Plot
At the bottom of the East River a giant entity awakens and ejects several smaller creatures from its blowhole. In New York City, day 12 of a brutal heat wave has pushed the temperature to 101 degrees, and the radio reports a water shortage on top of it. A man relaxing in his bathtub is startled when a creature rises up out of the water across from him.
At the Firehouse, Peter is in the middle of an interview with Alice Johnson, a journalist sent by Celebrity Magazine to talk to all four Ghostbusters. Two hours and change in, Peter has done all the talking while Ray, Egon, and Winston stand by in silence. The phone rings: the Mayor wants Egon. The city's water supply appears to be haunted, with reports flooding in from all five boroughs, and Egon signals Janine to sound the alarm.
Ecto-1 heads out with Alice in tow. The team pulls up to a hydrant gushing dozens of entities while bystanders scatter. Ray identifies them as Undines, or water elementals, though Egon is skeptical since Undines are traditionally benevolent. Peter saves Alice's life and finally wins her over, only to bend down for a stray quarter and let her get knocked aside by an Undine. The team opens fire and confines the creatures, but nobody brought a trap. A sudden force pushes back against their streams, the Undines chant "Necksa," and they retreat.
Egon looks up the name in Tobin's Spirit Guide and finds Necksa is a powerful primal god and lord of the Undines. Winston reasons that if the water supply is haunted, Necksa must be in the East River, the source of that supply. The Ghostbusters take a speedboat out onto the river while Alice waits at the dock. Egon's P.K.E. Meter shorts out and Necksa surfaces directly beneath them, knocking the men overboard. Necksa recognizes them as the ones who attacked his children.
Necksa explains that he slumbered for thousands of years until city crews laying pipe disturbed him, and that he awoke to find himself in a polluted river. In his rage he sent the Undines to torment New Yorkers, sink the city, and claim it for himself. Ray fires anyway, despite Egon's doubt that the streams will work, and Necksa is unharmed. The god swallows Ray, Egon, and Winston whole but blows Peter back to the docks, where Alice mocks him again. The snub gives Peter an idea.
Back at the Firehouse, Peter loads a generator into Ecto-1 and rigs Janine's heat lamp to his thrower. He tells the furious Janine to pass a message to Alice: meet him at the docks around ten. Peter takes the boat out alone, calls out Necksa, and insults the god until it gives chase, then lures it into a tangle of fishing nets. As Necksa struggles, Peter blasts him with the modified thrower, which emits microwave particles and causes the god real pain. Peter forces Necksa to free the other Ghostbusters and leave New York for good, reportedly suggesting Antarctica as a new home. From the docks the team watches Necksa swim out into open water. When Egon asks how Peter built such a sophisticated device, Peter demonstrates it and the contraption promptly explodes. Alice apologizes and asks for a photograph; the shot lands on the cover of the next Celebrity Magazine, under the headline "Ghost Bust'n."
Ghosts and entities
Necksa
Necksa (also spelled Nexa) is the episode's main antagonist, voiced by Frank Welker. According to Tobin's Spirit Guide, Necksa is "the lord of the Undines, master of all water elementals, and one of the most powerful of the primal gods." The term "primal god" is used elsewhere in The Real Ghostbusters for entities such as Gozer and Proteus. Necksa claims to have existed since before humankind, with the ocean currents carrying him where they would.
J.M. DeMatteis confirmed on his Creation Point blog that Necksa is canonically male, resolving an ambiguity in the episode itself where Egon uses "he" but the gender was sometimes questioned. The name Necksa connects to the proto-Indo-European root "neig" (meaning "to wash") and related Germanic words Nix, Nixi, and Nyx, all referring to water spirits.
Necksa earned a small legacy in IDW Comics: a quote from his dialogue appears on Egon's clipboard on page four of Ghostbusters Issue #2, and he appears as a non-canon cameo in Ghostbusters Volume 2 Issue #19 as one of the forms taken by Tiamat.
Undines
The Undines (also known as Ondine) are Necksa's "children" and the episode's secondary supernatural threat. Each Undine has a unique appearance modeled on a different aquatic animal, including frogs, octopi, fish, crabs, and shrimp. They travel through water sources, can fly, and drench targets rather than slime them. Necksa recalls them effortlessly even when the Ghostbusters have them pinned in proton streams, which demonstrates his power over them.
The episode draws on their mythological background: Undines are traditionally benevolent water spirits, a fact Egon notes. Renaissance scholar Paracelsus described them as female spirits inhabiting forest pools and waterfalls, whose voices can sometimes be heard, and who must marry a man and bear a child to earn a soul.
Production
Marsha Goodman's call sheet and SAG report list the production number as 76046 and the recording date as September 12, 1986.2 According to the same report, Maurice LaMarche also performed Winston's voice for this episode; a few episodes had voice actors cover other actors' parts when the original performer was absent.
Trivia
Janine spends the entire episode in a leopard-spotted bikini, with no explanation given in the episode.1
During the interview, Peter mentions Gozer to Alice. Later, the quarter Peter stoops to pick up is dated 1961. When the Undines stream back into the fire hydrant, the team briefly imitates the Three Stooges. Peter references Pinocchio, Geppetto, and Monstro after the others are swallowed, and at one point calls Necksa "Moby Dick."
In a subtle meta-joke, Ray comments on being "saved by the bell" a beat before the phone actually starts ringing.
Peter tells Alice he is embarrassed at the thought of his mother reading the story in Celebrity Magazine. In other episodes, however, it is established that Peter's mother died when he was young, making this a continuity inconsistency.3
Slimer does not appear in this episode.
Episode order
In broadcast order, the episode followed "Don't Forget the Motor City" and preceded "Lights! Camera! Haunting!." In the DVD ordering used for the box set, it sits between "The Ghostbusters in Paris" and "Ghost Fight at the O.K. Corral."
References
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
-
Eatock, James & Mangels, Andy (2008). The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection booklet, p. 19. CPT Holdings, Inc.
-
Marsha Goodman (1986). Episode Call Sheet and SAG Report, "The Devil in the Deep" (1986).
-
Per the Episode Call Sheet and SAG Report for "The Devil in the Deep," Maurice LaMarche also performed the voice for Winston in the episode. According to some voice actors, a few episodes had performers cover other actors' parts when the original actor was absent.
