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fridaythe13ththeseries · 1 year

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A Friend to the End

Episode Recap #44: A Friend to the End Original Airdate: April 22, 1989

Starring: John D. LeMay as Ryan Dallion Louise Robey as Micki Foster Chris Wiggins as Jack Marshak (credit only)

Guest cast: Keram Malicki-Sánchez as Richard 'Ricky' Radwell Zachary Bennett as J.B. Donna Goodhand as DeJager Ted Roop as Dean Noam Zylberman as Harley Devin O'Brien as Jimmy Susan Kyle as Model Fred Hill as Howard Harper Freda Ridout as Marjorie Harper Russell Ferrier as Delivery Man Johnie Chase as Cop Victor Ertmanis as Victorian Dad

Written by Scott Schneid & Tony Michelman (teleplay) and David Morse, Scott Schneid & Tony Michelman (story)

Directed by David Morse

Open on a spooky graveyard at night, in a storm. A older couple is breaking in the locked gate into a crypt. They take the body, just a skeleton really, of a 12 year-old-boy who died almost 100 years ago, and head home.

At their home, they place the skeleton in a coffin. The doorbell rings, and the old lady lets in a young woman who answered their ad for a nanny. The man sends her into a room, tells her to introduce herself, and shuts the door. The young woman is confused to see a coffin by the bed. She approaches, a boy jumps up, and we hear her screams. Soon, the door opens and a young boy approaches the old couple.

Next, we are at an art studio, where a model is posing and complaining. She is holding the Shard of Medusa, and it is heavy. The artist keeps sketching, ignoring the model. The woman complains again of pain. Outside, we see a car pull up and a guy gets out. The model is having trouble breathing. We see the man entering the building, and it is Ryan. The model, in pain, drops the shard, screams for help, but is ignored by the artist. Ryan tries to get to the studio.

The artist picks up the shard, thanks the model for her contribution to her work, then stabs her in the back with the shard. The model is turned to stone. Ryan rushes up the fire escape to the roof, and he looks in the studio and sees the stone model and realizes he is too late.

At Curious Goods, he tells Micki want happened, and she says it is her turn. She has been reading Louis letters, and they prepare to leave so Micki can volunteer as a model. They open the store door and a young boy is outside. His name is J.B., he is Micki's nephew, and apparently this isn't the first time her sister has dropped him off unannounced. J.B. says he can go to a hotel like last time, and Micki and Ryan are shocked. They bring him inside, then Micki and Ryan argue a bit about her sister. J.B. hears, and him and Ryan have a tense moment of silence. Micki brings out a bike Ryan and Jack fixed up for J.B. to use while they go out. They send him to the park. Ryan comments on J.B. making up stories. They head off to the artist's studio.

J.B. rides the bike to the park, where a bunch of kids on bikes are showing off for each other. The boys approach J.B. and tease him. The resurrrected boy watches from a window.

At the artist's gallery show, Micki and Ryan browse around. Micki heads to talk with the artist, DeJager. Ryan sees the model-turned-statue and looks away.

The boys are having J.B. do tricks on his old bike, telling him he has to do things to prove he has guts to join their gang.

Micki gets DeJager to set up a session for her to pose. Ryan smirks.

At an old abandoned house, the boys want J.B. to go inside, after telling him about the place being haunted and that people enter and never leave. J.B. insists he isn't scared and approaches the front door. The boys plan to steal his bike. J.B. goes inside, seeing furniture covered in sheets and dust everywhere. He goes upstairs, almost falling through a broken step. In what was the boy's room, he finds a spinning top on the floor, then a boy asks if he'll be his friend. J.B. takes off, and finds the boys, and his bike, gone. The front door shuts, he sees someone moving behind a boarded up window and he runs off.

At the store, Micki and Ryan go over their plan to get the shard, then go to make dinner for J.B., who comes running in, telling them he saw a ghost. Ryan asks about his bike, and J.B. said it was stolen. He tells them about the other boys and the haunted house and the ghost. Ryan doesn't believe him, and J.B. runs off. Ryan tells Micki they have to get him out of here, and she snaps at him.

