After the opening credits that have a banger of a theme song, the episode begins with our protagonist, Michael, having a boogie and bouncing his basketball down the street as he listens to his Walkman [A Walkman!! Those were the days]. After he notices a blood-like substance on the ground, his bratty little sister, Tara scares him with some fake monster head thingy and calls him a krej – “That’s jerk spelled backwards, you krej!” [Iconic. Adding that to my vocabulary]. She squirts him with ketchup and he chases her into the house, where she easily convinces their mother Michael was the instigator [This little girl is a major krej]. When the mother walks away, Tara brags about how good she got him at his birthday party three days ago, which we’ll flashback to right now.
When opening a present from his crush, Mona, he graciously thanks her for the CD and is immediately called out by that shithead Tara, who reveals he’d thrown out his old copy of the CD because it was lame, “but now he’ll probably like it, now that he’s in love.” [Fuck off, Tara]. His mother calls him to the kitchen to help bring out the cake, and as he takes it out to the guests, Tara trips him over and he lands face first in it. One of his friends quip “Hey Michael, aren’t you supposed to serve the guests first?” and everyone starts crying with laughter because it was such a good joke…
Back to the present, Michael’s dad brings home an old cuckoo clock that tells the year as well as the time. Apparently it’s magic, built over 100 years ago by a strange old man who put a spell on it. Dad doesn’t want the kids touching the clock, and later as Michael heads to bed, he overhears Dad scolding Tara, warning she’ll be in big trouble if he finds anything out of place. This gives Michael the perfect opportunity to get his sweet, sweet revenge on “Tara the Terrible”. At midnight, he sneaks downstairs and tampers with the clock, twisting the cuckoo’s head 180 degrees when it pops out [It’s definitely a good plan, but this is Goosebumps so of course it’ll backfire].
The next morning, he heads downstairs for breakfast only to find it’s three days earlier, the day of his party. He thinks his whole family is pranking him, but goes along with it anyway and we get the same birthday gift-opening scene as the flashback, only with Michael looking confused from the déjà vu. As his mother calls him to bring the cake out to the guests, this time from outside for some reason [Like, she was literally standing there with the cake out in the backyard when the party is in the living room? Why wasn’t she in the kitchen again?], he vows not to let Tara trip him this time, but unfortunately for him, Tara’s in a different spot and still manages to get him to the ground. His stupid friend makes that stupid joke again as everyone laughs at him, and poor Michael is humiliated.
That night as his parents tuck him into bed, Michael tries to convince them he’s in a time loop, but of course they don’t believe him. He has a nightmare where he’s being chased in slow motion by the cuckoo clock in front of some very ‘90s green screen effects, and instead of a cuckoo popping out, it’s Tara’s cackling head [Ooky spooky!].
He wakes up screaming at 12:01am, and in comes Mum, who for some reason thinks he was screaming in terror because he’s excited that it’s his birthday today [Would absolutely love to know how she reached that conclusion]. It’s also revealed Michael’s gone further back in time and is six years old now instead of 12 [!!!!]. On the plus side, Tara doesn’t exist yet, but that excitement is short-lived when he realises he’ll be erased from existence next. He rushes to the lounge where the cuckoo clock is, except obviously it’s not there because they didn’t own it six years ago [Use your brain, Michael!].
Later that morning, Michael escapes his birthday party and rushes to the antique store to find the clock. It’s still inside, but unfortunately the store is closed and he’s quickly found by his dad and returned home. At bed time that night, Michael avoids sleeping for as long as possible to stop any more age regression, but when he finally succumbs to the inevitable slumber, he wakes up with his 12-year-old mind trapped in the body of his toddler-self [Which is a scary thought as far as communication goes].
His parents randomly decide to take a stroll to the antique store, where they quickly leave their infant child unattended to gaze at all the old marvels. Toddler Michael manages to climb up the clock and fix the cuckoo’s head when it pops out [If we’ve gone back 12 years, why is its head turned around still?], knocking off the button for 1988 in the process. Michael’s instantly transported to the normal timeline, back in his lounge room in his 12-year-old body.
His dad is accosting him for touching the cuckoo clock, but Michael’s just glad to be back. He embraces his parents and tells them he loves them, to which dad replies “I love you too, but keep your hands off my cuckoo!” [Hahahaha Not to sexualise a kid’s show, but that’s gotta be some accidental sexual subtext]. When he mentions Tara, his parents have no idea who he’s talking about and Michael quickly realises any trace of her existence has been erased because the button for 1988, the year she was born, is missing.
Michael debates whether or not to go back in time and get Tara somehow, ultimately deciding “I will… one of these days” [Hahaha brutal, but I’m with him 100%. Tara was a horrible little sister!].
Final thoughts
Not a horrible episode, but the whole story seemed pretty rushed. Like, Michael didn’t really have time to process what was happening, yet he somehow just knew he was stuck in a time loop etc. The story didn’t really have time to breathe, and as a result is one of the more forgettable episodes of the series and an underwhelming follow up to The Haunted Mask.
It had a good little twist ending, but possibly a bit too mean-spirited. Tara was a little shit though, so I’d probably do the same thing.
Anyway, 3 bratty little sisters out of 12.
