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.

How would marrying Sarah have stopped Greg from causing the Apocalypse? Does Greg truly have feelings for her? Would he have tried to be a better man for her sake? Or would she have discovered his true nature and found a way to stop him? (I'm guessing that last one.) After Johnny told her the truth on the phone, I knew Sarah would confront Greg and throw him out, and I actually thought he would hurt her. (Keeping in mind that long ago vision of a woman's bloody hand on a bed.)

We got several more big dramatic payoffs, too. J.J. has been slowly developing psychic abilities of his own, and when Greg knocked him down, J.J. saw Armageddon instead of stars. (Good dramatic timing, because hitting J.J. guaranteed that Sarah would never, ever marry Greg.) The season-long arc about Walt's death was finally resolved, too. Walt's final farewell to Johnny, holding the photo in his hand that he hoped Johnny would touch, was really moving. Yes, I cried. I'm a wuss, what can I tell you.

The revelation about Johnny's father kinda sorta worked, and I didn't expect that. His life as a sort of an imprisoned oracle living in an underground recreation of the Smith mansion was rather sad. For one horrifying moment, I thought they were going to tell us that Greg was Johnny's half-brother, and I just wouldn't have swallowed that. But fortunately, no.

So we had a quasi-happy ending. Johnny and Sarah were reunited, but Armageddon still looms. So I assume we're getting a seventh season?

Bits and pieces:

-- Gold acting stars for Anthony Michael Hall. His work in the scene where he found out his father had been alive five years ago was just excellent. He made me feel it, and that was impressive considering how convoluted the subject matter was. Gold stars for Chris Bruno, too; he did a great job in what I can only assume was his final scene.

-- In the opener, the woman at the restaurant complimented Greg on his beautiful family. She knew he was the vice president, but not that he was a single man whose fiancee died on their wedding day? With the sort of media circus we have these days? Come on.

-- I was ticked at Gene for what he did. Yes, he had valid romantic motivation to let Vera think Herb Smith was dead, but I thought he was a better man than that. Ah, well.

-- Johnny hit Sonny Elliman in the face with a shovel. That was satisfying.

-- More Visa product placement. Get thee behind me, Satan.

Another terrific season finale. Four out of four stars,

Billie

The Dead Zone: Ambush

Jake: "Sheriff, 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.)

So, for about three quarters of this episode, I was thinking that this one was pointless. We've seen this episode a dozen time before. The whole weird mondo conspiracy about Walt and his stupid laptop has also felt pointless to me for the entire summer season, because I just couldn't imagine what they were leading up to.

And then, just when I was seriously losing interest... the password is "noddegamra". I'm terrible with name games, but I knew it was "Armageddon" immediately, even before Johnny did. That was what Walt was investigating? The Armageddon plot isn't over, after all? They even brought back Johnny's old Stillson Wall of Weird. And I finally got interested.

I also liked the subplot with J.J. getting a hit off Johnny's Boston Red Sox cap. The kid is a developing psychic; if he ever needed Johnny around, it's now. Come on, Sarah. Wake up and smell the coffee. Johnny is smart, generous, even-natured, and good-looking. He's the love of your life, the father of your son, and he's single as well as rich. So he's also a freak of nature. So what? Don't leave him in that huge mansion all by himself. What's wrong with you, Sarah?

Bits and pieces:

-- Chris Bruno was again in the cast, and we got a longer scene this time. Cara Buono was listed as a "special guest." She's not cast any more?

-- Vision Walt: (on phone) "Okay. you were right. we can get together and talk about Herb Smith." Johnny's long dead psychic father? That was intriguing. (We did get an episode about Herb; it was season four's episode nine, "Babble On.")

I don't quite know what to rate this one, so I won't. But I am now a lot more excited about the season finale. So that's good,

Billie

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.

When they first introduced Alex a couple of seasons ago, I thought that she would be a good love interest for Johnny -- but not now. I'm officially reinvested in Johnny finally reuniting with Sarah. Why did Johnny run away instead of confronting Sarah and getting their issues out in the open? Maybe it's just been too many years since they were separated. Maybe he's comfortable interfering in other people's lives, but finds it difficult to handle his own.

This whole Greg/Sarah thing gives me the shudders. I suppose I can't blame Sarah for her escalating flirtation with Greg Stillson. What woman wouldn't be flattered by the attentions of a young, handsome, single vice president who treats her like gold?

The scene where Alex saw Walt sitting next to Johnny in the car was touching. I've missed Walt. We just learned that Walt inherited money from someone named Brian Meeks, and Greg managed to fix things with Sheriff Turner. I'm sure they won't stay fixed, because this whole Walt thing isn't going away. The "Walt's secret" subplot hasn't done much for me; it had better turn out to be something cool.

Bits and pieces:

-- Just as with John L. Adams last week, Chris Bruno was listed as cast.

-- Last week, annoying Visa product placement. This week, annoying Tylenol product placement.

Quotes:

Alex: "We should plan on getting together when there's not, you know, a big crisis." But that would be so dull.

Johnny: "Where'd you find the handcuff key?"
Wanda: "Old boyfriend. Long story."

Alex: "I can't believe I'm going to die on my birthday. Whenever anyone sees my gravestone, it's all they're going to talk about."

Johnny: "What about how to break out of a car trunk?"
Alex: "I've been in a couple of bad relationships."

Three stars,

Billie

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.

He wants to be president, which means he needs a smart, photogenic wife. Sarah would be a perfect first lady: widow of a fallen hero with two adorable young children, a ready-made family. And marrying her would make Greg look like a saint. I kept thinking he was going to make a pass at her, but then I realized he was too smart to move that quickly. Instead, he flanked her by winning over J.J. Johnny said he would try again with Sarah, but it may already be too late.

Greg is still evil, isn't he? Maybe he always was.

Moving right along. The horseracing plot was about betrayal from within. It was interesting enough, but what I liked most about it was the novelty of Johnny getting a vision off the horse. And, of course, that Bruce was finally back. I hope it wasn't just for one episode.

Bits and pieces:

-- John L. Adams was listed in the credits between Nicole deBoer and Connor Price, which meant he was a member of the cast, not a guest star. I hope. And it was great having Sean Patrick Flanery back. He always turns up the heat in any episode.

-- Bruce and Maria got engaged, and she just lucked into half a mil. Good for Bruce. He's suddenly marrying an heiress.

-- The story about Greg's father killing a dog was a twist on a scene in the original King book; Greg was the one who killed a dog. I wonder.

-- Drift was the name of the horse, which was apt. Johnny and Sarah were drifting apart.

Quotes:

J.J.: "Something wrong with the space shuttle again?"
That made me laugh out loud.

Johnny: "Much simpler with my Visa card. I get too many hits off of money."
Extreme product placement. Ugh.

Scuzzy gambler: "I was going to use it for fake IDs, but... John Smith? You gotta do better than that."

I always reach a point during a season when I start to second guess my ratings. I suck at ratings. Three stars?

Billie

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.

They again did a good job exploring a possibly theological solution for Johnny's visions. (And fortunately, they didn't presume to give us an answer.) Men of the church always seem to think the visions are from, well, God. Purdy always did, and Father Brendan certainly did as well. I think Johnny's brain is just different, but what do I know.

The whole Kelly-Brian-Father Tony love triangle and Tony's terrible, undeserved sense of guilt was meant to echo the situation with Sarah, Walt and Johnny. Except that it sort of didn't. I could understand why Johnny felt guilty about what happened to Walt, but this wasn't a David and Bathsheba situation. Johnny saved Walt's life countless times and most certainly did not cause his death. Maybe Johnny felt guilty because a part of him probably always wished that Walt would just disappear.

