Main cast: Ethan Embry (Chance Wilson) and Vondie Curtis Hall (Walter Markham)
Director: John Dahl
Meet Chance Wilson. He’s in a relationship with the long suffering Jackie, who has to remain patient as he can’t hold a job. The rent is long overdue, but he’s certain that his next trip to the bookies will make them a lot of money. When Chance opens, he is banking on a conversation he had with antique dealer Walter Markham to net him the big bucks. Apparently a vase belonging to some dude is worth a lot of money, but that dude doesn’t know of its true value.
Hence, Chance emptied his own savings and borrowed some money from banks as well as bookies to purchase the vase on what he thought was a cheap price ($20,000), hoping to resell it to Walter for $45,000. Walter, however, announces that the vase isn’t what he thought it was, and offers a far lower amount of money for it – $5,000. Frustrated, he ends up murdering Walter. Oops. Worse, another version of him shows up – a smarter, more evil version who proceeds to alternate between taunting and helping him as things continue to go really wrong for poor Chance.
To be honest, it’s hard to sympathize with the “good” Chance because he’s such an utter moron whom I feel embarrassed for after a while. He has no clue and he keeps doing stupid things, like answering Walter’s phone after he has murdered that man when he’s not leaving his fingerprints everywhere in that man’s store. The more evil Chance is, dare I say it, kind of sexy and hot with that smirk and all. Interesting how I never found Ethan Embry attractive until now… but all this was before he lost all his hair, of course.
Anyway, Chance is a pretty well-directed episode and Ethan Embry certainly gives his all, playing both the pathetic loser and charming psychopath with aplomb, but at the end of the day, this episode is still about a complete idiot who gets what he deserves. Shame that he has to drag other people down with him, but I guess this can be considered a lesson to all of us: don’t associate with losers and idiots.
