S02.E20: Woodstone’s Hottest Couple

[basil]

20 hours ago, kathyk24 said:

I thought it was out of character for Jay not to be honest with Sam.

Jay lies to Sam all of the time. 

[iMonrey]

Quote

Why didn't the basement ghost's glasses return to his face?

If you remember the episode "Ghostwriter," Sass took the feather out of his hair and tried to hand it to Sam, whereupon it popped right back onto his head. So Ralph can take his glasses off, he just can't set them down or hand them to someone else, that's when they'd pop back onto his face.

The greater mystery is how a cholera ghost has glasses in the first place. At the time they presumably died you had to be pretty well off to have glasses. Maybe not rich but not so poor you'd be locked into a cholera pit wearing only a potato sack.

[SoMuchTV]

5 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

The greater mystery is how a cholera ghost has glasses in the first place. At the time they presumably died you had to be pretty well off to have glasses. Maybe not rich but not so poor you'd be locked into a cholera pit wearing only a potato sack.

And on top of that, if you’re nearsighted in your life, you’re doomed to be nearsighted for all eternity?  Bummer!  I already took my musings on the ghosts’ five senses to the ghost manual thread, so I’ll try to leave it alone here. 

 

[ams1001]

I like tea, but I wouldn't want to spend a whole date discussing it.

On green tea (which I don't really like, except for the Zen tea from Tazo, which is green tea with lemongrass and mint), my friend gave me a set of "Teas of the Boston Tea Party" for Christmas last year and two of them are green teas, so they were around in Isaac and Nigel's day.

Quote

Young Hyson Green tea. Made from young leaves that are thinly rolled to have a long, twisted appearance that unfurls when brewed. Some believe it to have been named after an English tea merchant, Phillip Hyson.  Hyson and Young Hyson tea were highly prized by the colonial Americans and tax on hyson was higher than for other teas.  During the Boston Tea Party there were 70 chests of Hyson destroyed.

Singlo. This green tea is picked later in the season of larger leaves, is pan-fried and then curled and dried, yielding a buttery green tea infusion with a plum-like finish.

I love it cuz it comes in test tubes. :)

Edited April 28, 2023 by ams1001

[possibilities]

I love green tea!! But I also don't really want to talk about it much. I think for some people, tea is like wine-- something that needs extended description and signals your place in society. But for me, it's just something I like to drink.

I can't remember who said it upthread, so I can't quote what I'm responding to, but Alberta and Sass are also single (it's not just Pete). 

[Annber03]

8 hours ago, Starchild said:

Why don't I recall her trying to break up Isaac and Nigel? Did she?

She did not, no! When talking about this episode elsewhere I joked that maybe once Isaac explained his relationship with Nigel thusly: "He's British, and I killed him.", she might've been like, "...well, not much I can do to top that." :p .

7 hours ago, iMonrey said:

My big LOL moment was when they were all guessing baseball movies and Flower shouted "Barbarella!"

On a related note, I've never seen Field of Dreams (which is kind of surprising, considering it's set in my home state of Iowa), and yet I knew right away that was the movie Sam was referencing :p. Speaks to how well-known that film is.

5 hours ago, possibilities said:

I did laugh at "don't give up! maybe a young person will die here!" [paraphrased].

 LOL, I loved that, too. "Maybe a car'll crash here and a cute young guy will fly through the windshield..." XD. 

2 hours ago, PaulE said:

That's true, especially among the upper classes, to which Hetty and, I assume, Nigel belonged.  I mentioned in a post for an earlier episode that Hetty and Nigel probably have more in common with each other than with any other ghost, which is why it's too bad they're feuding.  If they could get past that, they'd probably understand each other pretty well and become friends.

The Chinese and Japanese historically have drunk green tea almost exclusively, so it's always existed, but I'm not so sure any of it was imported to the West in the eighteenth or even nineteenth centuries.  Britain already had a foothold in India in the 1700s and China and Japan were isolationist until the mid-nineteenth century, so I'm thinking that Nigel, Hetty, and Isaac would have drunk varieties of Indian black tea and probably wouldn't have known about green tea.  Of course, Isaac probably stopped drinking tea after the Boston Tea Party and I'm surprised he and Nigel (the Bickersons) didn't get into an argument about that.

And, yes, even I don't like green tea, though I've tried.  Too vegetal for my taste.

I fully agree that a large part of the tension between Nigel and Hetty is that they're far more alike than they realize. It would be nice to see them go back to being on friendly terms, 'cause I loved Hetty being so supportive of Isaac and Nigel getting together early on, but I can also totally see them respecting each other's ability to scheme/plot and whatnot and developing a frenemies sort of thing where they have a civil respect of sorts for each other, if not becoming buddy-buddy. 

LOL at "the Bickersons" :p. On the one hand it would've been interesting to see what Stephanie could've done to mess with Isaac and Nigel, but on the other hand, it was nice to see them happily spending time together, without any arguments. 

