C.J. Lewis is a main character in Goosebumps: The Vanishing. He is portrayed by Elijah M. Cooper.
C.J. is the eyes and ears of Gravesend. He is outgoing and thrives on gossip but hides his reluctance to venture beyond Brooklyn. Working at his parents' restaurant, C.J. is constantly running late with food deliveries and struggles to convince his skeptical parents with his excuses.
History[]
C.J. was delivering food orders for his parents' restaurant when he ran into Anthony Brewer and met Anthony's children: Cece and Devin. C.J. invited them to hang out at the park later. When they did so, C.J. greeted them happily and welcomed them to the group. C.J. then asked Cece and Devin to tell the true story of what happened to their uncle, who had disappeared in 1994. Cece didn't want to tell the story, but Devin explained that he and some friends were going to spend the night at Fort Jerome on a dare when they disappeared. When Frankie asked if he was scared of the place, Devin said no, leading Trey to dare him to prove it.
They drove to Fort Jerome, where Trey cut the gate lock with bolt cutters, then sent Devin inside to take pictures. Trey revealed that he knew a lot of the place's history because his father was interviewed for a 20/20 episode about the disappearance. While Devin was inside, Trey got annoyed by Cece talking to Frankie about Frankie being Devin's first kiss and used the bolt cutters to damage a transformer, cutting the power to the building. Devin finally stumbled out with Cece's help and they rushed to leave.[1]
C.J. came to deliver food to Devin's house. When he got there, Devin said he didn't actually want the food and gave it back to C.J. in exchange for a favor. Together, they went down into the sewer. C.J. held the flashlight as Devin looked around. He found a root in some water, but when they heard a scream in the distance, C.J. left and said he would never help Devin again.[2]
When Alex texted, C.J. came to her and she asked to borrow his scooter. He told her no because he didn't think he'd get it back and he needed it to his job. Later that day, C.J. delivered a side of ranch to Cece on a street corner and she asked him if the delivery could come with a ride back to Gravesend, as she'd been stranded. He agreed and gave her a helmet to wear.[3]
When his parents learned Trey was in the hospital, they sent C.J. there with some food. C.J. brought the food to the hospital, but had trouble finding Trey. He spotted Ramona Pamani in the hallway and asked her where the ICU was. She said she didn't know because she didn't work there. Finally, C.J. found Alex and gave her some of the food.[4]
C.J. was delivering food to Mrs. Murray when he got scared, She didn't answer the door and told him to bring the food in. He did so, but was scared when she turned around and scream. He ran out and went back to Gwendolyn's, where his mom was angry with him for having so many failed and late deliveries. He told her it was because he belonged in upper management, not delivery. He had ideas to rebrand the restaurant to improve business. She agreed to give him a chance to prove himself. He went to deliver soup to Anthony and got scared again when Anthony's eye popped out. He went back to his mom, who didn't believe him. They went back to Anthony's together and Anthony was whole and healthy. Gwen fired C.J. and took away his scooter and phone.
C.J. was back at the restaurant ranting to Addie about being fired when the phone rang. He answered it and it was Anthony, promising to explain if C.J. would come back to his house. C.J. went, but Anthony tied C.J. up in the basement and tried to get him to drink black goo. They were interrupted when Jen came over. While Anthony was in the basement, C.J. managed to free himself. When Anthony returned, he tackled him. But Anthony was able to grab him before he could escape and tried again to get the black goo into C.J.'s mouth. But before he could, Trey, Cece, and Frankie arrive and Trey hit Anthony with a bat, knocking his head off. When Anthony said they could join them, they ran upstairs and barricaded the door. C.J. then noticed a tape on the table and said that's what Jen dropped off. Frankie recognized it as a VHS tape and Devin said they could play it at Grandma's. They left to go there and met up with Alex along the way. Just as she joined them, Devin broke off from the group, saying he needed to get back to Hannah because he believe she could help them. They continued on without him.[5]
