THE MIDNIGHT CLUB producer Mike Flanagan reveals story details for the canceled second season

The midnight club producer and director Mike Flanagan he’s not happy that Netflix canceled the series after just one season. He says in a recent blog post that he’s very disappointed with the streaming services’ decision, but what did he expect to happen after striking a deal with Amazon?

Either way, he explained that his biggest disappointment is that “we left so many story threads open, holding them back for a hypothetical second season, which is always a gamble.” So she decided to outline the story for season 2 so that we all know what we’re missing, but also answer the questions and give us some closure on some things, which is nice.

I enjoyed the first season of the series and it seems like a lot of other people did too! I appreciate Flanagan taking the time to share these details with us so we aren’t left hanging with unanswered questions.

Below you will find all the details he shared. Read them and let us know what you think!

AMISH

Season two would open with Amesh, his glioblastoma rapidly advancing. She would have told the first story of the season, but would have struggled to pull it off. We will focus on her romance with Natsuki for those first few episodes when it becomes clear that Amesh’s death is imminent.

Meanwhile, Ilonka is trying to reconcile how she was deceived by Julia Jayne, all while falling further in love with Kevin, and realizing that she may be fading faster than she lets on.

Ilonka begins a serialized story in an attempt to encourage him to “stay alive a little longer”, as he did in season one. And the story he tells is… REMEMBER ME.

That was the thing I was most excited about this season.

REMEMBER ME is one of my all-time favorite Pike books – it tells the story of a teenage girl who is pushed off a balcony and wakes up as a ghost. She must navigate as a spirit as she tries to solve her own murder. We were going to stretch this story into 5 episodes. We were going to use it as a vehicle for Ilonka to try to come to terms with the fact that she was going to die, and to start trying to convince herself that she’s a ghost…but that’s the coolest part. .. the main character of Ilonka’s story would not be played by Ilonka. She would be played by… Anya.

Because that’s how we continue to live, isn’t it? In the minds of those we leave behind. And Ilonka would use REMEMBER ME as a way to imagine her close friend Anya, waking up as a ghost, sailing into the afterlife. And this creates one of the best mechanisms of the show: even if a character dies, as long as he is remembered by the members of the club, he lives on in his stories about him.

As the story begins to take hold, however, the group will have to deal with the death of Amesh, who he greets with grace and courage.

In her final moments, she sees someone in her room — the season 1 janitor, played by Robert Longstreet, who says comforting things to Amesh even though she can’t answer.

In his last, final moments, the SHADOW descends on Amesh, and he is swallowed by it, which reinforces the idea that the Shadow is DEATH…

With Amesh’s death comes something that turns the whole thing upside down: a NEW PATIENT. We didn’t quite figure out who it would be, but he would be a new roommate for Ilonka. Someone who takes Anya’s old bed. Ilonka would initially find herself cold to her, just as Anya was when Ilonka arrived. Also feeling like this new girl didn’t necessarily have to be introduced to the Club. But of course they were going to develop a beautiful friendship over the course of the season. The new girl joins the club, where something else exciting is happening: Cheri is telling a story. We hadn’t decided which one, but I think she could have been MONSTER.

Natsuki would be next to die which would be heartbreaking. And again, she would have spoken to the caretaker just before it happened…and again, the Shadow would arrive in the final moments.

For Spence, however, things would take a different turn.

Advances in HIV treatment in the late 1990s would kick in and see his prognosis change. The HIV cocktail came out in December 1995 and we really wanted to explore it.

Spence would ride the wave of antiviral advances and, by the end of the season, would no longer be classified as terminal. In the Season 2 finale, Spence would leave Brightcliffe just like Sandra in Season 1, going to manage her illness and live out the rest of her life.

But as for Season 1’s BIG MYSTERIES…here are some answers: What’s up with Dr. Stanton’s tattoo and bald head? Well, some things. First, Dr. Stanton is actually the daughter of the original Paragon cult leader, Aceso. Her nickname was Athena, she wrote the Paragon journal that Ilonka found in S1. She turned on her mother and helped the children escape, but because she was part of her cult during her teens, she got tattoos.

It was her initials that Ilonka found carved into the tree in Season 1 (her maiden name was Georgina Ballard, hence the GB Ilonka finds carved into the tree).

She hated what her mother had become and the atrocities of the cult. He reclaimed the property after her mother left and wanted to turn it into a place that celebrated her life. He was trying to undo his mother’s legacy and leave behind something wonderful. She wears a wig at the end of S1 not for a sinister reason, but because she’s having chemo. Dr. Stanton has cancer. After helping so many people deal with the disease, he now has to deal with it alone.

