SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from the Season 3 finale of CBS‘ Ghosts.
It’s become somewhat of a tradition for CBS’ Ghosts to end on a cliffhanger.
And Season 3 was no different. While audiences are going to be left waiting anxiously to know what, exactly, is going to happen to Isaac (Brandon Scott Jones), showrunners Joe Port and Joe Wiseman are delighting in the latest pickle they’ve gotten their characters into.
Not only has Isaac decided not to get married to Nigel (John Hartman), he’s now in the clutches of Patience the Puritan ghost, who struck up a friendship with Flower (Sheila Carrasco) while she was stuck in the well and has a bone to pick with Isaac since he let go of her hand while they were escaping from their own hole on the grounds a few hundred years ago.
“We really just enjoyed the possibilities of Patience,” Port said. “She’s become sort of a favorite in the writers room as we discussed what she could be like. So we just decided to have that be a turn that happens at the end of the of the season finale. I think it was just such a big part of the prior episode that we found it enticing to bring her back and finally meet her.”
Having already been renewed, the Season 4 writers room is officially open. The first order of business is “how we get him back,” Port said.
No doubt, there will also be some retribution for the basement ghosts, who were somewhat culpable in Isaac’s kidnapping. Although, Wiseman is quick to come to their defense. After all, the upstairs ghosts do treat them pretty awful — and they never intended for Isaac to really get hurt.
“We thought it was too far if they knew that Isaac was going to be kidnapped, but I don’t think they would have literally lured him into such a precarious situation,” he said. “You could argue that they had a right to be upset. They weren’t invited to a very big event in the house. They’re very much treated as second class citizens all the time. But we wanted to make sure that they didn’t know it was going to be so crazy. So we’ll see if they come clean next season or not.”
Among those relieved to hear that the writers plan to bring Isaac back to Woodstone Mansion is Brandon Scott Jones, the man behind the character.
“That means I still have a job,” he joked. “I have no idea how they’re gonna play it out. I don’t know if we’ll ever see Patience. But I think it’s a cool way to expand the world and remind people that there are so many more ghosts on this property than we’ve even seen just yet.”
Jones did have some ideas about where Isaac’s story could go in Season 4, now that he’s single once again and (probably) escapes the clutches of Patience the Puritan. He discusses all that and more in the interview below.
DEADLINE: When did you find out that Isaac and Nigel weren’t actually going to get married?
BRANDON SCOTT JONES: Somewhere towards the end of the season. I can’t remember where, but I think Joe Port and Joe Wiseman came to me and they said that they were thinking about breaking Isaac and Nigel up. Things change, so I knew that there was a chance before we even got the script that it was going to happen. But when I got the script, I just didn’t know what the machinations were going to be. I think even as we were filming it, it went back and forth a little bit between who left who at the altar, so I was a little bit…unsure of which way it was going to go, which kind of made it a little fun. I’m sad to see the relationship end, but I think it’s probably the best thing for both characters.
DEADLINE: Joe Port and Joe Wiseman mentioned to me they felt that maybe Isaac and Nigel rushed into their engagement. Did you feel the same?
JONES: Yeah, I always felt that, when he proposed to Nigel, it was a little bit of like a panic proposal. Isaac spent 250 years not really being himself, so he finally gets this opportunity and he kind of admits to at least the other ghosts, who he really is as he’s exploring that. He immediately finds himself in this relationship with Nigel, and I think it’s funny because it’s almost like he decided to go right back into the traditional steps of a relationship rather than exploring any other new thing. He just kind of felt like, ‘Alright, well, I guess I’m now gay, but I’m still going to propose to this person and live with this person and do all the necessary things.’ But I don’t know if he’s doing it because he wanted to or just because he felt like he had to because of the traditions of his era. When the stripper comes, it was definitely one of those things where I think it started to open up his eyes of like, ‘Oh my god, could I even find myself attracted to somebody else?’
DEADLINE: The stripper-turned-DJ being Isaac’s moment of awakening is quite funny and somewhat touching. It seems like he’d never considered there was anything else out there for him.
