When we last checked into “The Lost Room”, Pittsburgh police detective Joe Miller found himself in possession of a key to a motel room straight out of The Twilight Zone. Joe’s daughter Anna vanished into the room, and sinister forces — including Joe’s forensics guy, Martin Ruber — were jockeying to gain possession of the key. Ruber whacked Joe’s partner Lou in his growing obsession to possess the key. Hoping to rescue his daughter, and with nowhere else to turn, Joe stepped through the threshold into Room 10 — leaving our rear ends hanging off the edges of our seats, if not flat on the floor. This is storytelling at its best!
No need to worry about the middle installment of the three-parter bogging down — Night Two’s “The Comb and the Box” doesn’t waste any time getting us right back into the roller coaster ride that is The Lost Room. Joe exits Room 10 and quickly forges an alliance with Legion rep Jennifer Bloom in his quest to save Anna. We next meet antipodal petty thief Harold Stritzke, who looks like something that escaped from a George Condo painting. Stritzke is in possession of the comb, an object from the motel room that can freeze time in ten-second increments. Joe and Stritzke are destined to meet up — as we’ve already learned, Room 10 objects have an eerie way of seeking one another out. But first, Joe is gunned down by Kreutzfeld’s men. The indestructible coat he pulled on from Room 10’s closet saves Joe from suffering so much as a scratch.
After Joe faces off against Kreutzfeld, the two adversaries find common ground through their kids. Joe tells Kreutzfeld about his missing daughter, while Kreutzfeld reveals that his son is dying of leukemia. The glass eyeball object could save Isaac, while the mysterious, as-yet-identified Prime Object — the motel room’s Holy Grail — is Joe’s only hope to rescue Anna.
The mysteries surrounding Room 10 deepen. With Stritzke’s help, Joe discovers an overexposed snapshot that turns out to be a vital object. Soon afterward, he has a ghostly encounter with an apparition in Room 9 at the crumbling remains of the real-time version of the motel, which just happens to exist in Gallup, New Mexico (the destination to which Wally’s magic bus ticket catapults people). Ruber lays his guilty mitts on the pair of sunglasses, a lesser object that halts combustion, and is welcomed into The Order. And who runs the Order? Why, it’s Harriet Sansom Harris, last seen missing a couple of fingers as the equally creepy Felicia Tillman on “Desperate Housewives”. Harris indoctrinates Ruber into the Order, and enlists his help in reclaiming the key, which is presently at the top of their wish list. We are also treated to a chain smoking, drag-queenish Margaret Cho as a dealer in information on the location of the objects and their powers. She sends Joe to The Order’s stronghold to retrieve the powerful watch box, which prevents the physical body from decaying. Using the watch box, Joe plans to free the woman trapped in Room 9 — the motel’s former manager who vanished into the walls without a trace back in the 1960s.
Joe is briefly taken into police custody by fellow cop Lee Bridgewater (actress April Grace should look familiar to “Lost” fans, as one of the Others), but escapes thanks to help from an unlikely ally. Back at the motel room in Gallup, Joe extracts the trapped woman. She dies offering a message of hope: Anna is alive and waiting for Joe to save her. The snapshot’s power is also revealed, showing the room as it was before the catastrophic event in 1961 that created the objects. A well-tailored man stands at the heart of the room — he’s the all-important Prime Object, the key to saving Anna.
Next up: It’s checkout time. In “The Eye and the Prime Object,” Joe risks everything to reach Anna, unaware that an ally is harboring a secret agenda that could signal the end of the world.
tllgrrl says
I LOVE this show.
I’m just sayin’…
DIANN SCHLAPPIE says
I LIKE THE SHOW ITS MAKES YOU THINK.ITS COOL TO WATCH SOMETHING DIFFERENT.
Dex says
There are many objects out there, all with special powers. Here are some of them.
Pen- emits microwaves
Watch- hard boils eggs
radio- makes you three inches taller
Scissors- rotates things
Bus ticket- teleports you outside of Galup NM
Pencel- creates pennies
Comb- stops time
Umbrella- makes people think they know you
Glass eye- repairs all flesh
Glasses- prevent combustion
Deck of cards- creates paranoia
Tell me if I forgot something
khaled says
What If that story is true ??