Summer Special 1991

Specials? For a weekly TV series? Well, yes. This is the early '90s, after all, era of cheap ratings stunts like Summer 90210. This is sort of like that, only with demons other than Shannen Doherty.

Opening Credits

SP1.1 The Island of Dr. Stan
Written and directed by Chris Roosenraad.
The events of this episode take place on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday July 10-13, 1991.
After an uneventful night patrolling in the cemetery, Sam and Tori return downtown, where Kevin is locking up the Kit & Cauldron, where he is working for the summer. Just as he steps outside, a ratty car pulls up and four vamps jump out and accost him. He holds them off long enough for the girls to show up and Sam dispatches them easily, but not, unfortunately, before Kevin attempts an attack spell, which merely succeeds in blowing out every window in a two-block radius and causing the magic shop's 4th of July display to explode, nearly destroying the store, not to mention animating the Uncle Sam mannequin in the window. The next morning, Slayer Club (minus Hartsdale and Moira, who are headed for a rare book show in Boston) heads out for a long weekend at a cabin Joshua's family owns along with some business associates of theirs. The cabin is located on an island in upstate New York. Joshua's older brother and his wife are expected to be there as chaperones but, when they arrive at the dock, Slayer Club finds not their cars, but three black Lincoln Continentals belonging to the business associates. After firmly putting the kibosh on any Mafia jokes, Joshua ferries his friends and their gear out to the island. Once there, they meet Joshua's family's friends: Tony, Sal, Vincent and Junior, a group of businessmen from New Jersey. They're engaged in a construction project out behind the main house, putting in a skeet shooting range.

Tony offers to take the gang out on his (very powerful and expensive) powerboat while Joshua waits for his brother and his associates finish their construction work. He even lets Sam drive. Erik water-skis, Tori, who has changed into a swimsuit uncannily reminiscent of Monsoon's costume, sunbathes, and Drew and Kevin (ever the goth in his black bathing suit) just ride and look at the scenery. At the south end of the island, they see what appears to be some sort of ruined tower, which they vow to come back and investigate later. The only disappointment is that overcast skies prevent them from viewing the afternoon's partial solar eclipse. When they return, Joshua's brother Isiah and his wife Tina have arrived. Overhearing Isiah lecturing Joshua on how he needs to be more responsible, the others are tempted to sneak off, but Sam heroically leads them in to save him. Isiah is armed with a list of rules that Tori's father has insisted on, including a 10 pm curfew. After escaping Isiah, Sam decides to spend the afternoon fishing. She's joined by Tony, who entertains her with embarrassing stories about Joshua's childhood. The rest of Slayer Club sets out to explore the island. They head away from the house, displaying a glaring lack of interest in the mobsters' excavation project. Drew insists they leave the tower for when Sam is there, too, so they set off along the beach. They find large boulders placed at regular intervals along the shoreline. The boulders show signs that they've been moved recently, probably towed into position by a boat. The only boat on the island powerful enough to do the job is Tony's powerboat.

Sam brings back several trout, which Vincent expertly guts. While the fish cooks, Vincent and Junior dig a pit near the house and begin roasting a whole pig for the next day's meal. Vincent proves to be an excellent cook and dinner is accompanied by a fine Italian wine, offered to everyone but Tori. Sam also declines, as does Drew once he realizes that Sam isn't drinking. Erik does not and, slightly tipsy, makes an ill-advised Slayer joke which, disconcertingly, doesn't seem to go as far over the mobtsers' heads as he'd hoped. After dinner, Slayer Club sets off to explore the ruins. The southern end of the island tails off into a spine of rocks, at the end of which lies the tower. After scrambling out to it, they find that it is about 15 feet tall and has no door, windows, or other entrances. The sides are smooth and it's too treacherous to climb in the dark, but they decide to come back in daylight in the hopes that there's an entrance from the roof. Back at the house, they find the mobsters in an upstairs room gambling. Exhausted from the day's activities, Slayer Club retires to their cabins. Surprisingly, there are no attempts to break curfew or other late-night shenanigans.

