We love Halloween because it’s an escape from reality, a chance to be someone else for a night, and an excuse to eat candy for dinner. We also love TV — it’s another escape from reality. So there’s something especially entertaining about the Halloween episodes of our favorite shows — we get to watch one form of escapism escape its own reality … talk about mind-blowing.
From costume choices to classic scary movie tropes, these holiday episodes can reveal a great deal about the shows’ characters. Halloween episodes offer plenty of creative freedom and a unique storytelling style that may not be found anywhere else in the season. It’s just so much fun to celebrate spooky season with the characters we love.
So grab a bag of your preferred trick-or-treat candy and enjoy this roundup of our favorite Halloween TV show episodes available to stream right now.
Season 4, Episode 9: “Horrority House”
Imagine a haunted house that consisted of only your worst fears — the very personal, private, oddly specific ones. When the kids — Nick (Nick Kroll), Jessi (Jessi Klein), Andrew (John Mulaney), Missy (Jenny Slate), and Matthew (Andrew Rannells) — visit the sorority house for Kappa Kappa Kill (the horror of that acronym isn’t lost on Missy or those of us watching), they’re forced to drink “slut juice,” a trip-inducing concoction that lands each of our friends in their own customized nightmare. To escape, they must discover enlightenment … or “die.” As all that’s going on, the hormone monsters — Rick (Kroll), Mona (Thandiwe Newton), Connie (Maya Rudolph), and Maury (Kroll) — find themselves victims of a trick bookcase that flips them into an undisclosed location for their own undisclosed adventure. The episode also features Zach Galifianakis at Gratitoad, a friendly toad who spouts inane words of wisdom.
Season 5, Episode 8: “Mr. Peanutbutter’s Boos”
This Halloween episode of BoJack Horseman invites Mr. Peanutbutter (Paul F. Tompkins) to take a trip down memory lane. The energetic and fun-loving yellow Labrador gets ready to take his new girlfriend, Pickles Aplenty (Hong Chau), to BoJack’s (Will Arnett) annual Halloween party and becomes nostalgic about the last 25 years of spooky festivities. The episode travels through various timelines, first to 1993 when he took his wife Katrina (Lake Bell) to the party, then to 2004 with his then-wife Jessica Biel (playing herself), and on to 2009 when he’s married to Diane (Alison Brie). In his reminiscing, Mr. Peanutbutter considers why each Halloween began with his optimism for the best Halloween ever, and ended in a fight with his current partner. Finally, he starts to suspect there is a common denominator that connects all of his former boos — and maybe it’s him. The episode offers BoJack Horseman’s usual dose of existentialism, along with some timely costumes over the decades.
Season 5, Episode 4: “HalloVeen”
The series kicked off a grand tradition in its first season, establishing the yearly Halloween heist at the station. This episode continues the legacy as the group competes to steal a championship belt (or cumberbund, as Holt calls it). Jake (Andy Samberg) and Holt (Andre Braugher) are as competitive as ever, and alliances form and crumble, high-tech gadgets come into play, and the belt is stolen repeatedly by each person. But no one guesses just where the night leads — by design — and it turns out there’s an even sweeter prize in store.
See also: Season 1, Episode 6: “Halloween”; Season 2, Episode 4: “Halloween II”; Season 3, Episode 5: “Halloween III”; Season 4, Episode 5: “Halloween IV”; Season 6, Episode 16: “Cinco de Mayo”; Season 7, Episode 11: “Valloweaster”; and Season 8, Episodes 9-10: “The Last Day.”
Part 1, Episode 2: “Chapter Two: The Dark Baptism”
This Halloween, Sabrina Spellman (Kiernan Shipka) turns 16. And, while most teens are constantly choosing between friends and family, in Sabrina’s case, it’s actually between the human world and the witch world. Under a lunar eclipse, the half-witch, half-mortal is supposed to undergo her “dark baptism”: committing to the “Path of Night” under the Dark Lord (aka Satan) and becoming a full witch. The catch? She’ll have to transfer to the Academy of Unseen Arts and renounce all meaningful connections to mortals — including her boyfriend Harvey (Ross Lynch) and pals Roz (Jaz Sinclair) and Susie (Lachlan Watson). Speaking of, Susie’s being bullied by a group of misogynistic football players. When Sabrina finds out one of them has actually assaulted Susie, she calls upon her witchy frenemies Prudence (Tati Gabrielle), Agatha (Adeline Rudolph), and Dorcas (Abigail Cowen) to help her teach the boys a lesson. So, will Sabrina make Aunt Hilda (Lucy Davis) and Aunt Zelda (Miranda Otto) proud by signing her name and soul over to the Dark Lord come Halloween/her birthday night? Or will she fight to keep her free will?
