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The Tale of the Closet Keepers
Season 4 , Episode 11
Eplogo50
Air date January 7, 1995
Written by Story by Michael Kevis, Teleplay by David Preston
Directed by Iain Patterson
Episode guide
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The Tale of the Fire Ghost
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The Tale of the Unfinished Painting

The Tale of the Closet Keepers is the eleventh episode of the Fourth season of Are You Afraid of the Dark?, as well as the Fiftieth episode in total.

Cast[]

Midnight Society Cast[]

Story Cast[]

Intro[]

That night begins with Sam and Frank happily walking in together both laughing and smiling together. Gary who is working on the campfire, sees this. Now he seems a bit jealous and is in a short tempered and impatient mood, Tucker sits down and asks who is up tonight? Gary says that Kiki is.

Tucker complains, saying she just told one the meeting before. Gary rudely snaps saying so. Tucker asks him if she did threaten to pound him if she didn't get another turn right away. Frank and Sam sitting down together smile, with Frank laughing saying that Kiki probably could pound him too. Hearing this and seeing them sitting together he seems ticked off.

Suddenly Betty Ann comes and tells them all to to wait till they see this!

Suddenly Kiki walks in, everyone is amazed and Gary whistles as if to say "looking good". This is because she isn't wearing her ball cap, plaid shirt and jeans. She has no hat on and her hair has been nicely done and she has some ribbons in it. She is wearing a lavender blouse and a beige button down dress, and has some makeup on. She tells them oh come on it's no big deal.

However, Tucker walks over to her and tells her "I don't believe it, you actually look... like a girl!" She snaps at him asking him, "What did you think I was, Squirt?" He runs back and sits down. Frank and Sam both laugh together about it, and Gary asks her if she's doing this for her story? Frank says that it could be really scary!

Kiki says she did it to make a statement. Then heads over to the Storyteller's chair and sits down. She explains that everyone has more than one side, so we shouldn't think we know everything about someone, by looking at them one way. Because if we do that, then we can miss a whole lot beneath the surface. Because that can be a major mistake because what we don't know about somebody, could turn out to be the one thing our lives could depend on.

Kiki, sitting uncomfortably in her dress, throws in the campfire dust to make the fire more intense while she submits her story for approval of The Midnight Society. She calls her story, "The Tale of the Closet Keepers", and begins her story.

Story[]

Kiki, tells the story. The story is about a teenage girl named Stacey. Stacey was smart, funny, pretty and better at basketball than just about any guy in school. Still, some people just didn't see any of that. Stacey was deaf and she couldn't hear. She communicated through American Sign Language. Also by reading people's lips she could understand them too. However, to some people, communicating with her was frustrating.

One afternoon, her basketball team was heading on their way out, when her teammate Billy was complaining. He wanted to kick her off of their team since having to sign every move to her was just too frustrating to him.  Stacey takes her other teammate Chloe aside. Then she signs to her that maybe he's the one who doesn't understand. Billy rudely tells her they can't win if they have to do everything special for her.

Reading his lips from what he says, Stacey understands. So she gets upset and throws the ball hard at him and runs off. Stacey stops near the side of a run down townhouse building where she is about to cry. Then seeing her friends coming by, she enters the building to hide from them, so they don't see her cry. Then she senses strange things going on upstairs, so she hides in a corner.

Two strange men in business suits and sunglasses come downstairs. One of them tells the other remember: No geeks, no nerds and no freaks. So the other man makes note of that. Then they leave the building. Next Stacey, curious about the run down old building goes upstairs. She sees a green flashing light coming through the bottom of a door.

She opens the door and walks inside, it's dark at first. Then the lights go on and the room is like a giant fan blade. It spins her around at a high speed. She then exits through a bizarre looking elevator door. She is now inside some spaceship. The color scheme is gray and shiny. She looks around the ship and notices all the high tech equipment. Along with an interesting large world map on the wall. Then suddenly she notices that the elevator door that brought her up twists around and. It locks in place and she is now trapped.

Meanwhile, on the basketball court, Billy is practicing basketball. Then he hears an unnatural whistle. Then two men in the business suits approach him. They tell him (in a stiff, pedantic tone), "You have excellent moves on the court, dude!". Billy is not amused and uncooperative. They ask him to come with them. When he refuses and tries to ignore them, they use a sound wave gun. It emits an earsplitting sound. It renders Billy helpless and nearly in agony.

