Previously on Miracles: the show was actually on ABC. And Skeet hates the way people feel after he debunks a miracle. Oh, GOD. Not AGAIN.
Nighttime in Lowell, New Jersey, home of...um...anyway, it's Lowell, N.J. ["No such place, if anyone cares." -- Sars] And in the darkened offices of Hill Ridge Realty, Larry Kittredge sits at his desk opening envelopes, with classical piano playing on the radio. He opens an envelope and tosses the letter opener aside, all the better to be filmed by the Pay Attention, This Will Be Significant cam, which pans over to take in a pair of scissors also lying on his desk. Larry thinks he hears a noise and looks up. There's nothing. But then the light bulb in the lamp behind him starts to crackle and hiss and burn brighter, before it pops, giving Larry a bit of a jump. And then the blinds drop down of their own accord, his door slams, and the radio station moves down the dial to some metal station while papers fly off of Larry's desk. As if that weren't bad enough, the scissors and the letter opener rise into the air, pointing at Larry. He's kind of freaked, even more so when they zoom towards him, until they're inches away from his face. Then, they drop to his desk and start kind of dancing all over the surface, bits of wood flying everywhere. As we pull away from the desk, we see that the sharp instruments are, in a nice-looking special effect, chiseling out a message on the desktop: "I'M BACK." Bonus points to the ghost for using proper punctuation! People can't be hassled to use apostrophes in email, so I'm impressed the ghost used one from all the way over in the afterlife.
Boston Hospital. We see Skeet lying down on a stretcher and sliding into an MRI. What?
In the doctor's office, the physician is going over the battery of tests that they've run on Skeet, only to find absolutely nothing wrong with him. The doctor asks if he exercises. "Sometimes," says Skeet, and he gets really shifty-eyed about that for some reason. His eye catches a photo on the doctor's desk that appears to be of relief workers in some heatstroke-inducing country. It's not the people in the photo that Skeet fixates on so much as the water tower in the background, while the doctor explains that Skeet does not have gout, diabetes, liver disease or any of that stuff. What is it with this show and water towers? Skeet, naturally, flashes back to the "God is Coming" water tower from the first episode. "And no brain tumours?" says Skeet. No, says the doctor, who asks if Skeet would be happier to find out he does have a tumour. Skeet laughs and says he wouldn't, but he's had some "unusual experiences" lately. The doctor's all, "Yeah? Like what?" and Skeet says it's hard to explain, so we're just going to flash some more brief scenes of episodes across the screen. "Mr. Callan, are you worried about your sanity?" Skeet just looks down.
At some obviously Catholic school, Skeet joshes with some kid who says that no one misses him, and Skeet's all "likewise" but of course it's clear that he's bonded with the kids, yadda yadda yadda. And the ribbing is interrupted by Poppy, who's glad Skeet got his message, and they go for a walk and Poppy says he's talked to the monsignor, who's said Skeet can have his old job back. Skeet's all, I don't recall asking for my old job back. Poppy suggests working part-time, because "what could it hurt?" Skeet turns him down. "I think you're making a mistake," says Poppy, who asks what Skeet wants. "Your blessing," says Skeet. "I can't give it," says Poppy, and Skeet leaves.
Looks like after focusing on Keel last episode, it's back to all Skeet, all the time. He's now jogging across a park (in that post-checkup better-start-exercising kind of way), and he goes running up to a carnival of all things, and there's a little kid there by the carousel, and he sees Paul and gets all excited and runs over for a hug. This would be Evelyn's so-called son "Matty," and now we see Evelyn, who says that Matty has their whole day planned. Are she and Skeet actually dating? What's going on? And if you're going to spend a day at the carnival with the hot co-worker and her kid, do you really want to go straight after jogging when you're all sweaty and smelly? Anyway, Evelyn rattles off the bumper cars and corn dogs and blah blah blah topped off by the arcade, if they're still standing. "The joys of single motherhood," she says, because God knows kids from two-parent families HATE to go to the carnival. Why would she say that? Skeet asks if Keel's shown yet and Evelyn says no, and so now you're thinking that this isn't a date but a fun outing for the SQ crew, but then Skeet asks how Evelyn convinced Keel to bring their cheques out there, and Evelyn says, "I waived my overtime," and Skeet goes, all bug-eyed, "We get overtime?" but then the carousel starts up so Matty urges them all to hurry. I have NO IDEA what's going on here, and it never gets explained. Keel's delivering their cheques to them at the carnival? So they can sign them over to the Tilt-a-Whirl guy? It's called DIRECT DEPOSIT, you idiots.
