Ghost Quest

Ghost Quest is the tenth episode of the second season of The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, and the thirty-sixth overall.

Premise
While traveling to Nova Scotia, Jonny, Jessie, and Hadji stumble upon a haunted island with a tragic history.

Opening
At the Quest Compound, Jonny, Jessie, Hadji, and Bandit take the Questor II out for its maiden voyage, heading to Nova Scotia. That evening, a thick fog rolls in and all their instrumentation abruptly goes down. They hear a woman scream and they run aground on an uncharted island. Jessie is knocked into the water and she sees a woman fall into the water; she tries to swim after her to help, but the woman disappears. Jonny calls to Jessie, and Jessie resurfaces, but is swept under by a wave.

Act 1
Jonny ties a rope around his waist and dives into the water. He finds Jessie and they get back to the Questor II. Jessie tries to explain what she saw. Jonny says they should call for help, but all their equipment is still down. Jonny checks out the Questor and says they can keep going because the damage is minor.

A man walks down in the fog with a lantern and offers them help. He welcomes them to Mornay Island and introduces himself as Paul Mornay. Jessie tells him about the woman she saw, and he tells them that he's the only one who lives on the island, but there are also ghosts.

He invites them up to his manor and they talk around the fireplace. As they talk, strange things happen. A vase levitates twice. A cat materializes in front of Bandit, and he chases the cat, but it runs through a solid door. Paul tells them that the cat, Ruby, used to belong to the lady of the house, and he takes her up to his studio to show them her portrait. He tells them that her fiancé drowned at sea, and she was so heartbroken that she jumped from the widows walk.

The temperature in the room suddenly drops -- an indication of paranormal activity. The lights flicker, and a bright light appears in the hallway. The bright light manifests into Lady Caroline, who goes out to the widows walk and reenacts falling to her death. Paul tells them that she will relive her death again and again that night. Jonny gets the idea of capturing an image of Lady Caroline, and Paul agreees.

As the trio and Bandit head back to the Questor for the video digital equipment, Ruby the cat reappears and Bandit chases it out to a bog where he falls in. Jessie goes after him, and as she pulls him from the bog, a ghost rises from the waters and reaches for her. She screams, and the ghosts disappears, and she's able to pull Bandit from the bog.

Back at the manor, the team sets up the equipment to film Lady Caroline. While Jessie checks the digital link on the laptop in a bedroom down the hall, a cabinet opens revealing old love letters. As she reads a letter from Jean Leger to Lady Caroline, a light comes up behind her. It manifests into Lady Caroline, who reaches for Jessie. Out in the hallway, the lights begin to flicker, and Jonny calls to Jessie that he thinks Lady Caroline is about to appear. But instead of Lady Caroline running out on the widows walk, Jessie runs out screaming to the widows walk as Lady Caroline did. Jonny follows her out and gets up on the ledge beside her to get her down. She looks at him, calls him "Jean", and shoves him away -- causing Jonny to fall off the ledge.

Act 2
Jonny catches himself on the ledge, hanging on by his fingertips. Hadji catches his hand before he slips off and pulls him up. Jonny asks where Jessie went, and Hadji tells him she ran off and Mornay went after her. Jonny thinks that Jessie was scared "enough to almost jump." Jonny and Hadji find the love letters in the room. Jonny looks at one and puts it in his pocket, and head off to look for Jessie.

Hadji checks the studio and see a portrait of Jean Leger. Jonny checks the sitting room. They hear Jessie's scream and run back to the bedroom. The screams are coming from the laptop which is replaying the video footage of Jessie running down the hall, and they see the outline of Lady Caroline around her, and they realize she's been possessed. They realize that Jessie called Jonny "Jean", the name of her fiancé in the letters. As they review the video footage, they see the ghost image of a hand, and realize that Lady Caroline did not jump off the widows walk, but was pushed. Zooming in on the hand, they make out the writing on the ring that spells "Leger".

Mornay recognizes it and takes them back to his studio, and shows them the portrait of Jean Leger. He's Lady Caroline's fiancé who drowned at sea. Hadji points out that there's a resemblance between Jean and Jonny. Jonny wonders why Jean Leger would come back to kill the woman he loved, and Hadji wonders what Lady Caroline wants with Jessie.

