Dr. Miguelito Loveless returns for the fourth and final time in the first season. Michael Dun was forced to do much of this episode in a wheelchair due to an injury to hi left leg suffered in the final stunt of his previous appearance. Hardly anyone got out of this show completely unscathed. He was a rave man for not missing beat in is role.Loveless is far more insane in ’The Night of the Murderous Spring” than ever before. Frustrated in his attempts to reclaim California, he has now decided the world must be reshaped into his idealized utopia. But such a world cannot be created while man still exists, so Loveless concocts a formula that educes violent hallucinations. With it, he will poison the world’s water supply. Once infected, every man, woman, and child on Earth will kill each other.
The key thing that sticks out I my mind about “The Night of the Murderous Spring” is how much more gruesome it is than the usual fare. When Jim is infected, he hallucinates murdering Artie. As a test for the captured Jim and Artie, Loveless infects a dinner party of twenty people by adding his formula to their wine. We do not see the ensuing battle, but we hear it behind closed doors with the resulting assumption all twenty people killed ach other with their bare hands. Finally, Jim sinks the boat Loveless and his two assistants are escaping on. None of them can swim, but rather than help, Jim and Artie watch the boat sink and wait for the bubbles to stop. Not a very heroic act.
Consider their actions in light of this, too: Loveless has a new assistant to replace Voltaire. She is a very overweight woman named Kitten Twitty. Loveless ensures her loyalty by promising her surgery that will make her skinny and beautiful. We know from “The Night That Terror Stalked the Town,” he can make good on his promise considering his skills in plastic surgery. Our heroes play on her insecurities in order to escape Loveless, then allow her to drown afterwards.
It seems incredibly cruel I light of how many beautiful women who were responsible for far more evil acts wind up free women hooking up with Jim while the fat, unattractive woman who is far less responsible for any wrongdoing is allowed to die right in front of them. I chalk it up to unintentional irony. Jim and Artie’s actions confirm Loveless is right about man’s evil nature. The pretty girls are aved and rewarded whether they have truly redeemed themselves, but no one cares about the fate of the less than stunning.
There is a clever use of a sharpened turkey bone and a pair of suspenders used as a slingshot makeshift crossbow that just has to be mentioned.
“The Night of the Murderous Spring” is a entertaining episode in spite of its darker tone than the usual lighthearted romps. I will still give the first season Best Loveless episode crown to “The Night That Terror Stalked the Town,” but ’The Night of the Murderous Spring Comes Close.” I would have preferred our heroes to take a more sympathetic tone towards Kitten considering how badly they used her, but the Secret Service is not the Boy scouts, so I guess they do what they have to do in order to save the world.
Rating: *** (out of 5)
