Growing up I always loved the Halloween episodes of my favorite TV shows. They were something I looked forward to every year. Who could forget that wonderful Boy Meets World Halloween episode where Shawn dreams that he’s a masked murderer and goes on a rampage throughout the high school? Or the Lizzie McGuire episode where Lizzie and the gang teaches Kate Sanders to respect the Day of the Dead by scaring the crap out of her? Those episodes were classics! The same, unfortunately, cannot be said about 4th episode of The Carrie Diaries appropriately titled “Fright Night.” To be honest, the whole episode was one big fright, which is incredibly disappointing for me, since I was starting to like this show. I dare say this episode was either below or on par with the pilot episode quality-wise.
Carrie’s been invited to Larissa’s Halloween party down in the city, and she invites Walt to go with her. At the same time, Sebastian Kydd is hosting his own party that Mouse and Maggie decide to crash. Kydd’s party is like any other party in high school, really lame but it has free booze. Mouse and Kydd have a mini-showdown and later bond over marijuana (aw, high school). Even the usually titillating affair between random older cop (his real name is Officer Barnes) and Maggie fizzled out, literally. Barnes ends things between Maggie because after sleeping with each other for a while, he’s finally realized that their whole relationship is illegal. That pretty much sums up Maggie and Mouse’s storyline this episode.
This episode was seriously lacking in the Dorrit and Tom Bradshaw department. It’s such a lost opportunity to not have Dorrit cause some serious hijinks on Halloween. Instead the writers decided to keep her at home watching Poltergeist, and Tom has to have another internal crisis about how his daughter is a brat and doesn’t want to hang out with dear-ole-dad (bonus points for his Chewbacca costume though). The one holiday where it’s okay to cause mischief (to a degree), and the show’s biggest miscreant spends the whole episode sitting on the couch eating candy and getting spooked by scary movies, such a waste of a character.
Another waste of a character is Larissa Loughlin. I love Freema Agyeman, so it’s really disappointing that she’s given such an awful character to work with. Larissa’s only purpose in the show is to be a walking, talking after-school special for Carrie. After Carrie and Walt meet a really cute boy (double bonus points for the Clockwork Orange costume), Larissa shows up and offers the teens some ecstasy tablets. Carrie throws hers away but Walt ingests his, the two soon split up due to Carrie having to take care of Larissa who is tripping hardcore. Walt goes off with Clockwork Orange boy and ends up having an existential crisis after Clockwork Orange boy tries to kiss him and ends ups spewing a discriminatory remark (points lost for that one) and runs off only to come across a couple of homophobes spewing even more discriminatory filth (no points for you). Walt stops them from harassing a young couple only to assure the two thugs that he is not gay. Walt ends up at Maggie’s house, and I think it’s safe to assume that they finally have sex (which may or may not have been aided by ecstasy).
While Walt deals with his personal crisis, Carrie has to deal with Larissa. She’s close to overdosing so Carrie has to watch her like a hawk, while she tries to jump off the roof and keeps squawking like a bird. The two have a conversation over poetry, and it is revealed that Larissa isn’t as happy-go-lucky as she seems (which they hopefully expand upon in later episodes). When Clockwork Orange boy comes back without Walt, Carrie becomes very irritated and tries to find Walt out in the streets of New York but stops when she remembers that she left Larissa alone and in a vulnerable state. Upon their return to the party, Carrie and Clockwork Orange boy help save Larissa from an awful situation. Clockwork Orange boy vows to watch out for Larissa for the rest of the night, and Carrie ends up just going home without really resolving anything.
As always, the music was the best part of this episode
Rating 4.5/10
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Promo for next week’s episode- “Dangerous Territory”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpqLwpn0x18
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