We’ve heard that story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Two selves in one, and all. I suppose Patricia Highsmith described it brilliantly in Strangers on a Train (which if you remember was also adapted into a Hitchcock movie): “There's also a person exactly the opposite of you, like the unseen part of you, somewhere in the world.”

This episode in a way deals with that phenomenon. In more ways than one, Shanky was a case of split personality. Not in the more medical sense; and definitely not something worth an academic diagnosis. But, in a more personal sense, it was the branching of this other personality – which we will call, for the lack of a better word, Other Shanky – that became a crucially significant factor in him becoming who he eventually became.

Spoiler alert: there is a good ending here. It traverses some dark alleys, but, rest assured, you’ll find a positive ending.