Mary Jo is the main character of the episode "Four-Sided Triangle". A young woman forced to work as a farmhand by a cruel couple, Mary Jo becomes mildly insane after suffering a head injury and becomes infatuated with a scarecrow.
Early Life[]
Mary Jo was a young pickpocket. One day, caught by a man whom she tried to steal from, she was rescued and welcomed by the farmer George Yates and his wife, Luisa. However, her saviors soon revealed themselves to be cruel and degenerate people, who used Mary Jo to get free labor on their farm under threat of reporting her to the police. In parallel, her sex appeal awakens Georges's perverse instincts, which eventually causes him to try to rape her while she milks the cow.
Fate[]
By defending herself, she was knocked on the head with a bottle. Alerted by her shouts, Luisa intervenes, unconscious of what her husband tried to do. Horribly wounded, Mary Jo tries to run away and eventually collapses in front of a scarecrow - imagining that it holds out its hand to her.
Fearing that Mary-Jo will tell Luisa of his rape attempt, George lies to his wife that it was just an accident. Ironically, Mary Jo wakes up with brain damage, becoming completely insane. The sinister couple sees this situation as good fortune, implying that they can keep her for life. Mary Jo becomes obsessed with the scarecrow, thinking that it was her boyfriend. However, the evident madness of Mary Jo does not prevent George from making advances toward her, and when Luisa becomes suspicious it, he plays it off as Mary Jo being insane. At night, he surprises Mary Jo while she’s flirting with the scarecrow. She refuses him, saying that the scarecrow was her only man. Unbeknownst to them, Luisa had guessed that George was obsessed with Mary Jo and threatened to castrate him if he cheated on her.
Later that night, Mary Jo went back to the scarecrow and was overjoyed to find that the scarecrow was alive. However, the scarecrow quickly climbs back on the ladder after hearing the tractor and becomes still, much to Mary Jo’s distress. Luisa appears on the tractor, carrying a pitchfork, and demands to know where her husband is. Mary Jo insists that it was only her and ”her man” as she clings to the scarecrow. Finally fed up with Mary Jo’s madness, Luisa tries to make her notice that the scarecrow is just a scarecrow and impales it with the fork as Mary Jo shrieks. However, the scarecrow turns out to be George in disguise, having dressed up as the scarecrow in an attempt to have sex with Mary Jo. While Luisa is distracted by the knowledge that she killed her husband, Mary Jo grabs the pitchfork and impales her. She throws the pitchfork down and skips out of the cornfield, singing about how she’s free at last.
The ending implies that Mary Jo may not have truly been insane, and may simulating madness in a plan to obtain her freedom, though this is left up to the viewer.
Behind the Scenes[]
- She was portrayed by Patricia Arquette.
- Lewis Arquette, her father, portray Ernest Feeley.
- Later, Patricia Arquette will be the star in Medium with guest star like William Sadler (Niles Tabot), Mimi Kennedy (Distraught Woman), Jeffrey Tambor (Charlie Marno), Kelly Preston (Linda), Miguel Ferrer (Mitch Bruckner), Brian Kerwin (Donald), Carlos Lacamara (Paolo), Kevin Brief (Detective) and Jon Polito (Nikos Stano).