Hetty is Samantha’s great-great-great-aunt who built Woodstone Mansion and will fiercely protect its honor. Hetty was a socialite in her lifetime and is intolerant of those that don’t display decorum worthy of the upper class. She often looks down upon the couple and other ghosts for their undistinguished behavior.

Hetty Woodstone has very outdated views on society. As a child her parents employed children in their factory and her husband did the same. She also doesn’t believe women should vote, use their voice in any way to disrespect their husband, and that their place is in the home. She also is not a fan of the Irish, believing them to be thieves and liars and often insulting them through demeaning stereotypes. She has a personality much like those who lived in the upper class during the last 19th century. Hetty would not consider herself a people person nor one to go with the flow.

She can be very materialistic, pretentious, and often looks down her nose at others who are not as rich as she was in life. She enjoys the finer things in life such as money, fancy dresses, and dinner parties, and takes a lot of pride in her home. She has very specific ideas of how things should be done and can be a bit stubborn in her stance. She can also be very critical, often pointing out all the things she does not understand or like about Sam or Jay’s life choices. She is also very judgemental as to the way Sam dresses. Hetty is a smidge xenophobic as evidenced by her disdain with people of Irish descent. Furthermore, she confesses that she wasn’t a good person in life as she stole from and exploited others, profiting for her own, or as she sees it, her husband’s wealth. We see a little of her living personality chip away over the course of the first season. In the episode “Viking Funeral”, Alberta convinces Hetty to vote for her as the ghost representative by telling her how hard it was for women to vote,how much harder it was for women of color, and how people had to sacrifice for that right. In “Possession”, we see a more regretful side to Hetty as she reminisces on years lost putting her husband’s needs before her own and not living the life she should’ve.

By “The Vault”, Hetty has grown less obedient as inspired by her observations of Sam. In this episode, she demonstrates growing confidence and strength as she states that she has changed for the better and that she has learned how to speak her mind and that everyone deserves respect, even the Irish.

As we see in ‘Thorapy‘, Hetty is not used to being romantically desired or wanted as her husband often engaged in affairs in other women. We also know she was neglected as a child. So when Issac tries to come on to her, she is excited by the possibility that she is being seduced and craves the romantic attention. She claims that she knew that there was a possibility that they had romantic tension and then begs for him to kiss her, exclaiming that she wants him. However, later that evening, Isaac comes to Hetty to apologize for his behavior. When she sees that he is having trouble with expressing himself, Hetty summons him to sit next to her and lets him know that they have been friends for 130 years and that he can tell her anything. He then admits that he has feelings for Nigel, not her. Hetty responds with love and acceptance stating that he has not been living a lie but that instead for the time that shes known him, he has been her dear friend. They then reminisce about a worker who was in the house and comment on his appearance and she regrets that they haven’t been doing this all along.

In “Attic Girl”, Hetty becomes more resolute in using her voice to stand up for what’s right. She is appalled when she learns of Stephanie, the teenage ghost’s betrayal of Pete’s trust and in tricking the others to play what she called a harmless prank on Sam. She takes great offense to Stephanie’s behavior toward her fourth great granddaughter and leads the others in agreeing to not attend the ghost prom at all.

While Hetty still holds some antiquated views on a woman’s role in business, she has shown to have an advance understanding of economics.

In the second season, we have seen Hetty learn more about her own sexuality and learn to embrace her desires, instead of repressing them. In addition to her newly discovered love of the washing machine in “Alberta’s Podcast” she finally gives into her needs with Trevor at the end of “The Christmas Spirit, Part One & Part Two.”

Although the more confident of the Woodstone Ghosts, Hetty exhibits some jealousy when she believes that she is losing her friend, Isaac, to his new beau, Nigel.

Hetty maintains a certain decorum and believes in the importance of class and status. As such, when she begins her affair with Trevor, she is determined to keep it a secret because she believes that Trevor is not goo enough for her. However, when Nigel catches the two of them in the act and threatens to tell everyone if he does not get what he wants, Hetty, seeing how much Trevor cares for her, decides to tell everyone about their relationship.

