"My name is Melinda Gordon." "I'm married." "I live in a small town, and I own an antique shop." "I might be just like you." "Except that from the time I was a little girl," "I knew that I could talk to the dead." "It's all right, honey." "Earthbound spirits, my grandmother called them." "They're stuck here because they have unfinished business with the living." "And they come to me for help." "In order to tell you my story, I have to tell you theirs." "Okay, this is ridiculous." "Tim stiffed you again?" "Yeah, and it had to be the night I find a possible homicide." "And guess who gets to drive all the way down to Central?" "That really is a long drive." "Listen, don't try to be a hero, okay?" "Get yourself a bed down there if you get too sleepy." "Well, why don't you give me a little something to stay up for?" "Like what are you wearing?" "Nothing." "No." "No, no, no." "Tonight's pink flannel pyjama night, isn't it?" "Okay, yes it is." "But you know what?" "You either get sexy wife or sensible wife, and you're not home, so it's sensible." "Fair enough." "Climb into bed." "I'll be home soon." "Okay." "Love you." "Love you, too." "Evening, sir." "Clancy, long time no see." " What's happening, Harold?" " Oh, the usual party." "Just don't ask what we use for piñatas." " Need a hand?" " Yeah, if you wouldn't mind." "All right, on three." "And three." "You couldn't take time to aspirate the guy for me?" "Sorry." "I'm flying solo." "Flaherty was supposed to come with, but he bagged out on me." " How about you?" "Busy night?" " Not really." "Although Mr. Crescenzo should lighten up things for us." "Autoerotic asphyxiation, huh?" "God bless the weird ones." "What's this guy's deal?" "John Doe." "No ID, nothing in the files." "He's gonna have to stay on ice until somebody comes forward." "He's missing his middle toe." "That looks new." "Did you check the records on him?" "Yeah, I did." "He hadn't had any foot surgery recently so, I'm back at square zero." " Say hi to Melinda for me, will you?" " All right." "Will do." "Thanks, Harold." " You take it easy, yeah?" " Okay." "Great." "Can you see us?" "Who are you?" "Can you show me?" "Okay." "Maybe you're confused." "And you don't understand yet that you're dead." "No." "Do you remember anything about what happened when you died?" "I don't think I did." "Hi, Mel." "Oh, that's not the look I was hoping to see." "Yeah, we had a visitor." "But he's gone now." "I hope I didn't bring him home with me." "Didn't you tell me once that ghosts hate morgues?" "Yeah, they do." "There's no energy for them." "It seemed like a new spirit, though." "Maybe he was confused." "Well, let's hope so." " Want me to rub your shoulders?" " No, thanks." "Okay." "Okay." " You have a good night's sleep." " Oh, thanks, honey." "Are you not wearing what I think you're not wearing?" "Hey, buddy." "No." "No, no." "You do not get to "Hey, buddy" me." "What the hell happened to you?" "Do you know how much grief I've gotten from my wife because of you?" "You stood up Delia, Melinda's friend and my friend." "Look, I'm sorry." "I didn't know how to face you." "Or her." "What happened?" "Look, it was the pressure." "All right, we were just running into each other around town." "It was going at its own nice pace." "Okay." "So then you just don't show up?" "What are you trying to do?" "Get her to hate you?" "Sometimes it's more fun to think about things than to actually have them, you know?" "All right, Flaherty, you're my friend." "I won't judge." "Much." "Hey, wait, I got totally turned around." " That's why I'm back." " What?" "I'm gonna make it right with you." "I'm gonna make it right with Delia." "At least you realize you're a moron." "That's a good first step." "But Delia?" "Good luck with that one." "You watch." " Flare, did you see my ring?" " No." "All of this because you lost your paramedic ring?" " No, really, it was stolen." " Well, how do you know?" "I saw these." "Yeah, and that's not all." "You see how the middle toe's missing on the right foot?" "I've seen that before." "Tell me this is just a prank, or a dream." "I'll accept either one." "Harold, how do you lose a body?" "My boss wants to know the same thing." "It's gonna be my ass if I can't come up with an explanation." "All I can tell you is, last night, the power went out." "I went to check the circuit breaker." "I hear this bang." "Come back in here, he's gone." "All I got are the digitals that I took of the body." "Can I see them?" "Look, Harold, could somebody have stolen the body?" "No, no, we're locked up solid." "You know that." "We haven't had a break-in since the early '90s." "What about the guy I brought