"The Haunted Car" is the third episode of the second season of the Disney+/Hulu series, Goosebumps.
Synopsis[]
Alex steals a car that has a mind of its own.
Plot[]
One Year Ago
Alex tells Murph to quit it as a series of firecrackers go off in the room. He ignores her and lights another one, saying she's the one who brought them to the party. He looks more closely at what she has and is impressed. He offers another kid $20 to let him tape one in his hand and light it. Alex warns him not to do it. He lights it and one in his own hand. The other kid panics and unwraps the tape, then throws the firecracker away, so it explodes in the corner of the room. Murph tries to do the same, but he can't get the tape off and neither can Alex. She finally gets it off at the last minute and he throws it. The explosion starts a fire. Alex tries to put it out as the others flee, but she can't, so she leaves as well.
Jen arrives at the scene. Officer Morales shows her the bag, which she recognizes as Alex. She doesn't know where Alex got the fireworks. She goes over to the car, where Alex is in handcuff. Alex tries to explain, but can't. She says it's not her fault, but Jen doesn't believe her. Jen's not her mother right now, but a detective at a crime scene where she's the prime suspect. Officer Morales is going to come talk to her and Jen advises her not to say anything. Alex asks if Jen believes her. Jen just walks away.
Devin comes downstairs and Anthony asks if he's seen Trey. Devin flashes back to his fight with Trey and says no. Anthony thinks he broke into the basement. He's cleaning up the mess from Trey breaking out of the basement. Cece comes downstairs. She hasn't seen Trey either. Devin tells her that Trey broke into the basement last night. Anthony admits that he smashed Trey's window first. Devin has to leave to meet Frankie. After he's gone, Anthony asks Cece what's going on with Devin. Cece says she doesn't know. Anthony knows she's lying, so she tells him to ask Devin himself. He asks if he needs to be worried. Cece tells him about Devin's memory being fuzzy and him thinking he fell into a sewer. Anthony asks when and why Devin didn't tell him. Cece says Devin didn't want to scare him. Anthony asks if Devin went in the basement when the door was open. Cece is upset that Anthony is focusing more on that than what's happening to Devin. No one goes in the basement, except Trey apparently. Cece says she has to leave.
Teresa explains that the department of probation is issuing Alex an ankle bracelet to wear. Alex asks if it tracks her steps. Jen and Teresa aren't amused. Alex signs and so does Jen. Teresa leaves to take a phone call from her daughter and Alex jokes that she'll be the only kid at the precinct Fourth of July barbecue with ah ankle bracelet. Jen asks whose fault that is. Teresa comes back and puts the ankle bracelet on Alex, saying her future success will be a family effort. She needs to follow the rules and keep to her 10:00 PM curfew or she'll be back in front of a judge. Teresa leaves and Alex looks at her reflection in the mirror. She grabs her bag and Jen asks where she's going. She says she has bodies to bury, but then says she has community service. Jen says she can't help Alex if she doesn't take this seriously. Alex says Jen didn't help her in the first place and leaves.
Alex is doing her community service when she spots Murph across the street and calls out to him. The community service supervisor stops her from talking to him. As Murph gets on his bike and leaves, Alex says she needs to talk to him because he's the reason she went to juvie. The supervisor says he'll send her back if she takes another step. Alex gets back to work.
Frankie sees a customer off, then sits down with Devin and says she murdered her boyfriend. Devin says she didn't. It wasn't Trey. It was just a monster that looked like Trey. Frankie doesn't understand how Devin is calm about this. Devin says a lot of not-normal things have happened. Something dragged him into the sewer the other night and he only remembers bits and pieces of it. It was kind of like a monster version of the plants in his dad's basement doing it.
Anthony is upset that Jen took so long to arrive. She says other things are happening in Brooklyn. She asks how he knows Trey did it. Anthony shows him Trey's work shirt, which was in the chest freezer. Jen questions why Trey would leave his clothes, but Anthony doesn't understand why kids do anything. Maybe it's a TikTok challenge. Jen doubts that. Anthony says it could have been retaliation. She asks for what. Anthony says he smashed Trey's car window because Trey was blocking his driveway again. Jen asked Anthony not to mess with him. Anthony says Trey stole something very valuable and he needs it back. Jen asks what could be more valuable than his laptop and all his research equipment, which were untouched. He says it's his research and Trey doesn't know how unstable and fragile it is. Jen says he could file a police report about it. He doesn't want to do that. He just wants it back as soon as possible. He never asks Jen for anything. She agrees to help him find Trey.
