Ghosts: Danielle Pinnock Discusses the Gasp-Worthy Finale to Alberta’s Murder Mystery [Interview]

Warning: This interview contains spoilers for Ghosts Season 2 Episode 21, “Whodunnit.”

I spoke with Danielle Pinnock, who plays Alberta Haynes, about the shocking events of Ghosts Season 2 Episode 21, “Whodunnit,” and a betrayal one-hundred years in the making.

The finale to Alberta’s murder mystery podcast shook the very foundation of Woodstone Mansion when Hetty revealed her son Thomas as the singer’s murderer.

Fans weren’t the only ones surprised by the revelation. The Ghosts cast only discovered the killer’s identity this spring. “It was quite a surprise to all of us,” she said. “The whole time, we thought it was Alberta’s sister Theresa. Then we found that it was Hetty’s son, and that threw us all for a loop.”

It is safe to say everyone was shocked by Hetty’s decision, including Rebecca Wisocky.

“I know that girl was truly shooketh because she was like, ‘Wait a minute, oh my god! I was involved, and I’ve been gaslighting her for so long,'” Pinnock recalled with a laugh.

Hetty confessing she knew Thomas dealt the final blow caused a dramatic tonal shift as Alberta faced the darker emotions of this betrayal.

“The great thing about our showrunners, Joe Port and Joe Wiseman, and the director, they said, ‘Don’t shy away from the drama of it all.’ Because this woman has been trying to solve this mystery for the last hundred years, and she finds out that her best friend was a part of it in some way — that was extremely hurtful to Alberta.”

“And I think that’s why those scenes played a little bit more out of character than they usually are for our series because they were dramatic. It really was heartbreaking.”

The long-term consequences of that drama and Hetty’s choice to mislead Alberta is something Pinnock is “excited” to see play out.

“It has taken 100 years for Hetty and Alberta to get to this place. I feel like when Alberta first died on the property, it was a bit of an adjustment because she is a Black woman who was a jazz singer during the 1920s. She’s strong, she’s powerful, and so is Hetty,” Pinnock explained.

“I feel like there were issues that they had to work through, and they got to a phenomenal place of love and care. Now it has unraveled.”

Murders are nothing new for these ghosts. But Pinnock stressed that the confrontation between Alberta and Hetty is an entirely new challenge.

“For us, it was a really difficult thing to play because we have never seen that on Ghosts yet. In both of these seasons, we’ve never gone that deep, but that scene required us to go that deep,” she revealed. “We saw a little bit of this with Isaac and Nigel. Yet, there is romance there, so they’re gonna try to get past it.”

“But for these two women specifically, and this is something that Rebecca and I talked about a ton when we’re trying to work through the scene, is that racially, they probably weren’t close when Alberta first died in this house. These are things that the CBS viewers will not see.”

For Pinnock, exploring these character dynamics, even if they are not referenced directly on the show, is imperative to the process.

“We have to think about this backstory and be realistic because the great thing about this show is that it’s so incredibly diverse,” she said. “But the reality of this series is that with that diversity, we have to think about all the things that we’ve gone through too. So this is the part, as actors, that we get to work on outside of what the audience sees.”

“Thinking about what it was like for Alberta when she first ended up in this house with a Victorian-age woman, who often talks about butlers, peasants, and the children working for her — that wasn’t easy for these two to become friends.”

Despite everything Hetty and Alberta had to overcome before Sam arrived, Pinnock believed their relationship has “blossom into this beautiful, mutual respect and admiration for each other” over one hundred years.

“I wouldn’t necessarily call them best friends, but I think the admiration and the respect is there,” the actress assured. “We saw that in Season 1 when Alberta got Hetty to vote. She respects Alberta, and Alberta respects Hetty. We’ve seen this time and time again with their relationship.”

“So for somebody that she truly respects and loves to unravel these things is tough. This is stuff that Rebecca and I talked about and why that moment is so powerful.”

For Pinnock, there was no other way for the two women to hash things out. A betrayal this heartbreaking demanded more of Ghosts.

“It has to be that dramatic. This is one-hundred years of this woman telling her, ‘No, you died of a heart attack,’ knowing the whole time that Thomas was involved, and that is absolutely heartbreaking.”

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Did you enjoy this Alberta-centric episode of Ghosts? Stay tuned for even more content from our post-mortem interview with Danielle Pinnock.

Ghosts airs Thursdays at 8:30/7:30c on CBS.

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