Mike Carter, from his paper round, has saved seventy dollars, with which he aims to buy a present for his mother's birthday tomorrow. He urges his younger brother Sam to get off the couch and help him. Their mother wonders where they’re both off to. Mike hastily invents a cover story in which he and Sam are going skating.
In a quiet ornament shop, Sam disdainfully appraises the quaint displays, and decides to visit to the toyshop next door. Mike hesitantly allows it, and warns Sam to stay there until collected.
Mike notices a display near the ceiling. Amidst several china dolls sits a clown doll. Atop a red tunic is a pale grey spherical head, crowned with three tufts of purple hair, and set with a red mouth; a bulbous red nose, and large, round eyes of dark blue glass. Mike stares, unnerved.
From behind him, the shopkeeper offers assistance. Mike states his intent and budget. The shopkeeper reaches for a small, china effigy of a couple in Regency attire. Mike is impressed.
Just then, Sam returns from the toyshop. Mike reaches for his wallet, but can’t seem to find the money. Meanwhile, Sam looks around, and finds himself transfixed by the clown. Mike asks if Sam has seen his money, but Sam is lost in a trance. Mike wheels him around - and he drops a paper bag, from which falls a video game cartridge case, Zeebo’s Big House.
Mike realises Sam to have stolen his money. Mike's eyes fall once more on the lurid clown doll. Such misdeeds as Sam's, he says, are seen by the Crimson Clown. Sam gives the Clown a contemptuous look. Suddenly, its glass blue eyes glow, as if lit by a bulb from within. Sam hurries after Mike.
Back home, Mrs Carter sternly asks Sam where they’ve been. Sam tells a bogus story about Mike insisting on seeing his friends. While Mike is berated, Sam, from behind, makes mockingly concurrent gestures.
In his and Mike’s shared bedroom, Sam unpacks his new video game. He turns to the desk - and finds himself face to face with the Crimson Clown doll. Sam cries out in horror. When Mike appears in the bedroom doorway, Sam demands he remove the lurid item - but the Clown is gone.
After dinner, Mike agrees to help his mother clear up. Sam goes to watch television.
On the couch, Sam chuckles heartily over a man's prolonged death agonies. Suddenly, the broadcast is disrupted by static. A high-pitched cackle echoes through the speakers. Overhead, the light bulb dies, plunging the room into darkness. The door slams shut. The high-pitched voice voice then addresses Sam with a giggled threat.
From out of the television screen reaches a hand of pale grey cloth in a red tunic sleeve. It stretches across the room to where Sam is paralysed with fear.
With a return of the living room light, the hand vanishes. Sam's mother arrives, and directs him to bed.
At ten past ten, as he lies awake in the dark, the door creaks open. Mike arrives, apologetically confesses to have made up all that stuff about the Crimson Clown, and gets into his own bed.
Sam falls asleep...
His quilt is swept off. The bed he’s lying on turns out to be a wall, which falls. In near-darkness, he finds himself back in the ornament shop. As he calls for help through the locked door, a deep, guttural laugh nears from behind.
The shopkeeper approaches - but his head is covered by a huge white sphere, set with the wild purple hair, bulbous red nose, red smile, and glass blue eyes of the Crimson Clown. The painted eyebrows slant in malice. While its mouth is painted on, the apparition exudes the deep voice.
From the floor, a crimson ribbon flies to Sam’s shoulder, and proceeds to wrap him in snake-like coils.
Sam wakes, back in bed - but finds himself encircled by numerous coils of crimson ribbon, which pin him to the mattress.
At the foot of the bed, the quilt bulges, as a concealed shape moves towards Sam.
Sam manages to pull off the ribbon; leaps out of bed, and throws aside the covers - and finds only the mattress.
With no sign of Mike, Sam finds, on his brother's pillow, the huge, spherical, deathly white head of the Crimson Clown. It rolls to face upwards. From somewhere about it, the booming laugh returns.
Sam screams in horror. As the voice jeers, the balloon head inflates. With a bang, it bursts, showering confetti. As Sam flees, Mike’s bed is now set with a circular red sign, upon which "Sam" is prohibited by a diagonal red line.
Sam tries the jammed bedroom door. He then lifts the window blind. Floating in the night outside is another iteration of the Clown’s bulbous head.
Sam manages to open the door. From across the landing floor, two lengths of ribbon fly into the room; wrap themselves around his legs, pull him to the floor, and drag him onto the landing. He seizes one of his skating boots, and manages to dislodge the ribbons.
