Analysis on Scratch's past and human life in ¨The End¨
After so much build up and teasing from previous episodes, we finally get to learn about Scratch's human life before the events of the series and how he became a ¨ghost¨ in the Season 2 finale and series finale as whole, ¨The End¨
The episode starts with the Mcgees hanging out in a Brighton festival. Scratch is talking to Geoff and suddenly has an idea of eating funnel cakes by possessing Brigton citizens who are waiting in the line. He is having fun eating them, going from one person to the other, until he possesses a human named Todd, who often appears as background character in plenty of episodes.
When Scratch possesses Todd, he gets hit with flood of memories of Adia coming back to him. He is close to having a panic attack for the sudden flow of flashbacks and gets out from Todd's body, leaving him confused.
He goes to Molly and the others and tells them about this vision he had he thinks it was thanks to eating funnel cakes. Molly goes to help Scratch getting more funnel cakes to unlock more of his human memories while Ollie and Libby think there is something else going on that made Scratch get back some of his memories.
The scene that follows is Molly and Scratch showing a presentation to the rest of the Mcgee family (Pete, Sharon and Darryl) who are skeptical when they are told about the funnel cakes. Molly and Scratch sing a song about how Scratch and Adia travelled around the world together and how his life was a ¨never ending parade¨. They were going on adventures together and went to a different place every day. Scratch suggests he didn't remember any of this stuff because ¨he had nothing to regret¨.
In the song sequence we see Adia as adult and Scratch in his ghost form. All the memories that are shown in the scene never have Scratch on his human form, only potrayed as his ghost self.
After they are done with their presentation, Pete and Sharon bring up that they still don't know how Scratch died. While they are discussing how he could have died, Darryl is looking for something on his phone. He shows to Scratch an adventure influencer called ¨Adia Williams¨ who Scratch recognizes as the Adia he knew from his human life.
Molly finds a way to get a personal interview with Adia to ask her about Scratch. Adia remembers that he was her best friend when she used to live on Brighton and talks about how ¨Scratch¨ was a nickname she gave to him because he had an habit of scracthing his arm when he got nervous. She tells to Molly how they used to build planes and boats out of boxes and pretend they travel around the world. These games inspired Adia to become an adventure later in life.
Molly mentions that it must have been great to travel with Scratch around the world. Adia seems confused by this and explains that Scratch never came anywhere with her. She asked him many times but he always turned her down. Scratch's expression turns into a devastated upon learning he never went to those places he sang about earlier. Molly tries asking to Adia about Scratch's dead and she says that Scratch isn't dead before the interview cuts out.
This scene puts many things into context. The song ¨My Life was Awesome¨ in reality was about games that Scratch and Adia used to play as kids and not real things that happened. Scratch never went to those places, he thought he did. In addition to this, it explains why Scratch is in the series usually connected to navy related things and why he didn't know how be a captain in ¨All Shark No Bite¨, that's because those things were based on these memories he had playing with Adia on a fake boat.
Molly and Scratch are left very confused with the interview. They are interrupted by Libby, Ollie and Geoff, who tell them the investigation they have been carrying out about Scratch getting some of his memories back. They asked June to look into Brighton's cameras from the festival that took place at the start of the episode. They watched footage of Scratch posessing people and eating funnel cakes until he tried posessing Todd and got expelled out. Molly doesn't get why Todd would unlock these memories and describes him as ¨having no soul¨ and Scratch answers with ¨because he is me¨.
We get a song flashback sequence of Scratch narrating his life a human (Todd). He describes that in his life he never took risks and played it safe. He didn't have ¨adventures, stories nor romances¨ and stayed at home. He would make plans but cancel them. Because of his extreme anxieties, he would stay on himself, never trying out new things or making connections with others.
Adia would going on adventures and travel to different places while he would never tried anything. Adia would always try to invite Scratch to go with her but he always said ¨Maybe Next Time¨.
In the song we see Scratch feeling remorse for being always fearful. He says that he feels like ¨he wasted his whole life¨ for playing it safe and he ¨was so afraid of dying that he never lived a day¨.
As time moved on, Scratch ¨became numb¨, in the sense he stopped caring about things. He became indifferent. Being always so consumed by his own fears made him incredible miserable that was ¨dead¨ on the inside. This went on for a long time until a moment he was talking with Adia by text phone and Adia didn't answer, indicating that they grew apart and, feeling like he lost one of the only things that brought joy to the emptiness of his life, his ghost part of him separated from his own body, probably with the desire that he didn't wish to feel anything anymore.
