- Director: Greg Nicotero
- Writer: Dana Gould
- Stars: Justin Long, D’Arcy Carden, Hannah Fierman
- Run Time: 41 minutes
Night of the Living Late Show: Synopsis
Simon has an Immersopod, a VR chamber. He climbs in and closes the lid, and the headset covers his eyes. He chooses “Horror Express” and begins the game. He wants to hear the monster in the box, but Christopher Lee interrupts him. He interacts with Lee and the other characters in the film. His pod allows him to play in his favorite films.
His wife Renee doesn’t want to try it. She takes his desire to escape personally. They are having some marital difficulties. Did he marry her for her money? She rather thinks so.
He goes back into the game/movie and meets the Countess, a character from the film that he has had a crush on since he was little. In the movie, the monster breaks out of the box and kills the baggage man.
Next morning, he disappoints his wife again and then climbs back into the machine to play more of the game. The conductor forces open the box, and they find the baggage man inside. Simon has a date with the Countess for dinner. Renee goes back inside and finds him in the machine— naked.
That night, Simon eventually goes to bed for real, and Renee tries the Immersopod. She finds the Count and tells him what’s been going on with Simon and the Countess. Meanwhile, Peter Cushing’s character is talking about the creature has drained memories from his victims. Renee runs into the monster, and she pushes the reset button halfway through the attack.
The next morning, Simon gets back into the pod and Renee switches the film in the pod to “Night of the Living Dead.” Simon says, “Oh, I’m in the wrong movie.” Meanwhile, Renee grabs the garden shears and clips off Simon’s finger so he can’t hit the escape button. He screams “Wait! I’m in the wrong movie!” As the zombies tear him apart.
Commentary
Looks like the Star Trek holodeck has been invented for five minutes, and it’s already cause a holo-addiction problem with its very first user. Seeing the characters interact with the 1972 film characters was fun and more realistic than I would have expected. I like this one a lot. It’s also the only episode of the season that doesn’t contain two episodes.
Overall, I liked season 2 quite a bit better than season 1. The story quality was better, and it felt like they weren’t trying to do the exact same thing as in the movies any more. They were a lot more original this tie around.