Ghosts Season 4 Episode 1 Recap: 10 Biggest Moments & Reveals

The Ghosts season 4 premiere is on the books, with the October 17 debut setting up the fourth installment of the CBS series for a wild season. Based on a British Ghosts series for the BBC, the CBS series is critically acclaimed. The series revolves around Sam (Rose McIver) and Jay Arondekar (Utkarsh Ambutkar), who live in an old mansion after Sam inherits it from a distant relative, and the ghosts who inhabit their home.

The American series has plenty of spirits in the house to keep Sam and Jay on their toes. There are new characters in the Ghosts season 4 story, and one makes her debut in the premiere. A new ghost, Patience (Mary Holland), officially joins the series in the season 4 opener. Patience briefly appears in the Ghosts season 3 finale, but season 4 marks her official debut. In season 3, Patience kidnaps Isaac (Brandon Scott Jones) after his wedding, and season 4 starts with her vendetta against him.

10 Ghosts Season 4, Episode 1 Reveals Patience’s Origins

Patience Is A Puritan Ghost From The 17th Century

Ghosts season 4, episode 1, “Patience,” reveals the origins of the episode’s titular character. Patience is a Puritan ghost who is banished from her community in 1692. The year marks the Salem Witch Trials in American history, which factors into Patience’s ghost origins. The character’s introduction previews the persona she will bring to the series.

Patience thinks a five-year-old girl named Elizabeth Prew should be executed for witchcraft.

The season 4 premiere reveals that the council of Patience’s Puritan community banished the character for being “too severe.”Patience notes that she is the “most pious” in her community, and while the council person agrees, he says she has gone too far. Patience thinks a five-year-old girl named Elizabeth Prew should be executed for witchcraft because she talks to a doll.

Only 1 Night Has Passed Since Ghosts Season 3

The premiere reveals that Ghosts season 4 picks up almost immediately after the season 3 finale. As Sam and Jay talk to Mark (Tristan D. Lalla) about their new restaurant, a search for Isaac begins so that he can weigh in on which tile they should use for the restaurant’s flooring. Isaac is a silent partner in the business after accruing several thousand dollars from a book Sam is writing about his life and helping fund the restaurant.

Getting ”
sucked off
” is the ghosts’ term for what happens when they move on from the afterlife.

As a search party begins for Isaac, the other ghosts start commenting about his wedding, noting it happened the night before. The dialogue confirms that virtually no time has passed since Ghosts season 3, which is similar to how every other season of the American series starts. The Ghosts season 3 premiere picks up sheer moments after the Ghosts season 2 finale ends, with Sam and Jay rushing into the house after a ghost gets “sucked off.”

8 Patience Confronts Isaac For Abandoning Her

Patience Has A History Of Being Abandoned

The Ghosts season 3 finale introduces a ghost roaming the dirt after Isaac lets go of her hand and abandons her. In the season 3 finale, Patience kidnaps Isaac with the help of the basement ghosts and is still holding Isaac captive when season 4 kicks off. When Isaac compliments Patience on her “porcelain skin,” she attributes her dewy glow to the bloodletting that killed her, proving she’s the intense character Ghosts season 4 promised.

While Patience is holding Isaac in a dark, underground lair in the dirt, she confronts him for abandoning her. Quick to persuade those around him, Isaac convinces Patience that he is happy that she found him and that he, Thor (Devan Chandler Long), and Sasappis (Román Zaragoza) looked for her after she went missing. Convinced by his clever story, Patience is initially quick to forgive Isaac.

7 Nigel Reels From The Cancelation Of His Wedding To Isaac

Nigel Is Still In Love With Isaac

Alas, Nigel (John Hartman) is still reeling from the end of his engagement. In the season 3 finale, Isaac and Nigel are set to wed, but then Isaac leaves Nigel at the altar after Pete (Richie Moriarty) returns home, which causes him to think twice about his nuptials. Nigel is devastated to be left with a broken heart, as he’s deeply in love with Isaac Higgintoot, and so it’s expected for Nigel to be moping around the mansion the next day.

The other ghosts don’t exactly know what to do with Nigel. He still lives in the mansion’s library room, where he moved in after getting engaged to Isaac. Ghosts season 4 clarifies that just because Isaac and Nigel didn’t get married, it doesn’t mean we’ve seen the end of Nigel Chessum.

6 Patience Also Kidnaps Sass After Nancy Reveals Where Isaac Is

Patience And Sasappis Have A History

After the other ghosts press her on her odd behavior, Nancy (Betsy Sodaro) reveals what happened to Isaac. She tells Sam and the other ghosts about how Patience was asking for Isaac and for them to arrange a meeting. While Nancy and the other basement ghosts are sour about getting shut out of the wedding, she explains that they didn’t know Patience was going to kidnap Isaac.