So they go on the carousel, and Matty does cute little kid things, while Evelyn asks Skeet what he's running from, and Skeet just stares at her, until she points out that he hates to jog. Great. Amateur psychiatry at the state fair. Skeet tells her about Poppy offering him his old job back and how he said no. "You don't sound all that sure about it," she says. Skeet says it's just that he feels like Poppy's disappointed in him, like he was hoping Skeet would continue with the family business. Evelyn points out that maybe it's more likely that Skeet seems to be working for the competition now, and he probably misses Skeet. "I miss him too," says Skeet.
And speaking of the competition, there's Keel standing there glowering at the carousel, like, nice idea bringing him to the fair so he scares all the children with his doom 'n' gloom countenance. Of course, I'd be pissed too if I'd been coerced into dropping off paycheques to my lollygagging employees, and then they MADE ME WAIT while they rode on the merry-go-round.
So they get off and say hello to Keel and thank him for the cheques, and then Matty is all, "Come on, Mom," and Evelyn says "duty calls" and I guess that would be the bathroom-break duty exclusive to single motherhood and Keel asks if Skeet's okay, saying he just got a call from the insurance company telling him about Skeet's MRI. Skeet says he's fine. "Well, you've recently suffered a number of head injuries, and that can lead to complications that an MRI might not necessarily reveal." Skeet wonders what sort of complications Keel's talking about, and Keel starts babbling about a German (aren't all of Keel's stories about Germans?) who was in a car accident and for months afterwards was convinced he could see and talk to his dead wife. Skeet of course flashes on his visions of Tommy. Keel notices him going a little bug-eyed and seems concerned, but Skeet insists he's fine. That's great, says Keel, because we've got a new case -- a "haunting" in Lowell, New Jersey. They leave in an hour. And Keel's purchased "two premium tickets." Is it significant that he's not more specific?
Yep. Because the premium tickets are premium bus tickets, with all the screaming babies and discomfort that entails. Skeet asks Keel why they don't ever just fly, and Keel says, a little bitchily, that "money doesn't grow on trees now, does it?" Those two always fight on vacation!
Skeet and Keel pull up outside the realty office with the doings and the goings-on and run into Franny Goldfarb, who is apparently the one who called Keel about the haunting. She lets them into the building, and authoritatively tells them the office is haunted. She seems quite the expert, as she notes the feelings of sadness in the air. A skeptical Keel asks if it's just a feeling. More than a feeling! says Franny. People have seen things.
Cut to a dude saying he was working late one night. Just when we think he's reading aloud from Penthouse Letters, he says suddenly there was a musty smell and it got 20 degrees colder. He goes to check the thermostat, and when he gets back all his drawers are open and his chair is up on his desk. Keel asks if the guy smelled any cinnamon. He says no. Funnily enough, he doesn't seem perturbed by the question itself, but by his own answer, as if he just realized he was supposed to smell cinnamon.
A young woman tells a story about all the pictures on her desk being turned facedown. The same thing happened on another day, even though she came in "extra early." So she turns all the pictures right side up. But then she turns her back for two seconds to send a fax, and the pictures are all facedown again. Keel, who looks really bored (what is with his attitude the last couple of episodes?), can barely muster enough energy to ask her if she noticed any blue and yellow lights in her peripheral vision. Before she answers, though, Larry walks through the door, looking mildly surprised to see them, and she says hello. Larry asks if Tanya is answering all their questions.
