S2E21: A Haunting Debrief | Season 2 Finale

[00:00:00] Welcome to Mystery Date. This show was created first and foremost for entertainment purposes. While we do our best to research our topics, nothing discussed on this show should be taken as absolute fact. Opinions, theories, and interpretations are just that. Listener judgment is encouraged.

[00:00:15] For an entire season, we've opened the doors to haunted houses, cursed objects, ghost ships, demon lore, restless legends, and the investigators who claimed they could prove the dead were still speaking.

[00:00:31] Some stories chilled us, some confused us, some made us deeply suspicious, and a few made us wonder why anyone ever buys old property without asking at least one ghost-related follow-up question.

[00:00:47] Tonight, we are walking back through every dark hallway of Season 2 one last time to decide which hauntings scared us the most, which stories actually held up, and which ones deserve to be locked in the paranormal basement forever. This is our Season 2 finale, A Haunting Debrief. I'm Christian. I'm Kate. Welcome to Mystery Date.

[00:01:27] It's Date Night, meaning we get to talk about all things mysterious and weird. This season has been a haunting and goes over all kinds of paranormal and ghostly mysteries in our world. Tonight is all about our Season 2 finale. Get comfy, grab your favorite drink, and let's start the show. That's right. We made it. Season 2 finale. Another 20 episodes of mysteries. Another Season Debrief under our belt. Another whiskey glass filled with juice. Yes, another whiskey glass filled with juice.

[00:01:57] I think since starting this, we lost four champagne flutes, so, you know, rest in peace to those. They're fragile. Yeah, they're fragile. It was a good sacrifice for the season, though, you know? But now we're on to sturdy whiskey glasses. These are a lot thicker. Yeah. They don't break when I wash them with a sponge. Yeah. If you have any tips of washing a champagne flute without just sending me a random, like, Amazon-specific sponge that's only for champagne flutes because... We're not doing that. We're not doing that.

[00:02:25] We're using the sponge we use with regular dish soap. Just tell us how to go about doing it without shattering it in our hands. Maybe I just have two big hands. Maybe you have to wash them. Yeah, that's true. Because it just breaks. You've got secret superpowers. You don't know your own strength. Like Spider-Man. Yeah. Well, right off the bat, I just want to say thank you guys so much for joining us for another 20 episodes and for all of season two. I hope you enjoyed the paranormal.

[00:02:54] If you didn't, well, I'm sorry. Next season's for you, hopefully. But this one probably was a miss. But if you did enjoy the paranormal stuff, I hope you enjoyed our takes on all of the famous cases, all of the famous haunted houses, all of the big ghostly stuff in the paranormal universe. I think we did a pretty good job of covering everything that kind of stands out or the big ones that you might find if you research into ghosts. But I just want to say thank you guys so much for joining us.

[00:03:22] And if you like what we're putting out and you like all of season two, check out season one if you haven't. It's all about mysteries involving the woods, like cryptids or government projects. Really anything that happened in the forest that's creepy, we covered it then. And again, season three is going to be a whole new topic and a whole new range of mysteries. So keep an eye out. But it might be something you're obsessed with just like I am. With that out of the way, we're getting into our season two finale, our debrief.

[00:03:48] We walked through ghost lore, demon lore, famous family hauntings, cursed objects, haunted ships, haunted mansions, paranormal investigators, alleged possessions, murder houses, folklore, catacombs. And somehow the Warrens kept appearing like horror movie sidekicks. This finale is our chance to look back at every episode and remember what each story brought to the season and then rank everything like this is the Oscars, but with more demons.

[00:04:18] This is not about proving once and for all what was real. It is about looking back at our stories one last time before laying them to rest. Hopefully. Hopefully. You never know with ghosts. You don't. The first part of this episode, we're just going to run down all of our mysteries that we covered this season. And all of the ghostly stories we talked about and we'll give a brief overview of what they were. And then we'll give our answers to if we believed it was haunted or not. Yeah. So this is your warning.

[00:04:48] Spoilers for season. All season two episodes lie ahead starting now. If you have not caught up on season two, go finish it and then come back for this finale. Yeah. If you haven't watched season two, what are you doing here? Go watch the other 20 episodes and then come back and we'll be right here for you. But episode one was the lore of ghosts. This episode opened the door for the whole season by asking why humans have believed in ghosts for basically as long as we have been telling stories.

[00:05:18] It gave us the foundation for everything that followed. Grief, unfinished business, fear of death, and the possibility that something lingers after the body is gone. The question we asked this episode was, do we believe in ghosts? What do you think we said? Yes. We said yes and no. Well, yeah. We said it kind of depends on what you define as a ghost. Like we believe in residual energies.

[00:05:46] We believe that there could be something a little bit more intelligent, but we don't necessarily believe. Oh my gosh. Look at that fully formed ghostly lady standing in the room with us who's clearly an undead spirit. Yeah. We don't believe Casper is chilling around talking to us. I don't think it, I don't think that it goes quite that far in reality, but I think that to a lesser extent, yes, we believe in ghosts or I believe in ghosts. I guess I shouldn't speak for you.

[00:06:15] No, we both said yes and no, and then we did point out residual hauntings are probably the true haunting, if any. So you had it right on the nose, or right on the nail there. Look guys, my memory's getting better. For episode two, we moved on to the parent family haunting, and this haunting gave us the classic haunted farmhouse setup. A family moves into an old house, strange activity begins, and the home slowly becomes the center of something dark and overwhelming.

