MovieChat Forums > Friday the 13th: The Series (1987) Discussion > Was there an ultimate goal (purpose) for...

Was there an ultimate goal (purpose) for collecting....

posted 14 years ago by re_zuleta
24 replies | jump to latest

I understand the premise for the "FRIDAY THE 13th: the series"(1987-1990) where the 2-cousins inherit the store, and with the help of their Uncle's friend Jack track down cursed antiques sold by their Uncle; and later upon aquiring the curse antique lock them up in an underground vault.
-But pressumambly, once they collect all the cursed antiques, what would've been the next step or outcome of all that work?
Was there going to be an absolution to their Uncle Lewis doomed cursed soul?
Would all the cursed object be locked up for all eternity? Would they be exorcised and have the curse lifted from them?
-Reasom I ask, similar shows (rip-off's) have surfaced over the years. "THE LOST ROOM," "WAREHOUSE 13" and a few others where they collect unusual objects which grant the users powers....but this stories have an ultimate goal, or possible end in near future. After watching random episode from Season 1-2 (my 2-favorite seasons, the 3rd season not so much) make me wonder there's got to be a ledger with an exact list and number of items sold by Uncle Lewis, and perhaps a few cursed items not listed/mentioned and given as presents by Lewis....but once all said and done - what's next? where would the story eventually would've ended up? Where would these characters be now some 23-years later?

REzuleta

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Ulysess 14 years ago

This may sound weird but as part of the 80's zeitgeist you don't think about twenty years from now. It was called the "Me Decade" for a reason. You lived for the moment an worried about tomorrow next week.

As far as what the characters had planned I believe the hope was that the older character would some how find a way to lift the curse off of the items but until then they were just locking it away with the hope it would never effect anyone. Much like peoples views on toxic waste in the 80's lock it away out of sight with the hope that some day some one will figure out what to do with it.

[–] imdb-15906 14 years ago

The "Me Decade" was the 1970s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970s "Novelist Tom Wolfe coined the term Me decade in his article 'The "Me" Decade and the Third Great Awakening,' published by New York magazine in August 1976 referring to the 1970s. The term describes a general new attitude of Americans towards atomized individualism and away from communitarianism in clear contrast with the 1960s."

To me, the idea that each decade has some kind of theme that can be summed up in a slogan seems stupidly superficial. There were people even in the 1980s who engaged in long-term thinking and planning.

"I lived in some of that past, and I got out for a reason!" --- Homer Simpson

[–] Diamond97 14 years ago

I understand the premise for the "FRIDAY THE 13th: the series"(1987-1990) where the 2-cousins inherit the store, and with the help of their Uncle's friend Jack track down cursed antiques sold by their Uncle

I've always thought of Micki and Ryan as best friends, since they really are just in laws, not related by blood or adoption, and were strangers when they met.

[–] davedavidl 14 years ago

Micki and Ryan are cousins by marriage.
I have often heard that there would be a tie-in to the Friday the 13th movies, as the final object would be recovering Jason's hockey mask.
If the mask is cursed, this would certainly explain why Jason is never able to be killed in the movies.

[–] brodiebruce_405 13 years ago

He doesn't even wear the mask until Part 3, and is resurrected without in several films. The mask isn't cursed. A fat kid just brought it with him.

[–] dontworrybaby 11 years ago

That's not true, he's not officially resurrected until part 6. In parts 2-4, he's just VERY hard to kill. And turns out not to be dead when they assume he is. So I think the mask idea could have actually worked. He gets the mask in part 3, it's possible that he just wasn't killed in part 2.

[–] knight_sentinel 13 years ago

I think the point was to get them back, and keep them locked up and safe, I'm assuming they would in turn pass the safe guarding onto their respective children or if they didn't have any to their next of kin.

When the actor who played Ryan left the series they did a two part season opener I believe i may be wrong, either way he ends up getting cursed by an object and it turns him into a young boy, at the end of the episode Ryan goes to live with his mother.

Micki, Jack and a new guy was added to the cast and they continued to retrieve the cursed objects, so conceivably Ryan could always come back and take over the store when he got older, again. I think he may have lost his memory when he reversed aged. I believe in the last scene when she comes to get Ryan he ask why she looks older.

I'm assuming they would keep safe guarding them until they were too old or died and they would pass it on along to another relative. Since Ryan was still alive technically he still owned the shop, unless they had Jack buy out Ryan's share of the business with the money being saved for him by his mother until he was old enough to use it. None of this was explained.

Movies will make you famous; Television will make you rich; But theatre will make you good.

[–] zyggums 13 years ago

On the first episode, Micki tells her lawyer-fiance that they can't get married until she finishes something with the [newly inherited] shop, and that it might take awhile. I think the goal was to reclaim all the antiques that they had unwittingly sold at their estate sale, and then get on with their lives. This goal then goes on to also include reclaiming the cursed antiques that Louis had sold before his death, as well. After everything is recovered they plan to go on to a normal life, end of story.

