Entertainment

'Ravenswood' Recap: The Stuff of Nightmares

by Kaitlin Reilly

When we last left Ravenswood, our five teens — Caleb, Miranda, Luke, Olivia and Remy — were in serious trouble. An evil spirit already caused Miranda's untimely demise and now they are after the members of the group that made it out of their would-be watery graves alive. And if ghosts weren't bad enough, it seems that there is a threat coming from the living, too: Dillon, Olivia's boyfriend, is working with the evil ghost girl that made an attempt on his girlfriend and her friends' lives, AND Miranda's uncle, Collins, seems to be up to some shady dealings himself over at the morgue. Who will make it out of Ravenswood alive in the next half of the season?

Thank God for Caleb's voiceover. At the beginning of the winter premiere, Caleb breaks down every single important thing to happen in the past six episodes of Ravenswood, and, boy, am I grateful. I almost forgot all of the nuances of this show. Also a great reminder of what exactly is going on? The fantastically cheesy flashback sequence that shows the Ravenswood town council making a pact with God during World War II — protect the soldiers, and Ravenswood will sacrifice five innocent teenagers. The teens — who have learned all of this from a diary — decide to look for the preacher who made the pact.

Meanwhile, Caleb tells Miranda that he broke up with Hanna in order to protect her and prevent her from coming to Ravenswood. Miranda gets pissed — even dead, she doesn't want to be known as a home-wrecker, because priorities — and knocks a stack of books off the shelf. This comes in handy later when she contacts Ms. Grunwald, asking her where the jars with her hair in it are. Unfortunately, Miranda is attacked by a (terrible CGI) cloud of yellow smoke before she can find the jars.

Remy is having trouble sleeping due to the terrifying nightmares she has when she finally does — including one where her barista pops one of her eyeballs into her coffee. Her mother teaches her some lucid dream tactics, which allows her to be an active participant in her nightmares. But her nightmares might not be nightmares after all — it seems that they are memories of the past, and an evil scarecrow is trying to stop her from seeing them. The four friends watch Remy sleep, promising not to wake her up, so she can access her dreams. When she does, she walks back into the flashback scene from the beginning of the episode, and we find the town council holding hands, reading the prayer that will seal the pact — and the teen's fate. Oh, and Caleb and Luke have to fight off this evil scarecrow while she does it. You know. Routine stuff.

While Remy sleepwalks, Dillon and that terrifying little girl in the red coat head to Remy's to pick up an unaware-of-her-boyfriend's-evil-nature and ever-so-trusting Olivia. When they finally meet up, Olivia tells Dillon that she's ready to go all the way. Girl, you the only way you should go is far, far away from this guy. After they do the dirty, we see Dillon and Olivia driving away in his car... with the red coat girl, unseen by Olivia, smiling and licking an ice cream cone in the backseat.

Later, Miranda confronts Ms. Grunwald, who can't see her but can "feel her anger." She tells Miranda that keeping her a prisoner is the only way to keep her safe — and she even calls off the yellow mist who attacks Miranda. So maybe Grunwald is actually on the good side? It's unclear... especially when she tells the mist that she loves it, too. So weird.

Next week, the curse will grow stronger, and Caleb will meet up with his Dad. (Uh, yeah, was he not curious as to where his son was this entire time? My parents wouldn't be cool with me running off to a nearby town to live in a stranger's mansion... )

Burning questions for next week: Is this the end of Haleb... and the start of Maleb? And will Olivia ever ditch her evil-doer boyfriend? We'll find out Tuesdays at 9 PM.

Image: ABC Family