Go Eat Worms – The episode opens with Lucas Parker (Will Price) attempting to honor his father’s memory with a ride down “The Booms of Doom.” He backs out at the last second by claiming that the wind isn’t right.
Elsewhere, Nora Parker (Rachael Harris) wakes in a rush when she realizes she’s slept in. Waking next to her, Colin (Rob Huebl) sarcastically apologizes for them having to sneak around, despite being two grown adults. Still rushing to get ready, she claims there is no good way to spin a widow sleeping with a married man. She adds that every time something good in her life comes along, it’s followed by something bad. When asked, she refuses to expand on what that means.
Arriving back at the garage on his dirt bike, Lucas takes a few seconds to admire the walls covered in his father’s many accomplishments before locking up. He promises that he will perform a “den-defying stunt” in his honor. On his way out, he not only discovers what appears to be a toy replica of a glass eyeball, but he captures footage of Colin dropping his mother off. Margot Stokes (Isa Briones) begins her day at home by unsuccessfully trying to locate Colin. She has to settle with a text asking where he is when the footage flashes over to James (Miles Mckenna) raiding his fridge. Eliza (Laura Mennell) soon joins him and jokingly teases him about being with someone special all night. He lets her know he’s not going to discuss it. Isabella Chen Lopez’s (Ana Yi Puig) day starts with Victoria (Francoise Yip) nagging her about apologizing to Eliza for her erratic behavior. Victoria storms off fuming when Isabella claims there is nothing to apologize for. Isaiah (Zack Morris) and Ben Howard (Leonard Roberts) start the morning by stretching Isaiah’s broken arm. This leads to an argument when Ben accuses him of overworking the arm.
At the dock café, Nora lies to Lucas about coming into work early. She mentions his father’s hat and the amount of time he’s been spending in the garage. He admits to missing his father before accusingly asking her if she does as well. She says she does and reminds him not to forget his breakfast burrito before heading off to school.
At school, Nathan Bratt (Justin Long) has an awkward meeting with Colin where he’s called out for his poor attendance and reminded that teachers don’t get “mental health days”. He blames his behavior on a missing friend. On his way to class, Nathan has another strange encounter with Lucas. Nathan’s odd attraction to the toy eyeball, that Lucas has now attached to his keyring, strikes him as strange but manages to brush him off. When he learns the boy’s name, he links him to Nora.
Gathered in the library and growing anxious for Sarah’s (Lexa Doig) arrival, James, Isabella, Isaiah, and Margot discuss the option of speaking with Colin. Margot assures them Colin has always been honest with her and can provide answers. Being her lifelong next-door neighbor, James backs her claims. After the bell startles them, Margot is approached by Lucas at her locker with the request to show her something in his room. She jokingly teases him about improving his pick-up technique, but he doesn’t find it funny. Seconds later, they arrive in his room where fails to explain what he is going to show her, so he just plays the footage he captured of his mother and Colin. He apologizes before attempting to cheer her up by eating a worm. He only manages to make things strange when he nearly chokes on it. Despite the weirdness, she accepts his offer to walk her home where they run into Isaiah who is arriving for the meeting with her father. Margot calls off the meeting by claiming they can no longer trust her father.
Later that night while sleeping Lucas’s worms escape their tank and seemingly take over his body. Waking the next morning, Lucas discovers that his appetite has completely changed when he can’t stomach his usual breakfast burrito. Instead, he goes for what appears to be dirt and old lettuce in the café’s trash bins. At school, Lucas learns that it isn’t just his appetite that has changed when a mishap with two classmates leads to his tumbling down a flight of stairs. However, it isn’t until he smashes his fingers in his locker that he learns he’s impervious to pain and heals instantly. While Nathan spies from his classroom, Margot arrives and is completely surprised by his happy attitude. Joining James, Isaiah, and Isabella in class, Margot learns the group is thinking about bringing Allison (Rhinnan Payne) into their world of strange. Isaiah attempts to use Allison’s seeing something in the forest on the night of the party to back his argument but Margot and the others advise against it. Allison settles it when she arrives and refuses to admit to witnessing anything strange. She becomes upset and storms off when Margot encourages Isaiah to not reveal any more. In the hallway, his revealing that Margot helped him cheat on the test only makes her madder. When Allison storms off again, he spots Lucas pushing his dirt bike through the halls.
Seconds later Allison is shown visiting Colin with the request to speak, although their conversation isn’t revealed. Isaiah discusses Lucas’s strange behavior with the group. As Margot attempts to cover for the behavior, she links the worm he ate to the Biddle house, along with the camera and mask. Before they can act on the information, Colin interrupts with the requests to speak with Margot. In his office, she admits to helping Isaiah cheat on the test and claims she learned it from her father. The sounds of a revving dirt bike put an end to the argument and lead them outside. From the roof of the school, Lucas crashes down on Colin’s SUV, totaling it. On the ground, Colin chides his behavior, but Lucas teases him about sleeping with Nora before rushing off. Catching up with him and noticing the dislocated shoulder, she offers to seek help. He pops it back in and she sees the worms stirring beneath his skin. He also mentions tackling the “Booms of Doom” before leaving.
Margot ends up at the café pleading with Nora for help reigning in Lucas. Before the two of them race off, Margot reveals everything she knows about the worms, the Biddle house, and odd occurrences in town. They arrive at the “Booms” just as Lucas is about to go down. After several failed attempts to get him to back off, Nora reveals that Lucas’s father committed suicide by taking on the “Booms”. Lucas refuses to believe it until she says he left a note. Apparently, that does the trick because gets off the bike, removes his helmet, and throws up a pile of worms. Those worms transform into a huge creature that he lures down the “Dooms.”
He ultimately leads the monster and Nora, following in her station wagon, to the sawmill. Barricaded inside, he orders Nora and Margot to start the chipper and gets back on his bike. It takes some maneuvering but they manage to get the chipper started and Lucas lures the monster inside. Lucas and Margot make a clean escape just as the cops arrive. Nora stays behind to answer Officer Hodgson’s (Matthew Mandzij) questions. She claims she’s tired of lying and is ready to reveal the truth about everything. As the episode wraps, she’s shown locked in the psych ward trying to plead her case, while Nathan visits the sawmill and promises to put “Slappy” back together.
Goosebumps Review
Not the worst episode I’ve ever watched, but as for an episode that supposedly leads into the finale, it seemed a bit lacking. It did set the stage nicely for some interesting story and character advancement, but it just felt a bit lackluster for some reason. Once again, some of the forest scenes were incredibly dark, making it hard to see what was going on, but other than that, there isn’t much to complain about. I’m interested to see what role Sarah plays and what happens to Nora. It also seems a bit childish for Margot to get so upset at Colin when it appears that the two of them are already separated. Still, a decent watch and I’d give the episode a 5.3 out of 10.
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