TV Recap: “Raven’s Home” Season 5 Halloween Special – “A Girl Called Tasha”

Raven’s Home has had a Halloween episode every season and this year is no exception. The 5th season’s Halloween special is called “A Girl Called Tasha,” which viewers will recognize as the name of Alice’s doll. It mixes up horror films about dolls like Chucky and Annabelle with movies about dolls coming to life, such as Life-Size and Weird Science. Here’s a recap of this year’s Halloween special. Booker and Neal have gotten everything ready for Ivy’s Halloween marathon of her favorite scary movie series, “Deadly Dolls.” Raven is heading to The Chill Grill for the restaurant’s costume contest, holding her costume in a garment bag so we can’t see what it is. She asks Booker not to let Alice watch any scary movies. After she leaves, Booker and Neal notice that some of their snacks are missing. Hearing a noise from the closet, they open it to find Alice munching away. She blames it on her doll Tasha. When Ivy gets there to start the movie marathon, Alice pops up and is enchanted by the doll on TV who decapitates a mailman with her purse. Booker tells her she can’t watch and asks her to play upstairs until he’s free to take her trick or treating. Alice has a little fun on her way upstairs, talking to her doll. “What’s that Tasha? You’re right. They do have to go to bed sometime. But dolls, they never sleep.” The Chill Grill is getting ready for the South Bay Diner Association’s Costume Contest. Victor’s nemesis Leonard, owner of The Hill Grill, comes over to gloat about having won every prior contest and bragging that he will win again. A news crew is getting set up to televise the contest and he warns Victor that he will look like a loser on TV. He calls Raven “Robin” and after he leaves, she has a vision of Leonard holding a garment bag just like hers, bragging about stealing a costume. She rushes to the kitchen where she put hers and it’s gone. She tells her dad that she believes Leonard stole it, but he says that would be impossible. “Don’t do something crazy; you’re better than that,” Victor warns Raven. “Daddy, you’ve known me my whole life; no I’m not,” she quips back. In the attic, Alice is going through some old boxes and finds a spell book. She finds a spell that can bring a doll to life and the next thing we know, she’s at a toy cauldron mixing ingredients and adding one of Tasha’s hairs to it. After saying the magic words, smoke fills the room and when it clears, a human girl sits in the same spot Tasha was in. She’s so excited to be alive and wants to go trick or treating. Alice says she can’t go alone and then realizes that Tasha gives her a loophole to that rule. Raven sneaks into the kitchen of The Hill Grill to look for her costume. She overhears Leonard telling one of his chefs that he plans to leave early for the costume contest and admits to mispronouncing Raven’s name on purpose. Raven ends up hiding in a closet where a werewolf costume is hanging up. While in the closet, she watches through the window as Leonard tells his cook that he stole a costume for the contest and holds a garment bag just like Raven’s. Victor calls her and she answers quietly. He tells her they found her costume; somebody must’ve moved it. “Aren’t you glad you didn’t do anything drastic like go down to the Hill Grill?”, he asks. When a spill happens in the restaurant, Leonard heads towards the closet to grab the mop. Raven puts on the werewolf costume and hands it to him. Leonard thinks it was his other cook Alfonso as Raven sneaks out into the alley. Raven tries to peel the costume off but she’s stuck in it. Alice and Tasha return from trick or treating. Tasha wants to pull a prank on Booker and suggests they fill up a pumpkin with live worms to scare him. Tasha also confesses to having a crush on Booker. Alice goes along with Tasha’s prank, but she pulled a fast one and switched it from worms to a pumpkin that pukes slime all over Booker. He’s angry when it happens and with Alice blames Tasha, he tells her she’s too old to be doing that. Tasha ran upstairs to hide and Alice goes upstairs upset. “It’s been fun, but it’s time for you to go back to being a doll,” she tells Tasha. But her living doll sprints out of the attic. Alice runs downstairs to tell Victor, Neal, and Ivy about the magic spell that brought Tasha to life. Ivy realizes that this is just like one of the “Deadly Dolls” movies where if the doll doesn’t go back to it’s original form by the child’s bedtime, the child becomes a doll. Tasha turns the lights off and giggles before saying hi to Booker. Ivy says this can be fixed by scaring Tasha back into a doll. They set up a tea party and rig brownies to drop a skeleton on Tasha. But when Alice calls her down, she’s too wise to fall for the trap. “I’ve been watching you for years,” Tasha says. “I know all your tricks. Once you turn into a doll, you can watch me… forever…” Leonard arrives at The Chill Grill dressed as Victor. That’s the costume he stole, a Chill Grill uniform. Victor is dressed as a pirate and Leonard makes fun of his costume. He grabs the garment bag with Raven’s costume and decides to go change, praying that it will stretch to fit him. Tasha is alone in the living room, satisfied that it’s almost Alice’s bedtime. But when lightning flashes outside, she gets scared. And suddenly there’s the shadow of a werewolf at the door. “Nope, too scary,” she says. “If you need me, I’ll be a doll.” She transforms just as Raven enters, begging someone to help her out of the costume. Alice thanks her and Raven says it’s past her bedtime. “No, it’s almost past my bedtime,” she corrects her aunt. “You know because I’m not a doll.” Raven is struggling to get out of the costume, but she gets a call and answers it. It’s her daughter Nia. “I can talk, what’s up?”, she walks away as if she isn’t still trapped in a costume. Alice apologizes for ruining the movie marathon, but Booker apologizes for not spending Halloween with her. Alice puts Tasha in her box to let her think about what she’s done. They see the costume contest on the TV. Victor is in Raven’s homemade light-up butterfly costume and he wins the contest. Later, Alice comes downstairs to let Tasha out of her box, but it’s empty. A light comes on and we see Tasha’s shadow on the wall. Alice screams and runs back upstairs. It was just Booker with the flashlight. He sets her down and goes upstairs. We zoom in on her face and lightning flashes. We hear Tasha’s giggle and her eye winks on its own. That’s the end of the 5th Raven’s Home Halloween special. What did you think? You can rewatch it anytime on DisneyNow and it will soon be added to Disney+.

Halloween 2022 coverage is presented by shopDisney