| Really You | |
|---|---|
| Season 1, Episode 1-2 | |
| |
| Air date | October 29, 2010 |
| Written by | Billy Brown & Dan Angel |
| Directed by | Neill Fearnley |
| Episode Guide | |
| Previous None |
Next "A Creature Was Stirring" |
"Really You" is the two-part series premiere episode of R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour: The Series. It first aired on October 29, 2010.
Summary[]
Spoiled brat Lilly gets her own life-sized doll and names it "Lilly D.," but when her mom starts to care for the doll more than her own daughter, strange things begin to happen.
Plot[]
The episode opens from the point of view of a doll maker sculpting the head of a large doll. Suddenly she exclaims in concern and tosses the head aside.
Elsewhere, a cheeky girl named Lilly is excited to be given her very own, life-sized "Really You" doll made to look like her, called Lilly D. When her mother and brother express doubt, Lilly's father mentions that it is important for Lilly since she's been having trouble making friends.
When the doll arrives in a frivolous limo display, Lilly is overjoyed; she swindles her dad into paying for an added trip to the spa for herself and the doll, and we see how Lilly likely talked her way into getting the doll in the first place. Later, Lilly continues to act spoiled and rude, bragging about Lilly D. and insulting her friends and their (much smaller) dolls. Fed up, one friend says that Lilly D. told her doll a secret: Lilly D. doesn't like Lilly. After hearing this, Lilly rips the leg off of her friend's doll in a rage.
Soon after, strange events begin to occur. The next day at breakfast, Lilly D. spills gravy all over Lilly's mom's computer, ruining it. Lilly's mother is furious, refusing to believe Lilly's desperate claims that she is innocent and that she saw Lilly D. spill the pitcher of gravy. Lilly's brother, Brandon, and his friend, Josh, are in disbelief: Lilly really thinks the doll did it. Lilly's mother confiscates the doll and begins talking strangely to it, saying she prefers the doll who sits quietly over her daughter's rudeness and (apparent) outbursts.
Soon, Lilly’s mother really starts to care more about Lilly D. than Lilly herself, giving the doll breakfast and letting it sleep in her bed. When Lilly's father moves the doll back into Lilly's room in the night, he wakes up to see it right back in bed with him. He assumes his wife moved it back and does nothing.
It all comes to a head when Lilly's father is away on a business trip and her mother goes out to run errands. Lilly has begun to feel sickly and stiff, so she falls asleep eating a snack Brandon made her. She awakens to see her mom arriving home, asking about black paint on Lilly's hands. Lilly's mother goes upstairs and screams out--Lilly, Brandon, and Josh run into the bedroom to find that "BAD GIRL" is painted on their mother's bedroom wall in big, black streaks. Lilly is extremely distraught and adamant that she did not do it. Brandon decides he's going to prove once and for all that the doll cannot move.
Brandon and Lilly work together to put a camera in their mom's bedroom, Lilly to catch it as it moves in the night, Brandon to show Lilly that it could never do such a thing. Lilly warns Brandon that he shouldn't be setting it up while Lilly D. is watching. That might, the viewers see Lilly D. get up and walk to the camera in the footage.
When they retrieve the camera in the morning, the memory card is missing. Brandon tells his mother, trying to figure out if she was the one who removed it, but she was unaware the camera was there. The kids get in more trouble for spying on their mom. Lilly suddenly faints and has to be taken to a doctor.
Brandon and Josh, assuming there has to be a computer chip that makes the doll move, try to solve the mystery of Lilly D. once and for all by disassembling it while Lilly and her mother are at the doctor's office. They discover that on the back of Lilly D.'s head, painted over, are the words, "Destroy this doll!" At the doctor, Lilly is told it is probably just a cold and to get some rest.
Brandon and Josh head over to the Really You building, and the half-crazed dollmaker explains her story to them after catching them in the basement where the dolls are made. She tells them she never wanted to work for Really You but that the company built over her house anyway thanks to her domineering husband manipulating her into selling her business to them. The company doesn't care about anything the dollmaker says nor the quality of the dolls, only money. The woman is extremely distraught upon being shown a picture of Lilly D. and explains that that doll should never have been sold. She tells the boys that all of the dolls have souls and personalities, pleased to be the dolls they are. But Lilly D. was different. Lilly D. wanted to be real. The dollmaker tried to destroy her, but her bosses told her to get back to work on other dolls. They assured her that they would destroy Lilly D. in her place, but instead eventually sold her to Lilly.
