Summary
The series continues to address the darker side to the human experience in a brutal but raw way. “Road to Nowhere” has plenty more of these special moments that will move you and unnerve you as the teen horror ups the ante.
This recap of the Netflix series The Midnight Club season 1, episode 8, “Road to Nowhere,” contains spoilers.
Throughout the series, Ilonka has had visions and premonitions of ghostly goings on. In episode seven, these hauntings intensified greatly as Ilonka was attacked by two ghostly apparitions in the climactic scene. Both ghosts spoke to Ilonka, and one even chased after her across her own bed to the bathroom, where she hid. “Road to Nowhere” picks up the morning after this assault, with Ilonka waking on the bathroom floor.
The Midnight Club season 1, episode 8 recap
She heads straight to Dr. Stanton’s office and demands to know who is going home. Ilonka overheard Stanton discussing the possibility that one of the patients wasn’t actually terminally ill the night before and she yearns to know who it is. Stanton refuses to say until she knows for certain that these findings are accurate. She orders Ilonka to keep it a secret in the meantime. Ilonka asks if it is her, and Stanton immediately responds with a resounding no. The scene ends with Stanton forcing Ilonka to swear that she won’t tell anyone.
Of course, we all know that Ilonka will not be keeping this a secret for long. After their morning group therapy session, Kevin pressures her into confessing. He believes it could be a lab error or just a genuine mistake. But Ilonka is adamant that the ritual has worked, just not on Anya. She goes to pay Shasta a visit, telling her the good news. Shasta thinks Ilonka may be the one who is cured and offers her a job at her company.
The episode then splits into multiple narratives. Amesh and Natsuki’s blossoming romance fulfils one of these subplots. The two teen lovers kiss and he invites her out on a nature walk, but she refuses to leave her room. She actually declines all of his following offers, stating that she needs to be alone. Amesh gives Natsuki her space and reluctantly leaves.
Cheri and Spencer discuss trust and honesty after Stanton’s morning debate. Spence asks Cheri if she is gay and if she has come out to her parents yet. He calls her brave for coming out, but she downplays the event, stating that her parents don’t care about her. Spence worries that he’ll die before he makes amends with his own mother and they formulate a plan to go and meet with her. Mark drives the teens to Spence’s parent’s house and he performs a moving speech. Spence admits that he is going to die, but that he’ll die surrounded by friends that love him and don’t judge him. You can ignore me or love me, either way I still love you, I love myself and I think God loves me too. The mother doesn’t respond, but I think Spence feels better for airing his feelings.
The banned club members meet outside the library, but find that it is still locked up. They decide to call it a night and disperse. Natsuki catches Amesh and explains her strange motives for earlier. Amesh thinks she wants to dump him, but actually she wants to let him in more. She then divulges her darkest secret via a ghost story, titled “Road to Nowhere”. In this tale, a punky teen picks up hitchhikers Freedom Jack (Mike Flanagan regular Henry Thomas) and Poppy Corn (Alex Essoe). Their journey descends into utter madness with the story hinting at serial killers, looping timelines and a suspicious, apocalyptic fog.
The ending
In the end, the story is actually an analogy for the main character’s suicide attempt. The hitchers were the girl’s conscience. Freedom Jack was the devil on her shoulder and Poppy Corn the angel. She chose life and escaped the car just as the deadly fumes enveloped the entire garage. Natsuki confesses that this is what happened to her in real life, although it was her mum that found her trying to kill herself and performed CPR to save her life. When Natsuki recovered she found out she was dying from something else anyway. The irony and the injustice of the situation troubled Natsuki for years, but she quickly realized that she wanted to live. Amesh says that he is glad she is here and the two adorable lovers kiss once again.
On her way back to her room, Ilonka hears a girl crying and goes to investigate. Viewers will be well aware of the many jump scares in The Midnight Club, but here the filmmakers build nail-biting tension instead, as Ilonka takes the elevator to the basement level. She sees a woman in the dark and heads over. The mysterious woman turns and it cuts to Kevin. He looks at her and says, ‘Oh God, not again’. This cryptic twist brings up many questions, stay tuned to see if this mystery will be uncovered, with only two more episodes left to go.
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