Scratch says that his memories started to go as the years passed. Ollie and Libby explain that this is a common phenomenon with wraiths, which is what Scratch is. If a wraith ghost spends too much time away from their human body, they start to forget who they are.
Scratch answer to that that maybe he didn't remember anything because ¨there wasn't anything worth of remembering¨ and flies away, feeling emotionally devastated from learning about his human life.
This whole sequence put plenty of things in hindsight about Scratch's character.
First, that Adia is his unfinished business, as it was the desire of travel around the world with her that stayed with him to the point that as a ghost he went to Adia's house and stayed in the attic where they used to play games. It is one thing he dreamed of doing as human but never did because he was always too afraid of trying. This explains why he remembered Adia as kid and the time the hanged out together.
Second, that Scratch buried himself with work as human, a work that seemed to make him unhappy and miserable. This does give an idea of why he is so lazy as a ghost and why he never follows the rules. Maybe subconsciously he didn't wish to do anything of that because it made him remember of how miserable he felt as human or just couldn't bring himself to care as he used to.
Third, that it gaves some justification as for why Scratch shows childish traits as a ghost. While Scratch can be seen as a neurodivergent person based on things like his own anxieties and other traits, it is worth of noting that he went back to the place he used to play games with Adia as a kid. It's easy to assume based on this that his mind turned into one of a kid again or/and he wished to back to those days he was a kid.
On last point, Adia seems to be the only person that Scratch remembers of his human life. Part of this is because he avoided getting close to anyone to make true friendships or fall in love, but, the fact he never says anything about his family is quite telling. There are many things that hint that Scratch didn't have a good family as human in the show and this confirms the idea even further.
We don't know how Scratch's relationship with his family was. One thing that can be assumed is that they were likely neglectful or distant that didn't make Scratch worth of remembering them.
Scratch suppressed most of his human memories because he found his life too depressing to be worth of remembering. When he became a wraith he sort of created a new identity for himself, going by the name of ¨Scratch¨. The only thing he really seemed to hold on were his memories of Adia, mainly his childhood memories. This supports the idea that Scratch has a ¨double identity¨, one as human and other as wraith.
After for searching for Scratch everywhere, Molly realizes that one place he could be is near what used to be his human house, Todd's house. Molly finds him sitting on the sidewalk across the street, looking at the house sadly.
He wonders what his life would have been like if he hadn't always play it safe and accepted Adia's invitation. Molly suggests that he could go ¨back to living¨ except this time he says yes. Scratch thinks of this for a moment and decides to pass. Molly stops him and tells him that he is still ¨playing safe¨ and how he is still afraid. Scratch answers to that that she should be afraid too since that as a wraith he forgot about his human life and he isn't sure what would happen if he becomes human again.
Molly tells him that it is a risk, but ¨taking risks is what makes life worth of living¨ and that's how you know you are actually alive. Molly talks about how Scratch still ¨played it safe¨ when he became a ghost and he was scared of being hurt, getting rejected and being left behind. She tells him that that's how he used to be when she first met him but he isn't like that anymore, he has grown and he isn't afraid sharing himself with the world. She knows that is one thing he won't forget.
Scratch decides that Molly is right. The two say goodbye to each other and Scratch apologizes if he isn't able to remember her. Scratch rings Todd's bell house and waits for the door to open. Todd answers and Scratch goes to his body, becoming a human again. He smiles at Molly, with his eyes shining in gold light.
There is apparently a short time skip that shows Scratch, now as human, preparing himself to going for a trip. He is wearing a new more colorful style than the one Todd was used to wear in the series. Different characters like Libby, Darryl, Sharon and Pete try stopping him in different ways to see if he remembers them, only for them to not recognize them and telling them that he has to go.
Molly is in the bus station, Scratch sits besides her while he waits for the bus to arrive. He tells to Molly that he sold his house, quit his job and now he is going to see the world. He talks about different places he is going to visit. Molly is shown to be happy for Scratch finally being able to follow his life dream.
The bus arrives and Molly tells him that no matter where he goes, he remembers the friends he made on Brighton. Scratch reassures that he will and maybe he will return one day to visit. Scratch uses the Molly catchphase ¨sweet baby corn¨ and ¨enhappifying¨, not sure where he got from. He finally says goodbye to Molly, calling her ¨Moll¨. Molly notices that he never told human Scratch her name, realizing that Scratch retained his some memories from when he was a wraith.
