Stig's second story will tonight decide his membership of the Midnight Society. Having instructed everyone to bring a portable radio, he has everyone tune in to their favourite station, and on the count of three, press play. They groove to the discordant din, until Stig pleads for silence. Countless radio signals, he says, constantly fill the air. Amidst the cacophony, might there float a message from somewhere unexpected? For instance, from beyond the grave? Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, he calls this story "The Tale of Station 109.1".
In near-darkness, in his funeral best, lies Chris Leary. An organ plays a funeral march. Just then, Chris’s mother pops in, shuts off the tape, and announces dinner.
Jamie, at the garage, wonders how to discourage Chris's morbid fascination with death. A parked hearse gives Jamie an idea...
Jamie brings Chris along, and invites him to try it out. In a space recently occupied by a corpse, Chris rehearses his own funeral.
Meanwhile, on the tarmac before the hearse, Jamie takes two spark plugs, and wires a battery connected to the hearse. As its motor jerks into life, a startled Chris bolts upright. The car radio independently tunes itself to 109.1, "radio for the dimensionally challenged." A solemn voice offers direction to those who haven’t managed to "step over."
Next day, around four, Chris tunes into station 109.1, and hears another offer of guidance to those unsure what follows the point of death. He leaves Jamie to listen to Clark and Ryan, and on the computer, via its new internet connection to the World Wide Web, searches for station 109.1. No station, he learns, is currently assigned to that frequency. He clicks on "Last Known Entry," and finds a local address.
Down a lonely, litter-strewn alley, he finds a metal door, marked "RADIO 109.1 STATION".
Inside, in chairs by a wall, several people, some of them elderly, sit in silence. Through a speaker, a voice announces "3948279." In response, an elderly woman stands, and joins a cue, which passes into another chamber. Chris tentatively approaches a wooden-shuttered window, marked "DO NOT KNOCK ON THE WINDOW." He knocks on the window. It opens. Out pops Roy, who angrily repeats the sign's instruction. He opens a nearby door. As Chris steps through, a green rubber bracelet is snapped onto his wrist by Roy. He invites Chris to wait in line until the number on the bracelet is called.
Roy asks where he heard about this place. From a radio in the hearse? Roy grumpily consults his clipboard, and finds a listing for Carpenter, Daniel James - buried this afternoon, who missed the crossover point. Did he stay with the hearse too long? It happens.
But there's been a mistake! Chris is neither dead, nor Daniel Carpenter. With faux concern, Roy offers to sort out whatever mistake has been made, but for now, Chris must wait in line. Just then, the overhead speaker announces a new entrant to the next door.
A panicking grey-suited man is seized by two black-cloaked, hooded wardens. Across the room looms a metal set of double doors, set with carvings of foliage and cherubs. The doors swing open, and exude a brilliant, bluish white light. The man is shoved in.
Chris runs home. To Jamie, he blurts his bizarre adventure - but Jamie seems to be ignoring him. While Chris rants, Jamie shows no sign of being able to hear him. When Chris gets to the bit about the bracelet, he realises it’s made him feel kind of light. Chris reaches out to touch Jamie - but his hand passes seamlessly through him. Chris realises the bracelet to have barred him from direct contact with the material world. He runs through the kitchen door - and finds himself back in the waiting lobby.
At the far end of a nearby room stands a bench, set with a microphone. From behind, Roy barges past Chris, sits at the bench, and addresses any lost spirits who might be listening. Chris looks at his watch - and sees the hour to near four. Nearly time for Clark and Ryan! But on what frequency?
Meanwhile, Jamie, at work on the hearse, tunes its radio into the Clark and Ryan show. From the speaker, he hears his brother's frantic voice: he’s being held at the radio station, whose administrator believes him to be a dead man named Daniel Carpenter.
Taken aback by the bizarre prank, Jamie turns off the radio. Outside the car, he turns to find himself face to face with a dark suited, grey-haired man, who requests direction to the way home, and identifies himself as Daniel Carpenter.
Unnerved, Jamie runs home. In the kitchen, he dials a phone number - and finds himself once more face to face with the lost spirit. Daniel Carpenter, more calmly, entreats help - for himself, and for Jamie’s brother.
Chris, having caused enough trouble, has been rescheduled for premature procession. Behind him, a hooded warden looms into view. With his clipboard, a broadly smirking Roy stands in wait by the metal twin doors. They swing heavily open.
Jamie bursts in, followed by Mr Carpenter.
The two wardens hurl Chris into the ethereal light...
As the metal doors clang shut, the room, with a strange whooshing sound, briefly quakes. Roy frowns in puzzlement.
Daniel Carpenter exasperatedly introduces himself. The doors rattle and open. From the realm beyond, Chris is flung back into the room. Roy nervously laughs off his near-fatal error, and directs Chris to give the now removable bracelet to Mr Carpenter. Chris softly asks if he's afraid.
The doors swing open. The bluish white radiance, now permeated with gold, shines welcomingly forth. A soft chorus floats from afar. Daniel Carpenter steps through the doors, and climbs an unseen staircase.
Stig closes with a warning to pay careful attention to radio broadcasts. While the Midnight Society huddle for a final vote, Stig turns on his own radio. At a shared look from the others, he turns it back off. They turn to face him. With a grin, Tucker welcomes him to the Midnight Society. Stig happily high-fives Tucker, and gives Sam a celebratory hug. Gary warns sternly against such behaviour, and douses the fire.
