Just like in season one, we get to see some of our favorite human characters as ghosts –in a way— in this week’s episode of The Ghost and Molly McGee.
Book Marks The Sprite
Libby is being left in charge of her mother’s store, Book Marks the Spot. while Molly and Scratch are hanging out. While she is in charge though, someone in the store seems to be breaking a cardinal rule – no eating or drinking. She goes to investigate the slurping sound which surprisingly isn’t coming from Scratch. Though, it is coming from some kind of ghost.
It’s a sprite, and that slurping is the cute and cuddly ghost destroying the books, feeding on the words for a good meal. Libby, devastated that this is happening on her watch, seeks out the help of Scratch and a few paranormal books to figure out how to get rid of the sprite and fast.
In a case of perfect timing, Ollie happens to walk in, which is great because then Molly can distract her ghost hunting new crush while the others deal with the problem at hand. Despite Ollie's instruments and tools showing that something significant is happening in the book store, Molly ushers him out and they spend a day together on the town which also includes a musical number showing how conflicted Molly is. Ollie cares so much about the community and the people in it, as long as they are living. The ghosts that happen to reside in town though – no so much. His family is a pack of ghost hunters, all stemming from an experience their father had when he was younger (I think this will come into play later in the season, but we’ll see).
Back at the bookstore, Libby has the leader of the ghost world helping her, but that happens to be Scratch. Her paranormal books are helping more than he is. In fact, he’s instigating the sprite which happens to have a very specific defense mechanism. It can turn into whatever words it has eaten. So when Scratch chucks a book about a minotaur at the sprite, now it absorbs the words and becomes a minotaur. Lovely. We see this happen several times with various forms of creatures, and then Libby knows what she can do to stop the creature.
Introduced earlier in the episode, Libby decides to feed the sprite her journal, turning the creature into a shy, anxious, and confidence-lacking ghost version of Libby who doesn’t want to disappoint her mother. Despite almost revealing some secrets, Libby instructs the sprite to clean up the store, regurgitate every word it has eaten, and then leave. Not waiting to disappoint, the sprite does exactly that, and the day is saved just as Libby’s mom returns to the store.
Double, Double, Daryl, and Trouble
Just as we saw Libby turn into a ghost (kind of), now we get to see another character. After getting in trouble at school again, Daryl has to clean up his graffiti art on the side of the building. After a bit of a pep talk from Molly, using the phrase “What Would Molly Do?”, Daryl is inspired. Calling back to the end of season 1, Daryl can ask Scratch to split his soul from his body, so then he can go enjoy recess and let the shell body do all the cleaning. Reluctantly, Molly agrees and Scratch splits him, together running off to enjoy recess. As predicted, this lasts longer than recess, much to his sister’s chagrin, and Scratch and Daryl continue pulling pranks and hijinx.
Meanwhile, shell Daryl happens to be a great student, taking diligent notes, not being late for classes and even helping the principal who punished him in the first place after he was bullied by other students.
At home, shell Daryl is studying with Molly (who even knows that's not a full Daryl) and seems to be pleasing his parents as well.
Tragically, Soul Daryl sees this and thinks that everybody likes shell Daryl better and decides that maybe he should just stay a ghost. As he's trying to pack a bag and live in the ghost world, despite Scratch’s better advice, he overhears his parents saying that something about their son is different, and they’re not sure they like it. He’s not himself.
Darly sees his body taking itself out with the trash, and heading helplessly to the local dump. Reversing his decision, Daryl reunites with his body and heads home, whole again, telling his parents not worry. He may have been different today, but he’s still their son.
This episode of The Ghost and Molly McGee is now available on Disney Channel and the DisneyNOW app. You can catch up with earlier episodes on Disney+.