Since last week’s “The Not-So-Silent Partner,” Thorfinn continues to surprise me. For starters, I love all the ghosts who haunt Woodstone Mansion, but Thor is often the one I’m most frustrated by. (Affectionately.) Yet, that’s not been the case recently. And it’s especially not the case in Ghosts Season 4, Episode 11, “Thorapy 2: Abandonment Issues.” The arc gives us another reason to see he’s all heart burrowed behind the fur and gruffness.
Anniversaries are hard, and pairing it with abandonment makes it even harder to process. Characters don’t always get closure, and that’s a large part of the reason these spirits haven’t left the site of their death. Still, sometimes, the universe gives us something to make the pain a little more bearable. And it often comes from examining those standing around us. It comes from allowing ourselves a true moment of vulnerability. To not only feel the pain, but to do something about it.
“Thorapy 2: Abandonment Issues” Signals That Thor’s Going to Be Okay
Ghosts Season 4, Episode 11, “Thorapy 2: Abandonment Issues,” takes Thor back to therapy. It also ships Pete off to find Thor’s former shipmates for answers. What could possibly go wrong? Other than the slightest delay, which is a huge hindrance to guaranteeing Pete will make it back home in time before he disappears. It’s in that moment of uncertainty, throughout the episode where Devan Chandler Long visibly shows us how concerned Thor is.
So, when he learns the truth about why his shipmates left him and that it wasn’t intentional, it doesn’t hold a candle to the ache he felt when he believed he’d never see Pete again. In last week’s episode, Thor tells Hetty that he’s always looked out for her. And in this week’s, it’s clear that he understands people are looking after him, too. Pete’s willingness to travel, Sam’s decision to put herself through another embarrassing therapy session, and the accidental miscount tell us that for once, he’s going to be okay.
When the anniversary of his abandonment rolls around again, he’s likely not going to be screaming, messing with the lights, and chopping off arms in the midst of his sorrow. He might still mope a bit because trauma never leaves us fully. But it’ll be significantly easier for him to take that rage and put it into something more meaningful, more heartfelt. Long is always hilarious in his embodiment of Thor. But as someone who’ll always take sincerity over comedy, his ability to transform with a single look in his eyes and the slight change in his tone never fails to floor me. The performance is what brings Thor’s sincerity to the center, and authenticates that he means every word he’s speaking. Pete being alive matters far more to him than the truth about his past.
What he has with the ghosts here at Woodstone Mansion isn’t just a purgatory by chance. It’s a family because they choose to look out for one another. Things could’ve been a lot different if each of them didn’t have a heart bigger than the hell they’re stuck in. They choose to be a family, and Thor, of all characters, holds back the most. So, thankfully, Ghosts Season 4, Episode 11, “Thorapy 2: Abandonment Issues,” shows us otherwise with the bit of closure he gets and what he does with the truth he learns.
Ghosts is now streaming on Paramount+
