The episode begins in a rather dark fashion: in the form of a Flashback, we hear the sound of two men arguing before the sound of a gunshot, footsteps, and the slamming off a door. As the scene fades to black, big red letters appear on the screen.
- Nobody has lived there in over fifty years...
This goes by with no comment.
Hobbes is scared of encountering another ghost after last time, but Calvin convinces him to partake in trick-or-treating with him and the rest of the group after showing Hobbes his costume.
Meanwhile Socrates is at his house thinking of various bobby traps to put in his yard while he trick-or-treats when he notices strange creaking noises comming from the attic and goes to investigate. Sound familiar? Upon finding no-one up there, Socrates shrugs this off and starts heading towards the elevator when all the doors surrounding him start to slam shut on their own. The slightly freaked out tiger tries to calmly assure himself that his house isn't haunted as he waits in the elevator. As he exits the mansion, the doors slam shut and Socrates notices on doorknob's grime-covered gold plague that he never noticed before:
- Socrates: "Established in 1805." Well that explains it! The house is over a hundred years old! Phew! Glad that's over!
Later on that day Calvin, Hobbes, Andy and Sherman go to the red-tailed tiger's mansion to find the latter setting up one of his pranks.After successfully avoiding Socrates' 21 easily set off hidden bobby traps the group goes inside the mansion when Calvin begins seeing images of a man trudging through the hallways. While Socrates tries on various Halloween costumes, Calvin goes to use the bathroom and the group are locked in Socrates' bedroom after he leaves. Calvin faces the same problem in the bathroom after hearing strange noises in the air ducts. Sherman manges to pick the locks to the doors freeing them and Calvin. Suddenly more doors begin to slam shut and Socrates, when questioned about the history of his house, calmly states that the mansion is over a hundred years old. The rest of the group leave, disturbed. On the way, Calvin spots the man again and tries to communicate with him but is left unanswered as the man disappears.
The next day on Halloween, Calvin and Hobbes meet up with the rest of the group sans Socrates where Calvin asks Andy if he found information on Socrates' mansion when said tiger shows up. Andy reads the information he found on the house, revealing it's grim backstory: in 1805, the man living in that house was accidentally shot to death and for the following five years, every family that lived in that house had mysteriously vanished after living there for a few years before people stopped moving into the house until Elliot's family and Socrates moved in. Everyone especially Socrates is disturbed by this and Calvin wants to take a more thorough look at the house to determine whenever or not it's really haunted. Later on that night after trick-or-treating, Calvin returns home to unload Hobbes and his candy and go to Socrates mansion however they're stopped by Mom who says its time for bed.
This doesn't stop our two heroes however. Calvin arms them with his inventions and they sneak out via Bedsheet Ladder to meet up with Andy and Sherman. They all walk up to Socrates' mansion to find all the lights on and the latter sitting in the house eating candy and watching television. Elliot and parents are currently at some Halloween party and, even though he allows his "friends" to search his house, Socrates refuses to acknowledge the fact that house is haunted until a blood curdling scream erupts through the house which convinces him. Calvin explains the plan to the group as he begins to note the importance of sticking together until he notices that Hobbes has already disappeared and settles with splitting up on that case. He gives Socrates the Time Pauser and Andy the Scream Horn to help them if they run into a ghost and they agree to meet up to secure the attic in "one hundred hours".
Calvin has The MTM scan the building for any signs of radioactive increases and gets a pin-point of ten yards. While he walks there, Calvin can't shake off the feeling that he's being watched from the closet by someone.
Meanwhile Hobbes is wandering the hallways until he comes up to Socrates' room. Decidiing to hide in there, Hobbes goes in and is immediately startled by the sound of a ringing phone. He unsurely picks up the receiver and answers...
Socrates is walking through the hallways humming to himself when he suddenly notices the darkened figure of a man limping through the hallways. When the man doesn't acknowledge him, Socrates stops time only to find the man unaffected much to his confusion. After man disappears and Socrates unfreezes time to continue but begins to hear raspy breathing over his shoulder that follows him. Socrates runs through hallways and is cornered against a wall as lights begin to go out as Socrates sees more and more of the ghost until he manages to locate a door and runs in as the final light goes dead.
Andy and Sherman are wandering the second floor and begin to hear the sound of heavy breathing. They go through a wooden door leading to the mansion balcony and relax for a few seconds until the porch light goes out. Andy mentions that since they still have the bug zapper still working, then their location is still ghost free only for the bug zapper to immediately go out. Andy turns on his flashlight as a light source and both him and Sherman are startled after they see a pale-faced man staring at them through the window. As they calm down, Andy inches towards the door armed with the Scream Horn until they are pulled in by a pale hand. From there they find themselves back in the hose reunited with Calvin on the first floor. Calvin has The MTM search for any signs of the ghost near them only for it to reveal that they're already standing right in the middle of an abnormally magnetic spot as all the doors surrounding them slam shut.
Socrates, desperate what just happened to him in his last scene, is wandering the halls cheerfully without an ounce of terror. He's even whistling the Doctor Who theme song.The author has no comment on this.He finds Hobbes in the corner of his bedroom in a state of shock staring at the discarded phone in horror and cheerfully greets him. Hobbes is annoyed of how Socrates can stay so cheerful and claims that he got a phone call of some vampire-ghost thing screaming in the receiver but Socrates shrugs this off as a prank call and tells him a story about how he saw a weird movie about wells and wrinkled up girls and got a call saying he would die in seven days. It turned out that his "death" was being forced to see an annoying weight loss commercial seven days later. The two tigers begin to leave to meet up with the others but Hobbes notices the wall behind them covered in black handprints.
