Posted by Ron Martin on 06.04.2011
In a week where summer welcomes us and remember those who have fallen while protecting our country, TAPS is back with a special Memorial Day themed investigation of Pearl Harbor. We know it's a special because they even have Josh Gates tagging along. Is Pearl Harbor haunted? There's only one way to find out.
What? What? Just like you weren't expecting a Ghost Hunters episode to just pop up a month after the finished their season, you weren't expecting me being to be here to cover it. Admit it! That's alright, I forgive you. It's not like I've been exactly reliable this past season. However, I am down to one job now as the bank business is always treacherous. Yes, a big old nasty bank bought the bank I had been working for the last five years and out I go. They did give me lots of extra pay on the way and ironically, I got to pick out a prize off a website on my last day as they gave me a five years of service appreciation award. Ah, my life. You don't want it.
I know you have two questions. How have I been spending my free time and why the f@ck wasn't this recap up earlier if you don't have a day job you no-talent sack monkey?!! I appreciate the first question, but I understand you are just asking it to be polite so you can bombard me with the second question. Answer to question #1 is that I have been sleeping a lot, spending a lot more time on the house that I own (which was something that was sorely needed), cleaning my fish tanks and getting drunk…a lot. In fact, I'm drunk now. Well, not really – but soon, my friends, soon. The answer to the second question is that I do still work at the bar, though due to it being slower in the summer, I'm only working Tuesdays and Wednesdays. My one man crusade to get Syfy to move Ghost Hunters to a day more convenient for me has somehow fallen on deaf ears. I know, right?
There you have it. Unfortunately, in my lazy, unemployed summer days, I haven't been keeping up with all things ghost hunting. I need to get back into proper ghost hunting recapping shape. Though, I would like to tell this story. Late last night, around 3 AM, I slipped on my Ghost Hunters International shirt to go to the gas station for a snack. Some kid (when I say kid, I mean this guys was probably old enough to be a high school graduate but not yet old enough to drink. Legally.) was pumping gas. As I walked by he got wide-eyed and we had a mini-conversation:
PUMPING GAS GUY: Are you a ghost hunter?
ME: I have ghost hunted before, so yes, I am a ghost hunter.
PUMPING GAS GUY: Wow, that's amazing. Crazy, man.
ME: Yeah, I know.
I don't know why wearing a GHI shirt is the most amazing thing this kid's ever seen. Maybe he thought I was on TV. Then again, this is a pretty small town I live in.
And I am awesome.
On to more important things. I don't know if this was a one of special celebrating Memorial Day for Ghost Hunters or if Jason and Grant have decided to take back the summer months that are usually reserved for GHI. I guess we'll find out on this very special episode of…The Ghost Hunters.
On This Episode of Ghost Hunters
This episode was preceded by an all day Ghost Hunters marathon because why not? What else are they going to show in the afternoon on a Wednesday? TAPS is investigating Pearl Harbor. Josh Gates is here just so you know it's an extra special episode. And because I would guess Steve didn't make the trip because an airplane would have to be involved. This just reminds me that I need a better nickname for Adam. But, Rookie Scum is good for now – until he earns his wings.
Case #1: Pacific Aviation Museum, Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, Hawaii
THE INVESTIGATION
Anne, the director of marketing is our tour guide. Both hangars that they'll be investigating were standing during the attack. It should be noted Anne is white -- of course, they're trying to keep the Hawaiian people down! Without Steve, Tango gets to go on the tour. Tango is not nearly as good at looking like he is writing stuff down as Steve. Damnit, Tango! This is why you don't get to go on the tour more often. Josh also gets to go on the tour because he is a special guest. They get to meet a mannequin named Kramer who is sometimes moved around at night. This guy looks nothing like Michael Richards, so I just don't get it. At least give the guy a military uniform with a KRAMER name tag. Josh is the first to ask a question. Alpha Team doesn't like that so they ask a question to. Way to take back the night, guys! Anne shares her ghost experience in front of a plane flown by Bush Sr. Ghosts sometimes watch movies in the theater. I wonder if they'll get a private screening of Hangover 2. Let's take some time to look at the sky. Okay, now back to ghost hunting. There are bullet holes in the window from the Pearl Harbor attack. That is actually really cool. The bullet holes, not the attack, that is. This is the longest tour in history. The guys will have about 5 minutes to investigate when it is over. We get a "spooky" shot of books on a shelf that actually made me laugh out loud. And I am by myself, right now. Tour's over? Okay, so the tour ended with a witness account. No good byes or good lucks or anything of that nature. I think she took a swing at Jason on account that she figured out he's evil because of his goatee. That's got to be it. Or Josh Gates was asking too many questions, so Jason put the kibosh on that!
