Anna Daniels
Each arc of Ghostwriter was set up as a four or five-episode story where the team would discover a mystery and work together to collect clues, interview suspects, and crack the case by using words and basic problem-solving skills. Their secret weapon is Ghostwriter, an entity that can read anything and search the city for specific words while acting as the groups’ pre-mobile phone messaging system to help rally everyone together when needed.
The titular character is a phantom punctuation mark who is released from an old book in Jamal’s basement when he and his dad are moving a trunk. Ghostwriter reveals himself to the kids one by one over time, as not everyone can see him (only one adult ever notices him, in the “Just in Time” arc, but they had seen Ghostwriter as a child). The kids agree not to tell anyone else about their friend, letting Ghostwriter reveal himself to all new trusted members of the team first. Ghostwriter proves he’s a well-meaning soul, in instances like when Alex wants him to give the group answers on tests, but is told cheating is wrong.
When he does first appear, he oddly calls them “my children” and is worried that they are in danger. Some clues are given about his age and where he’s from, even though Ghostwriter seems to have amnesia. As the show progresses, he seems to relax a bit, even wanting to be in a music video and horror story. Ghostwriter can’t see images, only read and communicate through words, but he is able to sense strong emotions coming from the children on occasion and tell what they want. The strangest part may be his ability to travel through time and space when the plots called for it.
Although the show never fully explained the ghost’s entire story, producer and writer Kermit Frazier spoke about it in a 2010 interview, revealing that Ghostwriter was the spirit of a runaway slave from the Civil War period who spent his life teaching other slaves how to read and write. The book that Jamal knocked over had kept his soul dormant until it was disturbed. Whoever Ghostwriter was in life, he was killed by slave catchers and their dogs, which was hinted at in a few episodes when the spirit is seen being apprehensive around canines. Although he is the character with the craziest backstory and lynchpin of the group — not to mention the reason why the team was effective in the first place — the kids are the real life of the show.
Written by: Looper
