SO WEIRD s1e3: MEMORY

 

SO WEIRD s1e3: MEMORY

 

Fi starts the episode with a narration about memory. While she does, we see Jack, Molly and Fi watching an old film of when Fi was a baby with Molly and Rick, her father.

 

Jack and Clue was breathing heavy because it’s hot. The AC on the bus is broken. Jack claims it worked in Chicago. Clue says, “This is Oklahoma, man. Thermometers have extra degrees on top.”  NOTE: the way he talks and walks, Clue has an extra degree of BILL AND TED from BILL AND TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURES.

 

It’s very hot. The bus windows are very dirty. Clue references Jack Frost nipping at his nose. Molly had to spend five dollars on one cup of lemonade at a roadside lemonade stand run by a girl and her blond brother (“Little criminals.”). Molly gives Clue some peanuts.

 

 Apparently she is driving the bus to meet Irene and Ned at a small town. Later, we see her with some members of her band, which begs the idea that if she is on the road on the bus with the family and usually Ned driving and Irene with them, too, what does the band do? I’m not sure we’ve seen them before or after.

 

Irene has booked them about 20 miles outside of Tulsa, where Molly is playing. Jack has blue eyes or green. The place is Oasis Motel and Trailer Park. The hotel attendant is gross and playing with looks like a huge cockroach (I’d be so out of there). His dog Sparky is hiding under the desk. The pool is out of commission and dirty. So, the AC is also out and the hotel man says the pool guy was supposed to be by last night. He has to have a chat with his parole officer.

 

Ned claims without power Molly could work on that unplugged set she wanted to do.

 

Irene thinks it was such a good idea last night to hotel at this place.

 

Jack references the Rio Grande. Clue gets sodas for them. Fi has a Pepsi, covered up by her hand. Clue seems to have a Dr. Pepper. He fries an egg on the stone platform under a statue.

 

Fi finds the paper is yesterday’s paper.

 

The trio meet a kid in a bathing suit: Cole Matkin. “How do,” he says. Jack asks Cole if he knows where there is a swimming pool. Cole’s statement/question, “Is a pig’s butt pork?” seems to confuse Clue.

 

 

Graffiti on the pool build for the rec center says MM plus JN (this might be significant or an inside joke?). They can’t swim there either because there’s some kind of green goo in the pool and it’s dirty, too.

 

Cole says the pool was fine yesterday. He got tired and went to bed at 6pm just like Ned did. Clue thinks everyone here went to bed at 6. Cole usually goes to bed at 8:30. When he tries to think about last night and why he went to bed early, he seems to dizzy out.

 

Fi starts to complain about the town but is kind when she mentions it. She wonders why Irene, the best band manager in the business, booked them at this town.

 

“I’m telling you guys, it’s high noon for Fi’s theory of weird stuff.”

 

Fi’s band? Consists of an older black man with a sort of French wool hat on and he is holding a guitar, an older white man who is balding and seemingly with one drum on his lap, and a somewhat younger blond guy with long hair, and a middle aged woman with short curly hair who has a cassio or portable keyboard on her lap. She is the only one who speaks and she says, “My deodorant is wearing off.” Her name might be Hetty but I might have misheard the dialog as Molly might have said, “Ready…”

 

Irene can’t get another hotel even if they work for it.

 

When Fi presses Irene for what’s happened to her, Irene seems to get VERY mad at Fi. Ned just seems to get dizzy, like Cole does and he seems to get more tired and stuffy. Cole seems to close his eyes and see…people at the pool running and…an alien from space …of some kind.  

 

Ned stopped at the hotel to use the phone because the others had the cellular. The 1990s were another world.

 

Cole mumbles, “They did something to us.”

 

Cole’s mom picks him up and they go home.

 

“C’mon Irene, you’re not afraid of anything,” Fi pushes. Irene snaps at her.

 

Ned seems to remember Irene at a phone booth (charming, bless) but something seemed to approach her. There also look like there are little fires around her and the phone booth.

 

As Jack tries to clean up one of the pools (not sure which one but since we see trailers in the background, I’m guessing the one at the hotel). Here, he berates Fi for pushing too hard and getting Ned and Cole so upset they almost black out (Cole did black out for a bit). He’s not sure why she’s doing what she’s doing. People get sick when Fi tries to piece together what happened. She doesn’t let go of these things.

