Tell stories.
In 1994 Sacremento, star student Ilonka Pawluk finds her plans for college derailed by a terminal diagnosis of Thyroid Cancer. In her attempts to find an alternative treatment, she stumbles upon a sliver of hope at Brightcliffe, a mysterious mansion-hospice for terminally ill teenagers. Along the way she begins to befriend her fellow patients and experiences strange visions connected to Brightcliffe and its past.Tropes in this episode:
- Adaptational Backstory Change: In comparison to the book the series is based on, the entire episode is this. The book begins well after Ilonka has been admitted to the hospice and joined (in the book, founded) the Midnight Club. This episode shows Ilonka initially being diagnosed with cancer, her subsequent battle with it, decision to go to Brightcliffe, and her joining of the club. Her reasons for doing so and the circumstances are all changed as well.
- Always Second Best: Ilonka is annoyed at the beginning that she is only her graduating class's Salutatorian, rather than Valedictorian.
- An Arm and a Leg: Anya, Ilonka's roommate at Brightcliffe, is missing her right leg below the knee and uses an electric wheelchair to stay mobile. The wound is also still bandaged, indicating it is a relatively recent occurrence.
- Awesome by Analysis: Kevin reveals at the end that he has partially been using his time at Brightcliffe to study its history by looking at the many photos on display through its halls. He immediately deduces that Ilonka's story is mostly based on reality when he remembers the name "Julia Jayne" from one of these photographs.
- Blood Is Squicker in Water: Averted. The opening implies this, but it's actually just read dye Ilonka is washing out of her hair.
- Coughing Up Blood: The first indication that Ilonka is sick is when she spontaneously coughs up a glob of blood in the middle of college party.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Ilonka has several visions that foreshadow elements in the episode, including a nighttime shot of someone sitting on a bench on a seaside cliff, and a long table in front of a roaring fireplace. She later sees Kevin sitting in a nearly identical position on the same bench during the day, and finds the same table and fireplace in the library at Brightcliffe.
- Fake-Out Opening: The episode opens with red liquid running down a bathroom drain, and Ilonka looking in the mirror seemingly covered in blood, making it seem like she's just committed a murder, with the cheerful music upbeat music and narration at odds with the image. It almost immediately reveals that Ilonka was merely adding red highlights to her hair.
- Gilligan Cut: After being faced with the reality of her diagnosis, Ilonka makes a speech to her doctor and foster father about how she has already beaten the odds to become an exemplary student, and therefore is comfortable with the odds of her fighting cancer, with a closeup shot of her face and impressive mane of hair. There is immediately a Time Skip cut to a similar shot of Ilonka, now completely bald and in a hospital room, celebrating her 18th birthday, clearly in much worse shape than she was before.
- Haunted House: Brightcliffe certainly looks like the prime candidate for one, despite being well maintained. It's enormous and spooky looking, with a dark history including having been a cult compound at one point, and now serving as a hospice. However, the resident patients are actually frustrated by it seeming to have no supernatural qualities, as this would be evidence of some type of afterlife.
- It Will Never Catch On: Downplayed, but Spence is dismissive of Sandra and Natsuki practicing Yoga. This being the early 90's, it has yet to completely catch on as mainstream in the USA.
- Jump Scare: Several:
- A few of Ilonka's visions include them.
- While telling her story, Natsuki does this to the other club members a few tiimes. Her first one actually makes Sandra fall off her chair. Spence objects to them, calling them a lazy because truly scaring someone is much more difficult than startling them.
- Nested Story: The dual purpose of the Midnight Club is to tell stories to each other and keep to their post-death pact. Natuki finishes her multi-part story at the beginning of her meeting, while Ilonka tells a full story as part of her initiation. Both are shown on screen.
- No Name Given: Neither Ilonka or Natsuki give their stories a name. Natsuki presumably named hers when she started it, but the episode only shows the second half.
- Nothing but Hits:
- "Connected" by the band Stereo M Cs.
- “Interstate Love Song” by Stone Temple Pilots.
- "Shine” by Collective Soul.
- "Flagpole Sitta” by Harvey Danger.
- “Insane in the Membrane” by Cypress Hill.
- Oh, Crap!: Both Spence and Amesh freak out when they realize Ilonka might actually take the elevator down to the basement, as that is the morgue and them suggesting she visit was only a private joke and they didn't really want to frighten her.
- Only the Worthy May Pass: Spence breaks into Dr. Stanton's private liquor cabinet and steals a few bottles of red wine, which he serves to the club, which they all accept despite the potential dangers of mixing their medications with alcohol. As a power move, Anya forces Ilonka to drink some as well to prove she is worthy of the club. It's clear she made up this rule on the spot though. Ilonka takes a swig directly from the bottle (but visibly doesn't swallow anything).
- Shout-Out: Several
- Ilonka has posters up on the room of her bedroom wall in Sacramento. One is for the real lineup for the January 2nd, 1992 Salem concert that included the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam. There is also a poster for the film Orlando, and one for an appearance of Billie Holiday. She also has a book of Edgar Allan Poe's poetry.
- While rehearsing for her commencement speech, Ilonka references fellow students as "the jock, the nerd, the weirdo, the criminal or the princess", paraphrasing a quote from The Breakfast Club.
- While at the college party, Ilonka nerds out about Mary Shelley and the history of Frankenstein.
- The game room where Spence introduces Ilonka to Amesh includes real games, such as Street Fighter II, Doctor Who pinball, Video Game/Tetris and Video Game/Galaga.
Tropes in the stories:
Natsuki's Unnamed Story
- But You Were There, and You, and You: The protagonist of the story is a teenage boy named Wren, who physically resembles Spence, while the ghost resembles Natsuki.
- In Medias Res: From Ilonka's perspective, Natsuki's story starts this way, as she missed the first half. Consequently she (and the audience) get almost no context for the events of the story, and don't even learn the title.
- Jump Scare: Wren is scared by a ghost in a window, who then appears on the street and continuously does this for several minutes to him.
- Ominous Fog: The mysterious street Wren walks down is dusted win hints of fog, but not enough to truly obscure the path.
- Revealing Continuity Lapse: Despite knowing the way home from the party he was attending, Wren somehow finds himself on a street he doesn't recognize that definitely should not be there.
Ilonka's Unnamed Story
- Let Me Tell You a Story: The story of Julia Jayne is mostly accurate to Ilonka's research, but it's clear she has added some more overt supernatural elements and exaggerated the timeline.
- Madness Mantra: Julia Jayne obsessively repeats the date of one year after her diagnosis (May 20th, 1969) both in word form and number form. Following her mysterious disappearance, this changes to repeating different numbers and dates to different people, which turn out to the be the dates of their impending deaths.
- Riddle for the Ages: Julia disappears for a month from the hospice, reappears with seemingly no memory of where she had been, and now can predict the dates of other people's deaths. The story gives no explanation for how any of this happened.
