The Dead Zone – Recap – Episode 3

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Episode Title: Double Vision
Episode Airdate: June 26th, 2005

Recap:

Sorry about the lack of original recap last week, and be sure to read my debut Flagship column, A Case of the Mondays. Here’s the address:
http://tv.insidepulse.com/articles/38833

Johnny is driving down the street, ironically writing down a grocery list while driving, but staring at the road while stopped at a red light. Well, I guess he’s psychic, so he already knows what’s in front of him. Anyway, while at the red light he catches eyes with an attractive blonde woman. The two make smiles at each other, when suddenly her expression changes. Johnny asks “Was it something I said?” and when the light turns green he hits the gas and rams right into somebody. Heh…I guess he doesn’t know what’s coming. The man runs away before Johnny can check on him, so Johnny pulls into a parking lot and checks his car. Upon touching the hood, he has a vision of the man he hit sniping (is that the right word for a sniper?) somebody. While on the phone with Walt, Johnny sees the victim walk into the building across the street. After a tuffle with the security guard, Johnny manages to get into the building. Before he’s able to get to the man, however, the attractive female runs past him and tackles the future victim out of the way. She high tails it out of the building before Johnny can talk to her, though.

I must say, I like the new Dead Zone theme music. I’m still more partial to the 4400 one, though.

Johnny and Walt check the room that the sniper was waiting at. The landlord (I assume) tells them that the attractive female checked the room earlier in the morning. While Johnny has a vision of the man shooting the victim, he sees the attractive woman in the vision. She asks “Who are you?” to Johnny. When Johnny shakes the landlord’s hand, he has a vision of the woman talking to him. In the vision, Johnny sees the shooter hiding behind a door. Johnny touches the door, and has a vision of the shooter shooting a doctor with a fuzzy bear around his stethoscope.

When he gets outside, Johnny goes to his car and touches his door, causing him to have a vision of the woman walking over to it, but running away upon seeing Walt in his police car. Johnny sees her down the street and calls after her, but she runs away, swings her arm around a tree, and runs into a bus. As the bus drives away, Johnny touches the tree and has a vision of her car being parked in a lot, in spot #135.

Johnny arrives at the garage, and finds the car that he saw in his vision. He touches the ticket, and has a vision of himself waiting outside the garage door as the woman walks through it. Johnny asks “you forget where you parked?” Now back out of the vision, Johnny takes the ticket and stares at it. It’s for Le Soleil, but I’m not sure what that is. He walks over to the door and stands closely to it, before running back to the spot that he’s supposed to be waiting at. The woman reaches the bottom of the door (the opposite side), but decides not to walk through it. The two have a weird split screen moment where they both wait outside the door. Johnny finally grabs the handle, and is attacked by a swarm of bees. Now at a playground, the swarm of bees attacks a small blond girl, before literally completely enveloping her. Johnny finally opens the door, but nobody is on the other side.

Johnny walks into a restaurant, where the host tells him his reservation is ready. Johnny is initially confused, but decides to play along with it. The host grabs a sports jacket, and tells Johnny that the woman expected he’d like a brown one. He tells her the lady is wrong, and takes a blue one instead. Humorously, when Johnny asks how he looks, the host snidely replies (in a snobby tone) “sporty.” When Johnny arrives at the table, the attractive blond is waiting for him.

Johnny sits down, and notices that she has already ordered his favorite wine. She also ordered exactly what he wanted to eat, to a tee. She admits to being a psychic, and that she was testing him with the cat and mouse game. She also finally tells him that her name is Alex Sinclair. In a funny moment, when Johnny gets his steak, she immediately reaches over and goes to take a piece, asking “do you mind?” and he says “no, no….not now.”

Now outside, Johnny mentions that he’s been seeing a lot of bees. She tells him the story of when she was seven and was stung on over 90% of her body. She’s hyper-allergic, so she carries a shot with her. They then discuss their double vision, with Johnny theorizing that they saw the same vision at different points of time. Johnny saw her in the past, while she saw him in the future. He then asks her to help him and Walt with the investigation.

