The monster this week being both a ghost and a serial killer makes Holmes one of the most over the top characters in all of the show. It is laughable contrived in set-up as a the case. Likewise, the ectoplasm being subtextually semen is A) gross and B) more bold than the show usually is. However, Manners does his thing and the resulting episode is scary and creepy when it needs to be. If this could be severed from the rest of the series as a true standalone I would think more of it.
But in continuity it is awful. The writers were still trying to force the Jo-Dean love story and nope not a good fit for the actors; a couple of jokes here are really wrong for where the characters end up and the bonding moments for Jo/Dean could have been better calibrated for the brother/sister dynamic they finally settled into. Apart from that the final scene feels tacked on. As the big revelation is never fully dealt with-it is barely mentioned again at all-I think the writers just decided to kill the Jo/Dean love story in artless way after seeing a roughcut of the episode.
But in continuity it is awful. The writers were still trying to force the Jo-Dean love story and nope not a good fit for the actors; a couple of jokes here are really wrong for where the characters end up and the bonding moments for Jo/Dean could have been better calibrated for the brother/sister dynamic they finally settled into. Apart from that the final scene feels tacked on. As the big revelation is never fully dealt with-it is barely mentioned again at all-I think the writers just decided to kill the Jo/Dean love story in artless way after seeing a roughcut of the episode.