S04.E22: The Devil Went Down to Woodstone

[Katy M]

I don't like Patience.

How stupid is Baela?  she knows that the ghosts are in the house distracting Patience and she goes to the house and just loudly proclaims the plan. 

 

 

[iMonrey]

6 hours ago, Orbert said:

Crash was there!  And of course he didn't have any lines, but hey, he was there. 😀

So were Baxter and Jenkins. No Carol though.

The actress who plays Carol had a recurring role on Curb Your Enthusiasm. I recently caught an old episode of that and it was driving me crazy trying to remember where I knew her from. Then I realized, it was Carol! And that was about 20 years ago.

[PaulE]

6 hours ago, Chit Chat said:

Sadly, for Patience, she's a product of her upbringing & environment.  I'm not making excuses for that particular group, but as for Patience, she probably knows nothing different.  I can cut her some slack for that.  

I was hoping when they brought her character on board that she would be on the show a little more.  I would've liked to have seen her interact with the other ghosts and possibly learned to like the modern world, at least a little bit!  Instead, she's a scared soul who is trapped by ages old thinking.  I'd like her to find peace and then get "sucked off."  

We've already been given a small glimpse of a possible rebellious streak in Patience when she did her little dance moves, remember?  Also, when she decided to return to the dirt, didn't she say something to the effect that she didn't belong in the mansion?  Whatever she actually said, I remember thinking she sounded sad, which led me to think that actually she was quite lonely.  I think she can't understand why people don't like her--remember, even her fellow Puritans told her to get lost--but she wants to belong like everyone else.  So I think we might eventually see her shed some of her extreme rigidity if the writers keep her around next season.  But she seems to be the sort of person who runs to extremes and has no sense of proportion, so if she does loosen up she might go hog-wild, rather like the pervy Farnsworth Puritan who reconsidered his views after he didn't go directly to heaven.

[ebk57]

9 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

So were Baxter and Jenkins. No Carol though.

The actress who plays Carol had a recurring role on Curb Your Enthusiasm. I recently caught an old episode of that and it was driving me crazy trying to remember where I knew her from. Then I realized, it was Carol! And that was about 20 years ago.

She was in an Off-Broadway play that just closed at the end of April, so that's possibly why she wasn't available for this episode.

[Harvey]

11 hours ago, Bastet said:

I think AI is a huge deal, one we as a society are going to pay for dearly, and using it to replace artists disgusts me in a particular way (and I'm not even an artist).

Ok but like, this is the most natural thing in the world. New technologies always replaced human labor.

• Pinsetters in Bowling Alleys were phased out by automatic pinsetting machines. In the past the pins were replaced manually. 
• Switchboard Operators: Automated telephone exchanges made manual connection of calls obsolete.
• Factory Workers: Robots and automated machinery now perform many assembly line tasks more efficiently.

And the list goes on. In the past people thought using cars instead of horses was immoral and bad, but nobody would say that today. 

In this case people are acting like the ghosts in this show, stuck in their old way of thinking and applying the standards of their past ideology to current times. Like when Hetty criticized Sam's make-up which was conservative by today's standards.

[shura]

19 hours ago, iMonrey said:

There are a few plot holes here. If Patience is a threat to ruin a social function, Sam can ask Thor to put her in the vault for the duration. This is exactly what she threatened to do to Elias in an earlier episode when he was threatening to make trouble. Now they seem to have conveniently forgotten about it.

Well, it wouldn’t have really solved the problem anyway.  If you lock her in the vault just for the duration, you run the risk that she will come out all aggravated and wanting revenge and looking to ruin some other guests’ experience.  So you get the same problem, only later.  You could keep her in the vault forever, I suppose, but that seems excessive.  I say just paint the walls red, it’s not like it’s going to wreck the barn ambiance of their fine establishment that much.

10 hours ago, Katy M said:

How stupid is Baela?  she knows that the ghosts are in the house distracting Patience and she goes to the house and just loudly proclaims the plan. 

