Chpt8 Ep5: "Penny Dreadful Spirit"

Chpt8 Ep5: "Penny Dreadful Spirit" is an episode in the series Power Rangers: Omniverse

Plot
Kurt tells Hunter about a case he's found in Kearney, Missouri. Hunter is incredulous: Kurt hasn't spoken to him since introducing Benny and now he wants to go on a hunt. Hunter wants to know why Benny is still alive, and Kurt tells Hunter that Benny, although a vampire, was an ally he found in Purgatory. Hunter asks why make friends again with another monster, just like how he met Ruby in Hell, Kurt admits that this is different and tells him that Benny is the kind of vamp that preys on humans and isn't a cold blooded killer like most of them. Hunter still isn't happy, but agrees to check out the case in Missouri.

As they arrive at the scene, Hunter remarks that it doesn't seem like their kind of thing. A woman named Mary Lew went crazy and killed her husband, Chester Lew. Kurt thinks it's a case--the man was practically decapitated--and when they get out of the Impala they find a familiar face already there: Garth. Garth is posing as a Texas ranger and wearing a cowboy hat. He sees Hunter and Kurt and gives them both a hug, saying that he missed them. Then his cell phone rings, and a row of different cell phones can be seen in the inner pockets of his jacket when he answers it. On the call, Garth gives advice to another Ranger on how to kill a certain monster. Afterwards, Kurt asks Garth if he's the new Bobby, and he says that after Bobby died and Hunter and Kurt disappeared, he stepped in. Hunter gets annoyed by it, but Garth says they can talk about it later. He introduces the duo to Scott Lew, Mary and Chester's son, but Scott can only tell them that his parents were high school sweethearts - he doesn't know why Mary snapped.

Hunter can't find any EMF or sulfur at the scene. Garth reminds him that EMF can fade and any other evidence could have been contaminated. As they talk, Garth steps in something sticky. Kurt thinks it might be green ectoplasm, and Garth, after taking a quick taste, confirms it. He then gets a call from the coroner, who tells him that the word "Alcott" was carved into Chester's chest - apparently by Mary's fingernails. They go to question Mary at the hospital, and she tells them that she was at the store last night and then she lost time. She remembers being full of rage, but not much else. They ask her about "Alcott" and learn she was a woman Chester took to their senior prom after a fight he and Mary had, but that was more than 30 years ago.

Before they question Sara Alcott, they stop for lunch. Garth asks Kurt where he's been for the last year, and Kurt tells him that he was in Purgatory. He asks him how he got out, but Kurt changes the subject. They learn that Garth was a dentist before he became a Power Ranger, and that his first kill was an actual tooth fairy monster.

Meanwhile, Scott stops to get coffee at a market. He grabs some cash from his mom's purse and heads inside, where he runs into an old friend named Jeff who gives him condolences and offers his help. Scott mentions some money that Jeff owes him and, green ectoplasm leaking from his ear, splashes him with hot coffee and then kills him with a nearby shovel. After the attack, Scott sees himself in a mirror, the visage of an old Civil War soldier flickering over his own reflection.

Hunter, Kurt, and Garth arrive on the scene, and Garth is now wearing an old baseball hat. When Hunter realizes it was Bobby's, he snatches it off Garth's head, saying that he's wearing it wrong. They learn from the sheriff that Scott doesn't remember much except a white-hot rage, and his face is obscured by a strange glitch on the market's security footage. He also wrote the word "Sussex" in Jeff's blood, so they decide to split up: Kurt will question Sara Alcott, and Hunter and Garth will research Sussex.

Kurt learns from Sara that, though she and Chester had sex on prom night, nothing else came of it and he married Mary soon after. Mary never really got over Chester's indiscretion, though. While Hunter and Garth are researching, Hunter remembers a moment with Amelia. They'd just had sex for the first time, and she told him about her husband, Don. Don died in Afghanistan, and afterwards she hadn't been able to endure everyone's pity, so she'd moved. After the flashback, Garth asks if Hunter wants to talk about whatever is going on between him and Kurt. He knows that Bobby used to listen to the boys when they needed him. Hunter gets angry and tells Garth to stop trying to be Bobby. Garth calls him out, saying that Bobby wasn't just there for Hunter and Kurt- he belonged to all other Rangers. They go back to researching, and Hunter learns that Sussex was a company Scott and Jeff started together. Jeff ran it into the ground, though, and Scott had held a grudge.

