Ghosts’ Latest Halloween Episode Gives Me A Theory About Why So Many Dead People Come Back As Ghosts, And I Need It To Be Canon

Spoilers ahead for the Halloween episode of Ghosts Season 5, called “Halloween 5: The Mummy” and available streaming now with a Paramount+ subscription.

Season 5 of Ghosts delivered another winner in the 2025 TV schedule with its annual Halloween special. As somebody who recently binge-watched the series to catch up before the fall premiere, “Halloween 5: The Mummy” was the first Halloween episode in years that I’ve actually watched close to the holiday in question. On top of reminding why Nigel and Isaac were such an endearing couple once upon a time and possibly reigniting some sparks for Hetty and Trevor, the episode reminded me of my theory about why so many people who died on the Woodstone property don’t get sucked off.

The theory has actually been on my mind since I watched the Season 5 premiere, when Carol volunteering to go down with Elias was altruistic enough for her to get sucked off instead. Her brief tenure as a ghost compared to her much kinder former husband was part of the joke, but – to channel my inner Jay – also may add some ghost lore that's specific to the Woodstone estate.

In the most recent Halloween episode, oddly enough it was the commentary on Hetty and the mummy that she'd purchased from Egypt that had me thinking once again about how many ghosts there are on the property, particularly from the 20th century. Thor knew about the eaten toe, but it was definitely news to the ghosts who died after Hetty's time. So, let's jump into the sticky issue of why so many people who died at Woodstone also come back!

The Problem With People Dying On Ghosts

With Ghosts now five seasons in, it’s hard to ignore that none of the core eight (or even the majority of the cholera pit ghosts in the basement) ever get sucked off, no matter what kinds of emotional breakthroughs they have on the mortal plane. Now, I know that the real-life reason is probably because the main ghosts are all played by series regulars who aren’t going to just be written out of the comedy on a whim, and I don’t want to lose any of them anyway.

I’m happy to hand-wave that the ghosts just haven’t accumulated enough points of goodness to outweigh whatever is holding them back from moving on. For me, it’s a little harder to ignore that so many people who die on the property ultimately come back as ghosts.

We’re told early in the series that it’s rare for those who pass away to stick around rather than get sucked off, and that does seem to be the case for many centuries. After all, the ghost boundary goes back much further in time than when the house way built, and it's easy to believe that there were plenty of deaths on the property with the vast majority moving on and leaving the likes of Thor, Sass, and Isaac behind as the exceptions.

Even the basement full of cholera ghosts probably represents just a small fraction of all the people who died of the illness. Pre-20th century, it tracks that plenty of people died there due to war, disease, and possibly whatever killed Sassapis, then moved on. But then we get to the 1890s. Starting with Hetty's era, more people seem to be coming back, despite the fact that medical advancements from then on would have been increasing life expectancy and land wars with death tolls weren't a problem in New York anymore. Fewer people would be dying at Woodstone, but more were coming back.

Advancing into the 20th century, it's just odd that half of the main eight died between 1920 - 2000. Alberta, Flower, Pete, and Trevor all met their ends in the 20th century, while Hetty and Elias died just shy of the 20th century in 1895. (I'm counting Trevor, since his time in the 21st century was limited to months rather than years.) Crash and Stephanie are also products of deaths in the 1900s. Plus, going with the assumption that fewer people were dying on the property since Hetty's day, both of the most recent livings to pass away came back: Carol and Chris.

Is it a coincidence that most of the ghosts are pretty recent? Maybe. Is it a product of the fact that it's probably easier to write characters who died more recently than a millennium ago? Probably. But can we also have fun and theorize about a backstory now that we're five seasons in and guaranteed a sixth? Absolutely.

My Theory For Why So Many People Come Back As Ghosts

My theory is pretty straightforward: there's something mystical about the Woodstone property that keeps a disproportionate number of souls bound to the material plane. Whatever that "something mystical" is, it started sometime either shortly before Hetty's death or not too long after, with the 20th century deaths piling up.

While Hetty's most frequent callbacks to her time as a living are tied to her love of cocaine, there have been mentions over the years about mystical practices being all the rage in her day. She brought it up when Sam first proposed doing a séance, although she did ultimately realize that results at the time were due to Thor and Co. messing with her. It's also worth noting that even though Thor, Sass, and Isaac were already dead and haunting the property at the time of her death, they were trapped in a hole and Hetty had come back as a spirit without any of them seeing her demise.

Could something have happened on Woodstone sometime around Hetty's death that resulted in the property suddenly keeping a tighter hold on the souls of people who die there, or at least making it harder to be sucked off? The only main eight ghost who might know about it would be Hetty, who has successfully kept major secrets over the years without being discovered until she came clean herself. That's even assuming that Hetty would be involved and/or responsible.

Admittedly, I am already doing a lot of assuming when it comes to this theory, but the math doesn't lie: with the exception of the cholera ghosts who are likely a small sample of all the people who passed away from the illness on the property, the majority of the ghosts died and came back after Hetty and Elias' time.

And dang it, I would love a canon explanation for why so many people die and come back. Chris is really the one that pushed me over the edge to suspect it, and I can freely admit that any mystical backstory to Woodstone could be retroactively written for the show the longer than it goes on. For fans who didn't recently binge-watch 70+ episodes, the math might not really matter. Still, it's fun to theorize, and I will definitely celebrate if Ghosts ever provides an explanation whether I'm right or not.

That may be a long shot, but at least the show is back from summer hiatus! New episodes of Ghosts air on Thursdays at 8:30 p.m. ET on CBS, and stream next day on Paramount+.