Halloweenie, Get Ready For Bully Season!

Since I had so much fun breaking down the summer episodes of The Adventures of Pete and Pete, I decided to do another themed series as a follow up: Bullies. Bullies are ever present in kids programing, and Pete and Pete was no exception. To some degree we have all experienced bullying in our lives, it's a relatable trope. But Pete and Pete allowed their bullies to run off the rails in terms of menacing evil. The bullies had names like super villains, and were outfitted with lairs and cronies like mob bosses. These characters have extreme power over the protagonists, but luckily they don't often succeed in the end.

I thought it was fitting to begin this series with a Halloween episode, Season 2 Episode 7, Halloweenie. Of course Halloween is upon us so it's just seasonally perfect to watch this anyway. As an introduction to Pete and Pete bullies, it's a good first episode to discuss mega bully, Endless Mike Hellstrom.

Played by Rick Gomez, Mike proves to be a ruthless and manipulative person. He loves inciting fear in those around him. And though Mike laughs and smiles, he merely uses this to create ease with his prey before pouncing with a sharp turn in his mood. In general Endless Mike and his crew partake in low-stakes high jinks, but Mike is a good model for a TV villain that is disturbing and comical. 

In Halloweenie, Mike's identity is hidden behind a mask for most of the episode. He is also enticed by the promise of good-guy Pete Wrigley showing his dark side. Mike doesn't just want to terrorize Pete, he wants to convert Pete. Endless Mike doesn't create victims by pushing them away, he likes to lure them in with the promise of acceptance - as long as they play by his rules. Mike would do the classic beat'em up thing, but he could always use new followers...

Halloweenie
S2 E7 - Air Date: October 30, 1994

I watched this episode with and without commentary, and one of the notable comments from the creators Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi is that the episode's director, Peter Lauer was known for wanting to make ambitious, dynamic imagery for the show. It's noted that Pete and Pete had no concrete formula for style, which allowed directors to be as creative as they wanted to be. Because of that you can see Lauer's touches in Halloweenie; slow-motion sequences, cameras placed in odd places and through objects. He got to make his horror movie dreams come true. 

This episode establishes a clear divide between Big and Little Pete right off the bat. Little Pete loves Halloween. He's excited for the season, jumping out of leaf piles with a monster mask on. He's got the spirit. Little Pete loves the warped rules of society during Halloween. Identities are changed and bed times are extended. He treats Halloween like a sacred holy holiday, insisting on participating in all of the traditions and taking them extremely seriously.

On the other hand Big Pete hates Halloween. He doesn't know where his Halloween spirit went, but he is not having any of his little brother's antics. Big Pete disparages Halloween as a "dork holiday." He might just be growing up, but Big Pete is down right spiteful over Halloween.
 

This year, like many before, Little Pete has the ambition to beat the record for most houses visited in one night on Halloween. Thirty-one years ago the Stilt siblings hit 374 houses that Halloween. They became legends, and aside from the massive amount of candy, Little Pete wants that level of immortality. Big Pete would be the perfect partner, if he didn't hate Halloween with a passion.

With Big Pete clearly not interested, Nona offers her assistance. She even proves her dedication to Little Pete by drawing his tattoo, Petunia, on her cast.

Crossing Guard Frank (played by James Lally) warns Little Pete and Nona that Halloween is on the line this year. The evil gang called the Pumpkin Eaters have been terrorizing the town of Wellsville on Halloween for years. Their identities are hidden with jack-o-lantern heads, and they ride around ruining everything on a fleet of mountain bikes. Frank says, if they strike too hard, Halloween will be banned in the town of Wellsville, potentially making this one the last year.

Big Pete and Ellen are walking around the neighborhood discussing the Pumpkin Eater controversy. Pete admits to Ellen that he fully loathes Halloween, and would maybe even be happy if this turned out to be the last year they celebrated. As they turn down the street they happen upon a veritable pumpkin graveyard in an alleyway. There is one lone, untouched jack-o-lantern on the ground that Big Pete is tempted to crush.

