“You wanna know what’s in that case?”, Mr. Bratt asked the present-day teenage cast of Goosebumps in the cliffhanger ending of episode 5. And while diehard fans of R.L. Stine’s book series didn’t need any more clues, the 6th episode confirms what many of us know. “Come inside. I’ll tell you all about it.”
Episode 6: Night of the Living Dummy – Written by Nick Mueller
Nora (Rachael Harris), Isaiah (Zack Morris), Margot (Isa Briones), James (Miles McKenna), Isabella (Ana Yi Puig), and Lucas (Will Price) have found themselves crammed together on a couch in the Biddle house. Mr. Bratt (Justin Long) asks Nora for the scrapbook back, and she willingly hands it over as he sits across from them and prepares to tell them a story. “It all started with my great-grandfather in 1925.”
Transported back to the roaring ‘20s in New York City, we meet Ephram Bratt (Eddie Jemison), a struggling vaudeville magician who practically gets booed off stage. Out of desperation, on his way, he stops by Madame Zelda’s Magic Shop and spills all of his money on the shopkeeper’s counter, begging for a new trick like the professional magicians have. Madame Zelda (Christine Willes) laughs at the measly sum he can afford, and Ephram is about to leave defeated when he hears a voice call to him from the corner. “Over here,” the disembodied whisper beckons. It seems to come from a dusty chest on top of a shelf. He asks Madame Zelda if he can buy it.
Ephram’s wife, Betsy (Kaylah Zander), is furious when he returns to their humble apartment and tells her he spent all of his money on a ventriloquist dummy. His name’s Slappy,” Ephram introduces the creepy dummy, showing her the embroidered name on the dummy’s tuxedo jacket. Betsy takes a bath, and as Ephram sets the doll down, a card falls out of its jacket pocket. He repeats the foreign words on the card, which sound like a spell. After he walks away, we see Slappy come to life.
Ephram the Great and Slappy perform their first show. Things aren’t going well, and the audience is heckling Ephram, which is when Slappy (Chris Geere) snaps. He comes to life on his own, insulting his owner to the audience’s delight. Ephram tries to stop it, but Slappy turns to him. “You don’t want to be a loser your whole life, do you?”, Slappy asks Ephram, who decides to go along with the self-deprecating act.
A montage takes us forward in time. Betsy left Ephram, taking their son with her. Ephram’s act continued to be successful for a while, but by the 1950s, audiences had grown tired of the same routine. By the 1960s, Ephram was at risk of losing his regular booking. The theater owner (Andy Thompson) came to Ephram’s dressing room to pitch hiring a fresh act to add life to the show. “He’s going to ruin our plans,” Slappy spoke out loud to Ephram at that moment. “Deal with him,” he commanded. Ephram stood up, recited the spell that brought Slappy to life, and watched as the theater owner was frozen in place, transformed into a ventriloquist dummy!
Ephram had helped Slappy hire grave robbers, who delivered a small coffin to their dressing room that night. Slappy reminds Ephram that he alone is responsible for his success. Now it’s Ephram’s turn to repay him. The coffin is marked “Kanduu.” Ephram opens it, and Slappy instructs him to reach in the pocket. He pulls out an inscription, another spell, and as Ephram begins to read it, he gets a vision of a tower full of screaming people on fire. He stops the incantation. “You used me,” Ephram snaps at Slappy, grabbing the dummy, shoving it in the chest, and closing it.
Two weeks later, Ephram Bratt had formally retired and moved out of the city to a quiet coastal hamlet called Port Lawrence. In the basement, he breaks away at a brick wall, stuffing Slappy’s chest inside and cementing the bricks back together. “I’m going to make sure no one finds you ever again,” Ephram promises.
The end…
… Not! Ephram eventually passed away. In 1993, his only living relatives were made aware that they had inherited his home in Port Lawrence. Perry Biddle (Jonathan Silverman), his wife Georgia (Georgia Biddle), their son Harold (Ben Cockell), and his pet worms move in. “You’re going to like it here,” Perry promises Harold, who was bullied at his previous school. Harold is not so optimistic. The living room of the house is like a museum of Ephram’s old artifacts. Harold is attracted to a white mask with a sinister grin and picks it up. Georgia envisions renovating the basement and turning it into a hangout pad for Harold and his future friends. As they head back upstairs, Harold is called to a brick wall by a voice that whispers, “Over here.”
“No one is going to bully you here,” Perry reminds his son as he sends Harold to his first day at Port Lawrence High School. He gives his son a Polaroid camera, suggesting that he join the photo club as a way to make friends. When Harold gets to school, he takes his dad’s advice and stops by the photo club sign-up desk, where he meets Nora (Taylar Hender). He pulls out his camera, which attracts the attention of another club member, Sarah (Alex Felix), whom Harold is instantly attracted to. He joins the club, and when she mentions that she and Nora are big fans of The X-Files, he says he will check it out.
Jumping forward a bit, Harold and Sarah develop film in the photo club. Harold's photos are of his favorite things, including a white mask with a peculiar grin and his Polaroid camera. He tells her he watched The X-Files, and Sarah is impressed. She invites him to Ben’s party, but Harold says he’s not cool enough. “It’s just a party,” she encourages him, offering to tell him things about her friends that are uncool. That night, Harold tries on multiple outfits and psychs himself up but ultimately decides to skip the party. “She’s never going to like me back,” he laments to his dad in the basement after making his mind up. When his dad goes upstairs, Harold gets mad at himself and throws something at the brick wall. A brick falls out, and as he gets up to try to fix it, he hears that voice again. “There you go,” it says, encouraging him to look behind the brick. He sees a chest and finds that the other bricks are easy to remove.
