Dead Woman's Shoes
The perpetually nervous and withdrawn Maddie Duncan (Helen Mirren) discovers a pair of expensive shoes donated to the thrift shop she works in. When she wears the shoes on a lark, Maddie becomes possessed by the spirit of the shoes' original owner, Susan Montgomery. Through Maddie, Susan ventures to the mansion of her husband Kyle (Jeffrey Tambor), who pushed her off the balcony to her death, and aims to gun him down as revenge. The flaw in Susan's plan occurs whenever she takes her shoes off, allowing Maddie to regain control of herself and express confusion as to why she's inside a huge house and holding a loaded gun.
Tropes
- Adaptation Deviation: This episode is only loosely adapted from the original series episode "Dead Man's Shoes". In the original, the spirit of murdered gangster Dane takes over the body of homeless bum Nate Bledsoe when he puts on his shoes, and aims to exact revenge on his treacherous partner Bernie Dagget, who had him killed when he took over their club. In this version, the spirit of murdered socialite Susan Montgomery takes over the body of shy thrift shop employee Maddie Duncan when she puts on her shoes, in order to exact revenge on her husband Kyle, who pushed her off his balcony.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Susan (in Maddie's body) gives a particularly chilling question to Kyle in order to prove that she's truly the ghost of the wife he murdered:Susan: Tell me something, Kyle: How can you make threats to somebody you've already killed?
- Before she leaves, Inez the maid (who learned of Kyle's abusive nature and Susan's possession of Maddie) coldly asks Kyle a question he never answered:
Inez: Do you believe in ghosts, Mr. Kyle? - Awful Wedded Life: Kyle treated Susan like a mere trophy, and that's on top of physically abusing her and pushing her off a balcony to her death.
- Beard of Evil: The abusive Kyle has a noticeably thick beard.
- Clothes Make the Maniac: Maddie tries on a pair of haunted high heels at her thrift store that allow Susan's spirit to possess her. As Susan, she's assertive, self-confident, and set to kill her husband Kyle for murdering her.
- Determinator: Susan is determined to seek revenge on Kyle for murdering her. Her spirit survives in her shoes, which allows her to take over the body of whoever puts them on. Although Susan fails to kill Kyle while in control of Maddie, she later succeeds in doing so after his new maid finds them in the trash and puts them on.
- Domestic Abuse: Kyle physically abused Susan on a regular basis and eventually pushed her off a balcony to her death, claiming that she had a drunken accident. When Susan's spirit takes over Maddie's body and returns to confront Kyle, he throttles her as he demands answers and then smacks her across the face. When he does so, her dialogue indicates that she's no stranger to this behavior:Susan: (mockingly, as Kyle throttles her) Now that's the Kyle that I know and love! (Kyle smacks her; soberly) And that's the Kyle I know all too well...
- Establishing Character Moment: Maddie's first scene involves her walking to the thrift shop and immediately stepping out of everyone else's way without saying a word, indicating that she is very shy and withdrawn.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: An inversion occurs when Susan's poodle Fritz cuddles Maddie and licks her face, apparently recognizing Susan's spirit in her body. The poodle also growls and barks at Kyle when he enters the living room, also sensing what he did to his owner, and also at Maddie when Susan ditches the shoes, no longer sensing its late owner.
- Evil Wears Black: Subverted with the possessed Maddie, who is dolled up in a sultry black outfit when Susan gives her a makeover. She's more of an anti-hero, though, as she only wants revenge on the abusive husband who murdered her.
- Feet-First Introduction: Maddie's first scene has the camera focusing on her feet as she walks to the thrift store. She continually steps out of people's way as she does so to indicate how nervous she is of everyone around her.
- Gender Flip: Maddie is possessed by the spirit of a murdered woman named Susan when she puts on her expensive high heels. In the original episode "Dead Man's Shoes", murdered gangster Dane's spirit takes control of a homeless man named Nate Bledsoe when he puts on his two-tone black and white shoes.
- Get Out!: Kyle says this to Inez when she wonders if he believes in ghosts, trying to dodge the question.
- Killed Offscreen: Susan finally gets to shoot Kyle when she takes over his new maid, indicated by a gunshot played over a view of the mansion.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The ending has Susan finally killing Kyle by possessing the body of his newly-hired maid. We only see the exterior of the mansion and hear the shot, but it's easy to put two and two together.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Kyle murdered his wife by pushing her off a balcony. He later told the police that it was an accident and she fell to her death because she was drunk.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Kyle having his maid Inez donate his late wife's belongings to what he assumed was a random thrift shop allows for said wife to take over Maddie's body through her shoes, allowing her to return to their house and confront him, before finally shooting him at the end of the episode.
