The Primetime Dish

So tonight was the season finale of “Ghost Whisperer,” and it didn’t disappoint! Melinda got to her father, who shot himself in the head because he was possessed by the spirit of Paul Eastman, the man he put away for the murder of the little boy in the last episode. Her dad lived and only suffered a flesh wound though.

When Paul led her to an old house where she found his bones, Melinda’s hubby Jim did some checking and learned that is the house Melinda grew up in. He suspected the dad was lying to Melinda and demanded the truth. Melinda’s dad Tom claimed that Paul was angry and wanted to kill him, Melinda’s mother Beth and Melinda. They fought, he killed him and buried him in the basement to cover it up. He claimed he was trying to protect his family so that’s why he didn’t call the cops. He also said Paul, even as a ghost, wanted them all dead.

Meanwhile Melinda’s mom got a visit from Paul’s ghost, who told her to tell Melinda the truth as Tom was going to hurt her. I quickly figured out what was going to happen from there. Melinda’s mom spilled all, she was engaged to Paul and living with him when he was arrested for the boy’s murder. She went to Tom, who was a lawyer (later becoming assistant DA), and convinced him to help her free Paul and told him about Paul’s powers and her own. He took the case and did what he could. Paul grew angry in prison, even killing a man, while Beth and Tom fell in love. They eventually married. Of course there was more, Paul is Melinda’s father, Tom knew and he accepted her as his own.

Of course that wasn’t the end of the secrets. Melinda soon remembered all about that night Paul came to see her after escaping from a prison hospital (he set a fire to escape prison and was burned, hence the face mask). Paul had confronted Tom, he knew the truth and was going to tell Beth. Tom never was planning to help him, he was going to let him rot in prison for killing that kid, which he didn’t. Worse yet, Tom hired a guy to kill him in prison, he killed that man in self defense. Tom then killed him and Melinda saw it all as a child.

Tom of course turned on Melinda to keep his secrets, planning to kill her, but Paul came to her rescue. Tom fell to his death after a possession and his spirit cast Melinda a look and fled. Paul and Beth were then reunited before he went into the light.

The show ended with Melinda, her mom, her husband, Payne, Dehlia and her son walking together when Payne noticed there were six of them, but only five shadows. What does it mean?

Jay Mohr (Payne) has a new show on CBS next season, so he’s most likely leaving the show or will be a guest star every now and then. Nothing has been announced on this. Will they kill Payne off in the season opener? I hope not!

Also I feel like we got no resolution to the angry spirits below Grandview and their master plan, nor Gabriel’s part in it all and what he wanted from Melinda. Honestly it’s almost like they just did a 180 with the writing after the writer’s strike, because her father’s “spirit” was also after Melinda in a way to use her. It was like they both had some plan and Melinda was key to it. My guess is the father/Tom will be back next season as one of the angry spirits underground out for revenge.

I would also love to see Melinda’s mother not only become a full cast member, but start to use her gift and help Melinda out next season. Two “Ghost Whisperers!”

On the most recent episode of “Ghost Whisperer” they through a big curve-ball into play. I was pleasantly surprised and can’t wait to see how they end this season next week.

Melinda found herself with a case number, given to her by a private detective looking into her father’s “death.” He was of course possessed when he gave it to her. She researched it and it turned out to be a case her father prosecuted of a “murdered boy.” The man accused (and convicted?) later died, after suffering burns in a fire.

Melinda went to talk to the family of the boy, who of course was living in the house not only as a ghost, but the mother was still talking care of him and his cousins could see him and would play with him. Just great! And people think Melinda is nuts? Worse yet, the boy had learned to possess his cousins so he could hug his mommy and feel her arms around her. Creepy! Not only did he possess people, he was violent as well. He tried to kill Melinda to keep her from ruining things for him. Nice kid!

As it turned out, the dead boy wasn’t murdered at all. He went off in the woods, where he shouldn’t have gone, and climbed a tree, which he shouldn’t have done, and fell to his death. He then lead another man, who could see ghosts, to his body. Unfortunately that man got blamed for his murder and was prosecuted by Melinda’s father.

