Ghosts' Danielle Pinnock Really Found Her Character In The Flashback Scene
Alberta Haynes (Danielle Pinnock) is a favorite amongst "Ghosts" fans, and Pinnock couldn't be happier about the role. In a tweet posted on the day the Season 1 finale aired, Pinnock called the role life-changing. "I've waited over 15 years to play a role as stellar as this," the star tweeted. Fans rushed to share their love in response, with @augustmom3 noting that Pinnock was perfectly cast. Meanwhile, @GoodHumorGrl wrote, "We are so blessed in turn Danielle to have such a warm charismatic heart filled humorous character portrayed with your range of talent and dazzling special spirit."
In the Season 2 episode "Alberta's Podcast," Sam (Rose McIver) decides to start a podcast about Alberta's mysterious death, leading to the return of the Alberta-obsessed "historian" Todd Pearlman (Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll) as the two of them learn secrets about Alberta's life and ultimately unlock one of the first clues to Alberta's murder. Fans have started to have a lot of fun speculating on Alberta's murder, hoping to watch the fascinating mystery unfold. In a thread in the r/GhostsCBS subreddit, u/PopCultureNerd started a thread about the mystery and pointed out that the house was already haunted by Isaac (Brandon Scott Jones), Hetty (Rebecca Wisocky), Sasappis (Román Zaragoza), and Thorfinn (Devan Chandler Long) when Alberta was murdered, meaning that those characters might have the vital clues to what happened to her.
In the episode, fans get to flashback to when Alberta was still alive and working as a struggling jazz singer in the 1920s, learning that she broke her own code and ratted out a rival singer to help her career. But in the flashback, where Alberta got to perform on stage, Pinnock had a sudden insight into the character she plays.
Danielle Pinnock realized that Alberta lives for applause
In a panel at New York Comic Con in 2022 with the full cast of "Ghosts," the episode "Alberta's Podcast" was screened beforehand and Danielle Pinnock discussed what it was like to shoot the episode and what she learned about Alberta from doing so. Pinnock said that, in this episode, when Alberta takes the stage to sing, that was when she first came to really understand Alberta and said that "she lives for the applause." Pinnock also talked about how much fun it was for her to be on a stage performing in the episode as she started out as a theater actor and hasn't been back on a stage since 2016.
In a 2022 interview with TV Insider, Pinnock said some of the same things about the episode and the flashback in particular. "It was the best day of work being able to go back in time with our girl Alberta," she said, noting how she was able to perform alongside so many great Black artists. She also said that fans specifically requested a flashback of this sort on social media, meaning that the fans really wanted to see Alberta in her natural element: on a stage singing jazz. She also reiterated what she said at NYCC about her character's love of applause, saying "She's a singer, she loves an audience."
In that sense, the flashback scene in "Alberta's Podcast" was one of the most revealing flashbacks of the entire series thus far.