The Mysterious Benedict Society has dropped on Disney+ and subscribers are free to join the rag tag group of kids as they try to save the world from ‘the Emergency’.
Episode 1: “A Bunch of Small Orphans”
Stonetown is plagued by ‘The Emergency’. This unknown scourge is disrupting the city and causing panic worldwide. As we journey through Stonetown we are introduced to four orphans, Kate Wetherall (Emmy DeOliveira), Constance Contraire (Marta Kessler), Sticky Washington (Seth Carr), and Reynie Muldoon (Mystic Inscho).
Reynie is an intelligent boy who is harassed by other kids in his orphanage. His one solace is the time he spends with his tutor Ms. Perumal (Gia Sandhu). She shows him a newspaper advertisement that offers students a chance for free enrollment in an exclusive private school if they pass a rigorous testing program.
Intrigued, Reynie attends the testing but soon finds himself in a room with overconfident children his own age, and the boy is doubting his abilities. Even though a fellow student named Rhonda (MaameeYaa Boafo) offers him the answers for helping her out, he declines because Reynie wants his success or failure to be dependent on his own ability. Moving on to the next set of tests, Reynie meets Sticky Washington and Kate Wetherall, and the three are brought to a mansion by the testing proctor, Number Two (Kristen Schaal), to meet the reclusive Mr. Benedict (Tony Hale).
The kids learn that Number Two and Rhonda and the shadowy bodyguard named Milligan (Ryan Hurst) are working for Mr. Benedict and the tests were for an ulterior motive. Benedict implores the children that he needs their help while revealing that ‘The Emergency’ is being caused by subliminal messages being broadcast from an exclusive school in town, the L.I.V.E. Institute.
Benedict believes only children, including new arrival Constance Contraire, can stop the broadcasts and end ‘The Emergency’. While Benedict explains the danger of the mission the power goes out in the mansion because intruders have breached the perimeter.
Episode 2: “Carrying a Bird”
Picking up from episode 1, intruders have entered Mr. Benedict’s mansion and quick action must be taken to save the kids as well as Mr. Benedict. While Rhonda is incapacitated, Kate delays the criminals long enough for Milligan to save Mr. Benedict from being kidnapped.
After the house is secured, Mr. Benedict plays the subliminal messages that are the root of ‘The Emergency.’ Through some technological manipulation, children’s voices can be heard in the background of television shows. When the kids question Benedict why he doesn’t go to the authorities with what he knows, Benedict responds that proof is useless unless it is proof of something they want.
Despite some misgivings, the kids led by Reynie, accept their missions as agents of Mr. Benedict and agree to be enrolled in the L.I.V.E. Institute, where Benedict believes the source of the messaging is coming from. Their mission is to find out who is sending the messages and hopefully shut down the transmitter.
When the kids enroll in the reclusive school, their orientation is led by Jackson and Jillson (Ben Cockell, Katherine Evans). The kids learn that there are no rules, but there are expectations that students must meet. Alone at the institute, the kids can only communicate with Benedict and his team via morse code. Waiting on the shores of the mainland, Benedict is strained with worry over what will happen.
At the institute, the kids are encouraged to watch television all the time. They begin their classes which seem beyond the realm of normal schooling. As the Mysterious Benedict Society, which the kids call their group, probes further into life at the school, they meet the enigmatic founder Mr. Curtain (Tony Hale), who happens to be Mr. Benedict’s twin brother.