Jessie Dixon finishes tidying psychic reader Mrs Simpson's lawn, and cycles back home, where she lives with Grandpa Samuel, who, on recent health trouble, has had his bed moved downstairs. To her dismay, he shows her a "room for rent" sign. Neither are keen on the idea of sharing with a stranger, but current finances demand it.
That night, as Jessie and friend Alex ride home past Mrs Simpson’s, Jessie remembers to collect her lawn fee.
Through darkened French windows, the floor and furniture are bedecked with numerous candles. In an armchair, Mrs Simpson sits in some kind of trance. The clock reaches nine. Across the room, from the ceiling, a blue spotlight glares into being, and spreads. Down the beam floats the figure of a man. The spotlight retracts.
Next day, Jessie arrives downstairs to see, through the windowed door, the man from last night, who now looks innocently solid. Invited in by Grandpa Samuel, he introduces himself as John Browning. Grandpa Samuel wonders if they’ve met before, as John seems somehow familiar. John says they haven’t.
Jessie leads Alex to Mrs Simpson’s. On her lawn, Mrs Simpson receives the news with solemn elation: last night, her welcoming meditation for a psychic event known as the Opening, said to happen on the ninth hour of the ninth day of the ninth month, appears to have helped a spirit return for completion of an unfinished task. The spirit has until midnight of the next full moon, which is tomorrow night, to do so. Furthermore, with minimal bodily influence on earthly matter, he’ll need a human body to inhabit.
That night, Alex stays for a sleepover with Jessie, who leads her drowsy guest downstairs for a midnight snack. From beneath the curtain drawn across the doorway to the living room, they notice a deep blue glow.
A foot in mid-air above the sleeping Grandpa Samuel horizontally floats John Browning. From within, his blurred body exudes a brilliant deep blue glow. To Samuel's chest, he reaches a translucent hand. With a brighter flash of blue, the hand seamlessly penetrates the chest.
The girls flee to Jessie’s bedroom, pull the dresser across the door, and crouch beside the bed. With a rush of energy, John, still glowing brilliant blue, leans seamlessly through the wood of the door. In a soft, thunderously echoing voice, he warns the girls not to stand in his way. With that, he withdraws.
At her house, Mrs Simpson excitedly receives the news of Jessie and Alex's encounter. Alex spots a framed photograph, and alerts Jessie to three familiar faces: before a World War 2 plane, in youthful bloom, stand Grandpa Samuel, Mrs Simpson, and... the ghost.
Mrs Simpson identifies him as her fiance, Jacob. However, young Sarah fell for another: Jacob's fellow airman, Samuel. Before she could tell Jacob, he was killed in action. In their stricken plane, Samuel ordered Jacob to take a parachute and jump. It failed to open.
Alex realises Jacob to have returned for revenge. With Mrs Simpson, they hurry to Jessie’s.
Over tea, Samuel receives the news with vexed incredulity.
That night, as Samuel dozes in a chair, Alex watches Nosferatu the Demon Vampire. Upstairs, Jessie examines Samuel's old box of photos, and finds a photo of Samuel and the young Mrs Simpson, inscribed on the back with a pledge of undying love. From behind Samuel's chair approaches Jacob...
Jessie reads a diary entry, and is singularly taken aback. She hurries downstairs - to find Grandpa Samuel absent. Just then, the phone rings: it's Mrs Simpson, who wonders why Samuel is standing outside her house.
Mrs Simpson lets in her visitor. In Samuel's body, Jacob softly says he’s missed her.
Followed closely by Alex, Jessie hurries in. His voice a thunderous echo, Samuel!Jacob commands her to stay back. Her grandfather will live, he assures her, but with Jacob’s spirit, while Samuel’s spirit will return instead to the light.
Jessie reads aloud Samuel's account of the plane crash: with the cockpit filled with smoke, Samuel gave the order to bail out. With only Jacob and him left, there was only one remaining parachute. Samuel said he would follow Jacob, and told him to bail. Jessie hands the diary to Samuel!Jacob, who reads of Samuel's devastation at the irony of Jacob’s failed parachute, and Samuel’s survival of the crash.
Samuel!Jacob returns the diary, and softly admits his misplaced indignation. As the clock strikes twelve, a brilliant blue glow blooms around them all. He steps into the ethereal spotlight from which it shines.
Mrs Simpson confesses to have instead loved Samuel, and urges him to return the favour of Samuel's attempted self-sacrifice. From Samuel’s body emerges the figure of Jacob. Samuel falls to the floor. Jacob reaffirms his love for Sarah, asks her to thank his friend for him, and retracts up the spotlight, which fades.
Grandpa Samuel and Mrs Simpson, closes Sam, renewed their love - proving that it's never too late. Betty Anne laments their lost years. Sam ventures that nothing is ever lost - but comes back in a different way. As Gary douses the fire, Sam hurries to post her card.
This episode provides examples of:
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: A psychic event termed the Opening, said to briefly allow spirits earthly interaction, manifests in an ethereal spotlight, in which Jacob materialises, and into which he eventually fades.
- Cool Old Guy: Grandpa Samuel tends to easy-going jollity.
- Cowardly Lion: While severely spooked, Alex readily aids Jessie’s investigation.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: Sarah Simpson’s reputation as a fanciful eccentric belies a genuine grasp of the supernatural.
- Death by Irony: During the war, as their plane crashed, Samuel tried to save Jacob’s life by deceiving him into taking the last parachute. Whereas Samuel survived the crash, Jacob’s parachute failed to open.
- December–December Romance: After the misunderstanding is resolved, Sarah and Samuel resume their relationship.
- Grand Theft Me: Jacob aims to inhabit Samuel’s body, and thereby send Samuel’s spirit, in his place, to "the light."
- Heroic Sacrifice: Samuel offered to give up his life by letting Jacob take the last parachute. However, while Samuel survived the plane crash, Jacob died because his parachute wouldn't open.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: When Sarah beseeches him to return Samuel’s body, Jacob, with an earnest reaffirmation of his love, readily complies.
- The Lost Lenore: From the perspective of the deceased Jacob, who aims to reunite with Sarah by usurping the body of Samuel.
- Love Triangle: Sarah fell in love with Samuel while engaged to Jacob. She planned to tell Jacob the truth, but...
- Magnetic Medium: Sarah Simpson seems to use some kind of extrasensory tendency for psychic readings. On brief union of the material and spirit worlds, this seems to help Jacob’s arrival.
- Raised by Grandparents: Jessie lives with her Grandpa Samuel.
- Supernatural Light: Jacob returns from the spirit world via an ethereal blue spotlight. On attempt to possess Samuel, and when passing through matter, his ethereal body glows brilliant blue.
- Vengeful Ghost: Jacob mistakenly believes Samuel to deliberately have given him a faulty parachute to save his own life. On a brief return to Earth, he aims to usurp Samuel’s body.
- You Look Like You've Seen a Ghost:Grandpa: What's the matter with you two? You look like you've seen a ghost.Alex: Bingo!Jessie: We did!
