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"Mole People" is the 33rd episode of Extreme Ghostbusters, first aired November 27, 1997. A community living beneath New York City becomes the scapegoat for a string of power outages that are actually caused by a group of ancient energy demons. The episode was directed by Vic Dal Chele and written by Reed Moran, with animation by Koko Enterprise Company, Ltd. It is also the episode that gives Garrett Miller a love interest.
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Near the 135th Street subway station, four flying demons drain the power from a passing train and terrify the passengers. At the firehouse, Garrett, Eduardo, Roland, and Slimer are watching the final minute of a New York Knicks game while Kylie reads. A power outage cuts the broadcast right as the game ends. The team hears police sirens and sees officers running into the subway station across the street.
A man in a robe is arrested. A Tribune reporter named Fonseca is told the perpetrator and his friends live in the tunnels and shorted out the whole subway line. A bystander tells Eduardo and Garrett it was demons, not the so-called Mole People. The blackouts are being blamed on the underground community in the news, reported by Channel 8's Nancy Morrison. Egon hands the team modified hard hats he designed back in 1985 for the original team.
Investigating underground, the Ghostbusters find a young woman who asks them to turn off their lights. She explains her people prefer to be called Sub Dwellers and simply choose to live below the city. She introduces herself as "Persefineathious," called "Steffi" by her friends, and reveals the arrested man is her father. She insists her people are innocent and wants the team to help clear him.
Steffi leads them to the Sub Dweller city, where an elderly woman objects to "Sun Watchers" being brought down. Tracking a concentrated energy reading, the team finds the four demons feeding off power lines inside a transformer terminal and growing larger. The demons easily knock the Ghostbusters down until Kylie has everyone focus fire on a single demon at a time, driving them off.
Back at the firehouse, Egon consults the CD-ROM version of Spengler's Spirit Guide (the demon browser at version 2.1) and the team finds an entry on Power Demons. They are documented on Paleolithic cave paintings and said to bond with lightning to energize themselves and steal souls. Egon theorizes the demons went dormant underground when the Ice Age ended the lightning storms, and that they have recently awoken. He notes a lightning storm is due to hit the city in a few days.
Janine brings Steffi to the firehouse in "Sun Watcher" disguise so she can attend her father's bail hearing, and asks Garrett to take her, since she is blind in daylight. The two grow close on the way, stopping to admire a flower shop and sharing pizza from Rocky's. At the hearing the judge charges Steffi's father with reckless endangerment and destruction of public property, setting bail at $10,000. Outside, the team overhears that a warrant has been issued for the arrest of the Mole People.
Garrett rushes Steffi back underground ahead of the police, but the elder accuses her of leading the officers to them. The demons confront the fleeing Sub Dwellers and police, then surface in Times Square, attacking with electricity. The ESD residue from their attacks causes a big rig on the street to animate out of control. Ecto-1 arrives and the team realizes the demons are after a bigger source of power. With lightning clouds forming, Roland and Kylie deduce the demons are heading for the spire of the Empire State Building.
The Ghostbusters take the elevator up to the observation deck and open fire, but the demons are now too large. When lightning fully energizes them, Roland's plan is to shoot the lightning before it strikes. Kylie realizes this will infuse the demons with proton energy instead. They time the shot, the plan works, and Kylie traps the demons.
Later, in a subway tunnel, two officers return Steffi's father, who is ill. Garrett offers to let Steffi stay on the surface, but she declines so she can care for her father. She kisses him on the cheek and says goodbye. A glum Garrett initially turns down the others' offer of Rocky's pizza, then doubles back for a slice.
Regular voice cast: Tara Charendoff (later known professionally as Tara Strong), Maurice LaMarche, Jason Marsden, Pat Musick, Alfonso Ribeiro, Rino Romano, and Billy West. Guest voices: David Beron, Susan Blu, Jenna Leigh Green, and Michael Gough.
The episode features Egon Spengler, Garrett Miller, Eduardo Rivera, Roland Jackson, Kylie Griffin, Janine Melnitz, and Slimer, along with the Energy and Lightning Demons, Steffi (Persefineathious) and her father, and the Sub Dwellers. Several other entities appear only as files in Egon's demon browser, including the Level 4 Flyer, Oral Cyclops, Moon Floater, the Fear Itself ghost, and one of Cohila's Crawler bugs.
Energy and Lightning Demons (Power Demons). The episode's main antagonists are a quartet of manta-like, flying yellow entities that feed on electricity. They are categorized within the broad field of Energy Sucking Demons (ESDs) and are classified in Spengler's Spirit Guide as a Class 6 Floater. Their Spirit Guide entry reads: Level 6, Transparency 6.5, Wave Frequency 1851/.961, with the comment "This demon should be avoided at all costs. It is ancient and highly intelligent." Their first documented encounter with humanity is recorded on Paleolithic cave paintings, making them among the oldest known entities in the Guide. According to the entry, bonding with lightning allows them to steal human souls. The ESD residue they shed can cause nearby vehicles to animate. After the Ice Age stripped the lightning storms they needed, they went dormant underground for thousands of years before awakening in 1997.
Persefineathious (Steffi) and the Sub Dwellers. The Sub Dwellers are a human community that has lived under New York City for multiple generations. Extended life underground has given them a physiological adaptation: they are blind when exposed to direct sunlight, which is why Steffi requires disguise and a guide to attend her father's bail hearing on the surface. Their settlement includes limited amenities such as television, and they maintain cultural taboos against bringing surface-dwellers ("Sun Watchers") into their city. At least two other named Sub Dwellers, Arletta and Percy, are part of the community. The group has become an urban legend among New Yorkers under the name "Mole People," a label they actively reject.
The team uses the modified hard hats, the Proton Pack, particle thrower, proton canister, proton pistol, trap, P.K.E. Meter, the CD-ROM version of Spengler's Spirit Guide, and Ecto-1. Locations include the 135th Street subway, the firehouse, the Sub Dweller city, Times Square, and the Empire State Building.
Susan Blu, the series' dialogue director, appears again as a guest voice actor.
Egon presents helmets he designed for a Carlsbad Caverns bust that took place off screen in 1985, during the era of The Real Ghostbusters. The helmets resemble the ones used by Egon, Ray Stantz, and Winston Zeddemore in Ghostbusters II when they searched underground for the source of the mood slime, and in "The Magnificent Five."
As Persefineathious mentions, she is named after the Greek queen of the underworld, Persephone.1
When Egon and the team page through Spengler's Spirit Guide to identify the Energy Demons, they skim past files of entities from past and future episodes. Among the entries visible are the Level 4 Flyer, the Oral Cyclops, the Moon Floater, the Fear Itself ghost from "Fear Itself," and one of Cohila's Crawler bugs from "The Crawler."
Eduardo recites a version of the unofficial motto associated with the United States Postal Service. He also references King Kong at the sight of the demons climbing the Empire State Building.
Garrett buys Steffi pizza from Rocky's, possibly a reference to Rocky's Pizzeria on Second Avenue.
The episode aired between "Dog Days" and "A Temporary Insanity."
Persefineathious (1997). Extreme Ghostbusters - "Mole People" (1997). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Persefineathious says: "I was named after the queen of the underworld in Greek mythology." ↩