Hetty’s ability to forgive is tested throughout “Weekend from Hell.” She is put on the spot in having to make the choice to sift through over 100 years of abuse and neglect to truly forgive her husband so that Pete’s soul is not damned to Hell in Elias’ place. We also see Hetty’s more supportive side of her friends. While she readily has “clap-backs” for just about everyone in the house, when it truly matters, she is a supportive friend who is ready to come to one’s aid when the time calls for it.

Hetty’s support can waver depending on the situation. As she considers herself a woman of high status, she is willing to put herself first regardless of who is might affect. In “Alberta’s Descedant” she was willing to allow Nigel to take Trevor’s room so that she can keep their affair a secret. She was not concerned about where Trevor might sleep or how he might feel after learning that she was ashamed of him. However, in “Dumb Deaths” she abandons her desire to gain control over the television show being filmed at the mansion when she discovers that Pete’s reputation is at stake and encourages the other ghosts to take action to ruin a scene.

Born into money, Hetty has a history common of most girls born in the 1800s. Her parents were emotionally distant and ran a factory that employed children at least 7 years of age. As a young child, Hetty could see Thorfinn whose name she was unable to pronounce so she called him Gordon and mistook him for one of the servants of the house. Thorfinn would sing Hetty to sleep every night which Hetty looks back on fondly.

As a young woman, Hetty was married to her second cousin Elias to whom she was offered by her father as a means of closing a land deal and she was deemed as the best choice as opposed to her sister Margaret who had a mustache. She remembers the occasion as a negative one commenting that he arrived “late, drunk, and smelling of the maid’s perfume.” The marriage turned out to be just as horrible if not more so than her wedding, as Elias could not keep it in his pants and affairs became the norm. This led Hetty to turn to various means of coping such as the use of cocaine and laudanum.

During the series premiere, Hetty is present at the bedside of her great great granddaughter Sophia’s death bed. She briefly gets to speak to her after her passing but Sophia ends up getting “sucked off”, instead of joining her in the perpetual purgatory known as Woodstone Mansion. Upon Sophia’s passing, her great niece, Samantha and her husband Jay inherit the large estate and promptly move in with plans to turn the house into a Bed and Breakfast.

Due to the era in which she lived, Hetty’s conservative and outdated views often conflict with Samantha’s more progressive personality. She is baffled by her style of dress, her makeup choices, and the fact that Samantha works while her husband cooks. She often gives Samanta advice based around the notion of keeping a man loyal, something she was unable to do in life. Over time, we learn that Hetty spent most of her life putting her needs second to that of her husband and deeply regrets it, imploring Sam to take advantage of every moment and live her life to the fullest.

In “Possession”, Hetty’s spirit becomes transfused with Jay’s body. While in it she loses her ability to see or hear her fellow spirits but gains the ability to eat to which she binges just about everything she can get her hands on including trying peanut butter, sour patch kids, and Cheetos for the first time. She also expresses a desire to go to France.

In “The Vault”, she expresses to her philandering husband Elias, who was trapped inside an impenetrable vault for the last 130 years, that she has changed much to his anger, and she is no longer afraid to speak her mind. She tried to convince him to change as well as he will be stuck there for eternity and that it would be a good time to use that time wisely. He refuses saying that he will never change to which Hetty tells him to go to hell. The floor opens up, red light radiates from the ground and down he goes. This causes Hetty to briefly suspect that she may possibly have the power to send ghosts to Hell. She later concludes that that cannot be true but still enjoys holding that possibility over the ghosts for fun.

Thereafter we see an evolution of Hetty‘s character. This woman who seemed haughty and pretentious seems to change in contact with the Livings and other ghosts, despite herself. In ‘Ghostwriter‘ she cares, “certainly regretting it afterwards” as she says, to see Flower who is sad installed in her room. (Indeed, Pete wants to watch basketball only with boys while Flower, is very knowledgeable on the subject) Against all odds, when she hasn’t lived like this in her whole life, Hetty tells her “Flower, I spent far too long forgiving the sins of men in my lifetime. I see no reason why we need to put up with it in the afterlife. Do not just sit there, and take being disrespected by a man. Do something about it.” Flower asks her if she became a feminist and Hetty replies that if it’s not about supporting women who handle money or ride bikes then yes, she is a feminist.

In “Trevor’s Pants“, we meet David Woodstone, who is actually Hetty‘s great-great-great-grandson but also one of Trevor‘s old friends. In fact, the night Trevor died, he and his friends and co-workers (including David Woodstone), came into David‘s parents Woodstome Mansion to celebrate another colleague’s promotion.