Why on earth did they kill off Walt and put Sarah and her baby in Johnny's house if they're never going to be a couple again? Are they saving the big Johnny/Sarah reunion for the series finale? Were the past few weeks just intended to bring it back on our radar?

Walt owned a cabin in the woods and didn't tell Sarah. That was his big secret? I doubt that it was a surprise he planned to spring on her, so what options are left? Walt didn't cheat on Sarah, and since they were finally having the baby he wanted, I doubt he was planning to leave her. Criminal activity would be way out of character. So I've got nothing.

Bits and pieces:

-- I hadn't realized that Johnny and Sarah were Catholic. Where have I been? Maybe Johnny's mother being so involved with Reverend Purdy's church threw me off. Or maybe it just hasn't been mentioned before. Or... maybe only Sarah is Catholic. Moving right along.

-- Father Brendan made the common mistake of thinking he could keep something from Johnny.

-- The acid in the holy water was an interesting touch. Painful and creepy, too.

-- Sheriff Turner was actually pretty nice this time. All positive.

I wasn't sure how to rate this one. I didn't like it as much as last week and the end ticked me off. Two stars?

Billie

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.

Johnny and Sarah's friend Elaine worked together to resolve one of Johnny's visions of upcoming death and destruction. Essentially, Elaine was doing what Bruce used to do: acting as Johnny's lieutenant and accomplice. She loved it, too, and I thought she had a great sense of humor.

So why not just bring Bruce back, instead? Really? (I'm not going to let this one go any time soon.)

I think the point of having Elaine instead of Bruce was that Elaine had a whole different perspective on Johnny. As Sarah's best friend, she knew everything about the long, strange Johnny/Sarah relationship, and once she realized that Johnny was a great guy, she was ready to push him to get off his ass and commit to Sarah. This in turn led to the realization that Johnny still sees himself as a pariah who brings pain to the people around him. Which certainly wasn't the case here, was it? He not only saved a bunch of lives, he helped three other couples with serious problems as well. (I'm just going to gloss over the fact that Johnny also caused the explosion in the first place.)

The explosion vision and the people frozen in the air was visually really interesting, although it had to be wildly uncomfortable for the extras. And the final vision where the gun dropped and went off had a real emotional kick, at least for me. Good one.

Bits and pieces:

-- Sarah wasn't in this episode. But J.J. was, specifically in order to tell us that Sarah was happy again.

-- I thought Elaine looked like Sarah would if she had been cast as a nerd.

-- I've seen (and reviewed) every episode of this series, and I'm certain we've never seen Elaine before.

-- The stereotypical disabled, suicidal vet character was less stereotypical here because she was a woman. That was different. Good for them.

Quotes:

J.J.: "Mom's back into cooking again. It's awesome."

Johnny: "You design crosswords for a living. Do you actually have to take them on vacation with you, too?"
Elaine: "It's either puzzles or Hector, my cabana boy."

Elaine: "Could you tell me where I can find the bus from Montpelier? I'm meeting a guy from Match dot com. He just got paroled."

I liked this one. Three out of four stars,

Billie

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.

This season is starting to feel like a re-set button. For six seasons, nearly everything revolved around two major plot points: Johnny losing Sarah while he was in the coma, and Johnny's vision of Armageddon via Greg Stillson. Now Stillson is no longer Armageddon guy, Walt's dead, and Sarah is back with Johnny? Maybe this whole season is just one of Johnny's visions.

Okay, so six season (probably) isn't a vision, but most of this episode was. I had to go back and rewatch stuff to figure out when the extended vision started, which was when Sarah kissed Johnny, and the vision woke him up. (Sort of a gender-reversed Sleeping Beauty moment.) I thought it was different and interesting, having a Sarah-centric episode for a change. She got to be feisty crime-solving superwoman, both in and out of Johnny's vision.

There were two call-backs to the pilot episode, too: Johnny's second (and fortunately, drug-induced) coma, and Johnny and Sarah in a car, kissing. Like I said. Re-set button.

Bits and pieces:

-- Did we even think for a moment that Johnny's brand new coma was caused naturally?

-- Did Johnny also say "Freezing in Reno?"

-- In this week's hair report, Sarah's longer do looks really good on her.

Good episode. It certainly kept me awake. Three out of four stars,

Billie

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.

Anyway, moving right along. Maggie was the cliche, the bad girl with the heart of gold trapped into her lifestyle by an evil guy who wouldn't let her go. She dressed like a film star from the fifties, with the perfect blonde wavy hair, stylish clothes, movie star make-up. Yes, she was fun, her life was definitely worth saving, and she and Johnny did have some chemistry. And she brought a big issue to the surface.

Is Johnny still in love with Sarah? Are they meant to be together? Maggie thought that Johnny should let Sarah go, but she wasn't exactly impartial since she wanted Johnny for herself. Johnny must be confused about his relationship with Sarah, or he wouldn't be confiding in a total stranger.

What does Johnny really want? It's almost impossible to tell.

Bits and pieces:

-- No Sarah, no J.J. And dammit, no Bruce. I feel cheated. I thought we were going to get some Bruce.

-- I think my favorite scene was the one near the end, where Maggie was all over Johnny in an effort to distract the train guy looking at the passports. Very cute.

-- This episode was big with the scenic. That train, in particular, was old, shabby, picturesque, and full of character. At one point, Maggie was waxing poetic about how beautiful Montreal was.

-- Maggie: "I'll miss you more than she would." Is that true? For that matter, what does Sarah want? Is Sarah even capable of knowing what she wants at this point, with Walt so freshly gone and with a new baby?

Two and a half stars,

Billie

The Dead Zone: Interred

Johnny: "Excuse me, sir. Do you dig the graves here?"
Groundskeeper: "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.

Why don't I like Sheriff Turner? Maybe because she was all about catching the bad guys and much less on helping people. She was totally focused on harassing Dietz instead of finding poor Jesse before it was too late. She did save Johnny's life, though, and that was good. She felt guilty for inadvertently bringing about her druggie brother's death, even though he clearly brought about his own death. Yes, I know that doesn't help; if she has a soul at all, which she clearly does, she's still going to feel guilty forever. So she's not a total bitch. I still don't like her. Maybe I just miss Walt.

Johnny also tried to dig up stuff, pun intended, about why Turner was investigating Walt. But she wouldn't tell Johnny what she was investigating. How can Johnny prove Walt was innocent of whatever he was innocent of if she won't tell him what it was?

Bits and pieces:

-- Loved the groundskeeper and his zombie theory. In fact, I think it was my favorite part of the episode.

-- Mack immediately felt like the bad guy. It's a bad sign when I know who it is that fast.

-- There's only one cemetery in Cleaves Mills. Did we know that? Do we care?

-- Herb Smith, 1938-1978. Vera Smith, 1940-1997. And even sadder: Walt Bannerman, 1969-2007.

-- In the final scene, Johnny left with Turner... in her car. Did he leave his own car behind in the city? Or did he take a plane and cab to get there? Loose end, people. Viewers don't like loose ends.

-- No Sarah in this episode. Also no J.J.

Two out of four stars,

Billie

The Dead Zone: Big Top

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

Weird. Not necessarily in a bad way, though.

What I found most intriguing was the flashback to Johnny and Sarah at the carnival at the beginning of the series. That was the night of Johnny's first serious psychic flash at the wheel of fortune, J.J.'s conception, and Johnny's near-fatal car accident. I think they went back to the inception of Johnny's gift because they just revealed that J.J. is also psychic. Clearly not in Johnny's league yet, but who knows where it will go? When Johnny was small, he had flashes, too.

