Showrunner Nick Antosca Gives Us An Insight Into Episode 5 Of Channel Zero: Candle Cove

November 13, 2016

TV

Written by Kelli Marchman McNeely

Kelli Marchman McNeely is the owner of HorrorFuel.com. She is an Executive Producer of "13 Slays Till Christmas" which is out on Digital and DVD and now streaming on Tubi. She has several other films in the works. Kelli is an animal lover and a true horror addict since the age of 9 when she saw Friday the 13th. Email: horrorfuelinfo@gmail.com

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This upcoming Friday, November the 15th, is the season one finale of Syfy’s creepypasta inspired series ‘Channel Zero: Candle Cove’. While we are going to miss the series, we know that the next season has just wrapped filming and we are excited to see what season two has in store.

During our weekly discussion with ‘Channel Zero’ showrunner Nick Antosca we discussed the fifth episode and what is coming in the finale.

 

In episode five we witnessed Mike (Paul Schneider) begin to sprout an extra tooth, just like Eddie’s. Later we learn from Mrs. Booth (Marina Stephenson Kerr) that Eddie is coming back, in Mike’s body. Mike struggles to keep himself oriented, Mrs. Booth is leading the children and together they kill Sheriff Amy’s (Luisa D’Oliveria) love interest Simon (Bruce Novakowski) when he finds Mike at an abandoned restaurant. We also learned that Mrs. Booth is the one behind the Jawbone mask. At the end of the episode we see Mike’s daughter, Lily (Abigail Pniowsky), on tv, inside the cave in Candle Cove.

 

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So, what is behind Eddie’s (Luca Villacis) power? How did it all start?

It’s a psychological manifestation of his anger and his malevolence. The psychological torment that’s brewing in him manifested as this thing that could reach out to other children.” He continued, “Well, the way I think of it is they were just born with it. It’s like somebody having a little bit of the Shining. And this is a world where supernatural elements exist under the surface of everyday life and some people have a certain potential. And in Eddie’s case it was unleashed by how he was treated and by his own anger and resentment. And I think that Mike has the same latent capacity. And he never manifested the way that Eddie did. But the two of them together I think makes it a little bit stronger. I mean, it’s a

fundamental part of the way we think about twins. They have this twin strength. And I think that when Mike comes back home, it makes Eddie stronger. I think Eddie’s power has been lingering around – Eddie’s spirit has been
lingering around Iron Hill for 28 years calling Mike back.”
 
After being asked to elaborate on Eddie Antosca had this to say:
Well, again, I think he was born with it, so it was always in him. It’s a latent-ability. But it was unleashed — and you will actually see a brief flashback to this — but it’s something that we’ve already seen. On that day when his finger was broken, right? Like that’s the moment where it’s like – because if you remember in the pilot, that was the day that Candle Cove first appeared to them. And when we saw it in the pilot, it seemed like something reaching out to a kid in his moment of pain and vulnerability. But in fact, it was more like in his moment of pain and vulnerability, this thin bubbled out of him.
 

CHANNEL ZERO: CANDLE COVE -- "A Strange Vessel" Episode 104 -- Pictured: Luca Villacis as Young Mike/Eddie -- (Photo by: Allen Fraser/Syfy)

When Daily Dead asked about the hold ‘Candle Cove’ has on Mrs. Booth and the children Antosca said the following:
I think that’s a really cool and illuminating moment in terms of understanding what Candle Cove does to people, because the way I imagine it is, you know, it’s not just that people are seeing something pretty. It’s how it makes them feel, too. Like, clearly when Gene was shown something in his head and he closed his eyes and started laughing, it was affecting him in some powerful way. It made him feel something that drew him under a spell. Same with the creepy guy in the TV station in episode two who talks about like, “That’s what a TV show is supposed to do, isn’t it? Supposed to transport you and make you feel something.” And for Mrs. Booth, when she talks about her life back then and what Eddie did to her and how she changed, it’s a story about somebody who lived a very mundane and unfulfilled life and didn’t really understand how to escape it and then was shown something and made to feel a certain way and felt like this was the answer. So to me that’s a very scary kind of fanaticism. And it’s one of my favorite scenes for that reason.
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As for Mike, he’s fighting to keep Eddie from taking over.
And once Mrs. Booth says what she says at the dinner table, I think we understand that, “Oh, shit, Mike is being taken over.” And there is some body horror coming up in the next episode. It’s not like Eddie needs to transform Mike, in some horrific way to become him. It’s literally we’ve heard that the only difference between them is that tooth. But there is some grotesque visual stuff coming up in the final episode.”
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I asked Antosca about the last moments of the episode. “In the very last set of scenes, it shows Mike’s daughter on TV inside of the cave. Is it a real location like when Mike found Eddy’s body or is it more of a supernatural thing?”
It’s more of a supernatural thing. Antosca answered, “You know, whatever the world or realm of Candle Cove is, she is now in it instead of the real world. We don’t see how she was taken there, but we see in the motel room that the tooth child — which is clearly associated with Candle Cove — came to her and she started to fall under its spell. And the next thing we see she’s inside the TV in Candle Cove.”
 
“And you told me that Mike’s daughter is actually in Candle Cove now. What is the difference between her being in Candle Cove and when Eddie was saying they’re going to Candle Cove and the kids were jumping off the rock? I mean, are they in Candle Cove or…. what’s the deal?
I think you can go to Candle Cove by dying or in Lily’s case you can be physically brought to a place where you appear in the show. And we’ve seen that when you die and end up in Candle Cove, you become a puppet. So when Gene died, later we saw a version of Gene pop out of the treasure chest in the Candle Cove show. When we see Lily in Candle Cove now, she is still the Lily that we know. And that’s because she’s still alive. And he’s using Lily as a hostage or as bait for Mike. And you’ll see that play out in more detail in the next episode.”
As for the finale, Nick Antosca gave us a little teaser:
By the end of episode five, we know the nature of what Mike is facing. And we know that it’s all rooted in his brother and what happened in 1988. And so he goes into the finale knowing he’s going to have to confront that. So we’ll see that. We will also see the raw psychological stuff behind Candle Cove.”
Be sure to tune in for the season finale of ‘Channel Zero: Candle Cove’ on Tuesday, November 15th at 9pm on SyFy. Follow Channel Zero and Nick Antosca on Twitter for more on the series.

All images are property of the Syfy Channel/Channel Zero:Candle Cove

 

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