[00:06:44] This case also helped launch the modern Conjuring universe and gave us one of the season's strongest examples of a family haunting becoming pop culture mythology. Our question was, was the parent haunting real? And we said no. Bathsheba! Speaking of Bathsheba, we said there's a lot of history and energy in the house or near the house that's claimed, but the hauntings that are claimed by the parents, we didn't buy it. Nah.

[00:07:13] Nah, I still stand firm on that. Episode three was all about the Enfield poltergeist, which was chaotic, loud, and deeply weird with moving furniture, strange voices, and levitation claims. It remains one of the most debated cases of the season because it has both compelling witnesses and very obvious reasons for skepticism. Our question was, was the Enfield poltergeist real? What do you think we said?

[00:07:41] I think we said mostly no, but possibly a little? We said maybe. Yeah. I'm like, that's what, I'm like, I feel like this was the one that we were like, they're clearly faking or exaggerating some of it, but there is enough that they've got me believe in some. So I'm not sure about that one. We said we believe some of the claims, but also acknowledged that the family was undergoing a lot of stress that could have fed into the haunting narrative.

[00:08:11] So essentially, yeah, what you said. Our next episode was Annabelle, and Annabelle gave us the season's most famous haunted object, a Raggedy Ann doll that somehow became one of the most recognizable cursed items in paranormal history. Whether you believe the doll is dangerous or just brilliant haunted branding, Annabelle proves that sometimes the scariest thing in the room is sitting politely in a glass case. We asked, was Annabelle being controlled by a demon? What do you think we said? No.

[00:08:41] Yeah, we said no. There was a harsh no on that one. No way. Full stop. Yeah, there wasn't even really a follow-up I have. It just, we said no. Yeah, that one was a nope, sorry, try again. From there, we traveled to Ireland for Loftus Hall, which has gothic Irish ghost story energy, and it has a stormy coastline, old mansion setting, and the legend of a mysterious card-playing stranger who may or may not have had cloven hooves.

[00:09:07] It was one of the season's best folklore-style hauntings because the story is simple, creepy, and easy to imagine by candlelight. We asked, was Loftus Hall haunted and visited by the devil? No. No, I did forget about this one, though. Your little recap just now, I'm like, oh my god, the goat feet. The goat feet, and he jumps and rockets out of the building after they realize, you have a cloven foot. Oh shit.

[00:09:39] Let's see, do I believe this story? Yeah, we said no. I think that's fair. That one was fun, though. That was fun. Yeah, like I said, it was a good folklore-style haunting. Like, yeah, it's clearly not real. I'm like, I am glad that that ghost story has somehow survived until the modern times because how exciting. Our next episode was a little bit different. It wasn't a single case, but no, it was diving into the lore of ghost hunting.

[00:10:09] The ghost hunting episode looked at the history and evolution of paranormal investigation from seances and spiritualism to modern equipment like EVPs, spirit boxes, EMF meters, and night vision cameras. It also gave us a bigger question for the season. What actually counts as evidence when you're chasing something invisible? We didn't have any direct questions for this episode, so. Yeah, that one was more just like an exploration. Yeah, into ghost hunting.

[00:10:36] Yeah, that was cool, though, because that was also sort of preparation for us to go ghost hunting. Yes, it was. We were learning about different tactics we could use. Yep, before we went. And in a future episode, we'll talk about. After ghost hunting, we traveled to New York for the Amityville murders. Before Amityville became a haunted house story, it was the site of a real tragedy. The murders of the DeFeo family.

[00:11:01] This episode was one of the darkest of the seasons because it reminded us that behind the legend is an actual crime scene and real people whose deaths became part of a much larger mythology. We asked, was Butch DeFeo possessed by a demon? No. Yeah, we said no. I do think that house is probably a little haunted, though. Well, that leads us into the next episode after that, which keeping in New York was the Amityville hauntings, which started right after the murders.

[00:11:29] The hauntings brought us one of the most famous and controversial haunted house stories ever told, with the Lutz family claiming they experienced terrifying activity after moving into the DeFeo home. Whether real, exaggerated, or fully fabricated, this case shaped the modern haunted house genre more than almost any other story we covered. And we asked, was Amityville haunted? And we said maybe. Yeah. There's a ghost on Ocean Avenue.

[00:11:59] He gave us that nice song, too. What a wonderful cover parody. That one's great. Yeah. Yeah. We've had a few good ones. We haven't released any of them. One of them. We did Roanoke. That's on our TikTok. I did do, yeah, we made a little reel or TikTok of Roanoke. We got to do Ocean Avenue. Amityville, Ocean Avenue. After Amityville, we left the studio and went to a local haunted spot known as the Madison Seminary.

[00:12:24] And Madison Seminary gave us a local investigation feel with a building layered in history, institutional use, and ghost stories tied to its long past. This episode stood out because we didn't just sit in this studio and talk about it. We have a full episode out on our YouTube and Spotify and on Facebook. It's listed everywhere of our full paranormal investigation. That's right. We went out into the field ourselves with our own equipment, our own cameras, our own. Well, not our own ghosts.

