Two lion hedges come to life and scare a bird, while the Ghostbusters, Slimer, and Janine are all bored since they've had no calls for a week. The phone rings, but it's just Janine's sister offering a casserole recipe. However, it then rings again, and the Ghostbusters are dispatched to the house with the lion hedges.
Egon starts scanning, but then his device breaks, and he believes it was sabotaged by psychic forces. They meet an old woman named Mrs. Rogers, who complains of unusual goings-on at her house, and Peter has Ray drive her to HQ. Peter then writes the bill, while Egon and Winston investigate. They don't find any readings initially, despite a few strange things happening, and Peter says that "haunted houses are a lot of hot air". However, a creature flies out of a locked closet and into another closet, making light shine out of it, and a mysterious voice says, "What?". Peter repeats himself and it says, "What?" again. Peter thinks it was Egon talking, causing an argument between him, Egon, and Winston. The glowing light comes back and sucks Peter into the basement, where Egon and Winston follow, and Egon determines that this is the work of a demon named Watt, who wants to conquer the living world.
Ray drops Mrs. Rogers off at the firehouse, and she asks Janine for a tour, while Slimer is left in charge of Mrs. Rogers's pet bird Precious. However, Precious then morphs into a fire-breathing demon bird, then, after being shown the containment unit, Mrs. Rogers also morphs into a demon.
While Egon tries to fix his PKE meter, the closet unlocks and apparitions fly out. After no-one answers Ray on the walkie-talkie, he guesses that his friends are in danger and rushes to Mrs. Rogers's house. There, he finds the others, along with a lot of ghosts. Egon has repaired his PKE meter and has the others follow while he tracks down Watt the demon. The signal is coming from her closet, but it's empty, yet her dress has a high reading. Egon reveals that the demon Mrs. Rogers morphed into in the previous scene is Watt itself.
The Ghostbusters try to leave the house, but it turns out to have been created as a trap by Watt, and they are trapped inside. They manage to escape, however, and drive to the firehouse. Janine doesn't know where Mrs. Rogers/Watt is, so the Ghostbusters search. Watt finds Peter and possesses him, then tries to hack into the containment unit, but Slimer gets the attention of Ray, who follows, along with the others. Egon scans him and determines he's possessed, but they can't fire at Watt, since that would kill Peter. Egon finds a plan of firing at Watt's and Peter's "frequencies", but it's very dangerous. They do it, and it works, and they trap both demons. Meanwhile, the house trap disappears, and Slimer tries to style Peter's hair with ectoplasm, angering him.
This episode provides examples of
- 13 Is Unlucky: The address of the house is 1313 13th Street.
- Animate Inanimate Object: The house/human trap is inhabited with evil, sentient furniture.
- Astonishingly Appropriate Interruption: Ray says, "Stop it, Slimer, we have to find—" and then he and the other Ghostbusters shout, "Janine!" in unison upon seeing her.
- Attack of the Killer Whatever: The outside of the house has two lion topiaries that quickly prove to be more than that. They remain still for the most part, until the guys escape the house, at which point the beasts make a lunge.
- Bait-and-Switch: When the phone rings, it seems like it will be related to the lion hedges coming to life at the beginning, but it's actually Janine's sister sharing a recipe.
- Batman Gambit: Watt wants to open up the Containment Unit and conscript the ghosts inside into an army capable of conquering the living world. To that end, the demon sets up a Haunted House to keep the guys busy and leave the Containment Unit undefended. Things hit a snag when it turns out only one of the four Ghostbusters can actually open the thing up.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: The guys and Janine observe it's been quiet all week, with Egon and Winston wondering if they put themselves out of business by being too good at their jobs. They soon get more than they bargained for.
- Big "NO!": Watt, while in the process of getting busted.
- Breath Weapon: Precious the demon bird can breathe fire.
- Burp of Finality: The haunted keyhole burps after swallowing a key.
- Call-Back: Sort of. When Peter is possessed by Watt, Winston initially attempts to extract the demon by firing his Proton Gun at Peter, in the same manner that worked on the possessed household appliances in the previous episode "Killerwatt". Ray, Egon and Janine immediately stop him, with Ray exclaiming that Peter would be wiped out by the blast. However, the method does ultimately work safely, once Egon makes the risky move of adjusting two Proton Guns to match the frequencies of Watt and Peter.
- Comically Missing the Point: The repaired PKE Meter leads the guys right to a closet containing just a dress, which is giving off all kinds of readings. Peter, Egon, and Winston immediately realize what this means, but Ray doesn't:
- Winston: "You don't mean..."Ray: "Mrs. Rogers' dress...is Watt?"Egon: "No, Ray! Mrs. Rogers is Watt!"
