Ghosts Season 4 Episode 17 Review: His Girl Shiki

We are living in the golden age of Ghosts.

In a season brimming with excellent pairings and romantic triumphs, Ghosts Season 4 Episode 17, “His Girl Shiki,” gives Sas the movie star treatment with a long-overdue love triangle and a leading lady with his same flair for storytelling.

Sas prides himself on spinning a good story, but nothing could prepare him for a chemistry so good it would steal scenes and hearts.

This Joan broad is a total gas!

Taylor Ortega’s adorably cartoonish homage to the Golden Age of Hollywood is a beautiful marriage of casting and writing. Her sharp-tongued scriptwriter is a vibrant scene-stealing force, building Sas up with an intoxicating earnestness and shutting down unwanted advances with ease.

Sas isn’t the only one falling for this female scriptwriting badass who died with a flask in her hand. Joan lights a renewed fire in the hearths of Woodstone and feels like the missing piece to Sas’ story and this historical tapestry of personas.

Even the most over-the-top ghosts feel temporary with how light their feet tread across the plot. As such, you learn to take their performances with a grain of salt. Yet, the moment Joan bursts onto the scene, she makes an impression that feels difficult to ignore.

For the first time ever, Ghosts could (and should) consider adding one more ghost to Woodstone’s core group.

Joan isn’t introduced to add conflict to the group like all the guest stars before her.

She slips effortlessly into the dynamic as another layer of this eclectic ensemble, amplifying the chemistry of this well-oiled machine rather than clashing with it. She kindly placates Sam’s script questions and adds a new layer of storytelling to the group with her tales from a world of glamour and gossip.

Her likable cooperation works wonders in ways antagonistic introductions rarely accomplish. Joan can go the distance with this cast as a member of it rather than as an outsider overstaying their welcome.

Best of all, she coaxes a new side of Sas to the surface. We briefly see his more nervous, smitten teenager persona with Shiki and the car ghost, but with Joan, his blushing, tongue-tied expressions are on full display to enjoy.

There is a crackling chemistry and banterous back and forth between these two, unlike anything Sas has gotten to experience romantically from a scene partner. He has met his match in more ways than one with Joan.

Isolating Thorfinn in a petty prison of his own making is iconic behaviour. It reeks of the trivial antics that fueled Season 1’s successes. Plus, Thorfinn is at his best when he acts like a slighted teenager who just learned insulting new slang.

He takes effortlessly to the notion of revenge-bailing. In this ridiculous time-killing side quest, we learn the ghosts threw Thorfinn a 1,000th birthday party (how adorable!)

While the storyline is mostly cannon fodder, we do see Thorfinn and Alberta take their frenemy energy to the next level with a series of escalating sabotages. The term “fountain friendship hang” coupled with the joy on Thor’s face as he realizes he’s entered into a wild-west situation with Alberta after her retaliation is perfection.

The promise of Thorfinn unleashing chaos on an expecting Alberta almost triumphs over the lack of substance carrying this storyline.

Many ghosts are standing around that could have helped expand on the silly revenge-bail situation. Alas, like Thorfinn at that fountain, they are left standing idle for tedious reasons.

Sas and Joan’s two-part meet-cute is more than worthy of taking up more space than one measly episode can offer.

Really, any Sas-centric storyline deserves two episodes or more to stretch its legs. This show dangerously underutilizes Román Zaragoza and his wise, gossip-loving character at times.

So, if you think this episode is excellent, wait until you have both parts to watch back-to-back during binge-watches. It’s a story that beautifully honors two storytellers lost to history, and is a fantastic use of Pete’s roaming powers.

This show continues to develop lived-in characters who turn famous rom-com tropes on their heads; human error and genuine emotions always drive the conflict. The ghosts may not always make the “right” choice, but they live with authenticity and gumption.

We come into this episode hoping to watch Sas fall in love, and we leave with a reminder of why Ghosts stole our hearts all those episodes ago.

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

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