S01.E07: Flower’s Article

[Whimsy]

Quote

When Sam is commissioned to write an article about Flower and her friends holding up a bank during their commune days, Flower begs Sam not to accept the job because she’s embarrassed about a part of the story she’s never revealed.

Original airdate 11/11/21

[Annber03]

"Oh, she's so close to getting it..."

"God love her." 

Awwwwwww, I'm glad Flower got to see that the coffee shop turned out to be a real thing in the end :). And that it's doing good things for others besides. I liked Isaac and Alberta coming clean on their lies, too, to help her feel better. LOL at Isaac admitting he was at a tea party in Boston, just not THE Tea Party XD.

I also enjoyed Flower having brief acid trip moments where she kinda got all out of it :p. 

Sasappis wanting to have a relationship of his own was cute. I'm with him on not liking games. It was fun to see Jay doing his part to help, or at least, try to, anyway. The message he showed Sam at the end was sweet. Aw. I also loved the ghosts' reaction to the concept of being "ghosted" :p. 

[CattyK]

I really liked this episode.  Well, I’ve liked them all so far!  

[Harvey]

I liked the Ghost love story I hope this storyline will continue over the next couple of episodes.

And Flower was a lot more likeable in this episode than she has been so far.

[Katy M]

Do magazines hire freelance reporters?  I thought the whole point of freelance reporters was that they sold individual articles to magazines, not that they get hired by them.

Sam needs to stop talking to ghsots in public.  And come up with better cover stories if she goes somewhere to talk to a ghost.  Maybe they should try to see what happens if she can get the girl ghost into a car and she drives back to the inn with her.  Maybe she'd make it.

[shapeshifter]

Last line was the best:

• [Sasappis] Sam, come back, I want to tell Jay about ghost sex!

But there goes my theory about Sasappis and Thor being a couple. IDK. I suppose Sasappis could be some kind of bi.

 

I appreciate that the writers are enmeshing Sam & Jay's source of income into the show. So many shows --especially 20 minute sitcoms-- just have the characters interacting when they're not at work. I realize that having them getting together with their Friends for 20 minutes each week off the clock is not unrealistic; but if it's all we see of them, it seems like it's most of their lives. Maybe now that more people IRL are permanently working from home we'll see characters' livelihoods in real time more often and it will inspire writers whose characters don't work from home to show them at work more often too. 

[Sakura12]

1 hour ago, Katy M said:

Sam needs to stop talking to ghsots in public.  And come up with better cover stories if she goes somewhere to talk to a ghost.  Maybe they should try to see what happens if she can get the girl ghost into a car and she drives back to the inn with her.  Maybe she'd make it.

I'm thinking Sam should always wear airpods when around other people to pretend she's on the phone.  

If they go with some ghost stories, they can't leave the property they died on. Which I think is the case with this show. If they try to leave they just pop back on the property. 

I wasn't sure about this show since I loved the UK version. But it has won me over. It probably helps that most of the ghosts are different. 

It was sweet that Flower's boyfriend did end up making the coffee shop. I loved the ghosts being offended at the term ghosted. And it's also nice that ghosts do want to include Jay. 

 

[shapeshifter]

25 minutes ago, Sakura12 said:

If they go with some ghost stories, they can't leave the property they died on. Which I think is the case with this show. If they try to leave they just pop back on the property.

Can the ghosts see each other via video?
Maybe ghost sex isn't much different than virtual sex anyway?

[Sakura12]

47 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Can the ghosts see each other via video?
Maybe ghost sex isn't much different than virtual sex anyway?

It's already different then the UK version with her meeting and conversing with more ghosts outside the house. So I don't know what they have planned. 

[HurricaneVal]

"Sam...come back!  I want to tell Jay about ghost sex!"

I didn't just lol.  I gol'd.  Guffawed out loud.  I might have even snorted.  Thank you, show.

[iMonrey]

Quote

If they go with some ghost stories, they can't leave the property they died on. Which I think is the case with this show. If they try to leave they just pop back on the property. 

That's what I assumed about the magazine ghosts, although they didn't really explain it. That makes me question why Flower is stuck where she is, though. She and her hippy friends were living in a commune in the woods. Were the woods on that house's property? Doesn't seem like the owners would allow that.

Also, Hetty was missing again this week. I wonder if Rebecca Wisocky costs too much to have on every episode. She is one of the better known actors in the cast.

