The Ghostbusters rush into a train station, and Ray gets onto a train. Before leaving, the other Ghostbusters reveal that Ray is going to the town he grew up in as part of a celebration involving him getting rid of a monster. Ray leaves, and everyone says goodbye (with Slimer crying).
At his hometown, Ray speaks in front of the crowd in the presence of the mayor. In the crowd is a woman who knows Ray and who he has a crush on, named Elaine Phermon. She runs up and mentions she's seen him on the news. Then, an old acquaintance of Ray's named Alan Favish walks up and reveals that Elaine has inherited an old, scary, supposedly-haunted house.
He decides to check for any ghosts in the house and trap them if they're there, so he takes off his coat revealing his uniform underneath and heads to the house. While Ray taunts the ghosts, a man nearby reads from a creepy book and uses it to cast "negative energy", making the ghosts bigger and more powerful. They exit the house and run amok, so Ray zaps them. However, it doesn't work, and the ghosts throw Ray and go back into the house. The mayor blames Ray for making the ghosts mad, and praises Al when he offers to pay for the repairs.
That night, back at the firehouse, Ray returns still in a bad mood. He tests the equipment with the others to see if it's broken, but it isn't. They decide he just had a "bad day", so Ray goes back to his hometown, where he meets Elaine. Meanwhile, Egon finds a note Ray left, saying that he's returning for a "showdown".
The other Ghostbusters drive off to assist Ray, who enters the house while Elaine waits outside. He tries to zap the ghosts, but again fails and the ghosts throw him around. The rest of the Ghostbusters show up, and then the guy with the book uses another spell to return the ghosts back to their normal size and abilities. The other Ghostbusters and Elaine enter, and despite Ray's warnings, the guys succeed in trapping the ghosts. Unfortunately, however, this leads Ray to believe that if the equipment works, he must be "defective" and thus must resign so he won't endanger anyone.
Alan then gives Ray a new job at his shoe shop as a bunny mascot. However, Winston insists Ray keep his proton pack, since he feels he's still a Ghostbuster deep down. Outside the store, Egon reveals that he has a "plan" to convince Ray to keep his old job. They drive off and get stuck in the mud, then another ghost shows up. Ray goes outside to trap it, but it turns out this was Slimer in disguise and he blows his cover trying to get some ice cream. Thus, Ray goes back to his new job.
While Ray is trying to satisfy a demanding woman, Elaine enters, and the both of them find the creepy book while trying to retrieve a pair of shoes. Ray determines that someone must have cast the negative energy spell, which was why the equipment didn't work since it runs on positive energy. He then realises that Alan must be using the spell book, which is bad news since he doesn't know what he's doing.
At the parade, Egon reads the negative energy on his PKE meter and determines that it's stirring up something underground. Then, a giant orb bursts out of the ground and turns into a monster. Alan tries to get rid of the monster using the spell book, but it burns the book with its fire breath and destroys his shop. Peter, Egon, and Winston try to shoot it, but it doesn't work, and Ray explains about the negative energy.
The monster continues to attack, and Ray uses a screwdriver to "reverse the polarity" of his proton pack. Then, the Ghostbusters chase after the monster in hot air balloons, with Ray reversing all of the proton packs' polarities. They then fire at the monster, but miss, and it blows a hole in the hot air balloon. Luckily, they fire at it again and this time they do succeed in trapping it. Thus, Ray decides not to quit after all and he's hailed as a local hero.
This episode provides examples of
- Accidental Misnaming: The mayor accidentally calls Ray "Roy".
- Astonishingly Appropriate Interruption: After Ray corrects the mayor about his name, the mayor asks, "What's that?", and then Elaine calls out, "Ray!".
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The ghosts grow bigger upon receiving the "negative energy".
- Breath Weapon: The monster from under the ground breathes fire.
- Comically Missing the Point: Egon says that "this looks very bad", referring to the negative energy readings. Peter thinks he's saying Al looks bad.
- Crush Blush: Ray blushes over Elaine.
- Delicious Distraction: Slimer forgets about pretending to be evil when he sees an ice cream truck.
- Did You Think I Can't Feel?: When Ray tells his friends to go home and leave him, Egon is the only one who doesn't bother even trying to talk him out of quitting. The others immediately call him out on this when they're alone, upset that he doesn't seem to care about Ray. Egon explains that talking won't accomplish anything and that he's been forming a plan to restore Ray's confidence.
- Dramatic Irony: The non-Ray Ghostbusters are confused as to how Ray could have had so much trouble with such small ghosts, when we've seen them grow bigger.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Ray got humiliated by people and harangued by ghosts, but he ends up being hailed as a hero and kissed by Elaine.
