Medium

What a show! The Medium season finale opened with Joe throwing the $2,200 cashmere robe at Meghan, and then asking for his idea back, and then he shot her. Unfortunately, he woke up. Too bad, that conniving “bottom-feeder” deserved that.

When he actually did see Meghan, a.k.a, “your favorite neighborhood she-devil,” he was understandably ticked off at her. He told her he had shown the robe to Allison and she was none too happy about it. “It’s a robe. It’s cashmere. It’s a luxury item.” Meghan offered to call Al and straighten everything out. But Joe wouldn’t let her. He said he intended to dissolve the business. Meghan reminded him she owned him. He responded by packing his things and walking out of the office. Meghan came after him, asking where he thought he was going, “I’m taking my morals and I’m going home.”

It looked like Joe was out of an idea and a job and the potential of an awful lot of money. However, Meghan offered him a pretty attractive dissolution deal to the tune of $250,000. (Take it and run!) Allison, being all-seeing, knew that it meant Meghan was assuming she’d make a heck of a lot more off Joe’s idea than that.

Later, the truth came out that Meghan had intentionally manipulated Joe to get his idea. When her husband showed up at the restaurant, she admitted to staging the whole make-out session, “I needed to make you uncomfortable, I needed to make you sell your share of the business.” And then she sold it and managed to get a cool $2 mil for the plan.

“Oh, my God. It’s the end of the world as we know it,” Scanlon proclaimed to Lynn. Who’d have seen it coming, Devalos and Van Dyke yukking it up. “Cavorting with that weasel,” is how Scanlon put it. Sadly, Van Dyke announced to Devalos that he had prostrate cancer, and as much as we didn’t like the new DA, it’s hard to be mad at someone when he’s dying. He gave Devalos his job back, which meant Allison was getting her job back. Van Dyke even requested a special meeting with Allison. He begged a favor, though he knew he had no right to ask after how he’d treated her in the past. Allison agreed to look for Van Dyke once he’d died and pass along any message to his family, letting them know he was OK. That scene was really beautiful and compassionate. I can’t believe that old fart made me cry, but he did.

The case this week was about Charles and Kelly Winters. Or rather the alleged haunted house in which they lived. Whenever Charles would go out of town, Kelly would hear water in the walls and a baby crying and thought she was going crazy. In another terribly disturbing turn, a woman who lived in that house some 20 years earlier had drowned her infant son and it would only be a matter of time before she tried to kill her young daughter as well.

Allison let them know about the dream she had revealing the death of the infant. When Kelly ended up dead in an apparent suicide, all fingers pointed at Charles. A noise machine was found in his attic that could have been set on a timer to make water sounds when he was not in the house. There was also a handwritten note from Kelly left in Al’s mailbox. Allison told Charles. “Your wife believed you meant to do her harm.”

Still, Charles couldn’t understand why they should sell the house, even though his wife couldn’t handle living there. But when he saw her lying dead in the bathtub, he mournfully commented, “She was so still.”

What I didn’t understand was how Kelly didn’t remember the running water and crying baby from her past. She was old enough when it happened to remember. That Natalie was one creepy mommy. When she heard little Kelly sniffling in the closet and grabbed her out, even as little Kelly screamed, “Don’t do this. I’ll do anything you want!” I almost lost it. I guess she could have just blocked it out. Trauma like that could be easier to erase from one’s memory.

Sam Winters showed up with a lawyer and said, “She was an odd girl, you know.”
But even before that I saw it coming; Charles’ father was also Kelly’s father. Kelly picked Charles out in a bar. She knew who Charles was – “a means to an end.” She wanted to be nearer to her father, even though he had abandoned her and left her with that monster of a mother.

Sam did not recognize her when he saw her as an adult. But he knew when Charles told him about her hearing the baby crying. He told Al, Devalos and Scanlon that Natalie had drowned Jonathan to punish him for leaving her. Although he helped Natalie conjure up a story about the infant’s death being an accident, he seemed remorseful that he left Kelly with her. And admitted it would have been the end of his life as he knew it with Charles’ rich mother. Need I say it? What a weak man. (Couldn’t help myself.)

I’m still a little unsure of why Kelly left the note implicating Charles. Was it to protect her father? Or to set him up?

Joe received a fateful call from Terry Cavanaugh. Looks like the Dubois family is getting their act together again!!! What PD McCall/Debra tore asunder, Meghan Doyle brought back full circle, well, with Terry’s help.

The final scene, finally the kids! Bridgette made me laugh, as always, with her, “Don’t they know they have kids? That’s it. I’m quitting this family.” Little Marie was agreeing right along with her. Joe and Allison don’t make it out of the car because they were busy celebrating their near millionaire status! And with a lot of panting and moaning, season 4 came to a close.

Until next season, you’ll just have to manage with the Medium clips in our Online Video Guide.

It all started with a scrawny little kid beating up the school bully with his lunchbox, that only minutes before the bully had berated. Oh, how I yearned to do the same with my Partridge Family lunchbox. That would have shown any school bully I meant business.

It would take several dreams for Allison to find the significance of the dream of the young boy and his twin brother sitting outside the principal’s office. But soon she would realize that the boys in her dream were the same as the adult brothers she was also dreaming about. Miguel Ferrer starred in this episode of Medium as the grown-up version of twin brothers, Joey and Teddy Carmichael.

The story, a drug dealer, Curtis Lambert, was shot execution style, one shot into each knee and one into his head. Not that he didn’t deserve it, but it was nasty watching him crawl across the floor with his bloody knees. Who shot him was only part of solving the crime. According to Allison’s dream, it was cut and dry. Joey Carmichael shot and killed Curtis, but upon meeting him it was evident he could not have not been the culprit. Joey’s twin brother, Teddy, had gotten into some trouble with Curtis years back and had been shot in the head by Curtis’ wingman, Martin. The damage was significant, reverting Joey’s mental capabilities to that of a 12 year old and rendering his hands unusable.

Al’s next dream led her to Teddy. However, unbeknown to Joey, Teddy had been beaten and killed by Martin, leaving Joey to fend for himself. Twins often have a powerful bond that even death can’t break and Teddy kept taking care of his little brother, from the grave. Eventually, Teddy appeared to Allison and exposed the final secrets of the case.

Frankly, I couldn’t tell if they were really supposed to be one person with split personalities, or what. I knew that Teddy had to be dead after being shot in the chest as many times as he was. It must have felt great for Joey to finally stand up for his brother when he went and killed Martin in the restaurant.

Scanlon nearly begged Allison to come and help him on the case, and when her dreams weren’t adding up, he once again got irritated with her. Seriously, he needs to understand that although her dreams may not seem to make any sense, they are almost always right. And Lee rarely apologizes for doubting her. Frankly, I think it might be time to see Lee eat some crow.

