Witch
Episode 6 of The Midnight Club begins with Kevin continuing his story from before, this time with more gore and bloody details. Dusty kills again, this time taking a hammer to his own brother. He didn’t want to but given the screaming voices he’s been hearing, Dusty is compelled to do this by the voices, which call out “Harmony.” The Detective on the case continues to pry into this, asking about Einstein, the chatroom Kevin has been using as a stalker spot. He’s goaded into revealing his own username, where he shadily claims he only has 1. She wants to know more but Dusty is understandably reserved. The voices return that night, calling out “Sheila” as the next victim that they want… but of course it’s to be continued once again! Before they leave for the night, Ilonka perks up and decides to tell a story of her own. It’s called “Witch”; a story about love, magic and fate. It’s mostly about a girl who wants to save someone though. The protagonist for this tale is Imani. Imani and her mum are both healers that have the gift of “scrying” which essentially projects images onto the lake from their psyche. So what are these images? Well, they’re actually glimpses of the future. Imani’s mum tells her daughter that she needs to be careful while using it. As for Imani’s mum, she has an even crazier gift – she can actually heal people and bring them back from the brink of death. In doing so, it sucks the lifeforce out of her. As she helps a fatally wounded woman come back to life, she collapses on the floor, just as Imani shows up. In her grief, Imani ends up scrying at night – one of her mother’s warnings. There, she sees a boy get shot dead. That boy happens to be called Ben, and he’s set up with Imani that night as a date. Along with all their friends, they drive out to pick up drink… and pass a liquor store. The same liquor store that Imani saw in her vision. The future changes, with her friend Scottie shot instead of Ben. Imani’s friends are understandably sceptical of exactly how she managed to pull this off. Not only that, but Imani feels guilty for heading out on a date with Ben, knowing he should have been the one wounded. Before she can continue the story though, Anya suddenly collapses on the table and breaks up the story. Anya has sepsis and she’s in a rough way. Most of the kids resign themselves to this fate but Ilonka refuses to roll over and let cancer take her. Instead, she’s determined to try and save all of them no matter the cost. “I’d burn the world down. That’s what it mans to love her.” She says. Dr Stanton though is quick to point out that if she continues to fight like this, when the inevitable does happen it’s going to hit her so much harder that usual. Ilonka speaks to Anya, telling her she loves her and wants to do what’s right. As she weakly opens her eyes, she whispers “I want to live.” which is enough for Ilonka to do everything she can to try and save her friend. Part of this comes from taking the Paragon Book into the woods to see Shasta. Sitting together, Ilonka brings up what’s happening to Anya and asks Shasta for help in trying to save her. She agrees. In order to do so, they need “The five sisters”, which would mean Cheri, Natsuki and Sandra need to be part of this. Interestingly, Shasta also has that hourglass symbol on her wrist. Apparently this is older than the Paragon. In order to save Anya, she needs to do exactly what she says. After cutting her hand and letting the blood drip down, we cut back to Brightcliffe. After a bit of discussion, the group decide to go all-in on this, intent on kicking the devil in the teeth. Sandra though is not so sure. She believes they’re messing around with spiritual stuff that’s outside the body and shouldn’t be messed with. Sandra decides to skip out. Natsuki arrives to talk to her, pointing out that they’re family and she should be there to support them – for Anya’s sake. And the fateful time comes, and Anya is busted out in the middle of the night. They descend down to the creepy underbelly of Brightcliffe. Sheets down there are arranged into the word “DONT” which should be the biggest red flag…but it doesn’t dissuade any of them from continuing. The group sit in a circle, reciting the Goddesses of old while sacrificing in their name. Suddenly, the lift raises up and the kids are stuck on their own, worried they can’t get back up. Now remember, the kids were stuck down here earlier in the season and we cut to the midnight club, so that seems like a bit of a plot hole! Anyway, it’s just Sandra and she shows up to oversee proceedings. She’s definitely not getting involved though. Each of the kids have a trinket to sacrifice to the fire; a piece of memorabilia that’s important to them. They cut their hands and drop blood into the fire. Each of the kids do this in turn, dropping a thumb print of blood across Anya’s forehead in the process. As they begin chanting, that familiar black shadow rises up out the fire and seems to reach out for Anya.
The Episode Review
The Midnight Club has been – in true Mike Flanagan fashion – very slow paced. The blood ritual at the end seems to hint that we’re going to be picking up the pace (and scares) for the last 3 episodes but this is definitely going to he an acquired taste. It would seem that Haunting of Hill House was a one-off in terms of “horror mastery” as very thing Flanagan has released since has very much garnered mixed reactions from people. Midnight Club is arguably the weakest of the bunch alongside Bly Manor but there’s still time for this one to pull out a horrifying final act.