[–] knight_sentinel 13 years ago

In the two part season 3 opener Ryan gets possessed by the devil, and I believe he takes some of the cursed objects from the vault, and it's also one of these same objects that turns him into a little boy, and Ryan is written out of the series.

I think they realized they weren't ever going to be able to ever have ordinary lives ever again. Someone would always need to safe guard the objects unless they could have found a way to undo the curses on them in the first place, if they could have undone the curses then they could go on and have regular lives.

They solved this dilemma when they took elements of this series and came up with "Warehouse 13". The secret service agents would come and go, but someone always safe guards the warehouses since we learned in that series there have been 12 previous warehouses before Warehouse 13.

Movies will make you famous; Television will make you rich; But theatre will make you good.

[–] hbrackett 12 years ago

There is an interesting bit of dialogue from the old man at the end of the episode "Crippled Inside" where he says "It (the wheelchair) will still be here long after you and I are gone. And no matter what you do, ther will always be SOMEBODY who'll kill for its healing. I just want you to know you'll never win, you're only delaying the inevitable!" So maybe they were just buying time, trying to keep a few less people from getting killed. Knowing about the curse, they had a moral obligation to try to do something about it. To quote a great author, "Virtue does not lie in victory over evil, but in the struggle against it."

[–] knight_sentinel 12 years ago

Well Mickey and Ryan didn't initially know about the objects being cursed, they had inherited the shop, and were selling items that were cursed and not cursed, it wasn't until Jack showed up, and told them what their uncle Lewis had been doing with some of the objects in the shop. According to Jack they would never really know how many objects Lewis had cursed and sold.

Mickey and Ryan had a ledger of the things they sold and they could track those items down, the ones that Lewis had sold over the years were only discovered because Jack and later Mickey and Ryan started reading newspapers and back issues of newspapers looking for mysteriuos happenings, Lewis kept a ledger of what he sold but he didn't note if the object was cursed.

They did feel an obligation to at laeast get back the objects they had sold, and try to clean up Lewis' dirty work.

Besides when Ryan grew up again he could always possibly go back to shop, although he had lost his memory when he was turned into a young boy.

Movies will make you famous; Television will make you rich; But theatre will make you good.

[–] TeOfLeDiKi 11 years ago

In the two part season 3 opener Ryan gets possessed by the devil, and I believe he takes some of the cursed objects from the vault, and it's also one of these same objects that turns him into a little boy, and Ryan is written out of the series.

Not quite. Ryan WAS possessed by a demon (whether it was "THE Devil" is up for debate), but his possession is overcome by some compassionate or holy force, and he sacrifices his life for a child's. He then is transformed into a child, and afterward, his soul is saved.

He didn't take any objects from the vault in this episode - he couldn't have, because by the time all this happens, they are all in France.

neat . . . sweet . . . petite

[–] knight_sentinel 11 years ago

[quite]Not quite. Ryan WAS possessed by a demon (whether it was "THE Devil" is up for debate), but his possession is overcome by some compassionate or holy force, and he sacrifices his life for a child's. He then is transformed into a child, and afterward, his soul is saved.

He didn't take any objects from the vault in this episode - he couldn't have, because by the time all this happens, they are all in France. [/quote]

In some religions the devil is a demon.

They were not in France yet, they only went to France in the first episode of the third season because Jack was in France looking into some of the strange things that were happening and their connection to the prophecies.

It's in the season finale of the 2nd season that Ryan gets hexed and possessed, because it's a two part story that concluded in the first episode of the 3rd season.

Uncle Lewis' old witches coven wants an object called witch's ladder, and they want to use it to enhance their powers, the object had been turned over by some white witches to be put in the for safe keeping and where it was protected, the head of Uncle Lewis' old witch's coven comes up with the scheme to hex Ryan which is how he becomes possessed and that's how they get the object out of the vault using a possessed Ryan which he did because it was locked in the vault in Canada.

The witch's ladder is locked in the vault, if it weren't in the vault the witches wouldn't have needed to hex Ryan in the first place, they used a possessed Ryan to get it because the vault was protected against evil entering vault, and just because Ryan was hexed and later possessed didn't make him evil since he hadn't done anything evil just yet and was able to get the object from the vault, and again the vault is in Canada.

Minds that have withered into psychosis are far more terrifying than any character of fiction.

[–] b-rad 12 years ago

You're thinking about the premise way too deeply. I don't think the creators thought much about it. It was more about tracking down that evil bottle opener...

"The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen."

[–] jarth-2 12 years ago

Micki and Ryan are cousins by marriage.

No, they're not. They're blood. In Pipe Dream, Ryan mentioned to his dad that Micki was aunt whoever's daughter, so Micki's obviously a blood cousin from Ryan's mother's side.

[–] jarth-2 12 years ago

Talk is becoming ever more loud about a TV reunion movie to wrap up the show, thus ending the curse. If they do it, it will be interesting to see how they pull it off without R.G. Armstrong.

[–] libra113 11 years ago

Well, as I recall when they did the "Prophecy" episodes the intent was to replace Lewis with Astaroth as the recurring supernatural baddie so they wouldn't necessarily need Lewis anyway. I think the idea was that Louis had failed the Devil one too many times and he was switching to Astaroth as a replacement.