- Shout-Out: Susan, in Maddie's body, calls herself "The Wicked Witch of the East" when Kyle asks who she really is.Susan: Maybe you'd better drop a house on me next time. Perhaps it would be more permanent.
- Shrinking Violet: Maddie, who gets nervous with everyone around her.
- Something Only They Would Say: How Susan convinces everyone around her that she's back from the dead and inside Maddie's body.
- Take This Job and Shove It: Kyle tells Inez that he no longer needs her services when he decides to move to the beach and lay low. Given that she already learned the truth about his "intruder" and himself, she rebuts that she was going to quit anyway.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Maddie is last seen ditching Susan's gun, throwing her high heels in the trash, and nervously walking away, having apparently pieced everything together. While we never know what happens to her afterward, it can be safe to say that she's likely going on the run to escape attempted murder charges, since Inez called the police, her fingerprints are still on the gun, and the officer who interrogates Kyle about the whole thing tells him that he's going to send some men out to look for the woman he perceived as an intruder.
"As we walk through life, if we learn nothing else, we learn the only sure things are death and taxes. Well, one out of two isn't bad. And haven't we all said "You can't take it with you"? Another comforting adage without exceptions in the real world, that somehow goes all wonky when considering exit lines, delivered — in the Twilight Zone."
Wong's Lost and Found Emporium
"There is a place where everything that's ever been lost can be found again. A place where lost hopes, lost dreams, lost chances wait for someone to reclaim them. But before you can find them, first you must become lost — in the Twilight Zone."
A blunt and temperamental Asian-American man named David Wong (Brian Tochi) has spent three years searching for "The Lost and Found Emporium", a place where people who have lost something can potentially get it back. When he finds the store and enters, he finds other people having entered the shop from different locations around the country, also looking for things they've lost. When these people fail to regain what they've lost, David bluntly shrugs them off and keeps looking for what he's lost. When one patron (Anna Marjen Poon) calls him out for his attitude, David tells them that this is the very reason he was looking for the shop in the first place, since he's lost his compassion.
Tropes
- Adaptational Backstory Change: David decides to assume management of the Lost and Found Emporium after he finds his compassion. In the short story by William F. Wu, he had already been running the place for several months before he regained said compassion.
- Affectionate Nickname: Melinda calls David "Brown Eyes" after she finds her sense of humor. He never actually tells her his name onscreen.
- All There in the Manual: Mrs. Whitford's name is not revealed in the episode, only the short story.
- All There in the Script: The woman who chews David out, has lost her sense of humor, and ultimately becomes David's assistant, is named Melinda.
- Awful Wedded Life: Melinda tells David that she recently got out of a horrible marriage, but found that the damage had already been done, since she lost her sense of humor and had forgotten how to laugh at herself.
- Cynicism Catalyst: Realistically, David didn't lose his compassion overnight, but through a gradual process of one catalyst after another. From the time he was a young college student, David was faced with racial prejudice for being Asian-American, and it began to destroy his optimistic view of the world. David tells Melinda that the point of no return for him was when he heard about the murder of Vincent Chin.
Even though the case eventually received some shred of justice, the damage had already been done, and David fully lost his compassion towards others. - Eldritch Location: Even though the Lost and Found Emporium is a place for people to regain things they've lost, it demonstrates a great deal of anomalous phenomena, such as heads in jars that stare at potential customers, objects that come alive without warning, other objects that randomly pop up on the shelves, walls that disappear and reappear, and an entrance that keeps changing location several times in the span of minutes.
- Establishing Character Moment: David's first five minutes of screen time consist of him being rude, insensitive, and uncaring towards everyone he meets. He wasn't always the grump he is, though, and has been searching for the Lost and Found Emporium so he can get his compassion back.
- Exact Words: Mrs. Whitford, the sculptor who lost precious time, and the elderly man who lost his children's respect, bungle their tests and seemingly fail to recover what they've been desperately seeking. At the end of the episode, though, David and Melinda realize that since the pair lost their chances to succeed, those chances will now manifest inside the shop, since it always recovers whatever goes away. The two immediately set out to help Mrs. Whitford and the elderly man find them.
- Freudian Excuse: Throughout his adult life, David was no stranger to racism and prejudice for his Asian heritage, but what really cemented his bitterness was when he learned about Vincent Chin's murder, which is primarily why he's now so cold and unsympathetic towards other people.