Outside the door, through a pale mist, the Crimson Clown, this time with a full, tunic-clad body, looms into the room. Crazed with terror, Sam back to his bed, and begs for another chance. As the Clown nears the bed, a white glow engulfs the room.
Sam wakes in bright sunshine. Mike, already dressed, urges Sam along. Overcome with joy, Sam realises himself to have been given another chance.
Mrs Carter prepares to open her present. Sam watches in amazement as their mother delightedly receives the ornament Mike had meant to buy. She hugs both her sons.
Sam, closes Gary, got what he asked for - a second chance. Sam(antha) pointedly asks Tucker’s opinion. With a contrite sigh, Tucker produces a folded piece of paper, hands it to Gary, and relieves him of sock duty.
This episode provides examples of:
- Affably Evil: The Crimson Clown may be an evil entity that punishes naughty children, but he's nothing if not merciful enough to give Sam a second chance to be a good kid.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Sam is gleefully malicious to Mike.
- Blatant Lies: When Sam begs that he's sorry for everything he's done, the Crimson Clown pegs that he's not one bit sorry.
- Continuity Nod:
- Zeebo now stars in a video game.
- More ambiguously, the ornament shop, with its displayed dolls and supernatural implications, offers interpretable parallel with "The Tale of the Dollmaker".
- Creepy Doll: In the ornament shop, a clown doll's eyes suddenly glow blue. It then vanishes and reappears in sneaky persecution of Sam, and eventually incarnates as a man-sized doll with a painted, glowering face.
- Disappeared Dad: The boys' dad seems to be absent.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Throughout the story, the Crimson Clown stalks Sam, forcibly separates him from his family, and threatens unspeakable punishment. What for? For the crime of stealing Mike's hard-earned money, getting him in trouble, and overall ruining their mother's birthday now they have no present to give her. While those sound pretty bad on paper, they don't exactly merit the Crimson Clown's punishment.
- Easily Forgiven: Later in the episode, Mike comes into Sam's room and apologizes for telling the story of the Crimson Clown, admitting he made it up to spite his younger brother for his bad behavior. Now bear in mind, on top of being a snotty brat, Sam stole Mike's money for their mom's birthday present, spent it for himself, got Mike in trouble with their mom, and overall ruined their mother's birthday. If anything, Mike had every right not to tell Sam the Crimson Clown wasn't real. However, this trope does work for two purposes. First, it's supposed to have the effect that the Crimson Clown has taken on a life of its own beyond a made up boogeyman. Second, it's supposed to imply that the only reason the Crimson Clown even gave Sam a second chance was because of Mike's forgiveness.
- Evil Gloating: The Crimson Clown booms with laughter over Sam's helplessness.
- Evil Laugh: Both a high-pitched cackle and a booming chuckle.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Although the Clown's features are inanimate, it exudes a thunderously deep snarl.
- Madness Mantra: The Clown's endless repetition of "You're a bad kid, Sam" comes across this way.
- Manipulative Bastard: When their mother wonders why they were late getting home, Sam decides to make Mike even more miserable (on top of them failing to get their mother a birthday present) and lies that Mike was deliberately late out of simple disobedience. Then, Sam makes faces at Mike while their mother berates the latter, prompting Mike to look annoyed and appeared as though he's not taking his Mom's riot act seriously.
- Monster Clown: The Crimson Clown is an entity that pulls off some light Freddy Krueger-esque stunts on Sam to scare him straight.
- My Greatest Second Chance: Sam is more than thrilled when, instead of punishing him, he wakes up to the moment before he and Mike went out to buy their mother a birthday present.
- Nightmare Face: The Crimson Clown's inanimate glower, combined with his malicious voice, is extremely sinister.
- Nothing Is Scarier: Precisely what the Crimson Clown aims to do to Sam is never specified. Although, going by Sam's dream, the Clown seems to have in mind some kind of incarceration in the ornament shop...
- Offscreen Teleportation: In doll form, the Clown spooks Sam by instantaneous disappearance and reappearance.
- Sadist: The Crimson Clown gloats over a terrified child.
- Scare 'Em Straight: The end of the episode implies that the Crimson Clown's stalking and threatening Sam was this trope in action—he was trying to get him to stop being such a brat. When Sam tearfully begs for another chance and promises to be a good kid, the Clown vanishes and even rewinds time to make it so that Sam never stole Mike's money, allowing them to give their mother a proper birthday present.
- Shout-Out: A Sonic the Hedgehog 2 poster.