Jonny and Hadji head out to look for Jessie, and Paul Mornay stays at the manor to keep Jessie from getting to the widows walk. Hadji goes to check the Questor. Ruby the cat reappears and Bandit gives chase, and Jonny chases after them back to the bog. Lady Caroline, possessing Jessie, greets Jonny as "Jean" and says she knew he would return. She accuses him for keeping her soul trapped in the cycle of her death for centuries, and for betraying her by falling for a shop girl named Marie on the mainland. Unable to get Lady Caroline to realize he's not Jean, Jonny plays into it, saying "she meant nothing to me." Lady Caroline lunges at him and they tussle, and roll into the bog water where Lady Caroline tries to hold him underwater to drown him. Hadji helps Jonny back up to the water's edge. The ghost of Jean Leger rises from the bog water, and Hadji realizes that Jean did not drown at sea. Jean's ghost possess Jonny. He tells Caroline that the other girl really did mean nothing and that he loves her, but Caroline doesn't believe him.

Hadji tells them that they must end the cycle and forgive each other or they will never rest. Mornay tells Caroline that he's right, and she has only until sunrise, and to let it finally end. Caroline tells Jean that it was wrong to kill him, but her jealousy drove her to it, but she still loves him. Jean asks for her forgiveness. They embrace and kiss, and their spirits rise out of Jonny and Jessie's bodies, finding peace.

Jonny and Jessie remain in the passionate embrace the ghosts left them in. Hadji clears his throat to bring them out of it, and they quickly pull away, startled and embarrassed. Jonny starts to try to stammer an explanation and Jessie says, "I know. Me too." And apologizes for overreacting. Jonny makes a joke about them being "just a little preoccupied."

Mornay tells them that now that he knows the truth of his ancestor Caroline that he too "can finally rest." The fog is lifting and he advises them to leave, and he disappears into the fog. As they run after him, they find a headstone for Paul Mornay, showing that he died in 1940 and he was a ghost as well. The island begins to disappear into the fog and they realize they need to leave quickly. Jessie runs to the Questor, but Jonny runs back to the manor to get their video footage. They get out as the manor disappears behind them. Jessie has prepared the Questor, and as Jonny and Hadji push the Questor back into the water, the island disappears under their feet.

Aboard the Questor, they find that their equipment is all back online, and they return to course. Jonny checks the footage on the laptop, only to find that it's just an image of an empty hallway. Jessie also notices that their watches all stopped at 9 o'clock, and Jonny realizes it's about the time the fog rolled in earlier. Jessie makes a joke about time standing still for her too, and she and Hadji laugh but Jonny doesn't. Jessie pulls a letter from her pocket, the one Jean Leger wrote to Marie, but as she reads it a strong wind pulls it from her hands, leaving them with no evidence at all.

Characters
Main characters:
 * Jonny Quest
 * Hadji Singh
 * Jessie Bannon

Supporting characters:
 * Paul Mornay

Villains:
 * Lady Caroline
 * Jean Leger

Other characters:
 * Bandit
 * Dr. Benton Quest
 * Ruby
 * Marie

Locations

 * United States
 * Maine
 * Quest Compound
 * Canada
 * Nova Scotia
 * Mornay Island
 * Mornay manor

Objects

 * Letter from Jean Leger to Lady Caroline
 * Letter from Jean Leger to Marie
 * Portrait of Lady Caroline and Ruby
 * Portrait of Jean Leger
 * Lanterns
 * Quest video camera
 * Quest laptop

Vehicles

 * Questor II

Notes/Trivia

 * Dr. Quest and Race are absent.
 * There is not one, but two Quest Bytes.
 * B.J. Ward is uncredited as Iris from the Quest Bytes.
 * This is the first time that it showed Jonny and Jessie kissing, although they are both possessed by ghosts for the encounter.
 * As they set up the camera equipment, it's 11:37 PM on February 20.
 * Since it's the anniversary of Lady Caroline's death 200 years earlier, Lady Caroline died on the evening of February 20 or in the early morning hours on February 21, in the 1790s. (The episode aired in December 1996, so 200 years earlier would presumably be 1796 or 1797.)

Goofs

 * The letter to Marie is identical to the one written to Lady Caroline, except that the names are changed. While it's possible to write the same letter to two different women, it's unlikely since he refers to "the hours on the mainland away from you"; that phrase only makes sense in a letter to Caroline, since being on the mainland is being away from her on the island, but being on the mainland was when he could be with Marie.

Home media

 * 🇺🇸 The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest: The Complete Second Season DVD set released on November 10, 2015 by Warner Archive Collection.

Quotes
Mornay: "The tragic Lady Caroline. She jumped from the widows walk almost 200 years ago. To the day."

Jessie: "Why?"

Mornay: "For love, so the story goes. Her fiance drowned at sea, and the heartbroken Caroline could not bear life without him."

Jonny: "How tragic."

Jessie: "Oh... how romantic."

Jonny: "Whatever."