‘Ghosts’ Cast Teases Romance and Shocking Revelations in Season 4

[Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Ghosts Season 4, Episode 3]

The Big Picture

• Collider’s Perri Nemiroff chats with
  Ghosts
  cast members Rose McIver, Román Zaragoza, Sheila Carrasco, and Brandon Scott Jones at New York Comic Con 2024.
• Jay and Rose’s B&B is getting awfully crowded in Ghosts Season 4, with more spirits, more romance, and even more mysteries to explore.
• During their interview, the team discusses Season 4, Episode 3 and that ominous thing Patience said about “the others,” as well as the romantic dynamics between Nigel and Isaac, Thorfinn and Flower, and Sasappis.

Just days after Ghosts Season 4 premiered Episode 1, “Patience,” cast members Brandon Scott Jones, Román Zaragoza, Sheila Carrasco, and Rose McIver hit the stage of New York Comic Con 2024, where they discussed the Halloween episode, McIver’s series directorial debut, and more. The team also stopped by Collider’s interview studio, where Perri Nemiroff had the opportunity to get more in-depth about “Halloween 4: The Witch” and what fans can expect from the rest of the season.

Ghosts continues to haunt its viewers with its highly-anticipated Season 4 on CBS and Paramount+. Following their epic cliffhanger of a Season 3 finale back in May, Sam (McIver) and Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar) Arondekar’s ghostly B&B is about to get a little more rowdy in the fourth season. With Dean Norris joining the cast as Sam’s dad and Mary Holland as Puritan ghost Patience, the Woodstone Mansion gets even more crowded. With their businesses in full swing, a bunch of spirits flying in, and a surprising twist coming Jay’s way, is it only a matter of time before the Arondekars are spread too thin and reach their breaking point?

During their interview, Jones, Zaragoza, Carrasco, and McIver discuss, among other things, the future of Nigel and Isaac’s relationship, Sass finally embracing the heartthrob he is, and what to expect when Jay finally sees the ghosts this season. Check out our interview with the cast in the player above, or read the full conversation in transcript form below below.

Mary Holland Delivers a Pitch-Perfect Performance as Patience

“She is a genius.

PERRI NEMIROFF: I have to ask you all about working with Mary [Holland]. Do you remember the very first moment on set when she said or did something that made you stop and go, “My god, you are pitch-perfect for Patience?”

BRANDON SCOTT JONES: There’s a part where I have to imitate the way she does the name Patience. We both have to imitate it, but we hadn’t shot the scene where we actually heard her say it yet. I don’t think she had started shooting it. So, I texted her, and I asked her to send me a voice note of her doing the Patience thing, and just hearing that, I was like, “Oh my god, I can’t wait.” We played it for each other.

ROMÁN ZARAGOZA: I remember that, and it was her doing the double Patience. I kept thinking, “How is someone gonna play this character?” It is so hard on the page to play that honestly, and in those two words, I was like, “She is a genius.” In those two words. Then, it was so fun to shoot that scene together and to work with her. She is incredible.

JONES: I should make that my ringtone.

I was gonna say, I hope you kept the voice note!

JONES: I think I might have it. I’ll have to find. It is very good.

Who does the best “Patience”?

SHEILA CARRASCO: Yours is pretty good.

ZARAGOZA: Mary Holland, for sure, does the best.

I was tickled by that the first time I heard her say it. It was perfect. I am curious though, how is that written in a script? Is it written with any descriptors?

JONES: The parentheses. A lot of her parentheticals were unhinged, comma insane. [Laughs] Mary is like, “Alright, I can do this!” It’s amazing. But it was in italics, and I was like, “Oh, I wonder what this is gonna be?”

ZARAGOZA: I love when it’s a happy, like, “Patience, Patience.” It’s like, “Oh, it can be a good thing too.”

The Fate of Nigel and Isaac’s Relationship in ‘Ghosts’ Season 4

“I think he’s starting to realize, ‘Oh my gosh, maybe I need to be a better person.'”

Let’s get into character specifics. Brandon, I’ll come your way first. Obviously things didn’t work out with Nigel, and then in Episode 2, Nigel moves out. At that point, where is Isaac’s head at in terms of a relationship? Is he not interested at all, or did he learn something from that that changes what he wants out of a relationship?

JONES: Great question. Right now, he’s processing the sadness of losing this relationship the only way he knows how, which is figuring out how this affects him in some way.

ROSE MCIVER: And taking it out on those around him. [Laughs]

JONES: And taking it out on those around him. He’s so desperate right now. He feels so bad. He’s had to atone for all the bad things he’s done, he feels like, in his afterlife and in his life, like he says in Episode 1. He gets taken into the dirt, he comes back, he finally asks Nigel to move out, but then, for a brief moment, he instinctually tries to make something better for him instead. I think he’s starting to realize, “Oh my gosh, maybe I need to be a better person,” but he still struggles with that enough that when he does become a better person, he’s so self-aware that he’s very excited about it. So, I think he’s on this journey, but because it’s Isaac, it’s gonna take longer than probably what a normal human.

I have many questions about how he defines being a good person that I’m assuming we will explore as the season continues.

JONES: I think for him, it’s about being slightly less selfish. I think that’s where it would start.

Baby steps. It’ll happen at his own pace.

ZARAGOZA: Baby steps or two steps back.

That seems like the right math there.

Flower and Thorfinn’s Honeymoon Phase is Over

Sheila, I’ll come to you with Flower now because in the new season, she is exclusive with Thor. How does that define her Season 4 arc?

