(S05E11) "I'm upset because I thought him to be better than this." - Delia about Ned

Poor Delia got an unwanted reality check this week when she discovered the type of radio show Ned was hosting on the campus station and what he did behind his somewhat-official girlfriend's back!

While Delia tried to understand why Ned was drifting from her and doing things that were contrary to what she had thought him, Melinda tried to find who the ghost of the week was and make sense of why he was attacking Ned, the radio station as well as people who took part of an old radio prank.

I enjoyed seeing more of Ned this week, seeing what he was up to and how college was changing him. This storyline offered a slightly meatier storyline for Camryn Manheim to chew on other than what she's been getting lately which is mostly just being a background character to show that Melinda does have a life beyond the ghosts. Manheim has good acting skills -- she proved that time and time again on The Practice -- which have been underused on Ghost Whisperer. At least this week., she was able to play a mother in despair over the fact her son was drifting away from her and not becoming the man she thought he would become.

I can understand why Delia was so angry and upset over the fact Ned was doing nasty pranks on his show and because he slept once with TJ's roommate. Let's admit it, that type of prank was pretty nasty -- heck, the original one led to one man's death -- and sleeping with your girlfriend's roommate is not something you should be doing.

Yet, I can also understand why Ned acted like that. At his age, we try to find out who we are and we try to fit it. Doing a prank radio show is one of the "cool" things that can raise your status in college. As for sleeping with TJ's roommate, Ned claimed that he believed he wasn't really in a serious relationship with TJ, so he could see other people, right?

Thanks to the angry ghost of the week, Ned saw the errors of his ways and asked for forgiveness before he said good night to his Grandview listeners. I'm pretty sure Ned will not host the same type of radio show in th e future -- he may keep doing on-air pranks but not as nasty -- and he will try to patch things up with TJ, who clearly thought they were an official couple. More importantly for Delia, her son is back on the right track and may grow up to be the man she wanted him to become.

One thing I didn't like about this week's episode was when Delia told Melinda she (Delia) thought Ned was wasting his time with occult studies and then Melinda said it was important as he helped understand the Book thanks to his studies. For a few minutes after that scene, I kept asking if Melinda was selfish in saying that? Ned needs to study the occult to help HER with the Book?!? Can't Ned decide what he wants to study?! Then again, maybe Melinda's plea to Delia as to why it was important for Ned to study the occult was more global than my first reaction thought it was. Maybe Melinda meant that Ned needs to study the occult because his help understanding the Book will help save the world from the Shadows and the bad guys in the end. If you have any thoughts on this, please share them in comments below.

The ghost of the week storyline was interesting as it kept me guessing for a while as to whom the ghost was. It was, even before Melinda and company connected the dots, that the prank Ned played would be linked to the ghost's storyline somehow. I didn't forsee that Maggie was the one who called in to set up the original prank and that Daisy knew nothing of it; so this was a nice surprise when it came out in the open.

Other than that, the episode was okay. We didn't get much of Eli, Aiden and Jim, even if all three were in the episode and helped the story progress somehow.

Did you enjoy getting a bit more backstory on Ned? Do you think Delia should get more screen time? Do you think the show should do ghost-free episodes here and there to allow for more character progress?

[Watch clips of Ghost Whisperer at SlashControl.]