I'm not wild about circus stories. The innocent man framed for a crime he didn't commit, with many broken and bloody mirrors, managed to be strange and different as well as predictable. Johnny's old friend Lorenzo felt like the bad guy from the moment he was introduced, and Dan guessed early that Johnny's visions were of the past, not the future. But at least it wasn't boring. I didn't mind J.J.'s obsession with a fourteen-year-old acrobat, either.

This season has been good so far, but different. Where are they going with Sarah, with J.J., with Stillson? I'm not complaining (well, except that I want Bruce back) and I'm enjoying the Sarah-J.J.-baby stuff more than I thought I would, but I'm still curious about our ultimate season six destination. Are we going to get all stand-alone episodes? Are the long-standing story arcs, especially the Stillson arc, really over? Are Johnny and Sarah going to get married, after all?

Bits and pieces and shards of glass:

-- All the Alice in Wonderland and through the looking glass stuff was transparent symbolism, pardon the pun. And the victim, Alice, really did go through the mirrors.

-- Speaking of mirrors, one scene showed both Lorenzo and Sheriff Bitch with their reflections distorted by broken glass. Lorenzo turned out to be the bad guy. What about the Sheriff?

-- Sarah again told Johnny he wasn't J.J.'s father, but least she backtracked this time and said that Johnny wasn't Walt. Sarah and Walt kept J.J.'s paternity a secret for a long time, after all, and that wasn't Johnny's choice.

-- Shawshank prison was mentioned. A fun Stephen King reference.

Quotes:

Sarah: "She doesn't have diaper rash."
Johnny: "Listen. I touched her butt earlier, okay? She's gonna."

Johnny: "There's a fine line between admirer and stalker."

Johnny: "Okay. Older woman, fourteen, acrobat..."
Sarah: "Oh, stop. I'm so not ready for this."
Johnny: "Sound familiar? A girl, a boy, a carnival..."
Sarah: "But better this time, right?"

I think this fell somewhere between two and three stars,

Billie

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?

Greg was still all about the ambiguity. Even though he came to Johnny for help with the space shuttle crisis, his motives were as clear as mud. Sarah apparently believed that Greg had truly changed and she could be right, but saving the shuttle was crucial to his approval rating, after all. And he did indeed console Emily Wilcox in one room, while planning to shoot her husband down in the other.

Although much of this episode was Johnny and Greg (and I've always enjoyed Johnny/Greg scenes), the rest was good, too. I really liked the way Megan Wilcox, after her initial freak-out, became so accepting of Johnny's talents that she kept putting the dog tags in his hands. I also liked the parallel consolation scenes between J.J. and Emily, and Sarah and Megan. Loved Sarah eating everything in the kitchen. And Johnny standing on top of the space shuttle with the Earth above his head may have been the coolest vision they've ever done on this show, and that's saying a lot.

When Sarah unexpectedly went into labor, I was certain we were going to get an overdose of heartwarming. But no. It was quite poignant. Walt was there for Sarah when she had Johnny's son, and Johnny was there for Sarah when she had Walt's daughter. Sort of a full circle. Or a triangle. Whatever. Add it to the Wilcox family reuniting, and it was downright moving.

Bits and pieces:

-- Sarah named her daughter Hope.

-- The one thing that really didn't work for me was the vice president so heavily involved in the flight of a *private* space vehicle. The producers probably didn't get permission to mention NASA, but really. "Go Space"?

-- The thing with the satellite reminded me of the satellite we saw in one of Johnny's Armageddon visions, but it didn't appear to be related.

-- My question in last week's review was answered. They're still using the exterior of Johnny's house in Vancouver. Or an incredible facsimile.

-- They froze Walt's pension? They froze the pension of a dead cop's pregnant widow?

-- Just like in the first episode of the season, I got the distinct impression that Greg was indeed still warm for Sarah. He gave her his private number, too.

-- J.J. missed Walt, but he was certain that Johnny could fix anything. That was nice. I also thought it was nice that Johnny didn't feel the need to freak little Emily out with his visions.

Quotes:

Wilcox: "Unfortunately, we still haven't figured out how to get a decent caramel latte up here."

Sarah: "I'm guessing being vice president is about as hard as it looks?"

Johnny: "There's still time."
Johnny has probably said this in more episodes than any other phrase. It's the Dead Zone mantra.

This one got to me. Four out of four stars,

Billie

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.

Let me elaborate on that a little. Johnny has always taken his responsibility toward Sarah and J.J. very seriously, but has kept his distance out of respect for Walt. It was completely in character (and commendable) for him to be there, and super there, for both of them now that Walt is gone. Sarah spent much of this episode pushing Johnny away. Why did she suddenly give in? Was it because of her extreme circumstances, widowed and very pregnant? Because Sarah realized that J.J. was being an uber-adult when he still needed to be a kid? The disastrous Pepto Bismol pink walls in the nursery?

I think I just answered my own question. Never mind. It's not like Johnny is a stranger; he's J.J.'s father, after all. I've always wanted Johnny and Sarah to have the marriage that circumstances denied them. Maybe I'm going to get my wish.

In other news, I was worried that we were going right back to Johnny Smith, Psychic Detective, and we sort of did -- but the whole shrink with a stalker patient plot had some complexities and was somewhat intriguing. The brand new sheriff, Anna Turner, was hard to figure out, though. At first, I thought they were introducing another possible love interest for Johnny. She would be a total skeptic at first, eventually get won over, and then they'd get involved. But she was outright hostile, even toward Sarah. And the way she took Walt's computer from Sarah was just weird. She was looking at their personal photographs, too. Alarm bells, for sure.

The switch in shooting locale from Vancouver to Montreal has made "Cleaves Mills" look a lot more like New England. We still haven't seen Johnny's house, though. I wonder if they're going to use the same outside shots of the place in Vancouver, or if they'll try to pass off a new house as Johnny's. We shall see.

Bits and pieces:

-- Brand new two-second credits. The cast was listed as Anthony Michael Hall, Nicole deBoer, Connor Price (the new J.J.), and Cara Buono (the new sheriff). No John L. Adams, which did not make me happy. Please bring Bruce back, powers that be.

-- I liked that J.J. confided in Johnny, and that Johnny in turn confided in Sarah. I think Johnny needs to tell J.J. the details of his vision about Walt's death.

-- Walt's secret thing about Johnny has come up again, and there appears to be something on his computer. The computer that the new sheriff confiscated.

-- I thought at first that Nina the shrink hadn't even heard of Johnny, but she had. She even did the old saga sell. ("Until you were in a coma for six years and your fiancee married another man...")

-- Jeffrey called Johnny "Blondie, spooky eyes."

Quotes:

Anna: "I'm going to do you a favor, and not arrest your ass for stalking."

Mike: "I know how you feel. If you're not wasted, your life is."
Johnny: "That's dark."
Mike: "So's the world."

Sarah: "What you gotta do is start acting like a twelve-year old boy. Play a video game. Eat something disgusting. Call a girl and hang up."

Pretty good. Three out of four stars?

Billie

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.

Sarah has again lost her man while pregnant with his child. That last scene in particular, where the dying Walt was saying goodbye to Sarah -- knowing that Johnny would see it and relay it to her -- was quite moving. It was so like Walt to be thinking of Sarah and J.J. in his last moments. It was unspoken, but in saying his final words and knowing Johnny would most likely see them, Walt was saying goodbye to Johnny as well.

They didn't really explain why the death thing shifted from Walt to Purdy and back again. Was Walt destined to die no matter what? Would he only have lived if Purdy had died instead? At least they were consistent: Johnny didn't get a vision of Walt dying the third time because Johnny himself sent Walt to Faith Heritage to save Purdy. Johnny caused Walt's death. This is not something that Johnny is going to find easy to live with.

