Sally Malik

Sally Malik is a fictional ghost and one of the principal characters featured in the North American television series Being Human. The series is based on a British programme of the same name, which premiered on the BBC in February, 2008. Known primarily as just "Sally", she is played by actress Meaghan Rath and was introduced in the series' pilot episode, "There Goes the Neighborhood (Part 1)", and has appeared in every subsequent episode to date. Sally's counterpart in the original series is Annie Sawyer, played by English actress Lenora Crichlow.

Death & beyond
Sally Malik lived in an old townhouse in Boston, Massachusetts with her fiancé Danny Angeli. On the surface, Danny was a kind and considerate man, but he also harbored a fierce temper and his true feelings for Sally were darker than what she was led to believe. One morning in 2010, Sally was washing her hands and lost her engagement ring down the drain of the bathroom sink. When Danny learned of this he flew into a rage and the two began arguing with one another at the foot of the staircase. Danny grabbed her by the arm and shook her. When he let go, Sally reeled backward, falling down the stairs, hitting her head on the bottom of the landing. The impact killed her instantly.

Sally's spirit lived on as a ghost and began haunting the house where she died. She had no memory of what had happened and spent the next eight months confused, alone and trapped inside the walls of her home. In early 2011, Danny moved out of the house, claiming that remaining there was too painful for him. He leased it out to two young men named Aidan Waite and Josh Levinson. What Danny didn't realize was that Aidan was a vampire and Josh was a werewolf. As supernatural creatures, they alone had the ability to perceive Sally's presence. Josh in particular was put off by the notion of a ghost living in their home, but Aidan, having encountered ghosts in the past, liked the idea of having a third roommate and sympathized with Sally's plight. Josh however, was very nervous around Sally and often insensitive to her, stating that she was just as much a "monster" as the rest of them.

Sally's growing friendship with her new roommates helped her to come to terms with being dead, but she was still frustrated over being trapped inside her house; unable to leave, unable to communicate with anyone who wasn't a werewolf or a vampire. Sally tried repeatedly to speak to Danny, who now served as the building's landlord, but to no avail.

The door
Aidan contacted another ghost named Tony DiPaulo, a rocker who died in 1987, and encouraged him to meet with Sally, believing that things might be easier for her if she had another ghost around that she could relate to. Tony showed Sally that there was more to being a ghost than simply wandering around empty corridors. He showed her how to channel her emotions and key in to different locales, enabling her to teleport from one place to another. He also began showing her how to interact with the physical world, albeit with limited results. Though appreciative, Sally grew frustrated with Tony, especially when the mullet-wearing spirit grew too amorous with her for her own comfort. Despite this, Sally learned a lot from Tony, including the knowledge that when a spirit is ready to move on, a door will appear before them. Sally watched as Tony's door appeared and he walked through never to be seen again.

The truth
With each passing day, Sally began to learn more about the manner in which she died. She overheard Danny tell Aidan and Josh that she had "accidentally" tripped and fallen down the staircase one late evening on her way to the bedroom. Sally began ghosting into Danny's apartment, but was disheartened to find that Danny was now seeking comfort in the arms of her best friend Bridget. Sally tried communing with Bridget, using her growing talents to whisper into the young woman's ear. Though bothered at first, Sally eventually gave Bridget her blessing to be with Danny.

Sally's engagement ring turned up one day after a plumber had been called in to work on the sink. Sally immediately bonded with his integral part of her life and once she did so, regained her full memories of what actually happened. She now knew that her death was not the result of an accident, but that she had been murdered. Now Sally wanted revenge against Danny. Aidan volunteered to straighten him out for her (in his own particular style), but Sally insisted on handling this matter on her own. She teleported into Danny's home and used her powers to completely ransack the living room, leaving a trail of debris spiraling in a circle that ended with the engagement ring sitting in the center of the room.

Danny threw the ring into the river, but due to Sally's connection to it, it reappeared inside of Sally's home. Sally fantasized about Aidan's promise to help her out and envisioned him pinning Danny to the wall and biting into him with his fangs. Sally decided to haunt Danny and did so at first by placing the ring back inside of his house where he was sure to find it. Danny did find the ring, but thought that Bridget had left it there and took his anger out on her, squeezing her arm so tightly that it left a bruise.

A'haunting we will go
Sally later accompanied Aidan to a night club where she met another ghost named Lindsey. Lindsey showed her the power of being a poltergeist and helped Sally to understand the intricacies of interacting with the physical world. As her talents increased, she returned to Danny's house and continued haunting him, making light bulbs and beer bottles explode and upending furniture. Danny began to realize that Sally's ghost was in the room, but was unimpressed. Shouting to the air, he told her that he was not scared of her and that he was better than she for she was dead, and he was alive.

Sally now felt guilty for whispering words of encouragement to Bridget and tried to warn her against seeing Danny. She briefly took possession of Bridget's hand and scrawled out a message, "He killed me". Bridget went to Danny's house to confront him, and though Danny confessed to being responsible for Sally's death, he made it appear as if the entire thing was just a terrible accident. This only drove Bridget even closer to him, but Bridget now knew that Sally's ghost was real and that she was communicating with her from beyond the grave.

