Jack and Kenny Harris, having just moved into a new neighbourhood, are keen to fit in. Around the outside of the house, the two stalk each other with water guns. Kenny notices a visitor to the front lawn: a young boy, Marshall McClain, parked on a bike. Across the street stand five others, all on bikes.
Having moved from East Side, toughest neighbourhood in the city, Jack and Kenny haven’t yet made any friends. Marshall invites them to tonight’s game of hide and seek - in the graveyard. Jack and Kenny rise to the challenge.
That sunset, the two climb the locked gates into the neglected graveyard. The two wade through the tall grass.
Marshall calls into the night, and from behind gravestones emerge the others, who fall in to stand before a tree: Ron Jacobson, Scott Whaldon, Laura Ayers, Mary Alice Reardon, and Cissy Vernon.
Cissy introduces the legend of Old Man Corcoran.
As groundskeeper, he used to dig the graves by day, guard the yard by night, and, by his woodland cabin, play his harmonica. Supposedly a little crazy, he reputedly caught some kid stealing something from his shack, and with an axe, cut off the kid’s hand. One day, when digging a grave, the sides caved in on him, and he was buried alive. Some say he can still be heard patrolling the graveyard, playing his harmonica.
Laura is impatient to start. Marshall tells Ron to get counting, and the game starts.
Jack and Kenny wander through the graveyard. Jack finds a freshly dug grave. Just then, he alerts Kenny to the distant sound of a soft, shrill note: a harmonica.
They pursue the sound through the trees to a wooden bungalow. Suspecting a prank by the others, they crouch behind a small wall, and plan to jump out. When no one comes, they take a closer look. On a tree stump lies a silver harmonica. Not taking any chances, they run. Meanwhile, a man’s hand snatches the musical instrument.
As they pass a gravestone, Mary Alice leaps out with a yell, and runs off. They prepare to follow... and are blocked by a grey-haired, ashen man, dressed in overalls and holding an axe. He glowers sternly at the two, who scream in terror, and run.
The next day, as they sweep the garage, Jack berates Kenny for ripping his pants on the gate, and landing them in this chore.
Through the open garage door, Marshall invites them to return for tonight’s game. Convinced of having seen Old Man Corcoran, they initially decline. Goaded by a chicken impression from Cissy, Jack agrees to return tonight.
That night, since Jack and Kenny left early, they’re now both "it."
By the tree, they count. As they wander through the graves, they see Mary Alice crouch beneath a wall. A swift, dense mist suddenly hides her. When it lifts, she’s vanished. Just then, they hear the harmonica. Jack has an idea: to prove the ghost’s existence, they’ll steal his harmonica.
Through the trees, they approach the shack. The ashen groundskeeper gathers logs. As he wanders off, the two creep to the tree stump where lies the harmonica. When footsteps sound in their direction, they crouch behind the tree stump, as the man retrieves his harmonica, and walks off again.
Jack is determined to steal the harmonica. While Kenny retreats, Jack approaches the shack. He sneaks into the darkened living room. The door creaks shut behind him. He tries to open it, but it’s stuck.
He steps back, and accidentally switches on a phonograph cylinder. As a grainy record merrily twangs, he backs into someone: Kenny, who has the harmonica. Jack takes the instrument, and hands over his flashlight...but not, as he supposes, to Kenny. When he asks for it back, the two realise it to be held by someone unseen. The holder illuminates himself: it's Old Man Corcoran.
They scream, run back through the graveyard, and fall into the open grave. Cissy indignantly tells them to find their own grave. Kenny, on the way out, quips that he didn’t see a name on it. As they leave, she quietly tells them to look a little closer next time.
From another open grave pops Marshall. Uninterested in the harmonica, he invites them to share his hiding place, and sinks back in.
Old Man Corcoran, now stood behind them, deftly snatches the harmonica from Jack’s pocket. He asks what they’re doing here.
Jack confesses to have been playing hide and seek. Kenny lists the names of their friends. As he speaks, they back away from the "ghost," who sternly explains those kids to be long dead and buried, in graves he dug himself. The two fall backwards, and see, behind the now full grave, a headstone, engraved with the name of Marshall McClain - and a photo of the dead boy's face. In horror, Jack and Kenny stare across the misty graveyard.
