THE DEAD ZONE - Grains of Sand

A psychic, a sheriff, a physical therapist, and a baby...

By Jason Davis     August 05, 2005

In the wake of a beautifully realized flash flood, Johnny Smith finds himself with a recently orphaned baby and virtually no idea how to find the child's father. Any ordinary series would find it difficult to get a story out of this set-up which would likely end with child welfare or social services, but Johnny's visions provide an always interesting detour around the obvious choices and this story is no exception. Having saved the child from the flooded wreck of his mother's van, a touch reveals that the boy will suffer an unhappy existence should he be placed with the proper authorities. Thus, Johnny, with a little help from Bruce, Sarah, and an INS officer, set out to find little Mikey a father.

"Grains of Sand" makes the most of its set-up with no shortage of humorous moments between Johnny, Bruce, and the baby. When the two set off to find the missing father, their expedition is amusingly curtailed by the realization that they've forgotten the kid. Nicole de Boer gets some quality time with the baby and the writers sneak in a few references to her difficulties as a single mother after Johnny's accident left her to raise their son alone.

Never does THE DEAD ZONE miss a chance to bring the history of its regular cast to the forefront when an issue hits home. While the baby triggers Sarah's memories of JJ, it represents the road not taken (or rather, the road denied) in terms of his own son. Johnny's visions focussing on his raising of the child present an alternate reality that the audience can honestly believe the character would appreciate. Though he was denied the raising of his own son, Johnny sees a chance to recapture that experience here, and one probably wouldn't forgive him a moment's hesitation in getting to the job at hand.

Guest actress Lourdes Benedicto turns in a fine performance as INS agent Eva Cortez, while the regulars offer up their usual top notch performances. Chris Bruno's Sheriff Bannerman gets a great moment when he confronts Johnny about his hiding of the child. As always, his special understanding with Johnny assures the audience that things will be alright despite the underlying tension of a duly elected law enforcement agent being forced to work within the parameters established by his wife's psychic ex-fiancé.

The parallelism between Johnny's deceit of the sheriff and his deceit of the child in his visions is an excellent touch that lends a weightier dimension to the proceedings. The episode's comedic moments are well integrated to the plot without detracting from the drama and things are suitably resolved by the hour's end. If there's one weak spot in the story, it's hit on the nose with a line from Sheriff Bannerman that positively screams out for the wrong kind of laughter. Upon closing the case, Bannerman remarks that thanks to Smith, Penobscot County's human trafficking has been brought to an end. Thanks to Stephen King, Maine is certainly full of the strange and unexpected, but this bit of dialogue just steps into the absurd--if it hadn't made the final cut, the viewer's suspension of disbelief would have made the leap without being told there was a leap to make.