The previous episode brought back GHI with a bang and not a little fan controversy, and that did nothing but whet my appetite for the next installment. I'm endlessly entertained by the "Ghost Hunter" franchise, because I like most of the people involved and it keeps my investigative instincts on their toes. I get most of my enjoyment out of the chance to consider how I would handle and interpret similar evidence, or what I might have done differently.

One topic that has always fascinated me is the intersection between folklore and reality. What appears as a flight of fancy to one person could be the foundation of belief for another. Very often, reported paranormal activity falls within such grey territory, and it becomes a challenge to find the seed of truth within the constructs of myth and tradition.

As such, it's also important to understand the context of the folklore. In this episode, two items of pagan tradition were highlighted: the Green Man and the Black Dog. Oddly, the one person with the regional background to know the context in some detail managed to interpret one of those items incorrectly. The legends surrounding the Black Dog were generally correct, though they run a pretty wide gamut in the lore of the Isles.

Unfortunately for Barry, the Green Man, while quite the popular pagan icon, was also fairly common in many churches throughout history. Barry is apparently forgetting that the Church, for much of its existence in the British Isles, regularly co-opted the existing religious ceremonies, holy days, and icons in the interests of "facilitating" the conversion process. Which means Barry was dead wrong when he insisted that the presence of the Green Man was a significant sign.

In the end, it meant very little, but it does highlight that drawing the wrong conclusions from local folklore and tradition can lead investigators down the wrong path, possibly wasting valuable time. It's really just an extension of a problem that can come whenever any client's suppositions and interpretations are accepted without a grain of salt.

Case #1: St. James Theatre, New Zealand

Theatres can be a real pain to investigate. The acoustics of the building are designed to carry noise and amplify subtle sounds. Even those most experienced with such a building can be fooled. It doesn't surprise me that the team heard things now and then, and that they couldn't pinpoint a source. This is especially true in Barry's case, because he seems to overreact to some sounds.

The main piece of evidence here was the apparent EVP, which seemed to be a response to a question. In this case, Rob was impressed because the whisper was captured on more than one recording device. In most cases, I prefer correlating evidence from more than one source, but EVPs are an exception. By the nature and physics of sound itself, I tend to interpret anything caught on more than one recording device to come, most likely, from a natural ambient source.

In this case, the whisper is so low that interpreting it as female may not be conclusive. I imagine that the team would have checked, but couldn't it have been one of the cameramen or sound guys following the team around? After the fact, it might have slipped everyone's mind. It's pure supposition, but I'm not so sure that it can be dismissed as impossible, especially since the response makes sense if it had come from someone working with the team at the time.

Case #2: Woodchester Mansion, England

Setting aside my feelings on Barry's knowledge of the local folklore, a couple items were notable on this investigation. The "evidence" from the basement is awfully subjective. I did find it interesting that the EM meter was reacting in that particular location, since those models are generally well-shielded from stray RF signals, but I agree that the behavior of the meter was only suggestive, not definitive.

The EVP was a bit less impressive, because I think there's a lot of interpretation involved. The "growl" wasn't loud enough to be absolutely confirmed as an animal growl, so it doesn't necessarily support the claims of a Black Dog experience. I was left to wonder if the team would have been as impressed with the sound if they hadn't heard the tales about the Black Dog in the first place.

I also had reservations regarding the "blue ball of light". The video footage looks just like a bug flying down towards the floor, and I imagine there will be quite a bit of criticism as a result. Even if it was, in fact, a blue ball of light floating in the room and up the stairs, that doesn't mean that it's paranormal in nature. Whenever I hear about glowing balls of light, the piezoelectric effect comes to mind.

The piezoelectric effect is the result of energy released from certain minerals and materials based on changes in mechanical stress. Materials like quartz or limestone will release energy when stress is applied or released, for example, and that will result in balls of light. It's a well-known principle, but it does get overlooked by many paranormal investigators. It would be worth exploring whether or not the materials of construction or the geology of the region lend themselves to such an effect.

As such, I was quite as impressed as the GHI team was. I probably would have been intrigued enough to want a solid follow-up investigation to get more information, but I wouldn't have been quite that enthusiastic. But, since we now know very well how the team reacts to certain kinds of "evidence", Rob's eventual pronouncements were not particularly surprising.

