| The Tale of the Secret Admirer | |
|---|---|
| Season 6 , Episode 12 | |
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| Air date | May 8, 1999 |
| Written by | Eric Weiner |
| Directed by | Mark Soulard |
| Episode guide | |
| Previous The Tale of Bigfoot Ridge |
Next The Tale of Vampire Town |
The Tale of the Secret Admirer is the Twelfth episode of the Sixth season of Are You Afraid of the Dark?, as well as the Seventy-Seventh episode in total.
Cast[]
Midnight Society Cast[]
- Elisha Cuthbert as Megan
- Vanessa Lengies as Vange
- Daniel DeSanto as Tucker
- Kareem Blackwell as Quinn
- David Deveau as Andy
Story Cast[]
- Asia Vieira as Meggie Evans
- Mark Hauser as Nick
- Andrew Walker as Bucky
- Domenic Di Rosa as Moose
- Claudia Ferri as Mrs. Evans
- Steve Adams as Mr. Evans
- Raphael Dumas as Teddy Mars
Intro[]
That night, as the group enters the circle, Megan takes from each of them a piece of paper. Quinn says that they make them do the dorkiest things. She tells him it's not dorky it's fun and as everyone sits down. She asks them all if their notes are typed not handwritten and they all say yes. Megan says the game is called secret confessions. The concept is to tell something to someone in a note, something you're too embarrassed to tell them face to face.
Quinn says the only thing he's embarrassed about is playing the dorky game. Shuffling through the notes, she says the first note is to Tucker, he's happy and smiles. The note tells him a thank you for letting him or her be in The Midnight Society, and it's signed from Andy. Vange calls him a dimrod and tells him he wasn't supposed to sign in. Andy reacts confused saying oh you're not? Megan says yes because it's called SECRET confessions. Tucker smiles saying it's cool and tells him that he's welcome.
Megan shuffles for the second note, the second note is for Andy. It says "I'm glad you're my friend" Andy is touched by this and says cool. Megan takes the third note and it's also for Andy. This one tells him "I bet your zipper is down again!" he checks and everyone laughs. The next note is for Vange. This one says "You remind me of me" she wants to know if that's good or bad. Quinn tells her it depends on who wrote it. Megan picks up the last note and it's for her. The note tells her "I always wanted to tell you, you're pretty" she is emotionally touch and smiles and thanks whoever wrote it. Quinn impatient asks her if this has anything to do with her story.
She says of course, because getting secret notes is cool. Especially if their good notes like theirs, but what if you got a note that wasn't so great? What if it warned you about something evil? What would you do?
Megan throws in the campfire dust to make the fire more intense while she submits her story for the approval of The Midnight Society. She calls her story "The Tale of the Secret Admirer" and begins her story.
Story[]
Megan, tells the story. The story is about a teenage girl named Meggie Evans. She had a lack of self-esteem in her appearance, and she was shy and she didn't have many friends. Most of the kids in her class didn't even notice her. One day during lunch time, she placed her backpack on the floor. Suddenly she realized that someone knew who she was, and that someone was watching her. She found a letter in her backpack, addressed to her. She opened it up and it said: "Do you feel the same way about me that I feel about you? Meet me in the wood shop right away".
She smiled and felt excited. Immediately she headed to the school wood shop. Near the entrance are a few members of a school's sports team. She thinks it was from Nick. She tells him that she got his note and now she is here. Nick's two idiotic friends Moose and Bucky joke about it. Bucky takes it and teases her about for having feelings for his friend. This makes her feel humiliated. Nick gives her the note back. He says that it wasn't from him. Then Nick's friends leave teasing them about it.
That evening Meggie is in her room feeling awful. So her mom tries to comfort her asking her if she wants her advice and support. Meggie tells her that she feels sad, because she think she is ugly and boys don't like her. Her mom tries to convince her that she is beautiful. Still Meggie doesn't believe her. So she asks to be left alone for a while. Later on during homework time, her dad comes in hearing about her bad day. So he wants to know if she wants to talk about it, she says no thanks. Then her dad invites Meggie to go for ice cream with them. She says no because she has too much homework.
