Eerie Indiana, S1 E8: The Dead Letter

Starring:
Omri Katz as Marshall Teller
Justin Shenkarow as Simon Holmes
Mary-Margaret Humes as Marilyn Teller
Francis Guinan as Edgar Teller
Julie Condra as Syndi Teller
Tobey Maguire as Tripp McConnell
Herta Ware as Mary B. Carter
Aimee Brooks as Young Mary
T.C. Warner as Andrea
Jeff Fried as Paramedic

Written by: James Crite
Directed by: Tim Hunter

Well what do you know? As it turns out, the writers of “Eerie” didn't get out all that they had to say about death in the last episode, and have turned around immediately to tackle the subject head-on yet again.

If you're so cold and heartless that you can't give the show anything else, you at least have to admire it for the casting choices: It seems the special guest from every episode has gone on to do some pretty big things in Hollywood. For example, Danielle Harris, from the last episode, would go on to become popular for her voice role on the Wild Thornberry's, as well as her live-action roles in Rob Zombie's Halloween remakes. Here, we have a young Tobey Maguire—who looks eerily like current Tobey Maguire—playing the role of a ghost.

That ghost is Tripp McConnell, and he is awakened when Marshall finds an old letter in a book at the local bookstore. After the initial shock of finding a man from the 1930s hanging around the bookshelves wears off, Marshall picks up on what Tripp is trying to urge him to do: Deliver the letter to its intended recipient.

You see, Tripp was deeply, madly in love with one Mary Carter 62 years ago, and they were certain to be wed. But then Tripp got some cold feet and left Mary out in the cold, something she has never forgotten, or forgiven, all these years later. But that can be the problem with life: not everything is always as it seems. In this case, the only thing Tripp did wrong was get killed, and that’s what prevented him from marrying his childhood sweetheart, something she has been oblivious to for all the prevailing years.

Since Marshall was the one that discovered the letter, then Marshall is the one that is required to deliver it to Mary Carter in this current day and age, 62 years later. He refuses quite a few times, finding Tripp to be a rather annoying chap, at which point Tripp has to rely on his ghostly cunning to get him to change his mind: He wins over the Teller family with his ghostly charm, earning an invite to stay for dinner. Marshall isn’t too keen on seeing this happen, so he reluctantly agrees to help him, on the grounds that he leaves him alone afterwards.

Thankfully, the myriad of possible pitfalls that one could face when searching for a person after six decades, are all conveniently avoided: Mary still lives at the exact same address as she did all those years ago, with her granddaughter, who happens to be Marshall's age. At first Mary thinks Marshall is lying, until she reads the letter, and then learns the truth about Tripp's fate.

The ending of this one is actually pretty similar to “Heart on a Chain”, now that I think about it, with the two lovers reunited in the afterlife, something we can see coming from the outset (though it's not as creepy as it sounds, as Tripp sees Mary the way she was when they were together, as opposed to the old decaying hag that she has become). This one is a little less devastating, simply because we’re dealing with an old woman versus a young one (and old women are always considered expendable in today’s society), but it’s still a pretty hefty emotional saga for a young adult to sit through. Nevertheless, with two themes so closely intertwined to one another, I think it would have made more sense to space those two apart a few episodes, rather than have them be back-to-back installments.

Also a little bizarre is Marshall's initial refusal to have anything to do with Tripp. Here is a kid that goes out of his way to investigate weird goings-on in Eerie, and so for him to get offended by Tripp's simple request, simply because he “feels like” he's trouble, just seems out of character, especially since Tripp does nothing to garner such feelings. Sure, he comes off as rather arrogant in their first meeting, but isn't rude or offensive in any specific way. Just a weird way for a “hardened” investigator of the macabre to act.

When the dust settles, this is a pretty decent episode, but by leaning heavily on many of the same themes that the previous episode dealt with does it no favors.

EPISODE RATING: 6/10

FULL EPISODE

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