The following day, Sally teleported to Suffolk County Hospital where Aidan and Josh worked. Aidan showed Sally an old closed down wing of the hospital that he said was haunted by the ghosts of people who had died there. He told Sally that she might be able to find some answers there, but that she would have to go in there alone. Sally found ghosts of varying ages wandering aimlessly throughout the bleak corridor, many of whom using their talents to scry messages upon the wall. Sally left her mark on the wall as well, pleading to anyone who might read it to show her how to cross over.

Nick & Stevie
One of the other messages on the wall belonged to a ghost named Nicholas Fenn, a former teacher's assistant at the school that Sally once attended. Sally found Nicholas and was surprised to see that she still harbored a school girl crush on him. Nicholas suffered from a unique condition known as a "death echo" in which, once a day, he was forced to re-live the manner in which he died; in this case, drowning. The two grew close to one another and even shared an ectoplasmic kiss. Sally's emotional connection to Nick helped him to ease through the pains of his echo.

Sally received a notice about her ten-year high school reunion. Though she initially had no intention of attending, Aidan, Josh and his girlfriend Nora Sargeant convinced her to go; if for no other reason than to listen in on what others might have to say about her. While there, she encountered two ghosts from her graduating class. One was Stevie Atkins, who committed suicide when he was only sixteen-years-old. The other was Diane Alcott - cheerleader and prom queen who died of Malaria only a short time ago. Sally decided to tell Diane exactly what she though about her and made her realize what an obnoxious self-absorbed person she was in life. By finally coming to terms with her identity and making peace with her past sins, Diane's door opened before. Without realizing it, Sally had inadvertently helped her old rival pass over into the afterlife.

Stevie told Sally that ghosts had the ability to sleep and even dream, but it required a lot of concentration. When she returned home that evening, she tested it out and found that she was able to put her spirit to rest, if even for just a short period of time. Sally had an ominous dream about her door opening before her, but as she peered into the corridor of the afterlife, she saw a malignant, wraith-like image chasing after her.

Back from the dead
Once Sally realized that the souls that Scott and she had shredded still existed in some otherworldly Limbo, she decided to do something about it. In the ultimate act of self-sacrifice, Sally turned her own wraithly powers upon her, and shredded herself.

Limbo appeared to Sally as a greyer, more pale reflection of the world that she knew. Over the span of a year, she found Stevie Atkins and Nicholas Fenn and swore that she would find a way to get all three of them out. Stevie and Nick both suffered from death throes, in which they were forced to re-live scenes of their own demise. Nicholas continued to re-experience the day he drowned, but Stevie found himself hanging from a tree, which is not how he died.

Sally found the Limbo version of the brownstone, but could not enter it. She screamed out for Josh and Aidan, but received no reply. Every day, the three ghosts would try to enter through it's door, and every day entry was denied them. Stevie and Nick began to lose hope, but Sally's desperation compelled her to go on.

In the physical world, Josh and Nora spent the year going from psychic to psychic hoping to find some way of bringing Sally back. A chance encounter brought them to Ilana Myers - the woman who once tried to exorcise Sally. Ilana referred them to a woman named Donna Gilchrist. They found Donna working at the Miller Avenue Community Kitchen and explained their situation. Donna told them that she could restore Sally's spirit and even bring her back to life, but to do so, she required the heart of someone that Josh had killed. As it turned out, Josh had own recently killed Ray - the werewolf that once infected him. Cured of his lycanthropy, Josh went to the spot where Ray was buried and cut out his heart. Nora and he also had to disinter Sally's remains as well. They brought the heart and the body back to Donna who performed the ritual. Miraculously, the process worked and Sally's spirit was drawn from the ether and placed back into her fully restored physical body. Donna warned Josh that Sally was to have absolutely no contact with anyone from her past life.

When Sally exited Limbo, Stevie and Nick followed after her, so Josh and Nora had to disinter their remains as well and have the same ritual performed. Stevie went off on a road trip of self-discovery, while Nick could not fully and physically commit himself to Zoe.

It was during this time, that Sally and the others reconnected with Aidan, who had been buried alive by Mother fifteen months earlier. Aidan was shocked and elated to see Sally alive again, but was wary of the process used for her resurrection.

Sally wanted nothing more than to experience everything life had to offer. She wanted to eat, drink and party. Josh took her out to a restaurant, where she began inhaling pomegranate margaritas. A patron of the restaurant, Trent Harris, recognized Sally and approached her. Sally told Trent that she had to fake her own death in order to get away from Danny. Josh saw the two reconnecting with one another, and reminded Sally of Donna's cryptic warning.

Sally dismissed Josh and invited Trent back to the brownstone. Her plan was to bring him upstairs and have sex with him, but Trent politely declined. They ended their evening with a kiss. The following morning, Sally and Josh found an ambulance out front their door, sealing Trent up into a body bag. Sally looked in horror as she now realized that her kiss with Trent had killed him.

Notes & Trivia



 * This is actress Meaghan Rath's first work in the horror genre. Previously, she played Adena Stiles on the TV series 15/Love. She also played Rigby Hastings on thirteen episodes of The Assistants and has also appeared on episodes of Aaron Stone and 18 to Life.


 * As a ghost, Sally Malik always wears the clothes she had on when she died. In every episode, she is seen wearing the same grey top and sweater.


 * Sally Malik was born in the year 1986 as revealed on her tombstone in "Some Thing to Watch Over Me".


 * Sally Malik was a psychology major for one semester in college.