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What’s old is new again as a cyclical plot rears its head for a new generation.
Simon and Eugene discuss the Night Stalker episode, Timeless.
Episode Synopsis:
In a park, a man finds a decomposing body, the coroner, Aaron Shields, rules it accidental death. Alex Nyby calls in Kolchak because he thinks the coroner is wrong. The face of the dead woman was bitten by an unidentifiable animal clean through to her brain. Question, the coroner dismisses this as the cause of death because of the lack of defensive wounds on the body. The victim didn’t fight back, therefore these wounds were post-death. It all seems perfectly plausible.
At home, Dr. Shields seems visibly upset when his mother, Marlene, is getting all dolled up to go out with a gentleman caller.
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Nyby, on his own time, does a thorough body examination of the corpse and finds something – a small hypodermic injection mark hidden in a mole. He reports to Dr. Shields who contacts both the police, to report it as a homicide, and to Kolchak. Shields takes the credit for the discovery.
Marlene’s gentleman caller catches a glimpse of Marlene without her “face on” and she really needs a lot of work. She’s a lot older than she appears. Ahh, vanity, eh?
Jain has a lead. He introduces Kolchak and Perri to Titus, the morgue attendant – that it, the Beacon’s newspaper morgue. There in the dusty tomes of history, they’ve found another set of 3 murders, in 1970, that match the dead woman. Three bodies, found in parks, with their face bitten into the brain.
Kolchak contacts the retired detective on the case and learns that the women were alive when their brains were eaten. Anesthetized and helpless, those poor women were conscious as the watched the killer chomp into their faces. The murders stopped when the trail led to a Doctor Russel with access to the anesthetic used. The doctor killed himself.
Meanwhile, Perri tracks down the dead woman’s supervisor. The dead woman was a realtor and often showed houses, all alone, to strangers. It’s almost a perfect setup for someone to go missing. Perri meets the supervisor and it’s Marlene. They meet, all alone, at one of the houses. Marlene has nothing to offer, but she pervs on Perri’s beautiful, young skin and reveals to the audience that she’s about to inject Perri with a hypodermic, just as clients arrive to see the house. Perri escapes, but never knew she was in jeopardy. She gives Marlene her card before she leaves.
Back at the newspaper morgue, three more murders, in 1935 are discovered and three more in 1900. Kolchak realizes the killer must be incredibly long-lived. Maybe the murders stopped in 1970 because three was enough and maybe the killer wasn’t really dead.
Kolchak gets the corpse of Dr. Russell exhumed to see if he’s really dead. He’s dead. Dr. Shields confirms that and points out the bullet damage to the face. Nyby points out that the pattern of the wound isn’t consistent with a short-range suicide and, Shields, in front of Kolchak and a police detective, is force to concede that this was murder, not suicide.
Meanwhile, Marlene’s gentleman caller tells her he knows her secret, and that she doesn’t need to “cover up” for him. She, ominously tells he she never wants him to leave.
Shields confronts his mother. He tells her he had to perform an autopsy on Dr. Russell. “You told me he killed himself! You murdered him, just like you’re going to murder me!” he weeps.
“No, no, he wasn’t strong like you, but it was necessary. The police were asking questions and when I killed him, they stopped asking questions. Don’t worry, I’ve got this all under control.”
Perri, having dinner with her parents, has been disturbed by this case. It’s made her question her choices and she discusses the case with her father, a doctor. He latches onto the weirdness of it and suggests that maybe the killer was after the pituitary gland at the front of the brain. In some cultures the pituitary gland eaten while still alive is believed to prolong life.
At that moment, Marlene calls Perri and says she has more info. Can you come to my home right away? Of course she can.
Nyby, doing more digging, discovers and earlier victim from a month ago. Her death had been accidentally misclassified as natural causes by none other than Dr. Shields. When Kolchak can’t repack Perri, he rushes to Shields home.
Marlene injects Perri while Shields, in a panic, watches. Perri tries to flee but finds herself in the room with the dead gentleman caller. Marlene has set up that she’s going to kill Perri, eat her pituitary gland while she watches, and then blame the crimes on the dead gentleman caller. As she is about to bite into Perri’s face, Shields shoots and kills her, just as Kolchak and the police arrive.
The case the the Night Face-Biter has been solved.[/expand]
https://fusionpatrol.com/2019/01/21/404-night-stalker-timeless/
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