S02.E08: The Liquor License

[Neptune]

“The Liquor License” – Alberta’s expertise from her past comes in handy when Sam and Jay run into some complications during their Woodstone whiskey tasting soiree. Also, Trevor devises a ghost fraternity, which inspires a revelation from Isaac’s past

[Driad]

When?

[Neptune]

14 minutes ago, Driad said:

When?

Dec 8

Edited November 18, 2022 by Neptune
D

[Neptune]

[Neptune]

[wembley]

From the IG post mirroring the previous tweet. 

[Neptune]

[Neptune]

[Neptune]

[Neptune]

[ams1001]

Isaac with curly hair. 😄

"It's two-horsepower."

Hardly seems fair to show up unannounced and then fail the property if you picked a bad time for an inspection that takes hours...

Never seen Shawshank?! "It's on like four times a day!" And I will stop and watch every time.

Aw, poor Pete.

[Annber03]

"I don't like that the event promotes alcohol use..."

"Said the cocaine fiend."

LOL. Also loved Flower's reaction to Thor's story about throwing old people off the roof back in his day. "Every story he tells just gets darker...."

Awwwwwwwwww, poor Isaac, being rejected as he was :(. My heart went out to him. I love how Trevor cheered him up at the end, with the story about the Ben Franklin statue :D. That was a really nice moment between them. And as much as I felt for Isaac in those flashback scenes, it was good to get a further glimpse into his life in and of itself. I got a kick out of the hair he was sporting :p. 

Sam and Jay basically running the speakeasy was fun. I liked how they tied it into the fraternity storyline. And I loved Sam and Jay going all Shawshank* with the booze in the wall. I'm glad they were able to pass their inspection and get a good review in the end, though oof at the reveal of how expensive the alcohol was. 

*Don't feel bad, Sam, I've still yet to see that movie, too. 

And we got another piece of the puzzle in the mystery of Alberta's death, too! Oooooooh. Intrigue! And speaking of Alberta, loved Pete taking her advice to go for it as he did, but I also get why she stopped him. I ship it, but yeah, I don't know if they're fully quite on the same page in that regard yet. Maybe someday, though!

This episode was sweet and fun :). 

[TruffleHog]

When Alberta led them to the bootleg whiskey, I was genuinely worried it might be the poisoned supply that killed her.  The episode would have ended a lot differently if it were -bunch of new ghosts joining the cast.

[Annber03]

2 minutes ago, TruffleHog said:

When Alberta led them to the bootleg whiskey, I was genuinely worried it might be the poisoned supply that killed her.  The episode would have ended a lot differently if it were -bunch of new ghosts joining the cast.

When Pete started talking about the possum skeleton in the wall, it had me wondering what other actual skeletons might be lurking within that property. No wonder they've kept stumbling upon new ghosts on and near the property thus far. 

[Stats Queen]

24 minutes ago, Annber03 said:

When Pete started talking about the possum skeleton in the wall, it had me wondering what other actual skeletons might be lurking within that property. No wonder they've kept stumbling upon new ghosts on and near the property thus far. 

I laughed because about a minute before, I went and put out food for our feral cats and at least one possum. All our possums have been named z Peter until 2 showed up and one is now Paulina.

But  options of skeletons…

[phalange]

Poor Isaac, getting rejected by the Freemasons and then all the ghosts finding his fraternity boring. But that was a nice bonding moment with Trevor inviting him to the party and telling him about what happens to the Ben Franklin statue. 

Thor and Flower are the exact ghosts I would expect to join Trevor’s idea of a fraternity. Thor being scared to jump off the roof was funny, considering literally nothing can happen to him. I’m surprised none of the ghosts tried jumping off the roof before now, honestly.

Sam and Jay must be kicking themselves for giving away tens of thousands of dollars worth of alcohol, yikes. That note is interesting, though. More suspects in Alberta’s murder. I like that there’s a whodunnit story sprinkled throughout the season. Unfortunately for Alberta, that probably means Creepy Todd is coming over again to record another podcast episode.

