[AYAOTD? Recap with Erin Callahan]

RECAP

Frank’s moved away (*sob*), so Tucker’s brought his friend Stig to audition for the Midnight Society. Stig assaults Kiki with a kiss and acts like an all-around asshat, but tells a surprisingly solid story about the dangers of change.

In 1954, tiny Jay Baruchel dies in the school swimming pool while Charlie the lifeguard is making out with Jay’s older sister. Fast forward to 1994, Zeke, the school’s smartest loser, has put too much manganite in his model volcano and made a mess in science class. The custodian who has to clean it up is none other than Charlie, the lifeguard who let tiny Jay Baruchel drown! Zeke pulls Clorice aside after class and tells her that he’s found something she might be interested in, since she’s on the swim team. Clorice reluctantly agrees to meet up with him the next morning, and he shows her the school pool, which has been sealed off for years. Clorice convinces the school to reopen the pool, and she and Zeke strike a deal -- he’ll tutor her in science if she’ll teach him how to swim. The two quickly discover that something is wrong with the pool, and Charlie tells them that he tried to save tiny Jay Baruchel, but some kind of invisible creature pulled him under. Zeke comes up with a plan and dumps a chemical in the pool that turns the creature a terrifying red. Clorice brilliantly decides to destroy the creature with manganite, but almost blows herself up. The janitor gets to redeem himself by saving Zeke and giving Clorice time to destroy the creature. Zeke and Clorice become a couple, and spend time snuggling in an inflatable raft in the no-longer-haunted pool.

The Midnight Society don’t accept Stig into their ranks, but agree to let him tell another story as long as he’s, as Kiki says, “not a total puke.”

REVIEW

T: Oh, Stig. I’m going to say it right now, out of all seven seasons, every member of the Midnight Society, Stig is my absolute least favorite. So it turns out when Tucker told “Water Demons” last season, he was just making up a story revolving around Stig, because he’s basically Shawn from that, in looks and attitude. And boy does he not make a good impression kissing Kiki on the cheek.

E: Oh. My. God. I don’t know how I didn’t make the Shawn connection until just now but you’re one hundred percent right. And his face-assault on Kiki? Seriously uncool, bro. Way to be a total puke. That said, it’s important to note that this is the kind of behavior that was seen as annoying in the ’90s, but not criminal. It was brushed off with eyerolls. My my, how shit has changed.

T: I know it’s cringey, but the cheek kiss is also non-sexual. I hate it, but it doesn’t quite cross that line. It’s more like a Roger Rabbit “ain’t I a stinker?” kiss. Still, no one should do that to a casual acquaintance.

E: I dispute this take. Regardless of how sexual it is, an unwanted cheek kiss shows an extreme lack of respect for Kiki’s boundaries in a way that falls in line with how women’s bodies have historically been treated. Especially women of color.

T: We open up with super young Jay Baruchel! What’s fun about him is he’s become an A-list comedy actor (well deserved in my opinion), but he’s always been a horror fan. Shudder recently released his passion project Random Acts of Violence and he’s got a few horror projects in the works. And he’s good friends with Jacob Tierney, who played Eric in season one. Spoilers for seasons six and seven, but we’ll see a whole lot more of Jay Baruchel.

E: Holy heck, I’m so psyched that the voice of Hiccup makes a pre-A-list appearance here.

T: Zeke’s a fun nerd, even if Stig is so disgusted by his own main character. Who starts a story that way? “This is a tale about Zeke, a total dip, or in other words, a total fucking loser. I hate him!” I’m paraphrasing, but who does that?

E: I know we’ve just met Stig, but if he’s basically Shawn from “Water Demons,” like, why is he telling this story? Because you’re right. He doesn’t go with the usual “Zeke was a kid down on his luck” schtick that we’ve grown accustomed to on this show. He’s like, “this kid sucks.” Anyway, I adore Zeke. Though he’s slightly more awkward, he reminds me a bit of the charming city slicker nerd from “Midnight Ride.”

T: Yes! Clearly Tucker and his buddy have a type.

E: Hee hee.

T: Clorice is fun. Girl’s already been inside the boy’s locker room… But that name. Is it like Clarice and chlorine?

E: All I can think of is Cloris Leachman. I mean, it’s a name, but certainly not one that’s common these days.

T: Ok, is the Zeke/Clorice physicality super intense? She puts her finger on his lips to dom him like he’s a puppy.

