Ghosts Season 5 Episode 6 Review: Planes, Shanes, and Automobiles

Ghosts fans, today we feast!

Ghosts Season 5 Episode 6, “Planes, Shanes, and Automobiles,” is the perfect comfort watch with lore-heavy quips, character-driven comedy, and gooey interactions. It’s also just a ridiculous amount of fun to watch.

After five seasons of developing new material, our appetite for this show’s gimmicks has not wavered. That is something to be especially thankful for.

Episodes that celebrate the ensemble with group script-work truly do showcase the best of what Woodstone has to offer.

It takes us back to simpler times when the ghosts were more co-dependent and moved in very annoying packs, like petty little wolves. While that format is still present in the show, it has rightfully shifted into more one-on-one time.

So by Sam leaving Jay with a gaggle of attention-deprived ghosts, we get back to the good old days.

This episode lives comfortably in the show’s sweet spot, where the ghosts draw parallels to bored children, and Sam’s worth as their living butler is acknowledged.

Ben Feldman’s Kyle might as well become a recurring guest for how easily he lives rent-free in our hearts.

Part of Ghosts’ charm is the rotating door of beloved side characters at its disposal. Yet, every once in a while, the show finds the perfect excuse to bring back a character, and that’s when it really hits its stride.

The ghosts tricking Kyle into babysitting them when Jay refuses to do their bidding is the perfect excuse to have the Superstore alum return. Seriously, kudos to the writers for this episode’s premise; it’s perfection.

And Feldman slips effortlessly back into that signature Jonah-type persona with his charming desperation for validation from the dead and living.

Watching the show’s premise through a new perspective is also incredibly entertaining because we learn how Sam and Kyle utilize the ghosts in their own ways.

Just as Sam has leaned on them for insider info, Kyle ropes Trevor into talking him through the fundamentals of football. Even better, he’s toying with a man who has seen this tactic in action, so Jay is quick to pick up on the deception when he realizes Kyle’s football knowledge is ’90s heavy.

It presents a fascinating new dynamic between the men because Jay could use more living friends who understand the weird predicament he lives in, and Kyle needs someone to show him through the pitfalls Sam has already experienced.

By choosing to let Kyle stick around for dinner, Ghosts is keeping the promise of a potential bromance between the men alive.

While the Kyle and Jay storyline optimizes the ghosts and the bromance, Sam and Pete don’t let them have all the glory.

You can’t go wrong with a traditional holiday road trip comedy, and Pete’s traveling abilities aren’t the only reason he makes the ideal travel companion. Pete is the idyllic ’80s father figure who insists he knows all the shortcuts and never met a moment of silence he couldn’t ruin.

It makes perfect sense that Sam would be on her last nerve with him after one book tour stop.

And it is refreshing to see Sam get angry at the ghosts. As this episode points out, she does a lot for them, and in return, they act like a bunch of ungrateful children.

The best parts of this road trip outing are the rare but sweet father-daughter moments on display between Sam and Pete. Additionally, the adorable moment of triumph for Pete is perfection as the world continues to repay him for the acts of kindness he never got acknowledged for when he was alive.

Plus, the whole “we have to get home for thanksgiving” thing adds some much-needed stakes to their galavanting.

Two perfect storylines that exemplify the essence of what makes this show so fun to watch.

But like Sas so beautifully points out, it’s not about the turkey, it’s about the sides. And this episode is a buffet of little quips and “choke-on-your-drink” one-liners.

Hetty being an inappropriate horndog to the point Jay dubs her a “Victorian Perv” is a wheelhouse she thrives in. And Sas playing up his disdain for Thanksgiving so Jay will make his favorite dish is so painfully in-character for the storyteller. It’s an excellent clash between his story and his agenda.

Alas, Thorfinn may take the cake for best quote when Trevor points out that he knows what a helicopter is and the Viking responds: “It’s what Skye flies in Paw Patrol, so yes, Thorfinn familiar.”

Only when we finally stop laughing at that insane left-field answer can we truly appreciate that Thor has watched so much TV, he has now moved on to children’s programming. That opens up a whole new avenue of jokes for him.

Ghosts gets back to those truly laugh-out-loud episodes, and for that, we are thankful.

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

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