Ghosts – The Owl

By: Gladys Luna

The episode kicks off exactly where we were left off at the moment where Sam (Rose McIver) and Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar) have realized that one the ghosts have might transcended to the light. In their attempt to figure out who was it, they rush off inside the house and look for each one of them. Although, soon Jay is reminded that he is not actually capable to see any ghost so his search turns out to be futile (but after all, it’s the intention that truly counts, isn’t it?). The ghosts start to show up lured by Sam’s loud and desperate voice. Pete (Richie Moriarty) and Sasappis (Román Zaragoza) show up first followed by Trevor (Asher Grodman). Sam informs them about recent events and Pete goes crazy screaming for everyone to show up so he can make a headcount. Nancy (Betsy Sodaro), Alberta (Danielle Pinnock) and Crash (Alex Boniello) join them too in the foyer and then Captain Higgintoot (Brandon Scott Jones) comes down the stairs running desperately looking for his new fiancée and the sheer terror on everyone’s looks is a display of their thoughts. Fortunately for them, it quickly vanishes as soon as they see Nigel (John Hartman) walk through the door screaming for his fiancée’s name and colliding with him in a warm hug saying that he just saw the light and was afraid he was taken away precisely on the night of their engagement. Most of the gang is now gathered but there are still two of them missing – Thor (Devan Chandler Long) and Flower (Sheila Carrasco), so they assume that is definitely one of the two that must have transcended. They hear footsteps approaching and are surprised to see Thor standing there looking for Flower so now the mystery has been solved.

A few moments later the whole group has decided to gather in the living room where Sasappis asks Thor to recall his last minutes with Flower to see if they can find any indication of what might have happened that helped her to finally move on but nothing he says truly helps. The ghosts regret that they didn’t get to say goodbye and only hopes that she is better off now. Sam asks them about what they usually do when a soul transcends and Hetty (Rebecca Wisocky) is quick to explain that they normally perform a ceremony that resembles a little like a memorial except for the food which they can’t actually eat. Even though this is a sad moment, it appears that Captain Higgintoot is more concerned about whether or not they’d be able to carry on with their engagement party. Jay walks in the room and in his attempt to be respectful about Thor’s feelings he ends up whispering in his ear about how he would not be able to recover if he would get to lose his beloved one (referring to Sam). Then, he says that in the Hinduism culture there is a belief that when people die, they are not lost but instead they found a new “home” in a different body either if it is a human, animal or anything at all that they know as reincarnation. He believes that Flower might be closer than they know, but Thor is still in pain and feeling far from relief.

On the other hand, Pete decides to pay a visit to the basement ghosts to check in on them and make sure they are not mad at him for referring to them in a pejorative manner only to find out they are actually a bit upset at him. As a way to alleviate his guilt he invites them to meet in the front hallway much to everyone else’s surprise. He even allows them to go the second floor and occupy the TV room but he regrets it immediately. In the meantime, Jay tells Sam that Mark (Tristan D. Lalla), the man that will help him remodel the barn, will be there soon to start doing the work. Mark shows up saying they have a problem to deal with in the barn. Jay, Sam, Thor, Trevor and Sasappis are led to the place by Mark and they are faced with the fact that there’s an owl nesting there so they need to call an expert to help them remove it and take it to another place. Jay agrees but then Sam stops him saying that they need to wait a little longer before they do that since they seem to have a different problem given that Thor now thinks that Flower has reincarnated in the owl and he won’t let her to be taken away from him again. Sam asks her husband to delay the work for at least a week and give some time to the ghost to grieve his love’s loss. Although Jay tries to be empathetic, he says that he needs to start putting the humans’ problems before the ghosts problems so he has resolved that the owl should be relocated upstate, but Thor won’t let this to happen without a fight and threatens them with setting the place on fire if they take Flower away and to prove he is not joking he explodes the light bulbs.

Sadly, Flower’s reincarnation hasn’t been the only issue to deal with at the moment since Hetty, Alberta and Isaact have one of their own as they now have to share the TV room with all of the basement ghosts. The situation has become impossible so they make the decision to take Pete to the basement and persuade him to ask the other ghosts to go back to where they belong. Surprisingly for them, Nancy comes out of a dark corner where she has been hiding from her own basement group since she cannot stand them to be around the house where she tends to find herself a respite of them. Pete is not the one to manage conflict well so he is now between the sword and the stone but agrees to talk to them nonetheless.

Back to the owl conflict, Jay is happy to see that the bird is no longer in the barn and that his wife has solved the conflict. Unfortunately, that joy only lasts a second as he hears the owl hooting and realizes that it has been moved to one of the mansion’s room. It seems like Jay has come to the understanding that no matter what he does, they won’t get rid of the bird easily so he decides not to fight about it for the moment. Later on, when he tries to feed the owl, he gets bitten by it and goes to Sam to complain about it just in time for one of their B&B guests (Preeti Torul) to show up at the front desk asking to be refunded given the bird staying in the room next to them. Jay expresses once again his urge to take the owl away and it is then when Sam lets him know that even though she wants the same thing it’s hard for her to have lost a friend. It seems that a part of her wants to believe that Flower has indeed reincarnated.

The next day, Pete faces the basement ghosts and struggles in his attempt to ask them to go back to where they belong and instead rambles a little saying they have a lot going on at the house right now like the loss of one of their friends which the basement ghosts claim to actually have known much to Pete’s surprise. Now, he just doesn’t know how to deal with this. Luckily for him, Alberta who has been there along with Hetty, interrupts him and asks the other ghosts to join them for a memorial they’ll be having for their friend. Sam takes Jay to talk to Thor (even though he cannot see him) and convinces him to let the owl free saying that if Flower has actually reincarnated in it as it must have been hard for her to be caged to what Thor agrees. The ghosts make a memorial for Flower and each one of them say something nice about her. Jay goes out to set the owl free and everything seems to go well until the bird returns and attacks him forcing him to wear a patch on his eye.

Later on, everyone is gathered in the TV room including the basement ghosts and as a way to finally get rid of them, Nancy steps out of the couch where they are in and accuses Pete to have said that he wishes that it was one of the basement ghost to have been sucked into the light instead of their dearest friend much to Pete surprise who hasn’t said a peep. This lie is supported by Hetty which ends up offending the ghosts making them to choose to go back to the basement.