Main cast: Timothy Bottoms (Peter), Kelly Lynch (Teresa), Jeff McCracken (Allen), Michael Emil (Dr Latimer), and Page Fletcher (The Hitchhiker)
Director: Colin Bucksey
Joker has one of the Bottoms brothers, although I have to confess that I can only tell them apart by their mustaches and mutton chops. Is Timothy Bottoms the most famous one, or is he the Stephen Baldwin of the lot?
No, this one has nothing to do with the famous villain of the same name. When it opens, Peter is already incarcerated in the loony bin, and his doctors discuss what happened that led him to be placed here: he terrorized a woman called Teresa, although the men don’t really know what happened to her. Hmm, this episode has better have one good twist, or else they have just spoiled the whole thing in the opening scene.
Peter is obsessed with his ex-wife Melissa, and he assumes Teresa is her because the two women look very alike. Consequently, he begins stalking her and has practical jokes played on her. The pranks begin to escalate as the episode heats up, naturally.
So, the suspense here arises from whether Teresa is actually Melissa under a new identity, or whether she will succeed in getting the better of the deranged Peter. There’s not much of a suspense ride here, actually, because whether Teresa is Melissa or not doesn’t really matter in the end, and of course she will succeed in besting Peter.
The bulk of the episode is all about Peter tormenting the poor woman in increasingly wince-inducing ways, with the scariest aspect of this whole thing is that he seems to genuinely believe that his antics will win back her affections. What kind of damage did he experience in his childhood, I wonder?
Of course, this means that Teresa’s eventual win is all the more satisfying, as it completely breaks Peter down into further lunacy (yes, it’s possible). I can’t say that this episode has a poor pay-off!
Timothy Bottoms can chew the scenery well, and it helps that he’s cute to look at. Still, this isn’t an easy episode to sit through, due to his character’s antics. If one can sit through Peter’s escalating cruelty, though, the ending may be a good cathartic experience.