[AnimeMania]

45 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

That makes me question why Flower is stuck where she is, though. She and her hippy friends were living in a commune in the woods. Were the woods on that house's property? Doesn't seem like the owners would allow that.

I think they said something about Flower attending a concert and went off into the woods to use the bathroom and was mauled by a bear.

[jewel21]

45 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

Also, Hetty was missing again this week. I wonder if Rebecca Wisocky costs too much to have on every episode. She is one of the better known actors in the cast.

I like to think she's helping decapitated guy find his head. Seriously, why bring on a character and then not show him? Does he have more scenes that are just being cut for time? I think he could be an interesting ghost. 

I liked this episode and laughed quite a bit. I like Jay wanting a rollcall of who's in the room with him and the ghosts including him in their conversations. 

I also enjoyed how pantless guy was enamored with Jay's texting/flirting skills, heh. 

[Harvey]

39 minutes ago, jewel21 said:

I like to think she's helping decapitated guy find his head. Seriously, why bring on a character and then not show him? Does he have more scenes that are just being cut for time? I think he could be an interesting ghost.

It's  just how he is even in the original show the headless ghost only appears sporadically. Maybe 40% of the episodes.

[Sakura12]

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

That's what I assumed about the magazine ghosts, although they didn't really explain it. That makes me question why Flower is stuck where she is, though. She and her hippy friends were living in a commune in the woods. Were the woods on that house's property? Doesn't seem like the owners would allow that.

If she was chased by a bear, maybe she ran onto the property and died. It depends on what is considered the property. Thorfin, Sassapis, Flower and Pete all died outside of the house.

[HurricaneVal]

Were the creepy ghosts in the basement just a one-off deal?  Oh, I guess they were in a couple of episodes, but they've been absent ever since.

[shapeshifter]

During the bank hold up scene they spent quite a bit of time/dialog letting us know that the bank customers and employees heard that one of the robbers was "Susan" aka "Flower." They also saw her maskless. But apparently nobody ever connected the bear mauling victim with Susan/Flower the bank robber. Maybe Flower's body was never identified? Maybe her pre-ghost face was disfigured by the bear?
Do the ghosts appear as their best selves, kind of like portraits?

 

1 hour ago, Sakura12 said:

If she was chased by a bear, maybe she ran onto the property and died.

That was my supposition too. Occam's razor? 

[grawlix]

46 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

During the bank hold up scene they spent quite a bit of time/dialog letting us know that the bank customers and employees heard that one of the robbers was "Susan" aka "Flower." They also saw her maskless. But apparently nobody ever connected the bear mauling victim with Susan/Flower the bank robber. Maybe Flower's body was never identified? Maybe her pre-ghost face was disfigured by the bear?
Do the ghosts appear as their best selves, kind of like portraits?

Ghosts appearing at the time of their deaths would be an interesting twist.  I would love to see something like what occurred in "American Werewolf in London" but it would be too impractical for a TV series.

 

2 hours ago, Sakura12 said:

If she was chased by a bear, maybe she ran onto the property and died. It depends on what is considered the property. Thorfin, Sassapis, Flower and Pete all died outside of the house.

 

51 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

That was my supposition too. Occam's razor? 

Maybe one of Sam's relatives has some sort of Bear sanctuary and Flower died trying to free a bear?

 

[Twilight Man]

5 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Hetty was missing again this week. I wonder if Rebecca Wisocky costs too much to have on every episode. She is one of the better known actors in the cast.

Thorfinn was also absent this episode.   Some other person (in a different forum) asked what the ghosts actually "do" when they are not "around".   They are "regulated" to the property only, and I know that magnificent estate is massive, but still, what do they do??????

We all know that Flower (who was absent a few episodes ago) was staring at her hand for three hours.

Thorfinn was probably watching a whole season non-stop of "The Good Fight" ------- only available on Paramount +.

Hey, who wrote that????

[Blakeston]

In the pilot, Flower said, "I wandered over to your property from a music festival in the sixties and then I tried to befriend a bear. Drugs were involved."

But in this episode, she suggested that the "wandered over from a music festival" part was a lie, and that she was really passing through the property because she was on the lam.

Edited November 12, 2021 by Blakeston

[Phishbulb]

2 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

During the bank hold up scene they spent quite a bit of time/dialog letting us know that the bank customers and employees heard that one of the robbers was "Susan" aka "Flower." They also saw her maskless. But apparently nobody ever connected the bear mauling victim with Susan/Flower the bank robber. Maybe Flower's body was never identified? Maybe her pre-ghost face was disfigured by the bear?
Do the ghosts appear as their best selves, kind of like portraits?

