History Series / FridayThe13thTheSeries

* [[OminousMusicBoxTune Ominous Jack-in-the-Box Tune]]: In this case, "What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor." Usually a cheery shanty, it becomes much more sinister when played slowly. Appropriately enough, the theme is carried through by having the figure inside be a pirate, scenes of sailing ships painted on the side, and the curse when invoked causing some sort of death by drowning. [[ShownTheirWork The fact the first jack-in-the-boxes contained a "devil" figure]] (and were [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack-in-the-box#Origin possibly inspired by the medieval folklore of English prelate Sir John Schorne casting the Devil into a boot]]) only makes the ominousness, and a jack-in-the-box being one of Lewis's cursed objects, all the more appropriate.

* [[OminousMusicBoxTune Ominous Jack-in-the-Box Tune]]: In this case, "What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor." Usually a cheery shanty, it becomes much more sinister when played slowly.

** Megan Garrett of "Jack-in-the-Box", like Rachel Horn, straddles the line between sympathetic and unsympathetic. At the start she only uses the cursed antique to kill [[AssholeVictim those who murdered her father]]--acts which in turn allow her to speak with his ghost and, eventually, bring him back to life. While she does target a prostitute who is merely rude to her on the street (because she's with one of the killers at the time), it's not at all hard to have one's heart go out to her. When she then flips to targeting her own mother--because she has become verbally abusive and neglectful, her losing herself in alcohol makes her seem like the drunkards who killed her father, and her father's ghost [[ExactWords specifically told her]] he couldn't be with her [[TemptingFate as long as her mother was alive]]--she loses the viewer's sympathy. But then it comes right back to her with a vengeance after he convinces her he can never come back, so she decides to use the jack-in-the-box to join him on the Other Side.

** The way the Leash of Dreams in "My Wife as a Dog" finds its way to Aubrey Ross is also rather hard to swallow: after suspecting a fellow firefighter of moving on his estranged wife (which the guy doesn't deny, only saying that it was his fault she wanted to leave him and now she's moved on to someone else), he happens to find it among the debris in a burning house, so he can use to strangle the man. While it's later revealed the woman who owned the house had several artifacts she bought from Lewis to explain its presence, and she apparently never used any of them, one has to wonder: did the leash somehow cause the electrical fire because it knew a fireman would be susceptible to its curse?

** One of the series' central tropes. It's been speculated in the fandom that in order to keep the objects circulating and causing deaths, Lewis gave the curse an extra twist; like [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings the One Ring]], the objects want to be found by someone who [[FatalFlaw craves what that particular object has to offer]]. It would explain how the villain in "Faith Healer" found the Sforza glove [[GrailInTheGarbage in an alley]], how the thieves who rob the jewelry store happen to drop "Mesmer's Bauble" right where [[StereotypicalNerd Howard]] can find it, how the drug-money exchange in "Bad Penny" happens to take place near the demolished ruins of the Satanists' taxidermy shop, just so two {{Dirty Cop}}s can find the Coin of Ziocles, and how the Leash of Dreams just happened to be nearby in the burning house for Aubrey to use to strangle a fellow firefighter. Or why some objects (like The Cupid of Malek) get passed from one owner to another very similar person within the same episode. [[labelnote:Further details]]There's actually some major evidence to this in "Cupid's Quiver" (featuring the aforementioned Cupid of Malek); after it's used by a LoveHungry ugly man, showing the audience exactly how it works, he's arrested and Jack, Ryan and Micki pick up the scent from the news article about the murder and subsequent arrest. The Cupid is actually stolen from the murder scene by a reasonably attractive FratBro, who keeps it on a shelf in his room for most of the episode, but it has no effect on him, or on any of his frat brothers. The VillainOfTheWeek (another LoveHungry ugly man who's already a StalkerWithACrush) is a hanger-on who repeatedly stole, used, and returned the Cupid to the FratBro's room. Jack mentions that Malek, who had the Cupid statuette cast in his own image, "swore vengeance on all those who'd denied him love" and the Cupid's 'dart' is only used on women who first reject the owner.[[/labelnote]]

** The way the Leash of Dreams in "My Wife as a Dog" finds its way to Aubrey Ross is also rather hard to swallow: after suspecting a fellow firefighter of moving on his estranged wife (which the guy doesn't deny, only saying that it was his fault she wanted to leave him and now she's moved on to someone else), he happens to find it among the debris in a burning house, so he can use to strangle the man. While it's later revealed the woman who owned the house had several artifacts she bought from Lewis to explain its presence, and she apparently she never used any of them, one has to wonder: did the leash somehow cause the electrical fire because it knew a fireman would be susceptible to its curse?

