To Grandmother's House We Go
Written By: William Butler
Marcia Pierpont (Keegan Connor Tracy), a shameless gold digger, is seen getting married to a rich and elderly entrepreneur named David Higgins (David Avalon), with Marcia notably refusing to kiss him. David's ex-wife Belinda (Marion Eisman) tears into Marcia for marrying David for his wealth, which prompts her to tell the old woman to get used to her. The scene then skips ahead to David's funeral, shortly after his wedding. Attending the service, Belinda tells Marcia, who her ex left everything to and strongly suspects killed David herself, that she's the administrator of David's estate, and she promises not to give Marcia a cent if she doesn't look after his granddaughter Ruby (Emma Oliver).
Sometime later, Marcia and Ruby have lunch at the Ingram Creek Restaurant, where Marcia breaks up with her latest lover Benny (Jason McKinnon) after having found out that he's a destitute Christmas tree farmer when his dating profile said he was a wealthy lumber tycoon. Their waitress, Carla (Amanda Huxtable), tries to tell Benny that Marcia's doing him a favor, but Marcia just shrugs her off. It's at the restaurant that Ruby calls Marcia "Mom", which Marcia constantly reminds her to stop doing, telling her that she's her stepmother or "older sister figure". As they leave, Benny warns Marcia that she’ll get what’s coming to her for her greed and treachery. Carla again encourages Benny's ideas, revealing that Marcia previously robbed her brother Earl of all his wealth, leaving him to die from loneliness, and calls her a black widow.
After the diner trip, as a now-broke Marcia lies in bed, she receives a message from a debt collector telling her that she's three months behind on her credit card payments, hence why she likely killed David. Marcia then gets a call from Belinda's butler Wilfred, who tells her that Belinda has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and has very little time to live, and wants to spend her last few months with her granddaughter. Realizing that bringing Ruby to her grandmother's could let her inherit everything, as well as the fact that this could be the last chance she has in the foreseeable future to live in true luxury, Marcia excitedly tells Ruby to pack her things as the pair get set to drive to Belinda's lake house in the woods of Coyote Canyon, with Ruby wearing a red hood and carrying a picnic basket for the drive. As they drive to the house, Marcia tells Ruby why exactly they're making this trip, which makes Ruby upset as she already lost her parents some time ago and doesn't want Marcia to be the only family she has left. It's at this point that the girl tells Marcia that she wishes she was her mother, which takes Marcia aback in an almost positive way.
As their drive continues into the night, something quickly darts across the road, the suddenness of the act making Marcia crash the car. As Marcia gets out to check the damage, the culprit, a vicious werewolf, comes up behind her. Managing to tase the werewolf and rush back to the safety of the car, Marcia holds her stepdaughter tight and promises that they're going to be okay. Unfortunately, the werewolf leaps to the roof of the car, punches the sunroof in, pulls Ruby out, and flees into the woods with her. Horrified, Marcia grabs a silver knife from Ruby's picnic basket, ready to fight the beast should it come her way again.
She soon flags down a passing truck for assistance, where it's revealed that Benny is the driver. Marcia tries explaining the situation, but while Benny isn't convinced and hurls accusations, he relents and says he’ll call the sheriff and tow her car to a garage. As he does so, Benny's truck abruptly stops, whereupon Marcia discovers half of his face has been slashed off. Marcia gets in the driver’s seat and sees Ruby in the middle of the road, staring down the werewolf. Marcia instantly grabs the knife and stabs the werewolf to death for trying to attack Ruby, who she now fully accepts as her child. Staring at the corpse, Marcia learns that the werewolf was actually Carla, attempting to get revenge on Marcia for indirectly killing her brother. After comforting the relieved Ruby, Marcia and her daughter take Benny’s truck and get back on the road.
They reach Belinda's house when the sun rises the next day, the old woman becoming ecstatic to see her granddaughter. After she gives her grandmother a hug, Ruby suddenly turns around to reveal that she's now a werewolf herself, Carla having likely bitten her in the woods. Ruby pounces on Marcia, mockingly commenting about what big eyes she has and they can be "together forever" now, just before she starts tearing her throat out. The sight causes Belinda to suffer a heart attack as Ruby continues turning her stepmother into dogmeat.