I wonder about this too. Pete has the arrow stuck through his head, and Trevor is perpetually pantsless for all eternity, but the other ghosts don't really seem to exist in a state of just-having-died-ness. Not sure why it's a thing for some of the ghosts and not others.

Edited November 12, 2021 by Phishbulb

[Daff]

10 hours ago, Katy M said:

Do magazines hire freelance reporters

This confused me as well. Hedging her bets by asking ahead of time what topics the editor would consider (as opposed to simply rejecting the submission upon reading the title)?  The process, however, allowed for her to return to speak to the magazine’s ghosts, so maybe the writers were using the unusual process to move the plot. 

I also enjoyed this episode. So many funny one-liners, revealing Daisy as having (a bit) more depth, confirming some of the ghosts are bragging beyond the actual truth. And, of course, “little man” will learn to communicate through a fantasy game (preview). This is a keeper-hope it hangs in there, and hope the British version becomes available somewhere because of it. 

[tennisgurl]

I assume the rule is that the ghosts have to stay on the property line and if they die anywhere in it they're stuck there, its not specifically the house itself. Thorfinn died before the house was even built and we saw that Pete died on the front lawn last week and the ghosts are able to leave the house, we have seen them outside. 

"I never actually performed with Cab Calloway, but I DID get in a cab with him...no I didn't." 

That was a really cute episode, its really sweet that Flowers boyfriend ended up sing the money to start the coffee shop she dreamed of and named it after her. Flower has been a bit of a weak link so far but I liked her a lot here, they did a good job of giving her some more layers. In general the show is doing a great job at playing the ghosts as one note jokes at first and then giving them some real character depth. 

Sasappis wanting to start dating his crush from when he was alive was cute, and I really liked Jay trying to help him send her a message. I love that Jay and the ghosts are becoming friends despite the fact that Jay cant see or hear them. 

Sam really should invest in airpods, then people would just think she was on the phone when she talks to ghosts. 

[Daff]

4 hours ago, Harvey said:

It's  just how he is even in the original show the headless ghost only appears sporadically. Maybe 40% of the episodes.

I think we’re supposed to just find the headless ghost appearing/passing by in the background a humorous and mood-enhancing addition to the action. After all, they can’t really give him lines, can they? 
Pollyanna me really liked the ending, the coffee business helped people and the bear education made an effort to forgive/warn of Daisy’s demise. 

Edited November 12, 2021 by Daff

[AnimeMania]

2 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Maybe her pre-ghost face was disfigured by the bear?

She has some bear claw marks on her jaw if you look closely.

[SmithW6079]

11 hours ago, Katy M said:

Do magazines hire freelance reporters?  I thought the whole point of freelance reporters was that they sold individual articles to magazines, not that they get hired by them.

Sam needs to stop talking to ghosts in public.  And come up with better cover stories if she goes somewhere to talk to a ghost.  Maybe they should try to see what happens if she can get the girl ghost into a car and she drives back to the inn with her.  Maybe she'd make it.

Sure, freelancers get hired by magazines or other publications. If she has relationships with editors (e.g., has written articles for them in the past), they might reach out to her specifically to cover a topic. If she's pitching stories to magazines, she still needs to create relationships with editors and know their publication's market. 

I'm not a fan of embarrassment humor, so part of problem with this show for me (other than the quick cuts) is her talking to the ghosts and being thought of as "crazy" for talking to thin air. The excuses she gives are lame and not funny.

[iMonrey]

Quote

It's  just how he is even in the original show the headless ghost only appears sporadically. Maybe 40% of the episodes.

The headless ghost on the UK version had a more prominent role, and even his own flashback episode. This version of that character has thus far been just a visual gag used a couple of times.

[peachmangosteen]

1 hour ago, Daff said:

This is a keeper-hope it hangs in there, and hope the British version becomes available somewhere because of it. 

The original show is already on HBO Max.

[Blakeston]

The headless guy spoke, in the pilot - he can put his head back on. He has a thick New York accent.

(I just watched the pilot, so I have a lot of info on it today lol.)

I never thought of Sassapis or Pete as being particularly funny before, but they both killed it in this episode. (I loved Pete's pure joy at the thought of being friend-zoned.)

 

[Sakura12]

40 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

The headless ghost on the UK version had a more prominent role, and even his own flashback episode. This version of that character has thus far been just a visual gag used a couple of times.

