Main cast: Dylan Sloane (Lyle VelJohnson), Loretta Walsh (Gloria VelJohnson), Shaughnessy Redden (Archibald VelJohnson), Chloe Babcook (Violet Meyers), Andrea Drepaul (Special Agent Ella), Ed Chow (Special Agent Mann), Julie Howgate (Viviane Meyers), Talia Mathers (The Woman), Cooper Bibaud (The Police Officer) Tariq Leslie (Chester Meyers), Keegan Connor Tracy (Marcia Higgins), Emma Oliver (Ruby Higgins), Jay Bell (The Werewolf), Jason McKinnon (Benny), Marion Eisman (Belinda Higgins), Teana-Marie Smith (The Preacher), Amanda Huxtable (Carla), David Avalon (David), and Devyn Dalton (The Little Werewolf)
Directors: PJ Pesce and Justin Dyck
Parent Death Trap revolves around smothering parenthood. Well, it’s not smothering as much as it’s trapped in the woods that have gone up in flames, your flesh is melting, and you want to scream but your mouth has melted into goo too.
At least, that’s what Lyle VelJohnson feels as his cartoon villain parents Gloria and Archibald heckle and scold and berate him for just even waking up from bed to breathe.
The only son of the wealthy, self-important VelJohnson family, he is expected to be perfect, but to his parents, poor Lyle is the embodiment of a failure. Mind you, the guy playing him is cute and he even has a six pack, but this show treats Lyle like he’s a hideous slug with no redeeming features whatsoever so I don’t know what is happening here. Maybe poor Dylan Sloane is considered hideous by the high standards of Hollywood?
At any rate, his parents made a sizable investment in the company of the parents of Violet Meyers, all to get them to force Violet Meyers, the most popular girl in school, to agree to accompany Lyle to the prom. As Archibald puts it, it is unacceptable for his son to go without a date.
Sure, Lyle has a crush on Violet, with him spying on her so lovingly being the testament of that, but he resents his parents’ interference.
When Violet is a no show, his parents resume berating him for what a loser and a failure he is. That’s when he snaps and kills them. Alas, he underestimates the bond between parents and child in a horror show…
There are moments when this segment drags and feels tad too long, but on the whole, this is a pretty watchable story of parents that just refuse to shut up or worse, won’t stay dead.
Unfortunately, Lyle doesn’t really deserve to be in the situation that he finds himself in, and as a result, the segment feels petty and even cruel—the handiwork of people that just want to relive their mean boy or girl moments in high school vicariously, perhaps.
Also, Lyle is really played by the wrong fellow. He’s too cute and ripped for the role, he doesn’t exude any hint of pathetic loser-dom that would have made the character sympathetic, and the whole thing about this character feels really off.
The next segment, To Grandmother’s House We Go, is both frustrating and even stupid.
I never knew Keegan Connor Tracy has it in her, but she plays a hilariously mercenary and self-absorbed Marcia that only wants sugar daddies to pay for her happiness. When her latest conquest David Higgins dies, he leaves all his money and properties to her… and also had his mother, Belinda, appointed the executor.
The old lady has never liked Marcia, so Marcia is forced to lead in a lower standard of living with her stepdaughter Ruby.
The credit card bills have piled up to a calamitous degree, but fortunately, Belinda develops cancer and has only a few months more to live, much to Marcia’s delight. When Belinda asks Marcia to let her spend some time with Belinda, of course Marcia agrees and stuffs Ruby into the car for the journey ahead.
Right away, the people behind this segment let their oh-so-clever need to be all symbolic and deep get the better of them. So, for no reason whatsoever, Ruby dresses up as Little Red Riding Hood, complete with picnic basket and all, for the trip. Uh… why? Who cares, the people behind this segment think they are so clever to think of this, so just shut up and admire their brilliance.
Shocker, a werewolf attacks them in the night as they pass through the woods. Little Red Riding Hood, get it, get it? Oh, aren’t these people simply the smartest?
On the bright side, it’s fun to see Marcia turn into this unexpected angry little dragon that gives the werewolf no quarter. She even goes all out to protect Ruby, showing that she has developed some affection for her despite her “I’m not cut out to be a mother” façade.
The episode thus seems to be heading toward a redemption arc for Marcia… oh wait. Just like the previous segment, this one seems to be done by cynical people that like to subvert the audience’s expectation just because.
This is an issue because the subversion in both segments is not earned. There is no lead-up or build-up, just a cruel twist tossed in at the end because these people act like their job is to deliberately pull the rug from under their audience’s feet like they are some lazy jump scares in a horror flick. Hence, both segments end on a very unsatisfying note, with a poke in the nostrils rather than anything else.
All in all, this is a watchable and entertaining but ultimately unsatisfying episode.
