‘Ghosts’ Star Rose McIver on Sam’s Possession by Nancy, Her Holiday Triumph With Jay’s Family & More (Exclusive)

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Ghosts Season 4, Episodes 8 & 9, “A Very Arondekar Christmas.”]

Ghosts has delivered one of its best episodes of the season, perhaps of the series with Season 4’s “Ghostmas” special, “A Very Arondekar Christmas” Parts 1 & 2. Helping deliver laughs and heartfelt feelings is star Rose McIver as living Woodstone proprietor Sam who welcomed her husband Jay’s (Utkarsh Ambudkar) family for some Christmastime chaos.

While viewers have met Jay’s sister Bela (Punam Patel), this extra special episode made way for the introduction of their parents, Champa (Sakina Jaffrey) and Mahesh (Bernard White). But before Sam has a chance to try and win her in-laws over, a task she’s been working on for years, a broken water heater leaves Jay and Sam both possessed with spirits from the mansion as Pete (Richie Moriarty) and Nancy (Betsy Sodaro) invade their bodies.

To say the double possession throws a wrench in their plans would be an understatement, as Nancy takes over, controlling Sam’s actions, food intake, and overall conversation with mother-in-law Champa. Jay is lucky in that he’s embodied by the level-headed Pete, but there’s just one issue, the remedy of crossing the ghost border wouldn’t work for Jay like it ends up working for Sam who drives Champa’s new car through the boundary, unfortunately wrecking the vehicle in the process.

Bertrand Calmeau / CBS

As fans will recall, Pete’s gift is that he can cross the ghost boundary without issue, so Sam and the rest of the ghosts come up with an idea to push Pete out of Jay by electrocuting his body in hopes that the souls will be separated. Of course, in a comedy like Ghosts, such a feat is never going to be executed smoothly. Instead, Jay’s actual spirit is pushed out of his physical body as Peter continues to inhabit him, but one silver lining to the predicament is that Jay can actually see the ghosts and interact with them.

It’s rather heart-warming despite the anxious energy around such a predicament. In a kind gesture, Jay allows Pete to take his body out so the ghost can bid his daughter and grandson farewell as they’re set to move away. Accompanied by Sam, Pete gets to say a final farewell, even if his family isn’t aware of who is possessing Jay’s body. When he hugs his daughter, Pete’s spirit is finally pushed out of Jay’s body which is left in a limbo zombie-like state without a soul being housed in it. Eventually, they get back to Woodstone where Jay manages to reinhabit his body in time to reveal to his dad that he’s naming the new restaurant Mahesh after him.

In one final sweet moment on Christmas morning, Sam learns she’s been added to the highly-coveted Arondekar family group chat, making her holiday dreams come true. Below, McIver delves into the holiday episode’s big moments from Sam’s possession by Nancy to that exciting family triumph at the end of the installment. Scroll down for her answers and let us know what you thought of the episode in the comments section, below.

Bertrand Calmeau / CBS

Sam and Jay are both possessed in this episode, by Pete and Nancy. What was your reaction to learning about the storyline and what was it like playing opposite Utkarsh Ambudkar while “possessed”?

Rose McIver: It’s so much fun. I love that the show has been on the air long enough that we have mythology we can expand upon. And to do a double possession, it’s so much for us to sink our teeth into. And I really loved the three versions of Jay that we get to see in the second episode. It was kind of getting into some mind-bending stuff there. And to be able to play Nancy [who is portrayed] by the inimitable Betsy Sodaro, I was honored and she could not have been more gracious and generous, taking time to record voices for me to workshop. She was on set. She was helping call out stuff from behind the camera… She could not have been more generous. I’m very indebted to her for all her work on the episode.

How did you get into embodying Nancy for the possession?

It’s so liberating to play a character so unlike Sam. Half the work felt like it was done for me in the disparity between these two characters. And so it was a real pleasure and a challenge to be able to free myself of some of Sam’s [qualities]. I don’t think she is always uptight, but she’s a little bit more concerned with people-pleasing, and obviously, that’s not Nancy’s bread and butter. So it was really fun to dive into something so different. And I was told while we were shooting this about a gateway word for an impersonation and that often there’s one keyword or phrase that people use to try to channel somebody. And for me, it was very much Stuart, the way [Nancy] says Stuart and the way she bullies him is something very iconic to me. So I would find myself in the middle of takes coming back to Stuart.

