Secrets of Sulphur Springs is back for season 2, with a double-episode premiere on Disney Channel. This recap covers the first two episodes of the season, titled “Only Time Will Tell” and “No Time to Waste.” Who is the girl who looks just like Harper in 1930? Who was the woman screaming at the end of the credits in the season 1 finale? And where did the time-traveling radio come from? Let’s see if we find out in these episodes.
Only Time Will Tell
Sarah carries boxes upstairs at The Tremont, unpacking now that the Campbell’s have decided to stay. She is distracted when she hears a woman’s voice singing “Amazing Grace.” She slowly walks down the hallway and sees the shadow of a rocking chair coming from one of the doors. It seems to be moving all on its own and as she gets closer, it stops. Looking inside the room, she is spooked to find it empty. Ben comes up from behind looking for Griffin, unintentionally scaring his wife.
In 1930, Griffin, Savannah, and Harper stand in the doorway of the farmhouse that will become The Tremont in the future, staring at Diasy. A man yells “Daisy, is that you?” and the trio run away, leaving Daisy looking confused. Her brother Sam comes to the door to ask her sister who was there and she tells him it was like looking into a mirror. Sam runs after the kids, dropping his bag which contains a copy of Tales of Time and Space by H.G. Wells. Griffin, Savannah, and Harper make it to the bunker and close it just in time. It disappears as Sam enters the clearing, but in the place where it was, Sam finds a bracelet with a star pendant.
Down in the bunker, Harper speculates that Daisy may be a relative of hers. Savannah announces that she has to get back to 1960 because this summer she’s going to be a counselor at Camp Tremont. She sets the radio back and tells her friends that she will look for clues about the family they just saw, making a plan to communicate by leaving messages under a loose floorboard at the bottom of the stairs.
Wyatt and Zoey have joined their parents in the room with the rocking chair as Sarah asks the twins to repeat their own experiences with the chair moving on its own. Zoey also adds that in addition to seeing the chair rock by itself, the ghost also writes on mirrors. Ben tells them he believes all of it is just Griffin playing a prank, but Griffin arrives just in time to dispel that theory. Sarah tells the family she would like to get rid of the mirror, too, but after Sarah and the twins leave the room, Griffin convinces his dad that it could be worth money and they should just put it in the basement. Griffin and Ben leave the room to go tools to take the mirror down and after they leave the room, the chair starts rocking again.
Jess is doing laundry when Harper gets home and Topher is watching a scary movie. Harper asks her mom if their dad was a fan of scary movies, but Jess tells her she doesn't know where Topher gets that interest from. Jess tells Harper that she was named after her father’s mother, Grandma Marie, and when Harper asks about Marie’s parents, Jess reveals a trunk in the garage full of family items her dad had in his possession. Before they can open it together, Jess gets an alert that she is needed at the cafe and she leaves, taking Topher with her. Inside the chest, Harper finds a small wooden box. When she opens it, her eyes go wide.
In 1960, Savannah leads a group of new campers through the woods and warns them to only go out at night accompanied by a counselor, sharing the legend of the Moss Man. A rustle through the leaves scares off the campers, who run away as Savannah goes closer to investigate. She finds a clearing with yellow mid-century patio furniture and footsteps nearby. She feels like she’s being watched.
Sarah, Ben, Griffin, Wyatt, and Zoey work together to put up new wallpaper in the hotel lobby and Griffin realizes they are almost out of both wallpaper rolls and paste. The family decides to go out together to get more and stop for ice cream on their way back, but Griffin asks to stay behind to do homework. Sarah tells him they will bring him back a chocolate milkshake and Griffin takes the opportunity alone to go to the mirror in the basement. “Hello? Can you hear me?” Griffin’s phone puzzles and he answers a video call from Harper, who announces that Daisy is her great grandmother and the man in the rocking chair is Daisy’s father, Elijah Tremont. She shows him some photos she found in the trunk, as well as a bracelet with a star charm on it, saying it belonged to her and she lost it. Her own bracelet was passed down to her through the trunk. Griffin sees something strange and asks Harper how soon she can get there, turning the camera around to show her that the mirror has fogged up with the words “Go back.”
The Campbell’s, minus Griffin, arrive at the cafe for ice cream and the twins excitedly go tell Topher that they’re staying in town. As Jess fulfills the ice cream order, she tells Sarah she’s surprised they’re staying in a haunted hotel, but Ben says that’s a rumor, just like Moss Man. Sarah takes this opportunity to tell Ben about the singing she heard when she discovered the chair rocking on its own. Jess tells them she would be looking for a new place if she were them.
