The Old Soft Shoe
Caught in a horrible blizzard, traveling lingerie salesman Chester Caruso (Paul Dooley) stops at a motel to wait until his car is repaired. Inside his room, Chester is visited by Glenda (Dorothy Parke), an alluring woman who seems to confuse him for Harry, a man who had been seeing her for sometime. Chester is eager to share a dance or two with Glenda, touting about how he used to be a noted dancer in his youth, but Glenda unfortunately soon grows angry with Chester for seeing another woman behind her back, disappearing and reappearing to block Chester's chance to escape as the dancer-turned-salesman slowly learns the truth about Glenda's connection to Harry and the motel room itself.
Tropes:
- Affectionate Nickname: Chester's was "Soft Shoes" back during his days as a dancer.
- Asshole Victim: Chester can be argued as one, as he's drowned in a bathtub after cheating on his wife once, nearly twice before Glenda comes along.
- Awful Wedded Life: Chester and his wife Marion are shown to be having tensions in their marriage when the episode begins, as Chester ogles and tries to hit on Carol, a young woman in a fox-fur coat, right after he gets off the phone with her. Near the end, as Glenda prepares him for her big surprise, Chester notes that he's been unfaithful to Marion only once.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Glenda got away with drowning Harry in the tub, and she does the same to Chester in the end.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: As soon as he enters his room, Chester hopes to take a warm bath to heat up. Come the end of the episode, Glenda gives him that bath by way of drowning him in the tub.
- Berserk Button: As nutty as he appears, Arthur doesn't like having the motel's rules broken. He warns Chester that if he tries anything with Carol, he'll be coming for him with a shotgun. He also warns Chester that the last patron who stole the soap from their room "had a bad accident" on the highway.
- Blind Shoulder Toss: Chester does this to the jar of pigs' feet Arthur gives him, just before he enters Room #7 for the first time.
- The Casanova: Glenda's lover Harry was said to have "other women" in his life aside from her, hence why she likely drowned him and does the same to Chester.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Arthur the motel manager, who decorated the front desk to resemble a Ripley's exhibit, owns a turtle with a lit candle on its shell, exercises with an old fashioned belt, and gives Chester a jar of pigs' feet as a souvenir.
- Covert Pervert: At one point, Chester spies on Carol changing into her bathrobe via a hole in his bathroom wall.
- Establishing Character Moment: Chester is first seen on the phone with his wife Marion, to whom he insists that he's having car trouble from the blizzard and is staying at the motel to wait for a tow truck, only to start hitting on Carol just after ending the call.
- Fanservice Extra: Carol, who seems to exist solely for Chester to hit on.
- Foreshadowing: Chester's discovery of the newspaper clipping that reads "Mysterious Drowning at Desolate Motel" soon reveals that Glenda drowned Harry for his infidelity, much like she does to Chester at the end of the episode.
- Haunted Technology: The old radio in Chester's room, which summons Glenda when it's turned on, and is able to play the old ballroom music even after all the other utilities are shut off.
- History Repeats: Glenda angrily drowns Chester in the motel room's bathtub on January 8th, just like she did to Harry 35 years ago before she killed herself.
- Homage: The episode shares some strong similarities to Psycho, given that it takes place in a largely deserted motel, features an attractive woman, and ends with someone getting killed in a bathroom. At one point, Chester spies on Carol slipping into her bathrobe through a hole in his bathroom wall, not unlike Norman Bates.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: Chester hitting on Carol after convincing Marion that he's not at the motel to meet other women.
- Indignant Slap: Glenda slaps Chester across the face for mentioning his wife Marion during their first dance.
- I Warned You: Arthur warns Chester that he doesn't want to stay in Room #7, but he ends up giving him the keys anyway when he convinces him that he has nowhere else to stay. The second act has Arthur reinstating that he didn't want Chester staying in that room after Glenda nearly kills him with phantom bullets. Come the end of the episode, she also drowns Chester in the tub, causing Arthur to regret giving Chester the keys and not having the room torn down sooner.
- Karma Houdini: Glenda got away with drowning Harry, but she killed herself after she was questioned. She does the same to Chester at the end of the episode.
- The Mafia: Judging by his old picture and his habit of having "other women" around, Harry was hinted to have been a mob boss.
- Meaningful Name: Arthur has a pet turtle he's named "Prometheus", after the Greek Titan that gave fire to mankind. The turtle carries a lit candle on its shell to complete the illusion.
- Mistaken Identity: Glenda confuses Chester, and likely every other man who stays in her haunting ground, as her old lover Harry.
- Mood Whiplash: The first act ends with Chester being shot in the shoulder and stumbling to the front desk. He promptly sees Arthur in an old-fashioned exercise belt before losing consciousness.
- Mr. Exposition: The cop who's called to the scene of Chester's death spells out The Reveal for the audience's benefit.
- Ms. Fanservice: Glenda, who spends the episode wearing lingerie and a rhinestone-studded silk dress.
- Not What It Looks Like:
- Growing hostile at Chester's mentioning of his wife, Glenda, mistaking him to be Harry, gets more miffed when Carol knocks on the door asking Chester to turn the radio down.
- No one else in the episode takes Chester's claims of Glenda seriously, but Arthur thinks of him as a sick deviant upon seeing the lingerie he sells for a living in his open suitcase.
- Offscreen Teleportation: Glenda is capable of the ability, given her ghostly nature.
- Pretty in Mink: The opening scene features Carol, wearing a fox-fur coat, showing up at the motel. Chester tries to hit on her right after he calls his wife.
- Small Role, Big Impact: The looney motel manager Arthur doesn't play too big a role in the episode, giving Chester his room key and spilling exposition at the end, but it was his father Harry's actions that resulted in Chester's room being haunted by the ghost of the angry Glenda.
- Vengeful Ghost: Glenda, who was dating Arthur's father Harry before she found out he was cheating on her, then killed herself after the cops questioned her, haunts their old motel room (able to be summoned by turning on the radio and filling the tub) and confuses Chester for Harry, ultimately drowning him.
- Woman Scorned: Glenda learned that Harry was cheating on her with another woman, so she killed him by drowning him in the tub, then killed herself after she was questioned. She ends the episode by killing Chester in the same way, since she mistakes him for Harry (presumably as she does with every man who rents the room) by drowning him in the bathtub.
- Yandere: Glenda is shown to be very possessive of Harry, and later Chester, rebuking them for having "other women" around and killing them for that exact reason.