The end credits have Scratch going to different places around the world, enjoying every moment. The final photo has him meeting with Adia hugging each other, which cuts to a painting of Molly and Scratch hugging. He is finally able to follow the life dream he always wanted, keeping himself the things he learned as wraith during the series.
A quick TGAMM comparison. Or
"Molly's 'Everything is totally normal' equals Scratch's 'Maybe next time.'"
One of the things that I gradually notice upon watching and rewatching TGAMM is just how similar Molly and Scratch are, despite being as different as night and day personality-wise. They are both terrible liars, prone to getting easily distracted, and unable to resist great temptations.
As it turns out, they also had difficult periods in their lives and tried to reassure themselves–and everyone else–with their own repeated mantras:
“Everything is totally normal!”
“Maybe next time,”
(Side note–I'm aware that Scratch's song was confirmed to be called 'Scratch's Lament.' not "Maybe Next Time," but the latter stuck with me and the fandom for too long.)
In Molly’s case, her family was rendered homeless and are practically forced to live out of their car for–according to the creators–almost an entire month. (As a child, she would have realistically been more worried about not having access to the most basic of needs over school.) In Scratch’s case, he was sinking into depression over the fact that he was unable to get over his anxieties and fears and join Adia.
They also threw themselves into things to try to avoid their realities. Molly threw herself into numerous activities in school and out of school. Scratch overindulged on food and TV, in addition to overworking himself in a job that was making him miserable over time.
Something I also notice in both songs is that both Molly and Scratch are gradually getting worse and worse. Molly is having a harder time hiding the truth from others and is gradually getting emotionally distraught and overwhelmed from her living situation and having to lie. Scratch gradually gets number and more lifeless the longer he puts off living his life and fulfilling his promise to Adia. (However, while Adia was off doing her own thing and would have been unable to see just how bad Scratch was suffering, Libby could see that Molly was suffering, and she was not fooled by Molly’s act.) While Molly’s excuses are frequent and grow increasingly frantic, Scratch’s excuses are subdued and not as frequent, but gradually get less convincing to even himself. They also are getting worse physically as well–Molly is getting herself overwhelmed to the point of exhaustion, while Scratch is gradually losing his soul without him even realizing it.
And of course, when confronted by their friends as to what is going on, they constantly repeat their respective phrases to try to reassure those friends as well as try to convince themselves something that–deep down–they knew was not true.
In Molly’s case, she ultimately gave in and admitted that things were NOT ok, and had the luck of having her family, friends, and her community to come to help in the McGee’s time of need. Since Scratch was unable to admit his own fears, was constantly closing himself off, and was cut off by his only friend for not keeping his promises, he was not as lucky.
So that does beg the question–was Molly in any danger of losing her soul like Scratch did if things had continued as they did, and she didn’t finally admit her troubles? She wasn’t growing numb or as depressed as Scratch did, but she was bottling an awful lot during that month–on top of being homeless–and that would not have been good for her mental or physical health. Especially at a young age. She has an ability to stay optimistic and see the bright side of things, but we know that even Molly’s optimism has its limits (especially since she’s not an exact copy of fellow optimistic Disney girls like Star, Mabel Pines, etc.). Losing her home for good–and possibly having to leave Brighton after months of living in the place where she thought she’d get to stay forever–could have potentially been the final straw. Especially if she didn’t confide with someone on time.
Then again, who knows? Maybe Molly was never in danger of that happening, given how powerful her soul really was.
TGAMM Analysis: The Ghost IS Molly McGee/All in the Mind (Pt 1)
This was originally a thingy written for a mandatory film journal in my film class (where I essentially write long ass reviews of hyperfixation fuel and assigned movies) but oh no! my two favorite episodes!
Since tumblr has a text limit that is higher than the words i need to speak to get my point across, i'll be taking this into 2 posts which i'll combine thru reblogging (link to both at once)
enjoy my first half of infodumping analysis/review!
The Ghost IS Molly McGee:
As an indulger of children's media, one thing lots of shows focused on fantasy/supernatural stuff like to do is a trope called the Body Swap. TGAMM has, in my opinion, the most unique take on it. Usually in Body Swapping, it's done to prove a point. Take The Owl House for example. It had a body swap episode which was the main trio swapping bodies because everyone thought they had it harder than the others in terms of living. Same could be said for other media with this trope, but TGAMM puts the loveliest spin on it. It makes the switch not to prove a point, but rather to mutually benefit each other.
