Shipper. Short for "Relationshipper", a term that refers to someone who is a fan of romantic tension stories. This is a different kind of episode guide from what you may be used to, since it centers on the Eduardo and Kylie-oriented moments in each ep -- in other words, the "shippy" moments. Granted, not all of those moments are exactly lovey-dovey ones ... There's also nods to the "Egon and Janine" ship, and a few others ... The entries are done primarily as "microscopes", ultra-detailed summaries instead of quick synopses (yes, the plural of synopsis is synopses), and therefore contain spoilers (as well as a bit of commentary and theorizing now and again from yours truly.)

Alas, I never did get this ep on tape, and it's been over 5 years since I've seen it, so I will have to relate it as best as I remember.

It's 12 years after the original Ghostbusters disbanded. Egon has stayed on in the firehouse, with Slimer, and teaches a class on Paranormal Studies at a University. Our story starts on the first day of class, just before Dr. Spengler arrives. Not many students have shown u.. A somewhat sleazy fellow in a leather jacket enters the room, and seats himself near a rather goth-looking girl. She's not impressed when he makes an off-handed remark about this class being a blow-off class, an "easy A". She's apparently a student of the paranormal herself, and a long-time fan of Dr. Spengler. When Egon does arrive, he's dismayed to find only 4 kids in his class.

Through introductions, we learn the young lady's name is Kylie, and the ruffian is Eduardo. There's also the wheel-chair-bound daredevil with a bottomless pit for a stomach, Garrett, who just wants to see one of his childhood heroes, and the technology wiz, Roland. After some discussion, it's revealed that Eduardo doesn't actually believe in ghosts! Then two others makes a surprise visit to the class -- Janine, the Ghostbuster's former secretary, and Slimer, Egon's pet spook.

Egon decides, with such a small class, to grant their wish to see the firehouse and his equipment. Hands-on is the best kind of study, right? Once there, he reveals his latest project, a "ghost-beacon", meant to call forth spirits. They ask him to show them how it works, but he says it's too experimental. When his back is turned, Kylie filches the device.

Meanwhile, a work-crew stumbles upon a seal in the bowels of the city, accidentally breaking it and releasing a host of haunts. They call the only Ghostbuster left, Egon, for help. He decides to let his students have a crack at investigating it. At the site, they find glyphs that tell of a disease-carrying phantasm named Akira.

Later, we see Kylie in her attic apartment. She apparently had lost her only relative, her Grandma Rose, not long before. She tries to use the device to call her Grandma to her. Instead, she gets Akira (pretending to be Rose)! The demon possesses Kylie, and uses her to spread her disease. Egon becomes one of the victims ...

Ep 2, "Darkness At Noon, Part 2"

Egon decides his students must go out as Ghostbusters and defeat the ghoul spreading the ghostly plague. There's only two problems: 1) the equipment from his own days as a Ghostbuster is falling apart, and b) they don't have much time to train. But Roland turns out to be Mr. Fix-it, and, well, the boyos' determination gets them through problemo #2. Meanwhile, the possessed Kylie is spreading the plaque throughout New York.

The boy set out in the Ecto-1, and find a city full of delirious, boil-covered new Yorkers. They use PKE meters to track down the source (after Ro tells Eddy that, if he wants a reading, it helps to turn it on.) When they get close, they park the Ecto-1 in an alleyway and prepare to search on foot. While Ro and Gar chase the signal, a nervous Eddy opts to stay behind with the Ecto-1, "in case Egon calls".

While he waits alone, the still-possesed Kylie comes walking towards him from the darkness of the alley, calling his name in a sultry voice, rolling the "r" in the latin way. She stops close to him, looking coy, saying she's very glad to see him, "confessing" that she's been attracted to him since she first saw him. She asks if he feels the same way. He's pleasantly thrown by the whole exchange. "I guess so," he tells her, adding" You .. could stand to put on a couple of pounds." She draws him close, telling him that a good-looking guy like him is hard to resist, and that she wants him to kiss her. He leans in to oblige.