The fourth season finale was a bit of a letdown for me, especially the very end, so the writers had a difficult task to perform. Not only did they have to kick off the season well enough to justify some of the changes, but they had to overcome my skepticism. For the most part, I think the writers did what they needed to do.

In some respects, I think the production kicked things up a notch. The pullback effects shot in the teaser was completely gratuitous, but it was still a great way to get the audience's attention for what is, in the end, a simple story. The survivors of the explosion at the end of the fourth season finale (all name characters, of course) need to be rescued, but Michael's little trap included a high-tech silent alarm. So Michael is ready to come calling to finish off the enemy, and Team Atlantis needs to race against time to rescue the survivors. Oh, and since Teyla is on Michael's ship, it's inevitable that her rescue will be in the cards as well.

So much is crammed into the premiere that it's surprising how much character ends up in the final mix. Granted, Michael and his hybrids are reduced to the usual storytelling clichés, but the team gets a chance to shine. John and Ronon got to have a "last stand" moment (which was obviously going to end in a last minute rescue), and the characters were well suited for it. McKay got to demonstrate his technical brilliance and deliver a baby. Even Keller is starting to assert herself more, which is a nice touch.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the writers finally gave Carter the chance to demonstrate some strong leadership, and it's the end of her command. I found the various comments about her work on Atlantis, particularly McKay's summary of how well she did over the past year, to be a bit ironic. In fact, it could be seen as an example of the writers' lack of self-awareness. Carter was practically tossed in a corner and forgotten for most of the fourth season! Then again, as far as the team is concerned, maybe her hands-off approach was the best thing about her.

Sheppard, on the other hand, must be trying to win a Most Manly Tough Guy Award contest with Ronon. The man gets a spike to the liver and multiple crush wounds, and he's still forcing himself to stage a rescue. They managed not to ignore his injuries completely, but it would have been nice for Sheppard to suffer his way through the rescue op just a bit more than he did. Since his survival was never in question (Sheppard and McKay will live forever, I guarantee it), why not put him through the wringer?

While I've been soundly dismissed for fronting the notion previously, I think this episode underscores the semi-romantic nature of John and Teyla's personal relationship. I will agree that there's little chance that John and Teyla will end up together, since that's not quite how the Stargate franchise works. Characters are far more likely to dance around each other for years or (as with the father of Teyla's child) conduct romances off-screen. That said, the bond is more than strictly professional; the end of the episode is practically overflowing with "significant glances".

If there's one quibble I have with the episode, it's the removal of Michael and his hybrids from the story. Michael spent most of the fourth season setting up his grand plan, and it seems like a waste of potential to eliminate him before he can truly step into the spotlight. Michael was one of the better recurring villains, because his actions were the direct consequence of a questionable Atlantis experiment. I thought it would have been a clever choice to have Michael be the true villain of the series because it would have justified the Wraith (who have yet to fulfill their potential) and could have unified the series as a whole. Unless Michael stages another miraculous escape and survives, that opportunity is lost.

Yet I will admit that Michael's apparent demise is not enough to ruin the episode for me, and within the context of the premiere itself, his defeat makes sense. Sure, the writers took the easy route and had Teyla's love interest overcome his programming at just the right time (that cliché I mentioned earlier), but if one can accept that Teyla could give birth on Michael's ship without alerting anyone at all, a few clichés are par for the course.

This being the continuance of the first season, long after the original batch was filmed, the first part of the episode is a combination of reintroduction and setup. I was quickly reminded of one essential truth regarding GHI: it is a very, very new team with none of the long-term partnerships evident in TAPS. Some of them have worked together, sure, but the dynamic is different when the team composition is based on production design vs. existing status quo.

Rob continues to play the leadership role, and I think he's growing into doing it for television nicely (even if I disagree with some of his opinions about his team members). Andy continues to be the earnest debunker, and no matter what others may say, I still enjoy and appreciate his presence. He may not be the strongest critical thinker in the world, but he tries, and that's a lot more than I can say for some members of TAPS these days.

Donna continues to play the spiritualistic case manager, which is the role the editors chose for her years ago. I would still like to see that engineering education play a bigger role, but that's not how she was taught in the field, so it's not likely to change. For the most part, she's a comfortable presence: a bit softer than the rest of the guys and a cooperative team member as a whole.