They got to Junior and Junior's Pit Stop. Joe Jr. is glad to see Jen because he was going to call her about Anthony. Anthony says Trey was trespassing and not for the first time. Joe Jr. goes to show Jen the window Anthony broke, but it's already fixed. He thinks Trey fixed it already. Jen says they need to talk to Trey, but Joe Jr. says he's not around. Anthony thinks he's lying and says Trey stole something from him. Jen reminds Joe Jr. that she's a cop. Joe Jr. says Trey's not there yet. He takes Frankie to work and then he hits up the gym. Jen asks him to call Trey. It goes to voicemail, so he tries Frankie next. Frankie hasn't seen him since yesterday. Now Joe Jr. is worried. Jen and Anthony leaves and Joe Jr. instructs an employee to move the car while he goes to look for Trey.
C.J. asks Alex why she texted. She asks to borrow his scooter for a few hours. He says no, but she says it's important. He doesn't trust that she'll bring it back, given her criminal history. She leaves, upset.
Alex is walking by the garage when she sees the employee park Trey's car and put the key in the visor. She climbs into the car and starts it, not noticing the goo seeping from around the gear shift.
Cece is walking when Alex pulls the car up next to her. She lies and says Trey let her borrow the car. Cece is heading into the city to present a con argument against free speech at her camp. Alex tells her to ditch it. Cece says they can't all be bad girls but Alex needs help with something. She blackmails Cece with the knowledge that she stole that lip gloss to get her to skip camp. Cece says no one will believe Alex over her. Alex says no, but she has a recording of it on her phone. Cece gets in the car.
As they stop, Cece tells Alex this is extortion. Alex knows, but doesn't think it's a big deal. She just needs Cece to go inside and ask the guy at the counter where Murph is. Alex can't do it because all Murph's buddies know he doesn't want to talk to her. Cece says she won't do that because she did some searching online on their way and found out that if you're on probation, like Alex, and you get reported for anything, like stealing a car, you go right back inside. And there's an anonymous number you can call to report someone. Alex says she borrowed the car, but Cece doesn't believe her. She goes to call, but Alex begs her not to. Cece is on hold. There are fifteen callers ahead of her, so she has that amount of time to explain herself. Alex says everyone thinks she started a huge fire last year, which is why she went to juvie. But she didn't do it. She dabbled in some light crime and once rolled a vending machine off a pier to impress a girl, but she didn't burn down the building. Cece asks who did it if not her. Alex says it's Murph. She needs Cece to help her find him so she can get him to confess. Cece asks why she didn't just tell the police he did it. Alex says she's not a snitch. Cece wonders why Alex wants him to confess when she already served the time. Alex doesn't want her mother to think she's a criminal. Cece hangs up her phone and says Alex should have started with that. She gets out of the car and goes inside. Alex is startled when the radio turns itself on. None of the controls work. Next, the heat starts blasting and she can't control that either. She's interrupted when Cece knocks on the window. She has Murph's work address.
Anthony wants Jen to go out looking for Trey right away, but Jen needs to take his statement first. He broke into Anthony's house and now he's missing. He's missing and his clothes are all that's left. He asks Jen if that sounds familiar. Jen doesn't think it's the same thing. Anthony agrees, because Trey isn't family. Jen reminds him that they both lost someone that night. Anthony says the only thing is that it wasn't his fault. Jen says she loved Matty. He was her boyfriend. Anthony says they were only together for six months while he was Anthony's brother. Jen says it's not the time or place to have that conversation. Anthony says she brought him in for questioning when he's the victim. Jen reminds him he hasn't told her what Trey took. Anthony says she wouldn't understand and leaves. Officer Morales tells Jen that Joe Jr. called and said he hadn't heard from Trey and now Trey's car is gone. Jen say she'll track him down and has Morales put an APB out on the car.
Devin stands on the basement steps and calls for his dad. No one answers, so he leads Frankie down into the basement. They need to take a look around and then they'll go. Frankie shows him where she fell.
Anthony gets home and notices the manhole cover in the street is slightly off. He remembers Cece saying Devin fell into the sewer. He walks over to the manhole and looks down.
Devin looks through a book of drawings. Frankie asks if they can go, but as Devin goes to lead them out, they hear noise upstairs, so they hide. Anthony comes downstairs with a vine from the sewer. He starts recording himself and talks about the vines that grew from the substance on Matty's hoodie. He takes a sample of the vine from the sewer. When he cuts into it, black goo comes out. He squeezes some onto a petri dish. He realizes it's the same substance that was in the freezer. He watches as it moves in the dish and realizes the substance seems to know where the bulb is as it seems to be going as close to it as it can. He follows the fluid and leaves the basement. Devin and Frankie are shocked.
