Every character is getting their due, and this episode of Goosebumps was Nathan Bratt’s time to shine. He was exactly as the audience had suspected, and his redeeming arc would have to be a little extreme for him to be one of the good guys again. This is the recap of the episode.
Spoiler Alert
What are the parents doing?
The saga of Slappy started when the parents were still in school, and it has seemingly ended with their kids. They are all slowly getting past this, and with everything out in the open, they are able to talk to each other in a way they hadn’t been able to do before. Nora tells Colin everything, and with the secrets out of the way, they start their relationship officially. Colin doesn’t want there to be anything between them, as he believes that this was the reason for his divorce in the past. With Nora’s honesty, he is able to get past that, and they are deceived to be more open with each other. Nora asks to meet all the parents once again, as she wants them to be able to be friends with each other. Due to what happened in the past, the group had fallen apart. Perhaps everyone had turned away from Nora, since she was the one who kept saying that they should be wary of Slappy and bringing up his topic again and again. Nora wants the group to be as before, and they all start with a dinner and a new addition to them, which is Colin. Of course, that means that Colin and Sarah also need to be on good terms, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem.
How do the kids pick up their lives after Slappy goes away?
As soon as Slappy disappears, the kids try their hardest to get back to their lives that had gone for a complete toss ever since the puppet had started wreaking havoc on them. Isaiah starts training again, and his hand is also healing, which means that with time, he will be able to play and get the scholarship that he wants. James and Isabella have become great friends who have a lot in common with each other. James is able to repair his relationship with his crush, which had previously been destroyed by one of his fake versions. As for Isabella, nothing has happened between her and Isaiah, and she is still insecure about his feelings for Margot.
Meanwhile, Lucas and Margot are going strong, though there always seems to be something missing. Lucas is trying to assimilate with Margot’s interests while trying to get over past events, but he is finding that difficult to do. Margot is being patient, but when her mother asks her to move to Seattle, things get even more complicated. Margot is considering the move as it is a new city, and it has the exact things that she had always envisioned for herself, including a chance to live with her mother. But that would mean leaving behind her friends in the final year of school, and she doesn’t feel prepared to do that. For the time being, she and the rest of the group go to Seattle for the weekend to see everything the city has to offer.
There is a certain awkwardness between Isaiah and Margot. They both are not expecting anything from each other, but their awareness of their past feelings is very strong, especially since Isaiah was about to confess to her when they were stuck in the scrapbook. As for Lucas, he hates that Margot is going to move away. He wants to go back home as he is not over the events, and it was probably the way his father died that made Lucas so adamant about Margot.
Does Slappy Come Back to Life?
Before shifting to his new place, Nathan had just lost his job and his dog and was at risk of losing his house. The Bratt estate had literally saved him from coming onto the streets. But we learn that Nathan Bratt had never been a strong man, and to make matters worse, he had a bloated sense of self. While teaching his students, he got so carried away talking about himself that he forgot that he had come to biology class, and apparently, this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened. Nathan also comes across as someone with deep-seated insecurities, but instead of addressing them in a healthy way, he is willing to lie and be deceitful to hide them.
After the entire Slappy fiasco, Nathan is seeking support in some form, and he naturally turns to the other parents, who are the only people he can talk to. But nobody is interested, which shows that Nathan doesn’t have any friends. His entire personality is a cocktail of vulnerability, and it wasn’t long before a person or a spirit took advantage of him.
Nathan decides to use the events of the past few days as the plot of his book, and the publishers love it, though they want him to come up with a different ending that explains more about Slappy and his origins. This is where Nathan gets stuck because he has no idea how to do that, and he can’t cook up anything because he lacks the talent and the confidence for it. As Nathan is struggling with it, he finally does what his ancestor, Ephraim Bratt, had done. He turns to Slappy for help. Nathan wonders whether bringing back Slappy would help him the way it had helped others. He unearths the doll from the snow and reads the incantation in his pocket, which brings Slappy back to life. However, this time, the doll wants his wishes fulfilled before he helps anyone. Slappy also brings Fifi back to life, and the dog leads Nathan to the forest, where he has to dig out a very old coffin.
At the end of Goosebumps episode 9, Nathan starts to read another spell, and just like Ephraim before him, he gets the vision of a building on fire. But Nathan goes ahead anyway, and he finishes the spell. The spirit inside Slappy exits him and enters the body in the coffin, which comes back to life. At that precise moment, Ben comes to Nathan’s house, and the resurrected magician turns him into a puppet before leaving the house. In Seattle, Lucas has left for home and is ignoring Margot’s messages to text him.
Final Thoughts
It will be Lucas who will alert the others to Slappy coming back. Additionally, the man probably has some hidden agendas of his own, and he won’t be stuck on useless revenge, or that could be the first thing he seeks out. The rest of the story will depend on that.
