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Sonic Youth is the seventeenth episode of Extreme Ghostbusters, first aired on September 30, 1997. The team battles a Banshee they fail to trap on the first try, and the situation worsens when her sister Syren begins draining the youth of her concertgoing fans and ensnares Roland Jackson with her music.
It was directed by Bob Fuentes III and written by Greg Pincus, and produced for the show's only season. Animation was handled by Koko Enterprise Company, Ltd.
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Late one night, the Ghostbusters were pulled from bed to investigate a call from a security guard at the Metropolitan Opera House, who claimed to have heard a ghostly wail. Eduardo Rivera was cranky and figured it was just an alley cat, and Garrett Miller thought it was a waste of time. Roland was the only one excited, eager for a backstage tour and admitting he liked opera. As Roland and Eduardo conferred, Kylie Griffin got a hit on the PKE Meter. A Banshee appeared and attacked, letting out a wail that shattered glass and scattered the team. When Kylie confined her, the Banshee reverted from a young human form to a much older one. The others opened fire, but falling debris from the building forced them to take cover and the Banshee escaped.
The Banshee landed at a pond in Central Park, where Syren warned her she was drawing too much attention after they had eluded detection for years. The Banshee demanded sustenance, and Syren sang, transferring life force that left the Banshee looking middle-aged. Still unsatisfied, the Banshee shattered a nearby boulder in anger before calming down to comfort a sobbing Syren.
At the Firehouse, Egon Spengler classified the entity as an Audio Sonic Non Vaporous Free Floating Apparition. Roland revealed a Subharmonic Acoustic Scanner he had built to track the Banshee's vocal frequency. In transit, the team picked up the Banshee's signal near a crowd lining up for a Syren concert. The show was sold out, so Garrett handed his entire $62.27 in petty cash to a scalper for a single ticket. Roland was sent in, since only he knew how to operate the scanner. The Banshee spotted him and fled out the back, but as Syren sang, Roland became enthralled along with the rest of the crowd. While Garrett chased the Banshee across the rooftops, Syren drained the audience's life force and aged them rapidly.
Roland's growing obsession with Syren disrupted the next confrontation: he switched off his thrower mid-fight after hearing her voice again. The team still managed to confine the Banshee and trap her. Back at the Firehouse, Roland barricaded himself in the workshop, which the others found lined with Syren posters. He smashed a Walkman playing her music and stormed off, leaving the team worried.
Janine Melnitz relayed Egon's findings over the radio. Drawing from his Spirit Guide, Egon identified the pair as the Glostic Sisters of Irish folklore, a pair of wandering spirits. Syren's vocal frequency directly affected the brain's pleasure centers, enthralling listeners, while the Banshee depended on the youth of mortals that only Syren could provide. The team realized the singer Syren was the Siren of legend.
Roland freed the weakened Banshee from the Containment Unit, convinced the sisters needed to be together, triggering a breach that released a Donkey ghost and a Gas ghost that could cause a deadly explosion if combined. Syren arrived to feed the Banshee again before the two fled. Egon trapped the Gas ghost and Eduardo bagged the Donkey ghost. Egon then built modified headsets designed to inversely emulate Syren's vocal patterns and shield the team.
Roland led the sisters to Harvey Finkel High School during a basketball game. The Banshee shattered the gym's windows and demanded more life force than Syren could give, pointing out that the drained victims were still alive. With the headsets knocked loose, Kylie reached Syren over a microphone, telling her she was not evil like her sister, only used. Syren paused, took the life force back from the Banshee (reducing her to a feeble old woman), and asked Roland to finish it. Roland trapped Syren, and the life force returned to all the victims. The Banshee lunged at Roland but the others blasted her into a trap. On the ride home, Roland was still feeling sorry for Syren, and to the others' horror, switched on some opera.
Regular voices were provided by Tara Charendoff (later credited as Tara Strong), Maurice LaMarche, Jason Marsden, Pat Musick, Alfonso Ribeiro, Rino Romano, and Billy West. Guest voices were Mary Kay Bergman and Melissa Disney.
The original Real Ghostbusters team had encountered a Banshee once before, in the episode Banshee Bake a Cherry Pie?.
Roland likes opera, a recurring character note in the series.
The episode is built on classical-music gags. When the Ghostbusters arrive at the first Syren concert, Eduardo quips that it "ain't the Three Tenors," and later compares the increasingly erratic Roland to Michael Jackson. Kylie cites the Argonauts' encounter with Sirens in Greek mythology, which Eduardo mishears as the Astronauts, name-checking Neil Armstrong. After re-trapping the Banshee, Garrett announces, "Ladies and gentlemen, Elvira has left the building," a play on the "Elvis has left the building" line, referencing the horror hostess Elvira played by Cassandra Peterson.
When Egon asks Janine why she didn't take the elevator, she says she is using the stairs for exercise; in the series only Garrett was ever shown riding the elevator.
In Marvel Comics' X-Force, one team member is also named Siryn, an Irish character with a powerful scream whose father, Banshee, shares the ability.
The episode was the seventeenth of the single-season series, slotted between Dry Spell and Ghost Apocalyptic Future.