** Poor, poor Megan Garrett from "Jack-in-the-Box". She walks into the pool where her father works as a lifeguard (on her birthday, when her parents are planning to hold a surprise party) just in time to see him attacked by a group of drunk assholes, then find his body floating in the water. Her mother loses herself in alcohol and ends up becoming verbally abusive and neglectful. She is so desperate for her father to live again and to be with him that she doesn't care who she has to hurt or kill to make it happen (leading to some very TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior). When she comes to believe her mother no longer loves her and her father's ghost tells her they can't be together so long as her mother is alive, she attempts to kill her too. Finally the depth of her grief leads her to [[DrivenToSuicide attempt suicide]] with the cursed jack-in-the-box so she and her father can be TogetherInDeath.

** One of the series' central tropes. It's been speculated in the fandom that in order to keep the objects circulating and causing deaths, Lewis gave the curse an extra twist; like [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings the One Ring]], the objects want to be found by someone who [[FatalFlaw craves what that particular object has to offer]]. It would explain how the villain in "Faith Healer" found the Sforza glove [[GrailInTheGarbage in an alley]], how the thieves who rob the jewelry store happen to drop "Mesmer's Bauble" right where [[StereotypicalNerd Howard]] can find it, or how the drug-money exchange in "Bad Penny" happens to take place near the demolished ruins of the Satanists' taxidermy shop, just so two {{Dirty Cop}}s can find the Coin of Ziocles. Or why some objects (like The Cupid of Malek) get passed from one owner to another very similar person within the same episode. [[labelnote:Further details]]There's actually some major evidence to this in "Cupid's Quiver" (featuring the aforementioned Cupid of Malek); after it's used by a LoveHungry ugly man, showing the audience exactly how it works, he's arrested and Jack, Ryan and Micki pick up the scent from the news article about the murder and subsequent arrest. The Cupid is actually stolen from the murder scene by a reasonably attractive FratBro, who keeps it on a shelf in his room for most of the episode, but it has no effect on him, or on any of his frat brothers. The VillainOfTheWeek (another LoveHungry ugly man who's already a StalkerWithACrush) is a hanger-on who repeatedly stole, used, and returned the Cupid to the FratBro's room. Jack mentions that Malek, who had the Cupid statuette cast in his own image, "swore vengeance on all those who'd denied him love" and the Cupid's 'dart' is only used on women who first reject the owner.[[/labelnote]]

** There also seem to be a few plot nods and references made to ''Film/{{Deliverance}}'' in "The Long Road Home".

* WhenThePlanetsAlign: In "Midnight Riders", a special alignment of the planets (specifically, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) is stated to somehow allow for time to be turned back so that [[HistoryRepeats past events can recur in the present]]; although no artifact is involved, there certainly does seem to be a ghostly curse invoked. The result diverges depending on whether heroes or villains are involved: the biker ghosts, if they can [[GottaKillEmAll kill all those who killed them]] before the alignment ends, will be able to restore their murdered leader and all come back to life; meanwhile if the heroes can bury the biker leader's body in hallowed ground [[CelestialDeadline before sunrise]], they can lay all the ghosts to rest [[spoiler: (including Jack's father who got caught up in the original events)]] and end the curse.

** Among Val Avery's many roles are his turns on TheWestern TV series ''Series/{{Bonanza}}'' and ''Series/{{Rawhide}}'', both of which cast him as a sheriff. The episode he appears in not only has him cast as [[HeWhoFightsMonsters a bitter and vengeful policeman]] whose glory days are long gone (and would thus fit in any number of TwilightOfTheOldWest pieces), but revolves around an actual Old West sheriff's badge as the cursed artifact.

* MonkeyMoralityPose: Referencing the original source of the Three Wise Monkeys, but in a horror variant--in "Year of the Monkey", a Japanese samurai who has mastered their powers and thus gained immortality uses the statues to tempt his two sons and daughter in order to know which one was worthy. If they pass the tests, they gain the longevity in his place and he can die in peace (at their hands), knowing his family's wealth and honor will live on; if they fail, they must either commit seppuku or die a terrible death related to the sense in question, and he gains their life force to be youthened and live on, so as to create another generation and try again. The monkeys do exactly the opposite of what they're supposed to do, but considering they are said to have been stolen from a temple dedicated to the trickster Monkey God, this makes sense.

* CharacterNameAlias: The villain of "Master of Disguise", once the makeup kit has made him into a handsome Romeo, takes as his assumed stage name William Pratt - which was the real name of Creator/BorisKarloff. [[MeaningfulName This]] [[TragicMonster is significant]]. A reporter in the episode picks up on the name usage, as does Jack at the end.

** The villain of "Coven of Darkness" ends up being killed by her own blast of magic--partly because Micki's WhiteMagic was returning her curse to her "a thousandfold", partly because Ryan had actually gotten the witch's ladder away from her (presumably she assumed him holding it would simply make its power burn right through his hand, and didn't realize what Micki's spell was doing). End result? [[DestinationDefenestration Sent smashing out]] [[KarmicDeath the church's stained-glass window]].

