Episode Description:

Johnny becomes involved in a decade-old murder mystery at an “Alice in Wonderland”-themed circus. While there, he realizes that J.J. might have inherited some of his psychic abilities. - TV Guide

Episode Review:

Lorenzo: "Whoever's doing this clearly hates mirrors."

Weird.  Not necessarily in a bad way, though.

What I found most intriguing was the flashback to Johnny and Sarah at the carnival at the beginning of the series.  That was the night of Johnny's first serious psychic flash at the wheel of fortune, J.J.'s conception, and Johnny's near-fatal car accident.  I think they went back to the inception of Johnny's gift because they just revealed that J.J. is also psychic.  Clearly not in Johnny's league yet, but who knows where it will go? When Johnny was small, he had flashes, too.

I'm not wild about circus stories. The innocent man framed for a crime he didn't commit, with many broken and bloody mirrors, managed to be strange and different as well as predictable.  Johnny's old friend Lorenzo felt like the bad guy from the moment he was introduced, and Dan guessed early that Johnny's visions were of the past, not the future.  But at least it wasn't boring.  I didn't mind J.J.'s obsession with a fourteen-year-old acrobat, either.

This season has been good so far, but different.  Where are they going with Sarah, with J.J., with Stillson?  I'm not complaining (well, except that I want Bruce back) and I'm enjoying the Sarah-J.J.-baby stuff more than I thought I would, but I'm still curious about our ultimate season six
destination.  Are we going to get all stand-alone episodes?  Are the long-standing story arcs, especially the Stillson arc, really over?  Are Johnny and Sarah going to get married, after all?

Bits and pieces and shards of glass:

-- All the Alice in Wonderland and through the looking glass stuff was transparent symbolism, pardon the pun.  And the victim, Alice, really did go through the mirrors.

-- Speaking of mirrors, one scene showed both Lorenzo and Sheriff Bitch with their reflections distorted by broken glass.  Lorenzo turned out to be the bad guy.  What about the Sheriff?

-- Sarah again told Johnny he wasn't J.J.'s father, but least she backtracked this time and said that Johnny wasn't Walt. Sarah and Walt kept J.J.'s paternity a secret for a long time, after all, and that wasn't Johnny's choice.

-- Shawshank prison was mentioned.  A fun Stephen King reference.

Quotes:

Sarah: "She doesn't have diaper rash."
Johnny: "Listen. I touched her butt earlier, okay? She's gonna."

Johnny: "There's a fine line between admirer and stalker."

Johnny: "Okay. Older woman, fourteen, acrobat..."
Sarah: "Oh, stop. I'm so not ready for this."
Johnny: "Sound familiar? A girl, a boy, a carnival..."
Sarah: "But better this time, right?"

I think this fell somewhere between two and three stars

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:

Episode Notes:

Episode Rating: 2.065 million viewers.

Cast & Crew:

Written by: Richard Hatem
Directed by: Nick Copus
Guest Starring: Cara Buono (Sheriff Anna Turner) & Patrick Labbe (Lorenzo).