Previously on “Ghosts”: Just as Pete (Richie Moriarty) and Donna (Allegra Edwards) are starting to feel like a stable couple, Alberta (Danielle Pinnock) has decided she and Pete actually belong together. Also, Elias Woodstone (Matt Walsh) is now an emissary of the devil and promises to reap a soul from the house… eventually!
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“Ghosts” closes out its season with a lot of moving pieces, but thankfully most of them are entertaining. The main storyline centers on Isaac’s book launch, which ends up disrupted twice by both the living and the dead. It’s a fitting setup for this show, which thrives when it leans into the absurd consequences of Sam (Rose McIver) doing her best to bridge the gap between these two worlds. Of course, that has never been better exemplified than by the absurdity of publishing a book about Isaac (Brandon Scott Jones), who is treated as a real historical figure here, but now with vampires added to make it publishable.
After the book launch party is moved to Mahesh, one of the episode’s best comedic moments involves the return of Patience, the overzealous Puritan ghost who literally erupts from the dirt to start a) screaming her own name and b) condemning the most innocuous things possible. Her reappearance is ridiculous in the best way, and Sam and the ghosts scrambling to keep her away from the launch party gives the episode a fun, madcap energy. The show has always been good at letting guest characters bounce off the main cast in silly ways, and Patience thinking every aspect of modern life originates from the devil is always perfection.
Of course, none of this chaos would be possible without Jay’s sister, Bela (Punam Patel), who continues her streak as the world’s most accidentally destructive sibling. She manages to leak sensitive information to not one, but two people capable of derailing Sam and Jay’s plans, one of them being Kyle, the only other person who we know can see ghosts, and the other being Patience herself. There’s something almost endearingly predictable about Bela’s inability to maintain a plan.
The episode also leaves us with a juicy twist: Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar) has somehow signed his soul over to the devil! It’s an unexpected move that opens the door to some fun possibilities next season. Will we actually meet the devil? Or is Elias, who pops up here again, going to remain the show’s infernal middle manager? Either way, the setup is promising, even if the reveal could’ve used a bit more buildup to really land (wouldn’t it have been fun to see Jay signing with a publicist without Sam’s input?).
Not everything about this finale works, though. The Alberta and Pete subplot continues to feel oddly timed. Alberta’s public shift in perspective, shared with every ghost in the house (including the basement peeps), was charming on the surface, but it put Pete in an awkward position, ultimately leading him to break things off with Donna off-screen, which feels like a big miss, both from a performance and storytelling perspective.
The Alberta and Pete romance has been simmering in the background for a while, but finally bringing it to the forefront now feels like a misstep. Allegra Edwards is delightful, and Donna brought something new out of Pete, so it’s hard not to feel like that momentum got cut short. Maybe the writers will make more of Alberta and Pete next season, but for now, it feels like a shrug of an ending to what could’ve been a more compelling arc.
Rating: 8.0 / 10 – This is not the show’s strongest episode or finale, but the setup of having Jay’s soul signed away to the devil will surely deliver next season. Of course, waiting until Season 5 is going to require copious amounts of… Patience!
One More Note:
“Creepy” Dirk always seems nice, and apparently, he’s an empathetic listener.
Best Lines:
Isaac [in response to Sam surprising him]: “No one’s ever surprised me before.. except the British at White Plains, which I deftly repelled with a surrender.”
Pete: “Apparently, there’s a lady coming who has 3 million followers.”
Flower: “Wow. Bruce only had 32 followers. How big is her yurt?”
Trevor [in response to Patience condemning demons]: “I mean we’re ghosts, so maybe don’t throw stones.”
Patience [in response to seeing deviled eggs]: “The eggs of the devil! They’re sprinkled with the blood of the innocent.”
Patience [to Alberta]: “He [Pete] facepalmed you?”
Bela [after seeing the blood on the walls]: “Where does the blood come from?”
Jay: “We don’t ask that question. There are no good answers.”
Jay: “May the sales of this book begin to remotely offset the amount of money we’ve lost on ghosts.”
Hetty [referring to Patience]: “The little dirt troll was right all along.”