The next morning, after a breakfast of blueberry pancakes, Slayer Club arms itself with climbing gear and heads back to the tower, pointing out the boulders to Sam on the way. Erik scales it, but finds only a rusted mounting bracket for a flag pole. Tapping the floor, he finds a hollow space, but it's only a small compartment for storing a flag. Aside from some graffiti (JW + LP '22), they find nothing in daylight that they were unable to see the previous evening. Frustrated, they return to the house along the other beach, confirming that the boulders extend around the entire island. After lunch, Tony invites them to try out the new shooting range. Sam does well, of course, but none of the others have fired a gun before. Tony instigates Drew and Kevin to bet over which of them will be worse, with the loser having to do the dinner dishes. Drew's laser tag experience proves surprisingly useful and he easily wins the bet, as Kevin succeeds only in injuring his shoulder from the gun's recoil. After they're done shooting, Erik breaks out the training gear and they engage in some sparring practice, joined by Vincent. Vincent has a couple good matches against Erik and Sam, although Sam pulls some of her blows so as not to draw attention to her abilities. He and Erik then settle back, with far too many beers, to watch the others spar. For the rest of the afternoon, Joshua, Erik, and Tori go swimming, Sam and Drew go out on the lake in a canoe, and Kevin gets the key to the house library from Tony and spends the afternoon browsing through books.

They enjoy a succulent dinner of roast pig, after which Kevin is relieved to find Vincent and Junior assisting him in his cleanup duty. After dinner, the mobsters retire to their card game, while Slayer Club heads for the library. Kevin shows Erik a book of water colors of various scenes around the island, painted sometime in the '20s or '30s. Drew finds the diary of a James Wilson, an arms magnate who owned the island until his company, WilCo, was nearly wiped out in the Great Depression and he was forced to sell most of his assets. A single entry from 1932 refers to the cancellation of some sort of ritual because "the ley lines shifted." Sam and Tori find blueprints of the house, which show a room hidden behind the huge coal pile in the basement. Inspired by all this talk of hidden rooms, Kevin starts tapping the walls and finds a secret room behind one of the bookcases. Only Drew is thin enough to squeeze through the narrow opening. Inside, he finds a mostly empty attic. The one item of interest is a plaque mounted on a pillar, which shows a ley line map of the island. The points where the ley lines cross the island's shore correspond to the locations of the boulders and they all intersect in the area of the new shooting range. Erik looks at the water colors again and realizes that what he had taken for sunbeams are actually drawings of ley lines. Before they can learn anything more, Isiah shows up and herds them off to bed.

This time, they don't immediately go to sleep, so they are still awake to hear boats approaching across the lake around eleven. From the engine sounds, it appears that a small, fast boat is approaching the main dock, while something larger and slower is heading for the other side of the island. Joshua goes to investigate the dock while the others head off to take a look at the larger boat. They arrive at the shore in time to see a large transport come ashore and unload a couple dozen people in black commando gear. Before they can see any more, they hear the sound of automatic weapons fire from the other side of the island. Thinking they've been caught in the middle of a mob hit, they head back to the cabins for their weapons. As they approach the house, they hear Isiah shouting at someone, then abruptly going silent. They find that the cabins have been broken into, but their weapons are undisturbed and they are able to arm themselves and head for the house. When they arrive, they see lights on in the house and a group of the commandos carrying several limp figures down the path to the dock. They pursue but, before they can catch up, the figures are loaded into a boat and taken off the island. After unloading their burden, the commandos head off in the direction of the shooting range. Slayer Club returns to the house, where they spot a man in red robes standing just outside the front door. A moment later, one of the commandos steps out of the house and reports that "the area is secure," much to the amusement of Slayer Club, and the robed figure responds, in a painfully nasal voice, that "preparations for the ritual can begin." Drew offers to demonstrate how secure the area is by shooting the guy in robes, preemptively putting a stop to any ritual, but Sam refuses to allow lethal force against a human. The cultist and the commando head off down the path to the shooting range. Most of Slayer Club follows, but Kevin sneaks into the house to see if the secret room in the basement has been opened. It hasn't, so he heads for the shooting range to rejoin the others.

