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"The Crawler" is the eleventh episode of Extreme Ghostbusters, first aired on September 22, 1997 as part of Season 1. Janine Melnitz tries to make Egon Spengler jealous by going out with a stranger, only to learn that her date is the insect demon Cohila, who intends to turn her into the queen of his hive.
The episode was directed by Scott Wood and Gloria Jenkins and written by Steve Slavkin, with animation by Koko Enterprise Company, Ltd.
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At night in a harbor, two thieves break into the cargo hold of a ship and open a crate bound for the Museum of History. Inside is the tomb of Cohila, the Incan Lord of Evil. The men are after a talisman buried with him, which legend says keeps Cohila in stasis; one of them plans to sell it for ten million dollars. When the other man hesitates, they discover the tomb is empty. Cohila drops in front of them and shoots spores into their mouths. The thieves flee and drop the talisman, which crumbles to dust. Cohila takes human form, surveys the harbor, and decides to build his hive there. The next day, one of the thieves collapses at a cafe as bugs with part-human faces crawl from his mouth.
In his lab, Egon is absorbed in microscope work and turns down Janine's invitation to a trendy new restaurant, warning her that the average New York kitchen is full of bacteria and insect droppings. Janine sulks, wishing love were something Egon could study under a glass. Kylie Griffin reassures her that science will always be Egon's first love. The team is called to the cafe, where the cook describes the swarm of bugs. Roland Jackson confirms with his P.K.E. Meter that a surviving bug is ectoplasmic. The bug leaps onto Eduardo Rivera's face before Kylie has the team release it, reasoning that its hive instinct will lead them to the rest.
The Ghostbusters track the bug across traffic and up the side of a building, where Cohila, in human form, summons his swarm and declares he needs a queen. He spots Kylie stopping traffic for the last bug and takes an interest in her. The pursuit collapses into a brawl: Cohila tosses a car at Eduardo and then escapes with the swarm through a crack in the wall. Kylie comes away with one bug in a sack.
Back at the Firehouse, the captured bug emits a gas Egon reads as a distress signal. Hidden in a wall crack, Cohila is about to strike when Janine rescues a spider from being swatted, scooping it into a cup and releasing it out the window. Cohila decides Janine is his queen. The next day he approaches her in human form, introducing himself as Gregor Samsa. Janine turns him down, but when he asks if she is seeing someone she gets an idea and loudly accepts a date for 8:00, hoping Egon will notice. Egon, busy observing the bug, only reminds her about the dirty restaurant kitchens.
At Memorial Hospital, Dr. Forest tells the team the first thief inhaled insect spores from Latin America but dismisses it as a freak accident. The second thief is then rushed in, and the quarantine room fills with bugs as Cohila summons them from the ceiling. While the team searches the hospital, Egon calls them back to the Firehouse. At the La Fleur French Cafe, Gregor rambles to a bored Janine about how bugs are intelligent survivors that will inherit the Earth. Egon reveals the spreading infection is now being reported by the media as an outbreak of Legionnaire's Disease.
Janine brings Gregor into the Firehouse to provoke Egon, but the captured bug goes wild at the sight of him. Egon explains the Incan legend of a breed of devil bugs and their king, the insect demon Cohila, who can take human form to seduce a mate. Garrett Miller suspects Gregor, but by then Janine has taken him outside, where she admits her scheme and apologizes. Gregor reveals his true form and carries her off before the team can stop him.
The Ghostbusters trace the readings to Cohila's hive aboard the cargo ship. Janine emerges from a cocoon, slowly transforming into Cohila's queen and losing her memory of Egon. The team is overwhelmed and restrained by the swarm. Sensing that Janine's humanity is not fully gone, Kylie pushes Egon to confess his feelings. After a few false starts, Egon tells Janine he loves her and asks for a kiss, which breaks Cohila's grip enough for her to approach. Janine then reveals a hidden trap and uses it to capture Cohila and his army. Restored to normal, she kisses Egon, who is left wondering whether she has a crush on him.
Cohila is the central threat of this episode, identified in Incan legend as the lord of a breed of South American devil bugs. He can assume human form, allowing him to move unseen among people. His primary weapon is spores exhaled into human hosts, which serve as incubators: bugs eventually burst forth from the hosts to join his growing army. Cohila's talisman, buried with him in stasis, crumbles to dust when accidentally dropped by the thieves who disturb his tomb, removing the one object that could have kept him contained without a trap. He is ultimately captured by Janine Melnitz using a ghost trap.
The Crawlers are Cohila's devil bug army. They exhibit coordinated hive behavior: emitting distress-signal gas, forming solid barriers to shield Cohila from proton fire, assembling into transport platforms, and binding captives as restraints. Spengler's Spirit Guide classifies them as Class 1 entities with a transparency of 6.1, wave frequency of .061/.003, and the dry observation "May be squashed with foot." Their listed first sighting is "Pangea/Start of time." The Crawlers return in the later episode "Mole People".
The episode features the regular Extreme Ghostbusters cast: Tara Charendoff, Maurice LaMarche, Jason Marsden, Pat Musick, Alfonso Ribeiro, Rino Romano, and Billy West. Fernando Escandon is credited as a guest voice.
Cohila appears as the central threat, alongside Janine, Egon, Kylie, Garrett, Eduardo, Roland, and Slimer. The team uses the Ecto-1, Proton Pack, particle thrower, proton pistol, trap, and P.K.E. Meter over the course of the episode.
Eduardo refers to Cohila as "La Cucaracha," Spanish for "the cockroach."1 During the team's first encounter with Cohila, he hurls a Volkswagen Beetle, informally nicknamed "the Bug," at Eduardo.
Janine names the rescued spider "Charlotte," after the character in the book Charlotte's Web.2 Cohila's human alias, "Gregor Samsa," is the name of the protagonist who turns into an insect in Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis. Janine mistakes him for "another Julio Iglesias clone," referring to the Spanish singer.3 She also mentions that her astrological sign is Scorpio, that she likes the Beatles, and that she wants children.4
The episode echoes the earlier The Real Ghostbusters episode "Janine, You've Changed": in both, Janine, spurned by Egon, becomes involved with a creature whose name is a sly literary reference and which alters her appearance until Egon expresses his feelings and snaps her out of it.
"The Crawler" was the eleventh episode of Extreme Ghostbusters to air. It was directed by Scott Wood and Gloria Jenkins, written by Steve Slavkin, and animated by Koko Enterprise Company, Ltd. In broadcast order it followed The Unseen and preceded The Pied Piper of Manhattan.
Extreme Ghostbusters (1997), "The Crawler." Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Eduardo says, "Over here, La Cucaracha!" ↩
Extreme Ghostbusters (1997), "The Crawler." Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Janine says, "Hey, Charlotte. Nice web." ↩
Extreme Ghostbusters (1997), "The Crawler." Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Janine says, "Thanks, but rich, handsome Julio Iglesias clones aren't my type." ↩
Extreme Ghostbusters (1997), "The Crawler." Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Janine says, "We're both Scorpios, we both like the Beatles, and we both want children." ↩
