Ghosts S4E16 “St. Hetty’s Day” — One Glance, One Ghost

Spoilers for Season 4, Episode 16 of CBS’s Ghosts below.

There’s a lot of laughter in this episode—Flower miming her own mauling, Chris levitating in parachute harness, Nigel innocently flirting his way into a triangle. But the most important things happen in stillness: in withheld emotion, in unspoken goodbyes, and in being seen, even just once.

Hetty’s new power arrives on the least dignified of days: St. Patrick’s. For someone who’s spent her afterlife repressing anything “common,” discovering she’s part Irish is a cosmic joke. And yet, the gift it unlocks—a single day a year of being visible to the living—is something close to grace. Her brief connection with Sunil is played simply, almost tenderly. No barbs, no affectation. Just a woman—dead a long time—who’s startled to find that being seen feels like being loved.

Isaac, too, takes a step toward the unfamiliar. Watching Nigel enjoy Chris’s attention, he chooses restraint over control, compassion over insecurity. The lie he tells—that Chris has been “sucked off” into the afterlife—isn’t selfish. It’s the opposite. He gives Nigel a gift he can’t give himself: hope, uncomplicated by doubt. That kind of kindness would’ve been unthinkable for Isaac a season ago. Now, it’s almost reflexive.

As for Chris, he floats off. Literally. His ghost power—flight via parachute—lets him bypass the usual limits. The ghosts are rattled, but Chris doesn’t linger. He isn’t bound the way they are. He hasn’t had time to develop hauntings or regrets. He came late, and now he’s gone. The rules, it seems, are always bending.

But the episode’s most meaningful shift isn’t about rules. It’s about Jay.

When Hetty becomes visible, Jay sees her. Not through Sam. Not in a dream. Not filtered or explained. He simply sees her—and speaks to her—and she speaks back.

It’s the moment that breaks the spell he didn’t know he was under.

Jay has lived for four seasons in the space between certainty and faith. He’s trusted Sam, endured confusion and ridicule, constructed a life around something he couldn’t prove. Until now, that belief made him brave. But now, he doesn’t have to believe. He knows. And the show, wisely, lets it happen without fanfare. There’s no gasp, no revelation. Just the relief of alignment. The world is no longer tilted.

Jay is no longer the man who trusts his wife against all odds. He’s the man who finally has proof, real proof, that she was right all along.

Faith is rewarded with knowledge and it is sweet.

And sometimes, that’s all it takes to shift a life: one day, one glance, one ghost finally visible in the room.

To return to the episode index, please click here.