Recap / The Ghost And Molly Mc Gee S 2 E 12 Frightmares On Main Street

Original air date: 5/13/2023

In a Halloween episode that acts as a continuation of "I Wanna Dance With Some-Ollie", Molly sets up a "haunted house" near the school to raise money to help a young boy buy a cow. To help out, Scratch invites all the ghosts to make the haunted house more realistic. Meanwhile, Ollie, now fully aware of Scratch's existence, thinks that Scratch has corrupted Molly and tries to "save" her by getting rid of Scratch. The rest of the Chens are then alerted to the presence of the ghosts and arrive at the school to look for them. Molly tries to distract them while Scratch tries to get the rest of the ghosts to leave, with Ollie catching Scratch. Molly confronts Ollie for his prejudiced views of ghosts, saying that some can be good, when the Frightmares suddenly show up to wreak havoc. Scratch dons his Chairman outfit and curses the Frightmares to get trapped in a canister that June had been making to trap ghosts, leaving the latter suspicious. The Chens (except Ollie, who finally trusts the ghosts) vow to keep hunting for ghosts, concerning Molly and Scratch.

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Tropes:

• All Part of the Show: The Brightonians presume the very real ghosts are actually advanced special effects. They get a little more worried when the Frightmares run riot, but go back to cheering the show once they're all captured.
• Bait-and-Switch: June at first seems suspicious of Ollie's explanation as to why she shouldn't just blast Scratch, only for her mood to change a moment later and goes off to help her parents.
• Bittersweet Ending: Ollie finally lets go of his hatred of ghosts and the Frightmares are trapped inside June's phantom canister. However, the Chens (except Ollie) vow to catch all ghosts whether anyone believes them or not, much to Molly and Scratch's dismay. Plus, judging by the look on Ollie's face; he knows that keeping the McGee family's friendship with Scratch a secret will not be easy at all.
• Blatant Lies:
  • When Ollie finally sees all the ghosts, Molly claims they are all special effects as one of them rises out of the ground in front of them. Never mind the fact he helped set up the house of horrors, and she had previously rejected his ghost decoration.
  • Jeff awards Geoff the winner of the contest after the tie breaker, then claims to be completely impartial while pulling his boyfriend closer.
• Bottle Episode: Most of the episode takes place at and around Molly's haunted house, with a brief shift to the Chens’ house near the end of the first act.
• Brick Joke:
  • Molly claims the plastic spiders are realistic before mistaking one for a real spider and smashing it with her gavel. Later, Lucretia mistakes another one for real before realizing it's plastic and flying away.
  • Libby is trapped inside of a pumpkin early into the episode, with only her legs sticking out. During the Frightmare attack, she is still trapped inside and gets knocked on her side when asking for help, causing her to roll on the ground and complaining about her motion sickness. When she is finally free, her motion sickness catches up with her.
• Call-Back:
  • Ollie says "It has a name?!", upon finding out that Scratch and Molly's friendship is genuine.
  • Scratch points out how being dead makes a ghost immune from food poisoning, repeating the exact same question he asked in "Howlin' Harriet".
  • Scratch's wonderful, awful idea face returns when he gets the idea to invite all the ghosts to haunt Molly's House Of Horrors.
  • Andrea says this is the third time she has seen a ghost.
  • Jeff for the second time threatens someone not to harm Geoff again. This time, it's Ollie.
  • Scratch words his curse to trap the Frightmares nigh-identically to his curse to trap Lord Doom, only he names the intended vessel specifically so there is no potential misfire.
  • The tombstones are recycled from Libby's movie.
• Cassandra Truth: The Chens know the ghosts and Frightmares were real, but everyone else (except Mr. Bates) mocks them for falling for the "special effects".
• Clingy Costume:
  • Libby's Halloween costume is a real pumpkin that is way too big for her to maneuver. She gets trapped inside and ends up rolling around uncontrollably during the Frightmare attack.
  • When Scratch puts on his Chairman robe, he has trouble getting his arms through the sleeves.
• Deader than Dead: The Chens' Boo Blasters are shown to have a "Double Dead" setting, presumably capable of completely destroying a ghost.