 

Clue’s been looking around and hasn’t seen a  mouse, a cat, or a bird. He tells Fi this. He did notice flies (and we do too in this scene). He worries something happened to his mom and dad but Fi reassures him that they will figure this out.

 

 

Coming to the pool, Ned brings Jack a soda and has one himself. Ned’s might be a coke. Jack finds something that he and Ned do not recognize. Irene arrives. We also see birds in the background.

 

 

Fi and Clue pass two garden gnomes and a statue that could be of Budda. When the two of them to check on Cole, Cole’s mother is talking a cat Sheva, that is hiding under her deck. She will not let them see Cole as she’s mad they put ideas in his head.

 

Fi, as she and Cole walk away, says, “I really do mean well.”

 

Clue says, “So did the people who came up with the macacrena.”

 

“Hey, I’m not that evil.”

 

Cole joins them, having snuck out because he remembered something else. A sound like a thousand chainsaws sounded as if it were coming at “us” and everyone ran for cover which was good because all weird gunk came pouring into the pool.

 

When Cole tries to remember more and does (a streak of light), he gets ill again and has to sit down. Irene arrives with Ned and before she called Fi sweetheart but sort of lost patience with her. Now, Irene says, “I’m sorry, honey.”  She adds after the streak of light, there was a crash and it hurts when she thinks about it.

 

They all ran towards a plume of smoke which had somebody in there. Ned can’t remember the faces (specially saying “their”) but piecing it together Cole thinks it was kind of like a policeman and Irene says that the crash was an accident but there was no danger. They were going to make some repairs and there was nothing to worry about.

 

Irene does not recall any spoken voices. We see in her memory an alien touch her forehead. When Fi asks what happened next, Jack, kindly and supportively, touches her shoulder.

 

They touched everyone and that is when Cole went home to bed.

 

Jack thinks he knows where they might be. Whatever hit the clock tower knocked a piece of the metal all the way into the pool. The four kids run to where the ship or whatever it was might be.

 

Fi leads the run (which is odd that the boys can’t outrun her as two of them are older) and there are flashes of light. In the flashes, Fi looks up and sees an object jet out of the sky into nothingness, leaving the ground and Earth.

 

Cole’s shirt is too small for him and too short for him. The four of them do find a circular landing area that is hot, that something hit.

 

Ned and Irene followed them and arrive, breathless. “There’s nothing here,” Ned claims.

 

“Nope,” Fi says, “Nothing to see here.”

 

Irene thinks it was just her mind playing tricks on her. Ned thinks it was just the heat. Clue and Jack follow the two adults but both pat Fi gently sympathizing. It’s odd that like Scully in THE X FILES, when weird things happen to change Jack and Scully’s behavior, they clearly don’t really change them or not for long.

 

As they discuss what they can and can’t tell the adults, Jack starts to suggest an option B but they hear splashes as Ned dive bombs into the pool. Clue uses the phrase, “Let’s boogie,” which went out in the 90s or maybe earlier.

 

The boys take their shirts off to go in the pool. Clue goes feet first, dive bombing. I think Molly is in the background. Cole dives head first.

 

Jack asks Fi if he admits something happened, will she go swimming with him. The two have a great rapport. She says you first. He says after you. She says age before beauty. Fi has a ring on and a necklace. They sort of throw each other into the pool or more like jumping in together holding arms.

 

Everyone has a good time in the pool, in a nice, natural scene that establishes more of their love for each other.

 

There is a Kristen and a Carol listed in the credits. During the credits, Molly sings MORE LIKE A RIVER.

 

It’s not called So WEIRD for nothing. This is one of the weirdest episodes but it’s laced with things so natural and human that’s it heart warming as well as weird. We never really get the full story but it does feel as if aliens crashed, made sure everyone was safe out of the pool, were like policemen, and repaired their ship, sent everyone home to sleep and made them forget, sort of.

 

Sean Smith is actually pretty good a kid actor and very natural, even though some of his dialog is very expository, he comes off well.

The acting from all is believable and strong, too. As Molly and Jack, the series regulars shine, especially in the banter at the end but also when confronting each other about their differences of opinion. And the actor playing Clue lends a nice carefree tone to things but he's multi layered, too, as he cares about his parents and often sides with and believes Fi more than Jack. Everyone really seems to like each other but bring it out in their characters in a charming way.

 

Monsters: Aliens from outer space who seem kind.  

The So Weird Podcast Ep 3 - "Memory"