What could have been a real creepy story wound up being only a mildly creepy story when the decaying hand of Miss Haight (Helen Shaver) began opening the door to young Martin Bailey's (Keram Malicki-Sánchez) bedroom at the very end of this episode. Because knowing that she died in a car crash, and Dog's predisposition to bringing his young master a friend for company, what else would one expect? With Dog going missing for a day or two and then suddenly reappearing, I was fearing the worst, namely that Martin had gone over to the other side himself. But instead, Martin got his wish that Dog would come back home NOW. I thought this was a dreary subject for a Ray Bradbury program, and it seemed like something was missing in the telling. Maybe reading the actual story on which it was based would fill in some blanks. Otherwise the 'surprise' at the end of the story is one I wouldn't want to experience myself.
Review of The Emissary
