Ike is traumatized by his frequent encounters with the ghosts of celebrities who have died over the summer. He is haunted by people such as
Farrah Fawcett,
David Carradine,
Ed McMahon,
DJ AM, and especially
Billy Mays, who repeatedly tries selling Ike products from the afterlife.
Kyle is terrified when he finds out about the ghosts his brother is encountering and tells
Stan,
Cartman and
Kenny about the encounters. An initially indifferent Cartman decides to help when Kyle mentions Billy Mays being one of the ghosts; Cartman then shows commercials that feature Mays on television, implying that he is an enthusiastic supporter of a product which Mays promoted while he was still alive, called "ChipotlAway", which cleans bloodstains from people's underwear caused by eating food from the
Chipotle Mexican Grill. The boys call the team from the reality television series
Ghost Hunters in to help, but they quickly, fearfully start ascribing supernatural meaning to random noises, before urinating and defecating on themselves, and finally running from the house. Eventually, Ike goes into a coma due to his multiple experiences with the ghosts, and is hospitalized. At the hospital, the boys seek help from Dr. Philips, a
medium (a parody of
Zelda Rubinstein's character in
Poltergeist), who explains the celebrities are trapped in
purgatory, which she compares to being stuck on a plane that isn't quite ready to take off. Dr. Philips manages to contact the spirits and tell them that they have passed on. Surprisingly to her, the celebrities are all too acceptant of the fact, with
CBS News anchorman
Walter Cronkite and actor
Patrick Swayze revealing their trapped state's cause to be
Michael Jackson's refusal to acknowledge
his death. Some of the celebrities help Dr. Philips and the boys try to convince Jackson that he is dead, but the latter keeps denying it and insists that people are ignorant and he is not only alive, but also a little white child. His denial is so strong that he emits a powerful force that kills Dr. Philips. The annoyed ghosts of these celebrities are shown in purgatory, which indeed does look like the interior of an airplane, minus the plane itself, complete with seats, flight attendants and pilot voice-over announcements. After the energy disturbance, Jackson's
spirit takes over Ike's body, causing Ike to sound and act like Jackson himself. The boys find from online research that the only way to make Jackson believe he is dead is to give him the acceptance he sought in life, so they take him to a
child beauty pageant for young girls. Dressed like a little girl, Ike/Jackson impresses two of the male judges by singing a tune sounding similar to Jackson's "
You Are Not Alone", but they are promptly arrested for
masturbating while watching the children, leaving a single, unimpressed female judge (much to the shock of the boys, who were unaware of the men's lewd acts and considered them the best judges). When Cartman notices the judge eating
Chipotle, he bribes her with knowledge about the ChipotlAway product, and she declares Ike/Jackson the winner as a result. Having found his acceptance, Jackson leaves Ike's body, and Ike is extremely surprised and disgusted to find himself dressed like a little girl. Later on, Jackson and the other celebrities in purgatory are reunited and they are finally able to lift off. Initially happy, they are soon
taken to
Hell for not being
Mormons. However, the flight attendant tells them that they must again wait as Hell is a tow-in gate and they are annoyed about their further delay to get to Hell rather than being in Hell in general. ==Production and theme==