Ilonka heads to a college party where she conspicuously doesn’t drink alcohol. While her friend Lauren tears it up on the dancefloor (or, living room floor?), she meets Brian, who’s majoring in literacy.
Ilonka is scared and decides to go to the hospital. She sees a figure in the mirror that she doesn’t recognize, and she starts to cough up blood. The figure turns out to be Mary Shelley, who is stalking her.
Ilonka has thyroid cancer, which means she needs surgery. She may not make it to the new semester if she doesn’t have the surgery. Given that she skipped a year and managed to make it into this class, Ilonka is confident that she can fight this. ..
Ilonka is going through chemo. She’s lost her hair and remotely learns about college through Lauren. It’s her birthday too and unfortunately she overhears the absolute worst news from the doctor. Ilonka’s illness is terminal and she could make it a year but beyond that is a big unknown.
Ilonka heads online and finds a place that could help, Brightcliffe Hospice. Now, according to old news clippings, a woman called Julia Jayne was actually cured of cancer by heading there. With conventional treatment at hospital not working, Ilonka convinces her father to let her go and stay at Brightcliffe. “Cancer Sleep-Away Camp” as Ilonka puts it.
Inside, we learn that Brightcliffe Hospice has a long and colorful history. It was a halfway house in the Depression and also a religious commune called the Paragon in the 40’s. There’s a lot of history to this house and for Ilonka, she seems to have some sort of connection to this place. And, Jesus Christ it’s an old lady with horrible eyes standing right there!
Ilonka is brought in to meet Dr Georgina Stanton, who has a monologue all planned about how we as humans view cancer, discussing how the terminology used depicts a battle but for Brightcliffe, they see every day they stay alive as a victory.
While Tim and Georgina talk, one of the kids, Spence, shows Ilonka around. In doing so, Ilonka meets Natsuki, Sandra, Anya, Cheri and Anesh. Through Spence, she learns the old-timey elevator seems to have a mind of its own, hopping up and down at night. Down to where? Well, only the morgue, which happens to be in the basement.
Ilonka decides to stay in the house after noticing a pentagram under the bed and learning about Rachel, a girl who was into witchcraft and responsible for said pentagram. Unfortunately, she’s also dead. Apparently she told Anya she was being followed by a shadow that she could feel touching her shirt. She couldn’t escape it “again” and the next day she died. Whether this is a reason or not is anyone’s guess, but there’s a strict curfew for the kids too.
Anya sneaks off to the basement of the school during the middle of the night and uses the elevator to head downstairs. Ilonka follows. In doing so, she notices all the kids convening in a room and starts to watch as they end up drinking alcohol and preparing for their latest story.
Natsuki tells a spooky story before bed. It’s not as magical as you might think, but the kids seem to enjoy it. There’s no throwing magic dust into the fire, but instead, they get to share a story with each other. The end result is a jump scare.
Natsuki’s meta moment comes when she tells Ilonka that she has to drink wine to be part of their group, in order to help her tell a story. This helps frame the horror in a very self-referential light, as it shows that Natsuki is not just some random person who is being used by the characters.
Julia Jayne, the woman Ilonka read about in the newspaper, went missing for weeks and then strangely showed up out the blue. When asked where she’d been, she nonchalantly claims that she never left the house and her tumours disappeared. Before leaving, she recites several dates to different patients, which appear to be in the format of dates. Their death dates.
After this story, Ilonka goes on to mention how she’s done her research on the house and she has a number of different stories about people who have apparently been cured. This gives her the “in” to this group. But Ilonka’s real purpose here is to try and find the secret cure. She wants to be healed and go on living, and why not? ..
The Episode Review
Mike Flanagan’s brand new series, “The Horror Show,” is back and better than ever. The idea of deconstructing the horror genre through those stories at the end is easily the best part of the show. Flanagan has always been a master of writing suspenseful and creepy stories, and his new series will no doubt leave you on the edge of your seat.
The Midnight Society is back and better than ever in this new episode. The monologue riffs are here, but they’re not as long-winded as in the previous episode. There’s definitely a lot to like with this one so far, although the whole midnight meeting feels very similar to the Midnight Society scenes in Are You Afraid Of The Dark, right down to the long-form story of inviting a newbie into the group and taking it in turns to tell stories. ..
After this season’s finale, it’s still up for debate whether or not the show will take on a more episodic format with different tales each chapter or if there is a longer story that will tie everything together. Either way, if this is a sign of things to come then it should be quite the intriguing watch. ..
