Homecoming (Masters of Horror episode)
| "Homecoming" | |
|---|---|
| Masters of Horror episode | |
DVD cover
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| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 6 |
| Directed by | Joe Dante |
| Written by |
Teleplay: Sam Hamm Short Story: Dale Bailey |
| Production code | 106 |
| Original air date | December 2, 2005 |
| Guest appearance(s) | |
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Beverly Breuer |
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Beverly Breuer
Jason Emanuel
Thea Gill
Ryan McDonnell
Terry David Mulligan
Robert Picardo
Jon Tenney
"Homecoming" is the sixth episode of the first season of Masters of Horror. It originally aired in North America on December 2, 2005. It is loosely based on the 2002 short story "Death & Suffrage" by Dale Bailey.
An unnamed Republican president (whose appearance is modeled after Bill Clinton and whose voice is modeled after George W. Bush) is running for reelection during a divisive war, and one of his speechwriters, David Murch (Jon Tenney), goes on TV to speak with talk show host Marty Clark (Terry David Mulligan) and strident right-wing sexpot (and Ann Coulter-like) Jane Cleaver (Thea Gill). Another guest is Janet Hofstader (Beverly Breuer), the Cindy Sheehan-like mother of a dead soldier, who demands to know what her son died for. Murch gets a bit teary-eyed and explains that he lost his older brother Philip (Ryan McDonnell) in Vietnam.
"Believe me," he tells the grieving mom, "if I had one wish, I would wish for your son to come back, because I know he would tell us how important this struggle is." Cleaver is so impressed with Murch's handling of the situation that she takes him out for a drink later, picks his brain, and eventually seduces him. The Karl Rove-like Kurt Rand (Dante regular Robert Picardo) interrupts their tryst, calling to let Murch know that the president plans to make his line part of his stump speech.
Soon, the soldiers killed in Iraq do start returning from the dead, and it doesn't go the way Murch predicted. They are not back to feast on the living, but unhappily for the president and his supporters, they just want a chance to vote in the upcoming election. "We'll vote for anyone who ends this war," one explains. The spin machine goes into overdrive, but the dead are determined to make their voice heard, even going as far as one soldier killing Kurt Rand by acting out the Lucio Fulci zombie stereotype (gouging his eye and slamming his head into the table) when Rand tried to force him to sign an unwanted document by threatening the soldier's mother.
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