Dang, I like this show – and thought this was a truly outstanding episode. It’s so cool that they were able to do something from that far back in time – and what a great story.
I missed the first 10 or 15 minutes though – when I turned it on, they were doing a flashback of Billie in a bar dressed as a man – so I missed the whole setup of the story. Can someone fill me in? I gather they found Billie’s body when someone found the truck? What else did I miss?
TIA.
Also – how did they find Billie’s poetry?
I found it unlikely that all of those folks would be alive today.
Someone who was twenty in 1931 would be 93 or 94 today, you know.
They were a little younger than that – high school age – in 1932, so they were born around 1915. I’ve got two aunts still alive – one of whom is in fabulous shape, mentally and physically – who were born in 1914 and 1915.
Unlikely but not impossible. It was just three people who were still alive – the girl, the brother, and the other black woman. I thought about it but decided not to let my disbelief get unsuspended.
The story just started with the bootlegger and his sister meeting the black brother and sister and the young Piper Laurie is quite taken with her.
Then we see the truck go over the bridge. Then we see the truck dredged up later.
What’s more surprising is that no one saw the car for that long. You would think that the river would have pushed it to the banks sometime.
The actors playing all the parts weren’t nearly as old as their characters. Piper Laurie is 73. Marla Gibbs is 74.
rose is standing by her brothers truck when she sees the transformation of wilhelmina to billy. she zips off the skirt, rolls down pants, switches shoes, adds a tie and jacket, hair is tucked up and on goes a hat.
rose is fasinated by the change and watches billy’s moves in and out of the bar. her brother tells her to get in the truck.
there is a flash of the truck chase and you see one car shooting at the truck and the truck goes over the bridge. theme music and commercial.
then there is a now-a-day shot of the recovery of the truck and the detectives are walking around the truck trying to narrow the time period. they figure on the early thirties and track the truck by its plate.
the granddaughter of the bar man had boxes and boxes of his bar items. in the boxes were books containing billy’s poems. also billy’s girlfriend and rose mentioned the poems.
i got the odd feeling that she died in the park that aft. and billy came for her and they walked off to the central park in the sky.