Unfortunately, Sam and Jay don’t have the best rapport with the basement ghosts. It’s hard for Jay since he can’t see spirits unless he’s possessed in Ghosts again, but Sam also hasn’t spent a lot of time in the basement, and that needs to change by the end of Ghosts season 4 with her building that relationship into the next season. These ghosts aren’t as welcome upstairs by the other spirits, and they tend to be forgotten by everyone.
Despite the neglect, their actions may not be fully malicious; the basement ghosts just don’t have a history of acting before they think. That was shown in the episode when Flower quickly rallied the spirits in the basement to her aid. The basement ghosts didn’t even give Jay or Sam a chance to explain themselves, but took Flower’s word that the world was going to end and quickly got into action.
Still, they’ve shown they can be a nuisance when upset, especially Nancy. During the Ghosts season 3 finale, Nancy helped to orchestrate Isaac being taken by Patience because all the basement spirits were hurt by being left out of Isaac and Nigel’s wedding. While Nancy later regretted her involvement, she still didn’t tell Sam everything that happened until later. As she’s the ringleader of the basement ghosts, it makes the whole group dangerous. All it takes is for the basement ghosts to feel like they have been slighted in some way, and they can cause havoc.
Viewers saw how quickly the basement ghosts could make this happen the night before opening, and so did Jay. Jay knows the damage that a cholera outbreak could do to his reputation, which is why he made up a story for the chefs to believe. He was fortunate that the chefs were not the smartest people in the room, so they believed the tale.