Skeet and Keel follow Larry into his office, where he dismissively asks if Franny was the one who called them in to investigate the haunted building. "You don't agree?" says Skeet. Larry says that the building has only been here since 1991 and isn't built on any Indian burial ground, so he doubts it's haunted. And it's pointed out that it's not just Annie who thinks the place is haunted; everyone there has some sort of story. "Not everyone," says Larry. Skeet asks him point-blank if he thinks the others are lying. Larry says that it's not that they're lying, it's just that Franny buys a lot of crystals and tarot cards and so forth, so when she starts in with that shit, then everyone starts noticing things: "You lose the bathroom key, and suddenly a ghost took it." Keel apologizes for wasting his time, and Skeet and Keel start heading out of Larry's office. Then Skeet says, all Columbo, that there's just one more thing. He points to the security camera and wonders about the tapes. Larry says the cameras don't tape anything; they're just for show: "Who's going to rob a real estate office?" he says. Well...maybe the security cameras give the idea there's something worth stealing! Anyway, Skeet and Keel leave, Tanya watching them.
Back in Larry's office, Larry's stapler decides to go for a stroll around his desk, stapling as it goes. Larry orders it to stop and says, "We've got a big problem here." Then his globe starts spinning of its own volition, and he stops that with his hand. What's the problem? Ghost not putting in for the office coffee fund?
Back at Skeet and Keel's motel, Keel turns on the television and plunks down on one of the beds, and asks Skeet what he makes "of all that." Skeet points out that three people say there's a ghost, while one of them says there isn't. "Perhaps he's in denial," says Keel, who is watching...NASCAR? I swear to God. Skeet's surprised that Keel believes there's a ghost there. "Or a poltergeist," says Keel, and when Skeet wonders if that isn't the same thing, Keel stares at him, then explains that a ghost is the spirit of a dead person that haunts a specific place, while a poltergeist is "psychokinetic energy" that is generated by a living being. "I don't know. I've seen a lot of things, but I've never seen that," says Skeet, who y'all should know really doesn't seem to be into this whole Miracles show anymore. And for some reason, we get several shots of the television screen featuring the race cars that are inexplicably fascinating Keel. Keel's cell phone rings. And because this is Keel, he answers it and then starts speaking in Mandarin or Cantonese or some reasonable facsimile thereof to someone named Jian Wei. And we can hear Jian Wei's end of the conversation, but we only get subtitles for Keel for some reason. And Keel says that there was "no cinnamon" and no "blue and yellow lights," and Skeet watches him in amazement, almost like Skeet knows what Keel is saying. Keel breaks from the conversation long enough to tell Skeet that Tanya needs to be questioned extensively about her sexual history, including whether she's a virgin, because if she isn't, it's unlikely she's causing the disturbance. Skeet cocks an eyebrow at this. Skeet, do you need to be told twice? Apparently he does, as Keel breaks again from the conversation to ask Skeet what he's waiting for. And I for one would really like to know what the hell Jian Wei is saying, since Keel keeps saying strange things like, "Yes, that is a lot of blood," and "Was it born or did it hatch?" like WHAT THE HELL IS HE TALKING ABOUT?
So Skeet shows up at a diner that features a waitress who looks old enough to be Barbara Bush's grandmother, and he joins Tanya in a booth. He asks her if the ghost activity was happening before she got there. She says it was, that Franny warned her about it before she started. "It really freaked me out," she says. Skeet's all, so why didn't you quit? Tanya says Larry did her a big favour by giving her the job, so...Skeet, who really should just ask Tanya whether she likes the rumpy-bumpy, asks her why Larry did her that favour. Turns out she knows the family, and in fact dated Larry's son Kevin, who died last year. Ding ding ding ding! Skeet's taken aback, but finally says he's sorry. She explains that a week before graduation, Kevin got really sick out of nowhere and died. "Turned out he had meningitis," she says, and she does quite a good job speaking in a clipped tone, just in the way that someone who's dealt with the death of a loved one might, if the death were not yesterday but not a super long time ago either. Skeet steers the conversation back over to asking Tanya's opinion why Larry hasn't seen any weird activity in the office. She says that Larry's been really distracted ever since Kevin died. "I mean, a bomb could go off and he wouldn't notice." Skeet pauses a moment, before haltingly asking Tanya if she and Kevin were close. Tanya looks at him for a moment, and slowly says, "Yeahhhh," in a manner that I think indicates she knows exactly what Skeet's asking. "We were real close," she says. Skeet looks suitably embarrassed.
