On his Game Boy, David nears victory - until Eric accidentally presses the "reset" button. Frank delightedly snatches the console. Kiki raves of the precarious challenges to be faced in a video game, and demands a go. Up tonight is Gary. What, he ponders, if there was no reset button? What if the game were more than just digital images? What if the contest meant life or death? Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, he calls his story "The Tale of the Pinball Wizard."
On his way through the shopping mall, Ross Campbell takes a coin from the water fountain. An elderly woman tries to wrestle it from him. From the second floor railing, a security guard takes interest. Ross gives him the slip, and hides behind, displayed in a glass cabinet, a rather splendid set of water guns.
At the mechanical emporium, he asks Mr Olson to reconsider hiring him. At work on repairing a music box, Mr Olson isn't sure. Ross follows him into the backroom, and spies, beneath a sheet, what appears to be a new pinball machine. It's not to be touched: this rare model is in repair. Mr Olson prepares to close for a late lunch. Ross asks permission to hold the fort: what if a customer comes by? Mr Olson gruffly relents. If Ross abides by the no-touching rules, he'll get the job.
Ross sneaks into the back room, and unveils the new pinball machine, a heart-shaped contraption illustrated with fairy tale characters. Ross slips in some coins and plays. Just then, a customer arrives. Before the till, a girl with a claim slip under the name Sophie requests a music box set to have been repaired by today. Unsure if the music box is ready, Ross confesses his volunteer role, and explains Mr Olson to be out to lunch. Sophie decides to return in an hour.
In the backroom, Ross becomes engrossed in the new pinball machine. After a while, wondering where Mr Olson is, he steps outside, to find the mall dark and empty: he's locked in.
He rushes over to answer a suddenly ringing payphone. A voice asks if Ross has an umbrella. He then notices the air above the fountain to be filled with coins, falling from above.
Behind him plods a darkly suited in man in bowler hat and sunglasses. Ross requests assistance, and the grey-faced figure roughly grabs him. Ross pulls away, and the man's hand comes off: it’s filled with wires. Unconcerned, the zombie resumes his beat, and is followed by several others. They seem reluctant to step through water spilled from the fountain.
From the upper floor railing, a familiar voice calls for help: what appears to be Sophie, now in the blue dress of the pinball machine's princess, is seized by what appears to be the security guard, now garbed in the cloak and helmet of the pinball Sheriff. Sophie urges Ross to get the tiara from the vault. To the lower floor, she drops a key, and is dragged off.
To the lockers, Ross takes the key, opens one, and is greeted by a spurt of green gunk. Another discharges gas. A third, with a beeping jingle, reveals Sophie's hairband. Up a suddenly mobile escalator, Ross takes the prize, and finds the coins in his pocket to have been replaced by marbles.
From the other side of the railing, Sophie calls him to follow, and runs. Down a fire exit passage, he loses her, and is ambushed by what appears to be the woman who snatched his loose change; now garbed as the green-haired, cackling witch from the pinball machine. Behind her, Sophie is carried off by the Sheriff.
At Ross, the witch blows a gale-force jet of wind, which drives him back. She snatches the tiara, and vanishes. From afar, Sophie calls for Ross to get the music box.
Back at Olson's, Ross searches, and hears muffled cries. In the backroom, red cloth tied around her mouth and bound by chains to a chair, is Sophie. Ross removes the gag, and with the key, unlocks the chains. With no time for explanation, she urges Ross’s help to get through this mysterious ordeal. Just then, a now-animate mannequin, garbed as a hooded executioner, bursts in wielding a mace.
With the music box, into the foyer run Ross and Sophie. Sophie opens the music box, which plays a rendition of the pinball theme. From within her hands, it vanishes. In the air above the banister floats the tiara. Ross grabs it. Seized once more by the Sheriff, Sophie sends Ross after the tiara, which suddenly glides across the ground, to the third floor.
From the box, Ross takes the musical throne, which, with a rumble, grows into a life-size throne. He sits on it, and it zooms along, until accosted by the Sheriff and his men, who send Ross back to the first floor.
With the executioner's discarded mace, Ross smashes the glass case, and obtains its displayed water rifle. Back on the third floor, the Sheriff, flanked by zombies and the now flesh-and-blood executioner, awaits coronation on the throne. Ross arrives with the water rifle, and challenges him. The executioner and zombies advance, but, with a squirt of water, are vaporised.
