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Ghosts Recap: Thor’s Big Idea

Season 2 Episode 4 Editor’s Rating5 stars *****

Photo: Bertrand Calmeau/CBS

Ghosts continues to excel at moving the spotlight around to highlight different members of its stellar ensemble each week. It’s borderline frustrating (in the best way) that it is nearly impossible to pick a favorite ghost. Mine changes from episode to episode — sometimes even from scene to scene. Such is the burden we must bear when there seem to be no weak links. “The Tree” turns its focus on both Sasappis and Thor, our oldest ghosts, who each have strong reactions to the news of a tree on the property line being cut down — and as it turns out, both of those reactions are tied to some matters of the heart. In short: Our boys are pining this week!

When Sam informs the crew that their neighbors June and Allie — who run a big organic farm of which Jay is a huge fan — are cutting down one of the oldest trees on the property, the ghosts, per usual, have a lot to say. Naturally, Flower wants to protest immediately. (I mean, we do have her and her brave decision to do acid to thank for keeping snow leopards around, so she might be onto something.) Thor can’t understand why people are so upset over one tree when there are so many trees out there, which he proceeds to point out one by one. But it’s Sas who seems the most upset by the news, and when the crew goes to chat with June and Allie, he tells Sam to inform them of the tree’s “special significance” to the Lenape who lived on this land. He points out 13 markings on the trunk and explains to Sam that these represent “the 13 dialects of the Lenape language.” She passes on all of this information to her neighbors, with real gusto, might I add. To destroy this tree would be to desecrate a piece of history!

Sam’s really taken up Sas’s cause here, so when Isaac and Pete suggest writing about the situation, he doesn’t hesitate to pitch an op-ed to the Ulster County Register. The op-ed goes viral (well, in Ulster County, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here) which leads to a bunch of protesters — including one very vocal one who looks a lot like a certain hippie we know — showing up to prevent June and Allie from cutting down the tree. This is a huge win, right?

Well, not exactly. Sas has to come clean to the other ghosts: He made the whole thing up. The tree is only significant to him, personally, not the Lenape people as a whole. It’s his “Shiki tree,” he explains. He made a mark on that tree after every “encounter” he had with Shiki when he was alive. You’ll recall Shiki is the Lenape ghost who’s stuck at the Ulster County Register office, who despite Sas’s intense feelings (or maybe because of them?), just does not seem all that into him. Trevor, unsurprisingly, wants to praise Sas for all of these notches on a tree, as it were, but Trev’s dreams are dashed when an embarrassed Sas admits that by “encounters” he does not mean times he had sex with Shiki or even made out with her … no, Sas would make a mark in the tree every time Shiki said “hi” to him. That’s all. And don’t worry, both Trevor and then later Jay ask if possibly, mercifully, maybe “hi” had a much bigger, perhaps “more sexual” significance back in Sas’s time? Alas, no. It was just “hi.” Alberta sums it up pretty perfectly: “I think it’s sweet. I mean, sad and pathetic, but also so sweet.”

Under all of Sas’s sarcasm and his attempts to be blasé about most things, he’s a sweetheart. Would that pain him to read? You bet! But it’s the truth. And it’s why he knows he needs to tell Sam the truth. Unfortunately for everyone involved, he only does so after Sam gets into it with a Lenape man from the Hudson Valley Lenape Cultural Center named Bob who has come to tell her that she has a lot of her info about the Lenape incorrect. You know, after she digs in and Jay tries to tell her that the entire back and forth “is starting to look a little Karen-y.” When Sas finally admits he was lying, Sam has already humiliated herself. And even worse: Now the protestors — including Flower! — move up to the B&B. The whole thing is not going to be great for business.

Sam’s for sure angry with Sas for putting her in this position, but she also empathizes with him. In his apology, he admits that the tree is more than just a shrine to feelings for Shiki — it’s the last thing that remains from the time he was alive. He’s had to sit by and watch as his own people “were pushed out” and his culture wiped away, and now this last tie to his life is gone. Sam will have to be mad at Sas another time, because come on, that is heart wrenching. But how can you even begin to rectify the situation?

Well, “Thor think Thor have idea.” While I’m prone to agree with Isaac here, who notes that “it’s just hard to have much hope when it’s presented like that,” in the end, Thor does have idea. Thor have lovely idea.

