The Parent Deathtrap
Written By: Erik Sandoval & Michael Rousselet
Lyle VelJohnson (Dylan Sloane) lives a life that is, in every sense of the word, terrible. The cherries on top of his atrocious life are his spoiled rich, pretentious, overbearing, and utterly atrocious parents, Gloria and Archibald (Loretta Walsh and Shaughnessy Redden), who spend every day in every way telling their only child to his face how they view him as a total disappointment. When prom comes around, Lyle has no interest in going, but his parents, being the attention-seeking, money-grubbing people they are, arrange for him to take the most popular girl in school as his date, as they made a sizable donation to the company of her parents. As Lyle lays in bed that night, Gloria's cat Churchill relieves itself on his blanket and slashes Lyle's face, enraging Lyle to the point where he kills it. Lyle soon comes downstairs dressed in a black trench coat and fedora he declares to be his outfit, prompting a furious Archibald to throw his hat in the fireplace and forcing him to wear the sea captain's outfit Gloria prepared for him. Hours soon pass as Gloria tries calling the girl's family and doesn't receive an answer. When she finally gets through, it's revealed that the girl stood their son up hours ago. This prompts Archibald to blame Lyle for letting her parents run off with their donation, once again calling him a sniveling weirdo.
Having finally reached his breaking point, Lyle grabs one of the swords above the fireplace and swings it at his father's neck, which only cuts a few inches deep. After quipping that Lyle was supposed to sharpen the swords and can’t even kill him properly, Lyle gradually lops his father's head off completely. Gloria walks in, and after complaining that Lyle got blood all over the living room, her son eviscerates her with the sword. Lyle heads to the dock behind the house and dumps the bodies of his parents and their cat in the lake. Lyle promptly goes to bed, finally free of his atrocious "role-models", only for the ghostly Churchill to enter the room, followed by the ghosts of his father and mother, who promptly resume berating him for murdering them.
Four years later, Gloria and Archibald continue to haunt and taunt their now unfazed son as he goes about his daily routine, but they tell him that they may pass on if he finds a wife and settles down. At the supermarket that day, Lyle spies Violet Meyers (Chloe Babcock), the popular girl who stood him up in high school, similarly shopping for groceries. When they meet face to face, Violet apologizes to Lyle for standing him up, which the lovestruck Lyle calls water under the bridge. His ghostly parents, invisible to everyone but their son, look on in annoyance, but reluctantly grow to accept Lyle and Violet setting up a makeup date. Before the date, however, Special Agents Ella and Mann (Andrea Drepaul and Ed Chow) show up on Lyle's doorstep, asking about where his parents went. Lyle fibs that they went on a lengthy vacation in Switzerland, which seems to pacify the agents and allows them to leave, but not before they suddenly ask him if his parents invested in a company known as Midwich Financial. Archibald, hearing this, tells Lyle that he needs to put the family's money in his name if he wants it to stay safe.
As Violet and Lyle (and the parents) go for a lakeside walk, Violet tells Lyle that her parents were con artists whose company, Midwich Financial, was a Ponzi scheme through which they scammed the town out of millions. After the family lost all their money in the court settlement, Violet's father disappeared and her mother drank herself to death. In response, Lyle tells Violet that his parents died as well, having caught one another cheating and killing each other. Now knowing that they have a connection and seem to be there for each other, Lyle and Violet share a kiss. Afterwards, Lyle and Violet, along with the former's parents and cat, watch a movie and start making out, escalating to full-on sex as Archibald tries and fails to watch.
The next morning, the agents return to ask more questions about his parents. The eavesdropping Violet hears Lyle telling them his story about them being in Switzerland, rather than how they murdered each other like he told her. Thinking that Lyle was lying about his parents to get closer to her, Violet ditches him. As his ghostly parents tell him that Violet wasn't good enough for him, Lyle, unable to take the stress of their harassment anymore, grabs the sword he used to kill them off the fireplace and prepares to slit his wrists with it. At this, the parents let loose a thunderous scream that stops Lyle by way of bowling him over. Not wanting their son to go out this way, Archibald and Gloria tell Lyle that they should've paid more attention to him than their wealth and status, and are proud of him for moving up in the world. Archibald even calls Lyle a true man for taking initiative and standing up for himself, mentioning how badly he wanted to murder his own father. Lyle soon finds Violet hiding in another room and apologizes to her, claiming that he always hated his parents and wished they were dead, but when it finally happened, he felt dead inside and used the "vacation" excuse as a coping mechanism to shield himself from the pain, which disappears whenever he's with her. Accepting his apology, Violet hugs Lyle and the pair are soon married in court.