[Annber03]

Nice little interview with Brandon Scott Jones about this episode: 

https://www.tvinsider.com/1073018/ghosts-season-2-episode-8-brandon-scott-jones-isaac-fraternity-benjamin-franklin/

[AnimeMania]

Mark Andrada (Cyrus)
Neil Crone (Ben Franklin)
Kaliko Kauahi (Inspector Sherry)
Veronika Leclerc Strickland (Tavern Barmaid)
Jonathan Valvano (Blane)
Reanne Spitzer (Amanda)
Nathaniel Appiah (College Friend #1)
Ben Peters (College Friend #2)
Akiko Espano (College Friend #3)

Next New Episode: December 15, 2022 
Two Episode Holiday Special   Note New Time 8pm

[Daff]

Thor-Possum has friend?
Alberta’s hand over Pete’s face was choice!

[chaifan]

I'm glad Pete finally took a chance on Alberta, and just as glad she shut that down.  That was a great scene. 

After the episode with Hattie's husband, I commented in a thread that it would be fun for Sam & Jay to be occasionally finding rare items in the manor, led to them by the ghosts.  It would provide a plausible way as to how they are affording the renovations and upkeep.  It's a shame they didn't hold some of the whiskey back for that.  Maybe Alberta could say, oh, you should see what's in the other wall!

Loved seeing Sandra from Superstore!  (I miss that show.  It was sweet.)  Another Superstore cast member is also slated to appear this season...

[appositival]

I enjoyed seeing one of the speakeasy patrons playing with the skeleton, but I wonder if they will ever report it to the police. If not, they should 'dispose' of it. If they let too many people manipulate it, it will come apart. Also, any coins in his pockets would be rather valuable now.

I agree with everyone who liked seeing Trevor displaying one of the (few?) redeeming aspects of being a bro with Issac.

Why couldn't they just tell Inspector Sherry that they were doing some minor repairs? Would a liquor license inspector care about wiring?

[NoReally]

13 hours ago, Annber03 said:

I'm glad they were able to pass their inspection and get a good review in the end, though oof at the reveal of how expensive the alcohol was. 

LOL: "Maybe we're not good at business." 

[ShelleySue]

1 hour ago, appositival said:

Why couldn't they just tell Inspector Sherry that they were doing some minor repairs? Would a liquor license inspector care about wiring?

In my small town all of the inspectional services share data base software. It all goes to the accessors office so that the assessors can come out and inspect to see if assessments should increase (ie you should pay more taxes). I live in a small town and the inspectors "intermingle" too (wiring inspector is on the fire department, one of the plumbing inspectors is married to an assessor, etc). 

I'm confused about the vault. A few weeks ago Sam almost suffocated because she was locked in the vault and she was running out of oxygen. This week there were a lot of people in the vault and there seemed to be more room and plenty of air. If the door was left open wouldn't the alcohol inspector have noticed what was going on in there? I know it's the same room because Hattie's husband's skeleton was there.

[iMonrey]

Quote

Mark Andrada (Cyrus)

Was that the guy from Sippee? I would have sworn it was Nelson Franklin, from Veep.

This wasn't my favorite episode, but I did get a kick out of Elias's corpse still being there and everyone thinking it was a prop. It's hilarious they haven't gotten rid of it yet, but I suppose neither one of them wants to touch it.

I also laughed when Sam was in the kitchen with the liquor license inspector and Thor flew by the window, making Sam yell. And how she had to cover.

[shapeshifter]

13 hours ago, TruffleHog said:

When Alberta led them to the bootleg whiskey, I was genuinely worried it might be the poisoned supply that killed her.  The episode would have ended a lot differently if it were -bunch of new ghosts joining the cast.

My first thought was that the whiskey had broken down chemically over time and would taste gross and ruin their reviews. Then I was just worried the whiskey might have become toxic over time.

At this point in their life experiences with ghosts and with discovering relics in their mansion, Sam and Jay should’ve considered the possibilities that the whiskey was either very valuable or very lethal, and should have just offered the expert an empty shot glass that he could decide to fill or not from a dusty bottle of Prohibition Era whiskey.

