Things were as usual (at least for the last few days) when a very jumpy Tess pretended to be looking for Tim at the Shockwave. She began having flashbacks of that incredible night when Derek chased him down and...well, you know. And then more of the look on Tim's face when he sprang up from inside the trunk, dead to the world, with his eyes wide open. And then a funny thing happened: Tim walked in.

Standing in the doorway with a menacing look in his eyes, a red ring around his throat where Derek strangled him, and glazed over with cement, was Tim (played by Dax Griffin, who seems to be having more fun now than ever). In a little exchange that I found quite funny, Hank calls in Tim's direction, "There you are! Can you take care of table 3?" To which Tim replies: "Yeah. There's something I gotta do first, Hank." A second later, Joan speeds past Tim like she's intercepting a pass, and says, "Yeah, I got it, Hank."

Tim then strolled up to Tess and began tormenting her. Rubbing his neck with a mischievous smile that would make Gregory Richards proud, he urged, "Go ahead, Tess. Give Sara all the gory details." He called her a murderer, and she stumbled away, hoping to shake the vision of him. But when she was alone on one side of the restaurant was when the fun began.

While Sara, Hank, and Joan stood against a far wall discussing Tim's whereabouts, Tim made his way to Tess again. He needled her mercilessly, and she began to quietly talk back to him. When he got worse, she began screaming "Stop it! Just go away!" Naturally, everybody began to doubt her sanity. She then made an attempt to leave, but saintly Casey held her back, saying that she didn't look so good. (Personally, I think she looks great. Oh well.) But Tim took the opportunity to mention how she killed him. "It wasn't me," she snarled through gritted teeth.

Here was when she began to look as if she really was slowly cracking up in front of everyone. She started to run her hands through her hair, and it now stood tousled about her head, and she had a totally frazzled look on her face. Tim informed her that she would be visiting a fiery, fiery place (a place that seems to be a "retirement home" of sorts for SB residents), and she shouted, "No! No!" Casey asked her what was going on, and Hank said hurriedly, "Just get her out of here." She asked where "he" was, and or course nobody knew who. Tim had gone, but not without letting her know that he wasn't gone for good.

Melchior has been stellar these last few weeks. It was great to see Tess get a set of feelings when she became jealous over Derek sleeping with Maria. In private, she raged and fumed, but overall she had to keep her mouth shut. And here she remains, stuck between a rock and a hard place, with her boyfriend sleeping with another woman, and promising her the world in the same minute. He assures her that he cares deeply for her, at one time even pointing out the example of a watch he gave her. They had to keep pawning it, but he always got it back for her. My heart broke for her a few scenes later, when we saw him give it to Maria without Tess's knowledge.

She tries desperately to get him to say those three little words, while he continues to skirt the issue. (Kinda reminds me of Hank's proposal to Peggy on "King of the Hill": "Peggy... I am not un-fond of you....") The scene in the grotto brought her all the way to "human" status, with her fawning all over Derek, but at the same time feeling so hurt when he wouldn't tell her he loved her. You could really feel her pain and torture when he walked off and she whispered, "He still didn't say it." This will have an interesting (and bitterly ironic) ring to it when Derek decides (it's sure to happen) that Tess is not necessary to him anymore and knocks her off. SB will be suffering a great loss.