Original air date: 7/9/2022
Production code: 120b
Continuing from the previous episode, Scratch has been found out and taken to the Ghost World for trial. With the help of Libby and Geoff, Molly goes on a daring rescue, and in the process manages to accomplish something mind-blowing.
Tropes:
- 11th-Hour Superpower: It's the season finale, and Molly discovers the means to become a Wraith whose superpower is turning everything she touches in the Ghost World to Joy. This power is used to destroy both the Flow of Failed Phantoms and the Chairman.
- An Astral Projection, Not a Ghost: As a "Wraith", Molly's body is still alive, if as an Empty Shell, while she takes on a ghostly form herself. She gets this way when she tries to go through a Ghost World portal while still alive.
- Animesque: As Molly tries to escape Jinx and the Sobgoblins, she accidentally bumps into a random ghost and gives him Big Anime Eyes, to which he reacts with an anime-style Comical Angry Face.
- Back for the Finale: Howlin' Harriet and Sonia Davis are among the ghosts presented at Scratch's trial, and Sally Tugbottom and her bear, Abraham Lincoln, and Mayor Brunson’s ancestors are seen when Molly and Geoff first enter the ghost world. The Sobgoblins also appear as Jinx's minions.
- Badass Boast: Molly gets an epic one of these near the end.Molly: Ha ha ha! You guys made a big mistake. You forgot everything I touch turns to joy! ...And that includes your stupid Flow of Failed Phantoms. Light is more powerful than darkness. Hope is more powerful than fear. Love is more powerful than hate. And joy? Joy is way more powerful than misery will ever be! Don't tell me that being friends with a ghost is wrong. You're wrong! Boop.
- Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad: The witnesses the Ghost Council summon for Scratch's trial talk about how much Scratch helped them in previous episodes. The Council treats these anecdotes as horrible crimes and evidence for why Scratch should be banished to the Flow of Failed Phantoms.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: When Molly comes to his defense, Scratch lists off Molly's various positive traits in a negative fashion to the Council, and then finishes by saying her way of doing things is better and is glad to call her a friend.
- Book Ends:
- Just like in the first episode, the Council banishes a ghost to the Flow of Failed Phantoms, and the same ghost that they banished in the first episode is the first to escape when Molly causes the Flow to come apart.
- The stupidity of Scratch's curse on Molly is also lampshaded once more.
- Chekhov's Gag: Geoff's season-long insistence on having his name spelled correctly turns out to be this. Molly gets Libby to misspell his name on purpose to summon him at a crucial moment, and he ends up giving Molly entrance to the Ghost World.
- Cherry Tapping: Molly destroys the Chairman by booping his nose. She even says the word out loud.
- Continuity Cavalcade:
- Among the ghosts testifying at Scratch's trial are Sonia from "Ice Princess", the doctor from "Scaring is Caring" and Howling Harriet. Also, several other ghosts from previous episodes make silent cameos in the scenes where Molly enters the Ghost World.
- When Molly destroys the Flow of Failed Phantoms, the first ghost to be freed is the one banished there by the Ghost Council in "The Curse".
- Deader than Dead: The Chairman already was a ghost but when Molly is done with him he disappears completely, leaving only his cloak behind.
- Death Glare: Molly gives one to the Council before returning home with Scratch.Molly: I'm leaving, and I'm taking Scratch with me. ANYBODY GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT?!
- Didn't Think This Through: The Council banishes Molly and Scratch to the Flow, but forget about how Molly injects everything she touches with Joy, allowing her to destroy the Flow and free all the ghosts within.
- Empty Shell: Molly's spirit gets separated from her body, rendering her what's called a wraith, someone who's literally given up the ghost. While her body is still alive, it's left completely listless, expressing apathy at everything that happens to it. Molly and Libby are both creeped out.
- Finger Poke of Doom: Molly defeats the Chairman with a "boop."
- Golden Super Mode: Molly's Wraith form is colored gold, unlike every other ghost in the Ghost World, and has the power to turn everything she touches to Joy. She also flares up when she threatens the Council not to interfere with her and Scratch's return home.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: Geoff ties two Sobgobblins together to use as nun chucks to fight off the others.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The Chairman and the Ghost Council send Molly and Scratch to the Flow of Failed Phantoms, to keep them from spreading Joy. Molly's Joy ends up destroying the Flow of Failed Phantoms and the Chairman, the Council's main means of exerting control over other ghosts.
- Holy Burns Evil: Molly's Joy is so potent that the Chairman is destroyed from a single "boop" to the nose.
- Horrifying the Horror: The dreaded Ghost Council is terrified of Molly when they see what happened to the Chairman. They don't dare to make any attempts to stop her when she is leaving with Scratch.
- Instant Chucks: As mentioned above by Grievous Harm with a Body, Geoff achieves this by tying two sobgoblins together by their hair.
