Snakes in a Mane is an episode of Beyond Belief.
Paul F. Tompkins and Paget Brewster.[1]
Audio[]
Patreon exclusive.
Cast[]
WorkJuice Players[]
- Frank Doyle - Paul F. Tompkins
- Sadie Doyle - Paget Brewster
- Spooky Hal (Narrator) - Hal Lublin
- Karina - Annie Savage
- Pterodactyl Jones - Mark Gagliardi
- Bloody Mary - Autumn Reeser
Plot[]
Frank and Sadie are drinking in their apartment when there is a knock at the door. Sadie immediately goes to answer it, horrifying Frank. Sadie says she must answer it, because she invited the person to their apartment in the first place.
It’s Pterodactyl Jones. He’s come to borrow some items from the Doyles that they got on a vacation to the Greek Isles (a mirrored shield, a sword, and sandals). PJ goes to take the items and leave, but Sadie says there’s a reason she called him there in the first place, and asks PJ if he’s currently seeing anybody romantically.
PJ says he’s not romantically entangled, just entangled: he met a gorgon and wants the sword and mirrored shield in order to cut off it’s head to stop it from turning him to stone. Frank says he’s welcome to take the items, although he’s not sure they’ll help with PJ’s problem.
Sadie is disappointed, as the reason she called him was to set him up with a friend of her’s. Frank asks Sadie who she intended to set PJ up with, and Sadie replies that it was their friend Bloody Mary.
Frank says Bloody Mary’s name a second time, telling Sadie that he thinks Bloody Mary and PJ would be a good match, Sadie tells PJ to let her know if he’s romantically un-entangles himself, and PJ says he is off to do just that. Bloody Mary, summoned to the mirror shield by the Doyles saying her name twice, says that although he thinks that’s what he’s going to do, he is wrong. As while she is trapped in the mirror she has mirror powers (prophecy, etc), she can sense things, and her senses tell her that PJ is going nowhere.
PJ disagrees, but the sudden appearance of Karina, the gorgon, proves Bloody Mary right. Karina came to the Doyles apartment looking for PJ. She asks why they’re all looking at her through the mirrored shield reflection, which Sadie tells her is because they do not want to be turned to stone. Karina says they would have to be a lot more intimate than that for them to turn to stone.
The Doyles offer her a drink and she gives Frank a complicated order (a martini, dirty if the olives are fresh but no pimento, light on the vermouth, if the olives aren’t fresh or recently brined, then she’ll have a Gibson, if they have pickled onions (it doesn’t matter how fresh), but heavier on the vermouth. If they don’t have pickled onions and the olives aren’t fresh, she’ll have a vodka soda, lemon not lime, or an orange wedge if they have it), which Frank fills instantly.
Sadie asks how Karina and PJ met. Karina says she was babysitting her niece and she was supposed to be feeding her goldfish, but the two of them were both so worried about overfeeding it that they didn’t feed it at all and it died. Karina went to the pet store to get a replacement fish while her niece was at school, and saw PJ browsing the canary isle. Karina was instantly charmed.
PJ is wary that Karina will betray him because of his bad relationship history. Frank says that maybe this relationship will work out and that PJ shouldn’t sabotage it so prematurely, and that before he met Sadie he used to think the same way.
Karina realizes that she and Bloody Mary haven’t been introduced, but Bloody Mary stops her from saying her name so that she can remain in the mirror, as her mirror sense is giving her another prophecy that a horror is approaching or is there already, implying that the horror is Karina.
Karina says that this proves that men and gorgons can’t be friends, as the relationships never work out and that it either ends with someone getting their head cut off or turned to stone. PJ says she would know, as her backyard is full of statues. Sadie chastises him for thinking negatively of Karina because of her past relationships.
Frank tells her to keep the prophecy in mind, and Sadie says that, as they don’t know for sure that the horror is there yet or not, it could be an entirely unrelated horror. Frank asks Bloody Mary if the horror is there already and Mary says that it is, but still cannot tell if the horror is Karina.
Frank says that maybe PJ just isn’t ready for this sort of relationship, and Sadie says of course he is. Frank and Sadie realize that, for the first time in their entire relationship, are on different sides of an argument, and are both utterly horrified. PJ and Karina tells them that this is just a mild disagreement and that they shouldn’t be too concerned, but the Doyles are too distressed to listen to them.
PJ and Karina tell the Doyles that you can disagree but still line up where it counts. They realize that even though they might disagree on some things, they both do want to be together, and leave the Doyles apartment.
Frank wonders if he and Sadie disagreeing was the horror, or if they only disagreed with each other because of the prophecy. Bloody Mary fakes being summoned by some teens and disappeared.
Frank and Sadie pretend to each other that this was a planned deception to get PJ, Karina, and Bloody Mary to leave, but also apologize to each other for disagreeing.
Quotes[]
[door knock]
Sadie: I’ll get it.
Frank: What! No! Sadie, why?
--
Sadie: PJ darling, everything we say is wasted words.
--
Karina: That was fast!
Frank: We drink pretty fast around here
--
Frank: Is the horror here already?
Bloody Mary: Yes. Frank. Is it bigger than a bread box?
Notes[]
Clink count: 2
Continuity[]
- This is the 235th episode of the Thrilling Adventure Hour.
- The previous episode is Sparks Nevada, Marshal on Mars - Still Alive.
- The next episode is The Thrilling Adventure Hour Holiday Funaround 2016.
- The previous episode in Beyond Belief canon is Mannequin Episode (TAH #232).
- The next and final episode in Beyond Belief canon is Scary Tale of New York (TAH #236), a segment in The Thrilling Adventure Hour Holiday Funaround 2016.
Production[]
This episode was recorded November 12, 2016 at The Bell House in Brooklyn, NY and released on December 13, 2016.
- Writers, directors, and producers: Ben Acker and Ben Blacker.
- Music: Jordan Katz & the Elements of Style, featuring Jonathan Dinerstein.
- "Love Ain't No Billy Goat" written by Jonathan Coulton.
References[]
- ↑ Photo credit: Mindy Tucker