Kiki closes with a dare to another round of the "dumb kid’s game." Frank, on failure to disclaim the role of "it," starts to count…
This episode provides examples of:
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Marshall. He was the kindest of the group to Jack and Kenny, but then it turns out that they were actually all ghosts. It's more than likely that this behavior was just an act to lure the boys into an early grave and becoming ghosts along with them.
- Bizarrchitecture: During appearance of the ghostly kids, their graves appear freshly dug. When Old Man Corcoran arrives, the graves are filled in and set with headstones.
- Buried Alive: Said to have happened by accident to Old Man Corcoran. It didn’t, but it probably happened to the ghost kids, and would have happened to Jack and Kenny had they completed the game.
- Crusty Caretaker: Old Man Corcoran is somewhat brusque and stern.
- Cruel Twist Ending: Averted as Jack and Kenny do survive. But the twist at the end pulls no punches in showing how close they came to dying.
- Dark Is Not Evil: While forebodingly stern, Old Man Corcoran means no harm. He even saves Jack and Kenny at the end.
- Dead All Along:
- Inverted in the case of Old Man Corcoran, accused of spectrality by Cissie, who herself turns out to be a ghost.
- The hide and seekers, in the graveyard where their bodies are buried, routinely jump in and out of their graves to play.
- Double Meaning: At the very end, Marshall tries to coax Jack and Kenny into continuing the game by offering a gravesite as a hiding place, strongly assuring them that no one can ever find them there.
- Dude, Not Funny!: When Jack and Kenny frantically explain themselves to Old Man Corcoran, they say they've been playing hide and seek. But when they tell him all the names of their new friends, Old Man Corcoran scolds them that whatever joke they're playing, it's not funny. Because those kids have been dead for years, and he should know: he dug the graves himself.
- Foreshadowing: Cissy hides her face in disbelief when Jack and Kenny arrive for the second game, but not out of personal disgust. It's more like she's agitated that her efforts to keep them away will be for naught.
- When Kenny and Jack fall into a grave that Cissi is hiding in, she gets awfully snippy and orders them to get out this instant. Jack snaps that he didn't see her name on this hiding place. Ominously, Cissi growls "Well look a little closer next time..."
- Hide-and-Seek Horror: Brothers Jack and Kenny are invited by a local group of kids to play with them a nocturnal game of hide and seek in a local cemetery. They agree to do it, but better watch out for gravekeeper Old Man Corcoran! The group of kids are all ghosts whose "hiding spots" are their own graves. Marshall, their leader, almost convinces the brothers to hide with him in an open grave, which is his own. At the end of the episode, Old Man Corcoran scares the brothers and reveals the kids they were playing with were all dead, since the man dug their graves himself.
- Kids Hate Chores: After the first night, the brothers are made do clean out their garage by next morning, and blame each other for their current predicament.
- Mysterious Mist: During the second game, the brothers spot the yellow-wearing girl, Alice, hide behind a gravestone, then a mist appears in the air, and the girl has vanished.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: The hide and seekers haunt their graves, which, throughout, revert to freshly dug holes.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni:
- Aloof, competitive Jack and friendly, outgoing Kenny.
- Welcoming Marshall and territorial Cissy. Though it's implied that Marshall isn't anywhere near as sweet-natured as first thought, while Cissy's aggressive nature had altruistic reasons behind it
- Rewatch Bonus: Cissy's aggressive behavior towards Jack and Kenny makes her seem like a jerk at first, but come The Reveal that the group of kids are all ghosts, it puts her in a whole new light. She was the last of the group to join, and was most likely tricked and killed by Marshall. Cissy was purposefully being mean and also fed lies about Old Man Corcoran to Jack and Kenny to try and scare them off so they wouldn't die too. As a matter of fact, the above mentioned hiding place incident was her last ditch effort to save their necks. Though this is somewhat muddled by Cissy egging them on calling them "chicken" during the second night.
- Serious Business: The game of graveyard hide and seek.
- Tomboyish Name: When Marshall introduces Cissie Vernon, she insists to be called Vernon. She is also dressed somewhat tomboyish, wearing a backwards cap.
- Would Hurt a Child: Invoked with Old Man Corcoran, said to have cut off the hand of a thieving kid. It’s likely a lie.
- You Are Grounded!: Although it is implied, after the first nocturnal hide and seek game, when Kenny ripped his pants, brothers Jack and Kenny are made to clean the garage.
- You Look Like You've Seen a Ghost: The last line of the story.