With the Sheriff having suddenly vanished, the day appears to be won. However, he jumps Ross from behind, and knocks aside the water rifle. Luckily, Ross also has the water pistol. With a few squirts of water, his adversary backs onto the throne, and fades to fog. In place appears a blue coronation robe. Sophie kisses Ross on the cheek, slips into the robe, and Ross crowns her. In a serene flash of light, the scene fades.
Ross finds himself back on the first floor. What gives? He won! Through the windowed ceiling looms the face of Mr Olson. With mocking laughter, he reveals Ross's untrustworthiness to have trapped him here forever.
Back in his shop, Mr Olson peers through the pinball machine at a miniaturised version of the first floor, around which runs a tiny Ross. Mr Olson pulls a lever. Onto the head of the escalator, Ross sees a huge silver pinball roll into place...
Gary passes the Game Boy back to Eric, who hesitantly decides to let Frank have a go. Frank passes it to Kiki, who hands it back to Frank. The others uneasily leave the Game Boy with Gary, who bids the audience farewell, and douses the fire.
This episode provides examples of:
- And You Were There: Most of the solidified pinball characters appear to be people encountered by Ross in the mall that day.
- Awesome Moment of Crowning: Both Sophie and the dastardly Sheriff seek to be crowned with the tiara on the music box throne. Ross eventually crowns Sophie, ending the game.
- BFG: Of the water variety.
- Bound and Gagged: At one point, the baddies leave Sophie gagged and chained to a chair.
- Big Damn Heroes: When Ross figures out what to do with the water guns.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- There's a shot of a water gun in a glass case outside of Mr Olsen's store. It ultimately comes in handy when Ross remembers the villains are weak to water.
- Mr Olsen is working on a music box for Sophie in the store. Ross later has to retrieve it as part of the game.
- Cruel Twist Ending: Ross defeats the Sheriff and saves Sophie, winning the game...but it turns out that Ross is still stuck in the game itself (permanently, as it turns out), and the only person who knows he is, Mr. Olsen, refuses to help him. Game Over.
- Damsel in Distress: Sophie is often in this role, though she just as often plays The Lancer and Mr. Exposition. She in fact only has to be saved once, when Ross finds her chained up in the store. She says that the various antagonists can't actually hurt her.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Ross ends up trapped in a video game forever for slacking off during Mr Olsen's lunch hour.
- The Dragon: A Wicked Witch plays the secondary antagonist in the game.
- Ermine Cape Effect: Naturally, before Sophie's crowning, she gets an ermine cape to wear. The dress she had been wearing beforehand was actually rather practical for running around in, all things considered.
- Evil Laugh: Mr. Olsen while revealing to Ross that he'll be playing free games forever.
- Evil Wears Black: The robotic zombies dress like The Men in Black.
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink: We have a Princess Classic, Wicked Witch, some Badass Normals and robotic zombies.
- Gamer Chick: Kiki reveals herself to be a gamer in the framing device.
- Gaussian Girl: When Sophie is crowned, she's bathed in a bright light.
- Hypocritical Humor: Kiki states that it's important for a gamer to have patience...and then impatiently grabs it off Frank.
- Important Hair Accessory: Sophie's hair band is found in the lockers, and it transforms into the tiara.
- Kill It with Water: All the antagonists, on contact with water, fade to fog.
- Off to See the Wizard: Downplayed, but the story makes many references to the classic story. As in the 1939 film, characters around the mall become characters in the game. One of the villains is a Wicked Witch who wants to become Queen. Finally, the villains' weakness is water. It's also probably not a coincidence that "Wizard" is in the title. It makes you wonder if Ross should start clicking his heels in the end.
- Space Whale Aesop: Don’t get too absorbed in video games, or you might end up trapped in one.
- This Is Gonna Suck: The story ends with the giant pinball rolling into place. Per Gary, it's that moment that convinces Ross he is never getting out of the game.
- True Blue Femininity: Sophie is a very feminine and glamorous princess, and thus gets a pale blue cloak to wear for her coronation.
- Villain Has a Point: Mr Olesen did leave Ross in charge, and Ross in fact wouldn't have got sucked into the pin ball machine if he had watched the shop like he promised to.
- Wham Shot: Ross crowns Sophie, only to find himself transported back to the first floor.
