Ghostbasket is the forty-eighth episode of the third season of Bluey.
Synopsis
Dad’s pretending to be an estate agent selling the Grannies’ house to Mum. But Janet and Rita don’t want to move out!
They try to disrupt the sale by ambushing Mum in the hallway, driving their car through the kitchen and introducing Ghostbasket – a ghastly haunted washing basket!
When Mum reveals that Rita is Ghostbasket, Dad is relieved that Mum can finally buy the house, but she insists he first ejects the Grannies outside.
Taking pity on the now homeless Grannies, Dad pretends to be a haunted wheelbarrow to help scare Mum away!
Dad is pretending to be an estate agent selling the Grannies’ house to Mum. But Janet and Rita don’t want to move out![1]
A brand new Bluey episode.[2]
Episode Recap
Warning Spoilers!
Bandit, in character as Hugo the real estate agent, tries to interest Chilli in buying their house. He tells her the house is unoccupied, but when he opens the front door, he’s confronted with Bluey and Bingo, in character as the grannies. He ducks inside without Chilli.
It turns out that Bandit is selling the house on behalf of the Grannies' kids, who intend to put them in an old folks home. The grannies were supposed to be at mahjong, but it was cancelled. He manages to get them to agree to stay out of the way. He comes back out to the porch and invites Chilli inside. The grannies immediately tackle her, wielding a bubble gun and grabby claw. Bandit throws a packet of biscuits to distract them, and flees with Chilli to the kitchen.
Bandit hurriedly shows Chilli around the kitchen, but not fast enough - the grannies drive in with the pedal car, and Bandit holds them back from running over Chilli as he directs her to look around the dining room. He pushes the car into the TV room, where Bluey explains that they're not willing to leave the house. Chilli walks in, and announces that she likes the house. The grannies try to run her over again, but Bandit holds them back. Chilli and the grannies are finally introduced - and Chilli announces that she wants to buy the house. Bluey whispers something to Bingo, who runs off giggling. Bluey tries to warn Chilli about something, but Bandit covers her mouth.
As Chilli explains that she hasn't seen anything to put her off the house, a ghostly moaning can be heard from off screen. Bandit makes the mistake of taking his hands off Bluey’s mouth - and she explains that that noise is just Ghostbasket. Bingo enters the room, crawling under a laundry basket. Bandit hustles them into the sunroom before Chilli can see it. He closes the door behind them, but Bingo crawls in through the other door, and they flee. Ghost Basket chases them from room to room in the bedroom hallway.
They end up in the bathroom, which Bandit still tries to talk up as he suggests they flee by jumping out the window. Chilli refuses. Bluey explains that Ghostbasket comes with the house, and he doesn't like young people. Bandit apologises to Chilli for trying to conceal that the house is, indeed, haunted. Chilli decides to investigate, and lets Ghostbasket into the bathroom. She picks up the basket, revealing it was Rita all along. Bandit gets upset - he’s been trying to sell the house for six weeks, but Ghostbasket has ruined every sale. Bandit decides this must have been Janet's idea, and starts shaking Bluey upside-down. Chilli comes back in, interrupting the roughhousing to announce that she'll take the house.
Bandit chucks the grannies out, and Chilli hands over the money. Bandit's celebration is cut short, as he sees the grannies moping on the front lawn. He stops them from walking off to the old folks home, and proposes a plan.
Chilli is sunbathing in the backyard. Bandit crawls towards her, underneath a wheelbarrow, moaning eerily. Chilli sarcastically pretends to be frightened of the obviously fake ghost. But when Rita and Janet show up to pick up a gnome, Chilli logically concludes that, with no other suspects, the ghost wheelbarrow must be real.
As Chilli runs off screaming, Bluey and Bingo hug Bandit. He explains that "he can't do this every time". As Chilli runs out the front door and down the street, we see a real "For Sale" sign in front of the house.
Appearances
Trivia
- This is the first episode aired on 2024 and the first to air in Australia and the United States the same day.
- This episode implies that the Heeler house is being sold, as seen by the "For sale" sign at the end before the next episode of the same name.
- This episode is the fifth episode involving grannies. The first four are Grannies, Trains, Bus, and Granny Mobile.
- This is also the second episode (after Bus) where a Granny reads the title card. Bluey reads the card in-character as Janet.
- Along with The Sign and Surprise!, these three episodes (also known as season 3D) seem to form a story arc about the Heelers moving house.
- The release date of the episode, 7th April, is exactly a year (364 days due to the leap year) after the release of Cubby. Cubby marked the start of release batch 3C, while Ghostbasket coincidentally is the start of Season 3D.
- Chilli takes the name of "Monique" during the events of this episode. Bandit is playing a real estate agent named Hugo.
- The Bubble Shooter which Bingo/Janet keeps with her is the same type which was won by Lila in Pass the Parcel; it isn't entirely known whether it is exactly the same toy however.
- When Bandit, Chilli, and Bluey/Rita are being chased in and out of doors by the Ghost Basket (a gag used in cartoons such as Scooby-Doo and seen in the disney channel show JESSIE), the alignment of the shot changes very slightly whenever the hallway is empty, implying that footage has been cut.
- The original gag relies on cartoon physics, where the connections between the doors change nonsensically. As Bluey uses more grounded physics, the cuts are necessary to conceal the characters re-entering the hallway to change rooms.
- Gecky can be seen on the wall between the girls' and the spare bedroom, in the same place from Bedroom.
- Australians count the ground floor as the first floor when numbering floors. So when Chilli says "But we're on the second floor", she is saying they are one floor above ground level.
- As Bandit holds Bluey upside down, he does so using the safer method of holding by the hips rather than by the arms or legs.
- Bluey refers to one of the garden gnomes as Jeremy, which appears to be the same gnome called by that name in Backpackers.
- Despite this episode seeming to appear after Tradies, the Fish-Pond which was added in does not appear in the garden.
- When Bandit says "But look, I can’t do this every time", he seems to be referring to a real-estate agent showing the house to potential buyers, hinting to the following episode The Sign.
- On the "For Sale" sign, small images of the kitchen, living room, and back garden can be seen.
- This is the only Bluey episode to not have any music for the outro, or character action or object visible in the bottom.
- Long Dog Easter Egg: As Chilli, Bandit and Bluey enter the Sunroom, the settee behind them has a cushion with a green longdog embroidered into it (the furthest right from the viewers perspective. Additionally, the purply fridge magnet long dog which is a staple of many episodes also appears in the kitchen.
- Underneath the settee in the Sunroom, a tennis ball is also seen, another reoccurring Easter Egg.
- After Chilli refers to the house being small, Bandit replies "It's Bigger Inside". This is a likely reference to Doctor Who and the phrase characters say when they enter the TARDIS for the first time: "It's Bigger On the Inside!"
- The Official Bluey X (formely Twitter) account posted this scene and tagged the Official Doctor Who twitter, to which they tweeted the scene with "Bigger on the inside AND bluey!".