Heading into the Ghosts season 5 premiere, the biggest question on the minds of all fans – myself included – was whether Jay could find a way to save his soul and get out of the deal he unknowingly made with Elias. Given how central Jay is to the show, we had a feeling that he’d find a way out of the deal and that the writers wouldn’t actually kill Jay; however, what we did not expect was that Jay would end up being the red herring in this storyline.
The opening episode of season 5 saw Sam, Jay, and the ghosts trying to come up with a way to get Jay out of the deal with Elias. Patience attempted to use her abilities to defeat Elias, Sam and Jay attempted to find a loophole to get out of the deal, and Jay even tried to trap Elias in the ghost trap as leverage to break the deal. All of those efforts failed, which led one ghost to make the ultimate sacrifice.
Caroline Aaron exits Ghosts after five seasons
As Elias tried to murder Jay in order to claim his soul and take it to Hell, Patience entered the room and offered to take Jay’s place. It looked as though we were going to see the end of her, but she backed out at the last minute upon gazing down into the fiery flames of eternal damnation. That’s when the unexpected happened.
After Pete stepped forward to take Jay’s place in order to save his best friend’s soul, Pete’s ex-wife Carol exchanged her soul for Jay’s as a show of forgiveness for all the pain she put Pete through in life. We watched as Carol was sucked into the pits of Hell, but the moment was short-lived as a white light emerged from above as we watched Carol’s soul pulled out of Hell as she was sucked off. Her sacrifice redeemed her soul and allowed her to move on to the afterlife.
The moment marks the most notable ghost departure for the show, as Caroline Aaron has been a part of the cast since season 1, albeit in a limited capacity. She’s appeared in each season of the show in some capacity, with her role expanding in season 3 when Carol died at Woodstone and became a part of the ghost ensemble.
With Carol having now been sucked off, it seems we’ve seen the last of Aaron on the show, at least for now. There is always the chance we could see Carol again via a flashback or even a holiday episode, but given her big moment in the premiere, it seems likely the writers won’t bring her back too soon so as not to undo the impact of her departure.