That night, the couple sit down for dinner, but Lyle feels rather odd after drinking some wine Violet offers him. As Gloria and Archibald observe the scene from outside the mansion, the ghostly couple spot the police fishing not one, but two pairs of bodies out of the lake; those of Violet's parents, before rushing off to warn their son. As Lyle stumbles and collapses from the poisoned wine, Violet, sharply changing demeanors, admits that she purposefully stood him up to protect her reputation, since everyone in school hated him. She also tells Lyle that she ultimately killed her own parents and faked her father's disappearance to gain their life insurance, the only money they had left, as a means of sustaining herself and upholding her reputation, until the money ran out. As the ghosts of her parents, Chester and Viviane (Tariq Leslie and Julie Howgate), appear behind her, she reveals that she intended to kill Lyle for his inheritance under their command as revenge for driving them to bankruptcy, as well as petty revenge that he never had to downgrade his life as she did. Lyle, close to death, manages to reveal that he actually killed his parents before he actually got his inheritance, thereby revealing the family fortune is still in his father's name, just before he falls unconscious.
Lyle's spectral parents barge into the room too late to save their son, heartbroken at seeing him appear lifeless. Spotting Violet standing over him and her parents' ghosts behind her, Gloria and Archibald express their anger with unholy screeching, causing the lights to flicker and the police outside the house to be alerted. In the process, Violet is frightened to death by the spectacle, her corpse wide-eyed and white-haired when she's loaded in a body bag. Lyle, sitting in a hospital bed and recovering from the poison, is cuffed by Ella, telling him that he's under arrest for the murder of Violet and her parents, but he deliriously clarifies that he only killed his parents. As soon as he says this, Violet's ghost appears before him and vows that she's going to make the rest of his life a living hell. Her parents back her up on this, berating Lyle for killing their daughter, and Gloria and Archibald reappear as well, berating their son for letting himself get arrested for a crime he didn't commit. Lyle can only scream and beg as he's hauled off to prison, now being followed by five nagging ghosts that will never leave him alone again.
This episode contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: GLORIA & ARCHIBALD, who never once ease up on the emotional abuse of their poor son. They do lighten up when he almost kills himself, but they go right back to abusing him at the end of the episode.
- Alpha Bitch: Violet used to be the most popular girl in school, even standing Lyle up on prom night after his parents made a sizable donation to hers. She pretends to have become more humbled after they died and she lost everything, only to reveal near the end that she was faking it to kill Lyle for his inheritance and please her own dead parents... who she herself also killed.
- Artistic License – Law: Lyle's confession to his parents' murders wouldn't hold up as he's clearly medicated, and it would be easy to rule him speaking to the ghosts as hallucinations.
- Asshole Victim: Every character who isn't in law enforcement gets what they deserve, with Gloria, Archibald, Chester, Viviane, and Violet dead. The quintet unfortunately follow Lyle right to prison, so he could count too.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: As much as Gloria and Archibald rebuke their son, they stop him from killing himself and apologize to him for their horrendous attitudes. They also notice the corpses of Violet's parents being fished out of the lake and rush to warn Lyle, and though they're too late, they intend to get revenge on Violet and her similarly ghostly parents. Of course, by the end, they're right back to belittling him again.
- Bathos: It's quite literally all over the place with this episode, going back to the spirit of the original film.
- Big "NO!": Lyle screams one when his parents return from the dead, and he screams another at the end, as he's being hauled to prison.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: As described above, Violet. She stood Lyle up on prom night after his parents gave a huge donation to hers, but after their business crumbled and they lost everything, she became more gentle and turned over a new leaf. The end reveals that she was faking it all along, as she actually killed her parents for the life insurance after their company went under in a desperate bid to keep her wealthy, popular status, then aimed to kill Lyle for his inheritance, both for more riches and to appease her own parents' ghosts for being ruined. When she returns as a ghost, she vows to make his life a living hell.
- Black Comedy: Creepshow's tagline has always been "The most fun you'll ever have being scared!", and this episode delivers on that promise tenfold. It's an exemplary blend of funny and morbid, everyone is over-the-top campy, nasty, and/or pathetic, and there's an exasperated Here We Go Again! ending that manages to dish out karmic punishment to everyone who deserves it by the time we get there.