See also: Part 1, Episode 1: “Chapter One: October Country” (which takes place before Halloween but sets up the Halloween episode).
Season 1, Episode 5: “October 31”
A series called Evil is practically guaranteed to be full of good Halloween content. Priest-in-training David (Mike Colter), psychologist Kristen (Katja Herbers), and scientist Ben (Aasif Mandvi) work for the Catholic Church investigating bizarre cases — can they be explained by science or are they truly supernatural? On this Halloween night, David and Kristen are on the scene of a particularly gruesome exorcism where they can’t agree if the possession is real. Meanwhile, Ben is a guest on a ghost-hunting reality show, and he thwarts the filmmaker’s attempts to fake a haunting. Then there’s the Bouchard girls’ scary story swapping with a neighbor girl who may not be who — or what — she claims.
Season 2, Episode 4: “Curse of Tanner Manor”
When Max (Elias Harger) learns his best friend has declared the Tanner home to be the “lamest Halloween house” on his blog (because apparently 8-year-olds blog now), D.J. (Candace Cameron Bure) promises her son “the spookiest, scariest, most terrifying party ever.” If that declaration caused you to question her choice to dress up as Goldilocks, we’d be right there with you. But it does make a great setup for assuring Max that he’s “Middle Bear,” not “Mama Bear.” And that pink bow on the butt? Raising breast cancer awareness! Solid mom move, Deej. Most of the gang are super excited about the party. Fernando (Juan Pablo Di Pace) and Kimmy (Andrea Barber) even secure a spot-on couple’s costume. But Jackson (Michael Campion) and Ramona (Soni Nicole Bringas) wouldn’t be caught dead (lol) at a kids’ party, and opt to spend the night at a haunted house instead — unaware that Jimmy (Adam Hagenbuch) and Steph (Jodie Sweetin) got gigs there as two very realistic-looking zombies. And if there’s anything zombies hate more than bright light, it’s turning your back on a family obligation.
Season 6, Episode 7: “Twenty-One Is the Loneliest Number”
Rory (Alexis Bledel) and Lorelai (Lauren Graham) are in a spat ahead of Rory’s 21st birthday. The twosome always planned to go to Atlantic City to play 21 as Rory turned 21. (There was also a bit about 21 boys, but that part is scratched now that Lorelai and Luke (Scott Patterson) are engaged and Rory’s serious with Logan (Matt Czuchry). Instead, Rory’s grandparents, Richard (Edward Herrmann) and Emily (Kelly Bishop), are hosting a party — complete with lace invitations, expensive sushi, and a pink signature cocktail that Luke describes as “drinking a My Little Pony.” All very much to Emily’s taste — not so much to Rory’s. For the Halloween bits, Lorelai is inspired (read: shamed) by her neighbors to do something scary at her house this year. Thus, she thinks up an elaborate mad scientist skit that involves pretending to cut open Luke and throw Sookie (Melissa McCarthy)–approved sausages into the crowd as his entrails.
Season 1, Episode 5: “Boo, Bitch”
When a video of Hunter (Mason Temple) performing the song he wrote for her goes viral, Ginny (Antonia Gentry) becomes popular overnight — just in time for a “Boos and Booze” party. Fame is a fickle friend, however, and as the video’s number of views ratchets up, so do the racist comments, causing Ginny to question her identity. For her part, Georgia (Brianne Howey) does her best to blend in as the perfect Wellsbury citizen — from “borrowing” Halloween decorations to help her street win “Most Nightmarish” at the Fall Fest, to donning a costume for her job at the mayor’s office to show community spirit. But the poor thing can’t catch a break. A foreboding figure has been following the family around town, and Cynthia (Sabrina Grdevich) turns Georgia’s date with Mayor Paul (Scott Porter) into a small-town scandal.
