Is This Beloved Ghost Saying Goodbye? Season 4 Ending Raises Big Questions

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Although Ghosts season 4’s finale didn’t quite give away the next spirit to leave the Woodstone Mansion, I still think I’ve worked out who it will be from context clues. The ghosts of CBS’s Ghosts are what make the show so great, as the CBS sitcom has characters from many major historical epochs all coexisting relatively amicably under the same roof. Vikings form friendships with Indigenous Americans, hippies rub shoulders with Gilded Age high-society ladies, and the resulting chaos forms the show’s entire appeal.

Much like the original BBC sitcom of the same name that inspired the US series, Ghosts mines a lot of humor from the major differences between the ghosts and their conflicting worldviews. However, this could become a problem for the series. Even the most initially unlikable ghosts, like Trevor, Isaac, and Hetty, have long since grown on viewers and become firm fan favorites. Thus, it is hard to imagine saying goodbye to any of the show’s lead characters.

Patience Leaving Ghosts Season 5 Makes Perfect Sense After Season 4’s Finale

Patience Sensed Elias’s Presence On The Property

Theoretically, viewers should technically be rooting for all the ghosts to complete their unfinished business on Earth and get “Sucked off” into the afterlife. However, the ghosts get along well and their occasional conflicts fuel the show’s comedy, so it is tough to pick one who should move on. To make matters worse, Elias’s plan from Ghosts season 4’s finale saw Hetty’s now-demonic husband appear as a human and tempt Jay into signing a contract by posing as a restaurant publicist.

Jay was understandably terrified that the demon would kill him before he could find a way out of the contract, damning him to an eternity in Hell even though he didn’t know what he was signing.

Jay unwittingly sold his soul to Elias before the Ghosts season 4 finale, and the demon gloated about his intention to collect on Jay’s debt as season 4, episode 21, “The Devil Went Down to Woodstone” ended. Jay was understandably terrified that the demon would kill him before he could find a way out of the contract, damning him to an eternity in Hell even though he didn’t know what he was signing. However, Sam’s love interest might not be as doomed as he seems.

There are plenty of ways for Ghosts season 5 to save Jay’s soul, not least by letting one of the ghosts stand in for him. After all, a soul is a soul to Elias, who has been tasked with collecting them for the devil. Elias even almost convinced Thor to sign over his soul back in season 4, episode 14, “Alexander Hamilton and the Ruffle Kerfuffle,” so it wouldn’t be all that surprising if one of the ghosts volunteered to take Jay’s place. Specifically, Patience should do so, for a lot of reasons.

Patience Could Take Jay’s Place In Elias’s Contract In Ghosts Season 5

Mary Holland’s Puritan Claims To Want To Fight The Devil’s Influence

Throughout the events of “The Devil Went Down to Woodstone,” Mary Holland’s new ghost, Patience the Puritan, claimed she could feel the devil’s presence on the property in the days leading up to Sam’s book launch. Being Patience, she incorrectly attributed this sensation of premonition to Sam’s book, an alternate history novel about vampires, and set about trying to sabotage her book launch. In a funny twist, Ghosts season 4’s finale saw Patience accidentally improve the book launch when she made the walls bleed human blood during Sam’s reading.

However, this subplot was more revealing than might have been intended, and I certainly came away with a conclusion that the series never addressed. For all of her insufferable sanctimoniousness, Patience’s sense that the Devil was at work in Woodstone proves she legitimately does have some supernatural connection to Hell/ demons. Thus, her claims that she wants to fight the Devil’s influence might be justified, and not just an excuse to ruin everyone’s fun with her humorless piety. This means Patience would be the perfect ghost to take Jay’s place.

Patience Sacrificing Herself Would Redeem Her Character

Ghosts Season 4 Treated Patience As An Annoyance

There is no better way for Patience to prove her commitment to the cause than by literally going to Hell to save an innocent soul. Furthermore, Patience sacrificing herself to save Jay would make up for her awful behavior in season 4 and retroactively complicate her straightforward depiction. Throughout season 4, Patience is portrayed as petty, cruel, impolite, overzealous, humorless, and hypocritical thanks to her enjoyment of trashy reality TV. Even a seasoned comic performer like Holland struggled to make the character fun.

Patience did retire beneath the mansion in shame when she was caught watching TV that she deemed sinful, so she has already proven that she has some moral code.

However, if season 5 saw Ghosts highlight Patience’s hypocrisy by having her rise to the challenge of taking Jay’s place in Hell, this would prove that she really was trying to fight the Devil’s influence all along. To be fair to her, Patience did retire beneath the mansion in shame when she was caught watching TV that she deemed sinful, so she has already proven that she has some moral code. However, taking Jay’s place would be an authentically heroic move that would make this divisive character more complex and compelling in retrospect.

Patience’s Ghosts Season 5 Exit Could Be A Perfect Ending For Her

Elias’s Contract Needs To Be Resolved Early In Ghosts Season 5

Jay’s contract with Elias provided “The Devil Went Down to Woodstone” with a punchy cliffhanger ending, but it is hardly the sort of meaningful drama that can sustain an entire season-long arc. Elias started trying to kill Jay moments after revealing his true nature, so Ghosts season 5 will need to solve this storyline post-haste when the show returns. It’s not something that can be dragged out for ages, since Jay doesn’t have long before one of Elias’s demonic traps gets him.

As such, Ghosts can stop ignoring Sam and Jay’s finances in season 5 by explaining that dire financial straits were what led Jay to sign the contract in the first place, and Patience can then solve the plot by heroically taking his place in Hell. Patience canceling out Jay’s reservation in Hell would turn her from a scold into a legend, proving all of her overly cautious God-bothering was not only justified but well-meaning and wise.

This would be an intriguing twist for Ghosts, especially as season 4 wasn’t all that interested in complicating Patience’s portrayal. She seemed like nothing more than a straightforward religious zealot throughout the outing, but I’m now convinced that Ghosts season 5 will make up for this thin characterization with a killer redemption for her.

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