When Mr. Weatherbee calls him into his office and gives him carte blanche to find out what's causing the bizarre happenings around school, Archie is thrilled. Then his investigation leads to Dilton's latest invention, a strange ray, zapping him and leaving him ghostly, a fate shared with three other teens: Dilton, Midge, and Big Ethel. Can the four find a way to reverse their condition and keep the ray from zapping anyone else?
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- A Day in the Limelight: The episode focuses on Dilton building a device that ends up phasing himself, Archie, Midge, and Big Ethel into another plane of existence, basically turning them intangible and invisible. The episode reveals more about Midge and Ethel beyond Midge simply being Moose's girlfriend and Ethel chasing Jughead, respectively. Dilton also sadly notes that the only time anyone talks to him is when they need help with science. He was missing for an entire day and no one noticed before Archie became intangible. After they get turned back to normal, Archie decides to spend the rest of the day with them.
- Cut the Juice: Even after they manage to return to normal, Dilton notices with horror that the ray is going to pulse again. Archie simply pulls the plug out.
- Hidden Depths: The episode reveals that Midge is training in gymnastics because she wants to be a stuntwoman, and Big Ethel is knowledgeable about old coins and interested in magic.
- Increasingly Lethal Enemy: A non-video-game example. Dilton and Midge were caught by the initial ray blast and didn't have a chance to turn the machine off. It keeps pulsing, and every time it pulses, the area it can impact increases. If the four can't find some way to turn it off, it will zap the whole school and eventually the whole town.
- Intangibility: Played with; anyone caught between dimensions can interact with objects. However, unless the object is metal, it will take all their strength even to do something simple like shove a stack of papers over.
- Invisible Main Character: The episode had Archie, Dilton, Midge, and Ethel turned invisible and intangible while they were in another plane of existence.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Dilton laments that he's only important if anyone needs scientific advice on anything. Given that he's only beein in a handful of episodes where that's the case...
- The Triple: Big Ethel excitedly chimes in about Reggie's coin twice before Reggie himself describes it, using the exact words she did. Ethel isn't impressed that no one noticed.
- Tragic Intangibility: The invisible, intangible state Dilton, Midge, and Big Ethel find themselves in thanks to the ray is compared with the way they feel most of the time. The student body only sees Midge as Moose's girlfriend, and Big Ethel and Dilton tend to fade into the background completely. Dilton specifically passes off Archie not noticing he was missing, saying that he can go without anyone interacting with him for days.
- What Have I Done: Archie looks legitimately guilty when he realizes how badly he's been neglecting Big Ethel, Midge and Dilton after they all remark on how invisible they feel most of the time. After they undo the effects, he turns down an invitation from Veronica to spend the evening with them, and he mentions his accidental guilt in ignoring them during his end-of-episode wrap-up.
