Masters of Horror/Chocolate

Chocolate
Season 1, Episode 5
Airdate	November 25, 2005
Written by	Mick Garris
Directed by	Mick Garris
← 1x04 Jenifer	1x06 → Homecoming
Masters of Horror — Season One

Chocolate is the fifth episode of the first season of Masters of Horror.

Cast: Henry Thomas (Jamie), Lucie Laurier (Catherine), Matt Frewer (Wally), Paul Wu (Hooper), Stacy Grant (Vanessa), Katharine Horsman (Sue), Leah Graham (Elaine)

Plot Overview

Jamie is a recently divorced young father who is leading a lonely life consumed with little else but the challenge of his job creating artificial flavors for food. He has yet to start dating again and has to share custody of his son. This is in contrast to his aging but youthful collegue Wally, who heads up a band on weekends.

One night, Jamie has a strange nightmare that has him waking with the very real sensation that he's tasted expensive chocolate. It is so realistic that he feels as though he had really had it himself.

After a disappointing trip to see his son at his ex-wife's house, he takes up Wally's offer to see him in concert. While talking to a woman during the concert, Jamie suddenly has the deafening concert music completely replaced with soft classical music to the point where he can't hear the woman he's talking to. The strange episodes continue where he is momentarily viewing a remote city while driving the car, almost crashing. This culminates later that night with a brief flash of an Asian man seeming to look at him while he is sleeping.

While shopping, Jamie meets an attractive woman and the two click with each other quickly. Sharing a dinner and later having sex, Jamie is suddenly overcome with a very strong cramp in his abdomen. That morning, he is suddenly paralyzed with a view of a strange bedroom shared with the Asian man. Kissing his now feminine hand, Jamie experiences the Asian man having sex with him as a woman. Paralyzed during the experience, his one night stand is distressed while his ex-wife stops by to drop off his son and makes the wrong impression of what is happening.

While shaving, Jamie again flashes to a bathroom where he finally sees who he has been experiencing - a beautiful woman. As she writes, 'I love you' to someone, Jamie realizes that he loves this mysterious woman. In an attempt to reach out, he eats a chocolate during a candlelit dinner for one and is reunited with his mystery woman as she masturbates in the shower.

Finally reaching out for help, he tells Wally about what he's been seeing and Wally is doubtful and suggests he might benefit from some professional help. But Jamie is certain that he doesn't want it to stop. Later that night, Jamie again views through the woman's eyes as she finds the Asian man, Hooper, in bed with another woman. The mystery woman slaps Hooper and they get in a small fight. Later, while Hooper is trying to have sex with her, the woman brings out a knife and guts Hooper. Jamie fully shares this sensation including the disgust and regret afterwards. The visions also cease to occur.

Desperate to find and help the woman he loves, he traces her location by fragments of his memory of her license plate, time zone changes, and geography to find that she lives in Canada. Arriving in British Columbia, he finds that Hooper's death is front page news. Using a newspaper photograph to find Hooper's apartment, he sees artwork signed by his mystery woman, Catherine. Looking out of the window, he sees Catherine driving away in the same car he's seen in his visions but is able to get her complete license plate number.

Tracking Catherine to her home, Jamie arrives at her front door bearing the same kind of chocolates as he's tasted through her. Introducing himself awkwardly, she slams the door in his face when he tries to give her the chocolates. Following her in the park the next day, he is caught by her and she angrily confronts him. He convinces her to have lunch with him where he attempts to explain the connection they share. She doesn't believe him, but while walking her home he sees that there are police at her apartment. Letting her know that he's seen the murder but wants to help, she brings him to her apartment later that night.

In her apartment, she confesses that she's seen through his eyes as well and experienced his loneliness. Making him a drink, the two get more affectionate before he starts to feel the effects of the drugs she's put in his drink and pulls a pistol on him. Convinced that he's either a cop or a blackmailer, she makes it clear that she enjoyed killing Hooper. Jamie goes for the gun but is shot in the leg. The two scuffle for the pistol and Jamie is first cut by a decorative spear before it is broken in half. He disarms her by throwing the spear head into her hand and gets hold of the pistol. While holding her off at gunpoint, he suddenly experiences the event through her eyes, looking at himself holding the pistol. She realizes that he is unable to see and lunges at him, and Jamie is forced to shoot the woman he loves and experience what death felt like to her.

Notes

• Deaths and Gore: Catherine guts Hooper with a long slow cut up the midsection. Jamie is shot in the leg and receives a light slashing wound. Catherine gets a spearhead through her hand and is shot to death.

Trivia

The Show

• Jamie is seen reading the Stephen King novel Desperation. Mick Garris is currently working on a mini-series adaptation of the novel for release in 2006 with Henry Thomas co-starring.

Behind the Scenes

• Writer and director Mick Garris, in addition to being the creator of the Masters of Horror series, is best known for helming several Stephen King adaptations including The Stand, Sleepwalkers, and The Shining mini-series.

• Matt Frewer portrayed The Trashcan Man in The Stand, directed by Mick Garris.

Quotes

• Jamie: I'm not a cop and I'm not trying to blackmail you. I love you.
  Catherine: Do you? Could you feel it? The knife. Could you feel it punching into his flesh. Could you feel him jerking and fighting? Could you feel the blood running down your arms? Is that what made you love me?

• Jamie: And I knew what it felt like to die.