My favorite aspect of the tea discussion was Trevor asking Isaac and Nigel if they'd ever had Snapple :p. 

[shapeshifter]

57 minutes ago, Annber03 said:

My favorite aspect of the tea discussion was Trevor asking Isaac and Nigel if they'd ever had Snapple :p.

If Trevor and Hetty were still openly a couple, at a futre tea party, Sam might open a bottle of Snapple for the pre-Snapple ghosts to smell and give Trevor something to talk to them about. Maybe some modern Chai tea too.
Maybe Sam will do that anyway if she decides to try to get Trevor and Hetty back together. 
That could be funny with Trevor and Hetty pretending to be barely tolerating each others' company.

Edited April 29, 2023 by shapeshifter

[Starchild]

8 hours ago, iMonrey said:

My big LOL moment was when they were all guessing baseball movies and Flower shouted "Barbarella!"

Ha me too. If I still had a cat I would have startled her.

 

8 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

The part of the barn they entered first looked pretty solid, but yeah, the back part did look a bit rickety.  Guess it depends on how you define good bones.

The frame/beams maybe? Walls are easy to replace but the frame would be more work.

 

8 hours ago, shura said:

Oh, I have no doubt there are people there who would want to spend unreasonable amounts of money in a "destination restaurant."  The question is only whether there are enough of them within driving distance to sustain a restaurant like that.  Because if you have to make it an overnight trip to partake in the experience, then the restaurant better have a reputation that is way more of a must than Sippr's "visit them before they go out of business."  Until they develop such reputation, they might be just wasting money running the restaurant. 

So far all evidence points to Jay being quite skilled and creative. I would bet he could garner a strong  enough reputation.

 

1 hour ago, Annber03 said:

I fully agree that a large part of the tension between Nigel and Hetty is that they're far more alike than they realize. It would be nice to see them go back to being on friendly terms, 'cause I loved Hetty being so supportive of Isaac and Nigel getting together early on, but I can also totally see them respecting each other's ability to scheme/plot and whatnot and developing a frenemies sort of thing where they have a civil respect of sorts for each other, if not becoming buddy-buddy.

It would help cut the boredom during all that eternity.

 

28 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

If Trevor and Hetty were still openly a couple, at a futre tea party, Sam might open a bottle of Snapple for the pre-Snapple ghosts to smell and give Trevor something to talk to them about. Maybe some modern Chai tea too.

I keep hearing that Indians get annoyed with us saying "Chai tea", since it's a redundancy. Chai is a tea-based beverage. Chai can't mean anything else.

[shura]

4 hours ago, Daff said:

Does Liam live in the Hudson Valley, too? 

In the world of the show he does, I don’t know about real life.  He had a Halloween party on the same night Sam and Jay had theirs.

[christie]

I wanted to ask this before and then forgot but, with all this talk about there not being another teen ghost around, how old is Sass supposed to be? Roman Zaragoza looks young (I don't know how old he is) and there's something very boyish in the way he plays Sass so, I always thought that Sass was in his late teens.

[shapeshifter]

16 minutes ago, christie said:

I wanted to ask this before and then forgot but, with all this talk about there not being another teen ghost around, how old is Sass supposed to be? Roman Zaragoza looks young (I don't know how old he is) and there's something very boyish in the way he plays Sass so, I always thought that Sass was in his late teens.

Roman Zaragoza is just 26. I thought he was a little older — probably because Sass has been a ghost for so long. 

[appositival]

20 hours ago, iMonrey said:

My big LOL moment was when they were all guessing baseball movies and Flower shouted "Barbarella!"

I'll wager she thinks it's a documentary.

I like all forms of tea, real and invented. They could include Trevor by having several different teas (get a sample pack) to smell and describe. Trevor may not care about tea, but he should be adept at smelling and describing by now. Lapsang souchong has a fairly unique smokey odor.

Not to harsh anyone's buzz, but black tea is just green tea that is oxidized. I always wondered if that started as a joke on explorers in China and then just became a way for merchants to unload their spoiled tea.

[Sarahsmile416]

I love tea and I love Diet Peach Snapple…so I totally could have been a third (or fifth) for that double date….

[Tachi Rocinante]

Rock, paper, scissors, AXE!

[iMonrey]

Quote

I like tea, but I wouldn't want to spend a whole date discussing it.

And yet here we are on page 2 still discussing it! (I like Chai spiced green tea, decaf, thank you.) And Trevor should have known none of them would have ever had a Snapple, but I guess he was really grasping at straws.

Quote

Roman Zaragoza is just 26. I thought he was a little older — probably because Sass has been a ghost for so long.

Yeah he's definitely the youngest ghost after Stephanie. I'm not sure how old Crash is supposed to be - he actually looked like a teen in the pilot episode but the more recent actor to play him looked older than that.

