So, my blatant unfamiliarity of this show comes to the surface in this recap. Melinda has a long lost brother, apparently, and he interrupts dinner to beg her to help him find out what happened to their father. Jim throws him around and tells him to leave several times, which is pretty ineffectual, since the guy just keeps on yapping. Seems Long Lost Bro stood by in a previous episode when Melinda died for a minute (that sounds...so anticlimactic. And lame. "Hey, can I call you right back? I just need to die for minute."), and Jim and Melinda are still a little pissed. No matter, LLB says. He was mad because their father felt he had to hide Bro's side of the family from Melinda's side, but he's over that now and wants to work together to figure out what's going on with dear old Dad. He gives Melinda an envelope of items from his stay in the mental hospital he grew up in and finally takes off, no thanks to Jim.
Jim and Melinda examine the contents of the envelope from Gabriel, aka Long Lost Bro, which seems to be authentic items from Melinda's father: photos, cufflinks, and other small things. Melinda seems to think that Gabriel really is her brother...considering that her dad was in and out of the house for years, it's possible he could have had a family on the side. Jim goes downstairs to turn off the lights, and Melinda spots a small picture of a baby cut into a heart shape. It fits perfectly into a locket she has in her jewelry box. As she puts the locket away and goes back to the bed, she passes a woman standing in the shadows of her bedroom but doesn't notice her. So, do ghosts, like, actually have to whisper to Melinda for her to see them? Because the woman was about three feet from her, and there was nada reaction. Huh.
At the store, Delia warns Melinda not to believe what Gabriel tells her, but Melinda says she just faxed a request for medical records to the mental institution Gabriel grew up in to verify his story. Um, she has the authority to request these records how? Hearing something, Melinda walks into the basement to investigate. Considering that a lot of spirits seem to show up there, I'd try and clean the place up, maybe put in a small wet bar or some comfy chairs. Melinda spots an agitated woman. Hey, it's Fred! I love Amy Acker. The woman says "they're everywhere." People said she was crazy and took her baby, she says, gesturing to the locket. Melinda figures out the spirit is Gabriel's mother, while whispering voices sound all around them. Fred is suddenly pulled into nothingness, crying for help.
At Rockland University, Professor Payne, not without some gloating at being right, explains how the dark spirits who live under Grandview work. They feed on the darker emotions of other spirits, things like hate, rage, and jealousy, and are repelled by things in life that bring us joy. You know, microbrew beer, Starbucks, a pair of patent leather Mary Janes, the Big O. The good stuff. Melinda thanks him for his help, even though he's worried about her sudden desire to investigate her "deadbeat dead dad." Melinda claims she's just following some leads.
Jim meets Melinda in the park, where she's gotten a hold of Gabriel's medical records with some help from the TV gods who don't have to abide by HIPAA regulations. She's distressed to find that Gabriel was put into the institution because he told people he could see ghosts, but Jim says they didn't find out anything new except that Gabriel attacked other patients when he was in the institution. Melinda also looked at Gabriel's birth certificate, and he is indeed her half-brother. Much to Jim's dismay, she wants to help him now, because that's what she does - help people fix their worst mistakes. So, there was this night in college with a bunny suit and a bottle of tequila...wonder if she can fix that for me?
Melinda calls Gabriel's hotel to try and find him, but while she's on hold, a brown sack is thrown over her head and she's dragged off, screaming. The scene is shot out of focus, although it's clear enough to see the sack ripped off Melinda's head and a bloody ax held up in front of her. Before someone can use it and spell lights out for everyone's favorite busty, uh, ghostbuster, we're back on Melinda, who's broken out of her vision by the hotel operator. She doesn't leave a message for Gabriel, because really, what could she say? "Hi, Gabriel, glad to know you weren't lying about being my brother. Saw your mom, she said hi - before she was ripped away by dark spirits. Oh, just had a crazy vision with my neck making friends with an ax. Are you free for dinner tonight? Call me!"
Melinda tells Delia about her vision, explaining that she sometimes gets them if a ghost wants to show her something. She says she thinks the vision was of Gabriel's mom. At first she thought it was when she was taken to the hospital, but since the guys had the ax and all, that's probably not right. Delia agrees to watch the store while Melinda tries to track down Gabriel.