Meanwhile, back on the spaceship, Stacey hides when she hears more people coming. It is two other abductors in business suits. They go to the world map on the wall and picks a country. When a country is pressed, the elevator to the spaceship takes a person to that country. One of the abductors clicks on the map to United Kingdom. They're about to enter it to go there. Then Stacey climbs out of her hiding place and knocks something over. The sound of the item knocked over gets their attention. So they try to stop her with the sound wave guns. But it doesn't work, they think it either malfunctioned, or missed and she just ran off.

She enters a room, which is a holding cell block. Five other children from around the world are being kept prisoner in here. When she entered this room, she tripped off an alarm. Without knowing it, she sets off an earsplitting sound wave. All the kids are clutching their ears in pain, begging her to turn off the alarm. Finally she reads one of their lips. Now she understands and turns off the alarm. Suddenly the administrator, known as The Keeper appears.

Then the two abductors grab her from behind. Then they point the sound wave gun at her saying they won't miss again. Stacey is then thrown like a pillow into a room with a sliding down door. The inside of the room is painted like the setting of a boy's bedroom. There is not actual furniture. Just paintings of furniture on the walls to make it look like a room. The bed is just a metal slab that is painted to look like a real bed. Then she notices the big glass window to the side of the room. Then suddenly on the other side of it, three aliens interestingly look at her. Then one of them takes a picture. Stacey recoils in horror at the sight of them.

Suddenly, a creepy, sordid looking man with rotting yellow teeth comes to her side. He tells her to smile and not to disappoint her public. The man explains that he is a zookeeper, from some point in the future. Stacey is one of his first specimens. Looking at him, it seems that he and his henchmen are humans, but possibly an evolved form of humans from the future. He tells her his spaceship is an Intergalactic Zoo, Also that he is close to achieving his vision. He has captured Earth children to place in his zoo for aliens to pay to come and look at. Just as humans pay money at the zoo to see animals in. He was expecting a boy, but she'll do.

Then when realizing she isn't answering him, he decides that she's not very bright. Which might be to her advantage. Then he warns her, showing what will happen if she tries to escape. He does this by grabbing his henchmen and placing his head into the doorway. This causing earsplitting sound waves to go off. Now the guard is in agonizing and earsplitting pain. She nods her head to tell the keeper she understands. Then the Keeper sadistically tells her to make herself at home and leaves.

Next the door opens, and Billy is forced inside. Billy is very surprised to see her there. He demands to know where they are. After having difficulty understanding her sign language, she does a series of charades and movements. This helps him realize that the ship is a zoo. Therefore they have been captured as the attractions for aliens to come and look at for their enjoyment. Billy gets mad and pounds on the walls. Then the aliens looking in clap with joy. Then he tries to exit out the door. Now the sound waves go off, causing him earsplitting pain.

Soon we see the Zoo Keeper talking with one of his henchmen. He talks to him about saying that there is something odd about Stacey that he doesn't like. So he wants her to be eliminated as soon as possible. Soon the doorway in Stacey and Billy's cell opens leading them to a caged hallway. A girl named Emma tells them to hurry or they won't be fed. Then she gives them some feeding bowls. The kids are all fed what appears to be lime green Jello. Which Emma says is not bad if you don't look at it.

Emma explains that she was the first kid taken to the zoo. Then four other kids from around the world came too: An African boy, a Swedish boy, a Mexican girl and a Vietnamese girl. Emma is amazed and excited to hear that Stacey is deaf. Because she can escape and not be affected the sound waves.

The the Keeper comes in and screams at them. He says that from now on they are to be seen but not heard. Then he tells them to finish eating and get back to their displays. Stacey reads his lips, when he tells his henchman to get rid of her. Understanding this she is shocked and horrified.

When she and Billy get back to their cell, he asks her why she is so sad. She tells them because they plan to kill her. He tells her since she can't hear, she can just run off and escape. But she signs to him that the guards will still hear the alarms and catch her anyways. Also she can't leave without him.