Is the Stillson arc over? Has Armageddon been successfully averted now that Janus is dead? I also got the feeling that Greg Stillson joined the conspiracy in order to stop it. He told Johnny, "I'm not the man you think I am." And Johnny touched him and got a whole new vision that did not include the end of the world. Greg Stillson causing Armageddon and Johnny finding a way to stop him was the main plot of the original Stephen King novel. I must admit I'm perturbed by the possibility that, hey, it's all over and the series is going in a whole new direction.

What bothered me even more than the end of the Stillson arc was the possibility that they wrote Bruce out. Is Bruce really leaving to take another job? Please, no. I'm okay with losing Walt; his death was dramatically sound and opened some interesting plot-related doors. But Johnny's friendship with Bruce is one of the things that really works on this show. Dammit.

Bits and pieces:

-- No saga sell, and a two-second credit sequence. That was new. Since we just lost at least one cast member, there will probably be a new credit sequence next week. Maybe they'll get rid of that terrible music. One can hope.

-- There was also a new J.J. This was the third kid to play J.J., and I found it jarring, especially with Walt's funeral and all. Was little Spencer unavailable? Was it the move away from Vancouver?

-- Sarah said that J.J. didn't have a father any more. She said it to J.J.'s biological father, Johnny. That was hurtful, Sarah. What was she thinking?

-- Did I detect some re-kindling of Greg's former interest in Sarah, despite the bowling ball?

-- What did Walt find out about Johnny from the woman on the park bench?

-- In the season opener hair report, Sarah's was longer than it has ever been on this show. Bruce's hair moved from his head to his chin; I liked better on his head. Johnny's was much the same, which was good because it's his best look, in my opinion. No more pompadours, please.

This was a big episode, and Walt's death made me cry. Episodes that make me cry get four out of four stars,

Billie

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 parallels between vice president Danbury and the current vice president (hunting enthusiast, right-wing extremist, suspected of criminal activity) could not have been coincidental, and Frost's resemblance to Lee Harvey Oswald was obvious. They even did a clever take-off of the single bullet theory. Plus there was the hunting party itself, with the shooting incident. Torn from the headlines, you might say.

Will Johnny take Janus' offer in order to get an inside track? Or was that the mistake that caused Armageddon?

This was a fairly good episode, although it didn't flow. It felt like it was intended to get Stillson to the VP slot, and that's just what it did.

Bits and pieces:

-- The action took place at the end of August, and the show aired at the end of August.

-- During the opening scenes, Johnny got hits off a computer and a TV remote. I've always had problems with that, because it doesn't seem to follow the "rules."

-- "The first stone has been cast. Welcome to the revolution."

-- The episode ended approximately five minutes early. Production problems?

-- Johnny: "I think my luck just ran out."

Three out of four stars. And now, how long do we have to wait for another season, another episode? And what if The Dead Zone is cancelled, and we never get the end of the story?

Billie

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.

It takes a lot to get the audience to the point where they'll believe one of the cast is going to die. I thought it was going to happen twice: first with Sarah, and then in the kitchen, I truly thought the ultimate twist was that Walt was going to die. When it turned out that Linda was trying to commit "suicide by cop," I even thought for a moment that Walt would go through with it, and kill her. Very good writing there.

I know not all the fans are behind the Johnny/Sarah relationship, but I've always been on board. Johnny was the tragic figure here, because this incident revived the love between Johnny and Sarah, and tore them apart forever. Sarah still loves Johnny. Johnny saved Sarah for Walt. Sarah is finally having Walt's baby. It finally feels like the end, and I don't want it to be the end.

This episode was a sequel to season four's "The Collector", which wasn't anywhere near as good as this one. Linda here was much, much scarier than Mr. Suds there. Bravo. Or brava. Gold acting stars for Chris Bruno, Nicole de Boer (whom we've barely seen this season), and the actress who played Linda.

Bits and pieces:

-- They showed both Johnny and the dead Mr. Suds watching the same black and white horror movie, probably because the story was much like a horror movie.

-- I particularly loved Sarah carving initials in the wood and leaving a psychic farewell for Johnny. Very moving. The long flashback showing scenes of Sarah throughout the series made it seem that they were indeed writing her out.

This one actually made me cry. Four out of four stars,

Billie

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?

As Bruce so eloquently said, Purdy always has been "iffy." So I guess it didn't surprise me that much that, when he was young and cute, he was also a very bad boy. In a way, Purdy in his Reverend Gold-Digger guise reminded me a bit of Greg Stillson.

This episode finally took off for me when the situation logically expanded to include Gene's relationship with the late Vera Smith. I've always believed Purdy loved Johnny's mother (remember what he did for her in "The House"?) But whether or not Purdy conned Vera Smith into giving him her wealth has always been debatable. I still sorta think he did. Depends on your definition of "con," I suppose.

David Ogden Stiers got to me in the end when he told Johnny, "Clara was the reason I turned to God. Your mother was my reward." He even forgave Jessica for killing him, as it was happening. Purdy has made a lot of mistakes in his life, but I honestly believe that he believes, and that he's trying to atone.

Well, except we still don't know exactly what he promised Janus, and how he fits into the coming Apocalypse.

Bits and pieces:

-- The desk clerk asking Johnny and Bruce to pose back to back for her web site was fun. I also thought it was cute that Bruce, as Johnny's best friend, is now semi-famous, too.

-- Finding all that important but obscure stuff for Johnny to touch in order to keep the plot going was pretty farfetched. It started to bother me. I mean, would you actually find carnival posters from the sixties that easily? I don't think so.

-- Purdy just dedicated the new Vera Smith library. I'm down with that. Libraries are good.

-- This episode was directed by John L. Adams (Bruce). Not bad, John. Gee, everyone is getting to direct this season.

-- Guest stars Eric Johnson and Sarah-Jane Redmond were both Smallville alumni.

Three stars,

Billie

The Dead Zone: Vortex

Cop: "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.

Yes, Cyrus Carter and the Seekers (good name for a rock group) were transparent analogs of David Koresh and Waco, but that was okay. In fact, it was cool. Because they actually drew a firm line between rapture nuts and what Johnny sees when he touches Greg Stillson.

The performances were just excellent, too. Gold acting stars for Anthony Michael Hall for this episode, as well as Sean Patrick Flanery, who has Greg Stillson's public political platitudes and private snark down pat. I particularly liked the standoff between Johnny and Greg in the men's room, because I love the way these two actors play off each other. We also got a brief callback to the episode "Zion," with Bruce doing a little of the preaching he did as a child.

The way they do Johnny's visions on this show are often spectacular. I was particularly impressed this time with the visions of Johnny walking among the splinters and flames of Cyrus' explosion. I also liked what Johnny did in the minefield.

I thought the commission was investigating a catastrophe involving a lot of deaths, so I didn't guess what would happen in the end. Johnny managed to save all of them, except for Cyrus Carter. And Carter is one of those people that is (arguably) better off dead.

Bits and pieces:

-- Cyrus said that Johnny was the second prophet from the book of Revelations. Wasn't Janus saying Johnny could be the third ruler in the kingdom? All these biblical titles for Johnny.

-- Walt did his usual right thing by bringing in a news crew to stop the SWAT team.

Quotes:

Stillson: "Are you saying that Johnny Smith has seen the end of the world?" This is really interesting. What would Greg Stillson do if he knew he was going to cause Armageddon? Would he care? Would he choose not to believe it? The real Greg is still something of a mystery.

Nora: "You said when the rapture came, we'd be with Daddy. If I die, then I can go to heaven and be with him." This actually got to me.

Johnny: "He makes me look like a dangerous lunatic, while he comes off as a hero."

