Payment Overdue
Jeanette Simpson (Maura Swanson) is a heartless debt collector working for the Sentinel Collection company, who makes a living selling her clients ludicrous insurance, then harassess them into paying her back by threatening legal action and imprisonment, whether they be elderly, children, or disabled. One day, Jeanette receives news that one of her clients, Rita Valdez (Wanda De Jesus), a poor Hispanic refugee from El Salvador suffering from a brain tumor, committed suicide by jumping out the window after Jeanette threatened to sue her over missed payments, not realizing that she was traumatized by a judge back in El Salvador. After hearing Rita place phone calls to her from beyond the grave, Jeanette is visited by Rita's representative, city welfare employee Michael Nelson (Lewis Arlt), to sort things out. However, Jeanette soon discovers that Michael works for a higher power, and is determined to punish her for her role in Rita’s suicide.
Tropes:
- Ambiguous Ending: Jeanette ends the episode being placed in the same position Rita was in, with Michael leaving her to her fate. We don't see what happens next, but given how she ended up in this situation to begin with, it's likely she's going to hurl herself out the window.
- Archangel Michael: He takes the guise of city welfare worker Michael Nelson, testing Jeanette’s character and punishing her for driving Rita to suicide.
- Asshole Victim: JEANETTE. One of the biggest in the whole series, she ends up being turned into the woman who she drove to suicide in the name of sheer greed, moments before the suicide in question.
- As You Know: The first half has Michael spelling out Rita's history, circumstances, and suicide to both Jeanette and the audience.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: As she chats with Michael, Jeanette offers to be put in the shoes of one of her clients to prove that she can get out of such a "pitiable" state in no time. Her wish is granted with extreme prejudice when Michael reveals himself to be a certain archangel who turns Jeanette into the woman she drove to suicide, moments before the suicide in question.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: This was Rita's mindset when she threw herself to her death. Not too long ago, Jeanette threatened to get the courts involved if she didn't pay up, unaware that Rita was afraid of judges because she equated them with dying. Figuring that she was about to be put to death, Rita took her chances and killed herself before the judge could.
- Blatant Lies: Sentinel Collection has absolutely no standing to take anyone to court... but that doesn't stop Jeanette from threatening people with it, as she reports this to her supervisor, Bill.
- Call-Back: One of Jeanette's callers in the opening act is Mary Jane, the possessed girl from the season 2 episode "The Trouble with Mary Jane", and she scams the girl into paying $51 on behalf of Mrs. Nugent, who Jeanette thinks is her mother.
- Could Say It, But...: Michael's lecture about guardian angels exacting vengeance against those who made their charges suffer in life very obviously hints that he's preparing to do this to Jeanette.
- Domestic Abuse: Jeanette alludes to Michael that a big part of her hatred for "Takers" is because she was married to one of them for a year, a brutish drunk who would smack her around while waiting for his welfare checks.
- Driven to Suicide: Unknown to Jeanette, her lies pushed Rita (who was also suffering from a painful brain tumor) to jump out the sixth floor window when she claimed she would take her "overdue payment" to a judge. She wasn't aware that Rita's late husband was sentenced to death by a cruel judge in El Salvador, giving Rita a life-long fear of judges.
- Establishing Character Moment: The first half of the opening act shows how unscrupulous Jeanette is to her clients. Be they young or old, disabled or otherwise, she will scam them out of their money.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Just before Michael confirms that Jeanette indirectly pushed Rita to suicide, he repairs the cut wire of the tape containing the last phone call the two women had with only his fingers, highlighting his status as Rita's guardian angel.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Jeanette wasn't always as well-off as she is today. She grew up being taught that the world is full of leeches out to take advantage of generous people with made up sob stories of being unfortunate, and it didn't help that she was married to one such leech for a year. As Michael points out, this gives her no valid reason to swindle innocent people out of their finances.
