SOUTH AFRICA'S TV WEBSITE
SIGN IN SEARCH MENU
SOUTH AFRICA'S TV WEBSITE


Life On Mars: Episode 4

Written by Citanul from the blog Take A Look At The Lawman on 28 May 2008
Favourite this post


Sam hears the voice of his mother Ruth, asking if he can hear her. In the meantime, he’s walking along an empty street.

He sees a cat, which he addresses as “Ivanhoe”. After hearing Ruth’s voice again, Sam wakes up, indicating that this sequence was all a dream.

Sam returns to the street, this time for real, and asks a little girl if she knows a boy called Sam Tyler. Before the girl can give him an answer, her mother calls her away.

Sam walks away, but sees a man beating up another man. He chases after the perpetrator and arrests him.

Back at the station, the detectives are drawing names for a Grand National sweepstake. Gene draws the then unknown Red Rum (a three time Grand National winner) and Sam, recognising the name, attempts to swap.

Sam attempt is interrupted by Ray who tells Gene that someone has just arrested Charlie Edwards. Charlie Edwards turns out to be the man Sam arrested, and Gene explains that Edwards is the right hand man of Stephen Warren, a local businessman of questionable character who enjoys “cordial relationships” with the police. In other words, he pays the police to look the other away when it comes to his more questionable activities.

To Sam’s disbelief, Gene lets Edwards go. In return, Edwards leaves some passes for Warren’s nightclub.

That evening, Gene takes Sam to Warren’s nightclub, where he wants Sam to apologise to Warren for arresting Edwards. Members of the police department are at the club, including Ray, Chris and Annie.

In the club’s VIP area Sam notices a number of famous people, including well-known soccer players and Marc Bolan (lead singer of 70s rock band T-Rex). Sam approaches Bolan and advises him to be careful while driving.

Sam and Gene enter Warren’s office. Gene introduces Sam to Warren and Warren calls in Edwards, who apologises for the incident that morning and says that it won’t happen again.

Warren says that he wants a word with Gene, and asks one of his girls to show Sam out. Sam ends up dancing with her on the club’s dancefloor.

Later on, Gene and Sam visit some hippies who have been fencing stolen TVs. After getting into a fight which they win, the two of them enter the pub carrying a TV. Presumably they arrested the hippies, although this is never shown.

Sam makes the suggestion that they put up some brackets and mount the TV on the wall so that people can watch the sport, a suggestion which Nelson finds completely bewildering. Surprisingly, Sam seems to be OK with them not having acquired the TV legally.

Sam gets a drink and reaches in his pocket for some money only to find a roll of notes that wasn’t there before. Gene says that Warren should be off their backs for a while, indicating that it was Warren who tipped them off about the TVs and was responsible for the money.

Back in Sam’s flat, he has the TV on. You’d think that he’d give up watching considering the number of times it seems to be talking back to him.

On the screen is a presenter together with a sock puppet. The puppet starts talking, before its voice changes to that of Ruth’s, talking to Sam and telling him not to leave.

The next day, Sam goes back to his old neighbourhood. He finds his old house and after some hesitation, rings the bell.

Ruth answers, and Sam introduces himself as Detective Inspector Bolan. He tells her that he’s making enquiries about spate of burglaries in the area.

Ruth invites him in for a cup of tea, an offer which Sam accepts. While they’re drinking and talking Ruth’s landlord comes in, demanding the rent. Sam throws the landlord out, but not before the landlord mentions that he works for Warren.

Sam then offers Ruth some of the money Warren had given him, an offer which Ruth doesn’t accept, as she doesn’t know Sam and believes that he must have an ulterior motive. Sam tries one last thing before leaving, advising her to put some money on Red Rum, but Ruth isn’t prepared to risk her money like that.

Sam returns to Warren’s club and returns the money. Warren naturally denies all knowledge, but Sam warns him that he’ll be watching him.

Later on at the station, Sam is informed that a young woman who has just been arrested wants to talk to him. The woman turns out to be Joni Newton, the girl Sam had danced with at the club.

Joni tells Sam that Warren threatened to kill her. She tells him she wants to leave Manchester, and convinces him to take her home with him as she’s not safe in the police station.

Sam cooks dinner for them before settling down to sleep in a chair while Joni has the bed. Sam’s dream includes the images from the woods we’re used to seeing, but also includes Ruth, Gene, the test card girl, and a naked Joni.

Sam wakes up to the sound of Gene pounding on his flat door. Gene bursts in, followed by Annie, to discover Sam naked and handcuffed to the bed while Joni is nowhere to be found.

At the station the other detectives have fun at Sam’s expensive. However, Ray and Chris’s voices suddenly change and they mention that Sam’s brain functions and heart rate are up, which is what is to be expected from a change of medication to pentobarbital.

