[AYAOTD? Recap with Erin Callahan] S05E06 "The Tale of C7"

RECAP

Tucker has something to tell the Midnight Society, but he can’t remember what it is. His memory lapse is a convenient segue for Sam, who has a story about shared memories and the objects that bring them to life...or death.

Jason and Lisa have just moved into an old waterfront inn that their mom purchased and plans to fix-up and reopen. They begin hearing music in the middle of the night but can’t find the source. Later, while helping their mom clean out a closet, they find a jukebox full of records from the 1940s. While trying to repair the jukebox, Jason sees a young blonde woman outside the window. He runs outside to find her but she’s vanished. Later that night, he hears music again and goes downstairs to find the jukebox playing. The blonde woman appears again, but instantly vanishes when the music stops. The next day, while Jason is washing windows, Lisa, who can’t swim, takes an old rowboat out onto the water because she sees a woman in a canoe calling for help. Their mom is furious but finally admits that locals think the inn is haunted. After her boyfriend died in the war, a young woman’s canoe washed up after a storm and she was never found. Jason’s now convinced that the blonde woman is a ghost. He unjams record C7, hoping it will make her appear again. Meanwhile, Lisa takes off in the rowboat again to warn the woman in the canoe about an approaching storm. Hoping the ghost has his sister, Jason plays C7 and finds himself transported to a homecoming party for a soldier in the 1940s. The ghost arrives to greet him and the young couple finally get to be together in death. After the empty row boat washes up, Lisa appears safe and sound on the dock, claiming the young couple helped her get home.

Sam reveals that Jason could never get C7 to play again, and Tucker finally remembers what he wanted to tell the gang — there’s a big storm coming!

REVIEW

T: Stig is the only person to ever stand up to Kiki, and you know he won’t make that mistake again.

E: Damn girl! Kiki can kill with a look. Though I do feel like her comment about whether or not Stig ever changes his clothes borders on body shaming? It’s hygiene shaming, right? As are most of the girls’ comments toward Stig? I don’t know. This just strikes me as such a ’90s thing that maybe wouldn’t play as well these days.

T: I just don’t know how Stig was created. Are we supposed to think he’s poor and unhygienic and feel bad for him? Is he just gross to be gross? Stig is short for stigmatized, right? So many questions that will remain unanswered.

E: Oh my god I don’t know how the “short for stigmatized” thing has never occurred to me before. I suppose “gross boys” was kind of a cringey ’90s trope. Donkeylips comes to mind. Angus Bethune from Angus, Billy Bob from Varsity Blues, Bruce Bogtrotter from Matilda. There’s also Booger from Revenge of the Nerds so maybe this predates the ’90s, but I feel like it reached its peak in the ’90s and got deeply entwined with fat shaming.

T: Tucker: When you can’t remember something, don’t try to remember it. Just stop and do something else and it’ll come back to you. Or walk through a doorway. There’s a theory that your mind does quick rechecks when you cross thresholds, not that there’s any around the campfire.

E: Really? That’s a real thing? I always remember stuff right before I fall asleep. It’s rather annoying.

T: Yep. Give it a try sometime. It’s much preferred to taking NiteQuil to get sleepy to remember something. How cool is it when Sam pulls out the trinkets that inspired “Long Ago Locket,” “Dream Girl,” and “Watcher’s Woods?” I’m so glad they don’t do Midnight Society callbacks every episode, so when they do pop up, they’re more special.

E: Yes, exactly! They’re perfect little fan-treats.

T: Jesse Moss returns! After playing big bro in “Train Magic” he gets to be the central character here.

E: Is it just me, or is he bringing a lot more emotional depth to this one? Maybe it’s just because he gets more screen time here, but I feel like we’re seeing him grow as an actor.

T: He’s a good actor, so I’m not sure if it’s having a year more experience or just the character. The casting agents do a great job again of getting a brother/sister pair who look like they could actually be related, unless you consider it cheating because Lisa is played by Tegan Moss, Jesse Moss’ real life younger sis.

E: Ha! Amazing. They have a nice dynamic but I wouldn’t have guessed they were sibs in real life.

T: Ellen, the mom, is so cute. She’s so excited to show off the place and eager to make this a new home. I like having a parent around who’s engaged in what’s going on for a change.

