Season: 1
Episode: 2
Original Airdate: October 29, 2010
Director: Neill Fearnley
Last time on The Haunting Hour! Lilly gets a Really You doll, which is kind of like an American Girl doll but is somehow less creepy. The doll gets Lilly in trouble to the point where her mother likes the doll more than her daughter. Lilly's brother, being a witness to this whole situation, isn't going to have any of it and plans to put a stop to the madness. Will he succeed or will all hell break loose? Find out next time which is... Right now!
Brandon suspects the doll is trying to get rid of Lilly. Brandon and his friend, Josh, go to the "Really You" doll-maker and she explains that all of the dolls have souls. When the doll switches places with Lilly, Brandon notices that the discarded doll thrown in the trash has Lilly's birthmark on the back of its neck. When Lilly's mom expresses unconditional love for her real daughter, Lilly is restored to her human self and the doll, coincidentally, is hit by a garbage truck. The doll is later found on the street by two girls. It grabs one of the girls, causing them to run away in horror.
One of the things that makes this episode great is that it takes the unnerving and tense atmosphere from the last episode and 1Ups it. You see, the doll wasn't very happy with being a doll and because of this, the doll maker asked the Really You company to trash it. Spoiler alert! They didn't. The doll switches place with Lilly and when Lilly becomes the doll, she gets thrown in the trash. When Brandon discovers what happened, it becomes a race to get everything back to normal before it's too late. Basically, it's like if Chuckie from Child's Play succeeded in his plan to transfer his soul into Andy's body. When this type of atmosphere is 1Up'd, the scare factor is also 1Up'd. There's a lot of moments of suspense while the characters are trying to get everything back the way it was. For example, as Lilly is running for her mom, she slowly starts turning into a doll and the music along with Bailee Madison's performance makes it a really tense and scary moment.
Another thing that makes this episode great is that there seems be more layers of complexity with the characters. In this episode, the audience is shown that Lilly is kind of a spoiled brat but she's likable enough for the audience to root for her and feel what she's feeling. This comes from the fact that she is quite a vulnerable person who's going through a bit of a tough situation. The mother is also a great and complex character because they could've easily made her the bad guy. However, they instead made her a no nonsense person who's being put under a lot of pressure by her kids, her work and the Really You doll.
If I did have one issue with the episode, it would be the ending. Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's a TERRIBLE ending per say but it just seems a bit corny. You see, when Lilly's mother comes to her senses and starts loving her real daughter, the doll gets hit by a truck. So yes folks, in this story, love saves the day! Yippee! Though to its credit, it is sort of a nice wrap up for the episode and it is pretty satisfying to see that truck run over the doll.
Overall, Really You (Part 2) was a satisfactorily conclusion to an awesome episode! I think this, along with part 1, is one of those episode that shows how great of a show The Haunting Hour can be. Join me in the next one where we have Christmas chaos... And divorce... Wait what?!
Overall grade (Parts 1 and 2): A
Someone has issues with American Girl dolls. ;-) I can understand that, though. Well, that was interesting. I wondered if the twist would involve the girl becoming the doll. Now I wonder how many viewers laughed when the evil doll got run over. By the way, have you ever heard the untrue urban legend that some woman sent a damaged Cabbage Patch Kid back to the factory (thinking they could repair it) and instead they sent, depending on which version you hear/read, a letter of condolence, a death certificate, a bill for the funeral, the remains in a tiny coffin ready for burial, or a citation for child abuse? In reality the company had repair services at set fees (like the American Girl Doll Hospital, or whatever it's called). All I have to say is 1) I think my Cabbage Patch preemie is neat (Yes, they really exist) and 2) I thought it was funny in an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark? when this doll girl's hand fell off. The girl trying to help her put the hand in her pocket and encouraged her to keep going.
ReplyDelete-Raidra from Creepypasta