Alex points out Murph to Cece. Cece sees that he's wearing scrubs and says he doesn't really look like a lying arsonist. Alex gets out and tells Murph she just wants to talk. Murph gets on his bike and leaves. Alex gets back into the car and starts to chase him. Cece tells Alex to stop acting like the bad guy when she claims she isn't one. She puts her hand over Alex's and Alex finally slows down. Then the goo covers Alex's foot and pushes it down on the accelerator, speeding the car up. She tells Cece her foot is stuck. After some time chasing Murph, Cece grabs the wheel, causing them to swerve into a pole. A gas goes from the car vent into Cece's cup. Alex asks if Cece is okay. Cece can't believe she fell for Alex's routine. She says Alex is screwed up. Alex says it wasn't her, just like she didn't burn the house down. Cece gets out, saying she'd rather walk or take a sketchy rideshare to get home. Alex looks at the car, then gets back in. It won't start. She grabs Cece's forgotten cup.
Alex repeatedly tries to start the car, but it won't. Then she watches, shocked, as the car starts to repair itself. She pulls out her phone to record and the radio starts up again. The car starts moving and traps her inside.
Cece is waiting on a corner when C.J. pulls up with her order, a side of ranch. She asks if the order possibly comes with a ride back to Gravesend. She bats her eyelashes at him to get him to agree. He hands her a helmet and admits it worked. He asks what she's doing out there and she says she took a wrong turn.
Jen and Morales arrive at the pole that Cece and Alex ran into, but the car is nowhere to be found. Jen asks if he has any idea how this happened. Someone driving by called it in and it was definitely Trey's car. But there's no trace of the car, not a single thing. It doesn't make any sense. Trey knows how to fix cars, but even he can't do that. Jen calls Alex's phone and it rings on the ground where she dropped it. Jen finds it under some trash in the street. She says Alex better be okay because she's grounded until she's 40.
Alex remains trapped in the car, which is driving her around. She's surprised when Murph drives up behind her. He pulls up alongside her and challenges her to a game of chicken. She shows him both her hands and says she's not controlling the car. Murph swerves off and crashes into another car. Meanwhile, Trey's car breaks through a barrier and keeps driving. Alex climbs into the backseat and opens the trunk access. Alex opens the trunk and jumps out just before Trey's car drives over the cliff into the water. Alex looks out at it and says no one will believe this.
The car dissolves into goo and makes its way back ashore.
Alex is walking when Jen pulls up beside her. She's been looking all over for Alex. Alex won't even try to explain it. She gets into Jen's car. Jen asks if Alex is okay. Alex says she is. It's almost 10:00 PM, which means her curfew is almost up. Alex doesn't care. She'll go back to juvie. Jen says it's not 10 yet and uses her lights and sirens to drive them home.
Alex races inside and she and Jen watch as the light turns green. They sigh in relief. Alex thanks Jen.
Anthony explores the sewer. He is plagued by memories of the night Matty went missing. After Matty led him out, he told Matty he wished he didn't have a big brother. He continues following the goo until it forms a root pattern in the dish. He wonders aloud what happened there. He looks at the panels on the wall. As he turns, Trey pops up in front of him.
Jen watches Alex sit silently at the table, playing with her ring. Jen comes over and says they need to talk about Trey because Jen needs to know where he is. Alex doesn't know, but Jen knows Alex was in his car. Alex says she borrowed it. Jen says they won't get anywhere if Alex can't be honest with her.
Anthony has wrapped Trey in a blanket and leads him to his car. He helps Trey get in and calls Jen.
Jen picks up the phone and Anthony tells her he found Trey at Fort Jerome. As she steps away to talk, Alex grabs Cece's cup and puts it on the counter, where the liquid disappears.
Anthony tells Jen he was right and it's happening again.
Cast[]
Starring[]
- David Schwimmer as Anthony Brewer
- Ana Ortiz as Jen Diaz
- Jayden Bartels as Cece Brewer
- Sam McCarthy as Devin Brewer
- Elijah M. Cooper as C.J. Lewis
- Francesca Noel as Alex Diaz
- Galilea La Salvia as Frankie Garcia Bravo
Guest Starring[]
- Stony Blyden as Joseph "Trey" Jimenez III
- Christopher Paul Richards as Matty Brewer
- Patrick Scott McDermott as Stink
- Esteban Benito as Officer Morales
- Nicole Shalhoub as Teresa
- Ethan Miguel Viera as Murph
Co-Starring[]
- Wayne Lopez as Joe Jr.
- Danny Doherty as Community Service Supervisor
Music[]
| Song | Performer | Scene |
|---|---|---|
| "Redrum" | 21 Savage |
|
| "Compromising" | Lonas |
|
| "Paint the Town Red" | Doja Cat |
|
| "Chop Suey" | System of a Down |
|
| "Chop Suey" | System of a Down |
|
| "Sound of da Police" | KRS-One |
|
| "Chop Suey" | System of a Down |
|
| "Redrum" | 21 Savage |
|
Gallery[]
Episode Stills[]