E: Love her! My boyfriend and I were chatting during the episode, trying to figure out the backstory here. Do you think she’s freshly divorced and wants to change up her life by opening an inn? Either way, I love how enthusiastic she is about fixing up an amazing old (haunted) house. Speaking of, I know this is grown-up Erin talking, but how freaking amazing is that house? That wrap-around porch, my god! When the mom stood on the dock and said, “Isn’t this peaceful?” while her kids rolled their eyes, I felt so seen.

T: I feel like there’d be a dark cloud hovering over them if the dad recently died, because like you said, Ellen seems to be all about a fresh new start, so the family probably shifted recently. I agree it’s most likely a divorce. And yes, that house is glorious, which makes it even weirder that Jason’s pissed off because he gets to live in this amazing lakeside mansion? I assume he’s really upset about moving/leaving his friends behind and it has nothing to do with where they’re going to, but he never verbalizes any of that.

E: Right!?! Okay, I feel more justified in siding with mom on this one. But yeah, your guess is probably correct even though the script never bothers to make it clear. And I suppose I remember that feeling? My family almost moved to Australia right before I started high school and I was like, “Noooooooo!” because I didn’t want to disrupt my whole life and start over socially. Now, of course, I’d be like, “Fuck yeah, Australia!”

T: You almost moved to Australia?! We never would have met and you’d have a half Aussie accent now! There’s a multiverse version where that happened...

E: I don’t want to think about Troy-less Erin, even if she has an amazing accent.

T: Lisa can’t swim, and they’re moving to that lakeside estate? Day one, I’d be giving her swimming lessons.

E: I’m solidly in the camp of Swimming-Lessons-Are-Not-An-Option. Because, like, water can kill you. Water safety is just as vital as immunizations. One keeps you from getting measles, the other keeps you from drowning.

T: We also grew up in a lake town. Imagine a young family in a city. You have to go out of your way to find the time (and money) for lessons.

E: Fair point, though it’s made clear that Lisa just didn’t want them.

T: Did you think that giant stuffed monkey was going to be important? I sure did, but nope. Just a ridiculous prop they talk about.

E: I hope it’s something ridiculous they found on set and just HAD to work into the episode in some small way.

T: Kids being hypnotized is creepy in general, but I imagine it’s more of an adult fear than a kid’s? I’d also assume it hits you harder as a mom than me as a confirmed bachelor.

E: Interesting. Maybe? Though all kids say and do weird shit now and again so, as a parent, you sort of become accustomed to it. Just last week, on Halloween of all days, my five-year-old told me that sometimes she worries I’m not her real mom, just a monster disguised to look like her real mom. Holy what?!? Like, apropos of nothing, she sometimes worries I’m the Other Mother from Coraline? Young minds are a strange wonder. Also, I feel like I had a fairly intense fear of being hypnotized/entranced/possessed at that age, even before I watched The Exorcist. I think the first story that piqued that fear was the “Pied Piper of Hamelin.” I wasn’t worried about being the kid left behind. I was worried about being one of the kids who got hypnotized by his music and was stolen.

T: Wow. Maybe that particular fear has nothing to do with age but just hits people differently. I guess like some people are terrified of heights and others don’t blink at the thought of skydiving.

E: I buy that.

T: This is one of the rare episodes that I just could not remember, so I was all kinds of confused. I thought the music was summoning a monster like “Dark Music” and then I thought it was a mermaid. And every wrong idea I had was better than what happened…

E: LOL. I feel your pain. I enjoyed this one and didn’t remember it at all, but I really wanted the young ghost to be a siren of some kind who steals children or young men who look like her dead lover. Then again, that’s pretty heavy content for AYAOTD?

T: I could see that for AYATOD? “Jagged Sign” had Joshua confused between Claudia and Marjorie. And there’s a revival episode that’s all about that.

E: Well then son of a whore, this episode is just a lost opportunity.

T: C7 being the jukebox track didn’t hit me until he said it. Usually the titles make sense right away. So that was kind of fun.

E: I wasn’t sure what it meant until they found the jukebox. And that jukebox. Just another thing that makes that house hella cool, and I love that it’s the key to getting Jason excited about living there.

