Episode Recap #33: Wax Magic
Original Airdate: November 18, 1988
Starring:
John D. LeMay as Ryan Dallion
Chris Wiggins as Jack Marshak
Guest cast:
Susannah Hoffmann as Marie Chase
Yvan Labelle as Danny
Angelo Rizacos as Aldwin Chase
Trevor Bain as Cop
David Blacker as Boy #1
Vincent Murray as Boy #2
Kirk Austensen as Teen Boy
Danielle Kiraly as Teen Girl
Written by Carl Binder
Directed by William Fruet
Nighttime at a carnival, full of people having a good time watching performers or riding the rides. A young woman is working the booth at a Wax Museum type tent. Another carny is working a prize game and sees the young woman, Marie, holding her head. Her husband Aldwin comes out, wondering why the speaker is off. Marie says she has a headache. He tells her they need the business and turns it back on. Danny, the other carny, sees her in pain and heads over. He offers her some aspirin. As she comes out of the booth, she collapses. Then Aldwin rushes out, pushes Danny away and takes Marie back into their tent.
Inside, he carries Marie by all the wax statues into the back, placing her in a chair. He tells her to rest and he will take care of everything. Then he takes a lace handkerchief from her. He pins the handkerchief to a wax dummy with and axe and it comes to life. He tells it to go and take the pain away.
Two teens are wandering the carnival. Soon they hear a noise, like that of a swinging ax. They are shocked to see the figure rushing at them, swinging the weapon. They scream.
Back in her bed, Aldwin kisses Marie. She is feeling better. He told her he would take care of everything. She begins to remove her robe as he keeps kissing her.
At Curious Goods, Jack closes up the shop. On the phone, Ryan gets stood up for his date with Sally to go to the carnival. He asks Jack to go with him instead. But Jack is reluctant. He wants to catch up on the old newspapers. Ryan tries to sell the night as a boys' night out. Jack puts him off until Ryan teases his age.
That night, they are walking around the carnival, Ryan having a blast and Jack ready to go home. Ryan bumps into Marie, spilling her drink. He is intrigued by her, asking if she works there. She heads off and he buys her replacement drinks and follows. Ryan says he wants to see the wax museum and they head off, Jack slowly following.
Danny is running his booth and also watching the wax museum, seeing Marie come back with Ryan. Aldwin comes out, asking where she was. Marie introduces Aldwin as her husband. Ryan is confused but still wants to see inside. Marie leads him in, Aldwin is not happy. Danny watches the whole scene.
In the museum, Ryan is amazed by how life-life the figures are. Marie says Aldwin is a genius. Ryan wants to see the backroom, but Aldwin cuts them off, telling Ryan to leave, then grabbing him and forceably pushing him. Marie collapses again. Ryan wants to get a doctor, but Aldwin says she only needs him and tells Ryan to take off.
Outside, Ryan bumps into Danny, who complains about Aldwin. When Jack appears, Danny slips away. Back in the tent, Aldwin again puts the handkerchief on the ax-wielding dummy.
Two guys wander the parking lot to their truck, both very drunk. As one heads off to take a leak, the other hears the swooshing sound of the ax. He dodges the blow, pulls off a finger from the figure, and is then killed. Marie wakes up in the tent, having heard a scream. Aldwin says it is just a nightmare, then kisses her and pushes her back to the bed.
At Curious Goods, Ryan is dressed early, heading back to the carnival to check on Marie. He thinks Aldwin is bad news for Marie. Jack tries to warn him from interfering but Ryan heads out anyway. Jack checks the paper and sees a headline about murder at the carnival.
In his workshop, Aldwin talks to his dummy, which is a replica of Lizzie Borden. Marie asks if the dummy is ready to go back on display, he says not yet. Aldwin wants her to get to work, but she is worried about her headaches. He tells her to clean Lizzie's dress and she wipes blood off of it. Then she has flashbacks to the murders the dummy committed to take away her pain. Aldwin tells her she will be fine. An eavesdropping Danny tells Aldwin to take her to the doctor. Aldwin hits him, then grabs Marie, who rushes off after her friend.