Ghost hunters getting ready montage. Oooh --- we almost saw Britt! Grant says he was taken aback by the amount of respect for the dead in this area. Tango acts all reluctant to take over the Tech Manager role while namedropping Steve a couple dozen times. Josh thinks it's really incredible to be able to investigate the hangers as they were on the day of the attack.
Scene that shall not be mentioned. Britt is there but he is not allowed to talk.
Alpha Team Truth is in Hangar 79. Josh talks about how dark it is. On his show, they don't turn out the lights for TV purposes. Most of the places he goes to don't have electricity. They immediately hear an animal and make the observation that animals could get in pretty easily because most of the windows are shot out. With no luck on the ground floor in one minute, they decide to move to the second floor. They find a secret military robot which causes bad Lost in Space jokes. Careful, Grant, you're aging yourself. They hear…wait for it…wait for it…footsteps. Jason asks the footsteps if they remember December 7th. The K-II starts going crazy as the trio's eyes play tricks on them. Jason says it looks like things on the ground floor are moving so he goes don't while leaving the other two upstairs. Don't be a hero, Jason! You're the guy who gets killed in every slasher film I've ever seen. And Jason hears…footsteps. A window pane blacks out for a second, which is good enough to way overdue...
COMMERCIALS.
We're back! They surprisingly don't get too long with the "before the commercial" replay. One of the window panes blacked out like someone walked by one of them outside. Jason walks back and forth in front of the window panes, but it doesn't re-enact what Josh saw, which was just one window pane black out for a brief second. Sounds like eye tricks to me.
Tango and Britt are in the artifacts trailer, which if it was on the tour, I totally missed it. Britt gets to talk! As long as you're on your best behavior, Britt, we'll let you play! Tango and Britt immediately try to debunk the reports of metallic clangs by insinuating the stairs are very shaky outside which in turn, could be the wind causing them to rattle. Time for EVP work. Britt takes control during the EVP session because his tattoos go further down his arm than Tango's. They try to get the ghosts to turn off the equipment. The ghosts aren't having it. Then Britt TURNS ON THE LIGHTS?!!!! WTF!!!! YOU WILL BE EXPOSED!!!!! NOOOO!!!!! This is not a good way to get back into Pilgrim Films good graces, Mr. Britt. I went to bat for you, man. I believed in you, man! This is how your repay me?! He actually turned the lights on to see if the fluorescents had anything to do with the high EMF reading. The ‘speriment actually sort of proves that fluorescents in the room did cause the high EMF readings which could be messing with the people working in there. Okay, Britt, you win this time but you mind your Ps and Qs, mister!
Amy and Rookie Scum are in Hanger 79. Amy explains to us things they're looking for just in case we forgot since the tour. She also assures us that they bought equipment. Phew! Am I relieved to hear that. They hear footsteps in the catwalk area, so they fall in a back-to-back stance as if fighting off a team of evil ninjas. That's the think about evil ninjas. You never know when they'll attack. They start some EVP work, but Rookie Scum interrupts with all these sounds he's hearing. This leads them to a light on the second floor that lit up the area for a second. Amy has an idea! Bing. She gets on the horn with Britt and Tango and has them shine a flashlight from the trailer towards the hangar. Of course, they're in a trailer, so that would be virtually impossible. This causes Rookie Scum to go into convulsions scream whispering "WHAT?!! WHAT?!!!" That's a candidate for quote of the night. This freaks both Amy and Scum out. Perhaps we should ask the same questions of one of the many crew that are on premises, presumably some that have light? Instead…
COMMERCIALS.
The replay of before commercial time is a bit longer this time, but not so much as to be annoying. Britt lets Amy and Scum know that Tango is going to go outside and shine his little flashlight around. His words, not mine. That's not very professional, Tango. Rookie Scum recaps the events of the last twenty seconds. The lights are shined in the windows of the building, but Amy and Scum can see nothing. They will spend the rest of the program saying "WHAT?!!" and "I don't know what we saw." They have help groups for this sort of thing. Britt is so impressed with their story that he grabs a FULL SPECTRUM camera and places it in the area they saw the light. Uh-oh. I hope you're paying some royalties to Barry or there is going to be Mortal Kombat.
