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The Tale of the Final Wish
Season 2 , Episode 1
Eplogo14
Air date June 19, 1993
Written by Chloe Brown
Directed by D.J. MacHale
Episode guide
Previous
The Tale of the Pinball Wizard
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The Tale of the Midnight Madness

The Tale of the Final Wish is the First episode and season premiere of the Second season of Are You Afraid of the Dark?, as well as the Fourteenth episode in total.

Cast[]

Midnight Society Cast[]

Story Cast[]

  • Samantha Chemerika (also known as Samantha Aboud) as Jill Petterson
  • Thomas Sievewright as Jon Petterson
  • Jane Wheeler as Mrs. Petterson
  • Ian Finlay as Mr. Petterson

Special Guest Star[]

Intro[]

Kristen is all dressed up in an old-fashioned fairy tale dress--not a princess dress, but a fairy tale dress--and is reading out loud gruesome tales from an equally old-fashioned and unabridged fairy tale book. The first story she reads is about an evil woman who wished to cut off two children's heads and be smeared with their blood to receive life again. David is astounded and thinks it's disgusting. Frank walks in, sees the book, and thinks it's childish. He tells her that fairy tales are weak.

Kristen snaps at him for that and asks if he's ever even read them. David backs her up, saying they weren't the wimpy versions, but the original ones. Frank stubbornly tells her that no, he can't say that he has. Gary says that he has and they're full of stabbing, demons, man-eating animals, cutting off limbs and all sorts of things. Betty Ann says her favorite one is where an old woman kidnaps a prince and puts blood on the queen's mouth to make the king think she ate him. David loves it even though he thinks it's gross, but Frank still doesn't seem convinced and says that a kid's story is a kid's story.

Kiki isn't too excited with the idea either; she complains and asks if Kristen will be telling them some boring old fairy tale. Kristen explains that the story she is going to tell is about a girl who loves fairy tales, had a huge collection and knew most of them by heart. The trouble was that she spent so much time thinking about the world of make-believe, she started to forget the difference between reality and imagination. When that happens, a fairy tale can become a scary tale. She submits her story for Midnight Society's approval, calling it "The Tale of the Final Wish", and begins.

Story[]

Kristen tells the story, which begins with a beautiful, kind young woman offering a person an apple. The woman politely tries to persuade the young person to take a bite of it, since it's such a good-looking apple. Suddenly she gets impatient, transforms into an evil queen and screams, "If you don't I'll force you to eat it!" while laughing in a sinister cackle.

This turns out to be the nightmare of a young girl named Jill Petterson, who suddenly wakes up scared from her nightmare. She realizes she had the nightmare because she fell asleep while reading Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Jill reaches towards her lamp table for her glass of water. When finding out the glass is empty, she gets up to refill it but worries that something is under her bed.

She arms herself with a baseball bat and checks under her bed. She's relieved to find nothing, and she tells herself to grow up. She goes to get herself a glass of water and returns. She nervously checks the side of her bed again and starts telling herself it's stupid because there is nothing under there. Suddenly two hands from under her bed grab her. She screams in fear and she runs to her parents room.

Scared and nervous, Jill wakes her parents who come into her room to check things out. Her father checks under her bed, and pretends something has him. Then he pulls out a small dirty dinner plate. Her brother Jon comes into Jill'd room, asking what's going on. Their mom explains Jill had another nightmare. Jill tries to explain it wasn't , but her dad just tells her everyone has nightmares and not to take them so seriously. Her mom tells her to go back to sleep and her parents go back to bed.

When their parents leave Jon smiles at Jill and tells her it was him under the bed playing a prank. Jill is furious and claims that she hates him. Jon says he did it because she's always looking under the bed, and he just thought he would help her find something. When she tells Jon to grow up, he tells her that she's the one who needs to grow up--still living in a fairyland, playing with childish toys and reading a childish book. He adds that she is thirteen and should act more her age, mainly to stop believing in monsters under the bed. Jill wasn't sure how kids her age should act however, and her friends weren't being much help either.