[00:12:53] I was going to say our own ghosts, but I didn't bring any with me. We didn't bring any ghosts. But we captured some pretty cool evidence in that episode. And I think we found a compelling reason to give the answer we did for this episode, which we asked, is the Madison Seminary haunted? Yeah, I think so. And we said, yeah. It was creepy in there. It's very creepy.

[00:13:18] You know, still, I remember that week at work, people were asking like, oh, you guys doing anything for Valentine's Day? I'm like, yeah, we're going ghost hunting. We're going to spend the night in the insane asylum. And it's also like 20 degrees out. So, you know, we're going to be freezing our asses off. And to this day, I still have random people coming up to me like, I still can't believe y'all spent the night in that place. Like, that's so scary. I wouldn't. You couldn't pay me to do it. You paid to do it. Yeah, we paid to do it. I'm like, yeah. And I would do it again.

[00:13:47] It was so fun. We will do it again. It was spooky. It was. Oh, my gosh. I don't know what investigations we're going to do for season three. I don't want to give away the theme yet. But I'll have to find something out because it'll be kind of interesting. I'm sure we can find something. From Madison Seminary, we moved on to another story in the studio with the Smurl family haunting. The Smurl family haunting was another intense domestic case involving claims of terrifying activity.

[00:14:17] Foul smells, shadow figures, physical attacks, and alleged demonic forces. Like many Warren connected stories, it sits in that uncomfortable space between a family saying they were genuinely suffering and outsiders questioning how much the story grew once the cameras arrived. This was in Pennsylvania. We actually know people who live near this house that reached out after we put out the episode. So that's pretty cool.

[00:14:46] Yeah, we could probably go see it. I don't know if they do like visitations or anything. They don't. It's just the normal people live there. Yeah, yeah. But we could like just drive past. There it is. There it is. Ooh, spooky. For that episode, we asked, was the Smurl family haunted? I probably said no. Yeah, we said no. We both said no. Sorry. I think all these families are liars, apparently. Well, a caveat on a lot of these.

[00:15:14] With the families, when we say no, it turns out in the episodes, if you go back and watch them, we boil it down to the family was dealing with something. So to them, it is kind of real. It's just in the grand scheme. No, they're not haunted by ghosts or demons. Most of the time, it's like, look, I feel for them. I'm not judging them. Like, this is a whole situation. And then other random media or Warrens related people came in and just kept feeding into this thing. Like, it blew out of proportion every time, I think.

[00:15:43] Like, but it is funny that, like, some of these random locations or lore were like, yeah, for sure haunted. And every haunted house family story were like, nah, they weren't haunted. Nah, they're lying. Oh, it was just stress. Everything boils down to stress. I feel like you go to the doctor like, hey, I'm really feeling sick. And if nothing's actually wrong, they're like, oh, it's just stress.

[00:16:09] Even if something is actually wrong, if your vital signs are fine, they're like, it's probably just stress. Yeah, you're not showing any signs of anything. And if it's not stress, if you calm down your stress levels, whatever it is, will probably still go away. Our next episode gave us two lies and a legend. I forgot about that one. Yeah, that was fun. We should do those like once every season. Oh, they'll come up again for sure.

[00:16:37] I think we could end up doing those in between the seasons too because they're easy. Yeah, shorter. Yeah, so like instead of doing movie night or whatever, just give like one or two of those in the few months that we're off and then you get something. Yeah. Yeah, let us know what you guys prefer. Do you like our two truths and a lie or what do you call it? Two lies and a legend. Lies and a legend or movie nights better because we'll still do them between seasons. That was fun. Yeah.

[00:17:02] This episode gave the season a fun break from the heavy hauntings by turning strange stories into a guessing game. It worked because folklore and urban legends survive on that exact feeling. One story sounds fake. One sounds possible. And one sounds completely ridiculous until it turns out to be true. Yeah, that episode really got me. I remember being like kind of pissed at myself afterwards. I was like, oh, come on.

[00:17:30] I had every guess the opposite. Yeah, you were so... All my guesses were completely wrong. I was way off. Like I was so confident too. I'm like, oh, I... Final answer, Alex. Like, let's fucking go. And then you were like, no. Which if you haven't seen that episode, go back and watch it. But a spoiler here real quick. So if you don't want to have the spoiler of which one was true, pause right now. Go watch the episode and come back. But we didn't ask a question for that episode.

[00:17:59] Instead, we just decided which one was real. And the true story was the Belmez faces, which we then went into a little bit of what those were. Dude, all three of those stories were pretty crazy. One was the sound. Yes, the radio wave, Old Stand Ridge. Yeah. One was the teeth doll. Yes. Which I was like, that honestly sounds pretty legit to me. Like... Yeah.

[00:18:25] When writing them, I wrote that one to be the like, okay, this one is like, it's super freaky. And surface level, you're like, no, that doesn't exist. But the more... Think about it or delve into it. You're like, no, that could actually make a lot of sense. Yeah. And I think that's exactly how it went when we went over that story. At first, I'm like, no way. And then we talked about it more. I'm like, well, no, history and different cultures and tradition and motherhood practices. And I'm like, you never know. Yeah, you don't know.

[00:18:57] Our next episode took us back to New York with the Hinsdale House. The Hinsdale House brought rural isolation, strange phenomena, family fear, and the sense that something about the land itself might be wrong. It felt like one of the more underrated hauntings of the season because it had strong creepy house energy without being as overexposed as Amityville or Enfield. We asked, was the Hinsdale House haunted? And we said, by residual energy, yes.