But hindsight is 20-20, and I can imagine with all the unexpected developments of the day (unplanned inspection for a liquor license) and Sam being distracted by the ghosts’ issues and antics (including Thor jumping off the roof) that Sam and Jay would have handled things exactly as they did——except I really can’t imagine them breaking out more than one of the bottles, but that’s probably because I’m older, wiser, and very frugal.

Edited December 9, 2022 by shapeshifter

[proserpina65]

I didn't find this episode as funny as the rest.  Maybe I just wasn't in the right mood or something.  Will have to rewatch to see if it improves.

14 hours ago, Annber03 said:

*Don't feel bad, Sam, I've still yet to see that movie, too.

I've never seen it either.

[Trey]

6 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

I didn't find this episode as funny as the rest.  Maybe I just wasn't in the right mood or something.  Will have to rewatch to see if it improves.

My feelings exactly.  I don't know what it was.  Maybe Sass didn't have enough lines or maybe I didn't really like Jay and Sam fooling the assessor, could have been many things or anything.

[krankydoodle]

14 hours ago, Annber03 said:

And we got another piece of the puzzle in the mystery of Alberta's death, too! Oooooooh. Intrigue!

I can't believe Isaac passed up the opportunity to gasp at the reveal along with Alberta.

[chaifan]

1 hour ago, ShelleySue said:

I'm confused about the vault. A few weeks ago Sam almost suffocated because she was locked in the vault and she was running out of oxygen. This week there were a lot of people in the vault and there seemed to be more room and plenty of air. If the door was left open wouldn't the alcohol inspector have noticed what was going on in there? I know it's the same room because Hattie's husband's skeleton was there.

There is the vault, and then there's the secret passage leading to the vault.  The secret passage is accessed by the light fixture in the bathroom.  That leads to a hall, then a square-ish room in front of the vault.  The vault has it's own door, which can't be opened from the inside and the ghosts can't pass through, and is air tight.  Sam got stuck in the vault.  The hallway has air, and the secret door to the passageway would have been closed so the inspector didn't see them.   (It probably gets stuffy without the door open, but it's not airtight like the vault.)  And they had the vault door open. 

[Silver-hyren]

1 hour ago, ShelleySue said:

I'm confused about the vault. A few weeks ago Sam almost suffocated because she was locked in the vault and she was running out of oxygen. This week there were a lot of people in the vault and there seemed to be more room and plenty of air. If the door was left open wouldn't the alcohol inspector have noticed what was going on in there? I know it's the same room because Hattie's husband's skeleton was there.

The vault is pretty big, and I get the feeling it’s separated from the rest of the house by several walls which would block the sound.  Sam was panicking when she was locked in there, which is going to use up oxygen faster.  Here they had the door open the whole time (and I was terrified the whole time one of the guests would close the door and lock everyone in).  

[Moxie Cat]

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

Was that the guy from Sippee? I would have sworn it was Nelson Franklin, from Veep.

Yes, it was him, right? He also played Nick the IT guy on the Office years ago, and more recently the ad agency's son on Black-ish. If it wasn't Nelson Franklin, it was someone who looked a LOT like him!

[seasons]

Still no cholera basement ghosts.

or Nancy.

fingers crossed for Ghostmas episode.

[tennisgurl]

Was that Robby from New Girl as the whiskey guy and Sandra from Superstore as the woman checking the house of the liquor license? 

Poor Isaac and his floppy colonial hair, Ben Franklin only asked him to come over for his giant carriage, a tale as old as time. It was really sweet how Trevor managed to cheer him up after everyone left his boring fraternity, I liked having a Trevor/Isaac plot, a pairing we don't get a whole lot of. I like that the frat story and the whiskey plots ended up coming together. 

"Three of my five nephews survived the winter so we're all happy about that." 

Using the basement for a prohibition theme was a good idea, they should do that even when they aren't trying to hide from home inspectors. They have such a cool house with such an interesting eclectic history, they should lean into it more when they advertise. I also loved seeing the whiskey guy making love to those whiskies, I have been to a few of those fancy tastings before and that is exactly how people there act. They get so up in their glasses it feels like they should have to buy their drink a drink! 

