Ring Around the Redhead
Billy Malone (John Heard), an inventor in prison, has been sentenced to death for a murder he didn't commit. In his cell, he is offered to tell his tale to journalist Adele (Caris Corfman). According to Billy, an earthquake struck his neighborhood, and as soon as it passed, he discovered that a metallic ring had appeared in his workshop. Discovering that the ring acted as a window to other planets and dimensions, he began sending probes into the ring to investigate whatever might be on the other side. During one of his tests, he accidentally brought back Keena (Penelope Ann Miller), a woman from an alien world who he gradually fell in love with. Billy's jewel-loving friend Jimbo (Greg Thorton) had then taken the ring from him to see if he could find riches on the other side, but Keena's people, looking for her, became agitated and offended by his actions, leading to the improbable circumstances leading to Billy's arrest.
Tropes:
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Once Keena's people are out for his blood, Jimbo begs Billy to take the ring back after he took it from him by force.
- Bizarre Taste in Food: Keena has a taste for frozen food, which she eats right out of the package, still in blocks of ice.
- Cassandra Truth: Billy's story is dismissed by Adele and the populace as a delusional fantasy, but the journalist is finally convinced when Billy suddenly disappears from the electric chair.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: After pissing off Keena's already-worried people by using the ring to tear off one of their arms and swipe piles of rubies (which Keena says are their childrens' playthings), Jimbo is killed when a cloud of some kind of gas comes through the ring and crushes him into nothing but skull fragments.
- Dirty Coward: After swiping the ring from him so he can keep finding treasures beyond it, Jimbo rushes to Billy's workshop and begs him to take the ring back, as he tore off someone's arm and stole what are revealed to be their children's toys, offending Keena's people to a murderous level.
- Eldritch Location: The ring can grant access to some, including one where Billy's thermometer probe freezes solid and another where it's on fire.
- Frame-Up: Billy was wrongfully accused of Jimbo's murder by Keena's people, whom he managed to piss off even more when he was using the ring to get rich.
- Genre Roulette: The episode switches genres frequently, going from noir in the scenes when Billy's in jail, to sci-fi as he experiments with the ring, to romance as he falls in love with Keena, and to a suspenseful thriller when Jimbo enters the picture, all in the blink of an eye.
- How We Got Here: The majority of the episode is told through Billy's flashbacks to his meeting Keena and Jimbo's death.
- Innocent Aliens: Keena at first has the mentality of a little girl regarding Earth's languages, cuisine, and luxuries, which she slowly comes to learn about through Billy, his science books turning her into a genius. Her people are rather violent in comparison to her, but only because they want her to come home.
- Innocent Fanservice Girl: Keena is an attractive, scantily-dressed alien who doesn't share the standards of modesty that humans have, and she gets really close to Billy at times.
- Interspecies Romance: The human Billy and the extraterrestrial Keena become attracted to one another.
- Jerkass: Billy's high school pal Jimbo, who grows enamored of the precious minerals and gems on the other side of the ring and takes it by force. In his greed, he keeps stealing more and more gems, which Keena says are the toys of her world's children, and tears off one of her peoples' arms at one point, trying to get Billy to take the ring back before a gaseous cloud crushes him into nothing.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Jimbo gets what's coming to him by Keena's people after he stole their kids toys and horribly maimed one of them in the process.
- MacGuffin: The ring that pops up in Billy's garage during the earthquake. We don't know what happened to it by the end of the episode, but it's likely that it either disappeared or Keena's people took it.
- The Magic Touch: Billy notes that the ring changed the environment it led to every time he touched it, prompting him to send probes through it for research.
- Meet Cute: While Keena is terrified of Billy at first and rushes to get back home, she and the inventor gradually become closer when they sit down and teach the former how to speak English.
- Mind over Matter: Keena's people dedicate themselves to the skill, which she demonstrates by conjuring a packaged photo of Billy as a present.
- Miscarriage of Justice: Billy being sentenced to death for his best friend's murder, which was the work of Keena's people looking to take her home. He even tells Adele that his trial was a complete joke without Keena being there to provide evidence.
- Mr. Exposition: Billy spends the vast majority of the episode discussing the plot to Adele, and does so for the entirety of the six hours he has left until he meets Old Sparky.
- Noodle Incident: Jimbo was said by Billy to have torn off one of Keena's peoples' arms and stolen their kids' toys in his mad greed, prompting them to submit him to a horrific death.
- Paradise Planet: Keena's homeworld has no violence and war, focusing itself on the power of mind over matter.
- Reality Has No Subtitles: Keena's native language when she meets Billy for the first time is untranslated, though it's understandably something panicked.
- Riddle for the Ages: Nothing about the ring's origins, such as where it came from (though Billy suspects it was the earthquake) and how it's able to access other worlds, is stated at any point. It's also never revealed what happened to it by the episode's end.
- Surprisingly Happy Ending: Just when things look their bleakest and Billy is about to be executed, Keena returns at the last minute to say that her people have accepted her love for Billy and have allowed her to take him to her home planet, where they're free to be happy together forever.
- Tempting Fate: When Billy reveals the horrible things Jimbo did to her people out of his sheer greed, Keena tells Billy that he has to stop Jimbo, only for the guy to barge in and beg Billy to take the ring back and avoid Keena's peoples' wrath. Naturally, it doesn't work.
- With Friends Like These...: Billy was quick to regret calling on his best friend Jimbo for his assistance with the ring, as he was only interested in the riches that were on the other side, which he didn't know are playthings to the other world's children. Along with tearing off one of their arms, this pissed off Keena's people to the point where they killed him and took her away, with Billy even calling himself a fool as he recalls the incident.
- Womanchild: Keena has the mentality of a toddler as she and Billy first begin bonding, the man teaching her how to speak his language with an ABC book and singing her a lullaby to get her to sleep when she's scared. She becomes more mature and intelligent when she reads Billy's science books within a week.
