As the non-ghost seeing husband to Samantha, Jay Arondekar is the calm in a swirling and often chaotic spectral storm. While he maintains a laid-back, patient and understanding demeanor, Jay sometimes struggles with some of the aspects of living a complicated life in a haunted house, dealing with spirits that only his wife can directly communicate with verbally.

As an unemployed chef and former resident of New York City, Jay is a laid-back young man who loves spending time with his friends in the city. He also enjoys gaming, with Dungeons and Dragons being one of his favorite hobbies (‘D&D’). He gave up a great deal when he moved to the Hudson Valley region when his wife inherited the Woodstone Mansion. But Jay is a man who is also deeply in love with his wife. While in ‘Pilot,’ Jay was reluctant to begin the bed and breakfast, Sam’s injury and near death altered his thinking to accept his wife’s new dream and he embraced it as strongly as she did. In doing so, he also had to quickly adjust to her new ‘gift,’ as well: her ability to see ghosts, both in their home and elsewhere. Jay also serves as Sam’s biggest cheerleader and supporter. He is quick to give her advice and encouragement whenever Sam enters into a new venture (‘Sam’s Mom’) and when things go not as planned (‘Pete’s Wife’). Jay is the voice of steady and consistent reasoning in the home.

As the young couple reconcile themselves to living in a home with multiple ‘occupants,’ Jay has found his understanding often coupled with confusion and on occasion, dismay (‘D&D’). While Samantha communicates on a daily basis with the ghosts, Jay has to deal with being the ‘odd man out’ as the one not a part of these conversations. In addition, the ghosts report on his activities to Sam, and Sam has to report to him, in turn, whatever is discussed between herself and the ghosts. In turn, Jay responds to this with interest and good humor.

Despite Jay’s inability to verbally communicate with the spirits, some of the ghosts have successfully been able to relay messages on to him (‘D&D’). In turn, Jay has grown more confident in finding ways to communicate with them in his own way (‘Sam’s Mom,’ ‘D&D’). He has only seen what two ghosts look like: he saw Alberta’s face on the back of Todd’s back in the form of a tattoo (‘Alberta’s Fan’) and he saw a photo of Trevor through his dating profile (‘Jay’s Sister’). Jay also experienced one of the ghosts in one of the most shocking and dramatic ways possible when Hetty accidentally took control of his body (‘Possession’). While Hetty was inadvertently ejected from Jay’s body when she attempted to drive off the premises, it appears that part of Hetty’s personality remained with Jay in the form of his culinary choices and new found assertiveness.

As the series moves into the second season, Jay’s disappointment in not being able to see the ghosts becomes evident, but he remains accepting of Sam’s ability and shows no envy or resentment. However, he strongly doesn’t want the ghosts interfering with issues involving the B&B guests. When a couple begins to complain about Sam, Jay demonstrates one of his strongest qualities, and that is as of a loving husband, fiercely protective of his wife. However, in ‘Jay’s Friends,’ Jay shows that his loneliness for friends and connection is actually making him become gullible, as he gets caught up in a cult’s plot to squat at Woodstone through Jay’s signature on their fraudulent ‘contract.’

Jay’s history runs in unison with his wife Samantha, given her inheritance of the Woodstone Mansion and her ability to see and communicate with the spirits located there. While he was initially hesitant to begin the ambitious task of restoring a 300-year-old mansion and establishing a bed and breakfast, his mind was changed dramatically when his wife was seriously injured from a fall (accidentally caused by Trevor) (‘Pilot,’ ‘Hello’).

In the early days of living in their new home, Jay, as an unemployed chef, was busy with many tasks typical for home-owners: he did his own home renovations and repairs, which often failed (‘Pilot,’ ‘’Possession’), collaborated with Sam and contractors, supported Sam in her own endeavors and had to become adjusted to the most unusual situation of all — dealing with a houseful of nosy, opinionated, and often demanding ghosts he could not see or hear.

As he has sought to be a supportive husband to Sam, he has also grown in his own understanding and support of the ghosts as well. He collaborated with Sam to secure Thorfinn’s remains and give him his longed-for Viking funeral, with Jay himself shooting the flaming arrow into the canoe containing Thorfinn’s bones. He also sought to reassure the ghosts by attempted to thwart the house from getting vandalized by a group of boys (‘Halloween’).

