So I get that ghosts can linger around up to 40 days after their death and take care of unfinished business. That's why Mason starts shimmering in the end and is even more translucent, he's supposedly about to cross over and disappear.
But then again, on the plane, Rose sees Lissa's family although they've died years ago and are way past their 40 day deadline (no pun intended). So how come she could still see them?

That's a VERY good question! I can't help but wonder if they weren't real, like Mason...if they were some sort of hallucination that came with the migraine. The only person, really, who could answer this question is Richelle Mead herself.

I'm also wondering if Mason didn't actually aim for a bit of revenge in the end. Maybe he lied, seeing as he had a little thing for Rose and Rose had a huge thing for Dimitri... Grasping at straws, aren't I?

Perhaps, but I like that idea! I really hope either Mason was wrong, or like you said, he told a lie to get back at Rose for not requiting his feelings for her. Because if you think about it, basically everyone else at the Academy pretty much, except for Lissa, could tell Rose was infatuated with Dimitri! For sure, Mason noticed it, too. Maybe he just didn't say anything. Or didn't get the chance to say anything.

Maybe the 40-days is wrong. Maybe the ghosts stay around until the issues are resolved. Maybe the Dagomir car accident was no accident and they need people to know it. Maybe Victor set it up to see if Lissa had a power to heal.

That also makes sense...the whole sticking around thing until all earthly issues are resolved. Now that you mention it, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out that the car accident wasn't an accident. Would I blame Victor? I'm not too sure. How crazy would it be if it turned out to be one of Christian's relatives???

I was wondering about that too. I guess Rose is connected with both the world of the dead and the ghosts themselves. Maybe the ghosts can come back, even after the forty days, but only to whatever location Rose is in because she's some sort of link. Or maybe she was hallucinating after all. I doubt that, though. I just don't get why the ghosts appeared when they did and why her head hurt so much. Was that ever explained? I don't remember - it's been a while since I read it.

The more I think about it the more it would seem as though the car "accident" wasn't actually an accident. And the whoel 40 days thing was just the religious view of it, remember Rose figured that out from whats-his-name, so yeah.

Or maybe it's like a sort of thing where they can contact Rose when they want to, but after they decide to move on to peace they no longer have that access or something...

OR! Since it took the car accident to "awaken" Lissa's powers to heal and everything, maybe it took Mason dying to open up Rose's connection to the world of the dead/undead or whatever...

Well first of all in sk it was explained that after killing the strigoi in spokan she awakened the shadow kissed link to the world of the undead. The more death she dealt the more linked she would become. Also remember the priest said the ghosts often come back for revenge, well that is what mason did. Rose thought he was seeking revenge for her but I think he was seeking revenge against strigoi who had ended his life before it even began. Mason always wanted to kill strigoi but never had the chance. IN his ghost like form he lead the guardians to the cave so technically in his death he was equally responsible for the killings. He also warned rose and dimitri of the strigoi on campus. Maybe because he fulfilled that revenge thing he was able to find peace. I really still don't think Mason would lie to rose about Dimitri being a strigoi, that just wasn't his character. I loved mason's character and would lose respect for him if he lied about something like that. Remember Mason praised Dimitri as well and was really sad when he told rose that Dimitri was a strigoi.

That's a good question about why Rose saw Lissa's family though,I wondered the same thing. I also wondered why she had to ask Mason if Dimitri were dead, surely she would know he wasn't dead when she couldn't see his ghost. If Dimitri were dead I think he would have stayed behind for her, he couldn't find peace with out rose. I wonder why mason was fading out that leads me to believe the 40 day thing was true and if I take the 40 day thing as fact then I don't understand why rose saw Lissa's family. I know that the car accident was no accident, but who is to blame I'm not quite sure. Part of me would want to say Victor but if he saw lissa bring rose back then he already knew about lissa having spirit and wouldn't have had to test her with the dead animals.

I really thought that at the end of shadow kissed when rose walked away on her own the shadow kissed crow would have landed on her shoulder and went with her. That would have been cool.

I think Rose began seeing the ghosts for the same reasons everyone has already said, that she's Shadow Kissed and she's been awaken to the world of the dead. But when she saw Lissa's family and all the other ghosts she also saw a dark black shape behind them that she believed was the world of the dead. Therefore I think it's possible to see other ghosts when they're not far from their resting place (ie. the world of the dead) Mason was probably fading because he'd spent so much time trying to escape the 'dead' to warn her and possibly used up all his energy. At least that's my theory.

that makes sence.

So i wonder, now that we know that spirits can come out of the world of the dead...I wonder if Rose can go in and talk to spirits, and come back ou tunharmed or at least still alive...

I'm not sure I'd want her to test that theory, I don't believe it works that way at least. I think she might risk getting stuck on the side of the dead.

Hahah when I came up with that question I was totally thinking about Hercules (the disney cartoon version of it) and how he went and saved Meg's soul out of the world of the dead/dead soul pool type thing... haha