Not in the very beginning of the show. He was mostly visual sight gags until he got his flashback episode in series 3. We are still in the beginning of this show. The UK one also has much shorter seasons too. I'm guessing they don't have much to do with him until we get to his story. 

Of course they should probably explain where the other ghosts are if they are not around. With Thorfin they could just say it's some Viking Holiday and he's in the woods somewhere, with Hetty they can go with someone said something offensive and she went to her room to sulk. It's not that hard to make a quick mention of a missing ghost. 

[madmax]

1 hour ago, Blakeston said:

The headless guy spoke, in the pilot - he can put his head back on. He has a thick New York accent.

Didn't he say something like "Not again" or similar when his head fell off in the pilot?  So it's happened before and he eventually finds his head?  Does Sam never see him wandering around?

I thought it was a good episode, not as good as Pete's wife, but it did give Flower some more depth.  And yeah, Sam needs to invest in airpods.  

Edited November 13, 2021 by madmax

[SoMuchTV]

I know this is a nitpick but near the beginning where Jay came in with drinks from the coffee place, and handed Samantha what looked like a strawberry milkshake saying “here’s your americano”. Is that a regional thing? Isn’t an americano basically a black coffee?

[Blakeston]

2 hours ago, madmax said:

Didn't he say something like "Not again" or similar when his head fell off in the pilot?  So it's happened before and he eventually finds his head?  Does Sam never see him wandering around?

Yes, he said "not again" after his head fell off. I don't recall seeing him in any episode besides the pilot, except for the Halloween episode, when there's a quick shot of him headless when a character says that nothing strange is going on.

[Johannah]

I think it would be odd for the ghosts to be constrained by ever-changing property lines.  I'm sure the property lines, if they even existed, weren't the same when Thorfinn died.  Plus, it's unfair that these ghosts have acres to roam and someone who died in a studio apartment is confined to 500 square ft.  It makes more sense that they would be restricted to a certain area, like 1 mile from where they died.  But then, we're asking for logic in a ghost sitcom.

I know Flower wasn't very popular here, and I really didn't have an opinion before this ep, but I like her.  And her spacing out has made a few good jokes.  She's putting one and one together, but I don't think she's figured out they equal two, yet.

this show is quickly becoming one of my favorites.

 

Edited November 13, 2021 by Johann

[Phebemarie]

I wonder if Rebecca Wisocky is filming a movie or another series and is not available for every episode.  It is odd that such a major player is absent without explanation.  

 

 

[jewel21]

7 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

She has some bear claw marks on her jaw if you look closely.

She also has a deep gash on her shoulder. 

[shapeshifter]

14 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

She has some bear claw marks on her jaw if you look closely.

6 hours ago, jewel21 said:

She also has a deep gash on her shoulder. 

Yes. And yes.
But I was wondering if the reason her body had never been identified as the bank robber Susan aka Flower who took off her mask in the middle of the robbery was because her corpse, unlike her slightly clawed ghost face, was beyond recognition.
And now I'm guessing she may have died looking like we see her now, but then coyotes or other animals left her remains as unrecognizable. Or maybe her body was never discovered at all?  Or at least not until it was only bones? And in the 1960s, DNA was not a forensic tool.

 

[AnimeMania]

3 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

But I was wondering if the reason her body had never been identified as the bank robber Susan aka Flower who took off her mask in the middle of the robbery was because her corpse, unlike her slightly clawed ghost face, was beyond recognition.

Her bank robber boyfriend could have found her dead body and buried her where she died. There is no reason to take her to the authorities and try to explain who she is and what happened, especially if you are trying to stay off of the grid and out of the spotlight.

[shapeshifter]

1 minute ago, AnimeMania said:

Her bank robber boyfriend could have found her dead body and buried her where she died. There is no reason to take her to the authorities and try to explain who she is and what happened, especially if you are trying to stay off of the grid and out of the spotlight.

I like this👆 explanation that fits so well. 👏
And now I don't have to think about ravaging coyotes. 😨

[Bruinsfan]

21 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Do the ghosts appear as their best selves, kind of like portraits?

If so, yikes! about the basement ghosts.

[iMonrey]

12 hours ago, Phebemarie said:

I wonder if Rebecca Wisocky is filming a movie or another series and is not available for every episode.  It is odd that such a major player is absent without explanation.  