For those other olds like me, I remember when "Not!" was a big new thing everyone was doing. It was a great callback to the 80s for Stephanie's character. And I got a kick out of Thor "discovering" it for himself. "She change whole meaning of sentence with one word."

Also loved "Very sad. Sass make up girlfriend."

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Also loved "Very sad. Sass make up girlfriend."

I didn't understands this.
Was Thor pretending to not remember Sass's girlfriend because Thor has been hanging out with Flower, who we now know sometimes "forgets" stuff even when she does remember? 
And, if so, I guess it was supposed to be funny?
About as funny as chopping off poor Pete's hand? 
😱

[Chit Chat]

2 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Was Thor pretending to not remember Sass's girlfriend because Thor has been hanging out with Flower, who we now know sometimes "forgets" stuff even when she does remember? 

I didn't understand his "forgetfulness" either!  That conversation was rather odd.

4 hours ago, appositival said:

Trevor may not care about tea, but he should be adept at smelling and describing by now. Lapsang souchong has a fairly unique smokey odor.

If Trevor was from the South, he could've debated for at least 20 minutes on the age-old debate of iced tea vs. no ice; and sweetened or unsweetened tea!  Or he could explain what a Long Island iced tea is.  So many possibilities!!  Hetty mentioned that he couldn't contribute to the conversation about steam engines either.  Was it trains he didn't know much about either?   I like that they had the pretend fight and "broke up."  I think it'll be more interesting for them to go back into the shadows with their tryst. 

[Skooma]

36 minutes ago, Chit Chat said:

... Hetty mentioned that he couldn't contribute to the conversation about steam engines either.  Was it trains he didn't know much about either?

Just off the top of my head aka something called googling ...

Before combustion (gas/diesel) and/or electric engines there were steam engines in the 1800's.  The first was actually credited to an Englishman way back in 1712. But it took awhile before they became practical for use.

The invention of the steam engine caused Robert Fulton to invent the first "steamboat" in 1807 thus changing travel forever.  1814 was the first time a steam engine was used to create a "steam train." 

The late 1800's were the high water mark of the steam engine era thus the template for the "steam punk" fad that likes to glorify it complete with costumes of the era thrown in.  Combustion (gas/diesel) and electric engines ended the rule of steam engines.

And engines are engines, not trains.  Steam engines were once used on trains of course just as they were used in said factories and mills and ships and very VERY early prototype cars. 

The confusion comes from referring to the old time trains that used steam engines as opposed to diesel or electric as "steam engines" as a general term for the whole train.  (Same with the term "steamships").

(Just filling in for Hetty here with this info, haha).

Edited April 29, 2023 by Skooma

[PaulE]

19 hours ago, Annber03 said:

My favorite aspect of the tea discussion was Trevor asking Isaac and Nigel if they'd ever had Snapple :p. 

Yes, Trevor taking it for granted that of course Snapple would have existed in the eighteenth century!  I think Trevor's the sort of person who, if you asked him what time it was, would respond "Now! Now! Now!"

[Annber03]

6 hours ago, iMonrey said:

For those other olds like me, I remember when "Not!" was a big new thing everyone was doing. It was a great callback to the 80s for Stephanie's character. And I got a kick out of Thor "discovering" it for himself. "She change whole meaning of sentence with one word."

I also liked that because it made me think of that episode from the first season where Thor learned about "Maaaaaaaaybe..." :D. I like the continuity of him learning how to use words like this to get a particular meaning across :p. 

[chaifan]

I loved how Stephanie was just so nonchalant in trying to split everyone up.  And I loved how Nancy ratted her out. 

I will admit, I'm not thrilled with the restaurant plot.  I hope they take a long time to actually get to that point, if ever.  Too many characters already and not enough time for them all.  I feel like Alberta had 2 lines this week, and there's been far too little of Sass for much of the season.  I do like Nancy popping in every once in a while.  Small doses of Nancy are just enough, and she's funny.

Back in Season 1 sometime, I commented that it would be cute if they looped Mark into the ghosts, and it could be done via his son.  Mark & Jay could get locked in the vault, or some similar predicament, Sam isn't around, and the ghosts have to get Mark's son to save them.  The kid might be too old at this point, though, so maybe they have to create a younger brother that's still young enough to see the ghosts.  I also thought it would be a nice twist if Mark had remarked (way earlier, on one of his first days there) that his great great Aunt Alberta had died there.  Maybe Mark will get electrocuted and thrown into a ghost for an afternoon.

 

[SoMuchTV]

7 hours ago, iMonrey said:

For those other olds like me, I remember when "Not!" was a big new thing everyone was doing. It was a great callback to the 80s for Stephanie's character. And I got a kick out of Thor "discovering" it for himself. "She change whole meaning of sentence with one word."

I also noticed that during that same conversation, Thor was using some “big” word correctly and without calling any attention to it. I want to say “specific” or something similar. Thor have very selective vocabulary!

[appositival]

5 hours ago, Chit Chat said:

5 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Was Thor pretending to not remember Sass's girlfriend because Thor has been hanging out with Flower, who we now know sometimes "forgets" stuff even when she does remember? 