The situation that the episode begins with has two sides. First, Scratch (being the Chairman of the Ghost World as of the s1 finale) is constantly annoying the Ghost Council (GC) with interrupting their work and eventually this leads to the GC going on strike. Since Scratch is lazy as all ever hell and the GC was essentially heavy loading his Chairman work for him, this is Scratch's side of the issue. Molly's side is that she has been selected to lead the school play, but can't seem to get everyone into line. It's like she herself says "I'm a encourager, Scratch, not a discourager!".
Eventually the two of them decide to bodyswap (via wraithing molly and scratch possessing molly's soulless husk) to benefit each other (Molly is kind and supportive, Scratch is more negative and able to put his foot down), and they go on trying to solve their problems. At first, they each have success with the majority of the people in their respective locations (Possessed!Molly [actually Scratch] is a really good leader and leads the stage crew almost in a military way, while Possessed!Scratch [actually Molly] in the Ghost World goes on to convince 3 of the 4 GC members to forgive him/her/them [switching is hard to describe, stay with me here])
But there's one stickler that each of them have to face. Possessed!Molly has to deal with Georgie, who is supposed to be making a paper-mache costume for the play, but refuses to do so, despite Possessed!Molly's many attempts. Possessed!Scratch has to deal with Bart, one of the Ghost Council members who refuses to accept the apology no matter what form it comes in (food, cards, etc). This is essentially the driving force for the plot, we even get a solid song number out of it (crack an egg! gotta make or break! he's got anger and she's got cake!...)
Eventually, they both realize that they never actually asked said sticklers what the problem was that they had to begin with (aka. the message of this segment), and they both do that and listen to what the other has to say and it all works out. With Bart, he just wanted to be shown appreciation through real action and not through items, while Georgie wanted to be in the main role but she never is and thus she was upset about that. They both get what they want and that's the end!
Love the little thing at the end where when both Molly and Scratch watch Georgie perform and cringe so hard. LOL
Why do I feel like the curse being broken is gonna come back to bite them somehow?
Like, I predicted that she'd use the curse to save Scratch from the flow of failed phantoms, but now that it's broken, maybe she'll try to do that and fail.
So, because June had very few episodes exploring her character in Season 2 and Season 3 got cancelled, she didn't get much screentime to develop as a character like Ollie did.
Here are some things i think that could have been explored with her character in the series (or for fanfics ideas if you wish)
Starting with one that the show was setting up, June could have had episodes of her trying to learn more about ghost nature and culture to see how they work. ¨The Grand Gesture¨ explored this idea somewhat and i think it could have taken an interesting direction for the show, what is more it would have been a different journey from the one Ollie had in Season 2 and later in Season 3 as Chairman.
It could have been a great way to learn more about Ghost World lore too, like wraiths, for instance. The idea of June studying ghosts could opened some fun and interesting plot episodes for the show.
Another thing is that her relationship with Scratch would have been a cool thing to see. Unlike with other characters, Scratch seemed to take a liking in June very quickly. It could have been funny seeing June asking ghost things to Scratch and him answering wrong. They both share similar personalities like being introverted and honest. I believe Scratch, Darryl and June could have made a fun dynamic overall.
Another thing is that we didn't get to see much of June's relationship with Ollie and her parents. I would have appreciated see how Ruben and Esther act around Ollie vs around June. What differences are there. Is June closer to Ruben or to Esther? Do Ollie and June often have some sibling fights? How does their relationship contrasts to Molly and Darryl's?
June being autistic could have been another interesting aspect to explore on a deeper level. Maybe she could have had moments she feels like Ruben and Esther misunderstand her but at the end of the day they want to be supportive of her the best way they can.
How they try helping June with school is something that had some conflict potential. Does June struggle with her notes at school? Do Ruben and Esther start to believe that Darryl sometimes can be a bad influence to June? Does June struggle in making friends at school?
It is weird that we never get to see scenes of her going to school, unlike Ollie. Some have pointed out that it would have been nice to see some of them.
Another character that June could have had a fun dynamic is with Libby. Out of the recurrent characters, Libby is the one that has the most things in common with June. They are both logical, intelligent and like to learn about the world around them. Libby has a more artist mind while June has more of scientific mind.