in?" "Yeah, he's fine." "Still here." "He hasn't moved." " How did this guy die?" " He was an anonymous hit-and-run." "You're sure he's dead, right?" "Look, she's got a point." " He could've got up and walked out." " No, no, no, wait." "Excuse me, I've been doing this a while." "I know dead." "Look, take a look at this." "This is a morbidity thermometer." "Okay, we use it to measure body temperature." "It helps us determine when somebody died." "I haven't cleared it since I took John Doe's temp last night." "Ninety degrees." "See, a body cools one degree per hour." "This is not a prank." "This is rigor mortis." "I gotta go let somebody in downstairs." "Don't touch anything." "Thanks, Harold." "All right, are you sure that the ghost from last night is the guy in the photograph?" "Yeah, positive." "I got a really good look at him last night." "How can this be happening?" "Somebody came back from the dead?" "Well, and if he has, why would he also appear as a..." "I'm sorry." "...ghost?" " I'm sorry." "It's not me." " What?" " He's here." "What?" "In the photo?" "They can't hear." "Why can't they hear me?" " Who?" " Them." "Okay, tell me what's happening." "Tell me what's happening." "My body is moving." " You mean your body's being moved?" " No, I'm running." "My feet are bleeding." "I cut them trying to escape." "But I didn't want to escape." "What's wrong with me?" "People are staring at me." "I've stolen something." "There's people." " Soldiers." " Soldiers?" " No, statues." " Statues." "He's moving." "He's in the village square." "How can they see me if I'm dead?" "This footage is from the security cameras at the dry cleaners." "Jim got it." "Big Brother comes to Grandview." "Will you just watch and try not to speak?" "Hey, you're not gonna ask me to solve a crime, are you?" "I mean, I appreciate the fact that you think I'm all things to all people." " The shoplifter is dead." " Dead?" "That seems like a harsh punishment." "They don't fool around at this dry cleaners." "He is dead while he's shoplifting." "You're watching him, dead." "Dead man walking." "Dead man shopping." "We think that he took Jim's ring." "What do you know about voodoo?" "I don't know." "What I've seen in horror movies." "That's unfortunate, but it's typical." "It's all right." "The voodoo culture is very, very rich in history." "They believe in something called "Ti-Bon-Ange,"" "which roughly translates to "earth soul."" "The Haitians believe that when you die your earth soul is released into the cosmos." "But sometimes your earth soul gets stuck." "Maybe it even comes back and gets put into a corpse." " You ever heard of zombies?" " Yeah." "Yeah, probably what you've seen in the movies." "Well, the myth starts somebody, usually a voodoo priest, can take that earth soul, put it into a corpse and control it, make it do whatever it wants, walk, talk, whatever." "But sometimes the earth soul, not very happy about it." "And that's why it's coming to me." "Did you see how clumsy he was in that video?" "Yeah, like he couldn't stand on his feet." "Yeah, it's like the soul's trying to re-exert control over the body." "They're literally at war with each other, Melinda." "Okay, so if the ghost in the body is coming to me, then who's actually in the body?" "We've been talking for, like, three minutes." "You might want to give me eight to nine minutes before I unravel the entire mystery, okay?" " Okay, sorry." " It's okay." "You know what I say about instant gratification?" " What?" " It takes too long." "So here's what we got." "We have an occupying force in a body that we must have leave the body, which means you are going to need this." "Didn't I get this at the 99¢ store?" "Maybe." "I got mine at Bed, Bath, and Voodoo." "But this one was blessed by a Haitian voodoo shaman." "Well, what that is, is actually a spirit jar." "You light a fire inside there and it guides the earth soul to it." "It helps it cross over." "Or it's for keeping mosquitoes away." "I don't know." "It might be a candle or something." "It's useful either way." "Bye." "I'm sorry now I'm sorry now" "I'm sorry now" "This isn't easy easy to say" "I like this." "It makes me feel calm." "My name is Melinda." "Can you tell me something about yourself, like your name?" "Bryan." " Bryan Curtis." " Bryan, great." "That's a great start." "This candle is supposed to help you cross over into the light." "Do you see a light?" "Not yet." "Not while these things are happening to my body." "Who's controlling you?" "Can you see him?" "No." "But it's, it's hard." "I lose track of who I am when he's doing this." "Where I am." "You were able to give me a detail last time to help me