[00:19:26] By demons, no. Again, it's usually our answer. Yeah. It was an old house. So we did say, yeah, the residual energy is there. It's one of the first houses to be built in that region. So it's like, yeah, of course. Was that the one that had like three different priests and families go through it? Yeah. Hinsdale House had multiple people. Yes. Yeah, that one was a little freaky. But again, I'm like, nah, there's not a demon walking the halls.

[00:19:54] There's probably some energies making you feel off-putting. Real quick, you're thinking of the Boily Rectory. This one did have multiple people as well, but I think it was just two families. The Boily Rectory is where like it was three different reverends that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. No, both of those were kind of similar vibes though. Our next episode was another little bit of a different one. We dove into the lore of demons. The demon lore episode shifted the season from ghosts to something darker.

[00:20:21] Entities believed to be inhuman, hostile, and corrupting. It helped frame the possession stories and war in cases by exploring why demons have become such a powerful explanation for fear, suffering, and unexplained activity. We asked, do we believe in demons? And we said, no. We said not in the traditional sense. Yeah. In the cultural sense and in kind of like the... Like a psychological sense. Yes, yeah.

[00:20:49] And a historical sense and a generational sense. Yeah. D&D demons? Now we're talking.

[00:21:26] D&D. No. Unfortunately. I do still... Not that I think we should allow people to claim demon possession in the court of law. I think the judge was right to say, no, you can't even use that as your plea argument in the court of law, let alone are we going to accept it? I think that was the right call.

[00:21:48] But I still love that line in the conjuring movie about it, where it's like, every time you enter a court of law, you start by putting your hand on a Bible and swearing to God to tell the truth. So if you believe in God, why not believe in demons? Oh, yeah. So good. That's pretty fucking true, though. So fucking good.

[00:22:17] So I do still love that, where it's like, you know, makes you think. From there, we moved on to the RMS Queen Mary. The Queen Mary gave us one of the best locations of the season. A massive historic ocean liner with ghost stories tied to its cabins, engine rooms, pool area, and wartime history. It felt cinematic because the ship itself is the main character.

[00:22:44] It's beautiful, eerie, historic, and floating around with a full ghost resume. We asked the question, do we think the Queen Mary is haunted? Yeah, a little. Yeah, we said yes. We said yes. It's like asking, is the Titanic ghost ship in the ocean haunted? I feel like, yeah. Yeah, like you don't have to even go into the details of why you'd think it's haunted. It's like, I feel like that's an obvious.

[00:23:17] After that, we went to California for the Winchester Mystery House. Or I guess we stayed in California because RMS Queen Mary ends up in Long Beach. Well, that's true. Yeah, that's where it isn't. That's where it rests. Yeah. The Winchester Mystery House was one of the most visually memorable stories of the season. With staircases to nowhere, doors that open into walls, and a mansion shaped by grief, wealth, and rumor.

[00:23:40] Whether Sarah Winchester was haunted by spirits or tragedy, the house remains one of the strangest places that we've covered. We asked, do we think the Winchester House is haunted? Not really, but when I was there, it felt like it was. I know you so well. I said, no. Kate is still a little freaked out. Yeah.

[00:24:04] I'm like, look, if I had never been to this place and I had just heard the story like you had, I would have been like, yeah, hard no. It's not haunted. That lady was just going through some shit. But I've been there and it feels unsettling. There are rocking chairs and things that seem to move by themselves. And you're like, what was that? Did you see that? Wait for the hyenas come. It's got that energy, though.

[00:24:32] Like, were you just, the whole time you're in there, it's like, why am I so paranoid? After that, we moved on to the Borley Rectory, which was, the Borley Rectory, once called the most haunted house in England, gave us phantom nuns, ghostly footsteps, mystery messages, scandals, investigators, and plenty of controversy. It felt like a classic old school ghost story complete with the fog, churchyards, and enough suspicious details to keep skeptics busy.

[00:25:01] We asked, was Borley Rectory haunted? I think we said maybe. I said yes. Kate wasn't sure. Yeah. You were on the fence. I have a hard time doing a full send yes with some of these things. Well, in part two of this episode, we're going to have to give some full sentence. I know. I just am very skeptical. All right. I'm that type of person where if you've watched this season, I'm sure you figured it out for yourself. I'm skeptical.

[00:25:31] And I'm going to tell you a haunting isn't real unless I've been at that location and I've felt something. I don't even have to see anything. But if I feel something, I'll be like, oh, shit. Yep. You're right. I believe you. I believe it. I felt it. I mean, I get that, though. And I think that's just part of my character makeup is that like I'm a skeptical person unless I have the experience or the proof myself. No, that makes complete sense.

[00:25:56] From there, we moved on to La Llorona, which brought us folklore, tragedy, motherhood, grief and fear together in one of the most emotionally powerful legends of the season. Unlike a haunted house, La Llorona is not tied to one location, which makes her feel bigger, older and harder to escape. We asked, is La Llorona real?

[00:26:19] No, but I think we said that like this, the kind of energy and story of that ghost is real. We said not as a physical ghost or demon, but as a cultural haunting. Yes. Like a generational curse or grief type of sense. Yeah. Our second to last episode of the season was all about the Paris catacombs. The Paris catacombs gave us one of the most atmospheric episodes of the season because the real history is already unsettling.

