Based on A Night in Terror Tower, book #27 of the original Goosebumps series.
Sue and Eddie are touring Terror Tower in England, but find they're being hunted by a mysterious hooded man.
The episode provides examples of:
- Accent Relapse: When their Fake Memories have faded away, Susanna and Edward revert to their native accents.
- Adaptational Jerkass: The man Sue and Eddie meet when they escape the tower is more kind and helpful in the book, while in the episode he is more antagonistic towards them.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Morgred. While still a Nice Guy in the book, he was more than willing to prevent the two of them from escaping again to save his own hide, though he makes up for it by adopting them when they return to the present. In the show, he actually pleads with the executioner to let them, even offering his own life in exchange.
- Adaptational Villainy: Because the episode only adapts the original A Night in Terror Tower, the Lord High Executioner is a willing participant in King Robert's plot, not the brainwashed servant he is revealed to be in Return to Terror Tower.
- Composite Character: An unnamed woman finds the children when they return to the present. Here, it's Mr Starkes.
- Deathly Dies Irae: The Lord High Executioner's Leitmotif.
- The End... Or Is It?: The two protagonists and the sorcerer escape execution by traveling to the future, but at the last moment it's revealed that the Lord High Executioner had obtained one of the magic stones. (Though this is only in the TV episode, the book has a happy ending.)
- Evil Wears Black: The Lord High Executioner wears a sinister black outfit, combined with a black Beard of Evil.
- Face Death with Despair: As Eddie is being led to the executioner's block, he breaks down and begs the Lord High Executioner to spare him and his sister. It's really just a ploy to swipe the magic stones from him, allowing Morgred to cast another spell for a Time Travel Escape.
- Face Death with Dignity: Eddie and Sue even say this word-for-word as they face the executioner's ax, although they do manage to pull off a last-minute escape.
- Greater-Scope Villain: The Lord High Executioner is acting under orders from King Robert to pursue and execute Sue and Eddie, but the King doesn't appear in person.
- I Am Very British: Eddie and Sue switch to this dialect when the spell wears off. In this case, it's a Justified Trope: Edward and Susannah aren't just revealed to be two random British children, they are explicitly royal heirs.
- Ominous Latin Chanting: The spell the Executioner chants to make the time-travel stones work.
- Pragmatic Adaptation:
- The Reveal is made less obvious by simply not revealing the names of the prince and princess in the tour.
- The book's climax has Eddie simply swiping the stones and taking them back to the present before the Executioner even arrives. The series opts for a more exciting scene, where the children are nearly executed, but Edward swipes the stones off the Executioner again — fooling him with the same trick he got him with earlier.
- Morgred's appearance is foreshadowed by having two ghostly images of him trying to warn the children away.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: The executioner may still be after them, but with their memories intact and Morgred now with them they at least stand a chance.
- Regional Riff:
- Plenty of Medieval English examples.
- When Eddie and Sue take too long talking with the hotel clerk, a woman with an exaggerated Southern American accent becomes very annoyed with them. Cue a twangy rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner". Here, the riff is in reference to the "Ugly American" Stereotype, not the country where the action actually takes place.
- Underdressed for the Occasion: Eddie and Sue aren't allowed to wait in the hotel restaurant because Eddie isn't wearing a dinner jacket, which is the dress code. The waiter does actually fetch one for him, though Sue is also wearing casual clothes and they don't have a problem with hers.
- You Killed My Father: Defied. Morgred begs the Lord High Executioner to spare Edward and Susannah because they are just children who cannot possibly be a threat to the King. The Lord High Executioner refuses, pointing out that even if he allowed them to travel to the future, they will inevitably grow up and may find a way back to the past to exact revenge on their usurperous uncle.
