Editor’s Note: this is a recap, which means major spoilers! Read at your own risk.
Eventually we were going to get some answers from Channel Zero: Candle Cove, and this week’s fifth and penultimate episode, “Guest of Honor,” gave us a lot of them, which made for a far less insane—though still very creepy—episode than last week’s installment, but it did set up what should be an even more bonkers finale.
The previous episode showed us what appeared to be the puppets used to make the actual show, but Mike (played by Paul Schneider in his best, most subtle but crazy performance yet) quickly–and fortunately–put an end to that early on, proving that supernatural forces really are at work here.
If this whole thing had just turned out to be a troubled man dealing with the metaphorical demons of his past and a pack of murderous children being led by their evil teacher…well, that still would have been cool, but the revelation that Candle Cove didn’t create Eddie, but that Eddie had created Candle Cove was a great twist. Sure, a child born with unfathomable powers isn’t a new idea, but in this context it perfectly explains why a kid’s puppet show was at the center of all of this. It was created by a child’s mind, so it manifested itself in a child’s format.
We also learned more about Mrs. Booth and why she’s doing all of this. Not that there seemed to be much mystery around it after last week, but sure enough Mrs. Booth did sacrifice her son Jacob to Eddie back in 1988, after Eddie stopped her seizures and sent her to the apparently magical land of Candle Cove.
The great remaining mystery is whether or not the Toothchild we saw her tenderly feeding teeth a few weeks ago—and who seemingly is still working on her and Eddie’s behalf after he/she/it took Lily—is Jacob or not. With the soul/essence/being of Eddie working towards overtaking Mike and his body (one of the best developments yet), it is not out of the realm of possibility to expect some sort of return of Jacob either. There has been too much focus paid to him recently to not expect a pay off.
Speaking of Mike, if Eddie making him carve “Come Home Mike” into his arm wasn’t enough to get him to do what he wants, kidnapping Lily and bringing her into that ever-present cave should do the trick. Beyond being unsettling and making it clear Mike is someone to root for, revealing Eddie as the center of all of the evil going on makes us less sure that Mike will survive all of this. And with what happened to poor Jessica, whose murder seems to have been a result of Eddie’s long held jealousy, there’s no reason to expect anyone to survive. The better question might be whether Mike lives and finally escapes this hell, Eddie lives on in Mike and it never ends, or Mike has to die to save everyone.
Regardless of who survives or not, we’re looking forward to seeing how this all wraps up. This first season of Channel Zero has been entertaining, completely mad at times, and always creepy. So long as it doesn’t turn out all of the kids are just angry they boarded up the local water park, it should be a great ending to a very solid debut season.
But what do you think of tonight’s episode? And what are your predictions for the finale next week? Take a bite out of our comments section below to share your thoughts with us.
Images: Syfy
