The Tale of the Lonely Ghost

 

 

 

Description: Season 1, Episode 3

 

Storyteller: David

Plot Summary: A girl staying with her cousin for the summer discovers the house next door is haunted.

Review: As you can see, once you get past the first episode, AYAOTD seriously comes out swinging with these followup episodes. In this instance, The Lonely Ghost is one of the best in the series. It had a lot of scary elements that could have been too frightening if the creators wished it. I mean, the ghost is creepy as is, but they could have made her significantly scarier with more makeup. This is similar to how downplayed Zeebo is when he could have been presented as significantly scarier.

Not gonna lie, if I saw her in a mirror today it would be scary.

So The Lonely Ghost has a lot going for it. Scary ghost we understand, but there is also a heartfelt story under the surface. The main character, Amanda, is staying with her cousin for the summer, and the cousin is a big bitch. This bitch cousin tries to boss Amanda around and won't let her have a normal summer unless she does the bitch's bidding. There is a (implied) single mom realtor which seems to be AYAOTD's go to explanation for kids being alone in these stories. Under these circumstances a haunted house next door does add to the context of the story so it can slide this time around. In order for Amanda to hang out with the bitch and her friends, they want her to stay the night in this haunted house. Surprise, Amanda comes face to face with this creepy ghost hanging out in the mirror. I do want to note that the actress playing Amanda, Laura Bertram, will be one of the few faces to reappear more than once including the most recent mini-series

On the peripheral, the bitch has a live-in nanny who is sad and broken...which makes sense given she has to take care of such a '90s bitch! However, there's more to it than that as we learn her daughter died years ago. It's a kids show which means the ghost is that of the nanny's daughter wanting to reunite with her mom. When cleaning up the ghost's messages of "help me" written backwards all over the walls, the bitch is sucked into the mirror allowing the ghost to come out in an especially disturbing scene. Amanda understands what she wants and manages to reunite the nanny and the ghost daughter whereby both go into the mirror--off to Kayako-land I suppose--to live(?) happily ever after. As for Amanda, she manages to get the bitch under control and have a normal summer.

Overall, this episode hits all the right beats. The scares are impressive, Amanda is likable, and the resolution to the story felt satisfying. True, I am still wondering how one proves they're not a "zeeb," but that doesn't change the fact that this episode is awesome.