Possessed Cars and Smalton Pranks Populate This Year's Halloween Episode of "Big City Greens"

It's that spooky time of year, and fans of Big City Greens can once again enjoy another special Halloween installment of the hit Disney Channel animated series. In previous years, we've seen Pumpkin aliens take over a party and a blood moon that turns all the animals into feral zombies. We've also seen a spooky Halloween escape room, and a family of what may or may not be cannibals who just really want their pizza.

This year amps up the spooky fun with a pair of stories that might genuinely scare some folks, but are still the lighthearted fun and comedy adventures that we've come to expect from Big City Greens.

It all starts with a brand new intro just for this episode. Similar to Halloween spectacles on the series in the past, we get to see the familiar intro now with a spooky red tint and with some new horror-esque music reprising the main theme. What is especially fun about this particular intro is that each of the characters during their animated roll call of sorts is dressed like a character from a film adaptation of a Stephen King novel. Cricket sports an outfit reminiscent of Isaac from Children of the Corn, Tilly is dressed as the titular Carrie, Bill as Jack Torrance from The Shining, and Gramma as Pennywise from IT.

There's a reason for all this though, as it was highly touted ahead of the launch of the fifth season that Stephen King would be a guest star this season and, naturally, this is the episode where he will appear.

Killer Kludge

Our first half the episode takes us on a drive with Bill. He is on his way back to Big City from Smalton and has nothing on his schedule, so he decides to take a route off the beaten path. In doing so, he comes across a familiar, if not almost totally abandoned piece of farming equipment. As he reaches for it, he flashes back and realizes - it's the hay baler that took Bill's finger. For five seasons now this has been mentioned, but only now are we getting introduced (and maybe even see) this crucial moment moment taking place.

As Bill looks back on that moment (and not so fondly either), he is joined by Charlie - the farmer who originally bought the hay baler after the accident. The older farmer can tell Bill is still holding hatred and and may even want vengeance against the hay baler, even though it is about to be scrapped anyway. Charlie warns Bill not to do anything in anger, and Bill reluctantly agrees....before starting to drive away in his Kludge and smashing his beloved truck into the baler. In that moment, we can tell that something has just happened, with the implication that the evil aspects of the baler have been transferred into the favorite family vehicle, the Kludge.

The front of the truck is all crushed up and bent, twisted into a scary looking face that shows the truck is now evil like the hay baler before it. Even scarier, the truck seems to have a mind of its own now.

As Bill returns home, ready to climb out of his truck, the kids are ready to greet him when the truck suddenly accelerates directly at them. Bill is scared and hits the brakes, now knowing what caused that to happen, passing it off as some kind of malfunctioning transmission. Gramma once again encourages Bill to get rid of the truck, but he refuses.

Later, Bill is eating dinner with the family when he sees the Kludge lurking outside the window. As he looks back, he says that the truck is closer to the window than before, and panics. As the family comes to investigate all the commotion, the Kludge has returned to its original position further away.

Bill is in bed when he has a dream where he finds himself in the countryside, with the Kludge haunting him with the evil spirit of the hay baler - but now, the Kludge is hungry and wants the rest of Bill's fingers. Bill finds himself trapped against a wall as the Kludge races toward him to get the rest of his fingers, trapped before a he wakes up at the last second before impact.

He needs to figure out what's going on, and recruits Mr. Grigorian from the apartment building next door to help get rid of whatever evil entity is within the truck. Grigorian explains exactly what we've been thinking - the truck is haunted by a dark spirit that has transferred from the baler into the truck and won't stop until it gets all of his fingers. Unless they can expel the evil spirit.

The two hold a late night exorcism of sorts, but it didn't seem to work as the radio of the Kludge kicks on to different channels to convey a message: "Give Me What I Want." The two flee and shut the garage, locking the truck inside. Grigorian needs to study up to try some more methods, but insists that the truck won't be used until then.

Bill tries to get some sleep before being awaken by Gramma. It's time to take her - as promised - to a nearby book signing. Bill insists that they go another way, but she has already pulled the Kludge around and the kids are waiting inside, ready to go. Bill refuses to go near the truck so Gramma just continues to jump in the vehicle and drive off herself. Bill's entire family is now inside the possessed truck.

