‘Ghost’ Season 6’s Cozy Halloween Special Brings Back a Fan-Favorite

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for the two-part ‘Ghosts’ Season 6 premiere, “Halloween 6: The Mirror.”After five seasons of supernatural mishaps, oddball friendships, and enough unfinished business to last a lifetime, CBS’s Ghosts has settled into pretty familiar territory. It’s become the kind of comfort show you can turn on after a long day, knowing you’ll get a few laughs with characters you’ve grown to love. That might sound like faint praise for Season 6, but a sitcom that offers this kind of escape has real value. Not everything needs to be groundbreaking to be worth watching.

That familiarity is felt in its two-part premiere, “Halloween 6: The Mirror,” which picks up a few months after Pete’s (Richie Moriarty) mysterious disappearance following his trip to London with Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar) and Kyle (Ben Feldman) to track down a portrait of the cholera ghost, Nancy (Betsy Sodoro). While his absence hangs over Woodstone, the annual Halloween special has another supernatural problem, this time involving Hetty’s (Rebecca Wisocky) troubled family history. It’s an enjoyable hour of television with some solid jokes and a surprisingly sweet story about two sisters who never understood each other. And with Moriarty returning before the credits roll in its second episode, the premiere wisely avoids dragging out a disappearance that could have easily worn out its welcome.

What Is ‘Ghosts’ Season 6’s 2-Episode Premiere About?

With Sam (Rose McIver) away working on the film adaptation of her screenplay, “Polar Opposites,” in sunny Australia, Kyle has stepped in to help Jay look after the ghostly residents. But the gang has bigger fish to fry, like bringing Pete back home to Woodstone, prompting Alberta (Danielle Pinnock) to revive him with a séance, even after Sass (Román Zaragoza) claims Pete specifically requested a DNS (“do not séance”) policy. Naturally, nobody is ever good at leaving things alone. But their path to Pete’s return is briefly interrupted when Kyle accidentally breaks a mirror during basketball in the house, sending Jay scrambling to replace it before his wife finds out. With Mark’s (Tristan D. Lalla) help, they find a similar-looking replacement, but unfortunately, this one comes with a rather unwelcome guest: Hetty’s estranged sister, Margaret (Maria Thayer), who has been trapped inside the mirror since first catching sight of her own reflection shortly after her death nearly a century ago. Their reunion is anything but pleasant, especially when Margaret tricks Hetty into taking her place in the mirror.

It’s a fun Halloween setup, with the mirror introducing another strange rule about the afterlife. But when Jay and Mark accidentally shatter the mirror now holding Hetty, her fate gives audiences a bit of a rude awakening as to what that feeling might look like when you lose another character. We’ve seen this before with Isaac (Brandon Scott Jones) and Flower’s (Sheila Carrasco) episodes, though the latter lasted seven episodes in Season 3, stretching it out longer than it needed to be. Thankfully, the writers don’t repeat that here, and Hetty’s situation is resolved by the end of the second episode, while Pete returns as his friends gather to remember him on the anniversary of his death on the Woodstone grounds. There’s just one problem: he has no memory of who they are, leaving everyone to solve a whole new mystery.

It’s an interesting way to kick off Season 6, particularly because Pete’s return raises questions about what happens when a ghost seemingly moves on, only to end up right back where he started. The memory loss also gives the writers a chance to explore a different side of Pete, whose adventures outside Woodstone have already changed what we know about the afterlife. Whether this latest twist pays off remains to be seen, but it’s encouraging that Ghosts isn’t dragging out his disappearance just to keep viewers guessing. There is still plenty to explore within the show’s spiritual lore, and Pete’s return could be one of its more interesting stories yet.

‘Ghosts’ Season 6 Finds Its Strength in the Smaller, More Personal Stories

Image via Jan Thijs/CBS, Paramount+

Almost six years later and Ghosts isn’t quite the laugh-out-loud comedy it used to be, but that doesn’t mean it’s lost its charm. The jokes are still there, although the first episode’s new direction takes a bit more time to warm up than the second. Of course, some of the humor feels rather familiar, like Bela (Punam Patel) once again struggling to find love, which seems like a storyline that could use something new after all this time. But the show still knows how to land a good joke when it wants to, as Alberta’s horrified declaration that Hetty has “sharded” herself followed by Isaac’s even more dramatic claim that “she’s sharded all over the Hudson Valley” after a piece from the mirror finds itself traveling through a Halloween party guest. But it’s this exact kind of ridiculous humor that makes Ghosts so reliably comforting. And while there aren’t exactly as many laugh-a-minute jokes that power the show’s style and tone, the comedy works well enough without needing every scene to end with a punchline.

