Let’s not draw attention to the fact I am behind… again. I am quite busy at the moment, and have spent the last week fighting off a bug. I am so busy in fact, that for the foreseeable future, in spite of the fact that this has been the case for awhile, Fortnightly Fixations posts will officially be moved to being posted on weekends rather than Friday’s. This will change if and when my schedule frees up again, but at the moment I simply do not have the free time towards the end of my week to write and post in time for a Friday deadline at all… and yes, I am quite aware I have missed it regularly for the past few months, why are you drawing attention to it? Late is better than never.
That said! I am over a week late this time, and I have a fully booked week ahead so we may not get caught up this week. However, the new season of TLOVM shall soon surely come to a close, and I do wish to post for that, so… we shall see if I can find the time. So, while I am watching it, we shall not be discussing it this week. I am also watching Agatha All Along, but we shall discuss when that concludes, I think.
Irregardless to all that, and in spite of the many series I adore so much I currently have airing new episodes, I have been watching Ghost Whisperer, as of late while I wait for episodes, for the first time all the way through, and I have to say, I am quite enjoying it. Has it been off the air for over a decade? Yes. Am I watching it anyways? Also, yes. Is it monopolising my attention? 100%.
So, you know the deal. Let’s dive in.
Spoilers Ahead
Where Am I?
At time of writing I am mid-Season 4, due to watch Episode 12: “This Joint’s Haunted”, I believe.
This… Jim arc is… something, but I have to say Jennifer love Hewitt’s acting, in the lead role of Melinda Gordon, these past few episodes has truly blown me away, and brought me to more tears than I ever could have predicted, even knowing this arc was eventually coming. Hewitt is a truly brilliant and phenomenal actress. You, dear reader, may recognise Hewitt from our previous explorations of 9-1-1, in which she plays my personal fave Maddie Buckley. I can’t say she is the reason I am watching Ghost Whisperer, but she is a significant factor. My adoration for her grows with each episode.
Also here! Was Aisha Tyler, she has since… departed. Also, though, which took me off guard only momentarily, was David Conrad, or as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. fans may be aware, the dastardly Ian Quinn. To say I have mixed opinions about his face would be an understatement. Look, I know, he is not the character, I am not insane, I am just saying that I have watched him shoot Skye enough to times to have a sort of immediate dislike to his presence… and besides I had only seen him shoot Skye before this. Now, I have seen him play the lovely Jim Clancy, and I didn’t even know lovely was a thing Ian Quinn was capable of being, because, yes, I referred to him as Ian Quinn exclusively for maybe my watching of the whole of Season 1, if not more. He has, however, since grown on me exceedingly, and when I say I sobbed at Jim’s death I mean it in every possible way. He, and Melinda, had me in tears, bucket’s of them, continuously, for hours. It was 3am.
That’s Not Jim.
I am far eager to get beyond his current amnesia and have a semblance of Jim back. I miss him. As while I have not yet watched it, I have convinced myself of the fact that this… Sam… can never be Jim. He is Jim, in all the ways that matter, he is Jim, but he can nevertheless never be the Jim we knew again. That Jim is dead. Deader than dead. He has exceeded death, because he, unlike all the dead we know, did not go into the light. He is not to be reunited with in the light, he is dead and erased and missed yet here in the body of Sam Lucas, who by the way, is not nearly as attractive, which is not a thing I thought I, as a lesbian, would ever be saying about Ian Quinn. Yes, it is still the same actor when it matters, but they are ensuring to remind us that he does not look like David Conrad anymore, even Melinda does not see him as David Conrad, and I… am weirded out by this fact in a strange way. Ever confident we remain, however, that behind that unknown face, is in fact, our Jim, Melinda’s Jim, the Jim we miss.