Just then, Ro and Gar come charging back, Ro screaming for him to back off. "Why? She's legal!" (Yes, ladies and gentleman, he actually said this! Proof that this show wasn't really aimed at its supposedly youthful audience. Although one has to wonder why he said this, since he was 18 and Ky was only 17 -- technically, doesn't that mean she's not "legal"? Although it seems unlikely that a college student would be only 17, so I'm not sure where they got that number from on the official website... Aaaaanyway ....)

"She's a ghost!" Ro tells him. Ed turns back to find Ky's eyes and hands glowing. He screams and falls back, landing on the ground, yelling for them to blast her. Ro tells Gar to wait, worried that they might hurt Ky if they shoot her with the proton beams. He doesn't know what effect they would have on a person. Eddy, meanwhile, decides not to wait, and blasts her himself.

Akira leaves her host, as Ro and Gar bring their own weapons to bear. Then they realise the trap is still in the Ecto-1. Akira escapes. Eduardo goes to check on Kylie, who's just starting to rouse. She reaches up and grabs his goatee, pulling him down. "You blasted me!" she growls. "I had to!" he tells her. "You were doing the 'Linda Blair' bit! You were like ... possessed!" (And of course only people old enough to have seen The Excorcist and who knew Linda Blair played the young possessed woman in the film would get that. Interestingly enough, Linda Blair did a voice in ep 40!) Garrett tells her that they're Ghostbusters now. She starts to remember what happened. She's determined to stop Akira; she grabs Eddy's proton rifle and asks how to use it (okay, that just sounds wrong, heheheh). Ro tells her that will have to wait, Egon wants them to go back to the firehouse. "Ooooh, somebody's gonna get yelled at!" Eddy teases her in a sing-song voice.

Back at the firehouse, Kylie tries to apologize for taking the ghost beacon, but Egon obviously doesn't have time for it. He tells them that he's learned that Akira is "the destroyer of civilizations", but he can't figure out how she does it exactly Eddy says he has a theory, postulating that she makes everyone really ugly with the boils, so no one can get a date. "No more dates, no more kids, no more kids and BOOM! End of civilization!" "That's your theory?" Kylie asks, annoyed. "It's called 'deductive reasoning'," he explains, adding what becomes his catchphrase, "I'm a scientist, man." Egon tells them they need to take another look under ground and gather more evidence.

Underground, they use the PKE meters to look for clues. Kylie marvels at the device. Eduardo, being all suave in his idiotic way, gives her some advice, "You always want to make sure it's switched on ..." Later, they come across a barred area at the end of an apparently ancient tunnel. Kylie finds a tablet with glyphs on it. She theorizes that the indigenous people trapped Akira there. Eddy scoffs at that, pointing out that bars wouldn't hold a ghost. She insists that it would, if used in conjunction with a spell. He asks her where she gets all this stuff. "Books," she answers. She puts her hand on his arm, "You oughtta try pickin' one up, sometime. Lots of them come with pictures ..." "Hey!" he protests, "I'll have you know, last semester I read 'The Oddity of Homer'," he adds sagely. "Odyssey!" she hisses, walking away. "Whatever," he shrugs.

A ghost pops out of an illustration Eddy's looking at; they decide it must have been left by Akira as a guard. Then the place starts to shake and rumble. "You guys hear that?" he asks, panicking. "No, just you," Ky answers derisively. They run for their lives. They eventually end up crawling out via a manhole. Kylie, once she climbs out, turns and seats herself on the lip, and stares at Eddy, who's just climbing out. He grins at her mischievously. (Do I dare even guess what just happened there?)

They bring the tablet back to Egon. He translates it as saying that Akira is just the beginning; it's really her offspring that will destroy the world. She apparently self-replicates! He tells them that she is a much more evolved ghost than normal. Meanwhile, Janine suddenly finds herself playing secretary again, as more and more people call, one after another, complaining of ghost problems. At first she tries to tell the people that the Ghostbusters are disbanded, but finally gives in. The Ghostbusters are back.

