The Dead Zone: Denouement

Johnny: "All this time, we thought he was a puppet. We thought wrong, Gene."

See, I knew Greg was still evil.

The Dead Zone: Ambush

Jake: "Did you see who did this?"
Sheriff Turner: "Abraham Lincoln."

I was so-so about the Abraham Lincoln killer plot. I sort of felt Anna's death coming, but then she didn't die, and I was actually mildly disappointed. The killer was obviously Doug O'Connell, too; he was a floating character introduced early on, and those are always big red plot flags for me. Plus the only other possible suspect was idiotic Deputy Jake, who was all over the place and didn't feel smart enough to be the bad guy. (Johnny knew him, but I didn't remember him from previous seasons.)

The Dead Zone: Exile

Alex: "That's why I always see pink spoons on my birthday."

I like Alex. She's as freaky and gifted as Johnny is. They even sort of communicate in shorthand. He showed up in handcuffs, wanted for murder, and Alex acted like it happened every day. And I really liked the way she resolved her own inescapable death by car trunk. I was thinking that, if I were in that situation, I'd duct tape a crowbar to my leg -- so when she pulled out the flashlight, screwdriver, and goggles, I laughed out loud. Wanda turning out to be Alex's mother was predictable, but nice.

The Dead Zone: Drift

Stark: "I take it you're not a horse person."
Johnny: "It's a safe bet."

I saw this coming a long time ago. Greg Stillson is definitely after Sarah. He's been warm for her since he first met her.

The Dead Zone: Transgressions

Johnny: "I somehow still feel guilty about it all."
Sarah: "That's probably because of all the Catholics you've been hanging around."

A christening and an exorcism. They don't usually go together.

The Dead Zone: Outcome

Johnny: "This is serious, okay? Real death. Real pain."
Elaine: "You don't think I know real pain? I'm in my mid-thirties and I'm still dating."

This was a perfect example of the winning Dead Zone formula.

The Dead Zone: Numb

Dr. Cole: "Lions and flowers and the sheriff."
Sarah: "Oh, my."

Johnny and Sarah back together again, after twelve years apart. That was sort of major.

The Dead Zone: Switch

Johnny: "I'd have to touch you."
Maggie: "You have permission. I won't tell Sarah."

Boy meets girl, romantic train trip, chased by murderers. Sort of like North by Northwest but with a psychic. Johnny does lead an exciting life at times. It also felt a little like one of my favorite Dead Zone episodes, "Deja Voodoo": a heavy-duty flirtation for Johnny, him saving her life, and his eventual realization (aided by a vision) that her happy future wasn't going to be with him. Not as good as "Deja Voodoo," unfortunately.

The Dead Zone: Interred

"I tend the whole grounds. Digging graves is just a perk."

I didn't like this one much. I wonder why? Well, let me think. I don't care for buried alive plots. I don't like Sheriff Turner. Hey, I think I've figured it out.

The Dead Zone: Big Top

Lorenzo: "Whoever's doing this clearly hates mirrors."

Weird. Not necessarily in a bad way, though.

The Dead Zone: Re-Entry

Greg: "If there was anything wrong, I'd be the first to know about it."
Johnny: "No, I think that would be me."

Has Greg Stillson done a 180? Really? Hard to tell, wasn't it?

The Dead Zone: Ego

Johnny: "You know, you can have your own wing."

Walt died in the last episode, and Sarah and J.J. are already moving in with Johnny? Wow. That was fast.

The Dead Zone: Heritage

Sarah: "First I lose you, and then I lose Walt. I must have banked up some really lousy karma."

They weren't kidding when they advertised that everything would change. I was ready for some change. Maybe not this much, though.

The Dead Zone: The Hunting Party

Johnny: "Frost is just a patsy. It's Oswald all over again."

Again, Johnny tried to help a maladjusted, obnoxious schmuck. Only this time, he didn't succeed. And the "heroic" Greg Stillson is now on the way to the White House, and there's a good chance he will indeed be vice president in 2008.

The Dead Zone: Into the Heart of Darkness

Sarah: "They say you can't love two people. But they're wrong. They're wrong."

At first, I wasn't buying in, because I've been way too disengaged and nitpicky with this show lately. But when J.J. was left bound and gagged on the highway, this episode started to get to me. And it just escalated from there. This was the strongest, most emotional episode they've done in a long time.

The Dead Zone: Revelations

Bruce: "A wealthy widow being taken in by a charismatic man of god. It can't be all coincidence, John."

Gene was once a religious scam artist?

The Dead Zone: Vortex

"Does the name 'Waco' ring a bell?"