- It's All About Me: Scratch might have gotten upset over Geoff's banishment to the Flow of Failed Phantoms...but hey, at least it wasn't him!
- Jacob Marley Apparel: Molly's astral form retains her vest.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: The Ghost Council declare that it would be too cruel to separate Molly and Scratch, much to their delight. Then the Council declares that both of them will be sent into the Flow of Failed Phantoms.
- Kangaroo Court: The Ghost Council, by their own admission, had been wanting to banish Scratch to the Flow of Failed Phantoms for a long time, and his "trial" is treated as little more than an excuse to do so by the book.
- Kryptonite Factor: Being practically an incarnate of Misery does no good for the Chairman when Molly, a being overflowing with Joy, touches him while in her astral form.
- Literal Metaphor: Molly states outright that she literally killed the Chairman with kindness.
- Loophole Abuse: Living humans can’t go to the Ghost World. So when Molly accidentally becomes a Wraith (a being that literally has their ghost separated from their body, leaving the latter as an Empty Shell) in a desperate attempt to save Scratch, she points out she’s no longer a human, allowing her to enter in the Ghost World.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The Ghost Council banishes both Molly and Scratch to the Flow of Failed Phantoms to stop them spreading Joy, completely forgetting that everything Molly touches turns to Joy. Her positivity dissolves the entire Flow of Failed Phantoms, releasing every ghost banished to it along with her and Scratch.
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: With the Chairman gone and the Flow of Failed Phantoms destroyed, the status quo of the Ghost World has been shaken up, with the ramifications of how it'll affect the future unknown.
- Pre-Explosion Glow: Shafts of gold light beam out from the Chairman's body, followed by bursts of rainbows and flowers from his mouth, when Molly's touch of joy destroys him for good.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: When Molly is about to destroy the Chairman:Molly: Don't tell me that being friends with a ghost is wrong! YOU'RE wrong! ...Boop.
- Retro Universe: Invoked by the Ghost World since, according to Geoff, they don’t actually get anything new there until it “dies” by going out of style or becoming obsolete. For example, a video rental store called Boo!Buster is shown at the start, and he admits that he just recently acquired his own flip phone like the one Scratch used in “Scaring is Caring”.
- Season Finale: Of Season 1.
- Series Fauxnale: There are many elements in this episode that could make it work like a proper Series Finale: Molly finally confronts the Ghost World Council, the Chairman is defeated once and for all, the Flow of Failed Phantoms gets destroyed and all the ghosts trapped in it released, and Molly and Scratch go back home to the world of the living with their friendship firmly established. However, there's at least one more season coming.
- Speak of the Devil: To help her get to the Ghost World, Molly summons Geoff by asking Libby what the usual spelling of Jeff is.
- So Much for Stealth: Molly and Geoff attempt to move through Ghost World without drawing attention, but Molly's bright orange color and her ability to spread Joy to everything she touches quickly eliminates that option.
- Technology Marches On: In-Universe, the Retro Universe aesthetic of the Ghost World is due to the fact that it only gets new things after they "die"/become obsolete, so it has video rental stores and has apparently only just acquired flip phones.
- Teleporter Accident: Desperate to get to the Ghost World, Molly impulsively jumps through a portal Geoff conjured. While she doesn't pass into the Ghost World, it does separate her spirit from her body, then allowing her to freely go through it.
- Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: Who would have thought a bright, chipper girl's infectious optimism would have been the key to freeing scores of ghosts trapped for all eternity in the screaming void? Certainly not the Ghost Council, or the newly-deposed Chairman.
- Touch of Death: Somewhat Inverted, in that it's more "touch of pure Joy", but for the thoroughly negative and miserable Ghost Council and the Chairman, Molly's positive nature is complete anathema to them, and all it takes is a finger poke to dissolve the Chairman's skeleton into rainbows and flowers, leaving only his cloak behind. Scratch and Geoff are able to touch her no problem, and other ghosts and supernatural entities are merely "Joyified" by contact with Molly, implying that this effect only works on ghosts that have no positive emotions at all.
- Trash the Set: The Flow of Failed Phantoms is destroyed when every single ghost that comprises it is simultaneously set free, leaving the sky around the Ghost Council's platform the same black void as the rest of the Ghost World.
- The Unintelligible: When Howling Harriet is called to give witness at Scratch's trial, her "testimony" only consists of her making spooky ghost noises, as Scratch Lampshades.Scratch: Are we all just pretending we understood that?
- Wham Episode: Molly enters the Ghost World, faces the Ghost Council, gets banished to the Flow of Failed Phantoms with Scratch, and frees herself and every ghost that has ever been imprisoned. Then she defeats the Chairman for good, leaving the council powerless, and returns with Scratch to the world of the living.
- Would Hurt a Child: The Ghost Council has no problem with sending Molly into the Flow of Failed Phantoms.