Jay’s caring attitude extends to other members of his family, both living and otherwise. He has a loving and protective relationship with his sister Bela (‘Jay’s Sister’), the only other person other than Sam and Jay who knows of the ghosts in the mansion, due to her online interaction with Trevor. Jay also sought to encourage his mother-in-law Sheryl, herself a ghost existing in an Ohio restaurant, to reconcile with her daughter (‘Sam’s Mom’).

Moving away from the city and his friends has not come without difficulty for Jay. For the most part, Jay handles his isolation with good humor and curiosity (‘The Vault’) but he dislikes being spied on by the ghosts (‘Ghostwriter’) and not being able to be a real part of regular conversations (‘D&D). When Jay found himself kicked out of his group’s Dungeons and Dragons games, Jay connected with Pete, who also is enthusiastic about the game, and he got the chance to play the game with several of the ghosts on two occasions (‘D&D’). In addition, Jay bonded with Pete again with the two watching and enjoying a basketball game together (‘Ghostwriter’).

Jay’s most significant dealing with any ghost,however, was through Hetty’s accidental possession of him during an electrical wiring incident (‘Possession’). This occurred when Jay was preparing a special meal for a wedding planner, but Hetty’s desire to remain in Jay’s body was too strong for him to overcome. When Hetty attempted to drive off the property, she was successfully expelled from Jay’s body.

Season 2 begins with Jay recovering from his fall when the floor collapsed last season, (‘Spies‘). Realizing he struck his head, he proceeds to go throughout the house, hoping against hope, that he can see the ghosts as Sam can. He arrives downstairs, thinking he can finally see Pete, when in fact, it is only the delivery man and Jay walks through his ghostly friend, who is likely as sad as Jay is that he can’t see the ghosts. As the second couple arrives at the Woodstone Mansion, and Sam and Jay take measures to make them feel at home, some of the ghosts begin to reveal how the guests are really feeling about their stay, prompting Sam and Jay to begin investigating their reviews left behind on Yelp by their visitors. While the Ghosts suggest that they are willing to spy on the guests, which Sam is eager to take advantage of, Jay is against the idea, but Sam encourages them to go through with it regardless. Sam begins revealing things to Jay about the couple’s opinions. Soon, Jay realizes the Ghosts have been supplying Sam with information on their guests comments, while stress grows for Sam and Jay over striving to please their guests. Ultimately, Jay confronts the guests over their comments about Sam, leading them to ‘confess’ their Yelp account had been ‘hacked.’ Ultimately, the couple leave a 5-star review for the Woodstone B&B.

Jay’s geek side was on display in ‘The Tree,’ as he became excited to meet local organic farmers June and Ally, but his activist side was also activated, on behalf of Sassapis, when they pushed to have the dying tree brought down. Later, still geeking out over his famous neighbors, he invited June and Ally to the Woodstone Halloween party, and with Sam, held a seance as entertainment. These actions summon an arch-enemy of Hetty, Molly (Hetty’s Irish maid and Elias’ mistress) and when events lead Sam to getting accidentally trapped in the vault, the Ghosts work together to get word to Jay about her predicament. Their efforts are successful and he gets her out. With that episode, Jay seemed to acquire the creativity needed to find more ways to not only interact with the ghosts but also help them.

In ‘The Baby Bjorn,’ Jay devised a plan for Thorfinn to communicate with his grown son Bjorn, who is now a ghost himself, haunting two doors down from the Woodstone at the Farnsby’s (it is also at the Farnsby’s where Jay accidentally discovers that the Farnsby’s are swingers).

Later in the season, Jay and Sam accept an offer by those behind the show ‘Dumb Deaths’ to film the death of Flower. Needing the money, Sam’s talks Flower into accepting their offer. Jay is later told by the aggressive producer that they are switching the project to focus on the death of Pete instead. Concerned about their approach, and the slanderous actor hired to portray Pete, Jay and Sam find a former troop member, who refutes the claims of the show creators. When they press through with the episode anyway, a crew member accidentally walks through Flower, becomes high, and shoots an arrow which hits Jay in the buttocks.

Jay is a handsome young man, early to mid 30’s, who typically dresses in a hip and casual manner common to someone of his generation. He has studs in each ear. He also has dark hair, mustache and a goatee. He is of normal to slight build; Thorfinn refers to him constantly as ‘small man.’ Isaac has frequently commented on the positive aspects of his physique.

• Jay is the U.S. inspiration of Mike Cooper from the BBC version of ‘Ghosts.’