When they got to Naomi's nursing home, C.J. hooked up the player and played the tape. The watched as Matty and his friends planned their trip. Alex was horrified to watch her mom steal a new student's clothes because she was jealous of the girl talking to Matty. They kept watching as the teens went to Fort Jerome and ended up doing a hole. The camera focused on Hannah, who woke up and found her friends encased in pods. As Hannah tried to escape, a monster dragged her back into the hole right before Anthony and Jen arrived. Anthony saw the clothes and went to call the police while Jen grabbed the camera. While the teens watched, Devin went to Camp Nightmare with Hannah. They connected the name to Hannah from the video and when Devin didn't answer their phone call, they went out to Fort Jerome, where they found Devin standing on the ledge. He believed Hannah was standing there, telling him he needed to go with her to find the others. Cece was able to get through to him and convince him Hannah wasn't real. Then they got him back away from the ledge and decided to go back to Cece and Devin's to talk to whatever was inhabiting their dad. On their way, Frankie and C.J. were surprised to see Trey and Devin speaking peacefully. When they got to the house, Cece and Devin left the others outside while they went in. After searching the house, they came back and said Anthony wasn't there. Devin pulled up the footage from the doorbell camera and they watched Ramona Pamani come into the house and leave with a suitcase. They wondered where she'd taken him.[6]
The teens met again at Cece and Devin's house. Trey brought the tape of the 20/20 episode his dad participated in, which showed Ramona talking about them getting swept out to sea by fast-moving currents. With her name, they looked her up. They found nothing, but found an Avi Pamani, who had written a book about global risk management. While Frankie, Devin and Trey went to the hospital to see if they could figure out anything about her from there, Alex, Cece, and C.J. went to track down the book. They managed to track it down and learned that Ramona was Avi's daughter. When Trey texted with Ramona's address, they went to her home to meet them there. They got there just as she was leaving and Trey used his bolt cutters to get them inside, where they found a book detailing 55 years of research dedicated to containing the threat at Fort Jerome. Ramona found them and told them to leave. They explained what they knew and she agreed to help them save Anthony, but said they had to leave quickly because they didn't have a lot of time.[7]
Ramona went with the teens to Fort Jerome, where she injected them all with the serum, which she said would last an hour and sent them down the hatch with an extra dose for Anthony. She opened the hatch and said she'd keep it open from outside. However, when they got down, she closed it behind them, trapping them. Despite this, they decided to stick to the plan. They found Anthony and injected his pod with the serum, freeing him and waking him up. Anthony looked at Matty's pod and wanted to take him as well, but the teens told him they only had one dose of the serum and they'd used it on him. They started to think about ways they could get out. Anthony realized that since a power outage had opened the hatch on the night Devin was first there, it would again. They made a plan to do the same again, using Trey's knowledge from his electrical engineering class. Since the serum had worn off for all of them, Anthony put on a protective suit and disabled the ship while they worked. Once it was done, Trey cut the power and they walked back through the room to get out. Anthony had to stay while they escaped because the connection had broken and he had to hold the cord himself. He said he'd come once they were safe. They got out and waited for Anthony. Trey noticed another backup generator was powering up. Just as it was about to power up, Anthony appeared with Sameer, Matty, Nicole, and Hannah, having decided he couldn't leave them behind. They got out just before the hatch closed, then took the teens back to Anthony's place, where Anthony told them to stay put. When the 1994 teens got stir crazy, the 2024 teens decided to let them go out individually with chaperones. Matty agreed to stay behind while the other three went out. C.J. went with Sameer to the restaurant to get food. On their way back, Sameer asked him to stop because he felt sick. Sameer got off the scooter and coughed up a pod that encased him and turned him into a critter which then podded C.J. The other teens were also podded by the critters. They were all freed when Jen and Anthony went back to Fort Jerome and let the ship go, which called all the critters back to the ship. The 1994 teens and the scientists who had worked in the facility all went back to space with the aliens. At the end of summer, the teens came together to say goodbye to Devin and Cece, who were going back to the city to meet their mom. While Cece was going to stay, Devin had arranged to come back to Gravesend to live with his dad. C.J. also celebrated being re-hired by his mom and getting the promotion to manager.[8]
General Information[]
Personality[]
Physical appearance[]
Trivia[]
Gallery[]
Episode Stills[]
Appearances[]
- Stay Out of the Basement, Part I
- Stay Out of the Basement, Part II
- The Haunted Car
- Monster Blood
- The Boy Who Cried Monster
- The Girl Next Door
- Welcome to Camp Nightmare
- Invasion of the Body Squeezers