Creepshow season 1, episode 4 recap: The Companion/Lydia Layne’s Better Half

In episode 4 of Shudder’s Creepshow, a creepy scarecrow runs amok and a CEO pays the price for not giving her lover a promotion.

[NOTE: I don’t intend to give away all the scares or analyze them to death, but just give an idea of what the individual Creepshow story is about.]

A Creepshow tale can occur anywhere. It can be a decrepit old house or a corporate office. This episode has a little of both. It starts with The Creep and an “authentic monkey paw ad,” as in some good old comic books. Soon we see a young man named Harry (Logan Allen) with cuts on his neck and face, fishing. His pal, Smitty (Dylan Gage) meets him, and they discuss how Harry was beaten up by his brother, Billy (Voltaire Colin Council).

Smitty initially offers to beat Billy up, but he leaves to apply treatment to his grandma’s sore feet. Soon enough, Billy is threatened with round 2 of a beating from Billy and flees past a scarecrow to a decrepit old house.

More from Show Snob

• The Santa Clauses season 2, episode 6 recap “Wanga Banga Langa!”
• Lawmen: Bass Reeves season 1, episode 7 preview: Non-spoiler thoughts for Part VII
• Goosebumps season 1, episode 6 recap: “Night of the Living Dummy”
• Beacon 23 season 1, episode 3 recap: “Why Can’t We Go on as Three?”
• Upload season 3, episode 2 recap: “Strawberry”

It turns out the scarecrow (Carey Jones) is alive, somehow the result of Mr. Brenner (Afemo Omilami) grieving for his deceased wife, Mavis. As you can imagine, chaos ensues. One can only speculate as to how the scarecrow functions, but it has something to do with strange bones from the field, a Valentine’s Day heart and Mr. Bremmer’s grief-laden desires.

It also killed a Girl Scout. It also has the ability to ensnare people in its roots. It’s definitely a weird segment of Creepshow, and one wonders whatever happened to Smitty, who simply disappears. However, it’s still a fun enough story and, yes, Billy does face some retribution.

Lydia Layne’s Better Half

“Lydia Layne’s Better Half” couldn’t be much different from “The Companion” (the scarecrow-themed segment above). It centers around Lydia Layne (Tricia Helfer), a corporate CEO looking to hire Midtech’s new CFO. Much to the chagrin of Celia Mendez (Danielle Lyn), the promotion goes to some guy named Tom (Michael Scialabba). Celia is raging mad about it, noting how she and Lydia have — let’s say — a close relationship, and that it was supposed to be “us against the brutes.”

She calls Lydia a fraud and, during their argument over who is a paragon of women’s empowerment (their words, not mine), Lydia strikes Celia hard across the face. Unfortunately, Celia falls and has her head impaled (or, in this case, one might ironically say “empowered”) by a corporate achievement trophy!

Lydia’s problem becomes one of hiding Celia’s body. Unfortunately, the dang elevator gets stuck and she has no cell phone service. Also, Celia keeps making creepy eye contact with Lydia, as if she’s not done with her yet. It’s a more solid plot than “The Companion,” and is perhaps more apolitical of a story than one might think.

Sure, it could be a critique of careerism as feminism, but one could also take it as more of a straight-ahead horror tale (it’s great when horror stories can serve multiple roles). There is a great moment where Lydia literally stands on Celia’s shoulder to reach the elevator’s roof access panel. In other words, she’s using her as a momentary prop to escape corporate confinement. That’s some rather smart writing, wouldn’t you agree? Anyway, this is perhaps the strongest Creepshow story of the first season, based on that little moment alone.

What are your thoughts on this Creepshow episode? Let us know in the comments!