Yes, that was not her proudest moment.  In her defense, she couldn’t know that they were in that particular room, or even if they were still in the house.  It’s hard if you cannot see ghosts, you almost have to assume that they are always around and you never can say anything you wouldn’t want them to hear.  That Latvian company should develop and sell a ghost detector, maybe a lapel pin that glows when they are nearby, or something.  

[ctbookkeeper]

I think Patience is a hoot.  Like Nancy, if used sparingly and purposefully to where their character and personality fit the plot, it's very successful.

Not crazy about the Pete/Alberta coupling.  I guess...why?  I don't understand why the writers forced them together when Pete had a thing going with Donna

[iMonrey]

4 hours ago, shura said:

Well, it wouldn’t have really solved the problem anyway.  If you lock her in the vault just for the duration, you run the risk that she will come out all aggravated and wanting revenge and looking to ruin some other guests’ experience.  So you get the same problem, only later.  You could keep her in the vault forever, I suppose, but that seems excessive.

There could be consequences, sure, but it bugs me that they didn't even consider it. They have options. They don't need to act like Patience is omnipotent and holds all the cards. I liked when Sam referred to Thor as her "muscle." I wish she would remember that.

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, ctbookkeeper said:

Not crazy about the Pete/Alberta coupling.  I guess...why?  I don't understand why the writers forced them together when Pete had a thing going with Donna

If it was a choice between Pete & Donna or Pete & Alberta, the show's casting demands Alberta. 
Hopefully Pete & Alberta can get their yayas out over the break, and then come back in the fall as friendly exes.

[chaifan]

I am generally someone who balks at every show having to have everyone nicely coupled off.  But I'm ok with it on this show, simply because the ghosts are capable of having ghost sex.  (Even if we're not quite sure to what level of satisfaction.)  For most of us, living an eternity without sex would be awful.  They only have each other to couple (or throuple) up with, so why wouldn't they be coupling off, breaking up, recoupling, etc.?  This is a group that uses backrubs as currency, after all.  It would make sense if Trevor and Flower hooked up soon after Trevor's death, and continued as friends with benefits this whole time. 

So Pete & Alberta?  Yeah, I'm on board with that.  She deserves a little somethin' somethin' after almost 100 years.   

[amarante]

20 hours ago, ams1001 said:

I always roll my eyes when I see people talking about the Founders and religious freedom and then cite the Puritans. The Puritans came for their own religious freedom, not anyone else's, and they weren't the Founding Fathers.

 

 

The Founding Fathers were almost all Deists which is a belief in "rationality" instead of religion.

They were probably atheists but at that time it was acceptable to be a Deist versus being a complete apostate. 

[Driad]

2 hours ago, chaifan said:

So Pete & Alberta?  Yeah, I'm on board with that.  She deserves a little somethin' somethin' after almost 100 years.   

She did get a lot of somethin' somethin' when the Polterguest visited.

[Phebemarie]

It would have been nice to draw out Alberta's crush on Pete a little longer.  She's only acknowledged feelings for him an episode ago.  Maybe the chemistry would be stronger if there was a little more of a build up.  

[shapeshifter]

3 minutes ago, Phebemarie said:

It would have been nice to draw out Alberta's crush on Pete a little longer.  She's only acknowledged feelings for him an episode ago.  Maybe the chemistry would be stronger if there was a little more of a build up.  

It was enough for me. I'm glad Alberta's hots for Pete didn't become the new go-to for ghost-sex joke now that Sass is no longer a virgin. 
And I am so glad the show doesn't do embarrassing (to me) voyeuristic sex scenes — even if they're only skipping them because the show's only got 20 minutes per week.

[kav]

On 5/9/2025 at 9:50 AM, appositival said:

I liked that Issac 'defeated' the British by surrendering.

I'm assuming that Patience will want to go to hell. Go for the torture, stay to fight Satan. Sounds like her version of Heaven.

So she could be the Woodstone soul that he gets?

[Bastet]

Good grief, I finally watched and the Pete/Alberta stuff made me cringe even more than I expected.  Bless the actors for trying to sell it, but I ain't buying.

