Directed by Brad Anderson (
Session 9,
The Machinist), and based on a short story by Mike O'Driscoll. Larry Pearce (
Chris Bauer) is a supervisor in a tech support company that descends into madness as his fine sense of hearing keeps getting better and better.
Tropes:
- Alas, Poor Villain: Larry arguably crosses the line when he murders his wife in her sleep, to silence the sounds her body creates and his hearing enhances. But by the end, everything he's been through leaves him completely broken. So much that he graphically deafens himself and wanders absentmindedly to the beach with his son's boat, where he'll presumably be caught and arrested by the police.
- Blessed with Suck: Larry's superhearing makes him discover that his son has a cardiac affliction, but only too late to save him; it also makes him better at his job, but not good enough to meet his boss' expectations, while his subordinates hate him for it; and finally, it drives him crazy as it just keeps getting better.
- Ear Ache: Larry eventually frees himself from the burden of his enhanced hearing by carving his ears off, leaving him completely deaf.
- Hope Spot: Larry hopes that with his sense of hearing becoming superhuman he may finally be able to "hear" his son's ghost. Near the end, he thinks he's heard it, but it turns out to be a tree branch scraping against his son's bedroom window.
- Jerkass: Larry comes as this several times when he interacts with other people.
- Madness Mantra: Larry keeps telling things he hears to “Be still.”
- Meaningful Name: Larry Pearce. And, yes, it's pronounced "pierce". As in "ear-piercing".
- Messy Maggots: In the otherwise psychological horror-themed episode, the main character's wife disappears halfway through the episode. In the end, the cops burst into his house when he goes fully mad, finding her rotting, maggot-eaten corpse in the bedroom.
- Mistaken for Gay: In a total break with his usual character, Larry acts too friendly to one new employee that he sees as a Replacement Goldfish for his son. The employee is creeped out and resigns the next day.
- No Antagonist: There's no antagonist in this episode; the conflict revolves entirely around the main character's acute sense of hearing becoming increasingly unbearable.
- The Nothing After Death: Larry's main source of angst is that while he only keeps hearing better and better he never manages to hear his son's soul.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Larry’s son dies from a heart condition he had suffered from for years, which was only discovered when it was too late to save him.
- Psychological Horror: This is probably one of the creepier episodes due to the slow-paced source of the horror. There are no monsters or killers to run away from, it's just the main character slowly growing mad because his sense of hearing keeps getting better and everything around him becomes intolerable.
- Sinister Scraping Sound: After a while, literally everything. This effect leads to Larry slaughtering a nest of baby mice and murdering his sleeping wife.
- Workaholic: Larry, to the point of refusing a leave when his son dies. He also keeps mentioning stuff from work when talking to his wife.
