Dead Like Me/Curious George

Curious George
Season 1, Episode 3
Airdate	July 11, 2003
Production Number	102
Written by	Pete Ocko
Directed by	Peter Lauer
Stream
← 1x02 Dead Girl Walking	1x04 → Reapercussions
Dead Like Me — Season One

Curious George is the third episode of the first season of Dead Like Me, and the third episode overall. George returns to her old house several times, despite warning from Rube that no good will come to the undead who can't let go of their former lives.

Starring: Ellen Muth (Georgia Lass), Callum Blue (Mason), Jasmine Guy (Roxy Harvey)

With: Cynthia Stevenson (Joy Lass)

And: Mandy Patinkin (Rube Sofer)

Guest Starring: Rebecca Gayheart (Betty Rhomer), Greg Kean (Clancy Lass), Britt McKillip (Reggie Lass), Christine Willes (Delores Herbig)

Co-Starring: Michael Robinson (Reporter), Michael Eklund (Protestor), Heather Feeney (Protestor), Laura Boddington (Un George), Patricia Idlette (Waitress), Trevor Roberts (Cameraman), Raugi Yu (Cheery Co-Worker), Bruce James (Parachutist), Blake Stovin (Photographer)

Plot Overview

George is having a hard time letting go of her family. While her parents and sister are having their annual pictures taken, George sneaks back into the house to rummage through the things she's missed in the past, do Reggie's math homework for her and steal some of her clothes back. She's overcome with how much she misses being herself and winds up falling asleep in her old bedroom. She awakens in a panic when the family returns from the photo session, but manages to escape out the window and down a nearby tree.

Despite George's escape, the trail of destruction she left in her path is immediately noticeable to her family, especially Reggie, who catches a glimpse of her running away, and her mother, who discovers a family photo missing. While Reggie gives Ouija another whirl, George and Betty attempt to get a dead skydiver out of a tree by throwing rocks at him. During this bonding moment, George admits that she went home and Betty tells her that even though everyone wants to go back, it's wrong and will only hurt her in the end.

Although George now has some more stuff in her apartment, Mason insists that she has nothing worth robbing when he suddenly appears just as she's waking up. He takes a large knife from one of her drawers and leaves with it. That night, Betty drives him to what looks like a warehouse, where his latest reap is. The knife was, apparently, for protection as the reap in question looks like a drug deal gone bad. Mason pops the victim's soul after he's shot several times and runs away from the man with the gun, who has turned his attention to him.

The next day, word has come back to Rube that George went home and he lays down the law. He forbids her from going back home ever again, lest she suffer some kind of horrible torment. Rube breaks up their breakfast meeting so that George can get on with her next reap: another victim at the gas station with the bear. After seeing the bear escape (with a little intervention of her own), George goes back to her home to confront her family again to try to tell them that she's alright. Instead, she winds up creeping out both her sister and her mother, who angrily chases her away from their home. Roxy rescues her while she's running away, in tears, and George finally realizes exactly what happens with the departed get too close to their old lives.

Notes

Deaths

• R. Luber: Killed early morning by a bear attack. Luber was part of a hunger strike to protest a gas station using a captive grizzly bear as a promotional tool. A kid threw junk food at Luber, the ringleader of the group and he inched towards it. When he got too close, the bear attacked and killed him. Also killed with the girl whose hand he was holding, who was slashed across the face. Mason was supposed to pop her soul, but he was late.

• Parachutist: An unnamed parachutist died at an unspecified time when his neck was impaled upon a tree branch. Although his parachute seemed to go off, he landed in the tree and died there. George and Betty were forced to throw rocks at his corpse to pop his soul out.

• Drug Dealer: Although it isn't confirmed that Mason's reap was a drug dealer, he was meeting with another man in a dank warehouse and was shot dead by that man. A large sum of money seemed to be involved in the altercation.

• B. Kostikovich: Killed mid-morning by electrocution. Bill Bright, formerly Bill Kostikovich, is a news reporter assigned to cover the sedation and eventual execution of the bear that killed R. Luber. But, when the bear got free, Kostikovich tried to keep taping the scene. The crowd dispersed, leaving only him and his cameraman left as a threat to the bear. Kostikovich peed himself, allowing the urine to create a circuit with loose electronics wiring that electrocuted him.

Arc Advancement

Characters

• Betty: Betty was born in 1899 and died in 1926, according to her gravestone. Incidentally, another victim at the ubiquitous age of 27. In a flashback, she's shown robbing her own grave to get a ring back.

• Rube Sofer: A bit of Rube's past is shown in the form of a very old photograph of a woman in his wallet which clearly predates the 1900s. The picture is not explained beyond the small hint at where he came from.

Trivia

Allusions and References

• The Princess and the Pea: The fairytale, "The Princess and the Pea" was written by Hans Christian Andersen in 1835 about a prince who comes of age to settle down with a princess. His mother, the queen, tested a princess by putting a pea beneath 40 layers of bedsheets in the bed she slept in. The next morning the girl complained that she couldn't sleep at all because she was lying on something hard. The queen then concluded that only a true princess would have such sensitive skin that she could feel the pea.

George: You know the story of the princess and the pea? It was based on my mom.

• Tippi Hedren: When talking about the parrot attack, Roxy references Tippi Hedren. Hedren was an actress who most famously starred in The Birds, which is what Roxy is talking about in particular. In the movie, Melanie Daniels, played by Hedren, was attacked by a swarm of birds who found their way in through a hole in her attic.

Roxy: ...Scratched his face up like he was Tippi Hedren or some shit.

• Frogs: The movie that Mason is talking about does, in fact, exist. The 1972 film Frogs starred Sam Elliott as a freelance photographer. In the movie, an disgruntled, physically handicapped millionaire named Ray Milland invites his family to spend his birthday with him on his island. But, Milland's frequent poisoning of everything which ventures too far into his estate catches up to him when the frogs regroup to eat people alive. The movie, as noted by Mason, was a heavy handed environmentalist cautionary tale that was ultimately about littering and pollution.

Mason: I saw a movie about frogs. They got pissed and ate a bunch of people on an island. I think it was called Frogs.