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This week, our favorite trio head to “one of the darkest haunts in New England,” the Lizzie Borden house, in Fall River, Massachusetts. Borden was accused of brutally murdering her father and step-mother with an axe, but she was eventually acquitted. Zak apparently hasn’t had enough of demons from last week, since he claims startling new evidence that suggests Borden may have been a victim of demonic possession. Sigh.

Interviews

Property manager Lee-Ann Wilber starts the tour by taking the guys up to the bedroom where Mrs. Borden was murdered, struck 17 times with an axe. Aaron comments on how aggressive the murder was, as if someone was taking it out on the victim, and Zak mumbles, “or somebody possessed by a demon.” They head downstairs to the scene of Mr. Borden’s murder. Lee-Ann has Zak sit down on a couch and lean against the armrest. He asks where Mr. Borden was found, and she replies, “right about there,” causing him to leap off the couch. Zak nervously notes that Lee-Ann is wearing hatchet-shaped earrings, and she suggests she “may have spent too much time alone in the house.”

Zak comments on the “dark forces” that continue to plague the house, and talks to some witnesses. They start with paranormal investigators Matt Moniz and Tim Weisberg. While investigating in the basement, they claim they a woman was scratched and Tim was thrown against the wall. Upstairs on the third floor, medium Liz Nowicki witnessed a camera move on its own – twice. Tour guide Eleanor Thibault claims she had footsteps follow her up the stairs from the basement and that she knows a spirit is down there.

Courtesy of Travel Channel

The interviews continue upstairs with Kat Owens, one of the owner’s daughters. She claims her ear was tugged while looking at some jewelry. Zak has delusions of grandeur and decides all his questions make him seem like a lawyer, but Kat shoots him down when he misidentifies a photo of Mrs. Borden. Kat says her sister had an experience in the house and refuses to go inside. Zak is intrigued, but Lauren takes little convincing to go back into the room where she mysteriously passed out before. Zak calls on the spirits to interact with them, but nothing happens.

The guys learn there is more murderous history to the Borden family, and head to a local cemetery to meet with paranormal author Jeff Belanger. They spend some time wandering the cemetery, with Zak waxing philosophic on how his arm will “be fertilizer one day,” before finding Jeff. He tells them that in 1848, Andrew Borden’s aunt went crazy and drowned two of her children in a well before slitting her own throat. Zak wonders if a “dark spirit or curse” was influencing the Bordens.

Investigation

To start off the investigation, the guys use a REM pod, a device that generates a small electromagnetic field that spirits can manipulate. Almost immediately the device starts going off, and Zak decides to use it for communication – one beep for yes, two for no. He asks if the spirit wants to harm them, and if it is the Borden’s murderer, and gets positive responses to both questions. Interestingly, when he asks if it is evil, he gets a no.

While walking around, they start hearing unexplained movement. Behind Aaron, there are loud footsteps on the stairs and they follow them to the room where Mrs. Borden was murdered. Once there, they capture an EVP stating “I’ll take you to heaven.” Zak heads to one of the attic bedrooms by himself. Shortly after sitting down, a scraping sound is heard from the next room and he discovers the nightstand drawer is open. Upon reviewing the footage, the drawer was closed when Zak first came upstairs, so it appears to have moved on its own.

At this point, the guys invite in witnesses Eleanor and Liz to conduct a group EVP session, with a thermal camera and a digital recorder attached to an axe blade to capture any evidence. Meanwhile, in the attic room, an EVP is captured stating, “keep on killing…keep’em coming.” They decide to use the spirit box, a device that sweeps radio frequencies so that spirits can communicate in the white noise. As soon as the device is on, they start getting intelligent responses. When they ask who attacked people, they clearly get the name “Lizzie.” A flashlight turns on by itself, and their recorder captures an angry EVP stating, “tell’em about the GIRL!”

Liz feels she knows why Mr. Borden was murdered, and though they edit out what she actually says, it’s implied he was having a sexual relationship with his daughter. Angry EVPs seemingly directed at Liz are captured. The tone in the room gets darker, and both Nick and Zak start to feel sick. The more accusations Liz throws out, the more agitated they become. They let the women out of the house. The episode ends with a debriefing by the guys. Zak (in a ridiculous cowboy hat) says the same aggression that they later heard in their EVPs was channeled into them, and that they were close to actually harming the two women. Nick concludes rather grimly, “It was sinister.”

Overall, this was a good episode. They toned down the ridiculousness and worked with dark history of the house, and got some creepy responses. Let’s hope the trend continues.

Quotes

Zak – I kind of feel like an attorney right now. Tell me, and the jury, what was on the tablecloth?
Kat Owens – There was a necklace right here.
Zak – So it would be safe to say that when you were looking at the jewelry, you also glanced at the photo of Lizzie Borden?
Kat Owens – That’s actually Mrs. Borden.
Zak – That’s not Lizzie?
Aaron – I call a mistrial!

Zak – We want to find out if there is a demonic energy that is hovering over this family causing them to kill each other. So if that energy gets to us, I really hope we don’t kill each other tonight, Aaron.
Aaron – [nervously] I hope so too!

Liz – It only picks on girls.
Aaron – Well there are three girls in the room, Nick and I are the only men. A little humor for the ghosts.
Zak – I know where the axe is…I can make you a girl in two seconds.