TV-Reviewed

This week on The Dead Zone, we learn that J.J. has been sneaking out of the house, while a distracted Sarah tends to her newborn daughter, Hope. J.J. has told his soccer coach that he injured his ankle and has been going to a nearby circus which is in the old airfield. Johnny learns of the lies when he’s called by the coach and has a vision of J.J. Johnny follows J.J. and sees he has a fascination with a young girl who is one of the circus performers.

The young girl, Monique, plays the character Alice in the Alice-in-Wonderland themed circus performance. J.J. seems to be mesmerized by Monique’s acrobat training but reveals to Johnny that he’s very shy when he gets near her. Johnny scolds J.J. for his sneaking off and lying about it to he, Sarah, and the coach.

While at the circus, Johnny has a vision of a blond woman being killed in the hall of mirrors fun-house. Johnny also runs into an old friend from high school, Lorenzo. Lorenzo tells Johnny about how he actually owns the circus and bought it a long time ago and has worked hard to transform it into something much different.

Johnny continues to have visions of the young woman being killed as weird things begin to happen on the circus grounds. Lorenzo seems to be the target of someone who is angry at him. When it is revealed that a man by the name of Duncan has been doing these things, he’s placed under arrest. It seems he was charged for the murder of Alice, the woman who was killed in the hall of mirrors. He was released from prison just two weeks ago and seems to have a beef with Lorenzo.

As “Big Top” continues, Johnny puts additional pieces of the puzzle together and realizes Lorenzo was the one who killed Alice, not Duncan. He gets the sheriff (Cara Bruno) to arrest him and lets Duncan free.

A grounded J.J. sneaks out of his room to meet up with Monique at the circus, much to the surprise of Sarah and Johnny. They quickly rush to the circus where things seem to have gone wrong. Monique has been performing for J.J. and the cables seem to have malfunctioned. As Johnny gets there, he sees Duncan trying to save Monique, but he’s not strong enough to pull her up. When Monique crashes to the ground, J.J. catches her.

The murder mystery wasn’t particularly interesting. I did, on the other hand, find J.J.’s interest in Monique a little more interesting. It’s good to see he’s taken an interest in girls, but his behavior will result in a long-term grounding by the looks of things.

Speaking of J.J., it seems the writers may give J.J. the same sort of visionary abilities Johnny has. There were a few moments in tonight’s episode where J.J. seemed to know what would happen, and Johnny even questioned him about it. I’d be interested in seeing just where all of this goes.

The new sheriff, played by Cara Bruno, made a few appearances in this episode, and I have to admit I don’t care for the character one bit. There aren’t many redeeming qualities about her. She’s very rough around the edges, so to speak, and I’m wondering if she will just be a temporary character, who gets killed off in a few weeks.

The Dead Zone - Big Top
Original Air Date: July 08, 2007

Rating: 7.6