Even though the act of smashing pumpkins is associated with the Pumpkin Eaters and the senseless damage they do, Pete feels a release when he slams it to the ground. He now understands the appeal.

Little does he know, the Pumpkin Eaters were watching from inside the whole time. Endless Mike is revealed to the audience as the ringleader, and he's thrilled that Big Pete had it in him to smash the pumpkin.

This plot is similar to the episode Yellow Fever, which I will be covering in a later blog post. It's a theme in which Big Pete falls toward the dark side of social structure, and Endless Mike takes advantage of the situation.

Unfortunately, just that evening Little Pete and Nona are ambushed by the Pumpkin Eaters. They're chased screaming through the neighborhood, held down, and covered in shaving cream and toilet paper. Little Pete's jack-o-lantern creation is destroyed right on the Wrigley's front porch. The only thing the Wrigley's can do is watch in horror.

Nona's father, famously played by Iggy Pop, has decided to forbid Nona from going out trick or treating.

Big Pete offers to help Little Pete beat the record. He feels guilty for smashing that one pumpkin, as if that was the cause for the mayhem from the previous night. Big Pete can't help but feel like he upset the Halloween gods.

Ellen warns Big Pete not to go trick or treating, lest he suffer the same fate as Ned Richmond.
Ned was a fifteen-year-old who went trick or treating and got "roasted" by the Pumpkin Eaters. They humiliated Ned, tying him upside down to a tree and branding him a "Halloweenie." Ned became untouchable.

Big Pete assures Ellen he can figure out how to avoid this punishment. The brother's are trick or treating as astronauts, so their faces will be hidden the whole time. But Pete admits to himself that he has a deep fear of being unmasked that night.

The brothers Pete take on the neighborhood with expertise. They are the perfect team, using their in-helmet walkie-talkies to communicate. And Little Pete took full advantage of the bathroom features in his space suit.

Side note: in the commentary the show's creators mention that Nickelodeon standards and practices allowed them to add the line about Little Pete peeing in his space suit as long as there was no sound of him doing it. 

What is this elaborate house of cards costume??

The Petes soon come across a war zone. The Pumpkin Eaters are out in full force. Crossing Guard Frank, covered in raw egg, is trying to settle the situation. The trees look like weeping willows made of toilet paper, children are crying over lost candy and broken costumes.

Traumatized, some are chased up trees. Frank warns Big and Little Pete to go another way to avoid the riff raff. Little Pete knows all of the neighborhood shortcuts, so they manage to hit 203 houses.

It's not easy to tick these houses off their list, as the Pumpkin Eaters have frightened home owners into darkening their porch lights. This doesn't stop the boys from getting more candy thanks to the creativity of like-minded neighbors.

With only six more blocks to go the brothers approach Ned Richmond's house. Ned is played by Larc Spies who you may remember from Strangers with Candy (another offbeat show I love to death). Ned is dressed as a matador with a thin marker mustache. He answers the door with an enthusiastic "Ole!"

Ned is someone who loves Halloween despite what happened to him. He immediately recognizes Big Pete through his mask. Big Pete tries to deny it, claiming to be Neal Armstrong, but Ned knows what's up. He mistakes Pete's evasion for diehard Halloween roll playing, and offers to go trick or treating with him next year.

This is all too much for Big Pete to bear. All Pete wanted to do was help his little brother, and maybe appease the Halloween gods. But his hate for Halloween, and all the reminders of why, were killing his spirit.

Big Pete associates Halloween with shame, embarrassment, and disappointment. We don't get a real back story on why this is true for Big Pete. At his age, it's a time when teens are expected to put aside childish things and stop trick or treating. Big Pete is getting older, so he's sick of being immersed in a holiday that isn't socially acceptable for him to fully participate in any more. Instead of allowing his little brother to enjoy it, he has the instinct to reject Halloween in a very vocal way.

