Tempting Fate (Inside No.9)
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| "Tempting Fate" | |
|---|---|
| Inside No. 9 episode | |
| Episode no. | Series 4 Episode 6 |
| Directed by | Jim O'Hanlon |
| Written by | Steve Pemberton Reece Shearsmith |
| Produced by | Adam Tandy |
| Editing by | Joe Randall-Cutler |
| Original air date | 6 February 2018 |
| Running time | 29 minutes |
| Guest appearance(s) | |
| |
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"Tempting Fate" is the sixth episode of the fourth series of the British black comedy anthology television programme Inside No. 9. Written by Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, the episode was directed by Jim O'Hanlon and was first shown on 6 February 2018, on BBC Two. It stars Pemberton, Shearsmith, and Weruche Opia, as well as Nigel Planer and Ruben Cryer.
Production[edit]
Plot[edit]
Three Cleaners, Keith (Pemberton), Nick (Shearsmith), and Trainee Maz (Opia) are sent to a Rich Hoarder's flat to clean it after the owner's death. They crack many jokes, though Keith reacts quite seriously, which Maz initially questions as they both move into the kitchen, though Nick tells her that Keith has had a hard life and his Son is Wheelchair bound due to suffering from multiple sclerosis. They check the kitchen cupboard and find a dead rat among some canned foods, which they double wrap in a plastic bag before Maz goes to hang it on the handle of the front door.
Maz then moves into another room whilst the other two continue cleaning and discovers a photo wall, she takes off a photo of the owner's deceased wife Brenda, though when she goes to place it back onto the wall, she unknowingly triggers a mechanism that causes the photo frame to slide away revealing a locked safe in a hole in the wall. After initially suspecting it contains the 3.5 million of the owner, they open it by pairing the combination with his wife's date of birth, revealing a small package labelled with "Danger, do not open", and a VHS Tape. They open the package anyway and take out a small bronze hare statue. They question why it was locked inside the safe but dismiss the thought to instead find a VHS player to watch the tape. As they search for the tape, Nick tells Keith that they found a dead rat and had double bagged it, before Nick, whilst holding the hare statue, wishes that the rat Was alive as it would mean less paperwork.
Keith then finds a VHS player and they watch the tape. The tape is a direct recording from Frank (Nigel Planer); the owner of the flat. He says that by the time someone watches the tape, he hopes to be free from the Curse he brought upon himself through greed and vanity. He mentions that inside the package is an object that has ruined countless lives including his. He got the object from a Holy man in Jaipur for a small fortune, and was told that the object would grant the bearer three wishes that would transform their life. It did for a while, before what happened to his wife Brenda. He then implores that whoever find the Package should not open it, and instead send it away and destroy it, saying that "Our lives are ruled by fate, and those who interfere with fate do so to their sorrow", before he stands up and Hangs himself.
The trio are initially hesitant about the statue, though Keith insists that Frank was simply delusional from the loss of his wife. Nick mentions how Hares are associated with witchcraft and trickery in almost every culture in the world, which he knows as he did a PhD in ethnology and folklore, but was stuck working as a cleaner due to his ongoing alcoholism. Keith puts the Hare statue back into the safe and steps outside the room before noticing the live rat double bagged on the front door handle, two which the pair insist it was dead when they bagged it, which leads them to believe that they wasted one of their wishes on bringing a rat back to life. Keith then kills the rat again as he couldn't concentrate. They then start to speculate about how the Hare statue has affected Frank's life; they bring up two pictures of Brenda taken six months apart, in the first photo, she is morbidly obese, whereas in the second photo, she is incredibly thin, which Keith states was because she had Cancer, though they notice in his diary it states that Frank "wishes there was a way he could help her", leading them to believe that, the wish actually gave her cancer leading to her weight loss and eventual death. Keith still refuses to believe that the Hare statue is Magic, so they bring up another theory at how he sent his brother on a vacation to Florida after he initially won the lottery, only for his brother to die in a boating accident, which Nick strongly states happened due to every wish Frank made Backfiring on him as in Folklore, and after his wife died he sold their house, moved to a flat and started buying large sums of items on E-Bay as he believed the money was cursed, though they still don't know what Frank's third wish was. Keith still doesn't budge on his theory. They continue to work again, with Keith cleaning in another room and Nick and Maz working on prying up floorboards. Keith gets a message from his Disabled Son, asking when he's coming home. Maz wants to wish for large sums of money, but Nick brings up the fact that Frank wished for the same thing, and that you Pay the Price if you are greedy, as "The Wish Granter is always Vengeful."
Maz wastes no time in specifically wishing for £93,000, which Nick states was an idiotic thing to do. Keith finds an old Monopoly Board game in the room he is cleaning as Nick starts prying up the Floorboards. After they remove the first floorboard they find a bag concealed within the planks, only for it to contain large sums of play money, which angers Maz. Though in the other room, the board game is shown to have large sums of real money, which Keith initially tries to pocket in hopes to pay for his son's treatment, though is caught in the act by Nick and Maz. Maz tries to take the money from Keith, stating how it's hers as she wished for it. The power dies and Maz runs away with the money. Frank restores power as Nick goes looking for Maz, saying that bad things will happen if the keeps the money. The power goes back on as they enter the back room to find Maz hiding, though she threatens them with the Hare statue, though Nick and Frank slowly try to approach her, with Maz backing away, trying to talk her out of keeping the money. Maz goes to run away, but accidentally sets off a chain reaction leading to her getting impaled on the back of the head by a loose floorboard with nails sticking out of it, killing her. Keith and Nick argue, with Keith initially trying to take the money for himself as he desperately wants the money to pay for Charlie's surgery, and states that if Nick had never found the tape, Maz would still be alive, making Nick realise something important. The Video was supposedly Frank's suicide video, yet it somehow ended up locked inside a safe, he initially thinks that Frank may be alive, but Keith angrily states that he isn't because He killed him, before striking Nick over the head with the Rabbit statue, knocking him out.
Whilst monologuing to himself, Keith attempts to stage Nick's death as an accident, pouring Alcohol on his lips and knocking out a gas pipe. Keith reveals that he heard about how Frank had won the lottery had and killed him in order to make off with his fortune to pay for Charlie’s medical treatment. Keith prepares to make his escape with the money, but then Frank, who was supposedly dead, shambles into the kitchen complaining of being hungry. He reveals that his final wish was to live forever and so, despite attempting to hang himself, and Keith's attempt to murder him, he cannot die. Meanwhile, Nick has regained consciousness and used their final wish for something unselfish, believing that it would break the curse; he had wished for Keith’s son to be cured. Charlie enters the room, showing a miraculous recovery, and Keith happily hugs his son. Charlie mentions how he smells something odd, which fills Keith with Dread. Frank lights the cooker and the entire house blows up.
Analysis[edit]
Reception[edit]
References[edit]
- https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/inside-no-9-series-4-episode-6-review-tempting-fate/
- https://headphonedaydreams.wordpress.com/2018/05/08/inside-no-9-tempting-fate/
External links[edit]
- "Tempting Fate" on IMDb
- "Tempting Fate" at BBC Programmes
- "Tempting Fate" at the British Comedy Guide
References[edit]
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