figure out where you were." "Can you do that again?" "There's a light." "Blue or white light." "Wait, I can see it." "It's neon." "There's a neon sign." "What does it say?" "It's an "X" or a letter." "A "P," "R."" "I don't know if this is the right place, but it's the closest I can figure out." "I think someone got here before we did." "Mel, I'm sure the cops are coming." "Do you think this is a good idea?" "Well, it's the only way we can free Bryan from whoever or whatever's controlling him." "I can't do that if he's in jail." "That's the body from the morgue." "That's him." "Why is he making that noise?" "I think he's trying to set his own ribs." "Remember he got hit by that car?" "Bryan?" "It's me, Melinda." "Do you remember?" "You came to me." "Do all your ghosts look like this?" "No." "He's a zombie." "Are you ready to cross over yet?" "I can't." "Not till he's out of my body." "No, I need to find her." "Who are you?" "What's going on?" "There's another ghost inside Bryan's body." "He's just a kid." "I have to find her." "I need to finish the list." "Come on." " That's not normal." " Yeah." "Now I have to cross over two ghosts." "The idea of a ghost in a dead body is not as out there as it sounds." "See, the thing that bothers me is, usually when a ghost takes over a living body it's in short spurts." "But this ghost is just running full-bore over this person, which takes everything you and I know about the supernatural and pretty much just blows it out of the water." "Hey, let's say Kurt Cobain takes over Elvis's body." "Does Elvis know new licks on the guitar now?" "Is he grunge?" "I mean, what happens?" "How much of your old body do you bring into your new body?" "And do the hips still work?" "When I saw Bryan and the ghost inside him, he looked like a teenager." "Except there was something wrong with one of his eyes." "It drooped." "Drooped how?" "Like a muscular spasm, or a purposeful effect?" " Spasm." " Spasm." "Do you remember how clumsy that ghost was that we saw on the video?" "How he was having such a hard time with his body?" " Right." " Yeah." "And then I gave you some weirdo line." "I said "the body and soul are literally at war with each other." Blah-blah-blah." "And you believed me 'cause you always do." "But I think your truth might be a little more grounded." "Is this what you saw, Melinda?" " Yeah, that's it." " Yeah." "This is very common in degenerative diseases that affect motor skills." "Multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy." "Maybe the ghost that took over this body had a similar handicap." "Defect, whatever." " He's not clumsy anymore." " Right." "Right, he's not clumsy because he's in his new body." "He's getting the lay of the land." "He's saying, "Hey, this isn't the old dead me." "This is the new dead me."" "Not to mention living out his wildest dreams." " What do you mean?" " Lf you couldn't walk and you saw kids running and jumping and doing all the things you dreamed of doing, when you could, wouldn't you trade up for a new body?" "Wouldn't you even come back from the dead for a new body?" "Okay, so you're telling me that this kid waited for somebody to die, so he could come back and live again without a handicap?" "Do you think it's easy being this brilliant, Melinda?" "It's not." "Sometimes it makes my head hurt, right here." "Okay, well there may be more to it than that." "He said that he had to find "her" and finish some kind of list." " What do you mean "her"?" " He didn't say." " You might have a problem." " Why?" "You said, what, that ghost was 16 years old?" "Now you're dealing with something that's more unpredictable than a Haitian death culture." "You're dealing with a teenage ghost inside a man's body, with raging hormones, looking for a girl." "Good luck." "Hello?" "Hi." "Can I speak with Alyssa Adams, please?" " This is Alyssa." " Oh, great." "Hi, this is Melinda Gordon." "I'm actually looking for some information on Jason Bennett." "Yeah, I read your memorial page in the yearbook." "Is this for the reunion reel?" "Sorry?" "For the 10-year reunion." "I was already contacted about this and I think his parents are contributing something." "Yes." "Yes, this is for the reunion." "The one this weekend, yeah." "You know, could we meet?" "Because I'd really like to talk to you more about him." "Hello?" "Sorry, did I set the ringer too loud?" "Are you watching me?" "Only in the fun way, not in that crazy stalker way." "What do you want?" " To say I'm sorry." " You already did that." "This is phase two." "Look, you don't get to cute your way out of this." "You left me standing on the street waiting for you." "Do you have any idea