If you were going to pick a ghost from Woodstone Manor to hang out with, I would put money on betting that you’d select Alberta Haynes. No disrespect to her spiritual roommates, but an experienced nightclub chanteuse might be the best hang. Season four of CBS’ beloved Ghosts brings a lot of newer, bigger challenges to the residents haunting the bed and breakfast, and Danielle Pinnock’s performance is more lovable than ever as she helps a relative and has an unexpected chance at romance.
It’s not lost on Pinnock how special Ghosts‘ popularity has grown. Log onto Reddit and you will find an enthusiastic community who share a devoted love of Woodstone’s most prominent happenings, and she gushes over the reaction.
“I am of the belief that underdogs will always come out on top, and I also believe that we are all so grateful to be working in this job economy right now,” Pinnock says. “It’s unreal that we have already been picked up for season five and six. It’s summer camp every day, and we really are a family. Everyone says that, but Ghosts is truly a family. We were a pandemic show when we started, so experiencing the growth as a group is always rewarding. We are a comedy, but we are also talking about the afterlife and grief and death. There can be joy brought to those conversations.”
In one of Alberta’s bigger storylines in season four, Sam is auditioning for a local production of Anything Goes, and Alberta steps in to coach her. You wouldn’t have seen season one Alberta be so generous, and it’s a testament to how much she has grown to love and rely on Sam as a friend. Pinnock explains how much the storyline meant to her as it pays homage to her early days of performing.
“I do believe that her self-centered behavior really was just her covering herself,” she says. “I think in the 1920s, as a Black woman who was in the jazz scene, she had to have a higher self-sense so that she didn’t get played. She’s dealing with gangsters and people messing her checks and all kinds of shenanigans. I believe that she had to keep a persona in place so she could protect herself, her feelings, and her vulnerability. Sam was integral into Alberta’s murder being solved, and that was something that plagued her for over a century. When she knows that she has a descendant living in the world that she can help guide from the spiritual realm, I think she can melt a little bit so she can expose her heart more. Working with Rose [McIver] on that episode was so funny, because Alberta was like Debbie Allen. That episode also meant a lot to me because my roots are based in a lot of community theater when I was growing up. It made me feel free enough and brave enough to tell my parents that I wanted to be an actor, especially as a first-generation Caribbean person where I thought my options only included being a doctor, lawyer or an engineer.”
On a rewatch of season four, earlier episodes seem to harp on Alberta’s ghost power, and I became defensive. Pete and Sass might rank their powers as being more “important” or “godlike,” but the writers didn’t criticize her powers just to make fun of her. In ‘The Bachelorette Party,’ Alberta’s humming helps her descendant, Alicia, from making a rash decision about her relationship.
“In the universe of Ghosts, that was the first iteration of ghost powers,” Pinnock says. “As the show evolved, we get other ghosts revealing what they can do, and some, like Pete says, have “godlike powers.” I was feeling some type of way about it, but the way that the episode with Ashley Kelley, who plays Alberta’s descendant, unfolds, it was so powerful. No one can say anything to her now since it was utilized in such a beautiful way. When I think about my grandmother or my father who have passed away, I think about how they might be guiding me along this path.”
That moment is so wonderfully staged. Alicia cannot see Alberta, but they share the frame with each other. Ghosts has the ability to make us think about death and the afterlife in such a sneakily profound way. So many films and episodes of television have hinted that someone passed on is watching over us or the characters that we love, but this season proves it. It’s a moment that comforts both women even if they can’t see each other.
“Another reason why that episode was so special was because it was directed by Pete Chatmon,” she says. “He’s an incredible, Black director working alongside our Black writer, Akilah Green, on that storyline. I was like, ‘Did Black History Month come early?’ We were having so much fun playing around. I’ve known Ashley since college, and when she posted this job in season three, it was very surreal for me. We hadn’t seen each other since, I think, 2011, and it feels like a reunion every time I see her. I remember when we did the song for the first time, I got chills, because we didn’t have any music. We were just rehearsing. We finished, and you could hear people sniffling, and it felt like such a powerful moment that we shared together.”
Throughout these four seasons, Alberta has pined for guys (I identify with being boy-crazy, too, Alberta…) but her most prominent crushes come in the form of Tristan D. Lalla’s Mark and Jason Momoa. It would be amusing if Momoa guested on the show, but Alberta didn’t believe that it was him. But after that finale, maybe Mark and Momoa need to take a backseat?
“Maybe they could get an impersonator for her birthday,” Pinnock suggests. “Recently, I was in Austin doing the ATX TV Festival, and I remember people saying that Jason Momoa was in the area doing signings or something. I thought…maybe I should try to go and tell him that my character is obsessed with him. You know, keep it cute. I hope he’s watching these episodes, though, because he reigns supreme. I was telling someone, though, that Alberta, out of all of the ghosts, has had the most hookups. There was Saul, played by Lamorne Morris, and I am such a huge fan of his. What a fabulous actor. Maybe they all love a diva?”
Ghosts is streaming now on Paramount+.
