Mannequin Episode is an episode of Beyond Belief.
Audio[]
Patreon exclusive.
Cast[]
WorkJuice Players[]
- Frank Doyle - Paul F. Tompkins
- Sadie Doyle - Paget Brewster
- Gerald, a living mannequin - Craig Cackowski
- Terry, a living mannequin - Autumn Reeser
- Pat, a living mannequin - Busy Philipps
- Bess, a living mannequin - Janet Varney
- Prower the mannequin hunter - Hal Lublin
Plot[]
Frank has just returned home from taking the Doyles’s empty bottles in for the nickel deposit (for which the Doyles have received $88,000). Frank and Sadie are then interrupted by a knock at the door. Sadie wants to ignore whoever is at the door. Frank attempts to trick whoever is at the door by knocking back, only to open the door at their request.
A group of living mannequins - Gerald, Pat, and Bess, have arrived, and are apparently old friends of Frank’s. They have been searching for Frank since he left their group. They tell Sadie that Frank was young a mannequin with them for about a week. They were under the impression that he had always been a mannequin, when he had in fact just been briefly turned into a mannequin after losing a bet with a wizard.
Sadie questions how “living” the living mannequins can be, and they say that they are alive enough, especially as tonight is their special night of the year: Dummies Night. It was on Dummies Night that Frank left their group, and the mannequins ask Frank if he ever wonders what his life would have been like if he had stayed with them on that night. They have tried to move on, but have been unable to. Sadie suggests drinking in order to move on, but their mannequin hands aren’t able to hold onto the glasses.
While Frank cleans up the broken glass, Sadie asks for stories about Frank’s time as a mannequin. The mannequins tell her about the various poses they used to make as mannequins, but Sadie doesn’t find the stories very entertaining. The mannequins tell Sadie that Frank’s mannequin outfit was athletic gear, which Sadie does find entertaining. The mannequins point out that Frank is now wearing clothes he could have only dreamed of during his time as a mannequin, and admire Frank and Sadie’s outfits, and ask to wear their clothes.
Frank says that he knows that the mannequins have come to ask him for something, and they say that they’ve come to ask him to come back with them. Frank refuses. The mannequins ask him not to do it for them, but for Terry, who still holds a grudge over Frank leaving them all those years ago. The mannequins want Frank to apologise to Terry, but Frank refuses.
Much to Frank’s annoyance, Terry arrives. He tells the other mannequins that Prower, the mannequin hunter, knows where they are. Terry asks the Doyles to help them hide from the mannequin hunter, and Sadie tells them to hide in the Doyles’s bedroom while they deal with Prower.
The Doyles left Prower in, and he searches their apartment for the mannequins. He attempts to flush them out of hiding by impersonating a mannequin. The mannequins are drawn out of hiding, but the mannequins see through his ruse and capture him. However, Prower knew they would see through him, and mannequin’s bane (oregano) with him. He attempts to kill the weakened mannequins by drawing ‘X’s over their eyes but drops the marker, which lands closest to Frank.
Prower tells Frank to give him the marker so that he can kill the mannequins, and Terry begs him not to. When Terry steps forward to sacrifice himself to save the others, Prower is so moved that he reconsiders his entire stance on mannequins. He leaves to spread word of this changed mindset to the rest of his mannequin-hunting family.
Terry and Frank move to reconcile, but the other mannequins tell Terry not to trust Frank, as he was a human before and after he was a mannequin. Frank says that he’s changed his view of his time as a mannequin and that he wouldn’t change it for anything (well, almost anything).
The tension between them gone, the mannequins invite Frank and Sadie to their Dummies Night celebrations. Sadie initially agrees, until the mannequins give more details - their traditional Dummies Night activities involve finding humans and pulling their arms and legs off.
Frank and Sadie are against this, and the mannequins threaten to pull their arms and legs off. At Sadie’s direction Frank opens their wardrobe, and the mannequins are distracted by the Doyles’s nice clothes. The mannequins ask if they can try the clothes on, and enter the wardrobe to get a better look at the clothes. The Doyles close the wardrobe doors, essentially locking the mannequins inside as they cannot open doors.
Quotes[]
Sadie: Just how does one enter the mannequin hunting profession?
Prower: Not all of us left the shadows. Some stayed in the wilds to protect the ones who grew used to walls, and roofs, and chimneys, and other house things - like doors!
Sadie: Was your goal to surprise our door? Frank: You did it. Now try the one through which you entered.
Notes[]
They close the episode singing ‘Nothing’s Going To Stop Us Now’ by Starship, which was the theme song from Mannequin (1987).
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Clink count: 2
Continuity[]
- This is the 232nd episode of the Thrilling Adventure Hour.
- The previous episode is Sparks Nevada, Marshal on Mars - Order in the Courtship, with the short ad Bucatino Business. (TAH #231.1) in between.
- The next episode is Amelia Earhart, Fearless Flyer - Venus on a Half Shell.
- The previous episode in Beyond Belief canon is Dead & Breakfast (TAH #230).
- The next episode in Beyond Belief canon is Snakes in a Mane (TAH #235).
Production[]
This episode was recorded October 23, 2016 at Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles and released on November 14, 2016.
- Writers: Ben Acker and Ben Blacker
- Music: Jordan Katz & the Elements of Style, featuring Jonathan Dinerstein.
- Producers: Acker & Blacker