In the first post-shakeup episode of Ghost Hunters International we find the team investigating a very cool looking castle in Wales. For those who missed the (nearly non-existent) drama over the past few weeks, we've lost 3 of the 6 team members in what seemed to be one low-level and temporary medical emergency and two non-events.

Of the original team we still have Robb, Andy and Barry but Shannon, Brian and Donna have all permanently left the show. Donna had a recurrence of a chronic condition which she said she needed to recuperate from at home, but off-camera she apparently decided to stay there. Odder still, the new season began with Dustin Pari on the team instead of Shannon Sylvia, and no mention of her departure whatsoever. Then, last episode we saw Brian do the tech setup and investigate during the first half of the episode, but without explanation he was simply missing during the investigation in the second half of the episode and Barry was suddenly doing tech.

The new team going forward will now have Dustin doing the post-investigation research, Barry as the tech manager and newcomer (to Ghost Hunting TV) Brandy Green in the position of case manager.  I also thought it was very cool that the post-investigation evidence review team is now Barry & Brandy. I still don't get why Andy & Robb don't lend a hand (or Jay & Grant, for that matter) but traditionally the shows seem (to me, at least) to have treated women differently. There have been a half-dozen or more women investigators and none of them have ever been on the regular two-person evidence review team. I hate to suggest sexism because it's really such a minor, subtle thing but subconsciously it's always bothered me a little and I was glad to see Brandy doing that job.

Bodelwyddan Castle apparently only dates back to the late 17th century, although the history of the land goes back much further. Still, although it was apparently designed as a residence for the Williams family it appears to be constructed with authentic features that will be familiar to castle nerds (like myself): Apses on the keep walls with cross-shaped arrow-slits, merlons along the edge of the battlements, etc. There even appeared to be an area for a portcullis. No word on murder-holes, though.  For those of a less nerdy persuasion, castles went out of style as a useful military structure right around the time people figured out how to launch cannonballs with gunpowder but despite the relatively recent construction of this castle it does appear to have the hallmarks of military functionality, which many homes designed as "castles" do not, and me likey.

GHI's host took the team on a tour and told them about some of the reported activity. I caught onto a little theme I thought was interesting: In the billiard room he himself had seen a gray figure walking past him out of the corner of his eye and then on another occasion in the same room he said he "felt" someone yelling at him in his ear. He was very clear, he didn't actually hear anything, he just "felt" like someone was yelling in his ear.

Then, in one of the bedrooms he said people had "felt" the presence of a "lady in blue" named "Emily" or "Emilia".  There was actually a woman who had once lived there by the name of "Emilia" and there was indeed a painting of her in the building, but in the painting she was not wearing blue.  He was also very clear here: no one had seen a woman in blue — they had "felt" her.

This just seemed very odd to me. Of course, we don't know if this happened to a number of unassociated people, randomly and independently or if "people have felt" is just a euphamism and it was really only one person who had this experience, but hypothetically if you had a number of independent experiences where people experienced a woman's presence and even "felt" (sensed, I suppose would be a more apt word) what color she was wearing, that would certainly raise some interesting scientific questions.

One historical incident that seemed to have been confirmed later on was that a previous owner had found bones (apparently human remains) in one of the walls of the house during a renovation, and had them reburied — not in a graveyard on the property but in a different wall of the house.  I'm not sure what the reasoning was behind that, and I didn't get a feeling of supreme confidence that this was something that definitely happened but if it did… weird. Weirder still, the new resting place is apparently over a story up and behind an odd statue embedded in the castle known as the "long man".

Robb kicks off the investigation by sending Barry & Brandy out with the thermal camera, which struck me as a little odd. For one thing, that's an honor usually reserved for the "lead" investigators (of both shows) but also it's not the easiest thing in the world to interpret a thermal image and if you're looking for ghosts and you're not trained on the thermal camera, you're chances of getting excited over nothing are probably pretty good. Still, no harm was done and it's good to spread the fun toys around and also to make sure everyone gets to clock some time training on the equipment.

While Barry & Brandy were in the "Toy room", a room filled with Victorian-era gadgets and novelties (and supposedly the favorite haunt of two little girls that drowned after literally skating on thin ice) they heard footsteps and felt as if the floor rose and fell briefly beneath their feet. Robb came up with Dustin and decided to do some EVPs to see if he could replicate their experience.