Then next day, Jill took too long getting ready for school so one of her parents drives her there. At the school library she takes out a few fairytale books, including the book The Sandman and other tales. When two of Jill's classmates who are both really attracted to a boy in their class find out he seems interested in Jill, the two girls are jealous. They openly think she’s a childish geek and when they look in Jill's backpack and see the books she checked out.

When the boy sits down and speaks with Jill about their school work, the two girls plan to embarrass Jill by showing the boy the childish books Jill has checked out, Jill's excuse is she’s doing a book report. When they also find a Troll doll in the backpack and show it to the boy, the boy mentions he used to play with them as a kid. The jealous girls tell him Jill still plays with them. Jill grabs her stuff and leaves embarrassed.

That night, Jill has a wonderful dream where she's about to be kissed by a handsome prince. The prince was none other than the boy she had a crush on from school. She wakes up in her dark room, only to see a terrifying face. She screams in terror and runs around her room. Turns out it was Jon, scaring her with a new Halloween mask. Fed up, Jill shows him the door.

She picks up her library books, not knowing she picks up The Sandman and Other Tales. She walks over to her open window and wishes upon a star, saying, "What's so wrong about wanting to live in a world where dreams come true, and you can wish on a star? I wish I could, and I wish everybody would just leave me alone." She goes to sleep for the rest of the night.

The next morning, Jill wakes up and is shocked to see her brother standing beside her bed. He’s fast asleep, his head tilted to the side. Furious that he's pulling another prank, she heads out to tell their parents. When she looks back though, he's vanished. Jill checks her parents' room and they both don't seem to be there either. She goes back to her room, thinking her brother is under her bed to scare her again.

Jill checks under her bed when the bearded face of a long-haired man appears and greets, "Hi there!" She screams in horror and tries to run off for help before she gets sucked under her bed with a gust of wind, down a well and into another dimension. When she comes to, she is in a pitch black place surrounded by clocks . Several people sleep while floating in the air, not responding when she speaks to some.

Then Jill enters a door numbered 7 with a huge clock in it. There are tables with vials of various sands and types of dusts labelled Deep Sleep, Catnap, 40 winks, Snooze and Out Like A Light. While she looks at a huge hour glass filled with sand, a man in a purple house coat and night cap with a goatee and long hair approaches her. Jill addresses him as "that guy under my bed".

The man turns out to be none other than the Sandman himself. He assures her she isn’t dreaming. Everything is real and he's brought her to the Land of Nod, where everyone goes to dream. This is because the Sandman granted Jill her wish when she held his storybook while looking at the a star. He mimicks her words to prove his point, "What's so wrong about wanting to live in a world where dreams come true, and you can wish on a star? I wish I could, and I wish everybody would just leave me alone."

The sandman granted her wish, and now everyone will sleep forever in The Land of Nod and leave her alone. She's in her own fairytale now with a big book for it too, though he won't show her the ending as that would be cheating. Upset, Jill demands to go home, but the Sandman claims fairytales can't be changed.

Jill wants everyone to go back home. The Sandman won't let them because that’s reality, and she wanted a fairytale. After Jill once again tells him she wants to go home, he tells her she should have been a little more careful with what she wished for. Jill tries to run away as the Sandman starts laughing. She passes several sleeping, floating people again and a number of unknown doors. Jill tries a white door with a red question mark, which happens to be for Alice in Wonderland. She finds the Queen of Hearts holding a huge battleaxe, who approaches Jill and screams "OFF WITH HER HEAD!" Jill screams, slams the door and runs. When she tries another door, it's for the story Hansel and Gretel, with the witch standing right in front of her stove and looking at Jill. She tells her, "I was expecting Hansel and Gretel, but you'll do nicely. Come closer my dear!" Jill shuts the door while the witch cackles and runs off again.

