Critical Myth

Television has become the medium of today's modern mythology, delivering the exploits of icons and archetypes to the masses. Names like Mulder, Scully, Kirk, Spock, and Buffy have become legend. This blog is a compilation of the reviews written about the tales of our modern day heroes.

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Thursday, September 01, 2005

Dead Zone 4.11: "Saved"


Written by Loren Segan and Christina Lynch
Directed by James Head

In which Stilson comes to Johnny for help when the woman he loves disappears without a trace, but when Johnny uncovers the truth, he must decide whose agenda is more important…


This season has been a bit haphazard compared to earlier seasons, which has made it difficult to keep clear perspective. There hasn’t been a good streak of solid episodes all summer; week to week, the quality has varied, especially when personal impressions are taken into account. If I were asked which season was my least favorite, I would have to say this one. That’s not to say that it was horrible; I just thought it was inconsistent.

This episode, or rather my reaction to it, is a good example of where I’m at with this series. I love the premise, and since I’m on record as a big fan of the series mythology (apparently in the minority on that), this should have been a strong finale, from my point of view. But it actually left me cold. I was disappointed to see that the story ended so quickly, since there were some other story choices that could have been more interesting. But more importantly, did it really take the story anywhere?

Sure, there’s Stilson’s relationship to Miranda, which is tied to Stilson’s rising political fortunes. Miranda knows that Stilson is a murderer, and that he’s probably been involved in a lot more than that over the years. She wants to get away from Stilson, and of course, Johnny tries to help her. But things quickly go wrong, and Miranda chooses to remain with Stilson, because otherwise, Stilson’s allies will kill Johnny.

That last bit is the only real point of interest in the entire episode. Everything else is by the numbers. Stilson’s friend Janus could have been manipulating the entire situation, right down to waiting for Johnny to get involved. Was Stilson steered in Johnny’s direction? Maybe so, but I had the sense that it was a sincere request on his part. I think Janus simply used Stilson as much as he used Johnny.

All of which plays into something that has always been a possibility, but has never been explored as much as it could or should have been. Who’s to say that Stilson is really the problem? Sure, Stilson is corrupt as it gets, but is he really the one paving the road to the end of the world? I’m more inclined to think of Stilson as the kind of charismatic figurehead that many of George W. Bush’s detractors paint him as: a man who is ruled by far more sinister allies, who operate behind the scenes. Janus fits that bill perfectly.

I’m not sure, however, that the writers are going in that direction, because it would complicate matters even further. Johnny was already asked, in the second season, to join forces with Stilson. This feels like a repeat of that moment. My only hope would be that this time, Johnny has a sense that if he were to take the offer, it would be to counter the influence of Stilson’s sinister allies like Janus. That’s the only thing that I think this episode put on the table: it’s possible for Johnny to make decisions that will prevent Armageddon, but only if he directly interacts with Stilson in the process.

Some of the more minor character moments play into this concept. Purdy was very confident in Stilson and his future, but he’s clearly worried about Janus and his ilk. He might try to convince Johnny to join Stilson. It would be interesting to see how everyone else in his life would react to such a decision. Would the writers be willing to take such an extreme step?

That might sound like a bad idea, but if the writers want to keep the mythology from growing stale, they need to shake things up. It wouldn’t prevent Johnny from getting involved in the stand-alone situations, and it would add serious complication and subversive quality to the mythology. The alternative is another episode like this, where it’s a slight change of pace, but in the end, it’s another example of Johnny acting without a clear sense of the consequences of his own decisions. That can be interesting, but the possibility is there to go in a more intriguing direction, allowing the character to grow in unexpected ways.

Writing: 1/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 1/4

Final Rating: 6/10

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