"Perky's Buds" and "Abstinence Camp" is the second episode of Nightmare Time 2, the second season of Nightmare Time.
As with most Nightmare Time episodes, it's a Double Feature, consisting of two stories.
Episode spoilers are unmarked in the folders below.
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Perky's Buds
Perky's Buds
- edited by Matt Lang
Perky's Buds is the first story in the second episode of Nightmare Time 2.
After working hard to earn her inheritance, Emma Perkins is finally able to open the pot farm that she had always dreamt about, Perky's Buds. Together with Ziggs, her graphic designer and farmhand, she fights to protect her farm from nighthawks that keep eating the product, and some unfriendly neighbors.
- Adorable Evil Minions: The nighthawks, while creepy at times, are pretty damn cute.
- Airborne Mook: Emma and Ziggs face an army of nighthawks with psychic abilities.
- Bird-Poop Gag: Just as Bob Metzger is about to condemn Emma and Ziggs to be sacrificed, a bird poops on his shirt. The humor doesn't last long.
- Bittersweet Ending: Played for Laughs. Emma and Ziggs manage to defeat Ezekiel and save humanity, and are immediately arrested for wiping out the nighthawk population.
- Cavalry Betrayal: The nighthawks save Emma and Ziggs from the Metzgers... but only to enslave them to grow marijuana for them.
- Early-Bird Cameo: After being name-dropped in the first two Hatchetfield stage shows and set to become a key Hatchetfield character in the third, Grace Chasity plays a small role in this story before taking center stage in "Abstinence Camp", this episode's second half.
- Enmity with an Object: After the birds are fooled by a scarecrow created by Emma and Ziggs, and are enraged by its lack of conversational skills.
- Feathered Fiend: The nighthawks rip the Metzgers apart, leaving Louie Metzger as little more than a skeleton.
- Fighting Your Friend: After the nighthawks use their psychic abilities to turn Ziggs into their puppet, Emma is forced to fight for her life against her employee.
- Half-Witted Hillbilly: The Metzgers certainly present as this, willing to kill Emma and Ziggs to protect the forest.
- Hypocritical Humor: Emma claims that Perky's Buds is all about raging against the capitalist patriarchy, "but in a chill way, while still making tonnes of money".
- Mood Whiplash: The Metzgers prepare to execute Emma and Ziggs, only to be interrupted by a nighthawk shitting on Bob Metzger.
- People Puppets: Ziggs is turned into one of these by the nighthawks, to be used as a tool to farm, or to fight Emma.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Emma and Ziggs gain a hard-won victory against the nighthawks, but are arrested and will likely face life in prison for having killed the entire population of the iconic and endangered species.
- Sand Necktie: The Metzgers put Emma and Ziggs in these, burying them up to their necks before they try running them over with a wheat-cutter.
- The Stoner: Both Emma and Ziggs aren't hesitant to test the product that they are growing on their farm.
- Stripped to the Bone: Louie Metzger, once the nighthawks are through with him.
- What Did I Do Last Night?: After being rescued from the Metzgers' attack, Emma and Ziggs wake up in their own beds, covered in dirt, trying to remember what happened the night before.
Abstinence Camp
Abstinence Camp
- edited by Nick Lang
Abstinence Camp is the second story in the second episode of Nightmare Time 2.
When a rumor is spread claiming that Stephanie Lauter is pregnant, she is forced to spend her summer at Abstinence Camp, stuck with nerdy prudes like Grace Chasity, the girl who mistakenly spread the rumor in the first place. Campers spin stories about a vengeful Axe-Man who slays anyone who doesn't abstain, but those are only ghost stories... or are they?
- Musical Sequences:
"Axe Man" performed by Corey Dorris and Bryce Charles; directed by Curt Mega
"Virginity Rocks!" performed by Jon Matteson and Kim Whalen; directed by Lauren Lopez
- All Crimes Are Equal: Lumber Axe tends to treat anything more intimate than hand-holding as an evil act worthy of murder.
- Badass Bookworm: Pete is described as "surprisingly jacked."
- Big "NO!": Girl Jeri lets out one of these after seeing Boy Jerry dead.
- Camp Wackyname: The titular Abstinence Camp is aptly called "Camp Idonwannabang". Like Grace Chasity's surname, it's just one T away from being way too on-the-nose.
- Cigar Chomper: Mayor Solomon Lauter lights one as he takes Steph to camp, signaling that he's done talking to his daughter.
- Cool Kid-and-Loser Friendship: The cool, party animal Steph and the nerdy Pete become friends and lovers during their stay at Camp Idonwannabang.
- Desecrating the Dead: After Gabe is killed, Lumber Axe turns his skin into a pile of wallets, left as a message to the camp counselors.
- Friendship Denial: Grace believes that she and Steph are friends, and that she's trying to help Steph with her bad habits. From Steph's perspective, Grace is trying to ruin her life by getting her sent to abstinence camp.Grace: I was just trying to help. I'm your friend.
Steph: No, you're not. You're an annoying, self-righteous, nerdy prude. And the only good thing about this is that I won't have to spend anymore time with you. - Get It Over With: After Lumber Axe kills Boy Jerry, Girl Jeri tells him to "Just finish it already." He obliges.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Boy Jerry is split in half, head to toe, by Lumber Axe.
- Hypocrite: Boy Jerry and Girl Jeri run an abstinence camp that is hardline about maintaining virginity, but they themselves had a child in the form of Lumber Axe. Making it worse, Boy Jerry actively encourages their child to kill anyone who breaks the camp rules about sex and, when Grace brings this up, all he can do is try to offer Blatant Lies about the Delivery Stork.
- Interrupted Intimacy: Steph and Pete are just about to test the Lumber Axe myth by showering in the same stall, when they are stopped by Girl Jeri and Boy Jerry, just before Lumber Axe strikes.
- Off with His Head!: Noah is decapitated by Lumber Axe for making out with Mary.
- One-Steve Limit: The two featured camp counselors are both named Jerry, specifically Boy Jerry and Girl Jeri. They call their son Little Jerry.
- Passing the Torch: After the final confrontation, Lumber Axe is content to retire into the woods, leaving Grace with his axe, which she uses to keep the other campers in line.
- Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Camp Idonwannabang has a strict color coded policy, making the girls wear pink t-shirts and the boys wear blue. When Steph jokingly asks for a blue one, the counselor is not amused.
- Production Foreshadowing: This story is a spiritual predecessor to Nerdy Prudes Must Die, introducing its three main protagonists — Stephanie Lauter appearing for the first time, while Grace Chasity and Peter Spankoffski are pulled out of the background after several years of buildup — and exploring their dynamic, personalities, and themes. The song "Axe Man" even contains a motif found in two tracks in Nerdy Prudes Must Die. It was originally intended to be a spiritual sequel — or, depending on how much Hatchetfield lore was in place during the development of the "nerdy prudes" trilogy, just a regular sequel — but the need for a second season of Nightmare Time to happen before Nerdy Prudes changed those plans.
- Self-Made Orphan: Lumber Axe at the end of the story kills his parents, Boy Jerry and Girl Jeri.
- Sex Signals Death: Any character who even comes close to having sex in the Witchwood meets their death at the hands of Lumber Axe, the Mad Woodsman, who believes that any sort of intimacy in his woods is a crime that deserves death.
- Stereotypical Nerd: Pete Spankoffski is a socially awkward, introverted, suspender-and-glasses-wearing nerd. He is able to overcome some of his stereotypical nerdiness by the end, standing up for himself and Stephanie to the counselors, and holding his own against Lumber Axe for a bit.
