The Midnight Membership producer and director Mike Flanagan is just not completely happy that Netflix canceled the sequence after just one season. He says in a latest weblog submit that he’s very disillusioned by the streaming providers determination, however what did he anticipate would occur after he made a take care of Amazon?
Anyway, he defined that his largest disappointment is that “we left so many story threads open, holding them again for the hypothetical second season, which is at all times a big gamble.” So he determined to stipulate the story for the second season in order that we’d all know what we’re lacking, but in addition reply questions and provide us closure on some issues, which is good.
I loved the primary season of the sequence and it looks like plenty of different folks loved it as nicely! I do recognize Flanagan taking the time to share these particulars with us so we aren’t left hanging with unanswered questions.
Under you’ll discover all the small print that he shared. Learn via them and tell us what you suppose!
AMESH
Season 2 would open with Amesh, his glioblastoma advancing rapidly. He would inform the primary story of the season, however could be struggling to make it via. We would concentrate on his love story with Natsuki for these first few episodes because it turns into clear that Amesh’s dying is imminent.
In the meantime, Ilonka is attempting to reconcile how she was fooled by Julia Jayne, all whereas falling additional in love with Kevin, and she or he realizes he could also be fading sooner than he lets on.
Ilonka begins a serialized story in an effort to encourage him to “keep alive a bit of longer,” like he did in season one. And the story she tells is… REMEMBER ME.
This was the factor I used to be most enthusiastic about for this season.
REMEMBER ME is one in every of my all-time favourite Pike books – it tells the story of a teenage lady who’s pushed off a balcony, and awakens as a ghost. She has to navigate being a spirit whereas attempting to unravel her personal homicide. We might have stretched this story out over 5 episodes. We had been going to make use of it as a car for Ilonka to attempt to come to phrases with the truth that she goes to die, and to start to attempting to wrap her head round being a ghost… however that is the best half… the lead character of Ilonka’s story would not be performed by Ilonka. She’d be performed by… Anya.
As a result of that is how we stay on, is not it? Within the minds of these we depart behind. And Ilonka would use REMEMBER ME as a option to think about her pricey good friend Anya, waking up as a ghost, navigating the afterlife. And this units up top-of-the-line mechanisms of the present – even when a personality dies, so long as they’re remembered by members of the membership, they stay on of their tales.
Because the story begins to choose up steam, although, the group must take care of the dying of Amesh, which he greets with grace and bravado.
In his last moments, he sees somebody in his room – the Janitor from the primary season, as performed by Robert Longstreet, who says comforting issues to Amesh despite the fact that he cannot reply.
In his last, last moments, the SHADOW descends upon Amesh, and he’s engulfed into it, which reinforces the concept that the Shadow is DEATH…
With Amesh’s dying comes one thing that upends all the factor: a NEW PATIENT. We did not work out an excessive amount of about who this could be, however it will be a brand new roommate for Ilonka. Somebody taking Anya’s outdated mattress. Ilonka would discover herself being initially chilly to her – simply as Anya was when Ilonka arrived. Even feeling like this new lady should not essentially be ushered into the Membership. However in fact they’d develop an attractive friendship over the course of the season. The brand new lady joins the membership, the place one thing else thrilling is going on – Cheri is telling a narrative. We hadn’t determined which one, however I feel it may need been MONSTER.
Natsuki could be the subsequent to die, which might be heartbreaking. And once more, she would discuss to the janitor simply earlier than it occurred… and once more, the Shadow would come within the last moments.
For Spence, although, issues would take a special flip.
The developments in HIV therapy within the late 90’s would come into play, and we might see his prognosis change. The HIV cocktail got here out in Dec 1995, and we actually wished to discover that.
Spence would trip the swell of antiviral developments, and by the top of the season, he’d not be categorized as terminal. Within the finale of season 2, Spence would depart Brightcliffe identical to Sandra did in Season 1, heading off to handle his illness and stay the remainder of his life.
However onto the BIG MYSTERIES of the season one… listed below are some solutions: What’s up with Dr. Stanton’s tattoo and bald head? Effectively, a couple of issues. First, Dr. Stanton is definitely the daughter of the unique Paragon cult chief, Aceso. Her nickname was Athena, she wrote the Paragon journal that Ilonka present in S1. She turned on her mom and helped the youngsters escape, however as a result of she was a part of the cult in her teenage years, she had the tattoo.
It was her initials that Ilonka discovered carved into the tree in season 1 (her maiden identify was Georgina Ballard, therefore the G.B. that Ilonka finds carved within the tree).
She hated what her mom grew to become, and the atrocities of the cult. She reclaimed the property after her mother was gone, and wished to alter it into a spot that celebrated life. She was attempting to undo her mom’s legacy and depart one thing behind that was stunning. She is carrying a wig on the finish of S1 not due to a sinister purpose, however as a result of she is present process chemo. Dr. Stanton has most cancers. Having helped so many individuals take care of illness, she now has to take care of it herself.
Her therapy would achieve success, and she or he’d go into remission, however having to face that – whereas caring for the terminal children at Brightcliffe – was going to be a really introspective arc for Stanton.