But it's only going to get worse for our hero; he knocks on the door of the Kittredge household and winds up talking to Mrs. Kittredge, who, after Skeet says he talked to her husband, seems surprised that Larry would send a prospective home buyer to his own house. Skeet explains that he's there to investigate the goings-on at Larry's office. "What do you mean?" she says. Skeet tells her about the ghost in the office. "A ghost," she says, totally not having it. Skeet says everyone is convinced the place is haunted, except her husband. It's at this point that Mrs. Kittredge really starts to wonder what the hell this guy is doing here. Skeet explains as best as he can what the SQ Crew do. Mrs. Kittredge is all, well, whatever, that's fine, but why are you at my house? "Well, I understand you and your husband have suffered a terrible loss," he says. Uh-oh. Long pause from Mrs. Kittredge. "Are you asking, um, if my son...is haunting...please leave." She shuts the door in Skeet's face, so he doesn't even have time to make the Face.
Back at the motel, Keel is IMing one of his weird friends, and all we get to see of his message is "beast or no beast, I feel that this..." like, a glimpse into Keel's life is a brief descent into madness, and Skeet walks in and starts complaining about asking a total stranger about her sex life, and then asking a mother who's lost her child if she thinks the child has come back as a ghost. Then he finally asks Keel to explain what the deal is with the cinnamon and the blue and yellow lights he was harping on earlier. Keel says those are common signs of a "temporal lobe tumour" that can mimic signs of a paranormal encounter. Keel's questions don't make sense, though, unless Keel happened to think all three people just happened to suffer temporal lobe tumours. Then the phone rings.
Apparently Mrs. Kittredge didn't stay mad for long; she's invited Skeet back to the house after she called Franny about the whole thing. "She believes in this nonsense; I don't. But if there's anything you can tell me about my son..." she says. Skeet's forced to admit that he really doesn't know anything, as he's "sort of new at all this." He sounds like he's apologizing for asking to be shown how to use the office photocopier for the fifteenth time. "I'm trying real hard to understand this," says Mrs. Kittredge, so Skeet non-helpfully starts babbling about the time he was in an accident and Tommy healed him. Mrs. Kittredge just says she doesn't know how she can help Skeet. He asks her to tell him what happened to her son. So she sits back on the couch and starts telling her the story. The lights come up behind her and the scene is dramatized, almost like we're watching a play.
Anyway, he came home late with his report card one day. We see Larry do the thing that parents do (my parents did, anyway) where they ask if there's anything they should know before they open the report card. Heh. Kevin asks his dad to keep in mind that there's no such thing as a perfect report card. Kevin's mom (what's her first name, dammit?), still sitting on the couch in her talking-to-Skeet position, asks, "Did someone get straight As?" Kevin comes over and kisses her on the cheek. "Yeah, someone did. Unfortunately, he couldn't be here tonight." "A C in history," says sitting-on-the-couch Mom, and then we're fully in the flashback, as putting-supper-on-the-table-Mom is saying, "But you love history!" and Kevin, who with his plaid flannel shirt apparently came here directly after filming a Pearl Jam video in 1992, says that he kind of lost the textbook. His dad notes the F in Horticulture. "You plant tomatoes!" he says, and wonders how on earth it is possible to fail that. Kevin explains that he managed to set fire to the corn rows, which is "not as easy as it sounds," and he laughs. His mother says, "Oh, Kevin," while his father looks at him in disbelief. "It was an accident! I put it out!" and I have to say that his parents are taking this much better than my parents would have, since those grades alone would have gotten the riot act read to me, and had I employed Kevin's flip attitude about it, I quite possibly would have wound up in the hospital. Present-day Mom explains that they never even realized Kevin was sick.
A little later, after dinner, Larry is still going on about the F in Horticulture, instead of being utterly bewildered as to why anyone would take Horticulture in the first place. "You wanna end up like me?" he says, like maybe admission to Yale depends greatly on getting your flowers to survive the fall frost or something, and Kevin says that he does indeed want to end up like his dad, who smilingly asks if he thinks a trick answer will get him "ungrounded." Kevin says it was a "shot in the dark," as he rubs his neck. And his dad asks if he's okay, in his best sorry-I-have-to-come-down-on-you-for-your-grades-but-we're-still-buds tone of voice. Kevin says his neck has been stiff, so his mom feels his forehead and says he feels a little warm. He says he's fine and he'll just pop a couple of aspirin and hit the sack. As he leaves, his dad tells him he's going to make up the history final, but then adds an "I love you" so as not to harsh on his buddy's mellow too much, I guess. Kevin heads up the stairs. "You think he'll be okay?" asks his mom, which I don't think she would say just because he's a little warm, so I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt and assume she's talking about the grades. Larry says he'll be fine, and then starts laughing about getting an F in Horticulture.
