Scratch's demonstration of the Flow of Failed Phantoms with puzzle pieces.
The Flow of Failed Phantoms was the final punishment for ghosts who failed at maintaining misery in the towns they live in or have broken the ghost code. It is brought up and is a minor location in The Ghost and Molly McGee.
About[]
When a ghost fails their assignment to bring misery to the town they live in, they are first confronted by the Ghost Council. What happens next is determined by the Chairman's response and the Council's judgement; they would either get a second chance, or if the Council determines the ghost in questioning has failed, the Chairman banishes that ghost to the Flow of Failed Phantoms, where they would remain there for all eternity as punishment with no chance to ever leave.
While in "The Curse", the pleads of the ghost being banished to the Flow fell on deaf ears, it's revealed in "Scare Tactics" that another ghost can plead the case of a Flow victim if they can convince the Chairman to forgo the punishment before said victim gets pulled in completely. By doing this, Geoff saved Scratch from this fate when he didn't do well on his post-seminar test.
While failing to spread misery can send a ghost straight to the Flow, breaking the ghost code, like by being friends with someone who's alive, can instantly send a ghost to the Flow for an eternity, presumably regardless of if they succeeded or failed to spread misery. This is because breaking the ghost code is a serious offense.
With Molly essentially destroying the Flow itself with her own influentially contagious joy, ghosts no longer have to face the punishment of being trapped within it.
However, after becoming the new Chairman, Jinx recreated the Flow of Failed Phantoms, but Molly destroyed it again while in her wraith form.
Appearance[]
Inside view of the Flow of Failed Phantoms.
In its first appearance, the Flow resembled a whirlpool tunnel, but closer examination revealed that it contains green colored ghosts with deformed faces who also failed their jobs.
History[]
In the beginning of "The Curse", a pink ghost is called to the Ghost Council due to her failing of keeping Misery in Seeder Valley up and Joy down. She tries to explain that she couldn't compete with a dog shelter as they "had puppies", but one of the members replied that she is expected to do as the Chairman banished her to the Flow; with her last words being "They... had... Puppies!"
The Flow is mentioned again, this time in "The Turnip Twist" where Scratch is told that Brighton's misery is slowly decreasing while Joy is slowly rising. When Scratch tries to explain that the upcoming Turnip Festival is coming and turnips are considered terrible, they told them that the Festival might bring more joy to the town, even mentioning how before in Purfektburg, it was also a misery place until they had a crumb cake festival, resulting in the town not only being viewed as a perfect and joyful town but also causing their ghost, Scary Sven, to be sent there for punishment.
Throughout the second half of the episode, Scratch had Geoff sabotage the festival, but with no results. However, upon hearing that Scratch might be sent there, Geoff did one last ditch effort and ruined the festival, saving Scratch and causing more misery in Brighton.
After lying to Libby to keep Scratch a secret started to give Molly stress hives in "Scratch the Surface", Scratch had (finally) told the truth about his job of spreading misery with the statement that the Ghost Council doesn't like "friendly ghosts" and, to drive his point home, he made a temporary model of the Flow using puzzle pieces and his own ghost energy to explain to her the consequences of not being scary enough (the more people know about him, the less scary he is). Molly McGee was shocked at this news, knowing she'd lose a best friend whether she told Libby the truth or not, so... in a zany scheme to keep her friendship with Libby without getting Scratch in trouble... she pretended to be her own Canadian cousin Milly to keep her two friendships separate.
Scratch, thinking it might help keep him out of the Flow of Failed Phantoms, goes along with the plan and helps make it convincing in any way he could, such as making it look like she's eating a burger covered in maple syrup (which she hates) while actually eating it himself... in the end, however, after Molly politely begs Scratch's permission to tell the truth about him, he agrees, but ONLY on the condition that Libby's the only one outside the family that knows, as he still has to keep his misery numbers high to stay out of trouble.
In "Game Night", Scratch, not wanting to do chores, enters the ghost world when he interrupted the Council and their attempt to send another ghost to the Flow. It is unknown if the ghost got called back and was sent to the Flow or not once Scratch left.
Scratch was almost sent there after flunking a post-seminar test in "Scare Tactics", but once again, Geoff saved his best friend from that fate, but this time by convincing the Chairman that Scratch had been working on a revolutionary new way for ghosts to interact with humans. Because of that (and a stroke of luck via Molly getting scared by her brother's pet spider), Scratch was pardoned from his eternal punishment with a passing grade.
Scratch is almost sent to the flow once again in "The Internship" where his intern Reggie, who Scratch has been abusing non-stop ever since he began working for Scratch, tells the Council that Scratch had not taught him a thing. Just as the Chairman is about to send Scratch to the flow, Reggie states that Scratch has actually taught him "everything" as his abuse on Reggie was mistaken for ghost training and manages to impress the Council that Scratch gets spared from the flow.
In "Molly Vs. The Ghost World", when Molly (as a wraith) traveled to the Ghost World to get Scratch back, she was taken to the Council, where they passed judgement and sentence her and Scratch to spend their afterlife's in the flow. However, because Molly's power allows her to create Joy, when she was absorbed into the flow, it caused a chain reaction that resulted in all the ghost who was sent there to be free, thus destroying the flow once and for all (and for an added bonus, she also destroyed the Chairman, crumbling the Council).
However, in "The New (Para)Normal", it was revealed that the destruction of the Flow of Failed Phantoms also freed the Frightmares, a threat to both the Human and Ghost Worlds.
The Flow was reopened by Jinx in position of the Chairman in "Jinx vs. The Human World", but was again vanquished by wraith Molly moments later.
Trivia[]
- In "The Turnip Twist", when Sir Alister (the green barrister ghost) explained that the Festival might cause Scratch to be sent The Flow of Failed Phantoms, he said it while smiling, suggesting that he and the others want to send Scratch there due to his rude attitude.
- In "Scratch the Surface", Molly became the first (and possibly only) still-living soul that knows about this punishment, and this information, along with the possibility that Scratch might be sent there if he's exposed as a "friendly ghost", was unnerving to her.
- One could say that the Flow could be a representation of limbo, as once a ghost enters the flow, they can never leave again.
- While the Flow wasn't seen or mentioned in "Scaring is Caring", it is revealed in that episode that "joy" is considered a spiritual virus that deprives ghosts of their ability to scare people, so theoretically, the Flow could've been a paranoid attempt to permanently quarantine ghosts that couldn't stop the disease from "spreading" to their assigned towns.
- Apparently, the Flow of Failed Phantoms is made of the very misery that the Chairman feeds off of, for when Molly (being a wraith-ghost for a day in a mission to save her best friend) gets sent into it along with Scratch, her relentless ability to "turn everything (she) touches into joy" weakens the Flow's power enough for almost every ghost sent into it to finally be set free.