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Off to See the Wretched

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Off to See the Wretched is the 23rd episode of Season 6 of The Cosby Show.

Plot Summary[]

Olivia is watching TV in the living room and sees an ad for a joke hot line that costs 95¢ a minute. She then dials the phone number, and after the TV ad says to get parents' permission, asks it from Cliff to tell a joke. He grants it, then she returns to the phone to listen. Gathering what she hears, she goes back to tell it to Cliff. Trouble is, what she says doesn't have a punchline. Cliff, wearing a Portland Trail Blazers jersey, tells her that she only told the beginning of the joke. So, she returns to listen to more on the phone. Then she tells that to him, only this time it consists of just the punchline. Then she goes back to the phone and this time Cliff follows her. He gently reminds her that she's not to make phone calls, and after determining about how long the call was, says that the total cost was $5 (actually $4.75), and also that Olivia didn't make him laugh. She replies, "Well, it wasn't my fault you didn't get it."

Later, Vanessa comes down the stairs to answer the doorbell. She has just received permission from her parents to go to Susan's house and then from there go with Susan and other friends Janet and Kara to the concert of their favorite rock group, The Wretched. The other girls are at the door; they're all at the Huxtables', not at Susan's. They come inside and then go over the real plan: the concert is in Baltimore, not New York; they're driving four hours to Baltimore in the car of Kara's older brother and have only told all the other parents the same thing Vanessa did, except Susan's parents aren't home, only her grandmother is. They'll drive straight from the Huxtables' and not go to Susan's, where her maternal grandmother is asleep, at all, and they believe they'll be back returning home to Susan's by the time her grandmother wakes up. Nobody's parents know where the concert is.

Vanessa yells upstairs that they are leaving, but first Clair comes down. She isn't suspicious although all the girls are there; she only gives Susan a borrowed book she's done with and wants to return. Clair also wants to call Susan's mother, but Susan says to wait until Monday because things are kind of crazy around the house. Vanessa then says that the girls will sleep late at Susan's, and she'll be home tomorrow afternoon. Clair gives her a kiss and goes to the kitchen, then the girls leave for Baltimore, while singing the theme song of The Wretched.

Deceitfully, the girls make it to a doughnut shop in Wilmington, Delaware, and feel ready to be out on their own. Inside, Kara tells the others that her brother is in college, but leaves his car with their parents and has her warm it up periodically. She doesn't mention to him that this time she's taking it on a trip. Janet goes out to the car, borrowing the keys to unlock it and get out her makeup. But she comes back into the shop and reports that there is no car. Everybody checks outside, then come back in a state of shock. Even though the car is insured, Kara wants to report the theft to the police, but Vanessa and Susan convince her not wait until they get home to do so, so the police will believe that the theft occurred in New York, and the thief drove the car to Wilmington. The four then regain their spirits and decide to find another way to Baltimore.

Meanwhile, back at the Huxtables', Olivia prepares some jokes on her own and gives them to Cliff. He's not sure he wants to hear too many more of them, so she does a final bow before bounding up to her room, and he calls that the best part of her act "knowing when to get off." Denise and Rudy then call Cliff and Clair into the living room, concerning what's showing on the TV news. They all watch a report about a chemical fire that's raging from a paint factory, and spewing toxic fumes. The fire is only a block away from Susan's house, where Vanessa and her friends supposedly are. Clair alarmingly picks up the phone and calls the house but gets no answer. However, Susan's grandmother Beatrice Whitman, who lives with Susan and her parents, appears on the news, with the reporter. She claims that Susan's parents are gone for the weekend, much to Clair's surprise, as Vanessa hadn't said anything about them being away. Ms. Whitman also claims that the fireman searched the house and reported that no one was in there, to the Huxtables' relief. But now, Cliff and Clair are curious about the girls' whereabouts. Cliff suggests that they call Janet and Kara's parents to see if the girls are at either of their houses, and Clair says they could also find out where in the city the Wretched concert is in order to meet the girls at the performance venue. Denise says that the group aren't allowed to play in New York because of the chaos they previously caused. Right then, there's a TV entertainment report, featuring Frankie X, the lead singer of the Wretched, who thanks the citizens of Baltimore for allowing the Wretched to perform there tonight. Clair stops dialing and puts down the phone, as she and Cliff confirm that what they just heard, that the Wretched concert is all the way down in Baltimore! Rudy breaks out a huge smile on her face as she says, "Vanessa went all the way to Baltimore. Wow!"

