We open with Jerry Sadler looking for his sister, Terri [Jerry and Terri? Yikes. Are they twins? They look the same age] in a beachside graveyard. It’s daytime, so not very ooky spooky, and he eventually finds her taking a wax rubbing of a gravestone. Jerry thinks it’s lame but Terri enjoys it ‘”because I’m interested in things.”‘ [I’m interested in things too, like getting to the ghost part of this episode]. Jerry wants to go to the beach, but Terri points out the name on the gravestone – Harrison Sadler [Hey, that’s their last name!]. Going off the writings on the stone, Terri deduces that Harrison Sadler was one of the first people to step foot on America, and the epitaph states ‘Though his bones are but dust, his spirit lives on forever’ [Is Harrison going to be the titular ghost?].
Jerry and Terri are soon chased by someone dressed as some kind of monster [I have no idea tbh, she’s just got some dry seaweed covering her face], who is soon revealed to be a girl about the their age. Another boy of a similar age comes out of hiding, and the newcomers gloat about their little prank. Jerry and Terri storm off, but the strangers follow them, introducing themselves as Louisa and Sam Sadler. Terri points out that that’s their last name too, and Jerry explains they’re staying with Brad and Agatha, their ‘”fourth cousins twice remodelled.”‘ [Hahaha he means removed, the idiot]
The foursome discuss how there’s so many Sadlers around, both alive and dead, and they return to Harrison’s grave. Louisa reveals Harrison may be dead, ‘”but he still walks the night”‘, and when our protagonists deny the existence of ghosts, Sam explains they’ll believe in them if they visit the cave down at the beach. Louisa quickly shuts him up before he can elaborate though, and the pair heads off.
We jump to dinner time now as Agatha piles some kind of stew onto the kids’ plates and gushes over how nice it is to have young people around. Jerry and Terri reveal they met Louisa and Sam Sadler today and wonder if they’re related, but the adults suggest if they are relatives, they must be very distant [And Agatha and Brad are super suss about it too!]. Jerry recalls the ghost in the cave that Sam mentioned, but Brad denies ever hearing of it before and heads off to read his book, Agatha tagging along to help [Very suss!].
The next day, Jerry and Terri explore the beach, with Terri banging on about how cool all the washed up seaweed is. Jerry wants to find the cave and heads off, but immediately trips over the perfectly intact skeleton of some kind of animal. I think it’s a dog, but Jerry suggests it’s a raccoon, and then Sam and Louisa appear out of nowhere, and Sam suggests it’s too small to be a raccoon [I don’t know, Sam, the skeleton doesn’t look that small]:
Sam reckons it’s a dog that’d been eaten [Must be a pretty small dog if the skeleton is too small to be a raccoon?], but Louisa quickly shuts him up [Does the ghost eat dogs?]. Jezza and Tezza demand to know what kind of animal would pick the bones clean like that, and since they’re gonna be around for a while, Louisa decides to tell them the truth – “It wasn’t an animal that picked those bones clean. It was the ghost! The ghost of Harrison Sadler.”‘ She explains that dogs can tell if someone’s a ghost, so this one must have been killed to prevent it warning anyone.
Jerry and Terri don’t really believe them, and Terri asks if they’ve ever seen the ghost, prompting Louisa to point out a distant cave hidden by some trees, which is where the g-g-g-g-g-ghost lives. He’s lived there for over 300 years, but no-one has ever seen him. Sam and Louisa have seen the skeletons of animals he’s eaten though, and they often see a flickering light in the cave. As Jerry dismisses it as ‘”some guy with a flashlight”‘, he sees what looks like a fire flickering in opening of the cave [Is it possible an old beach hermit lives there and eats animals to survive? That could explain why the bones are picked clean. But this is Goosebumps so it probably won’t be that simple]. Jerry and Terri still can’t decide if there’s any truth to their stories, so Louisa and Sam head off, away from the non-believers.
At dinner that night, Agatha puts less stew on the kids’ plates since they complained about how big the portions were last time, but Jerry thinks there’s not enough food this time [I’m assuming this will have some relevance somewhere]. Jerry tells them about the skeleton, the light, and what Sam and Louisa said, and Brad and Agatha go all weird again before Brad dismisses the light as aurora borealis. Jerry’s not so sure since it was the middle of the day, but Brad just demands that the kids stay away from the cave [Which is exactly the opposite of what they’re going to do, I’m sure].
