'Ghosts,' Briefly a Hole Show, Airs Its Best Episode of the Season

By Dustin Rowles | TV | April 19, 2024 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | April 19, 2024 |

Regular readers of the site know that I love a good “hole show.” Ironically, though, I did not like Rabbit Hole or Holey Moley.

My obsession with hole shows — or shows that prominently feature a hole — really began with Outer Range (season two of which finally arrives on May 16th), but extended to Amazon’s Night Sky, canceled after one season, and the fantastic 1899. Any show where a hole plays a crucial role can be a hole show, and you may be a lover of hole shows, as well!

This week, CBS’s Ghosts was inducted into the category of hole shows in the season’s best episode. While the show remains a decent comedy in its third season, great episodes have become more of a rarity as the early season magic has faded. This is partly because we’ve already learned the backstories of many ghost characters, and the living characters, Samantha (Rose McIver) and Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar), aren’t as interesting as the ghosts.

However, this standout episode finally revealed how Hetty died, and her death was instrumental in the resurrection of Flower. The hole comes into play when we learn that Flower (Sheila Carrasco) had not been “sucked off” (a show-specific term unrelated to sex. See also: “jerked off”) at the end of the second season as we thought. Instead, she had gotten lost and stuck in a well while chasing a butterfly (a cover for Sheila Carrasco’s real-life maternity leave).

Thor and Co. discover that someone else had been sucked off after kissing a girl (though the two actions are unrelated), and they quickly realize that Flower is trapped in a well. Ghosts face a unique problem with holes: they can stand on floors but float through walls, making escape from a well nearly impossible. If they try to float through dirt, they risk getting stuck underground forever. Ghosts also can’t climb or use real-world rope, either.

As Jay and Sam’s contractor prepares to fill the well with concrete, potentially trapping Flower for eternity, the ghosts must find a solution fast. The key lies in Hetty’s long-hidden manner of death. In 1895, Hetty took her own life to disguise her son’s crimes, hanging herself with the cord of a then-new invention: the telephone. The cord, hidden beneath her Jabot/neck ruff, serves as a ghost-friendly rope to save Flower.

In an emotional scene, Hetty reveals her tragic secret to the other ghosts, allowing them to use her telephone cord to rescue Flower from the well. With Hetty’s backstory unveiled, Flower saved, and the hole filled, Ghosts concludes its brief but memorable stint as a hole show. RIP.

It’s a good episode, though, and it reminds us of the series’ ability to still occasionally combine humor and heart. While the show is not what it once was, episodes like this one illustrate it still has the potential to captivate.