What It Seems (Dead Zone)
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| “What It Seems” | |
|---|---|
| The Dead Zone episode | |
 Sheriff Walt Bannerman |
|
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 2 |
| Guest stars | Rick Tae Michael St. John Smith Kristen Dalton Emily Holmes Fran Gebhard Michael Rogers |
| Written by | Michael Piller |
| Directed by | Robert Lieberman |
| Production no. | 1002 |
| Original airdate | 23 June 2002 |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "Wheel of Fortune" | "Quality of Life" |
| List of The Dead Zone episodes | |
"What It Seems)" is the second episode of the USA Network original series the Dead Zone, based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King. It is the second of the series premier "Wheel of Fortune (Part 1)."
[edit] Plot Synposis
Following Johnny's (Anthony Michael Hall) vision of his nurse Allison (Emily Holmes) becoming the next victim of the Bangor Strangler, Johnny and Bruce (John L. Adams) rush to her home to find her gone, with no indication of a struggle.
At the Penobscot County Sheriff's Office, Deputy Frank Dodd (Michael Rogers) grudgingly takes Johnny's statement as Deputy Roscoe (Bill Mondy) plays cards with attractive police reporter Dana Bright (Kristen Dalton). When Dodd learns that Allison has only been missing for a few hours, he grows suspicious of Johnny insistence that the nurse may already be dead. Bruce insists that Johnny has powerful psychic visions that have already saved lives, and he urges the police to listen.
When Sarah's husband, Sheriff Walt Bannerman (Chris Bruno), arrives, Johnny immediately recognizes him. Dana asks Johnny if he thinks he can help catch the Strangler who is now on the loose, but before Johnny can answer, Walt ushers him into his office. He listens to Johnny's statement with undisguised skepticism, but the encounter becomes labored when Walt realizes just who Johnny really is. Eventually, the sheriff agrees to assign a unit to patrol Allison's neighborhood overnight. Later that evening, Sarah (Nicole de Boer) tells Walt about her visit to Johnny's house that afternoon; she tells her husband how thrilled Johnny was to meet J.J., and Walt's uneasiness with the ramifications of Johnny's return begin to show.
The next day, Johnny is visited from Eugene Purdy (David Ogden Stiers), who assures Johnny that access has been arranged for whatever money he needs. Purdy then invites Johnny to take part in the work being done at his Faith Heritage University, but Johnny graciously declines. Parting ways with Purdy, Johnny visits Allison's house, where he has a strange vision of a mailman being chased by a barking dog.
Along the side of the house, Johnny touches a muddy boot print under Allison's bedroom window, and has a vision of a man standing in a terrible storm wearing a rain-slicker and the distinctive boots of the Bangor Strangler. He sees Allison through her window, and then, in a rush of images, he finds the Strangler in a field with a shovel in his hands as a girl's body is dumped into a shallow grave. Snapping back, Johnny is met by Walt as the sheriff arrives; Walt is shocked when Johnny dscribes details about the Strangler's boots that have not been publicly revealed.
Still skeptical about Johnny's "powers," Walt visits Dr. Tran (Rick Tae), who concedes that Johnny's unique psychic abilities should not be taken lightly. At the Sherrif's office, Walt allows Johnny to examine the evidence recovered from the three previous Strangler murders; all the police has to go on are cigarette butts found at the scene of each killing. When Johnny touches one, he slips into the Strangler's mind, chanting the refrain to Jimmy Crack Corn; he reveals that the Strangler's mother abused him, and that he only strikes during rainstorms so that any trace evidence will be washed away. He also explains that nothing is ever found under the victims' fingernails because the Strangler always wears a slick vinyl raincoat.
Sarah arrives at the sheriff's office for a lunch date with Walt and insists that Johnny join them. During the awkward meal, Johnny has a vision that enables him to prevent a serious accident between a rambunctious young boy and a passing waitress.
Walt gets a call, and he and Johnny take off for Allison's house where Johnny is humiliated to find the nurse in perfect health. She explains that she had been out of town with her sister, having left quickly without checking her messages. Dana prints the embarrassing story, prompting Purdy's lawyer to suggest that they have Johnny declared incompetent to handle his own finances. Purdy rejects the offer, concerned that a legal action against the son of his ministry's largest benefactor would be bad for public relations.
At his home, Johnny is clearly confused by his mistake, and upset by the unreliability of his visions. When Sarah visits to cheer him up, Johnny is struck by a vision that blurs the line between reality and revelation; he sees himself and Sarah, in the next few minutes, having frantic sex in the middle of his kitchen. As Johnny distractedly asks Sarah to leave, Bruce calls to tell Johnny that he has figured out what went wrong. Bruce and Johnny return to Allison's house, and Bruce reconstructs the scene; as Bruce explains the possible scenarios, Johnny flashes back in visions to the events of that night and realizes that the Strangler was, in fact, at the house. It was Bruce's phone call, prompted by Johnny's initial vision, which caused Allison to dash up the path instead of walking, racing inside before the Strangler could attack her.
Having experienced the bloodlust of the Strangler, Johnny is sure that someone else must have been murdered that night. Johnny has another series of visions from the Strangler's perspective, and works his way towards a movie theater around the block from Allison's house. Johnny sees the early show letting out that night, and sees an attractive young blonde walking to the parking lot; as the Strangler, Johnny attacks the girl, pulling her into a gazebo in an adjoining park. Through the vision, Johnny experiences all of the perverse rage and malevolent hate of the Strangler's kill as he experiences the young woman's murder firsthand.
Johnny and Bruce hurry to the Bannerman house to tell Walt that the Strangler has murdered another woman, and that they've seen the grave. As police and reporters converge on the scene, Johnny reaches out to touch the corpse and announces that he knows who the killer is. He and Walt drive out to the Dodd residence where Deputy Frank lives with his mother, Henrietta (Fran Gebhard). She insists that Frank has gone fishing and tries to block them from entering the house; coming into contact with Henrietta, Johnny is hit with a vision that reveals her knowledge of all the details about the murders her son has committed. As Walt moves upstairs, Henrietta runs to the kitchen and retrieves a large knife, slashing Johnny's shoulder before Walt returns in time to shoot her and save the psychic's life.
Walt instructs Johnny to radio for backup as he checks out the basement of the Dodd house. When Johnny picks up the cruiser's radio, however, he has a vision of Dodd murdering Walt, leading Sarah to marry Johnny and mother a second child with him. Inside the house, Walt kicks open a locked door in the basement to find a macabre room filled with perverse souvenirs from Frank's victims. Dodd sneaks up on Walt and is about to shoot him when Johnny's cane comes crashing down on Frank's arm and the gun goes off harmlessly before dropping to the floor. Dodd escapes into a corner of the dark basement, intending to ambush his pursuers; but when he hears approaching police sirens, he turns the gun on himself instead.
Later that day, as the bodies of Frank and Henrietta Dodd are being taken away, Dana Bright corners Johnny and Walt to get quotes for her next story. Walt tells her that Johnny's assistance was critical in resolving the case, but Johnny pleads no comment as he would rather stay out of the headlines.
[edit] Trivia
- The Bangor Strangler storyline is derived from King's sourcework, though Dodd's method of suicide is changed for the series.
