Our friends from London are excited to hear about the exhibit, Sky.
Acquiring the Throne of Sargon is an impressive feat.
You two go ahead.
I need to look at something.
I'll catch up.
Don't get too distracted.
Awaken.
Come along, little friend.
We have much to do.
Alex said I stole the scarab?
That's nonsense. Why would he say that?
He's been worried about you.
He said you've been anxious lately.
Apparently, you've been sleepwalking?
Sleepwalking? He's the one who's been blacking out.
You have to believe me.
I want to believe you, Sky,
but there are some factors we find concerning.
You and your husband were here the night the scarab was stolen.
I was here promoting this museum.
Doing my job is suspicious now?
Maybe not.
But pulling all the scarab's information from the archives is.
I'm telling you, it wasn't me.
Caparaz, take a walk. I want to speak with Sky alone.
You can't be serious.
Take a walk.
You have to understand our perspective, Sky.
Your own husband turned you in for stealing the scarab.
I honestly don't know what's going on with Alex,
but he's not telling you the truth.
Are you?
It feels like you've been dishonest with me for months.
All these questions about artifacts, the sudden trips abroad,
and now you're involved in a theft?
I can help you if you tell me the truth, Sky.
Otherwise, it will be out of my hands.
I wish I could tell you what you wanna hear,
but I had nothing to do with the scarab's disappearance.
Sky, you know I think the world of you. That's why I'm trying to protect you.
But you're not leaving me many options.
I'm going to give you some time.
Make yourself some tea, take some deep breaths,
then consider the merits of telling me the truth.
You can't do this to me, Georgia.
Let me out right now!
Let's hear what you have to say for yourself, Alex.
Where's my phone?
Is Mom still not answering?
Nothing yet. I'm getting worried.
That's him.
The black ribbon Mom saw in the Inuit glasses.
He was outside our house and at the docks.
How's he tied into all this?
I don't know, but he broke in and beat up Dad.
Let's go kick his butt.
Hang on, Pan. He's dangerous.
We better stay away from him.
Just keep walking. We're totally normal visitors.
You two, stop right there.
Hello, sir.
We're just two schoolchildren on a field trip.
I know who you are. You need to leave.
Hey, buddy, I work here.
You're a youth docent. Calling it work is generous.
Get out!
Look, we just need to find our parents.
Your father just left, and your mother is in a meeting with Georgia.
Well, we really need to see her, so we'll just head up there.
You will do no such thing.
Excuse me? And why not?
That information is need-to-know.
But trust me, your mother is not going anywhere.
Go home now.
We can't leave Mom here with him. She needs us.
Yeah, you're right. But how are we gonna get past him?
Remember that time we chased the Olmec babies around the museum?
- Could you please keep it down? - Russ?
- Mom! Mom! - Kids!
We're up here.
I was so worried. There's something wrong with your dad.
He told Georgia I stole the scarab from the museum.
We were coming to tell you about him. He used an artifact to shrink us.
He did what?
Linda almost ate Pan.
We think he might be possessed.
We all know Dad would never hurt us.
There are artifacts that can take control of people, like the puppet.
Don't remind me.
The point is Dad needs us, even if he is dangerous.
Let's get out of here and find him.
Is someone in here?
The museum is closed. You are officially trespassing.
Our next stop is the toy and doll room.
I would apologize for the mess,
but technically, you made it when you broke the tonic's curse.
Yeah.
I'll help you clean up after the tour.
It's not exactly a tour. We're hunting Chompers and his twin.
Tour, hunt, it's awesome either way.
Thanks for taking me around the Restricted Wing.
Found one.
But what's it doing?
Little bilge rat's chewing the briar again.
It's activated.
It stopped.
That's it.
The briar is suppressing the power of the cursed artifacts.
If the briar can activate items,
it follows that it can deactivate them as well.
This must be why the scarabs are attacking the briar.
Someone doesn't want it to help us.
A saboteur wants the briar dead.
How could anyone be capable of such villainy?
We gotta stop the scarabs before things get out of hand,
starting with that one.
Let's go.
Look out below!
Wow, so much for the element of surprise.
At least we put him down for good.
Indeed. I'll retrieve a broom and clean this up.
Join me, Devi?
What's wrong?
More bugs. I got this.
Devi, no! Don't!
It's like a blooming hydra. When you smash one, it just makes more.
We can't delay. We must catch them before they--
No, they've gone.
Where are they?
Where are they? Where are they?
Thieves. Miscreants. How dare they take what is mine?
Will that noise never cease?
What? What do you want?
What's got your goat, Alex?
It's just me, your old pal Margie.
Sorry.
I tried calling you and Sky a bunch. Where have you been?
We've been busy with work.
I hear that.
Anyhoodle, I was giving Old Rufus his weekly tune-up--
you know he loves that--
and I found a bag of busted old stones stuck in the wall.
Figured they were yours.
I was hoping you could come to the harbor, but I couldn't reach you.
So I figured I'd zip on over on Lil Rufus and drop it off at Briarstone myself.
Thank you, Margie. How considerate.
But no one's home right now.
Would you mind meeting me somewhere else?
Sure.
Just tell me where to go.
So you're telling me Alex is stealing artifacts too?
It doesn't make sense.
