The Case of the Hungry Snake is the eighth and final episode of the first season of the Netflix original supernatural series, Dead Boy Detectives.
Synopsis[]
Crystal reckons with the past after memories come rushing back. With Esther's evil scheme underway, the group is forced to face their deadliest foe yet.
Plot[]
Crystal remembers her parents
With at least some of her memories back, Crystal remembers all the horrible things she did, like stealing and using her powers to torture people. When she regains consciousness, Edwin and Charles are standing over her. While she doesn't remember everything, she does however remember her full name, Crystal Palace Surname-Von Hoverkraft. She also remembers things about her parents, like their phone number.
Esther has built her machine and trapped a random ghost to see exactly how much juice she can recover from his pain and suffering. She turns it on and the machine causes immense pain before finally extracting a luminescent liquid, which she pours into her hand and soaks in, though it is short lasting, which is why she needs Edwin given that he's been to Hell.
Crystal calls her mom and dad in London, who seem very dismissive of her and are more focused with their art installation. She says that she's been missing for weeks, a notion that they laugh at, saying that she's so dramatic and that they don't have time for this as they prepare they are Greek antiquity art gallery. Upset, Crystal hangs up and swallows the remaining the marbles to regain all her memories and discovers how much of an awful person she was in life, even before David. There's a lot back in London that she has to deal with, so she packs her bags to return to London, telling the boys that the case is closed and that it's time to part ways.
Edwin thanks Niko
Edwin joins Niko on the roof, where he thanks her for her quick thinking with the Night Nurse. He then confesses that he told the boy he likes that he likes him. While he didn't feel the same way, they're better friends because of it. With the bracelet now off of Edwin, Niko suspect they will be returning to London soon, saying that it's hard when people you love leave, though he reminds Niko that he's just a mirror-hop away. In the meantime, Niko thinks it's time to call her mom and talk about her dad. Edwin assures Niko that no one is ever gone and that her father is looking down on her, he's smiling.
Crystal says that the person she saw in the memories was angry and toxic; she cares too much about them to ever let them meet her, as they would hate her if they did.
Jenny awakens in Niko's bed to find her hair braided, demanding answers. Crystal tells her the truth, revealing that she's psychic and that they live with ghosts, and Jenny was possessed by a demon. Jenny is in disbelief until Niko shows her Litty and Kingham, two tiny sprites in an enchanted jar. They joke about her hair only being braided on one side, though Litty admittedly likes it, saying that Jenny and the rest of her Mormon sister wives, Crystal and Nico, will land fantastic brother husbands. Edwin and Charles then enter the room, and to her surprise, she can see them.
While walking down the street, Esther crosses paths with a deputy and says that she was so relieved when they found Becky Aspen unharmed. The whole thing was such a mystery.
Crystal checks in on Jenny as she tries to take in her new reality. Crystal offers to wipe her memories of it all, but only if Jenny asks. However, Jenny would prefer to know, even if she hates it, reasoning that it's better than being ignorant.
With her bags packed, Crystal says goodbye to Edward, Charles, Niko, and Jenny. Niko hugs her goodbye and promises to text all the time. Jenny then hugs Crystal, who says that her neglectful parents are loaded, so she will send her some extra rent money, much to Jenny's amusement. Moving on to Edwin, they shake hands before turning her attention to Charles and giving him a goodbye kiss. She then exits the shop only for it to explode seconds later. A cloud of dust fills the area, only for Esther to emerge with Edwin and Charles' spirits trapped in jars, and disappears before Crystal can even catch sight of her. Crystal rushes back inside, where Jenny is conscious, but Niko is buried under scrap. Fortunately, she awakens and, for the most part, seems fine. Jenny and Niko then reveal that Esther blew up the shop and took the boys. Jenny has the wreckage of her family business to take care of, but she gives Crystal and Niko two meat cleavers to deal with Esther.