I'm tempted to give it four stars. Very good,

Billie

The Dead Zone: Symmetry

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

I got through most of the teaser before I realized it wasn't Johnny we were seeing.

There were things I liked about this episode. I liked the idea of Johnny stuck in a "vision loop" and not knowing what was real, and who he was in the vision. The definitive shot of Johnny at the point of entry into the vision loop, when he was all four of them at once but then they all became themselves, was very well done. And yes, I really like it when the visions are so freaking complicated that I don't know what's going on at first.

But, and I'm sure you knew there was going to be a but, I wasn't all that thrilled with the denouement. The episode was confusing and kept jerking us around, and frankly, it even got boring. Yes, we finally learned how Johnny got the original "hit" and how the whole thing worked, but the episode was still difficult to track.

The title of the episode, "Symmetry," referred to Johnny being able to save a mother and daughter because he was in turn saved by his own son. But I was especially confused about J.J. and the penknife, and I watched the episode twice. J.J. has done some pretty cool things so far this season. Were they implying here that J.J. polished up Herb's pen knife and gave it to Johnny because J.J. knew Johnny would need it? If so, that was kind of cool.

Bits and pieces:

-- Bruce played an annoying part of Johnny's subconscious. Necessary, yes, so that vision Johnny could do dialogue with someone about what he was thinking, but I didn't like seeing Bruce so annoying.

-- Vision Sarah got to spend more time at Johnny's bedside while he was unconscious. I'm sure if it had been real, it would have been very unpleasant deja vu-ing.

-- Was the doctor the same woman who was Johnny's doctor in season two?

Two out of four stars,

Billie

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.

Johnny has been kidnapped before. I don't mind story repetition when it's done well. This wasn't done well. I mean, here we have this guy, Boyd Lumely, the postal worker. Lumely, quite irrationally, blamed Johnny for poor decisions that Lumely made all on his lonesome. Lumely committed a felony by kidnapping Johnny at gunpoint, and risked Johnny's life in order to fix his own problems. And in the end, the two of them were shooting the breeze together like all of it was a mild fraternity prank. I don't know. I'd be thinking restraining order at the very least, and five to ten in Sing Sing at the most.

With plots like this, it's easy to see what's coming. You know they're going to get caught in difficult situations, but everything will work out in the end. What you need to do is (1) make the characters very likable, and (2) add in a few surprises. Maybe it would have worked if Lumely had been more likable, and I had really cared that he was planning to off himself for the insurance. But no. Frankly, I just wanted to smack him. He won the lottery, and just frittered all the money away. And then he blamed everyone else for what he did. Grow up, buddy.

The scenes I liked the most were Johnny's inept attempts to win at poker. I also really liked the early scene where Johnny found out lots of different things about Lumely by touching each of his keys. But that was it.

Bits and pieces:

-- Wow. Sarah exists. At least for a couple of minutes on the phone, anyway.

-- They just happened to end up at Lumely's daughter's school for the midnight whatever. Yes, that's when they usually have grade school events: midnight.

-- Anthony Michael Hall looked fabulous in a black tux.

-- No Bruce in this episode.

I just didn't like it. And I'm getting discouraged about season five. Two stars,

Billie

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?

So I was definitely on board with the fascinating idea of Johnny touching what might be a finger bone belonging to John the Baptist. In fact, when the possibility was mentioned in the teaser, I was sort of disappointed when the episode became all about a museum heist. And then I was pleased when it turned out that the whole thing really was all about Johnny touching the finger bone. Sure, they didn't follow through, and I wish they had; no matter how they interpreted it, it would have been intriguing. But how could they have created a Johnny vision about Jesus without offending somebody?

Anthony Michael Hall did his usual good job with all of Johnny's conflicting, cascading visions, and Johnny had a good reason for every choice he made. (Although one could argue that joining in the heist was improbable, could have been avoided, and might have gotten him arrested. And how likely was it that the robbers wouldn't know each other's faces?) There were even some lighter moments that were well done, like Walt and Purdy tied up together.

I like the character of Gene Purdy a lot, and the final denouement was all his. "I thought if you touched this, you could tell me what John the Baptist saw when he looked on the face of Christ, and my faith might be restored." David Ogden Stiers was so good that he got to me again; this scene brought me to tears. I wonder if Purdy's loss of faith will have something to do with the Apocalypse?

Bits and pieces:

-- J.J. again showed a cool head in a scary situation, and didn't do the cliched kid in danger thing. He also saved Johnny's life again.

-- Last week's episode was entitled, "Article of Faith." I kept thinking that it would have suited this episode better.

-- The woman getting her arm caught in the display box was effective.

-- Still no Sarah.

Outstanding ending, although I got mildly impatient with the middle of the story. Three stars,

Billie

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.

Yes, it was well-intentioned, but it just didn't have the bite or the pathos of a really good exploration of the psychology behind hate crimes. And Darryl Cotton was completely unsympathetic. Yes, it's hard to escape such horribly negative influences when you're just a child, but Darryl still committed murder because of hate. Murder is murder, after all.

And Josh of the student newspaper was so obviously guilty; they gave it away when they casually inserted his character into the opening scenes. He practically had a sign on him that said, "Me me me!" It was an interesting twist, that he had killed his lover and disguised it as a hate crime, but difficult to believe. I wish they had done it in a way that would have made it more plausible.

I've missed Dana Bright, and I would have preferred an episode that was more about her, since she was an interesting character with a lot of depth. Or she used to be, because we didn't see any of the old Dana here. Less provocative clothing, hair not quite as red -- this was Dana with the volume turned down. (Not as Bright, perhaps.) I don't think I like successful, post-psychotherapy Dana. She was a lot more interesting before. And she and Johnny used to make such an interesting couple.

It's too bad, too. Because I suspect this is all the Dana Bright we're going to get.

Bits and pieces:

-- Dana was working for WPKV.

-- Still no Sarah, even though Nicole deBoer is still in the cast. What's up?

-- With all the people of color and mentions of racism in this episode, I kept thinking, blond Johnny looks so white. :)

Two stars,

Billie

The Dead Zone: Panic

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

Panic Room with a touch of Die Hard.

Last season, they were moving toward making Johnny into super action guy. So far this season, they haven't repeated that mistake. Johnny's appeal (for me, anyway) has always been as the ordinary guy with an extraordinary gift, and that's what he was here. Well, okay, he was channeling Bruce Willis just a little. But it didn't go over the top.

While trying to elude the bad guy with the Willy Nelson braids and his stupider and less scary partner in crime, Johnny had a second set of visions set in 1941 that conveniently showed him several secret aspects of his own house. Johnny's father Herb, who was a major character in the original Stephen King book but only a recurring character in the series (what with him being dead and all) showed that even as a child, he was a good guy. Hey, not everyone could talk a heartless mine owner into sheltering a Japanese family right after Pearl Harbor. (Johnny's grandfather Smith originally owned the mine in which Johnny and Walt were trapped in the season two episode "Descent.")

I particularly liked J.J. in this episode. He didn't do the cliched kid thing; i.e., he didn't panic or start crying. He actually saved all their lives by kicking the bad guy in the first place. Then he did what Johnny told him to do, like helping the injured Randy, and correctly timing the banging on the pipes to cover Johnny rescuing Walt. Unfortunately, J.J. now appears to be showing a tendency toward pyromania. This can't be good.

Bits and pieces:

-- Walt and J.J. were finally back. We still haven't seen Sarah, though.

-- When he was crawling through the vents, Johnny did a take-off of the Bruce Willis crawling through the vents in Die Hard.

-- The scene where Walt was captured and beaten was immediate enough that I was mildly worried (again) they were planning to kill him off.

-- The moral of the story? Don't leave your cell phone in the car.