Bill once again gets the help of Grigorian and they chase the truck down on his motorcycle, catching up to the Kludge. Once there, the radio once again reminds Bill that "I Have Your Family." Frightened but ready to protect his family, Bill jumps onto the truck, sending it out of control on the streets of Big City. The traffic splits Mr. Grigorian away, sending him off elsewhere into the crowd of cars as Bill tries to stop the truck.

He decides that the only way to save his family is to give the truck what he wants - all of his fingers. He pops open the hood of the Kludge and drives his hands into the engine, before the Kludge smashes into the backside of a fancy car on the street.

Upon impact, there is a black screen before we are greeted by Officer Keys who is recapping the story. He's seen some things in his time, so he has put together all the pieces. Everything that Bill said has happened has happened, except for the haunted vehicle part. When Bill smashed into the hay baler, he did in fact damage the engine and how the truck functions. However, Bill also got himself quite the head injury that caused a number of hullucinations, explaining the possessed truck. Done and Done.

Right?

Well, there was another car involved in Bill's little accident, so Keys approaches the driver of that vehicle who was on his way to a book signing. That's because it was Stephen King, as himself. As Keys explains the story that Bill told, King points out that those kinds of stories belong only in best selling books. It's a lovely animated cameo, perfectly fit for this particular story.

Tricked

Thanks to a sentence of exposition, we learn that Bill has fixed up the Kludge and is with the family in Smalton. As he pulls into the driveway, we hear Cricket yell in the distance before what appears to be his body smashes into the front of the car and explodes. Don't worry though, this was just a Cricket prank. He made a dummy version of himself with a pumpkin. It's the latest in a string of pranks that Cricket has pulled this month throughout Smalton, some of which have gone too far with one even leading to the destruction of Patti's diner.

Bluntly, Smalton is sick of Cricket's pranks.

It's time for trick or treating, and Cricket and Tilly are going around partaking in the Halloween tradition. Of course, the rules state that if you don't have treats, you are subject to being tricked. As such, all of Smalton is petrified of Cricket and Tilly and even those who aren't are terrified once the kids have left that somehow a prank has been pulled in some way.

Eventually, the kids end up at the creepiest house in Smalton, where a bowl of candy awaits with "take one" listed upon the sweet candy jackpot. Tilly, of course, interprets this as one piece of candy, while Cricket sees it as the opportunity to take one whole bowl. After he does that, a menacing scarecrow appears behind him. Cricket, always the trickster himself, calls out what a good prank the fake scarecrow prank is....but this scarecrow isn't fake.

The scares begin as the kids realize that the scarecrow is very real and chases them throughout town into a nearby junkyard where someone is present and totally not stealing anything. The scarecrow shows up and as the kids run, they see the silhoutte of the scarecrow, let's just say "dispose" of the junkyard squatter. This continues throughout town, and even leads to Wayne's house where the kids are begging for help.

With all the pranks over the last month, Wayne is quite hesitant to fall for whatever this prank is and refuses to let the kids inside. We see more scarecrow mayhem throughout town and even more implied ends of other residents and it all comes to a head by the time the kids get back to their own home.

The kids go inside, and the Scarecrow is outside. Bill, Gramma, and Nancy say they'll help the kids, and Nick stays inside to protect the children...before quickly running out the back door. While the kids have barricaded the front door so nobody can come inside, that backdoor was left open and the scarecrow comes inside. He has his shiny ax from before, and now he has Gramma's sword. Which means.... Gramma is no more.

The kids panic and escape out their window into the tree and get outside before their dad comes running up to help them, standing in front of the Scarecrow before we hear a chopping noise and Bill falls down in front of his horrified kids. With nowhere else to go, the kids are stuck and at the mercy of the scarecrow - who takes Gramma's sword and drives it right towards Cricket's head - impacting his forhead and bending with a playful squeaking sound. The kids are confused, then Bill rises up with a jubilant, "gotcha!"

The scarecrow reveals himself to be Grandpa Nick - but wait? How can that be? There were times we saw the scarecrow and him! That's because he was just ONE of the Scarecrows. Everyone was in on it, including the many residents of Smalton who were sick of the pranks themselves, but now they see how fun these pranks can be.

The episode closes out with a special Halloween carol amongst the Smalton residents, as we pull back and see there is one more scarecrow that has yet to be explained....

This episode of Big City Greens is now available on the DisneyNOW website and will arrive on Disney Channel later tonight, October 4, at 7:00 PM ET/PT. You can also catch up with earlier episodes of the series and the first five episode of season 5 on Disney+.