Crystal and Niko ask for the Cat King's help
Crystal and Niko go to the docs in search of the Cat King, revealing that Esther has taken Edwin and Charles. Unfortunately, he's not equipped to fight Esther. He's known that witch for decades, and she just killed him, and he's not eager to go through that again. They'll do the fighting, all they need is intel from the Cat King, who tells them all he knows about Esther, which starts before Port Townsend even existed. Pioneers came by boats, by land, by hook and crook. They cut forests and raised towns. Esther was one of these pioneers. She was tough and beautiful, but had a wayward husband. Betrayed, she turned to her mother of blasphemous magic, which she used to kill her husband and mistress. As Esther grew older and stronger in magic, her arrogance drove her to bite off more than she could chew. She wanted immortality and called the ancient goddess Lilith to give it to her. Lilith is the first woman, who was tossed out of Eden for wanting equal rights. Also known for blood magic and a go-to goddess for scorned women. Niko recalls the painting of Lilith she saw at the lighthouse gift shop. Asha, the shopkeeper, said Niko could use any image of Lilith to speak to her. Back to the story, Esther summoned her and asked for immortality, but she didn't read the fine print. Esther got eternal life, but that didn't mean eternal youth. While she would never die, she was doomed to end up as a living skeleton until she found a workaround of feeding little girls to her big hungry snake, which keeps her young. The town people kept her at bay with pitchforks and by burning any house that she kept, ostracizing her until she learned to blend in better. That said, Cat King encourages them to get some black salt, as it's a mixture of volcanic ashes and dead sea salt.
Charles awakens in iron chains in Esther's kitchen to find her standing in front of him. She then makes her way to the living room, where she has Edwin strapped to her device. She explains to Edwin that his soul has been tempered by decades of torture in Hell. That suffering has made his soul tough enough to withstand the pain She's about to deliver with her device to gain power.
Crystal and Niko arrive at Tragic Mick's shop for Black salt, which he already has prepared, as he knew they would be coming. They ask if he has any other high-quality tools for murdering witches. He reveals that Esther built an awful device and gives Niko a lucky charm, free of charge. He recalls how Niko listened to his story and tried to help, explaining that they never know when the good they do might come back around.
Esther turns on her machine, which immediately begins to draw power from Edwin. Not far off, Crystal and Niko sneak into Esther's house. They hear Edwin screaming and find Charles chained in the kitchen. Crystal and Niko plan to help Edwin while Charles must kill the snake in the cupboard, as it's the one thing keeping her young and strong. So she slides Charles his bag and her and Niko sneak around to the other side of the house. The plan is for Niko to save Edwin while Crystal keeps Esther distracted.
Unfortunately for Charles, his bag is just slightly out of reach, and every time he extends, the iron choker burns him. Much to Charles surprise, Monty, now as a crow, helps him and slides his bag towards him. Inside his bag, Charles grabs his lock pick and breaks free before heading down into the cupboard.
Crystal throws black salt at Esther to hopefully bring her pain and distract her while Niko fumbles with the keys in an attempt to set Edwin, however, Esther is a much more powerful witch thanks to the power boost from Edwin and is hardly fazed by the salt. Esther then knocks Crystal into the wall. Edwin attempts to help by using the string from his pocket as a weapon, but Esther destroys it and turns the machine back on.
Charles jumps down into the snake pit, armed with nothing but his paddle, which breaks after a single swing at the snake.
Crystal regains consciousness and tries to kill Esther with her own sacrificial knife but misses. Esther counters and knocks Crytsal back down, telling her that she's going to repair everything she's damages before she dies.
Charles proceeds to grab a sword from his bag to fight the snake.
In a last ditch effort to distract her, Crystal says that she knows how badly Esther's husband betrayed her. But inflicting that same hurt on other people isn't the answer. Crystal knows how toxic anger can be. If she hadn't met her friends, she might have gone on being a pawn for a demon or made people suffer to distract her from her own pain. Edwin and Charles have both gone through awful and unfair tragedies, but they both still choose to do good. Just as it seems Crystal may be getting through to Esther, Niko drops the keys, alerting Esther, who knocks her against the wall. Niko jumps back to her feet and jumps into front of Crystal, sacrificing herself as Esther, who shoots a magical shard her way. Niko blocks Crystal from the attack but is impaled in the heart and dies almost instantly. Crystal charges at Esther, but with her new power, she's able to stop Crystal in her tracks and hoist her in the air. Crystal grabs her arm to dig in her mind. Once inside her mind, Crystal calls out to Lilith, reveling that Esther took her gift and then killed hundreds of little girls to stay young, asking who gets justice for them.