- Good Is Not Soft: Michael may be an archangel, but he's pretty unforgiving when he punishes Jeanette.
- Guardian Angel: The Archangel Michael himself serves as Rita's guardian angel, indicating that her circumstances were so unfortunate that a high-ranking Biblical figure like him had to look after her. He carries an artist's depiction of himself that he shows to Jeanette during his visit, alluding to his true nature.
- Horrible Housing: When Jeanette is given her Karmic Transformation into Rita, Michael turns her lavish studio apartment into the derelict tenement that Rita was living in as part of the suffering she must now endure, including:
- No air conditioning, resulting in perpetual sweltering temperatures day and night.
- The back of a sewage plant serving as the view outside, with nothing but a stained brick wall for her to stare at.
- Frequent noise coming from the street below, allowing for very little chances to sleep.
- The only furniture and appliances being a chair, table, phone, and the washer/dryer combo that Rita's overdue payment was for, as she did her neighbors' laundry to barely make ends meet.
- Hypocrite: Jeanette acts like she's a decent person who worked hard and struggled in life to get where she is today. However, we've already learned that she earns her money by swindling it from lower class people and tricking others into paying for insurance they don't even need. To an even worse extent, she claims that she's also a fair debt collector before telling off those who legitimately can't pay her back.
- Ignored Epiphany: While listening to the recording of the phone call where she exploited Rita and harassed her with threats of being sued, Jeanette refuses to believe for a single instant that her "Every sob story is a lie" philosophy doesn't apply to everyone. Michael looks at her with great disgust as the call continues, but she defends herself by claiming that she honestly didn't know about Rita's situation:Jeanette: Now, how was I supposed to know that she was really sick? Or what a judge meant to her? How?
Michael: You could've asked. At 4:15, she dropped the reciever and jumped.
Jeanette: (shocked) Are you saying that I—
Michael: No. You just didn't listen. Not a grave sin... not normally. - Karmic Transformation: Michael transforms Jeanette into Rita, the woman she drove to suicide, during the last moments of her life, complete with a crappy apartment, a poverty-stricken appearance, very little ability to speak English, a painful brain tumor, and her former self badgering her to pay her "overdue payment" over the phone. Though it's not shown, it's also abundant that she'll also be jumping out her sixth story window very shortly.
- Kick the Dog: Jeanette loves to inform people that their payments are overdue and kick them out on the streets. One of these people included Rita, a poor, dying woman who begged for more time to pay. Shamelessly, albeit ignorantly, Jeanette ignored those pleas and ended up driving her to suicide by threatening to take her payment before a judge, unaware that she had a mortal fear of judges. She gets what she deserves in the end when Michael puts her in Rita's place.
- Lack of Empathy: Despite Rita furiously pleading with her to have a little more time to pay, Jeanette ignored her pleas and still demanded money, threatening to take her before a judge to recieve the payments and driving Rita to suicide in the process.
- Lazy Bum: According to Jeanette, she was married to one for a year, fueling her hatred of people who leech off of other people.
- Never My Fault: Jeanette firmly washes her hands of any involvement in Rita's suicide, even as the evidence is insurmountable and her just desserts are unavoidable.
- No Sympathy: Jeanette has none of the stuff regarding the clients she scams, automatically thinking that every single sob story ever told his false. That also includes the destitute Rita, who was slowly dying of a brain tumor.
- Offscreen Afterlife: Rita's ghost mentions how the place she's ended up after killing herself is cold, dark, and lonely, leaving it unclear whether it's Hell or Purgatory. Either way, it's not pleasant in the slightest.
- Our Angels Are Different: The Archangel Michael takes the form of city welfare worker Michael Nelson, and he uses his miraculous abilities to turn Jeanette into Rita, the woman she drove to kill herself in the name of cold, hard cash, in every single way but name. In particular, he massages her throat to get her to mimic Rita's thick accent, and kisses her on the forehead to give her Rita's brain tumor.
