| The Tale of Jake and the Leprechaun | |
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| Season 1 , Episode 10 | |
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| Air date | October 24, 1992 |
| Written by | Nick Webb |
| Directed by | D.J. MacHale |
| Episode guide | |
| Previous The Tale of the Sorcerer's Apprentice |
Next The Tale of the Dark Music |
The Tale of Jake and the Leprechaun, is the Tenth episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Intro
Gary begins the meeting with telling the group that Frank as a sign of sympathy and support has decided not to take his turn telling a story that night and instead Eric would be telling one instead. The reason this was done was because Eric (being serious) tells the group, that during the past week his Irish grandfather had died. Kristen and David and Frank both look to him in sudden concern.
Eric tells them that his grandfather was a wonderful teller of great Irish stories such as stories about Kelpies, Pixies and Leprechauns and would even act and do the voices of each character. Then Eric takes out from a bag what appears to be an authentic green Irish leprechaun hat and explains that before his grandpa passed on he gave it to Eric and told him to guard with his life because it's blessed with the power of this pixies. Then he explains to Kristen that a pixie is like a fairy and that his grandpa would only tell stories about the evil ones.
Then he explains to Kiki that a Leprechauns are little people who make shoes, dress all in green and wear strange hat's just like the one he is holding. Gary asks wear the hat came from and he tells Gary that his grandpa apparently got it in a trade and if a person offers a pixie a trade the pixie they can't refuse it no matter what they'll be getting in return, all that one needs to say to it is "Mine be yours, and yours be mine" Eric decides to try and tell them all one of the stories that was one of his grandpa's favorites, and submits the approval for The Midnight Society, calling his story, "The Tale of Jake and the Leprechaun", then begins to tell his story in a slight Irish accent.
Story
Eric tells the story, one night we see a forest and suddenly a boy is walking when suddenly from behind a tree a scary and vicious goblin comes out to get him. The boy backs up against a boulder rock and begins to scream his head off in fear. The goblin threatens to eat out his liver if he doesn't stop screaming. Then suddenly a middle aged tall Irish Leprechaun named Seamus Doyle appears sitting on a branch in a nearby tree and tries to question why he is picking on the boy. The goblin growls at him telling him to stay out of it saying he is coming to claim the boy for himself. Suddenly Seamus Doyle jumps to the ground and he and the goblin pull out their swords and begin to duel. Suddenly after the boy is told to step aside he trips as he is passing by and falls to the ground and says "sorry"
Suddenly Seamus Doyle and The Goblin laugh and the goblin asks someone to help him take his wig off then the director Lucy and backstage workers appear because it turns out that the setting in the forest is just actors rehearsing for a play with the actor of Seamus Doyle telling everyone to take a break.
The role of the boy in the play is being played by a boy named Jake Joysen who always dreamed of becoming an actor and he finally got his chance to try when he landed a part in the play called Will o' the Wisp it was his first play and little did he know it would be his last play also.
The middle aged Irish man playing Seamus Doyle is revealed to be a old Irish man named Erin and he requests Lucy to bring him a cup of his own special herbal tea. Jake is curious and intrigued by the tea when Lucy tells him it supposedly helps Erin be creative and it seems to work always at a nick of time. Jake feeling a little discouraged about his talents and abilities wonders if the tea can help him too but Lucy tells him he's just fine but he doesn't think so. Then gives him the recipe for the ingredients but doubts he can find them and Erin won't share his secret stash.
Next Erin feels inspired and calls for Jake to come back to the stage for them to rehearse another scene. Jake excitingly agrees, then Erin points out the whole inside of the theater and comments that it's one hundred years old almost as old as he is and requests Jake to shut his eyes and try and feel the magic of the stage and the power of the theater to let it transport him into another realm and make him into a magician at the time Jake probably didn't even know what Erin meant by what he was just told.
Next we see the inside of a beautiful greenhouse filled with beautifully grown plants, bushes and shrubs and we hear the voice of another Irish man nicely talking to the plants while watering them. Jake arrives looking for some help. The gardener is revealed to be a very nice short midget man named Sean O'Shaney. Sean tells Jake that he might look at him like he was a sight for sore eyes but he is the one with the "Glamor" introduces himself and gives him his card telling him that he might be needing him. Then at first Sean is very friendly and helpful to Jake. Then Jake asks Sean if he has the ingredients on his list to make the tea after finding out the ingredients Jake wants are Bluebells, Foxgloves and Ragweed he gets furious and refuses to help Jake and tells him to leave his garden.
Next we see in a very dark room someone who is lighting dimly lit candles is laughing and saying "Take his soul and grind it whole and eat it with a fish, the boy be mine for all of time. This is what I wish" and there is a Black and White picture of Jake on the wall with the name of the play Will o' the Wisp under it. Then we see a table lit by many burning candles covered with all sort of tubes and vials of potions and a frog trapped inside a round glass ball.