- Conforming OOC Moment: The firehouse's entire population, Egon included, excitedly lunges for the phone when it rings. Then, when they get a call, he joins in with Ray, Winston, and Slimer at cheering and punching the air.
- Creepy Changing Painting: One of Mrs. Rogers's paintings changes from a woman to a scowling green monster.
- Crying Wolf: Peter initially doesn't think the house is haunted, since their last few haunted house calls have been false alarms, however this one is actually haunted.
- Demonic Possession: Watt possesses Peter to access the containment unit.
- Dramatic Irony:
- At one point, Winston can't see the Creepy Changing Painting he's right next to.Winston: "Nothing here."
- The audience (and Slimer) finds out that Mrs. Rogers and Precious are demons before anyone else does.
- At one point, Winston can't see the Creepy Changing Painting he's right next to.
- Ectoplasm:
- Slimer spits out ectoplasm when he's trying to answer the phone.
- Ectoplasm leaks out of the cupboard when it unlocks.
- When Slimer is flying away from Precious, he gets ectoplasm on a wall he flew through and then on Ray's head.
- At the end, Slimer tries using his ectoplasm to style Peter's hair.
- Enemy Rising Behind: While Janine is looking away, Mrs. Rogers transforms into Watt and looms over her. Watt goes right back to the human disguise, though, when told possessing Janine won't provide the way to open the Containment Unit.
- Evil Laugh: Watt does a shrill laugh after possessing Peter, as does Precious after the possessed Peter touches the hand scanner.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Watt's natural voice is deep and croaky.
- Facepalm: Watt's reaction to only the Ghostbusters being able to open the Containment Unit.
- Faux Affably Evil: Mrs. Rogers is seemingly a pleasant woman capable of turning on the charm, but she's really a horrific demon out to conquer the living world and clearly delights at the chance to torment humans.
- Feed It a Bomb: Ray blows up a man-eating stove by feeding it his ghost trap.
- Fluffy the Terrible: The evil, shapeshifting, fire-breathing bird-demon is named Precious.
- Godzilla Threshold: Though the plan of firing at Watt and Peter's "frequencies" was dangerous, they do it anyway since if they do nothing, then Peter would stay possessed, and Watt would set all the ghosts free.
- Indy Ploy: Since only the Ghostbusters can open the Containment Unit, Watt has to adjust tactics by waiting for them to come back to the firehouse and possessing the first one within reach.
- Not So Stoic: Even Egon frantically reaches for the phone when it rings for the first time in the week, then he cheers and punches the air upon getting a call, then again after trapping Watt and Precious.
- Oh, Crap!: Ray says, "Uh-oh!" and speeds to the house when his coworkers don't answer the walkie-talkie.
- Pun: After Peter remarks that at least Ray is still standing after some ghosts knock Peter and Winston over, the same thing happens to Ray...
- Peter: "I sit corrected".
- The Shadow Knows: While Peter is possessed, his shadow is replaced by Watt's true form.
- Shout-Out: The title is a reference to Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
- Smart Ball: Slimer is usually a bit dopey, but he's the only one to notice something is wrong with Peter when he's possessed by Watt.
- Something Itis: When Egon says his PKE meter was sabotaged by a "psychic force", Peter remarks, "I think the scientific term is klutz-itis".
- Speak in Unison: The Ghostbusters say, "Janine!" when they first see her since finding out that Mrs. Rogers is Watt.
- Story-Breaker Power: Defied. The PKE Meter would've immediately alerted the guys to Mrs. Rogers really being a ghost in disguise, which (among other things) would've meant never setting foot in the house or taking "her" to the firehouse. As such, the PKE Meter overloads to the point of breaking first, and it's not repaired until well-into the episode.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Peter and Winston when told they're going up against a particularly powerful and ambitious demon rather than the usual fare.
- Transformation of the Possessed: Downplayed. When Peter is possessed by Watt, his skin looks a little bit more yellow than usual and his hair stands on end.
- Undying Loyalty: When Ray suspects that his friends are in danger, he drives right to them and says, "Nobody messes with my pals".
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: The demons take the form of a human and bird.
- Wham Shot: The episode opens with one, as an empty lot suddenly has a house appear in it.
- Who's on First?:
- Both Egon and Winston mistake the exclamation "Say what?!" as an accusation of uttering, "What?".
- When Ray asks for the demon's name, Egon says, "Watt", to which Ray responds, "I asked you first." Peter then tries to explain, "No - Watt is its name", to which Ray says, "Don't ask me, ask Egon".