• Dope Slap: Whether it was intentional or not, Scratch's Gag Nose slaps Ollie in the face when he tells him that Molly isn't under Scratch's so-called spell and that they're genuine friends.
• Emotion Eater: Discussed. When Ollie interrogates Scratch, he asks the latter if he’s feeding off of Molly’s positivity. He’s not.
• Epic Fail: The Chens not only fail to protect anyone from the Frightmares, but even their consolation prize of catching ghosts on video fails when Libby crashes into them as soon as they start recording. By the time they recover, all the ghosts are gone.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Downplayed; Ollie is far from evil (the same goes for all of the Chens), but after a lifetime believing that ghosts are evil and out to terrify humanity, he can't understand why Molly would willingly befriend a ghost, instead believing that she's under a curse and, once it's broken, will hate ghosts as much as he does. It's only after Molly's scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech that he finally opens his eyes.
• Exact Words: Ruben tells the Frightmares they will have to "go through us" if they want to haunt Brighton. The Frightmares quickly disarm them, pull them into the air, and start flying through them repeatedly.
  June: They're going through us! They're going through us!
• Fantastic Racism: Ollie's presumption that all ghosts are evil leads him to believe that Scratch is somehow mind controlling Molly into being his friend. It takes them both calling him out and explaining for him to reconsider.
• Flawed Prototype: June points out that the “phantom cannister” isn't ready when her parents tell her to use it against the Frightmares. It almost succeeds in trapping them, but it runs out of juice on the last one and the Frightmares immediately flood back out, at which point she reminds them it is a prototype. Also the label spells "canister" with two N's.
• Halloween Episode: The episode takes place at a Halloween fair at Molly's school. Scratch calls Halloween "Ghost Christmas" while complaining about having to lie low.
• Heel–Face Turn: While he was never evil, his hatred of ghosts and desire to catch one made him an enemy to the McGees. Here, he finally learns that ghosts aren't evil (well, most of them) and drops his biases (although, unfortunately, his family hasn't).
• Hope Spot: The Chens resort to using June's prototype against the Frightmares when the rest of their arsenal proves ineffective. It seems to work at first, sucking all the Frightmares into the phantom cannister, only for it to suddenly short out when the last ghost is halfway in, resulting in them all escaping.
• If You Ever Do Anything To Hurt Him: Jeff warns Ollie that he'll pay big time if he ever hurts his sweet Geoff ever again. Ollie wisely accepts, not wanting any more trouble.
  Jeff: Hey Ollie, quick thing. If you ever do anything to hurt my sweet, sweet Geoff again, I will end you. (he hisses angrily at Ollie)
  Ollie: (gulps while smiling nervously) That seems reasonable.
  Jeff: Okay cool. See you around. (He and Geoff go through the portal)
• Insistent Terminology: Molly tells Ollie that it's a House of Horrors, not a Haunted House and takes down his drawing of Scratch. Granted, she was just looking for an excuse to deflect his suspicions.
• Never My Fault: Despite inviting all the ghosts to the party knowing full well about the ghost-hunting Chen family being around, Scratch blames Molly when they show up to investigate.
• Nobody Here but Us Statues: As Ollie investigates Molly, he hides behind a stand of jack o' lanterns set up for a contest. His head is mistaken for a jack o' lantern and is given a participation award.
• Not Brainwashed: Ollie is convinced Scratch is using some kind of mind control to make Molly be friendly with him, and it takes a lot of effort to convince him the two are willingly friends.
• Not Helping Your Case: Molly pleads with Ollie that ghosts aren't evil... while he walks in on Geoff and Harriet holding a scaring contest, and they pick out Ollie as the target. Then, when it seems like they're making headway on convincing him, the Frightmares, who definitely are evil, show up and begin wreaking havoc.
• "Not So Different" Remark: The lesson Scratch and Molly try and impress on Ollie is that ghosts are little different from the living in that not all are good or evil.
• Michael Jackson's Thriller Parody: During the song "This House Is Haunted Now", there bridge is spoken in a way similar to the spoke part of Michael Jackson's "Thriller".