At the Baltimore Arena, the girls are excited to have arrived for the concert. Just then, a young man who claims to be an official for the band, and is wearing a blue t-shirt which says, "SECURITY", but has no ID tag, approaches the girls, and offers to get them special backstage passes to the event. He asks to see their tickets, and the girls hand them over. The man then asks the girls to follow him to the band's secret entrance, but then he rushes off into the crowd with the girls' tickets and they lose him. Panicked, they go to another young man nearby, who is selling Wretched t-shirts and Susan tells him about the other guy. The vendor asks if the other guy was wearing a badge like the one he's wearing, and Susan says the other guy wasn't. The vendor confirms that the guy who took their tickets is a thief who has performed this stunt before, stealing tickets from gullible fans and selling them, so their tickets are pretty much gone. For the stunned girls, another nasty surprise quickly comes when Janet finds that all their money is gone from her handbag, courtesy of a pickpocket who tore a hole in it. They soon depart the scene with the trip a total disaster.

Back at the Huxtables' house, Clair finishes a phone conversation with Kara's mother. She then reports to Cliff that Kara's parents got a call from the Wilmington Police Department: her brother's car was found in Wilmington on the side of the road completely stripped. The thief, upon apprehension, confessed to stealing the car from the parking lot of a local donut shop. Upon further investigation, the woman behind the counter at the donut shop described to the police four teenage girls, and claims they had asked her how to catch a bus to Baltimore. The police traced the VIN of the car to Kara's house and her parents. Clair and Cliff now know that the girls hadn't reported the theft to the police, but rather had continued on their way to Baltimore and presumably made it to the Wretched concert. Clair tells Cliff that they should go to Susan's house and meet Vanessa because the girls will eventually return there. Before they leave, Cliff then executes a standing broad jump, and asks Clair to measure the distance. It comes to 8 feet, and Cliff adds 3 to that for a total of 11 feet, declaring that when they see Vanessa, that's how far away from her he'll have to be. Cliff and Clair leave for Susan's. Next thing shown to viewers is a time stamp of "5:13 am" against the exterior of the Huxtable home. Nothing is seen from Susan's house, as well as nothing revealed about what happened to any of the other girls, although it's easy to assume they all had severe punishments. Also, this suggests that Cliff and Clair have a long wait until the girls are back.

Then, the Huxtable parents return home and have Vanessa back with them. Clair furiously orders Vanessa to come into the house and sit on the sofa in the living room. Clair then flings the outside door shut, closing it before a weary Cliff can come inside. As he does, Clair furiously states that she and Cliff were frantically worried about the girls dying of asphyxiation in a burning building, when instead they had gone to Baltimore. In a mocking way, Clair then asks if the girls really were pursuing "Big Fun". While she does this, Rudy sneaks out of her room and kneels at the top of the stairs to watch. When Vanessa, looking decidedly sullen and ragged, starts to answer, Clair screams, "SHUT UP!!! Don't you dare open your mouth while I'm asking you a question!!" Then, sensing what else probably is happening, she orders Rudy to go to bed, and Rudy scampers back to her room post-haste.

Clair then hopes that one day Vanessa can go through what she has put Cliff and Clair through, in having a child, and thinking her child was in danger, declaring that she and Cliff have been through states of frenzy, panic, distress, and now, that they know Vanessa is ok, they're in a state of rage. She next mocks the girls' overall trip, including the stop for doughnuts and then foolishly continuing on their way even after their car was stolen, claiming anyone with half a gnat's brain would've called the whole thing off right then and there and gone home. Cliff, who's just as angry as Clair, but stays calm the whole time, quietly asks Vanessa what she was thinking. Vanessa admits she wasn't, and Cliff concludes, "You got that right." Clair asks if the girls truly thought that no parent would find out, and again when Vanessa tries to answer, she yells "SHUT UP!" She then asks for clarification of what Vanessa had said while returning home about their not getting into the concert, and this time says, "You better answer me when I ask you a question, girl!" Vanessa meekly tells her that they gave away their tickets to a con artist, posing as a security guard for the band, their money being stolen, and they left the venue, and then ran into Freddy Scuria, a friend of Janet's brother, who gave them bus fare. Only with that were they able to make it home.

