Plot
In 1887, Simon Quegg stormed out of an inn in a rage, shoving another man aside to reach his horse and buggy. The proprietor followed and asked what had offended him. Quegg replied that the man himself was the offense and that, once he returned home to Providence, he would have the establishment shut down. The proprietor offered him free lodging for the night, but Quegg vowed the Devil himself could not stop him from getting home, swearing, "I'll see home before the night is out, or by all that is unholy, may I never see home again." His horse's eyes glowed red and the buggy took off. Lightning struck, an entity manifested, and it chased after Quegg as the proprietor and patron fled back inside.
A hundred years later, in 1987, Ecto-1 was on the road somewhere in New England with the Ghostbusters and Slimer aboard. They stopped at El's Diner to eat, and Ray ordered two dozen hamburgers for Slimer. While feeding him outside, Ray was flagged down by Quegg, who asked how far it was to Providence. Ray told him it was 80 miles to Providence, Rhode Island. Quegg was aghast, insisting it had been only 20 miles when he set out, and said he could not stay because something was constantly gaining on him. The Dark Rider then galloped past. Ray and Slimer ran into the diner, and Egon Spengler confirmed a sizable spectral disturbance on the PKE Meter after Ray reported two solid full-torso manifestations.
The diner owner explained the local legend. Quegg had been a rich man who vanished during a terrible storm a century earlier; harmless, he had appeared on the road during storms ever since, always asking the way home but never believing the answer. When Ray asked about the Dark Rider, the owner became alarmed, saying only a handful of people had ever seen it and that disaster always followed, then shooed the team out and closed up. Ray, having seen genuine terror in Quegg's eyes, wanted to help, and Egon agreed to investigate. The search ran most of the night until Winston Zeddemore suggested giving up near dawn.
The PKE Meter finally registered something near a bridge. Stopping Quegg again, Egon determined that he could not step down from the buggy because he was not strong enough: Quegg read as a Class 6 entity while the horse and buggy were powerful Class 9 spectres. Ray seized on the different readings and proposed trapping only the horse and buggy. He fired before the others were ready and abruptly switched places with Quegg, riding off as the Dark Rider followed.
With Quegg now stuck, Peter Venkman tried to enlist his help but Quegg refused. Egon asked whether he even knew where home was, and Quegg had no answer; Egon offered to get him home if he cooperated. Back at the firehouse, Peter and Slimer questioned Quegg while Winston pulled the weather report and Egon built an improvised device. With no storm available, the plan was to make their own and use Quegg as bait, since the horse and buggy would be drawn to him.
Returning to the bridge, Egon took off in Ecto-2 with Slimer aboard to seed certain clouds with a silver iodide device. The device proved too powerful, Slimer lost control, and Egon lost control of Ecto-2, crashing into the river below. Peter ditched into the water to avoid being hit, and Slimer landed on his head. A rainstorm began and Ray reappeared on the buggy. Egon told the others they could free Ray by blasting the horse and buggy at the same time, but a lightning strike overloaded the Proton Packs. As time ran out, Winston pressed Quegg about the Dark Rider; Quegg knew only that it was something terrible. Ray urged him to break the cycle and face the Rider together, and Quegg agreed, boarding the buggy.
Quegg and Ray confronted the Rider and discovered it was Quegg's own dark reflection. Realizing he had to break the curse alone, Quegg shoved Ray off the buggy and rammed the Rider head-on. A burst of energy scattered into the sky, the weather returned to normal, and Slimer roused everyone from unconsciousness. Quegg appeared and thanked Ray for helping him see that he had been a cruel and selfish man, declaring himself forever indebted to the Ghostbusters. Asked what he would do now, he answered, "Now? I go now, Mr. Stantz. I can finally go home!"
Characters and Entities
Simon Quegg (voiced by Derek McGrath) is the episode's central figure, a wealthy New England man whose rash oath in 1887 bound him to an endless road. Egon classifies him as a Class 6 entity, weaker than his own horse and buggy, which register as Class 9 spectres and physically trap him on the vehicle. Quegg is vain and contemptuous at first but ultimately accepts responsibility for his own curse. His character is based on the real New England legend of Peter Rugg (see Background below).
The Dark Rider is the episode's antagonist, a spectral horseman who first appeared in 1887 immediately after Quegg's oath and has pursued him ever since. The PKE Meter registers a sizable disturbance but the Rider's own spectral class is never stated. Only a handful of people in a century had ever seen it, and disaster followed all of them, which is why El refuses to discuss it openly. The Rider is ultimately revealed to be a manifestation of Quegg's own cruel and selfish nature: it disappears the moment Quegg accepts it and stops fleeing.
El (voiced by Maurice LaMarche) is the owner and operator of El's Diner somewhere in New England. He knows the local Quegg legend well, but panics when Ray mentions the Dark Rider and immediately closes his diner and throws the Ghostbusters out. His fear is rooted in the superstition that those who see the Rider come to ruin. El later makes a non-canonical cameo appearance in IDW's Ghostbusters Issue #6.
Background
Drennan, in the episode introduction included with The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection, said the story was inspired by the New England legend "Peter Rugg: The Missing Man," written in 1824, with the Flying Dutchman legend as a further influence. In the original Peter Rugg tale, Rugg is a stubborn man who rides out into a thunderstorm and is cursed to drive his carriage until the end of time, forever declaring he will reach his home in Boston by nightfall. The episode relocates Quegg's destination to Providence, Rhode Island. The episode was recorded on December 19, 1986.2
Quegg's oath swearing by the Devil is one of only a handful of direct devil references across the entire Real Ghostbusters series.
The episode aired between "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Ghost?" and Doctor, Doctor, and on the home-video DVD ordering it falls between "Drool, the Dog Faced Goblin" and The Collect Call of Cathulhu. Janine Melnitz does not appear.
