Episode Report Card Couch Baron: C+ | 1070 USERS: C+ YOU GRADE IT Sins Of The Father... And Sister
By Couch Baron | Season 3 | Episode 23 | Aired on 2009.04.13
...to May 1961, and Alice is lying on her bed and watching sullenly as Angela and YCD speak in hushed tones across the room about sneaking out that night and figuring out where they are and how they can get help. Angela's having second thoughts, even though the whole thing was her plan, because she promised Alice she wouldn't leave her alone. YCD, however, thinks she'll slow them down, which... she's not a toddler. I can think of many reasons to leave her behind -- a bigger party is more easily detected, the more people gone the more likely the guards are to notice, she may freak out about the plan, she cant stop saying "Banana," etc., etc. -- but foot speed isn't one of them. I mean, at the very least, she could summon a nice tail wind to get them moving faster. Anyway, though, this is all so Angela can clunkily ask how she's supposed to get Alice not to freak out, and so YCD can answer, "Lie." Groan. He leaves, and Angela marches over and tells Alice that she's going out with the boys that night, and Alice isn't invited, because Angela wants to hang out with kids her own age. Given that it is, as the title tells us, 1961, I'd think one girl going off with three strange boys at night for unspecified social interaction at which her younger sister is unwelcome would freak Alice out a lot more than anything they're actually planning, but as the upcoming dance will show, it's only forty-eight years ago when it's convenient to the script. Angela starts to go, but Alice grabs her hand and says she's scared, and to emphasize that, thunder rumbles ominously in the distance. Angela lies that she had a dream the night before that Alice would be safe, so she just has to stay there and everything will be fine...
...and then Angela awakens with a violent start in yet another building. However, this one's furnished with, among other things, stacks and stacks of old newspapers and Alice's now-coverless copy of Alice In Wonderland. The door opens, and Angela sees a pair of feet walking down the stairs (I guess it's actually a bomb shelter). Angela looks red-eyed and paler than usual, by the way, which seems realistic after two days in the desert with no sleep, but she finally gets a good look at the woman, and it's longtime Bryan Fuller favorite Diana Scarwid, wearing a long gray fright wig that makes it look like she's about to start hurling hissing cats right and left. Angela breathes, "Alice?" I'd forgive the unlikelihood of her familiarity with the reference if Alice responded with a comment about not living there anymore, but all we get is a commercial break.
When we return, Angela is begging Alice to talk to her, but Alice is too busy sending us into another flashback as she puts a record on an old player and "Crying" by Roy Orbison kicks up...