46 pages • 1 hour read
Patrick CarmanA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Around midnight on Sunday, September 19, Ryan receives Sarah’s eighth video, “miltonarbogast” (178), which prompts Ryan to sneak out and meet Sarah. They meet in an alley and travel to the Dredge. They search the area, noting the alchemy symbols on the gears. Sarah finds the missing lever and accesses the room. She helps Ryan inside, and they find a strange cylinder with symbols from the alchemy diagram.
In the journal entries, Ryan resolves to go to the Dredge with Sarah after she finds a photo that suggests there is a hidden room there. He waits impatiently for Henry’s poker party to end before writing a final entry for someone to find in case something happens to him. He sneaks out to meet Sarah, leaving instructions for the reader to access the next video to discover what happens to them.
In Sarah’s ninth and final video, “tanginabarrons” (186), Sarah and Ryan hear a noise similar to the thump-and-drag movement of Joe Bush. They quickly put out the light. The video consists of their shaky breathing in the dark before a figure that appears to be Joe Bush looks into the room, accompanied by the sound of a jump scare. The figure seals Ryan and Sarah in the room. Sarah puts on a light and zooms in for a close-up of her face, pleading for anyone who finds the video to come save them. The video fades to black.
This is a short section that represents the climax of the written narrative. Ryan has accepted the dangers inherent in their investigation, and he resolves to accompany Sarah through to the end: He is certain that Sarah underestimates how dangerous Joe Bush can be. Unlike Sarah, Ryan is restricted by his leg injury. His awkward way of walking, which mirrors the movement of the ghost, is a consistent reminder of this as Ryan navigates the outdoors for the first time since his accident.
The pacing in this part is an important clue to the revelations about Henry in the second vook. Ryan must wait for the end of Henry’s poker party before he can meet with Sarah and go to the Dredge. This gives Henry time to dress in his disguise and follow the teens to the Dredge before trapping them. The cliffhanger completes the motif of captivity and isolation, calling to mind the literary allusions to the traps set for the protagonists in Edgar Allen Poe’s stories “The Pit and the Pendulum” and “The Cask of Amontillado.”
The narrative ends with a cliffhanger that directs the reader to watch the final video to see what happens. This suggests the video will provide the resolution to the novel, but the conflict of Skeleton Creek remains unclear, making a resolution impossible. Instead, the reader must treat the novel as a volume within an arc and continue reading the series to learn what the mystery actually is, whether the ghost of Joe Bush is real or not, and why the ghostly figure is haunting the Dredge.
There is the suggestion that the next volume will reveal the secrets and conspiracy behind the Crossbones as well. This is a false lead, however, as Carman leaves each novel in the series open-ended.
The “miltonarbogast” video is one of two videos accessed in quick succession, reflecting the increased pace of the novel as the climax approaches. This password alludes to a character in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic 1960 mystery thriller Psycho. Arbogast is murdered by Norman Bates while the killer is disguised as his mother. The protagonists of the film find Arbogast’s body in solving the crime. The password as one of the final access codes revealed before Henry traps Ryan and Sarah in the Dredge provides additional tension for any readers who may suspect Henry’s role.
The final video ends on another cliffhanger, leaving the novel unresolved. The stylistic elements are similar to those of the other videos in the collection: A shaky handheld camera follows Ryan into the Dredge, where he and Sarah move around until they discover the symbols, followed by the lever and the entrance to the hidden room. More impactful in this video is the use of the black background, as they wait to see if the ghost of Joe Bush will notice them while they hide in the room. This is followed by the sudden glimpse of the skeletal face and glowing eyes before the door is loudly sealed shut.
The literary allusion in the final password “tanginabarrons” is a reference to the character Tangina Barrons from the classic supernatural horror film Poltergeist (1982). Barrons is a psychic medium who identifies the malevolent spirit that haunts the young girl in the film. This suggests that the ghost of Joe Bush is real and encourages readers to consider both options: a hoax or a legitimate supernatural encounter.
The second book will reveal that both possibilities are true, but only after Ryan and Sarah manage to escape the Dredge and continue to investigate.