[AYAOTD? Recap with Erin Callahan] S04E11 "The Tale of the Unfinished Painting"

RECAP

Tucker’s got storyteller’s block and hasn’t come up with a story in time for the meeting. Inspired by Tucker’s block and weirdly willing to save his kid brother’s ass, Gary offers to take his place and weaves a tale about the strangeness of inspiration.

Cody is an aspiring artist struggling with a lack of inspiration. Her brother, Lucas, tries to be supportive but can’t really relate. While drawing in the park, Cody sees a strange girl drop her hat on the ground. She picks up the hat and chases after the girl, eventually finding herself outside the Hunter Gallery. Inside, she finds a collection of lovely paintings and the artist, Mrs. Briar. When Cody reveals that she’s also an artist but struggling to find inspiration, Mrs. Briar shows her a room full of unfinished paintings and offers to let her complete one. Cody is thrilled, chooses to work on a painting featuring ballet dancers, and begins working alongside another young artist, Jenna. Cody finds a cabinet full of paintbrushes and...eww...a shrunken head. After she touches a few of the brushes, she begins to have strange dreams and visions of some of the people in Mrs. Briar’s paintings. When Cody sees the painting Jenna was working on hanging in the gallery and signed by Mrs. Briar, she asks what happened. Mrs. Briar tells her Jenna won’t be coming back and encourages her to continue working on the painting with the ballet dancers. Suspecting Mrs. Briar might be up to something, Cody calls Lucas. Before he arrives, Mrs. Briar insists Cody use the brush given to her to sign the painting she’s finished. Cody finds herself trapped inside the painting and has to navigate a swirling circle of ballet dancers to retrieve the brush. Meanwhile, Lucas arrives at the gallery, looking for Cody. Eager to hide any evidence of her evil deeds, Mrs. Briar throws the ballet dancer painting into a dumpster and sets it on fire. Cody finally retrieves the brush and snaps it in two, freeing herself from the painting. Once free, she gathers all the brushes from the cabinet and throws them into the burning dumpster, destroying both Mrs. Briar and the shrunken head she serves.

Tucker promises to have a story ready for next week and Gary closes the meeting.

REVIEW

T: I really like this Midnight Society material. It’s funny/cute with commando Tucker hiding in the bushes, and sweet with Gary being a good big bro and taking over.

E: I suppose as much as Tucker annoys him, Gary will do the good big bro thing when it counts. Though I think I would’ve enjoyed seeing Tucker in the hot seat, trying to make up a story on the spot.

T: I love that Gary’s like, “Gee, guys, I know it’s unorthodox, but is it possibly OK if I tell a story instead of Tucker, even though it goes against by-laws?” And no one cares!

E: So funny, and yet it makes perfect sense. Gary is the only member of the Midnight Society who actually cares about the rules. I love that he walks that line between ineffectual stickler and insufferable dictator. 

T: Is this the first improv story? Since Tucker has nothing, and Gary wasn’t prepared, he just wings it. And it sort of fits the actual story. “Um, then she opened the cabinet and there was this head.” “Yeah, then they were like, ‘Be a hunter,’ because a hunter is…something.”

E: Ha! I fully assumed that Gary came up with story literal days before the meeting, but this is entirely possible. There are some very weird elements in this episode that we’ll get to in a bit.

T: The whole controlling someone’s inspiration strikes me as a Betty Ann concept. So I was a little confused as to why Gary was telling this one, until it went all dark magic. So mid-way through it starts to feel like a Gary tale.

E: I think we would’ve seen more body horror if Betty Ann had told this one, like stiffening limbs and cracking skin because the victims are literally turning into paintings. But yeah, it takes a definite Gary turn with the cabinet of magical horrors.

T: We get the triumphant return of Jewel Staite in massive, Golden Girls shoulder pads! I like that she gets to be the hero after being the anti-hero in “Watcher’s Woods.”

E: She’s a completely different character here, but just as magnetic. Not every young actor could’ve sold that dialogue about how drawing is more than just putting lines on a page, but she pulls it off. And her hella oversized yellow button-down shirt is so epically ’90s.