While passing by the floating, sleeping people again, she recognizes some of them now. One of them is one of her two classmates from school who embarrassed her. The other one is the boy who seemed interested in her, named Rick. The other one is Jon. Crying, Jill pleas for him to wake up. When she sees her own parents Jill is devastated and runs off. When she stops running she cries and she shouts that she didn't want this, that it's not what she wished for. The Sandman's huge face appears in the dark ceiling, replying in a laughing tone that yes, it was what she wished for, before he welcomes her to her own fairy tale.

Jill once again runs off screaming, ending up back in the Sandman's office room. She tells him she wants to go home and his voice tells her that isn’t in her fairytale. Jill then approaches the huge hourglass and threatens to smash it if he doesn't send her and everyone else back home. The Sandman himself then appears, serious and concerned, warning not to break it. She demands he send everyone back home. The Sandman reminds her fairytales can't be changed, that they are what they are. She still tearfully threatens to smash it. The Sandman then tells her nicely that she wanted everyone to leave her alone, so now they'll just sleep forever in the Land of Nod. Jill claims she and everyone there are prisoners.

Now getting annoyed, the Sandman tells her that the way she’s acting isn't how her fairytale is supposed to end. If she insists on being foolish, he'll have to put her to sleep too. After hearing this, Jill smiles, relieved when she realizes that fairytales can be changed after all. He tells her that she's wrong, and she replies that she isn't because it's her fairytale. If he can change it, then so can she. She tells him she’s gonna close the book and smashes the huge hourglass.

The Sandman screams no as all the visions of everything scary Jill recently saw in her nightmares and behind the doors appear and disappear in a flash, ending with the Sandman still screaming. Jill wakes up with a terrified scream that wakes up her entire family. She's thrilled to see everyone back again and apologizes for being so childish. She decides it's time to stop believing in fairytales grow up.

When she goes back to sleep, the wind blows open The Sandman and other tales. It goes to the last story, called the Tale of the Final Wish. Then it blows to the last page in the book. We then hear the Sandman saying, "The little girl went back to sleep, promising never to believe in fairytales again. If only she knew, she never would have gotten into that bed again!" and it ends with the Sandman diabolically laughing. This could mean Jill would either have the worse nightmares ever, or that the Sandman still was going to capture her.

Ending[]

As Kristen ends her story, everyone seems very impressed. She tells them not to take fairytales lightly, as you never know which ones are made up and which ones are real. David tells her it was excellent while Betty Ann and Kiki happily nod. Frank asks Kristen which part of the book has the part where the children get their heads chopped off. Everyone laughs as Frank intriguingly looks through the fairytale book while others excitedly look with him.

  • This is the only season opening with the original Midnight Society that did not include an inductee being introduced though one character from the previous season, Eric (Jacob Tierney), had left the show.
    • According to D.J Machale, Jacob left because he wanted to be paid more and wanted to more beyond being a Midnight Society member. DJ also felt that having 7 kids was too much.
  • One of twenty-one episodes where the Midnight Society didn't leave and douse the fire with the water-bucket (they were leafing through a collection of original, dark versions of fairy tales).
  • The Midnight Society gave absolutely no mention or any clue as to what happened to Eric. D.J stated that it was not explained because he didn't think anyone would care.
  • Bobcat Goldthwait, was famous for his portrayal of the character Zed in a few of the Police Academy movies.
  • Bobcat Goldthwait had tremendous difficulty remembering his lines in the episode.
  • Samantha Chemerika would later reappear in the series again portraying Sharon in the episode "The Tale of the Chameleons" however for unknown reasons, she went by the name Samantha Aboud.
  • Jane Wheeler who portrayed Mrs. Petterson later reappeared in the episode "The Tale of C7" as Ellen as the mother.
  • DJ MacHale has said this Jill is his favorite protagonist but mostly because "she was such a good kid and fun to work with"

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