"Ghost Whisperer": An Unexpected (But Welcome) Twist

It’s hard to do sappy and creepy all at the same time, but “Ghost Whisperer” manages to do it.

I told you last week that the season finale would be a doozy and it certainly was—just not how I expected.

If you’ve never seen the show, Jennifer Love-Hewitt is Melinda Gordon, a woman who can see dead people. Each week she helps the dead discover why they’re still here so they can cross over. Her husband, Jim, is a paramedic and she runs an antique store with her friend, Andrea (Aisha Tyler).

In part one of the finale (which I missed actually), Melinda saw a dead pilot whose plane was still in the air. Melinda called the FAA to warn them, but nothing could be done; and the plane crashed just outside of town.

In Friday’s conclusion--which was a considerably darker episode than usual--Melinda was overwhelmed by all of the deceased coming to her for help. It was extremely creepy to see her surrounded by all of the gray frozen people (The freezing was caused by the lack of air pressure in the plane.). Melinda tried to convince them to go into the light but she was continually thwarted by a sinister force that I like to refer to as the “Evil Leaper,” in tribute to a similar character on “Quantum Leap.” The Evil Leaper (who was creepy in his own right) convinced passengers that they could stay with their loved ones on Earth. Finally, in a bit of a showdown, Melinda was able to convince most of the dead to go into the light, but the Evil Leaper was able to claim some souls.

Meanwhile, Andrea was very concerned that her brother had been on the flight. She told Melinda that she had driven to his apartment, but he wasn’t there. Through the entire episode, Melinda tried to tell Andrea something, but Andrea refused to listen, not wanting to hear that he was dead. Finally, Melinda told Andrea that her brother was there and we saw him outside the store window. When Andrea was able to see him too, I thought we would get a sappy reunion to cap all the creepiness (Sappy is what the show is known for, after all.). But Andrea’s brother walked right past her open arms and hugged Melinda. As Andrea looked on in confusion, her brother asked Melinda how it happened.

It was a twist I didn’t see coming. Andrea was dead. That was what Melinda had been trying to tell her. Apparently, on the way back from her brother’s apartment, she got caught in the path of the plane crash.

For the very first time, I was impressed with this show. It was a totally unexpected move and I love those.

The final scene, however, was no surprise as Melinda watched in horror as the Evil Leaper appeared behind her friend.

For a show that I’ve been very hard on, it was a pretty good cliffhanger with lots of great questions. Did the Evil Leaper cause Andrea’s death to get at Melinda? Will the Evil Leaper get Andrea’s soul? If he does, will that keep Aisha Tyler on the show? And who will run the antique store now since Melinda’s always out running around helping dead people?

Stay tuned…