Later that evening as she is resting, a powerful windstorm is happening. The branches are shaking and tapping hard against the house. As the wind is howling, she can hear someone calling her name. This creeps her out. But she follows the voice to see where it's coming from. Then suddenly the lights start flickering and then they go out. She gets a flashlight, and suddenly the front door blows open scaring her even more. She closes it, hearing a knock. She asks repeatedly who it is, but no one answers. She opens the door and finds another letter. The letter has the same message as before. She locks the door securely and checks to see who is outside. She nervously heads upstairs, and slowly goes into the bathroom. She finds a message on the mirror written in lipstick. The message is a huge heart, with a message saying: "Do you??". She can hear a hissing sound. Then she can see a shadowy figure in the shower.
Meggie runs downstairs terrified. Then she opens the door to run away to find help. She bumps into someone and screams. It is just Nick who has stopped by to see her. She is relieved and happy to see him. So she tells him that someone is in her house. She leads Nick to the bathroom. Here he finds out that it was just a pair of wet Long Johns drying. Nick explains that the door blew open because the window was open, and there was a strong wind. Also he tells her not to be embarrassed, seeing a message on the mirror. Since it is easy to freak out in the dark. He says that he once thought he saw a Scarecrow coming after him with a hammer. Then it turned out that it was just his hungry dog carrying his dish.
Meggie asks him why he came over tonight. He says because he wanted to apologize for what had happened that day and how friends acted at school. Meggie says it's all right. But Nick being more conscientious says that it isn't all right. And that they can be real jerks at times. Nick then confirms that he is not the one sending her the letters. However, it does mean that she has a secret admirer. She is a little excited when realizing this. Then she thanks Nick for everything he has done. Nick smiles saying goodnight. Then he leaves.
Meggie has now calmed down, and she laughs about what has happened. She thinks about Nick and jokes around smiling and laughing. Then after she washes her face, she can hear someone growling. In the reflection of the mirror is a frightening man with a half burned off face. Meggie screams scared out her skin. This happens just as her parents come in. They can hear her screaming and run upstairs to help her. She turns around. But the man is no longer there. Meggie runs into her parents arms crying. Then she explains what happened. Her dad checks it out but he doesn't find anybody there.
The next day at school, Nick gets a letter addressed to him as: "Superstar". He reads the note inside and it says: "If you don't stay away from Meggie, I'm going to hurt you Superstar". Nick is frightened and runs off to show Meggie the note. Meggie runs off scared and is freaking out because she realizes her secret admirer might be somebody dangerous. Nick gets her to calm down. He telling her that the admirer is just a coward, who cannot personally face them. Also Nick says now that he knows her. So it'll take more than a threatening note to keep him away from her. Meggie feels happy and smiles. Realizing he is sincere, she kisses him on the cheek and they both smile.
Then Moose and Bucky stop by and joke around. They say that he won the bet. And they never thought he could get Meggie to kiss him. Hearing this, Meggie thinks that Nick has been playing her. Just to get a kiss and win a bet. Nick claims that he wasn't playing her, and they were just goofing around. Meggie doesn't believe him. Then she leaves in a huff feeling mad and offended, Nick runs after her. Nick knocks at her front door and tries to convince her that he wasn't involved with his friends bet. It was a bet of trying to get girls to kiss them.
Meggie is upset and doesn't believe him. So she asks him to leave. Nick tells her another note has come for her. So she opens the door to get it. This note tells her: "Meet me in the wood shop tonight. I'll be waiting". Nick is fed up, so he decides to go for her and ask the guy to leave her alone. She says that she just wants him to leave her alone too. Nick says that he really does like her. So he wants to prove it by standing up for her. He says that he will do it by telling the guy to leave her alone. Her dad asks her if he's bugging her. All she says, is that he was just leaving. Nick leaves saying he is going to meet the guy and tell him to leave her alone. Then prove to her that he is telling the truth.
As Meggie and her parents are preparing dinner, her dad points out Meggie's backpack. He tells her that it used to be her mom's backpack and he remembers it. Apparently her mom looked just like her when she was her age. In fact, her mom used to also go by the same nickname. Meggie is shocked and now she realizes that the note she got wasn't for her. Instead it was actually for her mom. She shows her parents the note and they are both shocked and frightened to see it. They claim that it must have been stuck in the lining all these past years. Meggie's mom seems really upset now and she walks away. She asks her mom what the problem is. All she tells her is that she wouldn't understand it. Her dad says it's ancient history and he doesn't want to talk about, it but Meggie insists on knowing.