Egon refuses to let the kids out after Akira though. He says the equipment just isn't strong enough. Janine can't believe her ears. She tells him that the Egon <>she knows wouldn't give up like that. He starts to reconsider, working out aloud what might be done to improve the proton guns. With the help of the kids, in particular Roland, they get the new gear up and running. They head out after Akira.

They find her on the Brooklyn Bridge. She knocks out their radio; their on their own. Just then, all over the city, the boils burst, and little winged things fly out of them to Akira. She directs them to swarm the Ghostbsuters. They focus their proton beams on her, and trap her. Problem solved.

When the kids return to the firehouse, garret is excited over their victory, but the rest look just tired. The trap smells, and Eddy is eager to be rid of it. Egon shows them how to transfer a ghost from a trap to the containment unit.

Garrett gets ready to chow down on a candybar (he has to fend of Slimer first), while Eddy takes a moment to have a heart to heart with Ky. "So," he ventures awkwardly, "um, you said some stuff before ... when you were possessed?" She turns away, saying, equally awkwardly, "I have ... no idea what'cher talking about." Poor Eddy looks dejected. Ky turns to Garrett, gesturing to his candybar, "May I? Thanks!" She glances at Eddy out of the corner of her eye. "I'm tryin' ta put on a coupl'a pounds ..."

Egon congratulates them on a job well done. Ro says he's just glad it's over. "It .. is over, isn't t?" Egon ponders. Cut to more ghosts breaking out of the sewers. Apparently not.

Some young hooligans are vandalizing a synagogue when they are attacked by a golem (the novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Klay, by Michael Chabon, a very excellent book, uses the golem as a plot point ...) The golem coats the boys in living clay.

Ed and Ky go to the hospital where the boys are being kept, to investigate. Ed makes a crack about the mud, suggesting Ky use some on her face to clear up her pasty complexion. She just gives him a look. Ed goes to prod the clay, and nearly gets swallowed up by it. The doctor says "Uh, I probably should have warned you about that." Ed grins, saying, "Yeah, tiny oversight," making the "tiny" gesture with his fingers. Ky takes a sample and gives Ed a bemused smile.

Meanwhile, Roland is introduced to an some friends of Garrett's when Gar helps the guy run a con basketball game, tricking the opposing team by making them think he can't play and suckering them into a bet. Ro finds Gar's friends to be racist, which Gar strongly denies.

Later, at the firehouse, Ro voices his concern to Kylie and Eduardo, who shrug it off, saying he's probably just being overly sensitive and that Garrett wouldn't hang out with people like that. Eduardo has an amusing fight with Slimer over the remote, when Egon comes into the room and tells them that he's determined that the clay is proto-organic -- that is, it's alive AND growing! Kylie wonders where it came from. While still struggling with Slimer over the remote, Ed suggests "The protoorganic hobby shop?" Just then, the channels flip, glossing over a news report about clay. Ro takes the remote (how'd he do that???) and flips the report back on. They learn that clay was found all over the walls of a vandalized synagogue. They decide to check it out. Eddy flips Slimer the remote, telling him "Me and my boys got some business to attend to in Brooklyyyyyn." Kylie gives him a playful shove as he heads for the firepole. "Your boys?"

At the synagogue, the trio unsuccessfully tries to get information from the rabbi and his assistant. Eduardo insists they aren't reporters. "Hey! I'm a scientist, man!" Kylie thinks maybe the rabbi is unresponsive because they aren't Jewish, another case of racism, but Roland thinks it's simply because the rabbi is hiding something.

Next we see them, Eduardo is climbing the synagogue's fence while Ro and Ky look on. Ed wants to know why he has to be the fence-hopper. Ky mimics him "Because you're a scientist, maaaan." Ro doesn't feel good about them trespassing, but Ky points out that they're just getting a clay sample, not really stealing. Ed gets the sample, mimicking Ky's own mimicry of him under his breath. But he smiles. And then he's attacked by the golem.

