Nightmares and Dreamscapes - Episode 6
New review, full of spoilers as usual.
The Fifth Quarter
Summary: Willie is a criminal, who has been in jail for one thing or another for the last ten years. His wife Karen is ready to leave him and take their son Jackson with her if Willie does something stupid again. After he gets released everything seems fine, he even gets a job at the same amusement park cleaning crew as his wife. But suddenly his old jail buddy Barney, who lived with Karen for a while, comes back and is badly wounded. Before dying from a gun shot, he tells Willie that he was part of a heist that managed to get him and his three accomplishes a whole lot of money. The money is new and numbered so they can't spent it now, but some guy called Cappy McFarland hid it for them, drew a map and gave each of them a quarter, before he died from cancer. But one of the guys called Keenan got greedy, shot Barney and stole his quarter.
After Barney dies, Willie buries him near some power plant and goes to get the map, even though Karen is against it. He gets to Keenan’s house, injures him, but gets his two pieces of the map. While he’s there, another partner appears, called Sarge. Willie forces Sarge at gun point to take him to his quarter of the map. After they leave Keenan’s, the last guy called Jagger appears and kills Keenan. At Sarge’s home, Willie shots out Sarge’s knee cap to keep him from doing something stupid and takes his map piece. But Jagger followed them, kills Sarge and tries killing Willie, who is hiding behind the couch. Through sheer luck, Jagger trips over Sarge’s body and Willie manages to kill him. He takes the last quarter of the map and heads home.
The next day the police is there to take Willie back to jail, because they found Barney’s body. To cover up the real story, he confesses that he killed Barney in a fit of jealous rage for sleeping with Karen. After Willie is back in jail, Karen tries to find the island that is shown on the map, but cannot find it. Until she suddenly notices the map on a box of cereal Jackson is eating. It’s from one of the rides at the amusement park she works at. When Karen gets there she realises that the letters on the map stand for initials of the ride. Inside she checks out an treasure chest where she find a duffel bag containing all the money.
My opinion: This is an okay episode. The acting is good and the suspense is also there. But I don’t get why Willie couldn’t wait to get the map, he can’t spent the money for a few years anyway. And I really would like to know how they found Barney’s body so quickly, I highly doubt anybody found it by accident.
Comparison with the original short story: This is very different from the short story. The protagonist there is called Jerry Tarkanian and has no wife or kid. He was Barney’s buddy and his back-up in case anything went wrong, which of course it did. He also is the one who killed Keenan and overall comes over a lot more ruthless than Willie. He doesn’t get the last quarter of the map, but he has enough to find the money anyway. If he actually does, we never find out. I guess they put also all this extra stuff in to make the episode longer, because the original short story only covers the part that is about getting all the map pieces.
Rating: Okay
The Fifth Quarter
Summary: Willie is a criminal, who has been in jail for one thing or another for the last ten years. His wife Karen is ready to leave him and take their son Jackson with her if Willie does something stupid again. After he gets released everything seems fine, he even gets a job at the same amusement park cleaning crew as his wife. But suddenly his old jail buddy Barney, who lived with Karen for a while, comes back and is badly wounded. Before dying from a gun shot, he tells Willie that he was part of a heist that managed to get him and his three accomplishes a whole lot of money. The money is new and numbered so they can't spent it now, but some guy called Cappy McFarland hid it for them, drew a map and gave each of them a quarter, before he died from cancer. But one of the guys called Keenan got greedy, shot Barney and stole his quarter.
After Barney dies, Willie buries him near some power plant and goes to get the map, even though Karen is against it. He gets to Keenan’s house, injures him, but gets his two pieces of the map. While he’s there, another partner appears, called Sarge. Willie forces Sarge at gun point to take him to his quarter of the map. After they leave Keenan’s, the last guy called Jagger appears and kills Keenan. At Sarge’s home, Willie shots out Sarge’s knee cap to keep him from doing something stupid and takes his map piece. But Jagger followed them, kills Sarge and tries killing Willie, who is hiding behind the couch. Through sheer luck, Jagger trips over Sarge’s body and Willie manages to kill him. He takes the last quarter of the map and heads home.
The next day the police is there to take Willie back to jail, because they found Barney’s body. To cover up the real story, he confesses that he killed Barney in a fit of jealous rage for sleeping with Karen. After Willie is back in jail, Karen tries to find the island that is shown on the map, but cannot find it. Until she suddenly notices the map on a box of cereal Jackson is eating. It’s from one of the rides at the amusement park she works at. When Karen gets there she realises that the letters on the map stand for initials of the ride. Inside she checks out an treasure chest where she find a duffel bag containing all the money.
My opinion: This is an okay episode. The acting is good and the suspense is also there. But I don’t get why Willie couldn’t wait to get the map, he can’t spent the money for a few years anyway. And I really would like to know how they found Barney’s body so quickly, I highly doubt anybody found it by accident.
Comparison with the original short story: This is very different from the short story. The protagonist there is called Jerry Tarkanian and has no wife or kid. He was Barney’s buddy and his back-up in case anything went wrong, which of course it did. He also is the one who killed Keenan and overall comes over a lot more ruthless than Willie. He doesn’t get the last quarter of the map, but he has enough to find the money anyway. If he actually does, we never find out. I guess they put also all this extra stuff in to make the episode longer, because the original short story only covers the part that is about getting all the map pieces.
Rating: Okay