Lower Decks

Ghost Whisperer
“Cursed”
Originally Broadcast Friday, May 1st, 2009

What a vexing episode this was. Putting aside for a moment my continued frustration at the way the Jim/Sam story line has been playing out of late, “Cursed” included some strange elements that seemed out of place on Ghost Whisperer and took an uninspired turn near the end. For the first third of the episode I was sure it would join “Save Our Souls” as one of my favorite episodes of the season. But now I’m not quite sure.

“Cursed” took a rather novel approach to the Ghost of the Week: a family, killed by carbon monoxide poisoning, are trapped in a dollhouse that is a recreation of their own home. Their eldest daughter, Emma, survived and is living with her aunt Lucy. The ghosts take over the dolls inside the dollhouse and try to communicate with Lucy’s daughter — Emma’s cousin — Drew.

Melinda gets involved when Emma brings Drew to the antique store looking for another doll. The family in the dollhouse want a daughter. By this point, “Cursed” had me thinking of an episode of The Twilight Zone called “Miniature” in which a man falls for a doll in a museum dollhouse that he believes is alive. Dollhouses are pretty creepy when you think about it. Houses for little dolls complete with beds and chairs and tables and bookshelves and stairs?

While helping Emma and Drew, Melinda touches a chair from the dollhouse and has a vision of someone cutting their wrist in a house that looks just like the dollhouse. She worries that Emma is suicidal and goes to talk with Lucy. She learns that the dollhouse is being kept for Emma in case she wants it for her children. That conflicts with what Emma has been told. Before long, both Melinda and Emma believe that Lucy is up to no good.

This helps explain why Lucy was so shocked to find Emma alive the morning her family was found dead. If Lucy was the one who killed the family and thought Emma was in the house, she’d certainly be surprised to find Emma alive. After finding human hair in the dollhouse Melinda and Eli determine that the ghosts of Emma’s family have been trapped in the dollhouse by voodoo cast by Lucy.

The ghosts believe their actual home has been destroyed and that, should they leave the dollhouse, they’ll be forced to walk the earth forever, unrecognizable. One of Eli’s fellow professors, and old friend from graduate school, is an expert on the occult and warns him that ghosts trapped in such a way become even more powerful and eventually escape.

The ghosts warn Emma that she’s next (by using a tiny piece of chalk and a tiny chalkboard) and she flees, promising to return for Drew if needed. Later, Drew sees her mother casting another spell on the dollhouse, speaking in French and cutting the palm of her hand to draw blood. She gets scared and waves a knife at her mother. Emma rushes in and tells Lucy to stay away from Drew. Lucy takes the knife, grabs Emma and threatens to kill her.

With the house shaking and quaking, Melinda shows up and stops everything. The ghosts reveal that they, too, think Lucy killed them, having seen her outside the house the night they died. But she didn’t do it. The reason she was outside that night was because earlier in the evening she thought she saw Emma coming out of a bar with a boy. Despite not having spoken to her brother or his family in years she was worried. But when she looked in the windows she saw everyone asleep and left.

They weren’t asleep. They were dead. And Emma wasn’t in her bed. Lucy had seen her out the other night. Due to the confusion, Lucy thought she was being haunted by the ghosts of her brother’s family and tried to curse them to the dollhouse to keep her family safe. And although the curse isn’t real, the ghosts stay in the house. Once Melinda works everything out, however, Lucy and Emma have a reconciliation and the ghosts cross over.

I don’t recall voodoo popping up in previous episodes of Ghost Whisperer. Even if it has, it still bothers me. For some reason, despite the fact that the show is all about ghosts and the supernatural, the idea of voodoo and magic seems out of place. In the end, though, the voodoo was just a bunch of hooey, so I suppose I can let it slide. What really bothered me about the episode is the way everything worked out in the end.

Granted, most episodes of Ghost Whisperer have happy endings. Ghosts are crossed over, friends and loved ones learn the truth, tears are shed and so on and so forth. But Bellamy Young did such a wonderful job as the potentially “evil” Lucy and Michelle Page was so convincing as a niece terrified of her own aunt that the ending just didn’t ring true. As disturbing as the idea of a woman killing her brother and her family for money it was actually a little refreshing. But the episode ended on a trite note which is why I’m not sure exactly how I feel about it.

This was a heavy Melinda episode with only a few scenes involving Delia or Eli. I think Ned had exactly one short scene in which he told Melinda that Lucy had taken the dollhouse back (how exactly does one pack up and move a dollhouse of that size?). Jim was featured a little more at the beginning and end of the episode. Melinda nad Jim are on a date in town and talk about their baby. He almost forgets to respond to the name Sam Lucas.

The episode also includes a running plot point about Melinda having lost the wedding rings she wears on a necklace. At the end of the episode she learns that Jim had found them in the car and taken Melinda’s to get engraved. I don’t recall Jim actually proposing but the episode closed with the indication that the two are going to get married. Again.

Except they’re not just renewing their vows. To everyone outside their inner circle, Melinda will be marrying Sam only a few months after Jim died. Time and time again I’ve complained that killing Jim only to bring him back as Sam and then ignore the fact that he looks like another man is an outrageous way to conclude this season’s big story arc. What about Jim’s family? What about Melinda’s? What about Sam’s?

With two episodes left in the season there’s still time to have this come to a head. I hope it does. I really do. Otherwise, it will be a slap in the face to viewers who’ve stuck by or returned to Ghost Whisperer this season. Killing Jim has to have consequences.