Season 1, Episode 6: “The Remains of the Date”
After William (Reggie Hayes) scares the bejeezus out of Joan (Tracee Ellis Ross) at work, she plots an impressive revenge prank. Phase one begins at her annual Halloween party, where there are lots of fun costumes — Joan as a cute clown, Maya (Golden Brooks) as a glitter-coated cheerleader, Toni (Jill Marie Jones) as a sexy nun, and Lynn (Persia White) as either Sigmund Freud or Frederick Douglass, depending on who you ask. William arrives as Blackman — “society’s most underappreciated superhero.” The episode is lighthearted while artfully addressing the more serious issue of racial profiling. Will Joan successfully prank William? It’s worth the watch to find out.
See also: Season 2, Episode 7: “Trick or Truth.”
Season 10, Episode 7: “Thriller”
This Halloween, the hospital is a full house of horrors — maggots, rabid zombie-like behavior, a wheezing woman who keeps disappearing on Shane (Gaius Charles), and a little girl who could literally be scared to death. Richard (James Pickens Jr.) is also in need of care and wants a resident to perform his surgery, but Miranda (Chandra Wilson), as their supervisor, doesn’t think they’re ready. And then there are the frights in the doctors’ personal lives. Icy tension between Alex (Justin Chambers) and Jo (Camilla Luddington). A strained friendship between Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) and Cristina (Sandra Oh). Dating woes for Owen (Kevin McKidd), and Callie (Sara Ramirez) and Arizona (Jessica Capshaw) figuratively biting each other’s heads off whenever they’re in the same room. Not to mention, Leah (Tessa Ferrer) dealing with an actual bite from a zombie patient!
See also: Season 4, Episode 5: “Haunt You Every Day”; Season 15, Episode 6: “Flowers Grow Out of My Grave”; Season 16, Episode 6: “Whistlin’ Past the Graveyard”; and Season 19, Episode 4: “Haunted.”
Season 2, Episode 9: “Allhallowtide”
For many dramas, Halloween is less about being spooky and more about providing the perfect backdrop for characters to drop their (metaphorical) masks. In this penultimate episode of Season 2, Jackie (Nikki Rodriguez) and Alex (Ashby Gentry) attempt to arrange a secret date as they keep their renewed relationship a secret. Meanwhile, Skylar (Jaylan Evans), still down about his recent breakup, pushes Jackie and Grace (Ellie O’Brien) to help him throw a Halloween party as a distraction. The party is the ideal scene for a night of revelations and confrontations.
Season 3, Episode 2: “Cake-O-Phobia”
Ah, Nailed It! The baking show that shows you what NOT to do. In this episode about frights and phobias, three amateur bakers compete for $10,000 and bragging rights as the best of the bad. And there’s even real blood in Round 2! But first, let’s meet our bakers — starting with Emily Cook, a senior at the University of North Alabama and part-time water park employee. Next, there’s Casalear Gross, a retired registered nurse who has never seen an episode of Nailed It! in her life. And finally, the recently divorced Beverly Blanchette, an actor/acting coach who’s open to finding love anywhere, including on set. Round 1 sees our contestants attempt to re-create creepy-crawly bug cookies, while Round 2’s task is a cotton-candy flavored clown-in-a-box cake. Joining host Nicole Byer at the judge’s table are an award-winning pair, pastry chef Jacques Torres and cake artist Natalie Sideserf (whose self-made wedding cake to her horror film-obsessed husband was a rendering of their severed heads atop a “Til Death Do Us Part” banner). You’re more likely to laugh than scream during this Halloween-themed half hour. But oh, how you will laugh.
See also: Season 7, Episodes 1-4 (“Cobra Kai,” “The Witcher,” “Umbrella Academy,” and “Slime Time”; and Nailed It! Mexico Season 1, Episode 6: “Fails from the Crypt.”
Season 6, Episode 5: “Mischief Mischief”
At Litchfield Max, the Halloween festivities actually start the night before with Mischief Night, when inmates prank each other with toothpaste-filled Oreos and the like. Unsurprisingly, Piper (Taylor Schilling) is an easy target until Alex (Laura Prepon) steps in. But it’s not just the prisoners who are up to no good. Luschek (Matt Peters) and the rest of the correctional officers have kicked off their version of a fantasy football league with draft night. Inmates are the players, and points are rewarded for various behaviors. As the new SVP of the Management & Correction Corporation, Linda (Beth Dover) realizes they have an escaped convict on the loose — the one and only Tiffany “Pennsatucky” Doggett (Taryn Manning), on her way to Canada with Charlie, aka Donuts (James McMenamin). There’s some sweet moments thrown in as well: A reunion between Lorna (Yael Stone) and Nicky (Natasha Lyonne) and a budding friendship between Suzanne (Uzo Aduba) and Frieda (Dale Soules).