Kelly Preston was back as the alluring, if crazy, Megan Doyle, and even though she apologized profusely to Joe for her completely inappropriate behavior last week, she ended up causing more commotion by sending Joe a $2,200 cashmere robe. When Joe showed Al the robe, they had a real knock-down fight in the garage, but I was completely on her side. He really should have come to her and told her when it happened. Granted, he didn’t feel like there was much to say, but he should have picked up on her mood all week. Plus, he’s been married to her for what, like 16 years, you’d think he might worry that she might have a dream about his dalliances with the new hottie in the office. Incidentally, Joe has really been getting a lot of screen time this season and I love it.

Bridgette was a troublemaker to her little sister Marie, when usually she is much nicer to her. She was playing with Marie’s glasses and wouldn’t give them back. Ariel was actually pretty nice to Bridge explaining why she couldn’t see out of them, yet Marie could see better. Allison put the kibosh on the teasing.

They don’t often show Allison or Joe just playing with the girls. Nine times out of ten it’s just breakfast, lunch or dinner. So it was especially fun to see Allison performing in the finger-puppet play for her newly eye-glassed daughter, Marie.

My favorite line:
“I find all this good cheer depressing.”

We’re one short week away from the season finale of Medium. But you can console yourself by watching clips in our Online Video Guide.

“It’s a car, our car, and we love it,” Allison mused about her beloved family vehicle, and then the car went boom. What a scary way to start this episode. Luckily, it was just a dream.

Al tried to relay the dream to Joe but he asked, unbelieving, “What do you mean, “blow up”? To which Allison responded with a hand gesture and sound effects to drive her point home. Allison reminisced that the Volvo was the first car they bought together. Supposedly, they’d driven that Volvo home from the hospital after each daughter was born, which would make that car around 14 years old. That’s pretty darn good. Who knew the Swedes made such a durable and reliable vehicle?

She couldn’t start the car herself and wouldn’t let Joe do it either. She was actually teary-eyed pleading with him not to, but to her great relief, he couldn’t get it to turn over, much less blow up. So he surprised her with an SVU that he got for a steal from some guy unloading it through the mechanic. That guy just happened to be what’s-his-knuckle from The West Wing, Joshua Malina. (Joshua also co-starred in another one of my favorite Aaron Sorkin series, Sports Night.)

I was aghast to learn Joe had bought the car outright. Wasn’t it just a few weeks ago when neither of them had a job, no prospects of employment? Now he feels confident in the money Megan has invested in his idea, and purchased the car for cash. I see community colleges in the future for the three Dubois girls. However, the car had it’s own perks, “Cup holders? I do love cup holders.” Bridgette was gleeful, as were all the girls when Joe brought it home.

So of course, Allison woke up in the middle of the night and slipped into her new car to bond with it when she finally realized why the car was such a good deal. Mr. Carmen’s wife had been shot in it. “This car is haunted,” Allison was panicked. Oh, this would prove an interesting tale and the unraveling would lead to none other than, you guessed it, the husband. Isn’t it always?

Did anyone else notice that there seemed to be an awful lot of driving without carrying a license going on? First Allison took the girls for a spin in the new SUV without one, then Joe left his at home one day, (or had she dropped him off that day)?

Allison finally decided to get to the bottom of the murder, since the mug shot she’d attached to the murderer’s face was that of a local model. All I could think was, “When Good Models Go Bad.” If that isn’t a reality TV show already, it should be. The car was instrumental in leading her to the real murderer, by navigating her directly to the Carmen’s house and showing her the vision of the crime. I must say the pulley with the gun, and the tennis ball as the trigger, was a pretty ingenious plan. (Gory, but ingenious.)

Pouring over mug shots one night when Joe was working late, Allison dreamt that Mz. Business Partner, aka Meghan Doyle, (the lovely Kelly Preston), was planning a little coup d’etat with her husband. So when Joe called her in real time, similar to the dream, to tell her he’d left his wallet at home, she took it upon herself to bring the wallet to him at work. She said she wanted to see him as happy as he seemed in the dream, but she really wanted to make sure that Meghan had not thrown herself at him.

He assured Allison that, “She’s the money and I’m the brains. She goes home early and I work late,” which only sort of put Allison’s mind to ease and for good reason. Joe was working late another night when the exact scene from Al’s dream started to play out and Meghan became a temptress, albeit, a drunken temptress, and tried to lure Joe into celebrating some good news with her.

Although there was no real way to point the trigger at Mr. Carmen, as it were, Scanlon took a drive over to his house under the guise of retrieving the haunted SUV back from him only to find he had died of carbon monoxide poisoning. (Why was he in the house, then?) Though he couldn’t quite say it aloud, even Scanlon questioned whether or not the car had been responsible. Once again, no conviction of the guilty, but the punishment fit the crime, if you ask me.

Finally, it was awfully nice to see Ariel back and hear her bickering with Bridgette again. Just like old times. Bridgette’s inquisitive monologue about the cereal box’s physics question, whether or not the image portrayed on the box and in the picture of the box within the picture would go on forever until it was just the “size of a molecule,” was hilarious. I remember thinking the same thing as a kid, only it was in the mirrors that reflect one another, but they do go on forever and a day.

To Be Continued shows make me crazy, though the previews for next week did not follow the same story at all, so I can only guess the TBC was really only about Meghan and Joe. I have utter faith that he will resist her temptress wiles.

If you want to see the Dubois in the days before Meghan, just watch some vintage Medium clips in our Online Video Guide.

Medium began this episode with a Peeping Tom. If a guy walks around the neighborhood, peering into people’s houses, from the sidewalk, no less, is considered a Peeping Tom then I guess I am one, too. Who doesn’t love to look into random houses and see how other people live. I always thought of Peeping Toms as rather seedy characters who crept around in bushes and spied on people. But the real mystery is, why was the girl undressing in front of the window that looked out on the main street anyhow? I think people are as much exhibitionists as they are voyeuristic. Sure, there would be no Jerry Springer without voyeurs, but you’ve got to have people willing to open the proverbial trench coat in order for there to be something to see.

Lynn’s tennis partner, Kim, ended up dead after an apparent accident cause when her pain medication affected her ability to stand upright. The woman’s husband, Russell Furlong, claimed to have argued with her and then went to sleep in the other room, when the next thing he knew, there was an ambulance at the door. Did any of you believe that hogwash? I for one did not. I knew that sniveling idiot killed his wife the first minute I saw him crying. His theatrical hysteria was plumb ridiculous.

It was nice to see Lee and Lynn together again. Lynn cracked me up when she got up in the middle of the night (or at 11:40 PM, actually), to go home and Lee complained. She just gave it to him straight, “Man up – learn to sleep alone. All the big kids do it.”

