History Recap / CreepshowS4E2Smile

* AnAesop: As James learns, a person's first response to a crisis will leave the biggest impact.

James and Sarah leave the restaurant, the former rather uneased about their souvenir photo. Before they go home, James decides to try an experiment and steps where he believes the photo was taken. Once there, he and Sarah find a second photo, showing them in their current location from further down the road and reading "I SEE YOU". As James continues growing paranoid, Sarah tries explaining this set of circumstances as street magic and wants to go home, while James hopes to figure out what exactly is going on. The pair move to the spot where James presumes the second photo was taken, only to find another photo that reads "SAVE ME", just as James also notices a street sign for San Miguel. This next photo leads to a graveyard, where he spots a tombstone with a Bible verse written on it. This prompts James to realize what might actually be happening.

Everytime he looks around the pool, the disoriented James finds Max calling out to him from a different location around the pool, seemingly teleporting. After some frantic searching, James finds Max standing outside the pool, who transforms into a silhouetted creature, and then into the reanimated, waterlogged corpse of the man James let drown in San Miguel. James pulls the revenant's bloated body into the pool and holds it under the water, hoping to drown it a second time. Sarah screams for James to stop, and as he slowly comes back to his senses, James takes another look at what he just drowned, seeing Max under the water's surface. As Sarah cries, the photographer's voice tells James to "smile" as one last picture is taken by the Polaroid: the shellshocked James holding his son's lifeless body in the pool.

** The [[Film/{{Creepshow}} "Father's Day" ashtray]] can be glimpsed on a shelf in the Harris' living room, only staying onscreen for a second before James and Sarah get home.

** When he's not onscreen, you get the sense that he's still ''there'', lurking in the background, as evidenced by the photos James and Sarah find of themselves, taken from a vantage point of several meters away. And we have no idea what he originally had planned for Max, as the only photo he had of him was him looking concerned with the word "PRAY" underneath him.
** On that note, it's also horrific to think back about flashback to the conflict in San Miguel. We never know who's shooting at who, and what for. All we know is that it raised hell on the citizens of the area.

James reveals the truth to Sarah for the first time, to which she tries to console him, telling him that it wasn't his fault and he would've died himself if he tried to save them. James and Sarah then find another photo, this one being a closeup of Max's face with the word "PRAY" written underneath him. The pair race home to find Max seemingly unharmed. Suddenly, the house begins violently shaking, cracking the picture frames on the wall and shutting off the power. The mysterious photographer's Polaroid suddenly appears mounted on a tripod behind them, taking another photograph. Sarah frantically calls the police, but James urges her to hang up after viewing the photo. James begins to look for Max, only to see a young boy face down in the pool. Thinking this to be Max, James jumps in to save him, but the body disappears. As he leaves, Sarah slowly picks up the photo, screaming in horror at what it depicts

Combat photographer James Harris (Matthew James Downden) and his wife Sarah (Lucie Guest) exit the Photojournalism Association Humanitarian Awards, where James has just won such an award for a particularly awe-inspiring photo. As James takes the time to sign some autographs for a bunch of fans, Sarah calls their son Max (Max Archibald), currently at home watching a movie with his friends, to check in on him. After the call, Sarah offers to take James to an expensive restaurant, one of their favorite places, for a celebratory dinner. After the Harrises are walked to their table, they reminisce to each other about a previous trip in their relationship when they had sex in the bathroom, planning to do the same thing in the coat room. After they finish eating and prepare to head out, a man in a black hoodie (Roberto Lanzas) walks up up to them and tells them to smile, snapping a photo of them with a Polaroid before suddenly disappearing. When they look at the resultant photo, the photographer's vantage point is from across the street instead of right beside them.

* ParanoiaFuel: The photos taken of James and Sarah much further away than they actually are, as if the photographer is stalking them. It gets even worse when he starts taking them from their house, and of their son.

* SexForServices: Sarah tells her husband that she got a reservation at their favorite fancy restaurant largely by blowing the owner.

