[AYAOTD? Recap with Erin Callahan] S05E05 "The Tale of Prisoners Past"

RECAP

Gary is furious that Tucker never showed up to help him paint the den. Tucker tries to apologize and then tells a story about two brothers who have to rely on each other to escape a scary situation.

Nerdy, indecisive Jason and jocky Scott have almost nothing in common and didn’t know each other well until they became step-brothers. While visiting an old prison turned museum, they get into a fight over a ten dollar bill. Scott chases Jason into an empty cell block, where they encounter a prisoner with an eye patch and let him out of his locked cell. At first, they assume the prisoner is an actor, but when they run he puts his arm right through the cell block door, trying to grab them. They become fully convinced he’s a ghost when he shows up at their house that night. They head to the library the next day, and discover that the prison had a perfect record except for one escape -- One-Eyed Jack remains at large. They track down Jack’s elderly daughter, but she screams at them, assuming they’re there to harass her. Back at the house, Scott is kidnapped by One-Eyed Jack and Jason heads to the prison to save him. He finds Scott in Jack’s cell, but the door locks behind him, trapping them both. When the two spot a rat, they realize there must be a way in and out of the cell. They discover a tunnel and attempt to escape through an air duct, but something is blocking their way -- a skeleton! The two brothers and the skeleton crash through the ceiling onto the floor below and the ghost of One-Eyed Jack thanks them for finding his remains. Jason and Scott find a photo of Jack’s daughter in the skeleton’s pocket and head to her house to tell her the truth about her father.

Tucker reveals that he bailed on painting the den so he could stand in line for Lollapalooza tickets for Gary and Sam. Aww, yay Tucker!

REVIEW

E: Troyson, how are ya now?

T: Good n’ you?

E: Not so bad. Yer hangin’ out with yer buddy on the interwebs the other day...

T: Pitter-patter, Erin.

E: Okay, okay. Let’s get at ’er.

T: Tucker arrives with Kiki. Does he EVER arrive with his big bro?

E: Hmmm, other than Tucker’s first appearance? Probably not. Like the step-brothers featured in this episode, I strongly suspect Gary and Tucker move in different social circles and not just because of their difference in age. Tucker’s into sports, right? Makes sense he and Kiki would bond over that.

T: Is Tucker a sports kid, or is that a gender based assumption? I think he shows up in BMX gear in a later episode, but I can’t remember him talking about sports.

E: He has a sporty vibe and, yes, I am engaging in heinous gender stereotyping.

T: Wow, Tucker decided to tell a “brothers not getting along” story. Original!

E: I love that Tucker uses the Midnight Society as family therapy.

T: This prison is based on Alcatraz, right? They do use American currency like always.

E: I wondered the same thing and Alcatraz definitely seems to be the inspiration. That said, Alcatraz is on an island. Jason couldn’t just walk there after dark.

T: I guess instead of brothers arguing, it’s step-brothers, so it’s a new dynamic. Is this the first time we’ve had step-siblings on the show? I will say the casting is weird in that regard because both actors are blue-eyed, dirty blonds. Like, they’d be more believable blood brothers than a lot of family pairs on TV.

E: I weirdly assumed that Denny and Buzz from “Phantom Cab” were step-brothers but I’m not sure if that’s ever clarified? They just seem to have that resentful dynamic.

T: I so wish we’d seen Denny and Buzz’s home life. I’d love any explanation about why they’re the way they are.

E: That actually might’ve been scarier than the actual episode.

T: I like that nerdy Jason owns it. He’s not intimidated or anything. And it’s nice to see nerdy Mark from Step by Step get a somewhat more dramatic role. Christopher Castile played this same character in a ton of shows in the ’90s. It works here.

E: Jason’s got some refreshing nerd-spark here. But Christopher Castile was definitely typecast as a stereotypical ’90s nerd. Those bigass, wire-rimmed glasses. Yeesh.

T: Jocky Scott thinks One-Eyed Jack is an actor ’cause he’s a total ham.

E: Oh man. His performance is a bit over the top but I think he pulls it off with a sort of modern day pirate energy.

T: New theory: each season has one perfectly fine episode that’s somewhat forgettable – “Jake and the Leprechaun,” “Whispering Walls,” “Guardian’s Curse,” “Silent Servant,” and now “Prisoners Past.” That means the rest of the season has to be stellar or horrible, right?