My favorite line of the evening came when Allison called Scanlon and told him she had just had a dream about him. He warned her, “Allison, do me a favor and close your eyes. I gotta get out of bed now and I’m not wearing any clothes.”

He teased her later when she called again late at night, “If this is about me leaving the seat up…”

During the investigation of Kim’s death, Allison found herself experiencing similar symptoms, acting as if she had been poisoned. She needed to be rushed to the hospital. Joe was pissed off when the moronic doctor told him she was sleeping. “That was a $500 nap you just took.” But more than his anger at the money spent, was that she “scared the crap out of” him. Of course, you know what I was thinking did they leave those three girls alone while then went to the hospital? Where was Ariel? She was completely invisible this week. Joe would have put Ariel in charge, and wouldn’t that mean she had to still be awake when they got home? They didn’t even speak to her when they got back.

Finally, Marie gets a storyline; she was in desperate need of glasses. “Marie’s creasing up her face again!” Bridgette shouted from the kitchen table. Joe took her to the only doctor he could find that would take them without insurance. (Total aside, why don’t these people have insurance for their children? Seems like it would be a good investment for some of the $30,000 for the girls’ college education funds Joe was so willing to spend on his new venture.) Unfortunately, Marie read the doctor’s mind - he knew the charts by heart - and was deemed to have perfect vision. When Joe asked her what was on the chart she had just “read” perfectly, she asked, “That chart? Is that an animal?” It irked Joe that the doctor would not re-examine her. But Joe had a plan. It was really sweet how he got the optometrist to re-diagnose Marie. He made the doctor listen to Julie Andrews while he asked Marie to read the eye chart. Marie was so adorable when squinting, she asked Joe to, “Give me a hint, Daddy.”

She looked awfully cute with her new glasses. She is getting so big. I can remember like it was yesterday when either Al or Joe was carrying her around on their hips. They grow up so fast.

Joe was smug as heck when he had made the doctor see the error of his ways. He started referring to himself as Mac Daddy, which made him feel pretty darned proud of himself. Allison warned him playfully, “Don’t write a check that you can’t cash, Mac Daddy.”

Joe’s best line:
“I’m a boy - it’s one of the differences. I don’t notice rings and I pee standing up.”

Adviprin was a clever mixture of Advil and Ibuprofen and aspirin. Though I found it really scary to rehash what happened all those years back when someone tampered with the pain pills in the drugstores. What I really want to know is what kind of people sit around with strangers in an airport and plot the murders of their partners, etc? What a bunch of creeps.

I loved when the three of them, Scanlon, Allison and Lynn, showed up on Furlong’s doorstep like Charlie’s Angels – (the original gang). They looked so tough standing there, Lynn with her arms crossed. Scanlon let Furlong know they intended to wait for one of the five to eventually crack, slip and then, bam, they’d come after him. It couldn’t happen soon enough in my book.

Nowadays, you don’t have to leave the comfort of your couch to be a peeping tom, just travel on over to our Online Video Guide and spy on some Medium clips!

Two stars shone their light on Medium this week. First, we enjoyed the return of Kurtwood Smith as Agent Edward Cooper, back to solve serial killings. Secondly, Kelly Preston (that's Mrs. John Travolta, thank you very much), appeared as a monetary angel to Joe making him a proposition he couldn’t refuse.

Allison began this week’s nocturnal visions, by dreaming of Agent Cooper killing someone. She feared he had become vigilante and was going to kill the serial killer of three young women. And she wasn’t far off base. Allison told Cooper off because she knew he intended to kill the killer and she didn’t think it was right for him to do. In return, Cooper cleverly pulled her into his circle. He told Van Dyke he wanted her help and made him give her an office.

When she dreamed the same scenario the second time, she saw her initial dream had some very pertinent details missing. The killer had slipped into Cooper's hotel room with every intention of killing him, and not the other way around.

Cooper talked a good game about real justice, “I only take justice when the system fails.” This was a nice gesture to bring Allison a little justice after having been treated so shabbily by the media and the D.A.’s office. Cooper believed in her and her visions were helpful clues to his latest cases.

While Cooper was great alive, he was even better dead. He kept popping up in front of Allison. At first it was very sad, because he didn’t know that he was dead and Allison had to explain it to him. That would just plan suck to have to do. Later, when she woke up and Cooper was standing over her in her bed it was hilarious. He led her and Scanlon on a wild-goose chase to keep them from arresting the serial killer because, being dead, Cooper was able to see what was going to happen to this guy in the future and it wasn’t going to be pretty.

Allison refused to work with him because justice is not his to dole out. She can be a real goody-goody sometimes. However, our fearless leader, Mrs Dubois, was looking particularly good this epsisode and I realized, it’s not just the longer hair but the heavy black eyeliner – tres sexy. I like her new look.

In the only really amusing scene in this ep, the girls were fighting at the kitchen table. Ariel was pretty perturbed by Bridgette’s tooth-wiggling. Bridgette realized she was sitting on a goldmine, if the exchange rate with the tooth fairy was $1 per tooth. I’m surprised she didn’t wiggle them all out at once.

Joe met with some Venture Capitalists that decided against funding him, but Kelly Preston’s, Meagan, decided to put up her own cash because she believed his idea was a “money-maker”. When she told him she was going to keep the controlling interest in the deal, he was planning on telling her no. But like most men, Joe’s a louse, easily seduced by dirty martinis and lured by a pretty, rich femme fatale. I can see now, this isn’t going to end well. Kelly Preston has signed up for four episodes, so there may be more to the deal than dollars and sub-atomic particles.

After that martini, Joe consented to giving Meagan a 51% share in the business, to which his wife said, “I’m not upset, I’m bewildered. “ And she had plenty of right to be. Her husband just gave away the farm, so to speak, and didn’t even bother to consult his wife. I believe that is LOW.

My favorite line of the evening:
“We are officially happy.”

The question, of course, is, did she really mean it?

I actually miss Roseanna. Ah, but Kurtwood was almost as good. And we can all hold on to the fact that Kelly Preston will be back next week to try to tempt Joe out of his boxers. Until then, satisfy your Medium urges with our Online Video Guide.

“The answer to the Allison question is Allison herself.”

The Arquette siblings have been out in full force for this season of Medium. Brother David directed an earlier episode and sister Rosanna starred in this episode as a woman of a certain age who seduces young men for a night of fun in the sack that never ends.

The theme song for this broadcast was Take a Walk on the Wild Side, and a more suiting song there never was. The lovely narrator tells us “40 is the new 30,” (and let’s hope that’s true – I feel ten years younger already). The opening sequence with the narrator, Michelle, luring us into her web with her white jacket and sexy toss of her head was fun, playful and well done; Rosanna could sell a ten-gallon hat to the headless horseman.

