PaulE

I think it was harder to imitate Thor because it's not just his speech and mannerisms but the timbre of his voice, which is too deep for most women to duplicate. Also, more than most of the other ghosts, there's the issue of his sheer physicality--when you see Devan standing next to other actors, including the men, you realize he is one big guy. He's a giant sequoia where everyone else is a garden-variety tree. It's not really possible for Rose or any other actress to be able to capture that convincingly, through no fault of their own. Even many men probably couldn't.

Well, sure but that's where half the humor comes from. I know I keep going back to this, but what if Darrin was suddenly immune to Endora's witchcraft? I think the issue is not that Jay is exploited but, rather, the extent to which this is done. It's interesting that you mention Darrin in "Betwitched," because I remember that, by the last season or two, just about every episode was about Endora or another of Samantha's witch relatives casting a spell on Darrin and doing mean things to him so that I didn't really find it all that funny (or even interesting) anymore. That wasn't true in the the earlier seasons. He just became basically the defenseless tin can they all kicked around simply because they could, and he almost never was able to get the better of any of them or retaliate. It actually made me uncomfortable, especially because there was nothing at all bad about him other than that he was a mortal. In the case of "Ghosts," I think some of us may feel that Jay is being taken advantage of a bit too often. A subjective point, admittedly. As I said earlier, I wonder if the dynamics between Jay and the ghosts has been slightly altered after he was able to see them, and if so, whether this will be reflected in the stories. For instance, it would be nice if, once in a while, the ghosts tried to help Jay solve some sort of problem or get out of a sticky situation. That kind of thing. Now that they've been able to talk to him directly, he might be a little more "real" to them emotionally so they'll care about him more, and that could show up every now and then in the plots without doing away with the conflicts and hijinks that create the comedy.

Plus he wasn't used to all the technology--even starting the car was guesswork for him because he'd have been used to the old key-in-the-ignition routine.

My parents' house had an old oil-burning furnace (by now most of these have been replaced by gas furnaces) and every year in the fall we had to get a technician from the oil company to clean out the chimney and get rid of the sludge that would sometimes collect during the summer and clog the fuel line. I can remember watching him do his thing and muttering "Come on, baby!" when he was having difficulty getting it to start for one reason or another. And he also referred to it sometimes as "she." So, yeah, some people have a thing for furnaces and kind of relate to them as people. Weird but cute.

I did, too. And that was brought home by the fact that Jay's mother had problems with Sam only because she tried too hard. That showed how desperately Sam wanted to connect and how inept she was at being able to do so because of her own family background. Many of us have been very critical of Sam in the past because of the way she treats Jay and allows herself to be taken advantage of by the ghosts, but I have to admit I developed a lot more sympathy for her after this episode and it did my heart good to see how happy she was when her mother-in-law added her to the family thread. Well, from an actor's standpoint, he might actually find the role fulfilling precisely because it's such a challenge. The other members of the cast have commented in interviews on what a difficult job Utkarsh has because he has to react to situations while pretending he can see no one else but Rose, even though the rest of the cast is standing right there. And he does have a major role in the show--I think his character is more developed than the the husband in the British version.

I was actually a little irritated that Flower made such a big deal about Sass being a virgin. I guess she just feels sorry for him, but that secret was supposed to go no further than Thor, and he broke that trust. Not cool, Thor! Flower needed to mind her own business and not try to force someone on Sass just for the sake of sex. She was out of line. I feel the same way. So Sass was a virgin--big deal! I suppose it might be considered a bit unusual, though I think Sass was only around 20 when he died, so it could easily be assumed that he just hadn't gotten around to it yet. I don't know when Native Americans tended to marry or how they thought about sex outside of marriage, and although they seem not to have been as uptight about sex as Europeans, virginity at that age might not have been all that unusual. We live in such a sex-obsessed culture that it's supposed to be shocking that a young man hasn't had sex yet. I can understand Flower's reaction because she lived in the era of "free love" (remember, she and Thor even talked about the Virgin Mary's restraint!), but Sheila Carrasco went a bit overboard by referring to Sass's virginity as something "really, really important." Nah, I think he's got more interesting aspects to his character than that.

