Everyone is getting ready to go out one evening, but Slimer steals Peter's jacket and Egon's school tie. After a bit of a scuffle, the Ghostbusters go to a magic show, where the theatre owner, Joe Magic, introduces an illusionist named the Great Calamari and his assistant, Vanna. He does a few tricks that Ray has seen before and Egon is unimpressed by, but then when he's about to be lowered into a tank of water while wearing a straitjacket, a ghost breaks the tank, spoiling the show. Magic promises to let Calamari keep his job if the Ghostbusters can trap the ghost.
While Peter and Ray search for the ghost backstage, and Egon and Winston inspect Calamari's equipment. Calamari then sends a saw and some blades after Egon and Winston, who wrongly believe the ghost did it. Peter tries to interrogate Vanna (who he's developed a crush on) but she doesn't cooperate. Then, when he and Ray leave, Calamari hypnotises her. The ghost appears, and Ray wants to try speaking to it instead of trapping it, but Egon and Winston interrupt and trap it anyway.
The ghost escapes, so Egon decides the trap must be defective. They trap it again, with Peter wrapping a chain around the trap for good measure, but it escapes again. It leads the Ghostbusters to Calamari's dressing room, where Ray gets a PKE reading from the trunk. It's locked, so he tries to pick the lock, but Peter just blasts it open instead. They find some information, which reveals Calamari can't hold a job and keeps changing his stage name, and that he was once jailed after failing to bring back a man who he made disappear with his "Cabinet of Mystery".
Peter visits Vanna again, but she invites him into the Cabinet of Mystery, making him disappear. The rest of them discover this, and Egon determines that Vanna is hypnotised since she has a vacant stare and can't be possessed as she has no PKE reading. The Ghostbusters ask Calamari for help, but he refuses to help unless they catch the ghost, while Peter is in a strange, surreal dimension.
Ray sets a trap in a crate, then Egon zaps the ghost, and Winston pours cement into the crate. In the weird dimension, Peter meets the disappeared man, whose name is Irving. The other Ghostbusters confront Calamari, who pushes his luggage cart at them, breaking the now-dry cement and freeing the ghost. Calamari tries to escape, but gets buried in rubble when the Ghostbusters try to fire at the ghost again but shoot the ceiling instead. Egon examines the luggage and finds Houdini's notes under a false bottom, so they conclude that the ghost is Houdini and Calamari was plagiarising his tricks and tried to kill them lest they find out. Ray offers the notes to Houdini, who flies into the cabinet and saves Peter and Irving. Calamari, who'd survived the accident, tries to push the Ghostbusters into the cabinet, but Houdini warns them. Then, Calamari falls in himself after slipping on papers, and Houdini disappears.
The next morning, the Ghostbusters try to un-hypnotise Vanna, and after they try everything else, Peter kisses her. To his embarrassment and the others' amusement, she claims the only cure was to have a toad kiss her.
This episode provides examples of
- Acid-Trip Dimension: In the cabinet's dimension, there are strange things like giant eyes and a scene resembling the "Melting Clock" painting.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Winston wonders if Calamari's magic tricks use real magic. Egon says that the idea is ridiculous, even though Winston points out that he didn't used to believe in ghosts.
- Artistic License – History: Houdini's ghost doesn't look anything like the real Houdini.
- Badass in Distress: Peter gets trapped in another dimension.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Egon says that Vanna not being possessed and yet having such a blank stare can "only mean one thing" (i.e. that she's hypnotised), Ray says, "She's from California?".
- Demonic Possession: Discussed when Egon checks if Vanna is possessed to explain her strange behaviour and blank stare. She's not, though.
- Distressed Dude: Peter and Irving both end up trapped in the cabinet dimension.
- Edible Theme Naming: Two stage names the main villain had were Calamari and Linguini.
- Eldritch Location: The cabinet dimension allows Peter to walk on walls.
- Entertainingly Wrong: The Ghostbusters think the Houdini ghost was the one who tried to kill them, when it was, in fact, Calamari. They're wrong, but their logic was sound because the knives appeared to be floating.
- Freudian Slip: Peter, due to being attracted to Vanna, accidentally mentions he wants to "check out Vanna" instead of "check on Vanna".
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Calamari ends up falling into his own dimension-portal cabinet.
- Hypno Fool: Played for Horror — Calamari hypnotises Vanna into pushing Peter into the cabinet.
- Hypocritical Humour: Egon berates Peter for getting angry over a jacket, only to get angry himself when he finds out Slimer's wearing his (Egon's) tie.
- Let's Split Up, Gang!: While Peter and Ray search for the Houdini ghost, Egon and Winston look over Calamari's equipment.
- Lovely Assistant: Vanna, Calamari's assistant, is a slender, blonde woman in a red dress and fishnets.
- Magic Music: Discussed when music was one of the things the Ghostbusters tried to un-hypnotise Vanna with.
- Meaningful Name: Unless it's a stage name, the owner of the magic theatre is named Joe Magic.
- Mythology Gag: Peter accidentally mentioning wanting to check out Vanna instead of on her references the first movie, where he says he wants to check Dana out, meaning her apartment. Both times, he made a Freudian Slip due to being attracted to the woman in question.
- Not So Stoic: Egon looks visibly scared when the knives are attacking him, and smiles when Peter comes back.
- Oh, Crap!: Egon says nervously, "Uh-oh!" when the saw flies at him.
- Plagiarism in Fiction: Played for Horror — Calamari plagiarised Houdini's tricks, and then tried to murder the Ghostbusters for fear of Houdini's ghost revealing the truth.
- Saw a Woman in Half: Gender-inverted and played for horror when Calamari wants to kill Egon and tries to saw him in half.
- Serial Escalation: The Ghostbusters try to trap Houdini in first a normal trap, then a trap with a chain over it, then a trap in cement.
- Skeptic No Longer: Winston mentions he didn't used to believe in ghosts before becoming a Ghostbuster.
- Slapstick: While chasing Slimer, Peter accidentally knocks over one of Egon and Winston's chess pieces.
- Smart People Play Chess: Egon and Winston play chess at the beginning scene.
- Tempting Fate: Peter says that the chained trap will hold Houdini, but it doesn't.
- Theme Music Power-Up: When Houdini saves Peter and Irving, the theme tune plays.
- True Love's Kiss: Subverted — Peter kissing Vanna did un-hypnotise her, and he is indeed attracted to her, but the kiss only worked because he apparently kisses like a toad, since being kissed by a toad was what was meant to cure her.
- X-Ray Sparks: When the cabinet lights up after Peter falls into it, we see his bones.