In the season two premiere, “Spies” we learn that Hetty does not handle relationship conflict well at all. In fact, during life, she often bottled up her own frustrations and resentments with her husband, Elias, and turned to morphine and other substances to help deal with the internal pain that stemmed from her troubled marriage.

In “Alberta’s Podcast,” Hetty complains to Sam about her broken washing machine and how the noise emanating from the laundry room is keeping her from being able to take her daily naps. Sam claims that Jay was supposed to fix it, and she then finds out that he actually spent that time playing Super Mario Brothers. Flower finds Hetty in the laundry frustrated that Jay did not fix the washing machine but rather adds more clothes to it and turned it back on. She suggests that Hetty can deal with a broken washing machine by simply sitting on top of it. After she does this, she experiences a sensation unfamiliar, yet, relaxing and soothing to her. Later, she finds Alberta very upset that creepy Todd is back and she tells her to relax in a calm manner, a behavior that the normally uptight Hetty does not display. The Ghosts are stunned by her language and her stance and they ask if she is ill. She replies that her relaxed demeanor is due to her “magical encounter” with the washing machine, exclaiming that the effect on her is “one of the great mysteries of the universe.” Flower then responds that the vibrations of the washing machine aroused her which is why she feels so good. Mortified, Hetty hurries past the group, imploring them to not look at her. However, it would not be the first or last time she took advantage of the broken washing machine. Hetty passes by the rattling noise in the laundry room in a desperate attempt to ignore it. However, her attempts to do some prove futile, as she turns back toward the laundry room.

Following her second trip to the laundry room, Hetty finds Flower in the living room and, feeling ashamed, admits that she succumbed to her demons and sat on the washing machine again. Flower states that it is okay, but Hetty disagrees stating what she has done is immoral and wrong. Flower tells her that her body belongs to her and she has the freedom to do as she pleases. Hetty believes that this may be because her husband has passed away but Flower states that her body has belonged to her all her life and that getting a man’s permission to feel pleasure is an effort by men to control women. Hetty seems to understand but still believes that men are needed to design and manufacture washing machines. When Flower responds that women can do those things too, Hetty appears to be excited at this news, exclaiming that it is a good time to be alive.

At the conclusion of the episode, Hetty goes outside to find Jay accepting a delivery for a brand new washing machine that has been promoted as being one of the quietest on the market. She is very disappointed demanding that Jay not get rid of the old washing machine; that it is working just fine. Once he leads the delivery men to install the new appliance, Hetty says a sad goodbye to the old machine, stating that she would never forget its spin cycle. Flower then finds her and says that she can do other things to achieve “the feeling.”

In life, Hetty’s husband was unfaithful, and engaged in several affairs. Most notably, he conducted a relationship with their Irish maid, Molly, a choice that made Hetty resent Molly for well over 150 years. During “Halloween 2: The Ghost of Hetty’s Past”, a seance that Hetty suggested that Sam and Jay perform to try to liven up a “dead” Halloween party results in bringing back Molly’s spirit which greatly upsets Hetty. She becomes frustrated as to why Molly, whom she considered an adulteress for sleeping with her husband, was able to get to Heaven while she remains on this Earthly plane. When Sam suggests that Molly being back is her opporutnity to forgive her and get closure, which could possibly result in her moving on, Hetty scoffs at the very idea of forgiveness and closure with someone like Molly.

After Sam convinces both women to meet her in the vault to search for a lost earring, she is accidently locked in with them both, invoking immediate panic. Hetty and Molly are both upset with Sam for misleading them, and as they both talk about their connection to Elias, Hetty learns that Molly was persued by Elias. She feared rejecting him as she needed her job to support her child, as her husband had died in the facotry owned by the Woodstones. Hetty responds that she never loved her husband and that she had to marry him so that her father could close a land deal. The two ghostly women find that they have more in common than originally believed; that they were both victims of Elias’ manipulation, ego, and perceived power. Hetty’s demeanor softens as she and Molly discuss their shared detest for Elias, the common interest allowing them to put their grievances toward one another away.