Next we see Jake and Erin rehearsing another scene of Will o' the Wisp. The scene is about the boy begging for Seamus Doyle to turn him into a leprechaun to protect himself so the goblin will no longer be able to hurt him. Seamus asks him if he is sure about this because he would never be a boy again, and the boy is sure about it. Then Seamus has him dance an say an incantation the first part is "Fairy Rings, Dance and Sing, The Mortal Gloom a Dying Thing" The boy repeats it. Then Seamus takes a sip from some black pouch. The next part of it is "Turn me now into spirit bright and leave behind the human plight" after Seamus said it he tosses The boy the pouch. The boy catches it and sips from it and says the second part but suddenly his voice begins to get very deep and he breaks character and freaks out.
Suddenly Jake freaks out and is scared and Erin tries to assure him nothing is wrong and that it's just in his head and tells him that if when making magic appear it's like you've got the "glamor" and that he has a gift and he should try and use it. Then after Erin leaves Jake remember Sean's card and takes it out and runs over to go and see him.
When Jake goes back to Sean's greenhouse, Sean is still not too happy to see him again and is cold to him and tries to send him on his way. He begs him to tell him about the strange tea herbs, and Sean angrily slams the a gate on him when asked about them. Finally Sean reluctantly let's him into his house for Jake to explain himself. He explains to Sean what the play is about and that the more he rehearses for the play the stranger he feels and that last time even his voice changed and that Erin said it's because he has the glamor, and it was the same thing Sean said that he had too, and then he thinks it's all in his head and he might just be nervous about the play.
Then Sean smiles to him and says to him you really don't know about these herbs do you. Jake tells him all that he knows is that Erin uses them to make tea. Sean now more friendly explains that herbs can be very powerful if you know how to use them and how to get them, Sean explains he got some of what he is holding by offering a trade to a sprigun and that the creature couldn't refuse, and that all that needs to be said is "Yours be mine and mine be yours. After Jake mentions that is one of the lines from the play. The final rehearsal was the next afternoon and that first opening night was the next night. Sean was more than eager to come and see the play.
During the next days final rehearsal Sean is sneakingly watching from the back of the stage. The scene where the boy and is going to undergo the transformation to a leprechaun is being rehearsed again. Sean is shocked when he see's Erin supposedly he already knows him from somewhere before and runs away to not be seen. Just when Jake once again says "Turn me now into a spirit bright, and leave behind the human plight" his voice changes again but this time he doesn't react about it.
The suddenly from behind stage Sean has untied a rope and a prop tree comes crashing down onto the stage. After this happens everyone was distracted and Erin called for everyone to take a break. When Jake goes back stage Sean explains he dropped the rope to save his life Jake is mad because that could have killed him but Sean explains the real danger is that he is transforming and has Jake look in a mirror to discover he now has grown pointy ears. Jake screams in horrifying shock.
During a brief intermission of the story David was shocked to hear that Jake's ears got pointy and Betty Ann and Kristen both said it was weird. Then Eric said that around this time his grandpa would say "This is where the plot thickens"
Now back to the story we know see Jake worryingly looking at himself in a mirror and Sean says it's from the glamor which is what is in the black pouch that he and Erin sip from whenever rehearsing. Apparently every time he says the incantation and drinks the glamor he is closer and closer to becoming a changeling. At first Jake can't believe what's happening and claims that it's not real because the play is not real. But Sean ensures him it is because of his newly pointed ears and tonight he'll take it for the final time. Jake can't get himself to believe that Erin would do something so horrible to him, but Sean claims Erin would if Erin is who he thinks he is.
Then next we see Jake and Sean sneaking down to the basement to spy on Erin to see who is really is. Then as distraction Sean stands upon a chair and raises his long smoking pipe up against the ceilings smoke alarm and the smoke alarm goes off. When it goes off Erin runs out when hearing the smoke alarm and as Erin is away Jake and Sean sneak into Erin's room. They find just the things Sean was expecting to find and Jake is sort of creeped out to see Erin has his red hat and his picture from the play's advertisement attached to the wall. Then Jake surprisingly points out that Erin has a pet toad trapped in a round glass ball.
Sean informs him that he is changing. now they need to hurry out because Erin will be back any minute now, but Sean looks through Erin's collection of spices and herb vials and finds the right one he is looking for which is rowan root. They are too late and Erin is just about to enter the room but they manage to hide under the bed and not be seen. Now Erin takes off his ears and is revealed to have very long pointed bat like ears, he has pointy toes and a hairy mane on his back and is just sitting on his bed quietly wailing and relaxing and doesn't notice Jake and Sean sneak out.