I didn't understand his "forgetfulness" either!  That conversation was rather odd.

I really think Thor was just messing with Sass about having a real girlfriend in an imaginary landboat. Thor have dark sense of humor and enjoy throwing old people off of cliffs (please hear this in Thorfin's voice).

[Mabinogia]

1 hour ago, appositival said:

I really think Thor was just messing with Sass about having a real girlfriend in an imaginary landboat.

I think Thor was definitely just messing with Sass. Like he does with Pete and acting like he doesn't know specific words. I think it's how he amuses himself. After a few thousand years Thor find amusement where Thor can.

I also love owls. Maybe When I die I can be Thor and Flower's third. lol

I absolutely love how this show handled the whole secret sneaker/interview plot, truly cementing Sam and Jay as the greatest television couple since Gomez and Morticia. Most shows would have had them fight about it, but Sam and Jay actually talked and more importantly listened to each other. I think Sam doesn't realize how lonely it is there for Jay. She's not lonely because she has the ghosts, and while she does make an effort to include him, it really isn't the same. Jay was able to say it and she listened and came up with a solution. And now Jay has a friend!!!! I still wish he and Pete could communicate though. 

[basil]

5 hours ago, chaifan said:

Maybe Mark will get electrocuted and thrown into a ghost for an afternoon.

Wrong way 'round, I think? The ghosts get thrown into the livings.

My favorite line of the show?

 

Quote

"Now take me, you bare-assed libertine!"

 

[Chit Chat]

On 4/28/2023 at 6:09 PM, possibilities said:

I think for some people, tea is like wine-- something that needs extended description and signals your place in society.

I think it would be fun to sit and listen to Hetty, Isaac & Nigel discuss, in their serious tones, all things tea!  There are times when the ghosts mentioned how bored they were, so I guess they have gotten good at stretching out conversations, or finding mundane things, like ants, fascinating to watch!  

[iMonrey]

Quote

Was Thor pretending to not remember Sass's girlfriend because Thor has been hanging out with Flower, who we now know sometimes "forgets" stuff even when she does remember?

I'd have to go back and watch, but it's quite possible Thor genuinely does not remember Jessica. I can't remember whether he ever saw her or not. There was a group of ghosts that first saw her in the car but I can't remember if Thor was one of them.

Edited April 30, 2023 by iMonrey

[possibilities]

I thought that having Thor tease Sass about the girlfriend was not funny.

Either Thor really doesn't know, in which case the story could have been about the other ghosts telling him what he missed and maybe a joke about how distracted he's been, or how he hates not knowing the local gossip, since he loves "reality" show gossip so much-- that could have been mildly amusing.

Or he did know and was just tormenting Sass for sport, which is flat out bullying and not funny, and at least the show could have made it into a story about dealing with bullies, rather than just letting it drop as a passing thing with no dimension, as though torturing Sass is supposed to be inherently funny. They've made a point multiple times about how lonely and bored and borderline depressed Sass is. So, sure, have him be bullied on top of all that. Ha Ha? Not!

 

Edited April 30, 2023 by possibilities
remove bizarre repetitions of identical paragraphs.

[eel21788]

On 4/28/2023 at 4:11 PM, basil said:

Jay lies to Sam all of the time. 

He tries to. The ghosts don't let him get away with it.

[PattyorSelma]

When Ralph took off his glasses, I immediately thought,  "Wait! They can change their appearance?! Get some pants for Trevor! Cut the ends off Pete's arrow!!"  Then I had to wonder why I was trying to make sense of whether or not a ghost can take off his glasses.  I love how we try to logically rationalize the ghostly abilities. 

[PaulE]

5 hours ago, Chit Chat said:

I think it would be fun to sit and listen to Hetty, Isaac & Nigel discuss, in their serious tones, all things tea!  There are times when the ghosts mentioned how bored they were, so I guess they have gotten good at stretching out conversations, or finding mundane things, like ants, fascinating to watch!  

Exactly.  It's a bit sad, really.  I doubt they'd be reduced to watching ants, discussing tea, or holding weekly ponder sessions if they weren't ghosts and could actually do things for themselves.  You gotta do what you gotta do . . .

[kathyk24]

6 hours ago, PaulE said:

Exactly.  It's a bit sad, really.  I doubt they'd be reduced to watching ants, discussing tea, or holding weekly ponder sessions if they weren't ghosts and could actually do things for themselves.  You gotta do what you gotta do . . .

That's why Sam is so important to them. She has opened up the world to the ghosts. Pete and Trevor would never know what happened to their families without her.

[ZuluQueenOfDwarves]

On 4/29/2023 at 7:00 PM, chaifan said:

  I feel like Alberta had 2 lines this week, and there's been far too little of Sass for much of the season. 

