Ghosts' Rebecca Wisocky Was 'Shocked' and 'Overwhelmed' by How Hetty Died

One of the fundamental mysteries of Ghosts has been finding out how each of the ghosts ended up dead in the first place — the only common thread between them being that they all died at Woodstone Mansion at some point in history. The latest of the undead to get the spotlight is Hetty (Rebecca Wisocky), the uptight lady of the manor and Sam’s great-great-great-great-great aunt, whose death story is finally revealed in Thursday’s episode.

Unlike previous death revelations on the CBS comedy, Hetty’s was intertwined with the welcomed return of Flower (Sheila Carrasco), who had been stuck in a well this entire time and not “sucked off” as previously thought. But her return wasn’t without its obstacles; the well she was in was about to be filled up with concrete, accelerating the ghosts’ urgency to get her out safely. Enter Hetty. 

With the ghosts unable to figure out a solution, Hetty, in a rare vulnerable moment, flipped down the Victorian high collar of her teal blue gown to reveal a yellow phone cord wrapped around her neck and the scars sustained from it, suggesting that she hung herself back in 1895. The phone cord that ended Hetty’s life ended up saving Flower’s, as they MacGyvered the cord into an impromptu rope.

When Ghosts showrunners Joe Port and Joe Wiseman informed Wisocky that Hetty died from suicide, she was “shocked” as it “never crossed [her] mind” that that was a possibility. As the episode conveys, Hetty’s decision to end her life was the culmination of everything going wrong and her being pushed into a literal corner — her AWOL husband, Elias, saddled her with legal issues, and she wrongly believed her death would set her son, Thomas, up with the best possible future. (He ended up poisoning and killing Alberta anyway.) In a reflective moment with Sam (Rose McIver) and Isaac (Brandon Scott Jones), Hetty acknowledged it as her biggest regret and expressed that she still had so much more life to live.

“Everyone involved took very seriously the responsibility to not handle the subject matter lightly,” the actress tells Primetimer, “but to do so with accuracy and respect in a way that might actually reach someone out there who may feel similarly alone and hopeless.” Below, Wisocky dives deeper into why filming Hetty’s suicide reveal was “triggering,” what it meant to have it be tied to Flower’s return, and the introduction of a new ghost power before season’s end.

[Note: This interview contains spoilers about the Ghosts Season 3 episode, “Holes Are Bad.”]

When did you find out this would be the episode where we learn how Hetty died?

Joe Port and Joe Wiseman approached me about a month before we shot this episode, and told me that this was the direction it was heading. I was so shocked and blown away and overwhelmed, and I was also very grateful that they wanted to involve me in the dramaturgical discussions about Hetty's past — the stories, the relationships and the emotional beats that might have led her to this moment. 

It's such a lovely, twinned theme between Flower and Hetty. This idea of being trapped at the bottom of a deep, dark well and thinking that you can't possibly conceive of how to get out on your own. The difference between Flower and Hetty is Hetty did not know how to ask for help. It's such a wonderful metaphor that she killed herself with her own telephone; if only she had known how to actually call out, she might actually be okay. It's clever, it's surprising. 

With how much control, power, status, and propriety Hetty exhibits, it's going to be really shocking for people to see that she also has this in her past. So much of her behavior is to cover some of the things that she regrets and that she wishes weren't true. And she's had that cord wrapped around her neck for 150 years. That's a constant reminder. We spoke to mental health professionals and wanted to make sure that we were getting it right and being responsible and not just using it as a plot device. Sophia Lear wrote the episode and Jude Weng directed it, and I think they did a really beautiful job.

You mentioned being shocked about how Hetty died. Did suicide ever cross your mind as a possibility?

It never crossed my mind up until this point. Honestly, it never crossed my mind that my son was Alberta's murderer until the day before we shot it. I had a little bit of time to get used to this one. So both of those things shocked me. Yet when you go back and look at all the other seeds that we've built together for this character, they all track. It is all plausible and it all makes sense and it makes previous choices even richer. I'm really happy about it. 

When Hetty pulls down her Victorian collar to reveal the phone cord around her neck, it was such an effective scene. What does that scene mean to you? What did that moment convey about Hetty?

It was very intense to film it — the sensation. I spent 14 hours a day tied tightly into a corset but to also, for those couple days, have that cord around my neck, I'll be honest with you, it felt a little triggering. The catharsis of running to the well, all of us together and then Hetty screaming out, "Stop! I know what to do!" and then revealing this thing. I think it packed a gut-punch for everybody. 

All the rest of the ghosts that were there came up to me afterwards and told me how intense they found it as well. It's really raw. It's really graphic. But I don't feel it's gratuitous. It felt very earned. Even though we're on a half-hour sitcom, and I know it is really funny but also, this is not new. This show has been really smart with the ways in which it addresses some pretty deep themes about the human condition and about American history. I don't feel like it was out of the blue, but I do think it's going to take people by surprise.

Having Hetty be Flower's savior and saving her felt like a crucial moment for the character. Do you think this redeems Heidi in some way? Why did she make the leap to reveal such a vulnerable part of her past to save Flower?

Hetty's made a lot of very selfish decisions that she thinks might put her in a good light in her life and in her afterlife. This was not one of them. She simply, viscerally could not stand the thought of Flower being abandoned to being alone forever. And so she acted. I don't think she did so with the idea that it would redeem her or get her "sucked off." She turns her head to the heavens and begs to be "sucked off" a whole lot in the show. She did not do that in this episode. It's another interesting thought — the idea of redemption. It's so on the table that all of us claim to want to be "sucked off." I'm not sure any one of these ghosts is actually ready or willing or able to do so, which I think is so interesting and it's such a great motor for the show.

