ONE FAN’S THEORY: PETER VENKMAN IS OSCAR’S BIOLOGICAL FATHER

            

                Ever since I first saw Ghostbusters II, I have had a personal theory that I want to share.  That is, as the title says, Peter Venkman is the biological father of Baby Oscar.  Most will find this absurd as the parentage of Oscar is never even questioned, and I get a lot of pushback from my fellow fans whenever I bring it up.

The Accepted Story

               Dana and Peter broke up sometime after the original Ghostbusters movie.  Much of this is blamed on Peter being a commitment-phobe, never asking Dana to marry him, and referring to her as the “old ball and chain.”  I also suspect that the nature of Peter’s job that makes him engage and battle supernatural forces among those are ones that once turned her into a giant dog, added some pressure to the relationship. They broke up and she fell for a violinist.  We all remember him from the first movie as “The Stiff.” After Oscar was born, they had some relationship troubles, and they broke up and he took a job in London. 

Peter and Dana

The Weak Evidence

               When Peter is first left alone with Oscar, he looks at the baby and says, “You want to play with the big kid? You know I should have been your father, I mean, I could have been.”  Why would Peter say this? It doesn’t make any sense.  If you are a man and you run into an ex-girlfriend who happens to have a kid, that kid isn’t someone who could have been yours.  If you had married that woman and started a family there would exist an entirely different group of people, they would not be the children that she presently has.  As a scientist Peter should know this.   I realize that he is not a geneticist by training, but he should understand basic biology and be aware.  To me it sounds like Peter is talking to the child that he failed.  It’s almost as if he is trying to apologize to him.

With the baby

               Now the reason this is weak evidence is obvious: Peter may have been speaking figuratively not literally.  He could be just taking a moment to reevaluate the choices he made in life and is taking a second to reflect on what might have been for him.  Peter may see in Oscar lost opportunity.

The Stronger Evidence

               There is a famous quote that is attributed to Alfred Hitchock that I have always been found of.  “You can get your audience to believe that impossible, but you will never get them to accept the improbable or unlikely.”  I can fully accept that an ancient Sumerian god could drop down on New York City and prior to its arrival increase all supernatural activity city-wide by the size of a twinkie thirty-five feet long weighing approximately six hundred pounds. I am onboard with the idea of the ghost of an ancient tyrant living in a painting spreading negatively charged slime through a discontinued subway line to cause another giant twinkie-size ghost incident in New York City.  I can not and will not accept that a man can abandon his wife and baby to go career chasing and the abandoned wife not only is not upset but defends the decision.  

               “So, what ever happened to Mr. Right anyway?  I heard he ditched you and ran off to Europe,” said Peter.

               Dana responds, “He didn’t ditch me.  He got a very good job offer from an orchestra in London and he took it.”

               Peter, “So, he ditched you.”

               Does Dana seriously sound like a woman whose husband after their “troubles” decides to abandon his wife and infant child so he could go across the pond to play the fiddle in front of the Queen?” Why isn’t she referring to him as a spinless jerk and absentee father.  (I realize there were other words she could use but with the popularity of The Real Ghostbusters driving this movie to be made, they wanted to keep it family friendly even when they were making it scary.)  

WHAT I THINK HAPPENED

               So, this is what I think happened.  After the original movie Peter and Dana dated and really close for a while.  However, Peter being a bit of a commitment-phobe and Dana subconscious fears of dating a man who in his day job deals with the supernatural world that once turned her into a giant terror dog, they have a bad breakup.  Peter had to focus on his life with the demise of the Ghostbusters.  Dana moves on and finds the violinist.  Dana and “Mr. Right” get married but after the honeymoon things start to go south.  Dana is denial that she is settling and “Mr. Right” only truly loves his violin.

The Stiff AKA Mr. Right

  

               At one point Peter and Dana have a chance encounter.  They decided to have coffee and catch up.  One thing led to another, and they ended up in bed together.  Dana gets up suddenly feeling guilty for what she has done.  She quickly apologizes to Peter and takes off.  Later, she misses her period and fearing the worst she gets a pregnancy test done and sure enough its positive. 

               Dana, feeling her biological clock tick, doesn’t want to end her pregnancy.  Also, Dana isn’t the sort of person who is going to commit paternity fraud on a man.  She comes clean and tells him the truth.  He is understandably upset and this ends their marriage and to escape the pain he takes a job as far away as possible.

               So why doesn’t she tell Peter?  A couple of reasons, the first is she sees Peter as unserious and completely irresponsible.  The second is the type of work Peter engages in still terrifies her.  She never quite got over her experience with Gozer and Zuul.  For these reasons she decides to stay away and raise Oscar on her own.

Peter trying to probe himself

               Then we have the start of Ghostbusters II and with the incident of Oscar with his carriage she realizes there is only one group she can call.  She tries to get in touch with Egon but doesn’t want to involve Peter.  Egon tells Ray and thus Peter finds out through him.  He learns that Dana has an eight-month-old baby and Peter knows how to do math.

               Now Peter could have been angry at Dana for hiding their child from him, I know I would be.  However, despite his faults Peter Venkman is a good guy and can be—when he needs to be—an understanding person.  He understands why a reasonable mother might see him as an unfit father.  So instead of anger Peter decides to spend the whole movie trying to prove to Dana that he has great potential as a father and she should trust him with their son.  And also, he must fight Vigo the Carpathian and rescue the world from eternal evil.