Ghosts – Alexander Hamilton and the Ruffle Kerfuffle

By: Gladys Luna

Things haven’t exactly been working as expected for Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar) at his restaurant, so he complains to Sam (Rose McIver) that his competition has been stealing all the customers from him and he has gotten to the point where he’s questioning what he’s done wrong. He is even considering to close the place and do something else instead. Along with the couple is Sas (Román Zaragoza), Pete (Richie Moriarty), Flower (Sheila Carrasco) and Isaac (Brandon Scott Jones) who sees the current situation as a good chance to tell his story about why he hates Alexander Hamilton (Nat Faxon) so much. And it’s just like that how we are taken back to 1776 to the very moment in time where the Declaration of Independence took place. Isaac was happily picking up his ruffle, an obligatory garment that he needed for an important event that he will be attending that same evening. Once he got to the store, he ran by Alexander Hamilton (Nat Faxon) who looked at Isaac as someone undeserving of his presence and could barely remember his name. Isaac informed him that he will see him that same night at his mentor John Jay’s (Jeff Wiens) house for the dinner party he’ll be throwing something that didn’t suit well for Hamilton who thought that Isaac had nothing to do there. After the uncomfortable encounter of the two gentlemen, Isaac went to ask for the ruffle he had ordered a couple of weeks ago and that represented and important garment for him but he was informed by the Haberdashery Clerk (Erik Athavale) that unfortunately, the piece didn’t arrive or if it did, it got lost.

In the meantime, at the mansion, Hetty (Rebecca Wisocky), Trevor (Asher Grodman), Alberta (Danielle Pinnock) and Thor (Devan Chandler Long) are discussing about the show they were just watching when all of a sudden, wrapped around in flames emerging directly from the underground is Hetty’s husband, Elias (Matt Walsh) who wastes no time in announcing them that he has joined the management track and is just one soul away from being promoted so he is there to make an offer – to anyone who is interested – to take them to hell with him. As expected, nobody wants to listen to anything he has to say but still, he does not lose hope and gives them until midnight to think about his proposal. 

Back to Isaac story, the captain is now narrating how he showed up at John Jay’s house and he was immediately scolded for the garments he was wearing to such an important event.  Isaac tried to explain what happened and John offered to borrow him something “appropriate” to wear. Unfortunately for the captain, the clothing he was borrowed wasn’t exactly what he expected, provoking all kind of jokes from the other gentlemen like Ben Franklin (Neil Crone), Thomas Jefferson (Frank Cox-O’Connell) and Samuel Adams (Kelsey Flower). All of a sudden, Hamilton arrived and Isaac noticed that he was wearing his ruffle making him realize that he had stolen the piece of garment from him. Isaac found the opportunity to confront him and accused him of stealing from him but Hamilton pretended not to understand a word. Right that moment, they were interrupted and asked to join the others to sign the Declaration of Independence. While they were discussing about everything they would include on the statement, Isaac tried to tell his mentor John about what Hamilton did but he was ignored. Later on, when everything was settled and they were about to sign the document, Isaac went near Hamilton and started a fight with him when trying to see the color of the ruffle to prove he was a thief but unfortunately, he stumbled with a table which made one of the candles to fall over the paper they were about to sign and set it on fire.  

Elias is still trying to convince the others to join him while discussing about all of the perks of spending eternity in hell. Hetty brings up that none of them deserve to go to hell except maybe for Thor since he is responsible for a number of deaths and has done some bad things. Elias believes that he has found the ideal candidate so when he tries to shake hands with him to seal the deal, Trevor gets in the middle preventing him from doing it. Back to Isaac’s story, he was asked to leave the meeting since he had caused nothing but trouble and when Hamilton asked who invited him in the first place, John Jay pretended not to know him at all. The captain decided to leave but before he did, he said that although he was very excited to contribute to such a great part of history, in the end, Alexander Hamilton interfered with his pursuit of happiness. Hamilton went after him and before closing the door on Isaac’s face, he accepted to have stolen his ruffle. Back to the present moment, Isaac says that he understands now that his absurd obsession with what Hamilton did to him ended up by preventing him from being part of such a historic event so, he asks Sam to tell Jay to not let his obsession with his competition to take the best from him. Sam does as he requested and Jay makes the choice to not to give up on his dream and decides to do everything in his power to make the restaurant a big success. 

Alberta, Hetty and Trevor are discussing about Elias’s proposal when they see that Thor is about to make a deal with him but they stop him and remind him of all the good he has done and how he has overcome his mistakes from the past. Thor comes to his senses and declines on the proposal making Elias disappear but not before declaring that he will not rest until he accomplishes his goal. Isaac is now at his room looking pensive when Pete shows up and tells him that in case he doesn’t know, his words have actually made it to the Declaration of Independence when he talked about his pursuit of happiness something that makes him extremely excited wanting to go and tell the others that he is famous after all. The next day, Jay meets with a publicist to help him boost his restaurant’s brand and when he is about to sign the contract, he stops and decides to ask for more time to think about it then, it is revealed that said publicist is none other but Elias.