Barry is described by Rob as the source of strong scientific ideas. This follows a trend that I see in the field as a whole. Using new ideas, sometimes with technical equipment, does not equate to scientific investigative practice. Yes, utilizing a camera with the capability of capturing a wider spectrum of light on an image is technically helpful, but there's analytical expertise that needs to come with the package. The images need to be interpreted correctly. Someone who jumps at every noise and shadow is not in the right psychological state of mind to judge a photographic anomaly objectively. (Also, while I appreciate innovation, it's not innovation if the idea has been around for years!)

Rob also makes a similar mistake regarding Brian. In the field, the term "tech manager" means many different things. One would hope it means someone who understands every aspect of the equipment being used, why it is used, and how the data generated by the equipment should be interpreted. All too often, it means "the guy who sets things up and checks the bags at the end of the night". With all due respect to Brian, for all his earnest desire to investigate, I think he's much closer to the latter than the former. (However, if Brian should ever correct the rest of the team on the proper interpretation of FLIR footage in a future episode, I'll consider myself proven wrong.)

That brings me to the biggest surprise of the episode: the replacement of Shannon with Dustin Pari, formerly of TAPS. I see this as an instant improvement. Shannon was never a good fit for the group, and while her apparent lack of experience may have been played up for the cameras, she was no better than Brian or Barry (or even Donna) when it came to keeping a level head. Dustin, on the other hand, was a bit more reliable during his time with TAPS, and he's certainly more popular than Shannon ever was with the fanbase.

Two things impressed me about GHI during its initial run: the stronger emphasis on debunking and the somewhat more consistent criteria for accepting activity as paranormal. Neither was perfect, but both were better than the current status quo on "Ghost Hunters". I greatly appreciate the idea that an argument for confirmed paranormal activity is built with overlapping sources of anomalous data. I may quibble over whether or not the data is interpreted correctly, but I can't argue the general rule. A single event does not constitute overwhelming evidence.

Larnach Castle was certainly an impressive location, and another that might have been too large for such a small team. That said, the team did a good job of covering the areas that were mentioned in the client's reports. And accordingly, I thought Andy did a very good job of debunking many of the claims, particularly the "phantom odors" and Brian's discovery of elevated EMF. It seems obvious and a bit arrogant to push those explanations, but frankly, it's rare in the field, especially when so many groups just want to find anything paranormal in a location.

That said, I was a little disappointed when Andy (and Rob, to be fair) fell into the same FLIR trap that has tangled TAPS all too often in the past. Cold spots in a castle seem like an inevitable problem to me, especially when everyone is commenting on how cold it is outside, but that's beside the point. The FLIR simply will not register air temperature. Period. Rob might have discovered a "cold spot", but the FLIR is still reading the temperature of the wall behind him.

I'm also not sure that the "Singapore Method" is as well-designed as the team seems to think it is. While playing period music is an intriguing notion, it would be a lot more meaningful if played in an empty room under surveillance. By playing it in a room with the investigators, the tone and mood of the music is more likely to influence the psychological state of the investigators than anything else. And that, in turn, will influence their perceptions, from noticing small ambient noises in the sudden silence to the "feeling" of the room.

Other "evidence" was a bit more intriguing. I thought Dustin and Donna did a great job of adjusting to the noise of plates rattling. They heard the noise (capturing it on audio at the same time), adjusted their monitoring strategy to account for the noise, and managed to catch more unusual sounds as a result. Granted, it could have been something as simple as a mouse (given that it's a big castle in the middle of the night), but gathering more than one point of data is the name of the game, and they made the right kind of effort.

The "evidence" that excited GHI the most, however, was the face in Barry's photo. While I always question photographic evidence, since pattern recognition is a powerful deceiver, I like how the team went through the due diligence to find the video from the moment the photo was taken to show how where all the team members were at that exact moment. All too often, "ghost photos" are tossed out to the paranormal community without a whiff of context, as if the conclusions should be based on faith. I may not be convinced in this instance, but they made an effort.

In the end, Rob declared the site haunted. I can understand that from their perspective. They were convinced that the face in the photo was a ghost, and so that had to be very compelling. I think I was more impressed by the changes in the team and how much of the reported activity was debunked. It's what drew me to the original "Ghost Hunters" in the first place, and I'm happy to see it continue at least somewhere in the franchise.

