Ya'll have to get one thing in ur head there two probabilities here

1. Jim might really be dead

2. Jim might not be really dead

Here is why when Julie told Ethan that she felt like she was there when her, marielle and Randall where possessed?????

And Ethan told her that she might be a story walker and asked if she can change the future and Ethan tells her she can't because its something that has already happened you can not rewrite a story thats told.

So my theory is maybe she is trying her possibilities if she can actually try to do so because you know no one wants to lose a parent. Although Julie sometimes got on my nerves the way she was treating her parents.