The Things in Oakwood's Past
Written By: Greg Nicotero & Daniel Kraus
An animated intro features the Creep observing a sunny day through his window. Disgusted, he goes back inside and sits down to watch TV. He turns on a news program hosted by clones of himself, such as a weather forecaster who predicts all sorts of disasters, a sports reporter who smashes an athlete's leg with a sledgehammer, and a leading anchor who ravenously devours his report. The Creep unleashes a wicked smile as he watches the show.
The WGON news station prepares to broadcast the final story for that day's edition of the 5PM news. News anchors Serese (Fayna Sanchez) and Clark Murphy (Andy Daly) report on the small town of Oakwood, Maine, which is rumored to be infamous for its peculiar and morbid history. Field reporter Mac Kamen (Ron Livingston) and his camera operator Carmella (also Fayna Sanchez) are sent to Oakwood themselves to cover the story. They first interview Mayor Wrightson (Mark Hamill), who reveals that his town's main claim to fame is the sudden and mysterious disappearance of its entire population in 1821. They also interview the various citizens of Oakwood, who each have their own theories as to the nature of the disappearance, ranging from diseases, a Native American raid, and even alien abductions.
Mac then proceeds to interview the mayor's daughter Marnie Wrightson (Danielle Harris), who is not only the town's librarian, but also the president of Oakwood's historical society. During her interview, Marnie mentions that she had discovered a collection of journals written by former Oakwood historian Eli Lester, who lived in the town before the disappearance. By deciphering some coordinates etched in one of the journals, Marnie and the historical society have managed to excavate what they believe is a time capsule buried underneath the local park, dated with the same year as the disappearance. The 200th anniversary of the disappearance is also drawing near, and Mayor Wrightson is planning to open the capsule on the day in question, holding a large celebration for the occasion. When they finish the interview, Marnie laments how "cheesy" she sounded, but Mac assures her that the station's viewers prefer their "kickers" (the fluff pieces reported at the end of a news broadcast meant to leave the viewers feeling happy) "doused in cheese". Marnie then takes Mac and Carmella to the dig site, where the latter discover that the "time capsule" is a massive, ominous looking crate with metal spikes, wrapped up in heavy chains, and covered with primitive pictograms. Marine believes that the capsule holds a record of why the settlers of 1821 abandoned Oakwood, but Mac believes that it could be a bust. Marnie remains optimistic that if such is the case, they'll "absolutely blast it with cheese".
The next day, Mac visits Marnie as she substitutes for a class at the town's elementary school. She gives a presentation about the capsule, which the children stare at through the window, then asks the students what they believe to be in the capsule. After registering their answers, she presents the children with a slideshow that features woodcut illustrations taken from Eli Lester's journals, which apparently show evidence of another disappearance in 1621, 200 years before the first noted disappearance. When Marnie's presentation reaches a slide that depicts a monstrous face in the branches of a group of trees, the projector suddenly begins to go haywire, displaying the slides on its own accord. During this, the slides themselves transition into images of the villagers being mutilated and succumbing to decay and rot, just before Marnie manages to stop the projector. Rattled by the experience, Marnie meets up with Mac, revealing that she feels like she's seen the face depicted in the slideshow before. She also mentions that Eli's journals state that the man convinced the townsfolk that they needed to open the capsule, but she can't make out the reason why he felt the need to do so. Marnie also frets that the coming Friday will be exactly 200 years since the 1821 disappearance, and whatever the cause of it was will soon be returning to Oakwood. Marnie then discovers the same face from the slideshow formed in a group of trees in the nearby woods that surround the park, and realizes where she's seen the face before: a slab of wood that she swiped from the historical society.
