Tales from the Crypt episode review — 2.5 — Three’s a Crowd

Original air date: May 1, 1990
Director: David Burton Morris
Writer: Kim Steven Ketelsen
Rating: 6/10

“Three’s a Crowd” is yet another domestic drama with a husband and wife who sort of hate each other. It’s written sort of obnoxiously, with a lot of tell-don’t-show dialogue that explains how their tenth anniversary trip is being paid for by the man’s best friend, who he suspects is with his wife, and for some reason is also on the trip.

The husband, Richard’s (Gavan O’Herlihy) suspicions seem completely justified throughout the episode, though we still don’t really like or root for him. He’s an asshole.

On the other hand, the best man, Alan (Paul Lieber), seems incredibly stupid to not realize how his intense generosity towards Della (Ruth de Sosa) could be taken the wrong way. There’s some class tension here, as Alan is apparently loaded rich, and Richard is down on his luck and just working at a bar.

Richard confronts Alan in the middle of the night and murders him with a crossbow. Della arrives at the cabin and barricades herself behind a door after she sees Alan’s body hanging off the floor.

When he breaks through the door, she jumps out the window. Outside, he strangles her to death with some stockings that Alan had bought for her. He goes to drag her over to Alan’s cabin, and when he arrives, he finds that there’s a surprise party for him to announce that Della was pregnant.

This episode starts out pretty okay, I guess. It’s really elevated by the ending. Most of the prior episodes didn’t really have great endings, but this one stuck out. It actually helped explain a bit of what was going on, as I had been wondering why the coat Alan bought for Della perfectly fit Richard, but I guess it was a maternity coat.