Maybe I’m biased in my deep, abiding love for Román Zaragoza, but I feel like Sass hasn’t done anything story wise since the tree episode. Even getting a girlfriend was pretty lackluster. She just showed up and boom, they’re dating. 

[Chit Chat]

32 minutes ago, ZuluQueenOfDwarves said:

Maybe I’m biased in my deep, abiding love for Román Zaragoza, but I feel like Sass hasn’t done anything story wise since the tree episode.

I'm hoping that there's a Sass centered episode in the future.  I want to know more about him!  This show needs to be an hour long! 

[iMonrey]

OK so I went back and watched all three episodes with Jessica. She and Thor were never in a scene together, so a case could be made that he never actually saw her. However, he was certainly aware of her, because at one point he asked Sass how things were going with the "landship ghost." So he was present when there were conversations about her.

I'm still of the opinion that Thor genuinely does not remember her though. I really don't see him deliberately messing with Sass like that, he is "oldest friend." Maybe if Sass had said "landship ghost" it would have jogged his memory.

[chaifan]

17 hours ago, PaulE said:

Exactly.  It's a bit sad, really.  I doubt they'd be reduced to watching ants, discussing tea, or holding weekly ponder sessions if they weren't ghosts and could actually do things for themselves.  You gotta do what you gotta do . . .

I think Stephanie has the right idea... sleep for months at a time, and "have a life" a few days or so each year.  So yeah, she's been dead for 40 years, but has experienced less than a year of it in all that time.  That's one way of getting around the boredom of eternal afterlife. 

[Snow Apple]

I wonder if they had entertainment before Sam showed up. Surely previous owners had parties or had friends over from time to time. Didn't any of the owners have a radio or TV from at least the 1950's onward? They can't ask the owner to turn it on, but they can watch whatever the homeowner listen/watch.

[lh25]

On 4/29/2023 at 12:14 PM, PaulE said:

Yes, Trevor taking it for granted that of course Snapple would have existed in the eighteenth century!  I think Trevor's the sort of person who, if you asked him what time it was, would respond "Now! Now! Now!"

I took that totally different.  That he was feeling left out of the conversation, so brought up something he knew they wouldn't understand.

[Mabinogia]

5 hours ago, chaifan said:

I think Stephanie has the right idea... sleep for months at a time, and "have a life" a few days or so each year.  So yeah, she's been dead for 40 years, but has experienced less than a year of it in all that time.  That's one way of getting around the boredom of eternal afterlife. 

As someone who loves sleeping and gets bored easily, that would be my afterlife gameplan. Wake up once a year, get the other ghosts to give me a rundown of what went on, catch a nice sunset, then back to bed. 

[iMonrey]

Quote

Didn't any of the owners have a radio or TV from at least the 1950's onward? They can't ask the owner to turn it on, but they can watch whatever the homeowner listen/watch.

There had apparently never been a TV before Sam and Jay moved in because Thor had never seen one. He thought it was a "magic window." Which is weird because even though the previous owner might have been really old and never got a TV, her son was one of those frat bros that got Trevor killed, so he must have grown up in that house. Hard to believe he wouldn't have wanted a TV. Then again, maybe they were too far away to pick up broadcast TV signals and cable wasn't available in that area. Sam and Jay might have installed a satellite dish.

[Check Sanity]

On 4/28/2023 at 12:03 PM, iMonrey said:

I watched last season's episode with Stephanie before this one, and her hair has changed a little. It was a bit fuller and less frizzy/stringy than last time.

 

Which is weird because their lives were separated by over 100 years. It goes to show how little things had changed, at least socially, between the 1700s and 1800s, versus the 1900s and present day. (And did they really have green tea in the 1700s?)

 

Mark said the barn had "good bones" but it looked to me like it was about to fall apart, the walls were mere slats you could see through. And if Mark is going to be around all the time now I wonder if he'll eventually realize the place is haunted, like Freddie did.

Ah! I was trying to put my finger on what about her looked different/off from last time. I thought maybe her having freckles/more blush. 
 

The amount of change that’s occurred during the 20th century to now has been far greater and more rapid than any other time in history. Humans haven’t changed much, but societal structures, tools, means of production, weapons, etc., have all evolved and greatly impacted what daily life looks like for the majority of people on the planet. Exceptions being the handful or less of no-contact tribes in places like the Amazon and Papua New Guinea.  

That said, human’s ability and curiosity for travel and exploration was nothing new. Long before when Nigel and Isaac would have lived and died, people traded for a long time prior to empire expansion and colonization. Thor’s Vikings got around. 

 

As @Starchild noted, “good bones” is in regards to the structure, a solid frame and support beams, foundation, sensible floor plan, roof, etc. Mark listed the roof along with the “good bones”. He probably looked at it when going through the rest of the property. At first, I thought he was referring to where Nigel used to live. 

On 4/28/2023 at 8:59 PM, Starchild said:

The frame/beams maybe? Walls are easy to replace but the frame would be more work.

