Valentown Museum, a ghost hunt. This video is set up by our regular cast of characters all wearing the same clothes as last week. It seems they started this meeting at 11:34 am also. At least they are consistent!

The video features a woman standing in profile oblivious to a figure that is walking in front of her further away from the camera. The reason for her apparent oblivousness could be that it is invisible to her OR that she simply knows it's there.  The figure is a stereotypical ghost according to them. An interesting bit of dialog ensues about the source of the video when Jael says “And this was taken with a security camera?” to which Bill replies “A security camera set up by Dwayne Claude” Austin pipes up and says that he “Loves that it’s a security camera, so many times we see a video, first thing you think is, why is this person there, what are they doing filming?” Please remember this dialog for later on.

It’s even better, according to photography expert Chi Lan, because not only is it “creepy” but they also have a potentially credible witness who is willing to stand by that video. She knows this how? How does she make the determination that the witness is potentially credible? Well, potentially just means that the witness has the potential to be credible. That’s like pointing to a stove burner and saying it’s a potentially cold burner, go ahead and touch it. Sure, it has the potential to be cold. If I turned the stove on, though, it also has the potential to be hot…

Long story short, Bill takes the lead of the investigation of Valentown with Larry and our photography expert, Chi-Lan, in tow.

During the ride, Chi-Lan mentions how it is almost indisputable amongst the community that the museum is haunted. Fine, based on….? And of course we have some foreshadowing of the way this is going to go when Bill gives away the script by saying that they are really setting the stage for, like, a really good ghost hunt…and he’s getting enthusiastic about this. He’s not the only one…Chi-Lan looks like she was just told that tomorrow is going to be a combination of her next 23 birthdays with two decades of Christmas presents thrown in.

Arriving at Valentown Museum they are met by and given a tour by Carol Finch, the Museum Program Director. First on the tour is the Electric Room “Heyyyyy youuuuuu guyyyyyyss” She shows them the Influence Machine which is a device that produces static electricity by cranking the handle. I immediately got a Ghost Lab flashback and thought “Oh no, we’re going to see this in operation tonight” Alas, I was correct.

Larry confirms that there are spirits in the Museum by asking Carol who says there is no doubt in her mind. Really getting a bad feeling here. Next they go up to the big room which evokes a wow. This was a ballroom where a murder took place as a result of some woman dancing with another guy. The other guy met his demise when her “beau came in and shot the fella” Chi-Lan, easily impressed, states how eerie the ballroom is. As Yoda said…”Bury your feelings deep down, Chi-Lan. They do you credit, but they could be made to influence your decisions during this investigation”

Next on the tour is the Loom Room, aptly named for the looms therein. A few spinning wheels are located in this area as well. It is here where the apparition was seen. They verify this by talking about archways and windows and how it all matches (remember that they got a reservoir to match up to a different lake a few episodes ago, though, but let’s assume they have the right spot here)

While they are going about, Carol talks about two times within a month period that groups were in there snapping pictures trying to catch something. Two times they saw the figure of a man standing right there. Leaving all stones unturned, none of them bother to ask if they could see those pictures. Instead Bill asks about the weather (obviously getting at the storminess factor) And luck of luck, it’s stormy this night, too.

Bill continues to lead the witness by asking if over the years the investigators there had been more likely to experience activity during storms and Carol responds that there is. Regular storms…no, electrical storms…yes. Well, Ghost Lab has already proven this so, okay.

Chi-Lan continues to annoy the heck out of me as they finish the tour by once again telling Carol that the place has that “eerie quality” to it.

Bill lays out the agenda by suggesting they interview Dwayne Claude, the guy who shot the video. Shot the video? I thought this was security camera footage…they said so up above. Dwayne sets up the shot by giving us the “It was a dark and stormy night” story. The place was electrified, literally. Tri-field meters all over the place. Good night to be using those instruments! Chi-Lan asks why he came to the Valentown Museum to which he replies “More or less just to do an investigation” I still want to know how this “security camera footage” comes into play?

They got a lot of readings etc and upon reviewing the footage from the camera they saw the figure. He won’t say it was a ghost because he doesn’t know, but it WAS something he couldn’t explain.

It’s experiment time. Chi-Lan mentions talking to Carol who theorizes that the ghost is just someone walking in the background out of focus. So first up is the Focus Test. Larry indicates that they will have Chi-Lan in the foreground in focus with him in the background out of focus. They recreate the setup and get ready to roll.

After the commercial they show a bit more of setup and repeat some scenes as per SOP and kill the lights. Quite honestly, NO ONE looked in focus but that’s alright. They show the two pieces of footage side by side and the first thing I noticed was how much brighter and detailed (better equipment) the Experiment Camera was compared to the Original Video. Our photography expert doesn’t notice this. Nor do any of the rest.

Chi-Lan brings up a reflection as a possibility. On to the Reflection Test where they bring in plexi-glass and a frame. The reflection box is set up and they attempt to repeat the scene. In the side by side comparison Chi-Lan says there are couple things wrong in that Larry is really bright (that's true, any of these folks appearing bright indicates a problem.  She also doesn't notice that the ENTIRE SCENE is bright compared to the original footage.) and the size isn’t right. Two things…get some weaker IR illumination and adjust the distance to the glass. That should take care of both issues.