- Bland-Name Product: Lyle (and his parents) shops at the "Sabzi Mandi Supermarket", named after the Subzi Mandi chain.
- Call-Back: The trenchcoat and fedora Lyle intends to wear to prom is the same disguise Angela wore in Night of the Paw. Archibald also throws the fedora into the fireplace, just as Angela did to the monkey's paw, and even outright tells Lyle that he looks like a serial killer.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Lyle's parents, and likely his whole family, ever since their ancestor bought his way onto the Mayflower.
- Covert Pervert: As Lyle and Violet start making out while watching a movie, the ghostly Archibald stares at them, enjoying himself. He also tries to stay behind when they start stripping down for sex, only to have Gloria pull him away.
- Dies Wide Open: Violet's face is left in a shocked expression after Lyle's parents scare her to death.
- Disappeared Dad: As part of her lie, Violet tells Lyle that her fraudster father disappeared when his business failed and he lost everything, and her mother drank herself to death, when she actually killed them both for their life insurance.
- Disposing of a Body: Lyle is easily able to get rid of his parents' bodies by dumping them in the lake their house sits on.
- Domestic Abuse: Archibald and Gloria rebuke Lyle as an utterly pathetic wretch and think every single thing he does is wrong.
- Downer Ending: Even though his parents finally show him some affection (to a degree) and they end up getting Violet out of the picture before she can kill him, Lyle is arrested for the murder of Violet and her parents, as well as his own, and Violet herself comes back as a ghost vowing revenge. The last shot of the episode has Lyle pleading and crying as he's hauled off to rot in prison for the rest of his life, all while being forever haunted by five horrific, nagging ghosts that will never leave him again (six if you count Churchill).
- Driven to Suicide: When Violet leaves him after his story starts coming apart and his parents once again nag him, Lyle snaps and goes to slit his wrists with the sword he used to kill them.
- Even Evil Has Standards: In his parents' eyes, Lyle has never done a single thing they've condoned or congratulated him for. The minute he tries to slit his wrists after they said Violet wasn't good enough for him, however, they wail loudly enough to knock him on his ass to stop him. They promptly apologize and assure him that they don't want him to end up like them, too self-assured to pay attention to what he wants.
- Evil Is Hammy: Gloria and Archibald never lower their voices or drop their "rich elitist" accents for the whole episode.
- Exact Words / Foreshadowing: During their lakeside walk, Violet looks back on how she was a spoiled rich kid in high school and "did a lot of growing up" since then. We learn near the end that she meant she grew physically and not as a person, as she's still a money-crazed Alpha Bitch who tries to kill Lyle for his family's inheritance.
- Feghoot: It comes before the actual ending, but Ella's claim about how she and Mann almost had Violet dead to rights for her parents' murder, only now she's "just dead".
- Fright Deathtrap: Lyle's parents express their rage via ghostly wailing and screaming when Violet poisons Lyle, which ends up causing Violet to die from fright. Her corpse even appears white-haired and shell-shocked as she's hauled off.
- Ghostly Animals: Lyle's first victim is Gloria's cat Churchill, and he returns along with his mother and father from the grave.
- Ghostly Wail: Lyle's parents learn that they possess the ability to emit ear-piercing banshee screams as ghosts. They use these screams to combat Violet and her parents, but they also alert the police outside the house to what's going on.
- Gold Digger: Violet, who tries to poison Lyle to gain his inheritance, and had previously murdered her own parents for their life insurance.
- Hate Sink: ARCHIBALD AND GLORIA, who act as cartoonishly rich, stuffy, and abusive as possible in their treatment of Lyle, living up to the Creep's opening narration of how they were the most despicable parents alive. They do hold some degree of affection for Lyle, however, stopping him from killing himself and trying to save/avenge him from Violet, but the end of the episode has them going right back to the nagging.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: Lyle's parents treat him with genuine respect and sympathy after he attempts suicide, and try their damndest to stop Violet and her own parents, but the ending shows that they've essentially forgotten all of that and keep on rebuking him.
- Here We Go Again!: As Lyle is hauled off to jail, he's followed by the nagging specters of his parents, his wife's parents, and his wife himself, all of them vowing to never leave him alone again.
- Hero of Another Story: Ella and Mann were apparently trying to nab Violet for her own parents' murder, hence why they were interrogating Lyle at his doorstep.