When they arrive, Slayer Club finds the shooting range transformed into a site for some sort of ritual. The red robed cultist and some helpers are drawing three concentric magic circles and setting up various forms of arcane paraphernalia. The commandos, now that the area is "secure," are being directed to change into robes. Most are donning blue robes, but the four leaders are putting on yellow robes. While everyone is milling around, Sam and Drew manage to grab one of the blue robed guys. He's carrying a gun and a WilCo corporate ID which identifies him as a manager in the marketing department. He claims no knowledge of what's going on beyond a slip of paper with some words in Latin that he's supposed to chant when the ritual begins at midnight. Sam binds and gags him and Kevin takes his gun, puts on his robes, and slips into the crowd of cultists to try to disrupt the ritual from the inside. Slayer Club manages to repeat this process twice more, obtaining guns and blue robes for Tori and then Drew, both of whom also infiltrate the ritual. One of the yellow cultists is going around with some sort of device for measuring ley line energy, to make sure the lines are aligning properly. Kevin manages to disrupt a couple of the readings with telekinesis, but the cultist is moving too quickly for him and eventually gets a favorable reading and gives his okay for the ritual to begin as scheduled. As midnight approaches, the cultists form up inside the three magic circles, with the blue robes on the outside, the yellows in the middle circle, and the red robed leader at the center. As they begin chanting, a mysterious glow begins to form in the air in front of the red cultist. His chant is finally recognizable as an invocation to summon Seere, the Demon of Slaughter and to open his armory.

In the forest beyond the clearing, Sam lights a crossbow bolt on fire and shoots it at the ball of light forming in front of the red cultist. She hits and the ball explodes, but the released energy flows into the circles energizing them with a magical blast that sends Kevin and most of the outer ranks of cultists to their knees. Drew and Tori launch themselves at the middle circle, only to find that they are suddenly unable to pass through it. Drew draws his (formerly Gwen's) sword and tries to erase it but without success, although he finds that the blade can pass the circle. Seeing that, he grabs a pair of knives from a stunned blue cultist and throws them at the cult leader. One misses and the other bounces off a bulletproof vest that the leader is wearing under his robes. Sam and Erik charge into the clearing. Sam takes her (formerly Britta's) sword and tries to obliterate the circle, much as Drew did. Whether through her Slayer nature or some power of the sword, she breaks the circle, causing a violent discharge of energy that blows her back out of the clearing. Meanwhile, though, a vast rumbling has overtaken the clearing. The tower at the end of the island is lifting into the air, revealing itself as merely the spire of a vast castle rising out of the water. Closer at hand, smoke from the cultists' brazier is forming itself into a demonic shape.

Erik and Drew charge through the now broken middle circle to take on the yellow cultists. Tori, deciding that this has to end, draws her gun and takes a bead on the red cultist. She fires, but the gun jams. In disgust, she throws it at the cult leader. It falls far short, but the impact causes it to go off and the bullet hits the brazier, knocking it over and spilling ash across the line of the inner circle. Erik duels ineffectually with a yellow cultist from WilCo's accounting department, while Drew faces off against a martial artist from IT. Away from the clearing, Sam picks herself and runs for the castle. Kevin charges the cult leader and manages to do a spell to cause him to fall mute just before he can complete the ritual. Kevin is, however, unable to dispel the demon which finally takes solid form.

The demon is not pleased. The ritual has not been properly completed, the eclipse was partial rather than total as viewed from New England, and it's the night before the 13th rather than the night after. Irritated, he berates the cult leader for his incompetence, sucks out his soul, and departs. The cultist fighting Drew draws a wicked looking butterfly sword but, before he can get set in his stance, Drew, mindful of Sam's injunction against killing, whacks him with the blunt edge of his sword, knocking him out. Tori comes to Erik's rescue and the two of them chase off the accountant. The fourth yellow cultist, WilCo's director of corporate security, heads for Drew, but Kevin blinds him with a spell. Sam reaches the castle to find its doors open and an amazing collection of the finest weaponry she's ever seen lying inside, although the castle is already beginning to sink back into the lake. Fighting back the temptation, she kneels and invokes the archangels in an impromptu spell of banishment. As she completes the spell, the castle vanishes below the waves, leaving only the tip of the tower exposed. This time, even the rocks that led up to it have slipped below the waves, leaving the tower as a small island.

Kevin checks out the body of the red cultist and finds an ID identifying him as Stan Wilson, president and CEO of WilCo. A search of the island reveals that Vincent and Junior were killed in a gun battle with the cultists. Isiah, Tina, and the other mobsters are fine, though, having been knocked unconscious and locked in their cars on the shore. Believing that the entire thing was a hit or perhaps a kidnapping gone wrong, Tony is very grateful and promises Slayer Club that, if they ever need a favor, they only need ask. Kevin cashes his in immediately, asking for a private conversation with the cultist who had done the ley line mapping ritual. Tony promises that the man will be tracked down and delivered to him within the week. For his part, Isiah spends the rest of the weekend glowering at Tony and suggests that the whole thing should probably be kept quiet, a suggestion with which Slayer Club heartily agrees.