The following contains spoilers for Ghosts Season 5, Episode 1, “Soul Custody,” which premiered on Thursday, October 16, on CBS.
To start its fifth season, the supernatural CBS sitcom, Ghosts, paid off a story from Season 1. However, it came with a disappointing twist for two key spirits. The Ghosts Season 5 premiere saw Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar), Sam (Rose McIver), and the spirits navigating the fallout from the Season 4 finale, when everyone found out that Hetty’s (Rebecca Wisocky) husband, Elias Woodstone, had conned Jay into a one-way ticket to hell.
While things had been going well for Jay and his wife as they prepared to host Sam’s book launch party at Mahesh, all went awry when Elias showed up, which prompted Patience (Mary Holland) to come out of the dirt. While the Arondekars managed to play off Patience’s outburst as a gimmick for Sam’s vampire book in the finale, Jay hadn’t yet gotten out of his deal with Elias from Season 4. However, another conflict at Woodstone quietly took form in “Soul Custody,” which could have more lasting ramifications.
Ghosts Season 5 Finally Shows Pete and Alberta as a Couple
Pete Smiling At The Camera In GhostsImage via CBS
As the spirits scramble to save the fate of Jay’s soul, creating another funny Ghosts episode, there is also a long-awaited love story. Pete Martino (Ricky Moriarty) and Alberta Haynes (Danielle Pinnock) are officially a couple in “Soul Custody,” building on their story from the Season 4 finale. In the last chapter, Alberta had discovered that, after his recent changes, she had feelings for Pete. However, when Alberta confessed her desire to Pete and tried to kiss him, he gave her a classic facepalm.
Pete stopped Alberta’s advances not because he wasn’t interested, but because he had been in a romance with Donna (Allegra Edwards), a spirit he met in the Caribbean, since Ghosts Season 3. However, just when it looked like Alberta’s confession would amount to embarrassment, with Pete fleeing Woodstone for a few days, he returned to tell Haynes that he had broken up with Donna. Upon the revelation, Pete and Alberta finally sealed their romance with a kiss, setting up the slow-burn Ghosts romance to take off in Season 5.
Ghosts Set Up Pete and Alberta’s Coupling in Ghosts Season 4
Ghosts Hetty and Alberta make plansImage via CBS
Any avid Ghosts viewer knows that Pete and Alberta’s romance has deep roots that extend farther back into the series than Season 4. In fact, Pete has had feelings for Alberta since Ghosts Season 1. In Ghosts Season 3, Martino tried to make a move on Bertie, but she gave him a facepalm, starting the trend. Alberta has said that Pete isn’t her type, but after he gained the ability to leave the ghost boundary and has since had some pretty amazing stories to share, two of the saddest spirits in Ghosts have become a better match.
Alberta has considered a romance with Pete before, enriching the love story. In Ghosts Season 1, Episode 11, “Sam’s Mom,” Alberta tells Pete that she wants to date a nice guy like him. She isn’t fully committed to the idea, however, and Pete has staged a fake romance with Nancy (Betsy Sodaro), so the timing doesn’t work out. Still, Pete clearly never gave up on his feelings for Alberta, despite finding a girlfriend who looked just like his favorite actress, Loni Anderson, and clearing her of the murder she didn’t commit in Season 4.
Pete and Alberta’s Romance Has a Disappointing Twist
Alberta’s Upbeat Pose In GhostsImage via CBS
All that said, despite Pete and Alberta’s romance finally getting some screentime, there was a disappointing twist. In Ghosts Season 5, Episode 1, Alberta wants to tell the others that she and Pete are officially dating. Haynes is excited to share the news, but also anxious to clear the air. The other ghosts think that Pete rejected Alberta’s advances since he disappeared after she confessed her feelings about him in front of everyone, leaving them to believe that Martino didn’t feel the same way.
To make matters worse, to distract Patience in the Ghosts Season 4 finale from ruining Sam’s book launch party, Alberta, confessing that she was having spicy thoughts about Pete, exposed herself to Patience’s shaming ritual. Everyone in the group heard Alberta reveal her secrets, including Pete, with everyone taking turns yelling, “Shame on you.” Therefore, Alberta was not only excited to share the couple’s exciting news, but she felt it was imperative to restore her reputation.
Unfortunately, Pete was hesitant to share the news. Pete, a likable Ghosts character who is sure to put others’ needs first, was more concerned about how the information would be received, since Sam and Jay were navigating a crisis that put the latter in mortal danger. He told Alberta that when he and his first wife, Carol (Caroline Aaron), shared their wedding announcement in the Kiwanis newsletter. It contrasted with some grave news, and he didn’t want to repeat the instance and negative feedback he received.
Still, Pete wanting to hold off on their announcement just causes further embarrassment for Alberta, who agrees to hold off on the good tidings despite suggesting writing and performing a song for the occasion. While they reveal their coupling at the end, Alberta is exposed to further shame throughout the episode, and has to grit her teeth through continued mockery from other ghosts in the house. Unfortunately, the payoff of Pete and Alberta’s romance comes with a conflict, which could compromise their connection.
Ultimately, there’s a clear contrast in the couple. Alberta is fairly self-centered, yet Pete likes to put others first. Their core personality traits conflict in the Ghosts Season 5 premiere, and, unfortunately, cause some tension for Alberta. It could be a one-off conflict, or, like Pete’s donut/donut hole debate with his first wife, Carol, Alberta and Pete’s differences could become an ongoing reason to bicker, prompting further conflict and romance drama to unfold in Ghosts Season 5.
- Release Date
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October 7, 2021
- Directors
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Christine Gernon, Jaime Eliezer Karas, Katie Locke O’Brien, Nick Wong, Jude Weng, Pete Chatmon, Richie Keen, Alex Hardcastle, Kimmy Gatewood, Matthew A. Cherry, Cortney Carrillo
- Writers
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Emily Schmidt, John Timothy, Lauren Bridges, Sophia Lear, Guy Endore-Kaiser, Rishi Chitkara, Julia Harter, Skander Halim, Zora Bikangaga
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Rose McIver
Samantha Arondekar
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Utkarsh Ambudkar
Jay Arondekar