I believe they could have had moments where they teamed up or changed information they have found about ghosts. Maybe they could have disagreements on how they view things.
Libby could have gotten June invested in reading some of the books she is fan of and have scenes of them talking about said books together. I imagine it could have been fun seeing them coming up with a story on their own together.
Well, here are some ideas that i think the series could have done with June if she have had more episodes about her and it hadn't been cancelled so early. I believe that she is a character that has cool things that could be worked with if executed properly.
Molly and the phases of falling in love (Mollie analysis)
One of the arcs we are introduced to Tgamm Season 2 is Molly having a deep crush on Ollie Chen, the neighbour family that lives across the street. In around the first third of Season 2 Molly goes through different changes in the way she sees Ollie as a character through her crush.
In this post i want to discuss these different stages of ¨falling in love¨ with someone that has been analyzed in psychology and sociology and how that applys to Molly and Ollie’s relationship and their development.
Let’s start:
In the first stage the person falls in love with another in a way that would be considered ¨superficial¨ as they probably they still don’t know the other person deep enough and they are jumping to conclusions about who this person they like is.
It is seeing the other person through ¨rose-tinted glasses¨, as you still don’t know much about them and you make an idealistic version of who you think this person is in your mind.
This is more or less who Molly goes through from ¨The New Paranormal¨ to around half of the episode ¨I Wanna Dance with Some-Ollie¨. She idealizes Ollie as a person, talking about how cute and good he is, often downplaying how Ollie is still part of a family of ghosthunters. Molly doesn’t know Ollie too much. She believes that things are going to be fine and there is nothing to worry about.
It could be said that Ollie is going through a similar stage too. It wouldn’t be out of place to say that he idolizes Molly the same way Molly is doing at the same time. He talks about being there to protect Molly from the ghosts in ¨Book Marks the Sprite¨ and reacts in a similar way like Molly does when they interact in ¨The New Paranormal¨.
For this period they aren’t still aware that their crush for each other comes with a risk that puts an obstable between the two. Molly is still downplaying how getting too attached to Ollie puts Scratch and other ghosts she knows in danger and Ollie still doesn’t know about Scratch’s existence.
Mixed with the first stage that is the ¨superficial crush¨ is the stage the two people start to learn more about each other and maybe become friends. The idealized version of the person that one had in their head begins to change into a more ¨realistic¨ one, where you start to see your crush for a flawed person they are, with their ups and down.
In ¨Book Marks the Sprite¨ Molly spends a good part of the day hanging out with Ollie to distract him from the book sprite that is in the Steins’ bookshop. Molly tries to persuade Ollie that ghosts can be good and the way he sees them as enemies is not correct. Molly has a whole song sequence about how Ollie is someone who cares about his community and loves helping others but he hates ghosts and sees them as his enemy.
In the sequence we see Molly struggling to understand these two contradictions. She wants to believe that Ollie is a good person and someone is misguided. The way Ollie talks about ghosts and haunts them clashes with the idealistic view that Molly has of him through her crush. She is starting to see Ollie for who he really is. However, it isn’t enough for her crush view to be ¨smashed¨.
Later, in the same episode, Molly asks to Ollie why his family hates ghosts so much. Ollie shows Molly a video that explains how Ruben, Ollie’s father, was attacked by a ghost when he was a kid and ever since then Ruben has been trying to get rid of ghosts, an idea that Ollie and June were taughted. Ollie’s prejuice for ghosts is generational from his father’s side.
Molly returns to the library, dissapointed that Ollie still didn’t change his mind about ghosts.
Libby talks to Molly that she was able to communicate with the book sprite once they were able to see things from Libby’s POV. This makes Molly believe that there is still hope with Ollie to do the same.
In ¨I Wanna Dance with Some-Ollie¨ Ollie invites Molly to be his date at the school dance. Scratch, who has in disapproval of Molly’s crush on Ollie since ¨The New Paranormal¨ doesn’t like the idea of Molly going out with Ollie for the dance. Molly insists in telling Scratch that she doesn’t have a crush on the boy and they are going as two people who are organizing the event. She explains to Scratch that Ollie hasn’t been mentioning ghosts lately and that his family isn’t exactly a threat, as their traps don’t seem to work based on their recent videos.
This ¨lack of crushing¨ is quickly contradicted when Ollie brings flowers to Molly. Scratch follows them to the school dance, with the intentions of making sure that Molly keeps her word.
