How to Get to Heaven from Belfast Recap ‘The Ghost’: Wrong Thing, Wrong Reason

Warning: This recap contains SPOILERS for the third episode of How to Get to Heaven from Belfast.

‘She had an attack of the Catholics’, Robyn told Saoirse, to explain why Dara was bound and gagged with a sock in the attic of the hotel that had to be their room whilst they rode out a fierce storm. Yet though it was only Dara who felt this compelling need to tell the man who introduced himself as Jason Meadows’s son what happened – or what they were told happened – to his father, Robyn especially was furious that Greta lied – or seemed to have lied – to them. For 20 years, the girls lived with the thought that they helped their friend Greta bury a body for the right reasons. Jason, according to Greta, was a violent ex boyfriend. Now this young man Andrew, whose likeness to Jason freaked the girls out so much that they fled the hotel in a panic, only to be turned back by the cops because of the storm, told them his father was named Charles Sampson, and he was an investigative reporter. So what did he want with Greta who was then a high school student? What actually happened that night before they arrived in the cabin and found Greta with a dead man?

A major storm is a time honoured storytelling device, designed to force characters in a cramped location and heighten the tension by forcing them to interact. In this case, the girls’ dinner with young Andrew made them rethink what they thought they knew about the secret they had held on for so long. Even the symbol that was on the cabin and tattooed on their bodies at Greta’s suggestion was on Charles Sampson’s notebook. Andrew was determined to find out what happened to his father, who disappeared when he was just a baby. According to him, he received a strange phone call telling him that if he wanted to find out what happened, he ought to come to Knockdara and speak to Greta. Only, he arrived after she had died, and the manager of the hotel, Seamus, pointed to the girls and told him they were Greta’s friends. 

Here’s something that stood out to me, and bear in mind that I have not, by choice since I am writing these recaps after watching each episode, seen the rest of the season – why was Robyn the only one amongst the girls who has not had these visions? Dara saw a vision of ‘Jason Meadows’ at church, with dirt all over him, which was a pointed illustration of her guilt over her role in helping bury his body. Dara seemed to be the most sensitive of the three, so it made sense that the guilt affected her particularly heavily. Saoirse has been having conversations with young Greta all this time. She was a writer, so again, it made sense that her imagination was pretty active. And Robyn? Was there a reason why we were not seeing more of her internal thoughts? Could it be as simple as she tended to blurt out whatever was in her mind? Or something else? Let’s put a pin on this for now. 

Robyn blamed Saoirse for bringing Greta into their tight group, and their bickering led to Saoirse searching for a place to smoke and drink, which led her to an empty hall used mostly for weddings, where Liam later joined her. Was there more to this sexual tension than (much appreciated) sexual tension? Well, being around Liam was forcing Saoirse to confront that part of her brain telling her she was always afraid, that she was living through the stories she created in her head. As successful as her career was, it was borne out of her need for financial security. Even her director fiance was from her world and work, and given that she was always losing her engagement ring and seemed really bothered that Seb was allergic to rabbits, Liam had a point, she probably ought to break off her engagement. She was living a life that was safe and using Greta’s mystery to get out of the safety of a conventional life, at least for a brief time. Liam was another Greta, a temptation to live a little dangerously.

Saoirse coming very close to cheating on her fiance did give her another clue to the mystery. A day before Greta died, Liam was at this very hotel where he met a woman named Jodie, who claimed to be Greta’s friend. He thought it was odd that Jodie did not come to Greta’s funeral, given that she was already in town. When he tried to ask Owen about Jodie, Owen brushed it off as Liam being drunk that night. But, Liam distinctly remembered complimenting Jodie on the two fabric friendship bracelets she wore; Jodie claimed she intended to give one to Greta. When Liam found the same bracelet in the morgue, he assumed it was because Jodie did meet with Greta and gave her the bracelet. But Saoirse knew better. Saoirse now had the identity of the woman Greta’s family had tried to pass off as her.

After Saoirse managed to convince Dara not to tell Andrew about that night 20 years ago, since they did not actually know what happened, only what Greta told them, the girls moved on to their next plan, to find out who Jodie was. They told Seamus she was a friend of theirs and even broke a particularly beloved sculpture to distract him so Dara could photograph Jodie's hotel records on the computer, but outside of finding out Jodie's last name (Pryor), they could not get any more personal details. Apparently, someone had erased Jodie’s address from the system. But, Seamus did remember the cleaners finding a key hidden inside Jodie’s pillow, and he gave it to the girls. It was a key attached to a key chain with the name of a hotel in Portugal called Calmas Aguas Azuis. Jodie had told Liam that she got the bracelets from a small Portuguese town, so there was a Portugal connection here. 

Once at a happier time, Greta with her family was holidaying at that same resort. Jodie was there unhappily working. She saw Greta from afar and immediately recognised her. Since Greta was clearly alive, did she kill Jodie? Was that why Booker was helping her transform into Jodie, to cover up the fact that Jodie was already dead? 

Owen clearly knew that his wife was alive and with Booker, but what did he know about Andrew? Owen recognised him at the hotel and immediately called Booker, and told her they needed to move quickly. Andrew had intended to leave after the storm and return at a better time when he could speak to Greta’s family, but his realisation that the ‘mournful woman’ code in his father’s notes referred to the school Greta and her friends went, Our Lady of the Sorrows, delayed him. Now, he had located the cabin with the symbol that was also on his father’s notebook. 

Rating: B+

Strays

🚐Greta’s story to the girls was that ‘Jason’ attacked her and she accidentally killed him.

🚐I loved that little touch of the girls having to room at the messy attic because they could not leave and the hotel was already fully booked. 

🚐I feel like part of me will always mourn the loss of The Wheel of Time series. It was steadily getting better and suddenly, it was just cancelled. A huge part of my enjoyment came from Natasha O’Keefee’s performance as Lanfear in seasons two and three. Of course I love seeing her here, but can Apple TV not pick up The Wheel of Time, please? 

🚐Lucy the mean waitress was here again, and she was all charm around Liam. I really hope she’s in all the episodes, this is a fun through-line.

🚐Spice Up Your Life by the Spice Girls was playing when a furious Robyn was pushing her bed to the pantry because she refused to room with Saoirse. Robyn: ‘Ah, f girl power!’ Dara: ‘Too far!’ Lol. The shot of Dara with the music suddenly stopping was perfect.  

🚐Liam saying that bad guys don’t know they are bad guys was pretty insightful. Owen clocked that chemistry with Saoirse, right? 

🚐Dara realised that Greta mostly listened and never talked about herself. She realised this in contrast to how Saoirse and Robyn usually were with her, which was a small poignant moment in a show that does these small poignant moments very well. 

Episode Title: The Ghost

Episode Writer: Lisa McGee

Episode Director: Michael Lennox

Original Air Date: February 12, 2026