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ShadowDog's

30 Hour Dead Zone Marathon!




Marathon Hour:
24 25 26 27 28 29

Hours 1-5

Hours 6-9

Hours 10-13

Hours 14-17

Hours 18-22

Ground Rules 1) Start marathon at 7pm EST, end it when all of Season One and Two have been played. (Probably around 1am Thursday morning)
2) Watch at least one episode per hour, meaning I can take no longer a break than 15 minutes per hour.
3) I have to post at least one episode commentary at the top of each hour.
4) Diet Pepsi amounts are marathon totals, not per hour.

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Episode Commentary Key:

Visions: Prolonged marathons tend to cause hallucinations - er - visions.

Moron of the EP award: Who was the dumbest bastard in this ep?

General Remarks: What I thought of the ep, in general.

Offscreen Activity: The writers have a tendency to have things happen offscreen. Let's track it!

Timeline Notes: The Dead Zone time/space continuity is all jacked up. Let's see if watching everything in order in a row gives a new perspective!

Funny line of the ep: TEE HEE!


2.12 "Zion"
Ounces of Diet Pepsi: 150
Visions: I had a rerun vision. Am I in the darkness, or is the darkness in me?
Moron of the EP award: Scary, Tired Johnny. That's one creepy parallel Johnny they have there.

General Remarks: This was slated as the season two finale, and if it's one thing that Dead Zone does brilliantly it is season finales. This ep is no different. In fact, I don't think it's an exaggeration to state that "Destiny," "Zion" and "Visions" are the genius holy trinity of this series so far. All three eps are masterful works. "Zion" is also a member of another trifecta, the three character backstory eps ("Dinner With Dana," "Ascent," and "Zion") that explain where Dana, Walt, and Bruce come from.
It doesn't get any better than this ep for Bruce lovers. (Of which I am one)
"This little light of mine" is the song Vera was singing to Johnny in "The House."
Bruce tries calling Johnny just as Johnny tried to call Bruce in "Netherworld" with as much success. Payback?

Offscreen Activity: Considering most of this ep happened in vision, nothing offscreen can be trusted.

Timeline Notes: Johnny mentions that he's known Bruce for two years now. Bruce's father mentions that it is March, so it hasn't been long since Kate's death.

Funny line of the ep: "John has visions. As a matter of fact, I think he's having one right now!" - Bruce, preaching brother preaching.


2.13 "The Storm"
Ounces of Diet Pepsi: 160
Visions: I'm starting to see black things crawling in my peripheral vision. (seriously, for once)
Moron of the EP award: Snippy Weathergirl. You just know everything, don't you? Except how to be humble.

General Remarks: This is a good followup episode to "Playing God" and has a LOT of humor in it, especially with Bruce and Johnny at the beginning, and the Robert Picardo family. But the ending is a little weak to me. But not a horrible opening to the summer session.

Offscreen Activity: Johnny has secluded himself for months. Apparently he and Dana are over. But we don't know because we haven't seen it.
Johnny's confrontation with the storm happens off camera.

Timeline Notes: The radio mentions the 4th of July weekend, so presumably this is the 4th of July weekend, 2003.

Funny line of the ep: "Look, if you let me go, I'll tell you how you're gonna break that leg." - Johnny
"Break that leg?" - Bruce
"Yeah. Big white cast, clump, clump, clumping along about six weeks. I can save you all that pain." - Johnny
"Liar." - Bruce

"You brought a swimming suit to an intervention?" - Sarah
"Who said anything about a suit?" - Dana
"Maybe we should have an intervention for you while we're waiting for Johnny." - Sarah


2.14 "Plague"
Ounces of Diet Pepsi: 170
Visions: I can't feel my legs.
Moron of the EP award: Health Inspector Pratt. His name describes him perfectly, the smug snippy bastard. If I could bottle the exact moment that these smug morons realize they're wrong and Johnny is right, I would pull it out every night and look at it.

General Remarks: Gee, go figure, no one believes Johnny. This is a pretty creepy episode, with all the shots of zombie looking kids stumbling around. The soap bubble virus transport is a really neat idea. A lot of people on the message board hammered the fact that Johnny just took straight blood and injected it into his veins. So sorry, but apparently you can't do that.
That guard securing the quarantine was the most incompetent bastard I've ever seen! Was his former job being a matador? Everyone on Earth would be infected if this simp was on guard duty!