The golem lifts Ed aloft, Ky warns Ro to be careful of his aim so that he doesn't hit Eduardo (awww, how sweet ^_^). They shoot the monster, one of the shots taking off his hand so Ed falls to the ground. It faces Ro and Ky, and they notice that its getting bigger. It walks through the fence and attacks them. Then it's hit from the side by Ed's proton beam, and melts. He's recalibrated his pack so that their beams can effect it! Maybe he's a scientist after all, eh?

The rabbi and his assistant find the trio outside after the melted golem has slithered away. He's furious about the damage the proton guns have done to the synagogue. The assistant apologises, explaining that the rabbi is stressed because he's worried not only for the safety of his people, but also for some ancient scrolls from Prague that are currently being housed there.

The gang visit Gar at a gym where he's hanging out with his friends and some other people at the gym. The trio fill him in, but he's unimpressed. He tells them to get him when the "fireworks" start. Later, his friends take him out for some extreme sorts fun. His friends are impressed, and consider letting him in on their illegal activities.

Kylie does some research at the synagogue, and learns about the golem. The librarian tells her the only way to get ride of the golem, which is prone to getting out of control, even from it's creator, is to wipe out bigotry and hate.

Back at the firehouse, Garrett is restless, but Ed, Ro, and Egon are unsympathetic. Ed tells him to go hand out with his jock friends, and eventually Gar leaves to do just that. Then Kylie comes in, telling them what she's learned of the golem, including how a golem is brought to life by placing a scroll in its mouth. Ro figures out that the scrolls the student rabbi mentioned have something to do with it. As he leaves, Ed asks Ky, "He's not going to say I told you so, is he? I hate it when he says I told you so!" "I kneeew iiit!" Ro sing-songs from the hall. "Close enough," Ed says, sharing a grin with Ky.

Gar, meanwhile, discovers that his so-called friends are involved with the vandals that attacked the synagogue. He attacks them as they continue their efforts. And then the Golem shows up, and attacks them all. And then the Rabbi comes out and defends Gar. And then Ro, Ky, and Ed show up and attack the golem. And then the student rabbi comes out, and we learn that he's the one that created it, to protect everyone, but has now lost control.

They try to adjust the proton beams again so they might be able to trap it (and Gar is guilt-tripped for being so out of the loop he doesn't know what they are up against, because he didn't help them research). But the golem melts again and gets away.

It reforms and goes after the vandals, chasing them into an iron ore refinery (or something). Ed suggest they "let Gumby whale on 'em." Ky says she appreciates the sentiment, "but we're the good guys, remember??" Gar shoots at the hanging vats of hot ore, causing them to pour over the golem. It's still not stopping, but it's slowing down. Gar tells everyone to leave, while he continues his attack. Eventually he retreats as well. They think it's beaten, and his so-called friends congratulate him, but he tells them off. And the monster comes out. Ro and Gar notice that the golem is looking a bit baked. They go after it with metal rods. They break it's leg, and it starts to fall. Ky hits some big tubes with her proton gun, causing them to fall into the golem and bring it down further. She runs towards it. "Ky, wait!" Eddy calls after her, worried. "We don't know if it's --" She takes the scroll out of its mouth and says, "It is now."

The victims are freed from the clay, which melts away with the defeat of the golem. The vandals are arrested (after Ro nearly lays into one of them). The Rabbi destroys the scroll, saying that violence should not be met with violence, nor hate with hate.

The police are stationed outside an old-style saloon, when Garrett comes rolling up. He bursts in through the swinging doors, proton gun blazing, and attacks a cow-ghost, despite Egon's orders over the radio for him to wait for backup.

The others, meanwhile, are still with the stalled Ecto-1; Roland's trying to fix it, while Kylie and Eduardo (who thinks they should just let the cops handle it) wait. Ky realises that Garrett had gone on ahead, and she and Eddy go after him., leaving Ro alone and confused.

The ghost threatens Garret, but he tells it that he's not afraid of it. It knocks him into a telephone-booth of sorts, and he's enclosed in the dark, small space. We learn his does have one fear - he's claustrophobic.