E: Ooooooh, interesting. There does seem to be a “meh episode” turning point in each season. I’m excited to see if your theory holds true this season.

T: Step-bros who don’t get along and have to share a room was a big part of Saved by the Bell: The New Class with Ryan and Nicky. And of course Step by Step was about step-siblings. Was this because divorce and remarriages were on the rise and finally being addressed in kids’ TV?

E: Step by Step was an ENTIRE show about step-families. And not a particular good one, right? They had to pull a Family Matters at one point and introduce a comedic doofus just to save themselves from cancellation. As a testament to its forgettable-ness, the only thing I remember with any clarity is catching an episode when I was in France and laughing at Cody dubbed en francais. Anyway, forgettable-ness aside, it does seem like there was a wave of step-sibling rep on TV in the ’90s. The Bradys were also a step-family, though not one that resulted from divorce, so I suppose it’s refreshing that kids’ TV writers started acknowledging divorce and remarriage as a reality of the modern world, and not one that was terrible by default.

T: Jack grabbing Mark is nice. There’s not a whole lot that actually happens in this episode, but everyone’s trying their best.

E: You mean Jason? :) There are some solid jump scares here, though I’ll admit I’ve never been a huge fan of ghosts being inconsistently corporeal? Like, if a ghost can grab someone, it shouldn’t also be able to walk or reach through walls. Build your ghost world thoughtfully and stick to it, goddammit!

T: See, I called him Mark because of Step by Step! It wasn’t all that forgettable to some of us ’90s kids. I headcanon that Jack can touch the boys because they freed him? He doesn’t touch anything else and the whole plot is he needs the living to find his body because he can’t reveal his corpse. It could be worked into a short piece of fiction, but does come off inconsistent here.

E: Okay, so you’re saying that because they let him out of his cell, he can touch them and only them? I guess I’ve heard weirder things.

T: Yay microfiche detectives! I’ll never get tired of teens going to the library for backstory purposes. Especially when it leads to a librarian fake out scare just like “Prom Queen.”

E: Yes! That is a trope I will never get sick of.

T: Scott taken through the door with his high tops remaining is such a Ron Oliver move.

E: Totally is. It’s completely ridiculous, but also pretty scary. Though now we’re really bending the world-building rules here. Not only is this ghost corporeal when it wants to be, it can teleport humans? But it leaves their shoes???

T: I feel like Scott isn’t an overly comedic role on paper, but he adds the humor where he can, like waking up and immediately going into karate chop pose.

E: Well he’s played by Dan Petronijevic, so no surprise there, but we’ll get to that in the trivia section.

T: The whole tunnel in the dark bit feels nice and claustrophobic.

E: Gotta love the old “crawling through an air duct” trope.

T: Scott calls Jason his brother! The feels!

E: Props to the actors for selling the shift between these two step-siblings. It easily could’ve come off as shallow or schmaltzy, but they kinda pull it off, at least by ’90s TV standards.

T: The character turn could be brilliantly portrayed in a ninety minute feature, but they don’t have that much time, but they manage to hit the major marks.

E: Exactly. It’s an acceptable expedited version.

T: I like that One-Eyed Jack being freed has a connection to modern day by unburdening his daughter. It’s another case of adult problems being solved by the kid protagonists, but they don’t have a four-minute monologue explaining a convoluted history.

E: Good point! This could’ve gone the way of “Room for Rent” or “Jagged Sign” but the writing is much tighter. Girl’s dad goes to jail. Girl believes dad escaped from jail and abandoned her. Girl becomes a crotchety old woman. Nice boys reveal that dad never escaped and, therefore, didn’t abandon her. ’Nuff said.

T: Got to love the continuity in the finale of Jason wearing the T-shirt he bought in the first scene.

E: LOL -- I noticed that too, but we don’t really get a clear shot of it. What does it say?

T: It says “I SURVIVED” then has a picture of someone grabbing prison bars. I assume the name of the prison is below the picture, but Jason’s got it tucked in.

E: Remember when people tucked in t-shirts?? Like, catalogues were just chock full of guys standing on yachts with their t-shirts tucked into their pleated khakis. Oh man, strange times.

