The episode begins with our protagonist, Evan Ross, arriving at his great Aunt Kathryn’s place to stay temporarily while his parents try find a new house in Atlanta, where his father’s been transferred for work. Evan ain’t happy about it because Aunt Kathryn is super weird, “smells like mothballs” and makes sugar cookies that taste like kitty litter [Delicious!]. She’s also allergic to animals, meaning Evan’s dog, Trigger, has to stay outside the whole time. Evan thinks Aunt Kathryn is creepy af, “always sneaking around like she’s hiding something” [A gal with a secret!].
Aunt Kathryn points Evan to his room upstairs and warns him to stay out of the room across the hall, and I’m sure it comes as no surprise that checking out the forbidden room is the first thing on his to-do list [I’d probably do the same thing tbh because I need to know everything that’s going on with everyone. I am Gretchen Weiners xx].
The forbidden room is full of old furniture covered in cobwebs and as he explores, a bony hand grabs his shoulder from behind [!!!]. It’s just creepy old Aunt Kathryn, who angrily advises him to “never, never, never” enter this room again [Put a lock on it, hun, he’s already shown he’s a bad listener lol. Which reminds me, wasn’t Kathryn deaf in the book?]. She forces him from the room and moves over to a cupboard, quickly locking it as it begins to rumble [Oooh, what’s in there?]. Later that night while struggling to fall asleep, Evan notices Kathryn listening at the forbidden room’s door.
The next day while playing with Trigger in the front yard, Evan befriends neighbourhood girl Andy, bonding over how weird Kathryn is. When she learns Kathryn’s not currently home, Andy begins snooping around outside the house, and Evan tells her about the forbidden room. Andy wants to see it and quickly bullies Evan into taking her into the room where they find a shelf full of books about witchcraft and spells. Inside the cupboard, which is full of jars of weird things, they discover one particular jar labelled ‘Monster blood’, and, nosey little shits that they are, the new besties open it up [Idiots], unleashing a green cloud thing that turns into a black cat as it lands on the floor [That green mist definitely wasn’t in there when the jar was closed, though].
The kids barely bat an eye at this and instead focus on what’s still inside the jar – a big glob of warm, rubbery goo [You just saw a green fog turn into a black cat, how is slime more interesting?]. Evan removes it from the jar and throws it to the ground [Why is that the first thing he decides to do with it?], which sends it bouncing all around the room like a ball. Then the two idiots decide to take half of the monster blood each, splitting it into two containers as Andy justifies that they’re “just playing with it and then putting it back” rather than stealing. They hear Aunt Kathryn’s car in the driveway, so Andy heads out to stall her while Evan rushes upstairs to put the now-empty jar of Monster Blood back in the cupboard.
Later, Evan and Andy play with the Monster Blood outside, seeing how high it can bounce [Is that all they can do with it? Boring], and are completely oblivious to the poor fly that lands on some of the leftovers in one of their tubs, only to be consumed by the goo.
Then Trigger appears to gobble up a ball of delicious Monster Blood before scurrying. They follow him to the backyard where the poor dog seems to be in distress, but like three seconds later he’s totally fine, so that was pointless. Aunt Kathryn then appears with a plate of sugar cookies for the kids [The ones that taste like kitty litter? Why are they a weird blue-green colour?]. Andy pretends she’s already eaten today, but Evan isn’t as quick with the excuses and reluctantly takes a bite while Aunt Kathryn smirks.
As Evan tries to sleep that night, we see the Monster Blood overflowing in the container beneath his bed, and the next morning, Andy arrives with her Monster Blood in a cooler. She shows him how big hers as grown and we get this stupid exchange:
Andy: There’s got to be 10 times as much as there was last night.
Evan: You mean it’s growing?
Andy: That’s exactly what I mean.
[What else would it mean? Idiot]. Back inside, Aunt Kathryn flutters around the living room pretending to be an orchestra conductor while blaring some tunes. They sneak past her and up the stairs, where they notice Monster Blood seeping beneath the door of the forbidden room. Evan instructs Andy to get a bucket [♪And a mop, for this wet ass…♪] from the bathroom so they can scoop up the expanding goo with a dustpan.
Downstairs, the black cat watches as Aunt Kathryn continues her imaginary orchestra, but her allergies soon kick in and she lets out a big sneeze. With her allergy medication empty, she heads out to get more, giving the kids enough time to dispose of the Monster Blood in a bathtub in the garage [Why is there a bath in there?]. Evan suddenly remembers Trigger and rushes to the backyard, where there’s no sign of his beloved pet aside from a giant paw print and a torn leash [Uh oh!].
After pouring the rest of the Monster Blood into the tub, Evan stupidly sits on the edge of the bath and is quickly pulled into the goo [This is natural selection working]. Andy manages to help him out and the pair escapes into the house as the Monster Blood climbs out of the tub [!!!]. Aunt Kathryn arrives just in time to see the Monster Blood squeeze into the house through a window, horrified that the kids have unleashed the cat, Sarabeth, who is resting on the stairs. Sarabeth then morphs into a woman and moves menacingly toward them, planning on feeding them to her Monster Blood, but she wants Aunt Kathryn to explain how they got into this situation first [Get ready for an exposition dump!].
30 years ago, Aunt Kathryn took Sarabeth in as a boarder, which she never would have done if she’d known Sarabeth practiced dark magic. Smelling something peculiar one night, Aunt Kathryn finds Sarabeth in her room [The forbidden one!] doing the usual witchypoo things and tried to kick her out. As Sarabeth fought back, she accidentally stepped in the Monster Blood and was sucked into it? Or something? I don’t know it’s not very clear. Then Aunt Kathryn sealed the Monster Blood in a jar [How come Sarabeth got sucked into it while stepping on it with shoes on, but Aunt Kathryn, Evan and Andy can touch it with the bare hands with no issues?] and hid it in the cupboard so no-one would find it [Well you didn’t do a very good job of keeping it locked away, did you?].
Back in the present, Sarabeth urges the slowly advancing Monster Blood to “devour and demolish them”, but then a giant Trigger appears outside the window. As the cat-like Sarabeth is distracted by the dog, she unwittingly steps backward and is grabbed by the Monster Blood, presumably being absorbed by it [It’s a bad effect, but I think that’s what it’s going for. Also, again, why does she disappear into it but no-one else does?] before the Monster Blood vanishes and the gang is safe at last [Including Trigger, who’s now back to his normal size].
We next find Evan on a plane heading to Atlanta as he tells the boy sitting next to him about his encounter with Monster Blood and Sarabeth. As the plane gets ready for take-off, Evan reveals he buried the Monster Blood and that Trigger’s in the plane’s cargo hold. The boy is amazed by the story and wonders what would have happened if even a tiny bit of Monster Blood had made it onto the plane somehow [Do I smell some foreshadowing?].
The camera then moves to the cargo hold as a caged Trigger barks at a suitcase that’s suddenly overflowing with Monster Blood, and the episode ends with a ‘To be continued’ [Oh this is a two-parter? All the Monster Blood seemed to vanish after Sarabeth’s demise, so how was there still some left?].
Final thoughts
I feel like this episode was more of a set-up for the next one, if anything. Like, nothing really happened except the Monster Blood growing, and it didn’t really seem that dangerous until right at the end. Hopefully the next one is a little bit better. The whole Sarabeth-Monster Blood dynamic needed to be explained more, too, because I don’t really get it. Or maybe I’m just dumb? Maybe the sequel will explain a bit more.
38 kids who are unamazed by a green fog transforming into a black cat out of 67!
