GHOST WHISPERER: 5.22 “The Children’s Parade”
Methinks the writers of Ghost Whisperer knew that there was a chance the show wasn’t going to get renewed because this sure felt like a series finale to me. And with no word yet about whether ABC will pick up the show after CBS’ cancellation, it pretty much was.
Now, I have to say, Aiden didn’t bug me as much in this episode as he has in the past, which was good, since he had a much larger role in this episode. I mean, if the show were to go on, I can see him actually helping Melinda with getting ghosts to go into the light (I do cringe a little at that), but since this was set up kind-of as a series finale, it was needed. We needed to see the importance of Aiden’s gift.
Which is why, on that same note, we had to sit through the happy ending speech at the end of the episode. I would have liked it better if, in the end, Jim hadn’t had admitted he was wrong.
In this episode, we finally discovered who the Shinies were and why the Shadows wanted children. After all, if children went into the light, they became the Shinies–the Shadows’ enemy. Why this was all that important when the Shinies were ultimately scared of the Shadows and wouldn’t do anything, I’m not sure. But in the end, they came together and “defeated” the Shadows–at least making them let go of Melinda.
Now, here’s where I actually wish they could have made this a two-parter. I realize the Shadows wanted to take over Melinda so she couldn’t help people into the light, but what else is their purpose? What were they making her do while she was held up in the antique store? I would have liked to see a longer portion of an episode develoted to “Bad Melinda” to see what she would really have gotten up to while the Shadows controlled her.
Instead, we got a pretty quick defeat, where she was basically blasted with light and came back to normal–so much so that she knew it was Aiden who stopped them without even looking out the window. Wow.
I will say, the show has room to grow if it gets picked up. After all, that poor professor is still being held hostage by the Shadows, and I’m sure that they’re not gone for good. The question is whether, if another series finale came around, whether it would wrap things up as well as this one did.