Now it's explained that Erin is an evil Banshee and Banshee's are the most evil types of Pixies. Sean explains that Banshee's drink the tea Bluebells, Foxgloves and Ragweed which was why Sean was so rude and unfriendly to Jake at first he thought Jake might have been a banshee who wanted to make the tea for himself. Sean also explains that Banshee's feed on human souls and every seven years they need to devour another one leaving some pour helpless creature in it's place. With shock Jake claims that the pet toad they saw in Erin's room was once a person and Sean tells him he will soon become a changeling too. Because the truth was Jake and Erin haven't just been rehearsing they have actually been saying a real incantation and actually sharing a real potion.
Jake then suddenly suggests he tell his parents and call the police, but Sean informs him it's too late and the process is almost done and he can't survive as half a changeling. Sean helps Jake fight back. That night during opening act the part of the play where the evil goblin threatens the poor boy is shown. The poor boy runs off in fear and the goblin is evilly laughing and the curtain closes finishing the act.
During the set change Jake goes to costume room to find Sean and he Sean was very impressed with how well he did during the opening act and now helps prepare him for the finale. Sean tells him there are three rules to beating a Banshee and he must do all of them or all is lost. first thing is for him to be fearless and he hands Jake a tube with two spiders in it to swallow. Jake at first is repulsed by it but after Sean's encouragement he reluctantly swallows them. Then they take the black glamor pouch and add some special stones too it. Sean sprinkles dust and casts a spell on it saying "ruined tree, red thread, puts the witches to their speed" The second rule is too give Erin a taste of his own medicine and not to take it himself anymore. The third rule is try and use Erin's spell against him and not take his eyes of off him to spellbind him locking his eyes with Erin's to turn the spell against him.
Back to the play the final act is on now and Erin as Seamus Doyle is about to do the incantation with the boy as rehearsed many times before. However this time after seeing the boy didn't drink from the pouch and suspecting it tasted different he breaks character and suspects he spoke too someone and foul play is afoot and tosses the pouch into the audience disappearing Jake has lost his gaze on him.
Erin now returns in his true evil Banshee form laughing diabolically he asks him if he is afraid of him and Jake keeps nervously backing away claiming that he is not afraid and that he is fearless. Lucy the director is puzzled about what is going on and can't seem to find what part of the script it's from. Banshee Erin closes in on him claiming him to be all his. Jake cries for help to the audience saying it's really happening but they all think it's part of the show and do nothing.
Then Sean appears in a hat on a tree branch and approaches Erin or whom he really knows as Gort, asking if he is still up to his old tricks again. Gort indeed knows Sean too and claims he is too late this time meaning Sean has stopped Gort before. Gort tells him that some old tricks still works and fires an energy ball at the prop tree and it knocks over in a crash and Sean appears to be gone.
Then Gort closes in on Jake again claiming that he has waited seven years and now he is his Jake cries no! and Gort turns him into a frog, possibly because there was just enough glamor in him for it too happen anyways. The audience is shocked and impressed.
Then Gort holding Jake the Frog in his clutches is laughing and says to him "You're mine!" then suddenly Sean reappears and tells him that Jake is his and that Gort's severed off tail that he has kept a souvenir all these years is his. Gort tries to eagerly take it back from Sean when suddenly Sean offers Gort a trade and since a Banshee is a pixie a pixie is always forced to accept a trade not matter for what in exchange. So Sean trades Gort the tail and says "yours be mine, and mine me be yours" for some reason after this happens Gort disappears in a flash.
Then we see the Jake frog sitting on a stone and Sean casts a reversing spell saying "absent friend, distant place, return, return to the human race!" and Jake is turned back completely to normal and his ears are not even pointy anymore and Sean tells him he is now free and that he beat the Banshee. The audience is very impressed and all stand up and clap thinking it was all a show and Jake and Sean bow to the audience and gives Jake his hat.
Ending
As the story ends Eric tells the viewers that Will o' the Wisp was never performed again and Erin disappeared forever. Now back to the midnight society Eric takes off his hat and smiles and proudly tells his grandpa's hat that one was for you. Then his friends all get up and clap for him and then Betty Ann hugs him, Kiki hugs him and then Kristen hugs him.
- Eric's first story.
- Benjamin Plener was a regularly recurring character as Monkey Ears on Ready or Not which starred Laura Bertram who appeared in the episode "The Tale of the Lonely Ghost" and "The Tale of the Mystical Mirror"
- Benjamin Plener would reappear years later in the series revival's episode "The Tale of Highway 13" as Justin.
- Benjamin Plener is the Brother of Noah Plener who appeared in the episodes "The Tale of the Twisted Claw" as Dougie Freeman and "The Tale of the Magician's Assistant" as Todd Marker.
- Jennifer Seguin who played Lucy would later reappear in the episode "The Tale of Prisoners Past" as a tour guide.
- Benjamin Plener as Jake Joysen/ The Boy
- John Dunn-Hill as Erin/Seamus Doyle/Gort
- David Steinberg as Sean O'Shaney
- Jennifer Seguin as Lucy
- Frayne McCarthy as Carl/Goblin