Alpha Team ditched Gates and decides to go it alone in Hangar 79. They have the thermal camera. Some sort of sound is coming from behind them. The sounds get louder and more intense the closer they get to it. It sounds like someone running on a catwalk. This is happening in the same area of the mysterious, dumbfounding light. Alpha Team thinks about it, but decides they ain't afraid of no ghosts and goes up to the second floor to investigate. They are looking for animals with the thermal. As always, the sounds stop once they get there.
Josh Gates is with Team California, thus filling out the team since he is based out of Los Angeles. They are in Hangar 37, which is also the museum. Josh gives a little history lesson, complete with photos. It's creepy to think that there are still 1100 bodies sealed up in the Arizona. Team California decides the vaunted flashlight experiment is in order. It takes all of half a second for one of the flashlights to come on. Which leads us to…
COMMERCIALS. GHI is back on July 13. I guess this Ghost Hunters is just a one off special. Will I have a job before GHI comes back? The race is on. Looks like the same cast, which would be a small miracle for Ghost Hunters International.
Back to Hangar 37 and a bunch of flashlights. Replay the light coming on. Even Amy remarks it was really fast. The camera almost gets a close up of the flashlight, but we quickly change shots. Frustrating. The flashlight technique freaks Josh out, but give him a chance to namedrop his show. It's funny how at home Amy is with Britt and a flashlight that goes on and off by itself, but how she is freaked out by a flash of light when investigating with Rookie Scum. Amy starts talking to the ghosts, but one of the flashlights decides to roll across the bench into another of the flashlights. Britt moves the flashlight back. The ghosts rolls it right back into the second flashlight. Josh is tired of the flashlight tricks and wants the ghost to move Kramer. This causes Josh to start talking to the mannequin. I fear Josh will never be the same.
Josh goes back to Alpha Team in Hangar 37 and the safer, less thrilling K-II Meter. Grant immediately notes the glass wall that could reflect people in the gift shop. Jason hears people walking which causes Grant to start yelling Japanese. Josh is attracted back to Kramer. He is obsessed with this mannequin. They inspect the mannequin and give any number of explanations as to why it may be moved.
Grant: "They should just get a security camera, have him in it and they'll get the answer to their questions."
So….why don't you guys have a camera on it? Just asking.
Maybe Grant realized this because he immediately draws their attention to sounds in another part of the hangar. Grant wants a ghost to tell him the story of what happened. Grant – Josh can tell you. He knows a lot! Grant sees something just in time for…
COMMERCIALS. I need to see Haunted Collector.
It's a low shadow in front of one of the exhibits. Grant says there's no way it could be light play. He also declares it's not an animal. Just because.
Tango and Britt are in Hangar 79. They are inspecting an airplane that people see ghostly feet under. They ‘speriment and from a certain distance, you can see feet under the plane if someone where standing on the other side. They are not impressed. They are more impressed with the bullet holes. I must say that I would be as well. When they talk about bullets, they are getting sounds which Britt says sounds like something running off to hide. Tango admits yelling "BULLETS!" sounds crazy, but if it's working, you know. Britt gives TAPS exit excuse #79 for the first time tonight.
Alpha Team ends things up in Hangar 37. They are tired and their EVP work indicates it. They make sure they ghosts know they're not afraid. They're Alpha Team for crying out loud! They again hear someone running.
Whoa! Tango, Britt and Josh are in Hangar 37. Bonus round. I figured Alpha Team would clean things up. Britt makes a stab at being my best friend when he makes a Godzilla joke while walking on top of a map. All three team members see a light in the back corner, so we're going to …
COMMERCIALS.
Wow. There's like 5 minutes left in the show and they're still going. And they're still replaying 30 seconds worth of footage. They investigate strange lights on the other side of the hangar. There's nothing there. Josh is compelled.
Alpha Team is in what I am assuming is Hangar 37 because there's a recreation of a cockpit. "Fun-loving ghost hunters" starts to play which means they have to assume position of pilot and co-pilot and start pressing buttons. They even make race car sounds. When there are race car sounds, that means it's time to call it a night.
Jason gives thanks to Josh and Britt. Josh loves working with the Ghost Hunters team.
