Tom Gordon first appears in the plot in season two's finale, although he had previously appeared in some flashbacks. When Melinda "dies" in season two's finale, she confronts an already dead Tom, who tells her she is ready to find the darkness within herself, and also tells her she has a brother, who is later revealed to be Gabriel. In season three, Tom has contact with both Melinda and Gabriel, manifesting himself in Melinda's dreams, and speaking as a ghost with Gabriel. It has been suggested that Tom is part of the Dark Side, and that he is developing a plan to get Melinda into the Dark Side.
In the penultimate episode of the third season, however, Tom Gordon is found alive in Gabriel's home. She later finds out that every time she had seen his ghost his body had, in fact, been taken over by Paul Eastman when he was trying to kill him. Melinda then finds out that Tom is, in fact, not her father but Paul Eastman is. After finding out this shocking truth, Melinda goes to the main square in town to think, where Tom meets her. He asks her to come back to the house that she grew up in. There he gets her to go back through her memories to the night that he murdered Paul Eastman. She realises that Tom is just a cold-blooded killer. He then informs her that he now has to kill her. Paul Eastman then arrives and takes over Tom's body one last time and throws himself over the staircase killing him. His spirit later appears and vanishes in front of Melinda. He was portrayed by Martin Donovan
