As soon as I realized what this episode was actually about, I got a knot in my stomach. Not because I'm afraid of spirits, but because I realized that this show was about to sandwich ghost stories in between episodes about unsolved criminal cases.
I had forgotten about the earlier UFO episode, probably because I had skipped over it without bothering. But having just watched the Jennifer Fairchild and Lester Eubanks cases, the fact that such serious cases were put on the same level as this made me wonder whether this show actually cares about the people it highlights. Are these cases solely being featured based on what the producers think will bring viewers in? There are many more unsolved criminal and missing persons cases which could have benefited from this air time, by the way.
The people featured in this episode should be allowed to tell their stories, but this show is not the proper place and the framing feels exploitative to me. As a standalone documentary about collective trauma and its influence on storytelling and community experiences, I'd be all for it. As part of a show that also features true crime and presents these stories as 'unexplained phenomena'? Sorry, I can't do it.
I realize that the original run of this show featured ghost stories as well, but in 2020 I think we should really be moving on from this sort of thing.