A Perilous Journey

"A Perilous Journey" is the first episode of season two of the Disney+ streaming television series The Mysterious Benedict Society, and the ninth episode of the series overall. It was released on October 26, 2022.
==Synopsis==
The Mysterious Benedict Society kids must venture out on their own to find two of their leaders.
==Plot==
One year after the events the previous adventure, Mr. Benedict sends a falcon to deliver invitations to Reynie, who is happily living with Ms. Perumal, Sticky, who is attending Boatwright Academy with his new friends, and Kate, who is living on a farm with her father Milligan. Mr. Benedict and Number Two have been traveling abroad leaving clues for the children for a planned scavenger hunt when they spot a billboard declaring Dr. Curtain as the hero who solved the Emergency. On a talk show, Dr. Curtain explains to the host that the true culprit behind the Emergency was Dr. Garrison and announces to everyone his plan to spread happiness, which he offers a glimpse of by using his newfound method on the host.
Constance, who is still living at Mr. Benedict's mansion, watches Dr. Curtain's appearance on TV with some contempt, but Rhonda turns it off when she threatens to bash the it in. Number Two calls Rhonda to give an update on their whereabouts and voices her concern that Mr. Benedict is jealous of the success that Dr. Curtain is receiving. While well aware that his intentions are most like evil, she tells him not to worry about him as he technically is not doing anything wrong at the moment. Mr. Benedict storms off to a crowded billets stand where he suddenly disappears. When Number Two goes to retrieve him, she too disappears.
Before leaving to the mansion, Milligan gives Kate a small multipurpose tool, which she seems reluctant to take, but he informs her that he is simply looking out for her well being. Sticky tells his friends at Boatwright Academy that he is unable to join them for summer activities because of his reunion. Reynie waits for the postman as he had written letters to Sticky, but has not gotten any back, convinced that it was a backlog. Ms. Perumal comforts him by telling him that friends communicate in their own ways and waits with him. At the mansion, Constance goes out to greet her friends and after an awkward reunion, Kate high fives everyone and they all go inside to play games and read.
Rhonda informs everyone the terrible news that Mr. Benedict and Number Two have vanished and because of this, the scavenger hunt, which would have taken them abroad, has been cancelled. Despite the kids wanting to help, Rhonda and Milligan tell them no, so Constance swipes the first clue for the hunt from Rhonda. The clue, while complex, is solved by Reynie who realizes that it refers to the dictionary. Being that Mr. Benedict owns numerous dictionaries, the kids split up to search for it. Elsewhere, Mr. Benedict and Number Two are being held hostage in a car that is driving them somewhere.
Reynie asks Sticky about the P.O. service at school, which he says is perfectly fine. After telling an amusing story about school, Sticky wonders why Reynie is concerned about his mail, but tells him that he is glad to see him. Constance finds Kate's farm life amusing and Kate in turn accuses her of liking her which she hides in the form of insults. After narrowly avoiding Milligan's suspicions, Kate and Constance find a book within a dictionary. The kids search the gibberish filled book, but Reynie realizes that the last word on each page is in italics and together they discover a message to "take the shortcut". Sticky identifies the Shortcut as a ship vessel and the kids sneak out of the house to catch it, but not before Kate leaves a message to Milligan.
Rhonda and Milligan discover the kids' escape just as Ms. Perumal arrives to pick up Reynie. As the kids head to the ship, they are followed by two mysterious people. When the kids arrive and ask for tickets to pick up, the clerk tells them that they do not have any names down for them, as the tickets were back at the house. Determined to get on the boat, Constance has them all sneak in via a box full of sugar. An excited Dr. Curtain has Mr. Benedict and Number Two brought to his compound for breakfast and teases them about his plan. Rhonda, Milligan and Ms. Perumal arrive too late as the boat takes off with them admitting that "they believed us".
==Cast==
*Tony Hale as Nicholas Benedict/L.D. Curtain
*Kristen Schaal as Number Two
*MaameYaa Boafo as Rhonda Kazembe
*Ryan Hurst as Milligan Wetherall
*Gia Sandhu as Ms. Perumal
*Mystic Inscho as Reynie Muldoon
*Seth Carr as Sticky Washington
*Emmy DeOliveira as Kate Wetherall
*Marta Kessler as Constance Contraire
===Guest-starring===
*Reece Noi as Marlon
*Lex King as Ilsa
*Joyce Guy as Hannah
===Co-starring===
*Eliza Shin as Teacher
*Parker Hall as Student #1
*Sofi Manassyan as Student #2
*Charlene Westbrook as Zephyr Agent
*Jane Carlson as Impatient Passenger
*Kinner Shah as Other Person in Line
==Songs==
*"Find Your Way Back" by Jefferson Starship
*"Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)" by Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel
*"Stand Back" by Stevie Nicks
==Trivia==
*The title is said by Mr. Benedict when describing what is in store for the children. It is also taken from the title of the second book The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey.
*Starting with this episode, Seth B. Carr is now credited as simply Seth Carr.
*So far, this is the only episode to have, at most, three songs play.
*This episode loosely covers the first six chapters and the first half of chapter 7 of the second book.
