A landmark episode of The Ghost and Molly McGee awaits this week, full of hope, heartbreak, and a bit of social commentary later in the episode.
Like Father Like Libby
Every now and then there is an episode of television that becomes a landmark for its respective series. While The Ghost and Molly McGee has a number of stories that will forever be associated with it, “Like Father Like Libby” will easily become one of the top three episodes that the series will be remembered for one day.
As we open up the episode, we are in the Stein-Torres book store, Book Marks the Spot. Libby is showing off her newly written book, “Turtle Riders of Knell,” to Molly, who loves every word of it.
Shortly after, the mail arrives and there is a special box for Libby. She opens it to discover a bat mitzvah gift from her father, a plush frog. Devoted fans of the show may recall that Libby’s bat mitzvah was early on in the first season – quite some time ago. Though Molly points this out, Libby is quite excited to be hearing from her father. After all, he’s been gone for six years while he traveled the world to research and write his book, and apparently, now it’s finished. To celebrate, he wants her to come to a bookstore in a town two states away to see him.
While Libby is excited and asking her mom to take her to see him, Mom seems very cautious, but also surprised that her father, Matias, has finished his book.
She agrees to the road trip, as she can’t say no to her daughter when she is this excited about something. With the trip imminent, Molly agrees to help out and watch Libby’s turtles. Turtles being Libby’s favorite animal. Not frogs. This little moment sets up the B storyline for the episode, but frankly, we could have just had a Libby-centric story but alas. Molly takes in the turtles, but notices that they look very bored, which Scratch ensures her is their very nature. So, Molly takes them out of their tank and decides to build them the greatest turtle playground ever. Spoiler alert– all the turtles get lost somewhere in the McGee house. Time to find them.
At the store getting supplies for their road trip, Libby has an idea for an activity for her and her dad to do now that he is done with his book upon every item she sees on the shelves. They can go sledding, they can craft, they can do everything! However, Mom is getting very cautious and perhaps a bit nervous with how excited Libby is getting. On the road, Libby asks about her dad, considering he has been gone for so long and doesn’t really remember him. While she isn’t really ready to get into details, she says the only thing she is really grateful to Matias for is that he helped give her the greatest miracle of her life, Libby.
As they arrive in town to see Matias, Mom thinks that there are some things they need to talk about. From there, we get into the song for this episode, “Just Me and My Dad,” which is a fantasy sequence more than anything as she sings about everything her and her dad will together once they reunite and spend more time together as she continues to grow up. They can even write books together! Then we get a lull in the song where we really get what Libby is afraid of, being apart for so long and being scared that he didn't care about her. But then it gets jolly and hopeful again, even with Mom and Dad together with Libby walking off into the distance.
Mom seems scared, as she had no idea that Libby was THIS excited about seeing Matias again, and warns her to manage her expectations. They arrive where they are due to meet, and nobody is there. While Libby is thinking that maybe they shouldn’t have taken that bathroom break, her Mom is muttering under her breath that “he’d better not do this…not today.” We can already infer that Matias has a repeated problem with not being there for Libby or for Leah (her mom), and at this point viewers are already fearing the worst.
Fortunately, he shows up, and Leah stays in the car while Libby runs to greet her father. While Leah watches from afar, she reminds herself that even without him, she has raised a strong woman. While Libby is greeting her father, he is surprised at how big she is, turning into a young woman (she has been bat-mitzvahed). Matias also gives her a copy of his book that he signed himself, along with the very generic phrase, “Keep Reading, Keep Dreaming.”
She in turn gives him the book she wrote that Molly was reading earlier, and he just took a quick picture with it and said she was just trying to follow in the footsteps of her father while Libby explained that she told him that in nearly every letter she’s ever sent him.
But that doesn’t matter now. He’s done with his new book, and now there’s time for sledding and all kinds of other fun together. As she explains, clouds of these wonderful thoughts appear around her head – before Matias explains that his publisher thinks this book is going to be a big success and he should start preparing for a trilogy—- you know, I don’t recall what else was said. As Libby is hearing him, those wonderful thought bubbles disappear one by one as she now knows her dad is leaving again, and you, like me, will likely want to reach into the screen too.
She ends up back in the car where her mom is waiting and hands her the book. “Chasing Miracles.” Leah scoffs at the title, knowing that he has a miracle right in front of him and he doesn’t care. Tearfully, Libby thanks her mother for always being there before a quick mustache pun asking for a hug. It’s a sweet moment cut off by Molly’s adventures wrapping up the turtles. After all, Libby is almost home. Libby shows up to get the turtles and despite Molly’s best efforts, Libby knows that she lost them and found them at the last possible second.
Dance Dad Revolution
Pete, as one of Brighton’s city planners, is presenting the idea of launching a ban on plastic bags throughout town. However, while he is making his pitch, the Mayor has zero interest. He is too busy playing around the Click Clock app.
Speaking of boredom, over in the Ghost World, Scratch is fulfilling his chairman duties which are exceptionally boring while he thinks he can find some underlings to do his work for him. One of the tasks is to repair the Haughty Haunts nightclub, which wouldn’t be destroyed had it not been for his releasing of the frightmares from the flow of failed phantoms.
Back in the human world, Molly suggests to her father that the best way to get people to respond to a movement is to create a great dance on the internet. As such, Pete takes to Click Clock and starts his own dance video about plastic bag use (or lackthereof) and it immediately goes viral. The Plastic Bag Boogie gets tons of likes and followers, and even captures the attention of the mayor himself, who initiates the plastic bag ban that Pete initially set out to do in the first place.
However, he feels he can use his new forum in the name of other movements, and even throws on his old ice suit becoming “Dance Dad.” Scratch takes note of his success, getting people to do as he says via dancing, and does the same in the ghost world. From there, we see a song and montage that anybody will do anything as long as you make it a dance.
In the Ghost World, Geoff and others fill the nightclub and do the dance, which secretly has them repairing the club – which was Scratch’s task for the day.
After the song, we see that Pete is enjoying the fame more than the causes he is dancing for, especially when we run into Patty on the street who is trying to get a broken sidewalk fixed before anybody hurts themselves…but Pete has no time for that. He needs a new viral craze.
The same thing happens in the ghost world, where the ghosts crave fresh dancing content, and soon see Geoff and Jeff dancing a new dance that is fairly intense.
After Molly sees her father behaving in such a way, they decide to hold an intervention. Normal talking isn’t going to cut it, so she has Darryl initiate plan b, which is a duet on Click Clock that features everyone Pete loves dancing to get through to him to get off the app since he has lost all sight of why he got on the app in the first place. He realizes the monster he has become, gets rid of his choreographer and has Molly delete the app.
In the Ghost World, the club has grasped the new Geoff/Jeff dance, and has in turned the club back into a destructed mess, just for Scratch to clean up again.
This episode of The Ghost and Molly McGee is now available on Disney Channel and the DisneyNOW app. You can catch the first season of the series and earlier episodes now streaming on Disney+.