by Linda Kay

Original Air Date: April 25, 2024

Directed by: Lee Toland Krieger, Glen Winter, Cheryl Dunye, Andi Armaganian, Amanda Tapping, Richard Speight Jr., Pete Chatmon

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains spoilers for this season!

Synopsis: The ghost of Edwin Payne (George Rexstrew), who died in the early 20th century, teams up with the ghost of Charles Rowland (Jayden Revri), who died in the 1980’s, to solve mysteries on Earth as they continuously manage to dodge Death. The pair are joined by a psychic empath with amnesia and demon problems named Crystal Palace (Kassius Nelson), the identity of whom becomes the focus of their investigations. This series is connected to The Sandman universe.

Cat Burglars (Scene Stealers): During the opening credits there is a shot of a skeleton dangling a mouse in front of a photo of a tabby cat wearing a jacket.

In the episode one entitled The Case of Crystal Palace, Edwin, Charles and Crystal travel from England to America in order to track down a missing girl in a place called Port Townsend. While outside a house where they suspect the girl may have vanished, a tabby crosses behind them. Charles tells the cat to piss off but Edwin turns and asks the cat if he knows anything about the house. Crystal laughs, saying, “It’s not like the cat is going to talk to you . . . ” before the cat says (voiced by André Sogliuzzo), “Shut up, you! I’m not tellin’ ya nothin’ about that house or the witch inside.” The cat quickly scurries away.

Later in the episode Edwin is trying to find more information about the witch and spots the cat, asking if he’s the same cat he met earlier. “Yeah, we all look alike to you?” the cat asks in an offended manner.

Edwin offers the tabby a sardine as means of thank you but when the cat eats it Edwin traps him with a binding spell and insists the cat tell him about the witch. The cat agrees but warns, “. . . using magic on a cat means trouble!”

In episode two, The Case of the Dandelion Shrine, with the case of the missing girl having been solved, the trio plan to leave America. But they are stopped by the same tabby cat who tells them they have to answer for using magic on him.

Cat Cattle Call: They are shocked to see the ferry ramp is filled with cats.

The cats leads them (with numerous Poor Cat Screeches dubbed over) to a warehouse to meet The Cat King.

As if to prove the true danger they are in, a group of cats scatter away from a ripped up corpse of a person on the floor.

The Cat King changes into human form (Lukas Gage) to address them. Taking Edwin into another room he punishes him by placing a bracelet on Edwin’s wrist which prevents him from leaving the town. It’s clear the Cat King wants to get it on with Edwin but offers him another out if he can count all the cats in Port Townsend.

In episode three, The Case of the Devlin House, Edwin is seen counting a couple of cats running by.

As they enter the haunted Devlin House, the tabby and a calico cat (voiced by Amber Nash) are watching through a window, having been assigned the task of watching over Edwin by the Cat King.

Later the pair speculate on whether or not Charles and Crystal are going to hook up.

The cats are still watching Edwin when he meets Monty (Joshua Colley), who is actually the witch’s crow in disguise. Seeing how Monty is coming on to Edwin, the cats know the Cat King isn’t going to like that. The witch (Jenn Lyon) appears and scares them away.

In episode four, The Case of the Lighthouse Leapers, a ginger and white tabby cat gets Edwin’s attention and leads him to the Cat King.

Later the tabby and calico cat are still following Edwin. The calico says she can’t believe Edwin managed to get a leash around the tabby the way he did with just a sardine.

At the end of episode five, The Case of the Two Dead Dragons, the tabby and calico cat are once again watching Edwin with Monty, this time each one has one eye glowing which fades into darkness to look like one bigger cat, as if the Cat King is watching through them (similar to Flotsam and Jetsam in The Little Mermaid).

In episode seven, The Case of the Very Long Stairway, The Cat King is confronted by the very angry witch whom Edwin and Charles have nearly defeated. She scares all the cats away as she enters.

The Cat King reverts back to feline form to get away from her but he doesn’t get far enough because the witch ends up beating him to death. A black cat emerges from his body and turns back into human form. “That was my third life!” the Cat King complains.

In episode eight, The Case of the Hungry Snake, the witch captures the boys so Crystal and their new companion, Niko (Yuyu Kitamura), visit the Cat King for help. They pass several cats before Niko confronts a longhair calico tabby, asking if he is the Cat King. Crystal assures her he is not.

Near the end of the episode a cat appears to lead Edwin to the Cat King one last time.

The animal coordinator on the show was Paul Jasper of Imagine the PAWSabilities with Cherie Smid acting as animal trainer. According to Lukas Gage (who loves both cats and dogs for real), many of the cats seen on screen were accomplished with CGI. This would especially be true during the scenes with numerous cats in one place.

Cats were also a major part of the original comic series.

To help promote the show, the lead actors even interviewed each other in a cat café.

Final Mewsings: You shouldn’t humiliate a cat just because it isn’t nice!

Many thanks to John Cawley for letting us know about the cats in this series.

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