That night, Terri struggles to fall asleep because some random dog won’t stop barking outside, and Jerry can’t stop thinking about the light he saw in the cave. He wants to go investigate, and when the dog’s barking is abruptly cut short, he suggests the ghost got it. So off to the cave they go, sure that there’s a better explanation than a ghost afoot. As they enter the cave, a light flickers against the walls, and following it inside, Jez and Tez are swarmed by bats [!!!]. Venturing deeper, they find a fire-lit torch stuck to the wall and are quickly cornered by a creepy old man who tells them they’re in serious trouble because ‘”it’s dangerous to get involved with ghosts.”‘ [Amen].
He accuses them of thinking he’s a ghost and trying to trap him, but he assures them he’s not a ghost. He introduces himself as Harrison Sadler, but says the gravestone is an ancestor’s, not his, before telling them the story of a group of pilgrims who sailed from England to begin a life here. They faced a horrible winter with not enough food or appropriate shelter, and one by one, the pilgrims died. ‘”Some refused to go to the final resting place, so they lingered on”‘, he says, revealing Sam and Louisa are the ghosts, while he’s a ghost hunter [I’d believe it]!
Jerry doesn’t believe that Harrison’s not the ghost, since he’s shut up in this cave, but Harrison explains he’s safe here as long as he doesn’t leave. He tells them to go to the north-eastern corner of the graveyard to find the truth and the siblings run off to see what he meant.
In the graveyard, they find two gravestones belonging to Louisa and Sam [!!!!], who quickly appear behind our heroes, apparently having been looking for them [Always just popping out of nowhere, these two. Very suss]. Jerry and Terri reveal what Harrison said about Louise and Sam being ghosts and that he told them to check the graveyard, and Louisa and Sam are mad that they believed him. Louisa explains they’re just their ancestors’ graves, and they were just named after them [That’s the same excuse Harrison gave. Very convenient. Who do we trust? I vote Harrison], before she and Sam lead Jerry and Terri deeper into the graveyard to show them what the ghost has in store for them – ‘”two freshly placed gravestones”‘ with their names and faces on them [!!!].
Sam and Louisa explain the ghost won’t stop til he’s found them again [If Harrison is the bad guy, why would he have let them go earlier? Where’s the logic?] and insist they have to get rid of the ghost once and for all by sealing him up in his cave. Terri remembers that that’s what Harrison thought they were doing in the cave in the first place, and she and Jerry quickly agree to the plan.
The foursome heads to the mouth of the cave where there a very convenient pile of rocks above it just waiting to be toppled down. While Sam and Louisa act as lookouts, refusing to be any more help [Suss], Jerry and Terry attempt to use a big stick as a lever to force the pile of rocks down. A bolt of lightning randomly strikes the pile, sending everyone to the ground in fright, and when they get back up Harrison’s standing in front of Louisa and Sam, thanking Jerry and Terri for bringing the ghosts to him.
Louisa and Sam deny it, so Harrison lets out a short whistle that lures a dog over which quickly starts barking at Louisa and Sam. Remembering how they’d said dogs recognise ghosts, our protagonists realise the truth. Louisa and Sam back away from the dog and into the cave, explaining they never got a chance to live after dying their first winter here [They were pilgrims!], and wanted J and T to keep them company. As they talk, their faces turn into CGI skeletons, but another lightning strike hits the pile of rocks again, causing them to fall down and seal up the cave’s entrance [Harrison was behind Louisa and Sam as they were backing into the cave, so he must have been sealed up in there too…no-one seems to care though hahaha].
Later, our heroes tell Brad and Agatha everything that happened, and the adults assure them ‘”It’s all over now and best forgotten.”‘ A dog starts barking outside, so Jerry opens the door, and Harrison’s dog barges in, continuing to bark at Brad and Agatha. Brad scolds the dog for “‘giving away our little secret like that”‘ [OMG they’re g-g-g-g-g-g-ghosts!]. Agatha puts on her apron, hungrily suggesting maybe it’s a good dog, and the episode ends with Brad hoping everyone’s hungry [So Brad and Agatha have been killing all the dogs? Have they been having dog for dinner each night?!?! Wow, this is dark!].
Final thoughts
This wasn’t terrible, but wasn’t terribly exciting either. I feel like not much really happened, but I liked the setting and the atmosphere was ooky spooky, which is what we want. The little twist at the end was a good touch too, but I’m still confused about why no-one seems to care that Harrison was trapped in the cave with the ghosts? Also, why couldn’t Sam and Louisa have just pushed the rocks down to seal Harrison in the cave themselves, before Jerry and Terri even arrived? Also, why were there so many dogs around to be eaten? Had Agatha and Brad really been feeding the kids dog the whole time? That’s probably the most horrifying thing out of any of the episodes so far.
78 random and very convenient lightning strikes that save the day out of 113!