When they get home, Lilly apologizes and promises to be better in spite of the fact that she knows she did not do the things that made her mother upset with her. When she gets upstairs, Lilly D. shatters her vanity mirror with a hammer right in front of her. Enraged, her mother says that she wishes Lilly D. was her daughter and carries the doll away.
Lilly, left alone, begins a horrifying transformation, and she soon completely transforms into a doll. As Lilly turns to hard plastic, Lilly D. takes the form of Lilly's body. She explains to her that Lilly's mom could like a doll, but never love it, and she could grow to dislike her daughter, but she'd never stop loving her. Now that Lilly D. has stolen Lilly's life, she already has her mother's love, so she just needs to get her to like "Lilly" again.
The whole family is surprised by "Lilly's" sudden turn around in attitude and behavior. She makes breakfast for the whole family, and when they float the idea that Lilly be allowed her doll back, she declares that she is done with dolls. Brandon is suspicious.
The next day before school, Brandon notices the doll, now in the trash can outside, has Lilly's birthmark on the back of her neck. He knows it was not there before, as he saw the back of the neck when he took the doll apart. Her mom confirms that that is impossible, as they only gave the doll company a picture of Lilly's face, not her whole body. Brandon quickly puts together Lilly's sudden change in behavior with the birthmark on the doll and tells his mom to keep the doll away from the trash collectors. He runs after Lilly D., who sprints away.
Lilly's mother cries over the doll, cradling it and telling Lilly how much she loves her. As she hugs the doll, Lilly is restored to her normal self because of her mother's love. At the same moment, Lilly D. is transformed back into a doll. Since she fell mid-chase, she is lying in the middle of the street. She rigidly tries to get back up, but, before she can, Lilly D. is hit and dragged away by a garbage truck.
In the closing scene, the badly damaged doll is seen on the side of a street by two girls. They argue about who gets to keep her before the doll grabs one of the girl's ankles, causing them to run away in terror.
Cast[]
- Bailee Madison as Lilly Carbo
- Connor Price as Brandon Carbo
- Alisen Down as Jill Carbo
- David Orth as Henry Carbo
- Casey Dubois as Josh
- Gabriell Rose as The Doll Maker
- Britt Irvin as Temporary Guardian
- Dalila Bela as Jealous Girl
- Megan Charpentier as Julia
- Olivia Steele-Falconer as Katie
- Helen Pahou as Rachel
- Lucia Walters as Leah
- Paul Herbert as Doctor
- Neill Fearnley as Security Guard
- Emma Karwandy as Bratty Girl
- Nicole Leduc as Nice Girl
- Lissa Neptuno as Mother
- Lilly D
Trivia[]
- The story after this episode continues in The Return of Lilly D. where Lilly D. makes a third and last appearance in the Haunting Hour series.
- This is the first time Bailie Madison portrays a character on The Haunting Hour series. She later appears in Scarecrow and The Girl in the Painting
- Editor Lisa Robison won a Leo Award for this episode, Neil Fearnley won for Best Direction, and Billy Brown & Dan Angel were nominated for Best Screenwriting.
- A clip from this episode is shown in the "Dan Vs" episode "Dan Vs the Telemarketer". Dan Angel was also a producer on that show.
- According to showrunner Dan Angel, this episode was inspired by him ending up in an American Girl store with his wife and being creeped upon seeing people sitting with their dolls and eating dinner with them as if they were real.
- This story bears similarities to "The Night of The Living Dummy 2" [the first installment in the series never having been released], an episode in another of R. L. Stine's anthology TV series, Goosebumps. Both involve an inanimate toy coming to life, causing trouble, and blaming it on a kid before trying to stay alive for good. Lilly D. is analogous to Slappy in that both became one of the most famous villains of their respective TV series.
Image Gallery[]
Video(s)[]
R.L Stine's Haunting Hour - S01E01 - Really You Part 1-0
R.L Stine's Haunting Hour - S01E02 - Really You Part 2-0