The Tale of the Long Ago Locket

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Midnight Society

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Air Date: Saturday, October 8, 1994
Storyteller: Sam (Joanna Garcia)

Frame: The episode opens as the Midnight Society gathers around Sam, who's lost in a history book, trying to get her attention. Once she comes to attention, thanks to Kiki (Jodie Resther), Frank (Jason Alisharan) comments on how boring history is, to which Sam retorts, revealing Frank seemed interested when he asked her to study with him. Sam, however, uses Frank's ignorance to introduce her story, stating that some may think history is boring material to learn; however, if we don't learn from our past, we're doomed to repeat it. 

Story: This one centers on a high school student, Jimmy Armstrong (Will Friedle), who has a crush on his friend, April (Kim Johnson), but faces competition from another friend, Josh (Joel Gordon). One day, while walking home, Josh seemingly encounters a time portal that leads back to 1780, in the midst of the American Revolutionary War, where he meets Lt. William (Paul Hopkins), a man on the run from some British Redcoats, aiming to escape the British and reunite with the woman he loves and tell her how he feels. Able to relate, Jimmy is all too happy to help him with this task.

Review: Time travel stories can be fun, but with a show entitled 'Are You Afraid of the Dark?', we could stand just a few more scares. I'd even say this episode almost feels like it belongs to some other show. It's furthermore tough to buy into Jimmy's lack of confidence, and the whole message here is to express your feelings to the person you have feelings for before it ends up being too late. Altogether, this is probably the lamest episode of the series so far, at least as far as my taste goes, reminding me a lot of 'Hungry Hounds' in the sense that I'm just too far separated from the subject matter to take much of an interest.

Final Rating: Calm

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