You Can Come Up Now, Mrs. Millikan - Recap

A group of scientists gather at the home of Henry and Helena Millikan. Henry greets the scientists and then waits for Helena, who apologizes for being late as often she is. The scientists ask why they are there, and Henry demonstrates his process for transforming rock into gold. He performs his demonstration but it blows up rather than transform. The scientists inform Henry that he’s an abject failure, not a scientist, and note that he has failed at all of his other extravagant creations and tell him not to invite them in future.



Once the scientists leave, Helena tries to console her husband, but admits that she sent out the invitations too late because she forgot them. Henry starts to go and then makes sure that she has remembered to clean up like he asked. In his lab in the vault, Henry works on a new invention and realizes that his wife forgot to call him up as he requested or make supper. He tells her that he’s on the verge of his greatest experience ever, and asks her to come down to the vault later and she promises to remember. Helena dozes off and Henry returns with a vial. He explains that it will make him famous and her immortal.



Two weeks later, Henry’s nephew George Beaumont comes to visit. A physician, George reports that Helena is ill and isn’t responding to any treatment. Henry seems unconcerned even when George says that Helena is dying of food poisoning. They can’t identify the food poisoning that is responsible, and Henry asks when she will die because she’s been late at everything else. George is shocked at his uncle’s seeming unconcern, and wonders if Henry poisoned his wife. Henry takes George to see Helena and has her explain that she took the poison of her own volition. She tells her nephew that Henry is going to bring her back to life.



Once Helena dies, Henry takes her to the vault and administers his treatment. He promises her that she will be back in five minutes and goes upstairs to see George. He reminds George that he promised not to call the police, but George says that the police are on his way and advises him to hire a lawyer because he will be prosecuted for murder. Henry insists that there’s no murder victim, and Helena will come walking up the stairs in a few minutes. George asks to see his aunt and Henry takes her down into the vault. Helena has no signs of life and George proclaims her irrevocably dead. Henry insists that she will soon be alive and asks her to start breathing. Nothing happens, and George tells his uncle that he has failed yet again, and he’ll be committed to a hospital for the criminally insane. Henry says that he wouldn’t care for that, or to have a life without Helena. Shocked, he goes to his room.

The police arrive and confirm that Helena is dead. George explains that Henry gave her the poison and they ask to take him downtown. The nephew goes to get Henry and discovers that he’s dead, killed by his own hand due to grief. The officers go upstairs to check on the body and a shocked George sits on the sofa and takes a drink... and then pauses as he hears someone walking up the stairs from the vault. That someone puts a hand on George’s shoulder: it’s Helena, looking pale and wan. She asks where Henry is, and admits to her nephew that she’s late again.



Share this article with your friends