T: I thought the story started with a Beauty and the Beast Belle/Gaston scene with Lucas basically telling her he can’t read, but then it turns out later on that Lucas is her brother, not a love interest? I don’t know how to feel about him. He’s a little toxic’y, then supportive, then turns it all into a joke. But I guess once you realize he’s her brother, it’s fine?

E: I’m so glad I’m not the only one who was totally confused by their relationship. Maybe the two actors had real life romantic chemistry and it sort of bled through into their performances? In any case, when Lucas told Cody she was the most talented person he knew, my boyfriend said, “He just wants a handjob,” and I said, “Maybe? But I think he’s her brother?” LOL. Their jokey dynamic is acceptable for siblings, it’s just made totally weird by the fact that they look like they desperately want to make out with each other.

T: I love how Lucas is trying to be supportive of her creative process. Yes, you’re well meaning, but you don’t get what it’s like to be a creator, so thanks but I’m good on your advice.

E: Every creative person has had to suffer through the well-meaning advice of an outsider at some point or another. Very early in our relationship, I told my boyfriend that when I complain about the trials and tribulations of writing and publishing, he’s not allowed to start his response with, “Why don’t you just…” Because if he does, I will lose my shit.

T: “Why don’t you just…” is the equivalent of nails on a chalkboard!

E: It absolutely is!

T: I do sympathize with Cody – she’s frustrated that she’s making lines on paper, not art. I struggle with that constantly while making my weekly AYAOTD? fan art.

E: Troyson, you’re one of the most talented people I know, and I’m not saying that because I want a handjob. I think almost every creative person can relate to that sentiment. Am I just going through the motions, or am I creating something that’s actually going to speak to people?

T: LMAO. I’ll leave it at that.

E: Huzzah!

T: So two weeks ago we had the “Ghastly Grinner” about a frustrated teen artist, and this week is about a frustrated teen artist? They’re no Madeline Koegel…

E: LOL. Poor, poor old Madeline. But I’m totally cool with this little teen artist trend.

T: The creepy half-finished paintings make me think this episode is inspired by A-Ha’s music video for Take on Me.

E: Wow! Didn’t make that connection but it totally makes sense. That video is iconic. And also completely bananas. I’d love to see a twisted horror version of that “girl draws imaginary boyfriend and then pulls him into the real world” story at some point. I mean, you just know something’s going to be not right with him.

T: Oh yeah. There’s lots of imaginary friend tales (I wrote one in a collection called “I Didn’t Break The Lamp” published by Mad Scientist Journal as a matter of fact) but I’d love to see it be an imaginary boyfriend. I toyed around with a short story about one, but figured it would work better visually.

E: Someone make this happen. Erin and Troy have spoken.

T: Oh snap there’s a flipping head in a cabinet! Okay, some episodes, particularly earlier seasons, I knew backwards and forwards before this rewatch, and some others I confused or was a little muddy on the details. This week, I remembered Cody painting and that was about it, so that head in the cabinet was a fun surprise.

E: The whole shrunken head thing is just sooooooo weird and I honestly can’t decide whether it works for me. One the one hand, it significantly ups the creepiness of that cabinet full of paintbrushes. On the other hand, it complicates Mrs. Brier’s backstory/mythology in a way that seems kind of unnecessary and sort of muddies the world-building here.

T: I lean toward it working here, unlike the Watcher not working in “Watcher’s Woods,” but I’m not one hundred percent convinced about it.

E: That’s fair.

T: The dream scene with Lucas and the girl in blue in the park is really well done. Actually, all bits inside the paintings are pretty effective.

E: I’m normally annoyed by soft-focus dream sequences, but it sort of works for me here because it does a nice job of mimicking the paintings.

T: Why is Lucas her brother and not a love interest? It’s just surprising. He’s very protective of her like a knight in a leather jacket.

E: I feel like everyone reading this recap is going to be like, “This again?” But it bears repeating because the romantic tension between Lucas and Cody doesn’t dissipate after the first scene. It’s kind of surprising they didn’t try to shift course with the characters after editing. It would’ve been so easy to just call him her boyfriend instead of her brother in a single line of voiceover And this show doesn’t seem to have many protagonists with established, supportive significant others, even though lots of teens are in relationships.

