Hello Puppets: Midnight Show

We do advise you be careful while exploring this article, there are many spoilers to be found below.

 Hello lab rat, you are currently on a article that is incomplete. Help us add more information but do not deceit!

Hello Puppets: Midnight Show is the second game in the Hello Puppets series, but the first one chronologically. It was developed by Otherworld Interactive and released on October 19th 2022.

## Steam Summary

It’s 1987. You are Owen Gubberson: master puppet maker, and creator of “Mortimer’s Handeemen,” a Muppets knock-off on the verge of cancelation. One night, you decide to try using a magic spell to bring your puppet creations to life. But the puppets aren’t what you expected. They’re sadistic and evil, and they have plans for you. You have one night to reverse the spell and escape the Handeemen Sound Stage alive.

"Hello Puppets: Midnight Show" is a stealth-puzzle horror game. Explore large, intricate levels full of secrets and surprises, solve complex puzzles, and stay a step ahead of a murderous puppet that will stop at nothing to hunt you down.

## Plot Summary

The game begins in the year 1987 with Owen Gubberson, creator of Mortimer's Handeemen, obtaining a book of Voodoo Spells with the intention of bringing his starring puppet Mortimer to life. While preparing to conduct the ritual, he is first interrupted by a new employee named Harper who's looking for the storage closet, and then a phone call from his producer who sternly announces the cancellation of the show, scolding Owen for spending half a million dollars on the spell book. In a fit of rage, Owen slams the phone on the receiver and casts the spell to bring Mortimer to life.

The game appears to flash forward in time an unknown amount, with Owen unable to find Mortimer in his office. Making his way through the studio, he eventually locates Mortimer who's forcibly attached himself to the arm of a hooded girl who he claims to be taking greater control of with every second. Though Owen demands Mortimer let her go, Mortimer refuses, expressing his disdain for what it feels like to be a puppet without a hand, comparing it to Purgatory and pulling out a knife and threatening Owen that they're going to 'play together'.

Fleeing from Mortimer, Owen eventually makes it back to his office where Mortimer jumps out and scares him. Owen is momentarily able to remove Mortimer from the hooded girl, rendering him limp and weak, and desperately searches the spell book for a way to fix Mortimer's twisted personality, and in his sorrow puts Mortimer back on his hand, reanimating him. Mortimer then proceeds to choke Owen until he falls unconscious.

When Owen awakens, Mortimer is back on the girl's arm having locked himself and her in a small fenced enclosure in Owen's office. He explains to Owen that he brought the rest of the main cast to life while Owen had been knocked out, namely Nick Nack, Riley Ruckus, and Daisy Danger. Mortimer also had torn all the pages out of the spell book and hidden them around the studio, demanding that Owen "play hide n' seek" with them in exchange for the lost pages.

This begins the main gameplay of Hello Puppets: Midnight Show. Owen heads into different areas of the studio, each presided over by one of the three puppets, each attached to a masked human, who hunt him down as he wanders around their section playing minigames to find the solution to a puzzle that the puppet has set up. Along the way Owen can find prizes, merchandise, audio tapes, and dozens of other masked humans strewn about the studio or hanging from the ceiling.

After retrieving one of the lost pages, Owen comes back to the office and calls the book dealer he originally purchased the spell book from. The book dealer says there isn't a way to undo the spell, and that the spell itself shouldn't have made the Handeemen evil as the spell is only 'a mirror'; theorizing that perhaps that Owen is the reason that they are evil. Owen refuses to believe this and the dealer presents an alternative theory that the book is possessed by a trickster deity called "Antioch" and that the puppets could be reflecting that instead. Owen decides that if the book were to be destroyed, the puppets wouldn't have anything to mirror anymore and should go back to normal, and resolves to burn the lost pages.

After finding more lost pages and returning to his office, Owen is visited by the new employee Harper, who is looking for Katie, who works in production design and helped to get Harper a job in the first place. The two of them had planning to go to the movies together, but Harper had been unable to find her. Owen makes up a lie that he had sent Katie to the prop warehouse due to some defects in their props and that Katie would call Harper tomorrow. Harper then asks Owen if he would like to go to the movies with her instead (to see the movie Dream Warriors), with him promising to meet her there later, sincerely thanking her for the offer. As she leaves, Owen asks Mortimer if the hooded girl he's attached to is Katie with Mortimer refusing to answer, but later implies that she is indeed Katie.

