Friday the 13th: The Series Ep. 45 The Butcher Review

The Butcher originally aired on April 24, 1989. Neither Micki nor Ryan appear in this episode, making this the series first solo episode. I can understand why they did it this way. The emotional pull only makes sense for Jack's character. The reasons for characters absence are always so flimsy on this show though. We learn this episode that Jack was not only a WWII vet. He also won a lot of medals by killing 'The Butcher' who was going to take over Hitlar after his passing. This is a major problem with Jack's character. The man has literally done everything imaginable on this show. He is an endless supply of knowledge and has an endless amount of contacts. You could claim that he met all of these people over the war, but that's a flimsy explanation. Jack is just a plot devise. His character has no recurring storylines. The writers forget everything they've given Jack. This is the problem with not having a cliffhanger show, the writers forget because they only focus on one episode at a time. The cursed antique is an amulet that resurrects 'The Butcher.' He proceeds to kill Jack's troupe one by one by strangling them with barbed wire until only Jack is left alive. Jack has black and white nightmares in this episode. Jack eventually kills 'The Butcher' again. Seeing Jack's torment and tears is some solid acting moments. I really enjoyed Chris Wiggens performance in this episode. It's too bad that his character hasn't made any sense in the history of the show so far.

Friday the 13th: The Series Ep. 44 A Friend to the End Review

A Friend to the End originally aired on April 17, 1989. Jack does not appear in this episode. This episode had two storylines that didn't really intersect with each other. It was an interesting twist having the characters go after two antiques. We are introduced to Micki's nephew. Micki's sister got a divorce and has been with a new guy nearly every month. The nephew is often overlooked and placed into the care of either Micki and Ryan or stays at a hotel alone. The child actor's pretty bad, but his character is well rounded which is hard to do in less than an hour. The antiques are a fragment from a statue of Medusa called the Shard of Medusa and a child's coffin. The Shard of Medusa gets captured fairly early on, but is then returned to it's owner when she threatens to kill Micki's nephew. The Shard turns people into stone which makes it's owner a famous sculptor. The child's coffin resurrects a dead child, but the child must kill in order to stay alive. This child was abused and eventually killed by his father. Micki's nephew befriends this child and plays with him. The child becomes his best friend. He begs the child not to kill anymore saying that friends don't hurt each other. The child dies because he doesn't kill. He self-sacrifices himself and and instantly turns into a skeleton. This image is so striking and heartbreaking it's unbelievable. This was a great episode and quite the change from the formula.

Friday the 13th: The Series Ep. 43 The Mephisto Ring Review

The Mephisto Ring originally aired on April 10, 1989. Jack does not appear in this episode. This episode was all right. It had some solid emotional moments. The cursed antique is a 1919 World Series ring that kills its wearer by electrocuting them. The ring then shows the ending of sporting events. The ring essentially helps gamblers. This is the first item that Uncle Lewis ever sold. The ring cursed not only its wearers but its owners for two generations. It ruined both a father and a sons life at two separate times. The mother kills them both in a huge twist ending. Overall, it was all right, but one I'm not going to remember strongly.

Friday the 13th: The Series Ep. 42 Scarlett Cinema Review

Scarlett Cinema originally aired on February 20, 1989. This was a very, very weird episode and that's saying something. This is the fourth time Rob Heddon has written an episode. This episode's cursed antique is an old movie camera that brings movie characters back to life. It will make you become that character if you murder people by shooting footage of them through the camera. Then the movie character will come and attack them. There's plenty of footage taken from the classic film The Wolf Man. This is very bad for the episode because by direct comparison, the episode pales. It no where near matches up with the quality of that classic film. I honestly never thought a werewolf would be the villain of an episode. This series has gotten SO much weirder since the first episode. This episode also won a Gemini award.

Friday the 13th: The Series Ep. 41 Better Off Dead Review

Better Off Dead originally aired on February 13, 1989. This was an interesting episode. There's really not too much to tell about this episode. One of Micki's friends dies a pretty horrible death. She gets operated on and has her soul taken out. This is never seen in graphic detail, but it's a horrifying, if not completely unrealistic concept. The cursed antique was a silver syringe. This took out the parts in our brains that make us human. The villain was doing it to save his daughter who was deteriorating from a disease that made her animalistic. By taking it out of others, it made the daughter more and more human, but it also killed the others over time and instantaneously made them animalistic. It's actually a pretty clever antique and much better than a majority this season. This episode originally aired with a 'graphic violence' warning. It's fascinating because by many of today's standards, this episode would be considered tame.

Friday the 13th: The Series Ep. 40 Face of Evil Review

Face of Evil originally aired on February 6, 1989. I really enjoyed this episode. This episode includes flashbacks of episode 15. If you recall, I particularly loved the ending to that episode, seeing how it implied that the evil of the object carried on. This episode completes that shot and shows that it was actually Joanne, Helen's (the previous episode's villain) sister who picked up the golden compact. The cursed antique in this episode is, you guessed it, the golden compact. However, it works differently. The compact is simply used as a means of revenge. Since Helen wanted love and respect, the compact gave it to her. Tabitha wants the wrinkles around her eyes to go away. The compact gives this to her by having everyone who gets flashed by the compact die. Because Tabitha is concerned with her face, it focuses on the face. The people who die only have their face ruined. Some of the people don't die, but their face is forever ruined and seeing as the episode focuses on the modeling business, their career is in essence over. What's interesting is seeing the direct comparison from the acting, particularly from Joanne, from episode 15 to episode 40, is how much better it truly is. Episode 15's acting is SO over the top. Especially with Joanne and Helen. Helen's maniacal and it's truly hilarious to see how much more subtle the villains have become in season 2. This has been one of the better episodes so far this season. I don't know if that has to do with the fact that it's an object from season 1 (past halfway through the first season, none of the objects have been particularly memorable for me) or not. This was a great episode however and ended the cliffhanger from episode 15.

Friday the 13th: The Series Ep. 39 Eye of Death Review

Eye of Death originally aired on January 30, 1989. This is the second time traveling episode for the series. This time, they go back to the Civil War. The time traveling sequences are presented in sepia the entire time. It's more subtle than the black and white time traveling episode, but I didn't notice it until I read more about this episode. The cursed antique is a Civil War Era magic lantern that has the ability to take the owner back in time for three hours. The owner must kill before and after his time there. The villain in this particular episode goes to the time frame to sell mint condition Civil War antiques. If you don't make it back within the three hour time frame, you are stuck in that time forever. Most of the episode was eh...but the ending visual was spectacular. The villain doesn't make it back, but he's not stuck back in time either. He's stuck in the wall. You see his cemented face and hands trying to get back. It was truly stunning. The villain was once again one of Jack's old friends. Jack truly has the worst taste in friends. This was an all-right episode. If you're a history fan, it's probably best to skip it...the series has never been too kind and honest about history.