The first dream involved the narrator, a grieving young man and a large knife. Allison awoke from that dream and told Joe, “I don’t know what she was behaving like.” Then after thinking about it for a minute, she realized, “She was behaving just like a man,” and with that, Allison tossed Joe’s loving arm off her.

Cougars have made a comeback in the last few years as older women seem to have grown much more assertive when it comes to getting what they want. And what a fun show - I especially liked the part where the bartender had been nailed to death. He looked like that guy from Hellraiser. What a gruesome way to go. But at long last, women were not the victims! And not only were they not the victims, (spoiler alert) they were also not the ones responsible.

Scanlon was in rare form and back to doing his job. The surprising thing was that he actually acted on two of Al’s dreams immediately. But just as quickly as he accepted her visions, he began to question them and berated her as being off the mark. She is so often right it is hard for me to believe he still takes this stance with her. Then he waltzed her back into the station and she recognized the irony, stating that she generally feels like “persona non grata,” one minute and wined and dined the next.

Allison’s dreams only told part of the truth. She got the critical bits like the deaths right, but saw Michelle as the instigator and killer. Michelle may have authored the situations under her pen name, Charisma Kennedy, but had no hand in the deaths. She denied the murders and when Scanlon questioned her about the similarities to her book, she screamed, “Maybe it means that your killer can read!”

“The Manuel Momentum”
Manuel’s campaign seemed to be going well until Allison met one of his biggest supporters and got a bad feeling from him. Richard Madison was in cahoots (much to his own chagrin) with Van Dyke to try and take down Manuel’s campaign. Allison let Manuel know what she had gotten a bad feeling from Richard’s handshake and with a little help from his friends back in the DA’s office, it was not hard for Manny to draw a conclusion. I so enjoyed Manny taking Van Dyke’s little plan down in front of everyone. Van Dyke’s reaction was worth every lousy minute we’ve had to put up with his conniving, manipulating nastiness. Let’s hope he is going down in a big way. I want to see him burn!

This was a truly satisfying ending to the show. There was a bad MAN; Scanlon, was right all along. He never thought a woman could overpower a man enough to nail gun him to death. The owner of Michelle’s publishing house, Elliot, hit on Lee in the elevator and propositioned him with the now infamous "extra ticket". Luckily, Michelle had let him know earlier that was one of her stories. No, it wasn’t “Naughty nun with a bad habit.” It was the old, “I have an extra ticket to tonight’s big game,” ploy. It wasn’t until Eliot claimed “No one who has ever spent time with me has ever lived to regret it,’ that Scanlon was certain that he was the killer.

Scanlon had the best lines of the show
“I want to see that movie.”
“It’s 11:45. I never kid after 10 o’clock on a weeknight.”
“You don’t strike me as the ‘home-alone-reading’ type.”
“Murder of…a bartender I suspect you may have nailed.”

Although, Joe got a couple of good ones in, too:
“Want to keep your laughing down? I’m trying to fall asleep.”
“What are kids for if not to be used as excuses to get you out of things you don’t want to do?”

That last line jinxed the health of little Marie. She awoke the next day with an ear infection. She looked so sad in her bed when Allison was tucking her in. She is scrumptious. To add insult to injury, Joe ended up with the same earache a day later. Maybe God struck him down for making such a terrible joke.

Here’s hoping that someone actually puts up, “A social networking page like MyCougar!” But, while that’s being built, hop on over to our Online Video Guide and watch Medium clips to your heart’s content.

Medium surprised me tonight. I didn’t see that ending coming. That was a shocker for sure. Before we get to the nitty-gritty details, a quick recap. Last week Allison dreamed about the disappearance of Cynthia’s daughter, Suzanne, a 9-year old unsolved mystery that Al knew nothing about. Bringing up all sorts of horrible memories for Cynthia, tensions were flaring and emotions ran hot. Al was fired and hired back in a matter of a few days and a story began to unravel about Suzie’s disappearance.

It quickly became apparent that the story that was coming to light was not the real story, and new truths had to be revealed. Suzie was kidnapped by a man who pretended to help her with her car, or so it seemed. But behind the man was a far more dangerous sort, a pretty, sweet-faced girl who played the part of victim to lure young girls into her vile and heinous web of seduction.

Joanne, played impeccably by the lovely, Lily Rabe, turned out to be a real nasty conniving gal who got what she had coming to her. She played sweet and innocent with Cynthia and Allison, but you could see in her eyes something far more ugly. Last week when Allison dreamed of Joanne at the door as Suzie opened it and killed her, we knew she was the mastermind. Another dream confirmed that Joanne killed the man who had “kidnapped” her and Melanie Linder, because she knew she was being found out. Eventually she even killed Peter, the guy who helped kidnap Suzie. At that point it was just a question of how Cynthia and Al were going to prove it. Since Scanlon only got about 22 seconds of face time, I figured, something wasn’t going to go as planned.

Although they eventually found Suzie’s bones, (Allison dreamed that Cynthia had gotten the chance to see her daughter by the water's edge which led her to the lake), and Cynthia was finally able to put her daughter to rest, there was unrest in her. Cynthia called Al with sadness in her voice in the finally moments of the show. Allison met her on the front steps of a house she did not recognize and listened as Cynthia confessed what she had done. It was a very sad moment. But you knew in your heart that she had done exactly what any one of us might have done in her situation. All she wanted from Allison was for her to hold her hand and wait until the cops came to take her away. It was tragic that it would be the grieving mother going to jail instead of that awful girl. But finally Cynthia got to show that she wasn’t all steel and sharp edges, but that she was capable of deep grief and sadness.

To lighten up this ep, Joe and Allison were having an argument that lasted at least one night of couch surfing for Joe. “I need you to believe in me,” Joe pleaded. He wore Allison down and she finally acquiesced to letting him have the girl’s college money, so long as he promised to pay it back.

Bridgette was dreaming again and this time it was about the white-haired man at the bank who was going to solve all of her father’s money woes. Joe, disbelieving asked, “That white haired man wouldn’t happen to be Santa, would he?” To which his precocious daughter responded somewhat indignantly, “Dad, come on. I’m 9 – trust me.” Only it took two trips to the bank and a slippery fall to find the white-haired man Bridge had actually dreamed of. And to cover his assets, (ahem), he offered Joe $15K. Problem solved. Girl’s college funds left alone to educate them at some later date.

I’ve got one small concern. Suzie was killed when she was 19 in 1999. So how could she have had a skiing accident in 1988? She would have been 8 years old. I mean, I guess 8 year olds ski. Did I miss something?