Making their way to the dig site, Marnie and Mac, followed by Carmella, dig up the capsule, where the former discovers a chunk of wood missing from the capsule that matches the exact size and shape of the slab. By reapplying the slab to the capsule, this reveals an account of yet another disappearance in 1421, another 200 years back. The pictograms on the capsule proceed to come to life, where they display a native tribe being massacred by an unknown, monstrous entity. A lone warrior fires numerous arrows at the entity, but he is snatched in its jaws and dragged into the darkness of a hole on the capsule. Seeing this, Marnie realizes that the disappearance of Oakwood's populace occurs over and over in a 200-year cycle, warning Mac that the entity is set to return on Friday. Mac offers to help Marnie get the word out in any way that he can when they are spotted by Deputy Anton (also Andy Daly), who takes them to the mayor's office.
Marnie attempts to convince her father that the entity is the source of the disappearances, as well as the fact that it is located in the woods, will be returning on the anniversary of the disappearance, and that whatever is inside the capsule is needed to drive it away. Unfortunately, her pleas fall on deaf ears, as her father has her escorted out of his office. When Mac tries to stand up for Marnie, Mayor Wrightson claims that he's simply doing what's best for her, since her strange ideas and theft of the slab have convinced him that she just needs to get her head on straight. He also tells Mac, who has been developing a romantic interest in his daughter, to broadcast his story and leave Oakwood right after, only caring about the publicity instead of the potential danger. Marnie returns to the library to further her research into the journals. She spends the next few days looking over Eli's research again and again, and finally makes an astonishing discovery as the day of the unveiling arrives.
As Mac reports on the festivities and Carmella films him, Mayor Wrightson approaches the eager citizens of Oakwood, inviting them to bear witness as the capsule is opened. Just as Mayor Wrightson manages to damage capsule's lock, Marnie hurriedly arrives, having finally managed to decode the last of Eli Lester's journals, wherein she discovered the horrifying truth of the capsule's nature: Eli Lester, while working in his study, witnessed as his daughter was senselessly murdered by one of the town elders. When the elder was released with no punishment thanks to an act of bribery, the furious Eli used his vast knowledge about Oakwood's history to convince the town council to unearth the time capsule, tricking the townsfolk into opening it by telling them that it would protect them from the same disaster that had struck in 1621, and whatever was inside subsequently caused the 1821 disappearance. Unfortunately, Marnie has arrived too late, and the capsule's lid begins rattling violently. Mayor Wrightson desperately tries to keep the capsule shut and orders Anton to get Marnie out of town. As Marnie is loaded into Anton's squad car, she yells to Mac that the capsule is actually a cage, just as a monstrous creature tears its way through the mayor's body and slashes the capsule's chains in half.
The lid then flies open, releasing a swarm of horrific demons that descend on the gathered townspeople, massacring every living thing in sight. Mac and Carmella try to escape in the chaos, only for the former to be bisected and the latter eaten. Anton and Marnie attempt to escape in the squad car, only to be pursued by another demon, which slices Anton in half when he tries to fight it. Marnie, having been forced to take the wheel, ends up crashing the car into a tree, sending her flying through the windshield. Injured and alone, Marnie is confronted by the demonic horde. As she pleads for forgiveness, she sees the demons are unable to follow her, since she has unknowingly managed to drag herself just past Oakwood's town limits, where their power apparently ends. Leaving Marnie alone, the demons proceed to retreat back into Oakwood, one of them taking Carmella's camera with it. Seen through the camera, the demon flies back into the time capsule, which is revealed to lead into the depths of Hell. The mysterious face seen in the slideshow and the trees is revealed to be that of Satan himself, sitting on a massive throne and smiling wickedly. In the studio, Serese and Clark, having witnessed the entire massacre live, display very little reaction to it. As the duo sign off, the power in the studio goes out.
Back in Oakwood, the time capsule repairs itself and closes. The date on the front changes from 1821 to 2021 before it descends back underground. Satan's demonic face appears against a black background as he laughs sinisterly, eagerly waiting another 200 years to have the capsule opened again, so his minions can wreak havoc on Oakwood once more.
This episode contain examples of:
- Alien Abduction: One particularly... erratic resident of Oakwood blames aliens for the 1821 disappearance.
