'Astrid & Lilly Save the World' makes a David Fincher reference in first look at tonight's new episode

"What's in the box?!" Yes, tonight's brand-new episode of Astrid & Lilly Save the World on SYFY features a reference to David Fincher's '90s classic, Se7en. SYFY WIRE has an exclusive sneak peek at the fifth installment, which involves a Dementor-like antagonist that forces people and monsters alike to relive their worst memory after a single touch.

According to a teary-eyed Brutus (Olivier Renaud), "the flashbacks will happen more and more frequently until you get stuck in a loop, at which point the monster will trap in your own box, so it can feed off your trauma forever." Lovely! To save the world this time around, Astrid and Lilly (Jana Morrison and Samantha Aucoin) must secure the being's eye — known as an "A-borg" — for use in a magical orb. Easy stuff, right?

"I'm just excited to see every single monster. I haven't seen anything besides what we physically saw when you're acting with them," Morrison explained to Comic Book Resources last month. "I feel like one of the things that really surprised me about special effects — I've never done a show with special effects or tangible goo — it just took longer for those scenes to film because there's a lot of elements. We got to clean up after. We got to reset, so that really surprised me because a lot of like the shows on TV right now have a lot of special effects, so I'm like, 'How long did that take?' But what really did excite me was working with the goo and getting my hands dirty."

Check out the clip below:

"Each episode we try to create a monster that is fully formed and very dynamic in its own way," co-creator/showrunner Noelle Stehman told SYFY WIRE ahead of the show's premiere. "A monster that you want to watch and follow along with, and you might want to root for, but probably not. Each monster has a theme about them that ties into a theme of what the high school kids are going through in that episode. And overall, that is the model for the season. Some of the monsters are straight up terrifying, some are funny, and they are all quirky."

Stehman co-created the series with Betsy Van Stone, who also serves as showrunner. They are executive producers alongside Lance Samuels, Daniel Iron, and Samantha Levine. 

Episode 5 of Astrid & Lilly Save the World ("A-borg") premieres on SYFY tonight at 10 p.m. ET after the latest installment of Resident Alien Season 2. New episodes of both shows are available on the SYFY app the day after they air.

It was announced yesterday that Morrison and Aucoin will co-host this year's SXSW Gaming Awards on Saturday, March 12.