Isaac quickly discovers that after centuries in the dirt, Patience has developed a disarming habit of grunting her name to express herself emotionally.

When Nancy takes Sam and the ghosts down to the basement to reenact what happened with Patience, the Puritan ghost reappears and kidnaps Sasappis, standing next to the wall for reference. In an effort to be freed, Isaac convinces Patience that he likes being with her but misses his friends. But instead of returning Isaac to the house, Patience leaves and returns with Sass.

5 Flower Helps Sam, Jay & The Spirits Locate Patience (But She Leads Her In The Wrong Location)

Drugs Cloud Flower’s Memory

Everyone recruits Flower (Sheila Carracso) to help locate Patience, but it proves difficult since Flower’s memory is infamously foggy since she died while she was high. All she can remember is a worm named Patience, but then she remarks that she named the worm after a woman who visited her in the dirt. The revelation provides some hope for the character, since getting Flower on the right subject is half the battle.

She recalls that Patience lives under a willow tree, and everyone leaves to find her hideout. After Jay digs a hole near the tree, they find a burrow of rabbits but no ghosts. Flower then recalls that she was, in fact, remembering a Grateful Dead song about getting high under a willow tree. Flower explains that while she wasn’t alive when “Sugar Magnolia” was released, Bobby Weir used to sing it in the shower.

4 Isaac Vows To Be Better After Being Kidnapped By Patience

Patience Gives Isaac A Wake-Up Call

When Isaac and Sass are momentarily left alone while stranded in the dirt, Isaac vows to become a better person if he ever gets out of Patience’s dirt cave. The moment of reckoning tells the audience that Isaac is aware of his worst crimes in Ghosts, like leaving Nigel at the altar and letting go of Patience, and that he’s ready to begin to reconcile.

Isaac has a selfish moment just after, so Sasappis checks his behavior, citing his vow to be a better person. Isaac clarifies that he wants to be a better person if he ever gets out of the dirt, but that God needs to uphold “his end of the bargain” first. The moment proves that, while Isaac may be open to atoning, it will be a slow process for the character, who thinks of himself first by default.

3 Patience Surprisingly Lets Go Of Isaac & Sass

The Puritan Has A Change Of Heart

As Isaac and Sasappis are trapped in the dirt cave, they reflect on their situation. The older ghosts share a connection to Patience that most other ghosts don’t since they know her from before her stint in the dirt. Isaac and Sass discuss all the ways that Patience’s mental health has declined while she has been stranded alone in the dirt.

Patience’s behavior has been unpredictable thus far, fluctuating with her tight moral compass, which could cause conflict with the other ghosts.

The conversation devolves into a mockery of Patience. Isaac and Sass take turns mocking the way Patience repeats her own name, which she walks in on. Hurt by their words and confident that she should be alone forever, Patience surprisingly lets Isaac and Sasappis go. However, the moment is far from celebratory, since Patience is hurt.

2 The Ghosts Find A Way To Save Patience

Isaac Also Has A Change Of Heart

Isaac and Sasappis return to the mansion scot-free, but not guilt-free. The other characters are relieved that their search party can officially end, but when Sass and Isaac explain that Patience just let them go, the ghosts start to feel bad for the Puritan. After much debate, Hetty (Rebecca Wisocky) suggests Isaac retrieve Patience from the dirt so she doesn’t have to be alone anymore.

It’s unclear what Patience’s ghost power is in the
Ghosts
season 4 premiere.

Having just vowed to become a better person if he was ever free from the dirt, Isaac is persuaded to save Patience. Trevor (Asher Grodman) suggests that the ghosts form a human chain from the basement to safely navigate through the dirt to Patience’s lair, just under the fountain near the house. When Patience learns that the ghosts have come to save her, she cries her name out with delight, flipping her scariest quality to match the jubilee she feels.

1 Patience Stays In The Woodstone Mansion With Sam, Jay, & The Rest Of The Spirits

Patience Will Be Present In Ghosts Season 4

After the ghosts save Patience, she settles into the Woodstone B&B to live with the others above ground. It’s riveting to think that she will share a space with Sam, Jay, and the rest of the Woodstone crew, especially after spending several centuries in the dirt. Patience’s behavior has been unpredictable thus far, fluctuating with her tight moral compass, which could cause conflict with the other ghosts.

Ultimately, it’s important to remember that Patience was banished from her community for being too severe. Patience’s need to police those in her community caused her initial conflict, which could spill over into the politics at Woodstone B&B. Patience already has an intense presence in the house, and she’s seen harassing Alberta (Danielle Pinnock) to answer questions into the night as the Ghosts season 4 premiere ends.