Just no. It would totally ruin the whole basis of the show and lead to it's quick cancellation. Jay seeing the ghosts all the time would lead to just a typical "family comedy" of the parents (Sam and Jay) and the kids motif. No, no, no. A thousand times no. You don't destroy an absolute perfect and wonderfully unique set-up for some tired old sitcom genre. I have to agree, though I also loved the fact that finally Jay could see the ghosts because many of us have wanted this for so long. But in the long run, I think giving him the ability permanently would lessen the nature of this show. However, I wouldn't mind if, every now and then, Jay is able to interact with them briefly. But it shouldn't happen too often or for too long. But even doing it only once, it still deepens Jay's relationship with them because, although he always believed in their existence, he now knows them as individuals since he's seen and heard them. Even though he goes back to not being able to do so, he still has the memories of that experience, and it's bound to change how he thinks of and relates to them. It would be great if the writers could capture that somehow. It would be tricky to do because, of course, he's back to the way things used to be, so they'd have to be very subtle in the way they portrayed that extra dimension to their relationship. But I hope the writers try to depict that.

I loved this episode! It had just about everything, including some hilarious lines, and was heartwarming as well. Rose McIver really did a phenomenal job as Nancy. Utkarsh was also pretty convincing as Pete, though of course there wasn't as much to work with. The zombie twist was unexpected. I was a bit surprised that the exorcism included a trinitarian invocation in Latin, as well as Thor and Flower talking about the Virgin Mary--up to now, the writers have wisely stayed away from religion, so hopefully no viewers will be offended, though in today's thin-skinned climate there's no telling. Great to see the beginning of Thor and Sass's friendship, and it was wonderful for Jay to be able to see the ghosts. We've often discussed how the ghosts don't seem to value him much but I suppose that was mainly because they couldn't communicate with him. Once that changed, they were all very warm toward him. I guess it was as nice for them as for him to finally be able to interact. The supreme irony, though: Jay got to meet all the main ghosts except his buddy Pete! I'd love it if Sass could bring him into one of Jay's dreams. Sweet Jay, willing to risk his body and perhaps his entire existence so Pete could see his family for holidays--aww! Pete's hug with his daughter--yeah, that got to me. And so did Jay and his father at the end. A lovely Christmas episode!

Regarding the Playbill, I've also wondered whether it might possibly have to do with Isaac's love of musicals. No Playbills back in the eighteenth century, of course, but the symbolism is still there.

That's a really interesting question. Ordinarily you'd think the answer would be yes since the ghosts are immaterial spirits, but if they can sit and lay down on furniture, which we know they can, that would seem to indicate a no. And could one ghost walk through the bed while another was laying on it? Let the conjecture begin! But even if they can walk through, I imagine they could still be bothered by the visual clutter, even if it didn't actually affect their movements.

Yes, it's a bayonet. When he first appeared in season 1 I didn't notice it either, until I saw some stills and rewatched a few clips on YouTube. Others have mentioned that they missed it at first, too. You'd think you'd notice something like that immediately, right? And then of course once he stopped piping Nigel in and out of the mansion we never saw him again until the end of season 3, so it would've been easy to forget. I imagine it would make intimacy a bit challenging for him and Carol.