Later, Micki goes and talks with J.B., telling him they have to go out for a bit. Micki apologizes for the fight with Ryan, and for his mother's lack of compassion, then leaves. J.B. plays with the top he took.

That night, he is back at the old house, with a flashlight. Bravely, he goes back inside. He calls to the ghost the other kids called Ricky. He heads upstairs and sees a lit candle, then more of them. The room is filled with books and toys. The boy, Ricky, appears. He says he knew J.B. would be back. They go off to play. Micki arrives at DeJager's.

J.B. and Ricky play games, J.B. says he thought Ricky was a ghost. Ricky then stops his new friend from entering one of the rooms, then Ricky hears horses and a man yelling at, then whipping him. Ricky cries and J.B. tries to comfort him.

DeJager asks if anyone knows Micki is here, and is happy to know Micki told no one. She poses Micki, then tells her to take her clothes off. As Micki undresses, DeJager gets the shard out. As she tells Micki about Medusa, Micki opens a window for fresh air. DeJager puts the shard in Micki's hand, and Micki takes it to the window and drops it to Ryan below. She struggles with DeJager, hits her, then escapes.

J.B. is helping Ricky recover from his trauma, and tells him he also gets nightmares, due to the treatment from his mother. They laugh about grown ups being jerks. Ricky says his father hated him and used to beat him. J.B. says he should go home, and Ricky wants him to stay, saying he lives alone. Ricky asks J.B. to send someone from the drugstore with something for his nosebleed. J.B. agrees, and tells Ricky he will see him tomorrow.

Later, Ricky is looking in the mirror and seeing his face is bearing the marks of the past. He remembers his childhood and being chased and beaten by his father, who whips him without mercy. Outside, a delivery man from the pharmacy arrives. He knocks and enters the house. The man hears Ricky crying upstairs and heads up. He sees the coffin in the candlelit bedroom, then he is attacked by Ricky, who repeats his father's words. The man fall off the balcony to his death, Ricky dragging the body away.

Micki and Ryan arrive back at the store after getting the shard, but find J.B. is not alone - DeJager is already there. She found the store because Micki left her coat behind. She has found out where J.B. lives and goes to school. She wants the shard back and threatens J.B. with a chisel. Ryan hands over the shard, and she holds J.B. with her until she is at the door. She takes off, Ryan chases. Micki asks how J.B. is, but Ryan comes back and is angry, asking why he let her in. J.B. talks about Ricky, angering Ryan more. Micki tries to stop them from fighting, but J.B. knows they don't want him there. They try to apologize but he runs upstairs. Ryan goes after DeJager, Micki stays behind with J.B.

The next morning, Micki is making pancakes, but J.B. wants to leave. She pours him a glass of milk, and asks about Ricky. J.B. tells her, but she doesn't believe. He says no one watches him, so why is it so weird that Ricky lives alone. Micki doesn't want him to leave, but when her back is turned, he takes off.

At the old house, Ricky has just finished cleaning up when J.B. arrives. J.B. asks about staying, and Ricky says sure, saying they are friends to the end. They run off to play.

Micki is going through old articles, and reads about Ricky's house and all that happened there. She recognizes the names of the older couple who are missing, and finds a letter they wrote to Louis, thanking him for helping them get their child, Ricky, but that he has gotten harder to deal with, since his 'hunger' has grown. We see a flashback of the woman hanging from the top of the staircase balcony. Her husband tries to help her, but they are both pushed to their death by their 'son' Ricky. Seems the old couple were Satanists like Louis. Micki realizes J.B. has been telling the truth.

At the house, J.B. and Ricky are playing hide and seek. Suddenly, Ricky collapses. Ricky asks if they are good friends. J.B. says yes, then Ricky asks him to bring someone to the house. When Ricky turns around, we see the lash mark on his face has returned. J.B. rushes off to find someone. He finds a cop and asks him to come quick, his friend is hurt.

