Episode 8 begins at the Fort, with the group joining Dr Ramona as they intend to go down and get Anthony back. Ramona injects the kids with a serum to protect them and wishes the gang luck. The serum only lasts for an hour, and there’s one last dose for Anthony too, so they need to get a move on. If they’re still down there when it wears off, Ramona warns that they have to get out the main room, otherwise the entity will get them. No pressure!
Cece leads the group down as they find a whole bunch of people in cocooned pods. Cece uses the serum on the pod holding Anthony, who finally awakens after it crumbles around him. Unfortunately, the Ship awakens and tendrils lash out, attacking the kids.
Do the kids save Anthony and Matty?
They gang manage to get out the main room though, and head into the control terminal. Anthony is lucid now and he realizes one of those pods actually holds Matty, whom he wants to try and save. Of course, as we know Anthony has been haunted by his disappearance since they were kids.
With the hatch closed, the group work to short-circuit the electronics and open the hatch, just like the gang did back in episode 1 when the entity got out originally. Unfortunately, the serum they’ve been given has worn off so time is of the essence and they need to be careful.
There’s only one suit so Anthony decides to wear it and buy the others precious time by attempting to disable The Ship with the canisters. Its touch and go for a while but they do make it and save everybody, including Matty. Down in the basement, Matty and Anthony have a reunion, but Jen (who ends up spotting them at the fort) is weirded out by the fact Matty is back.
What does Anthony do to save everyone?
Through all of this though, the alien ship is still trapped underground and they need to stop it before it’s too late. The only way to do that is to get Dr Ramona onboard and enlist her help to stop this thing. However, she has her own agenda and is actually working to revive her father. Despite bringing him back to life, he’s not happy with her work and in fact, we soon learn that she hasn’t perfected anything. Her father turns into a Demogorgon (sorry, a strange creature) and they’re forced to inject it with the serum to kill it.
Unfortunately, whatever is happening, it also spreads across to affect Trey, CJ and Matty, who all turn into these monstrous four-legged creatures.
With a race against time, Jen and Anthony turn on all the electronics in the Fort and open up the floor. Their idea here is to let the Ship go, releasing it from containment and then, in turn, releasing the kids from the alien’s hold. It actually does the trick, although Matty and the others who were left in Pods are allowed to “go with them” and leave Earth, unable to live out their days as too much time has now passed.
How does Goosebumps end?
The Ship flies off to parts unknown, ending the nightmare that’s plagued this season, while the kids get their happily ever after. Well.. kinda.
As the final scene lingers on Trey, it turns out he’s still infected, as he doubles over and coughs up horrific black goo which appears to be part of the alien entity.
The Episode Review
So Goosebumps comes to a close with another agonizing cliffhanger which is bound to be left unresolved just like in season 1. As far as stories go, this one does an okay job modernizing and twisting the source material to fit the purposes of a longer story.
However, you can see the influences from Stranger Things all over this season – and not for the better. The idea of scientists working underground, the entity, the secrets and the old abandoned Fort being used for containment all lean into themes seen in Strange Things. And that’s before moving across to the quirky group of teens, although of course that is a staple of the Goosebumps books too.
This is certainly not a faithful adaptation of those Goosebumps stories, and to be honest this season really just distorts all of the different tales to feed into this larger narrative, which isn’t exactly original for reasons detailed above!
It’s a bit of a shame too because ideas like Stay out of the Basement works solely because of the mystery but yet here, the show loses that in favour of action, cooky jokes and showing everything with no sense of allure or moody atmospheric beats.
All that being said, the finale does at least wrap things up in a decent way, and gives some closure to the big mysteries that have been hanging over this season.
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Episode Rating
(3)