* AsTheGoodBookSays: In the cemetery, James finds a tombstone with Daniel 8:16 ("And I heard a man's voice call out from the banks of the river: 'Gabriel, show this man the meaning of his vision.'") written on it, hinting his experience in San Miguel and how he let a young boy and his father drown to capture his perfect, award-winning photographs.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: James' trip to South America, where he let that boy and his father drown to gain fame and publicity.

James and Sarah leave the restaurant, the former rather uneased about their souvenir photo. Before they go home, James decides to try an experiment and steps where he believes the photo was taken. Once there, he and Sarah find a second photo, showing them in their current location from further down the road and reading "I SEE YOU". As James continues growing paranoid, Sarah tries explaining this set of circumstances as street magic and wants to go home, while James hopes to figure out what exactly is going on. The pair move to the spot where James presumes the second photo was taken, only to find another photo that reads "SAVE ME", just as James also notices a street sign for San Miguel. This next photo leads to a graveyard, where he spots a tombstone with a Bible verse written on it. This prompts James to realize what exactly might be going on.

Combat photographer James Harris (Matthew James Downden) and his wife Sarah (Lucie Guest) exit the Photojournalism Association Humanitarian Awards, where James has just won such an award for a particularly awe-inspiring photo. As James takes the time to sign some autographs for a bunch of fans, Sarah calls their son Max (Max Archibald), currently at home watching a movie with his friends, to check in on him. After the call, Sarah offers to take James to an expensive restaurant, one of their favorite places, for a celebratory dinner. After the Harrises are walked to their table, they reminisce to each other about a previous trip in their relationship when they had sex in the bathroom, planning to do the same thing in the coat room. After they finish eating and prepare to head out, a man in a black hoodie (Roberto Lanzas) walks up up to them and tells them to smile, snapping a photo of them with a Polaroid. When they look at the resultant photo, the photographer's vantage point is from across the street instead of right beside them.

Combat photographer James Harris (Matthew James Downden) and his wife Sarah (Lucie Guest) exit the Photojournalism Association Humanitarian Awards, where James has just won such an award for a particularly awe-inspiring photo. As James takes the time to sign some autographs for a bunch of fans, Sarah calls their son Max (Max Archibald), currently at home watching a movie with his friends, to check in on him. After the call, Sarah offers to take James to an expensive restaraunt, one of their favorite places, for a celebratory dinner. After the Harrises are walked to their table, they reminisce to each other about a previous trip in their relationship when they had sex in the bathroom, planning to do the same thing in the coat room. After they finish eating and prepare to head out, a man in a black hoodie (Roberto Lanzas) walks up up to them and tells them to smile, snapping a photo of them with a Polaroid. When they look at the resultant photo, the photographer's vantage point is from across the street instead of right beside them.

* HaveIMentionedIAmSexuallyActiveToday: Sarah acts pretty damn horny in the first part of the episode, having gotten a reservation at the fancy restaraunt she and James celebrate in by blowing the owner. She also reminisces on the last time they went here, where they got busy in the bathroom, and is hoping that this time they can do it in the coat room or storage closet.

* SexForServices: Sarah tells her husband that she got a reservation at their favorite fancy restaraunt largely by blowing the owner.

Combat photographer James Harris (Matthew James Downden) and his wife Sarah (Lucie Guest) exit the Photojournalism Association Humanitarian Awards, where James has just won such an award for a particularly awe-inspiring photo. As James takes the time to sign some autographs for a bunch of fans, Sarah calls their son Max (Max Archibald), currently at home watching a movie with his friends, to check in on him. After the call, Sarah offers to take James to an expensive restaraunt, one of their favorite places, for a celebratory dinner. After the Harrises are walked to their table, they reminisce to each other about a previous trip in their relationship when they had sex in the bathroom, planning to do the same thing in the coat room. After they finish eating and prepare to head out, a man in a black hoodie (Roberto Lanzas) walks up up to them and tells them them to smile, snapping a photo of them with a Polaroid. When they look at the resultant photo, the photographer's vantage point is from across the street instead of right beside them.

