Matt what happened but Matt doesn't respond. Caleb seems distressed and Gail holds him. Ben is driving Matt off the road into a lightly forested area. He hauls Matt out, shoves him away. Matt asks if this is it, bullet to the back of the head. Lackey does the dirty work and the guilty go free, just another day in Trinity. Ben's hand goes to his side where his pistol is but he takes the keys and tosses them at Matt. Ben tells him that he's setting Matt free. Tells him to go back to the people where he came from. He seems rather hostile. Matt says he can't do that because he went there to make a difference and he can't run away. He throws the keys back at Ben. Ben then tells him to get back into the car and to keep his mouth shut until they get to Juniper House. [I missed that reference to Juniper House the first 3 times I saw this episode.] Ben says that it isn't any easier for him then it is for Matt. Matt tells Ben he's a coward and Ben tells him to shut up. The camera approaches a door with bars at the top. There's a whistle and then we see a hand bang the bars with a pen. [Appears to be Ben's pen from the pilot.] Lucas tells Matt that he hopes that the ordeal strengthens him. [Isn't that a rather odd thing to say? Doesn't it sound as if the stay is temporary? Something that the script and its various permutations did not hint at.] Matt tells him to go to Hell. Lucas said that he had been there and that it wasn't half bad. Lucas tells Matt that if he'd only lightened up and went along, things would've have worked out. Matt asks about Caleb. Lucas says that Caleb's destiny is in his own hands but that it won't have anything to do with him. Matt approaches the bars and tells Lucas that there will be others to stop him. Considering that he's in a cell, there is a bright light on Matt's shiny hair. Lucas tells Matt that he's "going to miss you, Harvard". [That has to be GC's doing.] Matt yells after him that he'll be stopped. And this pathetic show comes to a close. Bleh. |
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