Medium 2.7: "Judge, Jury, Executioner"

Written by Bruce Miller
Directed by Peter Werner

In which Joe is assigned to the jury for a murder trial, and his impressions of the evidence run counter to Allison’s visions, causing them both to run into issues of disclosure…


As usual, the writers manage to find a new spin on the series’ formula. In this case, the question is posed: what if Joe were placed in a position where his judgment was compared to Allison’s visions? Would Joe’s logical approach to a situation, given the bare facts of a case, match up with Allison’s intuition? I love how this episode underscores the rather interesting polar opposites at play.

Joe takes things from a pragmatic point of view in his profession (as many engineers do), and so his approach to a murder case would logically follow the same premise. His sense of fairness and relatively even keel (necessary for life with Allison) didn’t do much to get him off a jury, but they did make him a good and reasonable juror.

Of course, Allison doesn’t operate in the logical world, because she often feels compelled to act on little or no solid information. She has “evidence” that cannot be found in any other way, and her impressions are open to interpretation in the most extreme manner imaginable. Inevitably, once her visions and dreams are explained, they turn out to trump Joe’s logical approach.

The teaser was, in keeping with many previous installments, disturbing on several levels. I thought it was a strong way to add mystery and tension to the episode, which was otherwise not the most exciting case. The truth about the murder was relatively easy to work out, but that simplicity allowed for more exploration of the logic/intuition dichotomy.

It was also great to see Devalos in action again, so soon after his last appearance in the courtroom. I wouldn’t want the series to slide into that kind of specific format each and every episode, but it does allow for a wider scope and it keeps the focus on Allison from becoming stale. There’s also a rough arc in place for Devalos’ re-election bid, which is a nice touch.

I would also like to see this logic/intuition exploration come up again in future episodes. While this is essentially what happens on a regular basis, it was really driven home in this episode and I enjoyed how that added some layers to the narrative. Done incorrectly, it could devolve into a Mulder/Scully dynamic, but I trust the writers of this series to make it more organic, given their strong track record thus far.

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

Final Rating: 7/10