how humiliating that was, and then I had to walk home after that?" "I got no phone call, no explanation." "I have an explanation now." "It's too late!" "And since it took you this long, you're even lamer than I thought." "True." "Completely, totally true." "But, if I could just buy you a cup of coffee, you know, or any dark liquid." "Just to have a minute." "Tim, I gave you a minute." "In fact, I gave you 30 long minutes and you blew it." "We found one of his old yearbooks." "And there was a reference to a special girl." "I was just wondering if you..." "We loved each other, but, just friends." " Wow, he was so active." " Yeah." "He had muscular dystrophy, but he didn't like to let one day go by without feeling like he accomplished something." "Like on the day we met." "It was in detention." "Detention?" "He was in detention all the time." "Do you know those old showers in the chem lab, with that emergency handle just in case some kid sets himself on fire?" "He rolled himself under one of those and shouted, "Name the movie!"" "Cut to," "Jason dripping wet in detention and just furious that no one figured it out." "Flashdance." "Yeah." "I was the first to give him the right answer." "And he said I had no choice." "We would have to be best friends from then on." "It's been 10 years and I still miss him." "We pulled so many schemes together, just to feel like he could live." "Is that why you took out the page in the yearbook? "Not one day wasted"?" "Yeah." "What's this list?" "At the end, Jason spent a lot of time in the hospital." "And it should have been the worst time, but it wasn't." "We dreamed up a list of things to do before we died." " "Bungee jump off Grand Canyon."" " Him." " "Open a studio in Paris."" " Yeah, so I could work on my collages." "He knew that he would never leave that room and it couldn't stop him from dreaming." "It meant so much to him." "Well, you kept the list." "It must've meant something to you, too." "No." "The further you get from high school, the harder it is to make your dreams come true." "I still enjoy my art, but I am not going to be selling it next to the Eiffel Tower anytime soon." "Jason's the one that could've done it, not me." "What about this last thing?" ""Find Stephanie Hardwick."" "Homecoming queen." "The girl everybody loved." "He wanted to find her at the reunion and kiss her." "Really?" "What guy wouldn't want to kiss the homecoming queen?" "But why at the reunion?" "I mean, what was special about that?" "By 2007, Jason, he was sure they'd have a cure for his MD." "And he'd be able to walk into the reunion and..." "Be the man he dreamed of being." "I mean, who doesn't want to go to their high school reunion looking like a rock star." "Yeah, I know." "Jason waited for a body he knew would fit in at the reunion, someone his own age, someone handsome, even the clothes he took." "Yeah, just to impress Miss Stephanie before he plants one on her." "Oh God, if he gets to her before I can stop him..." "You should slip him an Altoid, at least." "Okay, you know what?" "That is not funny." "Here she is." "You know, what if the body that Jason took wasn't an accident?" "What do you mean?" "Stephanie Hardwick, homecoming queen." "Yeah?" "Look at the homecoming king." "Wow." "Bryan and Jason were classmates." "Jason didn't pick a random body." "He picked the body." "Of her date 10 years ago." "Varsity quarterback, valedictorian." "Well, it looks like the most popular guy at school is going to be going to his high school reunion after all." "Yeah, just be a lot different than they remember." "Usually a corpse is gonna take six to eight days to decay." "We're only on day three." "That's assuming a perfect, stress-free environment here, which we don't have." "I mean, this guy is really putting his body through the ringer." "So, how long will it be before he breaks down?" " I would say six, maybe eight hours." " That soon?" "Maybe less if he keeps jumping through flaming hoops." "My gosh, nature's running its course on this guy." "When we first found him, he was trying to set his ribs." "He probably knows his body won't hold out on him." "So if you were trying to preserve your body for as long as possible, what would you do?" "I would get some kind of makeup." "Maybe the type a mortician would use, cover up the appearance of dead skin." "Okay, there's only one mortuary in Grandview." "Thanks." "Jim?" "Hey, dead guy, can I have my ring back?" "How's he been?" "Fine, once I restrained him." "Is this really necessary?" "I'm sorry, all right?" "Jason, we can't let you go to that reunion." "Why not?" "I'm not gonna hurt anyone." "No, but you wanted to kiss that