And that's that. Because when Kevin woke up in the morning, he didn't. "Bacterial meningitis. It can be very sudden," she says. Skeet offers his condolences, and asks how Larry took it. She says that she was a wreck for months. Couldn't sleep, couldn't keep food down. Larry, though, was back at work the day. "It took me a long time to come back to the world, but Larry...I don't know, maybe he's stronger than I am." Skeet floats the possibility that Larry's never really dealt with it. Mom then shares the extremely personal information that she's heading down to her sister's in Castle City tomorrow ["also not a real town" -- Sars], and she's not sure she's coming back. Skeet just says that he wishes he could tell her something about Kevin, but he can't. Tears well up in Mom's eyes as she says, "He was my son. I would give anything to be with him again, even for a minute. But God. If he was going to haunt someone, wouldn't he haunt me?" Skeet just looks down instead of explaining that the ghost heart wants what it wants.
Back at the deserted office, Skeet knocks at the front door, and then lets himself in, since the door is unlocked. He calls out for Mr. Kittredge, but gets no response, and he makes his way back to Larry's office, which is absolutely bare, other than the pictures and certificates on the walls. Skeet looks around, and then a rubber band hits the carpet by his feet. He bends down and picks it up, then looks up. There's Larry's office furniture, on the ceiling. And hey! There's Lionel Richie! Skeet wanders around, dazed, while creepy music plays. You know, a rubber band just fell to the floor, Skeet. I don't know if you've noticed, but there's a desk and fucking FILE CABINETS up there. Maybe you want to look dazed from the safety of another room? Nope, he reaches up and pulls a pencil out of a container and looks at it. Maybe he wants to steal it and is checking to make sure it doesn't have "FROM THE UPSIDE-DOWN DESK OF LARRY" stamped on it. And speak of the devil, Larry pops into the room, startling Skeet. Larry looks up at the ceiling, then back at Skeet. "I can explain," he says, almost guiltily. Heh. Commercials.
Skeet and Larry have retreated outside, where Larry sits on a bench and admits that the "cat is out of the bag," while Skeet just stands around making that face he makes and saying nothing. Larry asks him if he believes in God, and then he admits that he never really did. Then he starts bitching about people who would tell him that is son is in "a better place. 'Your dead child is in a better place.' Oh, really? Better than your child, who comes home every day after school? Who's still alive?" Skeet points out that people don't really know what to say in that situation. Larry asks him if he thinks it's true. "I hope it is," says the ever-helpful Skeet. "Well, you're a rock!" says Larry wryly. Skeet excuses himself, and tries again: "I'm sure it is!" Good one, Skeet. Larry tells him to be honest, that he has doubts. Larry says he used to too, and he didn't even know he was in fact praying. He just used to stay in his office all night and think about Kevin. He says that the thing people who've suffered a loss like he has pray for is not for the child's rest or for their own peace, it's to have their child back. Dude, I...be careful, man. Didn't you ever see Pet Sematary? Nah, me neither. Heard it sucked. ["It did, but it's a good campy rental. The line reading of 'Fuck you, hairball' alone is worth it." -- Sars] Anyway. Larry doesn't know why God answered his prayers, but He did. Skeet finally seems to be cluing in that Larry thinks Kevin's back. "I know he is! I can feel it! I have my boy back!" He seems genuinely happy, and says he has to get back in the office. Gotta go play ghost catch with his boy or something. Before he goes, he asks Skeet to help him, in the "no one else has to know about this" vein. Skeet's all, not even your wife? Especially not her, says Larry; it would break her heart. Skeet understands: "Because he came to you and not her." Skeet decides to try on his marriage counselor's hat and advises Larry to talk to his wife, as he's not sure she can take much more of things the way they are. "Well, maybe that's for the best," says Larry, and he goes back into the office.