This episode contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Downplayed with Marcia. She isn't physically or emotionally abusive to Ruby, but she's annoyed by the fact that she has to take her in to get David's money. She repeatedly tells her not to call her "mom" in the Ingram Creek Restaurant and at home, preferring to be referred to either by her name, as her stepmother, or her "slightly older sister figure". Even during the drive to Belinda's house, she tells Ruby that she has nothing personal against her, but she's just not cut out to be a mother.
- And This Is for...: Marcia stabs Carla while spouting the line, tearing into her for spoiling their trip and trying to kill her child.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Carla gets posthumous revenge on Marcia for fleecing her brother Earl for all he was worth and letting him die of a broken heart, having infected Ruby with lycanthropy so she can kill Marcia for her.
- Black Widow: Carla calls Marcia one for her tendency to hook up with rich men and rob them blind.
- Brooklyn Rage: To establish what a blatant gold digger she is, Marcia has a very notable Brooklyn accent.
- Call-Back: At one point in the Ingram Creek Restaurant, a chef behind the counter is taking a customer's order over the same orange-yellow phone Jay Stratton possessed in The Hat.
- Chekhov's Gun: Marcia is able to kill Carla by stabbing her with a silver knife she finds in Ruby's picnic basket. She also uses an ax belonging to her Christmas tree farmer ex-lover to temporarily kill her.
- Chekhov's Gunman / The Dog Was the Mastermind: The werewolf turns out to be Carla, the waitress who only had one scene and a handful of lines, though she also had a history with Marcia.
- Companion Cube: Ruby's doll Ethel, who Marcia at one point cuddles to calm her nerves during the werewolf attack.
- Conveniently an Orphan: Ruby is said to have lost both her parents sometime ago, so all she has in the terms of a parental figure is Marcia, who was forced to take her in if she wanted David's money.
- Crazy-Prepared: Before rooting through Ruby's basket, Marcia packed a taser for the drive to Belinda's, which did manage to subdue Carla temporarily.
- Crying Wolf: Disregarding the pun, Benny notably doesn't believe Marcia's claims that a werewolf took Ruby and fled into the woods.
- Dating Service Disaster: A mild case with Benny, as he embellished his dating profile to say that he was a rich lumber magnate when he's really a broke Christmas tree farmer, which causes Marcia to dump him.
- Entertainingly Wrong: The paranoid Marcia thinks that Benny is the werewolf when he tries to come to her aid, as he previously promised that she was "gonna get what's coming to her". The werewolf is actually Carla from the Ingram Creek Restaurant, whose brother, one of Marcia's marks, was said to have died of a broken heart.
- Establishing Character Moment: The very first scene of the episode has Marcia and David getting married, with Marcia refusing to kiss him. The scene skips ahead a short time later to David's funeral, where it's hinted that Marcia may have had him killed.
- Evil Redhead: Carla the waitress, who's revealed to be the werewolf.
- Fairytale Motif: The similarities to a certain fairy tale are quite notable in this episode.
- Feghoot: The end of the episode has Ruby turning into a werewolf and killing her stepmother, rendering all the development said stepmother made as a better parent/person to ashes, just to crack a "Red Riding Hood" one-liner before doing so.
- Funeral Cut: After a patron opens the church door following the opening scene of Marcia and David's wedding, the episode cuts to David's funeral.
- Gold Digger: Marcia starts off as a classic case, but she undergoes some pretty strong character development at the end. This unfortunately doesn't save her from her fate.
- Hunting "Accident": It's implied that this is actually how David died, as it's mentioned that he loved hunting during his funeral, as well as the fact that Belinda believes Marcia killed him.
- In a Single Bound: In her bestial state, Carla manages to leap right onto the roof of Marcia's car, where she breaks through the sun roof, pries Ruby out, and flees into the woods with her.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Before Carla attacks her during their drive to Belinda's house, Marcia notably softens when Ruby, crying after being told about her grandmother, wishes the gold digger was her mom. She goes full-on Mama Bear when Carla apparently kidnaps Ruby, even though she's prone to robbing wealthy playboys and causing at least one or two to die.
- Large Ham: Marcia, with her minimal indoor voice and strong Brooklyn accent.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Even though Marcia became truly devoted to Ruby and saw the error of her ways, that doesn't change the fact that she's still fleeced tons of men out of their cash, possibly killed David, and caused Carla's brother to die of a broken heart, so she still meets a grisly fate by the episode's end.