• Paying in Coins: When the Chens overpay for their tickets, Molly starts giving them their change in pennies, which she counts one at a time, repeated losing count, starting over and even doing so in Japanese at one point.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: After seeing Scratch being covered in goo, Molly gives this to Ollie while trying to free Scratch
  Molly: I though you were an en-goodifier, but you're... (realizing) YOU'RE AN EN-BADIFIER!!
  Ollie: (makes a loud gasp) No I'm not! Ghosts are the en-badifiers, they attacked my dad!
  Scratch: Okay, any chance this argument could be a little less painful for me?
  Molly: Oh, one ghost did a bad thing and now you're gonna take out all of them?!
  Scratch: Yeah, I didn't scare your dad. If it makes you feel any better, I barely did my job scaring anyone!
  Molly: You never talked to a ghost or hung out with a ghost or hugged a ghost! It's like hugging a giant marshmallow who can give a hug right back! But you've clearly never been hugged by a giant marshmallow have you Ollie Chen?! Cause the fact is YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT REAL GHOSTS!!!
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Ollie believes that Scratch cursed Molly, which is technically true in the first season, only for said curse to backfire since Molly isn't even afraid of Scratch and he had been forced to follow her wherever she goes. Plus, said curse wore off when her family got evicted.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Scratch curses the Frightmares to forever remain sealed in the phantom cannister, which is unfortunately left in the hands of the Chens.
• Sequel Hook: The episode ends with Reuben's resolve to reveal the existence of ghosts to the world renewed after Mr. Bates admits that he believes the ghosts were real too. Meanwhile, June seems curious as to how the Frightmares were captured by her faulty ghost cannister that had failed before. She also notices that Ollie (who, unbeknownst to them, has come to trust ghosts) has a very reluctant grin on his face when Ruben declares his resolve.
• Shout-Out:
  • Most of the Chens dress up as Ghost Finders for Halloween. Molly claims never to have seen the movie.
  • June's new prototype is the phantom cannister.
  • Geoff's "viking sword" resembles the Buster Sword.
• Stab the Scorpion: Molly panics when it looks like Ollie is about to finish off Scratch with the Boo Blaster. Instead, he removes the barrel to reveal a "de-gooifier" and frees Scratch so he can subdue the Frightmares.
• Sticky Situation: The Chens use a "Gooifier" gun that traps ghosts against walls before they can phase through them.
• Strange Minds Think Alike:
  • Molly and Ollie both dress up as Supreme Court justices independently of each other.
  • Ollie thinks Geoff's offer of candy is secretly poisoned. Geoff ends up thinking that too and needs Scratch to remind him that he's already dead when he freaks out over having eaten some.
• Symbolism: The Chens wear Ghostbuster-esque outfits while Ollie wears a Supreme Judge costume. This symbolizes that not only Ollie becomes the Token Good Teammate of his ghost-hunting family, but how his judgement on ghosts changes while his family's judgement not only remains static but are getting stronger.
• This Is No Time to Panic: When the Chens show up, Molly tells Scratch to get everyone out of there quickly and calmly. As soon as she leaves, he tells everyone to panic.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: While this extends to all the Chens, Ollie believes he is doing the right thing by trying to get rid of Scratch and is quick to accuse him of wrong-doing. Once he's called out on it, he changes his mind.
• Wham Episode: Ollie learns the full scope of Molly's friendship with Scratch and lets go of his hatred of ghosts, meanwhile the other Chens (mostly Ruben) become more determined than ever to continue their quest to hunt ghosts, to Ollie's discomfort.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Molly gives Ollie an earful for refusing to listen to her and let go of his hatred of ghosts, going so far as to call him an "en-bad-ifier". It succeeds in getting through to him.
• The Worf Effect: The Chens' weaponry proves effective against regular ghosts, pinning them to the walls, but the Frightmares quickly prove to be more than capable of breaking free, demonstrating that they're more powerful than regular ghosts.

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