How Much Do You Love Your Kid?
| "How Much Do You Love Your Kid?" | |
|---|---|
| The Twilight Zone (2nd revival) episode | |
| Episode no. |
Season 1 Episode 34 |
| Directed by | Allison Liddi-Brown |
| Written by | Michael Angeli |
| Production code | 132 |
| Original air date | February 26, 2003 |
| Guest actors | |
|
Bonnie Somerville: Donna Saicheck | |
"How Much Do You Love Your Kid?" is the thirty-fourth episode of the science fiction television series 2002 revival of The Twilight Zone, and one of the only two episodes in this incarnation to feature no supernatural elements, the other being "Evergreen". The episode was first broadcast on February 26, 2003, on UPN.
Opening narration
| “ | Meet Donna Saicheck. Just another person living beyond her means in uncertain times and looking for a short break from the reality of her existence. We're about to see just how far Donna is willing to go, when another kind of reality intrudes, in the Twilight Zone. | ” |
Plot
A woman named Donna Saicheck (Bonnie Somerville) is talking with her husband Ted (Steve Bacic) about having to use money to pay for her son Wylie's orthodontist appointment in order to straighten Wyatt's teeth. Ted then leaves for his business trip after seeing Wylie (Nico McEown) try to make his teeth straight. While getting a spa treatment, Donna is told her son Wylie has vanished. While at the police station, Donna is approached by Nick Dark (Wayne Knight) as he chooses her to partake in his licensed reality TV game show How Much Do You Love Your Kid?. Nick Dark informs her that she has to find her child in one hour by answering "clue cards," but never tells her what will happen if she does not. When the authorities claim the show has all the required permits and that they cannot do anything about it, she is forced to play this twisted game show for her son's life.
Nick and the camera crew follow her around town as she answers a series of tedious questions. Finally, they track down the "kidnapper" and her son, chasing them in a car chase. The kidnapper's car, however, is driven off a hill and the car, with the son inside, crashes.
The crew and Nick are shocked by this unscripted event, and momentarily shut off the cameras as Donna has a moment with the injured Wylie who is now in a stretcher. Nick informs her that the kidnapper got away and that she should take revenge upon him for what he did to her son. He even offers her more prize money and a gun in addition to getting her son back.
She chases down the kidnapper back to her house, only to discover that the kidnapper is Ted who did it for the money the whole time. Donna expresses her anger at him because he risked their son's life, and shoots him in a burst of anger. As she's contemplating the horror of what she's done, Nick shows up and happily tells her she's won $1 million and as Nick tells her "the best defense money can buy." The police arrest her for homicide as she and a police officer pass by Forest Whitaker who does his closing narration about the fantasies that television executives can make.
Closing narration
| “ | There's reality and there's entertainment. There's a life you lead and the fantasies you're led to, by a small but powerful group of people known as television executives, who recently discovered the entertainment value of real life. And in the future, if you think there's a risk they won't take, a line they won't cross, then we have an offer to make and some time for you to spend in the Twilight Zone. | ” |
Quotes
- Nick Dark: Something tells me that, even if we lived in a world with no kids, Donna Saicheck would still find her son…
- Donna Saicheck: (yelling) HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN?! (she pushes one of the cops)
- Cop: Hey! Your kid is gonna be OK!
- Donna Saicheck: (yelling) ARE YOU CRAZY?! HE COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED! HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN?!
- Cop: Lady, it's just a TV show.
- Ted Saicheck: Don't be mad, honey!
- Donna Saicheck: (yelling) YOU ALMOST GOT HIM KILLED!!
- Ted Saicheck: We lost control!
- Donna Saicheck: (yelling) YOU! YOU LOST CONTROL AND THEN YOU JUST LEFT HIM THERE!
- Ted Saicheck: He's OK.
- Donna Saicheck: (yelling) HE HAS A FRACTURED RIB, HIS FACE IS ALL CUT UP!
- Ted Saicheck: (chuckles) He's OK.
- Donna Saicheck: (yelling) YOU CALL THAT OK?!?!
External links
- "How Much Do You Love Your Kid?" at TV.com
- "How Much Do You Love Your Kid?" at the Internet Movie Database