Warning: Main spoilers forward for Goosebumps episode 5.

The opening episodes of 2023’s Goosebumps reboot see Harold Biddle looking for a mysterious merchandise, however the nature of what he’s looking for shouldn’t be revealed till episode 5. Goosebumps has been by way of many incarnations through the years. The franchise began life again within the early ‘90s as a collection of best-selling youngsters’s horror novels. These then spawned a profitable TV present that ran all through the ‘90s, in addition to quite a few spinoff novel collection. Since then, 2015 noticed the arrival of a live-action Goosebumps film, and 2018 offered that film with a sequel. Now, 2023 brings with it one other Goosebumps tv present.

2023’s Goosebumps TV present is completely different for quite a few causes. For one factor, the present shouldn’t be an anthology collection like the unique TV collection. As a substitute, Goosebumps 2023 is a serialized comedy-horror that focuses on a bunch of small-town teenagers and their makes an attempt to work out why they’re being focused by paranormal phenomena. The brand new Goosebumps additionally leans tougher into the franchise’s horror roots than the live-action Goosebumps motion pictures. It opens with an adolescent — Harold Biddle — being burned alive, when an obvious prank goes badly fallacious. The primary 5 episodes then comply with his ghost’s makes an attempt to get revenge.

Harold Biddle Was Looking out For Slappy In Goosebumps

Early in 2023’s Goosebumps, Harold Biddle’s spirit possesses the physique of highschool instructor Mr. Bratt, who inherits the teenager’s haunted house. As soon as he has a physique once more, Harold begins looking for an unspecified object. Goosebumps season 1, episode 5, “Reader Beware,” lastly reveals what Harold is searching for. Over the primary 5 episodes of Goosebumps’ fashionable reboot, Harold unleashes a string of supernatural threats to Isabella, James, Margot, Isaiah, and Lucas in order that he can be taught the place their dad and mom buried his beloved ventriloquist’s doll. Longtime Goosebumps followers received’t be shocked to be taught the doll is Slappy.

Because it seems, Harold is attempting to find Slappy the Dummy to revive him to his former glory. Whereas each display model of the Goosebumps collection depends on Slappy as a serious villain, the brand new Goosebumps’ model of the doll is a bit completely different. This iteration of Slappy is a malevolent dummy that Harold discovers in a home his household inherited from an eccentric relative. This relative fell below Slappy’s spell years earlier, turning his enemies into dummies earlier than finally hiding the doll for worry of its malign affect. Like earlier R.L. Stine motion pictures, equivalent to 2015’s live-action Goosebumps, Goosebumps 2023 finally reveals Slappy as its fundamental antagonist.

Is Slappy The Supply Of Harold Biddle’s Dying?

Whether or not Slappy instantly causes Harold Biddle’s loss of life is a tricky query to reply. On the one hand, the doll influences his habits, manipulates him into betraying his associates, and causes them to resent him. Slappy additionally convinces Harold to show his dad and mom into dummies. Nonetheless, it is Harold’s associates who inadvertently trigger the fireplace in his home, and it is Harold who chooses to prioritize his creepy dummy over them. Finally, Slappy is answerable for Harold Biddle’s loss of life in Goosebumps 2023 — however Harold and his associates additionally bear among the blame.