This episode takes everything since the third season finale and brings it to a fever pitch, tossing out several assumptions about the direction of the story in the process. In other words, it is exactly what the doctor ordered for a season that has been uneven at best. The more serialized structure of the season has not always worked to the series' favor, but the fruits of such labor are indeed sweet.

I'm not sure if the season arc always included an early discovery of Earth, though it's certainly possible. There was a great deal of concern just before the writers' strike that the series would not return for the second half of the final season, and that this episode would be the end of the show. That makes me wonder if the arc was designed to bring the series to the doorstep of Earth, just in case the series came to an abrupt end (though some indications are that the final episode would have been the conclusion to the cliffhanger). After all, even if so many other mysteries remained unsolved, at least the journey could have ended just before that final scene, right?

Perhaps not. Because as celebratory as those first moments in Earth orbit were, the promise of 12 more episodes (thanks to a slight expansion to allow the finale to have necessary scope, ala "Lost") tells us that there's plenty of story left. And the final scene itself is a grim reminder of the "grass is always greener" principle. It fits the Galactica mythos rather well, for the ragtag fleet to find Earth, only to discover a nuclear wasteland instead of a homecoming.

Of course, it's not that simple. That nuclear wasteland was giving off a Colonial beacon signal, and that nuclear wasteland apparently saved Starbuck, gave her a shiny new Viper, and knew how to send the signal by interconnecting it to the Cylon activation signal for the Final Five. The weather nuclear remains of New York City (or possibly the Temple of Aurora?) are a great cliffhanger, but also seem a ruse. Had the alliance found Earth without help, the state of the planet might have been a crushing blow, but there's too much evidence that there's much more to it.

The process of getting to that moment of revelation was some of the best material of the season. The tension hit a fever pitch, and the writers managed to convey the sense of chaos throughout the standoff. Ironically, despite setting himself apart from Roslin on several occasions, Lee seemed to resort to her brand of tactics when dealing with D'Anna's gambit. It wasn't necessarily wrong, but it was a calculated attempt to demonstrate his strength. At the same time, I'm not convinced that Roslin would have avoided the agreement with the Cylon Rebels that came after Kara's moment of realization. And something tells me that alliance will be necessary, because the rest of the Cylons are still out there.

As everything seemed to smack heavily and messily into the fan over the course of the episode, the authentic character moments made it all work. Roslin seems committed to the path of truth, wherever it might lead, even when it means giving Baltar the chance to speak on their collective behalf. Adama's reaction to Tigh's confession was very well done. A number of character reactions to the unveiling of the four new Cylons were postponed by the jump to Earth, but they will most certainly be coming.

There are some serious issues to be resolved in the second half of the season. First and foremost, there is the revelation of the final Cylon, which should be interesting, to say the least. D'Anna specifically said that the final Cylon was not with the fleet at the top of the episode, and at that point, a number of very important characters (notably Adama, Roslin, and Baltar) were all on the basestar. It plays into the notion (at this point, very well supported) that Baltar is the final Cylon. But I still think it would be too obvious to take that direction. Wouldn't it be a huge moment to discover that Leoben was right all the way back in the first season, and Adama really has been a Cylon? It would play into the theory that both Humans and Cylons were meant to come to this mutual moment of transition.

The arrival on Earth will eventually tie into Kara's visions and her resurrection, just as this mysterious signal from the ruins of Earth is connected to everything that has happened since the beginning of the series. I'm left with the notion that the signal is not, in fact, a Colonial signal per se, just as the activation of the Final Five was not typical. The signal may tailor itself to certain individuals in a certain way, with the signal intensifying at the various markers along the path. For some, it may be visions. To others, it may be music. To Kara's special viper, it may be a Colonial beacon. And it could be something automatic, something meant to draw the rest of Humanity and its children to the memory of Earth. (In fact, it's possible that the idea is for both Humans and Cylons to see the ruins of Earth and choose a different path, ala "Babylon 5".)

There's also two other small matters. Roslin wasn't supposed to live long enough to get the fleet to Earth, and there's no other leader who died along the way who would fit the profile. So is it possible that the Earth that was found is not, in fact, Earth? From the visible land masses, it's hard to say for sure. But after tossing that prophecy out so many times, the writers will need to close that loop. There's also the continuing threat from the rest of the Cylon fleet. It's hard to imagine that those models would just choose to live and let live.

