TV-Reviewed

The Dead Zone made its sixth season premier tonight. Although I’m not as big of a fan of the series as I was in the beginning, it’s still a decent show. Anyway, tonight’s episode focused on a vision Johnny had of a friend dying. It turns out Johnny envisions Walt being killed somehow and he’s got to stop it from coming true.

According to Sarah, Walt has been acting funny recently. He’s been receiving lots of phone calls and anytime he’s on the computer emailing someone, Walt doesn’t want Sarah to look at the emails. While a wife would have perfectly good reasons to think her husband is cheating in this case, Johnny doesn’t believe Walt would do that to Sarah.

There are two instances where Johnny sees Walt being killed. One is in the police station and the other is during a chase through a little carnival. Fortunately, Johnny is able to save Walt on both occasions. When Johnny touches Walt to see if he gets another vision, nothing happens. Walt takes this as good news, but it doesn’t really mean much of anything.

Malcolm Janus and Vice President Greg Stillson are in town for a speech. Malcolm has some changes for Stillson’s speech, and you can see Stillson isn’t happy with them.

Rev. Purdy receives a visit from Malcolm a little later in the episode, and they have differing views for what the Faith Heritage should stand for and be used for. Purdy wants to go back to when the church was for the community, while Malcolm wants to use it to further Stillson’s political career.

We catch up with Walt, who has had to leave an angry Sarah to get a tip on a case. When Walt meets with an informant, we learn the case has something to do with Johnny, however no good details are divulged.

Johnny has another vision, but this time of Rev. Purdy. Johnny sees him in a fire at the church. He immediately calls Walt, who was on his way to meet Rev. Purdy. When Walt arrives at the church, he find it is on fire. He rushes in to save whoever he can.

A bit later, we find the fire department and paramedics are on the scene. The paramedics work on reviving Walt, but they are unsuccessful.

Johnny uses his “ability” and is able to put Sarah at ease by repeating a phrase only she and Walt said to one another. Johnny is also able to figure out Walt was able to save Rev. Purdy from the fire, but not Malcolm. The fire was caused by a struggle between Purdy and Malcolm. Purdy is distraught because he feels he is responsible for the death of both men.

The previews USA ran warned us about a character being killed, and Walt was the one I was expecting. I couldn’t see them killing off any other main character. One problem I had with the new episode was the casting change. The actor playing J.J. has changed, and it’s an obvious difference. I’m not certain why the change took place, but I hope no other changes like this are made.

The Dead Zone - Heritage
Original Air Date: June 17, 2007

Rating: 7.5