==Book comparisons==
*The kids all reunite at Mr. Benedict's mansion. In the book, it opens with Reynie visiting Kate at her farm after the car he, Ms. Perumal and her mother were traveling in broke down and they had to stay in a motel. Sometime afterwards, they are reunited with the Perumals and Sticky and his family arriving. Upon getting a telegram from Rhonda, the entire party head to Mr. Benedict's mansion.
*The Washingtons are absent in the series.
*Kate is shown happily living on the farm with Milligan, though Milligan has become overprotective of her. In the book, Kate has found herself being alone again as Milligan still goes on missions.
*In the book, Sticky has begun writing an account on the events of the first book, but Kate and Reynie admit that it is too dull to be published. In the series, the events of the first season are known, but the facts are twisted by Dr. Curtain.
*Continuing the contrast between the book and series, Sticky is bald in the books while he has hair in the show. In the book, he mentions that he grew his hair back, but shaved it off again after missing his old look.
*In the books, Sticky is living with his parents while in the series he is attending Boatwright Academy, which was invented for the show. Ironically, in the book, Sticky's parents refuse to let him go to college, despite his intellect being enough to get him in early.
*Sticky mentioning having a girlfriend who dumped him over misunderstanding the word "pulchritude" (it means beauty) is never brought up in the show.
*The character of Moocho Brazos, a strongman from Kate's circus who goes to live on and assist at the farm is absent from the series. However, some of his character elements were incorporated into Milligan.
*In the book, it is stated that all four children have been writing to each other constantly with Reynie and Sticky communicating the most. In the series, it is implied that only Reynie has been writing to Sticky, who has neglected to write back to him.
*In the book, Number Two gave the kids some terrible wardrobe as a gift. This is removed from the series.
*The kids are told by Rhonda and Milligan that something bad happened to Mr. Benedict. In the book, Reynie, Kate and Sticky are told by Rhonda via a telegram that is delivered to them. They arrive at the mansion anyway where Rhonda nonetheless accepts them in.
*In the series, Number Two implies that the public, as well as the government, view Mr. Benedict as a joke. In the book, government agents are concerned enough to visit the mansion after Rhonda reported Mr. Benedict and Number Two missing. Incidentally, this means that the characters of Mr. Bane and Ms. Argent are absent from the series.
*In the series, Rhonda and Milligan deduce Mr. Benedict's kidnapping simply because he has not called in at a checkpoint. In the book, they get a letter directly from Mr. Curtain demanding that if they want them back, they will need to bring him a plant. The plant subplot is completely dropped from the series.
*In the book, it is explained that the reason why Mr. Benedict set up the adventure was so that the children did not feel so dour about their last adventure. This detail is excluded in the series and is implied to have been created for fun.
*In the book, Kate gives the name of the Recruiters as the Ten Men because they have ten ways to capture people. Later in the series, they give them the name the Gray Men because they dress in gray.
*In the book, Rhonda willingly gives the first clue to the children and suggests that they go on Mr. Benedict's quest to find answers as long as they report back to her and Milligan. In the series, Rhonda forbids them from going and Constance steals the first clue, followed by the children sneaking out.
*The clues are relatively the same in both versions, but are slightly worded differently.
*In the book, the Whisperer is kept within the mansion in a room that is guarded. In the series, the machine is destroyed and, as later revealed, is being rebuilt. Because of this, Russ the guard is absent from the series.
*The children split up to look for the dictionary which Kate manages to find. In the book, they are informed about the extra dictionary being in Mr. Benedict's study, but told that they probably cannot access it because of the police and agents. Moocho Brazos arrives and distracts them for Kate to retrieve it.
*The second clue is answered in the same way, however in the book Constance figures it out by noticing which words are repeated the most, followed by Reynie flipping the pages to confirm it. In the series, Reynie figures it out on his own after performing the page flip trick. However, they do not make the connection that Shortcut refers to a boat right away in the book. In the series, it is immediate.
*In the book, the children have one final conversation with the adults before leaving, during which Constance gets her necklace (an event which in the series is moved to episode 4). Because of this, the series depicts Ms. Perumal initially having dropped Reynie off, only to turn around to pick him up. In the book, she stayed at the mansion the whole time.
*The children sneak out of the house by making a blanket ladder and somehow getting to the docks. In the book, they escape via the laundry chute and divert Mr. Bane before hopping on a bus and leaving.
*In the book, the Shortcut is a cargo ship while in the series it is turned into a cruise liner.
*When the children arrive at the docks, they do not have their tickets, forcing them to sneak aboard. In the book, they are met by Jim "Cannonball" Shooter who takes them aboard and introduces them to Captain Noland who is a friend of Mr. Benedict's.
*All the subplots involving the adults are made up for the show.
*Dr. Curtain's plan involves using a new psychological method of making people infinitely happy, while in the novel, Mr. Curtain was trying to collect a flower called Duskwort so that he can put people to sleep and cure his narcolepsy.
*Dr. Curtain mentions that he has sent S.Q. away on a nature getaway. In the book, S.Q. was prominently featured, still working for Mr. Curtain.
==Gallery==
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==External links==
*A Perilous Journey at The Mysterious Benedict Society Wiki
Category:The Mysterious Benedict Society episodes