What concerning the Residing Shadow? It is Demise, proper? Effectively… no.
On the finish of the season, Kevin will die… adopted shortly by Ilonka. And as she is dying, two issues will occur. First, she’ll discover herself speaking to the Janitor, performed by Robert Longstreet… and she or he’ll make a discovery.
HE is Demise. And nothing to be afraid of. It seems nobody else ever noticed this character. Stanton has a cleansing service, and the Nurse practitioners make up the rooms – the one individuals who ever noticed this mysterious Janitor had been the sufferers. He’s Demise, and gives them form phrases earlier than they die. Then what was the Shadow?
That is an concept we take immediately from the e-book REMEMBER ME, and we’ll see it play out within the last moments of Ilona’s last story. In Pike’s e-book, Shari is pursued by a darkish entity referred to as The Shadow. When it lastly catches her, although, it seems it’s not a nasty factor in any respect.
The Shadow is THEMSELVES. It is the Unknown. Because it engulfs somebody, within the final second of their life, it takes them via a spot of understanding and catharsis, making ready them for the subsequent step.
THIS is what occurred to Anya in S1 when the Shadow lastly reached her – that is why she fantasized a life past Brightcliffe, which in the end let her discover acceptance of her dying. It seems to be completely different for everyone, relying on their mind-set – as a result of it’s merely an extension of themselves.
The Shadow is simply the ultimate catharsis, a return to our authentic kind – it’s a second of true understanding, and as soon as we expertise it, we transfer on to the subsequent place.
We see the Shadow in full impact when it lastly comes for Kevin. KEVIN DIES with Ilonka at his aspect, and it results in the most important reveal of the season:
Who had been the Mirror Man and the Cataract Girl?
They had been Stanley Oscar Freelan and his spouse, who constructed Brightcliffe (enjoyable trivia, he’s named after the real-life Freelan Oscar Stanley, who constructed my favourite lodge in America – the Stanley Lodge. The Stanley can be the inspiration for THE SHINING!).
However greater than that… there is a purpose that Ilonka solely sees Stanley within the mirror, and sees the Cataract Girl at any time when she checked out Kevin. That is one thing else we took from Pike’s authentic e-book… these aren’t ghosts, however glimpses of PAST LIVES.
Ilonka WAS Stanley Oscar Freelan, and Kevin WAS his spouse. They’ve lived many lives this fashion, and are true SOUL MATES – they at all times discover one another, and so they at all times fall in love. On this life, they knew it will be a brief one, in order that they agreed to search out one another in the home they constructed. They have been “remembering” who they’re, and glimpsing their former selves in reflections, and generally after they have a look at one another. That is additionally why Ilonka’s very first phrases to Kevin in S1 had been “Do I do know you?” and why Kevin thought she was acquainted as nicely. They’re two souls who at all times discover one another, repeatedly.
The story is that this: Stanley was dying, and constructed this cliffside house hoping that the seaside air would assist him. It did, and he far outlived his prognosis (that is additionally true of the real-life Freelan Stanley). Nevertheless, his spouse started to succumb to dementia.
She would wander the halls, searching for him (“Darling!”) and would even overlook to feed herself (“I am ravenous…”) and she or he ultimately refused to go away the basement. Heartbroken for her, Stanley painted the partitions to resemble the woodland view, and the ceiling to resemble the evening sky, in order that it will be a bit of extra stunning for her.
He additionally painted a labyrinth on the ground, which was a method used to attempt to curb the consequences of dementia. She’d stroll the sample of the maze and it was believed it might assist her cognition. Ultimately, she developed scary cataracts, however Stanley beloved her via all of it.
They had been soul mates.
So whereas they appeared scary in season 1, that was simply how Ilonka and Kevin’s thoughts had been attempting to recollect their pasts. We even had their faces distorting in methods in step with how reminiscences degrade over time.
When the Shadow comes for Ilonka, and offers her this understanding – this “remembering” – she realizes she has nothing to worry. She and Kevin will shed these personas and be reborn, and have the enjoyment of discovering one another one other manner.
The Shadow comes for her, Demise takes her gently, and Ilonka goes off with Kevin again into the cosmos, prepared for his or her subsequent incarnation.
The sequence would finish with Cheri telling this story to an entire new desk of sufferers, together with our new sequence leads. Most of our authentic forged now would exist as tales, a narrative advised to the subsequent “class” of storytellers on the desk, all of whom we may have met by the top of the season. A narrative referred to as “The Midnight Membership.”
Effectively, that is it… that was what we had in thoughts. It is a disgrace we cannot get to make it, however it will be a much bigger disgrace if you happen to guys merely needed to stay with the unanswered questions and the cliffhanger ending. I beloved making this present, and I’m so pleased with the forged and crew. Significantly our forged, who attacked this story with unimaginable spirit and bravado each day.
However for now, we’ll put the fireplace out, and depart the library darkish and quiet. To these earlier than, and to these after. To us now, and to these past.
Seen or unseen, right here however not right here.
I am going to at all times be grateful that I acquired to be a part of this Membership.
