ABC MINI-SERIES: STEPHEN KING'S THE TOMMYKNOCKERS {PART 2 OF 2} (TV)
Summary
Part two of this two-part miniseries, based on the Stephen King horror novel of the same name, about a small town in Maine where residents fall under the power of an otherworldly object. This episode opens with Jim discussing the spookiness of the previous evening’s mass hypnosis situation with Bobbi. Later, Bobbi’s tooth falls out, a symptom afflicting many locals. Meanwhile, Bryant works on a device to expedite business at the diner while Marie remains upset about Davey’s disappearance. Ruth tries to allay their fears but accidentally reads Bryant’s angry thoughts about her fruitless search. Meanwhile, doctors at the hospital discover that Hilly has a giant brain tumor. Jim goes to Mabel’s to get some supplies and sees that she, too, is tinkering with a green light-inspired invention that will make her “filthy rich.” At the post office, Nancy is servicing all the customers by reading their minds, with the exception of Jim.
Ruth and Butch discuss whether they will ever find Davey, and how he inexplicably vanished into thin air. Butch talks about his former partner, Ruth’s deceased husband, and admits his love for her. She returns his sentiments and they kiss. In the woods, Bobbi continues trying to excavate the object, hearing more voices. By night, Bobbi reveals to Jim that Petey is now dead and buried. Then, Bobbi seems to fall ill and Jim tries to revive her. Meanwhile, Bobbi’s novel-writing machine starts going crazy as Jim watches. By morning, Bobbi seems better and ready to dig some more, but Jim thinks she is obsessed. Jim realizes that the strange object is afflicting the entire town, wondering if Bobbi can read his mind. She states that she can’t, possibly because of the steel plate in his head. Ruth finds the object in the woods, just as Bobbi arrives with a bulldozer. Ruth thinks Bobbi needs help, with Bobbi then making some threatening remarks to her friend. When Ruth returns to the station, she watches as her dolls come to life and attack her. After a statue is dropped on her, Ruth is rendered unconscious.
Later, Butch finds both Ruth and her doll collection missing. Butch goes to the Browns, wondering if they’ve seen Ruth. Marie claims that Ruth is missing – just like Davey. Butch asks about Ev and Bryant reveals that he is at the hospital with Hilly. Ev doesn’t understand why Hilly is in a comatose-like state of shock, and losing his teeth. Meanwhile, Nancy visits Joe’s grave, where she discusses all the gadgets she is inventing. Butch pays a visit to Bobbi to see if she can give any clues to Ruth’s whereabouts, with Bobbi denying any knowledge of the sheriff’s recent actions. There, Butch begins to feel faint. Meanwhile, Jim says he’s tired of Bobbi’s deceptive ways and drives off, wanting to speak to Butch. At Bryant’s urging, Mabel disguises her voice over the police radio to sound like Butch and tells Derry troopers Jingles and Ben to call off the search for Ruth. They subsequently find Ruth’s deserted car before Nancy drives up. She tries to seduce them before they become suspicious of her. As they move to arrest her, Nancy asks if they’ll wait while she puts on some lipstick. She then unveils her “final surprise” – a gun in the shape of a lipstick that zaps them into the ether. Later, Jim speaks with Bryant about the strange situation in Haven. Bryant encourages Jim to get drunk, which he does.
That night, Butch meets with Ev, wondering if he knows what happened to Ruth. Ev thinks Ruth’s disappearance is tied in with Davey’s fate, and mentions how Hilly said his brother was with the tommyknockers. A green light rises in the center of Haven, drawing many locals to the town hall, where Bobbi speaks to them about the “final phase.” Bobbi stops her minions from attacking Jim, despite Nancy and Bryant’s provocations. The mob chases Jim, who is prevented from leaving the town by the green glow. Afterward, Nancy comes to Bryant with an enhanced gun and soon they are kissing. Meanwhile, Ev goes to the library to do some research on Burning Woods, learning that the forest may be cursed. Soon, Nancy and Bryant are assisting Bobbi and the others in fully excavating the mystery object, forcing Jim to join them though he refuses to “become” one of them.
Meanwhile, Ev shows his “pattern” findings to Butch, claiming that the disappearances of Davey, Ruth, Jingles, and Ben are all connected. In the morning, Ev and Butch walk through the now-deserted town and examine the areas of destruction. Then, while getting a can of soda, Butch gets his hand caught in the beverage machine. It quickly takes on a green glow before exploding and killing the man. Soon, Bobbi encourages the group to find an entrance to the object as Ev secretly observes the scene. After Marie spies him, the others try to enlist him in their project. Marie reveals that Davey has been found, luring Ev into Bobbi’s barn, which then glows green. That night, Jim sneaks into the barn, where he discovers the crystal-encrusted bodies of Ev, Ruth, and Petey. Though barely able to speak, Ev encourages Jim to save Davey from the tommyknockers. Then, Jim pulls out one of his own teeth with pliers and awakens Bobbi to convince her that he is becoming like everyone else.
After noticing that Bobbi’s skin is decaying, he uses his guise to get her to agree to find the object’s entrance with him. They finally locate the portal leading inside, descending in an elevator and finding mummified alien bodies on the structure’s lowest surface. They deduce that it is an alien spaceship which was flown telepathically. Jim also finds a crystallized Davey in a cocoon-like enclosure, realizing that Davey’s mind is powering the navigation panel. Bobbi then ascertains that Jim has been playing a trick on her. Jim can’t believe what Bobbi has done, saying that she’s become “a vampire” and that the tommyknockers are using the humans like batteries to sustain themselves. Bobbi attacks Jim, trying to kill him. Jim corrals her, trying to get the “real” Bobbi to return. Then, a tommyknocker appears and drains Bobbi’s lifeforce before going after Jim. However, Jim is able to take the creature down, which returns Bobbi to normalcy. Then, Jim frees Davey before instructing Bobbi to take the boy from the spacecraft. Jim stays behind as Bobbi and Davey return to the surface. There, the locals congregate as Nancy calls Bobbi “a traitorous bitch” and the group encircles her.