Ryan pulls his car over at a police barricade. He pretends to work at the carnival to get through. As he walks, he finds and pockets the wax finger that fell off during the murder.
Jack continues to search the newspapers, finding more reports of be-headings and death around the carnival.
Ryan finds Marie wandering the carnival and offers to take her for coffee. Danny sees them leave. In the food tent, the two share a coffee. Ryan asks about her headaches, she says Aldwin says they will pass. Then mentions her nightmares and that she also sees Lizzie Borden in them. Ryan is concerned. Aldwin appears and tells his wife it is time to go to work.
Jack shows up and sits down with Ryan, telling him about the murders he has been researching. All victims were killed with an ax and all were beheaded. Ryan shows Jack the wax finger he found. They head off to the museum. Danny was hiding under their table, listening.
As Jack watches, Aldwin puts on his spiel to lure people into his museum. Ryan enters the tent to snoop around, goes into Aldwin's work-space and finds the Lizzie statue. When people begin to enter the museum, Jack grows concerned. Aldwin gives the group a tour, Ryan still snooping around. Then Danny appears and tells Ryan they should talk, but not here. Aldwin sees the rope to the backroom down and goes to investigate, just missing the men leaving. He does see them when he looks outside the tent.
Danny talks to Ryan and Jack, wondering why they are snooping around. He says he thinks there is something wrong with Marie. She can be fine one day and sick the next. Aldwin doesn't seem concerned, but Marie worships him. He said she was just a townie Aldwin had the hots for who wasn't interested in him. But by the time they hit the next town, she followed. When the cops came for her, cause her parents reported her missing, she refused to go back. Jack asks Danny to call them if anything weird happens. They have something to check out. Aldwin, like Danny before, has been eavesdropping on them.
That night at the store, Ryan finishes calling Marie's hometown police. The police found her when she turned up married to chase and refused to go home, being a married adult. Jack and Ryan agree that Aldwin somehow must be the killer, but cannot figure out how. And Jack can't find any item in the manifest that could somehow be connected to Aldwin, the carnival or the ax murders.
Outside the carnival, Danny sees a cloaked figure walking away from the museum tent. He follows. He loses track of the person, then is surprised when it jumps out and attacks, killing him with the ax. Under the veil is Marie.
Later, the police are at a new murder scene, this time Danny's. Aldwin walks away, then tells Marie that Danny is dead. She is shocked. Aldwin says Danny stuck his nose in where it wasn't wanted too many times. Then he starts putting the moves on Marie, but she is no mood. He is furious, saying she owes him. He thinks she is falling for Ryan, she denies it. He says if she is lying, Ryan is finished. And so will she be. He pushes her away. He says he made her to want to be with him, why has she changed? Marie lies there, very confused.
Ryan comes back to the store, telling Jack that Danny has been killed. Jack is shocked, then tells Ryan about a Louis the XVI handkerchief from the manifest. Seems Madame Tussaud was paid with the handkerchief after doing a sculpt of him. When Uncle Lewis got hold of it and added the curse, the beheading aspect went with it. Ryan remembers the wax dummy of Lizzie Borden and they realize she is somehow coming to life.
At the carnival, Aldwin heads off to deposit the night's receipts, leaving Marie to run the booth. Ryan shows up and she smiles. He heads inside with her while Jack goes to search for the handkerchief. Marie tells Ryan how kind Danny had been to her. Ryan asks how she is attracted to her husband. Marie keeps having flashes as they talk, of Danny right before he was murdered. Ryan tries to find out when her headaches began to appear. She isn't sure. Ryan asks if her pain goes away when there is a murder. She flashes again to Danny and the axe. Aldwin is shown, watching them. Jack continues his search. Ryan gives her his card, telling to keep in touch with him. She is touched by his kindness. Ryan again asks what is going on, but Aldwin interrupts. He tells Ryan to get out, then Jack comes in. Aldwin then calls the other carny men and then show Ryan and Jack the door.