You see, after Thor’s big rant about there being so many trees around, Trevor pulls him aside to impart some “helpful” wingman-type advice. Thor, still nursing a big crush on Flower — she was open to something, but that something had to be a throuple and they couldn’t find any interested parties — should try and get closer to her by showing an interest in her interests. And so Thor takes a deep pe into climate change, and once he learns that because of people not taking this seriously his beloved cod (and every other fish) could die off, well, Thor is up everybody’s butts about protecting the environment. He uses his power to turn off the electricity. He yells at Trevor for taking private jets. He screams at Hetty for being a part of the Industrial Revolution and the rise of “the dark seductress buried deep within the earth” whose “name is coal.” Hetty’s response? “We did get really into coal.”

Eventually, Flower has to take Thor aside. She tells him that although she really appreciates his enthusiasm, taking up a cause is not about scaring people — it’s about inspiring them. He totally gets it — it’s just like how “when executing Danes” back in the day, they’d “leave one alive to tell tales of brutality.” Oh, dear sweet Thor. Flower takes the win and moves on.

So when the gang is trying to find some way to cheer Sas up, Thor comes up with something that will both be nice for his friend but also help the environment. He has Sam and Jay get seeds from the now removed tree so that they can plant a bunch of new ones. “We will watch these trees grow together, my oldest friend,” Thor tells Sas. Sas is touched by the gesture — although maybe a little less so when Thor explains that Sas’s “Shiki friendship tree” will be turned into a whole area of friendship and then really latches on to Trevor’s suggestion of calling it a “friend zone” — even Sas knows that being in the friend zone sucks.

Even more moving, Sam and Jay have Bob come back to help them do a land acknowledgement. Bob explains that it’s really more for them to do, since they’re the ones living and working on this land that once belonged to the Lenape, as a way “to honor and acknowledge that sometimes difficult history.” Sam gives a speech about what an honor it is to “continue [the] tradition” of taking care of this land, like the Lenape did for so many generations. Bob and Sas offer up a traditional welcome in both Lenape and then in English: “We are glad because you people come to Lenapehoking. Live well while you are here.” It’s a special moment that you can see eases Sas’s soul a bit. Really, the only thing that could ruin it is a group chant of “Friend zone! Friend zone!” — which is exactly what happens.

In the end, Sas gets some peace in regards to the tree (although definitely not in regards to his feelings for Shiki — that woman is still dropping “hi’s” as a ghost), but Thor gets the opposite in his fight against global warming — he now believes, thanks to Trevor, the agent of chaos in the house, that global warming is a good thing because it would kill off “all the livings” which would then allow the Earth to heal itself. He is very adamant about this. You know what? You win some, you lose some.

Ghouls Just Want to Have Fun

• Hetty’s still horny as hell! When she finds Trevor and Thor using “Sam’s lap computer” to look up info about the environment and definitely not porn, it’s Hetty who hangs back to ask Trevor if, like, I don’t know, one might be able to find pictures of stable boys on there … if one were into that sort of thing. Later, we find Hetty and Trevor watching a show that heavily features horses and those who tend to them. Hetty’s sexual awakening is a gift to us all!

• The greatest bromance on television continues: This time when Sam doesn’t understand one of Jay’s Dungeons & Dragons references, Pete gets right up behind her to let her know that she “[doesn’t] deserve Jay.”

• Dang, Dallas Goldtooth, who plays Bob, is working these days! Please also see Reservation Dogs and Rutherford Falls. No, seriously, watch those shows, they’re great.

• I’ll never tire of Isaac’s one-sided rivalry with Alexander Hamilton. Here, just as he’s bragging about how his letters of protest led to “a second watering trough outside the State House,” Pete brings up how Hamilton’s 51 Federalist Papers “saved the constitution.” Even Jay knows that writing can lead to change because, as the musical goes, Hamilton wrote his way out. Isaac’s head might explode.

• A perfect moment: When Sam tells Allie and June that “her best friend is Lenape” to explain how she knows about the tree, Alberta and Flower are highly offended: “What the hell, Sas is your best friend?!”

• “Really, Thor, this is becoming tiresome. You are becoming the party guest who overindulges in cocaine and traps one in the corner going on and on about Gilbert and Sullivan.” I’ll give you one guess who that quote belongs to. Also not a surprise, that “party guest” Hetty’s talking about? It’s herself.

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