'Room 104' Season 4 Episode 1: Creepy premiere features Mark Duplass as murderous singer with Oedipus complex
In the final season of 'Room 104', the first episode features creator Mark Duplass play the role of famous musician Graham Husker of the 80s, who disappeared one day after fame got to him. The album that put him under the spotlight featured tracks that spoke of a son's love for his mother, in the lines of Oedipus complex. In the present, Logan tells his friends that he found Husker recently at an open mic where he performed with a different name. After identifying him as Husker because his voice was unmistakable, Logan asks the musician for a performance and he is promised a private concert.
So then, he along with his friends in Room 104 await for the said concert and everything seems fine initially. It is the moment that Husker sings his first song that we find the entire deal strange. For instance, he doesn't want Logan and his friends to use their phones or record his performance. Once they agree to his terms, he performs the first song -- 'Cradle Me' -- and the lyrics go, "Cradle me, it won’t be long before I get too big… cause if I get too big, it’ll break my heart."
If the first song has you wondering why the sullen man agreed to perform now after all this, the second song just makes you uncomfortable. It has a chorus of "Oh mommy" and is titled 'Hold Me Steady'. Logan ends up secretly recording this song and this angers Husker who then tells Logan's friend Katherine, the only woman present, that he wants to talk her in private. She agrees and the two end up speaking in the bathroom where he tells her that he really killed his mother. He tells her "I killed my mom. I really killed her" right after singing a song about his mother.
Katherine doesn't seem as disturbed as we feel at this moment. and after confessing to her, Husker comes out to perform a song that he had written but hadn't recorded. This song details how he killed his mother and chopped her into pieces. At this point, we are certain that this musician is a disturbed man. The lyrics begins with "I chopped you up in pieces, chunk by chunk. Forty-seven mommies in my trunk." After hearing this, the boys tell Husker that all of this feels too real and Husker tells them it is real. He explains to them that he is a murderer and not a musician.
When Husker tries to stop the creeped out friends from leaving, he gets beaten up and only Katherine remains to comfort Husker and apologize to him in her friends' stead. She repeatedly says, "I’m so sorry they did that to you," and at one point Husker turns into a child who misses his mother and apologizes to Katherine as if she were his mother. The episode closes with Katherine and Husker crooning 'Cradle Me' together. This episode is the weirdest chapter to feature in the show and it has completely to do with Husker's strange lyrics.
New episodes of 'Room 104' airs every Friday at 11 pm ET on HBO.