The bottom line is that there's plenty of story still left to be told; the only question is when the Sci-Fi Channel will allow it to air. Current estimates give the beginning of the final 12 episodes around the first quarter of 2009, which probably means March 2009, given how the network parses words. In effect, it's the same wait that "Lost" fans are currently enduring, and far less annoying than the long hiatus of shows like "24". We can blame the writers' strike, but this is all about the network and their need to string out their one non-reality critical hit as long as possible.

In the meantime, there will be "Caprica" and perhaps another "Battlestar Galactica" TV-movie, similar to "Razor" last November. It will be a long wait, but at this point, I'm happy just to know that the series will come to a definitive and creator-driven end. Much like "Lost", the establishment of an endgame scenario long before the writing of the finale is just what the doctor ordered.

I enjoy the episodes devoted to locations in New Jersey, because more likely than not, I have either been to the location, have the ability to go to the location, or at least know exactly where it is. For example, I was just recently at the Burlington County Prison Museum (seen earlier this season) and only scheduling issues have kept my group from our own investigation of Proprietary House.

The ability to go to a location and see it first-hand is psychologically satisfying. My investigation of Eastern State Penitentiary back in 2006 gave me much better perspective. It's said that the camera lies, and to a certain extent, that's true. Scale is very difficult to perceive, and everything tends to look bigger through the lens. But sometimes it's just the knowledge that it happened right down the road that provides some extra interest.

Before getting into the cases, I wanted to mention something that has once again bothered me. After this episode, SFC re-ran a second season episode, and I happened to catch a short scene with Dave Tango. In this particular scene, filmed way back in 2005, Tango was being praised for how quickly he was learning the ropes. It occurred to me that these New Jersey case were filmed in April, so a few years have passed. So why is Tango still being treated like a rookie, when he surrounded by obvious amateurs like Kris and Joe, both of whom are a lot less polished?

I understand that it's very likely a storytelling conceit. While the extent of the staging is always a matter of debate, there are a number of scripted set pieces that are filmed for every episode, including supposedly random conversations and walkthroughs. This is SOP for the industry, after all. So I suspect that Tango has been assigned the role as "Steve's trainee", and he will play that role until the bitter end. (Just as Kris has replaced Donna as "cute research girl" in terms of classic reality TV stereotyping.)

It's not particularly surprising, but it's amazing how people continue to assume that the personalities seen on screen are somehow the full representation of those individuals. It was far more blatant on "Ghost Hunters International", since that team was compiled with a pre-conceived set of "characters" in mind, but it has also been part of the DNA of "Ghost Hunters" since the very beginning. That's part of the editors' job.

Case #1: Red Mill, Clifton, NJ

The excitement on this case was the apparent physical personal experiences, which makes it a difficult sell for me. The only on-camera suggestion of the phenomenon was the apparent real-time comparison of Grant's footage vs. Jason's reaction footage. As edited as the footage always is, it's not proof positive, even if there had been timestamps on both videos (since Pilgrim has altered footage in the past).

I would also wonder why an EVP taken during a time when a young girl spirit was supposedly playing with the team would sound like a grown man, but the EVP wasn't particularly impressive anyway. Taken as presented, however, the personal experiences would be reason enough to conduct a more thorough investigation.

Case #2: Proprietary House, NJ

This was a bit more interesting, particularly in terms of some of the auditory recordings. Generally speaking, when a noise is heard and recorded at the same time, it is far more likely that there was a natural source than a supernatural one. After all, sound requires generation of a sound wave, which involves physicality, and therefore would require something a bit more substantial than an ephemeral spirit.

This is also another reason why it's good to know the particulars about the area surrounding a location. It's hard to tell from the footage, but Proprietary House is right in the middle of a very busy part of the state, and there's significant RF interference from all directions. So even with the new on/off switch on the K-II Meter used in the investigation, the device would have been useless. Any nearby cell phone transmission would account for its activity (which is why it's good that it's use was barely mentioned).

Both locations were declared active in some paranormal way, but TAPS held back in both instances from granting the locations the "haunted" label. Maybe it was more noticeable because of some discussions I've had of late on the subject, but it would help if Jason and Grant would use a consistent classification system. What's the difference between "active" and "haunted", in their perspective? It's always going to be subjective, but cases like this tend to fall into vague and poorly defined territory.