Isaac and Nigel called off the wedding in Ghosts season 3, and the aftermath remains tense. Led by Rose McIver and Utkarsh Ambudkar, the show follows two regular people as they take over a mansion filled with ghosts. Each of the ghosts has their own wants and needs, and they have all been testing platonic and romantic relationships with one another. Isaac and Nigel, two soldiers from the Revolutionary War, are a couple that took their relationship to the realm of marriage, although the season 3 finale saw that relationship collapse.
Ahead of Ghosts season 4, Isaac has been taken captive by the Puritan ghost Patience, but the cliffhanger is the lesser of the major twists in the episode. In an interview with Deadline, Isaac’s actor, Brandon Scott Jones, opened up about the break-up and what it meant for the characters, with the actor feeling the relationship was always hasty, as Isaac’s relationship with Nigel was predicated on a need to continue to match the expectations of his original time period. Check out his quote below:
Somewhere towards the end of the season. I can’t remember where, but I think Joe Port and Joe Wiseman came to me, and they said that they were thinking about breaking Isaac and Nigel up. Things change, so I knew that there was a chance before we even got the script that it was going to happen. But when I got the script, I just didn’t know what the machinations were going to be. I think even as we were filming it, it went back and forth a little bit between who left who at the altar, so I was a little bit…unsure of which way it was going to go, which kind of made it a little fun.
I’m sad to see the relationship end, but I think it’s probably the best thing for both characters… Yeah, I always felt that, when he proposed to Nigel, it was a little bit of like a panic proposal. Isaac spent 250 years not really being himself, so he finally gets this opportunity and he kind of admits to at least the other ghosts, who he really is as he’s exploring that. He immediately finds himself in this relationship with Nigel, and I think it’s funny because it’s almost like he decided to go right back into the traditional steps of a relationship rather than exploring any other new thing.
He just kind of felt like, “Alright, well, I guess I’m now gay, but I’m still going to propose to this person and live with this person and do all the necessary things.” But I don’t know if he’s doing it because he wanted to or just because he felt like he had to because of the traditions of his era. When the stripper comes, it was definitely one of those things where I think it started to open up his eyes of like, “Oh my god, could I even find myself attracted to somebody else?”
Why Did Nigel And Isaac Break Up?
Nigel And Isaac Rushed Into Their Relationship
Ghosts‘ season 3 finale changed Isaac’s life forever, largely because it opened his eyes to the pre-existing problems in their relationship. The most apparent reason for the breakup is that Nigel had a lap dance during his bachelor’s party. An offended Isaac had a bachelor’s party of his own, and Sam went so far as to hire a stripper to celebrate. Isaac was shocked to realize how much he enjoyed the stripper’s presence and quickly began to question the purpose of his relationship.
Another issue is that Isaac and Nigel have a similar background, but their connection in life was broken. Isaac killed Nigel while fighting in the Revolutionary War, as the two were in different armies. Isaac stood with the Continental forces, while Nigel was loyal to the British. The two have largely moved past their original conflict, but every ghost’s backstory influences their modern decisionmaking. Just as Isaac has been struggling to accept himself, the disconnect between the two sides was too much for their relationship, no matter how much they expected to move past it.
There is always a chance that Isaac and Nigel will resume their relationship in future seasons. Their connection will need to wait until Isaac is rescued from Patience, and they will need to avoid rushing their relationship any more than they already have. The marriage came too quickly for two immortal ghosts, and it was a result of Isaac’s need to cling to the puritanical expectations of his former life. Ghosts season 4 is likely to see Isaac search for new ways to explore relationships in the modern world.
