Line #39 Recap/InsideNo9S4E6TemptingFate


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tempting_fate.jpg]]
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3	Council workers Maz, Keith and Nick are clearing out the flat of recently deceased Frank Meggins, an elderly loner. A video tape shows Frank hang himself as a result of a supposedly cursed artifact from India. Nick believes the curse to be true, in line with Frank's unexplained wishes for wealth, which came true. Maz's effort to capitalize on this does her no good, leading to a confrontation between her colleagues and a revelation.
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5	----
6	!!This episode contains examples of:
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8	* TheAlcoholic: Nick is one.
9	* ArtifactOfDoom: The hare.
10	* BaitAndSwitch: Maz wishes for £93,000 upon which Nick removes the floor board and finds... play money. However, in the next room Keith finds the real money in the Monopoly box.
11	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: It's even lampshaded by Frank.
12	* BitchInSheepsClothing: Keith.
13	* BolivianArmyEnding: Nick, Keith, and Charlie probably all already die at the end, in the explosion at the flat. There's barely any chance that any of them are still alive, but Nick did survive Keith's attempted murder...
14	* TheCassandra: Nick knows that no good will come of anyone making wishes. Everyone, including him, ignores him, and everyone dies horribly.
15	* ChildrenAreInnocent: Charlie.
16	* ConcealingCanvas: Frank's safe is hidden behind a mirror.
17	* TheCuckoolanderWasRight: Nick turns out to have been right about every crazy thing he says.
18	* {{Curse}}: The cleaning team inadvertently triggers an ancient curse when they are sent to clear out an apartment.
19	* DeathByMaterialism: Maz and ultimately Keith both get this.
20	* ADegreeInUseless: Nick's knowledge of the occult comes from his having a [=PhD=] in the subject. And yet he works for the council as a "glorified bin man". His alcoholism is partly to blame, though.
21	* DownerEnding: Everyone (including Keith's son) dies, and Frank is still a zombie.
22	* FiveSecondForeshadowing: Nick wonders how the video tape could find its way into the safe if Frank was dead, upon which Keith reveals himself to be Frank's murderer.
23	* {{Foreshadowing}}: A lot of minor details don't quite add up until it's revealed that [[spoiler:Frank is immortal.]] The implication when the neighbours are mentioned "complaining about the smell" is that Frank is dead, but then Keith says he met Frank after that complaint. There's also no explanation of how the {{Video Will\|s}} got into the safe.
24	* FreudianTrio: Maz (id), Keith (ego), Nick (superego). Maz and Keith probably switch places with TheReveal that he killed Frank, but she's still more impulsive and obvious.
25	* GenreSavvy: Nick, who apparently has a doctorate in mythology and is very aware of how curses are supposed to work.
26	* HappilyMarried: Frank and his wife appeared to be this, given his second wish. He lovingly describes only wanting to make her happy.
27	* HopeSpot: Nick specifically says that a wish that's not self-serving could work without the Hare twisting it. By the end of the episode, even though Keith tried to kill him, he wished for Keith's son Charlie to be able to walk again. Charlie appears in the house without his wheelchair, and things seem happy (even though Maz is dead). However, Frank then turns on the stove top to make some tea after Keith knocked the gas line loose and the apartment blows up.
28	* HypocriticalHumor: Maz tries to argue that she should be able to take Frank's money since he can't use it, equating the situation to the time she used someone else's [=McDonald's=] coupon she found. Nick tells her it's not the same thing. Later, Nick warns her about taking money that's not hers, reminding her of the [=McDonald's=] coupon - and Maz yells at him that it's not the same thing.
29	* JackassGenie: The hare is a form of this.
30	* JustBetweenYouAndMe: Keith reveals his EvilPlan to the audience after giving Nick a TapOnTheHead.