Kurt calls Hunter and Garth and tells them that Mary held a grudge against Sara Alcott. Garth, who's been looking through one of Bobby's books, finds a reference to green ectoplasm and says they're dealing with a Specter: a ghost that possesses people and forces them to act on whatever betrayals they're feeling. Since the specter Bobby hunted rose shortly after a grave desecration, they search for recent grave desecration reports in the area. The day before Mary was possessed, the town's Confederate "tomb of the unknown soldier" was vandalized and the casket opened by a group of teenagers, so the hunters go there after dark. Hunter finds a broken cord on the ground, but it doesn't seem like anything in the casket has been taken or disturbed, so they salt and burn his bones.

The next day in the police station, Scott is having an asthma attack. Deputy Doug Wallace goes to get Scott's inhaler from his personal effects, but after touching Scott's things he becomes possessed and picks up a shotgun instead. As green ectoplasm leaks from his ear, he goes to the sheriff's desk and tells him to write his own reports before pulling the trigger, killing him. Afterwards at the scene, Kurt notices green ectoplasm on the Sheriff's desk, and Hunter says that the teenagers must have removed something from the casket that the specter is attaching itself to. They need to find the object and whoever has it now, so they question Deputy Doug. He tells them that after the shooting, Deputy Karl Henry tackled him to the ground, took his gun, and said he was going to the hospital. Hunter tells Kurt and Garth to find out what they can about the unknown soldier while he goes to the hospital.

At the library, Garth tells Kurt that he's available if the boys wants to talk about anything - pointing out that it seems like he and Hunter are talking but not listening to each other. While on the way to the hospital, Hunter remembers the morning after he and Amelia had sex for the first time. When he woke up, she'd been leaving for work and had asked him to forget what she'd said about her husband because she didn't want him to look at her with pity.

From the librarian, Kurt and Garth learn that the unknown soldier may be Vance Collins, a Confederate soldier who was killed by his brother, a Union soldier. According to legend, he swore vengeance with his dying breath. In an old photograph, Kurt notices that Vance is wearing a necklace with a pendant. The librarian tells him that some soldiers wore a copper penny around their necks for luck. Kurt calls Hunter and leaves a message: there was a broken string at the tomb, and they're looking for the penny that was on it. Hunter arrives at the hospital just in time to intercept Karl before he can kill a man who called him "out" during a baseball game. Hunter punches Karl, but Karl quickly gets the better of him. He tells Hunter that he should have a turn on the specter next then putting the penny in his hand, gaining control of him now.

Kurt and Garth get back to their motel room to find Hunter sitting calmly on his bed, not answering his ringing cell phone. Kurt asks him what's going on, and Hunter, green ectoplasm leaking from his ear, aims a gun at Kurt and tells him that he should have told him about Benny when he returned from Purgatory. A flashback of the penny's journey from the teenager who took it, to the cashier he gave it to, to Mary who received it as change, to Scott who got it from her purse, to Doug who got it from Scott's personal effects in lockup, to Karl who picked it up from the floor after tackling Doug, and finally to Hunter.

Hunter, possessed by Vance, tells Kurt that all he's done for him for the last few years is deceive him. Kurt admits that he made mistakes, and Hunter says that what Kurt has done from drinking demon blood, getting together with Ruby, staying soulless to hunt with Samuel, and most recently, being friends with a vampire--has been nothing but betrayal to him. Hunter punches Kurt and they get in a short scuffle. Garth gets between them and tries to talk Hunter down, but it doesn't work. Garth goes in for a punch on Hunter again, surprising him and making him drop the penny from his palm. Finally ending the curse cycle.

Afterwards, Garth picks up the penny and melts it down the following day. Hunter asks him why the penny didn't effect him when he made contact with it, and Garth says he doesn't hold grudges: you can't change the past. Then he tells Hunter to stop being an Idjit about Kurt because they're all each other has from this point on. Then he gives Hunter a hug, and Hunter puts Bobby's hat back on Garth's head and tells him to "keep on truckin'." As Garth leaves in his car, he gets a call from another Ranger who needs advice about killing a mutated werewolf. Garth then tries unsuccessfully to start his vehicle. He slams a hand on the steering wheel. "Balls!" He says. Garth tries again to start his vehicle, this time with success. He gives Hunter a thumbs-up and drives away.

Before Hunter and Kurt leave Kearney, Hunter remembers when he confronted Amelia after their hook-up. He'd told her that he didn't pity her and said that when his "brother" died he ran, too. She'd let him into her motel room and poured him whiskey, then asked if he wanted to talk about it. He'd said yes and told her that she could talk to him about Don if she wanted. When Hunter gets into the Impala with Kurt, he tells him more about Amelia and that the two of them lived together for a short while in Texas. He then tells Kurt that he knows what he said when he was possessed, but he needs to own up to his own mistakes - like not telling him about Benny and letting the vampire live. Hunter then says that he might just be the Ranger who kills Benny someday, and Hunter says they'll cross that bridge when they get to it.