Heartwarming / Ghosts (UK)

Warning: Spoilers are unmarked as per policy. Proceed at your own risk.

In General

• Alison and Mike have a number of ups and downs, especially in series 2, but they always make up and are one of the more realistic examples of a Happily Married couple seen on television (so long as they continue to communicate and work on it).

Season 1

• After getting shot in the throat, Pat's last effort was to try and get away from his scouts so they wouldn't be haunted by the image of his death.
• After finding out that his wife had cheated on him with his best friend in "Happy Death Day", Pat is devastated and runs to Thomas' spot to sigh, with Robin joining them. After citing he no longer wants to see his family, Thomas notes that eventually no one would come, as they will eventually all be forgotten. Robin, who is the oldest ghost of the group had this to say:
  Robin: What Thomas try to say is... You die... Time pass, everything change. Family not come any more. Is pain... But you heal. Yeah? You remember them [points to Pat's heart] here. And maybe one day, you find new family.
  • Pat's utter happiness over finding out that he has a grandson named after him.
• After exhausting themselves physically and financially, Alison and Mike are approached by a hotel agent who offers them a substantial amount of money for the house - which after a quick deliberation, they accept. The ghosts (except the Captain) are horrified and beg Alison to reconsider, claiming that they'll change and promise to be on their best behaviour (even Julian). Fanny - who up until this point has been extremely critical of Alison - even offers Alison an expensive family jewel if it can help keep them afloat. Although the jewel had actually been pawned by Fanny's husband, rendering the offer useless, it says a lot just how far the group have come to liking Alison and Mike.
  • Kitty, upset that Alison and Mike are leaving, is approached by the Captain, alone. He offers her some information that will help Alison sell the house, but he also asks Kitty what's more important to her: keeping Alison at the house or letting her be happy. In the next scene we see Kitty helping Alison to ensure she gets the correct amount of money from selling the house, choosing Alison's needs over her own even though Alison leaving will break her heart. Granted, the Captain is using Kitty in his own plan, but it's still heartwarming.
  • The Captain, who got stroppy and flounced away after Kitty (rightfully) called him out for being an asshole, manages to find a way to keep Alison and Mike at Button House, knowing that despite his own personal misgivings, the others would be devastated if the sale goes through.