Hearing this Billy is shocked and feels bad. He asks why to stay for him. Since he hasn't been very nice to her. Stacey actually speaks to him. Her voice is a bit high pitched, because she can't hear. She tells him that the reason they haven't been getting along very well is not because she can't hear. But it's because he's hasn't been listening well enough to try and understand her. He promises to listen from now on and they plan their escape.

Stacey discovers that mirrors deflect the sound waves. So they carry the wall mirror above their heads and run out of their cell, without tripping the alarm. Then Stacey frees all five of the other children. However since they are cameras everywhere the guards immediately show up. The guards try to stop them. So Stacey turns the alarm onto them and they all run off.

Then Stacey and Billy take them all to the master control room. Billy locks the door shut with a metal bar. Then Stacey takes them all to the the big touch screen world map. They at first don't understand what she means by touching it. Billy explains to them what she means. It is that if they touch a country on the map, the elevator will take them there.

The African boy touches Cameroon and he is taken home. Then the Swedish boy touches Sweden, then he is taken home. The Vietnamese girl touches Vietnam on the world map and is taken back home. Then the Mexican girl touches Mexico and is taken back home. Emma is short and has trouble touching United Kingdom. Then with a lift in the air from Stacey, Emma touches it and gets in the elevator back home. On her way out, she asks Billy to thank Stacey for her.

Then they're just about to go back home to their country, when The Keeper appears. He has Billy in a hold, threatening him with a sound wave gun. The Keeper is furious because they freed his specimens and ruined his zoo. She pretends that she is now affected by the sound waves, to lower his guard. Then she walks back and leads the Keeper into the sound waves area. Billy then covers his ears and ducks yelling: 'Hit it!'. So Stacey turns on the sound waves full blast. Now the Keeper gets a taste of his own medicine. He keeps uttering to them: "I'M GOING TO FIND YOU AND BRING YOU BACK!".

Then they enter the elevator and return home. When they returned back home, Billy asks her how to thank her. She shows him how to say 'Thank you' in sign language. Then he signs it and she signs back the same sign. Which also means 'You're welcome' while also saying it to him. Then they both walk off together.

Ending[]

As the story ends, Kiki says that after their strange adventure Stacey and Billy became friends. Nobody believed their story about the zoo, but they always knew that they could talk about it. Then Kiki signs with her hands in American Sign Language 'The end' and then ends her story. Gary has calmed down now, and declares their meeting closed and puts out the campfire.

When they all leave, Betty Ann catches up with her and asks her go shopping with her the next day. Kiki laughs it off and says "Get real" then she puts her ball cap on and she and Betty Ann leave laughing. Sam gives Tucker a piggyback ride on the way out. Gary and Frank are cool with each other and both decide to just go home.

  • Even though all the other captured children were from various countries around the world, all of them spoke in Canadian & American accents.
  • Each of the entrapped kids point on an unlabeled world map where they are from and the protagonists hail from the Northeastern US despite the show being produced in Canada.
  • Bethanny Nurse who portrayed Stacey, previously appeared in the Season One episode "The Tale of the Lonely Ghost" as Beth's friend Sally. Coincidentally, the ghost girl in that episode was deaf.
  • Brigid Tierney, who portrayed the British girl Emma, in real life is actually the younger sister of Jacob Tierney, who portrayed Midnight Society Member, Eric in Season One.
  • Bethanny Nurse isn't deaf in real life. In "The Tale of the Lonely Ghost", her character Sally, was speaking and hearing perfectly to Laura Levin's character Beth.
  • According to an interview from D.J. MacHale Bethanny Nurse, was originally cast to portray Kiki in the Pilot. However she was replaced by Jodie Resther right before the episode was finally filmed.
  • Tommy Michaels was well known for his nine year role of portraying the character Tim Dillon on the soap opera All My Children.
  • Brigid Tierney starred in the Children’s TV show Caillou as the voices of Caillou’s sister Rosie and his friend Clementine.
  • Brigid Tierney co-starred with Jodie Resther (Kiki) in the PBS Kids show Arthur as Jenna and Francine respectfully.
  • Peter Messaline (Keeper) was in the Goosebumps episode A Night in Terror Tower as Mr. Starkes.
  • This is the 2nd Kiki story to have a protagonist named Stacey, the other being "The Tale of Apartment 214

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