It turns out Dad was completely wrong that his son was in no physical danger from the mob. Completely. Geez, I'd hate him, too, if he were my Dad. Daughter doesn't kill Dad. Son doesn't kill Dad. Mob kills son. Mob gets away with it! Son was a jerk, but he didn't deserve that! Crime drama; no supernatural elements, but fictionalized version of hypnosis.

One thing the story leaves out and which is driving me nuts; he had an inheritance left by his mother which upon Dads death could have been given him by his sister even though it specified he was not to receive it till he reached a certain age. I realize that would have ended the story then and there so I forgive the lack of continuity for the more artistic finish.

A gambling addict needs money fast to pay off his bad debts. His cruel father controls all his inheritance since his mother’s death in a car accident (the car was driven by his father who was drunk at the time and the son blames him for her death), and refuses to give him a penny. His twin sister is experimenting with hypnosis with her boyfriend which gives the gambler an idea for how to exact revenge on his father, and claim the money he feels is his.

Not a writer I am, good point. These episodes are so time sensitive--maybe that's why they left this one illogically open to interpretation. Either way, this was a fantastic episode that I thoroughly enjoyed. 5 stars.

I don't think it was fair for what happened to Mark Prentiss (played by Ira Lewis) at the very end. No one deserves that kind of punishment where someone has to "sleep with the fishes" (SPOILER ALERT). I liked this episode because it's a cautionary tale to us fans. It tells us that we shouldn't expect family and/or friends to helps us every time we get into trouble because we'll be setting ourselves for disappointment; we must take responsibility for our actions. ark should have exercised more common sense, but his father acted as if he didn't care about the fact that his son was receiving death threats. His old man was a total jackass...LOL!!!!

Not a bad episode, but if the daughter had already received her inheritance is there any reason why the son never asked his twin sister for money rather than his father? It made sense for the daughter and her boyfriend not to give him any money at the end as he would've gotten into the same position again due to his personality. However, before the father died he could've given the son money and said "no more" to him, but perhaps he had already done so (although it was never said nor implied).

Thank you to this Website for recommending this episode! I really enjoyed it- it is a psychological drama about dysfunctional family relationships and hypnosis. There were certain plot holes due I think to time constraints, as many episodes do- sometimes I wish the episode had been a two part episode. Forty five minutes doesn't give you much time to develop all characters. Here we needed to know more about why the father was so hated, and why the son could not get the money he needed anywhere else. we would also like to know more about the daughter and why she hated the father. If the father was truly abusive and evil, then we would know how we are supposed to feel about the son.

One of the better episodes. Sort of film noir. Definitely worth listening to.

Hi Alec, I wanted to respond to your question about why their father was so hated. I think they did address the reason during the episode. Aside from the fact that their father was a jerk in general, I think it was also implied that the father murdered their mother and that's the main reason why why the son hated him. The son knew that his dad murdered his mom, although he could never prove it. As for the reason why his sister Marge hated their father, it's possible that she also knew, (or suspected), about the murder. Even if she didn't suspect, it's possible that she just had "daddy issues" like her therapist suggested. This isn't one of the best CBSRMT episodes, in my opinion, but it also wasn't one of the worst either. The story is listenable and the plot twists are not totally predictable.

I meant to address this response to Melanie, since she was the one who was wondering why the father was hated. :)

A sad tale of a dysfunctional family. SPOILER ALERT: Father was an alcoholic who driving drunk got in an accident, which killed the mother but luckily not the children in the backseat. Brother hated father for the death of the mother, daughter stuffed her hatred as father was the only parent left. Mark was a gambler, most likely finding a release for the pain, anger and hatred. Daughter suffered headaches from all the bad family issues. Mob ends up killing Mark and daughter marries boyfriend and lives happily ever after. Mark would have continued to gamble as it was a learned doing mechanism. Very sad story. As sad as the whole Nixon Watergate debacle in the news. At least the commercials were uplifting! The Buick Apollo!

This is okay, but pretty unpleasant all around without being tense or meaningful. A few good (unintentional) laugh lines. I love that a 24 year old man realizes his sister isn't an identical twin because he hates their father more. It's funny because the script is actually clear about how hypnosis isn't some magical method of driving someone to murder someone else against their will, but then EG undermines that with all the copy he reads through and at the end. Kind of just felt like spending an hour with really unpleasant people until the worst of them are dead at the end. Okay. Fun times!