EPI-LOG ARTICLE on Beauty and the Beast
review by Nina Johnson. Click here for contents.

Episode 16 (Season 1, Episode 16)

Promises of Someday

Promises of Someday  (airdate: Feb. 12, 1988).  A young man with a beard and a heavy Australian accent goes through airport customs.  He has just come to the United States from Kenya still in search of "that perfect mug of beer."   Later on in the men's room, he shaves off his beard and changes his outback clothing to a three-piece suit.  He is very dark and handsome.  The only thing marring his perfect appearance are three deep scars on his left cheek.  Later we see him in Joe's office.  Catherine arrives and Joe introduces the man as Jeff Radler.  They exchange pleasantries and Joe tells Catherine that Jeff is being assigned to the Mansfield brief.  This particular case requires careful and expert legal work if they are going to make the charges against the alleged child abuser stick.  Catherine is angry that Joe has undermined her abilities.  But he tells her that the subject is not open for discussion and she is to help out Jeff in every way she can.  Catherine leaves the office.  Jeff is getting settled in his new office.  From his briefcase he takes out a few things, then he takes out the false bottom.  Inside are phoney id's many phoney certificates of degrees and lots of currency from around the world.  Catherine comes in and he hurriedly shuts his briefcase.  She has come to apologize to him and then she fills him in on the Mansfield case.  Mansfield has been convicted of many terrible things and she wants everything in their power done to keep him in prison.  Jeff promises her that he will help out.  As Catherine starts to leave the D.A.'s office that afternoon, Joe gives her some files for her to drop off at Jeff's hotel.  Jeff is in his hotel room where he is overlooking the park.  He puts his jacket on and leaves.  Catherine has just arrived in a taxi as he goes into the park.  She calls after him but he doesn't hear her.  She decides to follow him and he goes to a closed children's carousel.  As he looks at the still carousel, he touches his cheek. The carousel comes to life briefly for a moment in his mind, then it is silent.  He leaves the carousel and goes on into the park, with Catherine following right along.  Jeff has gone to the main tunnel entrance.  At a secret door, he wipes away some mud from a wall.  He lights a match, then stares intently at something that must be etched into the cement.  He blows out the match and leaves.  Catherine goes to see what he was staring at.  There are two names in the cement.  One is Devin and the other is Vincent.  That night on her balcony Catherine tells Vincent of the events of the day.  The man's name means nothing to Vincent, but the news that he went to the carousel does.  Catherine tells him of the scars on the man's cheek.  Vincent is startled but won't tell Catherine anything else until he gets the chance to find out for himself.  Vincent goes to his chamber and opens a storage chest.  He takes out a few toys, books, then a toy carousel.  He looks at it and has a flashback to the carousel in motion and other children playing on it.  The next day at the office, Jeff has several law books covering his desk.  He is reading and writing at the same time.  Catherine comes in and teases him that he must have made off with half of the law library.  He tells her that he is searching for a precedent.  But Catherine is not convinced.  She tells him that he can find a decision in the 19th Circuit Court of Appeals.  He stares at her for a moment then tells her that there is no 19th Circuit Court.  She just smiles, then leaves the office.  He is still working a while later when he tears off a sheet of paper, crumbles it up and throws it in the garbage.  He is getting his coat as Catherine comes in.  He tells her he is going to talk to a man about an apartment.  When he had gone, Catherine takes out the sheet and reads it.  She takes the paper and tosses it on Joe's desk.  Joe reads it and tells her obviously he has had an intern prepare a rough brief.  Catherine is convinced that the work is Jeff's.