Now this one worked. Maybe I'm reaching the point where non-arc episodes just don't have as strong an impact on me. I mean, it's just strange having whole episodes with no mention of the looming Armageddon.

The Dead Zone: Symmetry

Johnny: "It's like I'm stuck in a vision. Some kind of vision loop."

The Dead Zone: Lotto Fever

Marsha: "You're not a millionaire, Boyd. You're a mailman with a mental condition."

Cue the "going postal" jokes.

The Dead Zone: The Inside Man

Johnny: "Finger bone of a dead prophet: millions of dollars. Restored faith in God: priceless."

I've fantasized more than once about Johnny solving some of the great mysteries of the world. Did Lizzie Borden really kill her parents? Was there really a gunman on the grassy knoll?

The Dead Zone: Article of Faith

Dana: "So. The psychic and the reporter. Kind of makes you feel nostalgic, doesn't it?"

When is a hate crime not a hate crime? When it's a contrived murder mystery that is messy, confusing, and improbable.

The Dead Zone: Panic

Johnny: "Next time the kid wants to go bowling, just go bowling."

Panic Room with a touch of Die Hard.

The Dead Zone: Independence Day

Bruce: "You think it's hard being a psychic? Try being a psychic's best friend."

Now, this is the Dead Zone I love.

The Dead Zone: Forbidden Fruit

Miranda: "What is this? A wedding or a political fundraiser?"
Ellis: "Both, if we do it right."

I always like Stillson episodes, and this was a good one. Most of the early scenes still had that "Johnny Smith, psychic detective" feel, but I think they really pulled out the stops with several exceptional scenes at the end.

The Dead Zone: A Very Dead Zone Christmas

Santa: "I was checking out the chimney. Looks like a slam dunk."

This episode started out very well: cynical, clever, and funny. I was even thinking that absence had made my heart grow fonder. But in the last fifteen minutes, it got so aggressively heartwarming that it was outright painful. I actually winced when the snow started to fall. And I think that snowball fight might be the corniest scene they've ever done.

The Dead Zone: Saved

Johnny: "Fasten your seat belt. I think Hell's about to freeze over."

And we finally returned to the Stillson arc, for which I was extremely grateful. There haven't been many good non-arc episodes so far in season four.

The Dead Zone: Coming Home

Bruce: "Corn, wheat, soybeans... back in Indiana, we don't farm bodies."

About as heartwarming as a Dead Zone episode gets.

The Dead Zone: Babble On

Johnny: "We can't let them die. Can we, Daddy?"

Very good, even though the denouement was utterly transparent. It was obvious that the floor stripping was causing Johnny's poltergeist-y nightmare visions, and it was easy to guess that Johnny's father was institutionalized because he was psychic, and that he was stalking the little girl because of his visions.

The Dead Zone: Vanguard

Johnny: "I forgot how intense this could be."

Finally, back at the arc, and once more with the Wall of Weird. Hallelujah. And there was even a lot of material about Johnny's career as a teacher, too.

The Dead Zone: Grains of Sand

Johnny: "Let's go with the fuzzy duckies."

This one at least got points for originality and social conscience.

The Dead Zone: The Last Goodbye

Shop owner: "I don't specifically specialize in deceased rock star memorabilia, but I do consider it a growth industry."

This episode was a lot of fun: the road trip, Johnny and Sarah as refugees from the "totally eighties," Sarah at seventeen with long hair at the Elysian Fields. It was great to finally have an episode about something that was important to Sarah: her music. The Jim Morrison plot was okay; I found Darren to be rather petulant, but I did like Roy, and I liked the subplot with the reporter who turned out to be a decent guy in the end. I thought Darren really died when the car went over the cliff, and I didn't guess that it was the disabled friend who had murdered Aubrey, so good on them.

The Dead Zone: Heroes and Demons

Bruce: "I ain't never seen no black elf."

This was a little more like it. I said, a little.

The Dead Zone: Still Life

Lyne: "Never trust the surface, Chloe. It's always beautiful, and it's almost always a lie."

Yet another episode of "Johnny Smith, Psychic Detective."

The Dead Zone: Double Vision

Johnny: "You're a..."
Alex: "Starts with a P, ends with a C. It's on the tip of your tongue."

Two psychics out-visioning each other. Now, that's more like it.

The Dead Zone: The Collector

Linda: "Life should be about more than survival, shouldn't it?"

Well, that was disappointing.

The Dead Zone: Broken Circle

Daddy Stillson: "She's a loose end, Greg. You can't have loose ends."

Sympathy for the devil? I never thought I could feel sympathy for Greg Stillson, but I sure did here. He appeared to be a pawn in the Armageddon game. Who knew?