Offscreen Activity: It seems like almost all of the time Johnny spends with his son is offscreen, though he spent a fair amount of time with Li'l Johnny in this ep.

Timeline Notes: The sign in the gym says "Summer Science Fair" so it's still summertime.

Funny line of the ep: "Is something I should know about? We all see these images in the newspaper of you two talking to each other and its usually pretty disturbing news." Nosey woman to Walt and Johnny.


2.15 "Deja Voodoo"
Ounces of Diet Pepsi: 176
Visions: I can't feel my ass.
Moron of the EP award: Criminal Mastermind Accountant. Let me get this straight, you planned out and hired a bunch of people for an elaborate murder scheme over a report? Not only is this a cliche, but people don't even go to jail for white color crimes any more!

General Remarks: I love the Groundhog Day genre and this was a very fun way to do it. I'm not sold on the mechanics of it because I would think that Johnny would have to actually change something to get a different vision, not just intend to do something differently. As I mentioned before, his powers seem to change as needed from plot to plot. But still, a very fun episode with a lovely costar from "24."
In the second vision, why didn't the gunman shoot Natalie as she tried to get into Johnny's car? She had her back to him, he could have easily blown her away. Did Johnny's horn honking disorient the gunman THAT much?
Natalie is a wonderful woman and a great match for Johnny, so it's really sad that he spent so much time with her and got to know her so well, only to never really meet her. :-(

Offscreen Activity: I take it from the Dana encounter that their relationship is over, possibly because of Johnny's "fear of commitment." Johnny also makes it even more clear that the relationship is over.

Timeline Notes: Nothing really to indicate a time frame.

Funny line of the ep: The montage where Johnny tells Natalie everything that happened might not have been laugh out loud funny, but it was very amusing and cute. Johnny's banter with Bruce every time Bruce comes over to the is also amusing.


2.16 "The Hunt"
Ounces of Diet Pepsi: 180
Visions: I'm still hung over from the last ep, which was so good it makes this ep seem even worse.
Moron of the EP award: Me, for getting myself into this! Eeeek!

General Remarks: The main thing I don't think about this is you know Johnny's not going to catch Osoma so what is the point of this ep? I know, I know, it's all about the journey, not the destination, but the journey was not compelling enough and the ending was really quick. If they bring back some of the other psychics in the future then this episode will have some redeeming value. Otherwise, this is probably the last time I'm going to watch it.

Offscreen Activity: We don't see how the "guvment" approaches Johnny and convinces him to join this effort. This would have been a fascinating scene and probably would have saved this episode for me.

Timeline Notes: No indication of when this happens. Even if there was, it would be jacked up because this episode was aired out of order.

Funny line of the ep: "So, no phone booth? I was kinda hoping for a phone booth. Maybe a cone of silence?" - Johnny
"We've heard all the jokes. But if you can actually come up with something new, by all means share." - Agent Stone


2.17 "The Mountain"
Ounces of Diet Pepsi: 186
Visions: No visions, just red hot anger at how tired I am.
Moron of the EP award: All three criminals qualify, but the park ranger seems halfway intelligent so he should know better. Can you say Duh-uh-UH!?

General Remarks: This is a pretty good yarn. It has an almost "The Siege" feel to it with Johnny trying to adjust things on the fly. I like the added dimension the forest setting adds, and the ending has the kind of irony I like. Of course, right now the only ending I'm looking at involved me face deep in a pillow!

Offscreen Activity: Walt seems to imply that Johnny's been trying more than we've seen

Timeline Notes: Not a lot to go on here except that it's still summertime.

Funny line of the ep: "Hhhhum, hhhhhhummm." - Sarah, coughing and pointing at Li'l Johnny when the woman starts talking about the vicious crimes Johnny has solved.


2.18 "The Combination"
Ounces of Diet Pepsi: 196
Visions: I'm sooooooo smegging SLEEPY! Actually, words can't describe how sleepy I am!
Moron of the EP award: Boxing is a moronic blood sport, so all the boxers in this ep win this booby prize.