E: OMG -- all Zeke really wants is a woman in control. Love it. It’s possible I’m forgetting an episode, but I feel like this is the first time we’ve seen a hetero couple on AYAOTD? be positively adorable with each other in a way that’s both believable and not cringey? The only other example I can think of is the two protags from “Super Specs,” but there wasn’t a whole lot of heat between them. This might be the first time the showrunners found two actors with legitimate chemistry and didn’t make them siblings or friends. Halle-freakin’-lujah.

T: As you were saying that, I was thinking about the “Super Specs” couple waaaaaay back in season one. I guess Neve and the traumatized dude in “Dangerous Soup” had an underdeveloped romance but it felt like the start of an adult relationship.

E: We don’t get to see Neve and traumatized dude snuggling.

T: This episode is basically Jaws meets The Raft meets every campus’ urban legend about a secret room.

E: There are some tried and true tropes in this one and I’m mostly here for it.

T: Zeke’s afraid of the water! His “water scares me monologue” reminds me of a few classic Friday the 13th final girls, like Rennie from Jason Takes Manhattan.

E: I appreciate that it’s a nice little reference to some classic slashers. But the “I felt something pulling me under but it was just lake weed” thing is SUCH a cliche.

T: True, but without saddling some massive backstory to make him afraid of swimming, I don’t know how else they could hand-wave add his fear.

E: Fair. It’s a reliable shortcut.

T: Is it weird that Zeke plans on learning to swim while wearing a ginormous shirt? I get being self-conscious so he doesn’t want to go shirtless, but why not an undershirt? A big white shirt’s going to turn invisible, dude. The only thing I can think of is because Kaj-Erik Eriksen is probably pretty fit and it would be weird if Zeke took off his shirt and had a six-pack.

E: LOL. Yes, let’s please go with that theory. It’s the shirt equivalent of putting glasses on a hot actor because they’re supposed to be playing a conventionally unattractive character.

T: Furthering the Friday the 13th and Jaws vibes, we get an intense old crackpot in janitor Charlie. He borders on too cartoonish for me, but is just on this side of I’m cool with it.

E: I mean, if your high school boyfriend’s brother drowned in a pool while you were on duty, you’d be a crackpot, right?

T: Only for thirty-nine years. I’d be over it by the fortieth.

E: Ha!

T: Did you notice in the locker room, there’s a flipping DATE RAPE poster? Like, it’s telling teen boys not to date rape, but wow, I did not expect to see that in the background of a Nickelodeon kid’s show.

E: I think I literally said “whoa” out loud. Are they trying to compensate for Stig assaulting Kiki at the start of the episode?

T: Charlie with the staring into the distance tragic monologue FTW. Holy shit, it took FOUR drownings before they closed the pool?

E: One is an accident. Two is...two accidents? Three is fucking hell do any of these goddamn lifeguards know what they’re doing?! Four is holy fuuuuuuuck this pool is cursed.

T: LMAO so true. Okay, so in addition to Friday the 13th, The Raft, and Jaws, it’s also Poltergeist with the whole building a pool over dead bodies.

E: Another cliche I’m not a huge fan of, and it makes this sort of a replay of “Quicksilver.” But I guess when you’ve got twenty minutes, it’s hard to cram in a ghost backstory when you’re also trying to develop a teen romance.

T: This is another one that could easily be a feature length movie. The leads and monster are that strong. You’d have to throw in a few more swimmers, but you’d have the time to give the corpse a proper, non-cliched backstory. Speaking of, the red corpse monster is terrifying. As far as iconic AYAOTD? monsters go, this one is top five, right?

E: Easily. TERRIFYING. The thing looks like an angry bodybuilder turned inside out.

T: And they use science to defeat the corpse, just like how the goth kids beat Goth in “Sorcerer’s Apprentice.”

E: You’re right! God, I forgot about that. As much as I like this episode, it really is a remix of stuff we’ve seen before. Just...done slightly better?

T: I’m perfectly fine with retreading material if you do it better. It’s always a gamble, though. Consider how “Full Moon” is basically just “Nightly Neighbors” switching vampires with werewolves, and “Full Moon” is a top tier episode.

E: Oooooh - interesting point.

T: How sweet is it that Charlie saves Zeke, fulfilling his life guard mission after forty years?