She's on Dopesick too, so maybe there is a scheduling conflict. Who knows. But with such a large ensemble cast, I don't necessarily mind if we don't see every single character every single episode. I don't really need an explanation for where they are, either. It's a huge house and a huge estate, and all the ghosts aren't usually assembled in one room anyway, they are always broken off into smaller groups.

Quote

But I was wondering if the reason her body had never been identified as the bank robber Susan aka Flower who took off her mask in the middle of the robbery was because her corpse, unlike her slightly clawed ghost face, was beyond recognition.

The bank robbery took place in the 60s so it's quite possible the bank didn't even have security cameras back then. 

But I think it's interesting to wonder why she's not more messed up looking if she was mauled to death by a bear. If your ghost looks like you looked at the time of death then she should be a mess, although I guess it's possible the bear knocked her down and her head hit a rock or something.

[emma675]

18 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

I know this is a nitpick but near the beginning where Jay came in with drinks from the coffee place, and handed Samantha what looked like a strawberry milkshake saying “here’s your americano”. Is that a regional thing? Isn’t an americano basically a black coffee?

I had a similar thought for a second but I think it's because it was a pink cup. When Sam pulled it out of the trash to show Flower the logo at the end, you could see it was a regular cardboard coffee cup, it was just printed pink all around. 

This show is adorable and I hope it gets picked up for a second season. It's so quirky and funny and fun. I can't pick a favorite character at this point, they are all fantastic. 

[kwnyc]

Quote

Ghosts appearing at the time of their deaths would be an interesting twist.  I would love to see something like what occurred in "American Werewolf in London" but it would be too impractical for a TV series.

Now that I am thinking that "The Ghost Whisperer" would be great as a comedy reboot...if you remember on that show, the ghosts appeared as they were at their deaths, which was really icky for some of them. Then, as they got closer to "going into the light" they were restored to an undamaged appearance.

(Wasn't there an episode about ghosts at a comedy club?)

Also, having the indigenous ghosts be Lenne-Lenape is geographically correct (though more likely they were Munsee-Lenape). Though the pitching of freelance articles is all kinds of messed up. (I've freelanced for years, and even if she got called in for a pitch meeting, that would be after a few emails, maybe a call AND providing good clips.)

And if you would ever like to see the indigenous people whose land is where you live, check out this map:

https://native-land.ca/

 

Edited November 13, 2021 by kwnyc
Additional thought

[Johannah]

If the ghosts look like they did at the exact moment that they died, then it's highly likely that Flower died from one of the first slashes from the bear.  He could have still mauled her after she was dead.

[UsernameFatigue]

This show just cracks me up. I loved the ghosts being insulted by the term "ghosting", I also loved it when Trevor compared Sam and Jay to Julia Roberts and Lyle Lovett.  Lol. The writing is so clever, and the acting fabulous. I haven't seen the UK version, will have to look for it. I do love this version though, and there isn't a character that I don't like. 

[Whimsy]

On 11/13/2021 at 12:06 AM, Phebemarie said:

I wonder if Rebecca Wisocky is filming a movie or another series and is not available for every episode.  It is odd that such a major player is absent without explanation.  

 

 

I don’t know if these were shot simultaneously, but I just saw her on Hulu’s Dopesick in a (small) recurring role. 

[Ms Lark]

On 11/12/2021 at 8:45 PM, SoMuchTV said:

I know this is a nitpick but near the beginning where Jay came in with drinks from the coffee place, and handed Samantha what looked like a strawberry milkshake saying “here’s your americano”. Is that a regional thing? Isn’t an americano basically a black coffee?

Yep, Caffe Americano is espresso with hot water added to dilute it. 

[Tachi Rocinante]

So nobody cares that the coffee shop mogul is a criminal?  Statute of limitations or not . . .

[shapeshifter]

6 minutes ago, Tachi Rocinante said:

So nobody cares that the coffee shop mogul is a criminal?  Statute of limitations or not . . .

If this were a different show, there would be an outcry on SM about the Coffee Shop Mogul being a bank robber, and Sam would write a follow-up article pointing out that other Mogul's and Bank Presidents are robbing the public via tax loop holes etc., and she would point out that Coffee Shop Mogul had generated earnings that allowed him to donate more to charity than (fill in the blank) etc. etc. 

But that would effectively kill all of the fun in this show.

[Katy M]

1 hour ago, Tachi Rocinante said:

So nobody cares that the coffee shop mogul is a criminal?  Statute of limitations or not . . .

Probably not the type of customers that they specifically market to, no.