Up tonight is Tucker - but he still hasn’t managed to come up with a story. Gary, before the others, asks to take Tucker's place, having just this minute been inspired. Inspiration is unpredictable, intangible, and brings new possibilities. What if it could be controlled? What fun to be had - and what danger to be faced. Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, he calls his story "The Tale of the Unfinished Painting."
In a tranquil park, Cody sketches a tree. To older brother Lucas, she laments her inability to capture any evocation beyond its obvious appearance.
In town, a slightly younger girl drops her broad-brimmed her hat. Cody pursues with it to a door, above which hangs a sign: "The Hunter Gallery". In its quiet, clearly lit gallery, Cody surveys several portraits. From behind, Mrs Briar welcomes her to the Hunter Gallery; offers to hold onto the lost hat, and walks Cody through the gallery.
On a studio wall, numerous canvases bear paintings whose respective scenes are, in select areas, blank. Sometimes, says Mr Briar, an artist’s vision may end before completion. She keeps these as a reminder that art is a struggle, and leaves Cody to have a look round.
Meanwhile, Mrs Briar checks on Jenna, chides her use of a thinner brush, and urges inspiration to transcend tools.
Cody approaches an unfinished painting of a ballet performance. Its foremost character, a young woman, is a monochrome sketch. The incomplete figure, with a knowing smile and pointing gesture, seems to beckon Cody into the scene. Cody closes her eyes, and reaches for the canvas, from which a living, flesh and blood hand reaches in response.
Cody finds herself in a solid realisation of the image shown in the painting. One of the figures draws her into a dance.
At the distant sound of Mrs Briar’s voice, Cody finds herself back in the studio. She laments the painting’s abandonment. Mrs Briar invites her to finish it, starting tomorrow.
...
In a dimly lit chamber, Mrs Briar approaches a tall cupboard. Behind its doors is a cleanly severed, dark grey head: the Hunter. She touches its embalmed cheek, and happily announces a fresh victim.
Next morning, Cody is given a lift back to the Hunter Gallery. In the studio, Mrs Briar supplies a simple brush, and shares her motto: "Inspiration comes from the artist, not from tools".
Some time later, Cody explores the deserted gallery, and finds the tall cupboard. Faced with a severed, embalmed head, she gives a small yelp. Beneath, she finds a row of vertically embedded brushes, and makes to take one. As she touches it, she has a brief vision of a distant scene. It appears to be solid and animate, but its blurred, faint components resemble a painting. Before a greenery-surrounded bridge is a blond, blue-cloaked young woman. She turns, and urges Cody not to finish the painting, but destroy it - before it’s too late.
In the Hunter Gallery, Cody finds a painting which depicts the blond woman encountered in her vision. Suspicious, Cody returns to the cupboard, takes hold of another brush, and has a similar vision: this time of Jenna, standing before a canvas, who turns around in fright. Cody, on touching several brushes, has a vision of several such painters, each of whom scream in fright. Cody finds a nearby phone, calls home, and urges Lucas to come and get her.
Just then, in walks a frowning Mrs Briar. Cody claims to be looking for paint thinner, having finished the painting.
Over the finished ballet painting, Mrs Briar approvingly tells Cody to sign it. Cody then finds herself back in the solidified painting, being twirled by a solid manifestation of its ballet dancer. Still holding the paintbrush, she drops it.
Lucas arrives in the gallery, and calls for his sister. Mrs Briar announces the gallery to be closed, and denies all knowledge of anyone named Cody.
In the solidified painting, Cody, in mid-dance, reaches for the dropped paintbrush.
Through a backdoor in the cupboard room, Mrs Briar throws the ballet painting onto a skip, and sets fire to it.
By the skip, Lucas finds a young girl in a broad-brimmed hat, and asks where Mrs Briar is.
Cody reaches for the brush, picks it up, snaps it, and finds herself back in the gallery, before the cupboard. She realises the brushes to have imprisoned each unsuspecting artist. She gathers them up. Just then, the embalmed head of the Hunter dreamily opens his eyes. Cody screams. Wide-eyed, the head smiles. In a deep croak, it invites her to hunt for it, and live forever.
Cody joins Lucas outside. Just then, from where the young girl recently stood, comes a menacing laugh - Mrs Briar, her laugh echoing ethereally, turns to face them. She demands the brushes.
Cody flings the brushes into the flames of the skip. From the inferno rises a huge, spectral manifestation of the severed head. It groans its dismay, and morphs into the aspect of Mrs Briar. She cries out, and fades. The flames recede.
From the yard’s open gate, Jenna arrives. Meanwhile, in the gallery, the face of each dually painted portrait has been intricately removed, each leaving a circle of blank canvas.
Cody, closes Gary, found a renewal of artistic inspiration in the souls of those freed from the spectral paintings. As the others depart, Tucker thanks Gary, and wonders what inspired his story. Gary admits to have found, in Tucker’s sudden lack of inspiration, story potential. Esteemed by their team effort, the brothers head home.
This episode provides examples of:
- Art Initiates Life:
- Paintings drawn by Mrs Briar’s sinisterly enchanted brushes conjure solidified projections of the scenes they represent.
- Also inverted: the painters find themselves imprisoned within these paint-conjured locations.
- Costume Porn: The animate manifestation of the ballet painting.
- Deal with the Devil: From an entity termed the Hunter, manifest as a severed embalmed head, Mrs Briar gained indefinite immortality by, via enchanted paintbrushes, imprisoning the souls of aspiring artists once they sign their names on one of the unfinished paintings.
- Eldritch Location: The solidified scenes conjured by the paintings seem to be somewhere beyond the realm of matter.
- Faux Affably Evil: Despite her calm, welcoming smile, Mrs Briar is a right bad ‘un.
- Kill It with Fire: By tossing the paint brushes into the fire, Mrs. Briar's spell is weakened.
- Mad Artist: Inverted; the aspiring young artists are quite reasonable people, but are unwittingly imprisoned by their supernatural paintings.
- Nice Girl: Friendly, idealistic Cody.
- Nice Guy: Lucas, her jolly, encouraging brother.
- Our Liches Are Different: The ancient, embalmed head of the Hunter remains alive, seemingly sustained by the painting-imprisoned souls. Mrs Briar, by the same means, has, for centuries, gained indefinite immortality.
- Scenery Porn:
- Some lovely shots of the park.
- The detailed manifestations of the paintings; naturally, what with painting being a visual medium.
- Shout-Out: Immersion in a solidified painting somewhat recalls a scene in The Magic Cottage.
- Soul Eating: The Hunter and Mrs Briar seem to be sustained by the imprisoned souls of aspiring artists.
- Soul Jar: By the power of the brushes, the paintings house the souls of their painters.
- Spooky Painting: Cody notes the paintings to have a mystical quality. All the more so when they seem to take on a life of their own...
