Channel Zero: The Dream Door
Episode Five, “You Belong To Me”
Written by Angel Varak-Iglar & Lisa Long
Directed by E.L. Katz

[All images courtesy Syfy]

For an in-depth recap of this and every episode of Channel Zero, I highly recommend a visit to Father Son Holy Gore. Check out his other great recaps, movie reviews, and in-depth essays on horror.
Now, let’s take a deep dive into the symbolism and references I noticed in “You Belong to Me”, the fifth episode of Channel Zero Season Four.  My episode recaps and observations for Seasons One and Two are at SciFi4Me.com, and my observations for Season Three can be found here at Fang and Saucer.

Dream Police Observations 

*Morphing effect for the creation and brief life of Unfortunate Bunny Rabbit reminded me of the memory effects in No End House.

*Ian is teaching the CZ version of Creative Visualization.

*Ian “Cute bunny rabbit … comfort, gratitude, love …” Except in this case, Unfortunate Bunny Rabbit resembles a teleportation mishap from The Fly or Galaxy Quest more than any fluffy bunny.

*Jillian creates two “babies” this episode (both with help from another) that live brief, increditbly agonized existences.

*Ian assures Jillian she’ll learn to control and operate her creations “like a puppet”, which of course put this golden oldie on replay in my mind.

*Of course, there’s a long tradition of creepy puppet symbolism in horror (from the beginnings of the Gothic/Horror genre of Marionettes/puppets/ventriloquist dummies from E.T.A Hoffman‘s The Sandman) (1816), the Twilight Zone episode The Dummy (1962), to the “Orpheus & Euridyce meet Geppetto” mashup in Keith Donohue’s 2016 novel  The Motion of Puppets.

*Jillian’s opening the tiny door of the tiny house – so reminiscent of Alice In Wonderland (1865). “So she unlocked the tiny little door, and she stooped down and looked through it, and what do you think she saw? Oh, such a beautiful garden! And she did so long to go into it! But the door was far too small. She couldn’t squeeze herself through, any more than you could squeeze yourself into a mouse-hole!”

*CZ: Butcher’s Block favored red doors; Dream Door favors shades of blue.

*Ian begins to tip his hand, and his true intentions/attidude towards his creations with a dismissive “they can’t all be winners”. Like all good meglomaniacs, he can’t stop there and adds, “like your dog” . By admitting he created the pug, he paves the way for Jillian’s “Eureka Moment” later in the episode when she find her childhood pug stuffed animal.

*Jillian’s realization flows into a classic suspense setup “I know I’m in danger but can’t let you know I know, so I’ll  pretend everything’s still ok while figuring out how to get out of here.”

*Minnesota is indeed the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

*Ian’s cottage, set amidst a blue lake and the vivid green of trees and plants, reminded me (if only in setting) of A. A. Milne’s 1922 novel The Red House Mystery.

*Ian’s stash of mummified animal husks in his basement again brings to mind the MacDonald Triad, along with theory that  experimentation and cruelty towards animals leading to similar behavior towards people. His casual dismissal of Jillian’s misbegotten rabbit ( “they can’t all be winners”) betrays his attitude of his creations as things, mindless tools to be used.

*Ian uses the vague “passed away” when describing his mother’s death “earlier this year … she was very trusting … too trusting. I think she chose not to see certain things.” What exactly did Mom choose not to see – her husband’s other family? Or her son’s sociopathy (or psychopathy?).

*I wish Ian had elaborated on this tidbit about Mom – “she deserved better than she got … my mom was the other woman and I didn’t even know”.

*Ian says Tall Boy “did some not so great things” Did that include killing his mother?

*Ian says Tall Boy “did some not so great things” Did that include killing his mother?

*Did Ian leave his front door unlocked deliberately? Who leaves the doors unlocked anymore, even in Minnesota?

*Tom greets Jillian and Ian’s return with a Channel Zero Intervention, complete with material collected from Ian’s basement. Lucky for Tom that Ian lugs all his backstory with him.

*Ian commits  Jillian’s cardinal sin in this revaltory scene  – he admits he lied to her.

*Is Ian supremely confident in showing off Bill’s corpse to Tom and Jillian, or beyond thinking of the consequences?

*All the pugs surrying around Bill Hope’s corpse wear adorable crayon-bright knit sweaters.

*As part of Ian’s Confession Time Monologue Theater,  he admits killing the O’Connells (like Michael Haenke’s orginal version of   Funny Games) to be in the house next door.

*The address Jillian calls in to 911 seems off – “48 Brahms Bay Caldecott Street” If I recall corrrectly, the town on the envelope in Episode One was Caldecott MN, not Caldecott Street in Caldecott MN.

*After Ian’s carted off to jail (we think), Tom makes a basic, honest appeal to Jillian. He just wants to be with her and create a family with her. Which leads to the second short-lived, helpless suffering creature of this episode. Their first child.

*At least their child isn’t abandoned and unloved. Unlike the creature it very much resembles, the baby from David Lych’s 1977 mystifying, nightmarish masterpiece, Eraserhead.

*Poor Detectives Fraser (Marina Stephenson Kerr) and McPhillips (Grey Bryk). Many people make fun of people  wearing socks with sandals. Very few suffer horrific bloody deaths because of it. And it’s not actually  much of a fashion crime anymore.

*Minnesota, like every other state, does have a law against passing a school bus.

*Excellent slo-mo buildup with Tall Boy stalking from behind and the Dad & kid arguing by the bus in front.

*Regarding the detective’s discussion as to just what differentiates spree, mass, and serial killers. The FBI dropped the separate definition of Spree Killers in 2005, but the categories can still be  viewed as helpful references, according to Kathleen Ramsland. “Criminological researchers interested in developmental and psychological issues see value in retaining distinct categories to study their differences.”

*Tall Boy’s weapons of necessity – a pickaxe and electric saw – harken back to Abel Ferrera’s grindhouse horror classic Driller Killer (1979).

*Tom displays some genre savvy in refusing Ian entrance into his house. Not that it helps him from getting kidnapped; or save the poor cop (Bradley Sawatzky, I believe) walking out of Ian’s house from an extraordinarily bloody death.

*I think “Meet Me at the Ghost Neighborhood”, supposedly written in Poor Dead Cop’s blood, looks a lot more like colored chalk or crayon.

*Thanks to Father Son Holy Gore’s recap for identifying the episode’s closing song – “Always Wanted Your Love” by  Tony Stephens. The episode title comes from the hit written by Michael McDonald of the Doobie Brothers and Carly Simon. While the Doobie Brothers released it first in 1977, Simon’s 1978 version reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

*WhatSong.Com is a great resource for Channel Zero fans to find songs used in Seasons 2-4.

Next episode, the Channel Zero: The Dream Door finale narrows things down to the “Two of Us”.

Until next time, Dream a Little Dream of Stabby the Murder Clown …

The first three seasons of Channel Zero are currently on the Shudder streaming service. Channel Zero: The Dream Door is currently available on demand and will join them on Shudder in 2019.