Are You Afraid of the Dark: The 3 creepiest moments from Episode 2
By Mads Lennon
The Midnight Society decides to face their fears and attend the opening night of the Carnival of Doom in episode 2 of Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Rachel, Gavin, Akiko, Louise, and Graham make the terrifying decision to brave opening night at the Carnival of Doom in their search for missing classmate Adam. The second hour of Are You Afraid of the Dark amps up the scares and makes for a fun and twisted continuation of Nickelodeon’s excellent reboot of the series.
Rachel is still being tormented by Mr. Tophat in her nightmares. It looks like she might be fated to face-off against him in the end. At one point her nightmare asks her “what do you remember?” Hm, could Rachel and Mr. Tophat have tangled in a past life? This episode also toys with memory loss and throws in a fantastically fun little cameo appearance from a notable Superhero actor!
But for now, we’re taking a look at some of the creepiest moments from the second episode. Turn back now if you haven’t watched the episode yet!
3. Mr. Tophat makes his grand introduction.
The Midnight Society finally comes face-to-face with the nightmare man himself when Mr. Tophat introduces everyone to the grand opening night of the Carnival of Doom. Rachel and her friends were hoping that perhaps this one coincidence would stay that way and the nightmarish ringleader would stay hidden away in the shadows of her nightmares.
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But no, he takes the stage and repeats the speech Rachel wrote in her story verbatim. What’s worse is he’s a truly charming showman.
It’s no surprise people get tangled up in his twisted web (full of scorpions instead of spiders). He offers a tantalizing challenge for all carnival-goers. Find the golden coin and be rewarded with an exclusive extra add-on to your carnival experience.
2. Zombies, creepy clowns, and Ferris wheel mishaps, oh my!
On their journey to locate Adam, who they’ve been seeing in mysterious circumstances all night long, the gang gets split up into groups of two. Louise and Graham tackle the Ferris wheel, Rachel and Gavin take a boat tour through the Tunnel of Love, and Akiko and her documentary assistant scour footage of Mr. Tophat’s performance for clues.
It doesn’t take long for things to go awry. Louise and Graham get stuck on the top of the wheel. Graham has a panic attack due to his fear of heights and fear of germs (he can panic about two things at once, okay?). To make matters even worse, their cart begins to unscrew, seemingly by itself.
Related Story. Are You Afraid of the Dark E1: Introducing the Carnival of Doom. light
The Tunnel of Love evolves quite fast into the Tunnel of Terror. Gavin and Rachel discover the coin beneath the water but when Rachel reaches down to get it, she’s greeted by a zombie, exposed brain and all, who tries to tug her down into the watery abyss. Gavin does his best to help her until a few more zombies join the dogpile.
Poor Akiko and her friend wind up getting stalked by horrifying clowns on stilts, a contortionist, and a few other random clown folks. Even Pennywise wouldn’t want to fight with those guys on stilts. They were genuinely frightening.
In the end, it turns out all of these situations were machinations of the park. The Ferris wheel was just giving them a scare. It re-screws itself and delivers Louise and Graham safely back to the ground. The skeletons turn out to be nothing more than some well-made animatronics. And the clowns were only after Akiko for her phone, since they are strictly prohibited. No harm is done. Right?
1. Gavin goes missing along with everyone’s memory.
By the end of the episode, The Midnight Society has pledged to return for night two of the carnival to get to the bottom of Adam’s disappearance. Even though they can chalk up their selective nightmare experiences as aspects of the park, there’s the strange fact that Akiko’s cop brother gets memory wiped by Mr. Tophat himself. He has no recollection of investigating Adam’s case at all.
Well, that amnesia must be contagious. At school the next day, Rachel is panicked to discover that none of her friends remember attending the carnival the night before. Even worse, Gavin has gone missing just like Adam and it seems like Rachel is the only one who realizes that or knows what’s going on.
Watch the official sneak peek of episode 3, the finale, below!
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What did you think of tonight’s Are You Afraid of the Dark episode? Which moments did you think were the creepiest? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
The epic conclusion to Are You Afraid of the Dark premieres next Friday at 7/6c on Nickelodeon.