Around a woodland campfire, Betty Anne, Kiki, Kristen, Eric, David, and leader Gary meet each week to share spooky tales. To this week's meeting, David brings a blindfolded Frank - unanimous approval of whose tale will admit him to the Midnight Society. Into the fire, David throws some ceremonial Midnight Dust. Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, Frank calls his story "The Tale of the Phantom Cab."
Brothers Denny and Buzz Crocker, on a woodland hike, are 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. 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. 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.
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 Dr Vink, who, in exchange for a tip, posed a riddle, which Flynn couldn't solve. 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 could solve 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 lighten the barrel. 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.
The police, says Frank, went to the site of the cabin, and found only an old stone foundation covered with weeds. One by one, the others approve Frank's membership. Gary formally welcomes him to the Midnight Society.
This episode provides examples of:
- Affably Evil:
- Downplayed with Flynn, who, while far from evil, is most definitely a threat, albeit seemingly unwillingly.
- Dr Vink, while seemingly willing to mutilate for the sake of study, and send to their deaths those who fail to solve his riddles, is a rather jolly old boy.
- Ambiguously Human: It's uncertain exactly what Dr Vink is - however, the phantasmal nature of his cabin, his unscrupulous experimentation, and penchant for magical trickery make for an intriguing mystique.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: On escaping 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.
- Beware of Hitchhiking Ghosts: Inverted. Deep in the woods, lost hikers board a spectral cab, driven by Flynn to its repeated doom.
- Bizarrchitecture: On eventual police investigation, Dr Vink's cabin has vanished, leaving only "an old stone foundation, covered with weeds."
- Curse: Failure to solve a riddle doomed Flynn to lure lost travellers to Dr Vink’s cabin, and then ensnare them in a perpetually repeated car-crash.
- Dead All Along: Flynn, as Denny and Buzz learn.
- Don't Go Into the Woods: Or if you do, keep your compass away from your belt buckle - if you get lost, you never know who you might run into...
- Exorcist Head: Flynn, in jovially macabre recount of his fatal accident.
- Folk Horror: Lost woodland travellers run foul of a sinister eccentric who may be to some extent spectral, whereupon they find themselves threatened with a share in the fate of the ghost of another unfortunate traveller.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Downplayed. While Buzz's navigation skills are decidedly lacking, he has a knack for riddles. Which saves his and Denny's lives and, apparently, allows Flynn to move on to the afterlife.
- Foreshadowing: On first appearance, Flynn, while disarmingly casual, ambiguously notes himself both to be lost in the woods, and to know them well.
- Ghost Train: Or rather, the titular Phantom Cab.
- Ghostly Wail: By Dr Vink's cabin, discarnate wails, groans and laughter accompany the quaking bushes.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: A repeated phantom car crash.
- Hidden Depths: Despite his navigational ineptitude, Buzz is good at riddles.
- Jacob Marley Apparel: Flynn's casual ensemble, which includes a torch.
- Laughing Mad: On nearing the phantom car crash, Flynn is wildly jovial.
- Light Is Not Good: While Dr Vink's brightly lit cabin is at first somewhat reassuring, it's definitely not a safe haven.
- Mad Scientist: Dr Vink, in his study of biology, had no qualms about chopping off Flynn’s hand.
- Our Ghosts Are Different:
- A disarmingly casual, if disquietingly incongruous nightly woodland wanderer, on nearing his perpetual phantom car crash, acquires an Undeathly Pallor, and an alarming enthusiasm for the imminent explosion.
- Confined to the air outside Dr Vink's cabin, those who failed to solve the riddles manifest as disembodied, tormented wails, and untimely breezes.
- Judging by the phantasmal nature of his cabin, Dr Vink may be at least partly spectral - although, in subsequent appearances, he shows consistent, widespread effect on the material world.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni:
- Irate Denny and enthusiastic Buzz.
- Volatile Frank and laid-back David.
- Riddle Me This: Dr Vink shows a fastidious enthusiasm for riddles.
- Scenery Porn: Some lovely shots of the woods.
- Shout-Out:
- Denny addresses Buzz as Tonto.
- Buzz nervously considers the approaching Flynn.
Buzz: Maybe it's a maniac killer in a hockey mask who's gonna slash us!Denny: {of Dr Vink's Cabin} Who lives here, the Seven Dwarfs? - Undeathly Pallor: On second appearance, Flynn has one, perhaps because at this stage, he's closer to repeating his perpetual car crash.
- Wham Line:
- Flynn's account of having crashed his car forty years ago concludes with...
Flynn: You might say... I SORTA DIED!- Just in time, Buzz cries out the riddle's answer.
Buzz: It's a hole! It's a hole in the barrel! - Wham Shot:
- Dr Vink shows the boys one of his favourite specimens.
- Flynn shows the boys his resultant empty sleeve.
- With a wild grin, he then turns his head 180 degrees.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: To older brother Denny, Buzz longs to prove his navigation ability.
- Winds Are Ghosts: By Dr Vink's cabin, several bushes, amidst disembodied wails, quake in a temporally incongruous succession of breezes.