Did you notice that Ariel didn’t even make a tiny appearance in this episode? I can’t remember a time when she wasn’t at least sitting at the kitchen table, or brooding in her room with her ipod on. Just Bridgette and little Marie eating cereal. Nor did we get a glimpse of Devalos. Perhaps now that Cynthia will be slinging hash as the local women’s penitentiary, there will be more room for our two other favorite men of the show.

More thrills to come next week when another Arquette sibling graces the celluloid. Patricia’s sister, Roseanna makes a guest appearance.

While we say goodbye to Anjelica Huston, and think up ways that the entire Arquette clan could take over Medium, watch some clips in our Online Video Guide.

There’s no easy way to break into this episode of Medium lightly. Combining the heartwrenching loss of a mother’s daughter with the despicable crime of kidnapping and the gruesome abuse of women for man’s folly, this episode really revved it up from last week… All I can say is thank god there’s at least one person around to dream about these terrible crimes. If it wasn’t for Alison, how many people’s deaths and abuse would go unsolved?

Alison awoke having dreamt about Cynthia dreaming about her lost daughter who had been kidnapped nine years earlier in a crime that was never solved. You can imagine the level of pain that Cynthia must have felt as an investigator of missing people who was not able to locate her daughter. It was high time that Anjelica Huston finally got the chance to flex those Oscar winning chops of hers and run the gamut of emotions in this ep. From despondent to hopeful, rageful to apologetic and a myriad of other feelings as well, Cynthia was torn apart as the memory of her daughter was brought back from the past into her present.

Al kept trying to piece together what had happened to Susie Keener, but was being led astray by the nature of dreams. Each of Alison’s dream was progressively more violent and horrifying. But, sometimes a dream is a powerful tool for Alison, telling her the story exactly as it is, and other times, it is simply a guide. She can’t take everything literally, and finds it increasingly difficult to tell what’s true from what is only a partial truth. She upset Cynthia so much as one of her dreams led them to Joanne’s mother, who assured them her daughter had never been abducted. Cynthia basically threw Al out with the bathwater, which she seems to do at least once each episode.

Of course, Cynthia's tune changed when the authorities found two more women who had been kidnapped and badly beaten and one of them was Joanne. Cynthia called Alison to apologize, but by the look on Alison’s face, the damage had kind of already been done. Fired and rehired in less than a week. That poor Dubois family.

Joe was back at the unemployment office. Riddle me this Batman, as this is the 21st century, I believe you can log in to the unemployment website for your state and answer all of those questions online. Granted, playing the scene out allowed for some comic relief, another visit with Geoffrey Owens and to expose Joe’s humiliation at having to ask him mother for money, but really, it’s kind of unrealistic.

I know you know what my favorite part was - the girls dancing in the garage to Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” Totally cute. And all because of Joe’s little invention. Later, there was some silly music and Joe running around in a cartoon, so the real question is what was up with the cartoon imagery?

Ah, well, that’s easy, Joe was having dreams of his own. He was ticked at Alison for not letting him dive into their daughter’s college find for his science project. Remember, he got the idea for that project from his steamy dream with the swimsuit model. And although he wasn’t acting out any sexual fantasies, (or maybe he was), he did discover he was more of a science geek than previously thought. However, I can see both sides of this argument. On the one hand he’s nuts for even suggesting they take that money out of the bank and use it on his little scheme. On the other hand, he was right in saying the whole marriage has been about Joe believing in Alison and when he needs her to take a leap of faith for him, she didn’t. Though, for her part, she never asked him to use that $30K to help her with her dreams.

Who knows how they will resolve that one. My thought would be that just as Alison is about to concede, they find a windfall of cash.

Some pretty good lines of levity, (which were necessary, considering the disturbing plot):
“Looks like the wicked witch is not so wicked anymore.”
“Someone’s having a pity party and I didn’t get my invitation.”
“I still have my pity party decorations. Wanna borrow some?”

Next week you can tune in for the conclusion of this two-part episode, but you can get your fill right now watching Medium clips on our Online Video Guide.

There’s only one thing worse than the sound of nails on a blackboard - the dentist drill. That has got to be one of the worse sounds in the entire universe. And we were all lucky enough to hear it in the opening sequence of Medium.

For the second half of a two-part arch, this was a rather lackluster Medium and a let down from the excitement of last week’s episode. I knew last week that Graham hadn’t killed his wife. So why drag it out here? Besides, aren’t most crimes “all about the Benjamins”? Once you knew there was a large insurance policy, (and really, how much is the monthly payment on $7 million?), you had to know that it went farther than the husband.

“Now your mouth is ready for anything,” the dentist quipped before pummeling poor Sally in her newly designed mouth. Tell me something, is this show getting more violent? Or has it always been this way and I just never noticed? It also seems that it is terribly violent towards women. I mean, they’re always beating up some girl, or gagging one and throwing her in the trunk of the car, locking her into a fabricated house.

I was truly proud of Allison when Van Dyke extended his hand to her and she folded her arms and refused him. That’s our girl. Once again, Van Dyke proved his smarminess. But the smarmier a person, the harder they fall. Even though Manny shook his hand earlier, once he knew the DA was charging his client with murder, he commanded Van Dyke to, “Take your hand off my shoulder.” That’s our Manny.

Second in smarminess was the dentist. Blech. He was quick to point out his dalliances with the hooker, Sally. (Somehow forgetting to mention the complete dental overhaul he gave her.) When asked about whether he knew Mary Stacy, he replied, “Lovely lady. Lots of fun.” It was the way he said it that creeped me out. I knew right then he had been in cahoots with her for the $7 mill.

My favorite scene was Scanlon and Devalos in a screaming match. It was kind of fun to see them at each other’s throats. It was probably the most interesting part of the whole show. Later when Lee broke into Manny’s office, I thought they might start getting along until Scanlon said he might hold sway with the DA, and Manny looked him right in the eye and sarcastically commented, “Really, you? Influence?” As if to say, “Ha!”

My second favorite scene was with Joe’s mom, Marjorie, playing with Joe’s hair. It was such a sweet thing. The story she told about Joe’s birth, (which was far from true), told us so much about their relationship; I found it loving. So it wasn’t a stretch that Joe felt his mother was hiding something from him. You could tell it nearly killed Allison not to say anything about what she knew.

It was hard to understand how Allison could keep the news of Joe's mother’s illness from him. When she finally addressed it, she was having trouble holding it in. Keeping secrets is not part of the Dubois family creed. Marjorie had only told her first so she could get a reading from Allison as to the outcome of her surgery. It broke both of their hearts that Allison wasn’t dreaming about her, (this disheartened Allison and she referred to herself as a “psychic schmichic”). However, in an absolute show of selflessness, Allison invented a dream that would comfort Marjorie before the surgery. She also reminded Marjorie that she needed to tell Joe. I think his mom was OK telling him once she thought she was going to be OK. It’s hard not to love that Dubois family. They bend over backwards not to hurt one another.