I laughed too, but… so is the UK, isn’t it? I suppose Nigel might not know what his old country is like now, but that’s not the joke here, and the joke they wrote doesn’t quite work if you think about it. Plus Isaac, let's not forget, was an attorney, so he was educated and cultured. Yes, the bed does seem pretty weird, though I also agree with those of you who felt Isaac's obsession with it was a reaction against the way he'd had to live his life. I had the same thought about Nigel saying "It's a free country--thanks to you"--funny but it didn't make much sense. The colonists complained about British tyranny but that was primarily about taxation without representation. Other than that, I think colonial society was pretty much like Britain's, which was freer than most of those on the Continent at that time, and in most aspects of daily life in America, the Brits didn't interfere nearly as much as they did in, say, India. In fact, I could imagine Nigel saying, "It's a free country--thanks to us." But maybe he meant "free" in the sense of "independent," which does make sense. It was awesome, I liked that. I also thought about what Nigel would have thought, and possibly did, when he discovered what Sam gave them as their wedding present. What was Sam’s thought process exactly? Here are two people getting married, let’s give them (them!) a child’s dinosaur bed? Because one of them is a child and the other… well, who cares about what Nigel likes, right? Way to show that you take them and their marriage seriously, Sam. I was genuinely touched by what Nigel did. I really can't imagine Isaac having been able to do something that thoughtful and loving. It just wouldn't have occurred to him. I agree that Nigel probably had a WTF?!? moment when he found out the bed was a wedding gift. In fact, when we saw the bed in the shed, Nigel seemed to be standing there awkwardly, as if to say, "So now we're stuck with this monstrosity cluttering up our living space?" It's perhaps telling that his reaction was not that it was ugly or bizarre. He just said, "It's a stupid bed!" Yeah, kinda.

But if that's what does happen it'll be fun to watch each actor play the other. We've seen Sam as Thor and Jay as Hetty but I think this kind of swap might be more challenging because neither of their characters is over the top like the ghosts'.

Yes to all of this. So now we know, as many of us had surmised, that Nigel had been around the block a few times when alive--and by his own admission might even have been a bit of a slut. Stable boys, footmen, schoolmates, maybe a fellow officer or two . . . But he honestly does seem to be the type to want a permanent relationship and to be willing to work to achieve it. He's still much more emotionally mature than Isaac and he's very generous, not only because he taught himself about dinosaurs to please Isaac but also because he was willing to try to be friends with him after all the hurt he put him through. I'd been thinking Isaac didn't deserve him just when Isaac said that himself. Nigel's clearly willing to make sacrifices to make his loved one happy. I don't know where this relationship will go but it would be nice to think that, eventually, they find each other again. Meanwhile, it will be nice to have them as friends. I do wonder how Nigel was able to study dinosaurs, though. Maybe he asked Sam to get him a book out of the library and bring it to the shed (since he was living in the mansion at that time and Isaac would have seen it) or she brought a laptop over and found a relevant site. Either way, she'd have had to stand there and either turn the pages as he read or scroll the computer screen. One major gaffe that I'm surprised the writers committed and that neither they nor the actors seem to have caught was Isaac's calling Nigel "Lieutenant." Yes, Nigel was a lieutenant colonel, but that's still a colonel's rank, not a lieutenant's, and his title would have been Colonel. He was demoted from being two ranks above Isaac to being a rank below him! I'd like to see a little Baxter/Jenkins comedy every now and then. But, oh my, I did feel sorry for Nigel and even Jenkins holed up in that shed with Baxter and Carol getting it on. Once again Sam sacrificed Jay, this time by making him jam with Farnsby--and of course Jay dismantled, moved, and reassembled the dinosaur bed because he had nothing more important to do, such as worry about the fate of his restaurant or the malignant Farnsbys. And of course, once again the ghosts took advantage of Sam's good nature, this time just before she and Jay were about to get intimate. I think all the issues we've ever complained about in those dynamics were encapsulated in this one episode!

I kept a daily diary for several decades (no longer, alas) and, like you, I included a lot of personal thoughts that might only be interesting if I were famous, which I'm not. (I, too, reread some of those recently and it was like watching paint dry, so I understand what you mean.) But I also did write about things going on in the world, and in some cases there were fairly descriptive accounts of events such as the Bicentennial celebrations, Charles and Diana's wedding, my travel experiences, and 9/11. And if you read the diary entries of famous people of the past, such as Queen Victoria or Chips Channon or Noel Coward, most of them also seem to do both. I just think that if you're living through a revolution and you're keeping a diary, you'd probably devote some of your writing to those experiences--not necessarily in a narrative, since you wouldn't always have the time to do so in the middle of a combat zone--but something. Isaac's diary might actually have had significant value if he'd provided eye-witness accounts of battles, Washington's demeanor, etc. But this guy, who wanted so much to leave his imprint in history, completely blew it.