Voice Cast
Plot
Years after the original Ghostbusters voluntarily disbanded, supernatural activity in New York has gone quiet. Egon Spengler now teaches Paranormal Phenomena 101 at New York City College and lives with Slimer at the old Firehouse on North Moore Street.
The episode begins in 1997 when a crew excavating the new Crosstown Subway tunnel breaks through an ancient sealed chamber. A vapor escapes and a multi-armed ghost materializes, freeing itself from its thousand-year imprisonment.
At the college, Egon's 10 am class introduces the four core students: Garrett Miller, an athlete who uses a wheelchair; Kylie Griffin, an occult expert who has already read Spengler's Spirit Guide six times; Eduardo Rivera, a self-described skeptic looking for an easy A; and Roland Jackson, a machinery enthusiast who once saw Ecto-1 at an auto show. A fifth student arrives: Janine Melnitz, recently downsized and pursuing continued education. She and Egon share an awkward reunion.
Slimer, still at the Firehouse, notices the P.K.E. Meters spiking. He locates Egon's class schedule, travels to the college, and interrupts the lecture. Roland volunteers his Mustang to get everyone back to the Firehouse, where the students see the original Ghostbusters' equipment for the first time.
Meanwhile, the escaped entity, Achira, seeks a willing host to infect. She targets a man in a park but releases him when his terror makes him unwilling. The Ghostbusters learn from a news report that the tunnel breach has created an ecto-triangulation breach. Egon heads to the site alone to take readings, but the Mayor dismisses him publicly and refuses to seal the tunnel.
Kylie, curious about a Ghost Beacon she spotted at the Firehouse, takes it home to try to contact her deceased Great Grandma Rose. Achira detects the beacon's ultra-parasonic frequency and poses as Grandma Rose to find a willing host. Her cat Pagan senses the deception, but before Kylie can react, Achira possesses her.
Egon, realizing the threat, suits up and heads out in Ecto-1 alone. He picks up a Class 6 entity reading, encounters one of Achira's Appendage Minions, and chases it into an alley. He acknowledges he is breaking the first rule of ghostbusting before the appendages overpower and electrocute him. Achira, inhabiting Kylie, infects Egon and moves on.
The next morning, the rest of the class finds Egon at the Firehouse covered in ghost zits, technically a cross-dimensional dermal-transmogrification. Too weak to act himself, Egon explains Achira is a disease-spreading entity and that the missing Ghost Beacon was likely taken by Kylie. Roland and Garrett volunteer to handle the situation; Eduardo joins when Garrett calls his courage into question. Slimer hangs an "Open for Business" sign on the Firehouse door. The episode ends on the city streets, where Achira-as-Kylie smiles devilishly.
Achira
Achira is the episode's central antagonist and the first new ghost faced by the Extreme Ghostbusters team. She is a Class 6 Symbio-Apparitional Entity, meaning she requires a willing host to operate at full power. Her name derives from the Mesopotamian phrase "Achira-Teema," roughly translated as "Destroyer of Civilizations," and she is described in records as the bringer of the Great Plague. Achira was imprisoned approximately a thousand years ago using incantations and talismanic objects. Her method of destruction is possession followed by infection: victims develop boil-like growths on their faces that are in fact her offspring.
Achira is voiced by guest actress Susan Tyrrell. Her design was a collaboration between designer Fil Barlow and executive producer Richard Raynis, who together sketched her multi-armed form. Raynis sketched Achira's face and Barlow designed the snake arms, hair, and body, then continued to design her later stages.
Achira also appears in "Darkness at Noon, Part 2," and is referenced in the Insight Editions Tobin's Spirit Guide (Section IV, page 75), where she is classified as a Class 7 noncorporeal possessor and credited as the source of the Black Death and numerous historical plagues.
Quotes
Egon Spengler: "I'm breaking the first rule of Ghostbusting, never go solo."
Achira / Kylie: "Feel my disease."
Gallery
References
- Fandom Ghostbusters Wiki, "Darkness at Noon, Part 1"
- Fandom Ghostbusters Wiki, "Achira"