T: Exactly. He’s kind of a lughead, but he comes through for her. Literally editing out one or two words would completely change the dynamics.

E: Such a missed opportunity!

T: An art gallery is a fun space for a horror story. Velvet Buzzsaw just came out with a similar setting. And it’s not necessarily something that springs to mind in writing teen stories. And I forgot all about the young Blossom girl, but that’s Mrs. Briar, too? I like it. The series sorely needs more female baddies, and she’s a solid addition to the rogue’s gallery.

E: She does look like a young Blossom! Love it. And I dig Mrs. Briar’s whole vibe. She’s got that classic middle-aged posh bohemian thing happening with her bigass scarves.

T: I adore a bigass scarf! I don’t love the solution to just burn the brushes. Feels a tad easy. But I get it.

E: I was like, “Is that a good idea?” She snaps her own brush while IN the painting. How can she be so sure that burning the rest in the real world will actually free the other victims?

T: That’s a thing in every supernatural story. How do they KNOW their pet theory on the spot will work? If it was me, I’d have three conflicting ideas and not have a clue which to go with.

E: You and I would so quickly perish in a supernatural story, due to overthinking.

T: Side note: I’ve mentioned I’m working on my PROPER WATCH ORDER of the series, and I love this. I’m going to change it so “Fire Ghost” follows this. That means Tucker’s inspiration comes from Gary’s denouement of burning the brushes.

E: Oooooh! Love this.

QUEER OR NOT?

T: I’m going to say “not.” We have a straight girl doing art. Which is fine. Did you pick up on anything I missed?

E: Middle-aged bohemian artist ladies sort of always read a little bit queer to me, but Mrs. Briar’s potential queerness is diminished by the fact that she’s serving some sort of evil male shrunken head entity.

T: Lesbians can’t work for shrunken heads?

E: Work for? Sure. This struck me as something a little more involved than an employee-employer arrangement. Mrs. Briar and the all-powerful head are, like, enmeshed.

TRIVIA, USELESS TRIVIA

T: I can’t really connect it to “Sleeping Beauty” but I can’t help but think Mrs. Briar is named after Briar Rose, the original name of Sleeping Beauty. Are we to infer that Sleeping Beauty went on to become an immortal hunter for a decapitated head?

E: LOL -- amazing! I made the same connection with the name, but didn’t take it that far. I say why not! You know she’s going to be dealing with some trauma after she wakes up and eager to get out of her marriage to a prince who straight-up assaulted her while she was asleep, so this seems like a totally plausible future for her.

T: Actually, the prince ending up a head in a cabinet is a fitting ending for him (if you find a comatose girl in the woods, don’t molest her!).

E: Lesson of the day, kids!

MODERNIZE ’90s CANADIAN KIDS

T: The story doesn’t feel outdated to me, just a bit cluttered. Simplify the head/hunter/Lucas material and you’re good to go. Oh, and remove Jewel Staite’s shoulder pads.

E: Sadly, the oversized button-down with football player padding has to go. Also, no modern teenager is going to buy that Cody and Lucas are siblings. Just make him her honey bear already! Do you think Cody would start to suspect something was up with the gallery after she looked it up on online? I feel like kids google everything these days and surely she’d stumble upon some reddit thread about the missing artists.

T: That would be a good world-building way to add suspense and make Cody wary but still intrigued.

JUST GIVE IT A NUMERICAL RATING ALREADY

T: It’s fun, there’s a creepy atmosphere, Jewel Staite and Mrs. Briar are really solid. I don’t know if Lucas’ character really works. Is he necessary? Is the head needed? Perhaps there’s too much going on, and paring back one or two elements would have made room for the core story to feel stronger. 8.1 OUT OF 10 CAMPFIRES.

E: I’m still undecided on the head. Ack! But there’s so much here I like, and even the tension between Lucas and Cody is kind of hilarious. Fuck it, I’m going with 8.5 OUT OF 10 CAMPFIRES.