The actress talks to ET about uncovering the answers to who was ultimately responsible for Alberta's death.
Spoiler alert! Do not proceed if you have not watched Thursday's episode of Ghosts.
Alberta's murder is finally solved!
For much of season 2, the Ghosts crew spent considerable time rifling through every hint, memory, and clue that could break open the case with regards to IDing the person(s) responsible for killing Alberta. Given the unfortunate news that Sam's podcast only has one episode left before it's canceled, they approach solving the mystery with renewed vigor. The latest suspect was someone named "T," who Alberta concluded to be her sister, Theresa. But, as the penultimate episode of the season unfolded Thursday, the 1920s jazz singer turned out to be way, way off base.
Informed by flashbacks to the fateful night of her death, it was discovered that her partner-in-crime boyfriend, Earl, was having a secret affair with Thomas, Hetty's son. The "T" was actually Thomas. Laced with guilt that Alberta was blaming her sister for giving her the poisoned moonshine, which was the original cause of her death, Hetty came clean about the events that led to Alberta taking that fatal drink since she witnessed everything.
After Alberta's sister informed Thomas that Al Capone (yes, the mobster) intended on killing himself after lacing the moonshine with poison, he was supposed to dispose of the bottle, but never did. Instead, he left the bottle outside Alberta's door, knocked on it, and left. "Your killer was my son Thomas," Hetty revealed, noting that Thomas was angry Earl didn't end things with Alberta, but instead, broke up with him. "He lashed out at the woman he blamed for his unhappiness, you." The worst thing about the whole ordeal? Hetty kept the secret from Alberta, who considered her to be a friend, this entire time.
"We had no idea. Honestly, it was such a surprise and shock that Hetty had some involvement in Alberta's murder. I could not believe it. It threw me for a loop. I really thought it was going to be the sister," Ghosts star Danielle Pinnock told ET of the surprising betrayal. She and co-star Rebecca Wisocky worked together to create backstory as to "why it could have been Thomas, why Thomas would've killed her, what it meant for them to have been friends back in the 1920s when Alberta died in the house and how their relationship has evolved," Pinnock said.
"Something that is really important for these episodes to come is that for them to have been friends for the last hundred years in the afterlife took a lot of work," the actress noted. "Hetty is a Victorian-aged woman. And Alberta is a Black woman from the 1920s and a jazz singer. With the racial background of the United States in the 1920s when Alberta died in this house, it probably was very difficult for them to be friends at first. So for these hundred years, they've developed a sense of love and adoration and most importantly, respect for each other. And Hetty has been gaslighting Alberta for the last hundred years, saying that she died of a heart attack. So these scenes may feel a little bit more dramatic to audiences because they are, in fact, dramatic."
It's not necessarily the fact that Alberta learned that it was Hetty's son who was ultimately the perpetrator that hurt the most, but that Hetty knew about it that served as the biggest shock of all. "Can you imagine if somebody lied to you? What do you do when somebody lied to you and if that lie carried on for a hundred years?" Pinnock asked. "We're now seeing an unraveling of a friendship. We're seeing all that hard work that was done to become friends and respect each other and to care about each other, it starts to peel back."
Pinnock acknowledged that the 1920s were "messy," which only made sense that Alberta's death played out in such a complex, "hot mess-ery" kind of way. "Earl is with Thomas, backstabbing Alberta, Thomas poisons Alberta. It's craziness, but it's so exciting to play as an actor," she reflected. "We're dealing with Prohibition era, people are drinking whiskey that they may end up blind from. There are illegal parties going on. It was just all this mess that was happening. If Alberta was going to die anyway, it had to be messy because she was a mess."
"We heard these stories in season 1 and season 2 about her and Earl going and murdering people, and chopping toenails and toes, and doing all this crazy stuff. The thing that I love about these flashbacks is that we find out that Alberta is not all talk," Pinnock added. "She really was walking this gangster life. She really was rubbing shoulders with Al Capone. I love that we get to see the full life of this woman in season 2."
By the end of the episode, it's very apparent Alberta's friendship with Hetty is on ice, though Hetty will do everything she can to make things right again.
"Oh, it's going to be a rocky, rocky road. And Alberta, if we know our girl, our girl can hold a grudge. She's going to hold this to the end of time," Pinnock warned. "It's going to be tough. And we'll also get to see Hetty, who is this high-status woman, learn to beg. Learn to beg for not only forgiveness, but to beg to have her friend back. And I think that's where a lot of the comedy will come from in the finale as well."
The Ghosts finale airs Thursday, May 11 at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.
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