Side Show

**Side Show**, Parts 1 and 2, are the 12th and 13th episodes of *Creeped Out*'s first season, and the 12th and 13th episodes of the series overall. Part 1 first aired on 13 February 2018 and Part 2 on 20 February 2018.

## Synopsis

### Part 1

Ace searches for his distant origins, as he believes he is not from the circus he was raised in. He is helped in his quest by Indigo, a new arrival to the circus.

### Part 2

As Ace starts to make sense of his few memories of his past, a plan comes together to get him home, but things don't always go to plan.

## Plot

### Prologue

The Curious walks around a hall of mirrors, picks up a jar of marbles, and empties them onto the floor. The Narrator asks how much you can trust your own memories, and whether you can be sure they're real.

### Episode

A circus ringmaster, Zephaniah, introduces his star acts. Palooka, Nincom and Hijinx are clowns; Gudge and Puck are twin high-divers; Kid Herc is a strongman; and the rarest of them all is 'Ace, the Amazing Aromatologist'. Using only his sense of smell, Ace makes a series of guesses about members of the audience; to their surprise and delight, he turns out to be correct about everything.

Later, Ace watches as families leave the circus, and seems to be having flashbacks of his own family. Zephaniah warns him to stay away from the boundary that circles the circus. Ace collects rejected photographs from the photo booth to add to a collection he keeps in his trailer.

That night, Zephaniah summons the performers and introduces a new arrival, Indigo. Ace asks her a series of questions, such as the name of the town she came from, but she seems unable to remember the answers. He goes to bed and dreams of his family again, seeing some clues to the location of his home, including a water tower, a weather vane and a mailbox labelled 'the Butterfields'. When he wakes, he writes and draws everything he can remember in a notebook.

The same night, Ace hears someone calling for help. It turns out to be Indigo, who has got lost in the hall of mirrors. He helps her get out and they talk. Indigo is worried she will not be able to perform in the circus as she has no talents. Ace reassures her that it will come to her, as it did for everyone else in the circus.

Indigo asks where Ace is from, and he admits that he doesn't know. She glimpses his collection of photographs; he explains he collects photos of families in the hope that he will one day recognise his own, and believes that his dreams are his real memories. He says he increasingly believes that everything he thinks he knows is a lie, leading Indigo to believe she may have a family she is unable to remember too. Ace warns Indigo not to tell anyone about their conversation, but Zephaniah sees her leaving Ace's trailer.

Indigo makes her debut at the circus. She has stage fright, but Ace encourages her not to be shy. Wearing a feathered costume, she performs acrobatic tricks inside a large hoop; at first she is clumsy, but eventually she gains confidence and is a hit with the audience.

Afterwards, the performers talk. Ace expresses frustration that none of them can leave the circus. Gudge says the boundary is for their own protection and there is nothing of interest in the outside world, but when Ace challenges her to explain how she got there, she can only remember vague details, and cannot recall the names of her relatives. Zephaniah interrupts and tells the performers they are each other's family. He gives Indigo her official circus title: 'the Flying Sprite'.

Ace sketches the water tower from his dreams. Kid Herc sees the drawing and remarks that it's realistic, pointing out a water tower that can be glimpsed through the trees. Ace realises the place they are camped must be close to his hometown.

He returns to his trailer to find Zephaniah looking at his notebook and photographs. He tells Zephaniah he knows his memories are fake and wants to go back to his real family. Zephaniah says Ace's claims are nonsense, that he was rejected by his family and came to the circus of his own free will, but Ace insists he wants to go home. Zephaniah agrees to take him the next morning, but warns that 'a dream dashed is worse than no dream at all'.

### Episode

The circus performers say goodbye to Ace. The boundary temporarily opens to allow him to leave, and he and Zephaniah head off in Zephaniah's truck.

Using the water tower as a landmark and following the clues in Ace's notebook, they eventually find Ace's house. Ace approaches and greets his 'family', but they don't recognise him. Zephaniah apologises and takes Ace back to the circus.

Back in his trailer, a distraught Ace rips down his photographs and cries. Indigo comforts him, assuring him his memories were real and they have to keep searching for the truth.

The next day, Ace gives a lacklustre performance, making inaccurate guesses. Meanwhile, Indigo breaks into Zephaniah's trailer. As she is studying a series of glass eyes and marbles in an intricate case, he catches her. He admits that she and the others have been given false memories and tells her this power is held in a special charm – the glass eye he wears. She threatens to tell the others, but when he waves the eye in front of her face, she loses the ability to speak.

In front of the whole troupe, Zephaniah leads a still-mute Indigo to the boundary, intending to use her as an example of what happens to those who break the rules. She and Ace hug; she returns a drawing of his she had used as a lucky charm. Indigo crosses the boundary and disappears, seeming to turn into a large cocoon. Zephaniah collects the cocoon and hangs it at the front of his trailer, where a number of others can be seen.

Ace unfolds the drawing and finds a note from Indigo. She has drawn the glass eye and written 'destroy it – it's his power over us'. He sneaks into Zephaniah's trailer while the ringmaster is asleep and takes his whole case of marbles, but wakes Zephaniah up by sneezing. As Ace is running away, he drops the marbles and Zephaniah gets hold of the glass eye, throwing it to the other side of the boundary. As Zephaniah threatens to punish Ace, he sees one of the marbles twinkling, smashes it with a rock, and the boundary disappears. He is able to grab the glass eye and throw it to Kid Herc, who crushes it.

Small lights begin to fly towards each of the circus performers, and their true forms are revealed: they are all animals. Gudge and Puck are penguins, Kid Herc is a bear and the clowns are monkeys; the latter drag Zephaniah away. Indigo is revealed to be a hummingbird.

Ace captures his light in a jar and returns to his family home. In the garden, he releases the light, and approaches and greets his family, who now is overjoyed to see him, in his true form: as a dog. The camera pans out to show a 'lost' poster for Ace the dog on a nearby lamp-post.

### Epilogue

At the circus, The Curious picks up a glass eye from the ground. The Narrator asks the audience whether they have a talent. It could be inherited, pure luck, or maybe it could come from your true form.

## Cast

* Ace (Kyle Breitkopf)
* Indigo (Kathryn Emily Douglas)
* Zephaniah (Julian Richings)
* Gudge (Kaeana Lyn Bastidas)
* Puck (Maia Bastidas)
* Kid Herc (Nicolas Grimes)
* Palooka (Peter Loung)
* Nincom (Wei Yuan)
* Hijinx (Wei Ming Yuan)
* The Curious (Jaiden Cannatelli)
* The Narrator (Aurora Aksnes)

## Trivia

* This is the only two-part episode in the entire series so far.
* It is clearly not set in the present day, and it is most likely set in the 1920s.