WhileGhostsseason 5 will need to explore its titular spirits more, the CBS sitcom has already solved one lingering issue with its human characters before the show even returns to screens.The ghosts of CBS’sGhostsare the true heroes of the series, as Thor, Sass, Isaac, Hetty, Alberta, Flower, Pete, and Trevor provide the show’s laughs.
While Sam and Jay are important characters, they mostly exist to facilitate the storylines of the show’s ghosts. This can sometimes prove problematic for the series, since the show’s main characters are not the most proactive. This isn’t through any fault of their own, or due to a lack of trying.
The ghosts certainly want to make a mark on the world around them, but they are extremely limited by their undead status. Although all theghosts inGhostshave supernatural powers, there is not a lot that they can do without the help of Sam and Jay. The ghosts rely on human characters to enact their schemes.
Ghosts Season 5 Will Feature Bigger Storylines For Jay’s Sister Bela
Bela Began Working at Jay’s Restaurant Mahesh Back In Season 4
As such, it is exciting to see that one major supporting character from earlier seasons will play a bigger role in assisting the ghosts throughout season 5. According to the show’s creators,Jay’s slacker sister Bela will play a bigger role inGhostsseason 5, and she will have plans of her own outside of helping out Jay.
Per comments that the showrunners made at SDCC 2025, “We’ll see more of Bela this season. She’ll take more of a hand in running the restaurant and will start an event business.” This is an exciting development since, unlike Jay’s other business partners and employees, Bela knows all about the mansion’s many ghosts.
Bela is a new human character who can interact with the ghosts, even though she is unable to speak directly to them. This limitation has not stopped Jay from playing a role in the schemes that the ghosts come up with, and already, Bela played an unexpectedly big part in season 4, episode 22, “The Devil Went Down to Woodstone.”
There, Bela inadvertently alerted Patience to Sam’s “sinful” book launch, a move that seemed destined to ruin the event but instead ended up making it even better.Patience’s role inGhostsseason 4saw her constantly annoying both the human and spirit characters of the series, but her role in the finale wouldn’t have been possible without Bela.
Ghosts Season 5 Needs More Compelling Human Characters
Sam and Jay Are Often Overshadowed By The Ghosts
What makes Bela’s addition to the cast exciting is that the sitcom needs more complex, flawed human characters among its lineup. It doesn’t help that, between Nancy, Stephanie, and Elias,Ghostsoften adds more minor ghost characters but rarely adds more living characters to the cast. In this regard, Bela’s arrival improves proceedings.
WhileGhostsseason 5 shouldn’t abandon its premise entirely, the show could do with devoting as much time to its human characters as its ghosts.
Bela could play a bigger role in the upcoming outing and, unlike Sam and Jay, she is unlikely to simply acquiesce to the expectations of the ghosts at every turn. WhileGhostsseason 5 shouldn’t abandon its premise entirely, the show could do with devoting as much time to its human characters as its ghosts.
The problem is that the sitcom’s current human leads, Sam and Jay, are pretty placid, agreeable people who go along with the plans of the ghosts more often than not. In contrast, Bela has proven herself to be an agent of chaos from her first appearance in the series, when she unknowingly started a relationship with the ghost Trevor.
Bela can bring more surprise and urgency to the show’s predictable human cast, meaning the ghosts won’t be the only ones causing trouble in the Woodstone Mansion. While it is amusing to watch Sam and Jay clean up the many messes caused by the spirits, it would be even more fun to see a human who could hold their own.
Bela’s Ghosts Season 5 Story Can Increase The CBS Sitcom’s Stakes
Human Characters Have A Bigger Impact On The Series
Unlike most of the ghosts, the human characters ofGhostsseason 5 can actually get stuff done in the real world. This means that Bela can naturally have a bigger impact on her surroundings than the spirits, thus increasing the stakes of the series. Sam and Jay never want to rock the boat, whereas Bela’s return promises upheaval.
Devon Chandler Long
Thor
Ghostshas needed a new, more pro-active human character for a long time now, and Bela fits the bill perfectly.The quirky sitcommight mine a lot of laughs from its chaotic cast of spirits, but the ghosts themselves have admitted that there is only so much they can do as they while away eternity on the grounds of the mansion.
Sam’s arrival afforded the ghosts a lot more opportunities to interact with the world of the living, from Sam planning Nigel and Isaac’s wedding to her introducing them to the joys of Hot Pockets. The problem is that all of these events have consisted of Sam fulfilling the demands of the ghosts, and she has never asked for much in return.
Bela is a more self-interested, imperfect character, and this makes her a more compelling interlocutor for the spirits. It will be exciting to see how the ghosts deal with a human who doesn’t just do what they tell them to, so Bela’s independence guarantees thatGhostsseason 5’s new human character will be a memorable addition to the cast.