The first thing Harold does with Slappy is scare his mom with the dummy. She’s instantly creeped out as her son explains that he’s going to use the dummy for a drama project at school. He takes Slappy to his room to practice his technique, where a card falls out of the dummy’s coat pocket. Harold repeats the incantation on the card, and as he walks away, we see Slappy blink.
Perry and Georgia tried to convince Harold not to take Slappy to school the next day, fearing it would make him a target for bullies, but Harold wouldn’t listen. In drama class, Ms. Dietrich (Natalie Moon) is impressed that Harold is working on a ventriloquist act. His set eerily mirrors that of Ephram, and Ben (William Chris Sumpter) is the first to heckle, saying “You suck.” “That’s what your mom said,” Slappy retorts, which freaks Ephram out. He apologizes and swears that wasn’t him, trying to take his hand out of Slappy’s back, but unable to withdraw it. “See, with me, you won’t be a loser,” Slappy turns and says to Harold as his classmates applaud.
At lunch, Harold repeats some of Slappy’s jokes, which makes Sarah laughs. She even touches the back of his hand. She asks Harold if he has plans for winter formal, and he asks if she’s going with Ben. “He’s not my boyfriend,” she clarifies, waiting for Harold to ask her to the dance. He doesn’t.
Harold realizes he missed an organic moment to invite Sarah to the dance, and he vents his frustrations to Slappy in an empty classroom. Nora hears Harold talking about Sarah and peeks into the classroom, witnessing Slappy talking to Harold. She freaks out and runs into the hallway, where she bumps into Sarah and tells her what she saw. Sarah hugs Nora, but doesn’t seem to believe her.
The next day, Harold wakes from a nightmare in which we could overhear Sarah say, “Let go of my arm.” As he leaves for school, his parents share that they heard him late last night talking to his dummy. They insist they leave Slappy at home, which causes Harold to snap. He calls his mom a “Wench,” and says, “I hate you” as he leaves the house. When he’s gone, Perry and Georgia attempt to destroy Slappy in the fireplace, but the flames don’t affect the dummy. “What are you doing?”, Harold shouts as he comes home and sees his parents trying to destroy Slappy. “It’s time, Harold,” Slappy tells him. “Use the spell.” He repeats the spell that Ephram did, and both of his parents turn into dummies.
At the school talent show, Harold and Slappy start an act, but things quickly turn dark. Slappy begins to spill all of Sarah’s friends’ secrets, turning them against her. When Harold steps off stage, they all confront him about it. Sarah tells Harold they can no longer be friends. “Being nice to me just made you feel good about yourself,” Harold snaps back. When Harold storms off, Nora repeats her story about the dummy having a mind of its own. Nobody believes her, but Ben thinks stealing Slappy will drive Harold nuts. They make a plan to steal him the next night.
“Whose there?”, Harold yells into the night after answering the door. We see Ben sneak inside, head to the basement, grab Slappy, and begin to put the doll in its trunk. “Goodbye, little idiot,” Ben says to the dummy, who comes to life. “Goodbye to you, little idiot,” Slappy quips back. The power goes out, and a chandelier falls. Upstairs, Harold is scared as he lights a candle. The cuckoo clock goes off, and Harold slips into the basement, not seeing Ben hiding in the shadows holding Slappy’s case. Sarah has a last-minute change of heart, and she and the girls rush to the basement door, which seems to be locked now. They bang on it, trying to get Harold to open up and come with them. But then the fire alarm goes off and smoke begins to fill the air, so they rush outside.
When the plume of flames erupts from the basement window, complete with a menacing face letting out a fiery scream, Nora announces that Harold is gone. Ben tries to pick up Slappy’s case, but the dummy wriggles inside, and it drops, the lid opening. “Did you think it was gonna be that easy?”, Slappy asks as he sits up. Ben begins to tear Slappy apart, ripping off the dummy’s limbs and detaching the head from its body. Eliza (Samantha Blaire Cutler) suggests they burn it, but Nora seems to understand that won’t work. They discuss burying it, either in the abandoned mine owned by Eliza’s parents or in a mountain retreat. One thing they all agree on is that they never want to discuss this night ever again.
With Mr. Bratt’s storytime over, the teacher is shocked to find that his students don’t perceive their parents as the story's villains. “YOUR PARENTS BULLIED HAROLD,” he screams at them, adding that they broke in, stole his best friend, and killed him. Mr. Bratt is so upset that he’s crying about it. “How do you know all of this?”, Margot asks. Mr. Bratt stops crying. “I know all this because I’m not Mr. Bratt,” he grins. His skin catches fire, and it melts off his body. Underneath is a familiar burned face. “I’m Harold Biddle.”
Do you have goosebumps yet? I know I do! Another new episode is heading our way on Friday, October 27th, on Disney+ and Hulu. Here’s what’s coming up next time on Goosebumps.
Episode 7 – Give Yourself Goosebumps
The group works together to find a way to escape their new reality. As they search for a way to get back to the real world, they make new discoveries about Harold Biddle. Meanwhile, Nora takes matters into her own hands and treks to her remote cabin in the mountains to keep an old horror at bay.
Songs Featured in This Episode:
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