Cartalk?! They discuss some of the things they saw and how emotional the entire experience was before we learn it was all just a set up so Steve could call and earn his paycheck this week. Apparently a call came in involving a four-year-old which immediately makes Alpha Team give us "serious eyes." They decide then and there to abandon everyone in Hawaii and get the first flight out.
FIN.
This was apparently a "special," thought not live or purported live (like the Alcatraz show). It was basically a huge cliffhanger for the beginning of next season complete with "to be continued August 24th." Look for that episode consisting only of Alpha Team, Steve and RJ. I guess we'll get the evidence and reveal for Pearl Harbor then as well.
MY THOUGHTS: I can't really blast anything here as I don't know what they're going to use as evidence when they meet up with Anne. They certainly had a lot of personal experiences, but that doesn't always translate into real evidence. As I stated before, I don't know why they didn't out a camera on Kramer. Grant even suggested it. The flashlight thing is beginning to bother me. It's not as bad as the K-II, but every time they use it, the flashlight comes on. I got a little excited when the camera almost got a close-up of the flashlight when it went off because I'd love to see the actual head of the flashlight turning while this is going on.
Amy is an interesting cat. It's incredible how her personality mutates to the ghost hunter she is ghost hunting with. I have said before and will probably say again that Amy seems most at home and does her best ghost hunting with Britt. I don't know the relationship between the two, but seeing as they are both from California, my guess is they hunted together quite a bit before Amy became a regular on Ghost Hunters.
I don't want to read too much into this, but the fact that Britt (a once shunned cast member) got exponentially more amount of TV time than Adam (who was only in one segment) can't be a good sign. I've only seen two episodes with Adam, so I don't know how solid of a ghost hunter he is. My guess is with the cancelling of Ghost Hunters Academy, he was just in the right place at the right time. If Pilgrim Films decides they can get behind Britt again at some point, Adam may be in trouble.
I don't have a problem with this one off special. I don't even have a problem with the strange format. Was Jason and Grant really called away from Hawaii on such short notice that they had to grab RJ? I doubt it, but it's possible. With no GH or GHI episodes scheduled between early May and July 13, this one off gives SYFY fresh material for a week and the ending draws interest for the fall season premiere. Regardless of whether Jason and Grant caught the next flight from Hawaii or they filmed the segment while driving around a back road in Rhode Island, it's a good idea that can only help ratings. With TVs oversaturated with paranormal shows, ratings of all the shows are slipping so anything that helps out is a good thing.
By the way, it's not lost on me that SYFY.com is now offering "full recaps" of episodes. They're quite a bit smaller and less "colorful" than mine, but it's nice to know that I'm loved. Talk to me SYFY. We can work something out.
Quote of the Night
Josh Gates: "I'm standing in the dark hanger with a haunted mannequin behind me. Everybody likes that."
Until July 13…BOO!
New opening.
They waste no time with fake phone calls or fake plumbing assignments, they are just in Hawaii from the get go. They also waste no time in letting us know that Steve will not be investigating because he doesn't like to fly. I feel him. I hate flying and try to avoid it as much as possible. For a free trip to Hawaii…I might make an exception. Wait! Is that Britt in the backseat? He of the "said bad things on internet radio and shall never be seen again" fame? I guess maybe enough time has passed they think the thing has blown over. Doesn't bother me. I've always thought Britt was a solid investigator.
Jason and Grant kick it to Amy, whose hair seems even redder than normal. It's always surprising to see how red her hair is because we're so use to the night vision version of her. Amy gives them the what's up on Pearl Harbor. She says they'll be investigating Hangars 37 and 79. There's a gift shop in Hanger 37, which will always make me bring up Grant's famous line from the Lizzie Borden House and I paraphrase, " No place with a gift shop is haunted." I say that both because I like the Lizzie Borden House and think it is haunted and because I'm a shit stirrer. It's what I do. Anyways, these Pearl Harbor hangers are haunted in all the usual ways, plus a moving mannequin.
Jason pulls up and exclaims, "There's Gates." However, he doesn't mean they have to drive through gates, just that Josh Gates is randomly hanging out in Hawaii, so why not investigate with the team? Gates wastes no time in rubbing in the fact that last time he investigated with the team is was in a rundown, freezing prison in Jersey. For a guy with the means of a Josh Gates, this is more his style.
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