Oddly, "Repetition" feels more like a F13th episode than the previous episode, "Midnight Riders". That featured our team but no antique. "Repetition" features an antique but almost none of our trio. This episode just proves that the cursed antiques are the key to the series, and their insidious evil. No one in the episode is "evil" per se. Walter is a dope who accidentally kills a girl ("Don't kill when you're tired, boys and girls!"), but he gets sucked in by an antique and its siren-like call to make right what once went wrong. To borrow a phrase from another show. :)
In past reviews I've noted that the production staff should focus more on the people whose lives are affected by the antiques, rather than our trio's personal lives and problems. Well, Micki and Johnny's lives and problems: I'll watch Chris Wiggins do Jack's personal lives and problems any day of the week. :) "Repetition" is the ultimate manifestation of that desire. We get to see Walter the columnist, and how he gets sucked into the locket' influence.
With more focus on the antique-user of the week, we see how the pressure of Walter's mother drives him to kill her to bring Heather back to life. Kay Tremblay is suitably pitiful as demanding as Walter's mother, and Vicki Wauchope does good voice work as the locket Heather, as the "voice" of the antique.
I also like the evil of the antique. It isn't satisfied with driving Walter to matricide. It makes him kill again. And again. And again, further damning his soul. It turns an accidental death into a series of murders. That's a lot more subtle than the usual "antique gives the user what it wants with some kind of supernatural power, but requires a sacrifice". Walter gains nothing from killing, other than to temporarily stop the nagging voices of his victims.
And eventually the locket drive Walter to try and deliberately kill the girl that he originally killed by accident.
What's ironic is that the antique uses the tragedy to corrupt Walter's soul. It never "kills" more than one person at a time, driving him to kill someone to bring his last victim back. But you can see Walter descending into madness and evil, and David Ferry does a good job of portraying that as well as Walter's slow deterioration into madness at the voices in his head.
The episode also does a good job of showing Walter's slow corruption. He goes from killing a child by accident, to killing his ailing mother in what is almost a mercy killing, to picking out a homeless person to "trade". Yes, Mrs. Cromwell comes back to life in the middle of being embalmed (which is more horrific than anything in "Epitaph for a Lonely Soul" a few episodes previously), but if Walter had a little more foresight and hid the body instead of handing it over to the undertaker... At least Bill came back when Walter sacrifices himself.
So Walter kind of got his wish that everything went back the way it was. Granted, he screwed up with his mother, but who can blame him. But he did die for his sin, and Heather and Bill are still alive. But therein lies the tragedy of the whole thing.
The episode, and writer Jennifer Lynch, do a subtle study on guilt and the true effectiveness of Lewis' curse. "Repetition" is ten times more powerful than something like "Cupid's Quiver", and it's good to see that Lynch has stayed busy in the business, as a writer and director. Sadly, this was the only episode she wrote for F13 the series, or appears to have written in general for TV. Although Lynch has directed plenty of genre TV. That's a shame, as I'd like to see her have done more with the later F13 episodes.
Overall, "Repetition" is an effective one-off. I wouldn't want to see (and we didn't see) every episode feature a non-trio antique user. It is a serialized TV show. But this episode is a well-written one. If they were all like this, I guess I wouldn't mind.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
In past reviews I've noted that the production staff should focus more on the people whose lives are affected by the antiques, rather than our trio's personal lives and problems. Well, Micki and Johnny's lives and problems: I'll watch Chris Wiggins do Jack's personal lives and problems any day of the week. :) "Repetition" is the ultimate manifestation of that desire. We get to see Walter the columnist, and how he gets sucked into the locket' influence.
With more focus on the antique-user of the week, we see how the pressure of Walter's mother drives him to kill her to bring Heather back to life. Kay Tremblay is suitably pitiful as demanding as Walter's mother, and Vicki Wauchope does good voice work as the locket Heather, as the "voice" of the antique.
I also like the evil of the antique. It isn't satisfied with driving Walter to matricide. It makes him kill again. And again. And again, further damning his soul. It turns an accidental death into a series of murders. That's a lot more subtle than the usual "antique gives the user what it wants with some kind of supernatural power, but requires a sacrifice". Walter gains nothing from killing, other than to temporarily stop the nagging voices of his victims.
And eventually the locket drive Walter to try and deliberately kill the girl that he originally killed by accident.
What's ironic is that the antique uses the tragedy to corrupt Walter's soul. It never "kills" more than one person at a time, driving him to kill someone to bring his last victim back. But you can see Walter descending into madness and evil, and David Ferry does a good job of portraying that as well as Walter's slow deterioration into madness at the voices in his head.
The episode also does a good job of showing Walter's slow corruption. He goes from killing a child by accident, to killing his ailing mother in what is almost a mercy killing, to picking out a homeless person to "trade". Yes, Mrs. Cromwell comes back to life in the middle of being embalmed (which is more horrific than anything in "Epitaph for a Lonely Soul" a few episodes previously), but if Walter had a little more foresight and hid the body instead of handing it over to the undertaker... At least Bill came back when Walter sacrifices himself.
So Walter kind of got his wish that everything went back the way it was. Granted, he screwed up with his mother, but who can blame him. But he did die for his sin, and Heather and Bill are still alive. But therein lies the tragedy of the whole thing.
The episode, and writer Jennifer Lynch, do a subtle study on guilt and the true effectiveness of Lewis' curse. "Repetition" is ten times more powerful than something like "Cupid's Quiver", and it's good to see that Lynch has stayed busy in the business, as a writer and director. Sadly, this was the only episode she wrote for F13 the series, or appears to have written in general for TV. Although Lynch has directed plenty of genre TV. That's a shame, as I'd like to see her have done more with the later F13 episodes.
Overall, "Repetition" is an effective one-off. I wouldn't want to see (and we didn't see) every episode feature a non-trio antique user. It is a serialized TV show. But this episode is a well-written one. If they were all like this, I guess I wouldn't mind.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?