Upon being released from the vault, Hetty and Molly say goodbye, with Hetty commenting that she enjoyed getting to really know Molly. She is however, disheartened when Molly gets to return to Heaven, leaving her earthbound and attempts, albeit unsuccessfully to literally ride Molly’s coat tails in an effort to move on.

Hetty was an absent mother, leaving her children to the care and protection of nannies. This was customary for wealthy families in the late 19th century. And because she died young, she had to watch her children grow into adults and make, what in her mind, were bad decisions. She admits to believing that Sam is doing the same by trying to befriend “the help” and warns her against doing so. She later admits that in Sam having her accident which gave her the ability to communicate with the ghosts of the house, she is now able to have a second chance to get this mothering thing right. This admission helps the two grow closer.

While Hetty enjoyed her private romantic escapade with Trevor during the Christmas holiday, she is embarrassed by it and tells him that it can never happen again and that no one else needs to know.

In “A Date to Remember” Hetty and Nigel’s relationship is off to a rocky start as she believes Nigel is getting in the way of her and Issac’s friendship. She also take great offense to the fact that Nigel neglected to invite her to his welcome tea until after inviting Nancy from the basement and vows to make him “rue the day” that he made her a rival. Hetty seeks council from her lover, Trevor, wanting to come up with a way to put Nigel in his place. He suggests that she throw a rival party to ruin Nigel’s just as she did years ago with another rival. So, Hetty decides to host a party of her own. She convinces Alberta to go along with it by telling her that she is the house’s most beloved ghost, and that Nigel called jazz “filth”. She convinces Sass to come to her gathering by getting him to believe that that a competing event just to spite Nigel will cause unnecessary drama in the house which is an automatic draw for him.

After Issac confronts Hetty about her competing shindig and calls her his “supposed” best friend, she apologizes to both Nigel and Issac, admitting that she was jealous of how close they had gotten and that she was afraid that she would be left out. This “resolution” makes Issac happy and after he leaves to call for Sam to bring them tea, Hetty recognizes that Nigel invited her late on purpose and it turns out, he does not care for her either. This officially begins a rivalry between Hetty and Nigel.

In “Issac’s Book” Hetty is unhappy that Trevor has changed his behavior around Samantha, with whom he was infatuated. Wanting to keep up appearances in an effort to conceal their affair, Hetty asks him to keep hitting on her great-great-great-great niece.

In “Weekend from Hell” Hetty is horrified that after thinking she sent her awful husband, Elias, straight to Hell, he has returned in an effort to seek her forgiveness so that he does not have to return to Hell. As he is apologizing to everyone he’s offended, Hetty does not believe his feined sincerity at all. He then states that in order for his soul to be forgiven, Hetty has to forgive him and must sign off that she does. When Elias tricks Pete into selling him his soul, Hetty demands that Elias return it, stating that Pete doesn’t deserve to be in that situation. Elias then blackmails Hetty into signing his forgiveness contract to release Pete’s soul. She struggles with this decision for some time, despite the other Ghosts attempted to strongarm her into making a quick decision. As the pressure mounts, she reluctantly agrees to sign his contract, but before doing so, states that she doesn’t actually forgive him.

Consequently, when she signs, her name fails to appear because she must be sincere when she forgives him. Even after Elias agrees to apologize for the specific transgressions against her, she is still not able to sincerely forgive him. She states that it’s not the transgressions that she cannot forgive, in fact. It’s the fact that in forgiving him and allowing him to stay at the mansion would mean his happiness, and she cannot allow him to be happy because he does not deserve it. After Alberta talks to Hetty about the harm it causes one to hold on to anger, Hetty is able to sincerely forgive her husband, exclaiming that a weight has been lifted from her shoulders.

In “Alberta’s Descendant” Hetty finds herself once again being blackmailed, this time by Nigel, who had walked in on her and Trevor. He threatens to tell of her secret to everyone if Trevor doesn’t give up his room and Hetty suggests that Trevor does as he asks so that their affair can remain secret. Trevor is tired of keeping quiet and learns that Hetty believes that she is too good for him, causing them to briefly break up. Seeing the error of her ways and how much she’s hurt Trevor, she decides to go ahead and announce their relationship to the other Ghosts.

In “Ghost Father of the Bride” Hetty and Thor were on one of their daily walks in a unfamiliar part of the woods, when they found Crash’s head in a hollow tree stump.

