Season 1, Episode 5:
Harper's Locket
For their next Play of the Week entry, the CPDS stages a 19th-century period drama. Celeste Fennick is a wealthy girl with a loving family, but her father Bernard is not long for this world. To ensure that she will be taken care of after he passes, he decides to marry her to the Baron Edwin Graves, who wants the dowry that will come from such a marriage. However, he is unaware that Graves is a cruel man beneath his suave exterior, and Celeste instead has eyes for Harper, the Fennick family's stable boy.
Meanwhile, our hapless performers must contend with poorly-built croquet tools, a player piano that won't stop playing, breakages in the sun roof, an unconvincing horse costume and doors that seem to have a personal animosity towards Jonathan.
“Harper's Locket” contains examples of:
- Arranged Marriage: Celeste's engagement to Edwin is the play's central conflict, as neither one is fully keen on it: Celeste would rather Marry for Love and has eyes for the family's poor but pure-hearted stable boy, Harper, while Edwin only wants Celeste for her dowry and is more interested in her talented younger sister Emily.
- Asshole Victim: Emily kills Edwin in retaliation for all the stuff he tried to pull on her earlier.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Baron Edwin Graves (Chris), the play's clear antagonist, is an enormous snob who looks down on anybody who isn't even remotely wealthy, has all the makings of an abusive husband who regards Celeste as little more than a dowry and a possession to control, and is secretly having an affair with her sister Emily, which he tries to coerce her into continuing against her will. When Emily confesses their affair anyway and Celeste and Harper reveal they are eloping together, Edwin goes as far as shooting Treacle (accidentally shown by Cornley as an over-the-top explosion) and trying to kill Harper before Emily finally shoots him.
- Benevolent Boss: Subverted. Mr. Fennick (Robert) is supposed to be a gracious employer with a cordial relationship with his servants (in contrast to the vindictively classist Edwin) but his attempts at appearing grateful are undercut due to Smythe (Jonathan) missing his cues while struggling with the doors... among other mishaps:Edwin: If he was my man, I'd have him flogged!
Mr. Fennick: Really, Edwin? I'd never dream of harming a member of my staff.
(accidentally knocks out Vanessa with the loose head of his croquet mallet)- Even within the play itself, his magnanimous characterization doesn't hold up, as he immediately takes Edwin's lie that Harper stole money from him at face value and dismisses Harper from his service without even heeding Harper's side of the story that the money was given to him freely.
- Big Damn Heroes: As the descending fan is close to killing Chris, Robert, Annie and Sandra, Jonathan enters to pull it out and throw it away.
- Brick Joke:
- Robert accidentally breaks the roof of the house early on. Later, he has to sit under the broken roof area while it is "raining" and ends up drenched.
- The first time the piano acts up, Robert accidentally tosses the cat into it. At the end of the episode, when Annie plays it again, the cat bursts out and attacks her.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The eponymous locket saves Celeste from certain death.
- Outside of the play, the hole in the sun-house roof created by Robert's croquet mallet head (and Trevor's haphazard attempts to patch it up) becomes the main difficulty the actors have to endure during the tense, stormy dinner scene.
- Colorblind Casting: Annie, who is Anglo-Indian, plays Emily, the sister of Celeste, who along with her father is white.
- Deadly Rotary Fan: Nearly. During the dinner scene, Trevor's attempts at patching the hole in the roof end up dislodging the ceiling fan above the table. Since The Show Must Go On as always, Sandra, Chris, Robert and Annie are forced to continue the scene half-ducked under the table while the whirring fan slowly descends above their heads until it's removed by Jonathan.
- Disney Death: Thanks to the locket, Celeste survives Edwin’s bullet.
- Disposable Fiancé: Celeste’s fiancée Edwin, of the pure Jerkass variety. He's a snobby, conniving, two-timing cad that Celeste clearly dislikes and would have nothing to do with were it not for their Arranged Marriage.
- Funny Background Event: At one point, Vanessa is knocked unconscious by an errant croquet mallet head that smashes through the sun-house roof. In a later scene when the characters have moved inside, she can be seen in the background regaining consciousness, staggering to her feet and clearly trying to figure out just what the hell happened in dazed bewilderment.
- He Knows Too Much: When Harper appears to have overheard Edwin and Emily talking about their previous affair, Edwin decides to frame him for theft so he'll be dismissed by Mr. Fennick.