At City Hall, Melinda drags Professor Payne along to help her investigate death records. He whines about having to help her when there are ghosts around, but he manages to man up long enough to explain that they're looking for many horrible deaths that all happened at the same time. They split up, and Melinda finds Gabriel's mom, whom I'm just going to call Fred from now on, okay? I hate when they don't give me a damn name. Fred warns her to be quiet, that they can hear her. Melinda tells her she can help her go into the Light, but Fred says she doesn't deserve it. She lost her baby, and they all died because of her. Before Melinda can elicit the truth from Fred, another spirit shows up and says he's there to help things that should stay buried, uh...stay buried. I'm guessing he was in the previous episode with Gabriel, but I don't know who he is. Meanwhile, Fred manages to push a box off of a shelf in front of Professor McWhinypants, who screeches like a little girl. Melinda rushes over, and they find hundreds of teeth from the box, which is labeled "Clay 48," scattered around. Gross.
Melinda meets up with Gabriel and says she met his mother's ghost, the only one she could make contact with based on the package he gave her. He says she didn't meet his mom, who's a) still alive, and b) still crazy. Fred is apparently Mystery Mom. Gabriel wants to know more, but Melinda blows him off and leaves.
Professor McWhinypants has a friend who examined the teeth and said that they're over 150 years old. Melinda says the real mystery is who Fred is and what she has to do with the teeth, which the professor echoes, much to Melinda's consternation, because she JUST SAID THAT. She wants to know why the spirits are located underground, but Professor McWhinpants doesn't have anything more than a smart comeback for her. Their scenes are funny, but of surprisingly little substance. I guess Professor McWhinypants is really there for us to make fun of for being weenie.
Fred comes back to find Melinda examining the ax. Melinda tries to find out more about Fred, starting with her name (Tessa, thank GOD). Tessa says she tried to warn all the people that died. A ghost from Weston, a nearby town, appeared to her, but they wouldn't listen. Apparently, Melinda and Gabriel aren't the only peeps out there who see ghosts. Tessa says once they find out, they come after you. She disappears but pops back, begging Melinda to find her baby, before disappearing again.
Delia finds Melinda in a coffee shop, reviewing records from the Weston archive, which are all online. She finds a report of 91 people who died of a strange fever that made them all crazy before it killed them, driving them to commit murder. In one notable instance, a preacher locked his parishioners in the church and killed them. The church, Melinda tells Professor McWhinypants, was St. Agnes Church on Clay Street, thus solving the mystery of the box, which was from 48 Clay Street. Problem is, Melinda doesn't know of a Clay Street, or a St. Agnes Church. The records indicate that a physician thought the fever was caused by tainted bread, which Professor McWhinypants says would be ergot, a fungus that causes the same symptoms described in the report. The doctor died traveling from Weston to Grandview to try and treat patients there, and it must have been he who warned Tessa of the impending deaths.
At home, Jim's cooking dinner for Melinda. Where can I get my own Jim? He may suck at shooing away unwanted half-brothers, but he seems to cook all the time. My kind of man. Melinda has come up empty searching Grandview's records for anything about the fungal fever (not to be confused with jungle fever) that killed so many residents, nor can she find out where Clay Street was located. Jim says the town probably wanted to bury the evidence out of shame. "Eureka!" Melinda shouts, scaring Jim into wetting his pants. Okay, I made that part up. She does figure out that it's probably why the spirits are located underground and takes off to find out what else was buried.
Melinda tries to find Tessa at the archives again. Instead she finds a map with St. Agnes Church on it and manages to map it out to the current city map. Conveniently, there's a tunnel that leads from City Hall to the site of the old church. Those TV gods, they're so awesome that way. As Melinda goes to investigate, the male spirits from earlier appears and watches her, glowering.
In the tunnel, Melinda can hear the spirits whispering to one another. Good thing she's a ghost whisperer, I guess. She finally decides it's a good time to call Jim, but of course she can't get a signal this far underground. Oh, Melinda, why you gotta be so dumb sometimes?
Meanwhile, Gabriel is interrupted from dinner by the mystery dad spirit, who leads him to City Hall, where he closes the tunnel and erases the evidence of where Melinda is, save for the map she drew showing the location of the church. Guess what? It conveniently fell to the floor. There's an awful lot of deus ex machina in this episode, but who am I to judge?
Melinda makes her way to the tunnel to find...a really dark place. The church, maybe? I can't see because it's so freaking dark. There are spirits all around, including Tessa. Oh, she's on Clay Street. Tessa says they didn't like the story their bones told, so they buried them there and built Grandview on top.
Jim is predictably worried about Melinda, but Delia has come over and can't tell him where she is. Nor can Professor McWhinypants, who stopped by to let Melinda know he was right about the ergot. Delia tells him Melinda's been gone for three hours. When Jim explains what Melinda said right before she left, Delia figures out she's probably at the archives. They're just now having this conversation? These people SUCK. I sure as shit hope my friends are better at finding me if I'm trapped in an underground city with a bunch of dead people than these guys. Sheesh.
