The Milkman Cometh
Screenplay By: Donald Wollner
Story By: Charles L. Grant (orig. title "Temperature Days on Hawthorne Street")
Directed By: John Strysik
Struggling artist Garry Cooley (Robert Forster) suffers from both financial troubles and a desire for a second child, ever since his wife Ruth (Shannon Wilcox) became infertile after their son Sandy (Chad Allen) was born. His neighborhood looks much like any other, save for one notable difference: the Milkman, a mysterious, unseen being in the attire of a civil servant who is able to grant wishes of residents who leave him a note in their milk boxes. After hearing about him, Garry tries to have the Milkman grant his wishes for money and job offers, even as the neighbors warn him not to take advantage of the Milkman's talents. Garry also learns, the hard way, that the Milkman can mix up the meanings of his customers' notes if they're written metaphorically, as he's in for a shock when Ruth manages to give birth again.
Tropes:
- As You Know: Sandy reveals the Milkman's existence and the fact that he grants wishes in the opening scene, both to his parents and the audience.
- Awful Wedded Life: As Garry gets utterly absorbed in the wealth that the Milkman has given him after 8 months, as well as the apparent power he has over him, his relationship with Ruth starts taking a nosedive when the latter gets tired of the former quitting his job and getting rich through "unnatural" methods.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: The mysterious, unseen, inhuman Milkman goes around Garry's neighborhood granting wishes to anyone who leaves a note for him in their milk box. Garry begins to take advantage of his powers, despite his family's hesitancy and the warnings of a neighbor who had his own wishes backfire, by begging the Milkman to give him his new baby tomorrow. The final seconds reveal that the Milkman granted Garry's wish by raping Ruth in her sleep, giving him a second child that shares its monstrous characteristics.
- Before that, it's shown that his neighbor Howard had been wishing for new cars and "a sweet, young thing" after he and his wife Edna had a fight. The Milkman made the latter come to pass by making Edna die in an accident while taking one of those cars for a spin.
- Cheating with the Milkman: A literal, inadvertant example occurs to set up the twist ending, as the Milkman rapes Ruth in her sleep to give Garry his second child.
- Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Garry's wife, son, and neighbors try to talk him out of making the Milkman his personal problem solver, since they and others had their own wishes backfire on them horrifically. When his baby girl is born at the end, he learns that he made a terrible mistake in trying to control the Milkman.
- Downer Ending: Garry discovers that Ruth was raped by the Milkman to grant the artist's wish of having another child, and the blank stare Sandy gives his dad as he announces the news indicate that the birth of his new "sibling" traumatized him.
- Exact Words: The climactic reveal comes about because Garry begs the Milkman to give him a second child. The Milkman accomplishes this by raping his wife, giving him a child that resembles itself more than a human being.
- The Faceless: The Milkman never shows his entire appearance, the only exposed part of him we see being his hand.
- Foreshadowing: Garry's opening act exposition about Ruth losing their unborn daughter in pregnancy, as well as the fact that he writes about it in his note to the Milkman, sets up the ending reveal, where the Milkman gives him that baby girl in his own "unique" way.
- Good Parents: Garry promises Sandy, who's looking for his watch, that he'll buy another one for him tomorrow, even though the family is down to their last $200 and losing their lease. His actions throughout the episode, including his treating the Milkman like a servant, come about because he wants the best for himself and his family, even though it drives a notable wedge between himself and Ruth.
- He Who Must Not Be Seen: In-Universe and out, the Milkman is never fully revealed at any given point, save for his shadow, his uniform, and the brief glimpse we get of his utterly inhuman hand. Garry twice tries staying up until dawn so he can hopefully meet his benefactor in person, but he ends up making the Milkman run off the first time and passes out drunk the second time.
- Humanoid Abomination: The Milkman, whose arms are shown to be green and reptilian, and has the magical properties associated with genies.
