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Jacob Weiss, a bitter
slum lord, is sentenced to spend two weeks in one of his own tenements
and the angels arrive to help him understand the error of his ways.
As the code enforcement officer, Monica quickly educates Jake on the
changes that will need to be made but he is intent on trying to go
around the law, offering her a bribe. He then continues to try
any legal means of avoiding his punishment until his mother and son
urge him to come to Passover dinner which coincidentally falls on the
eve when his incarceration is to begin. He then approaches the
judge and makes a religious plea. Unfortunately for Jake, the
judge attends the very synagogue where he claims to be devout and,
having never seen Jake there, firmly refuses. Jacob then
attempts to hide from the police at his mother's apartment but is
picked up in the midst of the Passover meal. Tess meets Jake as
he arrives for his internment and places an ankle monitor on his leg
to ensure that he does not leave. Jake then settles in to the
abysmal conditions of his own tenement and meets a savvy neighborhood
kid, Tyler, who arranges to bring him the things he needs in
exchange for money. Jake then begins to hear a haunting song and
starts to remember where all his troubles began... with the death of
his father. In a rare moment of sentiment, Jake then calls his
son Michael but is quickly interrupted by a fire in his apartment.
With Monica's help, Jake extinguishes the fire but is forced to move
to the only other vacant apartment, that which he lived in when his
father was alive. Once there, Andrew appears, telling Jake he is
there to help him remember. Jake then dreams back to the day his
father died and to his explanation of the Passover and its message of
freedom for all people. When Jake is awakened by Tyler, he is
even more desperate to escape the pain of his own memories and offers
Tyler more money to find someone who can remove his ankle monitor.
Jake calls his wife from whom he is separated to ask for the money,
but she steadfastly refuses. His son, Michael, overhears his
mother and brings Jake his Bar Mitzvah money. While Jake is being
robbed of the money by the supposed monitor remover, Michael is shot.
Unable to get help from the neighbors he has abused, Jake listens to
Monica and follows his pious father's example. He smears the
blood of his son on his door and sings the song of "Elijah"
while Tess sings "Go Down Moses" as Andrew, the Angel of
Death, passes over the house.
Bruce
Davison was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor for
this episode.
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