Ky and Ed come on the scene and bust the ghost. Ed makes two comments that are interesting foreshadowing. The first? He calls the ghost "chuckles", which I'm thinking might have been an inside-joke about the later episode, "Killjoys". The second is said when Kylie wonders where Garrett is; Ed answers "Maybe he's dead". This becomes one of Eduardo's catchprases, but it also is our first clue about Eduardo's own worst fear, death (an issue that's addressed again later in the episode "The Ghostmakers". The phone rings; Kylie answers, and discovers Gar on the other end. He tells her he's in the phone booth.

Later. A Mr. Swank stands in an empty building, in the dark, while another man hits a wall with a sledgehammer. He talks about his plans for making the place into a night club. The worker discovers a staircase on the other side of the wall. Despite the man's protest, Mr. Swank investigates with a flashlight, saying "I may be afraid of heights, but I'm not afraid of the dark!" When he reaches the bottom of the stairs, the floor gives out, leaving the terrified Swank stranded on a wooden beam. We see the shadow of a monster coming towards him through the adjoining corridor.

Back at the firehouse, Egon congratulates the team on a job well done, using his usual technical jargon. Eduardo makes the comment to Kylie that the man is a geek. Scowling, Kylie replies that Egon is "brilliant geek." "Go kiss him! You know you want to!" Ky just rolls her eyes.

Roland reprimands Gar for having gone off alone. Gar argues that he "ain't afraid of no ghosts!" (nice nod to the original film, there), but Eduardo points out that he seemed pretty "clammy" when they found him in the telephone booth. Gar reiterates that he's not scared of anything, and points out that he couldn't just sit there while they waited for the Ecto-1 to be repaired. Ro feels guilty; he believes it's his duty to make sure the equipment is reliable. Gar asks whose responsibility it is to make sure the FRIDGE is reliable - it's empty. Slimer, of course, is the obvious culprit. Ed asks if they can kill him. Egon replies, No, he's already dead." Janine says that Slimer even ate the steamed broccoli she made for Egon (he's the only one who can seem to stomach her cooking.) Slimer proceeds to be ill, much to the disgust of the team.

They get a call. At the scene, they find a delirious Mr. Swank muttering about not wanting to fall as he's being taken away on an ambulance. Kylie remarks that she's getting a PKE reading off him. Swank's employee tells them that Swank mentioned he had a fear of heights before going into the basement. Ed scoffs at this, pointing out that the man went down into a basement, not up. Which of course is why the guy brought it up, thinking it was odd.

When the team goes to investigate, Gar is about to ride down the stairs in his wheelchair, asking them if they want to see something cool. Ro stops him, saying there's nothing cool about a broken spine. "Oh yeah, I might loose the use of a limb," Gar responds dryly.

They follow the trail a ways and find -- Slimer. Eduardo guesses the green ghost is looking for food -- Slimer's got a sandwich, whish we learn he stole from the worker.

Ky suggests they split up. "Split up?" Eduardo asks, voice cracking. Covering, he tells Ky smoothly to scream if she needs help. After a long pause with her back to him, she looks over her shoulder and tells him "I'm not a screamer." (Oh, that could so be taken the wrong way ...) Ed's a little thrown by that remark.

They go their separate ways. Kylie falls into a large, strange shaft, into a garbage pile filled with maggots, and starts to scream. The guys hear it and go looking for her, a bemused Eddy mimicking her earlier comment about not being a screamer. But when they find her, huddled on a walkway above where she had landed, he actually shoves Ro out of the way to get to her side in a hurry. He asks her if she's ok. She looks a bit catatonic. She asks him "Do I look ok?" "Nnnnot really?" "Bingo." Garrett guesses that it must have been something truly horrific "to have made the Ice Queen scream", and wrings his hands in anticipation. Kylie confesses that it was just ordinary maggots. "A chic who keeps her doll in a spider's web is afraid of worms?" Eduardo asks, incredulously. "Why does everyone think I'm Vampyra??" she snaps. "Black hair ..." Garrett anwers. "Black nail polish," Ro adds. "Likes Nine Inch Nails ..." Ed finishes. (Oh yeah, there's a band kids should be familiar with, when they have a song with a chorus like "I wanna f*ck you like an animal", heheheh. Suuuure, this is a "kids' show" ... *evil grin*)

