"A tale of murder...with strings attached. An aging puppeteer suspects this much younger wife has a lover."
-- DVD description for this episode
Plot[]
A game of deception ensues when a golden-age puppeteer, with a young and dominant wife, is given a chance to revive his act for a tribute show and takes on an animatronic puppeteer as his new assistant. To boost his act the puppeteer buys a animatronic puppet, controlled by his assistant, to replace his old one. After been repeatedly "haunted", the puppet of Koko the Clown stabs Ellen to death, which causes the puppeteer suffers a heart attack,. Ellen then gets up and it is revealed she is unharmed, having worn makeup to make herself look like a murder victim and "Koko" was not his actual puppet by an animatronic duplicate. As Joseph lays dying the puppeteer's wife and assistant reveal themselves to be behind this as lovers all along. The master plan was for Ellen to marry Joseph, who would soon die and bequeath his entire estate to her. The assistant reveals his true name is Rick and said it is unfortunate that Joseph did not like his idea of animatronics, which he will now make a career out of thanks to Joseph's money. As Joseph had a prior medical history of cardiovascular problems it should be no problem making it look like he naturally died of a myocardial infarction. Ellen says she is going to get cleaned up and summon the authorities. Rick wonders what he did with the real Koko puppet, but when he looks for it Koko comes to life and kills Rick in revenge. Koko then stalks Ellen. When the police and EMTs arrive, they are stunned to see Rick and Ellen dead and strung up in wire like giant marionettes. A puppet that looks like Koko without clown makeup with a face akin to Joseph's is seen atop them in a scene akin to a theatre, suggesting Joseph's spirit possessed the puppet or that Koko was indeed real and avenged on the murder of his master and used another puppet like himself for the "show".
Opening Segment[]
"Yes! That's better. Oh hello boars and ghouls. I hope you'll excuse me if I don't get up. I'm a little stiff today. Then again I'm a little stiff every day! Actually, I twisted my neck playing croak-et. But it wasn't hurting the way I thought it should so I called my chiro-hackter. Of course, some people look elsewhere for their pain, like the old man in tonight's terror tale. His idea of an anti-die-otic was to marry a younger woman. Ahh! I call this plasma play Strung Along."
Closing Segment[]
"Well, Koko may have been the puppet but in the end, Joseph was the one who paid for marion-ette. As for me, kiddies, it seems my pain in the neck was more serious than I thought. But I'm almost finished with my scare-apy. One more adjustment, and I'll be out of here. Any time you're ready, Bones."
[Bones pulls the lever to decapitate the Crypt Keeper]
"Now, that's what I call pain in full!"
