We here at Spectral Review are not paranormal investigators, demonologists, or drama critics. We don’t even play any of those on TV! But we do watch most paranormal shows and can tell the good ones from the bad.

Paranormal State episode report card.

“Mothman”

Ryan and his team travel to Point Pleasant, West Virginia to investigate the mysterious Mothman.

The Mothman is a legend right up there with the Yeti, Lochness Monster and Champ from Lake Champlain. It’s interesting that Paranormal State decided to investigate.

Client Credibility

This episode again strayed away from the normal formula. So we suppose the “client” in this episode would be the town of Point Pleasant itself. Or one could say the legend of Mothman was the client. Either way since this investigation is different as it is an investigation of a legend and not a haunting that a person or family is experiencing.

Ryan and the team were able to interview two of the original witnesses to the Mothman. The original event was witnessed by two couples driving in a car. Both women were interviewed. Their names are Linda Scarberry and Faye Dewitt. Linda Scarberry claims to have seen the Mothman hundreds of times. Faye Dewitt just told us of the original story bits of the Mothman following them in their car and she looked outside the car window and saw the red eyes.

Investigation

The team talked to Jeff Wamsley who owns the Mothman Museum. His father had taken pictures and eight millimeter film footage of the famous Silver Bridge collapse. They showed some images with white streaks. Most likely of course just a normal film anomaly.

Chip Coffey appeared on this episode. The team relied on Chip more so than any other episode in this series. Since the search was on for the Mothman legend, we can understand that more scientific methods may not have much value on a case involving a legend.

During “Dead Time” they go over to the site of the bridge collapse. Chip describes feelings of the people in the accident. Chip relays feelings on how they died, on how it was quick. Then Chip days “If I die I hope it’s that way.” Got news for you Chipper, it’s “when” not “if”.

But then again if he didn’t misspeak, then when quoting him in the future we will have to say “In the immortal words of Chip Coffey…”

Apparently some birds fly away which startles the team. Chip and Ryan claim to see some red light.

We think it’s most likely this was put in the video during post production. Add a little drama to the show.

Chip talked about a Native American feel to the location. Ryan decides they should research this aspect of the Mothman story to maybe see if they can look at it in a new light. The team does excel in the research aspect of these investigations so it’s probably a good idea.

So they talk to more town people about the Chief Cornstalk incident. This Native American was apparently killed by settlers. While Cornstalk was dying he placed a 200 year curse on the town. Some town folk say the town has been cursed, not much economic activity and there is no denying that the town has had hard times. Of course this must be because of the curse.

For World War II, a local TNT factory was built and used in the war effort. It’s explained that it might have been built on Indian burial ground. This could very well be the case. They tie in the Mothman because it was seen near this old factory.

The next night they decide to go to the TNT factory area where the Mothman was first seen. They get out the night vision cameras. They talk about some geese being in the area which was odd since it was winter. We hear a odd sound and something blocks out the night vision camera going from left to right in front of the camera’s view.

Again it’s probably a post production effect. There is not an identifiable figure blocking the view, just a passing darkness. The image above shows this darkness as it nears the completion of it’s pass through the camera’s view.

Evidence

Not really any evidence collected.

Conclusion

Overall we liked this episode. It was entertaining. Since it was an investigation of a legend we knew it really wasn’t going to go anywhere in the gathering of paranormal evidence when we read the show description.

But that’s OK since this episode wasn’t about helping anyone with a haunting. It was an interesting look into one of those legends that have intrigued people over the years. But legends are that, just legends and something that is near impossible to disprove or prove.

If every episode was like this one, we would not watch this series. But to do one of these in a season of 20 half hours is acceptable.