Scratch has a strange medical condition, even though he’s dead, and an ice ball rockets past Brighton for the first time in 50 years on this week’s The Ghost and Molly McGee.
Scaring is Caring
It’s time for Scratch’s monthly scare report, and to please the Ghost Council, he must cram a month’s worth of scares practically into a single day. There is one thing to worry about though. Something strange is happening to Scratch, and considering he’s a ghost, it must be really strange, right? Turns out, he’s getting “cute.” Wide eyes, the sparkles, everything is now appealing instead of appalling. He first became aware of this when hiding amongst some flowers in an attempt to scare Pete, but failed miserably when his cuteness outweighed much else, especially considering he can now vomit rainbows.
Ghosts aren’t supposed to be cute. How is Scratch supposed to meet his monthly scare quota if he can’t be out there scaring people. After making an emergency call to the ghost doctor (which presents its own questions: why? They’re already dead) he gets put on a waitlist and it seems all hope for increasing the fright in Brighton is up to Molly McGee. A laughable thought, considering she is “all sugar and no spice.”
Offended by what Scratch has to say, Molly is now out to prove him wrong and that she can be scary, even if it means having to scare a baby. She does succeed in scaring the infant, but immediately regrets it and apologizes, adding more sweetness.
Meanwhile, Scratch’s evolution into cuteness continues as he can now change color and is sparkly, even changing a lot of his words by adding additional W sounds, like “I wuv you, while his voice itself takes on a cuter higher pitch. Molly takes on the town in a new zombie costume she threw together, and instead of just roaming the town as a zombie, she takes it to a far more cerebral level.
Scratch leaves Molly to her own accord and a new idea to go see the ghost doctor. During the exam, she opens his mouth wide and takes a peek inside Scratch, which is now filled with sunshine, rainbows, and dancing trees that may or may not be a The Ghost and Molly McGee take on the Silly Symphonies short, Flower and Trees, the first cartoon short in color.
Horrified, the doc tells Scratch that he has been infected by Joy, and that he needs to “find his fear” again in order to be scary.
Back in town, Molly has crafted herself a new costume, a monster makeover of a Dinosaur costume she wore in the past, and starts rampaging through the city in this episode’s musical montage. After the song, Molly realizes she in fact, can’t be scary, and finds herself in a bit of turmoil in the suit that ends up actually scaring the townspeople. Scratch comes back and realizes that she’s actually doing a good job as Molly is now blindly going into a street (and oncoming traffic) when suddenly his cuteness and voice begin to revert back to the Scratch we know and love, and we see his insides go from cute and cuddly to a maniacal rampage again as she is nearly taken out by a garbage truck. Turns out, he found his fear: losing Molly McGee. But if the truck hit and killed Molly, wouldn’t she then be a ghost, and therefore, Scratch would not be losing Molly? Hmmmm. What do I know? I just write the recaps, not the actual show.
All Night Plight
A comet is on approach and is returning for the first time in 50 years. Molly and Libby are both excited about it and Libby puts the idea into Molly’s head that this could be the only time they ever see the comet, after all, who knows what their life would be like in 50 years time? Molly jumps into the idea of an Astronomical All-Nighter so they can share the moment together.
The comet arrives at 4:07 AM, so they must stay up all night for the viewing, a hindrance to Libby’s plans of curling up with her favorite fantasy book series, “A Song of Snow and Humidity.” She is slightly hesitant because when she would stay up too late she would get weird, but that was kid Libby, this is Teen Libby we’re dealing with here. So it’s different. Right?
The musical montage in this episode is a play on an old 80s/90s sitcom about their Astronomical All-Nighter that shows Libby reading her books, and everyone else asleep while alluding to the fact that this whole scheme is for Molly to make memories with her friends. Libby finally shows up and is already yawning. Together, they start looking through the telescope and realize they’ll never see anything from the house with all the light pollution, so they wake up Molly’s parents to drive them out to the country.
In the car, Libby is dozing, and blurring the lines between reality and her fantasy books, speaking in accents and in character. Molly is trying to set up their viewing area but ends up now babysitting a role-playing Libby and a grumpy, hungry Scratch who must go without because they left the special comet snacks at home.
Libby goes missing, but that's because she’s basically sleepwalking in character at this point, and Molly sets out to find her in what seems to be an endless task for the rest of the episode. Molly finally gets everyone together in one spot and falls asleep for a moment, only to lose them again.
Libby is now trying to round up buffalo thinking they are dragons while Scratch is moaning and groaning that he’s so hungry. Molly, aggravated, forces Scratch to sit down and enjoy the once in a lifetime comet with his best friends. Molly peeks through the telescope and sees Libby leading a buffalo charge in the distance and is now coming right for them. Scratch saves the pair and puts them up in a tree, and Molly finally has a breakdown when their perfect view from the tree is obstructed by clouds.
Scratch wants to know what the big deal is with the comet anyway, and Molly explains that Libby was right, who knows where they’ll be in 50 years. By doing something special tonight, she could ensure that no matter where they are, when the comet returns they could look back and remember this special moment they shared together. Moved by the sentiment, Scratch enlarges himself and eats Molly and Libby, and floats them high above the clouds where they could all watch the comet go by together.
Back on the ground, they look fondly at the moment together already, but are quickly reminded of the agitated Buffalo that were there waiting for their return.
This episode of The Ghost and Molly McGee is now available on Disney Channel and the DisneyNOW app. You can also catch up with earlier episodes of the series on Disney+.