The Dead Zone: Tipping Point

Future Johnny: "There's still time. But not much."

We finally got back to the Armageddon arc, and I loved it. The quality of the show or the energy or something just bubbles to the surface when they do the heavy stuff. Not that I don't like the non-arc episodes; in fact, one of my favorites was "Deja Voodoo" where the insurance adjusters went wild. But I digress.

The Dead Zone: Shadows

Bruce: "It goes to prove only one thing. It always pays to listen to me."

This episode had a strong emotional impact on me. I got a little lost with the visions going in all directions, but the second time I watched it I could see that Johnny was getting hits off of things that Bruce had touched. The chaos in Johnny's mind was reflected to some extent in the messed up order of the visions, as well as the way they kept changing as Johnny changed the circumstances.

The Dead Zone: Instinct

"Okay, that's a bear."

Liked the B plot. Didn't like the A plot.

The Dead Zone: Cycle of Violence

Sign: "Boom. There go our rights."

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Innocent until proven guilty. Got it.

The Dead Zone: Speak Now

Sarah: "The answer is out there, so just... go forth and touch people, you know? Mingle!"

The multiple weddings, the visions of weddings, the rehearsal, the reception... this episode was a wedding that went on forever. It was also a skillful way of exploring the still unresolved Johnny/Sarah/Walt love triangle by seeing it through the lens of a very similar situation screwing up the lives of three other people.

The Dead Zone: Looking Glass

George: "What you see is warped by your own psyche. You have such a dark view of the world."

Very interesting episode; it had me going. I thought the murder vision at the beginning was an obvious set-up, although I later wondered if that was because I saw the previews. Later, I thought that both twins were in on it. I didn't realize it was just one of them until it became obvious. So good on them.

The Dead Zone: No Questions Asked

Walt: "I am sick and tired of you having power over me, my wife, and my son."

Illicit sex, stolen drug money, manslaughter... not what we would expect of the Walt Bannerman we know. (Okay, it was just adultery with his best friend's wife and covering up crimes committed by his childhood friends, but you know what I mean.)

The Dead Zone: Total Awareness

Johnny: "Just when you think you're too paranoid, you realize you're not paranoid enough."

Fascinating premise; cluttered execution. Perhaps there was just too much going on here, what with the giant digital burrito, the psychics from "The Hunt," dead senators, 1984, and laser tag.

The Dead Zone: The Cold Hard Truth

Johnny: "Think of your fans. If you do this, they won't have anyone to hate."

Shock jock Jack Jericho, a man with a serious death wish, was so disliked... how disliked was he? So disliked that, as he was standing on the roof threatening suicide, people were calling in telling him to jump ("I hope he lands on his head!" "My whole frat took a vote and we say he takes a dive!") Of course, at the beginning of the episode, I too was wondering why Johnny was even bothering with the guy. But in the end, Jericho's pain moved me, and I didn't want him to die. I even thought at first that he really had jumped, because it seemed so certain that he would.

The Dead Zone: Collision

Paramedic: "This psychic stuff's a bitch, huh?"

This was another fast-moving and strongly dramatic piece, although the hospital emergency rooms, ambulances and paramedics made it feel like an episode of ER, except with visions.

The Dead Zone: Finding Rachel, Part 2

Johnny: "It's time for you to decide. Are you going to save your ass, or are you going to save your soul?"

At first I wanted to slap Rebecca for the way she was treating Johnny, but in the end, she won me over. I had a lump in my throat when she was crying over Rachel's body. It would be fine with me if she got involved with Johnny; she'd be great for him. He certainly has issues, and think of the money he could save on shrink fees. So Johnny and Rebecca, all well and good, except the plot thickened because Sarah and Walt were finally breaking up.

The Dead Zone: Finding Rachel, Part 1

Johnny: "You think I've crossed that fine line between psychic and psycho?"

Season three opened with a bang. Johnny was melting down, no pun intended. He was experiencing blackouts and starting to wonder if maybe he, not Stillson, was the cause of Armageddon.

The Dead Zone: Visions

Bruce: "Okay, you know what? Now you're starting to actually make negative sense."

This episode finally told us what was going on with the strange guy in the cloak who has shown up:

The Dead Zone: The Combination

Johnny: "It occurred to me while Avila was pinning my head to my stairwell that we're going about this the wrong way."

The Dead Zone ripped off Rocky here, right down to some of the dialogue. (Didn't the eye scene sound familiar?) Sure, there were differences: instead of the basically decent Apollo Creed, they gave us Darryl Tibbs, a clone of the ear-ripping jailbird Mike Tyson; Danny's wife was pregnant; and of course, Johnny's visions were the real focus of the story.