Stephanie Hardwick, you know?" "The last thing on your list." "Come on." "I was never actually gonna do that." "That was..." "It was just a goof." "I just wanted to go and enjoy myself." "Okay, even if that's true, your body's breaking down and you're not Bryan." "You lived your life and you can't steal somebody else's." "I didn't steal it." "He abandoned it." "There's a big difference." "You've been haunting him this whole time, haven't you?" "Not haunting." "Just checking in." "I was curious to see what Mr. Most Likely to Succeed was gonna do with his life after he dropped out of college." "Back up." "He dropped out of college?" "He barely made it through a semester." "Isn't that right, Bryan?" "Shut up." "You want to tell her what happened after graduation or should I?" "Shut up!" " You don't know what it was like!" " Yeah, actually, I do." "You see, life wasn't so kind after senior year." "College ball was a little tougher." "Classes took a little bit more effort." "Bryan just couldn't juggle it all like he could when he was 17." "He ended up getting cut from the team, eventually dropped out of school, and basically spent the last 10 years studying his life from the bottom of a glass." "Is that true?" "I mean, he coasted on charm for a while." "He was always good with the girls, but even that faded." "It gets to a point where girls really aren't interested in a guy who can't keep a job for longer than six months." "I mean, even Stephanie, the homecoming queen, moved on, got engaged to that guy, Rick, second string on the football team." "It wasn't fair." "He didn't deserve her." "I mean, how could I show up at a reunion and..." "I didn't have a choice." "He ended up in a bar, alone, trying to convince a complete stranger to go to our reunion with him." "Come on, you'll be doing me this huge favor." "No, look, I just met you." "Look, please." "No." "God, just leave me alone." "What do you do when you realize you peaked in high school?" "I mean, when you've got nothing to live for, how do you talk to all those people, when all they remember is how you used to be?" "Do you face them or do you freeze yourself in time, leave nothing but a memory and a good-looking corpse?" "No!" "You were too scared to live." "It was too hard." "All of it was just too hard." "Oh, boo-hoo." "Tell that to the kid who spent his life in a wheelchair." "Bryan, you told me that you didn't have any unfinished business." "This reunion is your unfinished business." "I can't." "I can't walk in there and just see all those people." "And what?" "Face a difficult choice for once in your life?" "I mean, do you realize what I would have done with just one, just one of those chances that you threw away?" "Do you promise that you won't harass Stephanie?" "I swear on my life." "You know what I mean." " Cut Jason loose." " You got it." " Are you sure about this?" " Yes, I am sure." "The only way I'm gonna be able to cross both of them over is to get both of them back to the reunion." "Let's go back to high school." "Are you sure this looks natural?" "This foundation seems a little heavy." "Jason, this is the least of your problems, okay?" "Just stay out of direct light, it'll make the makeup look better and, well, stop you from melting." "Got it." "And what about me?" "And what happens when everybody asks me, "Hey, man," ""you know, what have you been doing with yourself the past 10 years?"" "I don't know." "Tell them the truth." "Another guy is going to my reunion in my body, Melinda." "I think we're being a little loose with the truth, don't you think?" "Okay, fine." "We'll make a deal." "Jason goes in." "He will say and do exactly what you want." "The trade-off is that you have to be honest with your old friends and even with yourself." " Deal?" " Deal." "Fine." "I'll do it." "But I won't enjoy it." "Me neither." "Hey, look who's here." " Now we got a party." " Hey, Bryan." " The homecoming king." " What's up, man?" " Hi, Bryan." " Good to see you." " Yeah." " Hey." "Hey, man." "What have you been doing with yourself for the last 10 years?" "I was a paramedic for a couple years." "Paramedic?" "Cool." "All right, this is not helping." "Hey, guys." " What?" " You're lying about Bryan's past." "That was not part of our deal." "Fine with me." "Really." "Bryan had to tell the truth." "You didn't say anything about me." "Besides, you were the one who was worried about anybody noticing a corpse in the midst." "I had to come up with some..." "There she is." "Wow." "She hasn't changed a bit." "Oh, God." "This is it." "I got to go say hi." "No." "Hold it." "You made me a promise and so far you are batting zero on your word." "Hey, talk." "That's