Main cast: Ann Scobie (Terri Pike), MJ Karmi (Dot), Morton Hall Millen (The Policeman), and Rip Torn (Narrator)
Director: Stuart Taylor
Back in those days, it’s really in vogue for anthology series to have at least one episode that chastises women for daring to want to leave their families for whatever reason. “The husband may treat you like crap, but girl, don’t you ever dare leave that man because that makes you the biggest ho of the land!” was quite the rage back in those days, maybe because the film industry back then were full of men embittered over the fact that they had to play child support and alimony.
All Night Diner is that episode for Ghost Stories. Terri Pike is tired of her husband and children treating her like a maid, existing only to cook for and clean after them, and the husband seems utterly useless in the sense that he doesn’t lift a finger to help the wife. So, Terri decides to leave one evening for her boyfriend. For some reason, she decides to drive for hours in the dark of the night, instead of taking a plane or a bus. Then again, if she had been sensible, there wouldn’t be any story.
She is stopped by a cop that warns her that an escaped inmate from a loony bin is on the loose. Hmm, when have I heard that story line before? She meets and manages to escape a guy that is likely the lunatic in question, only to then end up in a bizarre loop in which she drives around in what seems like circles, stopping again and again at the mysterious Moe’s Diner. What is going on here?
Well, the answer should be pretty obvious to everyone watching this episode: Terri’s dead, and the diner is a stand-in for purgatory as the guests wait for their turn to take the bus to either heaven or hell. Here is where things become very contrived and crappy. Nobody will tell Terri what is going on, making her the only person not in the loop, even when she asks to know. This leaves our protagonist to flounder around like a headless chicken, and makes the “good” guys in the diner come off like unnecessarily cruel assholes. Worse, they lecture and scold Terri for leaving her family, which is fair enough, and the episode then drives home that Terri has committed the greatest sin ever by making sure that she’s going to hell while her husband will be marked for heaven.
Hence, a husband that contribute to an unhappy household—he’s okay, he’s still going to heaven. The wife that feels trapped and wants to leave, however, oh that wretch is a ho and must burn in hell. The folks behind this episode couldn’t even make the episode entertaining to make up for this dumb message. No, the whole set-up is transparent and predictable, and the episode is dragged out with tedious and repetitive filler scenes of Terri driving around in circles because she’s clueless and nobody bothers to fill her in.
Boy, the director and the screenwriter—both men, of course—really should show on this doll where the women in their past have hurt them.
