Ghosts Review: The Christmas Spirit, Part One / The Christmas Spirit, Part Two (Season 2 Episodes 9 and 10)

Ghostmas is the gift that keeps on giving!

Fans could not be in higher spirits after witnessing the gem that is Ghosts Season 2 Episodes 9 and 10, “The Christmas Spirit, Part One / The Christmas Spirit, Part Two.”

This holiday special celebrates everything we love about this zany premise while embracing the cheesy, heartfelt trappings of the Christmas rom-com.

Holiday specials are a TV staple, yet many sitcoms play the festivities safe when Christmas is all about chaos.

Well, there is absolutely nothing safe about this special. The ghosts banding together to help Trevor possess a friend of Jay’s sister, who he previously ghosted from beyond the grave, is ridiculously unhinged.

But similar to holiday standouts like Brooklyn Nine-Nine‘s Die Hard reenactment, this risky direction pays off by leaning into its absurdity.

In pursuit of love on the 7th day of Hanukkah, Trevor gives Sam a holiday celebration she will struggle to forget — and there’s nothing better than a traumatizing Christmas.

Ghosts delivers one of its boldest concepts yet, proving there is little these pesky spirits can do to upset us with a winning formula.

From the perspective of a holiday special, there isn’t much to be a Scrooge about.

Even with the ambitious quest to possess a stranger and Isaac’s emotional epiphany, each thread ties into the holiday celebrations with meaningful conviction.

People “almost” died, but they did it in the spirit of Christmas.

The festive day is a perfect excuse to bring in outsider mischief, and Thorfinn’s hatred for the holidays is very on-brand for him. Not to mention Woodstone is decked to the nines with rogue decorations and gingerbread meet cutes populating every dark corner of this haunted house.

The dueling holiday and possession storylines create a great flow as Bela and Trevor’s failed scheme becomes the jumping-off point for the second half of Ghostmas.

Electrifying Performances

Let’s talk about the ghost in the room — McIver’s stunning multi-faceted performance as Sam and Thorfinn!

As someone who committed to this show the moment I learned McIver would be headlining another paranormal comedy, it was a delight to see her flex her iconic iZombie character work during this momentous hour.

A few years away from the morgue, her ability to comedically mimic personas is still scary sharp, and a million thanks to Ghosts for giving us the Liv Moore/Thorfinn crossover we never knew we needed.

McIver’s disgruntled Thorfinn is gold as she matches Chandler Long’s impeccable scene chewing with her take on one-syllable responses and whimsical grunting. But it’s her performance as Thorfinn opening Sam’s gift with tears welling in her eyes that drives this performance home.

As always, it is a pleasure to be emotionally manipulated by Rose McIver’s acting.

Love Is In the Air

But the best surprise of this holiday special? The themes of love Ghosts refuses to back down from.

As this sitcom has shown us repeatedly, we can trust it to see the more progressive and diverse stories through — however horny the outcome.

Isaac and Nigel’s whirlwind breakup has the perfect arc, starting with a shocking face-palm kiss, spiraling into a beautiful act of forgiveness from Isacc’s wife, and ending with a swooning kiss. It’s the love story these two deserve, made exceptionally poignant by Isaac’s uniform revelation.

And because Ghosts is constantly testing the limits of these forced relationships, we get shocking developments like Hetty and Trevor.

With signs pointing to this romance throughout the season and Hetty’s track record with power dynamics, the twist is just the start of this beautifully chaotic conflict.

Ghosts indeed upheld its promises to deliver rom-com vibes in time for Christmas.

The Gift of Ghostmas

If this is how Ghosts utilizes the longer format storytelling, we need more double features from the CBS show asap.

Sure, it loses steam briefly in the second part as the absurdity plateaus. But, thankfully, the sheer insanity of Trevor and Bela’s doomed relationship steamrolls through any uncomfortable lulls.

With candid banter that jokes about how “mentally ill” Eric is and the debate of whether ghosts are people, it’s clear Ghosts knows its satire is crossing a line with this special. That desire to push the limits of this show’s wacky, whimsical comedy continues to charm.

This sitcom has given us memorable firsts, but hopefully Ghostmas is a tradition we can celebrate every holiday season.

(Also, I need eternity to come to terms with Sam buying and wrapping gifts for the ghosts!)

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Ghosts returns on January 5 at 8:30/7:30c on CBS.

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