Ghosts Season 4 Episode 2 Review: Sam’s Dad

Game of Thrones has nothing on Ghosts Season 4 Episode 2, “Sam’s Dad,” which boasts an impressive amount of family drama and bloodshed.

Good on Ghosts for delivering an episode that enriches Sam’s backstory with a complicated daughter-father dynamic while giving Patience the most fun (and frightful) power yet.

This family reunion is a bloody good time!

Now We Got Bad Blood

Ghosts thrives when it finds the perfect balance between horror and hilarity. Patience making the walls bleed strikes that balance beautifully.

It’s incredibly morbid and terrifying, upping Pateince’s street cred as an antagonist. But as it turns out, having your walls bleed can also be extremely inconvenient.

That’s where the mundane comedy elements of this show shine, with Jay forced to clean the walls and ponder if this mysterious Puritan blood causes plaque.

With the addition of Hetty yelling at Patience for ruining her Italian-imported wallpaper, everyone focusing on the logistical nightmares of blood seeping through the walls is hilarious.

Patience’s ghost power feels like vintage Ghosts, infusing the episode with unpredictability and escalating hilarity as we learn she can also write words in the blood.

Forgive Me Father

This power forces Sam into a brutal predicament ghost-wise. It is also a crucial catalyst in getting her to confront her father.

For the first time in a while, Ghosts does not sideline Sam. McIver rightfully does a lot of the emotional and logistical heavy lifting as she navigates the festering trauma of an absent father.

A young Sam blaming “ghosts” for her actions cleverly ties the heavier relationship beats and Patience’s defiance together with a boy-cries-wolf parallel.

This episode makes the right choice not to close the book on Sam and Frank. Plus, including previously established details in the conflict taps into a more meaningful history between them.

By reintroducing Sam’s mom and her selfish tendencies, this episode does for Frank’s development what it couldn’t do for Sheryl.

Do Each Other’s Murders

The B-plot does an excellent job of not overpowering Sam’s storyline and treating us to tricks that leave a lasting impression on the ghosts involved.

While Isaac and Nigel’s first post-breakup storyline is brief, it comes from a place of honesty and vulnerability. It’s a well-crafted scene that keeps Isaac’s attempts to do better alive while highlighting the ego that stands in his way.

Isaac staging this grand gesture just to have the shed ghosts kick him out is very on par with him. And let’s be honest, Ghosts is in no position to move Isaac out of the mansion.

Time could have been better divided between the two “murders.” Still, Nigel should take precedence, and navigating a compromise without disturbing Sam’s moment in the spotlight is challenging.

Nonetheless, being too cowardly to deliver bad news and using a movie premise to solve problems is peak Ghosts!

No Weak Links

This episode works overtime to heal the wounds of two storylines that rocked the boat last season. Thanks to a few well-placed jokes and movie references, each pairing becomes stronger from this lesson in owning your mistakes.

It also effectively utilizes the rest of the ensemble without creating an underwhelming third storyline to occupy them.

Sas and Pete poignantly deliver the fallout of Dean Norris’ powerful confession to Sam. Alberta’s subtle but effective use of her wisdom is evident when she gives Isaac a dose of breakup truth and cleverly tells him to “take the bullet this time.”

There’s no weak link here.

If there is, it’s not Pete. The Pinecone Trooper insisting Sam call him “Daddy,” to the delight and horror of his peers, is a Ghosts Hall of Fame joke.

We can always ask for more of this comedy because it is always capable of more.

Yet, “Sam’s Dad” gives us just enough development for each character showcased to hold us over until more comes. If it doesn’t, and threads like Isaac’s better person brigade or Nigel’s existence go the way of Carol in the shed, then we’ll have a problem.

For now, Ghosts is right on the money.

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

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