Upset by Ned's suggestion that Big Pete is in the same ranks with him - an untouchable in the social hierarchy - and his use of the endearing twist on Pete's last name "Wriggles" Big Pete tells Little Pete that he needs to find a new partner tonight. A huge theme in the series is Big Pete terminating a tradition he previously shared with Little Pete from fear of embarrassment by his peers. Big Pete is always looking for ways to be more popular and rising in the ranks in any situation. Meanwhile, Little Pete is not so self conscience. He is more concerned with achieving awesomeness, and upholding the bonds of family and friendship - despite his bend for anarchy. Little Pete travels his own path and surrounds himself with like-minded people. Little Pete's conflict is often that he's faced with realizing Big Pete, a family member, a brother, is not necessarily on his side.

Little Pete calls Big Pete a traitor, and Big Pete runs toward home as fast as he can. Big Pete explains in the narration that he knows what he is doing is cowardly and unfair to his brother, but in his mind the ends justify the means.

Just as Big Pete thinks he's escaping doom, the Pumpkin Eaters chase him down. In a crazy chase sequence, Big Pete runs through yards, hopping chain linked fences. Someone's Rottweiler joins the chase. The Pumpkin Eaters are somehow able to jump these fences on their mountain bikes with no ramps. Big Pete tricks one Pumpkin Eater into flying his bike into a pool, buying Pete some time.

Meanwhile, Little Pete is doing well on his own. He speaks into his helmet radio "In forty-five minutes I'm gonna be famous, and you're gonna be a blow hole!"

But Big Pete is too busy running for his life to get the message. He crawls in through the open window of a closed down haunted house. The Pumpkin Eaters make it just in time for Crossing Guard Frank's flashlight to scan over the window like a beacon in a prison escape movie.

Big Pete is sure he's evaded the Pumpkin Eaters. He takes a moment to take in the haunted house, and jeer at the decorations. He's startled by what looks like a Pumkin Eater, but after nudging the figure, he realizes it's a dummy. Big Pete mopes, "I hate this holiday." Little Pete radios back "Well it hates you too!"

Big Pete continues to walk through the house. Seeing another pumpkin-headed dummy, Pete aggressively shoves it. But this time it shoves back. "Tag! You're dead!"

Big Pete runs screaming through the house, as other Pumpkin Eaters emerge from closets laughing maniacally. They corner Pete in the basement. The bulkhead doors are locked from the outside. Endless Mike, with his pumpkin head disguise says "Well, well, well, if it isn't the biggest Halloweenie of all."

Little Pete is approaching his last house. He pauses to radio Big Pete about his imminent victory. But on the other end of the radio Big Pete is pleading for his life. Little Pete hears:
"What do you want from me?"
"Just your soul..."

Little Pete knows that Big Pete has been caught. "Bite my scab! Why? Why now?!"

Endless Mike explains to Big Pete that they all saw him smashing the pumpkin in the alley the other day. Mike thought it was promising to see that Big Pete had a bit of darkness in him. He knows that Pete hates Halloween, and he uses fact this to make Pete think he has support in the war on Halloween. Mike gives Pete an ultimatum. Smash a pumpkin and join their gang, destroying Halloween in Wellsville forever, or end up like Ned Richmond.

With a fresh Jack-o-lantern in hand, Big Pete acknowledges the level of power he wields.
As Mike tells Pete, "No one's looking." Pete retorts, "Sorry to hear that." and crashes the pumpkin against Mike's mask, causing it to shatter.

Big Pete is shocked that the ringleader of the Pumpkin Eaters was Endless Mike - for some reason.
"Who did you expect, Mr. Tastee?" says Mike before he lunges at Big Pete.

Just as the Pumpkin Eaters are about to have their way with Pete, the bulkhead doors swing open. Frank and Little Pete are staring down. The jig is up.

Endless Mike's cronies run away, leaving an exposed Endless Mike. Little Pete wacks Mike with his massive bag of candy and headbutts him for good measure.

