Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing Friday the 13th: The Series, a show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990. The entire series can be found on YouTube!

This week, it’s personal for Jack!

Episode 2.23 “The Maestro”

(Dir by Timothy Bond, originally aired on May 22nd, 1989)

Famed choreographer Anton Pascola (Colm Feore) is fond of saying that great art requires pain and he would know.  A former dancer, Anton was injured in an accident and now walks with a pronounced limp.  He has devoted his life to choreography and he has a small company of dancers who are devoted to him, despite his fearsome temper.  Because Anton’s dancers tend to be accident prone and also suicide-prone, there are frequent openings in his company.

Pascola’s newest dancer is Grace Cowell (Cynthia Preston).  Grace is young and naive and she thinks her dreams are about to come true.  She is also the daughter of one of Jack’s best friends.  When she takes Jack, Ryan, and Micki to a Pascola-choreographed performance of Romeo and Juliet, they are shocked to hear that the lead actors recently leapt out of a window together.  When Jack discovers that one of the cursed antiques is a Victorian music box that plays an amazing symphony but also forces the listeners to dance until they die, he realizes that Grace is in danger.

For all the time that they spend searching for cursed antiques, it’s amazing how often Jack, Ryan, and Micki just happen to stumble across one being used by someone they know.  I understand, of course, that it’s meant to add an extra personal element to their adventures.  Trying to save the daughter of his (never-seen) best friend adds something to the story that wouldn’t be there if Jack was trying to save someone he wasn’t personally close to.  But, at times, the way that this show depends on coincidence can get to be a bit much.

That said, Jack’s personal connection to this week’s antique does lead to one of the show’s most devastating endings.  Proving that he practices what he preaches, Anton dances to the music box’s symphony while an audience watches.  He dances until he dies.  Unfortunately, Grace is dancing with him and she dies as well.  This is not the first time that someone close to the main characters has died on this show.  What makes this episode unique is Jack’s reaction.  Jack has always been the wise father figure who helps to keep Micki and Ryan strong.  But when Grace dies, Jack has a breakdown.  He goes from obsessively trying to clean Grace’s blood off the music box to throwing antiques across the shop.  For once, it’s Micki and Ryan who have to calm down the distraught Jack.

The episode has more than a few plot holes and Grace’s actions often don’t make sense.  Even after she discovers that Pascola is killing his dancers, she still wants to work with him.  The implication is that she’s been brainwashed by his claims that art requires pain but there’s a difference between pushing yourself and killing yourself.  If Grace had previously acted like someone who had a death wish, the episode would not only make more sense but it would actually be a good deal more interesting.  That said, as someone who grew up going to dance classes and rehearsing and performing, I’ve certainly known my share of Anton Pascolas.  This was an episode to which I could relate.