During the dance Molly and Ollie are constanly pushed by others about how cute they look together, some assuming their are a couple. Molly keeps telling that they are only here as organizers for the event, that their relationship is ¨professional¨. Ollie shows to be sad whenever Molly mentions this, probably out of fear that Molly doesn’t like him back but he still respects Molly’s space. He goes along with what Molly says to others.
In the song sequence ¨I Keep Ending Up with You¨ Molly and Ollie end up in ¨school dance situations¨ like touching hands or Molly catching Ollie. They see each other in a lovely crushing way, being really into each other. Scratch tries his best to intervine in their interactions, only to make them fall into these ¨romantic moments¨ more.
The lyrics of the song itself are about a person who isn’t able to resist developing feelings for another and not matter what they do they keep falling in love with that said person. However, they give the impression of the relationship being something rushed, that the person isn’t considering what they are walking into, with parts talking about ¨reality crushing¨ and ¨flames burning down¨ which describes Molly overlooking the part that Ollie is a ghosthunter.
Molly and Ollie are named the ¨Lemming Royalty¨ (Queen and King of the dance) and invited to come to stage. Scratch gets tired of Molly being too romantic why Ollie given he hunts ghosts. He pulls Molly out from the dance room. The two have a nasty argument in the hall that ends with Molly returning to the dance and Scratch leaving the school, not before he gets captured by a ghost trap.
Molly returns to dance with Ollie, telling him that they could consider this a ¨date¨ if he wants, something that Ollie is happy to agree. Suddenly there is a beep sound that comes from Ollie’s spectral snare/ghost traps. He explains to Molly that June fixed the issue the traps had and now they work great.
That’s when Molly gets crashed by the reality of the danger that Ollie that represents as ghost hunter if his equipment works. She realizes her huge mistake and goes outside to look for Scratch. She frees Scratch from the trap and the two make up, Molly saying that she can’t be with Ollie if that puts Scratch at risk of getting captured.
While the two are talking Ollie goes outside. He uses his special googles to detect ghosts. He finds out that Molly is hanging out with Scratch, listening to Molly about how Mollie can’t be a thing. He is left devastated upon the revelation that Molly has been hiding this secret from him and that he can’t be with Molly as he wished to. In spite of his sadness, he doesn’t tell Esther about Scratch when she comes to pick him up from the dance, showing that he didn’t want to hurt Scratch if it involved him being someone that Molly cares about.
The conclusion of ¨I Wanna Dance with Some-Ollie¨ could be seen as part of ¨Stage 2¨ of Molly falling in love with Ollie. She realizes that she was having an idolized version of Ollie in her head, letting her crush for him not see that dating him wasn’t a good idea as long as he had hateful views against ghosts. Her image of Ollie gets crushed by reality, seeing Ollie who he is as a person, one of those sides being a ghosthunter.
Ollie can be seen as seeing through this same stage as well, when he learns that Molly has been hiding Scratch from him and why she didn’t want to date him earlier in the episode.
Some weeks in universe after, in the episode ¨Frightmares on Main Street¨ has Molly and Ollie organizing the decoration for a haunted house. Molly had been trying her best to avoid Ollie since the dance, saying that ¨everything is weird and awkward¨ between the two. On Ollie’s side, he has been checking on Molly, believing that Scratch has used some spell on her to control her. Ollie doesn’t want to believe that Molly would be friends with a ghost.
Trying to get some Halloween fun, Scratch asks Molly to allow him to redecorate the haunted house. Scratch invites plenty of ghosts to come and scare people for fun, who many of them believe that the ghosts are puppets or extra effects from the house. Everything seems to be going along well, both ghosts and humans are having fun and Molly is getting tons of donations for the funraising.
This, however, changes when Ollie goes inside the house and finds it filled with ghosts. Ollie tries pulling Molly out from the place, insisting that she is under a spell. Molly snaps at Ollie and asks him to listen to her. She explains to him that ghosts aren’t evil and that they aren’t doing anything bad at the moment.
In this episode Molly has a lot of less patience with Ollie when it comes to his hatred for ghosts. She snaps at him a lot more often she did in previous episodes and doesn’t act the same ¨lovely crushing¨ way she did. Molly sees Ollie more as a who he is now, admitting that him being a ghosthunter *is* a problem for their relationship. In spite of that, she tries her best to prove to Ollie that ghosts aren’t all evil as he believes and takes to the time to explain it to him.