So it's time for Skeet to do some skulking around behind the building. He peers through Larry's office window and sees Larry looking at a picture and chuckling about how "those idiots couldn't win a game without you. Well, maybe year they'll get a decent running back." Skeet looks around and sees another security camera. And Larry's telling "Kevin" how he hopes he never leaves, because without him he'd be all alone. Skeet spies a dumpster and starts rooting through it. Keel's travel budget doesn't include a meal per diem?
The morning, an extremely disheveled Skeet shows up for breakfast with Keel, warning him to not even bother asking, but of course Keel wants to know what happened to him. "I spent all night rummaging through dumpsters, trying to find the tapes from the security cameras." Keel says he thought Larry said there weren't any tapes. "I thought he was lying. I still do," says Skeet, while the oldest waitress in the world serves people in the background. Anyway, because this is about Skeet, I guess, Skeet starts going on about how all the stuff that's happened with him and Tommy and all that isn't actually real and is all in his head. "That would be convenient, wouldn't it?" says Keel. Skeet doesn't know what he means. "It would let you off the hook. You don't want to be singled out. You don't want to be the lightning rod for God knows what." "Who said it was God?" says Skeet, reminding Keel of their first conversation. Keel babbles a little more about Skeet wanting to be innocent, but no one is innocent. He orders Skeet to look around. Skeet does, and notices that suddenly the diner is empty: of customers, cooks, and the World's Oldest Waitress. There's only one other person, sitting in a booth with his back to Skeet. Skeet's flashing back to scenes with Tommy as he approaches the person, and the when the person turns around, hey! It's Skeet! All bloody and gross! Whoa!
And of course Skeet wakes up.
There's a knocking at the motel room door, and when Skeet opens it, there's a blonde vision awaiting him. It's Tanya, who says she hopes she didn't wake them. Not at all, says a groggy Keel, who appears to be wearing black satin pyjamas. Skeet invites her in, and Keel asks what she has in the big black garbage bag she's carrying. It's the security tapes, which Larry threw away after Skeet and Keel questioned him yesterday. "I don't want to make trouble, but if there's any way you can help him..." she says. Skeet thanks her and tells her she did the right thing. You know he wants to make a move on her, but Keel's kind of killing the mood. She says her goodbyes and leaves.
So now we get to watch people watching television. Skeet's flying through the tapes on fast-forward when Keel shows up with a tray of food. People zip around the office like when you fast-forward a game of The Sims. Skeet doesn't seem to be all that into it, so Keel asks him what's wrong. "I don't know what to do. He lost his son. If he somehow has him back, who am I to interfere?" Keel, surprisingly, says that maybe he shouldn't. See, Skeet's tired of dashing people's hopes. I wonder if he's as tired of that as I'm tired of hearing it? Keel tells him that there's a bigger picture, and they can't help everyone along the way. Skeet sarcastically says that maybe they should put that on their business cards: "We're not here to help you." Hee! Skeet knows I love the business cards! Keel reminds him that they're here to learn. "So what have we learned?" asks Skeet. "That Mr. Lawrence Kittredge is experiencing something luminous, which is fascinating, but not part of the bigger picture..." Skeet interrupts him, because he's seen something on the videotape. He rewinds it and watches again. It's Larry sitting in his chair. Skeet ejects that video and pops another tape in. This is one of Larry talking to Franny and walking away, and then a glass of water on her desk tips over. "There's no ghost. There's no ghost!" says Skeet.
Tell that to Franny and Tanya, who are running out of the office, from where it sounds like all sorts of holy hell is breaking loose as Skeet and Keel come running up. Tanya tells them that Mr. Kittredge is still in there, so they head inside. It's dark and noisy, yes, but really all that's happening are some papers flying around the office. It's kind of fun, actually. Well, at least until a big bonfire lights in the wastebasket and desks start flying at Skeet and Keel and crashing into the wall. You know, I've seen more chaos at office Christmas parties. Commercials.
So Skeet and Keel stand around and squint and do their best not to be hit by flying chairs. Meanwhile, there's a light shining through under the door to Larry's office, so they carefully make their way over, dodging bulletin boards and fluorescent lights along the way.
In Larry's office, everything is normal. In fact, he's sitting at his desk with his eyes closed, listening to classical music on headphones. He jerks when Skeet touches his shoulder, and then notices the carnage in the outside office. "Oh my God," he says. "I think you should come with us," says Skeet, sounding for all the world like he's arresting Larry.
