Summary
With “The Wicked Heart,” The Midnight Club settles into a steady rhythm, relying on its impressive formula to explore the characters and the hospice’s many mysteries. It’s a slower episode, but one that still packs a handful of scares and a terrifying finale.
This recap of the Netflix series The Midnight Club season 1, episode 3, “The Wicked Heart,” contains spoilers.
By now you may have figured out the formula to The Midnight Club, the story pushes onwards at a steady pace, while each teenage patient becomes the focus of their own specific episode. The Midnight Club season 1, episode 2 centered on Anya (Ruth Codd), with her own tragic story. In “The Wicked Heart”, Kevin (Igby Rigney) takes the spotlight, narrating his own midnight tale. It’s a clever setup that helps progress the story and bring some authenticity to our cast of characters.
The Midnight Club season 1, episode 3 recap
The third chapter commences moments after the previous one ended. Ilonka explains her visions to new friend Kevin, talking about the old fashioned, altered corridor. Kevin practically calls her crazy, blaming the meds for her old timey visions. Offended, Ilonka (Iman Benson) heads back to her room and unpacks Julia’s files. Inside are mysterious drawings featuring unusual symbols and the same repeated set of numbers. The symbol is the very same one Ilonka saw on the tree, that of an hourglass, yet the numbers are decidedly cryptic.
In the morning, she asks roommate Anya if she knows anything about the symbol or the unique numbers. Anya makes a snide comment and says how she doesn’t care. She admits that she is in a bad mood because today is family day and she has no one coming to visit her. Ilonka offers to introduce her to her own foster father Tim, who is visiting for the day.
At the breakfast table, we see glimpses of the Midnight Club members’ interactions with their visitors. Natsuki (Aya Furukawa) is shown photographs of her father. Sandra’s family pray, Amesh (Sauriyan Sapkota) worries his parents won’t be able to travel from India and Spence’s dad makes excuses about his mother being unable to join them. Then we spend a little time with Kevin’s family. His mother wants Kevin’s younger brother to carry on his legacy, but Kevin just wants him to make his own discoveries and to follow his own path. Ilonka is also introduced to Kevin’s family, but confuses Kevin’s girlfriend for his sister. It’s an awkward exchange and Ilonka swiftly dashes off to find her father.
After the family visitations are over, Natsuki goes to read more of her stories to Tristan, a patient who is quarantined in the recovery room. When she starts chatting, eerily there is no response. Natsuki finds Tristan dead in the recovery room bed. This is the first real death in The Midnight Club, yet Mike Flanagan doesn’t seem interested in lingering on this character’s grief. Maybe the teens have become accustomed to this side of the hospice experience or they are trying their best to ignore it. Either way, Tristan isn’t given much further thought.
Kevin and Ilonka discuss the family visit and Julia’s file in private. He hates how his mother paints him as the perfect student, the perfect son. Whilst Ilonka elaborates on her findings. She has a gut feeling about all these discoveries and wishes to explore them further. Kevin downplays her findings though, calling them a distraction. These two are really at odds with one another in this instalment. Kevin seems happy to go with the flow, although Ilonka wants answers immediately.
At the midnight gathering, Natsuki tells the others that she saw a vision of Tristan for a split second after their passing. Anya is quick to disregard this sighting, blaming a glitch in her meds. She forces the others to agree with her that this wasn’t a sign from the other side, just Natsuki’s imagination getting the better of her. Then it’s Kevin’s turn to tell a spooky story. His tale, like Anya’s, reflects the character’s mental state in a revealing and open manner.
Kevin’s story is about Dusty, a perfectly average pupil, who cares for his mute mother on his own. Dusty overhears that Nancy will be home alone for a couple of days, whilst her family is away. He breaks into her home and kills Nancy in her sleep, bludgeoning her to death with a hammer. He buries her in a cave alongside his other victims. This serial killer has been rather busy, although the urge to kill is only facilitated by whispering demons in his head, possibly controlled by his creepy mother.
Dusty leaves his calling card, a smiley face on Nancy’s bedside table. The Midnight Club members scoff at this repetitive motif and so, Kevin changes the symbol to that of the hourglass, just like Ilonka pointed out to him. Dusty is haunted by all of his victims, who silently scream at him wherever he goes. It’s a deceptively unnerving visual that Flanagan repeatedly utilizes for the utmost unease. Dusty befriends a new girl called Sheila, who is ironically played by Ilonka. Sheila is worried about Nancy’s disappearance and contacts the police.
The ending
Kevin abruptly ends the story there and then announces that his tale is to be continued. The club members leave in a huff, with Kevin and Ilonka left alone together in the library. She seems annoyed that he stole her symbol for the story, although it has triggered a memory for Ilonka. She remembers where she has seen the symbol before. They go to the ‘possessed’ elevator and she finds the symbol underneath all the floor buttons. When she presses the hourglass button nothing happens, yet if she presses it at the same time as the basement button, the elevator kicks into action. The daring duo head down to the basement, where darkness awaits.
The episode ends with Ilonka exploring the basement in the dark, she happens upon some matches and spies the hourglass logo on the floor. The crafty elevator springs into life and takes Kevin back upwards, against his will, leaving poor Ilonka alone in the dark. She lights another match and sees a shadowy figure move towards her.
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