'Ghost Whisperer': No more Jennifer Love Hewitt jokes from me

I am a Ghost Whisperer fan. There, I said it. I didn’t even use the small shame type. This is the third time I’ve written about the show on PopWatch, so I figure I need to own it. I’m still not sure about the “Sim” storyline (that’s the spirit of Melinda’s dead husband Jim inhabiting the body of Sam and having amnesia), but I am certain that I no longer have the right to preface my appreciation for Jennifer Love Hewitt’s performance with something like, “I’m gonna write something I’ve never written before: Well done.” The fact is, when Melinda (Hewitt) cries, I cry. And last night’s episode got me. Again.

SPOILER ALERT: So Melinda knew the antics that went along with keeping her gift a secret were seriously threatening her fledgling relationship with Sim (David Conrad) and that she had to tell him that she sees dead people. But before she could, her neighbors called in a ghost hunter, Linus, who was sweet but campy. Sim thought the guy was a quack, and when he layed into him (clip above), Melinda had to come to Linus’ defense. (At this point, I was still fine.) Melinda had figured out that the ghost in the home was not the old lady who’d disappeared there, but the father of Linus’ ex-girlfriend. Turns out dad had always doubted Linus, which eventually led to the breakup, and he now wanted to apologize to the couple and reunite them. This is where Melinda and I lost it: Dad said he never realized how alone Linus must have felt and how strong he had to be to believe even when everyone doubted him. And this is where my “no more Jennifer Love Hewitt jokes” policy took effect: After Melinda and Eli (Jamie Kennedy) conveyed dad’s message, he stood in front of her and said, “Thank you. You’ve given me the greatest joy.” Damn you, Ghost Whisperer and damn you,Jennifer Love Hewitt’s tear-filled eyes and streaked cheeks! (I, too, have a thing where I cry when someone is supernice to me when I’m sad: Partly because true kindness is still disarming in today’s world and partly because it’s not the particular person that I want to be comforting me. In Melinda’s case, dad was saying everything she wanted to hear from Jim.)“Why is it so hard?” she asked, after the dad crossed over. “What?” Eli said. “Believing,” she answered. And tears.

What did you think of last night’s episode? Who else cried? Did you want Sim’s doubt to last longer than one episode? (Next week, he refuses to believe that he’s got Jim inside him, so I guess he’s still processing.) And did anyone else find it curious that Linus never asked Melinda if that dead friend/alleged guardian angel of his really was hanging around him?