T: Mom says, “You’re not getting strange on me, are you?” I love when characters call each other strange on here. I don’t know why, it just tickles me. I appreciate Jesse Moss not screaming or overacting when the girl vanishes. It’s a sign of an actor making a smarter choice. Could have been David Winning’s direction, too, he has a more understated vibe.

E: Well said. It’s definitely a more realistic reaction than a big old screamfest or meltdown.

T: I also appreciate that we have a single mom whose storyline is about work and not trying to get a man.

E: Hear hear!

T: What I don’t appreciate is ANOTHER World War II backstory narration…OH GOD, it’s ANOTHER – here’s a WWII backstory narration…

E: Oof -- unfortunately, I feel the same way. Though this is classic Sam and I actually think it’s done slightly better here than some of the other “lovers from another time” stories? Their story is concise and because Lisa keeps paddling off, it feels like there are actual stakes. I actually dig the whole 1940s vibe, but I was weirdly craving something darker here.

T: Does the whole Lisa/water storyline make sense? What was she doing exactly? The ghost saved her, but didn’t she put Lisa in needless jeopardy in the first place? Or did she need Lisa to row a boat for reasons? Did Lisa have a whole side adventure (that was more interesting than her brother’s) that we just didn’t see?

E: All very good points. It seems like Iris (the ghost) needed some living humans to help her recreate the last dance she never got to have with her sweetie? You’re totally correct that it’s never made one-hundred percent clear, but I think I enjoy it more than the “key piece of info allows ghost to find peace” storylines.

T: Tucker finally remembers what he forgot: a big-ass storm is on the way!

E: His timing is impeccable. “I remember what I wanted to tell you!” Cue torrential downpour.

QUEER OR NOT?

T: I’m not seeing it. “Crimson Clown” has a similar family dynamic of a single mom and two children, and there’s some gender expectations, man of the house material there, but here, Jason, Lisa, and Ellen are tops without the dad around.

E: Not seeing anything queer here, but Jason has a few moments that run counter to masculine stereotypes. He seems genuinely touched by Iris’s reunion with her soldier boyfriend. There’s no eye-rolling or muttering about “mushy stuff,” and he doesn’t chide his sister for being excited for the two of them. I found it really refreshing, especially because it feels like so much stuff from the ’90s reinforced the idea that boys like sexual conquests but think romance is gross or pointless.

TRIVIA, USELESS TRIVIA

T: According to their license plate, this story takes place in Connecticut, where D.J. MacHale hales from.

E: I don’t know where they filmed this episode, but that house screams Connecticut. The whole thing has a very old, rich New England vibe.

T: I’m pretty sure the entire series was filmed in Quebec. D.J. had his location scout show him cool places in between seasons and they inspired some stories, so I’m sure he found the location and then the tale came.

E: Just north of New England!

T: The mom’s played by Jane Wheeler who played the less supportive mom in “Final Wish.”

E: I didn’t catch that! You mean she was “stop bothering us in the middle of the night about your silly dreams” mom?

T: This was the screen debut for Colin Ferguson, who plays Tommy. He’s done a ton of Canadian shows and movies. If you google him, I bet you’ll go, “Oh that guy!”

E: Oh my god he’s the Maytag Man!

T: The comic Lisa’s reading is the Ghastly Grinner.

E: Totally solid reference -- love it!

MODERNIZE ’90s CANADIAN KIDS

T: Keep the first half, and change it so that a mermaid monster is summoned by music instead? Would that be a better episode?

E: I think yes and I really thought that’s where we were headed. I don’t take issue with “dead lovers reunited” plotlines, but we’ve already seen quite a few of them. I love the idea of a teenage boy and his younger sister awakening some kind of ghost-turned-monster with an old jukebox and her luring them into the water in completely different ways. Give me something with selkie energy and Wait Till Helen Comes vibes.

JUST GIVE IT A NUMERICAL RATING ALREADY

T: This is a mixed bag. I like all the set-up in the first half of the episode. While the second half is atmospheric, the pay-off just doesn’t work for me. Acting, directing, everything is good, though. Fittingly, I give “The Tale of C7” 7 OUT OF 10 CAMPFIRES.

E: So perfect! I love the house, the acting, the enthusiastic single mom, and the creepy vintage jukebox. Make it all that, but darker! I’ll second your 7 OUT OF 10 CAMPFIRES.