Season 2

• By series 2, Alison and the ghosts have found a rhythm that fits; they help each other out (shown especially in episodes 5 and 6, where the ghosts foil a burglary and help out with the wedding), have movie nights, Alison lets them join her party (even saying to Thomas that they're "part of the family"), etc. It's a far cry from the ending of series 1, where they were still on rocky ground.
• It's a brief shot, but in series 2's first episode Mike uses a bulletin board Alison has hung on the pantry door, with pictures of the ghosts in life and labels with their names. Even if he can't see them, Mike still wanted to know more about the ghosts haunting the house.
• In "The Grey Lady", Alison creates a flickering light phenomenon by hiding in the basement and repeatedly throwing the fuse. Unfortunately, she ends up shocking/electrocuting herself (not seriously, thankfully), and the plague ghosts step up to comfort her.
  Nigel: [soothingly] Okay, ease down, ease down... It's over, isn't it? It's over.
  Alison: [she stops, looking very distressed and slightly traumatized as the other Plague Ghosts gather around her looking concerned]
  Nigel: Do you want some milk? Do you - do you want a glass of milk?
  Alison: [beginning to relax a tiny bit] No, thank you.
• Alison drunkenly telling Thomas that if they were the same age, he wasn't dead and she wasn't married to Mike, they could have had a chance at a relationship together. He practically starts glowing! It's negated the next morning when she tells him she didn't mean it, but the two did have some genuine friendship moments (she tells him he's part of the family, they're sat next to one another when Alison is drunkenly playing the piano, and he walks her back to her room after the party is over). He also gives her a very nice compliment the morning after, when she's feeling awful.
  Thomas: She awakes, as radiant as the sunrise itself.
  • In the same episode, both Mary and Robin comfort a tearful Kitty, who mistakenly thought that Alison hates her. Robin is especially kind and both of them help Kitty calm down and tuck her in to bed. This moment sparks a mutual attraction between both of them and it's implied they kissed, although they decide not to pursue the relationship and remain friends instead.
  Robin: We cool?
  Mary: [smiling] Yeah. We be cool.
• When Mary is ready, after 300 years, to talk about her witch trial, the other ghosts are very supportive, assuring her that she should only talk when she's ready. They also make sure to watch their words, especially those involving fire, knowing that she's in a delicate place. Except Julian, who intentionally tries to provoke her.
• While he does admit afterwards that it was futile (since he's a ghost), the Captain throws himself onto a bomb before it explodes. Before it happened, he yelled at Alison in a panic to grab Mike and get away from it.
  • And prior to that, Mary and Kitty play hide and seek together. It's very clear that the two are having fun and for Kitty this is a big deal - as she had recently explained how her sister tricked her into playing hide and seek without actually seeking Kitty and how she had been so lonely in life, her only friend had been a statue.
• The final episode of Season 2 introduces us to Clare and Sam, a lesbian couple who are getting married at Button House. While at first Clare has cold feet, Alison manages to comfort her by stating how she too had doubts on her own wedding day but came to realize that she simply couldn't imagine living without Mike. After some miscommunication, Clare, in spite of believing that seeing the bride before the wedding is bad luck, runs to find Sam and the two of them embrace as Alison and Mike watch with happiness.
  • Clare's father is shown to be extremely supportive even as it becomes evident that the wedding is turning into a disaster. He tries to cheer up his daughter and is nothing but loving throughout the episode.
  • After spending the majority of the episode furious that the boy who accidentally killed him has come back to the house as an adult, Pat follows him out to the tree and hears him apologize and says that he misses him and thinks of him often. Pat's face instantly softens and he lets go of his anger.
  • Also, Fanny's eventual acceptance of the idea of two women marrying one another. After venting angrily to Humphrey about how the whole thing is terrible and flies in the face of tradition, Humphrey actually points out how his traditional wedding was all right and proper but in reality neither him nor his wife liked each other, leading to a rather miserable marriage. He then comments that it would've been nice if he could've chosen who he married. After this, Fanny can only stare at the portrait of her husband and realizes that Humphrey is right. As proof that she's changed her stance, she appears at the wedding to give them her (unseen) blessing.
  • And the whole wedding is this - after suffering from setbacks in trying to earn money for the house, the wedding turns out to be a success and everyone, living and dead, can be seen celebrating together in harmony for once.
  • Fitting their characters, Kitty and the Captain are the most excited out of the ghosts for the two brides. At first, Kitty assumes there's going to be a double-wedding, and when told the brides are marrying one another, she's simply overjoyed there are two brides. Then, she wants to be a bridesmaid since the bridesmaids are wearing dresses that match a colour in her outfit. The Captain, meanwhile, approves of said dress colours, compliments Sam's beauty, and takes charge when Clare is missing so that the wedding will get back on track.
• The Christmas Special is full of these:
  • Fanny complements Alison on the house's Christmas decorations. It becomes funny when she criticizes the tiny Christmas tree, but it's one of the nicest things she's said on the show.
    • All Fanny wants for Christmas is a proper tree in the house. Despite a few mishaps, she gets her wish and it's decorated with all her old decorations from when she was alive.
  • It's nice to meet Mike's family, who are all quite loving and kind towards Alison; Mike's mum even hugs him and calls him her 'little prince'. Yet, they ran into a series of scuffles because Mike insists on trying to be a good host and is frustrated by his parents hijacking the cooking, tree cutting and so on, despite Mike wanting his family to relax rather than help him out. After one too many interference, Mike snaps and leaves to sulk upstairs. Knowing they may have gone to far, Mike's dad heads up and has a heart-to-heart talk with his son.
    Errol: The reason why old mums and dads like us want to do everything is because we like it. And maybe's a bit it's because, I don't know, we're scared.
    Mike: Scared of what?
    Errol: The day we can't do it anymore.
    Mike: [takes a moment to let this sink in before looking up to his dad again] You know what? There is one thing you can do for me. [the two of them hugs, reconciled]
    • We find out later this one thing was setting up the Christmas tree as Alison sings a Christmas carol.
  • Alison gets some presents for the ghosts, too; a snow globe for Kitty (which she can't touch, but it's the thought that counts) and a game of twister, which they start playing. Even the Captain joins in after some encouragement.
  • Julian not only finds a way to get the baby to stop crying (by entertaining her) but also realises just how much he loved his family really, and tells the other ghosts that families are supposed to drive each other mad at Christmas, and that things aren't supposed to be perfect. Because that's what makes Christmas special, and they should all be grateful that they're having a Christmas at all.
    • Julian googles his daughter's name at the end of the episode and is ecstatic to discover that she became an MP just like him. He doesn't even seem to care that she's a member of the Green Party.
  • The carol scene. All of it.
    • Alison starts to sing on her own, but then all the other ghosts join in. Not just the main ones, but even the basement ghosts, as well.
    • The first ghost to join in is Thomas. He sits down next to Alison at the piano, and she even gives him a kiss. To the back of his head, but still. They're actually starting to have a good Better as Friends dynamic (despite Thomas still carrying a torch for her).
    • It was established earlier in the episode that Mike's family weren't fans of carols. But after Alison finishes, they all clap for her.

