Lower Decks

The following review contains spoilers for Ghost Whisperer through the current episode, “Body of Water,” originally broadcast January 23rd, 2009.

I’m conflicted about how I feel about this episode. Judging from the few promos I saw for it (as a general rule I try not to watch promos but sometimes a few slip through), “Body of Water” was supposed to be a very big episode, one that answered a lot of questions. I suppose in a way it did answer a few questions, although it also raised quite a few of its own, but I just don’t feel it was an exceptional episode of Ghost Whisperer.

Certainly, Jennifer Love Hewitt did a fine job directing and I did enjoy the episode. I blame the CBS promotional department for pushing the episode as more than just another solid episode. That’s part of the reason I try not to watch promos. They often make an episode look totally different than the final product. In this case, CBS seemed to be pushing “Body of Water” as both Jennifer Love Hewitt’s directorial tour de force and a key episode in the mythology of the series. Or at least that’s what I got from the promos.

But enough about the promos. I’m happy to say that I finally recognized the actress who plays Nikki. She’s Teri Polo. She was Senator Santos’ wife in the final season of The West Wing and co-starred in the short-lived FOX drama The Wedding Bells. And now she’s Nikki, Jim/Sam’s fiancee, although we may have seen the last of her in this episode.

I was initially intrigued by the Ghost of the Week but the outcome was a bit disappointing. Technically, there were a whole bunch of ghosts this week. Like, a whole lake full of them. And one of those ghosts was the father of one of Eli’s students, a student who was out partying near the lake and decided to go swimming in the middle of the night in the (apparently) freezing cold. She felt a “presence,” or the arm of a dead body. The lake is searched, the bodies are found, and Eli calls in Melinda.

While talking with the ghosts of the lake, Melinda is told not to call any attention to them. Unfortunately for the ghosts, Melinda had no control over the police and detectives and doctors swarming over the lake. They also tell Melinda that they’re trying to protect those still living, which is a bit enigmatic until Melinda learns that the lake was used as a dumping ground by the Carl, who owned a funeral home but couldn’t cremate bodies once his furnace broke.

The ghosts want to protect their families from having to learn that their loved ones weren’t cremated and, basically, go through the grieving process all over again. But they’re also angry and when Carl (who was old and sickly) dies, his ghost shows up at the lake. The ghosts want to keep him there forever in revenge for what he did to their bodies and families. Thankfully, some other ghosts intervene, the ghosts from the tunnel who warned Melinda about something bad happening to her.

Melinda confronts these ghosts about Jim’s death and is told that it was simply a coincidence. Jim wasn’t killed because of what Melinda does. He just died. That, I suppose, was the big shocker of this episode. It wasn’t all that much of a shock, though, and the episode ended with the owner deciding to stay with the Tunnel Ghosts, whose mission is to stand between the forces of darkness and humanity. Or something. Another happy ending for all involved.

There was even a bit of a happy ending for Melinda. There’s an awkward moment at the beginning of the episode when Melinda is hiding behind her door while Nikki is talking to Delia. And there was a dicey moment when Nikki confronts Melinda and seems to suggest that Melinda has feelings for Jim/Sam. Finally, it begins to look like Jim/Sam is going try start anew his relationship with Nikki. Melinda tells him he can do better. Well, not in those exact words. The term comfortable was thrown around and Melinda told Jim/Sam he could do better than comfortable.

In the end, Nikki gets in her car and drives off, leaving Jim/Sam and Melinda alone again. We never even really found out of Nikki told Jim/Sam anything helpful during their time together. But Melinda certainly seemed to think — or at least worry — that the two were doing more than just talking. Personally, I hope we don’t see Nikki again. She realized that Jim/Sam was a different person than the Sam she she used to know but chalked it up to Melinda’s influence rather than supernatural shenanigans. Her mistake. Nikki gets in her car and drives off, leaving Melinda and Sam/Jim alone.