- Phone Call from the Dead: Rita's ghost repeatedly manages to get through to Jeanette's private line after her suicide. Throughout the episode, she also manages to contact Jeanette through her clock radio, TV, stereo, and intercom, calling for Michael to settle her score with the debt collector.
- Poor Communication Kills: Quite literally, in this case. On Jeanette's end, she wasn't aware that Rita had a traumatic experience with judges (one of them sentenced her husband to death in El Salvador) and came to equate them with being killed. On Rita's end, she didn't know that in America, being taken to a judge would simply mean a relatively lenient fine or imprisonment. Either way one looks at it, the misunderstanding led Rita to panic and take her own life. However, this does not make Jeanette any less accountable for pushing a woman to her death in the name of sheer greed.
- Recurring Riff: A rapid synth tune plays when Jeanette, and later Michael, is at her computer.
- Secret Test of Character: Michael essentially submits Jeanette to one of these, and her refusal to admit her role in Rita’s death means she fails miserably, allowing for Michael to turn Jeanette into Rita herself.
- Self-Made Woman: Jeanette is a debt collector who claims to be self-made, but as the episode unfolds, we learn that she's a hypocritical robber baron who takes her place in life for granted and enjoys making others suffer to take their riches, even assuming that everyone could live a life like hers if they just tried. She ends the episode stuck in a situation where she doesn't have these privileges anymore by the Archangel Michael, who was sent to punish her for driving Rita to suicide.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Michael shoots down every argument Jeanette makes about her role in Rita's suicide, showing that she just didn't listen to her claims instead of not knowing about them.
- The Social Darwinist: Jeanette has this view of life. She claims that it's made up of "Doers" and "Takers", and the Doers (like her) owe nothing but scorn to the Takers.
- Take That!: As Jeanette's attitude shows, this episode is a giant one to the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" mentality of the 1980s, as the Archangel Michael himself condemns Jeanette into experiencing the final moments of Rita, the poor Hispanic refugee seeking asylum and sanctuary in the USA who she drove to suicide in the name of money.
- Tempting Fate: Jeanette claims to Michael that if she were in any of her clients' shoes, she would be able to get out of debt easily. In the end, Michael turns her into Rita, the woman she drove into killing herself, living in a destitute room without air-conditioning, having very little money, barely knowing any English, and suffering from a painful brain tumor, all while her original self badgers her for money over the phone.
- There Are Two Kinds of People in the World: Jeanette's father told her the world is full of two kinds of people: "Doers" and "Takers". She was further told that "Takers" will take advantage of generosity, whilst "Doers" work hard and mustn't be suckered in by the "Takers'" "phony" sob stories.
- Tranquil Fury: Even as he puts Jeanette through her Karmic Transformation, Michael never raises his voice.
- Vengeful Ghost: Rita becomes one when she manages to possess Jeanette's appliances, shouting about how "The scores must be evened!" and pleading for Michael to avenge her.
- Wham Line: The first act ends with Rita's ghost calling out to her guardian angel "Michael", while Jeanette looks upon her visitor: Michael Nelson.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Rita's worst fear is of judges, as an exceptionally cruel one sentenced her husband to death back in El Salvador. Jeanette partially caused her suicide by threatening to take her to court if she didn't get the payment Rita owed her, unaware of her mortal fear of judges.
- Would Harm a Senior: Non-lethally in this case. Jeanette fools an old man with mental health issues into thinking that he "forgot" to pay his insurance, when he had already paid before.
- Would Hurt a Child: Again, non-lethally. Jeanette tells Mary Jane that her "mom" (actually her grandmother) is "in trouble" and scams her into paying $51 on her behalf.
- You No Take Candle: Rita's voice shows that she has a heavy Spanish accent and a poor understanding of English. When Jeanette is turned into Rita herself by Michael, he rubs her throat to turn her voice into a fascimile of Rita's.
