Carpenter and Lawrence seem to have come up with a winning combination the last couple of weeks. Introduce a strange character into the mix, throw in some mistaken ideas, and let the fun begin. Though not as clever as last week, I still found lots of good fun in this week’s installment.
This week’s wacky character is Cyril Fitton. His goal in life – to record sounds, mostly animals and birds. People did that for a living back then, when you couldn’t get anything and everything instantly on the Internet. He’s good at it and loves his job to the point of being happy to demonstrate it to everyone else.
Sam’s not as happy with his job and gives Mr. Bennet his notice. Bennet tries to talk him out of it – very badly, unfortunately.
Sam: I’m just no good at farming.
Bennet: Well, that the stupidest thing you ever said.
Sam: Are you calling me stupid?
Bennet ends up firing him, before Sam reminds him he already quit. Sam is getting a job with Cyril, helping him record for a living. He also wants to get stories from various older citizens before that history is lost. “Is your friend an octogenarian?” asks Fitton. “No, I think he’s a Methodist,” replies Sam.
Enter Catweazle. First he saw Fitton with his fancy multi-covered umbrella trying to record sound from Touchwood, CW’s toad familiar. (I did see your note, micheallevenson. Toad it is.) CW is amazed seeing him fold up the umbrella and walk to his home on wheels. Cat thinks it’s some sort of beast and when Sam walks in fears he’s been devoured – especially when he hears Cyril play back the loud scream of a screech owl.
He runs to tell Carrot that Sam is no more. Carrot thinks it’s silly and tries to show him he is wrong. Trouble is he does find Sam’s shoes in the trailer (which Sam had exchanged for some boots). Cyril returns and Catweazle tries in vain to hide. Then the previous silent Touchwood decides to ribbit away and gives away CW’s position. The good news is that when Cat stutters “Sam”, Cyril thinks he that Methodist, I mean octogenarian, he was waiting on and wants to hear his history of long past. Trying to explain his recording system to Catweazle he talks about “winding back,” and Cat thinks it means that he can wind the wizard back in time. But Cat ends up thinking that he has captured Sam on a spool, and when he tries to flee he gets all twisted up in the tape and sets off his various recordings before Cyril cuts him free and he runs.
As I said before, I’m not a fan of destruction comedy, but clearly he was using a fresh reel to record as earlier he had just had Sam talk on it. So all he lost is a few feet of empty tape. No real harm done. The fact that Fitton takes his work so seriously is half the fun. When he heard a plane fly overhead he announced he hates planes because one of them ruined the only recording he had of a yellow-bellied sapsucker. He then tosses a shovel to Sam and said, “Let’s go hide.” “From the planes?” protests Sam. Cyril explained that he meant hide from their next quarry. Honestly, Sam, I was thinking the same thing as you.
What makes this episode so delightful is that we’re used to seeing Carrot tell Catweazle that he’s just imagining things. Here, he goes to tell his Dad that Sam has been murdered and buried, and it’s Mr. Bennet’s turn to tell him he’s imagining things. When he mentions that Sam is probably buried, we see Sam hiding in the camouflaged pit he had dug earlier. I kept expecting Carrot to find him there buried as a punchline, but I guess they couldn’t figure out a way to manage that idea.
Anyway, all’s well that ends well. Sam decides Cyril’s career isn’t a fit for him and Bennet is more than happy to take him back. Catweazle has a little adventure but can only sigh that it’s too back Cyril never got to “wind him back.” Cyril leaves to find sounds in a saner environment.
I’m only disappointed Cyril didn’t get to ask CW about his past and get bizarre responses from a millennium ago rather than the 50 or 60 years he expected. Oh well.
This episode gets 7 volcanoes, which is where Fitton’s former partner apparently met his demise trying to get some recording for Cyril.