Yeah, I've correlated his blackouts with some recent thefts.
Unfortunately, the timing checks out.
He's gotta be cursed.
Does anyone believe Dad would actually do that?
No, Alex always tries to do the right thing.
Back in college, Alex joined a huge protest
that tried to get our school to return some ceremonial artifacts
taken from the Navajo Nation.
Really? Dad's been into the return game for a while.
He got in a lot of trouble for it. He was almost expelled, but he didn't care.
He kept saying it was the right thing to do.
He's always believed looted artifacts should be returned,
even before he knew about the family curse.
That's who your dad is.
And that man would never steal an artifact.
- Hey, Devs. What's-- - There are a bunch of blue bugs
in your creepy curse basement, and they're eating all the vines.
- Allow me to clarify. - Hey!
The Restricted Wing is full of Lapis Scarabs,
and they're severely damaging the briar, and we cannot capture them all ourselves.
There's more than one scarab? How is that possible?
We'll explain later, but you gotta get back here now.
The entire Restricted Wing is in danger.
We did see undeniable proof
that the briar is keeping the cursed artifacts from activating.
But all the scarab bites are taking a toll on the briar,
and it's losing its grip on the artifacts.
So if the scarabs are destroying the briar,
all the artifacts in the Restricted Wing could activate at the same time.
We can't let that happen. It would be a total nightmare.
Hang tight. We're on our way.
You think whatever's possessing Dad did this?
Wouldn't be the first time an artifact has been used against us today.
We're putting an end to it.
Time to save our house and your dad.
Hey, Devi, what's the status?
I'm guarding the exits in case any scarabs run through here.
Devi's on defense.
Pandora, wait!
Oh, no. That's gonna be a problem.
Why? What's wrong?
I hated every second of that.
It gets worse.
Larry and I broke one each. There's a lot.
And they're all going after the briar.
Not if we can help it.
We have to catch all of the scarabs and find a way to get rid of them for good.
We can't miss a single one. The results could be catastrophic.
The entire wing activated at once.
I shudder at the thought.
Let's make sure it doesn't happen. Devi, you're with me and Hank.
Yeah. I'm good out here.
Stanley pointed out booby traps during the tour
and kept saying how easy they were to set off.
How about we bring you the scarabs we find,
and you keep them trapped in the urn?
That I can do.
Happy hunting.
Careful, Hank.
There you are.
Hold still.
Hey! Get back in the net!
That was too close.
Thanks for the assist, pal.
Please, yield!
Come here! Stop running!
Gotcha!
Oh, my God, they're so gross. Open the urn.
We're outnumbered.
Getting them all at once is our best chance.
All right. Here it goes.
Get it, Russ!
Russ!
No!
Nice work. Good use of color.
Coming about portside.
Yeesh.
You sure know where to take a gal, Alex.
Alex?
You in here? Alex?
Why does he wanna meet in this dump?
Alex!
I know I heard something.
There's got to be a scarab hiding somewhere.
Well, let's make it quick.
This place is creepy enough when the lights work.
Look at those huge strands. They're barely holding on.
And the scarab's finishing the job.
Not the dolls, anything but the dolls.
Why did they all activate?
It's gotta be because of that huge briar strand.
It must have been keeping them under control.
We can't lose it now.
Gotcha!
Mama.
Mama! Mama!
What should we do? We can't uncurse all these artifacts now.
We have to stop the scarabs and help Dad.
Maybe we don't need to deal with them now.
Devi, catch!
Run!
- Mama. - Get off me!
I don't know about you,
but I never wanna see another doll ever again.
Look, Mom, we cut a bunch of this briar to get to the vault, remember?
A lot of it has already grown back.
Good. Maybe that means, eventually,
the briar can put Little Baby Bitey and her friends back to sleep.
Come on.
Get in the stupid net.
That's it! That's how we destroy the scarabs.
We melt them down.
We make a great team. High five!
Yeah, that'd probably hurt. Good looking out.
Into the Hank tank you go, ya nasties.
Those were the last ones.
Your scary basement is now bug-free.
The scarabs really tore through this one.
I've never seen the thorns flash like that before.
Something's wrong.
I think it's trying to tell us something.
Where am I?
Dad?
Cornelius.
It's Cornelius!
He's the one who's been controlling Dad.
Cornelius is the curse.
Cornelius is alive after all this time?
And he's stowing away in Alex's body?
How is that even possible?
I have no idea, but that's what the briar was trying to tell me.
And, disturbingly, it makes sense.
That means Cornelius is the black ribbon, not Caparaz.
That's why Mom saw a black ribbon in the vault.
The Inuit glasses saw a different color when Cornelius was in control.
That's why the ribbon looked broken.
Okay, but if Cornelius is back, he's scheming.
We've read enough of his journals to know he always has an agenda.
What does he want?
I bet it has something to do with all the artifacts Dad stole.
I mean, the artifacts Cornelius made Dad steal, right?
They were all cuneiform tablets from Babylon, circa 3500 BCE.
That's probably not a coincidence.
He's going to activate the Throne of Sargon.
The what of who now?
If he has all those artifacts, I know what he's going to do.
He's trying to take over Alex for good.
Nope, that's it.
I'm out of here. I got a pool game in an hour anyway.
Hiya, Margie. How ya doing?