Ghosts Season 5 Episode 17 Review: The Investor

Ghosts Season 5 Episode 17, “The Investor,” makes a move that is financially beneficial to everyone when it finally lets Mark in on Woodstone’s ghostly secret.

After five seasons of gaslighting their poor contractor into thinking he’s a misogynist for questioning the mansion’s weird ongoings, Mark is joining an exclusive club of livings.

It’s an episode that introduces necessary and captivating new dynamics for Season 6, while teaching Isaac a valuable lesson.

Mark is as much in the DNA of this show’s success as the water heater or the basement ghosts. He’s been with us since day one, quietly delivering those hilarious and poignant moments when the episode calls for it.

Mark quite literally keeps Woodstone from falling apart, and it’s about time the comedy brought him deeper into the fold of this haunted house’s secrets.

Mark’s contractor bit has its crucial wheelhouse of jokes to pull from. However, revealing that the house he’s fixing up is swarming with nosey ghosts opens the door to so many new avenues of material.

Mark accepting the ghosts exist allows him to have a better relationship with Sam now that she can relay ghost requests directly to him without scheming. Plus, Jay and Mark can truly bond over their inability to see the ghosts.

It’s a win, win, win. And while we’ve often come off as impatient with Ghosts for not telling Mark sooner, the timing is especially good.

Tad is an excellent addition to the investment team.

He’s an antagonistic character with the ability to cause Sam and Jay real problems. What better time to unite Mark with the couple against a common cause than now?

In Season 6, it will be a far more interesting dynamic if it’s the three original investors of Woodstone up against Mayor Tad. Plus, Mark now understands that Sam losing the mansion goes beyond business.

Everything about Tad suggests he will be a great addition to the conflict side of the show as well.

He has a history with the mansion, and he’s not an outright villain like Elias. In fact, Tad is slippery; each time we think he’s being sinister, it’s a fake-out. But there’s still something that feels inauthentic about this politician.

Tad is similar to Justin Kirk’s role on The Burbs, and tapping him to bring the same haunting energy to this show is a win.

Ghosts is just a teeny tiny bit silly in its execution of this episode’s finer points.

Firstly, we all love Mark, and the show has more than established his relationship with the mansion and with Jay as a friend. But it’s a working relationship at best, and to suggest otherwise feels like forced convenience.

Often when Mark is talking to Jay, he’s charging the couple for his time. And Mark is known to set boundaries so they don’t contact him while he’s on vacation.

Yes, the show teased that Jay and Mark would grow closer when he agreed to invest in the restaurant. However, teasing really is all the show ever did. It never followed up with enough in a meaningful way to push the best friend angle.

It’s been ages since Mark and Jay hung out. So to suggest they have been doing so off-camera is a little bit of a cough-out.

Here’s hoping that Mark knowing about the ghosts gives Jay and him the on-screen best friend relationship they deserve.

Now — and hold my hand when I say this — we have to talk about Patience and Trevor.

It seems like Ghosts was toying with a deeper run for their relationship after that cliffhanger that saw Trevor pining after Patience when she caught him flirting.

It turns out the season has moved on and perhaps forgot to tell us?

Trevor acts as if Patience didn’t do a number on him, which is a disappointment from a development standpoint. However, Patience’s spite-filled return suggests a redemption storyline is not up for debate.

If that’s the case, it’s a waste to have introduced their romance just for it to have no real impact on Trevor or the larger plot.

However, we do get a lingering glance between Hetty and Trevor as she mocks his taste and he brags about his fishtank. It suggests Ghosts is back on the H-Money train for good this time (as it should be).

Finally, this episode wraps up the Ghost Representative reelections with a satisfactory and surprising turn of events.

Sure, bringing Flower’s abuser and cult leader back from the dirt isn’t the finest move from Isaac. However, when he loses another election, it is a valuable lesson for the tumultuous politician.

Sometimes the better person wins, and if he’s not that person, acceptance has to be the outcome.

Instead of being petty with Flower after her win, he acknowledges her strengths as a leader and offers to help her rather than tear down his competition. And what happens? Isaac gets a title: Vice Ghost Representative.

For a meaningless title, it holds a heavy lesson for Isaac, who could never really be rewarded for his bad behavior with the representative title.

Yet, he ultimately finds victory in the humility he’s always feared, and that’s a beautiful message for our Captain.

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

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