By Geno McGahee
Lakes can be creepy and that is the setting for the 1989 Ray Bradbury Theater episode titled “THE LAKE.” Everyone has known somebody that has drowned at a lake and it is especially tragic when it’s a child. In this episode, we visit the death of Telly (Jessica Billingsley), a young girl that showed no fear of the water, but it would ultimately lead to her death.
Douglas (Gordon Thomson) is showing the love of his life, Margaret (Tina Regtien), all of the locations that made him who he is. She wants to know everything about him and he’s trying to appease her, although he notes that some memories will be his and his alone. I can’t blame him. I’m sure she doesn’t want to know about the time he rubbed one out behind the lake house. They never mention he did that, but the smile on his face implied it.
They end up at a beach where he remembers being young Douglas (Eli Sharplin), and the first time he fell in love. He was 10 and he was making a sandcastle when young Telly came into his life. The two hit it off and began working on one together when some fat ass little shit jumped on top of it and ruined it. There’s always that fat kid that starts shit. Always. Young Douglas should have chased him down and shoved his sand bucket up his ass, but he didn’t. Instead, he and Telly rebuilt the house and the friendship grew.
The barrier between their friendship was the lake. Telly loved the water and swam regularly where young Douglas just wanted to stay on the beach in his disturbing speedos. He was afraid of the water and noted that it hated people…for some reason. The entire summer of hanging out with Telly could not convince him to go more than ankle deep in the water. Why the hell did Douglas’s mother even take him there to begin with? She knows he hates the water. It was probably just a cheap vacation. It was either that or camping.
On the last day of summer, Telly goes into the lake and doesn’t come out, prompting her mother to look at young Douglas with rage and scream “do something!” What did she want him to do and you don’t yell at a 10 year old like that unless it’s a fat one that’s destroying your sandcastle. The lifeguards in their far too revealing shorts jump in and try to save the girl, but come up empty.
Old regular Douglas, who is still sporting the same exact hairstyle that he had when was 10, returns to the lake and finds half of a sand castle and some footprints. He creates the other half in hopes that Telly will return. What he gets is a curiosity in the end but it brings him some closure as well.
THE LAKE is a good tale. It’s sort of mellow and mushy, but it was interesting the whole way. I’m usually not a huge fan of overuse of narration, but it worked here. I recommend this.
Rating: 7/10
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