The Spiderwick Chronicles (2024) – Episode 2 Recap & Review

The Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You

Episode 2 of The Spiderwick Chronicles begins with Mulgarath disguised as Dr. Brauer trying to conduct a therapy session with Jared but Jared doesn’t trust him. When Calliope enters the room, Jared brief sees Lucinda in her. At this moment, Helen informs them that Lucinda has gone missing from the hospital. What really happened was that Lucinda had made the invisibility potion that she always talked about and went…well, invisible. 

Helen, Jared, Dr. Brauer and Calliope reach the Spiderwick mansion. While Calliope stays with the children, Helen and Dr. Brauer join the search party to look for Lucinda. Jared takes the party to the attic and tell them about the mysterious being he had seen. Right then, they hear the familiar noise and Jared decides to catch the creature. They spread flour on the floor to map the creature’s footsteps, and set up mouse traps, much to Mallory’s dismay. Seeing that Simon and Calliope seem close, Jared goes back to his room. When Simon comes to talk to him, he tells him about how he saw Lucinda instead of Calliope for a brief second. 

Meanwhile, Lucinda enters a local convenience store asking for Goblin Market. After the clerk at the store inspect her for any deceit, he welcomes her and opens a back door that leads to the wild. Back at the house, Jared installs a diy surveillance system and a sometime later, the fire alarm goes off. When he runs to his room, he finds a fire on his bed, with the page having the ogre’s information burnt to crisps. 

Meanwhile, Mallory is practicing fencing near the tre. She relaxes, closes her eyes and boom, her hair is tied to the staircase railing. She accuses Jared to be the culprit amidst his many denials. When Simon and Calliope go to the kitchen to find something to detangle Mallory’s hair with, they find Simon’s pet mice in the freezer, frozen to death. Simon and Mallory are again accuse Jared given the history of Jared’s “pranks” as instances of resistance. Jared tells Simon in their secret language that he thinks Calliope is behind everything but Simon is unsure. 

Simon and Calliope bury the mice and Calliope is especially warm towards Simon and his feelings. Meanwhile, Jared is trying to investigate who the culprit is by looking through the surveillance footage. He finds a shot but it is blurred. Later, all of them assemble as Jared tells them that he somehow sharpened the picture. All of them look at the footage to discover the culprit but it’s Jared in the picture, starting the fire by burning the picture in his room. Everybody now believes that Jared is behind the misgivings. 

Simon later comes to talk to Jared. Jared reiterates that he would never hurt Simon. This is when they hear noise behind the bookshelf. Jared looks through the bookshelf to find clues and Simon ends up opening the secret stairs into Arthur Spiderwick’s study where Lucinda is arguing with an angry Thimbletack, the boggart. Jared and Simon introduce themselves but Lucinda makes sure that the two aren’t Mulgarath by touching Jared’s neck with an iron knife.

After she’s sure, she tells them about her father’s Field Guide and all the information about the fae in it. She tells them that to safeguard the information, she had tore the pages and kept them at vaults in different locations throughout the city with a unique symbol, the same that Jared and Simon found on the little door. To open the vault, they will have to solve a magical puzzle, unique to each vault. She asks them to use that knowledge to kill Mulgarath but that if the information gets within reach of Mulgarath, he will use it to kill everybody and rule the magical realm. 

Later, Helen and Dr. Brauer come back to the mansion. Before leaving, Lucinda hands a hollowed stone to Jared that he got from the Goblin Market. Dr. Brauer takes Lucinda away, seemingly back to the hospital. She leaves after warning Helen. In the car, she confesses that she recognised Mulgarath and questions what kind of a creature Calliope is, to which she changes her appearance at will. 

They take her to a secluded forest path. Lucinda tells Mulgarath that she cannot tell him where the Field Guide is because she had had her memory wiped. Mulgarath stabs her only for Lucinda to burst into flowers, laughing.  And that ends Episode 2 of The Spiderwick Chronicles.

The Episode Review

Episode 2 of The Spiderwick Chronicles was quite exciting. It seems that Calliope purposely changed her appearance to Lucinda’s to provoke Jared.  Likewise, although it seems that Lucinda is tunnel-visioned since she willingly walked into the lion’s den but it seemed that it wasn’t the real Lucinda but merely an enchanted. So, Lucinda is probably safe somewhere. 

We reckon that the adventures to find the vaults and solve the puzzle are going to be exciting and of course with dangers on the loose. Simon’s affinity with Calliope is going to pose issues. Further, there is a surprising reference to Christina Rossetti’s poem Goblin Market, where Lucinda goes to buy the stone. All in all, the series look quite interesting and engaging, especially with the magical creatures and all the mayhem that accompanies them.