Aluminum Christmas Trees: "Sacrifice-zones," despite sounding like an invention for the show, are a real phenomena, although the term originally referred to environmental degradation rather than economic collapse.
Alternative Character Interpretation: Is the Skin-Taker a manifestation of Eddie's instability or is it a separate entity that latched onto Eddie and gave him his powers?
Frances Booth at first seems to be a kind school teacher, but reveals herself to be, as she put it, "as sharp as a razor blade". Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life, she found one when the creator of Candle Cove cured her epilepsy with psychic powers. Developing a fanatic devotion for said Creator, Booth's willing to do anything to assist. She covered the serial murders of four children and gave them permission to kill her own son Jacob. After the Creator's death, Booth makes a new body by collecting human teeth. Twenty-eight years after the Iron Hill murders, Booth brainwashes her students into killing people through Candle Cove. She personally kills her former student Daphne Bells and sheriff's deputy Simon Grove by slashing their throats with a pirate hook and sends the children to stab to death Tim Hazel and Jessica Yolen. Upon being caught, Booth sends the children after Sheriff Amy Welsh and Gary Yolen and later attempts to murder Marla Painter for no reason.
The Creator of Candle Cove, Eddie Painter, as a child, made the puppet show to brainwash children and killed them to grow stronger. In 1988, the Creator compelled four kids into killing themselves after forcing them to remove their teeth, then trapped their souls in the realm of Candle Cove. Growing jealous of Jessica spending time with his brother Mike, the Creator ordered him to "take her to Candle Cove". When he refused, he threatened to kill him with his pirate hook. Thinking Eddie was acting under mind control, Mike had to kill his twin brother in order to stop the murders. Twenty-eight years later, the Creator forces child psychologist Mike Painter to return by compelling him to carve a message on his arm. They broadcast Candle Cove again to brainwash children, abduct a girl to take her teeth, compel the same girl to stab her brother and with the assistance of Mrs. Booth mind-control children to commit murders. It is then revealed that Eddie plans to take over Mike's body and trap his soul forever in Candle Cove with the company of the Skin-Taker. In order to gain his compliance, the Creator abducts Mike's daughter Lily and torments her in in his realm of Candle Cove. Even after Mike succeeds in ruining his plan of return, Eddie still tries to brainwash Lily.
Ensemble Dark Horse: The Tooth Child, who's practically the Mascot Villain for the entire series, despite only appearing in the first season.
Just Here for Godzilla: Some people are more likely to just watch the first season to see an actual, "real" version of the Candle Cove series described in the original Creepypasta.
Moral Event Horizon: Frances Booth sacrificing her own son to the Creator of Candle Cove, as a sign of her fanatical devotion to them.
One-Scene Wonder: Candle Cove itself. The show is only onscreen for a few seconds in every hour-long episode, and the scenes we do see tend to get repeated a few times, but Jim Henson Studios show that they still know how to create creepy, fascinating puppets.
Marla being left a sobbing wreck after her worst fears are confirmed when Mike finds Eddie's dead body. Pure worries for any parent, especially one whose child has been missing for years.
And in the finale, there's watching her slowly and tearfully suffocate her son(s) to death.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The series ends up using Candle Cove as a jumping off point for telling its own story about a psychic child, and doesn't really expand on the source material, or explore it pretty much at all.
No End-House contains examples of:
Alternative Character Interpretation: Did Seth actually love Margot (to a certain degree) at one point, but ended up erasing those feelings by feeding them to his House Cannibal "family" or was he simply a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who never saw her as anything more than another victim with which he could satisfy the No-End House.
Billing Displacement: A particularly egregious one. Melanie Nicholls-King, who plays Jules' mother Brenna, receives billing in the opening credits despite the fact that she's only appeared in flashback or hallucinations and all of her appearances are cameos at best.
The decision to change both the contents of the first five rooms, and shorten the number of rooms from ten to six. Purists are naturally angry at the change, feeling that the changes make it an In Name Only adaptation. Others are fine with it, feeling that changing the contents of the House is ultimately a better choice for the show and believe that the new rooms fit better for the story that the show is trying to tell.
Another divisive choice is the decision to only focus on the first five rooms in the first episode, and spend the rest of the season focusing on the sixth room. Some have admitted that they would have liked the show to have explored the rest of the rooms at least a tiny bit more. Others are fine with the choice, feeling that the first five rooms served their purpose in the first episode, and point out that the story the show is telling is ultimately about being trapped in an alternate reality, and not about the horrors of each individual room of an actual haunted house.
There are also fans who would have preferred if the show had focused on one room per episode. Others agree with the creators that this would end up being boring (and would likely drag out), and would kill a lot of the element of suspense, as most viewers are aware of the twist ending from the original Creepypasta.
Contested Sequel: Depending on who you ask, it's either the best or worst season of the show. Defenders view is as a vast improvement from the previous season, being far more nuanced and having far more relatable characters. Detractors usually consider it to be boring, or at the very least not as memorable as the previous and later seasons, and feel that the House Cannibals were a step down from the Tooth Child and the Skin-Taker in terms of memorable monsters.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Dylan. Many found him to be more interesting than Margot and nearly everyone was saddened when he was killed before he and his wife could escape the House
Epileptic Trees: Just what the Orb is. At the start of the season, fans theorised that Jules may have been pregnant at an earlier period of time before the events of the series (possibly around the time Margot's father died as well, potentially explaining her being distant from Margot) and may have decided to get an abortion or suffered a miscarriage. Other theories included it being a manifestation of her guilt for abandoning Margot after her father died (or an Anthropomorphic Personification of her desire for forgiveness), a form of succubus (which she claimed to have read a book about in the first episode) or just a sign that the House (and by extension, the writers of the show) felt like doing something different for Jules. Unfortunately we never really find out what it is (with the closest thing we get to an explanation being Jules pondering if it was a psychological tumor and than deciding to forget about it and focus on saving Margot). The most likely explanation is it being a personification of what Jules' brought up about the succubus in the first episode (experiencing every single feeling and urge she had felt, or wanted to feel, in her life).