- Ambiguously Absent Parent: Marnie's mother is never seen nor mentioned.
- Ancient Evil: The demons locked inside the capsule have massacred every person who has lived on Oakwood's land for hundreds of years, going as far back as the Native Americans who first settled there.
- Art Shift: The episode certainly takes advantage of its animated nature. While most of it uses the same style, there are scenes depicted as woodcut prints, native pictograms, and a Sin City-esque black and white segment for Eli Lester's backstory.
- Asshole Victim: The woman who believes that Native Americans are the cause of the 1821 disappearance says so because she's prejudiced against them. She becomes the demons' second victim.
- Attention Whore: Mayor Wrightson's confrontation with Mac has the man himself admitting that while he (allegedly) cares about the citizens of his town, he cares even more about having them (mainly himself) be on national TV, thinking of the newsman's presence as free publicity for Oakwood.
- Bookends: The story begins and ends in Serese and Clark's newsroom, barring the outro of the capsule.
- Break the Cutie: Marnie witnesses everyone she knew, including her father, the students she spent a day teaching, and her potential boyfriend, slaughtered in unspeakably horrific ways, and by the end is left alone to live with the trauma.
- Brick Joke: The crazy guy who thinks that the 1821 disappearance was caused by aliens appears again during the massacre, boasting that he was right all along before being melted to the bone.
- Call-Back:
- Fayna Sanchez, having previously starred in the animated special, returns to voice Carmella and Serese.
- This is the third episode in the series where the Devil is revealed to be the mastermind behind a tragedy that leaves a huge number of people dead, having previously done so in Pesticide and Meter Reader.
- Collector of the Strange: Mayor Wrightson collects taxidermied animals, having their heads and bodies placed all throughout his office.
- Covers Always Lie: The episode's cover depicts a demon with a blue head and curved horns in the list of characters known simply as "The Demon". This character doesn't appear in the story whatsoever.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The victims of the time capsule aren't just killed. They're torn to shreds and have their bodies mutilated beyond recognition. If the woodcuts are believed, the victims of the 1621 massacre had it even worse.
- Curse: One of them is implied to be the true nature of the capsule, and why events seem to transpire for it to be opened every 200 years.
- Cute Bookworm: Marnie is a kind and inquisitive librarian/historian who Mac immediately takes a liking to.
- Deadline News: The Oakwood massacre is broadcast live on WGON as it happens. Serese and Clark disturbingly show very little reaction to it.
- Deadpan Snarker: Carmella makes the most out of her few lines.
- Devoured by the Horde: The fate of Oakwood's citizens, with the exception of Marnie.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Eli Lester's grief and rage over the death of his beloved daughter is perfectly understandable, but he decided to exact revenge not just on her killer, but the entirety of Oakwood, blaming every single person living there for his daughter's killer going free.
- Dissonant Serenity: As shown in the ending, Serese and Clark have very little reaction to witnessing their own field reporter, his cameraperson, and the entire population of a town being slaughtered by demons live on air. Of course, they could've just been covering up their trauma to save face and distract the public from the incident.
- The Dog Bites Back: Eli Lester tricked Oakwood into unearthing and opening the time capsule by lying that its contents would protect them from the 200-year curse, when it actually caused the curse to commence, as revenge for the citizens letting the man who killed his daughter go free.
- Downer Ending: The entirety of Oakwood's population, sans Marnie, is brutally slaughtered, and the curse is set to recommence in another 200 years.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Every citizen of Oakwood each has their own ideas about what caused the 1821 disappearance, ranging from smallpox, a Native American raid, to one crazy guy who thinks it was aliens.
- "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner: Right before Anton is killed by the demon riding his squad car, he screams one of them right at it.Anton: GET OUT OF MY TOWN!!
- Failure Hero: Marnie may qualify as one of these. She desperately wants to find the truth behind the disappearances of Oakwood's populace and stop another one from occurring, but she spends the next few days looking over Eli Lester's research again and again, and only makes the crucial discovery just before her father damages the capsule's lock.
