The Field Guide To The Fantastical World Around You – Episode 2 opens with Jared Grace (Lyon Daniels) arriving at Dr. Dorian Brauer/Lord Mulgarath’s (Christian Slater) house for an impromptu therapy session. Things immediately get off on the wrong foot, with Brauer teasing Jared for his belief in monsters while Jared constantly refers to him as the ‘small town’ doctor. As the two of them go back and forth, a quick scene shows Lucinda (Charlayne Woodard) preparing a Manchineel tea, which causes her to collapse and fade away after consuming it. At nearly the same time, Helen Grace (Joy Bryant) interrupts Brauer’s session with the news of Lucinda’s disappearance.

Simon Grace (Noah Cottrell) is researching an insect book, trying to make sense of the fairy he saw earlier, when Helen returns home, with the request for assistance. With the assistance of Dr. Brauer and Callipoe, they immediately start going through their packed belongings to look for gear for their search for Lucinda. Mallory Grace (Mychala Lee) voices her desire to help with the search while Simon is concerned with notifying Richard Grace (Rhys Coiro). Neither gets their wish and Brauer also leaves Calliope behind as he and Helen begin their search for Lucinda. Almost instantly, the kids are drawn to noises emanating from the attic.

Once there, they discover Jared watching old home videos of Arthur Spiderwick (Albert Jones) explaining Fae to a young Lucinda (Favour Onwuka). The Jared raves about the creatures from Arthur’s journal being real, the crazier he sounds. Simon does admit that he also thought he saw something but it was just an insect he’s never seen before. Jared believes his point has been proven when distant noises interrupt their debate.

Tanner Kent (Dylan Bruce) asserts his authority as leader of the search for Lucinda, while Jared, Calliope, Mallory, and Simon begin their search to uncover the source of the strange noises at Spiderwick. Jared begins to feel left out as Calliope and Simon bond.

Helen and Dr. Bauer’s search doesn’t appear to be going much better. He and Tanner end up butting heads over the differences between deer and rabbit tracks, which eventually leads to Helen learning that Tanner wants to shut down the Meskwaki Hospital on the grounds of being dangerous. The scratches on Helen’s arms from Lucinda’s attack only prove his point.

Yalda (Newsha Richards) and Hubert (Jed Ross) are in the middle of a heated debate about the strategic placement of milk and cereal when Lucinda comes in, raving about what used to be the Goblin Market. Once they are alone, Hubert reveals himself as a fairy and shows her the entrance.

Jared’s group employs a much more high-tech approach to their search, setting up cameras and motion detectors throughout the home. In the process, one of the upstairs fire alarms goes off, which eventually reveals that Jared’s ogre drawing has mysteriously caught fire. Although he manages to douse the fire without incident, the drawing is practically useless. Now alone, Helen discovers a mysterious-looking boot by that lake. Her thoughts are soon interrupted by a phone call from Richard, which reveals that he is hiding something from Simon about their separation. Dr. Brauer soon interrupts with news of a sighting of Lucinda at the market.

Mischief at the Spiderwick Mansion causes problems with Jared and the rest of the group. First, Mallory falls while practicing her fencing and gets her hair tied to the railing then Simon discovers Jeffrey and Lemondrop frozen in ice in the fridge. The blame immediately gets placed on Jared while he does his best to explain it away. At one point, Jared even secretly blames the occurrences on Calliope but Simon clearly doesn’t believe it. This only leads to Calliope and Simon bonding further. She later provides even more comfort during an impromptu funeral for the mice.

Helen and Dr. Brauer bond over their shared concern for closure of the mental facility. Brauer later surprises her when he reveals a gaggle of secrets about the locals, including rumblings that Tanner murdered his wife.

Jared sets out to uncover the perpetrator behind the strange events at Spiderwick but only manages to isolate himself further in the process. After spending several minutes online learning how to unscramble blurry surveillance footage, he’s surprised to see himself start the fire. Mallory lays into him and sends him off moping in his room. When Simon later approaches him, they hear more noises that lead them to the discovery of a secret room.

The discovery of the secret room also leads to the discovery of Lucinda, who is right in the middle of an argument with Thimbletack (Jack Dylan Grazer). Lucinda immediately freaks out upon noticing the intruders and ends up taking Jared at knifepoint, despite his claims about being Helen’s son. She claims he could just as easily be Mulgarath, being that he is a master shape-shifter. She eventually lets him go because he doesn’t have an adverse reaction to the iron blade. Lucinda reveals that she was the one who tore out the pages from Arthur’s Field Guide, but just can’t remember where she hid them. That mystery is solved when Thimbletack randomly freaks out and darts around the room, inadvertently sparking the projector to life.

The earlier footage with young Lucinda and Arthur causes Lucinda to remember hiding the pages in hidden vaults around the town. Accessing and finding them won’t be easy and will require solving puzzles, but will be necessary to reassemble the Field Guide and stop Mulgarath’s attempt to control all the magical creatures.

When things seemingly wind down, Jared and Lucinda spend several minutes where they discuss how lonely being deemed crazy is. Despite that, she tells him that sharing what he now knows will only make matters worse. Their discussion eventually leads to her telling him that it will be up to him to save everyone. She also gives him some kind of circular iron/metal ornament that she procured at the market and is supposedly the key to everything. It’s not long before Helen and Brauer return and he escorts her back to the facility.

On their return trip to the facility, Lucinda wastes little time letting Mulgarath and Calliope know that she is well aware of their true identities. He later leads her to a forest where she reveals that she purposely had her memory wiped so she couldn’t intentionally or inadvertently reveal anything. The episode ends with him killing her.

 

The Spiderwick Chronicles Review

As much as it almost pains me to say it, I found this episode enjoyable. The series is certainly geared more towards a young adult/teen audience, but I could see some adults enjoying it. I didn’t find it too terribly boring. I felt that the foreshadowing between the searches was somewhat clever. It’s also always fun to see a character so vilified and outcast, to later only discover that he/she was right all along. For hardcore fantasy and mysticism fans, the mythology and lore might be a bit basic. I’d give the episode a 5.3 out of 10 and would consider watching another.

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