9x04 LHDP 66.6: The Rip-off - "I Hate Days Like This When it Rains"

Ep. 108: Los muertos no sangran (The Dead don't bleed)

Rip-off: Scared to Death
Summary: Medical examiners discover that a beautiful woman has died of fright. Literally. The rest of the film is narrated by the woman as she describes the events leading up to her death.





Rip-off: Criminal Minds
Summary: A team of criminal profilers from the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, solve crimes by analyizing the mind of the criminal in order to anticipate their next move. In the episode "Scared to Death", the team investigates a series of disappearances, which lead them to a psychiatrist who uses his patients' worst fears to kill them.





LHdP spin: During his autopsy of the third victim, Deker concludes that the victim had over 400mg of adrenaline in her system when she died, indicating a strong amount of fear. As a result, her heart exploded. In other words, she was scared to death.
Epic fail: Again, I'm kind of nitpicking here, because the victim's cause of death is minor. However, as with almost all of the other rip-offs we've seen thus far, there was no point to this one. Alex Pina & Co. mention the fact that the girl died from fear, but failed to explain what that fear was (presumably Satan, I suppose), or how that's relevant to the "66.6" storyline. One minute Deker is talking about her cause of death and the next, he and Pepa are examining and focusing on the hosts that was used during the communion the victim was forced to take. They literally were on one track, stopped, and jumped to a completely different track without ever returning to the original issue or explaining it in any way.

Rip-off: Star Wars prequel trilogy
Summary: While protecting Naboo's Queen Padmé Amidala, Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi, encounter a young boy named Anakin Skywalker on the planet Tatooine. Qui-Gon believes that Anakin may be the "Chosen One" who is supposed to bring balance to the Force. The remainder of the prequel films chronicle Anakin's journey as a Jedi and his transition to the Dark Side of the Force, where he becomes Darth Vader.





Rip-off: Harry Potter films
Summary: Harry Potter is an orphan who discovers at the age of 11 that he is a wizard. He is famous in the wizarding world, because when the evil Lord Voldemort attempted to kill an infant Harry, the spell rebounded and seemingly killed the dark lord instead. While Harry learns about magic at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Voldemort is planning his return to power. Since Harry is one of the few people who have been able to survive the continuous attacks against his life, many have dubbed him "the Chosen One" and believe he will be the one to defeat the dark lord.




Rip-off: The Matrix trilogy
Summary: In a futuristic world, sentient machines have taken over humanity, using their body heat as an energy source and creating a virtual world - "the Matrix" - which the humans perceive as reality. A group of humans who have escaped form a rebellion to liberate other humans and take down the machines. Neo is one of the liberated humans, and many believe that he is "The One" - a man whom it is prophesied will have limitless control of the Matrix and use this power to bring an end to the war.

LHdP spin: Towards the end of this episode, Paco discovers a notebook in his jacket with a note from the Father Sistaga while he waits for Mariano, Goyo and Rita to open up the tomb of the cannibal, Amadeo. In the note, Father Sistaga tells Paco that Satan (Amadeo) is alive and that he must face him. He also warns Paco that should he fail, Paco is the chosen one who must defeat him. When the tomb is opened, they discover the body of Father Sistaga, fulfilling the "prophesy" so to speak that Paco is the chosen one.

Why did I choose this pic?
Because clearly you can't become "the Chosen One" unless you've taken communion.

Epic fail: I feel like I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but again, these rip-offs fail because LHdP is not a sci-fi/fantasy show. It is a show about honest yet bumbling cops who solve crimes. Is Paco going to learn how to choke someone with his mind? Is he going to learn how to cast a spell to freeze someone? Is he going to learn how to stop bullets? I doubt it. Why? Because this isn't a scif-fi show! Thus, if one were to stick with the premise of what the show is supposed to be about, there is no way in hell (pardon the pun) that Paco could be "the Chosen One" in any sense of the term. The only upside to this incredibly redonkulous storyline is that, apparently as the "Chosen One", he can see Silvia in next week's episode.

*Note: I know that the episode recap mentioned a Twilight rip-off based on Blackman's story during the monologue. However, since, thankfully, no werewolves appeared in this episode, I didn't think it was relevant enough to include it in this lecture.

Feel free to add any other rip-offs you may have spotted, as well as your thoughts in agreement or dissent.

kalike

*The title for this lecture is based on lyrics from the song "Rain" by Mika