GHOST WARS – Episode One – (speculative recap) ⁓
Maggie
On the bus on the way out of town, Roman Mercer (Avan Jogia) chats with his friend Maggie (Elise Gatien), who tries to persuade him to stay. Maggie (we soon discover) is invisible to everyone but Roman. After what feels like an earthquake, the bus driver swerves to avoid what looks like someone standing in the middle of the road. The bus flips on its side and teeters on the edge of a cliff. Mercer, who was knocked out in the crash, is shaken awake by Maggie, and manages to pop open the emergency exit and jump to safety before the bus and the rest of the people on board meet a fiery end.
Sheriff Sam Perkins (Tim Guinee) and Roman Mercer (Avan Jogia)
The bridge leading out of town is destroyed by the earthquake, so Roman can’t leave Port Moore. He has given up his apartment and lost his suitcase in the bus crash, so he ends up staying at his mother’s abandoned house. (Roman’s mom left town some time ago, and doesn’t communicate with her son, but does send the occasional letter with enclosed cash via the town priest.) The crystal ball in her living room conveys the idea that Mama Mercer also has psychic powers. She might have left because she saw all this coming.
Karla Kowalski-Jones (Sonja Bennett)
Maggie reappears and becomes the highlight of the episode. She is the most charming and engaging ghost you’d ever want to be haunted by. Maggie hints to Roman that that quake might have been more a psychic rumbling than an earthquake. She also says the dead bus passengers and driver may be trapped in Port Moore, and suggests that trapped spirits will “lash out” at the living.
One needs to remember when listening to Maggie that while she might be a benign spirit giving useful information, she could also be a figment of Roman’s imagination articulating his own opinions. Whatever she is, Maggie is the most interesting personality in town. It is not mentioned in the episode, but the credits have Maggie’s last name as Rennie, and that is also the last name of Doug (Meat Loaf), the town bully, so the two of them might be closely connected. The reason Doug hates Roman so much could be that Roman can talk to Maggie, and Doug cannot.
Port Moore Deputy Sheriff Norm Waters (Jesse Moss)
After the bus crash the townspeople begin to hallucinate, and the visions that afflict them are so disturbing that several kill themselves. (Not all of the visual phenomena are horrific. Some are relatively tame, like when the bartender hears a non-existent baby cry, and sees the eyes in a photograph move.) Spirits from the other side could be responsible, or folks might be having waking nightmares. A psychiatrist might prescribe something pharmaceutical to deal with such symptoms.
The bridge on the road leading out of Port Moore is thoroughly destroyed. That road leads to Anchorage, Alaska. One is left to wonder if people will be able to exit by sea.
The memorial to Maggie on the mirror behind the bar in the local pub.
Reverend Dan Carpenter (Vincent D’Onofrio) is the only cleric visible so far. Roman’s mother communicates only with the priest, never with her son.
The Mayor, Val McGrath-Dufresne (Luvia Petersen), doesn’t believe in ghosts, but we see very little of her in this episode, and we see nothing of her wife. The town’s sheriff dies, as do several workers examining the bridge after the quake. At least two of the casualties from the bus crash return in spirit form, and Roman demonstrates that he has the power to shoo spirits away. Whenever he does that his eyes glow.
NOTES
The music playing while the town’s mortician Sophia Moon (Sharon Taylor) applies makeup to the corpse of Mrs. Foon (Linda Feng) is “La capricieuse, Opus 17”.
Elise Gatien and Stephanie Izsak in the 2021 romantic comedy LOVE & WHERE TO FIND IT.
Jesse Moss (Norm) is Kyle Henicker in the 2023 mystery romcom THE CASES OF MYSTERY LANE, which stars Aimee Garcia and Paul Campbell as Alden and Birdie Case, who become amateur investigators in an effort to keep their marriage from collapsing. The film can be streamed on Hallmark+.
Avan Jogia (Roman) stars as Oliver in the 8-episode psychological thriller 56 DAYS, based on Catherine Ryan Howard‘s 2021 novel of the same name. Oliver meets Ciara (Dove Cameron) in a supermarket and the pair fall in love. Fifty-six days later, an unidentified body is found in Oliver’s apartment making him the prime suspect. The series can be streamed on Amazon Prime.
** — Originally published on 7 October 2017