31	* LaserGuidedKarma: For anyone who tries to use the hare selfishly - including Maz and Keith. Played with by both [[InspirationallyDisadvantaged Charlie]] and [[UndyingLoyalty Nick.]] Nick wishes that Charlie can walk just to give Keith something he wants, hoping that a genuinely selfless wish won't backfire. As a result, Charlie walks...and comes to see Keith at work, which results in him almost certainly getting killed by Frank's gas leak, along with Nick and Keith. While Charlie was an innocent, and Nick was trying to do the most selfless and honest thing under the circumstances, both benefited from the hare, so it kind of ''has'' to backfire on them, too.
32	* LiteralGenie: The hare is also one: Frank adores his obese wife [[JustTheWayYouAre just the way she is.]] However, her weight makes her miserable, so he wishes for her to be thin for her sake. She ends up getting seriously ill, losing all the weight that concerned her, and [[CruelAndUnusualDeath eventually ''starving to death'']] as Frank watched.
33	* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: When Keith hits Nick over the head with the hare, thinking he's dead, he tries to make it look like Nick (who was an alcoholic) found some of Frank's alcohol and drank until he passed out, knocking out a gas line.
34	* {{Malaproper}}: Maz does this often.
35	* MiserAdvisor: This was Keith's original plan to get Frank's money.
36	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Nick is the only one with the knowledge to know not to use the hare. But, even after Keith tries to kill him, he makes the genuinely selfless wish to
37	* ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish: The combination to Frank's safe is his wife's birthday.
38	* PlankGag: A fatal one happens to Maz.
39	* PlotDrivenBreakdown: To enhance the suspense, the fuse burns and the apartment goes dark when Maz bolts with the money.
40	* PopculturalOsmosisFailure: Maz doesn't get Nick's references to BBC shows ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Rat Roland Rat]]'' and ''Series/{{Jackanory}}'' because she's too young for that.
41	* ProperlyParanoid: Nick suggests that the deceased Frank used his lottery money to buy a bunch of innocuous things so that the money he won couldn't be used to hurt anyone on a grand scale. That's the reason for the hoard. It sounds ludicrous until zombie Frank walks through the door, proving the wishes are real and evil.
42	* RedemptionEqualsDeath: Small redemption, but still: just as Keith had learned his lesson and gave Frank back the money, Nick turns out to not be dead and to have wished for Keith's son to be able to walk. Too bad Frank was heating up tea with an exposed gas line...
43	* RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts: Maz dies through inadvertently triggering one of these. Earlier scenes show the trio unwittingly building it.
44	* SeriesFauxnale: This episode ties up the one recurring strand in every episode (the [[FreezeFrameBonus Hare statue]]) by actually making it an element of the plot, as well as implying that [[TheVerse every episode that takes place in the same continuity]] has this feel.
45	* SoleSurvivor: Maz, Nick, Keith and Charlie all die, with the only survivor being the immortal Frank.
46	* TrashOfTheTitans: The condition of Frank Meggins' apartment. In an interesting twist, it turns out his "trash" has a purpose: buying innocuous things so that his fortune can't be used for evil.
47	* TheVerse: It is established that the bronze hare, which appears in the background of every episode, is a cursed artifact that is responsible for the bad things that happen in each story.
48	* VideoWills: They watch Frank's will on a video tape found in his safe.
49	* WeightLossHorror: Frank's wife Barbara was very overweight and felt a lot of self-consciousness and self-loathing about it. Even though Frank loved her just as she was, he wished for her to be thin so she would be happier. She ended up getting her wish...by dying of cancer, which caused her to fade away to a skeleton before dying.
50	* WhamLine:
51	->'''Keith''': Frank is dead, Nick!
52	->'''Nick''': How do you know?
53	->'''Keith''': [[EvilAllAlong Because I killed him!]]
54	* WhamShot: Nick unwrapping the cursed hare. If you've been looking out for the hare hidden in the background of other episodes, it could come as even more of a shock.
55	* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Frank regrets his wish for immortality since it means he can never be free of the curse.
56	* WishingForMoreWishes: Maz suggests this but Nick rejects the idea because wishes that would break the system won't be granted.

Context Recap / InsideNo9S4E6TemptingFate