Something Wicked This Way Comes

Mr. Dark parades the hypnotized boys through the Mirror Maze and traps them behind it where he keeps his wax figures on display. He calls for the crowd’s attention. After learning that the witch failed to kill Charles, he promises the town a live bullet trick involving her. She is terrified as Dark asks the audience for a volunteer to fire the rifle. Dark is shocked to see Charles volunteer.

Indicating Charles’s still-broken hand, Mr. Dark objects to him being able to handle the rifle. Charles holds it in his good hand but calls for another volunteer to help him shoot. The crowd cheers him on. Charles calls for Will, sensing him in the maze nearby. The crowd helps him yell Will’s name, and soon, Will emerges in a robotic trance from the maze.

Mr. Dark angrily hands Charles the bullet to inscribe with his initials. Instead, Charles draws a smile on the bullet. He knows the trick calls for Mr. Dark to switch out the real bullet with a wax one so the witch can survive the shot; after the switch, he inscribes the same smile on the wax bullet.

Will drops the rifle once, but Charles talks him through the shot and somehow reaches Will in his trance. Together, they fire at the witch with the smile-bullet.

The witch collapses, dead, and the crowd is astonished. Mr. Dark tries to pacify them by claiming it is all part of the act and calls for everyone to go home. Will awakens from hypnosis, and he and Charles look for Jim. They run into the Mirror Maze, but Charles is hindered by visions of his old and decayed future selves. Suddenly, all the carnival lights go out.

In the dark maze, Will reaches in his pocket for matches. He lights several of them, and he and Charles see flashes of the older Charles. Charles has trouble coping with these visions, but Will assures him that his age is not important to him. Charles recalls his defeat of the witch in the library and remembers to laugh.

Jim and the carnival people wander around the carnival in the dark. They hear all the mirrors in the maze shatter in response to Charles’s laugh. Mr. Dark runs and hides among the carnival tents. Charles and Will run from the maze, again in search of Jim. Guided by moonlight, they assume that Jim has gone to the carousel.

Will and Charles hear the calliope and follow it, hoping to find Jim before he rides the carousel. They notice that the carnival people are not trying to stop them, and are waiting for instructions from Mr. Dark. On the way to the carousel, they see Mr. Electrico/Mr. Cooger being carried there. They suspect Mr. Dark is trying to cure or kill him using the powers of the ride. Cooger crumbles into dust before making it.

Will and Charles finally find Jim marching robotically to the carousel. He climbs on and spins around a few times, and though he is in a trance, he extends a hand to Will. Will grabs his hand and tries to pull Jim off but ends up being dragged onto the ride as well. Will tries to get Jim to remember him and wake up from his trance. Just as Charles finds the control switch to shut the ride off, Will and Jim tumble from the carousel. Jim appears to be dead when he lands on the ground.

As Will and Charles try to help Jim, another young boy named Jed approaches them and asks Charles for help. Jed claims Mr. Dark is after him and wants Charles to follow him. Charles suspects this is another trick. He is proven correct when he lifts Jed’s shirt and finds his skin tattooed; Jed is actually Mr. Dark. Instead of attacking him, Charles embraces the boy. Slowly, Jed/Dark succumbs to this unexpected show of affection, which poisons him to death.

Once Mr. Dark is dead, the rest of the “Autumn People” from the carnival are free to escape. As they leave, the carnival and all its tents dissolve into nothing.

Will is distraught at Jim’s apparent death, but Charles encourages him to laugh. Will does not understand. Charles claims that the carnival and Mr. Dark engaged in evil, and that he and Will need to combat it with joy and goodness the way he did with the witch.

Will fails, but the more he and Charles sing silly songs and jump around, the easier it is to feel happy. Soon, they are genuinely laughing, and Jim awakens. Will cries and hugs him, though Jim appears to have amnesia about what has happened.

Will sees his father as a true hero now, but Charles warns them that the fight against evil is never over. The three of them race home, Charles feeling like a young boy able to run.