Nancy is one of the Cholera ghosts that died in the mid-nineteenth century and resides in the basement of Woodstone Mansion. She socializes with the upstairs ghosts the most out of her group and is also the most eager to venture out of the basement. She is portrayed by Betsy Sodaro in the American sitcom Ghosts.
Biography[]
Life[]
According to Nancy, she is originally from Albany but later moved to the area of Woodstone Mansion at some point. When she was forty years old, she was among several locals, including Stuart and Creepy Dirk, who contracted Cholera and were exiled to a pest house that once stood on the Woodstone site. Her memories of the incident include being locked in, which was not a good sign in her opinion. Nancy specifically blames Stuart for catching the disease and infecting the entire village, a fact she still holds against him into her afterlife.[1] These events happened somewhere between 1832 and 1866.
Death[]
Nancy ended up buried in a pit with the other Cholera victims and, by purpose or design, she and the others stayed in the basement of Woodstone Mansion, allegedly because it was dark and closest to the original site of their bodies. Over the years, she became incredibly bored and annoyed by her fate and started verbally abusing the other Cholera ghosts - Stuart, in particular.
After Sam inherits the estate, Nancy finds a way to hang with the upstairs ghosts by using Pete to her advantage. When he enters the cellar looking for a female Cholera ghost to act as an ersatz "girlfriend," she leaps at the chance for a better afterlife upstairs, over-embellishing their "love life," kicking him out of his bed and demanding that Sam serve her, as she assumes Sam is some sort of maid. Pete tries to be as tolerant as possible, even while being subjected to her verbal abuse, but when she starts insulting his character and his desire to be the moral voice of the upstairs ghosts, he breaks off their deal. Nancy then wanders back to the cellar, falsely claiming she had given Pete his spine.[1]
Since this incident, Nancy has been freely wandering upstairs to get away from the other Cholera ghosts, mentioning she thinks they're boring and even frequently insulting them behind their backs. She often criticizes Stuart when he misidentifies the wood beams in the cellar as pine. Eventually, she confesses she uses the upstairs as her "free spot" to get away from the others, although she is oblivious to the fact that the upstairs ghosts are repulsed by her appearance and character. Freely spreading gossip from upstairs for attention, she misrepresents Pete's words after Flower presumably moves on, getting everyone angry at him over a non-existent offense. To save face, Pete invites the Cholera ghosts to hang around upstairs despite previously claiming they preferred the downstairs. Unfortunately, Nancy doesn't want to share the upstairs with the other Cholera ghosts, calling the upstairs area her only break away from them. To get them back downstairs, she doubles down on her original lie, driving the Cholera ghosts back into the cellar. To make the incident more unforgiving, even Hetty emphasizes on the lie to get the Cholera ghosts to leave, while calling Nancy "clever" for sacrificing Pete's self-esteem to get what she wants.
Trivia[]
- Unlike the other Cholera ghosts, Nancy does not seem to have as big of an obsession with the water heater.
- Although Nancy wasn't yet in the series at the time, she was likely among the Cholera ghosts who wanted Creepy Dirk as the ghosts' spokesman.
- She is one of the first people to know about Hetty and Trevor's relationship in "Isaac's Book".
- She calls herself a "hit it and quit it" kind of girl in "The Heir".
- Historically, Cholera victims and their pest houses were usually burned down to prevent the spread of the disease. Whether this is accurate to the series is unknown.
- She learned fractions in school as mentioned in "Sam's Dad".
- It is implied that she could possibly be queer, as she did have a short-lived sexual relationship with Carol and was in a polyamorous relationship with Flower.[2]
- Nancy isn't very fond of her roommates, as she has stated she does not gel with the other Cholera Ghosts. Her reasoning for leaving the basement so often is to take respite from them and to have a better afterlife than obsessing over the water heater.
- She is one of the only recurring characters to appear in every season finale so far.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Sam's Mom"
- ↑ "The Traveling Agent"