Not an exact match (even though set up differently) so Chi-Lan indicates that we need to move on. Bill surmises that instead of a REflection, it’s a PROjection. This is much better because they will have control over the image. Okay. First they film a clip of Larry walking. This will then be projected onto a wire mesh in the scene. Instead of wearing a unicolor jacket, though, Larry was wearing multiple color and pattern so of course it’s not going to look the same. That’s not important, though, is it? Again, too much detail because of the IR strength. They still don’t notice that and conclude that if that’s the best it’s going to do then they’re not convinced that’s how it was done. They certainly don’t knock themselves out trying to refine things, dim the setting etc. But, they are getting antsy to conduct an investigation of their own, so…

Chi-Lan starts saying that maybe they need to get a bit more sophisticated with their experiments. I can only guess that this would entail a dust-devil machine, but we’ll never know for at this moment a musical sound is heard and, like a bunch of dogs after a fox, everything else is forgotten.

Some very loud piano notes are heard which Bill identifies. Then a bit of “let’s make the audience believe” ensues with Bill saying “So that’s not my imagination, you guys are hearing that, too?” Come on Bill, you all stopped and pointed out the sound, pretty obvious that everyone is aware of it. They hear another note and Bill starts to say something, but Chi-Lan goes into overdrive and a dark overbearing bossy nature emerges as she barks orders yelling “Everyone just stop!!” Afraid that they may be turned into newts if they disobey, the other two freeze in their tracks.

After we return from the commercial they stop the experiment and go check out the sounds. Loud and obnoxious music accompanies them through the room to the piano where Bill plays a note and seems to get a response in the form of an unstringed stringed instrument. Chi-Lan unconvincingly tries to convince us of her objectivity by telling us “I’m a skeptic and I don’t just think that this has to be proof that there is some type of paranormal activity here, but honestly, I can’t explain some of it.” Okay, well, you convinced me!

Bill finally declares what we knew was going to happen from the get-go…that it is now time for them to launch their OWN paranormal investigation. They set up cameras throughout the museum, hand out radios and other doo-dads and begin. Chi-Lan goes to the basement, Bill goes to the second floor, and Larry decides to hang out and watch videos.

We start with Chi-Lan talking about normal temperature, or at least I think she said normal, hard to hear her over the 184 decibels of music. She checks in after 8 seconds of investigation saying that she hasn’t seen anything yet and we cut to….

…Bill in the Taxidermy room. Larry radios him and asks him to check a reflection in the glass. Bill does so and proves their debunking ability by saying it’s from lights across the street coming in through a window in the music room.

Back to a narration by Chi-Lan, talking about a conversation with Carol where Carol reported a lot of activity in the back area of the basement.

Back to Bill who decides to do a short EVP session trying to contact the spirit of some sort of large feline. He asks the spirit to say its name. Finally the moment I’d been waiting for. Bill decides to try to “trigger something” using the Influence Machine. I started shaking my head more at this point, but was unable to tear my eyes from the screen as Bill starts to crank the machine up, calling to mind scenes of some mad scientist in a castle laboratory.

Back to Chi-Lan who says the place is getting a lot more eerie? Is that even possible? I thought we hit the ultimate superlative of eeriness from her several minutes ago. Quick shot of Larry talking about the house giving him the creeps. Yeah, I can agree, you’ve got a witch in the basement and a mad-scientist upstairs, get the heck out of there while you can, Larry, RUN! Save yourself, save your career!

Flash to Bill cranking harder and harder, a maniacal look starting to form on his countenance. Back to Larry glancing around, getting concerned. Back to Bill cranking more. Larry starts to wander around either on his own investigation or possibly just looking for the exit. No, he hears something from another room.

Down to Chi-Lan in the basement who is spinning this way and that at perceived noises. “Did you hear that?” Back to Bill cranking the lever, sparks starting to fly and a gleam forming in his eye.

Down to Chi-Lan again who just heard a crazy groan (it was probably a collective sound from the audience) Now to Larry calling out fairly normal temperatures. Back to Bill, the wheel of the machine almost a blur. Items rattling on the table from the force of his cranking.

Chi-Lan again talking about a groan (same groan?) Larry turning to the camera, eyes wide, flashing his light here and there talking about not feeling alone.  He looks frighteningly similar to a worried Arthur glancing around expectantly in the forest of the Knights who say "Ni". Suspense building. Bill still cranking (or are they just splicing scenes now?)

Chi-Lan continuing her decorum by kicking in a door (bet the museum loves that) and rushing in and commercial (thank goodness!)

And we’re back to the situation room where we get the required recap of how things didn’t look good enough and how they heard the mysterious sounds. Too bad they never detail what their more sophisticated experiments would have been but, in all fairness, the director probably never told them. So, instead, they talk about recording EVPs and it was then that they got the recording that they showcase as the evidence. Ben says it sounds like a scream. It was not a scream to me. It could have been a single yelp from a dog or someone’s shoe screeching on the floor, but it was not a scream.

Notice also, how you see the progress bar of the audio, hear the sound, and then the bar passes over a rather distinct spike on the wave form, but we hear NOTHING as it does. Did they not sync up the audio with the video or is there something else going on here?

Ben the Skeptic says that he tends to believe that the team was experiencing some of the same patterns as the paranormal investigators that were there. Oh Boy. Bill says he thinks there is activity there, Ben repeats that he thinks they captured paranormal evidence. Haunted.

Bottomline, the video most likely could have been recreated if they had refined their reflection test a little by altering distance and cutting down the intensity of the IR. But, again, just because you can recreate something, does it mean 100% conclusively that it IS a fake? I don’t think so. Conversely, just because these folks can’t recreate/explain something (no great stretch there) does that mean it is real? I don’t think so. Those two issues constitute a major flaw in the premise of this show.

Discussion of this episode here.