Channel Zero: No-End House - S2E6 - The Hollow Girl

Previously on Channel Zero: No-End House, “The Damage” 

As the second season of Channel Zero headed towards its end, things got less scary and more disturbing. The finale picks up a year after Margot decided to follow Seth and The Father back inside The No-End House. They’ve carved out a sick existence where Margot voluntarily feeds The Father her memories, she gets her father back, and she and Seth can play house. When Seth and Margot notice a change inside the community, they realize the house has settled in a new location to draw in more visitors. This is exactly what Jules was waiting for as she’s been scouring the internet for the house’s next spot.

Margot’s perfect paradise begins to crack when she suggests blocking the door or burning down the house to stop other, unsuspecting, people from entering. Seth argues that the house is an evolving organism that won’t be easily tricked or denied. It’s the first sign that Seth has a measure of respect for his self-imposed prison. Later, he once again poses as a first-time visitor among a new group about to enter the house and there he runs into Jules.

Foolishly, Jules tells Seth her plan to bring Margot home and he locks her in a house where the giant glowing ball waits for her. It taunts her, replaying all the unreturned phone messages Margot left for Jules after her father died. When she denies it, it attacks her, pulling her into it until she has to cut her way out. Covered in blood, and brandishing a knife, she continues on her mission.

Seth tries to bring The Father to his side, but he’s not sure Margot is wrong. As the two argue, Jules manages to get Margot to go with her to the house Seth trapped her in. There, Margot meets the hollowed out girl who first entered The No-End House with Seth. Margot wasn’t his first and she probably won’t be his last. This still isn’t enough to persuade Margot to leave, though. Jules decides to take care of the one thing truly keeping Margot attached: The Father.

Margot confronts Seth in the cul-de-sac where the family waiting to feed on him has been trapped in a cage. Not only has he done this to her and one other girl, but there are girls who look very much like Margot in all the houses in the cul-de-sac. Seth’s been trying to find the perfect girl who sees the house the same way he does. The Father and Jules arrive, and The Father holds Seth down as Margot releases the family so they can finally feed.

After a tearful goodbye, The Father encourages Margot to kill him. She eventually stabs him with help from Jules, and the two exit the house.

I didn’t expect this season to be an exploration into grief and how it consumes us and pushes people away. No one knows how they’ll respond to grief until they’re in it. Margot’s pain scared Jules so much she ran, and that guilt almost literally consumed her. Margot’s willingness to sacrifice everything — including her life with her own mother and her memories of her — to be with her father again was painful to witness, but easy to understand.

How these two young women manage to have a life after this experience and absent of vital memories is something that will stick with me for a long time.