So far all evidence points to Jay being quite skilled and creative. I would bet he could garner a strong  enough reputation.

It would help cut the boredom during all that eternity.

 

I keep hearing that Indians get annoyed with us saying "Chai tea", since it's a redundancy. Chai is a tea-based beverage. Chai can't mean anything else.

Yes! Exactly, Jay’s been shown to be quite talented. Sippr isn’t the only good review the B&B has had. There was also that “orgasmic” one. Plus the notoriously picky Yelp couple. 

I’ve been told chai directly translates to “tea,” so yes, it’s 100% redundant to say “chai tea.” It often gets listed among other silly translations, but I’m blanking right now. 

On 4/29/2023 at 11:35 AM, iMonrey said:

For those other olds like me, I remember when "Not!" was a big new thing everyone was doing. It was a great callback to the 80s for Stephanie's character. And I got a kick out of Thor "discovering" it for himself. "She change whole meaning of sentence with one word."

Also loved "Very sad. Sass make up girlfriend."

See it’s that type of specific realization and interest in language that leads me to believe that Thor is far smarter than the others usually give him credit for. I actually think, that’s the something he truly has in common with Flower. They’re both more complex than the surface would indicate and they’re both frequently underestimated for it. 

On 4/29/2023 at 1:40 PM, shapeshifter said:

I didn't understands this.
Was Thor pretending to not remember Sass's girlfriend because Thor has been hanging out with Flower, who we now know sometimes "forgets" stuff even when she does remember? 
And, if so, I guess it was supposed to be funny?
About as funny as chopping off poor Pete's hand? 
😱

That sometimes “forgets” stuff is a great observation. 

It’s funny because it’s mostly harmless. Did we laugh at Jay trying to walk through Trevor? Then much later when he accidentally high fived Trevor in the face? I did. 
I figure the ax hurt about as much as a human walking through them, maybe less—wrist is a smaller surface area. 

On 4/29/2023 at 1:52 PM, Chit Chat said:

I didn't understand his "forgetfulness" either!  That conversation was rather odd.

If Trevor was from the South, he could've debated for at least 20 minutes on the age-old debate of iced tea vs. no ice; and sweetened or unsweetened tea!  Or he could explain what a Long Island iced tea is.  So many possibilities!!  Hetty mentioned that he couldn't contribute to the conversation about steam engines either.  Was it trains he didn't know much about either?   I like that they had the pretend fight and "broke up."  I think it'll be more interesting for them to go back into the shadows with their tryst. 

Ha! Him explaining Long Island iced tea would have been great! Hetty would have approved considering what Coca Cola initially was made of... 

On 4/29/2023 at 5:47 PM, Annber03 said:

I also liked that because it made me think of that episode from the first season where Thor learned about "Maaaaaaaaybe..." :D. I like the continuity of him learning how to use words like this to get a particular meaning across :p. 

Exactly! Continuity! He has fun with words and language. As a Viking he likely was exposed to plenty. 

On 4/29/2023 at 7:13 PM, SoMuchTV said:

I also noticed that during that same conversation, Thor was using some “big” word correctly and without calling any attention to it. I want to say “specific” or something similar. Thor have very selective vocabulary!

Words are fun!

Is my bias for languages/linguistics/writing coming through yet? 😉

On 4/30/2023 at 1:30 PM, possibilities said:

I thought that having Thor tease Sass about the girlfriend was not funny.

Either Thor really doesn't know, in which case the story could have been about the other ghosts telling him what he missed and maybe a joke about how distracted he's been, or how he hates not knowing the local gossip, since he loves "reality" show gossip so much-- that could have been mildly amusing.

Or he did know and was just tormenting Sass for sport, which is flat out bullying and not funny, and at least the show could have made it into a story about dealing with bullies, rather than just letting it drop as a passing thing with no dimension, as though torturing Sass is supposed to be inherently funny. They've made a point multiple times about how lonely and bored and borderline depressed Sass is. So, sure, have him be bullied on top of all that. Ha Ha? Not!

Bullying and pulling a long con joke on a close friend are not the same thing. Sass has pulled equally as “questionable” behaviour for his own drama entertainment*. If Thor realized he was hurting Sass he wouldn’t do it. It’s been established he’s quite the emotional softy.

Also, Sass is not the only one that makes comments about boredom and loneliness. They all have and do. Isaac hid Crash’s head! Jay overtly shared his loneliness this episode! As did Stephanie.

Has Sass mentioned it more often or are people projecting? I’d actually be curious to find that out. 

Something I’ve noticed is everyone giving credit to Pete for noticing Thor’s word use, when Alberta had done the exact same thing a few episodes before. 
 

*see below for further Sass/Thor friendship commentary 

23 hours ago, PaulE said:

Exactly.  It's a bit sad, really.  I doubt they'd be reduced to watching ants, discussing tea, or holding weekly ponder sessions if they weren't ghosts and could actually do things for themselves.  You gotta do what you gotta do . . .