Her treatment would be successful and she would go into remission, but having to deal with him – while caring for terminal children in Brightcliffe – would be a very introspective arc for Stanton.

And the living shadow? It’s Death, isn’t it? Well no.

At the end of the season, Kevin will die… followed shortly by Ilonka. And as he is dying, two things will happen. First, he’ll find himself talking to the janitor, played by Robert Longstreet… and make a discovery.

HE is Death. And nothing to be afraid of. It turns out that no one else has ever seen this character. Stanton has a cleaning service and nurses prepare the rooms – the only people who ever saw this mysterious janitor were the patients. He is Death and offers them kind words before they die. So what was the Shadow?

This is an idea we take directly from the REMEMBER ME book, and we will see it play out in the final moments of Ilona’s final tale. In Pike’s book, Shari is being pursued by a dark entity called The Shadow. When he finally gets her, though, it turns out that’s not a bad thing at all.

The Shadow is YOURSELF. He is the unknown. As she envelops someone in the last moment of their life, she takes them through a place of understanding and catharsis, preparing them for the next step.

THIS is what happened to Anya in S1 when the Shadow finally caught up with her – that’s why she fantasized about a life beyond Brightcliffe, which ultimately allowed her to find acceptance of her death. It looks different for everyone, depending on their mindset, because it’s simply an extension of themselves.

The Shadow is only the final catharsis, a return to our original form: it is a moment of true understanding and, once we experience it, we move on to the next place.

We see the Shadow in full effect when it finally arrives for Kevin. KEVIN DIES with Ilonka by his side, leading up to the biggest reveal of the season:

Who were Mirror Man and Cataract Woman?

They were Stanley Oscar Freelan and his wife, who built Brightcliffe (fun fact, named after the real Freelan Oscar Stanley, who built my favorite hotel in America – the Stanley Hotel. The Stanley is also the inspiration for THE SHINING! ).

But more than that… there’s a reason Ilonka only sees Stanley in the mirror and sees Cataract Woman every time she looks at Kevin. This is another thing we took from Pike’s original book… these are not ghosts, but glimpses of PAST LIVES.

Ilonka WAS Stanley Oscar Freelan and Kevin WAS his wife. They have lived many lives like this and are true soul mates – they always find each other and always fall in love. In this life, they knew it would be short, so they decided to find themselves in the house they built. They’ve “remembered” who they are and caught a glimpse of themselves in reflections, and sometimes when they look at each other. This is also why Ilonka’s very first words to Kevin in S1 were “Do I know you?” and why Kevin thought she was familiar too. They are two souls who always find each other again and again.

The story goes like this: Stanley was dying and he built this house on the cliff hoping the sea air would help him. He did, and he far outlived his prognosis (this goes for the real Freelan Stanley, too). However, his wife began to succumb to dementia.

She wandered the corridors, looking for him (“Honey!”) and even forgot to feed (“I’m starving…”) and finally refused to leave the basement. Heartbroken for her, Stanley painted the walls to look like the view of the woods and the ceiling to look like the night sky, so it would be a little more beautiful for her.

He also painted a maze on the floor, which was a technique used to try and curb the effects of dementia. He walked the pattern of the labyrinth and was believed to aid his cognition. Eventually, she developed scary cataracts, but Stanley loved her nonetheless.

They were soul mates.

So while they seemed scary in Season 1, that was just how Ilonka and Kevin’s minds tried to remember their past. We even warped their faces consistent with how memories degrade over time.

When the Shadow comes for Ilonka and gives her this understanding – this “remembering” – she realizes that she has nothing to fear. She and Kevin will shed these characters and be reborn, and have the joy of being reunited in another way.

The Shadow comes for her, Death takes her gently, and Ilonka departs with Kevin into the cosmos, ready for their next incarnation.

The series would end with Cheri telling this story to a whole new table of patients, including our new series leads. Most of our original cast would now exist as stories, a story told to the next “class” of storytellers at the table, who we will all have met by the end of the season. A story called “The Midnight Club”.

Well, that’s it… that was what we had in mind. It’s a shame we won’t make it, but it would be an even bigger shame if you guys just had to live with the unanswered questions and the breathtaking ending. I loved making this show and am so proud of the cast and crew. Especially our cast, who attacked this story every day with incredible wit and courage.

But for now, we’ll put out the fire and leave the library dark and silent. To whom before, and to whom after. To us now, and to those beyond.

Seen or not seen, here but not here.

I will always be grateful to have been a part of this club.