I love ghost stories. Unfortunately, the "D.K.’s Korean Ghost Story" story that gives the episode its name was a bit light on scares or laughs.
The first scene of the episode feels inconsequential to what follows. The Welltopia staff compare costumes and Halloween party plans. Allison, dressed as a spooky witch and having to deal with Ken’s constant jokes about it, complains that Dave is growing up too fast. He’s looking at retirement hotspots instead of planning a night of fun and mischief with the other trick-or-treaters. She recalls a family tradition of scaring him every Halloween, but he won’t even fall for her very realistic looking fake spider (Ken’s still not convinced it’s a prop).
Pat sympathizes with Dave’s retirement dilemma (he’s firmly in the “Scottsdale” camp) but is more interested in whether or not his coworkers will include them in their Halloween plans. Everyone shuts him down, but his clinginess will form a basis for the ghost story to follow…
When Dave once again rejects any attempts to get him in the Halloween spirit, Allison leaves, dejected. D.K. decides the kid just needs a good scare and goes on to tell both Dave and Ken a spooky Halloween story.
The story follows the hopelessly naive Hyun, imagined as Ken, as he goes through the haunted forest to his school. Ken immediately responds to Hyun, who he thinks could definitely pull off a leather jacket. He thinks that Hyun will get to school just fine. He’s wrong.
Hyun runs into a series of ghosts based on Korean folklore. The first, the bachelor ghost, as imagined as Pat, just wants a friend. Hyun is about to drink death water out of the haunted well before Pat’s neediness and creepiness scares him off. He may be able to deal with Pat making ominous sounds about being best friends for all eternity, but the removable foot is a step too far.
Hyun then runs into a no-nonsense Grim Reaper ghost played by D.K. The ghost gives him an impossible riddle to solve, but Hyun just kicks him between the legs and runs off. The exchange is echoed in Ken’s and D.K.’s dynamics back in the Park living room. D.K. just wants his son to think things through, but Ken is too easily distracted and spacey. He’s never going to take the time to solve a riddle if there’s an easier option available.
D.K. takes occasional breaks in the story to help Molly pick out a Halloween costume and lecture Ken about his cowardliness. He even decides to finish the story “after these messages” and checks his phone. Despite the constant break in the action, Ken and Dave are spooked enough by this point that they’re a couple of beers and juice boxes, respectively, deep. The story only freaks them out more from there.
Hyun then runs into a gumiho and her undead servant, played by Damona and Clark. The gumiho manages to trap Hyun in a cage, but he tricks the servant into letting him steal the keys. Pat’s bachelor ghost is still hanging out, but gets left behind once again.
Finally, Hyun runs into a fairly horrific version of Molly who is intent on dragging him into the lake. At this point, he’s panicking and running around, only to be saved by the ghosts’ own fear of a scarier ghost. Just when Hyun thinks he’s rid of all the ghosts, he looks in the mirror and sees that he is a faceless abomination himself, just like his mother warned him about before he went into the woods. Hyun learns that sometimes it’s better to stay a boy and let your mother help you. Dave learns the same lesson after the scary twist ending and decides that he can be scared on Halloween after all.
At least he lasted longer than his father, who’s still hiding under the bed at the end of the episode. D.K. and Allison share a moment where Allison thanks him for teaching her son how to be a kid again. Now, if only her husband wouldn’t be so much of one…
