Ghosts Review: Attic Girl (Season 1 Episode 17)

The sitcom’s first penultimate episode is one we won’t soon forget.

Ghosts Season 1 Episode 17, “Attic Girl,” delivers a magical prom brimming with whimsical sets and delightful dynamics. This special occasion celebrates everything the show exemplifies with side-splitting callbacks and swelling emotional triumphs.

The festivities kick off in 1987 with a classic horror scene. The killer queen aesthetic is on point, but it also confirms what we feared — Ghosts is secretly gunning to dethrone American Horror Story: Murder House‘s body count.

It’s unnerving how committed this show is to its cheerful facade that two foolish teenagers can be slaughtered by a murderer on the front lawn, and absolutely zero questions are raised.

If you’re keeping score: Trevor is in the lake, this b&b is funded by looting, and an asylum now resides nearby. In some sick twisted way, this lack of ethical acknowledgment that so many people have died mysteriously (and brutally) on the property is the comedy’s greatest joke.

The golden sitcom rule has always been that no one’s actions have life-threatening consequences.

Ghosts never had that luxury, but it does take a peculiar approach to mortality. So having Sam react to a blood-soaked spirit by throwing her a “Ghost Prom” shows how it honors the classic sitcom while actively tormenting us.

You have to have mad respect for a series that can so seamlessly juggle the satire and horror genres without breaking from the constructs of a comfort comedy.

You also have to respect Ghosts for how it masterfully shuts down any excuse for an underage dating trope.

Not only that, but the commentary on Trevor and Stephanie dying decades apart is hilarious. Every time the undead teen suggests a dating loophole, “I’m actually 53”, “We’re born the same year,” Trevor finds a quirky way to dodge her advances.

But his discomfort is key to this role reversal. Forcing Trevor to endure the harassment of a woman’s sexual advances is brilliant, subtle commentary to pair with this recently redeemed misogynist.

The comedy of “Attic Girl” is what you hope to see from a sitcom sitting on such well-established lore. The banter is a continuous stream, nurturing the character niches we’ve come to champion.

Like Isaac getting to bask in Hamilton’s death or Hetty still despising the Irish. Most of all, Jay reminding Sam he gets to pull rank because he swiped a watch off her dead ancestor — which, fair!

“Attic Girl” revisits some of the season’s greatest hits with a mockery that plays to the loveable mob mentality of this ensemble. Yet, the harsh edge that once occupied the same space as these jokes is dulled to a soft nagging.

Ghosts is losing its bitterness, and for a good reason. Its characters are growing!

The comedy is still fueled by ugly human emotions. These ghosts still insult each other, but they’re more concerned with tarnishing relationships now. Their commentary has an awareness that the first half of the season purposely neglected.

The jokes reflect that change in heart, toying with more playful banter in the opening scene as Sam and Jay celebrate their first B&B guests and later when the group decides to go to prom together to spare anyone feeling left out of the festivities.

So what better time to bring in an external force to try and destroy all their hard work.

There is no scarier antagonist than a teenager, and I applaud Ghosts for effectively weaponizing Odessa A’Zion’s pitch-perfect mean girl. Sam wasn’t the only one forced to relive traumatic high-school experiences there.

The ghosts have settled into a more pleasant existence, and Stephanie’s cruelty is a crucial test in their development. Not only do they feel remorse for hurting Sam, but they are forced to acknowledge how vital her generosity is to their lives.

That’s what makes this installment so lovely; every individual storyline is comedically strong while emotionally tethering itself to Sam’s larger storyline.

Alberta learning to control the Alexa is this episode’s linchpin, orchestrating the heavy lifting of these power struggles. But also, ghosts learning to control a smart speaker is the most chaotic train-wreck of a plot point, and I love it dearly.

It’s brilliant because this could be the thing to burn the manor down, or it could bring nothing but happiness into Sas’ pizza-loving heart. Only time will tell.

After smothering us in hilarious and poignant storytelling, Ghosts could call it a night, or it could throw the best ghost prom the world has ever seen.

The decorations are whimsical, the soundtrack is peak 1987, and the ghosts nervously asking each other to dance is too adorable for words to describe. But in the end, it is Rose McIver that shines as the diamond of this ball.

The glue of this series and a conduit for some truly unhinged storytelling, McIver anchors this comedy with the same elegance and adaptability that made Liv Moore such a force.

To see McIver leading another paranormal comedy to success and with such an incredible cast backing her is a thing of TV fairytales. So it’s fitting Sam gets her happy ending with Jay, the perfect baguette-wielding boyfriend, by her side.

Her surprise “She’s All That” moment is a mesmerizing, emotional affair. The swelling of happiness and love captured in this scene conveys everything Ghosts has cultivated this season.

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The season finale of Ghosts airs Thursday, April 21 at 9/8c on CBS.

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