I think people have a very poor sense of how people spent their time in the past. Humans seriously haven’t changed much, our norms and understanding of the world, sure, but not how we interact and behave. The main difference is access to information and distraction. 

All three of the ant watchers likely would have still been interested if they were alive. There are people who are alive now and are. Same with tea parties, the only difference would be actually being able to drink and taste the tea and not needing to talk about it from a far off memory or primarily focusing on scent. 

6 hours ago, iMonrey said:

OK so I went back and watched all three episodes with Jessica. She and Thor were never in a scene together, so a case could be made that he never actually saw her. However, he was certainly aware of her, because at one point he asked Sass how things were going with the "landship ghost." So he was present when there were conversations about her.

I'm still of the opinion that Thor genuinely does not remember her though. I really don't see him deliberately messing with Sass like that, he is "oldest friend." Maybe if Sass had said "landship ghost" it would have jogged his memory.

I absolutely see him messing with Sass like that, mostly because it’s likely Sass is the one he learned to do it from! Let’s not pretend like close friends don’t mess with each other from time to time. 

The sense I got from this episode was that some scenes got cut/added/moved around. Particularly because of this being the only scene with Sass. 

5 hours ago, Snow Apple said:

I wonder if they had entertainment before Sam showed up. Surely previous owners had parties or had friends over from time to time. Didn't any of the owners have a radio or TV from at least the 1950's onward? They can't ask the owner to turn it on, but they can watch whatever the homeowner listen/watch.

Sam’s (great?) aunt and Hetty’s descendant had a TV, but it was old and she only had a few channels/always had it set to the same, if I recall? She probably listened to the radio more. Still, yes, there were times of guests and parties but those aren’t really frequent occasions. The B&B with Sam and Jay, is probably the most activity of new people and things to observe than any other time on the property. 

Edited May 1, 2023 by Check Sanity

[PaulE]

45 minutes ago, Check Sanity said:

think people have a very poor sense of how people spent their time in the past. Humans seriously haven’t changed much, our norms and understanding of the world, sure, but not how we interact and behave. The main difference is access to information and distraction. 

All three of the ant watchers likely would have still been interested if they were alive. There are people who are alive now and are. Same with tea parties, the only difference would be actually being able to drink and taste the tea and not needing to talk about it from a far off memory or primarily focusing on scent. 

6 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I actually agree with you.  In fact, as a child I was fascinated by ants, and I remember you used to be able to buy (maybe you still can) ant farms, which I think was basically dirt between panes of glass which would allow you to watch the ants dig tunnels, etc.  What I guess I was really trying to say is that the ghosts have to depend on these activities to an extreme extent because they have such limited options.  Think about it: Nigel lives in the library and we know he likes to read and has cultured tastes because he was reading a book of poetry when Isaac shot him, so it seems like the ideal situation.  Yet all he can do is look at the titles; in order for him to actually read one of the books, Sam would have to open it and stand there turning the pages for him.  Most of the things people used to do to pass the time, such as singing around the piano, playing board games, reading, painting, aren't possible for the ghosts.

And that gets me to wondering: Could Trevor possibly turn pages on an e-reader via the touchscreen?  That would be cool.  Except I don't exactly peg Trevor as a great reader!

[Chit Chat]

3 hours ago, PaulE said:

Could Trevor possibly turn pages on an e-reader via the touchscreen? 

That would be helpful!  Maybe Sam could buy some audio books for the ghosts.  She could set it up for them with the agreement that they would have to sit through an entire book without bothering her to come back and pause it for whatever reason. That would get expensive though if they all want audio books. 

[ams1001]

45 minutes ago, Chit Chat said:

That would be helpful!  Maybe Sam could buy some audio books for the ghosts.  She could set it up for them with the agreement that they would have to sit through an entire book without bothering her to come back and pause it for whatever reason. That would get expensive though if they all want audio books. 

The local library probably has ebooks and audiobooks online. And Trevor could do ebooks if they set up a tablet or something, right?

[shapeshifter]

6 hours ago, Check Sanity said:

Bullying and pulling a long con joke on a close friend are not the same thing. Sass has pulled equally as “questionable” behaviour for his own drama entertainment*. If Thor realized he was hurting Sass he wouldn’t do it. It’s been established he’s quite the emotional softy.

Maybe. But now I'm considering that Thor's claiming to not believe Sass's car ghost gf ever existed is an attempt to get his old friend to forget her and move on.

[possibilities]

19 hours ago, iMonrey said:

maybe they were too far away to pick up broadcast TV signals and cable wasn't available in that area

That is what I think. I live in a rural area and we only got broadband in the past 3 years, we still don't have cable, and some places couldn't even get satellite service. There were A LOT of people here who didn't have TV. 

It's surprising for anyone wealthy enough to own a mansion and could afford things not routinely available, but then I had a mother in a densely populated place who didn't let me watch TV as a kid, because she thought "Tv rots your brain" so I can handwave that was a factor at Woodstone, too.

