Tucker's attempt to induct Andy into his school ring club has been refused. Andy, however, accepts the situation — which has inspired a tale of clubs, and where their dealings may lead. Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, he calls this story "The Tale of the Photo Finish".
In a dimly lit hall sit robed, hooded figures in blank white masks. Their gold-masked leader, Renfew, raises a burning candelabra to a yellow tapestry, emblazoned with a lion. For initiation, four blindfolded inductees must eat some squiggly reddish stuff, said to be wild boar intestines. All but one do so. While music and chatter later fill the room, two of the inductees, Alex and Chandler, raise their blindfolds. Before their final admittance to Tillinghurst Academy's Lion Society, they must each pull of a daring prank. Later, Renfew confers with Chandler — while Chandler's in, Alex is deemed not to be Lion Society material.
On the school field, Chandler breaks it to Alex, who supposes it's because he's not from a rich society family. That night, Chandler sneaks through a window into the Hall of Headmasters. As Chandler lifts down the portrait of headmaster Professor Felix Barish, an alarm sounds. Chandler takes the portrait through an open window, and sprints to his and Alex’s dorm room. As Alex looks at the portrait, he notices something. He manages to grasp a corner of the framed paper, which peels easily away. Beneath lies a monochrome photo of a large detached house. On the house’s porch, in a chair, sits a young man in a bow tie and checked jacket.
With both boys in bed that night, Alex is disturbed by a repeated knocking. While Chandler barely stirs, Alex rises to investigate. He flicks on the desk lamp, and notices something different about the photo — the chair on which sat the young man is now vacant. As Chandler looks at the photo, he exudes a dazzling flash of white light. He then radiates a grey haze, which drains his entire body of colour and solidity. His monochrome shade then fades, leaving only an outline of white light, which swiftly dwindles.
In horror, Alex peers at the photo. The bow-tied young man now stands, sneering, by a tripod-mounted camera. Next day, in the 1944 yearbook, Alex finds a photo of the Lion Society of 1944. Under the chapter "Camera Club" he finds a photo of the boy whose image vanished from and returned to the framed photo: Jasper Davis, said to have died in 1944. He runs into Professor Felix Barish, who asks if Alex has the photo. In the Lion Society lounge, Professor Barish explains that while he and his friend Jasper applied for the Lion Society, Alex was rejected and chased onto the roof, from where he fell to his death. The Lion Society clubhouse was them moved to the building shown in the photo. About a month later, this photo mysteriously appeared on its wall, whereupon two boys vanished into it.
Outside Chandler’s and his dorm room, Alex finds Renfew, looking for Chandler. As Alex enters, Renfew follows; notices the framed photo, and reaches for it. Renfew peers at the photo, recognises the old Lion Society clubhouse on the old part of campus, and notices the boy on the porch. In the photo, the tiny image of the camera’s dial turns with a click. In a flash, Renfew vanishes.
With a check-patterned blanket draped across the lethal framed photo, Alex visits the old part of campus. On a quiet street, before a backdrop of trees, stands the house shown in the photo. Alex approaches the house, and opens the door. Inside the doorway, every visible object, including the light of the air itself, is in monochrome. As Alex steps over the threshold, his body and clothes are instantly tainted by the monochrome tones.
In a large, cobweb-strewn room, several blank frames mingle with framed, close-up photos of shocked-looking boys — two of whom he recognises as Chandler and Renfew. In a corner, by a tripod-mounted camera, stands he gloating Jasper. Professor Barish, having followed Alex in, urges Jasper to Alex be. Alex rushes at Felix, but passes seamlessly through him, staggers across the floor, and bumps into a far wall. On discharge of the flashbulb, Professor Barish glows and dematerialises. The image of his horrified face appears on one of the blank frames.
Jasper turns the camera on Alex, who lays the photo on a nearby small table, pulls the table on its side, and ducks. Through a window to his left, Alex sees something huge, soft, and check-patterned — just like the blanket which lies across the upended photo. He moves the blanket, and the object outside moves in synchronicity — the enlarged blanket outside is an amplified image, channelled through the photographed window to the one beside him. As he moves the blanket, the window is filled with an amplified view of his own face. Jasper aims his camera, and takes a snapshot of the upended tabletop. The table glows, fades, and its image appears in a hung frame.
Alex dives to his right. Just as Jasper takes the shot, he sees, in the window, an amplified vision of his own face. With a horrified yell, Jasper recedes to a glowing outline, which is sucked into the photo held by Alex. On another hung frame appears Jasper’s frozen, horrified face. Suddenly, each of the wall-hung photos project a flickering shaft of white light. As the monochrome house is engulfed by spectral flashbulbs, Alex runs for the door. Outside, he looks at the framed photo. The image of the house and its environs fades, leaving a grey canvas. Around him are Chandler, Renfew and Professor Barish. While Renfew heartily welcomes Alex to the Lion Society, Alex decides he has better things to do — as does Chandler. With an approving chuckle from Professor Barish, they head back to campus.
...
Andy closes — and reveals the club to have let him in after all.
This episode provides examples of:
- Asshole Victim: All of Jasper's victims. They were all at one point a member of the Lion's Society, most of them being the same bullies who forced him off the roof to his death. Downplayed when he traps Chandler, who was reluctant about excluding his friend Alex.
- Bully Brutality: According to Professor Barish, when the Lions Society refused to make Jasper a member, they didn't stop at calling him names and insulting his accent. They chased him up the roof and had him jump off to his death.
- Continuity Nod: A house whose window is connected to a miniaturised image of itself somewhat recalls "The Tale of the Dollmaker".
- Eldritch Location: The interior of the Lion Society's old clubhouse, haunted by the vengeful ghost of a photographer, appears entirely in the monochrome tones of a black and white photograph. One of the windows provides a view, through its photographed likeness, in the direction of wherever the photo currently faces.
- Evil Brit: Averted with benevolent Professor Barish.
- Faux Horrific: Alex isn't bothered that he supposedly ate the guts of a boar, but that he actually ate cherry jello. He hates cherry jello.
- Irony: Despite the Lion's Society namesake, its members are no more "brave, noble lions" than they are pompous twits who pick on others and cower at the first sign of real danger.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: The ghost of bullied Jasper inhabits both the old Lion Society clubhouse, whose interior appears in photographic monochrome; and a photograph of the front of the clubhouse, into which he pulls unsuspecting observers.
- I Should Have Done This Years Ago: This is Professor Barish's sentiment when Alex and Chandler turns down Renfrew's offer to join the Lions Society, even so much as to say they have better things to do than look down on non-members.
- Spooky Photographs: Following Jasper's fatal fall from the roof of the old Lion Society clubhouse, a photo of the building is haunted by his ghost, which manifests in his intermittently mobile photographed image.
- Sympathy for the Devil: Jasper may be the antagonist of the episode and has grown visibly bitter since his death, but Professor Barish sincerely hopes that his late friend finds peace. Heck, he even hopes peace to Jasper's victims, who purposefully drove him to jump off the roof and started this whole mess in the first place.
