Trollheart

Title: “The Tale of the Vacant Lot”
Series: Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Season:5
Year:1995
Writer(s): Gerald Wexler

Storyline: A distinctly Arabic-looking tent appears out of nowhere and Catherine, an athlete who is trying - and failing - to make the team is given a pair of shoes which the attendant tells her will “make her fly” and help her achieve the ambition she’s been aiming for. She has no money though, so the attendant, who calls herself Marie (but come on: she’s probably the Devil isn’t she?) says she can trade. Catherine has nothing of value other than a ring given to her by her grandfather and she doesn’t want to trade that, so enigmatically Marie says she will take something that has no value to her. She doesn’t tell Catherine what that is, but points out, reasonably on the surface anyway, that if it has no value she won’t miss it. Oops. Pitfall ahead.

She takes the shoes and Marie vanishes, along with her tent. Of course the shoes begin to make her successful, but suddenly she’s a lot less nice, a lot sharper and snappier to her friends. On returning home, she thinks she sees a mark of some sort on her cheek, but when she looks again it’s gone. When Eric, the captain of the football team seems to hit on her, but then clearly is already engaged, she runs off, to find the tent has reappeared. This time Marie gives her a whole outfit, again asking for the ring, again refused, again saying that she will take something of no value to Catherine. Again, she is mean to someone, this time her sister, Joyce, and for a split second she sees her face all burned up and horrible. I should probably mention at this point that Marie’s face is almost completely covered in a veil and hood, only her eyes visible, and you can clearly see her skin is disfigured.

Okay well she appears in the ladies to Catherine and spoils the surprise by removing her veil and yeah, she’s full-on Darth Vader there. Except for her eyes, she looks like a burn victim. Actually, she looks like someone got two faces, one clear and unblemished, one ravaged by fire or acid or something, cut them in two and stuck half of one on top of half of the other. She offers Catherine sought-after-like-gold-dust rock concert tickets, but when Catherine sees her face and hears the desperation in her voice, she refuses the tickets and runs out - straight into Eric. Suddenly the tickets are in her hand, and she can’t resist asking Eric if he wants to go. He of course jumps at the chance. But now she has nothing to wear - perish the thought that she should wear something Eric has already seen her in! So it’s back to Marie, who supplies her with clothes, but this time does not want to trade. She is, she says, about to get everything she wants.

Joyce, though, has followed her and it seems she has made her own bargain with Marie. This suddenly frightens Catherine, as she sees her little sister looking all tough and grown-up and, like her, sharp and snide, all her goodness and gentle nature gone. Not only that, a few minutes later she and Catherine both look like the thing from the swamp, as obviously Marie has transferred all her ugliness to both of them. Returning to the tent, Catherine sees that Marie is restored to her former beauty. She tells her that she was once like her, wanting things she couldn’t have, not happy with her life, till she met an old woman in a tent like this (well, this tent, obviously) and now that she has what she wants - Catherine’s life, which she says she did not value - she needs nothing else. Catherine’s only chance now is to work the spell on some other greedy girl, in the hope of getting her life.

But Catherine has one last ace to play. She says she may deserve what’s happened to her, but her sister does not, and she offers the precious ring, that Joyce’s life be returned to her. Marie agrees, smug, now that she has got everything she wanted, but as soon as she puts on the ring she starts to transform again and then vanishes, along with the tent. Catherine and Joyce return to normal, and though she’s lost the tickets, Eric doesn’t care, and they go out anyway.

Comments: Right. You could see kind of where it was leading, but the ending left a lot to be desired. Why did the ring do what it did? I thought her grandfather was going to have turned out to be some magician or something. Not explained. Otherwise, not too bad really. But it could have been so much more. The thing Catherine didn't value could have been her goodness, her sweet disposition, and her being prepared to hand over the thing most precious to her in order to save her sister could have been redemption. Instead, it just destroyed Marie for reasons. Meh.

Rating: B+

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