Bobbi explains that they are all being used by the tommyknockers. Nancy orders them to find the entrance to the ship. However, when Bryant tries to shoot the portal open, he is zapped. Meanwhile, Jim pierces his skull with one of the aliens’ brain devices. Bobbi then takes Davey back to her barn to free those she had captured, just as an ax-wielding Nancy appears. Ev subsequently reaches from his cocoon and strangles Nancy. Back on the ship, Jim’s mind makes the tommyknockers around him explode. Then, he forces the vehicle to wrench itself from the ground and fly into space. There, Jim uses his mind to make the ship explode as Bobbi watches from the ground, screaming at the fate of her beloved. As the locals return to their old selves, Bobbi sits on the ground with Petey and bids Jim a teary farewell. Includes commercials. Also includes an “ABC News Brief” with Chris Bury.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: May 13, 1993 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:00:00
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:31184
- GENRE: Drama, mystery/suspense
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, mystery/suspense
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV, 1993
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV - Commercials - "Cliffhanger" motion picture
- TV - Commercials - "Dave" motion picture
- TV - Commercials - "Needful Things" motion picture
- TV - Commercials - AT&T calling plans
- TV - Commercials - Aetna health care
- TV - Commercials - Best Foods dijonaisse mustard
- TV - Commercials - Budweiser beer
- TV - Commercials - Burger King restaurants
- TV - Commercials - Dove chocolate
- TV - Commercials - Gillette razors
- TV - Commercials - Good Seasons salad dressings
- TV - Commercials - Honda motorcycles
- TV - Commercials - Johnson & Johnson Surevue contact lenses
- TV - Commercials - Kellogg's Raisin Bran cereal
- TV - Commercials - Kellogg's Special K cereal
- TV - Commercials - Lactaid enzyme supplement
- TV - Commercials - McDonald's restaurants
- TV - Commercials - Mercury automobiles
- TV - Commercials - Miller Lite beer
- TV - Commercials - Never Stop Learning for education
- TV - Commercials - Nike products
- TV - Commercials - Nissan automobiles
- TV - Commercials - Oldsmobile automobiles
- TV - Commercials - Oral-B toothbrushes
- TV - Commercials - Slim-Fast diet shakes
- TV - Commercials - Tavist allergy relief
- TV - Commercials - Toyota automobiles
- TV - Commercials - U.S. Air Force
- TV - Commercials - Uncle Ben's pasta meals
- TV - Commercials - Visa credit cards
- TV - Commercials - Wendy's restaurants
- TV - Commercials - Whirlpool appliances
- TV - Commercials - WordPerfect software
- TV - Commercials - Wrigley's Spearmint gum
- TV - Promos - "Coach"
- TV - Promos - "Good Morning America"
- TV - Promos - "Home Improvement"
- TV - Promos - "Matlock: The Legacy"
- TV - Promos - "More of the the Best of the Hollywood Palace"
- TV - Promos - "Nightline"
- TV - Promos - "Primetime Live"
- TV - Promos - "Roseanne"
- TV - Promos - "The Barbara Walters Special" What Is This Thing Called Love?"
- TV - Promos - "The Wonder Years: The Final Episode"
- TV - Promos - "Wild Palms"
CREDITS
- Frank Konigsberg … Executive Producer
- Larry Sanitsky … Executive Producer
- Jayne Bieber … Producer
- Jane Scott … Producer
- Lawrence D. Cohen … Co-Producer, Writer
- Jenny Fulle … Visual Effects Producer
- John Power … Director
- Stephen King … Based on the novel by
- Christopher Franke … Music by
- Jimmy Smits … Cast, Jim "Gard" Gardner
- Marg Helgenberger … Cast, Roberta "Bobbi" Anderson
- John Ashton … Cast, Butch Duggan
- Allyce Beasley … Cast, Becka Paulson
- Robert Carradine … Cast, Bryant Brown
- Joanna Cassidy … Cast, Ruth Merrill
- Annie Corley … Cast, Marie Brown
- Cliff DeYoung … Cast, Joe Paulson
- Traci Lords … Cast, Nancy Voss
- E.G. Marshall … Cast, Ev Hillman
- Chuck Henry … Cast, Chaz Stewart
- Leon Woods … Cast, Hilly Brown
- Paul McIver … Cast, Davey Brown
- Yvonne Lawley … Cast, Mabel Noyes
- Bill Johnson … Cast, Elt Barber
- John Steemson … Cast, Barney Applegate
- Rick Leckinger … Cast, Jingles
- Peter Rowley … Cast, Benton Rhodes
- John Sumner … Cast, Mr. Arberg
- Elizabeth Hawthorne … Cast, Patricia McCardle
- Kay Helgenberger … Cast, Pearl
- Jim McLarty … Cast, Dr. Etheridge
- Timothy Bartlett … Cast, Mr. Allison
- Craig Parker … Cast, Student Bartender
- Larry Sanitsky … Cast, Neurologist
- Helen Medlyn … Cast, Neurologist #2
- Daniel Bieber … Cast, Boy at Vet
- Karyn Malchus … Cast, Tommyknocker
- for "ABC News Brief"
- Chris Bury … Anchor