T: Um, so One-Eyed Jack’s daughter strokes Scott’s chin? It’s such a weird little moment.

E: Okay, yes. SUPER weird. Normally you and I point out when two actors should not have been cast as siblings because there’s too much sexual tension between them. In this case I wonder if the actor playing the daughter had a little bit of a crush on Dan Petronijevic. Also, did you notice she had TWO canes? Were they trying to imply she needs a walker but can’t afford it? Then again, that’s classic Ron Oliver isn’t it? Just a subtle tweak on the mundane that makes it absurd.

T: Yes! I love the two canes. And I think one of them is a little longer than the other. I can easily picture the props master asking Ron Oliver which one to use and him deciding on both.

E: And this is why he’s a legend.

T: Tucker proves to be an adorable scamp because he surprises Gary with two tickets for Lollapalooza so Gary can take Sam for his birthday. We are finally having some forward momentum in the Sam/Gary relationship!

E: Huzzah! Also, ’95 was THE year to see Lolla. Sonic Youth. Pavement. Hole. Sinead O’Connor for fuck’s sake. All in one show!!

QUEER OR NOT?

T: There’s a fun Ron Oliver campy sensibility, but nothing really queer struck me. Unless you want to ship Jason and Scott? Are they the new nerd/jock Gary/Frank?

E: I’m sorry, but as a divorced mom I refuse to ship step-siblings. Totally cool with Jason and Scott being queer, just not with each other.

TRIVIA, USELESS TRIVIA

E: Our readers are probably wondering why we started this recap off sounding like two hicks from the small Canadian town of Letterkenny.

T: It’s because Scott is played by Dan Petronijevic, aka McMurray on Letterkenny! This was his second screen role, but he’s been working steadily ever since. He recurred on Todd and the Book of Pure Evil (which I’m a huge fan of) as one of the three stoner dudes. Also, Letterkenny is written and directed by Jacob Tierney, who was season one’s Eric. Full circle.

E: Letterkenny is so refreshingly queer and wickedly funny. Start watching if you aren’t already. Funny story: I knew that Dan Petronijevic was on an upcoming episode, but I didn’t realize right away that he was Scott. It wasn’t until he woke up in the jail cell and made a classic squint-to-eye-pop McMurray face that I made the connection.

T: In a somewhat Freudian move, Tucker is wearing the same shirt that Evan wore in Gary’s “Tale of the Renegade Virus.”

E: Wow. Do you think the costume department had limited resources, or was this an intentional Ron Oliver touch?

T: Actually the episode writers and directors don’t handle the Midnight Society segments at all. D.J. wrote all of them and a few different people directed them. I’m sure it was wardrobe saving some money.

E: OMG, what?? How did I not know this?

T: We’ve got two familiar faces popping up. Jennifer Sequin, who played stage manager Lucy in “Jake and the Leprechaun” is the tour guide. Secondly, the librarian is played by Pauline Little, who was the mom in “Shiny Red Bicycle” and the infamous Aunt Dottie from “Lonely Ghost.”

MODERNIZE ’90s CANADIAN KIDS

T: The story needs something more, right? It’s very thin plot-wise. They free One-Eyed Jack, they go home, they research, he lures them back, they free him again. You could do all that in half the time and still fit in an evil ghost jailer or something.

E: I’m not totally sold on adding an additional baddie, but this episode does seem to be missing something. Also, how problematic is it that this episode features a prison turned into a museum? Especially a museum that sells cheeky t-shirts about...prisons? I feel like our views on the prison system have shifted just enough that you wouldn’t be able to get away with this now. I think you could still feature a prison-turned-museum, but you’d need to shift the tone just a bit. And maybe that’s what this episode is missing. I’m not saying we need a four-minute monologue, but I feel like we’re lacking some emotional depth about the claustrophobic, isolating experience of being incarcerated.

JUST GIVE IT A NUMERICAL RATING ALREADY

T: I don’t dislike anything, it’s just sort of consistently fine. A perfectly fine rating would earn it 7 OUT OF 10 CAMPFIRES.

E: I have trouble getting excited about this episode and I’m bothered by the inconsistent ghost-rules. But Scott’s McMurray face brought me such joy. Just for that, I’m bumping it up one point to 7.1 OUT OF 10 CAMPFIRES.