A psychologist returns to his small-town home after decades away. He has flashbacks to the 1980s, when his twin brother was the final victim in a deadly series of child disappearances. The bodies were found hanging from a tree, like in Harper's Island . He begins to suspect that the murders were related to a strange kids' TV show of that era.
The daughter of his childhood friend, Jessica Yolen ( Natalie Brown ), is watching the show. The next morning the girl is discovered missing. Unfortunately the shrink is the obvious suspect in her disappearance.
The psychologist tries to work out where the little girl went in the previous episode. He remembers his own childhood, when the creepy puppet TV show influenced him. This all seems reminiscent of It .
His mother ( Fiona Shaw ) goes to the local television station She discovers that Candle Cove was not just a show ABOUT pirates, it was also a show broadcast by pirates. It only played on the dead channels, and nobody could record it. Not unlike Videodrome .
The Sheriff takes the protagonist for a ride. No, he does not do his duty and take him to the police station to be charged and processed. Instead, he takes him to a cabin in the woods so that he can get some straight answers. Oh, and he gets the school bully from their childhood to drop by. What could possibly go wrong?
The Sheriff is now in custody for the mess he made of things. The girl deputy is now in charge, and she goes to the school to investigate the kids she saw acting weird earlier. When a character suddenly gets a lot more to do, it is usually a set-up before they get written out.
The protagonist's daughter comes to stay with him and his mother.
The female Deputy, now the acting Sheriff, has done a great job. Somehow she followed the clues to the serial killer. Unfortunately, her department is too small to actually defend the whole town. Also, they are too dumb to not get easily murdered by children.
The protagonist persuades her to let the previous Sheriff out of jail. The two go off looking for the killer together. However, the Killer wants to speak with the protagonist ... alone.
The ex-wife comes to town and collects her daughter. However, the monster is not about to let them leave town.
The old sheriff and the new one go into the woods together. He wants to find his children, because ever since their mother's brutal fate they are now his responsibility. She wants to find the mastermind behind the killings.
The protagonist and his ex-wife go looking for their daughter. He has unfinished business with his brother, the ghost of a psychic child who now manifests himself as a nightmarish creature made of teeth. To do this, our hero enters a location that is more than a little reminiscent of the Lodge in Twin Peaks .
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A couple of tweenage girls hang out together. They both receive a video message, a trailer about a haunted house. Later they meet a male friend in the pub, who provides them with exposition about the house. The House changes location every year, and summons people to it by targeting them on social media. This is a contrast with the first Season, which featured a psychic entity that targeted children as victims in a single location by using the medium of television.
The girls and their two male friends visit the House. There are four other people who also enter, and who have probably got their own stories in the forthcoming episodes.
One of the girls has a backstory. Her father (John Carroll Lynch - Carnivale ) recently passed away. It is surprising to have such a recognisable supporting actor be written out without even a line of dialogue. Well, he turns out to be a lot more involved in the plot.
The white girl decides to stay with her father. She realises that she is still trapped in the house, but does not care. However, she does not realise that there is a darker side to the clone. John Carroll Lynch may have been an enlightened soul in The Walking Dead , but he is best known as a rent-a-villain from movies like Carnivale .
The nerdy guy also finds himself trapped in the house. He encounters a clone of ... himself! Unfortunately this is the improved version of himself, which makes him feel inadequate.
The white girl discovers her father's nasty secret. Well, she already knows that he is not her father, just an artificial life form created from her memories. Now she discovers that he must eat her other memories in order to survive. She tries running from him, and we get to see his violent side.
The nerdy guy's clone wants to take over his life. The black girl is under the influence of something weird. And the jock is acting strangely too.
The victims discovered where the exit was in the previous episode. Unfortunately they made the mistake of trying to get a good night's sleep before they made a run for it. They are trapped in a pocket universe that plays mind-games with its victims, and can physically manifest the ultimate mind-screws. No good could come of delaying their escape.
The morning after, the victims walk to the house. The cannibals are all awake now, and walk after them. The father (John Carroll Lynch - Carnivale ) has made it back too.
The victims start walking cross-country. They discover what happens to the cannibals when they can no longer feed on their victim's memories.
The survivors get back to reality. However, the Final Girl's father (John Carroll Lynch - Carnivale ) has followed her. Somehow it is possible for him to live outside the House.
The good guys have limited options. The ideal solution is to get the rogue memory back into the House. However, this is easier said than done.
It has been a year since the events of the previous episode. The white girl has settled down in the fake suburb with her fake dad(John Carroll Lynch - Carnivale ). He has come to terms with his own mortality, because as she gets hollowed out of memories he gets closer to death too. If only he had worked this out in the previous episode.
The house reappears in Quebec, the French-speaking province of Canada. The black girl, who successfully escaped last year, comes back for her best buddy. Of course, it will not be as easy as she thinks. After all, her own ghosts are there too.
The boyfriend character has been living in the House for some time. But now we find out how many years, and how he has been spending his time there.