Harper brought some 1930s attire to The Tremont for her and Griffin to wear, all of it found in the trunk. The dress she’s wearing was Daisy’s wedding dress. When they get to 1930, it’s nighttime and they hear a woman singing “Amazing Grace.” They follow the sound and see a woman picking up stones and throwing them into the springs. Griffin tells Harper that it seems like she’s looking for something.
In 1960, Savannah tells her mom that she finished all of her assignments for the night just as some campers break something. She goes to the basement to grab a broom, but footsteps coming down the stairs startle her and she hides. She notices that his feet leave muddy footprints and when the man goes back upstairs, she finds a clump of moss on the ground. “Moss man?”, she questions.
The Campbell’s arrive home with their ice cream to find that most of the wallpaper they recently hung has peeled off the walls. Zoey thinks it was the ghost and Wyatt tells their parents it must be mad that they moved the mirror.
Griffin and Harper sneak up to an open window to spy on the Tremont family, who are eating dinner. Daisy tells her dad that the three kids she saw earlier were in their house and Elijah reminds her that it’s not the first time people have wondered around their home, but that it’s because they’ve heard about the springs. He talks about how her mother also believed the water held special properties, but that they know there’s nothing special about it. Elijah gets up from the table and asks Daisy and Sam to clean up as he leaves the room. In private, Sam shows Daisy the bracelet he found and tells his sister he thinks the kids were from outer space, telling her that they disappeared in the middle of a field. Daisy looks out of the window, which startles Griffin and Harper.
Griffin and Harper run away from the house, hoping to not get caught. As they look back at the house, they see a woman in one of the upstairs windows, the same one they saw throwing stones in the springs. She puts her hands on the window, looks out at them, and screams at the top of her lungs. Then she disappears and they run back towards the hatch. They know now that the ghost of The Tremont isn’t Elijah, but this mysterious woman. As they run, Harper notices a tombstone and runs to get a better look.
“Grace Tremont
Wife and Adoring Mother of Daisy and Sam
1894-1929”
No Time to Waste
Wyatt finishes Griffin’s chocolate milkshake just as he arrives back in the living room. Griffin asks what happened to the wallpaper and Wyatt tells him he should know since he was home. He lies and says the house was quiet while they were gone (he was in the past), but their conversation ends when Sarah calls for the kids to go to bed. As Griffin follows his siblings upstairs, he turns to wave goodbye to Harper, who takes this opportunity to sneak out unnoticed. But when she finds herself alone in the entry hall, fog starts rolling down the stairs and water begins dripping down the walls, causing even more wallpaper to peel off. Some of it even appears to crumple on its way down. “Grace,” Harper whispers.
Early the next morning, Wyatt wakes Zoey up and points to a woman outside with long gray hair in a black dress. She’s looking up at The Tremont but doesn’t step onto the property. The twins run to wake up their parents, but by the time they get to the window, there’s no sign of the mysterious woman. Zoey and Wyatt think it was the ghost who tore down the wallpaper and Sarah asks the kids to go have cereal. Alone, Ben asks Sarah if the ghost stories Wyatt and Zoey share are getting to her, telling his wife that the mind can play tricks on you. “Ghosts can play tricks, too,” she responds, adding that she feels like there’s something in the house that wants them out. Their conversation is interrupted by Wyatt and Zoey yelling up to them that more wallpaper fell down.
Harper and Griffin return to 1930 through the hatch and Daisy sees them as they emerge. Harper is dressed as Daisy and the plan is for her to sneak into the house disguised as her when she leaves. When Harper looks around to check if the coast is clear, she doesn’t see that Daisy spotted them.
In 1960, Savannah is delivering towels to the pool and gets the feeling she’s being watched again. When she hears rustling through the trees, she sees a mossy figure and runs to her mom. “Something was following me back in the woods,” Savannah tells her. “A creature all covered in moss.” Her mom laughs it off, saying it’s just Sam, the maintenance man, who has been removing moss from the trails. She points to him and Savannah sees him clearly now.
In 1930, Daisy’s brother Sam is working on a bike attached to ropes connected to pulleys in a tree. He begins to pedal, but the device falls apart as Harper and Griffin arrive. Griffin introduces himself as Harry (his alias from 1990), a new neighbor, and Harper has fooled Sam into thinking she’s Daisy. Harper asks Sam about the device he rigged up and he implies that she already knows about it. Griffin picks up the H.G. Wells book and asks Sam if he’s building a time machine (the author’s science fiction novels often included time travel). Sam asks Harry if he believes in time travel, but then asks Daisy why she changed her dress and why she’s not out collecting pecans. Harper suddenly realizes that the pecan patch is near the hatch and she and Griffin take off. As they race back to the hatch, Harper tells him that she felt like they had been watched when they emerged from the hatch. When they get to the clearing, the door to the hatch is open and next to it is a sack. They realize Daisy has gone through the hatch!