J.B. brings the cop into the house, and the man heads upstairs to where the sounds of Ricky in pain are coming from. He approaches the coffin, and then heads back to the landing. He is attacked by Ricky.

Ryan has called Micki and tells her DeJager has gone to the airport, but they can still catch her. Micki says to forget her, that J.B. is in trouble. She fills him in on the letter and all she has found out. Seems the coffin is the cursed item Louis gave to the old couple, allowing them to resurrect a dead child to be their own, but with a price. Ryan asks where J.B. is, she gives him the address, and they both head there separately.

J.B. is trying to get Ricky to leave the cop alone, but Ricky says he needs to kill to stay alive, and that adults don't matter. J.B. doesn't listen, saying killing is wrong. He runs but trips, and Ricky blocks the door. J.B. hits him, then says what happens when he grows up? Will Ricky kill him, too? Ricky growls, and chases him. J.B. heads to the cellar, but the stairs collapse. He sees dead bodies all around. He is stuck and asks for help. Ricky creepily makes his way downstairs.

Micki arrives and calls to her nephew. J.B. calls back from the basement. She tries to make her way to him, but he warns her of Ricky, who pushes her and tries to kill her. J.B. begs him to stop, saying friends don't hurt each other. Ricky finally listens, dropping his weapon. Ricky continues to regress, then collapses and turns back into a skeleton.

A later day, Ryan gets off the phone and says the cop is going to recover, and doesn't remember much. J.B., on crutches, is glad to hear that. He says it is going to be hard not telling anyone about Ricky, and is still amazed that Ricky had died 100 years ago. He laments being bad at picking friends, but Micki tells him you have to take a chance. Ryan also apologizes and asks J.B. to come back, and that the cops found the kids and recovered the bike, which Ryan is sending to J.B.'s house. They shake hands and Ryan says maybe he can be his first new friend.

My thoughts:

Wow. Quite an episode.

First off, where the heck does Micki suddenly have a sister? Why wasn't she then also an heir to Louis' estate? We never see her in the episode, and she is never mentioned again. We also never see or hear from J.B. again. I get that the show ended abruptly at the end of the third season, but just weird to add in such close relatives to Micki, who apparently live close enough to visit, but are in the end just one-off characters. Would have made more sense to say the woman was Micki's best friend or old sorority sister or something.

I do like the double cursed items featured. With one, the shard, we come into the action with Micki and Ryan already at work trying to get it back. In the end, they lose it, do to a mistake of Micki's, so that is also something different.

The other antique, the coffin, has a different path for them, having been given to fellow Satanists by Louis. And it is a unique cursed item, in that those who used it have since perished, but the boy who was resurrected lives on and is trying to remain alive by killing. Almost like the item is continuing to work on its own. Quite different.

Ryan here gets on my nerves. I get that they are in the middle of trying to get the shard, but that isn't J.B.'s fault, and Ryan is outright mean to the kid who needs understanding more than anything. He evens gets mad at J.B. for being held hostage by DeJager! C'mon, Ryan, what the hell, man?

I like that Ryan apologizes at the end, but it wouldn't have surprised me if J.B. told him to pound sand. But J.B. gets a quick character fix in order for them to all have a happy ending. Maybe he had the crap scared out of him by Ricky, but it is a quick change, for sure.

Micki comes off better, trying to do the best by her nephew while still trying to uphold her responsibilities with the store and retrieving the antiques and keep Ryan from going unhinged. Long week for her.

Also, if the bike gang is correct about the missing people at Ricky's house, why did no cops ever go inside to look around, and then find the bodies, the coffin, and the 100 year-old-boy? I know, so we could have a story, but still. People went missing when entering the house, enough that even kids knew, but no one investigated?

And that pharmacy guy - wow. Above and beyond! Delivery after a call from random kid, to an old abandoned house, and he still went in to complete delivery! Trying getting that service these days!

Next week: The Butcher

#episode recap #season two #a friend to the end #micki foster #ryan dallion #j.b.#nephew #sister #uncle louis #satan #coffin #shard of medusa #shard #john d. lemay #robey #louise robey #80s tv

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