Do you think if Hetty had a do-over, she would do things differently?

First of all, I think it's wonderful that we get to actually speak to someone and see someone who is 150 years on the other side of mortality, on the other side of their decision. Arguably, the first conversation you're going to have with someone that actually successfully commits suicide, that's an interesting scene to be able to set up. What other show can do something like that? 

Hetty says really clearly, "I had so much life to live." She understands, quite possibly only recently, because she's learned a whole hell of a lot since Samantha can see [the ghosts]. She's learned that she made this choice really thinking that she was doing the only thing that she could do to protect her son's future. And in fact, it was the worst possible thing to have done. She removed herself from him. 

She didn't understand that she had value, whether she was penniless or not, that she had value to him as a mother and she never saw that. That to me is so moving and so sad. So would she have done things differently? Today, she would have but back then, I don't know. It's an interesting thing to think about. She didn't understand that her existence mattered. That feels very powerful and it feels like something that can resonate with our audience and I sure hope it does.

Hetty's a character who's always presented herself in a certain manner with the desire to be perceived in a very specific way. This episode rips that facade away. Do you think this experience shifts Hetty's perspective moving forward?

She's been taking baby steps. Part of what's so enjoyable about comedy is for the audience to be a couple of steps ahead of the character or the audience to observe a character being blind to their own circumstances. There's a lot of comedy there and Hetty has a lot of ridiculous blindspots. She's not all of a sudden going to become a different creature overnight. I think she'll grow and her relationships will change and she will have learned something fundamental about herself. 

But human beings are funny that way. The blindness is wherein the comedy lies, so I think you'll see her take a couple steps forward, but you'll continue to see her get it horribly wrong. And that's what's not only enjoyable and funny about it, but also kind of true and heartbreaking. You can root for her to get certain lessons but she's only ever going to get them partway.

On a lighter note, one of my favorite comedic beats from the episode was Hetty proudly recounting her telephone number, which is just simply "4." 

There can be a bit of humor in that scene, where she confesses to Isaac and Sam what actually happened on the day of her death. That there can be that bit of humor of her saying, "I didn't even know that the telephone could dial outward." And that's not her cracking a joke; that's funny because it's so heartbreaking just how much she didn't understand. That's the kind of humor that our show and my character in particular do very, very well.

Do you have a favorite Hetty scene that still gets you to this day? 

The one that's popped into my mind that I continue to praise the writers about and I want them to give me more things like this – the one where I talk about pressing snakes in "Jay's Friends." We all realize that [Jay’s friend, Micah, is] a charlatan and they call him a snake oil salesman, and Hetty gets excited about it because snake oil, elixirs, and potions were things that Hetty was very much into. She says, "Well, you have an opportunity to get in on this. You should get in on this." And Sam says, "It's probably not a bad idea." Then I say, "I guess you could press your own snakes, but you're going to have to pick up the rugs," which is so, so absurd. The fact that Hetty loves the idea of a snake oil salesman, period, is one level of funny but then the fact that she gets it wrong as to thinking that a snake oil salesman is actually selling the oil from snakes was just delightful to me. That's the kind of stupid sense of humor I have.

Hetty's relationship with Trevor seems to be on the backburner, but he did make a quip about her in this episode. Do they revisit their trysts this season or do you think that ship has sailed?

To be determined. Asher [Grodman] and I talk about this all the time that we can't quite stay away from one another. When it first started, I thought these two are such a good pair because they're complete opposites. Now I think they're almost exactly the same in different ways. Trevor came up in a new Gilded Age with an opioid crisis, class disparity, and ridiculous, ostentatious displays of wealth. He was so incredibly driven by money and power, and Hetty was exactly the same way and unscrupulous about it. A '90s Wall Street bro? That's exactly who that was, too. Those two have a lot more to say to one another and I enjoy their relationship a lot.

We're working toward Isaac and Nigel's wedding. What can you tease about the final episode of the season?

Hetty's their wedding planner. She has lots of things that she is going to boss Samantha around to do for the wedding. And in true Woodstone fashion, they will decorate the house beautifully. That house glows up really, really nicely for every single party. Their budget for party planning is really irresponsible if you ask me. We will end up at the wedding but before we get there, we will reveal a new ghost power that we are completely jealous of — and I'll leave it at that. But it's a fun storyline for someone in our cast who really hits it out of the park.

Congratulations on the Season 4 renewal. Any personal wishes you'd like to see?

It's been an embarrassment of riches for Hetty this year. I had two flashback looks designed by Carmen Alie, who is our fantastic costume designer. I got to play myself at 25, which was insane and I've had so much juicy storyline this year, wherever they want to take us I'm game to go. The show has literally thousands of years of backstory to play with, so the possibilities are endless. I'm not going to limit myself by having wishes because I'm sure the writers' talents will far exceed them. So wherever they want to take us, I'm really, really excited.

If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts or a crisis, please reach out immediately to the Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 or text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741. 

Ghosts airs Thursdays at 8:30 P.M. ET on CBS. Join the discussion about the show in our forums.

Philiana Ng is a Los Angeles-based writer covering TV, celebrity, culture and more. Her work has appeared in The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, Entertainment Tonight, TV Guide, Yahoo Entertainment, and The Daily Beast, among others.