CARRASCO: Flower and Thorfinn have definitely been through a lot already together, and the honeymoon phase is kind of over. They’ve gone through, together, some very normal things that everybody goes through in relationships — she’s fallen in a well and disappeared, and then they had a throuple with a cholera ghost. So, now they’re at the point of like, “What’s next? How can we support each other?” Because they’re both going to go through a lot this season and dig up some things from their past, the trauma and all of that. So, they’re going to be there for each other.

I feel bad for Betsy [Sodaro]. She was booted from the throuple!

CARRASCO: You know what? Nancy was a cool throuplemate. She is chill.

MCIVER: I feel like Nancy’s good, though. Nancy takes care of Nancy.

CARRASCO: Totally.

I went through the Creep LA experience with her. It was the coolest thing ever!

ZARAGOZA: We heard about this! Asher [Grodman] told us.

She brought so much life and energy to that experience, and it heavily defined it for us.

CARRASCO: Let me guess, she was like, “Whoa!”

MCIVER: “That rules!”

The entire time, which was the wavelength that I was on, that my friend was on, so we were all the perfect pairing for that.

JONES: That’s a great way to describe just working with her. She comes in, and she’s just the brightest ball of energy, and she’s awesome.

Sass Will Be Exploring All-New Love Dynamics in Season 4

Román, I’ve got a relationship question for you, too. The last we were talking, you teased that it was going to be important to Sass in Season 4 that he starts to tiptoe into having a relationship again. I have not quite seen any of that just yet, so how does Flower and Thor’s relationship, and also what happened with Isaac and Nigel, redefine what he wants out of a relationship?

ZARAGOZA: Actually, that’s a really interesting thing to bring up. I can’t dive too much into it, but I will say there are dynamics that get explored that we’ve not seen before, especially with him and Flower and Thor, things with friends and love. So, just wait for that. There’s gonna be a lot. We’re going to dive into Sass’ relationship to love.

MCIVER: Sass is a heartthrob. We’re all calling it.

ZARAGOZA: He’s a hopeless romantic, man. He just wants to be loved.

MCIVER: I just see him on locker doors, like little pictures of him inside lockers in high school.

ZARAGOZA: He’s in the locker? Like being thrown in the locker? It’s a little bit in between both, right?

CARRASCO: I will say, this is me talking and also Flower talking, whoever he ends up with, they better be good to him. He’s a catch, and they gotta be good enough.

I need good things for Sass.

ZARAGOZA: Thank you!

“I think Patience is the straw that broke the camel’s back for Sam.”

Rose, I think this is from Episode 2. It’s a particular line that you deliver to Patience. You get mad at her and you say, “Well, with all due respect, Patience, it’s not up to you, and there’s nothing you can do about it.” I feel like I’m not used to your character being that intense and putting her foot down so firmly with a ghost, so why did that feel necessary in that moment?

MCIVER: I think Patience is the straw that broke the camel’s back for Sam. She’s just like, “Oh, I’ve got so many people asking so much from me all the time and this one who’s making the walls bleed? Are you kidding? This is too much. I draw the line.” So, you know what? In some ways, thank you, Patience, for giving Sam a bit of a backbone. That’s something she works on throughout the season, as well, as she’s continuing to try to genuinely learn to advocate for herself a little bit and for her romance and her personal life. She’s very excited to have what seemed to be some of her first friends, but at the same time, they do take a lot from her.

Sorry, Patience, What Was That You Said About “The Others”?

This is something that I don’t know if you’re gonna be able to answer, but at the end of Episode 3, Patience says, “Now I must return to the others.” Can you tease anything at all about what she means by “the others?”

CARRASCO: I wish we knew.

ZARAGOZA: The worm.

CARRASCO: Yeah, it could be the other worm named Patience.

MCIVER: I feel like it’s such a great open-ended moment. We all have a million ideas of what we would like it to be, but wisely, the Joes keep us out of that conversation because otherwise, I think we could have a show run by a committee.

JONES: Or we could luck out and just get a free production of The Crucible.

Does Jay Seeing Ghosts Change Everything for the Series?

“He’s built an idea in his head of who these people are … and we get to see that confronted with the reality.”

Here’s another question that might be impossible to answer, especially because I don’t know if you’ve even shot these episodes. Obviously, a heavy topic of conversation at San Diego Comic-Con was the fact that Jay is gonna be able to see the ghosts this season. Are you able to tease anything about how him being able to see the ghosts changes the group dynamic?

MCIVER: It certainly changes the on-set dynamic because Utkarsh gets to play with his fellow actors in a way that he hasn’t been able to.

JONES: When you’re working in an ensemble, I think the thing that we do that I love the most is that we really work through scenes. When we’re on set, we’ll try to figure out moments and beats and everything together. That doesn’t, sometimes, include Utkarsh, not because he’s not a part of that scene, but because a lot of times, the rhythms will be on two different sides of the camera. I will say like, just allowing him to be a part of that process just felt so wonderful and new and great and so exciting.

ZARAGOZA: And getting to witness Utkarsh smile for the first time was just beautiful. [Laughs]

JONES: Because he got to look into our eyes, and he sees the sparkle and the soul.

ZARAGOZA: He’s like, “Oh, you guys have been doing this the last three years?”

CARRASCO: It’s really cool to see how he interpreted Jay seeing the ghosts for the first time, and how specific it was to each of us in a way.

MCIVER: And realities versus expectations, you know? That’s something I think that is teaseable, is he’s built an idea in his head of who these people are and what they look like and who they might be, and we get to see that confronted with the reality.

Ghosts Season 4 releases new episodes every Thursday on CBS and Paramount+.

Watch on Paramount+