That night, Alex and Johnny are at Johnny’s place (more like palace). In a funny bit, the two of them walk through the entire house, with Alex constantly touching decorations and putting them back at the wrong place, with Johnny putting them back at the right spot. Alex also explains that she has her visions when people are feeling extreme emotions. They decide to try to have another joint vision, but just in case, Alex gives Johnny her needle. He grabs her hands, but has no vision. Alex explains that he needs to be feeling extreme emotion, so she kisses him. They then have a vision of Alex in a field, looking down at her slightly cut hand. She has trouble breathing, and drops to the ground grasping for breath. The real Alex gets freaked out, and runs away. When Johnny comes out of the vision, only Walt is there. Alex is no where to be seen. Walt tells Johnny he thinks he knows where the next victim is.

Walt and Johnny arrive at a hospital, saying that the insurance agent who was almost shot earlier does nearly all the claims for this hospital. Already inside, Alex is walking with a small child, who she had a vision of at the beginning of the episode. Johnny sees Alex getting into an elevator, and begins yet another cat and mouse chase to find her. As Alex walks through the halls, she is approached by more and more children. Johnny runs over to her, and grabs her hand so that he can see all the vision of the children as well. He asks who all the children are, and she tells him that they’re all patients reaching out to her through their fear, pain, and desperation. Johnny and Alex see the doctor that is going to be shot, and they manage to save him before the shooter can do the job. They then realize that they are in the room of the young boy who Alex saw in her first vision.

The doctor explains that the boy’s name is Charlie Monroe, and that he was hit by a car while playing with his friends. The doctor further explains that there is no chance of recovery, and that his brain is dead. The mother signed papers to take him off life support, but his father refused. The doctor gives them information to get in touch with the mother, to hopefully find his father. Johnny goes into Charlie’s room, gently touches his head, but has no vision.

Outside, Johnny gives Alex some coffee and asks her why she ran away. Alex explains she always had visions of her death, but somebody was always there to save her. Somebody she could not see. She now believes it is him, and that she’s done everything she can to not be under that sky (that she sees when she dies).

At Mrs. Monroe’s house, where she tells them that she last saw her ex-husband a week ago. Once Charlie was declared brain dead, the insurance company refused to make his payments. At that point, Frank (Charlie’s father) snapped. Alex asks to see Charlie’s bedroom. Inside, Alex finds a crucifix on the floor. When she puts it on a night table, she suddenly has a vision of hundreds of crucifixes around the room. Downstairs, Johnny asks what church they attend. Apparently Frank begged the father for a miracle, and was enraged when that miracle didn’t happen. Ya’ know, in all fairness, it’s not the priest’s fault if a miracle didn’t happen. That’s all God and saints and stuff.

Walt, Johnny, and Alex arrive at the church, and immediately Alex sees Charlie standing outside the church. Walt says he’s going to call for back up as the two unarmed, non-police officers walk inside. Once the three of them are inside, they tell everybody that there is a gas leak so they need to evacuate. Alex sees Charlie standing at a stairwell, and follows him. She continues following him from room to room, until she gets locked in a room with several candles by Frank.

Johnny notices that Alex is gone, and runs up the stairway. Moments later, Walt notices that Johnny is gone. Does anybody page attention here? As Johnny walks through the rooms, he touches a wall and has a vision of Frank shooting a priest. Moments later, Frank walks into the room (but doesn’t see Johnny) and starts putting together his gun.

Alex is still locked in the room and banging on the door as she yells for help. Suddenly she cuts her hand, and is at a loss of breath. She falls to the ground, and sees that the candles in the room are 100% beeswax. Wow, can that really kill you if you’re allergic to bees? Anyway, she continues grasping for breath as she looks up at the ceiling, which is painted as the sky.