A bag of candy blasting Endless Mike

Little Pete knocks himself out with the blow, but just as Mike rebounds with a quippy super villain phrase, "In space no one can hear you scream." Big Pete shoves a jack-o-lantern on Mike's head, incapacitating him.

This sequence is the most violent the series gets, and it's very cartoonish. The villains are caught like a Scooby Doo mystery, except instead of unmasking the bad guy, they unmask him and then mask him again.

In the epilogue, Endless Mike and his gang are cleaning up Nona's house as punishment. Nona's dad comes out to say "You missed a spot... stooge." (a reference to Iggy Pop and the Stooges).

Because Little Pete is such a good and loyal brother, he was able to put aside his quest for immortality to save his older brother's [social] life. By stopping the Pumpkin Eaters, Little Pete was also able to save Halloween for the whole town. Big Pete admits that at the end of the day this is a bigger and better win for the season. They can try to beat the record again next year...

The episode is played out by "Waiting for October" by Polaris. 

I am really excited to further explore Endless Mike and introduce the other maladjusted youth of Wellsville.

As always please visit my Etsy shop Slushenminer for Pete and Pete enamel pins!

High Tension Summer Drama with The Call

People are going a little nuts over this hot, sweaty, humid, positively tropical weather we've been having. It's only fitting that the last installment of my The Adventures of Pete and Pete summer series would be an off-the-walls episode set in the dead heat of summer. The previous episode I reviewed, "Field of Pete" had some minor plot holes, but this episode takes the cake. "The Call" is all atmosphere and sight gags, with a plot that is a bit tenuous. But this does make for a classic episode with tons of memorable moments, great acting, and very creative camera work.

S2 E3 - Air date: September 18, 1994

Setting: Wellsville during the hottest day of the summer. Our trusty narrator, Big Pete, explains that their town of Wellsville is a typical ordinary town, except for the fact that a mysterious phone has been ringing for twenty-seven years; a phone no one will answer.

This is the second season of the show and no one has ever brought this phone up, yet you can hear ringing in the background of much of this episode. The ringing is coming from a phone booth across town in an abandoned drive-in movie theater that can somehow still be heard anywhere in Wellsville.

Everyone is afraid of what would happen if they dared to answer the call. It makes everyone a little off; a bit crazy. Rumors have been going around for years. The main consensus is that you'll go insane or disappear. "Get within five feet of it - liquid brains."

Mail Woman McGinty (played by Bebe Neuwirth) says that when you answer the phone someone on the other end will tell you "the exact day, hour, and second that you will die." It's very The Ring but almost a decade early.

The telephone repair man claims he wont answer the phone because of telephone company regulations - it's a private call. (Sure, sure).

Pete predicts that if someone answers the phone Wellsville will never be the same. 

It is "the hottest doggiest dog day of summer." When "all of your summer dreams are burned out of your memory, like butt flesh on a super heated backseat." Pete explains that most people go a little nuts due to the heat and humidity of summer, but in Wellsville they have to factor in "the mind-shattering sound of the ringing phone."

Joyce is severely hampered by the ringing. She has a metal plate in her head from a childhood accident (something we all well know at this point in the series; the plate get's it's own title card in the opening credits).

The ringing causes a sympathetic vibration making her spaz-out whenever a phone rings. When the phone rings inside their own home, we see a few drinking glasses become causalities as she looses her grip in a spasm.

We've never seen this happen to Joyce before. She has had the metal plate, probably for at least the twenty-seven years the mystery phone has been ringing, and phones haven't been an issue in the past to the viewer's knowledge.

Don is running around the house trying to figure out a new way for the phone to ring so her suffering can cease. He thinks if another appliance turns on when the phone rings, like the stove burners lighting up, it will help. It is instead very dangerous. He also acts like this is a new affliction - or you'd at least think if she's always had this issue he would have taken care of it much earlier in their marriage - but it is clearly stated that this ringing phone is something she's lived with for the better part of her life, and at least a third of the life of this show.