From Ollie’s side, he clearly cares for Molly more than he hates ghosts. He could have told his family about Scratch since the events from school dance yet he never did. This is because deep down he knows that Scratch may be important to Molly, even if he would rather believe that Scratch put Molly under a spell to make sense of their relationship easier in his mind. While he traps Scratch later in the episode, it isn’t done with the purpose of hurting him as it is to interrogate him. When June shows and almost shoots at Scratch, Ollie interferes and makes June go outside to help Ruben and Esther.
While all this is happening, the frightmares show up, being attracted to the chaos from the situation. Molly begs Ollie to see the good in ghosts, leading to Ollie to free Scratch from the goo. Scratch uses his chairman powers and locks the frightmares inside the phantom canister from the Chens. Ollie apologizes to Molly and Scratch for thinking that ghosts were evil. The two make up and are on friendler terms now that Ollie is changing his ways.
In the episodes that follow, Molly and Ollie remain as friends, sometimes doing gestures that could be considered as romantic, like holding hands or getting close, indicating they still have feeling for each other. The main difference is that this crush isn’t longer superficial, as they are spending their time to get to know each other better and give each other time before they ask the other out.
In ¨Unhaunting of The Brighton Video¨ Molly helps Ollie with processing his feelings of guilt, that Ollie spends most of the episode trying to avoid. Ollie expresses feeling very guilty for having captured ghosts like Scratch and confused that something he was taught his whole life turned out to be incorrect. Molly reassures Ollie that what matters is he is trying to do the right thing and be a better person now. They later help Blair with completing her unfinished business by returning the tape from a movie she loved when she was alive but she wasn’t able to return before she died.
In ¨Carbon Zero Heroes¨ and ¨Let’s Play Turnipball¨ they do things together. In ¨Let’s Play Turnipball¨ Molly encourages Ollie to play in the turnipball tournament against Perfektborg. Despite not winning, the team celebrates Ollie for having played well in the game.
In ¨Carbon Zero Heroes¨ they two take extreme measures to be ¨Carbon zero¨, helping it has to make a difference. They eventually realize that climate change is too big for one person to solve and it is something that requires collective action. They start campains to make awareness about the issue and ask Pete to push policies that protect the environment.
¨Welcome to Necro-comicon¨ is another episode that is important for Molly and Ollie’s relationship. In this episode they both try to stop the Chens from presenting the phantom canister in front of a convention of ghosthunters. Molly suggests to Ollie trying to talk to his parents about their views against ghosts but Ollie turns down the idea, saying that his parents aren’t like Molly’s, they have been ghosthunters their whole lives and they won’t be persuaded that easily. He thinks the only option is to get the canister away from his parents. Molly isn’t fond of the idea but still goes along with it.
After many failed attempts at grabbing the canister and the Chens about to give their presentation, Molly suggests to Ollie again to be honest with his parents. Ollie gains the courage to talk to them about trying to consider that ghosts can be good and doing the presentation isn’t a good idea. Both Ruben and Esther appreciate Ollie’s enthusiasm but quickly dismiss him, telling him that his wrong. June questions Ollie why he said that and Ollie explains to June that a ghost (Scratch as Chairman) was the one that trapped the Frightmares inside the canister during Halloween.
For a moment Ollie and Molly believe that everything is ruined until June shows them that she grabbed the canister, believing in what Ollie said earlier about ghosts being good. June tells them that she is going to find a place to hide the canister and she is going to run some experiments to learn more about ghosts. She meets Scratch, who quickly gets along with June and Ollie is glad that his parents were stopped from presenting the canister.
In some of these episodes Molly and Ollie gain a better understanding of each other, as Ollie opens up to Molly about him having to deal with the rest of his family being ghosthunters and how his identity was crushed when his worldview was proven wrong. They have closer for the both of them to be open about issues that affect them on a deeper level. Ollie gets the courage to be able to confront Ruben and Esther about their hatred for ghosts. This could be considered the stage of ¨True Love¨.
In ¨The Grand Gesture¨ Molly’s feelings for Ollie are brought up again. They are both falling for each other over again. Molly explains to Libby and Scratch that she has a plan to ask Ollie to be her boyfriend later that day. Libby and Scratch think the gesture of asking out should be way bigger, as it is a special occasion. This somewhat convinces Molly to change her plans and let Libby and Scratch give her ideas.
