Apple TV+’s Amazing Stories is an anthology series brought to us by Stephen Spielberg. In Amazing Stories Season 1 Episode 1, Sam Taylor discovered a portal to 1919 during a storm.
2019
Jake and Sam Taylor arrived at a rundown house in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Jake’s business was restoring old homes, and Sam worked for him. While working on the house, they found an old tin box with a photograph of a woman in a bridal dress and veil and old matchbook with the word “cabbage” on it.
1919
A strong storm suddenly hit. When the power went out, Sam headed to the cellar, but his ears started ringing as the needle on the barometer dropped suddenly. He found himself in the same house, but it was no longer rundown and empty. Sam came across the woman in the photograph, Evelyn Porter, singing at a piano. She mistook him for a banker and threatened him with a shotgun.
Later, Evelyn went to the cellar to listen to phonographs she had hidden in the wall. Her mother, Paula, found them and disapproved. She was going to take them away, but Sam arrived, pretending that he was a friend of Evelyn’s brother who had recently passed away. He claimed the phonographs were his. Paula invited Sam to Evelyn’s engagement party. Because of her brother’s death, Paula had arranged a marriage for Evelyn.
Cabbage
Sam tried to convince Evelyn that he was from 2019. He needed to know more about the house. Evelyn’s grandfather had built it, so he agreed to go to the engagement party to speak with him.
Evelyn and Sam ended up leaving the party. She pointed out the pharmacy which had a speakeasy. Sam recognized the matchbook and knew the password to be “cabbage”. He convinced Evelyn to sing. Afterwards, he asserted that she didn’t belong in the life her mother chose for her.
Super Derecho
At the engagement party, Sam met Henry Barrett, who explained that the sudden drop of air pressure during an intense storm called a derecho is what caused Sam’s ears to ring. Sam got a barometer from him and hung it in the cellar, the same one he had seen in 2019. The next time the storm hit, Evelyn was having her photo taken. She made an excuse and ran to meet him. Unfortunately, her fiancé found them. He took her away and beat Sam, who was transported back to 2019. Jake thought Sam was crazy.
Another derecho brought Sam forward in the future to 2034 during the time of the next one. Global warming had made derechos more frequent. He found Evelyn in the newly restored house, singing a lullaby to a young boy named Sam. He made his way back to 2019. After taking down the renovations Jake had installed in the cellar, Sam was able to travel back to 1919. The cellar was flooded. He found Evelyn and brought her back to the cellar. However, he was trapped, and she was gone to 2019.
Sam never made it back to 2019 and instead made a life for himself in 1919. He left Evelyn and Jake letters in the wall and prepared the house for the future.
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