- Gratuitous French: Annie pronounces French loanwords "liaison" and "naivete" in an over-the-top accent.
- Groin Attack:
- The Treacle costume has a vacuum cleaner for a mouth so that it can hoover up the food offered to it. After it's revealed that Treacle's survived being shot by Edwin, the vacuum cleaner activates and attaches itself to Max's groin, resulting in many pained screams.
- Jonathan ends up getting a croquet mallet to the balls as a result of a Rake Take.
- Incurable Cough of Death: Why Mr. Fennick is so desperate for Celeste to marry - hilariously overacted by Robert.
- Interclass Romance: Basically the general premise of the episode. Celeste Fennick, a girl from a rich family, is romantically involved with a stable boy named Harper.
- It Won't Turn Off: The player piano will not shut up, forcing Annie to continue pretending to play while the rest of the cast bemusedly sing along. In the end, they resort to doing everything they can to sabotage it, to the point of accidentally throwing a live cat into the works... only to be stymied when the alive-but-enraged cat erupts out of the piano and attacks Annie - allowing the piano to continue playing.
- Kick the Dog: Edwin shoots Treacle, which is depicted onscreen as a wooden horse exploding.
- Nobility Marries Money: The crux of the play. Celeste, the eldest daughter of a wealthy but un-landed family is set up by her father to marry the noble Baron Edwin Graves for his peerage, and so that she will have a strong, sensible male figure in her life to look after her.
- Noodle Incident: While introducing the play, Chris mentions a previous CPDS production called "More Horse", an unlicensed sequel to War Horse. He doesn't go into detail but mentions that the complaints they received for it were both plentiful and abusive, and that it will be the last time he attempts a Jamaican accent.
- Pocket Protector: Celeste survives being shot after the titular locket takes the bullet.
- Rake Take: The croquet mallet performs a similar role when left out on the lawn, though as it's not tall enough to smack Jonathan in the face, it instead delivers a spectacular Groin Attack.
- Rich Bastard: Edwin, and sometimes Mr. Fennick himself.
- Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: Edwin and Harper, respectfully, are this to Celeste.
- Rummage Fail: Robert trying to find the pound note in Max’s pocket instead reveals bubblegum (“This hasn’t been invented yet!”), a handful of milk sachets (“You’re not supposed to take these from the canteen!”) and a self-penned script for something called Dr. Frog (“'Enter Dr. Frog.' Look at these medical reports, they're ribbeting. Did you write this?! This is dross!”) and has to resort to asking for it. Even that proves difficult because Max instead hands him a real pound note ("Not your contemporary money, the money in the play!").
- Running Gag:
- This time, Jonathan has trouble opening the doors to enter the scene. Even when everyone else can open them with no problems.
- The piano that plays “There’s No Place Like Home”. And the cat that got stuck in it.
- Chris’s blood pack going off every point except for the scene where his character gets shot.
Chris: Excuse me. - Taking the Bullet: Celeste does this for Harper when Edwin tries to shoot him in the climax, but thanks to the bullet hitting Harper's locket, she survives. The sound cue for the gunshot comes in late, however, so Sandra and Chris have to go through the diving/shooting motion a few times before it finally triggers.
- Terrible Artist: Emily is supposed to paint a portrait that Edwin describes as “the very likeness of [himself, Celeste and Mr. Fennick].” But after the painting is ruined when the prop sparrow is pulled away, her impromptu replacement picture is a couple of stick figures in the background of a frog.Robert: ...And you've included a frog.Annie: It's the only thing I know how to paint.
- That Poor Cat: When the cast's attempts to silence the malfunctioning player piano fail, Robert starts throwing anything he can grab into it... including an unfortunate cat, much to the cast's horror. Thankfully, it turns out to be unharmed... albeit pissed.
- Title Drop: Occurs twice during the climax, first when Edwin recognizes it at dinner ("You're wearing Harper's Locket!") and then exclaimed after it saves Celeste's life by taking the Baron's bullet. Both times it's accompanied by a roll of Dramatic Thunder.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: After spending the entire episode being unable to get any of the doors open, getting humiliated in the process, and going to increasingly ruinous attempts to get through them on time, Jonathan finally manages to open one of the doors. Smiling contentedly, he steps out into the garden... and on a discarded croquet mallet, which snaps upward and hits him square in the groin.
