Panic

The new graduates await the kickoff signal from this year's judges, and tensions build as longtime friends become competitors; Heather has sworn she will never play the game, but she may not have a choice.

Twenty-three players are in, and the stakes are high -- literally; the game attracts the attention of the sheriff and his deputies who are dead set on stopping it; the new kid's odds are looking up until a bit of sabotage.

The town celebrates the Fourth of July with a parade, but one float carries a ghost and coded instructions that call the players to a third challenge; a nighttime raid and some surprise alliances mean Heather will have to watch her step.

During the third challenge, a disastrous series of events puts all the players' lives in danger; the players get a short break at the annual Player's Ball, during which sparks fly between competitors, and old trouble returns to cause new problems.

The players brave a night at a haunted house, where ghosts new and old make themselves known; the answer to a riddle reveals the game's troubled legacy; Heather's goals almost go up in smoke; a detractors has a secret connection to the game.

A demolition derby provides some much-needed distraction from troubling revelations; with police closing in on the judges, no one is sure the game can continue; Heather repairs one relationship and ruptures another.