Crystal and Esther return back to their bodies, where Esther slams Crystal against the wall, demanding to know what she did. She also promises to make sure Edwin suffers the greatest pain anyone has ever suffered. Meanwhile, back in the pit, Charles manages to kill the snake with a single cuts, thus depowering Esther, taking away her strength and youthfulness, leaving her old and wrinkled, at which point, Lilith arrives to make Esther answer for her crimes, dragging her away and shutting the door behind her. Charles then rushes into the living room and recovers Edwin from the table as they all go to mourn over Niko's body. Clutched in her hand is Tragic Mick's good luck charm.
Edwin, Charles, and Crystal return home, where they convene with Jenny, whose contacted Niko's mother and intends to ship her body back to Japan. Niko's moved on to the afterlife, but as for them, Crystal has had a change of heart about leaving the agency. She likes who she is now thanks to them, so she wishes to stay. Given her hours logged, Edwin welcomes Crystal into the Dead Boys Detective agency. She's so grateful that she hugs him. Edwin takes off for a moment, but Charles and Crystal invites Jenny to join them in London.
Edwin follows a cat into the alley, where the Cat King awaits with a flower for Niko. Edwin declines a hug but does thank the Cat King for helping Crystal and Niko. Edwin now understands the Cat King. He's lonely, so he plays games and change outfits and chases toys to distract himself from it. In that sense, they are alike, Edwin says just before kissing the Cat King on the cheek. Also, he says that there are 147 cats in port Townsend. Cat King replies that there's actually 146, but Edwin says that he forgot to count himself.
Edwin and Charles open the box
As planned, Edwin and Charles return to London. Crystal and Jenny stayed behind to clean up the shop. Edwin has this nagging feeling that the final penny hasn't dropped yet. The postman arrives with a delivery. It's a box inside of another box. They open it and the Night Nurse emerges. Frozen in place, they're joined by another woman who simply refers to herself as one of the little cogs that make the very big wheel go around. She appears to be one of the Night Nurse's higher ups. Edwin request asylum on the grounds that he does not belong in Hell. It's then that she takes notice to their case files, both open and closed cases, helping ghosts resolve their mysteries and move on. She recalls issuing a commendation to Night Nurse's Lost & Found Department for the number of outstanding cases they've wrapped up in recent decades, but it seems the boys are doing the same. Many of their cases ring familiar to the lady, from the Devlins and the Vernons, to Morry Fitzgibbon and the Jollity twins. All these souls have moved on because of their help. With this, the lady has an idea. The boys are making a difference and helping catch the errors and slips through the cracks. And so, she will continue to allow them to work as they have been, with the Night Nurse serving as their chaperon. She tells them that they never know when the souls and the good they do may come back around. And so, Edwin formally welcomes Night Nurse to the Dead boy Detective agency, but she refuses to shake his hand and says that their agency name is stupid. Relieved, Edwin and Charles embrace.
An aurora borealis above the sky, Litty and Kingham are located within some kind of frozen landscape, tucked away inside an igloo and warmed by a fire with a third person, possibly Niko, as this person has in their hand the same bear-designed good luck charm that Tragic Mick gifted Niko.
Cast[]
Starring[]
- George Rexstrew as Edwin Payne
- Jayden Revri as Charles Rowland
- Kassius Nelson as Crystal Palace
- Briana Cuoco as Jenny Green
- Ruth Connell as Night Nurse
- Yuyu Kitamura as Niko Sasaki
- Jenn Lyon as Esther Finch
Guest Starring[]
- Lukas Gage as Cat King
- Michael Beach as Tragic Mick
- Max Jenkins as Kingham
- Caitlin Reilly as Litty
- John Brotherton as Seth Von Hoverkraft
- Sherri Saum as Maddy
- Tamlyn Tomita as The Principal
Co-Starring[]
- Simone Bailly as Little Girl Mum
- Kelsi Winter Chartrand as Drunken Party Girl
- Kevin Davey as Ghost Postman
- Jacki Gunn as Distraught Girl
- Alaska Leigh as Bekka
- Remy Marthaller as Little Girl
- Rochelle Okoye as Lilith
- Cameron Park as Security Guard
- Sarah Dawn Pledge as Officer
- Koyu Rankin as Ghost Boy
Gallery[]
Promotional Images[]
References[]