Co-showrunners Joe Wiseman and Joe Port talk to ET about Thursday's freshman closer.
Spoiler alert! Do not proceed if you have not watched Thursday's season finale of Ghosts.
The B&B is officially open for business! After a season of (supernatural) ups and downs, Sam and Jay's long journey to opening the doors of their bed and breakfast finally came to an end on the season 1 finale of Ghosts. Of course, to get to that point, they had to face a few last obstacles trigged by an annoying curse placed upon them by one of the ghosts, Thorfinn, when they arrived at the once-dilapidated manor -- including shutting down a competing B&B, the cleverly-named Farnsby&B, and Sam deciding to forego breaking the curse, which would most likely do away with her powers to see the ghosts.
"The entire first season has been about Jay and Sam getting the place ready to open the B&B. We wanted to acknowledge that and have them take that final step," co-showrunner Joe Wiseman told ET. "The Nigel-Isaac story, we've been following Isaac and his arc and the burgeoning love with Nigel. So we wanted to play that off and have that come to a satisfying moment. And then as we were writing it, we wanted to have a nice moment of reflection about how Sam's presence has changed the ghosts."
"We have that scene in the kitchen where there's the possibility [of her power to see them going away]," he explained. "It turned out to be this really nice scene where all the ghosts get to say how much she means to them. I just thought it was a very nice series moment of, 'Hey, we first met you in the very first episode. We tried to literally haunt you out of the house. We did not want you guys. And now our afterlives are forever changed by you and we're grateful for you.' It was a nice series arc for the entire group of ghosts."
"I don't think we wanted her to lose the ability to see them," co-showrunner Joe Port noted, when asked if he and Wiseman seriously considered having Sam break the Norse curse. "I think the scene and how it played out came up through the writing process and figuring out how that moment would occur. But I definitely don't think we wanted it to be executed in a way which would alter the show forever and she can't see them."
Added Wiseman: "Once the possibility was brought up, we felt like Sam couldn't go through with it. That was her sort of a way of acknowledging that, 'Yes, I don't want to go back either. Just the chance of losing you, even though it means -- if the curse is real -- that things will be easier, I'm not going to give that up.'"
But Port acknowledged that they could have had Sam go through with the curse-breaking with the sliver of hope that she'd still maintain her powers.
"Thor did say that it was a very small chance that that would change as a result of going through with the curse-breaking," he mused. "I guess we could have executed it like that. But I like what Joe's saying about how she's come so far that this thing that was a curse for her personally -- seeing these ghosts -- is now something she doesn't even want to give a sliver of a chance [of going away]. It's become such a blessing."
So while Sam and Jay's bed and breakfast has opened its doors, the finale also left a lot of lingering questions open -- and the expanding of the world -- for season 2 to potentially explore.
"Wherever Sam goes, there more than likely are some ghosts there. So we thought it was very important that when she went to the Farnsbys' house, we meet at least one ghost. There could be others. And that is something we want to do in the future, whether it's at the Farnsbys' or at other neighboring places," Wiseman teased. "We've already done a little bit of it in season 1 when she went to the magazine and met Shiki, the former love interest of Sasappis. So we definitely do want to meet some of the ghosts on neighboring properties that may have surprising connections with our home ghosts in season 2, for sure."
As for Jay, who indirectly interacted with the ghosts through unique avenues (i.e. possession, playing Dungeons & Dragons), the producers hope to find even more creative ways for him to be ingrained with the ghosts.
"One of the fun things for him will be that we're opening the B&B now, so he'll have a lot more opportunity to interact with people who can actually he can hear and see," Port joked. "And yeah, I think Jay is supportive to the point of almost jealous. I think he very much wants to be a part of Sam's world and be a part of what's going on with all the ghosts that he hears so much about. In season 2, we're going to endeavor to have him interact with them even more and do some things to attempt to help the ghosts with their situations."
"Season 2, we're going to tell stories about the stresses of running a business with your spouse," Wiseman previewed. "And then we also just want to continue delving into the backstories of all the ghosts. There's still a lot of questions that need to be answered. How did Hetty die? How did Sasappis die? We still don't know what some of the ghost powers are. I don't think we know Pete's power or Sasappis' or Hetty's. We want to continue doing fun episodes that explore different facets of the ghosts and learning their backstories a little bit more."
Wiseman and Port shared that the cast has been itching for more flashbacks in the new season. "Which I get, because we love those too," Port revealed. "I think it's a chance for them to wear different clothing."
"If the flashback is when they were alive, just being able to move stuff and hold stuff and wear something different is really fun for them. And then for the audience, it's just fun to see them in a new environment or in the house environment but from a different era," Wiseman added. "We're dying to see Alberta singing in a jazz club back in the '20s. That's something we're trying to figure out and that's something I've seen online people clamoring for as well, which I get. She's such a fun character and that'd be such a fun setting. Stuff like that."
As the duo arc out the upcoming season, they acknowledge they're very aware of what viewers are saying online via fan forums, Reddit threads and Twitter feeds. "It's just so fun to see the wide array of stuff that people react to. It's really nice. And from all the characters. On the forums we're like, 'What's your favorite character?' And you see everyone gets mentioned, which is just great," Wiseman said.
"I feel like the show, it's a very comforting, wholesome kind of show for people to watch, even though Joe and I talk about how there's so much material that's about Hetty's drug use and there's all these jokes about orgies," Port said. "But people find it very wholesome for some reason. And I think part of it is, especially since we're heading into this election year, it's going to be a divisive time, I'm sure, as it always is in American history. It's fun to see a show about all these disparate people that would've never known each other or talked to each other forced to come together in this found family and find out what unites them more than what divides them. I think there's some kind of wish fulfillment for people in that."
Season 1 of Ghosts is streaming on Paramount+.
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