The New Man
Alan Coombs (Vic Tayback), a recovering alcoholic who works in real estate, is met at the office by Jerry (Chris Hebert), a young boy who claims to be his son. Alan insists that he only has one son, and that he's never seen Jerry before in his life. He takes Jerry to the police station so his real parents can hopefully pick him up, but upon returning home, Alan finds Jerry waiting for him, his wife Sharon and other son Petey insisting that the mysterious child is in fact part of his family. Whether or not Alan went back to the bottle and simply forgot he had more than one child, or whether Jerry is more than meets the eye, it's clear that Alan isn't painting himself in the best of lights as he confronts the kid.
Tropes:
- The Bad Guy Wins: Thanks to Jerry, Alan's family leaves him and he's fired from his job, reduced to a slobbering drunk once again.
- Bookends: Just as the episode began, it ends with Jerry going back to Alan's office and telling his replacement that he came to "get him".
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: In spite of all the adamant beliefs of his family, who thought that he was drinking again, Alan turns out to be right that Jerry isn't his son, instead being some evil child or creature who's able to warp peoples' minds.
- Enfant Terrible: Jerry, a young boy with psychic powers who spends his time invading the families of recovering alcoholics, brainwashing them into thinking he's part of the family and tormenting them into thinking they've relapsed, until they eventually do.
- Expy: Jerry is one of Anthony Fremont from the Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life."
- For the Evulz: Jerry mentally tortures alcoholics into relapse by invading their homes and brainwashing their loved ones into thinking he's part of the family just for the hell of it.
- Gaslighting: Jerry uses his cute, innocent, and youthful appearance to make it seem like Alan is drinking again and just didn't think he had a second kid.
- Here We Go Again!: After driving Alan back to the bottle and making him lose everything, Jerry ends the episode by going back to Alan's office and targeting his replacement.
- Ironic Echo: Jerry's initial greeting to Alan, "I've come to get you.", is said again to his replacement. Jerry means that he's making each alcoholic he comes across his latest victim when he says this.
- It Amused Me: Jerry's reasoning for ruining Alan's life.
- Karma Houdini: Jerry gets off scot free for ruining Alan's life, and prepares to ruin the life of his replacement soon after.
- Noodle Incident: Alan's drunkeness was hell on his family in the past, as Sharon reminds him that he and they went through several jobs, moved several times in the span of months, had all sorts of run-ins with the police, and were reduced to begging at the supermarket for fresh food, if not outright stealing it.
- Remember the New Guy?: The episode plays this quite darkly, as Jerry weasels into Alan's life and has his wife and Petey thinking he's part of the family while Alan's never met the kid before.
- Riddle for the Ages: What the hell is Jerry? Is he truly Alan's second kid who he doesn't remember? Is he some random kid with psychic powers that brainwashes Alan's family to screw with him? Or is he some kind of demon who tortures struggling alcoholics like him into relapse for his own sick amusement? The episode never gives a straight answer, and that makes him all the more horrifying.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: Jerry never raises his voice above his soft, high pitch, even as he tortures Alan back into drunkeness.
- Through the Eyes of Madness: A possible theory is that Alan did indeed start drinking again, and his mind conjured up Jerry as a scapegoat to blame for his attitude change.
- The Unreveal: We never find out just what the hell Jerry's deal is. Whether he's a product of Alan's mind, some kind of creature able to manipulate the minds of people close to his victims, or some sociopathic child who goes around driving addicts to relapse for the hell of it, is never stated.