Devalos delivered one of the best lines of the show responding to the blunt force trauma the burn victim had endured: “In my experience, people don’t often strike themselves before committing suicide.

Cynthia had little to do, but what she did do brought the whole case home and helped Devalos show that nasty Van Dyke just how it’s done. Though I would like to know how she got to Barcelona and back that quickly. (Remember, Allison asked her about her passport.) And even if she just called the authorities in Spain, how did they get Mary back to the states that fast. Did I miss something?

Joe’s dad keeps popping up. It was hilarious that he was sitting up in bed when Allison woke up, smoking his stogy. I cracked up when he referred to having to attend the “orientation,” when he first got to Heaven. They should keep him around. He’s a hoot.

Speaking of Heaven, another new Medium is around the corner. To keep your whistle whet until next Monday, watch some Medium clips in our Online Video Guide.

The folks over at Medium have done it again with the knock-out opening. It was a cheery choice of music playing as Ariel watched her classmate, Owen, wave good-bye to his mother. The mother is none other than Journeyman’s, Gretchen Egolf. It’s good to see she’s working even if her show is not slated to come back next fall. (Sadness.) But it was hard to watch her pour gasoline all over herself and then light the match.

And then Ariel woke up. I would be torn apart if I knew my daughter, my 15-year old daughter, no less, was having these kinds of dreams. It would be heartbreaking to know what she was going through, and knowing there was nothing you could do about it.

On a happier note, this episode had a little bit of everything and so many storylines, I’m not sure I caught everything. It was great to see Bruce Gray return as Joe’s dad, and as usual he was trying to warn Allison about something. First she dreamed of him at the driving range with Joe discussing poverty vs. vacations. And then she saw him hanging in the hallway and actually had a coherent conversation with him. I wish she had more dead people to talk to. It adds for a very funny bit. But then we don’t want her to go all ghost-whispery on us, do we?

Kathy Baker starred as Joe’s mom, (she doesn't look nearly old enough to be his mother), who came bearing a loan for the semi-unemployed family of five. (Honestly, how do they make ends meet? Although I could swear Joe said Allison was getting a check for $10,000 from Cynthia.) Marjorie came also bearing some rather upsetting news, that she was sick. The saddest part was when she was asking Allison if she could sense the outcome and whether she’d make it through. You knew Allison wanted to tell her she “knew” it would be all right, but since her powers don’t work that way, she couldn’t. You could feel the air sort of drain out of the room for Marjorie. She’d put some expectations into Allison’s answer and when there were none, it was a huge letdown.

Anyone have a clue as to what that piece of paper was that fell out of Owen’s file when Ariel was gathering it for the principal?

Do I sense trouble in paradise between Scanlon and Lynn? One could only hope. Alas, their little tiff in the beginning was short-lived. They seemed quite content and comfortable with each other. It was nice that Scanlon had the cahones to go to work during the police strike; that’s a hard decision. But he’s caught between wanting a decent life for himself and wanting to do the right thing.

I wondered about the tension between Lee and Devalos. I know they were on opposite sides of the table with the Stacey case, but they generally didn’t quarrel like that when they were working together. By the end, and then only to Lynn, Scanlon admitted he didn’t think Graham was guilty. (Luckily, we have an entire other episode left to find out the truth about that one.) But it was fantastic to see both of them calling on Allison to help them out!!! Finally, she gets her due.

That Cynthia Keener was a real nasty Nancy during this show. When Allison showed up at her house at 6 AM, (well, OK, that’s pretty early and anyone would be peeved), I thought she might tear her head off with that look she gave her at the door. She was great when she said she thought she’d heard everything by now, And here was Allison telling her about a guy with a “dentist fetish”. (That pour girl’s mouth is gonna hurt pretty darned badly when she wakes up, if she wakes up). I loved that Cynthia said that she only pays for the dreams that actually have a clue she could use. As if handing Allison a check would change the dreams she’s having. That was a hoot.

Funnier still was the conversation between Scanlon and Allison on their way to meet Devalos:
Scanlon:
“You haven’t had any arson dreams lately, have you?”
Allison:
“No, you wouldn’t happen to be looking for a horny dentist, would you?”

I loved Scanlon’s line: “You don’t light yourself on fire unless you’re a monk with a war to protest.”

Finally, how sweet was Joe when he was comforting Al about Ariel’s dream. “Maybe you were overbooked,” he cooed. And then he wondered, “If a dream needs to be dreamed and you’re not there…” What does happen when the tree falls in the forest with no one there to listen to it? Who dreams these dreams when the psychic is not available? Unfortunately, for Al, both Ariel and Bridgette are afflicted, or gifted, (depending on how you look at it), with this ability. I hope she really takes the time to teach them how to deal with the rather mature content sooner rather than later.

Thank the good Lord this is a two-parter, which not only means there’s more to this story than meets the eye, but we get another week of Medium when most shows are off the air. What a refreshing thought.

While we wait, check out all the other clues Allison has dreamed up to help solve case by watching our Online Video Guide. Do it, you might just feel a “twinge.”

OK, that is a totally gross title for this week’s totally gross Medium. But it is exactly what Allison had when she awoke after the first dream about the Senator and his cannibalistic tendencies. Did you catch her? She raised her hand to her mouth. You could almost taste it with her. And it was totally gross.

Finally – the return of Devalos! Let’s hope that soldier-eating Senator can get Manny back in the DA driving seat. It’s been long overdue. Speaking of which, did Manny look a little heavier than when he left last year? Perhaps all that time off from the job he got a little lazy. I kept thinking the Senator might find him “dinner-worthy”.

Not only was Devalos back, but he was directed by none other than his alter ego, Miguel Sandoval. That's right Sandoval directed this week's show, so to the reader who was panicked, worry not. He's baccck!

Gregory Itzin made a fantastic return to primetime since his days on 24, as the Senator with a secret. Unfortunately, for him, Allison could see right through his politicking veneer. As a young soldier, and in what could only be called a real tribute to Rescue Dawn, the Jed Garrity, found himself locked in a POW camp with a group of starving prisoners. So when a sick prisoner was inches from death, with pretty much no hope of recovery, Garrity talked his pals into eating him so the rest of them could live.

Now I don’t doubt that this sort of thing happened during any wars, and I can understand how they came to the decision, they were starving and Rhodes was sick, but to be so darned glum about it 30 years later. Itzin seems to always play a smarmy sort.

Speaking of smarmy, (isn’t that just one of the greatest words, ever?) I thought the Senator’s final speech to Allison was a little too practiced, his whole thing about honoring his friend, blah, blah, blah. You could tell he didn’t feel the slightest amount of remorse and that he has assuaged his guilt by sending money to Rhodes’ family. And he let another friend take the blame for all of them. What a creep.

