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Recap / Are You Afraid Of The Dark Season 5 The Tale Of The Chameleons

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""I'm going to enjoy your life!"

By the stone chair, a small, cloth-covered cage holds Spike, Betty Anne's new pet, whom she'll introduce when he's more relaxed. While many earthly species are known, others, such as in the deepest oceans and darkest jungles, remain a mystery. What if such a specimen found itself among humans? Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, she calls this story "The Tale of the Chameleons".

In a pet shop, Janice Robinson and Sharon are suddenly drawn to a cage which houses a single chameleon. A nearby young boy hints this particular specimen to do "something special." He lifts the cage lid. Intrigued, Janice reaches a finger into the cage. The chameleon nips her finger. With a wince, she leaps back, knocking the cage to the floor. The chameleon leaps its merry way towards the door, outside, and into the Robinsons' shopping.

In the Robinsons' kitchen, Janice, who's staying for the weekend, helps unload the shopping bags. Mrs. Robinson, in the midst of forbidding Janice to buy an inappropriately styled dress, reaches into a bag, and gives a gasp of shock - a boxful of eggs have somehow been smashed.

In her bedroom, Janice styles Sharon's hair, and plots to buy the dress in secret. Beside the fish tank, the chameleon looks around with a thoughtful hiss.

Janice gives a sudden yell of pain.

Later that night, in bed, Janice wakes; flicks on the lamp, and sees the chameleon scamper across the floor. She hurries after it, and opens the bedroom door. Standing in the doorway is someone who looks exactly like her. The Doppelganger beams an insidious smirk, approaches the fish tank, and, with a nearby mug, draws some water.

Janice flees to the spare room. Badly shaken, she leads Sharon to the surreal visitor, but they find no one to be there. Near panic, Janice recounts her second Chameleon bite; its malicious shape-shifting, and the repeated threat pertaining to water.

Sharon offers to stay with her for the night.

As morning light fills the room, Janice rises, and goes to dress. She gives a yell of utter horror. With a yell of fright, Sharon gets up and hurries to her friend.

Across Janice's midriff is a lividly purple rash. While Sharon concedes the rash to look pretty fierce, she dismisses Janice's fears of involuntary shape-shifting.

In the bathroom, from behind the shower curtain, Janice hears a bump - the shower is running. From behind her sounds a familiar voice.

Her Doppelganger lunges forward, and shoves Janice into the stream of water. Janice falls backward into the bathtub, and pulls the curtain down on top of her.

Janice is nowhere to be seen. Instead, from beneath the curtain, crawls a small, bright green lizard. Just then, Mrs. Robinson peeks through the open door, and calls Janice to breakfast.

With Janice's parents out, Doppelganger Janice answers the door, takes an order, and carries upstairs a mysterious box.

Sharon follows, and peers through the door. In her bedroom, "Janice" reaches into the fish-tank, takes a live goldfish, and eats it alive. Sharon later sneaks in, and finds the box to be full of Chameleons.

In the kitchen, Sharon hesitantly starts to venture to Mrs. Robinson Janice's slightly unusual behaviour. Just then, Doppelganger Janice bounds happily into the kitchen.

With drinks, the girls sit at the table. The chameleon nears the Doppelganger's bare feet. She leaps up with a yelp, and spills juice across Sharon's top.

Sharon stands and sees the Doppelganger, with a tea towel, pick up the chameleon. Sharon confronts the imposter - across whose human eyes briefly shine two amber reptilian eyes. The Doppelganger gloats over humanity's eventual usurpation. She drops the poor chameleon into the sink's waste disposer.Just before the Doppelganger activates the lethal blades, Sharon rescues her transformed friend.

Janice leaves to change her shirt, and steals the box of shape-shifting Chameleons to the backyard well. The Doppelganger arrives, and demands the safe release of her family. She snatches the box, and strokes the Chameleons. However, one of them bites her finger. The Doppelganger drops the box. With a deep gurgle, the biter grows into Janice - in the same clothes as the Doppelganger.

Sharon seizes the hose, and takes aim. With a yell, the Doppelganger seizes Janice and pulls her into a repeated twirl until Sharon can't be sure which is which. One of them picks up the box and tips the chameleons into the well. Desperate, the other Janice yells this to be a trick. Convinced, Sharon hoses the one by the well. With a scream, that Janice gradually turns green, regains reptilian eyes, and shrinks back into lizard form.

Sharon puts on a glove, and drops the Chameleon into the well.

That evening, "Janice" lifts the bucket from the well. Inside are the other Chameleons - excluding the real Janice, still trapped at the bottom of the well.

Betty Anne softly announces the end. Stig asks if they can now see Spike. For Tucker's inspection, Betty Anne gently lifts a small, sleeping snake. With a shared yell of fright, Tucker and the others flee. Betty Anne fondly drapes the snake across her neck.

Betty Anne: Just wait 'til they see you when you grow up!

This episode provides examples of:

  • The Bad Guy Wins: For now, at least. The Doppelganger, by dropping its fellow shape-shifting chameleons into the well, fools Sharon into hosing the real Janice, thereby turning her back into a chameleon. The Doppelganger then fishes the other chameleons out of the well, leaving Janice down there. So in this case, for now, at least, the chameleon infiltration of society seems to be going smoothly.
  • Bad People Abuse Animals: The Doppelganger drops Janice, in chameleon form, into a waste disposer.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Friendly, easy-going Betty Anne delivers perhaps the most shockingly brutal ending in the entire series.
  • Body Horror:
    • Janice develops an alarming rash.
    • On reverting to chameleon form, the Doppelganger Janice's body gradually mutates.
  • Creepy Child: The unnamed young boy in the pet shop gloatingly implies some unexpected property of this particular chameleon.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Callously murderous as it is, the Doppelganger fiercely defends its fellow chameleons.
  • Forced Transformation: Janice is turned into a chameleon. By the end, she stays that way, and is left in the well.
  • Grand Theft Me: The shape-shifting chameleons bite humans to take on their bodily form and eliminate the original.
  • Jump Scare: In the bathroom, sudden reappearance behind Janice of the Doppelganger comes as a shock.
  • Psychotic Smirk: The Doppelganger has a malicious smirk.
  • Snakes Are Sinister: Averted with Spike.

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