History Recap / AreYouAfraidOfTheDarkSeason1TheTaleOfThePhantomCab

** Revelation of a woodland cabin to have been phantasmal may allude to a folkloric [[UsefulNotes/NorthEastEngland account]] of a lost traveller who took shelter in a hut. He woke to find the hut to have vanished - [[OhCrap with himself on the edge of a cliff]].

* BadassBeard: Dr Vink's long, bushy beard evokes his retreat into isolated nature study.

* WindsAreGhosts: By Dr Vink's cabin, several bushes, amidst disembodied wails, quake in an untimely succession of breezes.

Brothers Denny and Buzz Crocker, on a woodland hike, have become lost - Buzz, it seems, has been pointing the compass at his belt buckle. It gets cold and dark. Through the trees approaches a lone figure. Flynn - a fellow traveller - offers to show them to the woodland cabin of a doctor. They reach a clearing, where stands a stone cabin. The good doctor, warns Flynn, should only be asked for help if it's really needed - his prices can be... steep. Denny turns to query Flynn further - but he's vanished.

As the boys approach the cabin, the nearby bushes abruptly shudder. Disembodied voices wail. Alarmed, the brothers pound on the wooden door. Wild-eyed, bushy-bearded Dr Vink welcomes them inside. The brightly lit cabin is full of chemical concoctions and biological specimens - Vink studies wildlife - the disembodied brain of a wild boar, he's learned, still gives off electric impulses! He puts to the boys a riddle - how far can you walk into the woods? Denny exasperatedly asks to use the phone, but Buzz has the answer - halfway! Because after that, you're walking ''out of'' the woods. Dr Vink is impressed, but use of the phone will require the solving of one riddle more - what has no weight, can be seen by the naked eye, and, if put in a barrel, will make it lighter? Both boys are stumped. Vink directs them to a nearby clearing, where a taxi passes by each night. Denny protests. Vink ''might'' let them use the phone if they leave him a specimen. He measures Buzz's cranium, and produces an example of the sort of thing he has in mind - a jar, in which floats a severed human hand. The boys scream and flee the cabin.

In the clearing, to Denny's disbelief, a cab arrives. They get in, and find Flynn behind the wheel. He gives rides to those who can't solve Vink's riddles. Forty years ago, he drove the doctor, who, in exchange for a tip, posed a riddle. Vink took from Flynn a specimen - didn't they see it at the cabin? He raises his right arm, which is missing a hand. For forty years, he's led lost travellers to the cabin, but none have solved the riddle, so they all ended up here. Before Vink took his hand, Flynn had an accident - he crashed into a tree. He suddenly turns his head 180 degrees to face the boys - he sorta died!! The bushes outside the cabin are haunted by the ghosts of his ill-fated fares. Until someone solves the riddle, they, and Flynn, are trapped.

As they speed toward the scene of the accident, Flynn's excitement builds. There's still time - Denny and Buzz have thirty seconds to solve the riddle. Denny desperately suggests helium would make the barrel lighter. Helium can't be seen by the naked eye, realises Buzz. What can be seen that's weightless? Buzz realises the trick - you can't put something into the barrel to make it lighter, you have to take something out. Finally, Buzz has the answer - with seconds to spare, he shouts it - a hole in the barrel! Flynn and his cab vanish. Denny and Buzz fall to the ground, overcome with relief. Moments later, a forest ranger arrives, and drives them home.

** Judging by the phantasmal nature of his cabin, Dr Vink may be at least partly spectral - although, in subsequent appearances, has a consistent, widespread effect on the material world.

* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Having escaped the phantom car crash, Denny, having berated Buzz throughout the episode, hugs him in relief. Denny then sincerely congratulates Buzz on breaking the curse - although, albeit somewhat lightheartedly, declares his brother still to be a loser.

** Revelation of a woodland cabin to have been phantasmal recalls a folkloric [[UsefulNotes/NorthEastEngland account]] of a lost traveller who took shelter in a hut. He woke to find the hut to have vanished - [[OhCrap with himself on the edge of a cliff]].

* Revelation of a woodland cabin to have been phantasmal recalls a folkloric [[UsefulNotes/NorthEastEngland account]] of a lost traveller who took shelter in a hut. He woke to find the hut to have vanished - [[OhCrap with himself on the edge of a cliff]].

* Revelation of a woodland cabin to have been phantasmal recalls an folkloric [[UsefulNotes/NorthEastEngland account]] of a lost traveller who took shelter in a hut. He woke to find the hut to have vanished - [[OhCrap with himself on the edge of a cliff]].