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"Glutton for Punishment" is the 30th episode of Extreme Ghostbusters. It was written by Steven Melching and directed by Gloria Jenkins, with animation by Yea Rim Productions, and first aired on November 24, 1997.1 The plot follows Ravana, a ghost that makes New Yorkers break into uncontrollable feeding frenzies, while the team copes with an out of control Slimer.
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While shopping at Jon's Groceries, Mrs. Hardenbauer inspects the produce as a feline ghost dives into a basket of tomatoes and turns them red. Officer Frank takes a bite of one and is instantly "infected," gorging himself on everything in reach while his partner Officer Al tries to restrain him. The entity floats above the scene and gloats.
At the firehouse, Slimer torments Garrett by stealing his sub sandwich, frying Janine's computer, sliming an irreplaceable ancient text Kylie is reading, and knocking over Roland's paint cans. The same ghost strikes again at a gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, infecting the food and triggering more frenzies. Egon returns with Uranium-237 just as the whole team complains about Slimer at once; Janine insists Slimer needs discipline and points out that Egon is the only person the ghost listens to.
The Ghostbusters are called to Memorial Hospital, where a physician has gathered the infected victims, all of whom show bottomless appetites and impossibly fast metabolisms. The team traces the outbreak to the produce stand on Bleecker Street and 7th Avenue. Analyzing samples, Egon finds the food's cell structure is normal but laced with high-band psychokinetic energy. He concludes a ghost is feeding on "ecto fuel" produced when its human victims digest the tainted food, using people as intermediaries to generate sustenance, and that it taints the food with a trace element that spikes the victims' metabolisms.
At the hospital the entity feeds on the immobilized victims and grows larger. The Ghostbusters' proton streams fail to hold it because, as Roland realizes, it shifts constantly across the P.K.E. spectrum so the streams cannot lock on. Meanwhile Slimer, who has eaten some of the tainted food, becomes an even more destructive eating machine back at the firehouse, devouring tools, equipment, books, and a tray of spare proton canisters. Egon identifies the ghost as Ravana, "king of the Rakshasa," from his research before Slimer eats the modem and the reference books.
With Slimer infected and out of control, Egon reluctantly straps on a proton pack to trap him himself, but Ravana arrives and chases Slimer into the firehouse. The team manages to trap Slimer, and Ravana leaves in frustration. Low on canisters, Roland devises a way to modulate the proton packs in sync with Ravana's shifting frequency. The team confronts Ravana at the Produce Distribution Center, the largest concentration of food in the city. The modulated streams work, but Ravana resists the ghost trap and kicks it away. Kylie's errant shot punctures several vats of milk, and the infected liquid spreads to Eduardo and Roland. Egon releases Slimer, gambling that if Slimer eats enough he can generate enough energy to overload the ghost. Ravana begins draining Slimer, but Slimer comes to and force-feeds Ravana until the ghost implodes. The weakened Ravana is captured, all infected victims are cured, and Slimer regurgitates everything he swallowed at the firehouse.
Regular voices were provided by Tara Charendoff (later Tara Strong), Maurice LaMarche, Jason Marsden, Pat Musick, Alfonso Ribeiro, Rino Romano, and Billy West. Guest voices were provided by Joe Lala and John Rubinow.
For one brief line, Billy West voices Roland Jackson, delivering "Then let's keep Ravana busy so Slimer can chow down as much as possible." It is unclear whether this was a scratch track that went unreplaced, West standing in for Ribeiro, or Ribeiro being unavailable to record his remaining dialogue.
Ravana is a gaunt black feline ghost with long claws, slit-pupiled yellow eyes, a broad pig-like nose, and a wide sharp-toothed mouth. Once he has fed sufficiently on ecto fuel, he swells into a bulky obese form whose P.K.E. output shifts continuously across the spectrum, making conventional proton stream lock-on impossible. Character designer Fil Barlow based the original design on Balinese artistic traditions to bring more cultural variety to the show's ghost roster. Barlow was pleased enough with the result that he worked the design into background crowd shots throughout the series and briefly into the main title sequence before it was formally re-purposed and refined into the cat-like Ravana for this episode.
Beyond this episode, Ravana appears on the IDW Convention Variant Cover of the Ghostbusters 35th Anniversary: Extreme Ghostbusters one-shot (shown in his obese form), and "Ravana Pickles" make a background cameo in Dana Barrett's refrigerator in Ghostbusters Vol. 2 Issue #13. The Insight Editions Tobin's Spirit Guide classifies him as a Class 7 semi-corporeal free-roaming limited possessor.
There are two known drafts of the script: a first draft dated May 16, 1997, and a final draft dated May 21, 1997.2 The episode carried production number 138.1
The Mass Makers, gloves carried over from "The Ghostmakers," were written into the script but cut from the finished episode.3
Egon names Ravana "king of the Rakshasa." In Hindu and Buddhist tradition, rakshasa are malevolent spirits known for disrupting sacrifices, desecrating graves, and feeding on human flesh and spoiled food.
The episode is full of pop-culture nods. A poster for "Jumanji," another Sony Pictures film, hangs on the firehouse wall, and Eduardo plays a Sony PlayStation in the rec room (Sony being the studio behind the series). When interrupted, Eduardo cracks a line about the Indy 500. After Slimer is trapped, Kylie calls Garrett "Rambo," and at the Produce Distribution Center Garrett nicknames Ravana "Garfield" after the famously gluttonous comic-strip cat. Lorenzo Music, the voice of Garfield, had also voiced Peter Venkman for the first two seasons of The Real Ghostbusters.
In one shot just after Slimer is trapped, the trap briefly appears open again even though it had closed in the previous shot.
This episode aired between "Till Death Do We Start" and "Ghost in the Machine."
The final draft script (May 21, 1997) is available as a PDF via Spook Central.
Melching, Steven (1997). Extreme Ghostbusters "Glutton for Punishment" (Final Draft May 21, 1997) (Script Title Page). ↩ ↩2
Melching, Steven (1997). Extreme Ghostbusters "Glutton for Punishment" (Final Draft May 21, 1997) (Script Title Page). ↩
Melching, Steven (1997). Extreme Ghostbusters "Glutton for Punishment" (Final Draft May 21, 1997) (Script p. 28). Lines reference Eduardo and Egon pulling on the Mass Maker Gloves (see "The Ghostmakers"). ↩