all." "I swear." "Thank you." "Bryan." "What's up, buddy?" "Oh, hey, Rick." " So, what's been going on with you?" " Not much." "I was just gonna say hi." "Yeah, you know we're engaged now." "Yeah." "Yeah, I read that." "Congratulations." "God, that must kill you a little bit, 'cause you guys were so cute as a couple." "And then the star quarterback loses her to the backup." "Okay, you know what?" "Maybe we should go and talk to somebody else." "Hello." "No, you're not going anywhere." "This guy is a jealous punk." "He always has been." "So I heard you're a big, heroic paramedic now." "That is great, I'm so happy for you." "But that was after you blew the big game against State, right?" "Man, that was a long time ago." "Who cares?" "I care, because some things don't change." "Like what Coach used to tell us." ""You gotta want it."" "Do you still want it, Bryan?" "Or did you give up?" "Okay, Jason, you're gonna repeat everything I say." "We really don't have time for this." "We made a deal." " Okay." " All right." "Here's what you're gonna say." "You're right, Rick." "I did give up." "And not a day goes by where I don't think about how much I wasted, how many opportunities I let slip because I was too scared." "But you come to the point where you need to let your regrets go, too, or they take over your life." " I was lucky." " I got that chance." "I got that chance." "Not everybody does." "Also, three years ago, I totally nailed your sister." " Was that last part really necessary?" " Yeah." "Did you see the look on his face?" "Yeah, and he's pissed at me." " Stay away from her, loser." " Jason." " Hey, get back." " Let me at him." " Why'd you gotta be such a jerk?" " Let me go." " No more for you, dude." "You're cut off." " I got it." "Thanks." "Bryan, I'm so sorry about Rick." "Are you all right?" "I'm fine." "I'm just gonna go get cleaned up." "You look great, by the way." "All right." "We are leaving right now." " Walk it off, Bryan." " You're all right." "It's just a little further, okay?" " What can we do?" " I don't know." "We can't send him to a hospital." "He's already dead." "This does not feel good." "This is all my fault." "Why did I open my big mouth?" "Jason, you don't have a lot of time." "Is there a message that you want me to give to Stephanie, anything you want me to tell her?" " What's that light?" " No." "No, Jason, you stay with me, okay?" "Jason, just stay with me, please." "What're you guys looking at?" " You're here." " Yeah, I'm here." "I mean, I'm a ghost again." "But, you know, that's okay." "Yeah, but I thought you were going into the light." "I mean you said, "What is that light?"" "Yeah, I think that was actually the street lamp behind you." "It was giving you kind of a weird glow." "Made you look like an angel." " I'm glad you're back." " Thank you." "I do have one last favor." "There's a girl I need to get a message to." " Are you okay?" " Yeah." " How's Bryan?" " Oh, he's fine." "Could I talk to you for a moment?" " Sure." " No problem." "Maybe my fiancé's sobered up by now." "So, it turns out that I have something to give you." "What is it?" "Jason wrote this." "It's his handwriting." "How is this possible?" "It's a little hard to explain." "But the important thing is that Jason wanted you to have it." "I don't deserve it." "Jason is the one who accomplished everything." " I never did anything." " No, that's not true." "That's not true." "She looked at me and saw me and not just a kid in a wheelchair." "Do you remember all the really good things that you said you saw in Jason?" "He felt that." "He cherished it." "And he wouldn't have been able to live as much if it weren't for you." "Tell her to look at the bottom of the list." "Oh, yeah." "You should look at the bottom of the list." "I wasn't even sure I wanted to come to this reunion." "Thank you." "So, are you guys ready to cross over now?" "Well, you know, they're about to present awards next." "Maybe we'll get "traveled furthest to be here."" "Jeez." "Are you as scared to go into that as I am?" "Yeah." "You don't have to be scared." " But what if I don't get it right?" " Not possible." "There's no way you can get it wrong, so..." "Let's go live a little." "Let it all go." "Was Harold happy to have his missing body back?" "He was." "And he didn't even ask why the dead guy was wearing a suit." "The estate sale worked out well." "Hey, have you ever heard of hair jewelry?" "Yeah, it's a little bit of a scam." "What?" "Wow." "If you won't go to coffee, the coffee will come to you." "He'll stay out there all day." "Believe me, he will." "Yeah, maybe you should just go out there and get it over with."