The Tale of the Captured Souls

Description: Season 1, Episode 7

Story Teller: Kiki

Plot Summary: A girl and her parents spend their summer at a creepy hotel with a mysterious caretaker.

Review: This is on the lamer side of episodes due to the ludicrous nature of the premise. On the surface, this could have worked with a crazed scientist stealing the youth from others to stay young forever. However, the way in which this scheme is implemented is too stupid to be real even by kid show standards. Likewise, the gimmick with the camera is wasted since it wouldn't make any sense that a guy using technology to stay young would still appear old to cameras; that's a plot line suited more to the magical and mystical.

So what exactly is going on here? Danny and her parents are staying at some hotel for summer vacation. The place is run by this immortal scientist, Peter, who uses mirrors to siphon the energy from his guests. There are some interesting ideas here since it's fully implied Peter has been killing people for, like, 80 years or so. This is a bit darker compared to what we've seen thus far from AYAOTD. Furthermore, Peter semi-flirting with Danny is probably the creepiest part since she's, what, 12 or 13?! Yeah, sure, he's kept himself immortal as a teenager, but he's clearly depicted as an old man underneath. So we have a murderous hebephile on our hands. Fantastic.

In a way, I could have accepted this cornball plot, which is quite Twilight Zone-ish, if maybe it were a secluded, forgotten part of Americana where Peter could go unnoticed for nearly a century. BUT he has neighbors, and we see boats on the water which would demonstrate Peter is in a normal town. No one has noticed this guy not dying or aging? The cops haven't wondered why so many people go missing there? I mean, Peter has a damn advertisement to come visit the hotel for fuck's sake! In the end, Peter is defeated unbelievably easy and the family carries on as if nothing ever happened. Wowwee.

Am I overthinking this? Probably, but these kind of shenanigans are what separates the shit episodes from the greatest hits. While I do like a couple of the ideas, and the music is cool, this is an otherwise dud of an episode. I think the heart of the story could have worked--with an immortal scientist--but the scheme at hand is too implausible as presented.