Welcome To Spiderwick – The episode opens with Dr. Dorian Brauer (Christian Salter) racing to a bridge in the middle of the night. From the opposite end of the bridge, he pleads with a ghastly tree/moose-looking creature to return his daughter. He claims he’s done everything the creature has asked and the Grace Family will soon be arriving to take up residence in the old estate. Another dark appears near the creature and is revealed to be Calliope (Alyvia Alyn Lind) as she races towards her father. Although it doesn’t take Brauer long to deduce that the girl isn’t his daughter, it’s too late for him. A huge hand appears from under the bridge and scoops him up. The moose/tree-looking creature takes on Brauer’s appearance as it joins Callipoe in the center of the bridge. Lord Mulgarath tells Callipoe that they have much work to do and reminds her to refer to him as Daddy.

Elsewhere at a rundown Manitou Gas Station, Simon Grace (Noah Cottrell) feeds smashed insect carcasses to his mice, Lemondrop and Jeffrey, as Mallory Grace (Mychala Lee) watches on in amazement. Helen Grace (Joy Bryant) soon interrupts with the request to help get the luggage situated in the rear of the vehicle. The topic of conversation soon becomes Jared Grace (Lyon Daniels), who is busy leaving his artistic touch on the bathroom mirror. Helen encourages them to cut Jared some slack and says the relocation to Michigan is just what he needs. There is a slight incident with the Attendant (Genevieve Lam) accusing Jared of stealing a pack of gum before the family gets back on the road. It is later revealed that he did take the gum, although he doesn’t even like it.

Helen is the only one enthused as they pull up to an ancient Victorian. That enthusiasm only grows as she proudly leads them inside and shares the history of the home and their great-grandfather, Arthur Spiderwick (Albert Jones). It soon becomes evident that Arthur was a bit of an eccentric as is reflected in the house and property. The moving truck soon arrives and the Graces waste little time transforming the mansion as much as they can.

As they familiarize themselves with the house, Jared makes the mistake of assuming that he and Simon would room together. Although Simon ultimately agrees to room with Jared, he apparently hurts his feelings by reminding him that he is the reason for their move and their father’s absence. Sometime later during a discussion with Helen, it’s revealed that Simon’s comment has shaken Jared more than he would care to admit. Helen tries to be hopefully positive as she tells him about finding a psychiatrist who is already working with Aunt Lucinda Grace (Charlayne Woodard) and might be able to help him.

Much later that night, Jared has trouble sleeping and distant banging only makes him more restless. After failing to wake Simon, he arms himself with Mallory’s epee and heads off to investigate. This eventually leads him to a downstairs hallway where he inadvertently uncovers what appears to be a charcoal drawing of Lord Mulgarath.

Lord Mulgarath and Calliope attempt to settle into their new house when they receive an unexpected visit from a pushy neighbor, Stacy Varnow (Patty Guggenheim). Although Mulgarath and Calliope where just discussing their utter contempt for humans, he stops Calliope from eating her. Despite Mulgarath’s intervention, he promises her the entire town now that he’s found the egg.

Mallory returns home from a morning run to find the entire household in a stir over the newly missing Lemondrop and Jeffrey. Jared only makes things worse when his mentioning of the noises the night before reveals that he bent Mallory’s epee. After a huge blowup and more reminders that he is the cause of their move, Jared offers to go into town with Simon to acquire humane mousetraps.

During Jared and Simon’s trip into town, they not only learn about the Firefly Festival but they discover what Simon refers to as a ‘secret firefly door.’ After a quick inspection, Jared recognizes an insignia on the door from one of Arthur’s ogre drawings.

An apple growing on the Manchineel Tree in the front room causes Helen to remember a young Lucinda (Favour Onwuka) claiming that the right mixture of apple and tea can ward off evil creatures while also making one invisible. That memory is interrupted by the arrival of a pushy realtor, Tanner Kent (Dylan Bruce), with offers to sell the home. Helen turns down the offer.

Mallory’s first fencing lesson under the world-renowned optic-impaired maestro turns into her last once the maestro deems her too rigid to train. Elsewhere in town, Helen drags Jared to his first meeting with Dr. Brauer. He wastes little time expressing his doubts that this Brauer will be different than any of the other specialists he’s met with. He likely won’t be finding out any time too soon because his quick meeting with Emiko Noizumi (Momona Tamada) and Hatcher (Hunter Dillon) leads to him storming off after they insult his family.

Helen’s visit with Lucinda goes from bad to worse. Lucinda initially appears completely unresponsive and catatonic until Helen mentions Spiderwick. The name sends her into a violent rage where she claims Spiderwick is dangerous and the stories are true. Jared is shown outside eavesdropping as the orderlies (Skovensky Valeus) race in to intervene.

Mulgarath and Calliope visit what appears to be a high-end antiques shop where they learn all about a Faberge dragon egg. The pretentious salesman (Teagan Vincze) spends several minutes providing a brief yet elaborate history and the myths about what’s inside. Little does the sales lady know she’s about to find out when Calliope eats the egg and pulls what appears to be a gem/capsule with a small insect inside.

The Grace’s first official meal in their new home quickly goes awry when the distant banging that Jared heard the night before returns. Although Helen insists on investigating the noises, even taking down a wall in the process, she declares it too dangerous to pursue further after they find a dumbwaiter and several desecrated rat carcasses. When Jared tries to pursue it against her wishes, this leads to another argument between him and Simon. That ends with Simon, once again, throwing the move in Jared’s face.

Simon attends the Festival later that night where he spends several minutes texting with Richard Grace (Rhys Corio) and catches his first firefly. He soon discovers what hecaught isn’t a firefly at all but a fairy. The realization of his discovery causes him to drop and break the jar, allowing the fairy to escape.

While cleaning the debris from the wall project, Jared not only receives an apology text from Emiko but the banging returns. So as much without thinking, he purses it and it leads to what appears to be a hidden library/study/lab with all sorts of interesting treasurers, including Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide, but the pages are missing. The discovery of a tiny mouse-looking creature is enough to send in search of Helen. His finding her only leads to an argument after he professes that Lucinda’s claims were real, which reveals that he was eavesdropping outside her room, instead of at his therapy session. The incident also leads to her learning that he did steal the gum earlier, which only makes matters even worse for him.

The episode ends with Mulgarath pouring his blood over the gem that he and Calliope procured from the egg, suggesting that it is a living, breathing thing.  Mulgarath tells Calliope that they will need the Field Guild to raise the creature. At about the same time, an extremely upset Helen arrives with Jared.

 

The Spiderwick Chronicles Review

As I understand it, the Spiderwick Chronicles is a popular fantasy series/movie that’s been around for years now. This was my first foray into it, so I am new to most of the concepts, creatures, and characters. That said, I didn’t find the series all that terrible. It’s definitely tailored for a younger audience but I could still see plenty of adults enjoying it. I certainly didn’t find it appalling.

In addition, the mythology isn’t so far ungraspable that it makes it hard to follow. I really enjoyed the twin concept, the move into the new eerie mansion, the mystery of the family lineage, and of course, the whimsical intrigue of the entire town. What I did not appreciate was the constant agenda-based dialogue.

Within the first five minutes, there is mention of women’s rights. By the first 10 minutes, there is a scene suggesting race profiling. Within 30 minutes, there is an all-out obvious comment about Jared being looked at differently because he isn’t white. This is a shame too because the series wasn’t entirely atrocious. I’d give it a 4.5 out of 10.

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