[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Ghosts Season 4 Episode 16, “St. Hetty’s Day.”]
Ghosts explored a little St. Patrick’s Day magic in its latest installment as former proprietor and Woodstone-bound spirit Hetty (Rebecca Wisocky) finally uncovered her secret power.
It turns out that on St. Patrick’s Day, Hetty becomes visible to all living individuals, including Jay’s (Utkarsh Ambudkar) cousin Sunil (Asif Ali) who is visiting the B&B. When she enters the kitchen to speak with her fellow spirits, Hetty realizes that Sunil can see her just as she’s exulting the joys of celebrating her first true St. Patrick’s Day.
Struck by her appearance, he asks if she’s a guest and she mistakenly thinks he’s asked if she’s a ghost. Ultimately, he invites her on a walk and she strikes up a genuine connection with Sunil, who is fragile after a recent breakup. Despite warnings from Sam (Rose McIver) and Jay, Hetty continues to engage with Sunil, but things take a turn when he reaches out to kiss her.
When she backs away from him, he’s alarmed, but not as much as he is when he reaches out to take her hands and his go right through hers. Running into the kitchen, Sunil goes to warn Sam and Jay about the ghost, who they have to pretend they’re scared of. Hetty apologizes for scaring Sunil but declares she’s Hetty Woodstone, and that she’d been the house’s owner in the 1800s.
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She gives an emotional speech about being seen for the first time in a long time and promises Sunil he’ll one day find the perfect person who sees him for all of his strengths. It doesn’t do too much to soothe the startled man, but it’s a big moment for Hetty, who wonders if her power will last beyond St. Patrick’s Day. Unfortunately for her, it doesn’t.
Below, Wisocky opens up about Hetty’s ghost power revelation, embracing her Irish ancestry, and hopes for Sunil’s return.
What was your initial reaction to learning about Hetty’s special power on St. Patrick’s Day?
Rebecca Wisocky: I was shocked when I read what the special power was going to be, but it feels very appropriate. I was frankly enjoying not having a power for 150 years because I think that that’s such a good twist to give a character who thinks of herself as such a high-status person. That was really fun for me to play. It was fun for the other ghosts to poke fun at her about that. But I love the power. I love the message of being seen. I think that it’s a theme that all of the ghosts can relate to truly feeling like they’re being known somehow after living in oblivion and purgatory for all these years. So that really resonated with me, and I love that there was a sweetness and a more feminine, romantic side that she gets to show and an innocence. I love those sides of her because she spends so much time being a persnickety, bossy stick in the mud. So when she gets to be more childlike and open and eager, I find those moments really fun.
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Hetty meets Jay’s cousin Sunil and makes a connection with him. What was it like to get to explore their dynamic with Asif Ali and would you like to see him make a comeback?
Well, first of all, Asif Ali is a phenomenal actor. He was so generous and funny and knew exactly how to slide into the rhythm of our show. It’s really hard to come and be a guest star in our show and know that you can’t talk to anyone but can kind of talk to some people. So, I had a blast with him. I thought there was so much chemistry between Sunil and Hetty. I do hope that he comes back, although, by the end of the episode, he’s terrified of her. So I’m not sure he is going to want to [come back], but he’s part of Jay’s big happy family. So I’m hoping and predicting we’re going to see more of Sunil.
After years of jabs at the Irish, Hetty is finally embracing her heritage following this season’s discovery of her true ancestry. What has it been like getting to follow that arc?
Oh yeah, she’s done what I’m calling a Woodstone 180. I mean, this character is best when they’re wrong and get their comeuppance, and I love playing that. Hetty has a lot of unsavory opinions that were typical of her time period in the 1800s. There is a horrible history in America of anti-immigrant sentiment, and our show is able to represent that through Hetty’s dislike of the Irish and the fact that she gets to learn a lesson and have it turned on its head, when in fact she is Irish… it feels really on brand that she’s now embracing it and becoming very Irish. And so yeah, the fact that her power is related to that, she gets a little reward for this bit of moral evolution, I think feels just and fitting.
Did Hetty make the right choice in leading Sunil on?
Hetty Woodstone is a character that often has selfish motivations, but I don’t think the motivations were selfish here. She didn’t lie to him. She really truly enjoyed being seen and interacting with this man that she was incredibly impressed by and enamored of. And it clearly comes at a cost. It really pains her that she’s withholding this from him. And of course, she’s a lady, so she wouldn’t expect him to go in for a kiss on the first date. But of course, when he does, she has to come clean.
How did it feel to deliver that beautiful monologue about being seen?
I loved that monologue too. I remember very clearly feeling incredibly grounded to turn around and say, after he says, “Who even are you? What are you?” And to just say, “I am Hetty Woodstone. And I built this house,” felt so strong to me, and maybe she hadn’t felt that empowered up until that moment. So, I liked that speech a lot. And she’s very generous with him in a way that she believes he’s a wonderful man.
Ghosts, Thursdays, 8:30/7:30c, CBS