[00:26:49] Millions of human remains arranged beneath the city. Even before you add ghost stories, the location already feels like death turned into architecture. We asked, are the Paris catacombs haunted? Yeah. Yeah, we said yeah. I feel like this one was actually a pretty full sentence. Yes, this one was a fairly full sentence. We said yes, there's something going on down there. I mean, you can't do that with all those bodies and not expect.

[00:27:13] Again, it's the same with like RMS Queen Mary or like any like war site or war grave. It's like there's residual stuff at least because the amount of tragedy that has happened in human history. People can't just witness that stuff and then like go about life like it never happened and like it haunts them for life, which means when they're gone, that energy that was haunting them is probably still floating around for a bit. Yeah.

[00:27:45] No, I agree with that 100%. We both agreed on that one. And then our last mystery of the season was all about the Warrens. And this episode closed out the season by looking at Ed and Lorraine themselves. Their rise, their most famous cases, their supporters, their skeptics, their museum, and the complicated legacy they left behind. They were either pioneers of paranormal investigation, brilliant storytellers, sincere believers, opportunists, or some haunted cocktail of all four.

[00:28:14] Our question was, do we think Ed and Lorraine Warren were genuine demonologists or just con artists? I think we said it was kind of a mix, but not really any truth to the real demonologists. We were like, eh, I don't think they're actually doing any... I don't think they actually know what they're doing. I don't think demons are real. I don't think she's psychic. I don't think he's performing exorcism. Like, I don't think any of that is real.

[00:28:43] I think that in that way, they're kind of con artists. But I think that they are buying their own supply. And so that they just fully believe it's real. Okay, okay. Well, they don't see themselves as con artists because they believe it. I mean, yeah. No, that's exactly what we said. We said they believed their own delusions, but what they were practicing was not real. Which falls in line to what you just said perfectly. They just, they show up. They feed off the media attention.

[00:29:12] They stir shit up a little bit. And then they fuck off. You know, and it's a repeated tale. And before they fuck off, they steal a music box from the children to put into their museum. Yes, always, always. At least one. God. That was all 20 mysteries of the season and our viewpoints on them. And I think we remained relatively the same throughout the season. Yeah, I don't think we really changed our mind on any of these. No, I don't think so.

[00:29:39] So from there, we're going to move on to ranking all of our episodes into fun little categories. Think of this as the award show section. All right. I'll put little fanfare music. And the nominees are... Drum roll. So the first category I have here is the best haunting. So these are for the cases that felt the strongest overall in their haunting presence.

[00:30:04] So some possible picks that I wrote down are the Perrin family haunting, the Enfield poltergeist, Amityville, Smurl family, or Borley. Best haunting. Interesting. Let's see. I think Enfield wasn't bad. I mean, they had that like levitation photo. They had... They're the ones who had Morris. Maurice Gross. Yep. Yep. And I feel like that one got a lot of attention.

[00:30:31] It even caused us to be like, well, I mean, I don't think it's real, real, but... I mean, I'd be cool with... I'm cool with Enfield. It's... That is a very famous case. If you search like most famous paranormal cases, that's going to be one that shows up. Well, and let's... I'm just thinking about what we've... Like what we said about each of those cases too. And more than half of those, we decided those aren't haunted. Yes. Yeah. Enfield was the one that we were like, well, maybe a little haunted. Yeah. There might be something there. So I think we have it.

[00:31:00] I think for the best haunting, we're going to give that to the Enfield poltergeist for this season. Yeah. Let us know if you disagree. Yeah. Yeah. Let us know what your best haunting is. The next one I have is the scariest story. So this is the episode that actually made you the most unsettled. The ones I have are La Llorona, the Paris Catacombs, RMS Queen Mary, and the Madison Seminary.

[00:31:24] I was going to say that the Madison Seminary might have to take this just because like I said, I have the personal experience sitting on that one. It's not just a story I've heard and I'm deciding if I believe. I was there, baby. I was there. I think I could give it to Madison. And it was spooky. We didn't even really. I can't say like, oh, yeah, we definitely saw a ghost when we were there. And I still am like, no, it's haunted. It's haunted.

[00:31:53] So I think it might have to be Madison. I'm cool with that. So there you have it. The scariest story of the season was the Madison Seminary, which I feel like a lot of you will probably agree with. Because if you watch the video, you're going to get to see a lot more in-person ghost hunting. Yeah, you'll see our experience and feel it. But if you have another story that you think was the scariest, let us know. Yeah, I think maybe La Llorona would be a good runner up. I do too. Just because the idea of that is horrifying. Yeah.

[00:32:22] Our next one is the best location. So for a place that you would not want to visit. So this is for the place that you would most want to visit, investigate, or just dramatically stare at from a foggy driveway. Ooh, this one's hard. Yes, I picked my possible picks are the Queen Mary, Winchester Mystery House, Loftus Hall, the Paris Catacombs, Borley Rectory, or Madison Seminary. Even though Borley Rectory isn't really there anymore.

