Main cast: Glenn Plummer (Stephen Keller), Giannina Facio (Vivica Linders), Serge Houde (Mr Bigelow), and David Bowie (The Host)
Director: Erik Canuel
Night Bloomer is based on David J Schow’s short story of the same name. Splatterpunk author and screenwriter Mr Schow is no stranger here, as he had come up with stuff for movies as well as episodes for Masters of Horror and Creepshow.
In this one, our luckless protagonist Stephen Keller works at Lunagro, a company that does genetic engineering on crops, and he reports to the ruthless profits-over-ethics boss Mr Bigelow.
After another frustrating meeting with his boss, Stephen encounters the mysterious Vivica in an elevator. She lures him with the premise that he should be sitting in Mr Bigelow’s seat and she’d love to, ahem, work under him. She has read all about him in the reports, you see, and she knows that he is the man she needs.
The whole thing feels dodgy and, for all we know, this could be some kind of honey trap set by Mr Bigelow to weed out threats and traitors, but hey, never underestimate the power of a hot woman on a burned-out and unhappy employee.
Anyway, Vivica claims to be a colleague that has been working on a special soil that can greatly enhances the spore dissemination ability of the right plants that grow on it, and those plants just happen to be Stephen’s current project. How convenient! Now, if they could be rid of Mr Bigelow, Vivian tells him, they would be an unstoppable team on the way up the corporate ladder of Lunagro.
Naturally, all Stephen has to do is to get rid of that odious man for them. Just plant this seed handed to him by Vivian into the soil of that man’s home, and voila, Mr Bigelow will never be in his way again. What can go wrong?
I have not read the source material, so I can’t tell how close this episode is to that short story. However, this episode has an interesting premise with an ending that promises the coming of an apocalypse. The two lead actors do a good job here, and Giannina Facio looks the part and plays the role of a femme fatale very well.
It also helps that this episode doesn’t waste time on overlong gratuitous sex scenes, and the obligatory one here is done in arty way that fits the rest of the aesthetic surrounding Vivian very well.
I’m just not sure about the dodgy effects at the climax of this episode. I know, I know, this show has a budget of half a shoestring, but still, the special effects are more comical than anything.
Also, Stephen being so gullible and malleable kind of ruins the fun of this episode a bit. Vivian never has to work up even a little drop of sweat to have her way with him.
Still, this is easily one of the few actually above average episodes to date in this season, so here’s a drink to that!