Les Yay: Quite a few people got this from Jules' and Margot's relationship. The fact that Jules spends an entire year searching for the No-End House, which closely mirrors Dylan's quest to free his wife, and that Jules is one of the only things Margot remembers when she finds her (with Margot even claiming that Jules is the last thing she'd forget) left many convinced that the two shared romantic feelings for each other.
Memetic Mutation: It's quite common to see fans of the show on Reddit (either jokingly or seriously) demanding a follow-up season focusing on Dylan succeeding in burning down the No-End House.
Narm: Going through room 2 again sees Jules freaking out about some spreading streams of blood between her and the exit door, until she makes a few leaps over the blood to escape, which the soundtrack assures us is very dramatic. The problem? There's so little blood, and it spreads so slowly, that she could easily have walked to the door. Further, Jules and Margot non-specific reaction to the blood makes it obvious it was cgi'ed in later.
Nightmare Retardant: When Margot and Jules try escaping together they both go into room 3. Combining their fears into...a short, bearded, giggling man in a dress.
Margot confessing that she blames herself for her father's suicide, believing that if she had been home earlier (like she should have been) he wouldn't have died.
Any time it is shown that Jules' feels incredibly guilty for not being there for Margot.
There is a brief Hope Spot when Lacey appears to remember a necklace that Dylan had gifted her. Elated by this, and hopeful that his wife can be fixed, Dylan removes her restraints... Only a few minutes later, Lacey is seen freaking out and once again begging to be let go, while all Dylan can do is try and hold her down.
Margot breaking down in front of The Father, and revealing that she wanted to understand just why her father killed himself, and just how he felt when he was dying.
Margot's mother telling her the possible reason why her father chose to commit suicide.
Margot helping The Father drown himself in the pool, in order to ensure that she has no reason to want to continue staying inside the No-End House.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: While Margot does bring up the possibility to Seth, she and Jules never attempt to destroy The House, instead focusing on escaping from it..
Furthermore, did he intentionally create Alice's schizophrenia monster and used it to manipulate her into joining his family, or was the monster unwittingly brought to life by the supernatural powers of the Pestilent God?
Robert dancing in the hospital. Just a sign of him being a Cloudcukoolander? Or, given that at one point the scene cuts to Joseph and Smart Mouth playing the background music on the piano, is it a sign that the Peach's are telepathically linked (to a certain extent) and Robert was simply dancing to the music being played by his father and son?
Broken Base: Even more so than the previous season, Butcher's Block deviates heavily from the original source material, only taking the barest minimum plot element (the staircases in the woods and mysterious disappearances) and extrapolating an entirely new story involving cannibals, mental illness, urban decay and police corruption, none of which was in the original story. Some think that the changes made helped make the story more unique and unpredictable, whereas others are disappointed that the story deviates so much from the source material.
Creepy Cute: The Meat Servant and the Dwarf Children.
Depending on interpretation, Joseph Peach. At the end of the day he is simply an old man suffering over the death of his daughters, and taking his anger out on people unrelated to the original murders. The Jerkass part comes from his family's method of "coping" being eating innocent people and sacrificing children to their God in order to remain immortal and continue their reign of terror.
By the end of the season, Alice. While she does end up crossing the Moral Event Horizon, she is ultimately a young woman scared of going insane, and inheriting the illness that destroyed her family, and who is willing to do anything to prevent that from happening.
Memetic Mutation: Quite a few people have brought up Lady Gaga's meat dress while discussing the Meat Servant.
Alice crosses it when she goes along with the Peach's plan to sacrifice Izzy to the Pestilent God, preferring to remain an inhuman cannibal than healthily cope with her impending mental illness.
Whatever the Peach's were doing in their estate implied to be early forms of sacrifice for their "God") horrified the townsfolk of Butcher's Block so much that they saw no problem burning the Peach estate to the ground, with all of the Peach's still inside.
Nightmare Retardant: The Meat Servant is so polite and goofy-looking with his C-3PO poses and Dracula fingers that he's hard to fear after his terrifying initial appearance. Seeing him play chess with Smart Mouth and wandering around the park after the Peaches die without a care in the world almost makes him endearing.
Overshadowed by Controversy: When Butcher's Block is brought up by Channel Zero fans, chances are someone will mention how the series caused Search and Rescue Officer writer Kerry Hammond to abandon her originally planned book for the source material.
Tear Jerker: As unsympathetic as she may have become, Alice losing her sanity and being confined to the same mental institute as her mother, is still pretty tragic and depressing.
Pretzel Jack is a homocidal killer with a creepy design, but he’s just so lovable whenever he isn’t trying to kill someone that he ends up being completely adorable (while also terrifying)
To a lesser extent, Jillian and Tom’s Door-created baby.
Any time when Pretzel Jack isn’t killing or stalking someone and we see the loving relationship he has with Jillian, whether it be in the present or flashbacks to Jillian’s childhood.
This season ultimately has the happiest ending in the show’s history. Jillian and Tom manage to reconcile and a Flash Forward shows that they are now parents to a baby girl. Though the fact that said baby has inherited her mother’s Reality Warper powers can alternatively lead to the ending being viewed in a more ominous light...
Tear Jerker: The death of Tom and Jillian’s door-created “baby” and Jillian’s reaction to it.
although the term originally referred to environmental degradation rather than economic collapse.