Guest Author - Dani M. Sanders

Episode 3x16
Original air date: May 2, 2008

The main plot of this episode involves Professor Rick Payne running into Nina, a girl he used to date in college (played by Jay Mohr's real-life spouse, Nikki Cox). Nina is now a pharmaceutical rep and is in Grandview for a conference. They haven't seen each other in 10 years. Nina gives her condolences to Rick over his wife's death three years' ago and they decide to make a date for dinner.

Rick sets up a double date with Melinda and Jim. Rick's dead wife Kate, who never crossed over, plays all kinds of pranks on Rick and Nina during dinner. The morning after the date, Rick tells Melinda that he noticed the strange occurrences at dinner and chides her for not telling him that Nina had a ghost attached to her. Melinda reveals that it isn't Nina who has the ghost, but him. She reminds Rick that his wife Kate is still hanging around and can't cross over because he hasn't forgiven her for having an affair. Melinda asks Rick again to help Kate cross over, but he is still angry about the situation and tells Melinda to stay out of it.

Rick finds out that Nina has a son named Elliott. He tells her he loves kids, which isn't exactly true, and invites them both to lunch. When Nina and Elliott meet Rick at Melinda's shop, it becomes apparent to all present (including ghost Kate) that precocious young Elliott is the image of Rick in looks, intelligence, and personality. As soon as Nina sees the realization dawning on Rick, she breaks their lunch date and runs out of the shop with Elliott.

The next day, Nina tells Rick that Elliott is indeed his son. Nina says that he was admitted to an excellent private school, but she doesn't have the money to pay for it. With Kate looking on, Rick offers to pay for Elliott's schooling with the insurance money he got from Kate's death. This does not please Kate and she shows it by trashing Rick's house later that night, egged on by Rick's taunting. Jim and Melinda find Rick trapped under the piano and take him to the hospital. At the hospital, Kate reveals to Melinda that she thinks Nina is lying to Rick just to get her hands on his money.

Melinda and Delia do a little social hacking and find out that the father named on Elliott's birth certificate is not Rick. Melinda goes over to Rick's office and confronts Nina just as she is there to pick up the check from Rick. Nina finally tells the truth. Elliott's real father is a guy from their social circle in college who turned out to be a jerk. He stole Nina's Social Security number and put her deep in debt, so she hoped to get money from Rick for the tuition. Rick is crestfallen, both because he was falling for Nina again and because he was starting to look forward to being in Elliott's life.

In the end, Rick still pays for Elliott's tuition, and Nina and Elliott go back to the city. Rick tells Kate that he is not the selfish man that he used to be, so he couldn't bear to see Elliott suffer for his parents' mistakes. He also says it was his selfishness that kept him from wanting kids before because he wanted her all to himself. Melinda tells Kate that besides not being forgiven, she couldn't cross over because she blamed Rick for their time being cut short and her never getting a chance to have children. Once she let go of her anger, Kate was able to cross over.

Unlike most episodes, there were several subplots at work here. First, Jim's desire to have a baby with Melinda was brought more to the forefront. Melinda has advocated waiting every time the subject has come up. After seeing how that strategy worked out for Rick and Kate, Melinda changed her mind and told Jim that she is ready to have kids. Second, Melinda hired a private investigator (a friend of Jim's named Carl) to find out what happened to her father. Carl didn't find much but at the end of the episode, he was possessed by a spirit right in front of Melinda and wrote down a series of numbers. The writers even threw in a nod to the fans who have been watching the webisodes, called The Other Side, on the CBS web site by showing the ghost from that series crossing over.