Spoilers for Ghosts Season 4, Episode 6 – “Planes, Shanes and Automobiles” – are ahead. Read with caution, and catch the show as it airs on CBS every Thursday at 8:30 p.m. ET.
I’ve always had a very big question about Pete’s power on Ghosts. He, arguably, has one of the most powerful abilities, seeing as he can leave the property. However, it comes with a massive drawback too, because if he stays away too long, he’ll start to disappear. Now, that has left me with the question: What happens if Pete fully disappears? Well, I asked Richie Moriarty, who plays the spirit, that question, and he gave me his theory on the matter.
During the Season 3 finale of Ghosts, which you can go back to with a Paramount+ subscription, Pete realized that if he stays away from the property for too long, he’ll start to disappear. Since then, he hasn’t pushed that boundary far enough to find out what happens, which is good. However, I still wonder where he’d go if he fully disappeared, and Richie Moriarty does too, as he told me the following about the consequences of his character’s power during an interview with CinemaBlend:
I honestly don’t know the answer to that. My theory is that he goes into some sort of, what’s the word I’m looking for, Purgatory. Like, my feeling is he’s just floating in white space and stuck there forever, you know? Because it’s clearly not the same as being sucked off, like he’s not ascending anywhere.
Right, it’s clearly not the same as being sucked off. When a ghost is sucked off, they ascend to whatever plane lies beyond the world they’re living in. It takes a big, good deed or a major positive revelation for that to happen, and Pete overusing his power is neither of those things. So, this has to be something different.
To that point, Richie Moriarty told me that he thinks if Pete were to totally disappear, he’d maybe just wind up lost in an unknown space…kind of like Purgatory. He explained:
My feeling is that he’s just sort of potentially lost, which would be so terrifying, and it’s fun to sort of play that terror, too. You get to see that a little bit in the Planes, Trains and Automobiles episode, because he does end up sort of stuck away from home. So a little bit more of that is touched on in that episode.
In the second half of the quote, the actor noted this week’s episode of Ghosts, “Planes, Shanes and Automobiles.” In it, Pete and Sam go on a trip, and as they try to get back to New York, travel delays and many mishaps lead to them getting lost and stranded with a broken rental car outside Dunbridge, Ohio. They actually are gone for so long that Pete starts to disappear. However, they make it back to Woodstone in time, and the ghost’s body parts return, so it’s all good…this time.
Now, going back to my conversation with the Pete actor, Moriarty reiterated that he thinks the ghost would go to a place that’s like Purgatory if he didn’t make it to the manor on time. I responded to that by saying it could maybe be like a void, and he agreed with that idea too. But all this is to say, he doesn’t really know where his character would end up if he fully faded away.
However, he does feel like it’s an idea that will get explored eventually. Noting that he knows the showrunners have thought about the consequences of Pete’s power before, the actor said:
And I bet we will at some point. I bet we will, because I’m sure – I know the showrunners have thought a lot about that and what that would mean. So yeah, I hope, hopefully, maybe get to play with that.
Thankfully, we already know Ghosts will get a sixth season, so there’s plenty of time for this story to be explored. Plus, it’s fun for the show to have outstanding questions, like this one. It leaves fans (and the cast) wondering, and theorizing about it all, and that’s always a blast.
Now, as we continue to wonder what the deal is here, you can see what shenanigans Pete and the ghosts get up to as Ghosts continues to air on CBS every Thursday at 8:30 p.m. ET.