** The baby being healed by the cradle in "What a Mother Wouldn't Do" is named Allison. As in Loraine Allison, [[NamedAfterSomebodyFamous the only first-class passenger child]] [[ShownTheirWork who died in the sinking]] of the ''Titanic''. To further the parallel, the only member of the Allison family to survive the sinking, a baby brother, was saved by the family's maid, [[HistoryRepeats while the baby in this episode ends up saved (and presumably raised as her own) by the Kent family's babysitter]].

** The artifact owner in "Scarlet Cinema" Darius inverts this, since he begins as a strange film student obsessed with Franchise/UniversalHorror movies who still remains a sad, [[LonersAreFreaks friendless loner]] [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer picked on by his fellow classmates]]... But once he starts committing murders with the film camera he becomes rather monstrous, moving from accidentally killing the camera's owner, to an AssholeVictim, to his professor when he humiliates him for essentially making a snuff film of the second murder for his class project. By the time he's trying to kidnap the target of his VillainousCrush so [[WeCanRuleTogether they can both be werewolves together]], he's pretty much lost all of the viewer's sympathy--although oddly, [[SympathyForTheDevil not that]] of either the DamselInDistress or the main characters; Jack wishes him peace in the next world, and Ryan and Micki both express their regret that he should have [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor been careful what he wished for]].

** Villainous version--the villain of "The Pirate's Promise" is [[SinsOfTheFather killing all the descendants of the pirate's original mutinous crew]] so as to obtain his treasure, and [[GottaCatchThemAll he believes he has found]] [[LastOfHisKind the final one]]...but the ghost informs him ThereIsAnother--himself, something he was not aware of due to being adopted. Cue KarmicDeath. Additionally, the villain's adoption also makes him unaware that he and his last victim [[LongLostRelative were brothers]].

** The only thing that Rachel Horn of "Crippled Inside" did wrong was go on a date with the wrong boy. Then she suffers AttemptedRape, and during her escape ends up a quadriplegic. Her only hope is to [[RapeAndRevenge kill the boys who]] [[AssholeVictim tried to rape her,]] one of which is determined to [[HateSink finish what he started]], so the cursed wheelchair will heal her. [[spoiler:In the end she takes out her last attacker in a TakingYouWithMe.]]

* {{Yandere}}: The artifact-owner of "Wedding Bell Blues" is this taken to the fatal extreme, since she rejects all pleas to leave the man she wants to marry no matter how it's pointed out he only cares about gambling and pool and is just stringing her along...but after he (thinks he) kills her with the cursed cue stick so he can win his tournament (because he witnessed her [[CainAndAbel killing her own sister]] [[SiblingTriangle for sleeping with him]]), she appears in her BloodSplatteredWeddingDress, and in a classic IfICantHaveYou kills him with her own wedding cake server.

* ParanormalInvestigation[=/=]ParanormalMundaneItem: The show revolves around the objects of "Vendredi's Antiques" (later "Curious Goods") that held paranormal properties (and some of them were quite modern-looking, like a car radio), but all of them were a pretty vile PowerAtAPrice (as an example: a crucifix that allowed even people who were not priests or even religious to destroy vampires, but had to be fed human blood--as in, stabbing people dead with it). Part of the reason Ryan and Micki end up in the GottaCatchThemAll situation that they do, however, is because these items are mixed in with the regular, uncursed antiques, so they have no way of knowing the truth when they are sold. While a number of the items are associated with famous people, many are not, and even the famous ones are often otherwise quite ordinary-looking. Among these are the boxing gloves, the tattoo kit, the foghorn, the sheriff's badge, the handkerchief, the pocket watch, the car key, the cue stick, the car radio, and the TV set.

* ParanormalInvestigation[=/=]ParanormalMundaneItem: The show revolves around the objects of "Vendredi's Antiques" (later "Curious Goods") that held paranormal properties (and some of them were quite modern-looking, like a car radio), but all of them were a pretty vile PowerAtAPrice (as an example: a crucifix that allowed even people who knew nothing of spiritism to perform exorcisms, but had to be fed human blood--as in, stabbing people dead with it). Part of the reason Ryan and Micki end up in the GottaCatchThemAll situation that they do, however, is because these items are mixed in with the regular, uncursed antiques, so they have no way of knowing the truth when they are sold. While a number of the items are associated with famous people, many are not, and even the famous ones are often otherwise quite ordinary-looking. Among these are the boxing gloves, the tattoo kit, the foghorn, the sheriff's badge, the handkerchief, the pocket watch, the car key, the cue stick, the car radio, and the TV set.

* NeverMessWithGranny: Old Lili Lita from "Femme Fatale" turns out to be this. Despite being an invalid who often uses a wheelchair and otherwise needs assistance to get around, she: fakes her own smothering death ([[OneLiner "Death scenes were always my forte"]]), holds her murderous, obsessed husband and her own younger movie self at gunpoint, calls her husband out for only loving the "slut" (her term) character he created rather than her, and (after a struggle forces her to fatally shoot him) reclaims her own choices by entering the movie to free Micki rather than dooming her (and simply [[MeaningfulEcho dying in bed]]).