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Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Potential (2003)
Mind-boggling error
This episode is decent by S7's standards, but the way everybody completely forgot about Faith's existence this episode is hilarious. What the hell happened to the writers this season?
Tales from the Darkside: Mary, Mary (1987)
Not an especially thrilling episode
I basically just watched 20 minutes in the life of a deeply unwell woman. I get what they were going for with the ending, though. Her social anxiety made her so alienated from the world that she was literally locked up inside herself.
Tales from the Darkside: The Social Climber (1987)
Moralistic rubbish
"If you dislike the fact that someone owns half of Manhattan while you have nothing, you deserve death." Is this the lesson I'm supposed to take home from this episode? Because if it is, whoever wrote it can piss off. And what was up with that ending, anyway? Made zero sense.
Tales from the Darkside: Effect and Cause (1985)
My interpretation
Kate's theories about what's happening in her house are probably wrong. I think it's simple: the paintings were angered about the fact she was going to erase them, so they lashed out at her by haunting her, bending reality around her, and ultimately murdering her horribly. This was confirmed for me at the end of the episode by the appearance of the painting she previously erased.
As for why the paintings were haunted? Who knows. Maybe the painter who did them put some sort of spell on them, or maybe it was specifically only the creepy, black-hair painting that was haunted. This show isn't afraid to leave things unexplained which I think is cool. It adds to the mystery.
Tales from the Darkside: Halloween Candy (1985)
Alternative interpretation
A bunch of reviewers here seem to think the protagonist got his 'just rewards' at the end of the episode. Personally, I think refusing to give kids candy does not warrant getting murdered in a supernaturally horrific way. In fact, between having to deal with the snot-nosed punks in his neighborhood, as well as his unbearably whiny son, I found myself feeling that the old man was by far the most sympathetic character in this episode. I'm choosing to take a different message from this episode: not "if you don't give kids candy you'll die", but rather "people with horrible lives can never catch a break".
A lot of people are eager to believe bitter people lead miserable lives *because* they're bitter, rather than the other way around. The old man was lonely and could barely walk. I don't blame him for being the way he is.
The X Files: How the Ghosts Stole Christmas (1998)
But... Scully's already seen ghosts.
Specifically in season 4's "Elegy" (which was a significantly better episode than this). Not only that, it was one of the very few times where Scully 100% could not deny what she saw. She was even disturbed enough by it to discuss it with her therapist.
This is all forgotten in this episode. It'd be one thing if Scully repressed the events of that episode and Mulder reminded her of it, but instead you get the sense that the writers can't be bothered with keeping up with the continuity of the show. "How the Ghosts Stole Christmas" was written by the showrunner, which is even more damning.
As for the rest of the episode, it's rather lackluster. It obviously didn't have much of a budget considering we only get to see one room of the mansion and a few hallways. And on top of that, there are those annoying psychobabble-spouting ghosts. Meh.
The X Files: Synchrony (1997)
Could the writers get any lazier than this?
This show really tests my patience sometimes. One such moment is when the agents come across a picture of Jason and his girlfriend partying it up with a fellow researcher, and Mulder, for no logical reason, concludes it's a picture taken in the future. And not just any future, but a future that never happened. Scully rightfully tells Mulder that his "theory" is nonsense, and in a saner show it would be.
2/10, just rubbish. Only redeeming moment is the awesome scene when the researcher bursts into flames.
The X Files: Paper Hearts (1996)
The trend of the audience getting no answers to anything continues
This is the first episode in a long while that legitimately made me feel all bets are off, that this show might actually resolve at least one of its many plot threads. No such luck, for now at least. Sigh.
8/10. It was a fantastic episode until that letdown of an ending.