Strange Love
Dr. Phillip Carrol (Patrick Kilpatrick) is forced into making a late-night house call to the Alcott residence, home of married couple Edmund and Marie Alcott (Harsh Nayyar and Marcia Cross), the latter having broken her leg. As he performs his diagnosis, Phillip soon discovers that Edmund and his wife are vampires as old as the United States itself. With their secret revealed, Edmund forces Phillip into being their slave, forcing him to ensure that Marie makes a full recovery. Edmund still plans to kill and feed on the doctor when he is no longer needed, but Marie tires of her husband's emotional thrashings of her (largely for her refusal to feed on human blood) and grows attracted to his new captive, so she works to stop her husband's plans and save Phillip's life.
Tropes:
- Awful Wedded Life: Edmund is controlling and patronizing towards Marie, rebuking her unwillingness to consume human blood, and he plots to kill and feed on Phillip, who she's falling in love with, after he heals her. Tired of her husband's abusive and petty nature, Marie performs a ritual with Phillip where the two share their blood through open wounds, turning him into a vampire so he can give Edmund what he deserves on both of their behalf.
- Bottle Episode: The episode is set primarily around the Alcott estate, barring one scene in Phillip's office.
- Chill of Undeath: During his diagnosis, Phillip notes that Marie's skin is freezing. Unsurprising to us, considering she's a vampire.
- Dirty Coward: Edmund loves to abuse his power over humans and weaker vampires like Marie, doing so in the manner of a schoolyard bully. When faced with a newly-vampirized Phillip, however, he doesn't stand a chance.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Edmund is staked through the heart by the doctor he planned to feed on after he healed his much-abused wife, both of whom end up together after he dies.
- Evil Is Petty: Marie tells Phillip, when they're alone, how she finds the physical and mental benefits that vampirism brings to be wondrous, and that she hates how Edmund squanders such potential on acts of pettiness and cruelty.
- Fantastic Racism: Edmund sees humankind as livestock to snack on, comparing Phillip serving his purpose to that of a pet, being easily disposable when one has no use for them.
- Faux Affably Evil: Edmund is a very polite individual, even when describing how he plans to kill Phillip.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: When Phillip sets Marie's injured leg, she lets out a pained moan. It's during the moan that her fangs are seen, alerting the audience that she and Edmund aren't human.
- Foreshadowing: The viewers are treated to two examples in the opening act alone:
- Despite Edmund's description of her as an old woman set in her ways, Marie doesn't look a day over 25.
- Phillip easily thinks that Marie is dead when he can't find a pulse and says that she feels cold.
- For Want Of A Nail: Had Marie not broken her leg, the episode wouldn't have happened.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: While Edmund is a murderous, blood-hungry sadist who is dismissive and patronizing of Marie, Marie herself can't bring herself to feed on human blood, instead doing so on animals. She also falls in love with Phillip and turns him into a fellow vampire so he can get Edmund out of the way.
- High-Heel–Face Turn: Falling in love with Phillip, as well as loathing how Edmund plans to kill him after healing her (on top of despising his usual abuse), Marie has the doctor imbibe some of her blood, allowing Phillip to become a vampire so he can overpower Edmund and kill him.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Phillip does Edmund in with the old-fashioned stake through the heart.
- Love at First Sight: Phillip finds it unprofessional to say so, but he can't help but admit how "astonishing" Marie is when he first lays eyes on her.
- Made a Slave: Phillip is chained to peg on the wall, forced to heal Marie, and then is planned to be killed and fed upon when he's done.
- Made of Plasticine: Marie breaks her leg falling over while dancing. Edmund even lampshades to Phillip that her bones are very brittle.
- Meaningful Appearance: Edmund and Marie respectively dress as Dracula and one of his Brides in the opening act.
- Offscreen Teleportation: Edmund snaps his fingers and disappears to fetch some blood for Marie, who insolently says that he could've just walked there instead of having to show off.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Edmund and Marie appear as sophisticated nightwalkers who are rather sociable.
- Really 700 Years Old: The Alcotts look relatively young, but Edmund reveals to Phillip that he was born in 1776, and Marie later tells Phillip that Edmund bit her after the Civil War ended.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: Edmund puts on a charitable and generous facade while talking in a smooth voice, though he also mercilessly feasts on people for their blood. His treatment of Marie also leans towards emotional abuse.
- Super-Strength: Edmund uses his supernatural strength to nearly twist Phillip's arm off when he tries to get Marie to a hospital. He also manages to break his chains when he tries to fight back, reducing the length and further restricting his reach. Phillip does the same thing to break the chain permanently once he's a vampire.
- Time Skip: Two weeks pass by the start of the second act, during which Edmund intends to feed on Phillip after his purpose is used up.
- Ungrateful Bastard: After Phillip heals his wife's broken leg, Edmund fully intends to kill him anyway.
- Vegetarian Vampire: Marie despises the act of feeding on human blood, so she instead finds sustenance in the blood of animals. Treating this habit as disgusting, this is one of the reasons why Edmund thinks quite so little of her.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Edmund calls Phillip to heal Marie's leg, and outright tells him that he's going to feed on him once he's finished.