Speaking of shockers, Melinda’s dad is alive! She found him at Gabriel’s place, or Gabriel at his, I wasn’t completely sure. It not only seems he’s alive, but has no clue as to what is going on with Melinda and he has no idea why Gabriel hates his sister so much. Melinda put the pieces together and began to figure things out . . . . It seems her father has been getting possessed by the guy he prosecuted and put away for the boy’s death. He’s been possessing the father and then essentially beating the crap out of his body for years as punishment. The man in the mask she saw as a little girl, the possessed guy. Her husband figured out the mask is like the ones burn victims wear to protect their burns from infection. When her father appeared to her as a ghost it was when the spirit had pushed him out of his body to control it.

That was a pretty good twist that I didn’t see coming, so kudos to “Ghost Whisperer.” I have to wonder where they are taking this. It looks like the ghost may have realized he was found out, or lead Melinda to discover the truth on purpose, and we were left wondering if Melinda’s father is even alive at this point. Has the ghost offed him completely? Also why did her dad’s “spirit” seem so evil when it was out of his body? Something tells me the true villain might turn out to be Gabriel who is somehow using his father as well.

So last week’s episode of “Ghost Whisperer” I thought was just ho-hum. I’m a horror movie fan, so it was interesting to see that as the topic of the episode. In this episode a guy creating indie-horror films designed to really scare those he selected to be in them met his maker while making the films. He was the ghost and haunting the girl he was in love with and who was secretly helping him make the films. The whole point of the haunting was not to convince her to finish the films per say, but to make her realize her passion was in film making and not her family inspired and chosen major economics.

The real key points of the whole episode were those surrounding Melinda. The film maker realized Melinda had a fascination with horror films, but she couldn’t explain why she liked to be scared or what about them drew her to them. At the very end Melinda had a memory from her childhood of a man standing over her bed in an odd mask. I can’t be sure, but it looked like her father to me. I’m getting the feeling that her father may have been involved in some cultish activity when he was alive and was seeking to use Melinda for whatever he had planned. Maybe when things didn’t work out, he went off and had Gabriel hoping he’d be able to do what he needed?

Onto this week’s episode of “Medium,” which was a bizarre one for sure. But hey, at least the bad guy didn’t get away! In this episode the family car died, so Joe ended up finding a steal at the body shop. A man was selling a pimped out car for far below what it was worth. Hmmm, can you say suspicious? Allison soon found out that the man’s wife died in it, supposedly from a car jacking. Having watched the show too much, I knew the husband somehow set up the car jacking. However though that part was predictable, what I really liked was how this episode threw you off in the investigation with a “fake” suspect/accomplice, who in fact was a model on a poster on the garage wall where the man set his wife up to be shot by a gun in a vice. Very clever! Allison figured it all out when the car’s GPS took her to the garage and then refused to start back up so she could leave. She had to abandon it there, and later the husband was found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning. It seems like the wife’s ghost got her revenge! I did wonder though wouldn’t or couldn’t Allison be an accomplice given she left the car there?

Also Allison had dreams about Joe’s partner apparently seducing him one late at night in the office, which all seem to be coming true. The show ended with her going into the office acting exactly as she had in Allison’s dream, but the show stopped with a “To Be Continued” before anything happened. So we are left with a cliff-hanger until Monday where we have to find out if she’s going to seduce Joe or not. I have always thought she wanted him, but since that is so obvious, maybe they won’t go there?

Photo Source: NBC.com

Upcoming show spoilers for “Ghost Whisperer” and “Medium”

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This week’s episode of “Ghost Whisperer” is a repeat from back in January. Read on for some official spoilerish tidbits for the next two shows . . . .

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This episode saw the return of Justin, the campus tabloid blogger who once stole Professor Payne’s notes on Melinda. Melinda’s store began to be defaced with red paint. First “Witchraft” was written, then some angel like picture was painted. After Delia convinced her to use a camera, they caught Justin doing it. Justin meanwhile was dealing with his own demons. He would wake up at night and do other things he couldn’t remember, such as turning everything in his place upside down.

