Episode Description:

When Johnny becomes plagued with various visions of an attacker, a victim and a rescuer, he struggles to decipher what they all mean.

Episode Review:

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

Bille Doux reviews episodes of 'The Dead Zone' for her website.
She reviews individual episodes of science fiction & cult TV shows
for her website, located at http://www.billiedoux.com/

Behind The Scenes:

 - I always thought "Symmetry" would become a fan favorite much like "Precipitate" was in Season 2. It's one of those episodes that's a real brain twister. You kind of have to be patient with it and stay with it, sort of trust the writers and the director. And trust the series, that it's going to actually provide an answer at the end of this episode-long puzzle that satisfies. You enjoy the ride and, just when you think you start to understand it, we add a new twist. - Shawn Piller's Blog (07/30)

 - I remember it this way ... we fell in love with the concept of Johnny having a vision at the time that he's touching more than one person. We asked ourselves, "How would that manifest?"

That was the idea that we started with -- Johnny touching several people at one time -- and then we just went from there and came up with the idea of telling the story backwards. That idea gets you to multiple visions and, if you didn't know where those multiple visions were coming from, then you get to the idea of the episode. - Episode writers Loren Segan & Chris Lynch (07/30)

Cast & Crew:

Written by:  Christina Lynch & Loren Segan
Directed by: Rachel Talalay
Guest Starring: Tamara Craig Thomas (Maiya), Richard Leacock (Desmond), Aaron Pearl (Cole), Bill Mondy (Deputy Roscoe)