From MadCap's Couch - Supernatural: "Ghostfacers"

Leave it to Dean to effectively communicate my reaction to the episode.

Okay, so we're here... let's get this over with.

Ghostfacers! has a recap that serves to remind us that the Season 3 arc is a thing... and to remind us of the events of Hell House, and the fact that Harry and Ed exist, mostly because they pop in during the title card to do an introduction to their new show Ghostfacers!.

Another ghost hunting reality show that nobody asked for.

For the first bit, we're focused on Harry and Ed and their new team rather than the people that we actually care about. The new team is Ed's adopted sister Maggie, the internet Corbett, and Spruce, the cameraman. We get brief introductions to all of them and considering this is their only appearance on the show... I don't care.

Yes, I know CW did a web series for them. Still, shockingly, I don't care.

Ed lays out the information on their current job. The Morton House, a house that is haunted once every four years on February 29th. Nobody has ever stayed in the house past midnight that night, something that the Ghostfacers plan to change. Also, by the way... Corbett the intern is gay.

...no, really, that's it. That's the entire joke. He has the hots for Ed. For some reason. Like Will and his feelings toward Mike, Corbett could be doing a lot better.

"Hello, we're hijacking the show you actually tuned in to see for the evening..."

We follow the group as they begin to infiltrate the Morton House later that night, breaking through a fence with a pair of lock cutters and we get a terribly short scene of Sam and Dean passing by in the Impala while "We're An American Band" by Grand Funk Railroad blares out into the night... and then it's back to the "it's a ghost hunting reality show" jokes with a montage of them setting up base camp. They then split up into two teams to check out the house. As expected, some vaguely spooky things begin happening... but nothing outright supernatural (because cheap jokes to cut the tension that isn't there), until Sam and Dean come in. Ed recognizes them... which ruins their whole police officer shtick... and proceeds to get his ass handed to him by Dean, and rightfully so.

The team of Maggie, Harry, and Spruce see a ghost... who seems to be speaking to someone before he's shot and then disappears.

Dean brings up the lore about the house, namely that nobody has stayed the night on February 29th, because anyone who has stayed at the house has disappeared without a trace. They have missing person reports to verify this, but Dean and Sam's attempts to get everyone out fail as they get too excited about the video of the ghost... or as the brothers call it, a dead echo - someone who is stuck in a loop over the moment they died, living it over and over and over again.

Eventually, Ed realizes that Corbett is gone. Corbett has wandered off on his own and gets taken by the ghost of the house... the real one, which drags him away to... somewhere... as the clock rolls over to midnight. They are stuck in the house now, Sam mentioning to Dean that they're going to die tonight rather than Dean dying in two months due to his deal.

"If you kill me, does that mean I can get out of this episode faster?"

After an encounter with another death echo - Dean trying to snap it out of it - with him having died by train, which only makes things more confusing as nobody died from gunshot wounds here and nobody died by being hit by a train. Maggie has a few moments of thirsting over Dean in some of the only levity that I enjoy in this episode and the group begins searching through the house, finding an award to a "Freemon Daggett", the last owner of the house that died of a heart attack in '64. The dude was apparently a hoarder as well, with a plethora of rations and a pamphlet on how to survive a nuclear blast squirreled away.

Digging through the man's belongs, they find three toe tags from victims - one who died by gunshot, one who died by train, and one who died by suicide. Sam and Dean point out how Daggett, a hospital janitor, has all these death echoes in his house... he brought the bodies home to play. After another camera seizure, Sam has disappeared to Dean's overpowering rage as he storms through the house and yells for his brother.

We get what is meant to be a romance subplot when Harry and Maggie are apparently hooking up... much to Ed's extreme irritation at the perceived betrayal. Dean breaks up the boniest, lamest nerd fight in the history of nerd fights and continues the search. A view of Corbett's camera shows that he and Sam have been seated at a table... with "It's My Party" by Leslie Gore playing on a loop. The ghost of Daggett drives something sharp into Corbett's brain, killing him.

Upstairs, Dean and the Ghostfacers work out Daggett's whole gimmick - he was scared to death of the Cold War and so had a bomb shelter in the basement. It turns out that Dean's hunch is correct... but Dean and Spruce up trapped in the basement. He shouts for the Ghostfacers to go get the salt out of his duffel and form a protective circle while he and Spruce head down into the basement.

While Ed, Harry, and Maggie hang out in a salt circle, they find the newest death echo... Corbett, reliving his dying moment.

Spruce questions Dean about him having two months left, which Dean deflects about. They hear "It's My Party" playing through a wall as Daggett creepily fawns over Sam. They bust in and manage to save Sam... but find Corbett's body. Sam apparently got to learn about things offscreen, namely that Daggett was a lonely man who dug dancing with corpses, was incredibly lonely, and would OD on horse tranquilizer.

Upstairs, Ed crosses the salt line and tries to speak to Corbett's death echo, working to pull him out of it.

Downstairs, Daggett reforms and gets the rock salt treatment from Sam.

Douchebags... and Corbett

Harry implores Ed to reach out and touch Corbett in the gay way... really this is just "Hehe, Corbett is gay and Ed isn't!" for 'comedic' effect and just really hasn't aged well at all. But Ed finally manages to reach Corbett through what I'm assuming they want us to believe is a heartfelt speech about how he was a beloved intern and that he does love him... and this snaps Corbett out of it in time for him to disappear and take down Daggett, ending the man's threat once and for all, the pair vanishing in a white light.

We get the wrap up, and then the reveal that this entire episode has been shown to Sam and Dean... who repay the team for their kindness by using a powerful magnet to wipe all of the data from their computers after stealing the only footage. And bricking their computers. Which will hopefully see all of this never being seen or mentioned again. 

I'm not going to lie to you here, I'm really just not a fan of the found footage/ghost hunters style of entertainment. It isn't irredeemably bad per se, it's just not really my cup of tea and this admittedly makes me a bit biased against this episode. However, I will hold that what's bad... is bad. I really don't like the whole shaky cam and weird static effects that are supposed to be interference from the ghosts and all. It's just painful to look at. A stylistic departure isn't necessarily bad, but this just wasn't it.

The Ghostfacers just really aren't that interesting enough to me for an episode centered around them to be interesting. The show occasionally has this problem with characters that aren't Sam and Dean... those two being the characters I tune in to Supernatural to see. I already don't like Ed and Harry from Hell House and Maggie and Spruce really aren't given enough character for me to form too much of an opinion on them one way or another. And Corbett is just a gay character with absolutely nothing else to him.

I mean... nothing. Dude's a himbo with a hard-on for Ed. Again, for some reason. The fact that him being gay is literally the entire joke... is not a joke and it's really not something that's aged well at all. This was obviously meant to be a comedic episode, and it rarely works. Mostly "hur hur, the nerds are nerds!" or "Hey, Corbett is gay!" jokes. I'm fully aware that comedy is a subjective thing, but it's just... not funny.

Daggett is okay and in a regular episode would have been a much more intimidating and creepy villain. Not super complex, but he gets the job done.

Next time, we'll be getting into an episode that does a little bit more than get the job done. Sam and Dean investigate some strange deaths involving a phone company and Dean gets some information from beyond the grave and from a most welcome source that may just get him out of his deal.

Next time, slip a quarter in the payphone to make a Long-Distance Call.

Be there!