I had mixed feelings about this episode, although one set of feelings finally won over the other.
As it began, Carrot now had a pet turtle named Beelzebub which he called his familiar. Obviously, he’s being influenced by Catweazle already. Every proud father would like to brag that his son has a pet named after the Devil, right? His Dad complains that he’s been having a streak of bad luck lately and maybe the place is cursed. Now that he has a wizard for a friend, Carrot thinks a curse may be a real thing and goes to Cat for help. My initial reaction was that as a plot this was nonsense – there are no real curses. But I remembered what Mad-Pac said in his evaluation of the show’s premise. You have to pretend that this show is set in an alternate universe where magic is real. After all, CW clearly went to the future by magic; there was no science involved. And we’ve already seen him keep Carrot from talking about him, or the maid from seeing him by use of his magic knife.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I accept this kind of thing a lot more than I realized. I mean, I never had any qualms about enjoying BEWITCHED or I DREAM OF JEANNIE, whose respective premises were that witchcraft and genies were real. It was all in fun. Even in drama, I’ve been enjoying SUPERNATURAL for years. But they’ve come up with some truly ludicrous plotlines. I mean it’s one thing to have a premise that virtually all monsters of legend and myth are real. But they even trampled on Scripture one season, with a season-long arc about “God’s sister” who was some being of darkness. If God is the creator of the universe, how could he have a dark sister? If they’d led off with such a concept, I probably never would have watched it. But after it had been part of my viewing habits for over ten years, I was willing to look the other way on this plotline and a few others. Anyway, so for all intents and purposes, in the CATWEAZLE universe magic is real and so are curses.
That being said, there are a couple of weak points in the theory. One is that if the house had been cursed all along, why didn’t they notice it before? Any endeavor there should have been doomed to failure if the place was cursed. Second, Mr. Bennett mentioned that part of his problem was that he was overdrawn at the bank to the tune of 800 pounds. That’s no small sum even today, and would have been worth many times that amount back in 1970. That’s not a curse; that’s poor money management. Don’t spend more than you make, or borrow more than you know you can pay back.
Carrot goes to see Stuffy Gladstone, who works at the museum, to find out if there’s any record of a curse at his father’s homestead. Unfortunately, Cat follows him – unfortunate for the museum that is. Cat knocks down a display of a Norman soldier (apparently not damaging it, luckily), scares a group of schoolgirls with his pet frog (his familiar, from last week), and then tosses books around like garbage looking for one particular old book. As it turns out, the book he sought was propped over the top shelf, so there was no need for his to toss old, antique, valuable books from the top shelf onto the floor carelessly while Stuffy just meekly tells him to please stop doing that. One book turns out to have a broken binder from such bad treatment. CW steals the book he wants and runs off with it. Now, in Catweazle’s defense, I’ll note that the books had not been well cared for, as dust flew rampantly when CW was tossing the books around. Clearly, the museum had not been taking care of them very well either.
Carrot is honest enough to go try and retrieve the book from his friend the wizard, who doesn’t want to give it up because it contains secrets of magic written by Rapkyn another wizard and enemy of Cat. The book reveals that Rapkyn did indeed put a curse on the Bennet’s homestead. He hid two stones – one in the tower and one in the water. Now, does that mean their home has been around since the 11th century? Since CW knew who Rapkyn was, that only stands to reason. Well, I suppose it’s possible.
Anyway, after everybody else taking the pratfalls and getting into trouble in previous weeks, it’s Catweazle’s turn this week. He climbs up into the chimney (the tower referenced), gets the ladder pulled out from under him by Sam and then falls down into the hearth covered in soot. Of course, Carrot gets blamed for all the soot in the house. Later, Cat is dropped into the well not once, but twice – the second time after he shows Carrot the stone he found and Carrot lets go of the well handle to take a look.
But then something amazing happens. It turns out the stones with the eyes that Rapkyn used weren’t random. They came from a statue of a two-faced god (a name beginning with a C, but I think Stuffy had said he later became known as the well-known Janus). The statue had been lent to the museum by the British museum with only one face and the other face thought long lost. Catweazle actually helped to restore a lost art treasure. Stuffy is so grateful that he allows Cat to keep the book he stole – a fair exchange. The museum looks good, Stuffy looks good, Carrot looks good and Mr. Bennet gets a finder’s fee of 800 pounds or more to settle his overdraft. A clever ending. Cat’s street cred has now increased in my eyes. Plus, with the book he now has a trail to follow to perhaps get back home again.
So an episode that looked like it was doomed to a low score ends up getting bumped up to 6 screaming schoolgirls who just think frogs are gross. The humor is still silly and overdone but I see a possibility for improvement now.
By the way: I couldn't expand the image to full screen this week and had to watch it in tiny form. Any suggestions on how to fix that? Thanks.
