While Dean Wilson sweeps the floor of the family shop, cousin Sean Mackenzie, sent on a stay to wean him off delinquency, helps himself to a pack of gum.
Dean announces an ordered delivery to the Westchester House, home to Captain Abraham Westchester, a reputedly eccentric retired sailor who made a fortune salvaging shipwrecks.
Through a heavy nightly mist, the boys approach a semi-stately seaside house. Beneath the door knocker, a note directs them to put the coffee in the pantry. With the front door locked, they enter through the back. Looking around, Sean admires the displayed maritime memorabilia...
As Dean nervously leaves the pantry, Sean sneaks up on him and yells "raa!!" Furious, Dean shoves him in protest. The resultant shoving match steers them to fall against a tall bookcase, which swings on hinges through a secret passageway. The boys stumble into the room beyond.
At the far end of the candlelit, antique-laden sitting room, a grey-haired, bearded man backs away, and stammers for mercy. Told of the coffee delivery, Captain Westchester laughs with relief. Dean suggests he get some sleep.
With a look of distant torment, the Captain claims to have been cursed by the sea: each time he falls asleep,he’s visited by Water Demons: angry spirits of those who died at sea, they return in search of their property, and to drag the Captain back to their watery grave. Ever on guard, the Captain stays near-constantly awake. Wide-eyed, he sinks into an armchair.
Respectively disquieted and vexed at the lack of a tip, Dean and Sean leave.
Outside, near the harbour, a heavy mist starts to build across the water. As the Captain dozes, the mist seeps onto the bank. Within it emerge bedraggled, silhouetted figures. In a deathly delirium, they advance upon the house...
The Captain jerks awake. The figures fade. The mist withdraws to the sea.
In his bedroom, Dean peers into his fish tank, and ponders the Captain's situation. Mr Wilson pops in and announces bedtime. Sean protests, and storms off into the night. Mr Wilson resolves to let him cool off.
Sean returns to the back lawn of the Westchester House, and climbs into the hammock. Meanwhile, the Captain, in his armchair, once more dozes off. Mere feet from the sleeping Sean, heavy mist drifts across the water. From the water, a bedraggled hand reaches onto the harbour bank...
Meanwhile, Dean wanders the road in search of Sean.
As Sean sleeps, water droplets fall onto his face. He looks up - to find, looming over him, three figures in evening wear, two men and a woman. Soaked in stagnant water and strewn with seaweed, their corpse-like faces stare in blind vengeance.
In terror, Sean leaps out of the hammock, and stumbles into a run. The Water Demons stagger tirelessly after him.
Sean runs into a nearby boat shed, and hides beneath a shelf. From the body of seawater before him, the mist returns, and more bedraggled figures arise. With sepulchral glares and accusing moans, they reach to drag him to the sea.
Desperate, Sean reaches for an air horn on the shelf above him. Dean rushes in, and sees the reaching apparitions. Panicked, Sean blasts the horn. In his armchair, the Captain awakes. The Water Demons fade.
Crazed with fear, Sean runs to the locked back door of the Westchester house. A flustered Dean follows. Near-hysterical, Sean confirms the Water Demons to be real.
Onto Dean's shoulder falls the hand of the Captain. On Sean’s shirt, he notices a sea-green handprint, and urges the boys inside.
Through a mounted telescope, Dean peers through the window to a buoy on the surface of the water. Thirty years ago, on that spot, says the Captain, a yacht named the Del Rio, in a storm, hit the rocks and sank. Having looted shipwrecks worldwide, a visit to the one in his own backyard provoked the vengeful hauntings. He started to time his sleep, long enough for the Water Demons to reach his door, before waking, whereupon they would slide back into the deep. Unable to take anymore, he returned all he took from the yacht - but they kept coming, not for restitution, but for revenge.
Did he return everything? Having traded several pieces away for other maritime memorabilia, the Captain was unable to find the traded pieces.
Dean suggests he offer the Water Demons his collection. Sean scoffs at the idea, and refuses to help. The Captain slyly notes the handprint on Sean’s shirt, and defies him to try going to sleep just yet. Sean agrees to help load the dinghy, and they set to work.
In the boathouse, as they finish loading, Sean accidentally whacks the Captain in the back of the head with a plank of wood. Knocked semi-conscious, he falls to the floor. Sean lowers the plank of wood, and knocks Dean’s glasses, left temporarily on a barrel, into the water.
Unable to see clearly without his glasses, Dean perceives the need for him to keep the Captain awake, and for Sean to take the haul to the wreck. While highly reluctant, Sean sees it’s the only way. He fires up the dinghy.
At the wreck site, Sean tethers the dinghy to the buoy. He flings a candleholder and sundry such items into the water. Meanwhile, Dean desperately tries to keep the Captain awake…
...Unsuccessfully. As Sean prepares to throw the last piece, a brass goblet, the water around the boat is broken by several dead-eyed, hissing, bedraggled spectres, who furiously grab Sean from all sides. He drops the goblet to the floor of the boat. Sean manages to grab the brass goblet, and throws it to the water. Placated, the Water Demons sink back into the sea. Euphoric with relief, Sean laughs.
Back at the boathouse, Dean and Sean concernedly ponder the unconscious Captain. Dean peers into the water in searches of his glasses. Abruptly, a Water Demon breaks the surface, grabs Dean, and pulls him beneath the water.