- She then proceeds to spout out Eli Lester's backstory, but spends so long monologuing about it that she doesn't think to tell everyone to evacuate before the capsule starts shuddering violently. Sure enough, her intervention leads to Oakwood's population getting slaughtered by the hordes of Hell.
- Fat Bastard: Mayor Wrightson is noticeably overweight and morally dubious. In spite of this, he does redeem himself by trying to hold the capsule shut so people can get to safety.
- Friend to All Children: Marnie is shown to be friendly and encouraging of the students in the class she's substituting.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: This episode is entirely animated. But unlike the animated special, which mainly featured the main characters narrating over a limited-motion style of animation, this story contains actual, fluid, 2D animation, complete with characters actually speaking to one another. And as mentioned above, the artwork also differs in style every so often.
- For the Evulz: The elder who murdered Eli Lester's daughter did so for his own sadistic pleasure.
- Needless to say, this also applies to the demons who emerge from the capsule every 200 years to slaughter the town's current populace.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Among the children at the school, one girl named Jackie is considered a pariah. One of the more mean-spirited kids believes that the capsule contains lists of friends that the settlers of 1821 had written in the order of how much they liked them, and rebuts that her name is at the bottom.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Satan, who is revealed to be the mastermind behind the 200-year curse of Oakwood.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Mac is vertically bisected while trying to get into the news van (having already lost a hand and both legs). Deputy Anton is also cut in half, horizontally, while trying to shoot the demon perched on his squad car.
- Haunted Technology: During Marnie's slideshow, when the face in the trees is displayed, the projector starts changing slides by itself. It's during this time that the same woodcut illustrations are re-displayed, except now the villagers portrayed in them have been horrifically murdered and are succumbing to rot.
- Hellgate: Oakwood is revealed to have been built on one, but it's only active so long as the time capsule is open.
- Hell on Earth: The result of having the capsule opened, as a horde of demons burst from its depths to slaughter the populace.
- Here We Go Again!: The closing animation shows the capsule reconstructing itself, setting its date to 2021, and descending back into the earth so it can be reopened in another 200 years.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- Once they come to life, the pictograms on the capsule imply that a surviving Mi'kmaq warrior sacrificed himself to seal the demons inside it, which is the reason why the curse is even contained at all.
- Deputy Anton manages to save Marnie by driving her as close to the town limits as he can, sacrificing himself to one of the demons in the process.
- When Mayor Wrightson realizes that his daughter was right all along, he tries to hold the capsule's lid closed long enough for people to evacuate, though the only person this act saves is Marnie herself.
- History Repeats: The demons emerge from the capsule and slaughter everyone on Oakwood's land every 200 years. The ending has such a massacre occurring again.
- Ignored Expert: Marnie's father has her escorted out of his office when she tries to warn him about the cause of the previous disappearances returning. He and the rest of Oakwood pay dearly for it.
- Immune to Bullets: Anton tries to open fire on the demon on his squad car, but it's instantly able to shrug off the bullets.
- In a Single Bound: The demon chasing the squad car leaps onto its roof with one jump.
- Intrepid Reporter: Mac, who actively tries to help Marnie figure out the truth about the time capsule and how to stop another disappearance from happening, as well as spread the word about it through alternative methods.
- Karma Houdini: The town elder who murdered Eli Lester's daughter was released when he bribed the town counsel. In doing this, however, he prompted Lester to trick the townsfolk into opening the capsule and causing the 1821 disappearance.
- Legions of Hell: The contents of the time capsule. The ending reveals that it actually leads to Hell itself.
- Limited Animation: Ironically enough, despite the fluidity of the many different animation styles, a good deal of scenes animated in the episode's regular style are portrayed as stiff and rigid, having characters stay still while speaking to one another.
- Living Drawing: The pictograms on the capsule spring to life when Marnie reapplies the missing slab she nabbed from the historical society, where Mi'kmaq natives are shown being devoured by a single demon that apparently represents the hordes of Hell.
