Pilot

"Pilot" is the first episode of Season 1 in the American sitcom Ghosts. It premiered on October 7, 2021.

Synopsis[]

Samantha and Jay throw both caution and money to the wind when they decide to convert a rundown country estate they inherited into a bed & breakfast - only to find it's inhabited by the many opinionated spirits of deceased residents who now call it home.

Plot[]

At Woodstone Estate, an old woman is lying in her bed dying, while a group of ghosts surround her. It is not long until the woman's spirit leaves her body and she finally meets the ghostly residents. One of the ghosts, Hetty Woodstone, introduces herself as the woman's "great-great-grandmother," while the other ghosts try to get friendly with her. However, the woman's spirit quickly departs to the afterlife, much to everyone's dismay. In New York, married couple freelance writer Sam and up-and-coming chef Jay are visiting a solicitor who had informed Sam that she has inherited an estate. As it turns out, the old woman was Sam's great-aunt Sophie, whom Sam once met as a child, and she is her aunt's only next of kin. Sam impulsively suggests that they keep the estate and turn it into a B&B (bed and breakfast), rather than selling it off as suggested. Even though Jay is hesitant, he reluctantly agrees to visit the property for the weekend.

Meanwhile, the ghosts are entertaining each other through show-and-tell until Thorfinn, the ghost of a Viking warrior, spots Sam and Jay arriving in their car. Trevor, the ghost of a trouser-less businessman, is immediately smitten with Sam, while Isaac, the ghost of a soldier from the Revolutionary War, takes a fancy to Jay. The ghosts grow to like the couple until Sam reveals her ambitions to turn the estate into a hotel. This terrifies the ghosts, who decide to haunt the couple into leaving the property. It is revealed that Thorfinn can make lights flicker due to being killed after he was struck by lightning; Alberta, the ghost of a prohibition singer, can make her voice heard by the living through singing; Isaac produces an awful smell when he passes through the living due to death by dysentery; while Trevor can move objects with full concentration.

The next morning, the ghosts attempt to scare Jay with their powers, which ultimately fails. The couple then venture into the boiler room, where it is inhabited by victims from a cholera outbreak, in an attempt to fix the old boiler without much success. Later that day, Jay tells Sam that he does not want to move to Woodstone Estate and is not on board with the B&B plan. This enrages Sam, who storms out of the room only to end up tripping over a vase Trevor had just knocked off the table and takes a tumble down the stairs. As Jay rushes to help her, Sam spots Trevor and the ghost of a scoutmaster who was killed by an arrow through his neck named Pete, at the top of the stairs before losing consciousness. She is then rushed to the hospital. Hetty angrily denounces Trevor, calling him a murderer. Seeing Sam's accident, the ghosts are reminded of how everyone around them felt when they died and how it feels to lose a loved one.

Samantha Arondekar — Sam is shocked to be seeing the ghosts.

Two weeks later, Sam awakens from an induced coma and instead of returning to New York, Jay brings Sam back to Woodstone. This confuses Sam, and Jay reveals that while she was in a coma, he decided to fulfill her dreams to turn the property into a B&B and has spent all their savings to hire construction workers to begin renovations on the house. Despite her initial hesitance, Sam becomes overjoyed and makes up with Jay. Hetty, Isaac and Thorfinn are appalled to see the construction workers as the couple return inside. Sam suddenly spots Trevor, and thinking he's one of the workers, she compliments him. This shocks and excites Trevor, who immediately rushes to inform his ghostly companions that Sam saw and spoke to him. Upstairs, Jay takes Sam into their master bedroom which he redecorated to how she had wanted it. However, Sam's excitement is short-lived when the ghosts appear before her. The episode ends with Sam spotting Crash's decapitated body, the ghost of a 1950s grifter who somehow got beheaded, and screaming.

Cast[]

Main cast[]

Guest cast[]

Hudson Thames as Crash
P.J. Byrne as Lawyer

Co-starring[]

Tacey Adams as Sophie Woodstone/Mrs. Brimble
Sean Whalen as William
David Chan as Doctor
Mark Holzum as Honeymoon Male
Megan Littler as Honeymoon Female
Cody Crain as Cody
Nigel Downer as Nigel
Stuart Fink as Stuart
Arthur Holden as Creepy Dirk
Cat Lemieux as Catherine

 *Dan Litz as E.M.T.

Wayne Christian Long as Inn Guest

Historical notes[]

Trivia[]

This is the only episode where Sophie Woodstone is seen alive and as a ghost.
This is one of the few episodes where Crash appears.
Sasappis wears a different costume: his right shoulder is shown in the original outfit which changes in later episodes.
Early versions of the script are different than what was filmed:^[1]
- Flower introduces herself as Susan
- The family name wasn't originally Woodstone. It's was Bainbridge.
- Jay's name was Ryan.
Also it was worth mentioning in the aired episode itself, David Woodstone was mentioned to have the first name James during the will reading scene before it was later reconned to be David in later episodes.
Trevor is revealed to be the most recently deceased ghost.
The ghosts have a food club which Pete runs.
This is the first time it's established getting walked through is painful for the ghosts.
Jay says Woodstone Mansion is "300 years old", which would place its construction around 1721. However, flashbacks in later episodes indicate that it was not there yet when Isaac and Nigel Chessum died in the 1770s.
Sam says that her family has owned the house for six generations. If she counts Sophie as the sixth generation, this would place her 3rd-great-grandfather Samuel Woodstone as the first member of the family to own the house.
Pop culture references:
- Alberta sings "Amazing Grace".
- Trevor shares a story about actress Tara Reid.
- Sam says she "feels like Joanna Gaines", a reference to the home renovation reality series Fixer Upper. She also asks Jay if he "wants to be her Chip", referring to Joanna's husband.
- Pete wanted Alberta to hum the theme of Ghost (1990).
- Jay shouts the name of the home design television series Love It or List It as Sam walks away.

Quotes[]

Trevor: It won't be long now.

Alberta: At least she's comfortable.

Pete: There's definitely worse ways to go.

Alberta: Amen.

Isaac: We are ghosts. While most spirits pass on to the afterlife, we are the unfortunate few cursed to spend eternity... [Sophie Woodstone gets "sucked off"] Oh, and she's gone.

Trevor: Okay, so it's the summer of '98. My Lehman Brothers boys and I, we scooped a copter to beat the traffic out to the Hamptons 'cause that's how we roll. Anyway, we're on a list for this very exclusive shindig at Surf Lodge in Montauk: Tara Reid's birthday, 'nuff said.

Hetty: Who is Tara Reid?

Trevor: Seriously? She was a movie star.

Alberta: Oh, silent or talkies, sweetheart?

Isaac: Uh, what is a movie, again?

Trevor: It's the, it's the play that they project on a screen! We've been through this!

Sasappis: When you say project...

Thorfinn: What is play?

Trevor: God, I hate being the most recently dead. Anyway, yada yada yada, it was a great night; the end.

Samantha: Holy crap, beats the crap out of our fifth-floor walk-up, huh?

Jay: Ok, yeah, it's impressive, but can you reach the fridge from your bed? I think not.

Isaac: Two people is manageable, limited commotion. No old lady bedridden while disease eats away at her, but we knew those good times wouldn't last forever

Isaac: We are ghosts, those poor spirits who dwell on, compelled for reasons unknown to...

[Crash is headless. Samantha screams in terror.]