Medium 2.4: "Light Sleeper"

In which Allison begins having “sleepwalking” visions, placing her family and herself in danger, which causes friction with Joe as he tries to help her determine the source and resolve it…


Once again, the writers manage to find an interesting hook into an otherwise predictable story. For me, the draw of this episode was the intense dynamic between Allison and Joe, and things got a lot more heated than I would have expected. This is definitely going to be one of those polarizing episodes where battle lines are drawn: was Allison being too flippant about the dangers posed by her situation, or was Joe taking his frustration way too far?

The truth, I suspect, is somewhere in the middle, which is where the episode eventually takes us, without coming right out and saying it. Frankly, like in most cases, I see Joe’s point of view far more clearly than Allison’s. Allison does a lot of questionable things while “sleepwalking”, and even though she clearly has no idea what she’s doing or how she’s staying alive in the process, she doesn’t seem to take Joe’s concerns seriously.

Joe, on the other hand, is once again in the position of trying to keep the family intact without casualties, and this is probably the biggest threat to that safety since the series began. I can’t say how I’d deal with the same situation (I probably would have lost my mind much earlier), but his anxiety seems rather appropriate. It’s not like Allison is just chasing down a vision as usual; the vision is basically taking her over without her conscious awareness.

Joe’s attitude does betray a deep-seated bitterness and anger, and he doesn’t exactly communicate well when his temper finally snaps. But he’s also trying to overcome Allison’s lack of concern, and I can’t see how else he could have done it. He’s not the type to drug his wife without her knowledge, and she wasn’t seeing the problem very clearly. What else was he supposed to do?

In terms of the actual investigation, I’m not certain why it took so long for Allison and Joe to wonder if there was a connection between the case she was supposed to be working and her extreme condition. Granted, there’s no reason for her visions to be connected in that fashion, but without any other trigger event to speak of, why not make the assumption?

At any rate, the case itself was fairly obvious, and even without the damning details, it was clear who the perpetrator was. But as usual, it’s not the case itself that is the best part of the story; it’s the character exploration. One exception to that was the subplot with Ariel. While it looked like it was going in the “Ariel begins abusing her abilities” direction, it became something closer to a standard family drama subplot. Frankly, I wasn’t all that interested, as the children are still not clicking with me, as realistic as they often are.

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

Final Rating: 7/10