Main cast: Melba Moore (Angela Lyle), Frankie Faison (Jack Lyle), Byron Minns (The Mandrake Root), and Claudia Silver (Maude Villdorf)
Director: Brian Thomas Jones

Melba Moore has just inherited her grandmother’s place in The Mandrake Root.

Together with her husband Jack, they take a look at the place, and she is dismayed to realize just how much junk her grandmother had stashed away in the place. The grandmother was considered odd, as after her husband disappeared, the woman spent the next 30 years or so holed up in this house.

Still, Jack tells her to look at the bright side: she may find something valuable among the things strewn all over the place.

Indeed, she finds an odd root growing in the basement. She accidentally pricks her finger and lets some blood fall onto it, and lo and behold, it grows into this hot guy.

Okay, the hot guy is wearing tights that make it seem like he has Ken doll anatomy down below, and he also has some twigs and leaves tied around his arms to make him resemble a Party City mascot dressed like a horny satyr, but still, Angela is soon drawn to his charms.

The problem is that he is the same creature that her grandmother had what I presume to be a hot-blooded affair up until her death, and this fellow feeds on human blood. Indeed, Angela’s grandfather didn’t just run off with another woman, like many assumed he did—her grandfather fed the poor fellow to Mr Hot Mandrake Root over here.

Now, he wants Angela to do the same: feed him her husband, and he’s feed her his… well, you know.

This episode openly touches on sex and seduction, so it’s one of the more grown-up episodes of Monsters. However, it’s not that gory or scary, although the fanged mouth on Mr Hot Mandrake Root’s palms is a nice effect, as it’s more of a… I don’t know, sexy comedy, I guess.

Melba Moore and Frankie Faison have good chemistry and they put on a show that is a nice balance of humor and more down to earth realness. Meanwhile, Byron Minns has only to look sexy and smoldering in spite of his unfortunate costume, but he manages to also exude a sexy kind of menacing air without becoming too hammy or over the top.

However, what sets this episode back is how inconsequential everything turns out to be.

Mr Hot Mandrake Root is free to repeat the cycle, Angela doesn’t have to face any repercussions for her being tempted into the dark and sexy side—not that I blame her for doing that, because between Frankie Faison and Byron Minns, it’s kind of a no-brainer which one a sensible lady will go for—and Jack seems pretty sanguine after nearly losing his life.

As a result, the whole thing feels like a pointless waste of time. Sure, it’s entertaining at places, but still, what’s the point in the end?