- Everyone Has Standards: Ray may be a goofball and sometimes he acts a little childish, however, even he finds it embarrassing to be handed a plushie of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man or have to wear a pink rabbit suit.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: Alan's usage of a spellbook for such childish end goals only serves to cost him what little he had.
- Evil Laugh: The ghosts chuckle evilly when they leave Elaine's house.
- Facepalm: Winston puts his palm to his face upon seeing Al's garish exercise outfit.
- False Friend: Alan acts all pleasant when Ray first arrives in town, but it's just a cover. He was planning all along to humiliate Ray.
- Foreshadowing: At the beginning, Ray's friends mention a monster in the town. Later, the monster gets stirred up from the negative energy and attacks the town.
- The Gadfly: The ghosts seem to like to bother people, making a mess and throwing Ray around.
- The Good Guys Always Win: Lampshaded when Ray says, "We Ghostbusters never lose!".
- Good Samaritan: Subverted. Al offers to pay for the repairs, but then later he's revealed to be the bad guy, meaning that he was probably only doing it to get on the mayor's good side.
- Goofy Suit: Ray's new job at the shoe store involves him having to wear a pink rabbit suit.
- Haunted House: Elaine inherits an old, tumbledown house that turns out to be haunted by a pair of ghosts.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Al uses the spell book to summon negative energy, which ends up stirring up the monster that attacks him.
- The Hyena: The duo of ghosts in Elaine's house spend a lot of time laughing ominously.
- In-Series Nickname: Alan is also known as Al.
- Intentional Mess Making: On their rampage, the ghosts from Elaine's house throw things, knock them over, and stamp them to pieces.
- Irony: The mayor says that the citizens will never forget the name Roy Stantz.
- It's All My Fault: Ray, upon realising that the equipment does indeed work, thinks that he must be to blame for failing to trap the ghosts and thus must resign lest he endanger someone.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Alan uses dark magic to humiliate Ray and to provide himself an opportunity to look like a Good Samaritan, but his efforts end up awakening a giant puma monster. One of the first things it does is demolish Alan's shoe store.
- Lean and Mean: The main villain is a very scraggly, bony monster who's destructive and tries to kill the humans.
- Mood Whiplash: There's a moment of victory as the ghosts are trapped, but then the mood turns sad when Ray decides he's to blame for failing to trap them before and quits the team.
- Mundanger: There's plenty of supernatural action as always, but the big problems are the direct result of a childhood rival with a petty grudge against Ray.
- No-Sell: The "negative energy" makes the ghosts immune to proton streams.
- Now You Tell Me: The other three Ghostbusters open fire on the puma monster, after which Ray warns them of the negative energy and how the proton streams are useless. Peter has this reaction.
- Oh, Crap!: Ray looks nervous the second time he fails to zap the ghosts.
- One-Liner: Ray says, after nearly being burned to death, "It'll take more than a little hot air to stop a Ghostbuster!".
- On Three: Ray gives the ghosts until the count of three to exit the house.
- The Power of Friendship: The other three Ghostbusters refuse to leave town until they convince Ray to rejoin the team.
- Pun:
- When Alan says he owns a shoe store but Ray is a Ghostbuster, Ray says, "Shoes have their place too, Al." Al quips, "Yeah — on the feet!".
- When one ghost is knocking tents over by rolling, Ray says, "Think you're on a roll, huh?".
- The Resenter: Alan was popular back in the day and expected to go onto bigger things, none of which anyone could say about Ray back then. Instead, Ray became a famous hero living in the big city and about to receive a local honor, whereas Alan just runs a shoe store and is nothing special. Alan can't stand how Ray's a bigger success, so he plots to humiliate him and look good in the process.
- Side Bet: As Ray tests the equipment and stews over his earlier failure, Peter and Winston make a bet over whether he will actually go back to town or not for another go. When Egon wakes the others up that night to say Ray is gone, Peter immediately demands Winston pay up.
- Snarking Thanks: Ray insincerely "thanks" Peter for pointing out that he made a fool of himself in front of the whole town.
- Status Quo Is God: Ray quits in this episode, but it doesn't stick.
- Tempting Fate: Peter asks Egon if he's sure something is being stirred up underground, and then the monster arrives.
- Tongue-Out Insult: Slimer sticks his tongue out at Peter for telling him to stay in the car.
- Trash Landing: When Ray is flung through the air by the ghosts, he lands in a trashcan.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: The green ghost can change form at will, for instance it morphs into a staircase at one point.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: To save the others, Ray gets the puma monster to give chase and (to make the needed adjustments to the proton packs) asks to borrow an old neighbor's screwdriver. The old man obliges, sees the monster chase after Ray, and then calmly remarks that Ray always had such strange pets.
- Wingding Eyes: Ray gets hearts flashing in his eyes when he sees Elaine.