That said they could always recast and either ignore the difference in appearance or explain it with magic like have him come back by possessing someone handy. Could even be part of the plot as perhaps the last cursed antique could be something that would allow him to keep his new body forever.

In any case as to the original question. I don't think there was an ultimate plan as far as what to do after, other than just locking them up. Still, in the first episode of the third season "Demon Hunter" they found a whole other level under the vault and I suppose they could cement the whole thing up, using the same magic as the vault to keep everything dormant and keep it all hidden.

Of course they would have to keep ownership of the store (or at least the land its on) to keep anyone from stumbling on the antiques so that would be a life long burden likely passed down along family lines.

In the end the old guy in the wheelchair episode was right unless they could find a way to uncurse the objects and/or destroy them they are just delaying the inevitable.

[–] marianousa 11 years ago

I actually became a fan of this show during the latter portion of S2, till the end. I would watch it, getting caught up on S1 when it was REaired on Sci-fi or other stations in later years.
From what I read, John D Lemay "Ryan" was replaced by "Johnny" (Steven Monarque)in response to fan's reaction to the character of Ryan as being "not man-ly enough"- that he was too much of a wimp & not enough of a "tough guy", prompting the change to "Johnny".
It was a shame, that S3 ended without any real definitive conclusion to the series. Perhaps the same formula (threesome trying to recover a 'cursed object' while dealing with personal conflicts in melo-drama tones each week)was tiring out. Maybe a RE-appearance by 'Uncle Lewis' or even new cast additions would have been helpful and pro-longed the show.
As to an ultimate goal: if it were up to me to write it, I would create a finale in which the trio try to recover the FINAL item (cursed game board, perhaps?)but that in doing so, would make them travel back in time (within their own lifetime) during which they are given they opportunity to CHANGE history & the conditions of the present, thus UNdoing the curse in a way so that everything that occured in Season's 1-3 "NEVER happened"- Lewis Vendredi NEVER made that deal with the devil, closed down his store & died in poverty, Micki married her fiance & lived happily ever after, Ryan stayed in school got his art degree & made up with his mom & dad & Johnny took care of his dad long afterward while Jack continued to travel around the world, as a stage performer.

Sort of that "time travel/paradox" that's always being done on those Star Trek TV series.

[–] psmfan2020 10 years ago

I'm not sure if the writers had an end goal in mind or not, but I do know for a fact the show could have gone on for another year or two. The problem was the company that produced the War of the Worlds television series (not remembering what company that was) deemed that show too expensive to continue. For some reason, because they filmed next door to F13TS, TPTB decided to cancel BOTH shows. This was in the 'Complete History of Friday the 13th' book that came out a few years ago just prior to the 2009 movie reboot. It's a shame too. The writers could have had an endless supply of antiques to write about. If you want to read more about it, I suggest getting the book. I no longer have it, so I can't refer to it for more clarity.

[–] mr-D-2 10 years ago

I could be mistaken (it HAS been a long time since I watched this series), but if I recall correctly, Micki and Ryan discover that by accepting ownership of the store they also got bound into the original pact Lewis created. The only way to break the pact and save their souls is to recover all the cursed artifacts Lewis sold, thereby reversing and undoing the pact.

[–] I_hatenazis 10 years ago

I could be mistaken (it HAS been a long time since I watched this series), but if I recall correctly, Micki and Ryan discover that by accepting ownership of the store they also got bound into the original pact Lewis created. The only way to break the pact and save their souls is to recover all the cursed artifacts Lewis sold, thereby reversing and undoing the pact.

No.

The first thing they did when they found out they inherited the store was a fire sale to get rid of all of the items that were left because they wanted to get on with their lives. After they found out that the items were cursed they felt guilty and decided to retrieve all of them. They found the hidden manifest which meant that they would be able to identify everything that was ever in Lewis' store.

Apparently, Lewis had second thoughts and built a special vault to confine the cursed items which is why the Devil killed him. This initially made Lewis a sympathetic character but Lewis, after being in Hell for a while, was more than eager to get back into the cursed item business and made numerous attempts to get back into the land of the living. There was no way for Lewis' soul to be redeemed.

In any case, to answer the OP's question. The plan was to retrieve all of the cursed items and put them into the vault where they could do no more harm. Unfortunately, the items are indestructible, so they would also have to make sure that the store would never be sold, in perpetuity, so that the items would never be released from the vault.

[–] PaladinNJ (21513) 6 years ago

It was later established in the "Demon Hunter" episode that the vault and the lower chamber were created by the Satanists as a means to create and contain the objects until they were ready to use them. Jack and the crew merely reversed the process and used those enchantments to contain the objects after they were retrieved.

[–] libra113 9 years ago

I believe the ultimate goal was to get everything back and lock it down in the vault. I don't really think there IS anything to be done after that since the objects couldn't be destroyed and there was nothing stated about the curses being removable.

I guess they would have to seal up the vault then someone would have to stay there and keep an eye on the place until they died or something.