In an odd way, I would be less weirded out by our convictions if Melinda alone, for ghostly reasons, could still see her Jim in the body of Sam… if that makes sense. Like, I don’t care what lore we uproot to do that, or if it even makes sense, but it would bring comfort to me if at least, for ghost seeing reasons, Melinda not just saw the essence of her Jim in Sam, but also his face… like we do, because right now, canonically speaking, the audience are the only ones who see… Jim. I am grateful, though, that they did not recast him, because I think I may have quit the show on the spot. Again, what an odd affection I now have for Ian Quinn of all people.
Speaking of recasting, that Ned recast really threw me. He, for habit of it, shot up like 3ft in a few months and it baffled me in the moment. It’s not even really addressed, if barely by a half done reference that genuinely made me giggle despite the tone of the scene. I am used to it now, though, and he like Jim, has grown on me.
This Hurts More
Jim has to know what he was doing, right?
I love Jim, unexpectedly, I do. He was the perfect husband, supportive, loving, communicative, unquestioning, trusting. He was entirely the point, everything Melinda could’ve hoped for. They were perfect. He cared about her safety more than she did. You can’t beat Jim. That’s one true love if ever defined before. He loved her. She loved him. They were sweet, and adorable, and entirely too loving. They were so perfect to be almost nauseating, and that’s why you fall in love them. I adore them, it’s perhaps why I adore Jim so. It is definitely why I cried so much.
He dies, as discussed, he rather unceremoniously dies, and it is executed so well. You get the ghost fake out, which we’ve seen before. I have to say, I knew he was going to die going into it, though I did not know when until I went sleuthing and made some deductions from summaries (I cannot help myself), but in that moment when she thought he woke up… I knew, the minute he smiled I knew. Then you get her reaction and well… the whole combination, his death, Hewitt’s acting, the dialogue… more than enough to leave me sobbing.
I mention this again, because he has to realise what he was doing, right?
Melinda sees ghosts. We all know this. He is now a ghost. The idea that her grief was so deep she could not see ghosts was interesting, and you had to wait for it to… pass some… for her to see him, certainly laid some interesting ideas out. And I will mention again now, and continue to mention, Her Acting. Just this whole episode immediately post-Jim is phenomenal, and continues to be so in unexpected ways going forward that is only aided by the excellent quality of the dialogue surrounding it. The point is, the look on her face, her movements, her delivery… I was crying again, though I had barely recovered, and I only continued to sob infrequently, because this was tragically brilliant.
My point, though, is… he’s haunting her, and he has to know that. Love and loyalty are one thing, refusing to move on is one thing, but he’s haunting her. He has to realise it would be no life for her to stay cooped up with The Ghost of Her Husband. She says she’d want nothing more than to never leave the house and stay there with him, but he has to go into the light. And does he not realise how much it must kill her to say that? Does he not realise how much she misses him, and will miss him? But he has to go into the light, that’s how this goes, them’s the rules. He must crossover… and he just won’t.
It’s not that he’s not ready. He sees it multiple times throughout the episode. Half the episode is excellently from the ghostly perspective, we know he sees it, and he just refuses to go in. He is haunting his wife out of loyalty, and as much as I love him, and I love them, that is not the answer. Melinda is glad she could see him one last time, and she can say goodbye, but she knows him staying is not the answer to her grief. As much as she loves him, as much as she will miss him, he has to go. She knows. It’s just… does he not realise how much he must be hurting her? Like that has to hurt more. He’s haunting her, and she cannot move on, and he will not crossover. Her whole life is helping other people find peace, and until he crosses over, she can’t even find her own, and does Jim not realise this? He is her love and her pain, and he is making it worse. So much so, she asks him not to come back to the house, she tells him to go into the light again and again and yet he does not.