"Is anyone else turned on right now?" 

"A little." 

[seasons]

Love Isaac’s curly hair

was that a thing in those days before the ponytail?

“Toilet, sink or drink - you gotta get rid of the hooch!”

love Alberta.

[possibilities]

2 minutes ago, tennisgurl said:

Was that Robby from New Girl as the whiskey guy and Sandra from Superstore as the woman checking the house of the liquor license? 

That's where I recognized them from.

2 minutes ago, tennisgurl said:

It was really sweet how Trevor managed to cheer him up after everyone left his boring fraternity

It really was. There are people who are nerdy like Isaac and like to talk about ideas, but in any randomly dead fewer than a dozen people, it's probably true you would have a hard time finding folks with common interests. 

[iMonrey]

Quote

I didn't find this episode as funny as the rest.  Maybe I just wasn't in the right mood or something.  Will have to rewatch to see if it improves.

This episode was written by Zora Bikengaga. She has not written any previous episodes. It seems like they've gotten some new writers this year. "Jay's Friends," "Dumb Deaths" and this episode were all written by new people that never wrote any Season 1 episodes. Also, in Season 1, Emily Schmidt was billed as executive story editor. (She also wrote "Attic Girl.") I'm not sure she's there anymore, at least not in that capacity. I have found several of this season's episodes weaker than Season 1, in terms of just being plain funny.

[eel21788]

2 hours ago, Silver-hyren said:

 I was terrified the whole time one of the guests would close the door and lock everyone in  

I would hope that Sam & Jay would have found a way to keep it propped open or maybe even have removed the vault door altogether by now.

[eel21788]

17 hours ago, TruffleHog said:

When Alberta led them to the bootleg whiskey, I was genuinely worried it might be the poisoned supply that killed her.  

Did Alberta say if she saw the whiskey being hidden in the wall while she was still a Living or was it after she became Ghost Alberta?

If it had been after she died, then she probably would have known that it wasn't from the same batch that killed her.

4 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

My first thought was that the whiskey had broken down chemically over time and would taste gross and ruin their reviews. Then I was just worried the whiskey might have become toxic over time.

I thought whiskey always got better with age, but then again, I'm not much of a drinker.

[iMonrey]

Quote

 I was terrified the whole time one of the guests would close the door and lock everyone in  

I wondered about that too. They really need to remove the lock, somehow.

[Sakura12]

I love that they show that deep down stock bro frat boy Trevor is a good guy. He felt bad that everyone left Issac's frat and went to talk to him. 

I'm not a drinker but even I'd know that whiskey that old is probably worth something. I have no idea why they gave them all the bottles. They are bad business people. Lol

I loved Sam screaming when Thorfin jumped off the roof. They are already dead so nothing was going to happen to them. It's nice that the ghosts are getting into their own shenanigans. With Alberta and Pete being the angel and devil on Sam and Jay's shoulders. 

Would you really fail if a liquor inspector showed up at your house unannounced like that? That doesn't seem fair. They didn't even call ahead. 

[emma675]

5 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

I didn't find this episode as funny as the rest.  Maybe I just wasn't in the right mood or something. 

Same. I don't like Sam and Jay looking like fools, which they did with the college kids chugging the whisky. I don't know, I just was not into this episode. 

[shura]

Ben Franklin was quite a douchebag, huh?  The “enjoy the view” comment in the tavern, not even trying to smooth things out for poor Isaac and even misleading him again into thinking he could come back to the lodge after delivering whatever it was - to provide rides for the freemasons…  Who knew?  And, for the record, he did not discover electricity.  I loved Trevor’s “like they wouldn’t have discovered it anyway.”  Did the writers shamelessly lift it from Seinfeld or is Trevor supposed to be a fan?