- I Need a Freaking Drink:
- After Garry and Ruth argue about their finances and the Milkman, we see that Garry had drunk himself to sleep in the kitchen, but not without setting his alarm clock to check if the Milkman had come around and left something in the milk box, even trying to see him in person.
- Near the end, Garry's neighbor Howard downs a glass in one gulp when he reveals his wife Edna died in a car crash, in one of the new cars he asked the Milkman for, after angrily writing a note for a younger woman to replace her after a fight.
- Jackass Genie: Partially with the Milkman, who has trouble understanding the more metaphorical notes he's given, which often results in the notes' writers getting some pretty bad luck.
- Literal Genie: As Garry discovers, if your notes to him are more metaphorical than literal, the Milkman will grant your wishes by any means necessary.
- Literary Allusion Title/Pun-Based Title: The title of the episode (but not the story it was adapted from) puns on Eugene O'Neill's play The Iceman Cometh.
- Meaningful Name: The neighborhood gets its milk from a company named "While You Sleep Dairy", which is fitting considering the Milkman granting the wishes of his customers overnight.
- Non-Malicious Monster: The Milkman isn't intentionally evil, but his wishes can bring disaster to those who aren't specific enough about them, nor are the means through which he grants them.
- Nothing Is Scarier: We never learn where the Milkman came from or what exactly he is. As far as we can tell, he's just there, and most likely has been since the neighborhood was constructed.
- Poor Communication Kills: Anyone who isn't specific about what they ask the Milkman for in their notes will have it backfire, as the Milkman gives them what he thinks they're asking for by any means.
- Rape as Drama: The ending reveals that the Milkman raped Ruth to grant Garry's wish of having another child sooner.
- Recurring Riff: An ominous synth tune, similar to the theme that Rick Wakeman composed for Creepshow 2, plays over and over throughout the episode.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: As he and Ruth spy the Milkman making his latest delivery, Garry tries to approach the door to see him, prompting the Milkman to run off into the darkness. He does the same thing when Garry begs him to let his new child be born sooner, but eventually relents and grants the wish when Garry cries himself to sleep on the porch.
- Shout-Out: The episode's title is a clear allusion to The Iceman Cometh.
- Sinister Silhouettes: The Milkman's shadow is seen through Garry's window, illuminated by dawn's early light, twice in the episode.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Garry's son Sandy is the first character to mention the Milkman and how he gives the neighborhood residents "presents", and this gets the gears in Garry's head turning.
- Starving Artist: It's established early on that Garry isn't having any good luck financially or career-wise, Ruth even reminding him that their lease is nearly gone and they're down to their last $200. His need for finances and a better standing at work is one of the reasons he invokes the Milkman's miraculous abilities. After the Time Skip below, he reveals that he quit his old job and is going to try writing a novel for better cash, though Sandy is able to see that his dad is just pretending to write a novel while planning to leech off the Milkman's powers so he doesn't have to do any actual work, sharing his disappointment with him.
- Take This Job and Shove It: While high on the power that the Milkman's wishes give him, Garry reveals to Ruth that he told all the "sad sack ad men" at his old job that they could shove it.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: Sandy has one when he presents his new "sister" to his father at the end of the episode.
- Time Skip: After the opening act, the episode skips 8 months into the future, where Ruth is pregnant again and the family's money problems are nearly solved.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Howard notes to Garry that the Milkman has a taste for chocolate, having been leaving boxes of it along with his notes. Garry does the same thing to entice the Milkman to grant him his new child, but the Milkman only takes the box after Garry falls asleep on the porch.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Ruth disappears after the second commercial break, being confined to her bed while her pregnancy advances. We can only guess how she reacted to her new child.
- Writers Suck: Garry lies that he's going to try writing a novel to help solve the family's money problems after he quits his job, with Ruth seriously disbelieving that he can crank an entire novel in the span of weeks. Sandy is able to see that his dad is just leeching off the Milkman's powers so he doesn't have to work for his money, sharing his disappointment with him.