Johnny continues to watch Frank put together his gun. He goes into his pocket and takes out Alex’s needle. He has a vision of her suffocating as he walks into the room. Meanwhile, Frank attempts to gun down the priest, but can’t get a clean shot because Walt is escorting him out. Frank attempts to get another shot, but Johnny calls out to him. Finally, after a while, Johnny manages to talk him down. Johnny tells Frank that Charlie’s heart is still alive, even if his brain isn’t.

Alex continues grasping for breath. Ya’ know, she’s really lasting a long time, isn’t she? Anyway, eventually Charlie comes into the room and whispers something into her ear.

Johnny continues talking Frank down, eventually getting Frank to allow him to go into the room to save Alex, telling him that if she dies, they’ll never know why Charlie sent her. They go inside, and Johnny gives her a shot from the needle. She regains her breath, and tells Frank that Charlie wanted to tell him that he’s okay, and he’ll see him again someday. Finally, Frank gives his gun to Johnny. Alex looks up at the painting of the sky again, and says “I’ve never seen such a beautiful sky.”

At the hospital, Alex, Johnny, and Mrs. Monroe stand by Charlie’s bed side. She tells them that she decided not to sign the papers after everything that has happened. Johnny whispers something in her ear, and gives her a hug. She then thanks him, and Johnny and Alex leave.

Ya’ know something humorously ironic happened at this point of the episode. Johnny and Alex walk outside, and Johnny asks how she’s doing. She said “The sun is shining, the birds are singing” and then, to myself, I said “bees are trying to have sex with them, as I understand it” quoting the classic Simpsons line. The ironic part? Alex was almost killed by bees. Hmmm, actually that sounds a lot more morbid than humorous. And it’s more of a coincidence than ironic.

Alright, well after the morbid coincidence, Johnny and Alex say their good byes. They go to kiss, but Alex pulls away. Who needs the grief, they ask? Then, they share a passionate kiss. Oddly, Johnny says “everything’s in place” as he quickly looks at his crotch. Strange. They agree that it would never work, both being psychics and all. Johnny then says “Sure would be fun trying, though.” Before she leaves, Alex asks Johnny what she told Mrs. Monroe. He told her it was time for her to rest, and that she has done all she can do, and now it’s up to God. Alex tells Johnny he’s not what she expected, and then drives away.

Review:

I actually enjoyed this episode quite a bit, definitely more so than last week’s episode. I found Alex’s explanation about what sort of visions she has confusing, but I like her character as a whole, and I think she had some nice chemistry with Johnny. What I don’t understand is how she says she had her visions based on extreme emotions, yet she was able to find out everything about Johnny, during a period that he was not feeling intense emotion. Further, the only visions we saw her have was seeing people during their intense emotion. In what way does this allow her to see the future? I didn’t understand how she was able to foresee Frank shooting the insurance agent, when that was inconsistent with what we learned and saw from her throughout the rest of the episode. That said, if they clear up exactly what her abilities are, I’d certainly enjoy seeing her in more episodes.

Walt is starting to remind me of Commissioner Gordon from the old Adam West Batman series. Gordon was so exceptionally reliant on Batman and Robin that he’d call upon them to do everything, making him seem like he was completely incompetent. “What, somebody is double parked? This sounds like a job for the Caped Crusader!” Don’t get me wrong, I love Walt and I think he’s a tremendous character, and in fairness it usually is Johnny who has a vision and calls Walt (opposed to Walt having a case, and calling Johnny), but I think the writers should make Walt seem a little more self-reliant. It doesn’t really make him look too good when Johnny is the one handling interrogations, while Walt just stands there.

Anyway, from Tuesday until Sunday I will be in New Orleans, so if you e-mail me during that time, I won’t be able to get back to you until I return. If anybody has ever been to New Orleans and has any suggestions (aside from Bourbon Street….I already know about that), try to e-mail me before noon on Tuesday.

I believe Dead Zone is a repeat next week, so catch my next recap in two weeks. However, be sure to read this week and next week’s A Case of the Mondays. The link is above.

Matt Basilo has been writing for Inside Pulse since April 2005, providing his insight into various popular television shows. Be sure to visit his blog at [a case of the blog] and follow him on Twitter.