    Jeff is in his room about to leave with a bag of tools and a flashlight.  He goes to the main doorway of the tunnels and breaks open the gate.  He trips a hidden lever.  The door opens.  To Jeff's surprise, Vincent is standing on the other side.  Vincent says "Devin?"  Jeff replies that no one has called him that in twenty years.  They embrace.  Devin had been raised in the tunnels as a young child.  Every one thought that he had been killed or lose in the Maze.  They talk a moment about their childhood, then Vincent asks him if he would like to see Father.  Devin has some reservations about that, as there is some friction between them.  But Vincent finally convinces him and they head off for Father's chambers.  Father stops and stares when he sees Devin/Jeff.  Devin tells of his life since leaving the tunnels and his career now as a lawyer.  Father and Vincent are glad that he has a successful life.  But his tales of all the other jobs he has had, like professional chef, teacher, and doctor, change their feelings.  When the word doctor comes up, Vincent and Father exchange glances.  He says that he delivered a child by Caesarean with some medical books.  Father erupts in anger.  He has a flashback of Devin as a boy and Father arguing about the danger he put Vincent in by taking him to the carousel.  Back in the present, Devin leaves saying that he knew it was a bad idea to come back.  Devin goes to the Chamber of Winds.  He remembers an argument he and Vincent had as children on those exact same stairs.  The young Vincent keeps telling the young Devin "I did not!" while Devin calls him a tattletale.  They begin shoving each other until Devin hits Vincent in the nose.  As the little Vincent sees blood from his nose on his hand, he smacks Devin across the face, leaving three ugly bleeding gashes.  Vincent lays a hand on Devin's shoulder bringing him back to the present.  Vincent tells him he knew he would come here.  Vincent asks him to come back but Devin won't.  Vincent and Catherine are talking later and he reveals who Devin really is.  He asks her not to reveal the truth about Devin because he was his only childhood friend who spoke of a life in the future with Vincent.  But Catherine has to expose him because otherwise he might submit an incompetent brief to the court that will allow Mansfield to go free.  Vincent goes to Father in a rage, accusing him of being harder on Devin than any of the other children.  He wants to know why.  Father then explains that when he first came to the tunnels, he found comfort in a woman called Grace.  Grace is  Devin's mother and Father is his real father.  This explains to Vincent why Father was so harsh on Devin.  The following day at the office, Catherine tells Devin she knows who he is and that he has 24 hours to resign.  She wants to know why he got involved in this charade to which he replied he never could make up his mind what he wanted to be.  She goes to see him later at his hotel to call him a coward for not staying in New York and trying to succeed.  She also tells him that he has hurt Vincent again just like he hurt him when he was little.  He takes her to the park to give her an explanation of what really happened.  Devin breaks into the carousel and there he tells that he only wanted to take Vincent for a ride.  He was trying to make up to Vincent for accusing him of being a tattletale.  He thought Vincent had told Father he kept a knife after being told to throw it away.  But another child had actually told Father.  Devin found out and decided that the carousel trip would make up for his false accusations.  But a policeman found them and almost captured Vincent.  They were running from the police when Devin was almost trapped.  The policeman dismounted to grab him, when Vincent growled at the policeman.  The cop let go of Devin to turn his gun on Vincent.  Devin picked up a rock and threw it at the cop.  The cop dropped his gun as Devin and Vincent ran back to the tunnels.  Father never really knew what had happened.  As he finishes his explanation, Father and Vincent come out of the shadows, having heard the entire story.  Devin asks Father what he had hoped to accomplish.  Father answers that perhaps it was nothing and perhaps he might hate him even more.  He tells him he has decided to tell him the truth.  He is Father's son.  The two of them then begin to talk.  Vincent and Catherine walk a little ways away and talk. Catherine gives Vincent an envelope.  Inside is a legal brief Devin has prepared before leaving.  Vincent wants to know how it is.  Catherine replies that it is rough but is certainly good enough to help keep Mansfield in jail.  She asks Vincent whether Devin will stay but his answer is no.  Devin has the heart of a Gypsy and the tunnels do not offer all the things he wants to see or do.  But now he finally has a home to come back to.  The next day, Devin is at the airport at the airline ticket desk.  The agent asks him his destination and seeing the ads for Alaska he tells her there.  When she asks his name, he replies, Wells, Devin Wells. 

Guest Cast: Bruce Abbott as Devin, John Franklin as Vincent (as a child), Andrew Held as Devin (as a child), Fred Dennis as the inspector, Max Battimo as Mitch (as a child), Holly Sampson as the young girl, Fred Lerner as the mounted policeman, Janet Cole Notey as the travel agent.

Writers: George R. R. Martin

Director: Thomas J. Wright.