- Mayor Pain: Mayor Wrightson isn't inherently evil, but he shrugs off his daughter's warnings and tells Mac to just shut up and report his story when he tries to stand up for her, blaming him for her recent streak of dubious behavior. Thankfully, when he realizes the mistake he's made in damaging the capsule's lock, he redeems and ultimately sacrifices himself by managing to shut the capsule for a minute so Marnie can get to safety.
- Medium Blending: During the climatic massacre, Anton tries to get Marnie to safety by driving as far away from the town as he can, resulting in a CG police car being chased by a 2D demon.
- Mythology Gag:
- "The Crate" gets quite a few mentions, since this story also focuses on a sinister crate housing a variety of monsters. At the beginning, Serese and Clark report that Horlicks University is discovering what they call the "Carpenter Arctic exploration collection", possibly implying that there's more than one of "Fluffy". At the end, they also mention that the nightly news will cover a certain something found at the bottom of Ryder's Quarry.
- Marnie Wrightson and her father have the same name as the late Bernie Wrightson, who worked in the art department of the original film.
- Mac Kamen is a definite reference to Jack Kamen, the EC Comics artist who designed the film's theatrical poster and illustrated its comic book adaptation.
- The time capsule is said to be buried in Flagg's Park.
- The Mi'kmaq are mentioned a couple of times in the story, with one woman believing that they are the source of the 1821 disappearance. It is also revealed that they are the ones responsible for illustrating the pictograms on the time capsule, since the demons previously massacred them 600 years ago.
- Similar to Billy's father Stan, one of the boys in the classroom mentions that his father "has a box, and there's lady pictures in it, and none of them are Mommy."
- Mayor Wrightson's office contains a picture of him shaking hands with George Romero himself.
- As is tradition, Oakwood is located in Castle County.
- Nature Is Not Nice: A glimpse into the woods surrounding Flagg's Park show that the animals within are viciously hostile. A wolf, an owl, and a bat are seen glaring, snarling, and screeching at the viewers, hinting that Satan's influence has possibly infected them.
- No Name Given: Eli Lester's beloved daughter is never given a name. Even her tombstone reads "Beloved Daughter" instead of a name.
- Nothing Is Scarier: It's never revealed where the demons came from, or why they started plaguing the land Oakwood was built upon. The Mi'kmaq pictograms seem to imply that they just sort of... appeared one day.
- Obviously Evil: The "time capsule" centered on throughout the episode is an enormous, ominous-looking box with huge spikes on the top and bottom, strange symbols drawn all around it, and bound shut with a massive chain and lock. The townspeople pay absolutely no mind to this and are eager to see what their forefathers left behind.
- Off with His Head!: One woman (the one who thought the 1821 disappearance was the result of a Native American massacre) has her head torn off her body by a demon. Mayor Wrightson's severed head also lands on Anton's squad car after his body is dismembered.
- Our Demons Are Different: The demons appear in Oakwood every 200 years, and they are only active when the capsule is open. They also take many different, Lovecraftian-looking forms, ranging from giant spiders, snake-woman hybrids, eyeless blobs with acidic vomit, and lanky humanoid monsters.
- Porn Stash: One of the children in Oakwood's elementary school, when asked what could be in the capsule, mentions that his father has one of these.
- The Quiet One: Carmella, Mac's cameraperson, has only a handful of lines in the episode. As fitting to her character, they're all pretty snarky.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: Although Marnie failed to stop the demons from massacring everyone else in her town, she herself manages to escape. Her survival, in addition to the fact that the whole massacre was broadcast on live TV, means that the time capsule's true nature has been revealed to the rest of the world. As a result, humanity now has another 200 years to prepare for the next demon attack.