He cannot imagine living without her. I get that. He loves her so much, and they were supposed to start a family and grow old together. They were trying to have a family. Just to be clear this made his death more painful from an audience perspective, as well as, I assume, theirs. They wanted a family, and they didn’t get it. When they suspected they might be (though they weren’t) pregnant before he died, and I knew his death was coming up I sat there for a moment like “Is it better or worse if she’s pregnant before he dies?”… knowing full-well some of the details mentioned in the summaries of later episodes of this season. I suspect it’s going to be a bit of a sad and yet wild rollercoaster. And I know they have a child, by the way, but isn’t it technically not Jim’s? It’s Sam’s. It will never be Jim’s. He can never be Jim, with or without memory, he is not Jim… and…
Anyways, he was haunting her, and as much love as it entailed it can only have hurt. As much as she would wish to not let him go, it must’ve hurt. As much as she wishes she didn’t have to say goodbye, she knows better, and his refusal has to have hurt. Then… there’s Sam. He jumps into his body and are you telling me this does not hurt more?!
Plot wise, I’m not entirely mad, it’s strange and a bit weird, but I’m not disliking it. I want Jim back, but the writing’s not bad, and the acting is fantastic. Hewitt, in my opinion, has this ability to have this sadness behind her eyes without her face saying too much about it, and it is really adding to this performance, moments when the script doesn’t necessarily say that Melinda is upset, her face says she’s feeling it. Whether it’s something Sam says or something the plot of the ghost-of-the-week entails that hits just that bit closer now, you can see it in her eyes, and it’s quiet but present… and when she’s alone every solitary tear feels incredibly genuine. My adoration grows, in summary.
She sees him. Watches him lean over. Screams. Runs up… and he’s gone.
Does that not hurt more?
He’s not gone into the light. She will not see him in a few decades when she passes. They will not be reunited. The Jim she knows is gone. And, in my opinion, whatever Jim Sam remembers, will not be the Jim she knows. That Jim is completely and utterly gone. Never to be seen again. Now there is amnesiac Sam. She had him, she was going to see him again, and now all she’s got is nothing. Does this not hurt more?
There is hope in the light, she knows this. In this moment there is so much hope only for it to be crushed beneath amnesia’s shoe. Now there is so much risk, and hope, and potential. Now we’re told it’s a miracle, this is Jim, she gets another chance, but he doesn’t remember. He could go anywhere. He could do anything. Hell! Sam was going to propose to someone else. How do we do this? Why is Sam skeptical when Jim always believed her? How do we tell him and yet not scare him off? How are we friends and yet scheming and hoping and praying? Why does it take all of a few days for him to be living in her garage… what is this?
Melinda says he risked everything out of love and loyalty, and she will, ultimately be thankful probably. I think, however, that Jim better apologise when he remembers. He is putting her through so much pain. He is doing that. He did that! She understands why he did what he did. I understand why he did it. But there is no way this waiting for Jim to come back does not hurt more than just watching him go into the light.
Applauds again to the writing, directing and acting for capturing what can only be a complex array of emotions involved in this scenario because I can’t even begin to put them into words, and yet I feel as though they understand fully what is being felt. If not that this should hurt so much.
To conclude, we will be ever so happy to see him again, and ever so glad they get to live out their days, and we understand how much he risked and loved, and how he could not see life without her in it, but, damn it, Jim if you do not begin your remembered life with an apology and understanding of how much she has been through because of your undead actions… Gods, I hope he understands how much this hurt her.
Okay, The Friends Too
The show is, of course, more than Jim and Mel. So, let’s discuss shall we?
The premise of the show is, of course, simply that Melinda sees ghosts, and she helps them crossover, and families find peace. In an occasionally morbid way it is very wholesome, and while I do not appreciate when the ghosts start jump-scaring us in their creep-tastic hauntings, I do otherwise enjoy the show very much.
Melinda does not go about her life alone, though, she has (or had) her ever-loving husband, Jim, who has always been supportive of her… Ghost Job… so far as I recall. I don’t think I rewatched the pilot when I picked Ghost Whisperer up this past few weeks, because I know I had already watched like 4 episodes, I think I just kept going… so, I assume he has always been supportive.
