Melinda Gordon
| Melinda Gordon | |
|---|---|
 Melinda Gordon | |
| First appearance | Pilot |
| Created by | John Gray |
| Portrayed by | Jennifer Love Hewitt |
| In-universe information | |
| Nickname | Mel |
| Gender | Female |
| Occupation | Owns an Antique Store |
| Family | Beth Gordon (mother) Paul Eastman (Biological Father) Tom Gordon (former step-father) Mary Ann (grandmother) Gabriel Lawrence (half-brother or former step-father) Julie (former foster daughter) Tessa (Ancestor on Mother's side) |
| Spouse | Jim Clancy (Husband) |
Melinda Gordon is the title character of the American fantasy television series Ghost Whisperer created by John Gray. The character is portrayed by Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Character background
Melinda has the ability to see and communicate with ghosts. She moved to Grandview after she married Jim Clancy, a paramedic who knows of her ability. She had always been able to speak with the dead, or "earthbound spirits" as her grandmother (with whom she shared this ability) called them. Her mother, Beth Gordon, possesses the same gift, although she denies it. When Melinda was a little girl, her father was killed, thus showing that he never walked out on his family.
Melinda shared her secret with quirky Professor Rick Payne, an expert in occult beliefs and history who thrives on helping her gain insights into the more baffling paranormal phenomena she encounters.
Appearances
Season 1
Melinda and Jim moved to the small town of Grandview where Melinda opened a small antique shop, named "The Same As It Never Was ANTIQUES". She met and became friends with Andrea Marino, who came to share management responsibilities of the store with Melinda. Eventually, Melinda gained enough trust in Andrea to tell her about her ability.
In the later part of the season, Melinda began encountering a malevolent spirit (Romano) that wore a black hat while trying to "cross over" earthbound spirits. In the season finale, a plane crashes in Grandview. Romano used the massive death count to his advantage, "keeping" the souls that Melinda was unable to cross over- one of which was Andrea who died when the plane crashed.
Season 2
After losing her friend and business partner to the plane crash, Melinda succeeds against the dark spirit in helping Andrea and many of the other ghosts from the plane crash cross over.
Melinda ends up meeting several new people in season two: an occult professor, Rick Payne, who often helps Melinda with a troublesome ghost without realizing it, until she tells him about her gift later on in the episode "Cat's Claw". She also meets widow Delia Banks and her son Ned. After a few episodes, Melinda invites Delia to take the place of Andrea as her business partner, and confides in Ned about her gift. While trying to crossover Delia's husband, in the episode Delia's First Ghost, Melinda reveals to Delia her gift. Delia, a skeptic in anything beyond the norm, slowly begins to believe Melinda.
Throughout the season, events occur showing that the "veil" between the living and the dead is thinning. With the introduction of a second ghost whisperer, Gabriel Lawrence, it is learned through the earthbound spirit of Payne's wife that dark forces "are trying to make the dead stronger than the living." In the season finale, she learned that she might have a brother from her dead father. Before she had learned this, she had died momentarily after a tower of poles collapsed upon her. Four children help revive her (as noted under "Abilities"). She is stunned when she returns to consciousness, stating "I think I have a brother". She looks around and, from a distance, Gabriel is looking at her very crossly.
Season 3
Melinda searches continually for her father, strongly believing him to have died, and for her brother. She speaks with her mother who does not give her much information other than that Melinda and Jim have to leave Grandview because of all the evil spirits. Melinda also learns that Beth had once lived in Grandview. In the fifth episode "Weight of What Was" Gabriel arrives at her home saying that he is her half-brother and that he is also looking for their father. He was staying in a hotel under the name Gabriel Gordon. He hands Melinda a package that leads her to an underground church that had been buried as well as to her ancestor, Tessa, who was also a ghost whisperer. Tom Gordon reveals to her a little bit about her past. Melinda and Jim later on have a discussion about having children and Melinda agrees on having one. From some point in the show Melinda is haunted by a ghost who is known as (Masked Man) at first. Towards the end of the season, Tom Gordon shows up in Grandview alive. It is revealed, however, that Tom Gordon is not her biological father. She asks her mother to be absolutely honest with her and tell her everything. Her mother reveals the fact that her birth father is really a man named Paul Eastman. At the very end of the season, what seems to be a happy moment is spoiled when Payne makes a shocking observation. He points out the fact that there are six people lined up (Delia, Beth Gordon, Ned, Jim, Melinda, and Payne himself), yet there are only five visible shadows.
Abilities
Melinda is at least a fifth-generation medium (as her great great great grandmother, Tessa, was also a ghost whisperer). She is able to communicate with the spirits of those who are dead. She can see and speak with the earthbound spirits that reach out to her for help. She then helps them to cross over, either by speaking to loved ones or by doing things for them which they died before they could do/finish, giving them peace.
As a result of her abilities, Melinda often receives visions of things concerning the ghost(s) she is trying to help. For example, in the first season finale, Melinda kept receiving messages from ghosts on a plane that hasn't crashed yet. In another episode, her powers transported from Grandview to a rainforest. In the second season finale, she sees people staring at her, looks out her window and sees that her house is under a large body of water and that a boat is sinking, is transported to a tunnel, and sees a large bridge in the sky with cars falling everywhere around her.
An inscription said : "you are the one". At the end of second season, she is "designed" by four children from all over the world, one child drew a lantern, one sculpted a heart like pendant, another draw her out of chalk with the pendant and the lantern (the fourth child drew a field). They did this to help her, they said it had to exit of them, all of them died in separate occasions but were revived (near-death experiences).