Ghosts Season 5 Episodes 9 and 10 Review: It’s a Wonderful Christmas Carol

Ghosts Season 5 Episodes 8 and 9, “It’s a Wonderful Christmas Carol: Part 1/It’s a Wonderful Christmas Carol: Part 2,” remind us how truly special this premise is.

When so much of humanity roots itself in place with stubbornness, Ghosts proves that second chances are more than possible. All you need is one person to believe in you.

Sam is that person for our Woodstone spirits, and this mid-season finale gives her credit where credit is due.

Part 2 reminds us just how far these characters have come from the pilot by expertly using Ghostmas as an excuse to mull over every key choice from the past four seasons in a universe where Sam never gained the ability to see the ghosts.

This “what if” scenario skillfully pulls apart and reassembles Woodstone to create a reality that is just as believable as it is upsetting.

Without Sam, the ghosts stay stagnant, never moving forward and never asking for more from their afterlife. It’s an emotionally charged realization that needs little setup.

Through a cascade of visual storytelling,  this episode shows us rather than tells us how crucial Sam is to this likeable world Ghosts has meticulously built.

Isaac never coming out and Thorfinn never getting help in therapy are charged examples of Sam’s influence. In contrast, Trevor plays into the humour of this situation by revealing that unsupervised, he will go on catfish dozens of women, including Sam.

Perhaps the most moving moment comes when the episode reveals that without the ghosts, Sam and Jay’s extended stay at Woodstone drove a wedge between them.

It’s a brutal turn that doesn’t try to paint a fairytale picture for Sam.

What she does for the ghosts, what she sacrifices mentally, financially, and socially to be there for them, is a crusade Sam will rarely be rewarded for. It will take a toll on her, but her sacrifices are not for nothing. Ghosts establishes that her selflessness has changed everyone’s lives for the better — including hers.

For a tradition that begins with a possession and a grown woman devouring a gingerbread mansion, Ghostmas elevates wacky humor into a powerful demonstration of hardship for the sake of bettering humanity.

The choice to actually backtrack and salvage the elements of Part 1 that are hard to watch takes this special to the next level. Giving the ghosts a second chance to step up and save Sam’s interview definitely makes our hearts grow three sizes.

Plus, the choice to toy with whether Carol was a drug-induced hallucination or a real spirit is brilliant storytelling. Ghosts drops all these little breadcrumbs throughout the hour, and when Sam pulls the candy cane from her pocket, it’s a total mic drop moment.

Besides the Polar Express candy-cane moment being clever, it also suggests that the Christmas Carol is canon ghost lore and that Sam might have gotten a full-on wink from heaven that she’s getting sucked off if she keeps on this path.

This year’s special also prioritizes Sam on a scale Ghosts has yet to explore.

It is thrilling to see that she is at the center of both episodes, with the conflict and growth directly affecting her character above everyone else’s. It allows Rose McIver to once again dust off her incredible impersonation skills as she nails Flower’s flowy physicality.

Instead of letting the performance end there, the consequences of that performance bleed effortlessly into the next outing as McIver is offered the rare chance to stay in the spotlight as Sam.

As the human conduit between the living and the dead, Sam can sometimes fade into the background as the mouthpiece for the ghosts, so to see her get to have such a strong, independent storyline is refreshing.

Our leading lady is finally given the same tools as the ghosts to flesh out her character arc.

This special rightfully keeps the side quests to a minimum. Still, Ghosts does prioritize one more bucket list request — a Trevor Hanukkah-centric storyline.

Did we think that would lead to him churning butter with Patience? Absolutely not!

Their sexually charged encounter is horrifying, like a train wreck you cannot look away from. Yet, it’s also one of the funniest scenes in the entire series. The actors nail the absurd physicality, and the dialogue is expertly written to escalate the naughty tension.

While the idea of these two smacking lips upsets a deep, dark part of us, it would be a lie to say we aren’t obsessed with everything that goes down in that room.

We get to explore Christmas from the perspective of two outsiders, and we have one hell of a storyline for Trevor and Hetty when she learns of the butter churning. But Ghosts is definitely getting coal in its stocking for this!

Ghostmas delivers heart, perspective, and the laughs — all while building to one of its signature finale cliffhangers. 

This holiday special proves we will never grow tired of the endless possibilities this premise has to play with when it comes to “what ifs.” Ghosts is always willing to answer the questions we don’t think to ask.

What if a puritan and a finance bro bonded over colonial butter churns? What if ghosts gifted each other sex coupons? There is not a single question out of reach with this sitcom, and that is what has become the greatest gift of watching this show.

Five seasons in, and we still never quite know where the residents of Woodstone will take us next.

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

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