- Satan: He appears at the end of the story, sitting on a massive throne in the depths of Hell, as glimpsed by Carmella's camera, which one of his demons takes down to his kingdom.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: The town elder who murdered Eli Lester's daughter used his power to walk away free, along with just a hint of bribery. His doing so, however, spelled doom for the whole town.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The time capsule is revealed to contain an army of demons, who massacre every living thing in sight when it is opened.
- Ship Tease: Marnie and Mac apparently develop feelings for one another, but it's only present in a couple of scenes.
- Shout-Out:
- The news network that Mac works for, WGON, is the same news network from Dawn of the Dead (1978).
- The scene when the slide projector goes haywire is reminiscent of the scene of the slide projector from Sinister.
- Oakwood shares its name with the empty town featured in "Where Is Everybody?", the first episode of The Twilight Zone (1959).
- One of the students in Oakwood's elementary school is modeled after Gretchen Grundler.
- Slasher Smile: A menacing one grows across the face of the elder who kills Eli Lester's daughter.
- Sole Survivor: By the end of the episode, Marnie is the only surviving citizen of Oakwood. She's also the first person to survive any of the massacres at all.
- Stripped to the Bone: The crazy guy who thought the 1821 disappearance was the work of aliens has his flesh melted by one of the demons' acidic vomit. A bunch of other victims are shown to have suffered the same fate as the demons return to the capsule.
- Summon Bigger Fish: Once the demon on the squad car corners Marnie, it emits a sonic roar that summons the rest of the demons to her location.
- Tagalong Reporter: Mac, who slowly falls in love with Marnie. He visits her at the local school when she's subbing for a teacher, and when he discovers Marnie's findings about the capsule's demonic nature, he vows to help her get the word out, even if he's forbidden to directly report it on air.
- Take the Wheel: Marnie is forced to drive Anton's car after the latter dies fighting off a demon. The sudden shift causes her to lose control of the car and smash it into a tree, but she does cross over the city limits, saving her life.
- Taxidermy Terror: Mayor Wrightson's office is covered with taxidermied animals, positioned everywhere in the room. Mayor Wrightson himself isn't actually evil, so he could possibly be a collector. Either that or the animals came with the office.
- Time-Passes Montage: A short montage is played of Marnie overlooking Eli's information again and again for the next few days, and finally making the crucial discovery moments before the capsule is opened.
- Town with a Dark Secret: Oakwood is an unusual variation. While the disappearance of 1821 is widely known, no one knows the cause, not even any of the actual townsfolk. Come the climax, this is revealed to be because there's never been anyone left alive to tell about it.
- The Trees Have Faces: A massive replica of Satan's face, formed out of various trees, looms over Flagg's Park, where the capsule is buried. An illustration of the face in Eli's journals causes Marnie's slide projector to display the "1621" villagers being horrifically killed and decaying.
- Truth in Television: The disappearance of Oakwood's population is largely based upon the Roanoke colony, whose inhabitants similarly disappeared. Unlike Oakwood, Roanoke only had one disappearance, and it's largely believed that the settlers integrated with a native tribe to survive a harsh winter.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Marnie's research into Eli Lester's journals and her historical society's discovery of the capsule ultimately unfolds into the complete destruction of her town and the deaths of everyone she ever knew.
- The town elder who murdered Lester's daughter can also very well qualify, as he's the reason Eli let the 1821 disappearance happen.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Marnie discovers that, for whatever reason, the demons are unable to venture beyond Oakwood's city limits. She accidentally ends up saving her own life when she crosses over the county line.
- Wham Line: "It's not a time capsule! IT'S A CAGE!!!!" Marnie says this right as her father is dismembered from the inside by the first demon to emerge, which slices the capsule's chains and releases Hell on earth.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The children that Marnie teaches at the school are never seen after her lesson about the capsule, though it's safe to assume they didn't survive the massacre, either.
- You Are Too Late: Marnie finally learns the truth behind the time capsule and its true purpose, but she's too late to stop her father from damaging its lock.
- Zerg Rush: The demons immediately charge upon the citizens of Oakwood and slaughter them all once they're set free.