Season 3

• In his backstory (revealed in "The Bone Plot") Humphrey saving his wife, Lady Bone, and taking the fall when Queen Elizabeth I's guards come to arrest and most likely behead her for treason. Although they are very unhappily married, she kisses him on the cheek in thanks before leaving.
  Humphrey: This isn't the life you signed up for. Go! Live another one! Well, go!
  • Even before this, Humphrey was ahead of his time in his treatment of her. The only thing he really tried to press, in a gentle, trying-to-be-subtle way, was her learning to speak his language. Other than this, he tried to help her find an enjoyable hobby, and when she expressed an interest in forming a book club, he gave her and the other members a comfortable room to meet in and respected their privacy. It's implied their marriage was sexless with them even sleeping in different parts of the house.
  • Upon hearing Humphrey's actions, the Captain steps forwards and salutes Humphrey for his bravery. A sigh of respect if there ever was one.
  • Though she clearly doesn't like Humphrey very much, when one of her co-conspirators insults him, Lady Bone shoots him a Death Glare and says that her husband is a good man.
• While talking on the documentary, Alison states that living in Button House is like "having family all around me". Upon watching the documentary, all of the ghosts are touched by her words.
• Thomas helps Alison prepare to talk on camera.
• Pat and Kitty dancing together.
• The reveal that Julian was the one who taught Robin how to play chess.
• Mike gets a job doing video cold-calls trying to sell people life insurance. Despite his supervisor's threats and prodding, Mike will not hang up on an elderly lady who wants to tell her life story to him, and in fact he listens raptly to the entire thing. When his boss threatens to fire him for going off-script, he immediately quits and lets the woman on the call know it was because the company was unethical. As a sweet bonus, the elderly woman is able to get Mike a new job prospect.
• Pat and the Captain help Alison pitch a tent and start a fire, with the dynamic of two parents teaching their child how to camp for the first time.
• Alison and the ghosts (Pat, the Captain, Thomas, Kitty and Mary) share a tent, but she goes to sleep in Mike's tent because they keep talking. When she wakes up the next morning, she sees that the ghosts have followed her and are sleeping all around her.
• Alison and Thomas watching the sunrise together.
  Thomas: I was just thinking that it ought to be dull and commonplace; same sunrise over the same house, same tiny piece of England, every day for two hundred years. But it is beautiful. I travelled miles and was unchanged when I could've been here and... transported. No fault of the sun if the eye sees not its beauty.
• After the camping trip, Pat presents Alison and the Captain with imaginary badges for all of their hard work. The Captain gently places the "award" with his other medals over his heart, and smiles genuinely.
• Alison and the ghosts throw Kitty a birthday party. Also, the ghosts' protectiveness of Kitty (by making sure she doesn't remember how cruel her sister really was since it'll upset her) is adorable.
• Despite her sister's cruelty, it's implied that Kitty had a somewhat happy upbringing, having been adopted and treated equally by her parents.
  • When Kitty accidentally smashes the bust of her father's late wife, she says "Mama!" in a softly horrified tone. The way she says it—and calling the woman "Mama" instead of the more impersonal "Mother"—implies Eleanor's mother treated Kitty as her own daughter, and is remembered very fondly by the latter.
  • In Kitty's flashback, she imagines Alison, Mike and the ghosts in different roles. One that should be noted is she imagines the Captain in place of her father, hinting that she sees him as a father figure.
  • Alison playing the sister Eleanor becomes more heartwarming when in season 5, after Kitty states that it was lucky that she was the one that got bitten by a spider and died, she reveals that Alison is Eleanor’s descendant since if Eleanor got bitten, Alison would have never existed.
• While it's part of a funny moment, from how Thomas describes his mother, she believed in him and his work, introduced him to publishers and even hung up his poetry in frames.
• During their "therapy" session, the Captain tries to come out to the others. He gets interrupted before he does, but the fact that he felt comfortable to do so says a lot.
• Mike is ecstatic when he thinks he's finally met one of the ghosts. It doesn't last, but he's practically giddy with joy for a few minutes.
• Julian giving moral support to Mike while making a video, despite the latter not being able to see him. Then when Mike gets the take right and realises that he forgot to press record, he sees that Julian did it for him.
• Finding Kitty upset, the Captain cheers her up.
  Captain: You'd be straight into the hall of fame with that wonderful smile of yours.
• After the issue with Lucy is sorted, the ghosts are waiting for Alison to come home and welcome her back. Kitty even gives her a hug, despite it being painful for her.
• Series 3 ends with Alison, Mike and the ghosts all sitting around the dinner table, enjoying themselves. Like Mike said in his video, Button House is a family home.
  • Kitty even gets her wish from earlier in the episode. She can't stop smiling at the photo of her and Alison someone Photoshopped and then propped up on the table for her to look at.

