An old lady named Agatha Faversham is woken up by odd noises in her attic. She tries to tell it to go away, but it just laughs evilly, so she visits the Ghostbusters. She explains that since she was a little girl 70 years ago, her father Charles forbade her from entering her attic. Then, she moved out and got married, but moved back home after her husband died, and again Charles barred her from the attic, and before dying, his last request was not to sell the house. Peter accepts the job, and oddly, when Mrs. Faversham reveals she is poor, he lets her just smile instead of paying. When Ray asks him if he's okay, Peter reveals that Mrs. Faversham reminds him of his mother.
The Ghostbusters enter Mrs. Faversham's house, but there are no PKE readings, yet there are clearly noises coming from the attic. They go up there and find that the readings are now very high, the attic is larger on the inside, and there are mysterious eyes and evil toy soldiers. Then, the coatrack comes alive and demands to know why the Ghostbusters are there, turning aggro when Peter mentions the name "Faversham" and demanding they bring it Charles Faversham.
The Ghostbusters run back to the firehouse and ask Mrs. Faversham what she remembers of the time her father banned her from the attic as a young girl. She reveals that she and her father were relatively poor, but he strove to give her the best life possible. She then says that one stormy night, he went up to the attic, renounced someone, then went back down looking very scared and claiming to have made a "terrible mistake". Egon then concludes that Mr. Faversham made a deal with a paranormal entity in an attempt to further improve his daughter's life, but the entity turned out to be evil and Charles couldn't send it back, so he sealed it in the attic instead.
Egon sets a trap by the attic door, then Peter disguises a reluctant Slimer as Charles Faversham. The thing shows up and plans to kill "Mr. Faversham", but then realises it's been tricked. It makes a storm, but then Egon taunts it into going towards him, so he traps it. Peter then gives Mrs. Faversham back her old teddy bear, then the others go on a job while he has tea with her.
This episode provides examples of
- Ambiguously Absent Parent: Agatha grew up without her mother, but it's never revealed why.
- Ambiguously Jewish: The logo Mr. Faversham used in his summoning ritual resembles a Star of David.
- And the Adventure Continues: The guys can't stay for tea at the end of the episode, due to another call coming in. Peter stays behind with Agatha, while the others head out.
- Animate Inanimate Object: The thing brings several objects, including a coatrack, to life.
- Bad "Bad Acting": Once Slimer and the equipment are ready, Peter and Ray do this when telling "Mr. Faversham" to go up into the attic.
- Berserk Button: The creature is hardly pleasant when Peter first encounters it, but it flies into a rage the second the name "Faversham" is mentioned.
- Bigger on the Inside: The attic appears larger on the inside than the outside.
- Blowing a Raspberry: At one point Peter blows a raspberry to Ray, saying that it's "a language he'll understand".
- Butt-Monkey: Lamspshaded when Peter asks why he's always the one who Egon's plans backfire on.
- Daddy's Girl: Agatha didn't understand why Charles made her promise to never go into the attic, and she complied for 70 years.
- Death Glare: Slimer glares at Ray for using him as bait.
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Exploited — Egon goads the thing into coming near the trap by mocking it.
- Disappeared Dad: Mrs. Faversham's father is dead; justified due to his age since she's in her seventies or early eighties.
- Enemy Rising Behind: As the guys discuss how the attic's trap door has disappeared, assorted possessed objects start rising up in the background. The guys don't notice that because there's a whole bunch of other stuff rising up in front of them, too.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Ray when thinking up his plan to draw the creature out into the open.
- Evil Is Hammy: The thing is quite loud and ranty, and uses poetic language like "I will destroy you". Lampshaded when Peter calls one of its rants a "song".
- Evil Laugh: One of the noises coming from the attic is evil laughter.
- Extra Eyes: The thing has many eyes.
- Faint in Shock: Slimer is so scared of the thing that he falls out of the sky unconscious.
- Flashback: We see what happened when Mrs. Faversham was a little girl.
- Forbidden Zone: Due to the eponymous thing, Mr. Faversham forbade anyone from going into the attic, but the Ghostbusters and Slimer needed to in order to get rid of it.
- Girlish Pigtails: In the past, Agatha Faversham had pigtails, to characterise her as young.
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: As a kid, Agatha Faversham had a teddy bear, and she claims a teddy bear is one of the few things a girl needs.
- Good Parents: Agatha has no complaints about her father, saying he worked hard to provide her with anything she ever wanted. Hearing this, Egon muses the man called up the evil force to be an even better provider.
- Instantly Proven Wrong:
- Egon wonders if it was just squirrels on the roof making the noise, but then there's a huge rumbling sound.
- Ray thinks the attic will be small, but when he opens the door, it's huge.
- Last-Name Basis: The thing calls Charles Faversham by last name.
- Last Request: Before he passed away, Charles made Agatha swear to never sell the house (as well as stand by the childhood promise of never going up into the attic).
- Late to the Realization: Once in its true form, the creature notices that the green spud in a trench coat and hat couldn't possibly be Charles Faversham.
- My God, What Have I Done?: During Agatha's flashback, a pale and frightened Charles comes down from the attic talking about having made a terrible mistake.
- My Greatest Failure: In the last scene, Peter indicates he carries a good bit of guilt for not making more time for his own mother and how she spent so much much of her later years alone.
- No, You: When the thing says that the Ghostbusters will be sorry, Egon says that no, it will.
- Not So Above It All: Egon's plan for the toy soldiers is a simple "Blow them up real good" strategy.
- One-Liner: Peter says that having an evil entity in your attic would at least keep salesmen out.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The other guys and Janine stare in shock over Only in It for the Money Peter reducing Agatha's retainer to a smile.
- Out-of-Character Moment: Lampshaded — Peter waives the fee, which Ray notes is unusual for him, since usually he's the greediest one.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Slimer is still clearly a flying, green blob in his Charles Faversham disguise.
- Perverse Puppet: The evil creature possesses some toy soldiers to attack.
- Platonic Declaration of Love: When Janine says she's underappreciated, Peter says, "We do appreciate you; we love you".
- Posthumous Character: Despite being dead, Charles Faversham plays a minor role in the plot.
- Readings Are Off the Scale: Double subverted. There are no PKE readings on the first or second floors of the house. Once the guys are in the attic, Egon's PKE Meter starts sparking.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: The giant, staring eyes in the attic have red irises.
- Revenge: The thing wants revenge on Charles for locking it up.
- Say My Name: The rest of the Ghostbusters yell Winston's name when he's attacked.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Charles Faversham couldn't send the thing back, so he locked it in the attic.
- Serious Work, Comedic Scene: Despite this being quite a sombre episode, there are two jokes:
- The first is when Peter accidentally slides down a pile of things.
- The second is when Slimer dresses up in a Paper-Thin Disguise.
- Slapstick: At one point, Peter accidentally slides down a pile of stuff.
- Unexpectedly Dark Episode: This episode, while it has a happy ending, only has two jokes (Peter sliding down a pile of stuff, and Slimer disguising himself as Charles Faversham) and teases on the possibility of Peter's mother being dead.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Charles Faversham summoned the thing without realising it would be evil.
- You Look Like You've Seen a Ghost: During the flashback, Agatha's narration describes her father as looking like he saw the Devil.