Meanwhile, the kids are melting. Little Pete is sweltering on the lawn with his gang; regulars Nona and Clem, Libby (who is also in Season 1's Night Crawlers), and Carl. They are delirious and sweaty. The only thing they can manage to do is lay there moaning about the heat.

Emotionless, they speak to each other.
"Green-spotted Horsefly, 5 o-clock."
"It's going after Carl."
"Carl... you gotta get out of there."
"It's on me... it's biting."

Artie tries to get the kids engaged, to no avail.

Meanwhile, Ellen is volunteering at a crisis center for people who have been disturbed by the ringing phone. She calls Joyce for back up on a "freak out." Joyce departs in a hurry and Don gives her a kind of flame retardant silver jacket (I know what this is because my husband once owned one from a army navy surplus store as part of a Halloween costume).

Ellen calls the Wrigley house once again, this time for Big Pete, asking him to volunteer.

Big Pete has resigned himself to lying motionless on the basement floor. Ellen pleads with him, he's the only one she can turn to. Pete likes Ellen enough to wipe the cobwebs off his body and go outside.

Little Pete and his friends have tasked Artie with putting them out of their misery via magnified glass. "Kill us Artie, hurry."

"Soon you will be as cheese, boy. Melty, melty, melty."

What gets them motivated is Big Pete's bike, as he answers the call of duty.

"Follow shinny bike..." The kids go after him like zombies hungry for excitement. Awesome shots here by the way. The camera work for this episode is so good at making that hot, hazy feeling palpable.

Pete arrives on the scene. In a sports field, Mail Woman McGinty is spinning out of control. Pete and Ellen use his bike as a shield against flying mail. Ellen explains that Ms. McGinty is trying to leave Earth's gravitational pull to get away from the constant ringing. Ellen tells Pete to play anything that will distract her, so he pulls out a trombone from somewhere, and starts playing.

 In order to snap Ms. McGinty out of it Ellen pretends to answer and hang up an imaginary phone.

 It's not clear if the ringing was real or not. We can hear the ringing during this scene, but when Ellen does her pantomime, the ringing actually stops. Was it in Mail Woman McGinty's head or no?

They place silencing headphones on her head and she's safe. Big Pete is invigorated. He wants to help out more.

As they watch on from the sidelines, Little Pete gets the idea to save the summer and make the gang heroes by answering the phone.

Everyone in his crew has a special power: Clem Lanell (played by Aaron Schwartz of The Mighty Ducks and Heavy Weights fame) could hypnotize dogs, Libby (played by Winnie Zhang) had mastered the Vulcan nerve pinch, Nona's speech patterns could cloud men's minds (a true life fact about Michelle Trachtenberg that was revealed in the audio commentary on the DVD), Little Pete could produce seven kinds of body cheese, Artie's powers were endless...

and Carl had the power of being a complete wuss.

Carl immediately claims there's a force-field around him and he can't go to the phone. Little Pete and the group are disappointed but clearly expected this, and they move on.

Meanwhile at the Ringing Phone Hotline, Big Pete is talking with his first callers. One of which is a man who's resorted to putting a space helmet-like orb on his head, screaming with insanity, "When will it stoooop!!"

The man hangs up and Pete is urgently trying to get the call back. Ellen lets him know that this is par for the course. He may not be able to tell people when the ringing will stop, but they know it began on May 15th 1967. They think the call is for a particular person, but obviously no one knows who is making the call or who they're trying to reach.

Big Pete suggests that they put their efforts into looking for the recipient of the call. Then they can make this person answer and end this once and for all. Ellen is skeptical. It's not exactly clear why though. I guess her resistance adds some friction to the plot, or she could be content without an answer to the mystery because working at the hotline makes her feel important. In any case, she makes it sound like an insurmountable task that isn't worth their time. She tells him to get back to work, simply helping people cope.

Little Pete's gang discuss how famous they're going to be after they answer the phone, and what objects they want their faces printed on in commemoration of the event.

