Spoilers ahead for the Season 1 finale of Ghosts on CBS, called “Farnsby & B.”
Ghosts got off to about as good a start as could be expected for Jay and Sam as they prepared for the imminent arrivals of their first guests, and even the discovery of termites in the basement (with commentary from the cholera ghosts) didn’t deter their plans. Unfortunately, Thorfinn came out and admitted that he’d placed a Norse curse on the house, and the Farnsbys came up with a plot to stop them from ever succeeding with their B&B. Just when it seemed like they won the day and all was well, there was an incident that could mean bad news for Jay. Or good news, depending on your perspective!
There were plenty of laughs in the Season 1 finale, and my standouts were definitely Thorfinn’s dramatic reveal that the impossible-to-procure ingredients for the potion to break the curse were a pound of sugar and dash of cinnamon. Plus, Pete being delighted by the Farnsbys naming their B&B as the “Farnsby & B” was fun, and even the news that Jay was only a pickleball expert in video games wasn’t enough to ruin their plans. They won the game against the Farnsbys by default – which, as Jay pointed out, still counts – and opened the door to welcome their guests… only for the termite-weakened floor to give out, and Sam and Jay to fall down to the basement below.
The floor giving out after they decided not to tent the house was certainly ironic in its own way, but not 100% played for laughs. Sam was moving, and Jay seemed unconscious at best. While I think it’s safe to say that this sitcom didn’t kill off Jay after just one season, he may have taken the kind of knock to the noggin that left Sam able to see ghosts early in the series. So, will he and his wife both be seeing spirits in Season 2? Co-showrunners Joe Wiseman and Joe Port didn’t deal all the details, but did weigh in on Jay’s potential injuries to TVLine, with Port saying about how concerned fans should be:
Well, I don’t know. That’s something that is left to be seen about what happens in the aftermath of their fall.
“Something that is left to be seen” seems like a pretty safe way to tease what’s to come in Season 2, but hopefully the mention of “the aftermath” means that Ghosts won’t pick up with a time jump away from what happened. Joe Wiseman chimed in on whether it’s in the realm of possibility for Jay, like Sam, to gain the ability to see ghosts after taking a big fall:
I guess anything’s possible on this show. If people want to speculate, I’m not going to ruin any sort of speculation that people want to do.
Since Ghosts has already been renewed for Season 2 but not yet given a premiere date for the 2022-2023 TV season, fans will have plenty of time to rewatch Season 1 (available streaming with a Paramount+ subscription) and speculate about what the ending means for Sam and Jay. Joe Port elaborated on his co-showrunner’s comment about speculation to explain why nothing is out of the question on Ghosts:
We have a term in writing in sitcom rooms called schmuckbait. It means like something that is a cliffhanger that could never happen or stakes that could never happen, like the main character dying. In Seinfeld, Jerry’s not going die — although they did kill George’s fiancée. But in this show, literally and genuinely, anything like that could happen. It’s well within the realm of possibilities because dying doesn’t mean saying goodbye. Now that doesn’t mean that we’re doing that with Jay at this moment. But I’m just saying there’s a higher bar for schmuckbait on this show.
Jay and Sam are both presumably going to be back in Season 2 (hopefully with the whole cast), but the co-showrunners wouldn’t confirm if both will be among the living or if Jay will also be able to interact with their spirit roommates. Personally, I would enjoy seeing Jay spend an episode or two able to see the ghosts, but some of my favorite humor of the show comes from Jay just rolling with Sam’s conversations with the ghosts.
It wouldn’t be the same if he could see them too. It would be like Trevor suddenly getting to wear pants every week! Still, changes are bound to happen anyway. Assuming that they manage to take care of the termite problem and open their B&B, there will be plenty of people around who can’t see ghosts.
For now, fans can only wait and wonder about what comes next. The end of Ghosts’ first season on CBS is one of the earliest big finales in the spring TV finale schedule, so there is plenty of exciting TV left before the end of the 2021-2022 season. For some replacement viewing options, check out our 2022 TV schedule.