[00:32:50] Yeah, I was thinking Winchester, RMS Queen Mary, or Loftus Hall, or Catacombs. But honestly, in real life, I don't think I could go see the Catacombs. I'd be too scared to go down there. No, I don't think we could. So not that one. I think Queen Mary would be my, like, out of all those locations, that's the one that I would most be like, yeah, let's go and save the night. If we had to locate, like, an opportunity to go to one of these, like, say, next week, no money didn't matter.

[00:33:19] But one of them, we had to pick one. I think Queen Mary would be the one I'd want to go to. I think I might say Loftus, because that's in Ireland on, like, a stormy cliffside coast. That's true. You know what? The location, if we're talking strict location, you are right. Loftus Hall, that sells it for mystery haunted house. Yeah, I'm like, look, California is nice. I want to go to California, too. But, like, I've been there. It's not that different from other states. You know what? I'm cool with that. I'd say Loftus Hall. Ireland is beautiful. It's different. Yeah.

[00:33:49] You know, we'll go with that. Somewhere new. Best location is Loftus Hall. I'll put a little image of it so you can see it's beautiful. I was going to say, and if you see it, it's like, wow, that is pretty breathtaking. Our next one is the most believable haunting for the case that you felt the hardest to fully dismiss. This one's hard, too. This one for me is Borley. Once you have Harry Price being like, yeah, we did a seance. The ghost told us it was going to burn down and we were going to find bones. It burned down.

[00:34:19] We found bones. These aren't the first bones we found in here. Every reverend that has lived in here has seen basically the same nun, which then we hear the story of a nun being, like, it's just like everything in that one is just so hard for me to be like, no, that's, I don't know. That one's a good choice. Let's see. Yeah, I mean, I'm okay with going with that one. Because I think the other ones, we either were like, no, I have a hard time believing this or I can't fully dismiss it.

[00:34:49] But that one was a pretty solid middle ground where it's like, I mean, I don't want to believe this, but I kind of do. Yeah. Well, there you have it. Most believable haunting goes to Borley Rectory. From there, we have the opposite, the least believable haunting. So my possible picks were Amityville, Annabelle, and not Amityville hauntings, the murders where Butch DeFeo was claiming he was demonically possessed. Yeah. That side of it.

[00:35:17] So I have the Amityville murders, Annabelle, and some parts of Enfield and maybe some parts of almost any of the Warren cases I feel like can be up in here. Yeah, I was going to say maybe Arnie Johnson too. Both of those boys who committed murder and then were like, it was a demon's fault. I'm like, I don't know, boys. I'm cool with Arnie Johnson, to be real. Yeah. There you have it. Least believable haunting is the case of Arnie Cheyenne Johnson.

[00:35:47] Sorry. And our last big topic is the most tragic for the story where the sadness outweighed the scare factor. For this one, I have La Girona, The Trial of Arnie Cheyenne Johnson, Winchester Mystery House, Paris Catacombs, maybe Amityville. Yeah, there's a handful. Armas Queen Mary too. I was going to say Queen Mary is tragic.

[00:36:14] That is one pattern that I've started to see arising the more we talk about hauntings is that people who are living their best life and haven't really had any trauma happen to them. Aren't usually the ones who claim that they're being haunted or that their house is being haunted. It's the people who have gone through tragedy after tragedy and hardship after hardship and they're losing it.

[00:36:43] They're hanging on by a thread and then they're being haunted after that. So it's like, well, you can see how trauma is connected to these haunting activities or feelings. It's not surprising. So many of these cases are so tragic. Yeah. No, you definitely see the correlation here between trauma and whether it be like a psychosis or whatever you want to believe the hauntings are. But there is some connection there.

[00:37:08] It could be if you're a true believer, maybe you believe that hauntings seek traumatized victims. Oh, yeah. I hear that a lot. Because they're easier to go against. Like, I don't know, you know? Yeah, I hear that. Especially with those who believe in demons. They'll seek out those who have been weakened either in their mind, their soul, like whatever. Yeah. So that makes sense. But this one's really hard. A lot of them were pretty tragic. I think the biggest one is the Paris Catacombs.

[00:37:35] I was going to say probably Paris just because there's so many bodies and it was hundreds of years worth of death. And then basically most cultures have some sort of like respect for the dead practices. And that entire process just couldn't follow any of them. No, it was too emergency situation at the time. Yeah, it was emergency city survival logistics.

[00:38:04] We don't have time to worry about respecting the dead's bones. We just have to get them out of here. Yeah. And that in itself is pretty hard for, I think, humans as a whole to just accept, like, God, so many bodies were just kind of desecrated after they were laid to rest. And then never got a proper final resting place. It's rough. Yeah.

[00:38:33] No, I think we can go with that, though. So for the most tragic, we have the Paris Catacombs. With that, one. Well, I have two more parts left before we get into the big conclusion of the season. This one is going to be, I want you to just give me your top five episodes of Mystery Date for somebody brand new coming into it. This could be from season one or two. Oh, top five episodes for somebody brand new. All right. Well, you got to do Bigfoot.

[00:39:03] Amityville. Oh, my gosh. Now you got me thinking, what the heck did we even talk about in season one? Montauk Project. I don't know, man. There's my top three. Can that be good enough? If you, like, were presenting me with a list of them, that'd be one thing. But you're just making me conjure these titles from the top of my head. My memory doesn't work like that. All right. So what were your top three?