Clair scornfully expresses surprise that anyone would pity the girls. Vanessa then offers an apology and asks for her punishment, but Clair wearily replies that she and Cliff have been through far too much of an ordeal to administer a punishment at this time. However, Vanessa pathetically says she wants it before she goes to bed. Clair then with malicious intent lunges toward Vanessa, only to be restrained by Cliff, who quietly tells Vanessa to just go to bed, adding, "If you're thinking about running away from home, please don't take my car."

As Vanessa walks toward the stairs, Clair informs her with the implication that her previous wrongdoings and deceptions from previous episodes she has proven that she is completely untrustworthy, and it's going to be a very long time before they even think of trusting her again. Vanessa tries to repeat her apology, promising that this will never happen again, but Clair storms at her to within less than an inch of her face, declaring that for all she knows, Vanessa is lying right now, and she shouts in mighty thunder, "GO TO BED!!!!" Vanessa tearfully starts to plead, but realizing its no use, trudges upstairs to her room. Clair then demands to Cliff that they need to figure out how they're going to get Vanessa to be honest with them, from here on out, and they will do so, before they go to bed themselves. Cliff agrees, and, in a Siegfried voice, calls Clair "Roy", and tells her to get a pad and pencil and bring them into the kitchen, or "Chuckwagon" as he calls it, where he'll make some coffee, "beans, and a side of pork" and the two of them will figure out "how to catch all the Desperados". As Cliff goes into the kitchen, Clair sits for a moment to process her thoughts.

Cast[]

Trivia[]

  • This is the final appearance in the series of Elizabeth Narvaez as Kara, Pam Potillo as Janet, and Lisa Rieffel as Susan. It's most likely that after what happened, they were forbidden by their infuriated parents from seeing each other and Vanessa again or they were sent away from each other as punishment. It's also likely Kara got in trouble with her brother for stealing his car.
  • While Vanessa's official punishment was not disclosed, nor was the Wretched incident ever mentioned again, Vanessa barely appeared for the remainder of Season 6. At the beginning of Season 7, she had taken extra classes, graduated early, and was leaving for college. (Due to Tempest Bledsoe wishing to reduce her appearances to focus on her studies). There is speculation as to whether this ordeal was forced on Vanessa as part of her punishment, or if it was a voluntary undertaking on her part, either to regain Clair's trust, or just to get away from her.
  • Apparently, Olivia either slept all the way through Clair's yelling, or she was taken by Denise to go sleep elsewhere (Sondra's, Russell and Anna's, etc.) for the evening, either voluntarily or via Clair's instructions. It's a surprise Clair didn't do the same with Rudy, although it's possible she felt that Rudy at 10 years of age was old enough to take a lesson from everything, Olivia, on the other hand, is only 4 years of age, is not Clair's daughter, she is her niece, and is probably too young to understand or witness Clair's rage and might be unnecessarily traumatized by it.
  • Sondra, Elvin, Martin, and Theo did not appear in this episode. Theo's absence is due to the fact that his actor, Malcolm-Jamal Warner was directing this episode.
  • It should have tipped Claire off that something was up when the girls were dressed for an apparent 8pm concert in New York in the early afternoon, probably 2pm at the latest since Baltimore is a 4-hour drive from New York and they planned to make a snack stop on the way.
  • The Portland Trail Blazers jersey Cliff wears in this episode is in honor of Ramon Ramos. Ramos was the starting center on the Seton Hall University basketball team which made it to the 1989 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament final, losing to the University of Michigan. Ramos was signed by the Blazers as an undrafted free agent before the 1989-90 season and was placed on the injured list due to knee tendinitis. He was finally cleared to play on December 5 and rode the bench for five games before losing control of his car the night of December 16, 1989. Ramos was paralyzed in the accident from the waist down.
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