The latest episode of Ghosts, which aired on February 6, includes even more background on Thor’s Viking past, and just might further cement his title as the most tragic ghost at Woodstone. Every year on the anniversary of when Thor became stranded in America, he rages around the house, recollecting the time he was abandoned by his shipmates.
He can’t seem to move past his immense hurt, and via Sam’s therapy session, he realizes he needs to somehow get answers about his past in order to move forward. He enlists Pete (Richie Moriarty), with his special ghost power of travel, to head back to Norway to interview Thor’s ghost pals and find out the real reason they left him all those years ago. After some discussions with a Viking ghost that was with Thor back in the day, Pete discovers that there were no ill feelings towards Thor at all; the crew simply miscounted the members of the ship and accidentally left Thor behind. Thor had been carrying around the anger surrounding this for hundreds of years but he is finally able to gain some perspective when he realizes how his obsessiveness around the event actually put his true family at risk (when Pete nearly disappears after being gone from Woodstone for too long).
Even though Thor has been dead for many years, both Episode 10 and 11 demonstrate that he’s still willing to grow and learn. He’s trying to reconcile his past with everything he’s learning about himself and the world in the present day. His background of abandonment (both by his shipmates and by all of the people he’s lost over the years) might indeed be tragic. But in a beautiful twist, Ghosts is also able to illustrate that Thor is still able to connect with those around him in a meaningful way. His depressing backstory proves that beneath the Viking swagger, Thor has a heart of gold. He would never want to hurt Hetty by disclosing her background or put Pete in danger by sending him on a wild goose chase. Thor is an essential part of the Woodstone family because he’s been around the longest and is the foundation for all of the spirits, and he doesn’t allow his trauma to keep him from having significant relationships with each of his ghost roommates.
Thor might now be in the running for saddest ghost story (until someone else gets an episode devoted to their trauma), but there are plenty of areas that the Ghosts writers can explore if they want to dive even deeper into Thor’s story. Thor now has a relationship with his long-lost son, Bjorn (Christian Jadah), but they can only yell to each other from upstairs windows on the adjoining properties. Perhaps the series will finally allow father and son to reunite in some way, so that Thor’s story can become a little less tragic. There’s also his budding relationship with Flower (Sheila Carrasco), which is just begging for more attention in a future episode. By digging deeper into who Thor is as a person, instead of just portraying him as a stereotypical Viking pillager, Ghosts can continue to walk the line between comedy and a hint of heartache.
New episodes of Ghosts air Thursday nights on CBS and are available to stream on Paramount+ in the U.S.
