Ghosts Season 5 Episode 14 Review: The Water Heater

Ghosts Season 5 Episode 14, “The Water Heater,” bids farewell to a series regular with a classy funeral procession.

R.I.P. to Woodstone’s water heater, which is as much a recurring character of this series as the basement ghosts. While the upstairs folks learned to love all the TV had to offer, the basement dwellers looked to the heater for entertainment and comfort.

Ghosts rightfully positions the heater as the centerpiece of this episode’s conflict.

After a season of teasing that Isaac would attempt to bridge the gap between himself and the basement ghosts, we see the two worlds collide in the most chaotic, cholera-filled ways.

The opening scene treats us to a new Isaac flashback that delves into his hunger for a win after years of being brushed aside and overlooked by his constituents. It’s the context that is necessary for establishing why Isaac will go as far as hurting Jay and Sam to become one step closer to a meaningless title.

Thankfully, Flower acts as a conscience for Isaac in the moment, reminding him that doing the right thing for the people he loves has to come first.

Yet, it’s worth noting that Isaac doesn’t reach this conclusion on his own. It’s somewhat thrilling to see the Captain take himself to the brink of betrayal and almost not come back from it. And because he does ultimately pull back, he’s rewarded with his first win amongst the people.

At a time when politicians doing the right thing for the communities that vote them into power isn’t a guarantee, it is nice to see Isaac act as a reminder that doing what’s best for all parties is the best path to success.

In a season that has lacked development on the Isaac front, seeing him have this moment with the basement ghosts is a significant milestone for the character’s political aspirations.

However, before the episode’s finale with that heartfelt funeral, it does feel like a frustratingly familiar storyline for Isaac.

Many of Isaac’s storylines revolve around a similar character conflict and resolution. Isaac’s fatal flaw is his selfishness, and his greatest desire is to be valued by those around him. Naturally, those two traits will always be at odds with each other.

Yet, after five seasons of going in circles with Isaac and never really learning anything new about him, it would be nice to expand on his selfish tendencies or focus more on his romantic life instead. There’s plenty of problematic Isaac still left to be explored, after all.

Ghosts is an interesting goose when it comes to growth. On one hand, we don’t want the fundamentals of these characters to change much. We love it when Hetty mocks poor people. Yet we also crave change and evolution from them, like when Hetty learned the value of worker camaraderie.

Trevor’s acknowledgment that Hetty is still making light of the working class, despite the revelation that jobs are hard, is a great example of this conundrum.

It makes sense that Hetty would revert to her old ways after one day on the job. Yet we’d be lying if we said we weren’t a little disappointed that the wheelhouse of jokes isn’t evolving with Hetty, similar to with her revelation about being Irish after years of trashing the Irish.

Maybe we don’t need these immortal characters to change so much as we need their jokes to reflect the passage of time more often.

After all, Thorfinn’s incorporation of TV knowledge and slang into his vocabulary over the seasons is an exquisite example of how the living world directly impacts the ghosts’ comedy.

This episode of mourning features another unexpected loss.

Unlike the legacy of the water heater, Bela and Sas are over before they can get started, which is unfortunate. It would have been nice to see Ghosts play around with this dynamic more because it is just so bizarre and overly complicated in the best ways.

The interdimensional pictionary game with two livings and three ghosts is a hilarious way to utilize this odd couple, and any excuse to keep Ben Feldman’s Kyle around is a good one.

Alas, it was fun while it lasted, and the two made the right decision to end their forbidden romance. Just in time for Joan to return home, might we add.

This strong-willed outing for the spooky sitcom has our vote. But its repetitive nature raises the question: Is Ghosts starting to show its age?

After all, it is a little frustrating to see the episode put an end to the shiny new storyline so quickly while continuing to return to the same tired Isaac-centric conflict.

Sas and Bela’s night relationship represents the weird and wacky of this delightful premise, and we could use more of that uncomfortable energy.

Additionally, the running gag with Isaac’s ghost representative pin is so fun. It’s a brief but delightful insight into how Sam is struggling to manage the cohabitation of the ghost residents and the influx of B&B guests. She thinks nothing of wearing the pin to support Isaac until the living remind her there’s no good way to explain what a “ghost representative” is.

Could Sam’s increasing need to put the guests before the ghosts become the dominant conflict as we enter into Season 5’s final days?

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

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