After finding more pages, Harper calls Owen to let him know that the movie is about to start, and Mortimer taunts Owen, telling him that he can leave any time, and that Owen refuses to leave or call the police because he's scared of something *besides* Mortimer. Harper calls one more time to check on Owen, but he doesn't respond and hangs up as Mortimer continues to mock him.

The next time Owen returns, he tries to taunt Mortimer with another page found, only for Mortimer to point out that Owen isn't holding anything. Owen's vision blurs and he sees Harper standing where Mortimer was, and he hears screams for help and laughter before Harper shouts 'Open the door!' at him in a distorted voice. He turns away, and when he looks back, Mortimer has returned and Owen begs to know what Mortimer is doing to him, though Mortimer claims that Owen should have read the spell book more thoroughly, but that that's only one part of why this is happening, and that he wishes to make Owen more like himself.

Returning with the second to last page, Owen tries to taunt Mortimer once again, only for Mortimer to reveal that while Owen was away Harper had come back to try and find him, and that Mortimer has taken control of her. Mortimer promises that if Owen destroys the last page, he'll drag Harper's soul to Hell with him. In desperation, Owen proposes a game; if he can find the last page Harper is set free, if he cannot then Mortimer gets everything, to which Mortimer heartily agrees. The following hide n' seek section involves all three puppets pursuing Owen as he completes their puzzles.

With the final page in hand, Owen returns to the office to free Harper, who is no longer under Mortimer's control. When she threatens to call the cops on the puppets, Owen tells her not to, claiming that after he burns the book they should go back to normal and that the next time he does the ritual they won't be evil. Mortimer, back on Katie's arm, tries to persuade Owen not to let Harper free, alleging that the puppets are the only family and friends that Owen has, whilst Harper pleads with Owen that he does have people that care about him and that if he doesn't stop them people will die.

Owen lets harper out and Mortimer berates him, asking "How many times do we have to do this before you choose the Handeemen?", and then calling for the world to reset, as sections of the office begin to disappear entirely. Owen and Harper attempt to escape but are separated, with Owen being chased through the entire studio by the three puppets, and taunted by Mortimer the entire way. The two reunite in the lobby and as Harper dashes out the doors, Owen locks her out and apologizes for dragging her into things. Owen comes to a realization that the puppets really are reflections of him, not the work of some trickster deity, as they hate people and love puppets much like himself. He calls Harper a good friend as he turns to leave, and she tells him that her friends don't call her Harper, that's her middle name, that friends call her by her first name, Scout. She begs him to stay there while she gets help, and then leaves.

Owen makes his way back through a noticeably decayed and burnt out studio back to his office which is now filled with sticky notes and recordings all indicating that he's been reliving this night over and over again. There are newspaper clippings present which refer to the studio catching fire and Owen's disappearance. Amidst these recordings is an incredibly distorted tape of Riley talking about the puppets repeated efforts through these loops to get Owen to accept them.

Owen makes one more puppet, and then brings it to life, naming it Scout (it being the same Scout from the first Hello Puppets game). Owen tells Scout that she won't remember this conversation but that when the time is right she will destroy the Handeemen. He casts one more spell and the sets her down, gratefully saying "I made something good." before turning himself over to the other puppets and shouting "I'm ready!", and the puppets grabbing him.

As the credits roll, Scout (the puppet) comments and jokes about the names as they appear, before Riley yells at Scout for watching movies instead of doing her tests.

Throughout the game a series of audio tapes can be found, which gives more insight into Owen's past, including his poor relationship with his father, his struggles with schizophrenia, and difficulty getting along with the cast and crew of Mortimer's Handeemen.

## Trivia

* The movie that Harper invites Owen to, Dream Warriors, is a real movie, the full title being "A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors", which would have come out the same year that Midnight Show takes place, 1987.
* Harper and Katie (the women that Mortimer is presumed to be controlling through most of the game) seem to share an almost identical character model.
* Harper's name is likely a reference to the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee, whereas her first name, Scout, is the name of the protagonist of To Kill a Mockingbird.