Phantom Investigators - Omega Pizza Pi - Toonstalgia

Phantom Investigators - Omega Pizza Pi

Toonstalgia

Real Quick

Ghosts stiff the pizza guy.

Thoughts and Details

In the 1950s and 60s, there was a moral panic about high school kids joining sororities, fraternities and secret societies. It was enough of a concern to make some headlines and inspire some scholarly papers. "Secret society" was also used to describe organized crime in the same period. It seems inaccurate to use the same words to describe high school students and the rackets extorting protection money from businesses. They both illicited ire and prompted laws aiming to legislate them out of existence. The high school societies were derided as exclusive and undemocratic. I doubt the writers were thinking about any of these things when they wrote "Omega Pizza Pi" but I was thinking about them when I watched it.

Daemona's storyline in this episode seems to reflect Kira's desire for a life outside the Phantom Investigators. It doesn't make sense for Daemona to abandon her friends. Daemona usually seems more into the paranormal research than anything else. But Kira has too strong a sense of pride to go to the lengths Daemona does, so it wouldn't have worked. It's normal for Kira to be the voice of reason that Daemona ignores. It might have been interesting for them to draw on the fact that Daemona recently moved to town. Maybe the writers were trying to explore her character. The storyline might have also worked for Casey because he feels ostracized due to his intellectual pursuits.

One of the highlights for me is the skeletal cuckoo clock bird. I also love Wad's impression of Albert Einstein.

Way Too Detailed Synopsis

A pizza delivery guy walks into a creepy building with a delivery. Two ghosts in fraternity sweaters walk towards him with outstretched arms and crying, "Pie, pie."

Meanwhile, Daemona is trying out for the school debate team. She struggles at the try out because she is failing to cite an expert source and rambling in her nervousness. When she tries to cite her source, Wad distracts her with a fantastic Albert Einstein impression.

She explains to Kira she just wants to join the club for the annual trip to France. Toby finds Daemona after the try out to tell her he'll her get into the club if she does a few things for him like his laundry and grooming his dog (I would have laughed in his face).

Jericho calls with a case. He says she needs to hurry to the pizza place. He told them it would be thirty or less or it's free. Now, I'm wondering, does this mean they are normally paid? It makes sense. Also, how have I not noticed their video watches before?

Daemona (in a mask) meets the delivery guy at the pizza place. He relates his story. 

Kira again acts as a voice of reason.

The team delivers pizzas to the old Omega Alpha Pi fraternity house. The ghosts appear for the pies. They give them the pizzas and flee the old fraternity house. Daemona detects a demon in the basement of the house. They sneak back in. They see the fraternity brothers on their hands and knees eating the pizza for the amusement of an unseen entity.

They consult Felix Navarro on the subject of secret societies. He tells them about how fraternities can be traced back to the revolutionary war and that Omega Alpha Pi closed due to a hazing scandal. Felix gives them a Raisinator. 

Daemona leaves for the debate audition. The rest of the team goes back to the fraternity to make contact with the ghosts by asking to join the fraternity.

Kira, Casey and Jericho are trapped in the basement of the fraternity after a rotten floorboard breaks beneath their feet. They meet a Mozzarathlu, the spirit of humiliation. He's a wad of mozzarella with one eye and multiple tentacle like protrusions. He sprays them with rotten cheese to hold them in place.

Daemona leaves her audition after overhearing Toby and the other team members mock her. If only she had figured out they were jerks before she did their laundry. She calls on Jinxie, the bad luck demon to ferry her to the fraternity house.

Daemona arrives with a plan. Casey transforms into a pizza cutter. They aren't able to escape the building. The fraternity brothers relate their sad story of trying to belong and making a deal with the spirit. Casey figures out if the fraternity brothers quit, the fraternity will no longer exist and the contract they made with him would be null and void.

The Phantom Investigators finish him off with the Raisinator by reducing him to rat size.