Griffin and Harper race back to the present and head upstairs to see Daisy in the entry hall of The Tremont just as Jess opens the door, forcing them to hide. Jess thinks Daisy is Harper and tells her they have to go, she’s running late. Jess goes back out to the car and Harper tells Daisy that they don’t have time to explain everything, but she’s her great-granddaughter and Daisy is now in the future. She asks Daisy to pretend to be her while she goes to the past to try and fix something. Daisy does what Harper asks and when she gets in the car, she is confused by Jess’ request to put a seatbelt on.
Griffin is in disbelief at Harper’s decision and thinks switching places with Daisy was a big risk. Harper tells him to stay in the present and have Daisy ready to switch back at 5:00 pm. Cut to Harper entering the farmhouse in 1930, finding her way into what will become the secret room in the future. Sam comes in and asks where she’s been, Harper is staring at a photo of Grace on the wall. They hear the rocking chair creaking upstairs and Sam mentions that their dad has been rocking in their mom’s old chair all day. Harper goes up and finds Elijah stressing over bills, something that Grace used to do for him. They’re at risk of losing the fam, but he calms down by telling Harper (Daisy) that she looks like her mother and how he appreciates that she loves the springs as much as Grace did. “She was so convinced they could save her she had us believing it too,” he adds. Elijah says he feels closest to Grace in that room than anywhere else in the house.
Topher comes to The Tremont to hang out with Zoey and Wyatt, who catch him up to speed on the rocking chair and mirror. He asks to see the mirror when they tell him that the mirror told them the ghost wasn’t Savannah. The twins don’t know where it was moved to, but suggest they start their search in the secret room.
In 1960, Savannah is alone and cleaning up from an art project in the sitting room of The Tremont when the lights flicker and she hears a knock from behind the wall. She sees the wall open like a door and Sam emerge, closing it back up and twisting a sconce to lock it again. He doesn’t see Savannah and after he exits, she runs to the wall, turns the sconce, and finds the room inside. Among the contents is an old photo of a woman (Grace). “And who might you be?”, she asks the portrait, just as the power goes out completely.
Jess has brought Daisy to the cafe, where she looks confused by everyone on their phones. Jess asks Harper to take an order for table 3 and Daisy does her best, but she doesn’t understand the complicated coffee order. Griffin rushes in and pulls Daisy outside to ask if she said anything to anyone. Daisy tells him she hasn’t and that she doesn’t understand why everyone is so frantic and busy. She’s so confused that she gets dizzy and starts to faint when Jess walks out and sees Griffin lift her back up. Griffin tells Jess that they were just practicing a move for the school dance and Jess tells her daughter to go home and do her homework. Griffin says they have a test to study for and asks if Harper can go to his place, but Jess says Harper spends too much time at The Tremont and invites him over instead.
Wyatt, Zoey, and Topher have found the mirror in the basement. They ask “Who are you?”, but Sarah calls for Wyatt and Zoey and they go upstairs, leaving Topher alone with the mirror. The mirror fogs up and Topher wipes a circle in the fog. In the reflection, he sees the logo for the fallout shelter and crawls under the shelves to get to it, finding the underground bunker and the radio inside.
Jess brings Daisy and Griffin home and calls for Topher, who doesn’t respond. She asks Harper to go find him and when Daisy responds with “Yes ma’am,” Jess is confused. Griffin covers, saying that they’re working on an immersive history project. Upstairs, Daisy finds Harper’s room and sees all of the artwork she made, including the painting of her dad at the like. “She’s an artist, too,” Daisy comments as Griffin comes in and tells Daisy that both she and Harper lost a parent. Griffin tells Daisy that Harper’s mom went to the store and they should leave while they still can.
Harper explores Daisy’s room in 1930 and finds that her great-grandmother was an artist. One of the art pieces is a sketch of Grace, followed by her mom standing in the lake at night, a circle around her appearing to glow.
Topher reads through a manual in the bunker and then decides to turn on the radio, which opens up. He sees the glowing blue rock inside.
It’s almost 5:00 in 1930 and Harper arrives at the clearing, walking towards the hatch.
Topher takes the glowing blue rock out of the radio, which powers down…
Harper watches in horror as the hatch disappears before she can get to it.
Secrets of Sulphur Springs returns on Friday, January 21st with “Time Out.” Here’s the official episode description:
Griffin frantically searches for the missing crystal and helps a panicking Daisy to navigate her modern surroundings; meanwhile, Harper has a cryptic vision at the springs.