The telephone man, Hub Callaster (played by Sean McGuirk) a guy who's been popping in and out of scenes and never seen outside of his cherry picker, tosses some old converse high-tops at the kids as a warning. Hub claims that he's saving the kids from a "fate worse than death." He says that the shoes are from the last guy who tried to answer the phone; he blew up. Little Pete knows his combustion techniques, and scoffs at the tall tale. The shoes would be goo if the guy had really blown up. The kids march on, but Libby is stuck - not by force-field - she admits that she's just chicken.

At this point Big Pete has resorted to accosting hotline callers, accusing them as the one dodging the call. Joyce enters and calms Pete down, reminding him that they're here to help, not frighten. She urges Pete to take a break.

The heat is getting to Little Pete and his remaining friends. Clem hallucinates Mr. Tastee in some kind of horrific flaming ice cream nuclear holocaust.

It's pretty hilarious - in my opinion. The kids are terrified and delirious. Artie is able to shoo away the visage.

Big Pete has gone to the phone and he's ready to ineffectually yell at it.

Suddenly he's in the presence of the man with the bubble helmet, and he's got a harpoon pointed right at the booth.

Pete recognizes his voice. Bewildered, he asks him what he's doing. "Don't be alarmed, I'm a psychiatrist." Pete suggests that this psychiatrist can be of some help.

The gang is trying to get through one of the last neighborhoods before the phone, but the street is so hot, Frank the Crossing Guard (played by James Lally) has declared the area a danger zone. Nona and Clem go for it anyway, but their shoes melt within seconds, leaving them stranded where their shoes left their feet. Frank warns Little Pete, "You can break the code of the crosswalk, but you can't break the code of physics."

Artie tosses his shoes and is able to leap to the hood of an abandoned car. Little Pete follows. He barely makes it onto the car, but Artie's got him. However, there's nothing left to step on to make it across the rest of the street.

Frank at first makes fun of their situation, then when he sees Little Pete's disappointment he throws down his crossing sign so they can get by the rest of the way.

He wryly asks them, "What do you want on your tomb stone?"

Little Pete answers, "Here lies Pete and Artie. They answered the call."
Boom. Mic-drop.

Big Pete rushes back to Ellen at the hotline, telling her the psychiatrist, Dr. Bert Looper (played by Larry Pine, who you've probably seen before in a bunch of things) wrote up a profile on the "first passerby" of the ringing phone.

Here is the criteria for the subject:
- filled with guilt.
- feels the need to help out, possibly even at the hotline.
- is disturbed by the sound of a ringing phone.

When Pete then gets an ill-fated call from his father (trying one more time to adjust the phones and home appliances) Pete suddenly realizes the answer to this mystery is his own mother.

Little Pete and Artie have made it to the payphone. Artie warns Little Pete to not let it smell his fear. Little Pete knows it's too late.

Artie insists that he go defeat the phone instead. He does his famous Artie pose, and runs full speed at the booth.

At the last second he veers off to the side and disappears into the horizon. Now it's just Little Pete all on his lonesome.

Joyce is in the field helping with another freak-out. This time it's the neighbor who has been seen throughout the episode dressed as a cowboy, treating his lawnmower like cattle.

The police are there to take him away (to an insane asylum?).

Big Pete comes by the scene to confront his mother. Joyce pulls him aside. He asks why she never answered the phone. Joyce says that she was just a young girl, and she was simply walking by the payphone when it rang. She thought it might be for her, but was admittedly afraid. Pete's incredulous, "For twenty-seven years?!"

Joyce tries to lessen the blow, "Well I volunteered everyday." I know she's a stay at home mom, but that's insane. Pete says the obvious, she did everything except actually answer the phone. Joyce shrugs and says she's sorry, not knowing what else to do. She evades further questioning by going with the cowboy and the police.

Then, in the most ADR'ed, hilariously slapped together shot that was probably added later for continuity's sake, Big Pete is standing alone under a tree looking confused. He asks to no one in particular, "What's going on?" as if there was a commotion off camera.

