House of Anubis

House of Anubis

Episode 7: House of Confrontation/House of Alarms

By: Carlos Uribe

House of Anubis is a show about an American teenager who goes to a British boarding school. It airs on Nickelodeon.

Spoilers Ahoy!

It makes perfect sense that House of Anubis would combine the Joy disappearance and the whole treasure hunt that the Sibuna Club is going on. This isn't something that should surprise anyone but the way the series did it is very clever. Patricia has had very little luck in finding out what really happened to Joy. None of her friends believe her and the one teacher who was with her ended up being “converted” by Victor. The show doesn't completely leave her without allies: the “ghost” she had been seeing ends up being a private investigator who is looking for Joy. The two are going to work together. Patricia is going to give him a picture of Joy while he gives her a picture of Egyptian symbols, including the one that makes up Nina's necklace. By doing this, the series had enough to converge the two storylines into one. The show didn't feel satisfied with this and decided to add a completely different layer.

This show has always had hints of supernatural elements. This is probably the first episode where that supernatural element actually comes into play. This is evidenced at the cliff-hanger that closes the episode. The recordings of the young Sara reveal that Victor is not only in them, but he sounds to be about the same age as the present day. Sara also accuses Victor of killer her parents and references his stuffed crow. Victor has always been an antagonistic character. He has been presented as a strict teacher and as very involved in the Joy disappearance. In fact, when the teacher who had been helping Joy asked for answers, the person to give them was Victor. By bringing him directly involved into the treasure hunt, the series is able to fully expand Victor as a villain. What he's after and his motivations for his actions aren't explained but it can't be good. That ending was actually a pretty surprising ending since I wasn't expecting that.

This episode was pretty busy combining two storylines but it went even further. It also solved the puzzle that the previous episode provided. It was accidentally solved by Amber and with the help of Trudy. Trudy didn't know she was helping. This line of evidence leads to Nina finding a new item. It's not known what this item is but it was hidden pretty well. The actual puzzle wasn't that hard to solve and any person who gave this show any thought probably could have guessed it. The only reason the characters didn't immediately come upon the answer was because they were taking the poem literally rather than metaphorically. It wasn't until they realized that the house itself was a clue that they were able to solve it. Something that I rarely note is how the House of Anubis, and the entire school, is a character of it's own. The episode managed to advance two stories even as it was bringing them together.

There was also some development on the relationship side of the show. Amber gets dumped by Mick which leads to Alfie trying hard to win her over. His attempts fail because Jerome gives terrible advice. The way the break-up was handled felt a bit odd and rushed. The show hints that this Sibuna club has led to her ignoring Mick but we really didn't see much of that happening. It would have been nice if the show had taken more time to show that the relationship was going downhill. When Mick broke up with Amber in this show's worst-written show, it came as a big surprise because it didn't seem like Mick was that unhappy with their relationship. Even the show seems to realize how clumsy it handled that scene, as it had another one where Mick had to try and explain to Amber his feelings.

House of Anubis had a pretty great episode except when it was dealing with Mick and Amber's relationship. That's because the show has been taking time to grow the mystery of Joy's disappearance and the Sibuna treasure hunt, but it has come at the cost at some time that could have been spending on developing their relationship. This episode had a lot of important plot developments but they should have held up on Mick breaking up with Amber into the next episode-once the show had laid the seeds that there was trouble in paradise. This episode might have had a weakness, but it never really got boring-which is good.

It should be noted that the next review will be the final one for this summer, as I end the first volume. The second volume might be renewed next summer, assuming the show is still on the air.