[Skooma]

On 5/9/2025 at 4:48 PM, Orbert said:

Crash was there!  And of course he didn't have any lines, but hey, he was there. 😀

Well to be fair he would have had to have found his head again to have any lines.  😁

In one of the interviews above the person asked if Elias chasing Jay around next season would be a Wile E. Coyote / Road Runner thing.  The producer laughed and said he hadn't thought of that and the story arc hasn't begun on Season 5's start yet.

But now I can't get that image out of my head.  Jay would be so cool going "Beep! Beep!" every time Elias fails.

Edited Sunday at 03:12 AM by Skooma

[kathyk2]

11 hours ago, chaifan said:

I am generally someone who balks at every show having to have everyone nicely coupled off.  But I'm ok with it on this show, simply because the ghosts are capable of having ghost sex.  (Even if we're not quite sure to what level of satisfaction.)  For most of us, living an eternity without sex would be awful.  They only have each other to couple (or throuple) up with, so why wouldn't they be coupling off, breaking up, recoupling, etc.?  This is a group that uses backrubs as currency, after all.  It would make sense if Trevor and Flower hooked up soon after Trevor's death, and continued as friends with benefits this whole time. 

So Pete & Alberta?  Yeah, I'm on board with that.  She deserves a little somethin' somethin' after almost 100 years.   

The Ghosts died when they were young and some of them never found love so why not in the afterlife? They are so limited in what they can do but they can touch each other. 

5 hours ago, kav said:

So she could be the Woodstone soul that he gets?

I want Hetty to defeat Elias. He cheated on her and was indirectly responsible for her suicide.

[iMonrey]

Hey, did we ever find out what the cherry pie in the opening titles meant? I can't remember.

All the ghosts chanting "Shame. Shame. Shame." at Alberta - very Game of Thrones.

Bela, seeing the walls bleed for the first time: "Where does the blood come from?" Jay: "We don't ask that question." I mean, but yeah - where does it come from? 

[ams1001]

9 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

Hey, did we ever find out what the cherry pie in the opening titles meant? I can't remember.

Could it be a virginity joke for Sass?

[Annber03]

Yeah, that's exactly what it was. 

[Orcinus orca]

8 hours ago, ams1001 said:

Could it be a virginity joke for Sass?

I don't believe so. That pie has been there since the first episode and the whole tiresome virginity arc came up seasons later.

[Neptune]

10 hours ago, Orcinus orca said:

I don't believe so. That pie has been there since the first episode and the whole tiresome virginity arc came up seasons later.

The pie was only for the credits this year. The items change each season. 

[chaifan]

This is the most recent article I could find discussing the easter eggs in the opening credits.   And...  it doesn't say what the cherry pie is all about!  

https://www.cinemablend.com/television/most-ghosts-season-4-opening-credits-easter-eggs-been-revealed-im-super-curious-about-reveal-to-come#viafoura-comments

Anyways...  I'm really not prudish, but I've always thought the "cherry" reference to losing one's virginity is crude.  So if that's what this is in reference to, I'm disappointed in the show that they couldn't come up with anything more clever.  (Like a family of hedgehogs.)  Or, tied in an actual cherry pie, with Jay baking a cherry pie that same episode, not knowing what was happening with Sass.  

 

[proserpina65]

On 5/9/2025 at 4:48 PM, Orbert said:

Shame.  Shame!  SHAME!!

You really need a bell to ring after each "shame!".

 

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, chaifan said:

Anyways...  I'm really not prudish, but I've always thought the "cherry" reference to losing one's virginity is crude. 

Thank you.

My first guess for the pie is a George Washington reference to the myth of his having told his father "I cannot tell a lie" when he chopped down the cherry tree. 
Could Isaac have chopped down the cherry tree? 
Or would he have been a lad in England at that time? 

[Annber03]

Isaac was already represented by the vampire teeth, because of his vampire book. And none of the other ghosts had any storylines this season relating to anything with food or cherry pie. 

So yeah, that was for Sasappis, since his virginity was a big storyline throughout the season. 