With the two-part episode written by Guy Endore-Kaiser and Rupinder Gill, the hour is a particularly wholesome one too. One of the things Ghosts thrives on is its heart, and Hetty and Margaret’s complicated relationship benefits from this more in-depth block for Halloween. Through memories revealed by the mirror, Hetty finally learns that her sister never meant to betray her and that much of their falling-out came from her own failure to listen (and see her sister past the hairy mustache). It’s a simple misunderstanding, but one that feels believable given Hetty’s upbringing and personality.

Of course, their reconciliation is genuinely touching too, as the Woodstone matriarch admits she wasn’t the sister Margaret needed. And while the moment builds up to some evident emotions and possibly tears for the audience, it’s abruptly undercut by Flower’s entrance, which acts as a glaring stop sign to prevent the show from being overly sappy and, quite oddly, undercuts some strong writing. But it still works for the moment, letting their reunion feel earned. It’s also a good example of how Ghosts still finds meaningful stories within characters we’ve known for years, without rushing to wrap everything up in a single episode.

Rebecca Wisocky and Brandon Scott Jones Remain ‘Ghosts’ Biggest Scene-Stealers

With such a large ensemble and one that has grown since its premiere in 2021, Ghosts doesn’t always have enough room to give everyone something worthwhile to do, but Season 6 reinforces the show’s best characters in Wisocky’s Hetty and Jones’ Isaac. The Halloween special makes good use of Wisocky, who has a real gift for making her character’s snobbery hilarious with little more than a look or change in her voice. But the best part is, she knows when to pull back, and her scenes with Thayer are especially good. Thayer, best known for 30 Rock and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, is a welcome addition — though her appearance is a short-lived one as she’s ultimately sent off to live in her dream city, Paris, with Trevor’s (Asher Grodman) daughter Abby (Gideon Adlon) through the mirror. But the moments they share are especially heartwarming, as the sisters’ history feels convincing enough even when they’re arguing over things that happened a century ago.

Meanwhile, Jones remains one of the funniest people on Ghosts, often making every scene better just by simply being in it. His exaggerated reactions, sharp timing, and ability to deliver the most absurd dialogue with a completely straight face continue to make the show what it is, and a real highlight. Carrasco is equally dependable as Flower, whose carefree attitude and strange observations can turn an otherwise ordinary exchange into something amusing. While the rest of the cast doesn’t have quite as many standout moments in the premiere, there’s a natural rhythm that makes Woodstone feel like a place audiences can call their own all these years later. And perhaps that’s why Ghosts remains such an easy watch. It might not surprise us every week, but after six seasons, this cast is still a pretty good reason to tune in.

Ghosts will return for its one-hour holiday episode on December 10 at 9:00 p.m. EST on CBS, and stream the next day on Paramount+.

Release Date

October 7, 2021

Directors

Christine Gernon, Jaime Eliezer Karas, Katie Locke O’Brien, Nick Wong, Jude Weng, Pete Chatmon, Richie Keen, Alex Hardcastle, Kimmy Gatewood, Matthew A. Cherry, Cortney Carrillo

• 

  Rose McIver

  Samantha Arondekar

• 

  Utkarsh Ambudkar

  Jay Arondekar

• 
  

• 
  

Pros & Cons

• Rebecca Wisocky, Brandon Scott Jones, and Sheila Carrasco deliver standout performances, with sharp comic timing and great chemistry.
• The two-part premiere gives Hetty and Margaret’s emotional storyline enough time to develop without feeling rushed.
• Pete’s return avoids another drawn-out disappearance and sets up an interesting new direction for Season 6.

• The humor isn’t quite as consistent as in earlier seasons, with the first episode taking longer to find its footing.
• Familiar subplots, particularly Bela’s ongoing romantic troubles, offer little that’s new.