General Remarks: You have to admire the nerve of someone who shows up at your house and then insists that YOU leave HIM alone. LOL I remember tripping off that in the original airing of this ep and it still cracks me up.
The idea of using Johnny's visions as a kind of future game tape is really clever.
Another neat concept is the idea of giving someone hope to change the future. Johnny took a big risk by lying to Avila. Just one question, did Avila have doubt before Johnny opened his mouth the first time, is that why Avila was going to die? Or did Johnny get the vision of Avila dying because Johnny was destined to make his prediction and cause the boxer's death? My sleepy head hurts thinking about it.

Offscreen Activity: Seeing Purdy in an interview on TV as his appearance in this ep was kinda cool.

Timeline Notes: I'll be honest, I'm so weary now that I might not catch digital calendar, so who knows. ROTF

Funny line of the ep: "Now THAT would be a tragedy, eh?" - Johnny, doing a mock swing with his words after Avila says this experience will not do much for Johnny's career as a psychic.


2.19 "Visions"
Ounces of Diet Pepsi: 204
Visions: Zimbu the Spider Monkey God is welcoming me with open arms. "You have done well, my son." He says warmly.
Moron of the EP award: Johnny. It is beyond me how it takes Johnny so long to figure out that Darth Scar is from the future a la "Shaman." I could see if he hadn't met the Shaman, but come on! He's presented with a younger and unscarred Wey while Darth Scar can appear and disappear at will (disappearing into thin air twice in the first ten minutes of the ep) but Johnny grapples with ridiculous twin scenarios??? Even after Wey starts to explain, Johnny dismisses him by saying he doesn't understand how Johnny's visions work. Has Johnny completely forgotten The Shaman?

General Remarks: There is a sign behind Johnny at the beginning reading "Peace is the Way" ... is this an intentional pun? As I mentioned before, DZ season enders are always awesome and this ep is no exception. What an awesome way to wrap up the summer session and put an exclamation point on the longest and best of the two Seasons to date.
The one drawback of this ep is how dense Johnny is. Here's how he tries to explain what is going on to Madeline. This is a direct quote, I haven't left anything out. "I do have something to tell you, but first I have to tell something about myself. About who I am. It may be hard to believe. I hope you'll just hear me out."
"Alright."
"Seven years ago, I was involved in a car accident."
"I'm sorry, does this have anything to do with Chistopher?" (Madeline doesn't hear him out very long, does she?)
"Yes, it has a lot to do with the both of you. Look, I don't mean to scare you."
"What do you want?"
"What I have to tell you is for your own safety."
"You're telling me I'm not safe now?" At this point, Johnny is mercifully interrupted by Julia. Let's examine just Johnny's lines one more time.
"I do have something to tell you, but first I have to tell something about myself. About who I am. It may be hard to believe. I hope you'll just hear me out."
"Seven years ago, I was involved in a car accident."
"Yes, it has a lot to do with the both of you. Look, I don't mean to scare you."
"What I have to tell you is for your own safety."
First of all, Johnny declares that he'll start off by telling her something about himself, but he stops doing that right after announcing he's been in a car accident. So what? Is that supposed to mean something to her? Then he gives her a couple generic statements about not wanting to scare her and wanting to tell her something for her own safety. In the time all this took, he could have already warned her! Is the communication breakdown because Madeline would NOT stop butting in? She agrees to hear him out but speaks up every time Johnny pauses for breath. That is possible. In any case, it's the worst attempt at warning someone Johnny has ever made.

Offscreen Activity: Nothing I noticed. I guess most of it was in the beginning and middle of season 2.

Timeline Notes: It's still summer time. Johnny tells Madeline that his car accident was seven years ago. If it is August of 2003 (see next point) then wouldn't Johnny round up to say EIGHT years ago? The 8th anniversary of Johnny's accident is June 6th, 2003.
Wey states his accident was in August, presumably 2003.

Funny line of the ep: "Okay, you know what, now you're starting to actually make negative sense." - Bruce, while John struggles with whether or not Wey is the stalker.
"I knew I shoulda stayed in Maine." - Bruce, as he's being arrested for breaking and entering.


And so I sleep. Previous Marathons: 24

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