Justin was convinced he was being haunted by someone from his past. Justin revealed to Melinda he himself was dying of a brain tumor, he’d go any day now, and when he did he wanted Melinda to help him find this person. The person was a girl named Julie that he was dating. He felt they were supposed to die together, maybe that’s why all this was happening. They were out on a boat together, the boat went down and he survived, but doesn’t have to much memory of what happened. Witchcraft was the name of the boat, and the angel picture turned out to be the masthead.

As it turned out, Julie wasn’t a nice girl at all. She was using Justin. She wanted to sink the ship to get the money and blame it on Justin, who she expected to go down with the ship, not the other way around. She wasn’t nice in life, she isn’t nice in death. She’s become one of the dark spirits under Grandview. She lured Justin, who did die in this episode, to the underground to tell him that he belonged with them, and they had a way to go back. Melinda and Payne showed up though and she convinced Justin these spirits were evil, they were using him, feeding off him to get stronger. When Justin turned on Julie, she vanished. He eventually went into the light.

For me this was just another okay episode. The commercials and previews made it seem way more exciting, like the fact that in fact Melinda’s secret was in jeopardy of being exposed. That seemed to be the total opposite of what was going on. Melinda and Delia would show up for work and it was like nobody on the street really cared the store was defaced. Even more than that, nobody in town called the cops to report it either!

We did at least return to some of the mystery from the pre-strike episodes, the underground town/spirits. We learned it seems they have found some way to come back. Whether that means living again or not I don’t know. Julie seemed to be able to posses people, so I wonder if there is going to be a ghostly revolt where everyone underground tries to implant themselves in the bodies of the living above ground?

Photo Source: CBS.com

Bunches of spoilers and spoiler listings for “Ghost Whisperer,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Desperate Housewives,” and “Brothers and Sisters”

*update* Added in some guest star spoilers for the various shows/episodes

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“Ghost Whisperer” returned last night with a new episode “Home Is Not Alone.” In this episode a slightly aged Ned went on his first date with a girl, and felt like something else was there too, watching over them and protecting his date. He thought it was her dad, who died recently. It turned out it was her mom who had died of cancer. The girl, her older sister and little brother buried their mother in their yard to hide this. The older sister was taught to do the mom’s job from home and they kept up the charade she was still alive, knowing that if it was found out the state would separate them all. Melinda soon learned it wasn’t the father’s ghost, but the mother’s who was watching over them and wouldn’t leave them alone. She also learned the mother had a sister, her only living relative, who she hadn’t seen in years. As it turns out the mother went through a similar thing when her parents died, the sister was old enough to take her in legally (she was 19) but didn’t because she wasn’t ready herself. The mother was then put up for adoption, she never forgave her sister or saw her again. In the end Melinda found the sister and put them back together, and the sister took in the kids so they wouldn’t be separated.

For me the episode was just okay. I mean we have been separated from “Ghost Whisperer” for months and this is what they give us? They should have come back with a bang. This episode could have been shown later as a filler episode. Give us more of the story of what is going on with the father and half-brother. That is what they should have returned with. Next week’s episode looks much better, and also would have been a good starter episode. This episode has someone tormenting Melinda for being a witch (hint it’s that journalist from the school who snooped on the Professor and Melinda once).

Photo from CBS.com

Some official spoiler listings for two of my favorite “I See Dead People” shows, “Ghost Whisperer” and “Medium.”

Read on to be spoiled . . .

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Comic Book Resources is reporting that IDW Publishing is planning to release a five-issue monthly comic based on CBS’ “Ghost Whisper,” to be written by the writers of the show.

The comics fit in after Season 2 and before Season 3 and, as in the show, Melinda spends her days and nights helping earthbound spirits cross into the Light. But in this series Melinda gets more than she bargained for when she comes face-to-face with Osiris, Egyptian God of the Dead, who wants the souls for himself.