Opening with a product placement as subtle as a neon sign with chorus girls dancing on top of it, the episode dispenses with the usual "Johnny and Bruce were out doing xyz..." set up to quickly start the story moving. In case you missed the episode, I'll do my part for the sponsors and say: "Sirius satellite radio is a must for psychics everywhere" before venturing into the unholy alliance that forms the spine of the story. The joy of Johnny's power is that it sidesteps tedious exposition by making it tedious exposition disguised as psychic prognostication. Another auctorial convenience is the ease with which Johnny can have said vision from even the most tangential contact with the vision's star. Realizing that Stillson's new girlfriend Miranda Ellis, charmingly played by DEAD LIKE ME's Laura Harris, is soon to be Stillson's missing at sea girlfriend, Johnny launches the plot into action.
Too late to save her, Smith receives a visit from Stillson who begs his help. In the course of this meeting, Johnny sees the apocalyptic imagery he normally associates with Stillson reverse itself. For viewers who've been with the show all four years, this is an intriguing moment. Fans of the book and 1983 film will recall Smith and Stillson as mortal enemies with the former unable to veer from an inevitable, and likely fatal encounter with the latter. To toy with the notion of a Stillson that's somehow surpassed his destructive tendencies due to the love of a good woman, is a brilliant spin on the concept. Having Johnny help him in the hopes of turning the congressman from his diabolical path raises the stakes. Revealing that Miranda Ellis has faked her disappearance and forcing Smith to hide it from Stillson is brilliance.
Though the show is unwilling to take measures to the extreme of de-clawing Stillson, the writers manage to get a great story out of the possibility. Sean Patrick Flannery does some of his best work to date in making Stillson almost sympathetic to an audience that has watched him commit quite the array of unforgivable offenses. Johnny's litany of lives ruined by the congressman adds a personal scope to his contempt for Stillson. As always, David Ogden Stiers and John L. Adams turn in top notch supporting performances, but Hall and Flannery definitely take the cake with their uneasy cooperation generating a some nice tension in a fun episode that, by THE DEAD ZONE's standards, breaks all the rules--well, for a little while. With "Saved," USA concludes this run of first run DEAD ZONE episodes and viewers may bid adieu to Johnny Smith until one touch unlocks another mystery...
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