Bertrand Calmeau / CBS

Sam was also possessed by Thorfinn in the past, another ghost who had a strong pull toward food and a penchant for getting messy. Is that part of the fun of playing possessed? Being inhabited by messy ghosts?

That’s what is so fun, is shedding the restraint of a character. Somebody like Sam who operates under much more obligation and is more concerned with societal norms, the mess, the chaos, and letting go of all that is a lot of fun. I would love to see within the cast how everybody embodies these different personalities. I think Alberta’s Nancy would look very different from Thorfinn’s Nancy. So it’d be fun if everybody gets to cross over a little bit more. It’s a really cool device in the show that has so much potential.

This episode welcomes Jay’s parents Champa and Mahesh into the mix. What was it like getting to explore the story arc with them?

It’s the core of Sam, to me. The heart of Sam [is she] wants desperately to belong and be part of a family and be needed and included. So it was almost as exciting to me as getting to be possessed by Nancy, to explore a little bit more of what she really wants, what drives her. [Sam’s] desire to fit in with Champa and to get her approval speaks a lot to Sam’s own childhood. So I loved that stuff. I thought there was a lot to mine there. And it became a bit like life imitating art. I was so obsessed with Sakina Jaffrey who plays Champa and Bernie who plays Mahesh, but in particular the sort of dynamic that Sam and Champa have. I found a lot to mine in real life where Sakina arrived and she’s just so funny and relaxed and effortless seeming… she was a very endearing person to get to want to be close to.

Through the possession, Jay was finally able to see the ghosts, was it fun having everyone engage in that way without having to pretend he couldn’t see the other cast members?

Yeah, I mean, it’s not a simple thing to shoot at all. And we work very fast on our show. We have an ambitious schedule, and so everybody really stepped up and I think that the results are fantastic. It’s a very novel way of seeing Jay and seeing his character, and I think there was a lot to mine there as well.

Now that Jay has interacted with and seen the ghosts, will that change things for his dynamic with Sam going forward?

I think it’s an incredibly pivotal moment in this series because Jay is a character who has built relationships with people that he hasn’t seen or heard for years now. And for him to finally be able to locate those people and situate all of these ideas in real figures in front of him, it’s got to change everything going forward. He has visual references, he has tangible memories of being with them and being one of them and actually having an experience that Sam’s never had, which is to physically interact with them because as a ghost, he was able to hug them. And he’s now kind of got one up on Sam in that respect.

Pete has been able to travel around this season, what has that been like and did you feel the emotional weight of saying goodbye to his daughter and grandson, potentially for the last time?

Absolutely. I think Richie Moriarty is the king of pathos. He has so much, he could be a full-time brilliant, dramatic actor. He just happens to be too funny for his own good. So he’s ended up in comedy. But anytime we get to explore the depths of Pete’s personality and plunge into his family relationships… I love all of that. I think a holiday episode always evokes feelings of family and questions around family. And so that was a beautifully poignant element to the story and really great storytelling by the Joes [Port and Wiseman].

Considering Jay’s dedication of his restaurant to his dad Mahesh, is there a hope we’ll see the family together again before Season 4 is through?

I think if you name your restaurant after your father, you stand a pretty good chance of getting a return visitor. So I really hope so. I think there’s so much to explore with Jay’s family, and I think all of those performers are brilliant. I’m always a Punam Patel fan, who plays Bela. And the version of Jay that [family] evokes. Seeing him in a really significant context and seeing where he’s from and what he’s about and the stuff that he’s navigated, I think it feels like a luxurious amount that we can unpack and explore. And so I really hope that they come back sooner rather than later. And the restaurant, it’s a very ambitious undertaking. They now have a hotel and a restaurant that they will be full-time managing and operating. And I don’t think that we can imagine everything is going to go smoothly.

Ghosts, Returns Thursday, January 30, 2025, 8:30/7:30c, CBS