This result in very awkard situations that end up wrong and Molly can bring herself to ask Ollie out. She feels very nervous about the gesture having to be grand and perfect that she gets stuck when she wants to tell Ollie. While they are eating banana split, Molly tells to Ollie that she has been trying to tell him something all day, Ollie gets confused and for a second he assumes that Molly doesn’t like-like him anymore. Molly clarifies that isn’t the case. Before they can keep talking, they are interrumpted by June and Darryl’s ghost experiment go out of control.
For their luck, the experiment (Junior) stops eating electricity and returns to his normal small size. Junior says that one doesn’t need to do a grand gesture for people to express love for one another, he thanks Darryl and June for taking care of him and says goodbye, going to ¨higher planes¨.
Molly takes Junior’s words to heart and finally takes the opportunity to ask Ollie out without making it big. Ollie accepts, telling Molly that he has been trying to do the same but he was think about it having to be a ¨grand gesture¨. The two smile at each other, blushing at how they were trying to do the same thing. They both hold hands, officially becoming boyfriend and girlfriend.
For ¨The Grand Gesture¨ episode, Molly and Ollie have reached the stage of ¨true love¨ in their crushing. It isn’t a superficial idolized crush they used to have at the start of the season. They have spent time getting to know each other and they like each other for who they are as people, supporting the other with their issues and not having to hide secrets like they used to do.
In conclusion, ¨Mollie¨ starts as two teens falling each other on first sight, having a superficial crush on each other, ignoring who the other is a as person (In Molly’s case) or not having a full idea who the other is (in Ollie’s case). They both rush into being in a relationship, missing the signs that they can’t be together for Ollie being a ghosthunter and things crashing down between the two.
Once Ollie starts changing the way he views ghosts, Molly and Ollie take the time to get to know each other and, eventually, the fall for each other again for who they are as people and decide to become a couple.
How The Ghost IS Molly Mcgee plays with the body swap trope
One episode i want to talk about is The Ghost IS Molly Mcgee. In this episode Molly and Scratch ¨swap¨ bodies and each one has to deal with the other's problem. This episode was pretty well received by the fandom, one of the reasons being different from body swap from other animated shows.
In this post i'm going to talk what separates The Ghost Is from other episodes of its type and how that made it be a more unique take on the trope.
1) The voices switching between Molly and Scratch kinda make sense in universe
One thing that it is common in body swap episodes is that the characters switch their voices when they swap bodies too. This is kind of annoying for some people since there isn't any explanation of why this happens.
In Tgamm when this happens is a bit different because Molly and Scratch don't exactly swap bodies: Molly becomes a wraith and Scratch takes control of Molly's human body.
When Scratch posesses a human, his voice comes off mixed with human's voice that he is controlling. But because Molly's spirit isn't in her body and Scratch is posessing an empty husk, only his voice comes out of it.
In Molly's case, she isn't controlling any body. She is in her wraith form disguised as Scratch. It does make sense why we hear her natural voice from her.
2) Molly and Scratch don't change bodies to see who ¨has it easier¨ like in other body swap episodes do.
The reason Molly and Scratch do body swap in this episode is because they think the other would be more capable in completing certain task. Scratch is better at being honest and firm than Molly is, as shown in ¨Goat Your Own Way¨ and Molly is better at being kind and sentimental.
Scratch is tasked with running the school play Molly is in charge of and Molly has to make the Ghost Council feel appreciated so they can get back to work.
This is another main difference with other body swap episodes. The characters involved are trying to help each other out instead of acting like jerks. It's a nice change of pace for a episode story trope that has been done many times in other shows.
3) Molly and Scratch don't have to ¨fake¨ being each other. In fact they have to act like themselves to solve the other's problem.
Another thing that is common in body swap episodes is that the characters involved have to fake being the person from the body they find themselves stuck into until they can reverse the swap. This can be funny depending on the situation, specially if the characters have very different personalities.
In The Ghost IS Scratch and Molly don't have to fully fake being the other. In fact, the way to solve their problem is to act like they would naturally would. In Scratch case being rude and tough and Molly being her usual nice self. Again, they aren't doing this to sabotage the other, they are trying to help each other out.
In conclusion: The Ghost IS Molly Mcgee plays around the typical premise of body switch tropes by changing some aspects of it and, as result, it gives it a more unique take on the trope, making it a fun episode to watch.