- Little Dead Riding Hood: Ruby wears a red hood and carries a picnic basket as she and Marcia travel to Belinda's house. By the end of the episode, Carla is revealed to have turned her into a werewolf, who feeds on her stepmother.
- Mama Bear: Marcia becomes a devoted mother to Ruby, managing to successfully stab Carla to death in order to save her from her clutches. Too bad for her, the damage has already been done.
- Meaningful Appearance: Ruby wears a red hood as she and her stepmother run afoul of the werewolf Carla.
- Mood Whiplash: The entire ending, where Ruby turns into a werewolf and kills Marcia out of nowhere, right after Marcia was learning to become a better mother to her.
- Mythology Gag:
- The ashtray can be seen on Marcia's nightstand, holding what appears to be a pink scrunchie.
- It's stated during his funeral that David had a passion for hunting, and given how Marcia is a huge gold digger who David left everything to, it's likely that she staged a "hunting accident" to get him out of the way, much like how Nathan Grantham did to his daughter's elderly beau.
- Not Quite Dead: After planting an ax in Carla's stomach, Marcia discovers that it didn't keep her down for long.
- Not Using the "Z" Word: Carla only ever refers to Carla in her werewolf form as either a coyote, beast, or "thing".
- Our Werewolves Are Different: While Carla is shown to follow the traditional rules of werewolves, Ruby can apparently transform instantaneously in broad daylight.
- Redemption Equals Death: Marcia is killed by the now-lupine Ruby after finally accepting her as her child and vowing to become a better person to her.
- Red Riding Hood Replica: The episode turns into a reproduction of the classic fairytale with Ruby's hood, her picnic basket, the trip to her grandmother's house, and the presence of a big bad wolf.
- Shout-Out:
- Our gold-digger protagonist being named "Marcia" could easily be a reference to another character of the same name, one who had a sister that always wanted what she had.
- Benny radios a deputy by the name of "Marge" to have Marcia's car towed out of a ditch.
- As discussed below, the plot is a rehash of the story of Little Red Riding Hood.
- Before her character development, Marcia also plays the role of a wicked stepmother to Ruby, if only just a little.
- Silver Has Mystic Powers: As is customary for a werewolf thriller, Carla is vulnerable to silver, being stabbed to death by an antique knife in Ruby's picnic basket.
- Small Role, Big Impact:
- David, who Marcia marries and possibly kills, and her doing so forces Belinda to make her take in his granddaughter if she wants even a cent of his riches.
- Carla, the waitress who rebukes Marcia as a black widow, is revealed to be the werewolf who kills Benny and infects Ruby to kill Marcia, since the gold digger robbed her brother and left him to die of a broken heart.
- Soft Glass: Carla is able to break Marcia's sunroof with one punch to abduct Ruby.
- Starts with Their Funeral: The opening scene of the episode focuses on David's funeral, a minute after we just saw his and Marcia's wedding.
- Sudden Downer Ending: The episode's ending is incredibly sudden, even for Creepshow. As soon as Marcia comes to accept Ruby as her daughter and brings her to Belinda's house, Ruby suddenly turns into a werewolf, spouts a cheesy one-liner, and kills her stepmother in cold blood, causing Belinda to suffer a likely fatal heart attack.
- Title Drop: Marcia excitedly recites the title as she and Ruby prepare to head to Belinda's house.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: As a werewolf, Ruby is a lot nastier and more vocal to Marcia, and that's just before she tears her throat out.
- The Unreveal: Whether or not Marcia actively killed David or just swiped his money as he slowly died of natural causes isn't stated, but it's hinted to be the former.
- Villain Protagonist: Marcia, for the first half of the episode, before she gets hit with strong character development.
- The Voiceless: David, the rich old man who starts off everything, has no dialogue in his minute of screen time.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The episode is Creepshow's take on the story of Little Red Riding Hood, as a young girl in a red hood and carrying a picnic basket travels through a dark and spooky forest on her way to her grandmother's house, all while a wolf stalks her from a distance.
- Wicked Stepmother: Before the werewolf attack, Marcia only saw Ruby as a live-in burden she was forced to take care of so she could get David's fortune.
- Would Harm a Child: Carla abducts Ruby in her feral state, and is revealed to have turned her into a werewolf either out of hunger or as a final flipped bird to Marcia.
