But before the season's main storyline has a chance to get off the ground, a couple of season-opening cast changes occur. In the season's first episode, "Firestarter," Melinda (Jennifer Love Hewitt), Jim (David Conrad) and the rest of the gang bid farewell to their local paranormal professor, Rick Payne (Jay Mohr) as his character leaves for bigger and better things. But Payne's academic expertise doesn't go away completely as the group meets a new doctor to join their fold. This new character is Eli James (Jamie Kennedy from The Jamie Kennedy Experiment and Malibu's Most Wanted), a psychology professor at Rockland University who also has a bit of a practice going on the side.
What is interesting about Eli is that he isn't just a carbon-copy replacement of the character who has left the show. Instead, Eli takes on a bit more of a comedic relief role (which is to be expected considering who is portraying him) and also helps Melinda with some of the day-to-day ghost-helping efforts since a brief death in the season's opening episode leaves Eli with the ability to hear ghosts. Granted, it isn't the full abilities that Melinda has, but it allows him to help out, and his inability to actually see them allows for a few interesting events in the show, as well as some good comedic relief. Another nice twist about Eli's role is that he isn't a skeptic like every other new character, and he requires very little time to get used to having the new abilities and trusting Melinda's knowledge of the afterlife.
But Eli's entry into the show and Payne's departure isn't the big storyline this season has to offer. As foreshadowed by the previous season's finale, one of the main characters dies, and it doesn't take all that long for it to happen either. Only a few episodes in, Jim gets in a fight with a character and he ends up getting shot. While he seems to be on the road to recovery, a complication at the hospital kills him. The next couple of episodes focus on the newly-widowed Melinda trying to convince her now-dead husband to cross over, but his desire to be with her and inability to give her up causes him to make a very drastic decision.
When an accident leaves a man dead in the hospital parking lot and both Melinda and Jim watch his soul go into the light, Jim jumps into his body and takes over it. Unfortunately for everyone concerned, Jim (now inhabiting a man named Sam) has no memories, not those of his soul's former life, nor the body's. As viewers, we see Sam portrayed by Conrad, but everyone else (including Melinda) sees Sam, so while it seemed to me like an odd way to keep the character of Jim alive but get rid of the actor, this wasn't the case and instead the whole plot acts as a way to restart a relationship between the two characters.
Faced with amnesia, Sam/Jim doesn't know anyone around him, and when his family comes into town to try and bring him home, Melinda offers the man her garage to stay in until he can decide what he really wants. As the season progresses, Sam/Jim ends up torn between flashes of both lives. Sometimes he knows medical procedures that only Jim the paramedic would know, and other times he remembers an old girlfriend that re-enters Sam's life. But eventually, Sam/Jim chooses to stay with Melinda and explore a relationship with this strange woman who seems to talk to herself occasionally and tends to disappear without warning.
On the plus side, Melinda's longtime business partner, Delia (Camryn Manheim) finally believes in ghosts after several years of denying Melinda's ability. The straw that breaks the camel's back is when Delia sees Sam at the basketball court. While Sam doesn't know why he felt like he was supposed to show up, Delia knows its because Jim and her son would meet every week on the same day, at the same time. Unfortunately, when Melinda finally tells Sam what she can do, he ends up being just as stubborn and closed-minded as Delia was for all those years. And while he claims to keep an open mind, when she finally goes all out and tells him that he is her husband brought from the dead, it becomes too much for him. Of course, the season doesn't end like this, there are still quite a few episodes between Melinda opening herself up to Sam/Jim and the season finale and their relationship does reach a resolution, but I wouldn't want to ruin any of the melodrama that brings about that end to this storyline.
Ghost Whisperer: The Fourth Season also comes with quite a few special features, the least of which is two interactive DVD games, "Grave Mistakes" and "Haunted Dollhouse." In "Grave Mistakes," you walk through the local cemetery and are asked questions about some of this season's ghosts. If you select the correct answer, you help them cross over, otherwise, they don't and you just go on to the next ghost. In "Haunted Dollhouse," you go through the rooms of the creepy dollhouse found in "Cursed." Each room contains several selectable items, but one of them is Jim's voice. When you find that item, you are presented with a door and asked a trivia question from the season. If you answer correctly, you can go into the next room.
Another interactive feature is "Fashion Style Guide." This feature is broken into two parts, one lets you select the different main characters and hear about designing their wardrobe. The other part to this is a short game that lets you choose how you want a ghost to be dressed. You can choose between male and female, formal or casual dress and if the ghost was drowned or burned. After selecting each option, you are presented with a drawing of your configured ghost.
The Fourth Season also has a trio of featurettes, one on bringing Jamie Kennedy onto the show, one about the music of Ghost Whisperer and one concerning the season's storyline and how the decision to kill and resurrect Jim came about. Then, of course, there is also the latest season of The Other Side webisodes. These eight short episodes follow a ghost named Marc as he tries to help his high school crush find true love and get away from her soon-to-be ex husband.
I would have to say, I really enjoyed this season of Ghost Whisperer. Where other seasons have felt a bit repetitive and predictable, this one's use of killing and bringing back a main character, as well as introducing some interesting relationship issues because of that use, really adds a lot to the show. If you've been following Melinda's exploits so far, then The Fourth Season is worth watching, but for newcomers to the series, this is definitely not a place to jump in, so start from the beginning.
