The return of The Ghost and Molly McGee sees Molly use different methods to work on her endless quest to “enhappify” her forever hometown, Brighton.
Citizen McGee
As part of Molly’s never-ending quest to “enhappify” Brighton, she is running for the town’s Mayor For A Day campaign (as well as a campaign to get the word “enhappify” into the dictionary. According to the Mayor, there were a lot of submissions for the job, but only Molly had the passion that was required to take on the responsibilities of Mayor for the day.
Together, the pair stood at the foot of City Hall where the Mayor entrusted Molly with the oath and the sacred turnip where she took the job for the day. They go into the mayor’s office, joined by Scratch and Daryl, and we learn a bit of backstory about the mayor. He is usually watched over by the four portraits of the mayors before him: his mom followed by her dad and then his mom followed by her dad. Five generations of mayor-hood in the same family. He explains how he feels he is disappointing them and that the eyes of the portraits follow him.
Of course, we know that ghosts exist and sure enough, we see their four ghosts above the portraits looming, watching the mayor’s every move. Meanwhile, Daryl is just ransacking all of the office supplies.
Molly explains that she can feel the crushing weight of responsibility herself and the Mayor gleefully agrees saying that it’s her problem now, and he packs up a suitcase ready to flee the scene.
While Molly is panicking, Daryl sees the opportunity to be that close to power and encourages her to take advantage of the situation and says that only she can “enhappify” Brighton now. Molly doesn’t understand how she can do it on her own until she sports….THE BLAZER. A jacket that she apparently keeps near her but doesn’t wear until the situation calls for it.
The Blazer is “the ultimate symbol for knowing important grown up stuff” like accounting and synergy. Once she puts it on, she accepts the responsibility of overseeing the town, and comes up with an Enhappification Day campaign, which may or may not also include an Enhappify Slide covered in maple syrup. After the installation of her enhappification elements, she can hear people cheering in the distance. Oh wait, that’s the sound of screaming. The maple syrup has attracted a swarm of angry horse flies that are terrorizing the town.
Molly reverts inside her blazer where the fashionable clothing item begins to give her advice. As she comes out she realizes that the Blazer actually has no magical powers and catches the glare of the four ghostly portraits above her. Daryl and Scratch are proving to be the worst advisors as well, and she seeks out the mayor instead. Fortunately, they stop for a snack and sugar break at a nearby cotton candy cart where the Mayor has taken a new job as the town’s cotton candy maker, even though he has no experience doing so. Molly pleads with him to come back and he says there’s nobody in “this world” that can convince him to come back.
Thanks to Scratch’s ghostly powers, Molly can summon the four previous mayors (including the mayor’s mother) and show him his passion for leading the town once again.
Oh yeah, there haven’t been any new episodes of The Ghost and Molly McGee since the return and the series conclusion of Amphibia and the season finale of The Owl House that I forgot each episode has a musical number, and the convincing of the mayor to return is this episode’s big song.
The mayor comes to, and thinks he's been dreaming so intensely because of all the sugar intake, and Molly convinces him he didn’t see any ghosts. The mayor takes this all as a sign and that his dream was right, he needs to be the mayor once again.
Molly and the Mayor are back in the office and the Mayor suggests that with time and experience she can actually be a great mayor, and hey, she already has the wardrobe for it.
The Internship
It’s internship week at Molly’s school, and Molly’s never-ending quest to enhappify Brighton can continue with a little bit of unpaid work experience. On brand, the idea of getting someone else to do the work of others for free gives Scratch an idea, and he returns to the ghost world to find an intern of his own.
The random selection of available internships begins, but all the good ones seem to be going to everyone else, and Molly finds herself with an internship at Weird Larry’s Pawn Shop. Is that the smell of disappointment? No it’s Larry’s fine collection of live skunks. Scratch reappears and introduces his new intern, Reggie. Surrounded by the stink cloud from the skunks, Scratch tells Reggie to clean up the smells, while Molly suggests that Scratch be nicer to Reggie, after all, he could be his boss someday.
Molly finds herself behind the counter, accepting the worthless junk of the town’s residents. She tries explaining to Larry that none of these things have value, but Larry tells Molly she’s wrong. There's treasure everywhere if she knows where to look. Conveniently, she finds a toy robot friend that awakens and starts talking to her when Larry’s eyes light up and he crushes the toy and removes the voice box, saying that he needed it for his top secret project. While Molly starts to go through the new acquisitions, Scratch and Reggie reappear and take a small bed from the shop, and Reggie makes it for his new boss. Molly returns to school, as does the smell of skunks, and she asks to be taken out of Larry’s shop. Molly’s teacher knows her affinity for finding silver lining everywhere, and makes her stay at Larry’s store. Molly comes to the conclusion that before she can “enhappify” Brighton and the world, she needs to “enhappify” Larry’s pawn shop – “where joy goes to die.” Cue a musical number!
Throughout, we also see Reggie feeding Scratch numerous goodies and waiting on his every need. Larry comes out and sees a completely different cleaned and organized shop – to which he begins panicking and tells Molly to change it back, it was fine the way it was and he was happy with it that way. Reggie asks Scratch if he’s ready to learn how to scare yet, but Scratch goes on a tirade because his sandwich didn’t have the right olives. Just then, a portal opens summoning Reggie back to the ghost realm for his ghost council internship review. Molly finally breaks and tells Larry that she can’t be his intern anymore either because his store is full of sad memories. Larry uses the opportunity to showcase his latest top secret project and says this isn’t where sad memories die, but is rather where they are reborn to provide joy.
Over at the ghost council, Reggie explains to them that Mr. Scratch has taught him everything, including patience and perseverance and his constant yelling taught him how to be scary. Including the release of skunk smells! The council is so pleased, they promote Reggie to the Manager of Scares, Midwest Division. Which means that Reggie is now Scratch’s boss.
What has Molly learned from her internship? Anyone and anything has the potential to “enhappify.” Too bad her longer answer earned her a C-.
This episode of The Ghost and Molly McGee is now available on Disney Channel and the DisneyNOW app. You can catch up with earlier episodes on Disney+.