Much like the terminal diagnoses the characters in The Midnight Club received, Netflix cut short the lives that the audience was getting to know. After only one season of the Mike Flanagan series, the streaming service has decided to pull the plug even with the filmmaker already planning a second season.
Based on the writing by author Christopher Pike, The Midnight Club follows the lives of a group of terminally ill teenagers that reside in a hospice called Brightcliffe. Each patient living in Brightcliffe Hospice has a different outlook on life, their diagnosis, and what happens after they die. As the season progresses, the viewers learn more about each character’s struggles and coping mechanisms.
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The series introduces the main character, Ilonka (played by Iman Benson). Her life’s goal of attending Stanford after high school is turned upside down after her cancer diagnosis. After failed treatments and the revelation that her diagnosis was terminal, Ilonka decides to reside in Brightcliffe Hospice for the remainder of her time. When the audience gets taken to Brightcliffe, the other characters and the backstory of the house and grounds get introduced.
We Need More Time With the Midnight Club Members
Netflix
Each character has wildly different personalities and outlooks which come through in the individual storytelling during the Midnight Club’s secret meetings. As a way of dealing with the ever-approaching fate of each person and the absolute unknown of the afterlife, the characters cope by meeting up in secret to tell frightening yet heartfelt stories dealing with heartbreak and death. As they tell a new story or a continuation of one they already started, the bonds between them grow even in the face of unavoidable death.
It soon becomes clear that the stories are not only a way to cope with death but also for the characters to cope with the happenings surrounding death. They are all searching for answers to what happens after they pass, and they each promise the group that when one of them dies, they will find a way to communicate with everyone else from the other side.
As more about each character, more is learned about the house’s history and grounds through Ilonka’s curiosity and determination. In a slow burn of truth dodging and revelations, it becomes clear that this Brightcliffe Hospice is no ordinary house. Once they believe the house and the grounds hold some magical healing properties, it becomes Ilonka’s focus to use this to help herself and her fellow housemates. She learns of a previous resident of the hospice years before her time there that performed a ritual of sorts in the basement of the house. After this ritual, the resident by the name of Julia Jane was by all accounts healed of her terminal diagnosis and left Brightcliffe to live the rest of her life. Ilonka took it upon herself to follow the breadcrumbs of this mystery, all the while still participating in the Midnight Club’s nightly meetings. Here she shares in the hearing and telling of stories, but she also starts to clue her housemates in about her discoveries in hopes that they will be willing participants in the same ritual Julia Jane took part in.
The characters’ journey shows a personal transformation and a growing bond among them. As the episodes progress, we see characters with an extreme dislike for others grow to have closer relationships. The starkest difference in relationships was between the main character Ilonka and her abrasive but witty roommate Anya (played by new actress Ruth Codd). Struggling with facing her mortality, Anya resented Ilonka for her positive outlook and attempt at a holistic approach to healing.
Through her story and her actions, the audience learns that Anya will likely be the next to pass. The fast-approaching death and the appearance of a dark shadow kick Ilonka’s goal of successfully completing the ritual into overdrive. She does everything she can to set up the ritual to try to heal Anya before death comes for her. It is here that the closeness these two roommates formed really shines. Anya’s fear of death and Ilonka’s tenacity motivate the group to complete the ritual.
The Season One Finale Left Many Unanswered Questions
After the ritual, the viewers learn two things. The first is that it doesn’t work for Anya. Her body succumbs to her terminal cancer, and she dies in her sleep. However, Sandra (played by Annarah Cymone) gets the news that she was misdiagnosed as terminal, and she gets home. This begs the question of did the ritual actually work but for the wrong resident? The season ends with this question and many others going unanswered.
As Anya’s broken ballerina figure is somehow miraculously fixed, could this be Anya from beyond giving a sign to her friends? Amesh’s (played by Sauriyan Sapkota) condition is very rapidly declining. Could he be the next in the hospice to pass? And how will that affect his relationship with Natsuki (played by Aya Furukawa)? What, if anything, will happen between Ilonka and Kevin (Igby Rigney) now that he has broken up with his girlfriend? Will Spencer (William Chris Sumpter) find a treatment for his HIV diagnosis? Will the audience ever truly know Cheri (Adia)? And probably the most important question left unanswered: just what is Doctor Georgina Stanton (Heather Langenkamp) hiding from the residents of Brightcliffe Hospice?
