Ghosts season 5 is heavy with family drama. Pete reconciled (kind of) with his wife, Thor witnessed his son get married, and there was a reunion between two ancient mummy ghosts.
The episode reintroduces a familial connection that was introduced last season, and Trevor has a reunion with his daughter.
The episode starts with the ghosts watching the restaurant staff. Sass acknowledges that Gabe, the kitchen’s most intoxicated staff member, is clearly having a psychedelic episode. A new server, Neel, enters talking about his date last night. The “date” was seducing a woman by having a meet-cute at a dog shelter and having ice cream. Trevor explains that he used that tactic on women when he was alive.
What’s Sam up to?
While Sam is busy writing, Trevor comes in and asks if she remembers his daughter, Abby. To this, Sam recounts how she invited Trevor's daughter over for a visit. During this visit, Trevor used Sam’s phone to reveal that his friend Pinkus is not actually Abby’s dad. This almost broke up Abby’s family and made Sam look insane. Yes, she confidently remembers Trevor’s daughter. Trevor requests Sam hire his daughter to work at the restaurant as a server, and even states he’ll pay her salary with his finance job. Who can argue with ethical free hired help?
Sam and Jay invite Abby over to extend their job offer. Abby is understandably confused as she doesn’t have experience as a server, and they haven't really kept in contact since her last visit. Sam explains that she feels really bad about the circumstances of her last visit and wants to make amends. Abby accepts under the condition that nothing else weird happens. Sam confirms that this is just a job and everyone will behave themselves. This promise is instantly negated when she accidentally responds to Trevor in front of Abby.
Ghostly affairs
While the livings are dealing with restaurant business, Sass and Flower are inquiring with Alberta about her new relationship. Alberta claims that the relationship is fine but they are having difficulty finding privacy.
During this, Nancy and Creepy Dirk arrive to announce Dirk is running for reelection as Ghost Representative. This is a season 1 reference where the ghosts elected someone to request things from Sam. The upstairs ghosts point out it’s more of just a title now.
Nevertheless, Isaac tosses his hat in the ring. Hearing the fun phrase “toss my hat” Flower also decides to enter the race. Isaac is confident he will be elected when his opponents are Creepy Dirk and Flower.
How does Abby like the restaurant?
Abby is getting familiar with the restaurant when Bela, Jay’s sister and the hostess of the restaurant, expresses that she has that good ol’ Lefkowitz charm. Bela has to backtrack and act as though she knows about Trevor through his memorial. Bela, embarrassed, scampers away, leaving room for Neel to make an entrance. He instantly begins schmoozing Abby, and she reciprocates. They make an ice cream date for later that night. Trevor catches this and wants to put a stop to the flirting.
Sam and Jay host an emergency staff meeting at the request of Trevor. They announce that staff dating is not allowed. Several people come forward stating they have had a relationship or a fling. Abby instantly sees through this and calls out the weird behavior that this rule is instigated as soon as she schedules a date with someone and leaves the meeting.
Election planning
Isaac tries to talk Flower out of running for office by claiming she’ll split the upstairs vote. Flower points out that during her life, she was a hippy dedicated to effecting change through peace and prosperity. She still wouldn’t mind being able to do that for her friends in the house. Sass chimes in, stating they could have an upstairs primary election to determine the representative. Isaac is elated that a primary election means there will be a debate.
While the restaurant is quiet, Alberta and Sass take Flower there to do some debate prep. A couple softball questions later, it isn’t looking good. Then Gabe walks in. He unknowingly walks right through Flower. Instead of Gabe just becoming more intoxicated, Flower became more sober. Flower begins masterfully touting about how she has incredible clarity. The debate is looking much better for Flower.
Isaac begins the debate in an already out-dated fashion by expecting applause for welcoming “white male land owners… and others.”
He then attempts to demonstrate Flower’s political incompetence by trying to ask what style of debate she would prefer. Flower awes the audience by having a fully confident and well-informed response. Flower was a law student and is rather intelligent.
Sam and Abby
Sam, Jay, and Bela find Abby packing up and ready to leave. In an attempt to explain her behavior, Sam tries to quickly think up a lie. Jay tells her to just be honest. So Sam tells Abby the whole truth. Her father, Trevor, is a ghost on the property and wants Abby to work at the restaurant to be closer to her. To prove they aren’t lying, Trevor comes forward saying he will move any object in the room to show he is there. Abby tasks the ghost with moving her water bottle. It could've been tampered with.
Much to Abby’s surprise, Trevor is able to push it onto the floor. Abby is convinced and agrees to stay on and get to know Trevor. Abby also admits she never intended to honestly date Neel, she just wanted a free meal from an obvious misogynist, which makes Trevor proud.
Debate Results!
Alberta and Sass tell Flower she won the primary in a landslide. Flower is happy but totally forgot about the debate since her intoxication returned. Alberta asks if Flower remembers anything from her time being sober. To which Flower recalls an overwhelming feeling of futility at their lost existence in limbo.
Later, while Alberta and Pete are trying to enjoy some private time, Isaac walks in lamenting his defeat. Isaac stresses that holding office has been his dream for over 200 years. Alberta asks Isaac if he knows about carpetbaggers. Carpetbaggers were northern politicians who moved to the south to run for office. The suggestion here is that Isaac could move to the basement and primary against Creepy Dirk.
Alberta manipulates Isaac into believing he can beat Creepy Dirk and run against Flower in the general election. Isaac makes a hasty exit. Pete is a bit confused at the whole prospect considering he knows Alberta doesn’t want Isaac to win. Alberta explains that Isaac is her roommate. If he moves to the basement, they can use her room for alone time.
The election seems to be a storyline that will get a couple of episodes worth of attention. Check out all new episodes of Ghosts on CBS every Thursday or stream the next day on Paramount+.