“The Midnight Club” is a 2022 Netflix horror series that revolves around the life of Ilonka, a seemingly intelligent and outgoing individual with massive ambitions to acquire. But her life turns mysterious when she is diagnosed with thyroid cancer and lung metastasis. Ilonka spent her days with Tim, her foster dad, and this diagnosis was completely unexpected since she was planning to visit Stanford the following year. But she had to compromise her ambitions for heavy treatments and therapy. For some reason, these treatments were not working, and she was already in the terminal stage. The prognosis didn’t work well, and the tumors in her lungs didn’t respond the way her doctors had expected. Ilonka didn’t have much time to live, and this revelation took a huge toll on her mental health. Devastated by this, Ilonka decided to look for ways to battle thyroid cancer. But, she came across the manor of Brightcliffe Hospice, where young teenagers could receive palliative care and treatment. Well, Ilonka was shocked to find this place on the internet since she had previously dreamt about it.
Ilonka knew that this place had some kind of connection to her illness, and one person, in particular, attracted her — that was Julia Jayne. The main reason for Ilonka’s arrival was Julia Jayne’s diagnosis. She suffered from thyroid cancer as well, but she was cured mysteriously. Ilonka had several dreams and ambitions to fulfill, and this was her only hope to change the whole dynamics of her life. Ilonka convinced her foster dad and got admitted to Brightcliffe. Here, she met eight individuals who were suffering from serious illnesses, and each one of them had a history that they wanted to change or forget. These individuals met each other every night and shared spooky stories. Together, they were known as “The Midnight Club.” At first, Ilonka was not allowed in the group, but later she was caught eavesdropping on their conversations.
Every night, each one of them would share a horror experience or a fictional story that included ghosts and serial killers. Days passed, and Illonka grew closer with each one of the members since they shared their perspectives on death and the afterlife. Even though these stories were fictional, they somehow fueled the supernatural instances that occurred in the manor. Even though the manor looked extremely fine with vintage furniture and surroundings, the walls of Brightcliffe hid many secrets. These secrets included supernatural experiences, which everyone in “the midnight club” had experienced at some point. Ilonka was attracted to the story of Julia Jayne. She decided to steal her files from Dr. Georgina Stanton’s office and found multiple details in them.
Well, Ilonka tried her best to confront Dr. Stanton, but she just shrugged off the whole conversation by claiming that Julia had a misdiagnosis. But for some reason, Ilonka refused to believe it and decided to look for more information about her disappearance amidst the treatment. In the year 1968, Julia had disappeared for a week and came back. At first, she was suffering from thyroid cancer, but her disappearance changed something inside her body, and that was the exact reason that attracted Ilonka to the Brightcliffe manor. But from the very beginning, Ilonka spotted shadowy creatures and men in capes, but she couldn’t figure out the reason behind them. Ilonka’s attention was completely engraved in the Paragon cult, who dedicated their lives to figuring out the healing powers that lay beneath the grounds of Brightcliffe.
If you look closely, “the midnight club” shared stories that were meant to be fictional, but in reality, these stories had much more meaning to them. In every story, these young individuals represented their fear, and that is the fear of death. Anya is on the verge of dying, and she confided in Ilonka and revealed that she wanted to live. So Ilonka tried to revive the paragon cult just to save Anya, but things never worked like that. The ritual didn’t work, and Anya lost her life the next day. Mysteriously, Sandra was healed, and her terminal results were proven to be a misdiagnosis. Ilonka believed that the spells from the paragon book worked on Sandra instead of Anya. But Ilonka decided to dig deeper into their cultist activities. Outside the manor grounds, Ilonka came across a mysterious lady, who later turned out to be Julia. She manipulated Illonka into believing that the ceremony would save her from cancer.
But Julia had other plans all this time; she was fooling Ilonka into drinking a poisoned potion, which she referred to as tea. For some reason, Illonka’s intuition didn’t let her consume the tea, and she was saved by Dr. Stanton. The other ladies present in the cult had already drunk it, so they all suffered from painful stomach aches and vomiting. Julia managed to escape, but Dr. Stanton confronted Ilonka about her behavior, since she refused to listen and broke all the rules and regulations. But everything happens for good, as Kevin and Ilonka fell in love , and now Ilonka was ready to spend the rest of her time loving Kevin. Ilonka was a career-driven young girl, and all she ever wanted was to make herself proud. Her talents were beyond imaginable since she was interested in literature, and her writings brought in several favors for her. In the end, she just wanted to live her life the way she wanted. Maybe “The Midnight Club” will come back with more explanations for Kevin and Ilonka’s diagnosis.
See More: How Is Julia Jayne And The Hourglass Symbol Connected In The Series ‘The Midnight Club’?