When Alberta said that the whiskey is in the wall, I didn’t give it a second thought. People can know things like that, they can see it before drywall goes up, nothing unusual there. And then she goes and sticks her head into the wall, gets it out and says: “Yep, it’s still there.”  I guess there is another way to know…

[iMonrey]

Quote

When Alberta said that the whiskey is in the wall, I didn’t give it a second thought. People can know things like that, they can see it before drywall goes up, nothing unusual there.

I didn't understand how it got in there. Woodstone is 300 years old. It's not like the drywall wasn't up yet when Alberta sang there in the 1920s. Earl must have knocked a hole in the wall and sealed it back up somehow but I don't get how, since it wasn't his house and there were presumably a lot of other people around.

[Annber03]

7 hours ago, Silver-hyren said:

Here they had the door open the whole time (and I was terrified the whole time one of the guests would close the door and lock everyone in).  

I worried about that, too!

6 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

"Three of my five nephews survived the winter so we're all happy about that." 

Seriously, between that and Isaac's comment at one point in the first season about how all of his sisters died by the age of two, I think it was, his backstory has some incredibly depressing elements to it!

Quote

"Is anyone else turned on right now?" 

"A little." 

LOL, I loved that :D. 

Edited December 10, 2022 by Annber03

[Kiddvideo]

I was surprised they haven’t cleared the skeleton out of the vault. Eww. But I like the intrigue of there being two more suspects in Alberta’s death!

[Daff]

8 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I didn't understand how it got in there. Woodstone is 300 years old. It's not like the drywall wasn't up yet when Alberta sang there in the 1920s. Earl must have knocked a hole in the wall and sealed it back up somehow but I don't get how, since it wasn't his house and there were presumably a lot of other people around.

In the 20s, hiding alcohol was a very common thing due to prohibition. Lath and plaster (shown as Sam broke the wall) was a common skill of laborers, and labor was cheap. I think the bigger mystery is the fact that the booze was still there so many years later. 

15 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

I've never seen it either.

It’s a fairly long, slow slog that almost makes you feel as tormented as the poor, set-up and targeted Tim Robbins character felt. It’s a fable of patience, but most feel it was worth it in the end as the performances are excellent. 

[FormerMod-a1]

I was surprised all the whiskey tasting guests were chugging bottles of the old whiskey.  It was a tasting, I figured they'd open one bottle and bring it them.  You don't chug right out of the bottle at tastings.  At most you buy a glass of whatever your favorite was to drink after the tasting portion is finished.  Or even buy a bottle, depending where the tasting is (like at a liquor store or distillery).  Even if the guests decided they wanted to "paaaar-tay!" they wouldn't have known where the rest of the bottles were.  So I guess we're supposed to think Sam brought down ALL the bottles to them?  and just let them have at it?

Edited December 10, 2022 by aquarian1

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, aquarian1 said:

I was surprised all the whiskey tasting guests were chugging bottles of the old whiskey.  It was a tasting, I figured they'd open one bottle and bring it them.  You don't chug right out of the bottle at tastings.  At most you buy a glass of whatever your favorite was to drink after the tasting portion is finished.  Or even buy a bottle, depending where the tasting is (like at a liquor store or distillery).  Even if the guests decided they wanted to "paaaar-tay!" they wouldn't have known where the rest of the bottles were.  So I guess we're supposed to think Sam brought down ALL the bottles to them?  and just let them have at it?

Yes. I think Sam and Jay’s primary focus was on keeping the tasters occupied away from the liquor licenser, so they probably made decisions with regards to serving the whiskey that they would not have otherwise.

The result was, coincidentally, more like a 1990s frat party——except we didn’t see any vomiting or debauchery. 

[iMonrey]

Quote

I was surprised all the whiskey tasting guests were chugging bottles of the old whiskey.  It was a tasting, I figured they'd open one bottle and bring it them.  You don't chug right out of the bottle at tastings. 

Yes, but these were poser frat-bros, not actual connoisseurs like the guy from "Sipper." Remember? "Look! Frog testicles!"  

[possibilities]

I don't drink, but I would think that drinking that volume of whiskey would cause serious misery. That looked like a dozen bottles for half a dozen people! Nobody dying of alcohol poisoning and winding up a new resident ghost seems surprising.