The wonderfully hilarious CBS television seriesGhostsis known forits facetious, playful humor.The show does not mind making lighthearted references to the past credits of series lead,Rose McIver, who portrays Samantha Arondekar. A recent Season 4 episode, “The Not-So-Silent Partner,” featured a quick reference to one of her previous starring roles in the 2017 Netflix romantic comedy,A Christmas Prince, and its sequels,A Christmas Prince: The Royal Weddingin 2018, andA Christmas Prince: The Royal Babyin 2019, where McIver portrayed Amber Moore. It’s a good time to explore howGhostsplayfully jokes aboutMcIver’s previous credits.
Sam References ‘A Christmas Prince’ During Season 4
During the cold open of Season 4, Episode 10, “The Not So-So-Silent Partner,” Sam is enjoying the fictional show-within-a-show,Bodices & Barons, with her spectral pals Thorfinn Thor (Devan Chandler Long), Flower Montero (Sheila Carrasco), Pete Martino (Richie Moriarty), and Hetty Woodstone (Rebecca Wisocky). The snooty, pretentious Hetty brags aboutthe Woodstones' rumored relationto the British Royal Family, noting that her grandfather, Bernard Woodstone, apparently wooed a cousin of the Royal Family, married her, and brought her back to America. An impressed Sam responds, “So I’m a royal? This is just like one of those movies where a regular girl becomes a princess.”
It’s a swift joke, and the cheeky reference connects toMcIver’s filmographywhen she starred as Amber Moore, an aspiring American journalist, who falls in love with a royal prince, Prince Richard Bevan Charlton (Ben Lamb), in Netflix’sA Christmas Prince. The two characters eventually fall in love and marry in the film’s 2018 sequel,A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding, ultimately making Amber a princess. It’s a playfully amusing gag, but the joke comes full circle whenHetty’s dreams of the Woodstones' Royal Family connectionare ultimately destroyed. After checking an ancestry website, Samantha reveals thatthe Woodstones descended from an Irish commoner. Later, Thorfinn confirms the Woodstones' dark secret and his withholding of the revelation to Hetty for years due toher prejudice against the Irish.
This ‘Ghosts’ Character’s Arc Is Becoming the Most Tragic
Move over Hetty…
Thorfinn Helps Hetty Overcome the Angst Over Her Lineage
Hetty eventually overcomes her anguish aboutthe truth of her lineageafter a heart-to-heart with Thorfinn, who consoles her. The Viking explains, “You know, Thor been around for a thousand years and seen many groups of people hate other groups of people for silly reasons. But what Thor learn is that we are all basically the same. Except the Danes, whose brains are rumored to be mostly cabbage.” It’s almost, but not quite, sage wisdom fromthe ghostly Viking. Nevertheless, the reference toA Christmas Princeacts as a great accompaniment to the larger B-plot of Hetty’s moral dilemma after learning abouther family’s Irish heritage.
‘Ghosts’ Has Previously Referenced Rose McIver’s Other Work
Ghostshas playfully referenced some of McIver’s other past works as well. In Season 4, Episode 7, “Sad Farnsby,” Margaret Farnsby (Kathryn Greenwood) brandishes a copy of theAlice Seboldbook,The Lovely Bones. McIver previously costarred inthe book’s 2009 film adaptationas Lindsey Salmon, the younger sister of the main character, Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan). During Season 4, Episode 9, “A Very Arondekar Christmas, Part 2,” Jay’s spirit becomes disembodied after a botched exorcism, and Pete temporarily takes over Jay’s body for a while. However, after Pete’s spirit finally leaves Jay’s body, Jay becomesa grunting, brainless “zombie.”
Of course, Sam and her ghostly friends figure out how to get Jay back to normal by the end of the episode, but not before one last trick from Jay as he jokingly grunts, “Brains!” While embracing her husband, a relieved Sam exclaims, “Oh, I hate zombies!” McIver previously starred inthe zombie horror-themed hit television series,iZombie, which ran for five seasons on The CW, whereshe portrayed Olivia Moore. In the series, McIver’s Olivia is a medical resident who unwittingly becomes a zombie and helps solve zombie-related crimes while trying tokeep her undead lifestyle a secret. Thankfully, Jay avoids becoming a full-fledged zombie inGhosts, but, interestingly, theGhostsversion of zombies are physical human bodies who lose their spirits. However, they appear to be relatively harmless, not necessarily craving human flesh aftertheir human souls become disembodied. There’s been more than a few times we’ve seen mention of McIver’s past credits and we doubt this will be the last time.
New episodes ofGhostsdebut on Thursday on CBS. Every episode of the series is available to stream now on Paramount+ in the U.S.
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