Following Netflix’s cancellation of The Midnight Club, show-creator and writer Mike Flanagan has released a statement on what the show’s second season would have looked like.
Based on Christopher Pike’s novel of the same name, The Midnight Club is set in a hospice for terminally ill teenagers, who gather around each night in the hospice’s library to share some spooky stories. The series is a giant love letter to the power of storytelling, and more importantly, friendship in absolving existential woes and coming to terms with inconvenient truths. Like any Flanagan classic, The Midnight Club’s darker themes are conveniently candy-wrapped in a fun, cult-centered mystery with kooky characters to match, and our lovable club members taking us on the ride.
Considering that the show boasted a plethora of plot points, including the state of its characters, the whereabouts of the hospice’s former cult, and the looming threat of death towering above it all, Season 1’s cancellation has obviously left a lot of questions unanswered. But Flanagan has released an in-depth statement on Tumblr going into all the nitty-gritty details of what would have been The Midnight Club’s Season 2.
Many characters were going to die, but they were all going to be alright.
As revealed by Flanagan, Amesh (Sauriyan Sapkota) was going to be the next Brightcliffe patient to pass away, followed by Natsuki (Aya Furukawa), with the couple spending their last few days together in what would have been a surefire audience tearjerker. Meanwhile, Kevin (Igby Rigney) and Ilonka’s (Iman Benson) healths were also going to deteriorate quickly, with the two passing on having shared a short, blissful romantic time together.
On the other hand, Spencer’s (William Chris Sumpter) storyline was actually going to take a twist, thanks to the advent of HIV treatments in the mid-1990s, with him leaving the hospice and no longer being terminal.
While the fates of many of our beloved characters were definitely dark reminders of a reality we wish we could change, The Midnight Club’s second season would have largely followed all of their personal journeys in making peace with their diagnoses: a peace they’d find and welcome, with their memories living on in the stories we share because of them, about them, and for them.
The finale’s split-second plot twist finally has an explanation.
The Midnight Club’s finale surprised us all with a reveal that Dr. Stanton (Heather Langenkamp) was not who we thought she was. As confirmed by Flanagan, she is in fact Athena, the daughter of the Paragon cult leader who began the cult on the hospice’s grounds, with our current cast of characters bearing the brunt of its aftermath years later. Dr. Stanton took over Brightcliffe in an attempt to correct her mother’s wrongs and actually help people instead of, you know, sacrificing them.
Flanagan also revealed that Dr. Stanton was wearing a wig because she also has cancer and is receiving treatment (her treatment would be successful, and she'd go into remission, he noted), elevating her role in the show from a mere mediator to an empath who’s in the same boat as these kids.
The show’s ghosts and shadows aren’t what you think they are.
Remember that creepy black shadow following the kids around that we all thought was death? Well, apparently it wasn’t! The dark shadow was actually an extension of the kids — an ultimate manifestation of their anxieties toward the unknown. On the other hand, the actual embodiment of death in the show was the hospice’s janitor (Robert Longstreet), who only appeared to the kids when they were on the cusp of dying and guided them through it by reassuring them that it was all going to be OK.
Meanwhile, the two other creepy old ghosts lurking in the hospice’s hallways were Stanley Oscar Freelan and his wife, who originally built Brightcliffe. And guess what? They weren’t there to terrorize the kids either! They’re actually iterations of Ilonka and Kevin’s past life, with Flanagan revealing that in a former lifetime Ilonka used to be Stanley Freelan and Kevin used to be his wife. Their souls have met each other in every lifetime since, falling in love all over again. That’s why Ilonka and Kevin were the only two patients seeing the ghosts — it was a reflection of their actual selves. So in true Flanagan fashion, the ghosts were never actually bad, y'all!
The Midnight Club was a painfully poignant yet powerful piece of television, painting a realistic picture of what having death at your door looks and feels like. Its cancellation is obviously disheartening, but we have Flanagan’s Tumblr post to hold onto while grieving. In the meantime, check out Flanagan’s statement for yourself or watch The Midnight Club on Netflix.