E: Also a cliche, but a pretty satisfying one.

T: And the dip gets the girl. What do you think about the Zeke/Clorice dynamic?

E: Love it, even though it’s yet another cliche. But the dialogue between them is snappy and the two actors really sell it. That final scene of them snuggling in the raft is so cute but also disarmingly real? Like, it made me realize you don’t see a lot of teenage couples just snuggling on screen. You see a lot of awkward kisses or furious makeout sessions. But real couples of all ages spend a lot of time just snuggling.

T: Stig does himself no favors, licking that fire dust.

E: Do you think he managed to figure out that it’s non-dairy creamer?

T: No. I’m pretty sure Stig has zero awareness of his surroundings.

E: I second that.

T: At least you have to admire Stig’s whole, “nobody likes me, so screw ‘em” approach? Right? Sorta?

E: Meh. I mean, isn’t that the approach of white supremacists and rape apologists?

T: Damn, I mean, yes, but also the “let your freak flag fly” mentality of the marginalized.

E: Fair point, but I maintain the latter has a completely different meaning. When embraced by the marginalized, it says, “I have a right to exist even if my existence conflicts with your oppressive ideology.” The other one says, “I’m here to stomp all over your basic human rights and if you don’t like it, stop existing.” We’ve got no evidence that Stig’s assholery rises to the level of a neo-Nazi, but the way he treats the girls makes me think he leans closer to that than a freak-flag-flier.

T: I cackled when they made Stig a probationary member. He tells a fantastic story, way better than Frank’s “Phantom Cab” or Tucker’s “Midnight Ride” and debatably Sam’s “Watcher’s Woods” but they’re still on the fence.

E: Guess a good story only gets you so far if you’re an asshole. *shrugs*

QUEER OR NOT?

T: He doesn’t get much screen time, even though his science lesson is vital to the story, but Mr. Brooks doesn’t exactly strike me as straight. This is partly because we last saw actor Arthur Holden camping it up in “Midnight Ride.” He’ll play a much larger and even campier role in a season six story.

E: Oooooh! Good call. And I think we’ve seen vaguely queer teachers before, like maybe in “Locker 22”?

T: You mean the time we both assumed Mr. Exposition was a theater teacher when they never state what subject he teaches? Uh, yeah.

E: Ha! Damn that is some classic Erin and Troy.

TRIVIA, USELESS TRIVIA

T: Speaking of “Midnight Ride,” another season opener and Stig’s bestie’s intro story, they used the same exterior, setting this at the same school.

E: Omg, what??? Amazing.

T: Zeke is played by Kaj-Erik Eriksen. Besides having a kickass name, he’s a great actor. When this aired, he was known for playing Michael Chiklis’ son on all 92 episodes of The Commish. He recurred on The 4400 (by AYAOTD? contributor Scott Peters) and Boston Public. Horror fans will recognize him for playing the final boy in See No Evil 2 from a couple years back.

E: Troy just texted me a pic of grownup Zeke and damn. Daaaaaaamn.

MODERNIZE ’90s CANADIAN KIDS

T: The only issue I have with the story is the whole hidden pool in a school of it all. I’d say move it to a rec center and the rest is golden. I guess I’d make Zeke actually look like a nerd, instead of a handsome dude in glasses. Oh yeah, and Clorice isn’t a name.

E: It would be hard to hide a room in a school these days, wouldn’t it? This generation is both curious and informed. I’d also ditch Clorice’s friend Greta and her weird “I liked him first” subplot. It’s totally unnecessary and just muddies the...pool?

T: Greta feels so tacked on that we didn’t even mention her once until now. A feature length story would flesh her out (and add to the body count), but as is, not needed.

JUST GIVE IT A NUMERICAL RATING ALREADY

T: I’m not alone in the fandom by saying I absolutely love this episode. Love it. Both leads are great, the monster is terrifying, it’s fun and still creepy. This is one of the ten or so episodes that could have been a feature length production. The middle is a little bit set-up, but the opening scene kill is so strong (they flipping kill a little boy!) that there’s an ominous air over everything. I don’t think it’s perfect, but the flaws are so minor that the highs more than balance them out. 10 CAMPFIRES OUT OF 10.

E: There are some cliches here I don’t love but they are almost eclipsed by tiny Jay Baruchel, terrifying makeup design, and snuggling! 9.5 OUT OF 10 CAMPFIRES.