Another good one. Three out of four stars,

Billie

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.

All of the deaths didn't make sense, because how could there be multiple car accidents when none of the cars were moving? And how could it end with Bruce dying from a gunshot wound? The only thing I figured out fairly early was that the escaped con was masquerading as a cop, because he just wasn't acting cop-like. Johnny deliberately wrecking the cop car was unexpected and took guts, considering that he lost six years of his life because of a car crash.

I really enjoyed all of the people finding ways to amuse themselves as they sat in the traffic jam, and the sense of community they felt when pregnant Nikki was in danger. I particularly loved the bikers taking water bottles out of people's hands. All of them descending on the ice cream truck together just made me smile.

Okay, I did have a couple of minor issues. Like establishing in the opener that Bruce didn't want Johnny to touch him, and them sticking to it even when Bruce's life was in danger. That just didn't scan, considering how long Bruce has known Johnny and what they've been through together. And the ending with the hospital and the twins rated a bit high on the hokey-meter.

But this one still reminded me pleasantly of certain episodes in my favorite season (which was two). An unusual situation, puzzling visions of death, one clue after another, and Johnny putting it all together. Classic Dead Zone.

Bits and pieces:

-- This episode was directed by cast member Chris Bruno. He did a terrific job; it had to be a bear to film. Dylan Bruno played (I assume) the cop. Is he a relative?

-- Johnny and Bruce had the eternal Dead Zone conversation about fate, i.e., what if Johnny preventing bad things will eventually cause even worse things.

-- Brian and Nikki made me recall Mitch and Flo, the wonderful couple in the RV back in the season two episode "The Storm." And Mitch also said that Flo had a touch of "the sight," just like Nikki. Did the writers repeat themselves? Was it intentional?

-- Why didn't the bikers just take off in between the lanes of traffic? This episode wouldn't have been as much fun without them, but still.

-- In the opening sequence, Johnny was eating a salad, but his favorite food is cheeseburgers. And the waitress came on to him, but he didn't notice. A little out of character.

-- The couple in the camper had a bumper sticker that said, "Kali is my co-pilot." :)

-- Still no sign of Sarah and Walt.

Quotes:

Biker: "How do you know if you're a real hillbilly? When your home has more miles on it than your car."

Denise (in the bikini): "There's no signal. It's like we're in some kind of dead zone." Har har.

Very good. Three out of four stars,

Billie

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.

Greg Stillson actually came across as sympathetic, until he reverted fully to type by letting Janus murder Miranda with snake venom. Of course, we could see Miranda's death coming; they seeded it early on by saying she had a weak heart. When it became apparent that they were setting Miranda up as a love interest for Johnny, though, I started to think maybe they weren't going to kill her after all. Maybe that's why they did it.

I haven't been on board so far with cold-blooded string-puller Malcolm Janus, but he finally got to me this time when he was telling Miranda about tribes and blood on the marriage bed and stoning impure women. And the always wonderful David Ogden Stiers hit it out of the park with that chilling scene about Purdy discovering Miranda's eulogy in that sealed envelope. Excellent.

And now, Stillson is the tragic figure who lost his fiancee on their wedding day. The public will love it. There's no stopping him now.

Bits and pieces:

-- Same cast, same credits. Except we didn't see Sarah or Walt in this episode.

-- Jeremy the ethical reporter felt like a red shirt character at first. I really didn't expect him to do what he did. The scene with his pregnant wife and the snake was also unexpectedly chilling. Good writing there, guys.

-- Purdy's ministry has increased three-fold since he went satellite. Yes, he was horribly upset by the eulogy in the envelope. But is he ready to give up that kind of power? Not that Janus will let him.

-- Johnny said at one point that he couldn't go to the police with just visions. But hey, he does it all the time.

-- There were several references to the current political situation in the United States. And that's good. If they had ignored it, it would have seemed detached from reality, and a lot more fictional.

-- Loved Johnny's vision of all the well-paid people in Janus' office wasting time, painting toenails and making photocopies of themselves.

-- In this season's hair report, Anthony Michael Hall kept last year's very nice do, and Bruce stayed minimalist. They both looked great.

-- This episode was dedicated to the late Michael Piller, may he rest in peace. "For Michael. 1948-2005."

At least three stars and possibly four,

Billie

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.

Yes, some of it was fun. I like Alex the psychic. She's a fascinating type of love interest for Johnny to have, and the two of them click as a couple. I always enjoy Bruce, too. He had some great lines in the early scenes, and it was fun seeing him do Betty Crocker. And it was great seeing the entire cast together, because it just doesn't happen often enough.

But a lot of it just didn't work. The level of amnesia that "Santa" had was serious, not something that could be dismissed as just a blow on the head. They also never addressed why the mother had taken the three boys away from their father. She had breast cancer, not schizophrenia. What if she had a damned good reason? Plus, the characters kept leaving the house and going back to the house, and leaving the house and going back to the house. The story just didn't flow.

"A female psychic, a Santa Claus with amnesia, and the cast of Oliver." Did it suffer from too many plotlines? Maybe just doing one or two, and a lot more thoroughly, would have made for a more coherent story. They could have definitely left out the Santa thing. I rarely guess stuff, but I figured out that he was an actor early on. Why didn't Johnny and Alex see the cameras in their visions? They see everything else.

This just didn't feel like The Dead Zone to me. Damn it. I hate writing negative reviews.

Bits and pieces:

-- Despite the corny quotient, I liked that J.J. gave up three of his presents for the other boys.

-- Yes, they actually gave us chestnuts roasting on an open fire.

-- It might have helped if they had toned down the overly aggressive Christmas music. C'mon. Subtlety, people.

-- Anthony Michael Hall has gone completely blond. It looks good on him.

-- This episode included a dedication "To Michael. 1948-2005." Rest in peace, Michael Piller. You will be missed.

Quotes:

Bruce on the turducken: "It's kind of like, oh, Colonel Sanders meets Frankenstein type thing."

Alex: "You mean the fictional character created by New York City merchants at the turn of the century to encourage people to buy material goods?"
Bruce: "I can't hear this."

At one point, Johnny said, "There's still time." Pretty much the Dead Zone mantra.

Johnny: "Why didn't I marry you? Oh, right. I was in a coma." Is that the extent of the Johnny/Sarah relationship now? That was just sad.

One out of four stars,

Billie

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.

I knew fairly early that Miranda had somehow faked her own death, but there was still an omigod moment: when Johnny touched Stillson and saw Armageddon actually reverse itself. I mean, wow. The scandal that could have saved the world and sunk Stillson... now it will never be. Bummer. They implied that she did it to protect people, including Johnny. Which still made him the cause of Armageddon, didn't it? Sort of? How circular can you get?

That final scene with Janus leaving the Bible was extremely creepy. It appeared that Janus was offering Johnny power, the chance to be "the third ruler in the kingdom." (After Stillson and Purdy?) What I wondered was, will Johnny even consider saying yes? It would get him on the inside, and in a better position to stop the worst from happening. But it could be a trap. Maybe. Tough call.

Bits and pieces:

-- I thought Miranda looked like a photographic negative of Sarah. I wonder... did they consider having Greg fall for Sarah? I thought there were some vibes going on there at some point.

-- Proposing in front of reporters. Stillson is evil.

-- Sean Patrick Flanery was good as always. But he didn't look too good, like he was ill or something.

-- New Faith Heritage network. Now, in satellite! Reminding me of the vision with the satellite and the hand on the bed.

-- The new, terrible theme music still bugs the crap out of me. I used to enjoy the credits, and now I can't wait for them to be over.