So back at the motel, Larry keeps saying that he needs to get back to the office; he appears to think he needs to calm Kevin down. Then he spies the stack of black unmarked videocassettes, which he somehow recognizes as his security tapes. "How did you...? You shouldn't have these." Skeet and Keel just look at him. Larry asks what they want. Keel says Skeet has a theory, and Skeet's theory is that...there's no ghost. This just confuses Larry, as he points out that they've seen what's been happening and have seen the tapes. Meanwhile, Skeet pours a glass of water and sets it down on the dresser by Larry. In case any dinosaurs that have been recreated through fossilized DNA happen to walk by, they'll know right away, I guess. Skeet points out that the odd goings-on only happen when Larry's around. Larry says that makes sense, because Kevin's coming to see him. Skeet says that he believes that Larry is haunted, just not by Kevin. "Then what's on those tapes?" says Larry. "Hope," says Skeet. Oh, good Lord. "Your deep and abiding hope that the tragic thing that happened to you, didn't." Skeet tells him that the tragic thing did in fact happen, and the way Larry's dealing with it is dangerous. Of course, Larry's a little confused by all of this, so naturally he turns to Keel, who just confuses him more with a lengthy explanation of the differences between ghosts and poltergeists. Larry's all, it's not a poltergeist, it's Kevin! Nuh-uh, counters Skeet, who starts going on about how Larry bottled up his grief and anger after Kevin died and went right back to work. And now he's got to let it go, or he's going to lose his wife after losing his son. "It's not Kevin. It's you." And Larry starts to get a little pissed, and says that Kevin came back to him. The glass of water flies through the air and shatters on the door by Keel's head. Yeah, that was a great idea, Skeet. More anger from Larry as he says his son missed him, and a chair flies through the room. "You missed him!" says Skeet. "No, he's not gone. He's not gone," says Larry, who doesn't seem to notice the objects launching themselves through the air, nor the mirror shattering behind him. It's only after a lamp flies through the air, shmucking Skeet in the head -- and I'm sorry, but by this point, another head injury for Skeet is simply hilarious, or at the very least the first rule of any Miracles drinking game -- that Larry seems to notice the damage to the hotel room, and he starts getting all "what have I done?" He apologizes to Skeet, who's bleeding profusely, and Skeet's all, "No prob." Larry's lips quiver. "He's gone, isn't he?" This Larry guy is actually quite a good actor. Too bad this episode never aired anywhere other than a crappy Canadian religion channel. And Larry starts crying, and Skeet's almost smiling, even though the entire right side of his face is caked in blood. He tells Larry that Kevin is gone, but his wife isn't.
So, here's the reconciliation scene where Larry tells his wife how much he missed her. And how weird that he does it in his office! And he starts laying out exactly what happened, and then he notices that his office door is open, and he shuts it.
So we get a full-screen close-up on Keel, who's pompously going on about how they may never fully understand what transpired here. And from the way this is being framed, you can tell that it's some sort of setup. And sure enough, he's talking to the motel manager, who's surveying the damage to the room. "Are you in a rock band or something?" he says. Well, Skeet is...oh, I'm thinking of Johnny Depp. Sorry. "Not currently," says Keel, who asks for a damage estimate. "Eleven hundred," says the manager, and Keel peels off some bills. "This is why we take the bus," says Keel, looking at Skeet.
We're back at that Catholic school from the beginning of the episode. Skeet's meeting Poppy in the church. "Thanks for coming," says Poppy, and Skeet thanks him for asking. So blah blah blah they reconcile over Skeet deciding to stick with his new job, and Poppy of course gives him his blessing, although not without reservations. "It's your life. You're an adult, sort of," he says, and he rambles about how much Skeet means to him. "I'll give you anything you need, kiddo, you know that." And they hug. And then Poppy suggests Skeet try ducking every once in a while, which was pretty funny. Still, since this episode looked like it was going to be some wicked vengeful ghost wreaking havoc, I'm kind of bummed that it turned out the way it did, all huggy. At least Skeet got beaned by a lamp, though. Still, I'd have expected Count Floyd to come out and apologize and promise that the episode of Monster Chiller Horror Theatre will be way more scary.