This episode provides examples of:
- Afterlife Antechamber: Station 109.1 is broadcast from a somewhat secluded inner city building, whose interior serves as waiting area and transition point for lost discarnate souls.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: The twin metal doors reveal an ethereal bluish white light, passage through which leads to a higher dimension.
- Bait-and-Switch: For a brief moment it looks like Roy's finally been convinced Chris isn't dead...Roy: Really?Chris: Finally!Roy: Yeah I don't think so.
- Barred from the Afterlife: Souls of the recently deceased, on missing the chance to reach the next plane of existence, are depicted to wander the Earth in confusion.
- Brief Accent Imitation: On air, Roy affects Received Pronunciation.
- Celestial Bureaucracy: For lost discarnate souls, station 109.1 serves as a direction to, and procession through, an officially orchestrated passage to the afterlife.
- Deadly Euphemism: Subverted; Daniel Carpenter asks if someone can take "him home", which is to take him to the afterlife waiting room so he can go to heaven.
- Deadly Prank: Jamie turns on the radio while Chris is in the hearse which almost gets Chris sent into the afterlife prematurely.
- Died Happily Ever After: Daniel Carpenter, on finally finding "the way home" looks deeply relieved to step into the light.
- Divine Misfile: Despite his insistence to the contrary, Roy is not immune to cock-ups.
- Dragged Off to Hell: Some people, said to have led "a nasty life", are frantically scared of whatever lies beyond the metal doors, and are forcibly escorted by two cloaked, hooded wardens.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Chris becomes better adjusted and gets along with his brother, while Daniel Carpenter gets to "go home".
- Friendly Ghost: The clients of station 109.1 seem generally to be peaceable folk. Daniel Carpenter keenly helps Jamie rescue Chris.
- Ghost Reunion Ending: Several deceased persons meet in a friendly enough waiting lobby.
- Go into the Light: At the end of the episode, Daniel Carpenter peacefully walks through the doors of the afterlife and into Heaven.
- The Grim Reaper: Ominously invoked with two looming, black-cloaked, hooded wardens, who seem undeterred by barricaded doors.
- Heaven: A benevolent otherworldly realm, hinted by soft ethereal light; a distant choir, and an ascending staircase, is said to be "the best thing goin'."
- Hell: Station clients who led “a nasty life” noticeably fear whatever repercussion lies beyond the metal doors.
- Inn Between the Worlds: Station 109.1, while accessible to the living, provides a waiting lobby and transition point for lost discarnate souls.
- It Is Not Your Time: On being pushed through the metal doors, whatever lies beyond determines Chris not yet to be ready.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Roy, while frequently caustic, shows an earnest appreciation for the peace Daniel Carpenter finds beyond the doors.
- Large Ham: DJ Roy is known to be chewing a lot of his words when on screen. Then again, that's what happens when you have Gilbert Gottfried play him.
- Magnetic Medium: The radio station on 109.1 is apparently a technological example; reception of its broadcast seems to distantly draw the wandering spirit of Daniel Carpenter.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Chris is fascinated both by the process of dying, and by corpse storage. He learns to let go of these fascinations after a near brush with death.
- Non-Protagonist Resolver: In the end it turns out there were safeguards in place all along to prevent the living from being sent to the Afterlife prematurely. It turns the story into a somewhat positive "Shaggy Dog" Story.
- No Sympathy: Roy smiles over one guy being Dragged Off to Hell. He knows full well that the guy's "nasty life" has warranted the "nastier afterlife" awaiting him.
- Nothing Is Scarier: Whatever lies on the otherside for those who live "nasty lives" is not shown; all we get is their reactions.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Discarnate spirits appear as they did in life, albeit in funeral wear. Bar such circumstances as exposure of a living person to station 109.1, they seem unable to directly interact with the material world.
- The Pearly Gates: Twin metal doors reveal an ethereal realm of bluish white light.
- Personalized Afterlife: Possibly - whether peaceful or nasty, the destination offered by the metal doors seems to be in response to each person’s earthly life.
- The Prankster: On inviting Chris to try out a hearse, Jamie abruptly turns on its radio...at the radio station meant for lost souls and Chris gets sent into the afterlife.
- Psychopomp: Roy, the spirit of a man who in life worked in "the department of motor vehicles," is in charge of the administration of lost souls.
- Rule of Three: Three souls of the deceased get sent into the afterlife. The first two are panicking while Daniel peacefully ascends to heaven.
- Tempting Fate: After Chris is sent through the doors, Jamie and Mr. Carpenter arrive and insist that Roy made a mistake. Roy indignantly tells them to prove it, at which point the doors shake violently and Chris is thrown back out.
- This Is Gonna Suck: After being returned, Chris says those on the other side knew he wasn't dead.Roy: Uh-oh.
Chris: They also said they wanted to have a word with you.
Roy: Oh, great. There goes my pension. - You Fool!: Mr. Carpenter over Roy's mistake.
- You Have to Believe Me!: Chris keeps telling Roy that he's neither dead nor Mr. Carpenter. But Roy doesn't believe him, thinking he's just another panicky soul that doesn't want to go. He eventually does find out Chris was telling the truth though.
