That's where my avatar for the Halloween season came from btw. I appreciate that this show isn't afraid to put my favorite princess in these dark and frightening situations. I made mention of what I considered to be the show's darkest arc, The House of Yesterday's Tomorrow as I reviewed the second episode, You're Kidding Me. Which I described as being a breather episode sandwiched in between two rather dark episodes.
I've not seen it confirmed anywhere else especially on the Disney Wiki or the Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure Wiki but this episode has strong elements of a certain classic horror movie.
Now, there are also elements of stories such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers in this episode as well as the monsters are evil doppelgangers of the cast and are trapped and replaced one by one by the monsters. However, there are enough other elements in this episode that make it feel like an Animated Thing episode from our characters being trapped in a location that they can't escape and have no way of letting anyone know where they are. There is a test sequence that reflects the test from The Thing but it was child-friendly spin put on it that makes sense for each of the characters. And this episode shares a similar tenseness to the movie in this episode as well.
Having said all that, I will be foregoing the usual review structure of the plot and characters. I'll instead look at the set-up, location, monsters, tests, and scariness. With that outta the way, let's begin.
Setup
Our characters have spent three weeks on the road and all of their little ticks are getting on each other's nerves in the caravan. During heavy rain, the caravan gets stuck in the mud and right across from where the characters get stuck, an inn made completely out of seashells appear. Eerie as this inn is an odd location in the middle of the forest and hadn't been there before presumably. Everyone except Cassandra is all for staying at the Inn and that leads to the dangerous event that unfolds in front of our heroes.
Location
The House of Yesterday's Tomorrow
In The Thing, the characters didn't make the choice of being where they were at. They were stuck there because of a job and considering the weather in Antartica, it was treacherous to even try and consider escape. With The House of Yesterday's Tomorrow, we are dealing with a haunted hotel. And on the surface that may not seem that scary but this uses the weather just like the movie gets so bad that they can't leave. Granted, this is after the monsters are defeated but that speaks to how weather can force characters to be somewhere they wouldn't be otherwise. However, there's a bit more to it than that. The episode's ending by show a chopped tree with an ax in it. And this ties back to how a fallen tree that we were led to believe was hit by thunder led the characters to stay here. As later episodes in this arc will reveal, the innkeeper Matthews works for the show's bigger bad, Zhan Tiri and this was his bidding.
"The mirror failed, the top failed. But I promise you, Master, I will keep the Sundrop in this house...forever."
So yeah, that speaks to the evilness that is felt with this location and even more so when the characters do escape the door keeps moving on them. The idea that the main characters were led to this inn someone could trap Rapunzel here makes this location quite frightening.
Now, let's move onto monsters.
Monsters
Mirror Monsters
Yeah, I'm not exactly calling these Things because while this episode has a Thing vibe and that's what I'm basing this review on, they are still a bit different. They're evil reflections that one by one start replacing the main characters. as first seen with Shorty where his reflection acts well mannered and intelligent. However, as we will see with the other reflections much like The Thing, they can adapt and copy the mannerisms of their victims to fool those around them. As observed here with The Thing's Villains Wiki entry.
Inherit traits and memories of victims they assimilate
This is best on display with the Eugene Mirror Monster as he aces the test portion of Rapunzel quizzes him on everything from two posters of Flynn Rider and which is more accurate and his response is spot-on. How did Evil Eugene know how to do this? He had been studying Rapunzel's Journal since he entered the real world and trapped the real Eugene inside the mirror that he and the other Mirror Monsters came out of. So, that makes them scary on a level of how they can learn so quickly about those that they replace. However, they can also be physically scary as seen with the Rapunzel Mirror Monster.
Yeah, that's creepy and shows that the show isn't afraid to go dark and get scary with the monsters that our heroes face and again for a kids show, that's creepy. Which is quite effective in showing our heroes coming together.
Tests
The test portion of this episode is one of the best aspects as all the test fit the personalities of the characters. Rapunzel's test is that she is able to find art in the dullest situation and this is seen by her turning food into a diorama of Corona.
Again, what's amazing here is that both Mirror Monsters know that this is the real Rapunzel when they see this and squash Uncle Monty, the one person that Rapunzel doesn't like. Yes, said both as the Cassandra Mirror Monster fails her test of cutting an apple into slices with her sword and instead uses it to free the other two mirror monsters. Now, I mentioned that the Mirror Monster Eugene aced his test. Well, Rapunzel and fake Eugene go hiding and Rapunzel realizes that the thing that she's been with is not her boyfriend. She commands him to do the smolder. And well...
And e just can't do it. I love how this episode messed with expectations and made both Rapunzel and the audience think that she was safe with the real Eugene when he had been absent the entire episode. This again speaks to the horror that is felt with this episode as this thing had nailed down Eugene's mannerisms but he couldn't nail down Eugene's most important physical attribute and what he is most famous for. And instead becomes The Fonz. Meanwhile, the real Eugene trapped in the mirror dimension along with everyone else realizes the Rapunzel that they're trapped with isn't the real Rapunzel when she uses the word pits as she never calls anything the pits. And he uses the smolder on Mirror Rapunzel and it works to great effect.
Yeah, this is also when the heroes realize that they need to work together to take down these monsters. Speaking of.
Defeat
They fought [Mirror Rapunzel] and managed to capture her using their own strengths. Meanwhile, the real Rapunzel was pretending to be a doppelganger as she finds Pascal and set up a trap for them. She lured the doppelgangers to stand on the mirror she put on the floor, allowing her real friends grabbed them, pulled them in, and got themselves freed. They put the mirror back on the wall and turned it around so that no one could look into it again.
It's simple and effective but shows that no single one of them can defeat the monsters on their own. This is such a nice touch and I love seeing these characters that I love working together to take down these monsters.
Scariness
For a children's program, this episode gets rather dark and quite scary with how the monsters are portrayed but as I said in the opening, Tangled isn't afraid of going dark and scary and the mirror monsters in this episode are just example of that. This show puts the audience and the characters through the wringer and the scares that it inflicts upon them ends up making them stronger.
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