Season 4

• Kitty spends most of the episode "Happy Holiday" helping Thomas out with his new-found fans, including sending them away when he needs time to himself (for which he gives her an adorable grateful look over his shoulder). And at the end of the episode when he loses his new fans because of his poetry, Kitty reveals that she's always liked his poems. Thomas is clearly grateful.
  • It's a small moment but when the Plague ghosts try to barge past Kitty to get to Thomas, she calls to Robin for help and he immediately leaps in to be her bodyguard.
  Robin: YOU HEARD LADY, FORM A QUEUE!
• Mary describing her life to Pat:
  Mary: Sometimes would my husband go to the lake to fish, and then I would join him and prepare a fire to cook the catch. And then would we huddle under a blanket and eat as the sun sank beyond the trees and the birds sang for their bedtimes.
  Pat: Well! Mary... one day of your life sounds like my perfect holiday.
• In the episode "Speak as ye choose", the Captain spends the day with Kitty and learns how to enjoy himself.
  Kitty: Why would you want to kill time? It's there to be enjoyed, not killed.
• The friendship between Mary and Annie in the former's flashbacks, with the latter encouraging the former to find her voice.
  Annie: We were shut up all our lives; kept silent, kept in our place. Now, Mary, we are free. More free than ever in life.
• When Annie moves on, Mary isn't even upset. Just happy that her friend was able to find peace.
  • Both Kitty and Robin seem to remember Annie fondly. We later find out Robin has picked a star for her and regularly remembers the day she moved on as her "Annie-verserie."
• Fanny has a pet cemetery which she visits once a week. From the way she talks about them, she adored all of her pets.
• In "The Hardest Word", after Alison makes the ghosts understand how stressed out she is and how they aren't helping, they decide to leave a five-star review for the Gatehouse, telling her what a wonderful host she's been for them.
  The Captain: We are guests in your house every day. And you are the most incredible host.
• Though "Gone Gone" is a sad episode, it shows how much the ghosts really care for one another while mourning the loss of Mary.
  • At the beginning of the episode, they all realize that they haven't seen Robin in a few days and start to panic, thinking he's moved on.
  • Alison usually puts other stuff first before the ghosts. But upon realizing that they're really not coping with the loss of Mary, she leaves Mike in charge of the party and spends the rest of the day helping the ghosts out.
  • Thomas usually suffers from a case of Comically Missing the Point whenever he makes everything about him. But when Alison points out that his eulogy for Mary is about him, he immediately realizes that she's right and apologizes. He's then the one who helps Alison come up with an idea for the memorial: placing items that remind everyone of Mary into a basket (that Mary helped Alison make) and burying it, giving Mary the grave she never had.
  Alison: I hope you like the basket. I made it last year, according to Mary's instructions.
  Ghosts: Five potatoes high.
  • Mary's memorial, where the ghosts open up about their grief. Julian even apologizes for snapping at everyone and Alison assures him that his anger is a perfectly normal reaction.
  • They try to have a moment's silence, but the sound of the party distracts them. Robin then tells everyone that Mary would want them to enjoy themselves, so they all go in and enjoy the party.
  • Robin brings everyone outside and shows them what he does after ghosts move on: finds them a star in the sky. Mary's star is chosen because it has a twinkle.
  Robin: That's where we go. Back to the stars.
• In the episode "Poached Guests", Julian helps Alison by teaching her how to outwit Barclay. Granted, he's teaching her dirty tactics, but he's helping her against someone who's also not playing fair. And he helps her without asking for anything in return.
• Alison realizes that the ghosts are overwhelming the new ghost, Maddocks, so manages to get them away from him since he's too polite to say anything.
  • Robin and Maddocks get on quite well since the former knows when to give the latter his space, and they appear to have regular meetups.
• After bickering for the entirety of the episode "Not Again", Alison and Mike make up after the latter is almost hit by lightning.
  • Why was Mike only almost hit by lightning? Because Robin, upon seeing Mike was about to die the same way he did, fought through his trauma, ran outside, and used his powers over electricity to redirect the lightning onto himself - all because he refused to let what happened to him happen to anyone else.
• The Christmas special opens with the youth organisations that Pat was part of teaching archery at Button House again, but this time they've brought along an expert instead of leaving it to the group leader, clearly in order to avoid another accidental shooting.
• Alison leaving Christmas presents for the ghosts, with Pat's being a series of home videos from his family's past Christmases that the youth organisation let her use. Pat is at first unhappy when he sees his son mimicking him, but Alison later shows him a video from after he died, where his son upheld his late father's traditions in his memory.
• The ghosts decide to give Alison her own present, and get the idea to put on a pantomime for her. They even invite the plague ghosts to watch when they realise they don't have much of an audience.