[00:39:32] Bigfoot, Montauk, and Amityville. Okay. Well, there you go. If you're brand new to this show for whatever reason and watching our season two finale, go back and seek out those three episodes. And on top of that, I'm also going to add our D.B. Cooper episode, our El Dorado episode from season one. And then in season two, I highly recommend that you check out, we talked about it, the Enfield Poltergeist episode. I think our Paris Catacombs episode is a great episode.

[00:40:01] And also, I really enjoyed our coverage on the Madison Seminary investigation. Because that was just something super fun and unique to our channel that we haven't gotten to do before. And if you like in-person investigations like Ghost Hunters or TAPS, that's the episode for you. That's going to be the one that you're going to want to check out. But I think those are just kind of a good rundown of some good episodes for newbies. Or if you've been listening the entire time and you want to go back and listen to our voices some more, go listen to those ones. Yeah, I don't know.

[00:40:30] It's just, it's hard. It's hard to pick. So I'm like, well, it's not just what's my favorite episodes we've done so far. It's what do you think would be best for a new fan, a newcomer who's never listened to us before? I'm like, gosh, now I got to think about that differently. Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, it's a hard question. I had time to think about it because I wrote it. So it's like you're getting asked on the spot. So our last big award for the season then is the best season two episode overall.

[00:40:59] Best season two episode. We want to give this to the episode that best represents the haunted chaos of the entire season. Gosh, it should probably be one of the haunted houses where the Warrens show up. Huh? Because the Warrens showed up all season, but it was about hauntings, not about them. So I don't want to, I don't think the legacy of the Warrens should be the episode we pick,

[00:41:24] but maybe like Enfield or Perrin or Amityville, one of the haunted houses, I think. Because that's also what you think of when somebody says a haunting, your mind immediately goes to haunted house. Yeah, but don't, you don't necessarily, I do like that thought process and I am cool with going. But you don't necessarily need to think of what capsulates haunting the best. What is just the best season two episode? What did you have the most fun recording? What would you want to go back and listen to maybe?

[00:41:54] Our Madison Seminary episode. It was so fun. And it also, that one hit hard for us because we're local. Yeah. And it's like, dude, we grew up with Madison right there. That's crazy. And I got to learn a lot of history about these local towns and like things that happened here, people who lived here. I thought that was really cool. I loved, loved learning about Julia Stiles. I was like, she's like my new hometown hero. Are you kidding?

[00:42:21] Elizabeth, the only reason I want to correct you is because Julia. I would normally let that slide. No, I'm glad you corrected me. That's what I meant. That's what I meant. But that, yeah, I liked doing that episode. It was really fun to learn all that about the story. It was a different format. We had so much fun doing it.

[00:42:48] And I still kind of can't believe that we spent the night in a haunted building. And I actually slept there. We met Julia Stiles. She gives tours there. It's the wildest thing. Isn't she dead? Well, Elizabeth Stiles is dead too. No, she's only 45. Okay. For some reason, my skew of time or vision of time was messed up there. I was like, isn't she like older? But no.

[00:43:21] That's hilarious. But no, I think I agree with you about Madison. I think that would be my top pick for best episode overall. Yeah. Because again, you get the mystery date, history that we like to give. And you also get the infield reporting that we don't get to do on every episode. Because whether it's expensive or these locations are far away, we're not traveling to Ireland just to stay the night in a hall. Unless you guys give us all your money. Yeah. You want to crowdfund that shit?

[00:43:50] Because we'll do it so fast. But I just think that episode covered it all in a good, encompassing way. Yeah. And that's true. It had a couple different types of hauntings that we talked about too. You had residual energy. You had murderous hauntings. You had tragic death hauntings. You had psychological patients. You had evil doctors. There was all kinds of stories and lore with that.

[00:44:18] So that was pretty all-encompassing too. Yep. So there you have it. The best season two episode overall is the Madison Seminary. So there you have it. That's our awards for season two. Our summaries of all of our season two episodes. And looking back, season two was not just about ghosts. It was about how people tell stories when they're scared. It was about families trying to explain what happened to them.

[00:44:44] It was about investigators trying to turn the unknown into evidence. It was also about skeptics pulling stories apart thread by thread. It was about folklore, grief, trauma, religion, money, media, memory, and the strange human need to believe that the dark hallway is not always empty. Some stories felt believable. Some felt suspicious. Some felt tragic.

[00:45:11] And some felt like someone saw a shadow once and then immediately called a publisher. But every episode added something to the season. The ghosts gave us mystery. The demons gave us chaos. The haunted houses gave us terrible floor plans. The Warrens gave us controversy. And Annabelle gave us a glass case anxiety. The catacombs gave us bones. So many bones.

[00:45:37] And La Llorona reminded us that some legends do not need a house, a doll, or famous investigator to survive. Some stories survive because they are powerful enough to follow us anywhere. Season two was our haunted house. And tonight, we turn off the lights, shut the door, and leave it behind. At least, we hope we do.

[00:46:02] Because if there's one thing this season taught us, it's that ghosts are very bad at respecting endings. So, for the season two question, do you believe in ghosts? Yeah. I mean, we answered this one already. Yeah, but I said in the very first episode, we're going to revisit this at the end of the season. Yes, but again, same answer as before.

[00:46:25] I don't believe in the Casper, the friendly ghost, or the movie version of the fully formed apparition demon thing in front of you trying to murder you. I don't believe in that. I believe in residual energies.

