Ghost Whisperer Walks Head First into the Darkness

With the previous season finale ending on an emotional note with Melinda's, played by Jennifer Love Hewitt, near death experience and the message from her father about a brother she had no knowledge of, the start of season three has promised to be a heart breaker.

What started off, show wise, as a basic idea with a woman crossing people over after death, has turned into a full fledged battle between the darkness and the light. A battle that threatens the life, happiness and very soul of everyone around Melinda. Could it be more dramatic?

For generations people have talked about those with second sight, the power to predict the future, see the dead, even receive messages from them, but with Ghost Whisperer the idea took another step, a twist that many watchers can relate to. The idea that those who die will be able to move on once their job is done, that they can move into the light, the next life, heaven or whatever you might believe in, can be a comforting thought. Yet with season three the fact that where there is light there must also be darkness is set to play out to its dangerous and dramatic end.

The questions that the last season left ranged from...

Why do they want Melinda dead?

Was that really her father and why did he appear then? Is he connected with the darkness?

Is her brother the servant of the darkness, Gabriel?

What about the love that Rick obviously has for Melinda, will he be able to cope with never following that through when she's so obviously in love with her husband, Jim?

Recovering from the attempt on her life has left Melinda shaken, yet still determined to deal with the events from that night. The signs that appear around her are frightening, the chest moving, the hands forming in the road, the image on the x-ray, the front lawn trying to swallow her whole as hands reached out of the dirt to grab her along with the ghost claiming "It was you. It was you!"

Her mother refuses to answer, to offer hints of what is going on, going as far as suggesting that the head injuries are the reason for Melinda claiming she saw her father. Not entirely surprising as her mother has denied having the same gifts that Melinda and her grandmother both share, ignoring those gifts even after she finally admitted they existed.

The spirits, the images, it all points to something under ground, as does the title of the season opener, but just what is it Melinda is meant to discover? As she's dragged in through an open door in one of her visions she's left facing a door with bars across a small section of it. But one thing comes to light from this, the ghost that has been haunting her, leaving all the symbols referencing the underground, isn't her father. It's all tied in with a customer who dropped off a trunk of things she wanted to sell off. Instead of finding answers to what her father was doing, where he has gone, and how he died, Melinda is drawn further into the message of the trunk and the man who died in a cave in beneath the street.

One of the key points about Melinda's character is her willingness to push her own needs to one side in order to help someone else.

But some of the answers come to light in the episode.

Why Melinda's mom refuses to use her gift? It's tied in the with the ghost in this episode and the loss of life after the cave in. Not just his life, but the life of his wife. A death the ghost has blamed Melinda's mom for and now, in turn, blames Melinda. But with the answers to hand Melinda is finally able to sit down and talk to the ghost, to explain to him just what went on and why he hasn't been able to see his wife - and what he now needs to do in order to cross over.

The answers to the big picture are not offered in this episode, but then again this is the start of a series, not a movie. It wouldn't make sense to lay out all of the cards in one hour. The only answer Melinda is given, by her mother, is the message to leave Grandville as its not a good place for people like Melinda and her mom - according to her mom.

But why?

What else is being hidden by her mom?

There's only one way to find out. Keep watching and putting the pieces together.