As Nick arrives to the wood shop, Her dad explains it to her: When they were in high school, there was a teenager named Teddy Mars. Teddy Mars was a delinquent, a tough intimidating bully, a petty thief a vandal and pretty much anything else rotten. He developed a crush on Meggie's mom and he began writing her notes. Meggie's mom didn't like Teddy but she didn't tell him and he couldn't take a hint.
Then one night Teddy asked her to meet him in the school wood shop. He went instead, Teddy was in the finishing room. Here he was making a carved wooden heart, for her mom spraying it with lacquer as a finish. Her dad told Teddy that she wasn't interested in him. Addressing him as Superstar, Teddy said that he didn't believe him and wanted to hear it from her. Then they began to argue and Teddy began to aggressively push him. He didn't want to fight him because he was a violent guy.
Then finally to defend himself he pushed him back. Teddy tripped and hit his head on the drying lamp. Since lacquer is flammable the wood shop caught fire. Then in one spark it exploded. Teddy died in the explosion, while her dad just injured his arm.
Meggie now realized that Teddy thinks that she is her mom. Now the past is happening all over again. She just remembered that Nick went to the wood shop. So she runs off in a panic to save him. Nick is in the wood shop cornered by all sorts of machines and tools. They are going haywire and running by themselves. He dodges them and calls out for Meggie to be left alone. A burnt carved wooden heart appears. Now Teddy appears telling him that it's payback time, and this time Meggie will be his. Nick is lured into the drying room. Where he is choking on the gas and all the drying lights are turned on nearly suffocating him.
Teddy picks up a crowbar and closes in him preparing to pound him. Also Teddy is willing to just light one spark and blow them both up if he cannot have Meggie this time. Meggie arrives and smashes in the window to the wood shop, and then runs inside. She calls out to Nick, Teddy is happy to see her and tells her to wait and to give him his long awaited answer. Teddy asks her to answer him truthfully and with his burned face he smiles. He asks her if she feels the same way about him, as he feels about her. Posing as her mother, Meggie tells him straight forward that she doesn't feel the same way about him at all. Getting his long awaited answer, he is infuriated. So in a fit of rage he smashes the light. Then the room engulfs in a huge explosion. Then Nick is thrown back injuring his arm.
She explains that he was just a sad person who finally learned the truth and couldn't take it. She explains that the truth is something you have to listen to, even if you don't like what you hear. She asks Nick if he's been truthful to her all this time. Nick assures her that he has. Meggie then smiles saying that now his only problem is his friends are jerks, but she can deal with it. They happily walk off arm in arm. Then in the remains of the blown up drying room, the wooden carved heart is shown slowly burning away to nothing.
Ending[]
Megan smiles and says the end, ending her story. Tucker says it was a good story as Vange and Andy smile. Tucker asks Megan how it really feels to have a secret admirer. Megan reads the note again, a little surprised she says she read it wrong. She says it's for "Megan's Game" and it's not for her. Quinn laughs saying "Goof!". Vange laughs and Quinn asks who really has the secret admirer?
Reading it more carefully she tells Quinn that he does. He smiles feeling full of himself he says he can't say he's surprised. He asks her to read what it says. Megan reads it out, it says "I always wanted to to tell you that you're pretty... yeah pretty much a dork!" all the others laugh when hearing this. Andy teases him telling him he really is one. Quinn is now mad and asks who wrote it.
Vange gets up first, smiles and tells him that would be a secret and leaves followed by Andy, Megan, leaving him confused and frustrated about it.
- One of eleven episodes where the New Midnight Society didn't leave and douse the fire with the water-bucket (the last shot was of Quinn after reading an insult).
- Asia Vieira and Daniel DeSanto, co-starred in many episodes of the children's show The Adventures of Dudley the Dragon as Dudley's human friends, Matt and Sally.
- Asia Vieira was also in the Goosebumps episode Teacher's Pet as Sue.
- Andrew Walker who portrayed Bucky, previously appeared in the original series. He first appeared in the episode "The Tale of the Vacant Lot" as Eric.
- Vanessa Lengies and Andrew Walker co-starred together, in the children's comedy show Radio Active as Sarah Leigh and Blair Resnicke.