As an aside, when Robb did his obligatory aside about the definition of an EVP, I actually listened (usually I tune it out because I'm busy taking notes and I already know what an EVP is ) and I nearly choked. Robb's definition is any noise or sound that the investigators did not hear with their own ears at the time.  This might just be a "dumbed down for laymen" version, but I have a concern that Robb uses this definition literally. Just recently we saw a sound captured on two separate recorders — which means it was probably an actual sound and therefore something he could have heard with his own ears, and technically not an EVP — but Robb labeled it an EVP and Andy expressed excitement about it being on two different recorders.  If this doesn't raise any red flags for you, all I can say is wait until you check out the EVPs they caught on this investigation.

Back in the Toy Room, though, Robb did seem to have some remarkable success.  In seeming response to something he says, three knocks come from beneath Dustin's feet.  This happens a total of three times, and although it seems they didn't get a response to every question they asked, the responses seemed to be selective (seeming to answer "do you want us to stay?" after "do you want us to leave?" got no reply) and all of the "responses" were in the form of three consecutive knocks which seemed to come from the floor near Dustin (who was standing out in the open in front of everyone).

Robb calls on the radio to get Andy & Brandy (uh oh, that rhymes) into the room below to make sure there isn't anyone in it. Dustin said it sounds/feels exactly like some old lady in an apartment below is banging on the ceiling with a broom to get the kids upstairs to keep the noise down, except Andy verifies that not only is there no one in the room below, but the ceiling in that room is somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty feet high.

In addition to the flanking maneuver BrAndy (you see what I did there?) was running, Robb also called Barry in on the scene with his full-spectrum camera. I thought this teamwork was fantastic and it's something we've never seen on Ghost Hunters. Traditionally the investigators go in teams of two and investigate different parts of the site or take shifts staring at the video feeds but calling the entire team in to effectively seal and document a spot where activity seems to be happening is, I think, a fantastic use of resources and it certainly makes the investigation more exciting to watch.

In the end, they got one last bit of activity and then the door at the foot of the steps leading from the room BrAndy (yes, I'm going to keep doing that) was in seemed to close on its own. Andy tried to rule out air currents as a possibility, but long-time readers will know that doors closing on their own is on Stephen's list of things that don't impress him, and for good reason. Still, I was a bit impressed because if we are to assume there was some invisible entity doing the knocking then we could interpret the door closing as that entity going downstairs and leaving — and the activity did seem to stop after that.  It's not remotely scientific, but it's still kind of spooky.

BrAndy took the opportunity to head into a room where one of the castle's staff seemed convinced there was a male entity that disliked women. She claimed to have had her hair pulled and clothes tugged, so Brandy bravely sat out in the middle of the room and suggested to any nearby spirits that they accost her in the same manners at their leisure. Nothing seemed to happen to her but Andy was filming with the thermal camera and something weird happened. Brandy asked (the empty air) if it were part of the Williams family. Nothing happened, but when she asked if it had lived here suddenly the thermal image on the FLIR went a bit wacky. Her followup question was, "Did you die here?" and the same thing happened again, almost in response to her.

Essentially what happened was that the area surrounding Brandy went completely black, but Brandy was still plainly visible. The temperature registered in the center of the image did not change, nor did the range of the temperature scale — two important indicators to check before concluding what we were seeing actually represents a change in the environment. Still, the entire room aside from Brandy was in colors at the very bottom of the scale, so even a slight temperature change might have pushed the rest of the image into the black.

Still, I'm not sure that's what happened either. In the moments where the rest of the image went black, there seemed to be a change in the way Brandy registered as well. Parts of her that read the hottest (bare skin) seemed to register slightly cooler (which is consistent with the rest of the room) but parts of her that should normally read cooler (hair, clothes, etc) suddenly registered white, at the top of the scale. That didn't make any sense to me — I don't know how that could even be possible. My thinking is that maybe the whole thing was just the camera glitching out?

In any case, nothing more came of it — they didn't even show it during the Reveal (or if they did, it was left on the cutting room floor), and BrAndy moved on to the basement, and then the crawlspace beneath part of the castle. While underneath one of the rooms Andy heard footsteps above him moving clearly from one part of the room to another. He had Brandy call on the radio to check team positions but no one was near the room, but they hurried over there to verify that no one was skulking around — again, I'm liking this teamwork. Robb, Dustin & Barry didn't hear any footsteps in the room either, but a bit later they heard some coming from upstairs. After verifying that BrAndy was still in the basement they went up to check it out, but came up empty.

