Previewing Into the Dark: Pooka Lives!

During my review of the My Valentine episode of Into the Dark I mentioned how I thought the Pooka cameo was the first time an episode referenced a previous one but it turns out I was wrong as that was the second time the creepy doll popped up. The first time was during the thanksgiving episode Pilgrim. Now Pooka is the first character to get a full sequel. I did see they gave My Valentine a shout out in response. But if there is a Pilgrim reference, again, I missed it.

Pooka Lives! is I guess April Fool’s Day themed, though it seems like a made up Pooka Day is the actual “holiday” here. Granted Easter is also referenced, so who knows. Yeah, sometimes they play fast and loose with the holidays. Though I wonder if this will be the last episode for a while or have there already filmed these episodes in advanced. It would be cool if someone aspiring filmmaker was able to create a Memorial Day episode from quarantine.

Pooka Lives! stars Malcolm Barrett (Timeless) who has to move back home and become a copywriter for the Pooka company after being publically scored by an influencers who decides to destroy his life. He then comes up with an internet challenge for retribution involving the creepy doll which now has countless different versions, including one that looks like Pooka forked the Donnie Darko rabbit which is truly horrifying.

The episode also stars Felicity Day (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Wil Wheaton (Star Trek: The Next Generation) but for some reason the two nineties nerd culture stars never share the screen. This episode seemed like it was going to be another slasher flick, the second this year after there was none in the first season, but the body count ended up pretty low. Maybe they are waiting for the third one for that, because this time it ends with a bit of a cliffhanger. But I have to say this was one of the few sequils better than the original. Here is how it ranks on my Power Ranking:

Into the Dark Season Two Power Ranking:

1. Uncanny Annie (October)
2. A Nasty Piece of Work (December)
3. Pooka Lives! (April)
4. Crawlers (March)
5. Pilgrim (November)
6. My Valentine (February)
7. Midnight Kiss (December)

Into the Dark: Pooka Lives! airs tomorrow exclusively on Hulu.