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This article contains spoilers for The Midnight Club season 1.
Netflix’s The Midnight Club is a significant departure from Mike Flanagan’s typical self-contained miniseries, leaving multiple unanswered questions. Unlike other Flanagan hits such as The Haunting of Hill House, The Midnight Club is expected to return for a second series that will hopefully tie the loose ends together. Additionally, creators Mike Flanagan and Leah Fong have remained relatively tight-lipped on the mysteries of season 1, leaving the audience to speculate what it all means.
Throughout the first season of The Midnight Club, viewers are introduced to a group of eight terminally ill teenagers staying at Brightcliffe Home hospice, where every night at midnight they meet in the library to tell scary stories. As the show progresses, the characters face supernatural rituals, entities, and a cult, all while having to accept their fates and fear of mortality. However, as the show ends, viewers are left with several questions regarding the main characters, the Paragon cult itself, and the mysterious elderly ghosts seen by Ilonka and Kevin. As there is currently no recent news regarding the show’s renewal, here are The Midnight Clubs’ biggest unanswered questions and mysteries.
Is Dr. Georgia Stanton Actually Athena?
One of the biggest plot twists in The Midnight Club happens in the show’s final episode, which twists the viewer’s perception of the loving Dr. Georgia Stanton. The last scene of episode 10 reveals that Dr. Stanton is bald, revealing the hourglass symbol tattooed on the back of her neck. Throughout the first season, Dr. Stanton has hinted various times that she knows more than she’s letting on; however, her direct link to the Paragon cult is perplexing, to say the least.
While it appeared as though Dr. Stanton does not believe in the Paragon ritual, keeping her patient’s best interests at heart, this reveal indicates that there may be a more sinister side to her character. It is explained earlier on in the show that the Paragon cult founder Acesco and her daughter Athena both have the hourglass symbol on their necks rather than their wrists. If Dr. Stanton really is Athena, it’s possible that she might have bought Briarcliffe to carry on her mother’s Pagan rituals, using the terminal teens to her advantage. Or perhaps she really is a good person, regardless of her ties to the Paragon cult.
What Is The Living Shadow?
The living shadow in The Midnight Club is one of the most terrifying parts of the show, but its true nature may not be as sinister as it appears. Primarily, the living shadow is shown to torment Anya up until her death, and it is mentioned previously that other patients were also haunted by it before they passed on. Therefore, the living shadow in The Midnight Club is quite literally the shadow of death, representing the patient’s inability to come to terms with it. The shadow is always present at Briarcliffe, regardless of whether someone attempts to escape it, waiting to take patients to the other side as it did with Anya.
Did Anya’s Ghost Fix The Ballerina Statue?
In order to become a member of The Midnight Club, members must promise to send a sign from beyond the grave when they die. Anya, who is the only member of The Midnight Club to pass away in the show, owns a ballerina statue that is missing a leg, foreshadowing her own fate. However, as Ilonka is giving Rhett all of Anya’s belongings from Briarcliffe, the pair notice that the ballerina’s leg is fixed.
Ilonka then believes that Anya had sent a sign from beyond the grave and is at peace, knowing that Anya is now okay in the afterlife, accepting all the dark things that happened to her. However, it is also possible that there was nothing supernatural about the event at all, and it was instead done by another member of the Midnight Club or Dr. Stanton to comfort Ilonka.
Was The Ritual Real Or A Hoax?
The primary theme that runs throughout the entirety of The Midnight Club is the inability to accept mortality. While this is represented through almost every character, it is most present in Ilonka, who is bent on uncovering the truth about the Paragon ritual to save herself and her friends from their impending deaths. However, the ritual and the supernatural elements of Briarcliffe aren’t all they seem to be, with the ritual not saving Anya or being the reason for Sandra’s recovery. Additionally, other supernatural forces are revealed to be hoaxes such as Sandra in the recovery room. As it stands though, this doesn’t explain why Ilonka and Kevin both see ghosts, so there is still the possibility that Briarcliffe is in fact plagued with mystical forces.
Who Were The Elderly Couple?
A common trope in Mike Flanagan’s work is that ghosts aren’t really as scary as they seem, and it is beginning to appear as though the elderly ghosts seen in The Midnight Club may actually be trying to help the patients. Throughout the first season, it is revealed that both Ilonka and Kevin see the elderly couple, with the woman haunting Ilonka and the man haunting Kevin. However, the couple never harms the pair, despite the fact it appears as though they might be possessing Kevin and leading him to the basement.
During the show’s cliffhanger, viewers get a glimpse of Briarcliffe’s first owners, Stanley Oscar Freelan and Vera Freelan, who bear a striking resemblance to the elderly couple haunting Ilonka and Kevin. While there is not a conclusive explanation as to who they actually are, it’s possible that they could be trying to help Ilonka and Kevin see something that they are missing about the Paragon cult.
Did Julia Jayne Sacrifice Her Friends?
Toward the end of the first season of The Midnight Club, it is revealed that Shasta, who has been guiding Ilonka toward the Paragon ritual, is actually Julia Jayne. This, of course, leads Ilonka to initially trust her more due to the fact that Julia Jayne and her spontaneous recovery from terminal cancer were the reasons why Ilonka wanted to go to Briarcliffe. However, Julia tells Ilonka that the reason that the Paragon ritual didn’t work for Anya is that there was no human sacrifice involved. Therefore, if she genuinely believes this, it implies that Julia potentially murdered the original Midnight Club in order to cure herself of her cancer, which in itself holds sinister implications if the ritual is indeed a hoax.
Who Left The Warning In The Basement?
As Ilonka prepares everyone for the first Paragon ritual to save Anya, she visits the basement where she finds the word ‘don’t’ spelled out on white sheets. It is unclear who attempted to warn Ilonka of the ritual, but there are several options of who it could be. The first answer could be the elderly couple, who could be trying to protect the Midnight Club. Secondly, it could have been Sandra trying to sway the Midnight Club, but it wouldn’t make sense that she wouldn’t have confessed as she did about tricking Spencer. Or, finally, Dr. Stanton may also be responsible for it, given that she knew about the Midnight Clubs’ antics and Paragon for far longer than she let on.
Where Is Shasta AKA Julia Jayne?
The finale of The Midnight Club shows the aftermath of the second ritual, in which Dr. Stanton and Ilonka are attempting to resuscitate the women that Shasta poisoned in order for the ritual to ‘work.’ However, in the midst of the chaos, Shasta manages to escape, giving Ilonka an evil grin as she goes up the elevator. With the girls saved, the police were made aware of what Shasta had done in the basement, but it is unclear as of now whether they caught her or not. Should there be a season 2 of The Midnight Club, it will be interesting to see where Shasta has gone if she has evaded capture, and whether she will be back to pose more of a threat over Ilonka and the rest of Briarcliffe.
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