Meanwhile, the Dubois’ were being bombarded by credit card companies trying to get blood from a stone. One had Bridgette on the phone for over ten minutes talking about nothing, but enough for Bridge to have a dream that the guy was going to be robbed. Poor Joe, I knew he was up the creek without so much as a paddle when he told Bridgette he would relay her message to Mr. Reshdie.

The only really unbelievable part of that whole scenario was that Mr. Reshdie changed the status of their file from “annoy them everyday”, to "pending payment". Of course, I would never admit to having had credit card problems, but you could wine and dine one of those folks on a yacht in the Mediterranean, and you’d still get a phone call the next day asking for payment.

Scanlon, Ahhh. My question is, why does he always doubt our heroic psychic until the very last minute? He should know better by now. But when Allison said, “Oh, that’s comedy! Cop-comedy!” I burst out laughing. He deserved it. But of course, he came to the rescue at the appropriate moment.

It was comforting that there were no missing children in this one. I hope they’ve put those story lines on the shelf for a time. We Medium-ites can only take so much! Although, I’m not sure how much better cannibalism is, even when it’s for somewhat understandable reasons.

More new Medium next week, in the meantime, chew on these vids in our Online Video Guide.

What a fantastic start to Medium tonight. I loved the silent movie portraying the sad ills of the Dubois ladies with barely a morsel of food to share between the four of them. But where was Joe in all of that? In a short video on the NBC website, Maria Lark said it was fun to do, but she wasn’t terribly fond of the scratchy clothes.

A man was accused of killing his wife and Allison was asked to join the defense team headed by her favorite defense attorney, Larry Watt played by the fantastic Conor O'Farrell. He handed Allison a check saying, “Think it over, but think fast. Bank opens at 8; jury selection at 9…” A big paycheck makes working for the enemy very palatable, while a dream telling of the defendant’s guilt made it hard to enjoy.

Ariel is either stealing or I don’t know what. OK, it’s I don’t know what, because she was taking the 5-finger discount, she was giving “readings”. When Joe told this to Allison, I thought he meant Ariel was reading poetry in a speakeasy. I’m dating myself, aren’t I? Well, I wasn’t around for speakeasies, but it took me a second to realize he didn’t mean that, nor did he mean palm readings or tealeaf readings, for that matter. It’s actually a pretty ingenious idea and if Allison were more like Lynn Spears, she just might pimp her daughter out as the next Kreskin.

Could swear I heard Jake Weber’s British accent, if only for a moment or two or three…You know my love for Joe is deep, but with British, Aussie and Kiwi actors being cast in all the top roles on American TV, (Journeyman, Life, Sarah Connor, Moonlight, Eli Stone, the list goes on and on), I fear we may all be speaking with foreign accents sooner rather than later.

The line of the night was spoken so eloquently by the handsome and underused Joe: “You’ve got this seven-course meal of a moral quandary and I’ve got this fast food burger of a problem.”

Allison really did have a dilemma, a moral conundrum, if you will. But Watt had a point, take the money and take care of your family, which is exactly what the defendant was doing. Money is a soiled thing anyhow; it so rarely comes to us from altruistic means. A dollar won in the dark side is just as green as one from the light. I think Darth Vader said that.

Surprisingly, Edgemont did not kill his wife, his mentally, (and fashion) challenged daughter, Chloe did; he and his other daughter, Myra, conspired to make Stacy’s death look like an accident. Or so we thought. What we didn’t know is that Myra actually killed Stacy herself, as well as beating to death a nurse she didn’t like either. It might only be a matter of time before she kills her sister. And I guess having her dad sent to jail and possibly to a death sentence worked out nicely for her as well. Talk about pure evil. Though her red hair was really beautiful.

However, Allison had her number. As Myra walked out of the courtroom, Allison warned her, “I’m watching you.” Is this a possible cliffhanger? Are we to assume this storyline might be revisited? Because I would surely like to see Myra get what’s coming to her. And I hope what’s coming to her involves a cast iron fairy.

Another new episode coming next week. It’s like Christmas in February, or March as it will be… But you should start stocking up on Medium clips in our Online Video Guide because I don’t think we’re getting many more episode than that.

Finally, after a several week hiatus, Medium is back! I was overjoyed. The show was back in prime form, with Patricia Arquette’s little brother, David, directing his second episode, (the first being 1-900 Lucky, where Alison’s brother, a hot-line psychic tried to help solve a case).

Alison woke up, after having dreamt about a young deaf girl being kidnapped, and could not hear. I thought it was very effective to go back and forth between sound and no sound. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to wake up one morning and not be able to hear anything. It really got me when Joe took Alison to the doctor and she was being tested and was crying with those big head phones on. I was in tears right along with her. Until she was in the tub and Joe came in and made a gesture with his hand for her to stop talking. God bless Joe for bringing humor into a very scary situation. I was happy he broke the tension.

Thank goodness for technology too, Joe was clever in his use of the computer as a means of communication with Alison. Once again, he was able to make me laugh as he stretched his arms before beginning to type, “I feel a real bad case of carpel tunnel coming on.”

With all the sign language, I thought subtitles would have been a good idea. But I guess it added to the discomfort that Alison must have felt since she did not understand it, nor could she read lips. Communication was key and was made very difficult by Alison’s ailment. Like Joe, Cynthia Keener tried some hand signals in order to have Alison understand her, but they were even funnier than the one Joe did.

When Alison was sitting in the Stewart’s house and there was so much activity of which she was not a part, I couldn’t help but think how helpless she must have felt. Then she called Joe and it about broke my heart. “If you’re there and you can hear me, sweet dreams, sleep tight, and know that I love you. And if you’re not there…” Seeing Joe holding the phone and knowing all he could do was listen, when all she could do was speak, I was moved again to tears.

Medium is a great show and I love the concept of a psychic helping solve crimes, but it’s not for that reason that I keep coming back, it’s the relationship between Alison and Joe, and the kids for that matter. I like to think there are a few couples out there who actually have a relationship like these two. Speaking of the kids, how adorable was Maria and the Is Your Mama a Llama story?

I couldn’t help wondering why the husband was so obstinate. I thought there might be something to it when he started acting so over the top towards Cynthia. That scum bag, Darren, had his step-daughter kidnapped and would have killed her, a 12-year old deaf child, no less, had Scanlon and Cynthia not shown up on his doorstep ready to blast him to high heavens. Cynthia wanted him to give her a reason to “put one right between his eyes,” and another in his chest. He disappointed her.

The Creepy Award goes to the kidnapper who said he’d already done his part about covering up his identity by writing a note that the girl’s father was responsible and now it was Darren’s turn to do his part adding, “We dug a hole out back.”

