Returning after a 17-year absence, the gang at Mystery Science Theater 3000 settles into its routine with a cheesy movie about a boy who believes in Bigfoot.

Cry Wilderness is about a kid named Paul who claims he saw Bigfoot in the forest last fall, and shared his radio and Coca-Cola with him. His teacher thinks he’s lying, especially when he claims Bigfoot told him, yelling outside his school at night, his dad is in danger. The kid hitchhikes back home, and discovers the town is chock-full of bad actors, claiming a killer animal is causing problems. A big game hunter named Hicks even shows up, hoping to find Bigfoot.

From there, it goes to a different direction, suggesting a tiger may be responsible. Then there’s a wise old Indian who at least believes Paul, and uses a medallion to protect Bigfoot from Hicks in a drastic way.

It also turns out Paul’s dad does get in trouble when he’s caught in a cave-in. Bigfoot, of course, comes to save the day.

Jonah, Crow and Servo still stuff a lot of jokes into 90 minutes, but they are starting to get a good rhythm going. Kinga and Max, meanwhile, don’t understand why Jonah’s able to take on the bad movies, First, it’s the second week, and second, maybe he’s got guts. Maybe it’s too early for the Mads to measure the effectiveness of bad movies, or they should be aware people do go to TV for sane.

However, the fans get a surprise visit from these familiar faces:

That’s right! Pearl (Mary Jo Pehl), Observer (Bill Corbett) and Bobo (Kevin Murphy) are back and looking as they would 17 years later. They came back to accidentally see Kinga, but it’s a nice link between the past and present. At least Pearl leaves Kinga a mom-clone, Synthia (Rebecca Hanson).

As for the Invention Exchange, Kinga finally has something with a clock that hints a certain ice cream franchise uses the same pan for many of its ice cream cakes. Jonah, meanwhile, combines a Theramin and a Thanksgiving turkey.

It’s also revealed Kinga uses “liquid media” to send the movies, which is why air bubbles appear occasionally. Jonah is also forced to do the opening live every week because liquid media can’t record anything. Maybe someday he’ll try to change the opening to escape, or have one of the Mads riff on the movie.

RIFFS:

Paul looks all over the forest for his dad
Watching this movie is like cinematic puberty. Nothing makes sense, and it never goes the way you expect.

He finds a really big footprint
Lebron James was here

Paul does find Bigfoot, who’s actually a big hairy guy in an unconvincing costume.
Dr. Zaius, you’re nude

One more thing: the gang mocks the first two minutes of Stranger Things, which is either a bad idea or the start of a series. Imagine what they’d do to House of Cards or an Adam Sandler movie trailer.

Next time: Time Travelers, the 200th episode.