‘Ghosts’: Mary Holland on Patience’s Witch Trial & Mystery Behind the ‘Others’
Spoiler Alert
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Ghosts Season 4, Episode 3, “Halloween 4: The Witch.”]
Ghosts‘ Halloween episode delivered a deviation from tradition as Sam (Rose McIver) steered away from a seance and focused on trying to spend a mellow holiday cleaning out junk from the Woodstone mansion with Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar)—but Puritan spirit Patience (Mary Holland) had another idea.
Horrified by the modern practices of her new cohorts, Patience got the other spirits to present Sam with the option of being tried as a witch. Unwilling to entertain their shenanigans, Sam goes about her business, dressing in an old gown (giving off Bridgerton vibes) her only sign of engaging with her otherwise favorite holiday.
So, unbeknownst to Sam, Patience rules over a judgment that finds her guilty of witchcraft, and she’s sentenced to petrification. Of course, Patience’s ruling isn’t binding as Sam isn’t turned into stone, but a lookalike statue leaves spirits and Jay all but convinced that Sam was and sold to a yard sale attendee who happens to blow up random objects on his YouTube page.
Philippe Bosse / CBS
Eventually, Sam returns home and it’s discovered that the lookalike statue wasn’t her but rather a long-forgotten artifact collecting dust in Woodstone’s ballroom. Seeing that her ruling wasn’t final and that no one quite agrees with her outlook, Patience ponders the idea of returning to the dirt, but also lets it slip that she’d return to “the others.”
Who are “the others” Patience speaks of? “It’s such a mystery to me too,” Holland tells TV Insider. “I am so excited to find out who these others are and who Patience is within that group. I don’t know any information about it, but I am excited to find that out and I hope we find out soon.”
As for how much we’ll see Patience moving forward considering her decision, Holland shares, “Her presence will be felt. And I think that she is going back to the dirt, so there might be a period of time where she’s not being seen, but I don’t think she’s gone permanently.”
Bertrand Calmeau / CBS
Her absence may offer some reprieve for the spirits of Woodstone and their living cohabitants as Patience’s ghost gift led to plenty of stress and concern over blood-stained walls. But her power to create blood markings on the wall and her imagined power to turn people into stone is part of what drives Patience as a character, Holland explains.
“She really does see herself as the instrument of justice and righteousness,” she says. “And so I think that there is a confidence she has in her abilities to d0le out these judgments and punishments. And I think the blood coming from the walls is so terrifying, but to her, it’s like, ‘Well, yes, this is the power of my faith and what I have behind me.’ She’s like, ‘This is great. This is what holiness can do.’ She sees it as a positive.”
Part of what prompts Patience to leave as well is Isaac (Brandon Scott Jones) informing the rest of the ghosts that she’d strayed from the path of righteousness when she took part in observing some reality television. “She’s still learning,” Holland continues, noting, “I think Isaac knows how to access her, knows what her values are, and knows how to get her to soften a bit and let herself go. And I think that scene with the reality TV, there’s a harmlessness to it.”
Part of that comes from the fact that “she’s desperate for human connection,” Holland says. “She’s probably desperate for a little bit of drama. And so I think that it doesn’t take much for him to convince her that this is okay to do. And then, of course, it escalates to her dancing, which is really just her sort of bouncing around in an upsetting way.”
Getting into Patience’s strict mindset was made easier by her period-accurate clothing as Holland explains, “For me, it was the corset because she’s so uptight and constricted, and having the corset physically helps me to be in that mindset so much as an actor.”
Overall, Holland’s approach to Patience is like “where you sort of adopt the mindset of a child almost in a way where you’re experiencing things for the first time. And of course in this case it would be the mindset of a very judgmental child who thinks that any kind of innovation is the devil. But there’s also this fear and judgment around everything, especially anything happy, joyful, or pleasurable. So that is such a rich point of view to come from,” she concludes.
Stay tuned to find out who “the others” are as Ghosts Season 4 continues to unfold, and let us know what you think of the latest Halloween episode in the comments section, below.
Ghosts, Thursdays, 8:30/7:30c, CBS
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Comments are closed on this story.
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L
Not loving Patience personally. Glad she's going the way of Carol, who was a much better addition to the ensemble. But if I had to speculate, I'd say Patience didn't really live "in the dirt," and there are likely ruins that predate the building of the mansion, like that room she took Sas and Isaac to. Who knows what types of ghosts inhabit these caverns and hidden pockets, or how many of them there are exactly. Might there be another mass grave like the basement that holds the cholera ghosts? Neanderthal Ghosts? Vikings? Who knows what and who Patience found while navigating her way through the dirt.
11 2
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G
Yeah, a little bit of Patience goes a long way, so not having her on every week is a good thing. And a relief.
BTW, what did happen to Carol? I don't recall.
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L
She went to go live in the shed with the Redcoats, I think. The actress only signed on for guest roles in reality, I think, so they had her kind of going through all the men outside of the mansion.
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G
Ah, thanks. She was annoying, I hope she doesn't come back (to the house) often.
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L
I like the actress, but the cutting the character was good for the show. 🙂
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G
Not liking Patience very much at all. Doesn’t fit in with what Ghosts is and has always been, funny and heartwarming. Too dark!
9 1
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R
Naw!!! Not liking Patience. Her character takes the lightheartedness out of the show. She's to serious and dark.
9 1
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G
I loved Sam in that dress, with her hair up. Very Jane Austen!! 🖕😍 But that couldn't have been Hetty's dress... the dress style is from the early 19th century, and Hetty died in the late 19th century. Unless she's really 80 or 90 years old, she would never have worn that dress.
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P
I seem to be alone and liking Patience. I like her better than Pete's wife.
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G
To be honest, that's not much of a choice. 😆
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O
I do not like patience and I hope you don’t bring her back!
6 1
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O
Do not like the character of Patience. Love Ghosts, it’s charming and funny and all the characters contribute to a great show. By adding Patience it is no longer charming or a comedy. It’s dreadful.
8 3
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O
Yeah. Ghosts should have taken a page out of 'The Bear'. Now THAT's a comedy.
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A
"her abilities to d0le out these judgments" — Does anyone proofread this stuff?
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G
Not usually, no. 🤨
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A
Yeah, I was largely asking rhetorically. I don't even bother pointing out errors most of the time but this was such an obvious typo.
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O
I've lost patience with "Patience", all the other characters are flawless working together, except for that Carol, sheesh, I'm worried that the show may not listen to the fanbase that made this a top tier series... Don't fix that witch, see what I did there, is not broken.
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B
Did I miss Sass the entire episode?
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G
Now that you mention it... I don't think I saw him either.
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