Line #3 Recap/TheWildWildWestS2E16TheNightOfTheTotteringTontine


1	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Tottering_Tontine_4231.jpg]]
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3	West and Gordon are assigned to protect Robert Raven (Harry Townes), inventor of an important new weapon. They soon discover that Raven is a member of a tontine - an investment group operating on the law of survival. A meeting of the tontine's members is imminent and several attempts are made on Raven's life as they travel to it; additionally, the agents learn that three other members of the group are already dead. They arrive at the meeting with the body count still rising and find themselves trapped in their host's house with a mysterious killer.
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5	Disguises used by Artie:[[http://photobucket.com/gallery/user/l8dreamr/media/bWVkaWFJZDoxODAwNTA3MQ==/?ref=1 Angus Mc Gordon, Secretary of Doctor Raven]][[https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6l44al (13:20)]]
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8	!!Tropes present in this episode:
9	* BackwardsFiringGun: Used in the murder of Harry Stimson (Steve Gravers). It's substituted for his own weapon - by no coincidence, since he's a TriggerHappy {{Sociopath}} who enjoys shooting up saloons for fun.
10	* BondOneLiner: After Dexter dies via one of his SpikesOfDoom traps, Jim quips that the killer got "stuck in the rumpus room".
11	* BountyHunter: Harry Stimson used to be one, specializing in killing unarmed men. He gave it up when he got rich, but he's still a {{Jerkass}} who likes to lord it over the people around him.
12	* CasualDangerDialog: After escaping the DeathTrap described in NoKillLikeOverkill below, Jim cracks that he's been "working on the railroad".
13	* ClosedCircle: The only door out of the OldDarkHouse is jammed shut, trapping Jim, Artie, and the victims-to-be within.
14	* ComplexityAddiction: Dexter suffers from it; his schemes for murder keep getting more and more elaborate.
15	* DeadGuyOnDisplay: After Applegate's corpse is stored in the cellar, Dexter props it up at the door leading to the passageway ForTheLulz.
16	* DramaticIrony: {{Invoked}} when Maurice points out to Baring that their situation is similar to one of Baring's novels.
17	-->''' Maurice:''' As a novelist, I should think you would enjoy the {{gothic\|Horror}} atmosphere here.
18	-->'''Baring:''' Let me tell you something, Maurice. I have written a whole bookshelf full of books about characters whose lives are about to be dramatically or suddenly snuffed out. But I do not relish finding myself in a position where I do not know when or where death is suddenly to appear. Through the upholstery of a chair? Or from the depths of a crystal ball? Or yes, even from a wine glass.
19	* GentlemanSnarker: Tontine member Archduke Maurice (Henry Darrow), a deposed nobleman who uses humor to cope with his situation. At one point he says that Baring was right to be suspicious of a vintage bottle of wine--not because it's poisoned, but because it's gone flat.
20	* HighVoltageDeath: One tontine member, MysteryFiction writer Edward Baring (William Wintersole), finds a book in his room titled ''[[SchmuckBait The Death of Edward Baring]]''. He opens it--and finds its contents both deadly and [[{{Pun}} shocking]].
21	* ImNotHereToMakeFriends: Applegate the banker (Arthur Space) uses a very similar phrase--decades before the advent of RealityTV.
22	* InTheBack: A variation; Applegate is dispatched with a knife hidden in the back of his chair.
23	* LargeHam: This week's award for scenery-chewing goes to Lisa Pera as Amelia Mateland, who goes way over the top in the seance scene.
24	* MalevolentMaskedMen: Dexter and his {{mooks}} wear hood-like masks that hide their faces as part of their all-black outfits.
25	* NastyParty: The shareholder's retreat. A bunch of not especially nice people who don't much care for each other trapped in a large house on a [[ItWasADarkAndStormyNight dark and stormy night]] - and slowly being killed off one by one.
26	* NoKillLikeOverkill: Dexter tries to get rid of Jim by tying him to a sled (which for some reason gets left off the drawing come freeze-frame time - see above, lower left corner), using rockets to propel it over a cliff, ''and'' arranging to have it explode just after it begins its flight.
27	* OldDarkHouse: Cattle baron Martin Grevely (Robert Emhardt), one of the tontine's members, hosts the group at his very large, not particularly pleasant mansion. It doesn't help that the place is full of {{Death Trap}}s and {{Secret Passage}}s that not even Grevely knows about.
28	* SiblingMurder: The killer turns out to be Martin Dexter (Mike Road), twin brother of the architect who designed Grevely's mansion. Nobody knew about Martin, which makes it easy for him to KillAndReplace his brother to get in on the tontine action.
29	* TheSmurfettePrinciple: The tontine only has one female member--and she's TheMole.
30	* SpikesOfDoom:
31	** Jim gets trapped in a room with a spiked wall--which starts [[TheWallsAreClosingIn closing in]] on him. He blasts a hole in the ceiling, then climbs up the spikes to escape.
32	** At the climax, Dexter traps Jim in ''another'' death room where the spikes are attached to a ceiling fan-like device that descends to ground level. Jim stops it with his jacket, busts out of the room, and [[HoistByHisOwnPetard knocks Dexter into his own trap]].
33	* SpookySeance: Amelia tries to summon the spirit of King Rafakhanan, an {{Ancient Egypt}}ian ruler, to identify the murderer. He tells her she's "the next to die", but Jim tosses her CrystalBall out a window just before it explodes.
34	* SuspectExistenceFailure: Inevitable when Jim and Artie consider everyone at the mansion to be a suspect, and they all start dying off.
35	* TenLittleMurderVictims: The remaining members of the tontine at Grevely's house. In this case there's not only a [[TheMole mole]] but an identical twin involved.
36	* {{Tontine}}: West and Gordon are assigned to protect a government scientist invested in a tontine whose members are being killed off.

Context Recap / TheWildWildWestS2E16TheNightOfTheTotteringTontine