Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for all of Season 1 of The Midnight Club.Time is elusive, impalpable, and fleeting - a realization that only dawns on most when an anticipated moment, a circumstance taken for granted or a cherished chapter of life slips from the realm of reality into that of memory like the shifting grains of sand caught in an hourglass.The Midnight Club, revolving around a nefarious cult that Ilonka (Iman Benson), from her very first days at the Brightcliffe Manor, seems to be preternaturally drawn towards, makes excellent use of the hourglass as a representation of the fleeting nature of time.
What Does the Hourglass Symbol Mean in the Midnight Club?
Traditionally, the hourglass is seen as an emblem of the fleeting nature of humanity, with death always hanging around the corner, lurking behind the shadows, ready to jump in and flip the hourglass of life over at any given moment. InThe Midnight Club, it is somewhat different, with the upper bulb of the glass blacked out to represent death, and the lower bulb left blank to make room for the sands of time. It is obvious, from the very first time Ilonka encounters the symbol on the bark of a tree by the running brook, that the hourglass is connected to something mysterious and enigmatic, probably related to the eerie enigma surrounding the history of the Brightcliffe Home Hospice.
While almost every kid in the Hospice seems to see and hear things that they understandably dismiss as side effects of the medicines they are on, Ilonka seems to be particularly defenseless against the magic surrounding the Hospice. On multiple occasions, Ilonka seems to slip into the past, with the manor itself shifting its overall appearance to fit the timeline. The merging timelines are a literal manifestation of the tilted hourglass, with the sands of time moving in the opposite direction. The shift also brings sinister shadows to life – perhaps an unintended effect of the paragon’s dark rituals.
Related:‘The Midnight Club’ Deepens Mike Flanagan’s Exploration of Death
Stories or Fragments of Reality?
There is a lot going on inThe Midnight Club, what with all the hair-raising nightmares and the sinister shadows that seem to haunt the kids’ in sleep as well as in their waking hours, but the time when they all gather in the library to ‘make ghosts’, usually at around midnight, as the name would imply, makes for one of the most pivotal points in the development of the show’s plot. The stories told by the kids seem to be based on the works ofChristopher Pike, and not necessarily the novel that inspired the adaptation. On the surface, these spooky stories may appear to be just that: stories. As the show progresses, however, it becomes clear that each story bears deeper meanings pertaining to the overarching plot of the show, as well as the individuals who tell these stories. Though not explicitly suggested, all the stories told inThe Midnight Clubare, in one way or another, connected to the hourglass symbol.
Ilonka’s story, for instance, revolves aroundJulia Jayne (Larsen Thompson), an actual patient that lived at Brightcliffe Homehospice a long time ago. She, too, was terminally ill and seemed to have descended into a state of delusion, repeating what she probably thought was the date on which she would die – that is, before she disappeared for a month (in reality, for a week). When Julia Jayne returned, she seemed to have recovered somehow. Her tumors started to disappear, and she was allowed to go home. Before leaving Brightcliffe Home Hospice, however, Julia Jayne correctly predicted the death of two terminally ill kids at the hospice and an attendant. After her mysterious disappearance, the 1960s kid seemed to have turned the metaphorical and perhaps literal hourglass of her life upside down, with the fleeting sands of time shifting into life instead of death. Anya’s story about the perfect ballerina bears many layers, but one possible interpretation is that the two Danas (Ruth Codd) felt trapped in time, with neither being able to live their life to the fullest. As a result, the two Danas end up manipulating time with far-reaching results. The sands of time, in this case, seem to move in both directions simultaneously, and the result isn’t as desirable as the two Danas thought it would be.
What Does the Symbol Mean for the Paragons?
Why Does Dr. Stanton Bear the Hourglass Symbol on the Back of Her Neck?
In the final,most anticipated reveal of the show, viewers learn that Dr. Stanton (Heather Langenkamp) is not as much of an open book as she pretends to be. Potentially diagnosed with a disease (a hypothesis based on the fact that she is revealed to be bald), she also bears the hourglass symbol on the back of her neck, which is surprising, given her negative history with Julia Jayne. She also seems to genuinely care for the kids in the Hospice, so she couldn’t possibly be as bad as Regina Ballard. The fact that she is a paragon, however, is undeniable, so there is a lot to look forward to in potential future seasons ofThe Midnight Club.