- Socrates: Huh. The ghost found my finger paint.
They meet up with the already terror stricken Calvin, Andy and Sherman and Calvin is at first pleased to hear from The MTM that the magnetic levels surrounding them have gone but instead has now been transported to the attic. They attempt to enter through the rope ladder but the rope breaks after much pulling thanks to Calvin. Socrates reveals there is another entrance to the attic and they prepare to enter as Socrates leads the way, completely unaware that he's being watched by the ghost. The door suddenly slams shut, locking Socrates inside with the looming ghost as the rest of the group attempt to unlock the door. Andy eventually uses the Scream Horn by setting it at a high enough frequency to force the door open and saving Socrates. The group is now terrified at the thought of going in the attic but after Socrates claims that they have only ten minutes to de-haunt his house before Elliot and his parents come home, they have no choice in which Calvin enables his latest addition into The MTM: a teleportor.
Upon being revealed to the attic, the group minus Socrates are shocked to find that every inch of it is covered in blueprints. Socrates claims he likes to keep records of his pranks for possible future use and as Calvin removes some from the wall, a pair of eyes shoot out and stare at them. After a one-sided arguement with Calvin, the ghost vanishes and begins to cause havoc in the room around our heroes (and Sherman) forcing them to attempt retreat however they are stopped by yet another familiar approach by the creepy ghost. As the four remaining heroes (Hobbes beat Calvin to the punch on retreating) ponder over what to do, Calvin remembers watches a show on a Sci-Fi channel saying that ghosts are essentially gas and electricity and that being surrounded by intense heat will ether drive it away or destroy it, meaning that in order to get rid of it they have to burn something in the attic. Socrates, not wanting to sacrifice his prank ideas, has Calvin use the firewood to light a fire. The creepy ghost begins to crawl up the attic and reach for the group as Calvin attempts to light up the wood with The MTM. The wood catches fire as the ghost suddenly appears in front of them and all the ruckus happening in the house stops and the ghost flees out the window. Hobbes rejoins the group after hiding in God-knows-where and MTM extinguishes the fire.
Andy seems slightly disappointed that they didn't find out who the ghost really was but Sherman reveals that he did research about the man who was named Issac Avox who was a gambler and was shot to death by a person he owed money to.
Calvin, Hobbes, Andy and Sherman happily leave the mansion when Calvin reveals that on the documentary he saw on ghosts is the ghosts can't physically hurt you; the most danger they do is scaring you to near death. His response is well-known. Hobbes and Socrates then begin planning an early April Fools Day for the following day as revenge much to Calvin's worry.
Meanwhile Moe is sleeping soundly in his bed when he begins hearing creaking noises coming from the ceiling....
Tropes
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:Andy: Where do you suppose that leads?Sherman: I dunno. Dungeon, torture room, bloodthirsty zombie, the mansion's balcony.
- The reason the be afraid after Socrates attack? The heroes can't get up to the attic, the house s still haunted, and Elliot and his parents will be coming home in ten minutes.
- Asshole Victim: Moe apparently bullied the candy he received that night from little kids. Guess who is now cursed by Issac Avon?
- Bedsheet Ladder: How Calvin and Hobbes sneak out of his room.
- Buffy Speak: When Hobbes claims "some weird vampire-ghost thingy" called him and screamed in his ear.
- Crazy Enough to Work: Calvin's response to Mom suggestion to look for Hobbes quietly.
- Darker and Edgier: Along with "RIP Calvin" and "Dark Laughter", this is one of the more darker Halloween specials.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Issac Avon wasn't liked by a lot of people, which ends badly.
- Death Glare: Hobbes and Socrates reaction to Calvin after he reveals that he knew that ghosts can only mentally harm you.
- Dissonant Serenity: Socrates is his complete Cloudcookoolander self after all the encounters he has had with the ghost, even after mere seconds after being attacked by one! It is even lampshaded by the author!
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: The ghost, because well, he's dead.
- Expy: This ghost has a learned lot of tricks from a creepy, crawling, long haired ghost chick with some obvious vocal issues.
- Flat No: The MTM's response to Calvin asking for comic relief during a dramatically creepy scene.
- Halloween Episode
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In the begining while working on his pranks, Socrates changes one of his more dangerous traps because there might be little kids around.
- Kill It with Fire: The ghost leaves them alone and goes to haunt someone else after Calvin lights a fire.
- Medium Awareness: Most of Calvin's annoyance at the ghost is that he "destroys perfectly good suspense scenes" and that "they're expanding episode so that he can be as creepy and weird as he wants".
- Shout-Out: Socrates chase scene with the ghost and the lights, Andy being pulled into the house by a pale hand, the loud creak-like noises, the ghost crawling up the attic and reaching out, Calvin attempting to retreat by opening a nearby door only for the ghost the emerge from it by the head-okay seriously? Are these guys blood-relatives or something? Also there's this line:Don't go in that house...
- Socrates mentions to Hobbes about watching a weird video tape about wells and wrinkled up girls and getting a call saying he was going to die in seven days.
- Twist Ending: On Moe's instance anyway. Judging by what went on with our heroes, it's pretty safe to say its going to be pretty rough to him from now on.