Season 4, Episode 4: “Chapter Sixty-One: Halloween”
Between all the serial killers running around and spooky mysteries afoot, the “Town with Pep” is the kind of place that feels like Halloween year-round. But, in Season 4, we get our first proper look at a Riverdale’s take on the scariest holiday of the year. Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) and Toni (Vanessa Morgan) hang out with the petrified corpse of Cheryl’s brother Jason (Trevor Stines) while donning stunning Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn costumes for a Ouija board conversation. Jughead (Cole Sprouse) is drugged and locked in a coffin. And, Veronica (Do Revenge star Camila Mendes) sets a would-be murderer aflame. This unforgettable installment — which is lightly inspired by the John Carpenter film of the same name — gets a horror movie-worthy sequel in Season 7.
See also: Season 7, Episode 11: “Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Eight: Halloween II”
Season 2, Episode 2: “Trick or Treat, Freak”
Happy Halloween from Hawkins and the Upside Down. Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) wants to go out, convinced she’ll be safe from the government’s detection in a costume disguise, but father figure Hopper (David Harbour) lays down a hard no. Too risky. Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Will (Noah Schnapp), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) show up to school in impressive Ghostbusters costumes, but take some flack for it from other students. Though embarrassed, Dustin and Lucas work up the courage to invite new girl Max (Sadie Sink) to go trick-or-treating with them. As for the big kids? Billy (Dacre Montgomery), Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), Steve (Joe Keery), and Nancy (Natalia Dyer) head to a party. But while Steve is trying to act like everything’s normal, Nancy wrestles with the truth about Barb (Shannon Purser) and doesn’t handle it well. Elsewhere, Joyce (Winona Ryder) is trying to convince herself that Will will be fine, whereas Will continues to have the sensation of being trapped between dimensions. Even freakier is when Hopper discovers that the Upside Down is leaking, killing crops in the right-side-up world.
Season 4, Episode 7, “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester”
As Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) agree in this episode, every day is Halloween for the Winchesters. Vampires, ghouls, demons, and even, eventually, Lucifer himself (Mark Pellegrino) are everyday foes in Supernatural. But, “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester” is the series’ first installment to tackle the spookiest holiday head-on. The episode begins with everyone’s greatest trick-or-treating nightmare: a piece of candy with a hidden razor blade. The suspicious death of mild-mannered family man Luke Wallace (David Ingram) brings the brothers Winchester to town just in time for Halloween. What initially seems like a single revenge killing by a mystery witch proves to have far much more sinister implications for the cosmos at large.
See also: Season 14, Episode 4: “Mint Condition”
Season 4, Episode 10: “Kimmy Finds a Liar”
OK, so this one doesn’t technically take place on Halloween. But it features a year-round Halloween store and Kimmy (Ellie Kemper) in a Shirley Temple costume, so it makes the list. Our protagonist has written and illustrated (“double threat!”) a children’s book only to discover that a men’s rights activist, Fran Dodd (Bobby Moynihan), is taking credit. Meanwhile, Jacqueline (Jane Krakowski) wants to set up Titus (Tituss Burgess) in a fake celebrity PR relationship with Tad Frye (Rob Huebel doing his best Ty Pennington, as the host of a home makeover show that renovates people’s places while they’re in the bathroom after eating Thai food). Titus agrees, hoping to make ex-boyfriend Mikey (Mike Carlsen) jealous. The Halloween store is the business idea of Sheba Goodman (Busy Philipps). She just needs to convince Lillian (Carol Kane), her father’s ex who now controls Sheba’s trust.
Season 3, Episode 13: “What’s It Gonna Be”
If you’ve never witnessed the cuteness overload that is a preschool costume contest, this episode is worth viewing for that scene alone. A quick recap: After discovering her husband Nathan (Philip Sternberg) has been unfaithful, Kate (Catherine Reitman) ends up in bed with her potential new business partner, Mike (Victor Webster). But their morning-after is interrupted by Kate’s rushing to the airport in order to make it home in time for her son’s Halloween party. Each of our moms is obsessed with one-upping the “competition” (i.e., a bunch of toddlers). Anne (Dani Kind) has finally decided to trust Alice (Sadie Munroe) again, only to discover Alice’s private Instagram account is full of her worst nightmares — drinking, smoking, older-looking boys, and even a gun. By the end of the episode, Kate has a difficult choice to make.
