Previously on "Ghosts": After Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar) narrowly avoids damnation in the season premiere, Woodstone Mansion is actually pretty quiet. With Patience (Mary Holland) having returned to the dirt (Patience!) and Elias (Matt Walsh) having returned to hell, the walls aren’t bleeding, and the halls aren’t cursed anymore!
And despite Sam (Rose McIver) and Jay’s ghost-inspired intervention in the precise placement of their neighbor’s bookshelf in Season 5, Episode 2 ("Viking Wedding"), the Arondekars have somehow managed to avoid public embarrassment among friends as of late. While that might signal a nominally positive direction for their social status, it wouldn’t be the “Ghosts” we know and love if things didn’t go awry fairly soon.
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2025’s All Hallows’ Eve special begins in a place I never imagined the show visiting: Egypt in 1890. As archaeologists unseal an ancient Egyptian tomb and load its contents into crates, we hear the desperate protests of a local man. Clearly unhappy with the disruption of the grave, he shouts, “A curse on whoever is responsible for this! A curse upon their descendants!”
And with that introduction, we begin "Halloween 5: The Mummy," an episode largely focused on the afterlife of Amunhotep (Farhang Ghajar), the man in the aforementioned tomb whose sarcophagus and mummified corpse was sold to Hetty (Rebecca Wisocky) and Elias Woodstone. Before Sam and Jay come upon his 3,000-year-old sarcophagus and recite the words inscribed on an attached scroll, Amunhotep is confined as a ghost within his own rotting corpse (even worse than Elias’s century in the vault alongside his body). Naturally, Amunhotep holds quite a grudge against those who stole his body from his homeland.
At face value, this seems like a promising concept in the world of Ghosts! The episode introduces a fresh twist on previously established ghost rules and proves that some ghosts can legitimately have cool powers (his eyes roll back into his head, he summons locusts and rats on command, and he even reanimates his own corpse). Plus, it’s honestly hard to deny how clever it is that the writers found a semi-legit way to bring a mummy into this show. Unfortunately, the episode itself isn’t nearly as successful as the previous Halloween installments in the series.
Past Halloween episodes have zeroed in on already established conflict among the central characters. When Elias’s former mistress returned in "Halloween 2: The Ghost of Hetty's Past," we learned a lot about Hetty’s life and the horrid treatment she suffered from Elias. Similarly, when Carol (Caroline Aaron) died in "Halloween 3: The Guest Who Wouldn't Leave", we got an incredible fresh take on Pete (Richie Moriarty) and Carol's relationship (seeing those two reunite for the first time remains a top “Ghosts” moment for me).
This episode, on the other hand, expects us to draw emotional attachment from one of two places, neither of which works particularly well for this purpose: (1) Amunhotep’s grudge against Hetty for consuming his mummified toe, or (2) Amunhotep’s sadness at his post-mortem separation from his unseen wife. The first is a moderately humorous joke about a genuinely stupid idea (that is, unfortunately, based in some real history), and the second feels largely like an afterthought meant to complete the arc within the 21-minute runtime (which it accomplishes completely offscreen).
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Amid all the funny mummy business, we also get an update on Isaac’s continuing difficulty being honest with those around him. Last season, when Chris (Deniz Akdeniz), the recently deceased male stripper of Isaac's dreams, chose to silently abandon Nigel (John Hartman) following a brief period of flirtation, Isaac opted to spare his ex’s feelings by explaining that Chris had simply been “sucked off.”
At the time, it seemed like a painless way to spare Nigel’s feelings, but things become more complicated on Halloween when he requests a Chris-focused séance à la Sam. Sam, thankfully, realizing she doesn’t need the extra drama while a mummy is wreaking havoc on the house, abruptly tells Nigel the truth. Though he quickly corrects himself, Isaac again tries to lie to Nigel when confronted with the truth, leading Nigel to insist that Isaac "needs help."
Not to be a total pessimist, but one really has to wonder how much more story the writers can mine from these two at this point. In their lives and afterlives, they have been enemies (reminder: Isaac killed Nigel), friends, fiancés, and exes. Where else can these two go, except back to the altar, eventually?
Score: 7.3/10 - If you enjoy "Ghosts" like I do, you'll probably watch every Halloween episode, but if you can only watch one Halloween episode, it probably shouldn't be this one.
Random notes:
-Does anyone else remember seeing Amunhotep's corpse in the Season 4 Halloween episode ("Halloween 4: The Witch")? It's visible in the background during the yard sale and Jay even tries to sell it.
-Bela (Punam Patel) refers to the haunted house they're hosting as "the first annual haunted house." Hopefully that doesn't mean the Halloween parties are done. Those are always great for maximum Sam and Jay embarrassment!
-Pete says he repeated the spell for Amunhotep's wife. That's mighty convenient. Does that mean she got a second-string priest as well?
-Hetty's accents were perfection in this episode!
-Hetty's accents were perfection in this episode!
-Rachel Weisz was truly stunning in "The Mummy." Pete should say it louder next time.
-Is there anyone who wouldn't be comfortable spending eternity with Rose McIver?
Best lines:
-Flower (Sheila Carrasco): "Zombies are a trip, man. Can you imagine being dead, but still like walking around and stuff?"
-Isaac: "Scariest House of all: the US House of Representatives… you know, because of the dysfunction!" (Side note: What are the odds Isaac is secretly a cable news junkie?)
-Hetty (aka Marge Gunderson): “There’s more to life than a couple of penis straws, don’t you know?”
-Thor (Devan Chandler Long): “Before mansion, Thor live here for many centuries alone.”
-Amunhotep: “I have been trapped in my mummified corpse for 3,000 years. They took my brain out through my noise with a hook.
-Thor: “Ok. It’s not competition.”
-Nancy (Betsy Sodaro): “To the crapper!”
-Nancy: “We could lose our living butler [Sam]. It might be centuries before we find another freak like her.”
-Nigel: “After all you’ve done to me, you couldn’t help but put your finger in my bullet hole and wiggle it around.”
-Hetty: “Not to toot my own horn, there were nine toes I did not eat.”
Best lines:
-Flower (Sheila Carrasco): "Zombies are a trip, man. Can you imagine being dead, but still like walking around and stuff?"
-Isaac: "Scariest House of all: the US House of Representatives… you know, because of the dysfunction!" (Side note: What are the odds Isaac is secretly a cable news junkie?)
-Hetty (aka Marge Gunderson): “There’s more to life than a couple of penis straws, don’t you know?”
-Thor (Devan Chandler Long): “Before mansion, Thor live here for many centuries alone.”
-Amunhotep: “I have been trapped in my mummified corpse for 3,000 years. They took my brain out through my noise with a hook.
-Thor: “Ok. It’s not competition.”
-Nancy (Betsy Sodaro): “To the crapper!”
-Nancy: “We could lose our living butler [Sam]. It might be centuries before we find another freak like her.”
-Nigel: “After all you’ve done to me, you couldn’t help but put your finger in my bullet hole and wiggle it around.”
-Hetty: “Not to toot my own horn, there were nine toes I did not eat.”
