New York has been having trouble with power cuts lately, and an electric company worker notices a ghost on a powerline. Meanwhile, Ray serves himself, Peter, Egon, and Winston some food, but they hate it and feed it to Slimer. Then, they get called to a department store, so they head off with Slimer tagging along.
The Ghostbusters arrive to find that the store is having strange power surges and there's a cheering crowd outside. When they enter, they find that various ghosts have possessed machines and brought them to life, so they trap them all and go back to the firehouse.
There, they put them in the containment unit, but the power goes out. Egon has a generator in case of emergencies, but it gets possessed and runs off. Without electricity, the containment unit will shut down in a minute, so Peter, Ray, and Winston swipe a bicycle from a random teenage girl, hook it up to a machine they built from Ecto-1's generator, and have Janine pedal it. Egon then reads PKE readings in Brooklyn.
They drive off, but the car battery runs out. They get out to walk, but Slimer plays with the steering wheel and it rolls towards the power plant, taking the Ghostbusters with them. Then, a ghost shows up and introduces himself as Killerwatt, the leader of the ghosts seen at the department store. While Ray shoots at Killerwatt, Peter tries using something called an "ectoscope" to charge the car, but then it gets possessed. The Ghostbusters run away until the possessed car crashes into a wall, then they enter the power plant.
Killerwatt possesses a large machine and declares that he and his army feed on electricity. When Peter tries blasting him, he absorbs the proton stream. Winston, however, gets the idea to shut down the power plant's generators, which are what's giving Killerwatt power. Killerwatt makes a pit between the guys and the plug, but Slimer pulls the plug, weakening Killerwatt so that he can be trapped. Thus, the city is saved, but Janine is unaware and still pedalling the bicycle.
This episode provides examples of
- Animate Inanimate Object: Killerwatt and his minions make machines come to life.
- Ate It All: Invoked when Peter, Egon, and Winston feed Slimer all their dinners so that they won't have to eat them.
- Badass in Distress: Subverted when the Ghostbusters think they will die in just one minute due to the containment unit shutting down, but they manage to prevent that.
- Blowing a Raspberry: Slimer blows a raspberry at Peter for insulting him, then at Ray for accidentally zapping him.
- Companion Cube: Ray doesn't want to shoot the possessed car, saying, "She's almost family!".
- Covered in Gunge:
- Towards the begnning, Slimer gets slime all over Peter's front.
- He then covers two civilians and a dog in ectoplasm.
- Cyclops: Some of the possessed machines have one eye.
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Peter insults Killerwatt to his face twice, then when Killerwatt threatens the team, Ray says, "Over our dead bodies!".
- Dissonant Serenity: When the containment unit is about to shut down in only a minute, Egon just counts down the seconds.
- Ectoplasm: Slimer is shown leaving green slime as usual. Played for laughs when he leaves it everywhere during the parade.
- Electromagnetic Ghosts: Justified in that Killerwatt and his minions cause power outages because they feed off electricity.
- Evil Laugh: Killerwatt laughs evilly several times.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Killerwatt has a very deep voice.
- Extra Eyes: A few of the possessed machines, including the car, have three or more eyes.
- The Hyena: Killerwatt is prone to evil laughter.
- I Don't Think That's Such a Good Idea: Egon comments that he isn't so sure about Peter zapping Killerwatt after learning that he feeds on electricity.
- Implied Death Threat: When Ray says, "Over our dead bodies!", Killerwatt responds, "Dead bodies are my specialty!".
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": Everyone becomes nervous when the containment area is about to shut down, then again when they discover Killerwatt can feed on proton streams.
- No-Sell: Exaggerated — not only is Killerwatt immune to proton streams (at least before the generators get turned off), he feeds on them.
- One-Liner: When the Ghostbusters are tangled in wires, Peter comments that if it was spaghetti, they could be meatballs.
- Only One Who Likes Spam: Slimer is the only one who likes Ray's food.
- Running Gag: Peter three times mentions that he's hungry because he never got to eat any dinner due to throwing it away.
- Platonic Kissing: Slimer kisses Janine, much to her disgust.
- Power Outage Plot: Played for Horror. New York has been experiencing a lot of power outages due to an evil swarm of ghosts who feed on electricity.
- Shout-Out: Upon discovering that Killerwatt can feed on proton packs, Peter says, "Uh-oh; Mikey likes us!". This is a reference to a commercial for a brand of cereal called "Life", in which a boy named Mikey eats the cereal and his brother comments, "He likes it!".