-- The averted scandal mimicked Chappaquidic (I have no idea how to spell that), the incident that kept Ted Kennedy from following in John and Bobby's footsteps. I don't know a lot about it, but didn't his girlfriend drown? And didn't he fail to go back for her, or something?

Quotes:

Johnny: "I think Stillson really is in love."
Bruce: "Well, even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes."
I thought that was really funny.

Stillson to Johnny: "You really are creepy, you know that?" Geez, alert the media: Pot Calls Kettle Black.

There were only eleven episodes in this summer season. According to the official Dead Zone site at USA, we'll be getting new episodes in 2006. This demi-season definitely had its ups and downs. Unfortunately, it was predominantly downs. I hope the second half of season four, or season five, whatever, is better.

At least they went out with a bang. Three out of four stars,

Billie

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.

When they walked into the retirement home at the beginning, Johnny immediately got a vision of someone dead, and I thought, wouldn't it be stranger if he didn't, with it being a retirement home and all? So I liked that the denouement was in that vein. The spider coming out of Beebe's mouth was a big hint that Spider was the Shadow Man, and I thought for a while that he was killing them, as I was supposed to. I'd heard of body farms before, but didn't catch on until just before Johnny and Bruce started tripping over bodies.

That final scene with Sarah and her father resolving their differences was supposed to be the big one, but it felt awkward and forced to me. I was much more strongly moved by Johnny telling Sarah what really happened when her mother died.

Leaving aside the strangeness of Johnny being with Sarah through this sort of family situation instead of Walt, this episode worked pretty well. I laughed out loud several times (especially during Johnny's act as "Jonathan the Mysterious") and like I said, was moved by that scene about Sarah's mother. I also thought it was a nice twist having Bracknell live at the end, and decide to donate his body, making Johnny's vision come true.

Interesting parallel, having a "Sarah and Daddy" episode right after a "Johnny and Daddy" episode. Come to think of it, we had a superior "Bruce and Daddy" episode in season two, didn't we? Is Walt going to get a Daddy episode, too? (I don't think "Ascent" counts.)

Bits and pieces:

-- Foxglove Retirement Home? Isn't foxglove a poison? Never mind, I guess it's appropriate.

-- Marty Bracknell played drums at one point, a little continuity with Sarah's music thing there.

-- Florida to Maine. Gotta say, not a good idea for the elderly; the cold will probably do him in.

-- Nicole deBoer looks nothing like Ed Asner. Just saying.

-- Okay, Beebe's pink coffin. Imagine eternity in a pink coffin! And what happens to the coffin when someone is cremated? I thought it got burned, too, but it didn't here. Do they sell it second-hand to somebody else, or just rent them for people who are getting cremated? "Hey, got a great deal for you on a used pink coffin..."

-- At one point, Sarah said to Johnny and Walt simultaneously, "Ask your son."

-- In this week's hair report, wouldn't it have worked better for Sarah's pink hair to be more extreme, and to coincide with her long hair phase?

Quotes:

Old guy: "Lock your doors. He's coming for all of us."
Sarah: "I hope he's not my father's roommate."

Johnny: "You never had a punk phase, Walt?" (Wouldn't it be fun if he did? Imagine the flashbacks!)

Bruce: (looking away) "Is it like the Crypt-Keeper?"

Not great, but definitely watchable. Three out of four stars,

Billie

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.

But even though I could practically write most of this story myself, I was still oddly moved by the ending. There was an emotion to it that transcended the material. And I thought the casting of Johnny's father, Herb, was outstanding; the man resembled Anthony Michael Hall and was about the same age, but he still "felt" like Johnny's father. And I didn't get that the little girl was still alive, and that the event was so far in the future, so that was a good twist.

The one thing I thought was missing was a scene exploring the conflict we know existed between Gene Purdy and Herb Smith. Having Gene think Herb was a schizophrenic and a pervert was interesting, but it really didn't go anywhere.

Bits and pieces:

-- The title, "Babble on," was clever. I assumed it referred to "babel," a confusion of sounds or voices, and not Babylon, a hedonistic ancient city.

-- Bangor Cultural Center go boom. I was surprised that Johnny didn't stop the explosion, although he did save all the people.

-- I liked all the floor scenes: Johnny going through the floor in his vision, lying on the floor to *get* visions, and so on. And the mallet reminded me of Stephen King's The Shining which, coincidentally, was also about a father and his psychic son.

-- Johnny did a little B&E. Bad Johnny. And hey, a file that was thirty years old: wouldn't it be in a dusty box in the basement?

-- Was the long-haired little boy who played young Johnny the same one who played him in the pilot? No, that couldn't be: it was four years ago.

-- Nicole deBoer was not in this episode.

Definitely worth watching. Three out of four stars,

Billie

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.

Johnny's former student, Alex, morally opposed to having his work used as a weapon as well as light jazz, gave us another piece of the Armageddon puzzle. What really got to me is that Alex might not have achieved his scientific success (or died too young, for that matter) if he hadn't been Johnny's favorite student. I think this was another hint that Johnny may have inadvertently caused future Armageddon.

The scene that really got to me was Greg being introduced as the president: even though we knew it was coming, it shocked me. Oooooh. We do know that Stillson will be vice-president in what, 2008, which is pretty damned soon. I wonder if the Don S. Davis character, Senator Harlan Ellis, is going to be president first? It also looked as if they were setting up Ellis' daughter Miranda as a possible future Mrs. Stillson.

J.J. was finally back. And we even had an intriguing Sarah scene. She and Walt are finally going to get pregnant, huh? Is she already? Is that why she wouldn't let Johnny touch her? Or was there another, more sinister reason?

Bits and pieces:

-- There was a strong hint early on that Walters was important. In the first scene at Portland Chemical, Walters was blowing things up on his computer ("Be nice to me. I just vaporized Cleveland.")

-- The 1938 nickel could also be symbolic of pre-World War II. I'm sort of reaching there, though.

-- The newly global Purdy thought he could have his ministry and eat it, too, and has now discovered that he has indeed sold his soul to save his ass.

-- Mr. Janus reminded me of Karl Rove. I wonder if they'll have him out an undercover CIA agent later in the season.

-- I'm scientifically illiterate. Was the science stuff realistic?

-- A lot of episodes recently have had Johnny getting reliable hits off anything he likes. Here, we're back to something truer to the series: early in the episode, Johnny kept trying to get hits off stuff without getting what he needed.

-- It always upsets me when Bruce gets hurt.

-- The reference to "precipitate" was probably an inside joke, since it was the title of an earlier episode.

-- I liked the scene where Purdy and Stillson were out-Bible-ing each other.

-- Did Bruce shave his head? He's also completely beardless now. He's really gone to some hair extremes in this show, hasn't he?

-- According to my Oxford American Dictionary, "vanguard" means: 1. the foremost part of an army or fleet advancing or ready to do so. 2. the leaders of a movement or fashion, etc.

Quotes:

Walters: "You must be the legendary teacher turned coma patient turned celebrated but slightly notorious parlor trick."
Johnny: "Johnny works."

Bruce: "Old times or end times."

Stillson: "I am a lethally quick study." Interesting words there.

Terrific. I'm encouraged. This was at least a strong three and possibly a four out of four stars,

Billie

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 opening scene was good, and I liked the basic premise -- that Johnny knew he was the only hope for that baby's future, and that he took his promise to a dying mother and his responsibility to baby Miguel more seriously than the law. Johnny being cheated out of fatherhood hasn't been addressed as much as it could, either, and I thought the way they used the train set to give us glimpses of Johnny as Mikey's adoptive father worked. And I loved the cute way Sarah, Bruce, and Walt were all roped into babysitting, and "branded" with baby spit-up.

