'Channel Zero' Recap: 'I'll Hold Your Hand'

​Written by Scott Edwards

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

Young Katie is safe and sound in her room, but there is something sinister coming through the television once again as Candle Cove is playing its next episode. Katie is glued to the show as the dolls act out their  their everyday antics, and she would give anything to play along with them, a wish that the dolls are happy to grant and they give her a way to join in on the 'fun'. Hitting her little brother Dane with a hook, Katie and her brother wind up in the hospital and Jess does not know what to do with her children at this point. Calling the only person that she thinks can help, Jess begs Mike to come back to town and talk to her daughter and find out why she did what she did.
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Mike’s mom Marla is trying to figure out what Candle Cove really was and calling upon a longtime friend, she at least gets some back story about one of the missing kids watching the show before his untimely death. But that is not enough and Marla turns to the local television station and finds that the man running it has seen the show as well, but there are no recordings of it anywhere and no listing on the internet of Candle Cove ever existing. Not appearing on the same channel for everyone, Candle Cove was a pirate show on a pirate broadcast and it would find you and not the other way around. More confused than ever, Marla returns home to see a drawing on her television of the fan art she had previously witnessed, but it looks a little more familiar and now she has a place where she is ready to look.

After being ousted out of town, Mike listens to the pleas of Jess to help her daughter and decides to come back and try to help. Meeting with Katie in the hospital, Mike is certain that she is watching the same show that he did years ago, but now it has another message for him, he has to go inside the cave. Not knowing what this means, or why Katie would have drawn a picture of Candle Cove, he is ready to find a way to stop whatever this is that is taking over the minds of the innocent once again. With help from his mother identifying the location in the drawing, the two make their way to the cement plant and see a person hiding off in the distance. Mike gives chase to the figure and while moving through the old plant, the only face he can see is that of Eddie’s and finds a dead body laid out for him, surrounded by candles and is forced to call the police in to check it out. This sparks another bad feeling in Mike’s gut as he has a secret to tell and hopefully his mother will listen to him this time because things are becoming real.

The town of Iron Hills is starting to have some strange accounts taking place, not only with children going psycho or missing, but with other things going missing as well since Officer Amy is called to a crime scene where the only thing that was stolen was a kareo case filled with baby teeth. Marla’s search ends up with nothing, but she will not stop since her son needs her help more than ever. Mike is still dealing with not being trusted, even by his best friends, but when they need his help, they act as if they don't. Seeing Eddie wherever he looks, Mike lets out one of the biggest bombshells that one could ever imagine when saying what he did to his twin brother. His mother sees a different fire in his eyes after this admission, and whether or not she believes he could have been capable of doing what he said he did, he will be getting a visit from the police sooner rather than later.

Very intriguing show and I am still very unsure where the final game is going to take us. With a show that seeks out its victims and that only existed in this little town, it may be a local who was behind the madness, but would that explain what the cute little tooth creature actually is? The disturbing show of pirate puppets is taking over people’s minds and not in a good way, so what is really happening in Candle Cove as well?  There is a cave that Katie and Mike need to enter to find out whatever secret the crew has in store for them, but where is the cave and what is in it? I hope there are answers coming since this is a short season and I would hate to be left out in the cold when the ships come back from Candle Cove. Stay Scared.

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