Deadlight
Summary
In 201: Wrong Place at the Wrong Time, Billy McConnell drives the box truck through a violent storm near Dunwich in September 1925, with Major Bakersfield, Tallahassee Turner, Dom Druncard and Simeon Kantstandyerbitz on the way to New Jerusalem. They swerve around a dazed young woman in the road and take her in. Tallahassee and the Major then follow a flash of light into the orchard woods and watch a mercury-like light pour out of a young man's mouth, and the Major shoots the man in the face. The group reaches the Orchard Run Gas and Cafe, where Dan Keelhan, a raving trucker named Jake and the waitress Mary the Hoebag are waiting. Mary drops a coffee cup when she sees the woman.
In 202: The Good Doctor, Dan identifies the woman as Amelia Webb, who lives just up the road, and Mary says Amelia is a regular at the cafe. Simeon and Dom think Mary looks surprised to see her alive. The investigators leave Amelia with an elderly couple, Teddy and Winifred Brewer, and drive up to her grandfather's cottage. There they find Dr. Webb dead and a burlap-sacked young man burned to ash from the waist down, who looks like the man the Major shot. They also find an open silver coffer, a black leather journal, and a basement generator casing full of human skulls. As the last journal entry is read, a moonlike glow begins to move along the hallway.
In 203: A Night with No Moon, the dead light searches the cottage while the group scatters. Billy and Tallahassee escape through a bedroom window, and Tallahassee photographs the light. In the basement, Dom, Simeon and the Major have been trying to restart the generator, and they are chased as they try to get out. Dom's ankle is burned. The group suspects that the light cannot pass through walls and may be afraid of lightning. Tallahassee runs back for the silver coffer and throws it to the Major, and the episode ends with the light flowing out of the house after them.
In 204: Night of the Living Dead Light, the Major's attempt to scoop up the light with the open coffer fails, and Billy's first attempt at a spell has no effect on it. Simeon is burned down to two hit points. A lightning bolt makes the light flee into the trees, and the group drives back to the cafe. Tallahassee reads aloud a journal entry dated March 22nd, 1888, which describes a ritual with a symbol, a chant and the silver coffer. Mary has vanished from the kitchen, and Dan says her boyfriend is Clem Taylor, who may be the sack-headed man. Teddy reports that Amelia told of masked men who broke in and shot her grandfather, and Amelia and Winifred have disappeared from the powder room. Billy finds Winifred unconscious but alive, and Billy asks who wants to go to the gas station next door.
In 205: Lights Out, Tallahassee takes a shotgun from Jake's truck and names it Horace, and the group finds the gas station's keys missing. In the office they find Mary holding a gun on Amelia. After Dom shows Mary the photograph and the group tells her that the light killed Dr. Webb and her boyfriend, Mary insists that this was not supposed to happen. She shoots Tallahassee in the side before Dom tackles her, Billy takes her gun and the Major handcuffs her. Following the ritual in Dr. Webb's journal, the group draws a symbol in blood on Mary's forehead and Tallahassee reads the chant. Billy drags Amelia to safety, and the dead light is drawn into Mary's eyes and burns her to ash. It then sweeps into the open silver coffer, which Dom slams shut and seals with wax.
Mary's death and the resulting sanity loss would weigh heavily on every investigator's heart for the rest of time. Every investigator except for Simeon Kantstandyerbitz, who was hanging out in the diner during the whole thing and was the only one to leave town with full sanity and a spring in his step.
Episodes
201: Wrong Place at the Wrong Time