The Enormous Radio
In the 1930s, during the easing of the Great Depression, married couple Irene and Jim (Christine Estabrook and John Rothman) decide to purchase a radio after their old one goes on the fritz, though the one they get is a particularly large size and is a model that they've never seen before. While Jim is at work one day, leaving Irene to look after the apartment and finish the chores, she decides to turn the radio on to break her silence, only to discover that the radio's frequencies are powerful enough to let her hear the voices of other tenants in the building. Overtime, her obsession with using the radio to eavesdrop on her neighbors and their private lives grows exponentially, causing a notable rift between her and Jim.
Tropes:
- Ambiguous Situation: Who made the titular radio, and gave it the ability to tune into other peoples' apartments?
- Anachronism Stew: Despite the fact that the episode is set during the Depression, the titular radio looks like it was made in the 1950s instead of the 1930s. Given its otherworldly properties, the radio's irregular design can potentially be excused.
- Awful Wedded Life: Jim and Irene's love life is stable in the first half of the episode, but Irene's obsession with learning everyone's secrets all but destroys it by the ending, as Jim rattles off Irene's own dirty little secrets that she's been hiding from him, and lets an unseen tenant tune in to hear them. Before that, Irene overhears different unhappily married couples over the titular radio, such as when she and Jim sit down to dinner.
- Classical Music Is Cool: Jim and Irene are fans of classical music, as they spend the opening scene sitting in their living room and sipping cocktails while listening to the works of Chopin and Beethoven from Carnagie Hall.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: It’s the Great Depression, and as such, Jim has the typical Stay in the Kitchen mentality of the time, such as his noting that Irene "obviously" must have been tuning the radio improperly when it first acted up. Also, Irene grows so obsessed with listening to her neighbors’ secrets because she has nothing but housework to keep her occupied while Jim's at the office.
- Domestic Abuse: Irene tells Jim that their neighbor Mr. Osbourne has been assaulting his wife since 4:00 through the titular radio, pleading with him to go upstairs and stop him.
- Downer Ending: Irene and Jim's marriage goes up in smoke thanks to the episode's events, and their finances are slowly draining thanks to all the lavish things he's bought for her and the kids, including the radio. While he's rebuking her, another tenant somewhere in the building is able to tune into their argument through the radio, allowing for the whole mess to start again.
- Everyone Has Standards: Jim and Irene are astounded and even humored when they discover the magical ability of the titular radio, though the former grows less amazed and more sobered when he and Irene hear their neighbors tearing into one another. As Irene grows obsessed with listening to their neighbors' lives falling apart, Jim refuses to have anymore of the radio's presence in their home.
- The Ghost: Jim and Irene are shown to have two sons, but they aren't present in the episode because they're noted to be at summer camp. Irene hints that one of them, Peter, isn't having the most fun time.
- Glass-Shattering Sound: During her first test of the episode's namesake radio, Irene is startled when it blares classical music at an intense volume and causes something to shatter offscreen.
- Gossipy Hens: Irene turns into one as she tunes into the radio Jim buys, as learning all her neighbors' secrets is the only thing keeping her occupuied while Jim's at work.
- Here We Go Again!: Jim and Irene's own argument joins the many others already being broadcast on the titular radio, and there's at least one tenant tuning in to hear the juicy confrontation, starting the whole thing over again.
- Hoist by Her Own Petard: The titular radio, which Irene uses to peer into her neighbors’ private lives, picks up her own dirty laundry at the end of the episode, letting at least one other tenant hear Jim raking her over the coals.
- Humans Are Bastards: Nearly every character heard, seen, or mentioned has quite a bit of dirty laundry, which they freely spill when they think no one's listening. This does a number on the psyche of poor Irene, who's been spending every day since Jim got the radio listening to all this sordid information to keep herself occupied while he's at work, yet she can't pull herself away.
- It Began with a Twist of Fate: If Jim and Irene's original radio didn't die at the start of the episode, the rest of it would never have happened.
- It Can Think: The radio may or may not have a degree of sentience, as it can alter its volume and the frequencies it's tuned to at complete random. It also pretends to lose its ability to tune into other peoples' apartments when the repairman who delivered it checks on it, fueling the theory that it's alive.
- Laser-Guided Karma: As noted above, Irene’s own secrets are picked up by the titular radio, where at least one person can eagerly listen to her dirty laundry just as she did to her neighbors.
- Magitek: The titular radio, which is huge, has an unfamiliar model, and can tune into the radios of other people in its radius, which lets Irene grow obsessed with hearing their innermost secrets.
- Oh, Crap!: Irene has a mild one when she recognizes one voice on the radio as their neighbors' nurse reading their daughter a story, causing her and Jim to realize that their new radio can let them eavesdrop on tenants all over the building.
- Protagonist-Centered Morality: The voices heard over the radio are those of tenants in the building who are suffering from misfortunes, cheating on each other, and in one case, physically attacking one another. Despite this, Jim only wants to focus on his and Irene's life, firmly telling her to turn off the radio and let all the other tenants fend for themselves.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: The episode ends as Jim's in the middle of one to Irene, demeaning her for her obsession with the neighbors' secrets while reminding her that she has more than her own fair share of them.
- Riddle for the Ages: Who is it that's listening to Jim rebuking Irene at the end of the episode? How is it that their own radio is able to pick up their radio's signal? And why do they bother listening in on them at all?
- Secret Secret-Keeper: Irene learns all of her neighbor’s secrets via the titular radio, and she grows obsessed with learning more and more about the people surrounding her for her entertainment.
- She Who Fights Monsters: Irene grows addicted to listening to the neighbors' gossip for entertainment, but as Jim reveals at the ending, she herself has a laundry list of dirty little secrets (stealing her late mother's jewelry and never giving her sister her promised inheritance), which the radio picks up and broadcasts.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: The ending argument between Irene and Jim is set to "Ode to Joy".
- Stay in the Kitchen: Jim subtly displays this attitude towards Irene. It’s typical for the time period, but the lack of anything other than chores to do is what leads Irene to start tuning into the titular radio. A neighbor is also heard arguing with his wife, aggresively suggesting that she quit her job and stay home over the radio as Jim and Irene have dinner.
- Tempting Fate: The end of the episode has Jim furiously declaring that the radio can't "hear" them arguing, when unknown to him, it fully can.
- Title Drop: Near the end of the opening act, Irene phones Jim to let him know that the new radio he bought arrived, noting that it's enormous.
- What You Are in the Dark: The titular radio reveals that Irene thrives on hearing any gossip she can pick up, and her obsession with learning everyone's secrets causes Jim to tear her a new one by the end of the episode.
- World of Jerkass: It's gradually revealed that everyone in Jim and Irene's building, including the couple themselves, lead difficult lives full of arguments and violence when they don't think anyone else is listening.