JONES Yeah, I think so. I think he probably has comfort in tradition. The idea of deviating away from any of that…it’s probably the reason he stayed in the closet for so long, even after he died. And I think the idea that this guy opens up his eyes, but also Pete really opens up his eyes too. He has this awesome story, which I think poses a really great question. What do you have to live for if you are already dead? What really, to me, made it cool it was that how they connected those two storylines and the wheels started to turn for Isaac.
DEADLINE: I thought it was quite beautiful how the other ghosts were reassuring him that there have been so many ways that they’ve met knew people and ghosts they never knew existed, and there is still so much for Isaac even though he’s dead.
JONES: Right. All these ghosts are stuck in purgatory. I think in Episode 3 of the entire series, they mentioned how their dream is to move on from this existence, no matter what. I think, as an actor, that’s sort of like your supreme motivation in almost anything you do on this show. This might be an opportunity where Isaac’s finally starting to wake up and realize, ‘Oh, I don’t have to just check boxes. Maybe the reason I’m stuck here is something a little bit larger that I have to go out and seek and find.’
DEADLINE: Do you think this is really the end for Isaac and Nigel? They do still have to exist on the same property basically forever.
JONES: It doesn’t sound too fun to be trapped in the same space as the person who left you at the altar. If there is a path forward for the two of them, I can imagine it’s not going to necessarily be smooth sailing. But then again, I also don’t know. Maybe it’s good that they spend time apart and if they never get back together again, that’s okay. But hopefully they’re both better because of this relationship, and they can find some common ground somewhere, either quickly or down the road.
DEADLINE: Isaac has to come back first, though. That cliffhanger at the end. What did you think of it?
JONES: The easiest way to describe it is that it feels like Isaac gets what he deserves, because he left this woman literally in the dirt. Then he recently left this man at the altar. He was, even in this episode, just a little persnickety with Sam the entire time. He’s a messy, messy dude that has a lot to figure out. Anytime he’s called out on his bullsh*t, or he has to pay the price for some of the things that he does, I think it’s a good moment because it’s funny, hopefully. But also, hopefully, he’ll be able to either learn or at least figure something else out. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I have no idea where this is gonna go, but I hope he does have to atone for something.
DEADLINE: Did they tell you they were going to do this to Isaac?
JONES: No, no, I didn’t get a heads up on that. I read that in, I think at the table read. It was definitely right before we were filming. I wasn’t sure if that was going to stay or not. But yeah, we filmed it and it’s in there. I’m excited because I think it’s gonna be a cool opportunity.
DEADLINE: Isaac is now the third ghost to ‘disappear’ in some way from the property this season. What do you think that means for the rest of the ghosts?
JONES: I don’t envy the job our writers have of sort of being like, ‘Well, these people can’t live or die, or hold anything. They can’t touch anything. They can’t talk to people that aren’t also dead.’ How do you tell the stories? But they always find a way to do that. I love any opportunity that we can to just deepen the mythology of the show. It is funny you actually pointed that out. I hadn’t noticed that, but yeah, this is the third person to go missing.
DEADLINE: Since the show has been renewed, what are you hoping is in store for Isaac once he’s back?
JONES: I try not to think too far ahead because the writers always keep us guessing. But I guess I hope this experience of leaving your fiancé at the altar, getting dragged into the dirt by a woman you left for essentially dead — if you can leave a ghost for dead. I hope that it sends Isaac on a new path of self discovery. There’s something really, really funny to me about somebody really trying to make a hard right turn into being a better person. That could be really interesting.
DEADLINE: I do think Isaac trying to be a nicer person would be a hilarious story.
JONES: Exactly. It’s really coming to terms with the atonement of all the bad things that he’s done. Like he killed so many people when he was alive. I would love to see him start to really try to figure things out and see how difficult it really is to change in the afterlife.
The post ‘Ghosts’ Finale: Brandon Scott Jones & EPs On Isaac’s Wedding, The Puritan Named Patience, Season 4 And More appeared first on Deadline.