A traumatic flashback shows James in the South American village of San Miguel, caught in the midst of a firefight between unknown parties. James soon spots a middle-aged father (Mateo Deuma) and his young son, both wounded, struggling to swim across a river, the father using all of his energy to keep the boy’s head above water and begging James for help. Rather than brave the hail of bullets to rescue them, James whips out his camera and takes pictures of their agony. By the time he looks back, the father and his son vanish beneath the surface. The photograph of their dying struggles is what nabbed James his award in the first place.

A traumatic flashback shows James in the South American village of San Miguel, caught in the midst of a firefight between soldiers and what appear to be rebels. James soon spots a middle-aged father (Mateo Deuma) and his young son, both wounded, struggling to swim across a river, the father using all of his energy to keep the boy’s head above water and begging James for help. Rather than brave the hail of bullets to rescue them, James whips out his camera and takes pictures of their agony. By the time he looks back, the father and his son vanish beneath the surface. The photograph of their dying struggles is what nabbed James his award in the first place.

* AsTheGoodBookSays: In the cemetery, James finds a tombstone with Daniel 8:16 ("And I heard a man's voice call out from the banks of the river: 'Gabriel.. show this man the meaning of his vision.'") written on it, hinting his experience in San Miguel and how he let a young boy and his father drown to capture his perfect, award-winning photographs.

* DownerEnding: The spiritual photographer, likely the spirit of the dead South American father, tricks James into drowning his son while his wife can only watch.

* LaserGuidedKarma: For letting that father and his son die, James is put through an agonizing process where he learns firsthand just what it's like to lose a child.

* HaveIMentionedIAmSexuallyActiveToday: Sarah is shown to be pretty damn horny in the first part of the episode, possibly having gotten a reservation at the fancy restaraunt she and James celebrate in by blowing the owner. She also reminisces on the last time they went here, where they got busy in the bathroom, and is hoping that this time they can do it in the coat room.

* LaserGuidedKarma: For letting that father and his son die, James is put through an agonizing process where he learns just what it's like to lose a child.

* MindScrew: The episode goes hard and heavy on it, with the photographer, ghostly activity, future-telling photographs, a teleporting camera, and hallucinations at the very end.

** The [[Film/{{Creepshow}} "Father's Day" ashtray]] can very briefly be glimpsed on a shelf in the Harris' living room, just as James and Sarah race home.

* SexForServices: Sarah tells her husband that she got a reservation at their favorite fancy restaraunt by spending a few hundred dollars, making a few phone calls, and blowing the owner.

A traumatic flashback shows James in the Mexican village of San Miguel, caught in the midst of a firefight between soldiers and what appear to be rebels. James soon spots a middle-aged father (Mateo Deuma) and his young son, both wounded, struggling to swim across a river, the father using all of his energy to keep the boy’s head above water and begging James for help. Rather than brave the hail of bullets to rescue them, James whips out his camera and takes pictures of their agony. By the time he looks back, the father and his son vanish beneath the surface. The photograph of their dying struggles is what nabbed James his award in the first place.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: James' trip to Mexico, where he let that boy and his father drown to gain fame and publicity.
* DownerEnding: The spiritual photographer, likely the spirit of the dead Mexican father, tricks James into drowning his son while his wife can only watch.

* TheKillerInMe: Driven mad by the increase in photos and supernatural phenomena, James tries to drown what he thinks is the zombified corpse of the man he watched die in Mexico, only to discover that he actually drowned Max.
* LaserGuidedKarma: For letting that Mexican father and his son die, James is put through an agonizing process where he learns just what it's like to lose a child.

* OffingTheOffspring: James accidentally drowns Max when he sees him as the reanimated corpse of the Mexican father.

* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: At the end, James hallucinates Max as the zombified father from Mexico he let drown, and wrestles him into the pool to drown him again. Just as he succeeds, it's revealed that James drowned the real Max, as the photographer's final picture shows him holding his dead son in the pool.

* MythologyGag: The [[Film/{{Creepshow}} "Father's Day" ashtray]] can very briefly be glimpsed on a shelf in the Harris' living room, just as James and Sarah race home.

* ShoutOut: The episode's supernatural element is a camera that produces pictures that tell horrible futures, just like the camera from ''Literature/SayCheeseAndDie''.