Sean screams desperate entreaties - and remembers the pocket watch he stole earlier. He throws it in the water.
Dean then leaps to the surface, gasping for breath. Sean helps him ashore. The Captain wakes, and wonders what happened. Dean confirms Sean to have returned the haul, laying the Water Demons to rest. Giddy with relief and gratitude, the Captain thanks them for easing his conscience. Sean then notices, on the barrel, Dean’s glasses.
While Dean stocks a shelf and Sean sweeps the shop floor, Mr Wilson finds four dollars and ninety cents, with a note of payment for several four candy bars and one pack of gum.
Well received as the story is, Frank maintains his grievance over the diary prank, but the others tell him to let it go. As Gary douses the fire, Kiki finds another bag, which contains a pair of Super Specs, a whoopee cushion, and a magic book, all of which belong to Gary. A note, signed by Tucker, thanks Gary in advance for permission to borrow this stuff, and chides him for prying in Tucker’s knapsack.
This episode provides examples of:
- The Atoner:
- Captain Westchester, persecuted by the ghosts of those whose belongings he took, tried to track down the traded goods for return. On Dean’s suggestion, he offers the Water Demons the goods for which he traded their belongings.
- Sean, having discreetly taken from the Captain’s collection a pocket watch, learns a terrifying lesson that stealing is wrong.
- Blind Without 'Em: With his glasses knocked into the water, Dean is unable to accompany Sean on the dinghy - furthermore, someone has to stay with the semiconscious Captain.
- Bookcase Passage: In the seemingly empty Westchester house, Sean and Dean stumble through one into the Captain's living room.
- Came Back Wrong: With their corpse-like faces, dazed reverie and blind, obsessive vengeance, the Water Demons are a very frightening example of this.
- Chekhov's Gun: Sean forgot the watch he stole as in his pocket until the climax.
- Covered in Gunge: The Water Demons are soaked in stagnant, greenish seawater, which they exude in droplets and handprints.
- Equivalent Exchange: Captain Westchester gave back what he stole from the shipwreck but the Water Demons still aren't satisfied, as the Captain traded several pieces for his collection. So the boys suggest giving them his collection since he got it by trading away their things. Once he does so, the Water Demons are content and leave him in peace.
- Everybody Has Standards:
- Sean has no problem stealing when it suits him, and is jaded to the very threat of being punished by his uncle. But when the water demons take his cousin Dean (who has never stolen a day in his life), Sean is horrified that they would punish his innocent cousin. This prompts him to return the last of the water demons' treasure.
- While their blind vengeance drives them to drag innocent Dean beneath the water, Sean's apologetic offer of the stolen pocket watch sways them to return Dean - as well as his lost glasses. As well as their own property, the Water Demons seem to respect that of the living.
- Fire-Forged Friends: While Dean and Sean initially bicker, their fearsome ordeal stokes a steadfast camaraderie.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Cousins Dean and Sean are respectively dutiful and fecklessly hedonistic.
- Hypocrite: When Tucker makes a point to shame Frank for snooping through what he thought was Sam's stuff, Gary points out that Tucker steals his stuff all the time.
- Laser-Guided Karma: As the Captain so puts it, he has denied the Water Demons their rest by stealing their belongings. So in turn, they deny him any rest by coming after him every time he falls asleep. Ultimately, at Dean's suggestion, he evens the score by tossing into the water everything he bought with his ill-gotten wealth to repay them.
- Never Sleep Again: Captain Westchester knows what a risk it is every time he goes to sleep. He manages to just get a few minutes at a time before the Water Demons can get to him.
- Noodle Incident: As the Water Demons come for him when he sleeps, Captain Westchester had to learn how to time out how long it would take them to get from the water to him. He describes it in a way that suggests it naturally took quite a bit of effort.
- Ocean Madness: Said of the reclusive Captain.
- Race Against the Clock: The Water Demons emerge whenever Captain Westchester goes to sleep. He figured out how long it would take them to go from the water to his house, allowing him to get at least a little sleep here and there throughout all this.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: When the water demons take Dean, Sean yells at them, "What do you want?!" just before remembering... he has what they want!
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Turns out, Sean's mom's prediction that sending him to his uncle's for the summer would straighten him out was 100% correct. Just probably not for the reasons she was thinking of...
- Robbing the Dead: The drowned ghosts of the Del Rio are not happy about Captain Westchester taking their stuff.
- Scare 'Em Straight: After his terrifying ordeal, Sean happily pays for the sweets and gum he stole from the shop.
- Shout-Out: Vengeful ghosts who emerge from an ocean mist recall John Carpenter’s The Fog (1980).
- Sleep Deprivation: In addition to his supernatural problem, Captain Westchester gets very little sleep and is constantly struggling with the mundane side-effects of this.
- Vengeful Ghost: The Water Demons, spirits of those who died at sea, seek to drag Captain Westchester to their watery grave.
- What You Are in the Dark: As part of his story, Tucker sets up a prank meant to invoke this in Frank. When left alone with what appears to be Sam's diary, he can't resist but read it and find an entry admitting she has feelings for him. When he tries to get Sam to admit her feelings, Frank finds he's been made a fool when Sam reveals this isn't her diary and it's written in Tucker's handwriting! Despite Frank's ire, Tucker is amused to see that Frank is guilty of snooping through other people's stuff.
