A spooky forest in Slovakia and a bloodstained woman
running in horror from a house – only to be found by the Librarians. She gasps
that there’s something horrible in the house (in American accented English).
She tells them her friends are still caught inside
Cassandra is tracing broken ley lines (something Jenkins
told them to do and her brilliant brain can manage despite the nose bleeds it
causes, much to Eve’s concern). Which also leads them to the house.
Calling Jenkins he adds to the general badness that is
broken ley lines and he tells them the house may be a very very nasty haunting.
They reach the house and Eve’s concern about Cassandra has her tell Cassandra
to stay outside and look after the frightened girl – Cassandra knows what she’s
doing and isn’t very pleased by being protected.
Jake tells them that the house is an American frontier
house – and very out of place in Slovakia. They go inside and place magical
scrolls to fix things – only to have thrown knives and broken crockery drive
them out.
Outside they prepare to go back in again but the scared girl, Katie, runs in alone for her friends which interrupts Eve trying to sideline Cassandra again. Inside they catch Katie and, again, Eve tells Cassandra and Katie to stay on the ground floor while she, Jake and Ezekiel go upstairs. Cassandra isn’t pleased – especially since Katie asks her if all she does is read maps.
Upstairs they split up even while Ezekiel tells them how
foolish it is. Each finds lots and lots of really well done creepiness (+10
creepy points show) and each finds a picture of two people infront of the house
with their faces ripped off (the picture is ripped, not their actual faces,
that would be messy and not photogenic). Eve also has a vision of the missing
kids.
They take some blood stained clothes they find to Katie who freaks out and storms off – she doesn’t have the best sense of self-preservation. Cassandra goes after her, snarking that she’s the “Katie-wrangler”. They call Jenkins for information and he tells them that lots of horrible slaughter urban legends all took place in this particular house. Nice. One of Six haunted houses. He researches and discovers it’s the Shatter Box which tends to move around, feeding on victims over a century.
To stop the house they need to find its mysterious “Dark
Heart” (which could be anything) and destroy it – before midnight when it moves
on. Yes the House is the monster
Which is time for a shadowy robed figure with an axe to
ghost around.
For extra tension, Katie describes the scary man made of
shadow and smoke.
Time for Ezekiel to disappear and some stellar
creepiness. Every creepy haunted house trope you can imagine and they’re really
well done. Eve tries to convince Cassandra to leave to protect Katie – and because
the team has different skills; Cassandra’s doesn’t include combat. Cassandra
goes out to the car and thinks that the protectiveness is linked to both her
weakness – and her past betrayal. But Katie spins it another way – points out
she was the one trusted to protect Katie.
Feeling better Cassandra tries to drive off – but the
shadowy smoke thing is outside the house and smashing the car. They run back in
the house where Eve really wishes she had something to shoot. She runs to
Cassandra and Katie’s screams – and Jake disappears.
Ezekiel and Jones are inside a doll house (which I would have
broken first off, personally – heart of the house and a model house? C’mon!). A
house with extra wish fulfilment as a bonus. The room also has some very rare
ancient art on the walls that enthrals Jake – showing the House is much much
older than 100 years.
Outside Eve and Cassandra try to fight the smoke thing –
Eve tells them to run but when Cassandra gets Katie out she wants to return to
protect her friends. She also realises that Katie thinks she’s in America, not
Slovakia. No she hasn’t been moved – just forgetful. She runs through a few
names before remembering Cassandra – and her eyes glow white. Yep, Katie is the
evil one.
Cassandra runs back to the house and finds Eve’s gun, but
no Eve. She follows movement to a room full of transparent ghosts while Katie
talks about the people she killed with her family before she found the magic
house that helped her escape – the house that spoke to her. Hearing this Cassie
talks to the House – and sees the same paintings appear that Jake saw, telling
the story of the happy house and family until the bad people came – Katie and
her kin.
The haunting spookiness is the house trying to warn
people away. Katie arrives and reveals her wish that the house granted – to be
death, complete with dark shadow. She fights Cassandra and cuts her. Cassandra
wishes for help and then screams at Katie who thinks she’s death, when
Cassandra sees her own death in the tumour every day, it’s another dramatic
characterful speech. Cassandra slashes Katie – and she is reduced to dust. Cassandra
faints.
When she wakes the house is better – and Cassandra gets a
thank you note. And she goes to explain this all to the others – the House
doesn’t grant wishes, it grants refuge; unfortunately, a serial killer found
it.
They all leave, all happy. Jenkins adds the exposition of
Katie’s family in history.
Ok not a big meta episode but I appreciate the twist.
That was a very good twist and a very nice concept – and a whole lot of very
very nice creepiness until then. I do appreciate a good dose of creepy
I also like Cassandra’s development and exposition here –
and how that tumour does prey on her even as we see her running around and
being a genius and kind of awesome, she is still very torn by fear of it. At
the same time we have a nice touch of ableist call out here – yes, part of Eve’s
sidelining of Cassandra may be due to her betrayal and it may also be down to
her very good point that Cassandra has a different skill set – but part of it
has to be linked with the beginning of the episode with Cassandra’s nose bleed.
Eve was reminded that Cassandra was dying and decided that she needed to
shelter her – it looked like a very classic ableist over-protection, deciding
someone with such an ailment had to be protected and couldn’t care for
themselves. It’s a trope that always looks caring and positive but is also very
infantilising. And Cassandra rather wonderfully challenged it and set it on
itself – all delivered with a nice subtlety that didn’t belabour the point.