Back underground, Melinda urges Tessa to tell her what happened. Tessa explains that Brother Davis led everyone who wasn't sick into the church in an attempt to help them, but when all they had to eat was the tainted bread, he went crazy and burned them all to death, including himself. Tessa was dragged from her baby and locked up in the church to live with the souls she killed, since everyone thought she was a witch. Melinda explains they had a disease, and that it wasn't her fault. She goes toward the church to tell the spirits inside, but Tessa begs her not to. At the door, Melinda sees angry spirits glaring out at her.
At the archives, Jim, Delia, and Professor McWhinypants find the map Tessa drew, along with lines in the dust that indicate the bookcases hiding the tunnel were moved. They break through, but the tunnel is blocked. Professor McWhinypants thinks Melinda is dead, but Jim says he'd know - Melinda would find a way to tell them. How is that? It's not like they see ghosts. He calls 911 and asks for rescue.
Tessa warns Melinda that what's done can't be undone, but Melinda goes ahead into the church. Tessa joins her, even though the spirits inside are obviously agitated and calling her "witch."
Jim tries to explain to rescue that they need to follow Melinda's map, but the rescue worker won't, claiming there are no such tunnels. Jim grabs another map and takes off, followed by Delia and the professor.
In the church, Melinda tries to explain what happened. She says it wasn't witchcraft but the bread that killed them. Before the spirits can process this, another ghost says Melinda is speaking lies. He has a deep, demonic voice (think The Exorcist). He says that Melinda is another witch. Melinda wants to stand and fight, to help the other ghosts, but Tessa urges her to run, saying she's not strong enough to fight him. Melinda finally goes, but the tunnel collapses, sending debris down on her.
Trapped, Melinda starts to panic, but Tessa warns her to save her breath. She says others have tried to rescue them, but they were trapped and died before someone could save them. Melinda wants to know if someone is coming after her. Tessa says yes, but they're too far away. Melinda accepts this pretty calmly, I think, and says they need to cross Tessa over into the Light. Tessa still refuses, because she lost her baby by trying to give people the message about the fever. Melinda says she was just trying to save people, and then another spirit shows up and says Melinda should know all about that. It's Dead Deadbeat Dad!
Above ground, Jim, Delia, and Professor McWhinypants figure out that the closest building that could feed into the underground city is...the antique store. Professor McWhinypants thinks that's a hell of a coincidence - gotta agree with you there, buddy - but Jim says he's starting to think there's no such thing. Of course there's no such thing. Who needs coincidence when you have TV gods?
Meanwhile, Melinda wants to know what the heck is up with her Dad...is he dead or what? He says he can't really explain, although he goes on to do just that. Well, sort of. It's a big info dump, which I've tried to boil down into the main points. Turns out that he led her underground to help her understand her gift, why she's in Grandview, and what she's up against, but he doesn't actually give her any answers. He says he and Melinda's mom split because of her (way to send her into therapy for the next six years), because he wanted her to celebrate her gift, not hide it. The picture in the locket she has is Tessa's baby...who is also Melinda's great-great-grandmother. Tessa finally knows that her baby was safe. Dad says he has to go before he can tell her more, but he'll come back and find her later.
Jim goes to work on the wall of the basement at the store, finally breaking through. Inside the tunnel, Tessa urges Melinda to make noise so they can find her, but Melinda says she can't, there's not enough air. While Jim runs through, followed by Delia and Professor McWhinypants, Tessa begs her to find the energy. She says she can't lose her baby again - Melinda is descended from her, so she has to live. Melinda tries to call out, and Tessa goes to the group and makes her presence felt, urging them to where Melinda is. Jim breaks through and pulls a sobbing Melinda from the debris, while she apologizes for being a dumbass and taking off into a dark, spirit-infested tunnel without calling him first.
That night, Melinda stands on a rooftop, joined by Tessa, who says the town is very beautiful. Melinda promises to help the other spirits so they can see it, too. Tessa sees the Light and says it's so bright. They have A Moment where they share their ghost whispering gifts before Tessa touches Melinda's face and warns her to be careful. She fades away, and Melinda stares thoughtfully at the locket.
In the alley below, Gabriel is stopped by their father, who says the next time he asks Gabriel for help with his sister, he should try not to kill her. A bicyclist rides through Dad, much to his discomfort, and Gabriel wants to know how long Dad wants to keep this up. Not much longer, he promises, because Melinda will soon be with them. And if she doesn't want to, Gabriel prompts, but Dad says she's smart and will make the right decision, or else...he'll cock his eyebrow at her! Um, yeah. Oblivious, Melinda continues to stare at the locket, unaware that she's in mortal danger of Dad cocking his eyebrow at her. Fade to black. A spookier fate has never been known!
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