[possibilities]

The people I spend time with don't prank each other. All of us consider it to be juvenile and obnoxious behavior, so, while I agree some people think that sort of thing is funny, it's not a universal. And we certainly didn't see Sass being in on the joke. We didn't even see Thor admit that was what he was doing, which is usually the "punch line" or resolution to a prank. The whole thing was oddly unresolved, I thought. 

[eel21788]

1 hour ago, possibilities said:

I had a mother in a densely populated place who didn't let me watch TV as a kid, because she thought "Tv rots your brain" 

We could be siblings, although my father claimed my mother's aversion to TV was "it was a communist plot to soften our brains" just like putting fluoride in the water. I don't think my mother watched more than 2 TV shows start to finish in her entire life.

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, possibilities said:

I had a mother in a densely populated place who didn't let me watch TV as a kid, because she thought "Tv rots your brain" 

1 minute ago, eel21788 said:

We could be siblings, although my father claimed my mother's aversion to TV was "it was a communist plot to soften our brains" just like putting fluoride in the water. I don't think my mother watched more than 2 TV shows start to finish in her entire life.

I was your mother, except my reason was that I was a TV addict. I gave TV up at age 14.
30 years later after I bought my oldest daughter a tiny tube TV so she could watch the video of her Senior Project of herself doing a newscast at the local TV station, I was totally hooked again and never looked back.

So maybe the last living Woodstone resident before Sam and Jay was like me, but, like your parents, preferred to go with the brain-rot excuse. The Woodstones don't seem like the sort to admit having an addiction.

 

[ItCouldBeWorse]

On 4/28/2023 at 11:15 AM, Starchild said:

Why don't I recall her trying to break up Isaac and Nigel? Did she?

She probably wasn't jealous of their relationship. She was focused on straight couples. 

On 4/28/2023 at 12:56 PM, Browncoat said:

A restaurant coupled with the B&B is absolutely do-able.  Google The Inn at Little Washington in Virginia.  Granted, that restaurant is Michelin-starred, and the hotel part is a five-star, but it didn't start out that way.

They're going to need to hire a lot of staff to help cook breakfast at the B & B, help Jay at the restaurant. . . . He can't be up late at night and early in the morning doing all the cooking.  And would B & B guests still have the option of a (non-breakfast) meal there, if the restaurant was out of their price range?  Maybe Jay could try out new recipes on the B & B guests, at a lower price point.

On 4/28/2023 at 1:27 PM, DanaK said:

Why didn't the basement ghost's glasses return to his face?

On 4/28/2023 at 6:06 PM, Chit Chat said:

I wondered that too.  There was a scene awhile back where one of the ghosts had a similar thing happen, and whatever it was they were holding reverted right back to the spot on their body where it was originally.  I can't, for the life of me, remember that scene and who it was! 

On 4/28/2023 at 6:20 PM, iMonrey said:

If you remember the episode "Ghostwriter," Sass took the feather out of his hair and tried to hand it to Sam, whereupon it popped right back onto his head. So Ralph can take his glasses off, he just can't set them down or hand them to someone else, that's when they'd pop back onto his face.

Hetty must be able to temporarily remove her undergarments, but perhaps she has to hold onto them the whole time?

On 4/28/2023 at 7:50 PM, Annber03 said:

My favorite aspect of the tea discussion was Trevor asking Isaac and Nigel if they'd ever had Snapple :p. 

On 4/29/2023 at 11:35 AM, iMonrey said:

And Trevor should have known none of them would have ever had a Snapple, but I guess he was really grasping at straws.

Yeah, he wasn't thinking too clearly there.

On 4/29/2023 at 11:35 AM, iMonrey said:

Yeah he's [Sas] definitely the youngest ghost after Stephanie.

On 5/1/2023 at 11:32 AM, chaifan said:

I think Stephanie has the right idea... sleep for months at a time, and "have a life" a few days or so each year.  So yeah, she's been dead for 40 years, but has experienced less than a year of it in all that time.  That's one way of getting around the boredom of eternal afterlife. 

The problem is that since Stephanie has barely been awake over the past 40 years, she hasn't had a chance to "grow up".  Despite her claims of being 56, she's  still emotionally a teenager.   If she weren't stuck at a mental age of 16, she might be an appropriate partner for Sas.

On 4/30/2023 at 1:30 PM, possibilities said:

Or he did know and was just tormenting Sass for sport, which is flat out bullying and not funny, and at least the show could have made it into a story about dealing with bullies, rather than just letting it drop as a passing thing with no dimension, as though torturing Sass is supposed to be inherently funny. They've made a point multiple times about how lonely and bored and borderline depressed Sass is. So, sure, have him be bullied on top of all that. Ha Ha? Not!

I thought it was strange that Pete didn't back Sas up on the topic of Jessica.

Edited May 3, 2023 by ItCouldBeWorse