In “Woodstone’s Hottest Couple” Hetty is in an official relationship with Trevor. She soon comes to find, however, that they have very little in common and that her embarrassment as to his lack of 19th century decorum has not wavered in the slightest. Bored by what she used to consider exciting, she and Trevor decide to fake a break-up fight so that they can return to simply having fun together without the complexities of a relationship.

Hetty watches, and briefly participates, as the group works together to piece Alberta’s murder together. She hastily agrees with the notion that Theresa, Clara, and Al Capone could’ve all been likely suspects. When Alberta seems to be settled on the idea that Al Capone killed her, she rushes the team to conclude the mystery. However, her hopes are dashed, when Nigel walks in to inquire about what everyone is doing. When Sam states that the murderer was probably Al Capone, Nigel informs the group that while Al Capone did have a bottle of rat poison in his possession, he was meant for himself, not Alberta. He then points to a picture of Theresa, claiming that she was the one who took the bottle from him, putting the “murder weapon” in her possession. She watches as Alberta sadly and painfully comes to the conclusion that her sister killed her and after hearing that Alberta is going to have to live with that pain for eternity, she admits that she knows who killed her. She has known all along, despite her telling Alberta initially that she died of a heart attack. Hetty then sadly admits that it was her son, Thomas, who killed Alberta due to jealousy, as he and Earl were in a secret relationship and it was he who wanted to be rid of his romantic rival. She reasons that he was given this bottle of poison at a horrible time- right after he had been dumped by Earl– and due to his fragile emotional state, he decided to lash out at Alberta.

Hetty attempts to apologize and begs for Alberta’s forgiveness. She, however, does not succeed in sustaining it.

In “The Heir” Hetty must deal with the consequences of her choice to withhold the truth from Alberta surrounding her death. With Alberta choosing to ignore her, the other ghosts decide to hold Ghost Court since their rift is affecting everyone else in the house. Hetty is not initially on board with this, stating that it isn’t necessary.

Later during the court session, Hetty listens as Alberta accuses her of a hundred years of betrayal. She does not deny it, but asks the court to consider that she has changed in the last hundred years, stating that back then, she stayed silent as was her way in life. She states that in her lifetime, other women were seen as competition, but she has learned through her time with Alberta, Flower, and Samantha, that women together can be a formidable support system, helping one another. She sacrificed what might happen to her so that Alberta wouldn’t go on believing that her sister had killed her. She once again apologizes to Alberta and asks for forgiveness. Alberta again refuses and wants to move on to sentencing Hetty for her “crimes.” The court, which consists of Thor, Flower, Pete, and Sasappis, sentence her to banishment to the woods for one year. She is shocked to receive what she believes to be a steep punishment, but she willingly accepts her fate. But before she can be escorted to the woods, Alberta decides that she would miss her too much and decides to forgive Hetty so long as she relinquishes her room and moves in with Flower, allowing Alberta to have it instead. She is a bit hesitant to live with Flower full-time but is relieved to have finally been forgiven by Alberta, salvaging their friendship.

In “Man of Your Dreams” Hetty learns that Thorfinn could be the key to her finally getting sucked off, since his last two girlfriends were sucked off while or after dating him. She then proceeds to woo Thorfinn into being her boyfriend.

Hetty’s been used to unfair and unrealistic expectations of women all her life. In 1875, her father found out she was seeing a painter and expressed his deep disappointment in a painting that he did of her, proclaiming it pornography. She was showing her ankle. Hetty’s mother, at the time, was involuntarily institutionalized with hysteria.

In “He Sees Dead People,” Hetty has agreed to serve as Isaac and Nigel’s wedding planner. During the initial planning, she becomes concerned when Nigel refers to Isaac’s book money as “their money.” She warns Isaac to perhaps protect himself in the event that his marriage does not work out. Hetty’s personal experience with marriage has much to do with her views, as she believes that marriage is a “business arrangement.” Sasappis takes Hetty down to the basement where he shows her her painting that her father despised. After he discovered it, he forbade Hetty from marrying her artist beau. Even though she expresses love for him, she sadly agrees to avoid being financially cut off from her family’s fortune. Upon reflecting on her past choices, she understands that her choosing money in many ways made her poorer for it, stating that she was unhappy and never knew true love. She convinces Isaac to do away with the pre-nup idea.

