Ghosts EPs Talk Finale's 'Perilous' Jay Cliffhanger, Pete And Alberta's Big Moment — Plus, Grade It!
Warning: The following contains major spoilers for the Ghosts Season 4 finale. Proceed at your own risk!
The twist we feared was ahead has come to pass on Ghosts.
In Thursday's season finale, we learned that Jay did, indeed, sign with a publicist, who is actually Elias Woodstone masquerading as a human. And the ghost-turned-soul reaper is hoping to take Jay to Hell sooner rather than later. Sure, Sam's hubby is young and healthy right now, but Elias said they have ways of speeding up his demise, like almost dropping a chandelier on top of Jay.
Elsewhere in the finale, Alberta realized that maybe she's always had feelings for Pete that she has been denying, and maybe a nice guy like him is exactly what she needs. When Pete overhead her confession, he bolted from the property, leading Alberta to surmise that her epiphany had come too late, especially now that Pete has a girlfriend. But Pete later returned to reveal he left to break up with Donna. Pete and Alberta then shared a kiss that left her a bit breathless.
"Oh my," Alberta sighed, to which Pete replied, "Lip strength. That's from my oboe days."
Below, showrunners Joe Port and Joe Wiseman reveal why now was the right time for Pete and Alberta to take the next step, and what Jay's deal with Elias means for his future.
TVLINE | You've done all manner of finale cliffhangers in the past three seasons. Why did you want to end this season with this Jay and Elias twist?
JOE WISEMAN | Well, we didn't want to feel like we were repeating ourselves with another sort of like, "Oh gosh, someone got sucked off." So we wanted to think of a different sort of perilous cliffhanger, and the Elias thing is something we sort of planted the seed of earlier in the season, where we saw that Elias could come back, and he mentioned he could take human form, and then in the tag of that episode, we see him talking with Jay, who's unsure if he should sign with him or not. So it just felt like a natural place to go, that Jay had, inadvertently, signed an agreement with the devil, and now Elias is actively trying to kill him so he can collect.
JOE PORT | To me, part of the theme of the season was, like, struggling for success, and then the sometimes pitfalls of achieving it, and this is an illustration, obviously, of one of those. This is not how he intended, obviously, to get the success. It's been a journey for Sam and Jay. As they talk about before the reveal in this episode, they've come a long way, but obviously, their involvement with the ghosts has led to a precarious situation.
TVLINE | What does this twist open up for you in terms of story as you look ahead to next season?
WISEMAN | Well, we can't give away too many specifics, but obviously, Sam and the ghosts are going to have to try to figure out a way of getting Jay out of this.
PORT | I do think that Sam has gone out of her way to help and placate the ghosts, and Jay has often been an unfortunate bystander in those situations, and maybe some of those dynamics are coming to a bit of a head as we open up this season. Like, by all rights, the ghosts should have informed them that Elias had revealed this power of his, that he can transform into a living demon to claim souls, but I guess they thought that didn't really rise to the level of need-to-know information.
TVLINE | Are you imagining that you're going to have a lot of fun with the near-death misses next season? Is this sort of going to turn into a Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner situation?
WISEMAN | [Laughs] I don't know if we'll take it to that level, but in the very, very last moment of the tag, right after Pete and Alberta kiss, we sort of hear Jay complaining that he's afraid to use the toaster. So we will see, like, some manifestations of Jay being afraid to do anything, for sure.
TVLINE | What was Utkarsh Ambudkar's reaction to this twist? Did he come to you worried about what it means for him and his character?
PORT | No, he seemed into it. We ran it by him, and yeah, he was excited.
TVLINE | The last scene of the season is actually not about Jay and Elias. It's Pete and Alberta kissing. Why did you want to leave off the season on that note?
WISEMAN | Well, it's a big moment for the series. Since Season 1, Pete has expressed his affection for her, and we've sort of been doing this slow burn and slowly chipping away at Alberta's reluctance, and so, it felt like time. It just felt like, "Let's get them together."
PORT | I think they both had moments of being into it and not being into it, and we finally found a window where they were both open to love and seeing the possibilities, and we're excited to explore that dynamic between them.
TVLINE | A couple of episodes ago, I questioned whether Alberta was into Pete for the right reasons, because she was seeing him as the bad boy. But in this episode, she realizes that maybe it's the good Pete that she's been needing. Was that important to you to make that distinction as you were getting them together?
PORT | Yeah, I thought she crushed that speech. Danielle [Pinnock] is great. She's so funny, but she's also great with dramatic moments, and it was fun to give her that showcase and let her knock it out of the park. Yeah, I think that's sort of a journey that we've been trying to take with that character, which is that she needs to realize her own worth, and that she's deserving of a love that's equal to that.
TVLINE | So is it safe to say they're going to be a couple now?
WISEMAN | Well, seems like it.
TVLINE | You've had quite a few ghost romances over the seasons: Flower and Thor, Hetty and Trevor, Isaac and Nigel. What is it about Pete and Alberta that makes them different and that makes you excited to explore them next season?
PORT | These are two people for whom the stakes are very high, because they both have been hurt a lot in the past and had tough romantic situations. So for them to take this leap together requires a lot of faith on both their parts, and there's a lot riding on it if it doesn't go well. They're trapped in this house together — Well, I guess Pete can leave. [Laughs] But for all intents and purposes, they're stuck together. So there's a lot riding on it.
TVLINE | Has the two-season renewal altered how you are approaching next season? Does it give you a bit more leeway? Are you like, "Well, let's leave this for Season 6"?
WISEMAN | I mean, it has that possibility. It is a luxury to sort of know that we have now 44 episodes to sort of plan stuff out. I don't know that it, necessarily, has, like, a profound effect on specifics we were talking about now, but as we are talking about arcs and everything, it is nice to be able to be like, "OK, maybe we don't have to go this far." So it is definitely a nice luxury to have.
PORT | There are certain stories that we've talked about that are kind of shaped over two seasons. So if we decide to go those directions, then yeah, it definitely would be helpful.
Ghosts fans, what did you think of the season ender? Grade it below, then hit the comments!