- Irony: David sarcastically asks Melinda (who just successfully bargained him to help her find what she's missing) how long she had her "assertiveness problem". A serious and literal-minded Melinda simply asks "What?"David: You wouldn't know irony if it came up and bit you.
- Lack of Empathy: David lost his empathy many years ago, thanks to years of racial prejudice and the murder of Vincent Chin, and tracks down the shop to find it. When Mrs. Whitford and the old man fail at regaining what they lost, David just shrugs them off and says their trouble isn't his business. He realizes what a grouch he is when Melinda confronts him, and explains that he wants to find his lost compassion.
- The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday: The Lost and Found Emporium is a magic warehouse with an entrance that changes location frequently. Some people stumble on it by accident, while others have to commit lots of diligent effort to track it down. David tracks it down to the backroom of a San Francisco porn shop after three years of searching, Mrs. Whitford finds it outside a motel in Fort Lauderdale, and the old man accidentally entered it when he intended to use the stairs after a doctor's appointment. The Emporium happens to contain immaterial concepts that people around the world have lost, such as hopes, dreams, chances, and attributes that they seek to regain. David is searching for his compassion, Melinda for her sense of humor, Mrs. Whitford for lost time, and the elderly man for the respect of his children. Each lost attribute appears in a glowing ball that everyone except the intended recipient can see, and usually takes the form of a physical object or animal. The recipients must follow the instructions on the object's label to regain the respective attribute.
- Miscarriage of Justice: The murder of Vincent Chin, which David says is the final catalyst that made him lose his compassion completely.
- Named by the Adaptation: The young woman who David meets in the Emporium is named Melinda, at least in the script. In the short story by William F. Wu, she has no name.
- Napoleon Delusion: David tells Mrs. Whitford how, during his three-year search for the Lost and Found Emporium, he met twelve people who claimed to be the Second Coming of Jesus, and one who claimed to the reincarnation of the High Priest of Lemuria.
- No Name Given: The old man who lost his kids' respect has no given name.
- Race Lift: The elderly man who loses the respect of his children is white. In the short story, he's Chinese-American.
- Rage Against the Reflection: The old man who wants to regain his childrens' respect is told to stare into a mirror to get it back. The mirror paints him as a hideous, disgusting ogre, prompting him to smash it in his despair and lose his chance for his kids to respect him.
- Restored My Faith in Humanity: The three bottles David finds not only give him integrity, but they let him relive memories of his childhood and remind him of a kinder time.
- Rule of Three: David helps three different people find objects that will let them regain what they've lost. Each object bears a tag detailing the instructions for use, as well as disclaimers that restrictions may apply and duplications and exchanges are prohibited.
- Secret Shop: The Lost and Found Emporium is a combination of this and The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday.
- Super-Sargasso Sea: The titular Emporium contains lost hopes and dreams that people hope to regain, such as compassion, humor, respect, and time.
- Sweet and Sour Grapes: David's lost compassion is concealed in one of three vials, and he doesn't know which. The first two he opens contain a happy childhood memory and his integrity, but the third rolls away before he can unseal it, seemingly dooming his mission. However, Melinda points out that David has become somewhat kinder and remembered that there is good in the world, which has restored at least some of his compassion. David and Melinda then team up to run the Emporium themselves, and it's suggested that David will gradually develop a newfound sense of compassion by helping others, so his failure is still a victory (especially because it will allow others to be helped, too).
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Ever since he lost his compassion, David has been grumpy and pessimistic, shrugging people off when he thinks that what they desire isn't his business. He later reveals to Melinda that he wasn't always this way, and doesn't even remotely like what he's become.
- Took a Level in Kindness:
- After he finds his lost compassion, David becomes a much kinder person than he was before, and even decides to take it upon himself to manage the Lost and Found Emporium.
- Melinda also becomes a lot more giddy and enthusiastic when she regains her sense of humor.
- The Unreveal: While we know where David, Mrs. Whitford, and the old man were when they found the titular shop, we have no idea where Melinda was when she found it.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Melinda calls out David for his sheer insensitivity after watching his interactions with Mrs. Whitford and the old man, but David fires back that he himself doesn't like being so grouchy, either.
- What You Are in the Dark: The second jar that restores David's compassion also contains his integrity, allowing him to think of others even when nobody else will know. When he notices the broken glass shards on the floor, he remarks that he should clean up the mess, lest someone else step on the shards and get hurt.
"You won't find it in the Yellow Pages, or advertised in the local papers. Its reputation is spread purely by word-of-mouth, from one satisfied customer to another. But if, like most of us, you've lost something in your time, look for this door. And if you don't find it at first, don't lose hope, because even that can be found again — in the Twilight Zone."
