DETAILS

Voiceover: Raxl – “A mysterious skull of a man long dead. The blood covered locket of the recently deceased Erica whom Jean Paul Desmond, a devoted husband, has vowed to bring back to live. All add to the mystery and death ominously roaming the corridors of this great house, high atop the poisonous island of Maljardin.”

In the main hall, Jean Paul asks Raxl how she found the skull. Raxl says that the portrait fell and revealed it and tells him she knew nothing of the cavity before then. She insists that it must be a product of the evil in the house. Jean Paul wonders instead if it is a victim of Jacques. He wonders why the skull was revealed to them now. Raxl does not know, but says she feels greater evil in the house. Jean Paul wonders if this is the angry spirit that disturbed Vangie. Raxl says it is more of a connection with the wickedness to come. Jean Paul thinks it might be good fortune if the skull is one of a man who was murdered in the house. Perhaps he simply wanted them to find the skull to help him rest. Raxl does not believe that. Jean Paul insists that this was the disruptive influence and once it is removed they can have another séance. Raxl Tells Jean Paul that he should not proceed with another séance, and that if he does she will not answer for the consequences. Meanwhile, Jean Paul tells Jacques that in helping them find the skull he may have made the wrong move.

In her room, Holly talks with Alison, wondering who put the poison in her drink. Alison does not know. Holly tells her that she no longer suspects her mother, and that it might not have been a person at all. However, Alison is sure someone in the house did it. In the temple, Raxl comments that no one can be trusted. She says there must be no séance while the spirits are around. Raxl interprets the skull as a warning from the great serpent that death will soon strike.

While in the great hall, Jacques possesses Jean Paul. Vangie rushes down the stairs, sees the skull and screams. Jacques wonders what the man’s crime was. He conjectures that he might have been a prisoner unwilling to remain, like the people on the island now. The crime does not matter. Jacques tells all assembled that the rope used to hang the man was passed through the cheeks. The man was not merely hanged, but suspended on tiptoe with a rope between the jaws. Vangie, Reverend Dawson and Alison are all speechless at Jean Paul/Jacques’ strange behavior.

Later, Raxl visits holly in her room, bringing her something to drink. Holly refuses. In the lab, Alison mixes something and creates a bubbling green mass. Upstairs, Raxl continues to attempt to get Holly to drink her tea. Alison enters and Raxl tells her Holly will not drink the tea she ordered. Holly worries it might be poisoned. Raxl takes a drink of it to prove it is not.

Meanwhile, Jacques brings the skull down to Quito’s room, Quito is afraid of it. Jacques brings it closer to him and Quito cowers away. Jacques enjoys taunting him, telling Quito that Raxl wishes the skull be left in his room and mockingly tells him to guard it well.

Upstairs, Jacques apologizes to the Reverend for all the trouble he’s caused. The Reverend says he is sometimes asking for help. Jacques asks the Reverend if he can help him, and the Reverend replies that he must be allowed to try. Jacques warns him that he is nothing except by the will of the master.

Upstairs, Alison tells Holly the poison in the wine was from the vegetation on the island. She says there will be no reversal effect. Holly wonders who put the poison in her drink in t he first place. Later, Raxl enters Quito’s room and wonders who put the skull there. Quito indicates that it was Jean Paul.

In the lab, the Reverend tells Alison that Jean Paul seems powerless to control whatever may be affecting him, but Alison counters that he might actually be in control too much. She tells the Reverend if Holly had drunk slightly more of the poison she’d be dead. The Reverend wonders if the story of the skull that Jean Paul told them upstairs was just a story or if it was a threat. Alison says that if it was a threat Jean Paul must be mad.

Raxl and Quito take the skull to the temple. There, Raxl prays to the great serpent, returning the skull to he who sent it. She says one who opens himself to the devil’s evil is about to die. Meanwhile, Vangie speaks with Holly and wonders if the poison was real or spiritual. She is concerned about the force at the séance that came through her and into Holly. Vangie admits that, while she thought another séance was impossible, she now must have one because of the locket and what it represents, and she insists that Holly must be the contact. Holly does not want to do it, fearing that whatever spirit was present before will return and kill her.

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