Episode ? "The Grand Guignol"

Short summary: everybody dies.

Longer summary:

So, when we last left off, it looked like Arlecchino had performed some sort of dark ritual to make Colombina live again. Except he's still performing the ritual when this episode starts and it doesn't seem to be working. He's getting pretty angry and finally he jumps down from the balcony to the center of the ballroom. He starts threatening everybody with a knife that appears in his hand, until he gets a good look at the Pale Prince, then he starts to run for the door.

But the door opens before he gets there and in walks Colombina, still covered in that weird string and wearing a dark wooden mask. "How?" he says.

"She is here for the end," the Herleking says. "The end of all of us, the end of life and living, the end of food and drink and dancing. When we follow her we will all be of the end."

"Then I shall not follow her!" Arlecchino says. "I shall follow me, as always, and kill her again!"

At that point, Colombina's arms reach out and the strings fly out and encircle Arlecchino's neck. They strangle him until his face turns red and then tighten until his head (believe it or not) pops off, blood spilling on the dance floor. "It has begun," the Herleking said

and

and

and suddenly it wasn't claymation anymore, it was live-action. Arlecchino's blood looked dark and real and Herleking had a look of sheer terror on his face and the Pale Prince...he was there one moment and then suddenly he wasn't. I didn't get a good glimpse because the whole episode becoming live-action was quite a shock.

Then suddenly we see Colombina again and she's walking forward toward the camera and all the strings around her skin are moving and curling and you can see a little of them behind that wooden mask. It's just so fucking scary. Then strings starts bursting through the floor and all the dancers and revellers get entangled and strangled and die. And the Herleking steps forward and bows his head towards Colombina and he stabs himself before the strings surround him.

And then and then and then the strings all rise up, pulling all the dead bodies up like puppets, and the strings make them dance in a sort of perversion of their previous dance. And Colombina stands in the middle, still and silent.

Analysis: fuck that. I'm never sleeping again.