When Sam explains that Joni told him Warren had threatened to rape and kill her Gene reveals that Warren is gay, so in other words Sam had been set up by Joni. Gene says that it’s happened before – Joni would have slipped Sam some LSD to take him out of it, and then taken photos of the two of them together in order to use as blackmail material.

Sam visits Warren’s club where he finds Joni and confronts her about the photos, to which she replies that she was just doing his job. On his way out he overhears an upset Gene arguing with Warren about the incident.

Sam’s wanderings take him back to his old house, where he apologises to Ruth for offering her money and giving her the wrong impression about him. She invites him to come around the next day in order to meet her son Sam, who wants to be a police officer when he grows up.

So Ruth’s husband’s away, and she’s inviting a strange man around. Anyone else find that a little dodgy? Luckily for Sam, he doesn’t think so, as he’s got more than enough problems to deal with already.

At the pub, the detectives are watching the Grand National on the newly-installed TV when Joni arrives, wanting to talk to Sam. She tells Sam that she’s leaving for good this time, and burns what she claims are the negatives of the photos she took.

Either later that evening or early the next morning, Sam is woken up again by Gene at the door of his flat, although this time he has clothes on. Gene takes him to a canal where a Joni’s dead body has been found floating in the water with her throat slit. When Ray makes a comment that Joni paid the price for Sam’s actions, Sam slams him up against a wall and has to be pulled off by Gene and Chris.

Gene and Sam end up sharing a bottle of whiskey together, and Gene relates his early days on the force to Sam. It turns out that when Gene was starting out, he was partnered with a veteran officer who he found out was taking bribes.

Gene informed on the officer, who ended up hanging himself as a result. A month later, Gene took his first bribe. When asked by Sam, Gene says that he’s not happy with the current situation, and gratefully accepts Sam’s offer to do something about it.

The two of them track down Edwards and haul him into a warehouse with a large freezer. When Edwards won’t talk, they force him to strip and then shut him inside the freezer. After a short while, Edwards reveals that Warren was the one who killed Joni after she refused to give him the photos of Sam.

Sam and Gene barge into Warren’s office where they interrupt him while he’s with a young man. In order to keep this blog suitable for the whole family I won’t go into any more details, but I’m sure you can use your imagination if I tell you that Warren was kneeling and the young man was standing.

They arrest Warren and lead him out through the front of the club. Back at the pub, Sam and Gene are greeted by a round of applause when they enter.

We’re not done with Sam though, as he now heads off for his “date” with his mother and his younger self. When he gets to the house he finds the door ajar and the house empty.

He goes up the stairs into his bedroom and sees various items scattered about, as though someone had to leave in a hurry. One of the items is a four-year old Sam wearing a police helmet.

There’s more TV fun to be had when Sam yet again falls asleep with the TV still on. The sock puppet reappears and speaks with Ruth’s voice again, telling Sam that she’ll always be there for him.



Comments


Only TVSA members can reply to this thread. Click here to login or register.






LATEST ARTICLES

New on TV today: Saturday 18 January 2025

VIA has the only new shows tonight, with dating show Langpad na Liefde and the return of Gesels.


House of Zwide 4 Teasers - February 2025

Neo thinks Ona used him for sex. He creates a Power Point presentation on why she should love him. Ouch!


On Carte Blanche: Stellenbosch students in danger

An investigation into the police and university followed by the coldest hotel bed in the world.


New on TV today: Friday 17 January 2025

Returning shows include Young, Famous & African on Netflix and Severance on Apple TV+.


Generations character portrait: Athie Cwele as Kamogelo Moroka

Athie embarks on a right of passage as a character with THAT surname.


Generations character portrait: Sicelo Mabaso as Samkelo

This is Sicelo's third role on TV which he landed after a "gruelling" audition process.


Generations character portrait: Vuyolwethu Matiwane as Lulama

TV newcomer Vuyo plays a character who used to pray a lot. Maybe she still does.


Uzalo Teasers - February 2025

Season 10 finale! Prince makes the ultimate sacrifice for Sipho as Phefeni fights for his life in the Season 11 premiere.


New on TV today: Thursday 16 January 2025

True crime docuseries Boetie Boer begins on M-Net and Season 2 of XO, Kitty drops on Netflix.


Kelders van Geheime Teasers - February 2025

Scandal! Soebatskloof gets rocked by the latest scuttlebutt and those implicated struggle to cope.

LATEST SITE ACTIVITY


More activity at TVSA Central



LATEST SOAPIE TEASERS



LATEST SOAPIE TEASERS





×
×

You browser doesn't have Flash, Silverlight, Gears, BrowserPlus or HTML5 support.