- Honor-Related Abuse: Violet plays her murder of Lyle with this trope, claiming that his parents torpedoed her family name and wants his inheritance as revenge.
- Ignored Epiphany: Though they show strong resentment and empathy to Lyle after he nearly kills himself, the end of the episode has Gloria and Archibald once again berating him as he's carried off to jail, as well as the ghosts of Violet and her own parents.
- Inheritance Murder: After they're wed, Violet tries to poison Lyle to death for his inheritance as a means of revenge against his family, but Lyle spends his last conscious moments telling her that it was all for nothing, as no one found out that he killed his parents before the family fortune could be put in his name.
- Invisible Jerkass: Gloria and Archibald, who continue to berate their son as phantoms that only he can see and hear.
- Invisible to Normals: Ghosts can apparently only be seen and heard by those who killed them, as only Lyle can interact with his dead parents. This rule is broken by the end, as Lyle can see the ghosts of Violet and her parents, who he didn't actually kill.
- Karma Houdini Warranty:
- Lyle got away with murdering his parents for four years, but he's arrested for it (as well as murdering Violet and her own parents, erroneously) at the end of the episode.
- Violet was also never convicted of her parents' murder, but Lyle's parents manage to scare her to death when she tries to poison him.
- Laughably Evil: Archibald and Gloria aren't good people in the slightest, but they play up their rotten attitudes with such grace and keep peppering one-liners throughout their time as ghosts, that they're actually enjoyable at times.
- Lighter and Softer: The episode is played entirely for black comedy, as the ghosts of the hen-pecking parents Lyle killed keep nagging him from beyond the grave and speaking their minds throughout more emotional scenes.
- Loser Protagonist: Lyle has been an outcast and a bully magnet ever since he was born. He's particularly treated as a failure by his parents, who nag and rebuke him nearly the whole episode. Even his mother's cat shares their dislike of him by pissing on his bed and slashing him when he tries to get him off. Though he does start a relationship with the girl who originally stood him up, he's almost killed when it's revealed she only did so for his inheritance. He ends the episode guaranteed to rot in jail for the rest of his life, all while the ghosts of his parents, Violet's parents, and Violet herself continue to nag at him forever.
- Losing Your Head: As he was killed by decapitation, Archibald is able to detach and reattach his head to his neck as a ghost.
- Meaningful Name:
- Lyle is named after convicted killer Lyle Menéndez
, who similarly murdered his parents. - Violet's family name is named after Michael Meyers, which is fitting as Violet turns out to be a cold-hearted bitch who killed her parents for their life insurance, then tries to do the same to Lyle for his inheritance.
- Lyle is named after convicted killer Lyle Menéndez
- Monochrome Apparition: Ghosts in this world appear to be primarily blue in coloration, though they still have the bloody wounds they bore when they died, appearing as red-purple splotches mixed in with that blue.
- MST: Since Lyle is the only one who can see or hear them, and they follow him throughout the episode, Gloria and Archibald keep inserting various witty comments throughout the more suspenseful and emotional scenes.
- Mythology Gag:
- The ashtray itself gets in on how ridiculous the episode is by being placed in a much more random location this time. Specifically, it sits on a shelf in the supermarket that Lyle (and his parents) goes to early in the episode, standing out like a sore thumb among the cans of beans already on said shelf. Lyle even picks it up, looks at it briefly, then puts it back on the shelf like it were an ordinary food product.
- Gloria's treasured cat is given the name "Churchill".
- Lyle and his parents are said to live in Castle Rock.
- Noodle Incident: During their lakeside chat, Lyle tells Violet that his parents killed each other when they caught one another cheating, insinuating that they were "really big sluts". The outraged Archibald claims that they only ever had one orgy.
- Off with His Head!: Archibald has his head cut off by a family sword as Lyle kills him. As a result, he's able to take it on and off his body when he becomes a ghost.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: They appear to be largely blue in color, can mainly only be seen by the person who killed them, and demonstrate increased strength and a banshee-esque wail that can scare people to death if done strongly enough.
- Properly Paranoid: Lyle's parents are viciously hostile towards Violet at first, blaming her for standing their son up on prom night, but they grow softer towards her and Lyle when he attempts suicide. The thing is, they were right to be suspicious all along, as Violet wanted to kill Lyle for the family fortune under the guidance of her own dead rich parents.