During the evidence review they confirmed that the 3-knocks they'd heard a number of times were in fact audible on the tape and in one case were actually quite loud and obvious.  I have no idea, especially because the knocks consistently came three-at-a-time, what rational explanation could reasonably account for that evidence other than hoaxing — and with so many people in plain sight of each other it quickly becomes a distasteful conspiracy theory to suggest anyone on the team might have been involved. I will say that without knowing the exact details of the interior layout it's possible someone who works at the castle had secreted themselves away in some fashion and was playing "ghost" for the evening, but the team seemed confident they'd covered that possibility with BrAndy's flanking maneuver.

There was also an "orb" photo on Barry's full-spectrum camera which appeared to be moving exactly parallel to the floor (horizontally), was very well defined and even seemed to be giving off its own light since we could see what appeared to be a reflection off the glass in the background.  I'd still want an imaging expert (or ten) to review it and make sure it's not just lens flare or something like that, but on the surface I'd agree that it doesn't seem to be dust and it does seem to defy conventional explanation.

Another oddity was captured, not by the team but by the castle's own security cameras. One section of the building had been locked up and contained a number of relics, including some pottery figures. Not only were the figures heavy, but they had been secured with museum putty in order to ensure they stayed in place.  Right about the time the GHI team got their investigation going the security footage shows one of the figures topple over on its own. The security camera coverage virtually guarantees no one was in that room or anywhere near it at the time, and the figure in question was on a table with a number of other pottery figures that did not move.

This is another one of those things that seems a bit spooky when viewed in the context of everything else that is/was going on, however on its own it doesn't seem all that strange to me.  Hypothetically, the figure in question might not be well-balanced and therefore prone to falling over.  The museum putty might not have been properly applied, or perhaps it was but the weight-balance of the figure eventually overcame the grip of the putty anyway. It's not necessarily the likliest of scenarios, but certainly both possible and plausible. Still, as I said, when viewed in the overall context I can understand why it might be worth mentioning.

What I think is definitely worth mentioning, though, is the EVP evidence they collected on this investigation. There were two recordings. In one, Robb says, "Great night for an investigation" and we hear what sounds like a reasonably clear, "yeah" in response. In the other we hear Robb ask, "This is where the Blue Lady was seen?" and then what seems to be a very clear (and immediate), "Yes."

Here is my problem: All of the investigators spent hours asking questions like, "What is your name?" "Were you part of the Williams Family?" "Did you live here?" "Did you die here?" etc.  These are all questions that are aimed at the alleged spirits.  Why is it then, that the only two "EVPs" the team got were when Robb was clearly talking to other team members?

I couldn't find if we see Robb saying "Great night for an investigation" on the production footage, but we do see Robb ask about the Blue Lady.  When he asks, he's standing right next to Barry, looking right at him.  It's extremely clear that he is asking Barry the question, but right after it comes out of his mouth there is an edit/cut to Dustin, who was also in the room at the time.

Personally, even though "yes" is a very short, single-syllable word (and this might just be my imagination, but…) it really sounds like Barry's voice and accent to me.  Even if it isn't, it might have been Dustin. What I'm saying is, are we really supposed to believe that no one answered Robb's question?  The way they edited it, Dustin seemed to be answering (but not with a simple "yes"), however there is a clear edit there so for all we know Barry said, "yes" and Dustin elaborated.

Similarly, if a spirit was going to choose only two moments during the evening to be recorded, why would one of the moments be in reponse to Robb saying it was a "Great night for an investigation" ?  Isn't it far more likely that it was just another team member or even one of the crew expressing agreement with him?

I thought this was a great investigation, and I even found parts of the evidence somewhat compelling, but these "EVPs" disturb me greatly.  If the GHI team is labeling these recordings as paranormal then I don't think I can ever take another one of their EVPs remotely serious again. It was one thing when we hear a woman's voice say something ordinary, but we're told no women were in the building at the time; it's quite another thing when we hear what amounts to exactly the reply you would expect to hear from a fellow team-member, in a voice that could easily belong to someone who was in the room at the time.

For me, as minor a thing to get upset over as this might seem, this EVP evidence cast a dark shadow over what otherwise would have been a very enjoyable investigation to watch. And it was enjoyable, but I'm left uneasy.