But this was another episode that just didn't feel right to me. It's like the basic premise of the series is being sacrificed to formula. (No pun intended.) What about Armageddon? We saw visions of Mikey going all the way up until he was a young adult, and I think that conflicted with our major arc storyline. Aren't millions going to die? With survivors living like savages?

One of the things I've always liked about The Dead Zone is that it can be about anything, and I think this story worked on a basic level. But this was one of those times when having Maine as the setting worked against the story. I'm sure there are illegal immigrants in Maine, but it didn't have the veracity or impact of, say, California or Texas. I was unclear about the motivations of the INS agent, too. Some of the things she did just didn't make sense. I could probably watch it again and figure it out, but if I didn't get it the first time, that's not so good.

And (again) where the heck is J.J.? We just got an episode about Johnny as a possible foster father, and there was still no J.J. Talk about not making sense.

Bits and pieces:

-- We got a little more of Johnny as savior of humanity: "St. Michael, he stops bad things in the world, like you do."

-- There was a reference to a "Pink Lobster" restaurant. :)

-- In the trailer scene, Anthony Michael Hall's hair looked odd, like it was artfully streaked. I mean, I know it is, but it doesn't usually look like it is.

-- Johnny: "Do you have any idea how rare this is?" Bruce: "Not as rare as a single, funny, beautiful, female African American lawyer. In Maine."

Charming, but forgettable. Two out of four stars,

Billie

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.

Sarah said to Walt in the bedroom scene, "You are just the most amazing man." And he is. We know from Johnny's visions as well as Walt himself that Walt would never have married if it weren't for Sarah. But could even the most trusting of husbands feel okay about their beloved wife going off on a road trip with her former fiance, love of her life, and father of her child?

And (to continue with this general theme) it would have been nice to see more of younger Sarah and Johnny together. It saddened me a little that the sparks between Johnny and Sarah appeared to be irrevocably gone. I still want Johnny and Sarah to be together. And I want them to do it somehow without hurting Walt. Yes, I know that's impossible.

Bits and pieces:

-- I absolutely loved the scene where Johnny ("I feel like a peeping tom") walked past the motel room doors, touching doorknobs and seeing a "puking prom queen and a traveling bus tour of Cats."

-- So Sarah and Johnny went to Woodstock. I assume they meant the more recent version, not the one in the sixties.

-- Where the heck is J.J.? His absence is becoming conspicuous.

-- Okay, Roy mentioned the motel in the liner notes where he lived while he wrote the album, right? But Nathan the manager said that they were in the middle of a North American tour. That didn't make sense.

-- The outdoor concert scene looked a little CGI.

-- Who really wrote "Six Feet Under"?

-- Did Johnny really have a mullet? God forbid.

-- Walt: "It was loud." :)

Three out of four stars,

Billie

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.

Interesting twist, having Johnny essentially communicating with the autistic Thaddeus through visions. I also thought the fantasy scenes from Thaddeus' viewpoint, with his dead mother as a fairy telling the story, and his life perceived and expressed through fantasy drawings, was interesting and well done. The end, where Thaddeus finally connected with his father, was touching.

Unfortunately, Fallon's former partner Stanton was the obvious culprit from the moment he was introduced. But the cell phone denouement -- Thaddeus humming the ringer sound, and Johnny not giving away to Stanton that he'd gotten a hit from it -- was a particularly nice touch. What I didn't get was why Johnny didn't get the answer in a vision when Stanton let him touch the watch fob/key chain thing Fallon gave him earlier on. Dramatic license, I suppose.

It might have been too pat if Stanton's phone had rung with the old ring tone, but it also would have been dramatic and fun. I think they should have done it. I think they also should have made the crime sooner than five years ago and let the twelve-year-old Thaddeus do all the acting; the younger version of Thaddeus was unconvincing.

Thaddeus' mother/fairy described Johnny as "a man of uncommon power and compassion," (true) "a grand wizard named Eldgar." I liked Bruce as John's pointy-eared apprentice. I'm not up on fantasy literature; was this generic fantasy, or did it refer to something specific?

Bits and pieces:

-- The cartoon drawings were extremely professional.

-- One of the cops called Johnny "Blondie."

-- Boris Kujo. :) A nice reference to Stephen King, but a little too cute, because I smiled every time they mentioned his name and he was a bad guy.

-- Cole Heppell, who did an excellent job as the older Thaddeus, also played the future victim of the abusive music teacher in season three's "Cycle of Violence."

-- Along with the Tolkien reference, we also had Thaddeus' twin cousins playing with cardboard "light sabers."

-- The gas leak vision was particularly cool.

-- The graffiti on the wall that they kept showing had the word NZONE on it. I write for a web magazine called N-Zone. I'm just saying.

-- Nicole deBoer wasn't in this episode. And Chris Bruno was barely in this episode.

-- Lieutenant: "Now, if I can just keep the word 'psychic' out of my paperwork, I may keep my job."

Better than last week's. But I feel like I'm still waiting for the fourth season to start, and that's not good. Dan thinks I'm being too critical. What do you think?

Two out of four stars,

Billie

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."

Well, I didn't hate it. The scenery in this episode was stunning: the houses, the beach, the studio, the lighthouse, very artsy and New-England-y. The visions were great (the visions on this show are always wonderful) as were the living recreations of the paintings. And I didn't guess whodunnit right until the end, although at one point I was saying, "Johnny, go touch Nora. I bet she knows something."

But all the characters left me cold. Andrew Lyne's relationship with Julia and Chloe was so distastefully sexual, even if they didn't have sex; what sort of man goes to "Eyes Wide Shut" parties with a girl he treats like a daughter? Poor, pathetic, homicidal Nora wasn't pretty enough or interesting enough to be her father's muse, and didn't interest me as a character at all. The sleazeball art dealer was an obvious red herring. Even Chloe/Laura wasn't that likable; her motives were unclear through most of the episode, and she did give up her identity for money and fame, after all.

I was a lot more interested in our four main characters than Andrew Lyne and his twisted "family," and there was nothing for them here. Johnny pretty much played detective, and mimicked Patrick Bauchau. Walt was a plot device with a search warrant. Sarah wasn't in the episode at all. I love the Johnny/Bruce relationship and their banter is always fun, but it was only supplemental to the story.

So I liked it better than the serial kidnapper episode, but it still didn't ring my chimes. I'm starting to wonder if the formula has stopped working for me. They used to do such unique plots on The Dead Zone. I don't care much for detective shows; I really, really don't want to see Johnny just solve a crime every week.

Bits and pieces:

-- Bruce is into art as well as radio broadcasting and comparative religion. Well-rounded guy.

-- The part where Johnny found a painting under another painting was cool, although I doubt that it's that easy to remove a layer of paint and gesso to get to an earlier work. And why couldn't Johnny just see the painting beneath by touching the canvas?

-- Johnny was able to draw in "The Hunt," too. Yummy continuity goodness.

-- Two girls kissing. Not something you usually see on The Dead Zone.

-- Chloe's real name was Laura Tierney. There's an old movie called "Laura," and the title character was played by Gene Tierney.

-- How could the actress who played Chloe/Laura stand getting fake blood in her eye like that?

-- Patrick Bauchau (Andrew Lyne) was a regular on one of my old faves, The Pretender.

-- USA ran a very funny commercial for The Dead Zone in the middle of this episode. It showed Johnny petting his cat, seeing it in mortal danger nine times, and finally saying, "I'm getting a dog." Very clever. I particularly liked the cat on the train tracks playing with the cat toy. :)

-- Bruce, as usual, got all the best lines: "Is this the part where you say 'redrum'?" "Remind me to bring you along on my next bank heist." and "If God is an art lover, then be prepared to do a lot of explaining."

I want episodes that are better than this, dammit. Two out of four stars,

Billie