Over The Garden Wall covers the story of lost brothers in a mysterious forest looking for an outlet, struggling to find the way out while encountering nothing but red herrings misleading them about the beast rather than any actual escape. Our main characters are Wirt, the eldest and socially awkward brother who developed throughout the story, and Greg, the small, innocent, and ignorant young brother who has a hopeless positive outlook on life, and a frog who doesn’t have a name yet, and a bluebird by the name of Beatrice who would normally be guiding the boys is absent.
Episode 7:
Wandering after betrayal, the group travels in the foggy darkness, navigating without any possible way to head home. At Adelaide’s, Beatrice scurries around the house, distraughtly looking for a pair of scissors. The boys encounter the Woodsman. Still assuming he’s the beast, they flee in fear as he warns them to keep both high body and spirits. After they flee, the beast appears and has a small talk with the Woodsman after overhearing what he said. The boys enter a seemingly abandoned cabin, which is inhabited by a girl named Lorna who is tending to the house, warning the children to hide inside a basket of turtles before her Auntie Whispers arrives, Lorna is forced to do tasks, due to a small hand bell that has full control over, as her Aunt demonstrated the power of the bell. It is implied Auntie Whispers eats any victims who stumble into the house. She goes upstairs to sleep, and Wirt, offering sympathy, wants to help Lorna as Greg and his frog go upstairs. Waking her up, they hide in a room underneath the stairs and then it is revealed from Greg and Auntie Whispers that apparently Lorna has an evil spirit that’s the one who eats unsuspecting victims, and the bell actually keeps the spirit at bay. Escaping to the forest, Greg reveals the frog ate the bell which wakes Whispers up. Greg rings it and in a fast act, Wirt banishes the spirit from Lorna’s body. As they leave, Whispers offers advice to stay away from her sister, Adelaide. Back into the unknown, the boys are stumped.
Episode 8:
Wirt and Greg are rowing across a river. Wirt is in low spirits and on the verge of giving up his search. They settle on a tree stump while Greg asks questions regarding the future since Wirt is losing hope. Greg wishes to become a good leader before falling asleep. As he sleeps he’s brought into the sky by many cartoonish and silly creatures. A conflict arises at a gate boarding off the Old North Wind, a physical manifestation of a brewing storm harasses the residents. Greg takes things into his own hands and stops him in his tracks. Being privileged to meet the Queen of the Clouds, she informs him that his brother is being claimed by the beast in the real world which raises some questions. Greg comes to a compromise, and tuning back into the real world, Greg wakes up to follow a voice, the beast into the woods. Wirt awakens, realizes Greg is gone, and runs into the darkness searching frantically. Running over a frozen pond, the ice breaks and he’s saved by a comically large fish using a boat, and Beatrice! Asking him what happened to Greg since he wasn’t with him anymore. He fell unconscious before he could answer any questions.
Episode 9:
Taking place before the events of Over The Garden Wall, the day is Halloween and Wirt makes his costume out of old stuff. Wirt wants to give the girl who was mentioned in episode 6 a tape he made for her but fluctuates between having the courage and not. The girl, Sarah, who is the bee mascot for their football team. Wirt heads off towards the football field, watching Sarah, debating to himself. Greg steps into view after helping an old lady, in exchange for candy. Exchanging thoughts, Greg decides that if Wirt isn’t going to give the tape to Sarah, he’ll do it for him. Greg bumps into Wirt’s peers and tells them what they’re doing. They tease Wirt, saying he has a crush on Sarah. Afterward, they take the tape from Greg and do it for them. As the brothers walk off, Wirt has a bunch of regrets and tries to go grab it. Running back, his peers put it in Sarah’s jacket outside of her changing booth, trying to snag back the tape, a man deters them. Sarah comes out of the booth, taking her jacket with her. Wirt and Greg follow her to a party that Wirt believes he wasn’t invited to. Wirt watches from the window as Greg enters, and attracts the attention of everyone, and then points to the window, making Wirt nervous and revealing himself. Everyone is okay with him being here. Wandering around, Wirt bumps into Sarah, who was looking for him in the first place. While inviting him to go to the graveyard with her and her friends, Jason Funderburker waltzes into the room. Wirt is jealous of him since he seems to have Sarah’s attention. Sarah leaves but forgets her jacket on the way out, comes back, and sees Wirt grabbing her jacket, takes it back, and assumes he was giving it to her. She leaves while Greg and Wirt head to the graveyard. Wirt gradually gets jealous seeing Jason Funderburker hanging with Sarah and prompts Greg to go in for a distraction but it doesn’t go as planned, as he ends up revealing himself. They are then found out by a cop who jokes, saying that this is some sort of witches gathering. Thinking they’re in trouble, they run separate paths as Greg and Wirt climb the wall. Funderburker notices the tape in Sarah’s pocket and prompts her to listen to it with him. Wirt hops the wall out of embarrassment as Greg trails behind, finding the nameless frog. A whistle is heard as they get out of the way of an oncoming train. They fall into an open body of water and fall unconscious shortly after. Tuning back into the world of the unknown, Wirt and the frog were dropped off to the front of a tree, and are being warmed up by a bunch of Blue Jays that are Beatrice’s family inside nursing him back to health. He then leaves in better condition in search of his brother.
The series takes a turn for the worse as the beast, this creature that lures children away to convert them into trees and oil for the lantern to burn has a future victim in his possession. And Greg, a child who the audience has grown to love and adore for his childish nature and carefree attitude, is being manipulated easily by him and might end up like the rest of the lost souls claimed to the unknown. Wirt and Beatrice are scared and worried about Greg and are in search to make sure he’s safe. The series has yet to conclude (1 episode remaining) while the audience is left in suspense and shock.