[iMonrey]

17 hours ago, Annber03 said:

So yeah, that was for Sasappis, since his virginity was a big storyline throughout the season. 

But that's . . . dumb. 

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

But that's . . . dumb. 

Well, so was the entire virginity storyline, so points for consistency.

[Annber03]

7 hours ago, iMonrey said:

But that's . . . dumb. 

*Shrugs* I'm not making any value judgment on the choice of item, mind. Jjust that each item in the opening credits always ties into whatever the main storyline will be for each character throughout each season, and all the other items were accounted for already, so by process of elimination, and given the history of that particular food with that particular topic, and the fact that said topic was a big plot point for Sasappis this season, well...

And yeah, it may be kind of an outdated image for such a topic, but at the same time, considering Sasappis is a ghost and all, and this is a sitcom that airs in the early evening on CBS besides, I mean, I really don't know what other items they could've used to highlight that aspect that would still be TV-friendly. 

[iMonrey]

4 hours ago, Annber03 said:

And yeah, it may be kind of an outdated image for such a topic, but at the same time, considering Sasappis is a ghost and all, and this is a sitcom that airs in the early evening on CBS besides, I mean, I really don't know what other items they could've used to highlight that aspect that would still be TV-friendly. 

I get it. I just think it's icky. I found this season's arc for Sass to be a misfire. They would have done better to explore how he died. He clearly died young in an era and community where virginity wouldn't have been the focus. And Joan just sort of came out of left field and didn't make much sense. The character deserved better IMO.

[kathyk2]

12 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I get it. I just think it's icky. I found this season's arc for Sass to be a misfire. They would have done better to explore how he died. He clearly died young in an era and community where virginity wouldn't have been the focus. And Joan just sort of came out of left field and didn't make much sense. The character deserved better IMO.

I think the showrunners promised more than they delivered this season. They said we would learn how Sass died and that Hetty would be involved with Sam running the B&B. The older ghosts would have been virgins until marriage because premarital sex wasn't allowed.

[bunnyface]

On 5/12/2025 at 5:20 PM, Annber03 said:

Isaac was already represented by the vampire teeth, because of his vampire book. And none of the other ghosts had any storylines this season relating to anything with food or cherry pie. 

So yeah, that was for Sasappis, since his virginity was a big storyline throughout the season. 

The article does mention that Stephanie's favorite song was "Cherry Pie" and we did get a Stephanie appearance that dealt with her death in a way, so I'm choosing to believe that theory, since I don't like the Sass theory.  Works for me!

[Cowgirl]

On 5/9/2025 at 9:31 AM, tennisgurl said:

Oh no, Jay! And just after he saved the book launch! Elias trying to kill Jay to take his soul sounds like it would at least give Jay something more to do next season, its too bad its more of him having a rough time. At least he got to go to the zoo. 

The really could have a lot of fun with him getting too big for his britches, hanging with the glitterati, enjoying his fame, making Sam feel left behind. It's your typical Faustian deal with the devil. 

"Sam? I'm afraid to use the toaster!"   Bwah ha ha ha ha ha.

I know it was for narrative effect, but I was really annoyed with Bayla. She should know better than to spill a confidential story as you never know what ghost is around. 

On 5/9/2025 at 6:28 PM, chaifan said:

Someone needs to convince Patience to get in the car with the chef while he's smoking pot. 

Heh! I usually hate pot stories, but I would watch that. 

[Annber03]

I will say, regarding the cherry pie, that this is the same show that uses the phrases "sucked off", "go down", and "jerk (myself) off" with glee whenever they're able (sure, the "sucked off" bit came from the BBC version, but still, they kept it and clearly have fun with that term). 

So I guess that's why the stuff with the pie doesn't surprise or bother me, personally, 'cause this show often tries to walk that balance between thoughtful and heartwarming and silly and juvenile (and I don't mean that as an insult, just a comment on how the ghosts act like big kids much of the time :p) on a regular basis. This is just another example of that, I figure. 

[Neptune]