This, is then joined by Andrea, with whom Melinda owns her antique store. Andrea, always open-minded, is also very supportive. She is played by Aisha Tyler. I sat here trying to remember if Hewitt’s Kate Callahan and Tyler’s Tara Lewis appear on the same season of Criminal Minds, and I don’t think they do. It has been a really long time since I watched Season 10, though, and while I recall that Kate replaces Blake, who replaced Emily… I can’t recall when Tara comes in. I think, Tara replaces Kate… which is in some ways ironic. I know Hotchner was there when she was hired, but that’s about as much as I recall. Anyways, that’s not important, just funky they were both on Criminal Minds, after playing best friends on Ghost Whisperer, because, yes, Andrea and Mel are best friends and when Andrea so unfortunately departs us, though I knew this was coming too, I was remarkably sad about it, and it is very well done, and while I am now used to Delia, I do sort of miss Andrea. She was fun.
Speaking of Delia, played by Camryn Manheim, is a character who has grown on me. She is not unsupportive, though she has been very sceptical, even after mostly understanding Mel’s gift, she wasn’t always… willing to accept it, shall we say, which I appreciated. Believing one thing does not mean you believe all future things, and the fact it takes time for her to open her mind to all these things she cannot see or prove makes perfect sense. I appreciated that she didn’t immediately replace Andrea, there was a grace period before she’s asked to work at the shop, and their friendship takes a minute to build. It felt respectful. Of course, the abruptly aged Ned is Delia’s son, and Ned is too a character who grows on you. I will admit, more so after the recasting.
I liked that Delia truly came around to the idea after she realised that Jim was in Sam… she saw it when he went to the court where Jim would’ve met Ned, and it sort of gave her this moment of “Oh, damn. It’s him.” and it’s not that she needed a big moment to really cement her belief, and she still does after this prefer to look for a provable explanation first, she did believe more in what Melinda was saying as a result of this moment, and it allowed her to be more supportive of what Melinda was dealing with after losing Jim (not that her widowed status hadn’t aided with that too), and it released the tension in their friendship in such a significant moment that was nice, and yet felt natural. She trusts now in Melinda’s abilities, and it, of course, means Mel is less isolated than she maybe would be without Jim to rely upon in Ghost Dealings. Tension in the friendship by the way, that meant they had literally argued earlier in the episode before this moment, in part because Melinda has been understandably very emotional, and yet Delia had still doubted her. That tension was always there, though, and had kept Melinda from always telling Delia things. Now, that is not the case.
Speaking of Jim/Sam situation and realisation, I had a moment watching when Delia and Eli were discussing what had been said of what had happened, according to Melinda. They called it a ‘step-in’, right? Regardless, as they were talking I had this moment of “Rick would’ve believed her”, and, man, I miss Rick! Rick Payne, played by Jay Mohr, professor at the University… researcher of… I don’t know all the supernatural stuff Melinda could ever need. He so grew on me. I loved Rick, and the friendship he shared with Melinda by the time he left. I didn’t expect to love him quite so much when he was first introduced, but I really did love his presence in the series by the time he was gone. I want him back. He’d have been there for her. You know he would have. He’d have understood, and researched his ass off to support her. You know it. He would have believed her with all his curious heart.
Eli has not grown on me yet. He replaced Rick, though, so I don’t yet approve on that principle alone. At least his particular set of ‘hearing ghosts’ skill came in handy when Jim died. Eli was well utilised, and at least Melinda can talk to him about Ghost-Hunting, which they often do together. They are now a duo, which is good considering there is no Jim.
To Conclude
This show sort of has me by my ankles, which was unexpected if I’m being honest, but I should have seen it coming. I am hooked. It may be the Jennifer Love Hewitt of it all. I do need to start watching the new 9-1-1 episodes actually, though I am considering a rewatch when I finish this.
Irregardless, I will be on this ride until I finish it, I think, and I am perfectly okay with that. I will still be watching the new episode drops of certain other shows, and I deeply need to catch up on Season 4 of Only Murders in The Building. I have not had so many shows dropping new episodes at once in years, it’s exciting.
I will otherwise see you again next week, maybe, and if not next week, the first chance I get to sit down and write about Season 3 of The Legend of Vox Machina in all it’s glory.
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Catch up again soon!
On to the next!
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