[00:46:40] I believe in maybe a small level of physical manifestation level hauntings, but I don't believe in just a straight up fully intelligent, aware ghost spirit with unfinished business or revenge plans. That's fair.

[00:46:59] I will say, I think throughout the season, I may have seemed pretty skeptical, but after Madison Seminary and after doing a lot of the research that I have throughout this season, while I'm not going to sit here and say, yes, I believe in ghosts. These houses were haunted. Demons are running around. My clock has ticked slightly. And I do now believe a little more than I might have before we started this.

[00:47:26] So whether or not that has changed for you, let us know in the comments. Do you believe in ghosts? Did your answer change if you've been joining us for the entire season? Are you now a little less or more skeptical? Because these are the things and the reason we do this show is to bring these questions to the front of your mind and to allow you to think a little bit differently than you normally would. But that's it. That's the big mysteries for season two.

[00:47:51] Thank you guys for joining us, but it's not over just yet because now we're going to go into our last eight night debrief, which our question is simple, but it can be expansive depending on what you got going on. What's your biggest goal right now? My biggest goal right now is keep it simple to become a published author, get my books traditionally published. There you go.

[00:48:16] So now that that goal has been broken down into many steps and minor goals that we're working on. I can hear the mania behind the two like the two like laughs you had before that. No. That's why I'm like, what? How should I answer this? Like, you know what? To be an author. We'll just put it. We'll just throw it out like that because that's the simplest way to say it. I think that's fair. What about you?

[00:48:40] My biggest goal right now is to get season three written and get a nice backlog of that. So a little bit behind the scenes inside baseball right now. Season two, we loved it and had a great time. But due to some life circumstances with our car getting totaled, having to get a new car, having to swap that car out, lots of blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You don't need to know all that. But with all of that, season two towards the end of it, I think Kate and I both kind of felt a little bit burnt out by it. So I want season three.

[00:49:08] I'm trying to do everything I can to get it planned and have us get a nice backlog that isn't too extensive to where we feel disconnected from you guys. To where it's like, oh, well, we filmed that back a year ago. So we don't know anything that's going on. The world could have been on fire in that year. And I don't want to post an episode where we're just smiling and laughing.

[00:49:30] So it's a delicate balance that we got to kind of find as indie podcasters and people new to this of how much backlog do we want to get and how active or up to date do we want to be with you guys? So that's something. And that's what my big goal is for season three. And right now, let's just make sure that everything is nice and organized. And the format is a little bit better for you guys and us. Thank you guys so much for joining us this season. We can't thank you guys enough. I say it all the time.

[00:49:59] Thank you guys so much for joining us on this journey. It's been incredible. I've learned so much about videography, podcasting, audio equipment, all of that stuff in kind of a short period of time. And I'm impressed with myself if I say it. But it's been so fun. And I'm also impressed with Kate. She hasn't done anything like this besides, I mean, theater. But that's not sitting, delivering monologues or reacting to things in live time without a script like this show is.

[00:50:26] This is essentially you're coming on and doing a talk show every single day on your weekends, which is a lot to ask for someone to do. So I appreciate that. And I think you've also grown in a large way for doing this. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I think from watching season one, episode one to where we are now, you'd be. We're both impressed, I think. Hopefully you as the audience are also impressed with how we've grown and you want to see us grow more. But it's been a blast this past year and a half.

[00:50:56] I wouldn't change it for anything. And I can't wait for you guys to see what we have next. Thank you so much for watching. We hope you have enjoyed season two, all of its stories and mysteries. And don't forget, you can reach out. Tell us your stories. Tell us your mysteries. Let us know your opinions on the episodes you've seen. Answer the date night debrief questions. Tell us if you think we're crazy for what theories we agreed with. Tell us your own haunting stories.

[00:51:23] Tell us the enemies you have and what hauntings you wish would go after them. I just, I need to know. You can find us on Instagram or all social media, really, at Mystery Date Podcast. You can send us an email to mysterydatepodcast at gmail.com. Hit us up on our website, mysterydatepodcast.com. Send us a little voice message. Or you could even call us at the mystery hotline, which the number for is in the description.

[00:51:51] So hit us up, especially while we're on break between seasons. Yeah, we're going to be on break for a little bit. We're taking summer break, as I like to call it. We'll probably start up around early fall, maybe like end of summer, August-ish into September. Once spooky season starts up, I think that's a good time for the podcast to come back and get eyes all on us. Y'all are going to be busy in the summer anyway. You're doing stuff with your families and with your kids and with the sunshine that we actually have. You guys got shit going on.

[00:52:20] We got shit going on. Enjoy your summer. Yeah. We're going to take some time off and you're going to hit us up with your questions and your theories and your story ideas. And we're going to see you in a couple months. And be sure to share this podcast with your friends or even your enemies or like, you know, your grandmas. We love it when they watch. That's our favorite. But it goes a long way for an indie show like us.

[00:52:47] When you interact with us in any sort of way by commenting, liking, subscribing, or even just sharing this with your friends, it shows the algorithm that what we're putting out there, people like, and it puts us in the eyes of others, which allows us to grow our little family and keeps the mothership floating without us coming crashing down. Because if we can't afford those supersonic engines, it's going to get bad. But that's all. So be safe and have a great rest of your day or night and have a great summer. And remember, every good mystery deserves a date. Bye.