Marie is confused, trying to understand what Aldwin has been doing. He slaps her, then holds the handkerchief up, threatening her "boyfriend", Ryan.
At the store, Jack tells Ryan that he needs to be more careful with women, to stop being so soft-hearted. Just then, the Lizzie Borden figure leaps off the railing, attacking them with the ax, smashing glass cases and antiques in her quest to kill them. She cuts a cord causing a chandelier to almost kill Jack. As Lizzie raises the ax to kill Jack, Ryan appears with the can of hairspray and a lighter and shoots a flame at her. As they pull her veil off, they see it is Marie, and her hand is melted wax now.
As she lays on the floor. Jack believes Aldwin killed the real Marie by sealing her in wax to keep her forever. The curse is keeping her alive, but the longer she lives, the more of a real person she is slowly becoming, hence the headaches and nightmares. Ryan spots the handkerchief on her, Jack goes to remove it but Ryan stops him, saying it will kill her. Jack reminds him she is already dead. Ryan says he can't watch then and goes to head upstairs. Marie begs him to help her, but Jack tells him to go.
As Ryan heads upstairs, Jack goes to remove the handkerchief and suddenly there is a gunshot. Jack is hit and falls, then the gunman, Aldwin, shoots at Ryan. More antiques are destroyed as Aldwin grabs Marie and takes off. Jack tells Ryan to go after them, Ryan protests cause Jack is hurt, but he tells him to go and get the handkerchief.
At the museum, Aldwin prepares wax to help fix Marie and her melted hand. She asks what is happening to her. He says once she is fixed up, she won't remember a thing. She asks him why she did all of this to her. She knows the nightmares are real, that he made her kill people. Aldwin is confused as to how she knows all this. Marie also knows that killing others is what gives her life. He said it was the only way he could have her. When she was flesh, she didn't want him but this way she does. He goes to cut her melted hand off but they hear a noise so he goes to investigate.
He searches the darkened museum, knife in hand. Ryan jumps out and attacks him and they struggle. Aldwin comes at Ryan with the knife, over and over, making contact once. As Marie tries to stop him, he pushes her into the flame where the wax is melting. The fire draws Marie, who steps further into it. She begins to melt, telling Ryan it was the only way.
Later, Jack is packing the handkerchief in a box to store in the vault. Ryan asks how his arm is and Jack says it was just a scratch. Ryan says no one noticed him take the handkerchief as they were too busy cataloging missing people. Seems Aldwin was killing people, dipping them in wax and using them as his wax figures. Ryan asks why Marie did it and Jack says she was becoming a person and realizing her one life was not worth all those deaths. He heads off to place the handkerchief in the vault as Ryan continues to clean up the store.
An interesting episode, with a high body count for the murderer. We know all the figures in the was museum were murdered people Aldwin killed, and he also killed to keep his revived Marie alive. So, how many murders did this many actually perpetrate? Seems like a lot!
The curse in this episode confused me the first time I watched. I wasn't sure what was going on. The ax murderer was Lizzie Borden with an ax, but the actually cursed item was a handkerchief owned by Louis XVI who used it to pay Madame Tussaud. Confusing. And then Marie isn't Marie, well not the real one, anymore. I feel like the Louis XVI and Tussaud connections could have been overkill.
The destruction in the store was insane this week. Not only does the wax Marie swing an ax around hitting glass and cases and items, but then Aldwin appears and shoots the place up! What the heck did Micki think when she came home?
Micki is missing this week, which is too bad, but Ryan and Jack are more than capable of handling things without her, as are Wiggins and LeMay. The chemistry between the three leads was always great, no matter if they were all together or in different groupings. Just worked well.
And Ryan continues his streak of just picking the wrong woman to become enamored with. Poor guy.
One little side note: The Lizzie Borden part was a bit of a fun nod for me. I am from Fall River, Massachusetts, where the Borden murders took place. I used to take the bus to the bus station in town and when waiting there, you could look across the street and see the house. For years it was almost an after-thought. But now, people have turned into into a bed-and-breakfast and a tourist attraction.