- Redemption Equals Death: After being stuck as ghosts for four years and watching their son nearly kill himself, Archibald and Gloria stop him and tell him how sorry they are for being so atrocious to him in life. The ending shows that it didn't stick, though.
- Rocky Roll Call: The ghostly parents do this near the end, when they meet face to face, and as the VelJohnsons discover their dying son on the floor.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When Violet peers over at Lyle supposedly talking to thin air at the store, he and his ghostly parents promptly book it.
- Self-Made Orphan: Lyle murders his parents for never showing him any affection and costing him his opportunity to go to prom. We learn near the end that Violet did the same thing to her own parents, whose ghosts directed her to get revenge on the VelJohnson clan, but because she wanted their life insurance instead.
- Shout-Out:
- Lyle's family name of VelJohnson is a reference to Reginald VelJohnson, who played quintessential sitcom father Carl Winslow on Family Matters.
- Related to the above, Violet's family name of Meyers is a reference to Michael Meyers.
- Archibald pulverizing the box of cereal his son holds at the store is referred to by his wife as "Patrick Swayze-ing" it.
- The episode's title is a blatant reference to The Parent Trap (1961).
- According to their marriage certificate, Lyle and Violet were wed at the Savini Court House.
- Skewed Priorities: As he's actively killing him, Archibald tells Lyle that he was supposed to sharpen the swords and rebukes him for not even killing someone right. Similarly, Gloria finds her son standing above her husband's headless body with a sword, only to complain that he got blood all over the living room.
- So Proud of You: Archibald and Gloria finally have a heart-to-heart with Lyle when he attempts to kill himself, apologizing about how abusive they were to him and telling him how proud they are of who he's become.
- Strange Minds Think Alike:
- Lyle gradually learns as he lays dying that Violet also killed her parents for selfish reasons, mainly to get their life insurance while Lyle just wanted his to leave him alone.
- They also told each others' parents to leave them alone on their wedding night. In Violet's case, it was until her murder of Lyle was done.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: Violet attempts to murder Lyle for his inheritance with poisoned wine for their nuptial dinner.
- Tempting Fate: As he's getting ready for his first date with Violet, Lyle tells his parents to leave him alone for the night, noting how women don't just knock on a person's front door. Cue Special Agent Ella knocking on Lyle's front door.
- Time Skip: After Lyle kills his parents, the episode skips ahead four years after their ghosts first appear to him, showing how he's not even bothered by it anymore.
- Unfazed Everyman: Lyle was shown to be horrified at his parents coming back as ghosts to continue berating him, but after the Time Skip, he just goes about his morning routine while they just hassle him nonstop, showing that he's not even fazed by the whole thing anymore.
- Unfinished Business: Lyle's parents theorize that this is why they're still around, saying that they might be able to pass on if he marries a nice girl and settles down. It doesn't necessarily work.
- Villains Out Shopping: Quite literally after the Time Skip, as Lyle, accompanied by the nagging ghosts of his parents, travels to a supermarket for some groceries, which is where he meets Violet for the first time in four years.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Lyle, who just wanted one pat on the back from his emotionally abusive mother and father. They do indeed give him such a pat when he almost kills himself, but they take it back by the time the ending comes.
- White Sheep: The VelJohnson family has engaged in one morally dubious act after another, ever since their ancestors bought their way onto the Mayflower. Lyle wants no part in such activities and only wants his folks to give him a little love.
- World of Jerkass: The entire cast of the episode (excluding the agents) is atrocious. Where to begin?
- Lyle is the most sympathetic character, as he desperately wants his parents' love and respect, but he kills them without mercy when they push him too far.
- His parents themselves, Gloria and Archibald, are rich and stuffy WASP-y types who rebuke Lyle as a pathetic disappointment who never does anything right, seemingly hating him for just being born. They even continue doing so from beyond the grave, belittling him nonstop for four years.
- Violet's parents Chester and Viviane, who ran off with the donation Gloria and Archibald paid them so Violet could go with Lyle to the prom while letting her go with someone else. Their company, Midwich Financial, was also a giant Ponzi scheme through which they were able to scam the town out of millions of dollars before it was shut down.
- Violet herself, a popularity-obsessed Alpha Bitch who stood Lyle up on prom night, and is revealed to have killed her own parents for their life insurance just so she could continue being rich and admired. She also tries to poison Lyle and claim his inheritance, largely because the ghosts of her own parents were tasking her to do so, and mainly as petty revenge because he didn't have to downgrade his life when his folks died, like she did.
