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Recap / The Wild Wild West S 2 E 5 The Night Of The Returning Dead

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West and Gordon are investigating reports of a ghostly horseman made by Jeremiah, the stable boy of Carl Jackson, a wealthy Mill Creek rancher. West accuses Jeremiah of complicity in the matter despite the protests of Jackson's fiancée, Elizabeth Carter. When the apparition appears it seems to be immune to bullets and able to move at incredible speed; a dropped hat indicates that the rider is Confederate Colonel Beaumont Carson, who died in a fire 13 years ago - a fire which Jackson himself set. Jackson thinks that only he and three other conspirators, who are now leading citizens in Mill Creek, know who was responsible, but Jeremiah, West and Gordon intend to demonstrate just how wrong he is...


Tropes present in this episode:

  • The Beast Master: Jeremiah has some kind of supernatural affinity with animals; most notably, he can mentally communicate with and influence the behavior of horses, even those some distance away.
  • Bittersweet Ending: A rare example with Jim and Artie offering Jeremiah a chance to work with them; he turns them down, telling them "I'm still looking for my place."
  • Bluffing the Murderer: Jim, Artie and Jeremiah engineer the whole "ghost rider" thing as part of an elaborate plot to bring Jackson and his confederates to justice.
  • Friend to All Living Things: Jeremiah tends to injured animals, likes sleeping in the woods and goes off to play his flute in a cave at night for the benefit of whoever or whatever wants to come and listen.
  • Magical Realism: The agents just accept Jeremiah's ability to drive horses wild, though it is never explained if it's some kind of mind power or some other mechanism.
  • Not Even Bothering with the Accent: A blatant example even for this series; Jeremiah pretends to be from Barbados, but when Artie asks "What happened to the Barbados accent?" viewers (not least on the Caribbean island in question) are justified in replying "What accent?"
  • "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: In a rare inversion it's the heroes perpetrating it against the villains, in this case to get a confession out of them.
  • Voice Changeling: Among Jeremiah's remarkable powers are those of exactly imitating anyone's voice - via the magic of dubbing.
  • Willing Channeler: Jeremiah is used as the one through whom the ghost speaks due to his extrasensory powers; at first it's against his will, but at last he's persuaded - reluctantly - into going along with it. Supposedly. In truth the whole thing's been staged by Jeremiah and the agents.

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