Midnight
Who’s going home?
Regina tells us that Athena’s mother was a powerful witch who had a ritual that could have saved Julia. However, the ritual went wrong and the woman who performed it was killed. Julia then found out about this and decided to try and save her mother by following in her footsteps. She also learned that she had the power to create light and darkness, which she used to help Regina.
Shasta gets away while Stanton phones an ambulance to try and get help for these women. In her office, Stanton tells Ilonka that Julia has been arrested several times over the years, mostly for trespassing, breaking and entering and also harassment too. She’s not happy with Ilonka for going behind her back, but Ilonka points out that Julia was cured and this ritual was the reason for that. Stanton bites back, claiming that Sandra and Julia just got lucky with their misdiagnoses.
Ilonka makes a big decision and decides to leave Brightcliffe to return home. At the same time, Amesh starts to experience difficulties. He has a blind spot in his vision which seems to be getting closer, and he’s also having trouble with his motor skills. He’s clearly scared as he tells Natsuki this, but there is a bright side - Amesh’s parents are coming. ..
Meanwhile, Spence’s parents show up to see him, and his mother gives him a massive hug. They also meet Cheri too, who claims that they’re engaged, which of course is a joke.
Does Rhett and Anya get closure?
Rhett arrives upstairs to pick up Anya’s things. Apparently Ilonka tried phoning him before the funeral but he didn’t pick up. The reason he’s there now though is the obituary. She wrote it herself but Rhett admits that she really knew what Anya was like. Anya also fixed the ballerina statue before she passed, which feels symbolic for the girl fixing her internal issues.
Ilonka confronts her father when he arrives. She decides she needs to do a preneed, and even has a whole list of things ready for when she passes away. She’s ready to face up to this now after an entire season of putting it off.
How does Kevin’s story end?
Kevin breaks up with Katherine before heading into the Midnight Club with the gang. Ilonka shows up late, just as Kevin decides to finish his story about Sheila and Dusty. ..
Sheila breaks Dusty’s mother’s hypnotic hold, which frees all the kids in the story to ascend to heaven. ..
Dusty’s mother starts to produce strange green gas that infiltrates Dusty himself. Picking up the hammer, Dusty is controlled by these nasty spirits until he stabs himself with the hammer. Sheila has no choice and she swings hard at Dusty’s behest, knocking him out… but sparing him enough to throw Dusty into a psych ward where he lives out his days.
Cheri and the others come up with an alternate ending for the story, deciding to blend everything we’ve heard over the season together. Does it make sense? It doesn’t matter, but what does matter is that the story takes on a nice, happy ending. ..
How does Midnight Club season 1 end?
When the story ends, Ilonka speaks to Kevin about his story, pointing out that Dusty’s fate does not have to be his own. He won’t be alone all this time. Kevin also has something else to say – he likes her. But given the pair of them are going to die, Kevin admits that’s no reason for them no to live. And the pair kiss.
We follow Dr Stanton as she heads back to her office, where she locks the door and heads back to her desk. As we go by the picture frame of the Freelan family, we see that it’s actually Stanley who is in the frame, not Vera. We’ll get more answers in a sec, but for now, this is confirmation that we were right all along and they are really the old couple from earlier in the episode.
Stanton heads into her office and removes her wig, revealing herself to actually be bald. She also has the Hourglass symbol on the back of her neck too, leaving plenty of question marks over this series.
The Episode Review
This season, viewers were leftQuestions about the past of Cheri and Shasta, as well as the fate of all the kids. Was this billed as a horror show when there was very little horror this season?
Flanagan’s formula is that each show has a core idea but it’s not executed well. Bly Manor had a good idea but didn’t do much with it. Midnight Mass had a good idea but didn’t Execution well.
Midnight Mass is a religious service that deals with the afterlife. Bly Manor, on the other hand, is all about love. While Midnight Club focuses on death and the undead.
But I think the show could do more to explore the idea of life after death and what it means for people who have spent their lives living in a world that tells them that life is only a matter of time.
The main issue with the characterisation in this show is that it is very sparse. There are only a few characters who are well-drawn and interesting, and most of the others are either forgettable or not very interesting. This lack of depth makes it difficult to invest in the characters, and makes it difficult to care about them.
We were left waiting for episode 9 before seeing Spence’s story about being shunned by society. This could have been a powerful story if it had been told in a more powerful way. For example, riffing on the idea of invisibility to play out as an allegory for him not being seen.
Midnight Club is a mixed bag. There are some nice moments and a few good jump scares, but it’s overall a bit of a dud.
