Hello friends and welcome back to TV Tuesday! This week I’m bring you all my thoughts on season 4 of the TV show, The Dead Zone based on the book by Stephen King.

This season picks up right where season 3 ended… with Johnny on the floor. He’s found and brought to the hospital because he needs brain surgery. But he also has a warrant out for his arrest because Purdy admitted to having someone kill the financial guy and make it look like a suicide so the person who murdered Rachel still out there.

Johnny knows that it was Stillson, he just needs to prove it. He also knows that Rebecca has gone to DC to try and kill Stillson to pay for what he did to her sister. So Johnny gets Bruce to abduct him and drive him to DC to stop Rebecca.

First of all, I’m sitting here going, this guy was in a hospital bed, getting ready for brain surgery and he leaves. Then even after this episode is over, there is no mention of going for surgery at all. He’s worried his visions will go away or that he’ll be stuck in a coma, but then after that there is no mention of it. So weird.

In the end, he does stop Rebecca, almost too late but he does. We also get more backstory on Greg as a child and how abusive his father is. Apparently in the past, his father “took care of” one of his girlfriends and now that’s what he’s done again with Rachel. Anyone who gets too close to Greg must die, apparently.

Talk about messed up. So it was really, Stillson Sr. who killed Rachel, and when Johnny tells Greg, Greg goes and kills his father in a blind rage.

They then pin the murder of Rachel on his father and say he accidently died by drunkenly falling and catching this throat on a dresser (because that’s believable) and that’s that, case closed.

Rebecca tells Johnny it’s over and she wants to move on. Johnny I guess tired of his narrative (aren’t we all) throws his magical cane that he can see the future apocalypse with, into the lake. I’m kinda glad that cane is gone because he’s never really needed it and I’ve always hated it.

I have to laugh because in the last season I wrote that I wanted more progression on this plot and it basically ends in the first episode of this season. So after all that, is this plot really over and done with the apocalypse?! So cheap, I hate it.

So then the season progresses back into its natural flow, Johnny using his visions for good, he helps a woman escape after being kidnapped, while leading one back to their abductor to become the perfect woman (that was a strange plot), he saves a woman from being killed by a jealous daughter, he saves a man on death row by showing he’s innocent, he helps a son find his father he thought was dead.

We get an episode where another physic comes to town. Alex is a physic who uses her emotions to tell her visions. The two of them end up working together to help a little boy who is brain dead and in a coma, stop his angry father from killing people. It was interesting to see the two of them work together; of course they tried to put them together. Every time they both said it wouldn’t work, but Johnny goes ‘it would be fun to try’. Who knows if they’ll bring that plot back. 

We also get an episode where it deals with immigration and people who are coming into the country illegally. It mostly dealt with the foster system though, because when a woman who was smuggled in illegally dies, she leaves behind a baby boy. Johnny has this deal with protecting him because he sees the baby’s future and it’s not pretty. In the end he’s able to find the father so they can be reunited.

It was also interesting to see Johnny have visions of himself raising this baby… does Johnny want to be a father? Like truly hands on father? We do get an episode where Sarah and Walt are in the talks of trying for a baby.  

So we do get more of the apocalypse plotline, I honestly thought that they were done with it. So at first we’re led to believe that one of Johnny’s high school students is involved with it, but slowly we debunk that. This whole thing is so twisted.

Alex, his former student became this really cool scientist… I always forget that Johnny has a science background because he was a teacher for like 2 episodes, and Alex comes back into Johnny’s life at this reunion. Johnny sees a vision of Alex dying in the apocalypse… only it’s not really true. Stillson is involved, but not with Alex. Stillson wants Alex’s research but he doesn’t realize it… or well until it’s too late. In the end, we realize it was Alex’s partner who was in cahoots with Stillson. Geez. So Stillson is still planning something.

At the same time, in his vision, Johnny saw Stillson as the president, which can only mean bad things ahead.   

I have to say this season has really dug into the father plot this year. After almost adopting a kid to getting a whole episode dedicated to Johnny’s father, which I thought was interesting. We’ve never really gotten a picture of who is father is as he died when Johnny was really young, whereas in the book, Herb was a prominent figure in Johnny’s life.

So we’re at first led to believe that maybe Herb isn’t dead, then we’re lead to believe that he was physic too, then we’re lead to believe he knew all about Johnny’s abilities way before even Johnny knew… so then the coma didn’t give him these powers? They didn’t really explore that and I would have liked to dig a little deeper than just getting surface level with this plot. I wonder if they’ll ever bring it back.

Anyways, we get all that because Johnny finds a doll in the floor, that he sees in a vision, his father had buried there and the episode just spirals into learning that his father didn’t exactly die when his mother said he did and that he was mentally unwell and was taken to an insane asylum.

My other beef with this plot is Purdy… it always leads back to this guy… he knew about Johnny’s father, but when Johnny asked about it Purdy acted like he didn’t know and he fully did, like why lie and just tell him? Trying to keep his father’s ‘reputation’? Makes no sense to me.

Then we get an episode with Sarah’s father. I found it interesting that he went up with her because Walt couldn’t. Johnny is like the fill in husband. Anyways, he uses his powers to not only save her father from the ‘shadow man’ but he also brings Sarah and her father closer together after being estranged for decades.  

Before I get to the season finale, I want to talk about the random Christmas special that they tacked on to the season. It was cute and cheery and of course Johnny has to save people with his power and bring people back together on Christmas Eve. It seems some jobs just don’t quit. We also get the return of Alex, the physic. He says they’re just friends, but they are full on kissing and acting couply. I also thought it was real random that she just showed up, okay that part wasn’t as far a stretch as when they just start kissing out of nowhere. Like they haven’t seen each other in months and they’re kissing like they’ve been a couple for months. So strange, I guess we’ll be seeing more of her.

Alright now for the season finale because guess what we’re back to the apocalypse. So Stillson goes to find Johnny because he needs his help, is girlfriend Miranda is missing, gone overboard on the boat they were on.

Johnny doesn’t want to help but he feels if he doesn’t help Miranda, he’ll be just like Stillson. As he starts to put the pieces together. Stillson may truly love her, but he’s not convinced. He also learns the truth about Stillson’s father’s death and that Miranda was forced into the relationship by her own father who thinks Stillson will bring their family some pedigree. Bleh. I hate it here.

So Johnny goes to save Miranda, and he gets really close, only for her to be found by Stillson’s men and brought back to Stillson. 

Before Miranda was found Johnny stopped seeing the apocalypse, but now that Miranda is back he sees it again, so she must be part of the puzzle, we’re just not sure how yet. UH! Can this plot just be over; it’s maddening for all this flip flopping. I am curious to see where the next season is going to go… hopefully closer to this plot.