Season 5

• In "Fools", doubling as a tearjerker, Alison is unable to find any of the ghosts and, thinking they can't have all moved on at once, believing that she's lost her ability to see them. Then when the ghosts appear and yell "April fools!" she immediately bursts into tears. Even though she later says she got so emotional as a side effect of her newly-discovered pregnancy, that doesn't make her feelings any less valid.
• In "Pineapple Day", we learn that Kitty died by being bitten by an exotic spider brought back with the titular pineapple. Even though her sister was not the nicest to her, she made a heartfelt apology to Kitty on her death bed wishing for her to be okay and be the sister Kitty had always been to her.
  • We also learn that Kitty father put on a big event for Kitty's wake. Making sure that they celebrated Kitty's life.
• In "Carpe Diem", The Captain finally tells the full story of his death and that he returned to Button House to find his secret lover, Havers. In the process he had broken into the house and stolen a medal bar from another officer. The Captain ended up having a stress induced heart attack when officer noticed the medal were upside down. He manages to have a brief final heart to heart with Havers, and by telling the story he effectively and finally comes out to his fellow ghosts family.
  • After telling the story he states he was no hero. The normally opinionated Lady Button counters that perhaps he wasn't but he was still a brave man (for coming out to the group) and his fellow ghosts agree.
• Barclay giving Allison and Mike all of his granddaughter's toys and necessities to help them get ready for the baby.
• In "Last Resort" Julian manages to sincerely express how grateful he is that he managed to have a family with Allison and his fellow ghosts, even if he isn't proud of pushing Allison out of the window in the first episode of the series. Shows major Character Development too given his normal attempts to weasel out of these situations. It even managed to convince Allison not to leave in spite of the fact he technically didn't apologise for the attempted murder.
• In "A Christmas Gift", the ghosts all conclude that it's time for Allison to move on, convincing her to accept the deal to sell the house so that she and Mike can make their own lives away from the ghosts so that they won't have to deal with the ghosts' problems any more. Despite this, Allison and Mike still return to the hotel that Button House has become for the next several years on a regular basis, to the extent that they have a regular suite.

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