After trying to warn Sam about Carol’s becoming a Ghost, she and Alberta are shunned and told that their advice is outdated nor is it warranted. As slight retaliation, she and Alberta choose to then keep the news to themselves.

In 1895, after Hetty returns from a trip to Michigan (which only took two months!) she learns of Elias’ legal troubles from their lawyer, George. Her family is in legal trouble due to their employment of children in their factories which by this time is against the law. Due to Elias choosing to ignore the law, and because he is now dead in their vault (at the time she believed he had run off with a mistress), the weight of his decisions and inaction falls on her shoulders, and according to George, if they don’t comply with the law of the land, all her assets can be seized.

In “Holes are Bad” Hetty along with the rest of the Ghosts determine that Flower may be lost on the property instead of having gotten sucked off. At the mention of being alone and abandoned, Hetty looks truly concerned and scared.

Back in 1895, it appears as though Hetty is preparing to flee due to mounting legal trouble. Upon the police arriving at the house, Hetty instructs her servants to barricade her in her library to keep her hidden from them. And believing that she had no way out, she used the telephone cord to take her own life.

In present day, as the Ghosts are starting to panic at the thought of Flower being trapped, Hetty unwraps the cord from around her neck and uses it to pull Flower up from the well. She then leaves quickly before anyone can thank her. Later, she explains to Sam and Isaac that she thought she was doing the right thing to protect her son and that she wished she would’ve asked for help instead, deeply regretting the grievous choice she made.

In ‘The Work Retreat‘, bored in her ghostly state and annoyed by Pete’s constant bragging regarding his ability to travel, she alongside Sasappis create a rumor that Pete’s island girlfriend is not real.

As a wife of a well-known robber baron of the late 1800s, Hetty spends the days of her afterlife, dressed like most well-to-do women of the gilded age in America. She wears a long sleeved layered teal green day dress with a basque bodice and a medium sized bustle. The top of her dress is buttoned up to her neck. The dress is accented by a tall neckline which consists of a white laced layer underneath. She also wears moderate heels which she has recently learned how to run in (from ‘Alberta’s Fan‘ episode). Hetty wears her curly auburn hair up in a high bun while two loose tendrils gracefully frame either side of her face. Her makeup is very conservative to nonexistent. She is a taller woman, about 5’8, with fair skin and blue eyes. She wears earring studs in either ear.

• Hetty is the American version of Lady Fanny Button from the original BBC ‘Ghosts‘.
• Hetty is an ancestor of Samantha who inherits the property and moves in with her husband, Jay. She is Sam’s fifth great Aunt.
• Hetty is the fourth ghost who died on the property, following Thorfinn, Sassipis, and Issac and the first woman ghost of the house.
• Hetty’s marriage was arranged as she was offered to her second cousin Elias by her father in order to work out a land deal.
• Hetty lived at a time when Cocaine was believed to be a wonder drug and used it during her lifetime quite frequently.
• She is the second ghost to have possessed the body of a living, the first being Issac.
• She could see Thorfinn as a young child (she was unable to pronounce his name so she called him Gordon and mistook him for one of the servants of the house).
• Hetty was the only ghost who was a mother in life and who died a widow.
• Hetty’s given name is Henrietta.
• In Rebecca Wisocky‘s own words, she views Hetty who ”led a life most concerned with propriety and status.” and that ”She’s grown quite a bit in the two seasons [they’ve] been on air(…) She’s learned that she has been wrong about many things. That’s been very fun to play.’‘ (Source)
• According to Rebecca Wisocky, Hetty‘s death year is 1895. (Source)
• Rebecca Wisocky states that she ‘‘loves working on this show so much and it is thrilling that so many people are responding to it.” and how, in her opinion, ‘‘the company, writers and crew of ‘Ghosts’ are unparalleled. The visual world of ‘Ghosts’ is so incredibly detailed and luscious. I’m amazed by their (Costume Designer Carmen Alie and Production Designer Zoe Sakellaropoulo) skills daily.”
• Both Rebecca Wisocky and Brandon Scott Jones, who plays Isaac, have also begun to take proper French lessons while shooting in Montreal, as the entire crew are ”Francophones” who they both love very much.