Ed ruminates that Ky's fear of maggots has a deeper meaning, that she is actually afraid of death. She snaps back, "Noooo, I'm afraid of maggots!" He backs away, "Geez, bite my head off, why don'tcha ... I thought everyone was afraid of death ..." Gar scoffs at this. Then Ed wonders where they maggots went, pointing out that they're slow. Ky says he's right, there is something weird going on (yeah, and the weird thing is that she AGREED with him, heheheh). Ed expands on her comment, saying that she's saying they're fast maggots. She says noooo, she's suggesting the maggots are the ghosts.

They discuss it further as they hunt, deciding what they're after is something that can guess a person's fears and become it. Ro says he should be okay, since his only fear is his equipment breaking down. Gar asks Eddy what his is, suggesting Ed is a "fear of being naked in public kind of guy". Eddy doesn't take to kindly to that suggestion. Then they realise Ro is missing. They can't seem to contact him by radio. "Maybe he's dead," Ed suggests.

Ro doesn't know where he is, other than that he's still underground. He tries to blast through a wall -- and is attacked by his own equipment.

Ky suggests they break up, but both Ed AND Gar protest that idea. She decides that's probably what the ghoul wants anyway. As if to illustrate the point, she's sucked through the floor. Ed goes after her, crying her name, but he's too late. He hits the floor in frustration, trying to get through it.

Ky finds herself in a chamber with maggots pouring in from every opening. They join together and become one HUGE maggot. Meanwhile, Slimer is confronted with his worst nightmare - broccoli! Next up is Eddy. As he walks with Garrett, they find his fear first in the form of a coffin, and then, after he gets separated from Garrett, a zombie version of himself who makes a mockery of his line, saying "It's me. I'm dead." Now alone, Garrett is attacked by a phantasmic wind -- one that pulls him into the coffin that they thought was for Eddy!

Garrett faces his fear, and gets himself out of the coffin. Then the ceiling comes down slowly. He uses his proton gun to blast through the wall, where he finds Kylie. He tells her that the things are all in their minds, that there's nothing to fear but fear itself -- and then is promptly eaten by the maggot. Apparently he doesn't taste too good - it spits him out. He grabs Kye and wheels them both away, down stairs, much to her dismay. They meet the zombie version of Eddy, which just terrifies Ky even more (hey, she's on a roll!), when the real Eddy shows up. A moment later, Ro stumbles upon them, with his own proton-pack-monster in pursuit. And the maggot shows up to be the icing on the cake.

The team all realise that they can't fight their own fears - but they can fight each others'! Gar takes on the pack-monster. Ky faces the zombie, asking Eduardo, "You're afraid of ghosts??" He tells her, "It's not just any ghost!" "Oh yeaaaah! I see the resemblance! This oughtta be fun!" she remarks as she blasts it. Eddy's not too happy about taking on her giant maggot, which promptly flattens him. Ro jumps up, hangs from a pipe, and pushes it into Swank's pit. Together the team finds Slimer, and save him from the broccoli. Then they go hunting the ghost.

They find it, a small, cowering thing that's actually afraid of them! They end up leaving it there, and simply having the wall repaired, so that the ghost is left in peace.

This ep is one of my very favourites! It was well-written, funny, well-animated, and had excellent character development (particularly in the Ed-Ky department!)

Keep checking back for more episodes!

Ghostbusters, Extreme Ghostbusters, & all the characters & concepts therein (c), TM, & R Paramount & Sony. This site is not done with permission of the aforementioned, nor is it intended to violate those copyrights/ trademarks/ registrationmarks. The story "Embrace the Night", as well as the corresponding artwork, (c) Wolfen Moondaughter. For entertainment purposes only.

Many thanks to Dan Aykroyd & Harold Ramis for creating such a wonderful world, and to Ivan Rietman, Bill Murray, Jeff Kline, and everyone else involved in the movies, cartoons, books, comics, and Universal attractions for helping to bring it to life!