A disembodied voice tells him someone is going to answer the phone. "Who?" asks Pete. Another disembodied voice (and you can tell because Pete turns his head in the other direction to listened to them) says, "Your brother!" Oh no!!

The entire town is running to the old phone booth. People have brought coolers like it's a tailgating party. Little Pete says to a growing crowd, "I'll get it."

Big Pete narrates that the curse of the phone wasn't about turning your brain to mush, it was living in fear, something Little Pete couldn't live with anymore. As he approaches the booth Big Pete tries to stop him, and Joyce swoops in to declare that she needs to be the one to answer the call.

Little Pete reaches to pick it up. All eyes are on him.

What in the Hitchcock?

He picks the receiver off the cradle, and suddenly the ringing is gone. There's a peaceful clarity. Birds are chirping. It's like a spell has been broken.

Carl is no longer in the force-field, Dr. Looper takes off his helmet, to the amazement of his wife the cowboy has broken character and gives her a hug.

also these two cops make out...

Little Pete answers the phone. Confused, he hands it over to Joyce, "It's for you..."

She takes the phone and to everyone's surprise she looks above at Hub and yells, "You could have just called me at home!"

This whole time Hub Callaster had been pining over Joyce, trying to get her on the phone. Hub lowers his cherry picker for her. She agrees to talk it over with him. Don is not happy.

Up in the sky Hub admits to Joyce that he's loved her since the 7th grade. He couldn't tell her in person, so he decided to make the call as she passed by the pay phone. When she didn't pick up, he just let it keep ringing. He even got the job at the telephone company to stick with it.

 Joyce is flattered, and maybe a bit uncomfortable. (Run girl). She says to Hub, "I like you, but I love my husband. You understand, don't you."

Hub sadly nods, and he lets her out of the basket and into the arms of a lightly burnt Don.

The curse was over!

But out of no where Hub started the phone ringing again. This time since the town's fears were extinguished, they could accept the ringing. Hub knew she would never answer, but the ringing now represented an eternal flame for the passion of a first love.

They wave at Hub as he rises back into the sky, like he was a hero riding off into the sunset.

"The ringing reminds us that true love - if it's really true - doesn't need an answer."

 Everyone heads home, as swelling western film music plays out the episode.

While it was convoluted to insert this constant ringing phone plot into the show, ruining the continuity of any previous episode, it was a fun premise. I like the idea of a town having a mystery. It reminds me of when I was finding strange piles of food outside a CVS in my old Boston neighborhood. I even wrote a blog post about it several years ago. I never found the answer though.

I also appreciate the fact that Pete and Pete are trying to make a difference in this episode. Big Pete wants to actually solve the problem and do real investigative work. Little Pete wants to go a step further and answer the call himself, risking his body and mind in the process, not just for the glory, but to end the reign of terror on his fellow Wellsvillians.

It's always good to see a woman like Joyce conquer her fears, be able to tell a guy that she's not interested, and walking away peacefully - even though he's been a psycho terrorizing her and everyone in town over an unrequited love, and has her trapped in a cherry-picker. I'm just saying it could have ended much differently.

It's also interesting to see how the phone effects people differently. Only certain people are negatively affected. Ellen and the Petes are able to go on with their lives alongside the ringing. They aren't being carted away by the police in a mental state, but there are those who do have that reaction. I think it's an innocent way for a kids show to present an old movie trope of a society infected by a sickness or an alien parasite. It's just a ringing phone after all, it doesn't actually harm anyone. Big Pete finds patient zero to be his mother.

Then there's the running Western film theme: the soundtrack is mostly western movie style music, and the concept of a very hot and barren landscape, people seeing mirages, going stir-crazy in the heat, mixed with a dangerous stand off - albeit between a boy and an inanimate phone booth.  They did a great job filming the episode, really bringing the heat of summer to the tv screen. What The Call lacks in rationality, it makes up for in atmosphere, technique, and comic timing.