Did the kidnappers actually kick the crap out of the little girl? Seems like that would have been a very important point to let the mother know so the child could be taken to a hospital and checked for internal bleeding.

Once again, Scanlon made a very brief appearance, and only then to save the day. I really miss the old team with Devalos and Scanlon. Looks like Devalos will be back next week.

Until then, catch up on all your favorite Medium clips in our Online Video Guide .

Or: “The Paris that Kent Built”

We see the Eiffel Tower and a beautiful girl when the dulcet tones of 10CC’s “I’m Not in Love” open the show. I nearly started laughing. After last week’s Crowded House serenade, I thought whoever has been writing this season of Medium has the exact same taste in music as my sister. “I’m Not in Love” is her favorite song. 10CC, Paris, and a little Chardonnay sounds like a pretty good time, but when you add a corkscrew in the hand, well you’re headed for trouble.

Melissa, the lovely blond, is not enjoying her honeymoon in Paris. Obviously, Paris is NOT for lovers. Something definitely seemed off in Allison’s dream. In real life, Melissa was engaged to marry her second husband, we find after the first marriage went sour.

Joe’s job hunt is no fun either, though he does look good in a suit. With only three aerospace companies in Phoenix, it’s a terribly bleak market for an aeronautical engineer. But he has an interview that he was rather excited about until his potential new boss inappropriately asked him if he was the husband of that “Dubois woman who was in the news,” and then very strangely, (and again, inappropriately), invited him and Allison to dinner at his house, because his wife is “a big believer” in all that mystical stuff Al is known for. Though Al did not want to go and be the center of attention at the party, she relented and I must say she looked really nice with her party make-up on.

Joe’s acceptance into the firm became contingent on Allison being able to help the Barrister’s find their missing daughter and the pressure was on. Allison’s dreams were on the money but no one wanted to believe them except for Bonnie. Joe tried to help Allison by having her run through her dreams and she remembered Melissa’s ex, Kent, mentioning their “secret hideaway.” Wanting to help Joe get a “leg up” on the job front, Allison went directly to the person who she thought could help. Ever wonder who builds those dioramas you see at museums? Well, wonder no more, Kent’s the man. He has an interesting job and he wears gloves, two very important clues. Al went there armed with the secret cabin Kent and Melissa had shared. Little did she know he would lead her down a dead-end street.

Bonnie cried, “It’s not like you’ve been dreaming about her,” so Allison spilled the beans about her dreams. Though at first Joe seemed supportive, he also added, “If we ever hope to send our three girls to college, you damn well better find her.” No pressure.

Allison dreamt that Melissa was in her red party dress and tied and gagged in the trunk of a car. This would not bode well for Joe, “Can we at least serve it up with a side order of hope?” he begged of Allison, who had “no clues, only bad news.” sadly believed Al that her daughter had been abducted until Steven arrived with Melissa’s phone message. Then that rotten Peter threw Al and Joe out of his house. Isn’t it just rude to ask someone for help and then condemn them when you don’t like how you’ve helped them?

Once again, Allison went to Kent with her suspicion that Melissa was in Paris. Little did Kent know when he said, “It sounds to me like you’re dream was just a dream,” that Allison rarely dreams for the heck of it. He whipped off his glove and voila`, corkscrew in the hand. He didn’t know that Allison had already dreamed about his hand and knew that he was the baddie in all of this.

Scanlon was a butt-head to her again. She told him that she believed that Melissa was in Paris, but the one that Kent built. Then Scanlon smarted up and figured out a good plan to get Melissa out of Kent’s Paris. I was seriously on the floor when Scanlon appeared on the city street of Gay Paree like Detective Godzilla. (And you all noticed when Al changed the TV channel the next morning; she put on a Godzilla-like cartoon!)

Joe and Allison were totally cute playing at the breakfast table and grossing the girls out. (My sisters and I were the same way when our parents did that!)

Lines too good for words:
(Off Joe’s look), “I don’t know what to tell you. I don’t think them up.”
“This was supposed to be so simple. Dream the dream. Find the girl. Get the job.”
“...Me in the corner reading tea leaves or telling a fortune or two.”
Allison: “What look?”
Joe: “Yeah, that’s the one.”

OK, I’m taking bets on the next groovy oldie they play on the next ep. My thought, “Baby I’m A-Want You”, by Bread. Which song are you all hoping to hear?

Unfortunately, Medium won’t hit the airwaves for another four weeks while NBC unveils something completely different. But you don’t have to miss the Dubois’, just watch clips of Allison doing what she does best on our Online Video Guide.

The opening really got me; both the eeriness of the car wheel spinning slowly and then the hand of the young female victim frantically trying to grab hold of her phone. I felt exactly like Allison did when she woke up and shook, (and later when she woke up crying). Then she asked Joe how Ariel was. When she returned to the dream it was Ariel in the car hanging upside down and I jumped out of my seat.

I really related to Ariel and Allison’s relationship in this episode of Medium. I’m sure many of you can attest to that jumbled mess of feelings we have for our mothers.

Cynthia Keener started out as a bigger be-atch than she seemed last week. Not only did she admit that she “goes for the kill” when a family is in distress, but she was nasty to Allison when she hadn’t felt any “vibes” from Melanie’s belongings. Cynthia warned Allison the glory was about her and not Allison. Allison has never been one for the fame of it, but Cynthia seems to crave it badly. It was great that Allison was giving it right back at her. After the debacle with Debra, (Neve Campbell), last season, I worry that Al is not a very good judge of character.

It was obvious from the get-go that the missing girl and Allison’s dream were connected. It was laid out well by interspersing Ariel’s dreams into the story. Allison could not have made the connection without the help of her psychic daughter.

I had to give her credit, Allison tried hard to talk and reason with her daughter, although, to no avail. Ariel shut her mother out when she tried to explain why she wasn’t comfortable letting her go to the concert alone. I remember being that age and not being allowed to go to concerts. Though I went to see the Doobie Brothers with my sisters when I was 13. It was back in the days of the double-looping belts. Such style! I may even have worn a side pony-tail with crimped edges!

Some great lines:
“It happened just the way I dreamed it; right in front of my locker.”
“It doesn’t work that way. I’m not a Geiger counter.”
“Well, come on; it’s not The DaVinci code.”
“Um, Allison?”

Some of my favorite bits of this week:
Ariel getting to hang out with her mom when she was 16; how could you not love the hair?
Allison touching the missing girl’s things, and it was actually Patricia Arquette’s hands and not a stand-in hand actor.
Joe getting stuck on the couch and asking for a little help.
That huge handwriting on the note from Allison to Casey.
Upon waking after a bad dream Allison hitting Joe and yelling, “No, I didn’t see the kind of car!”
Casey Tunstell, a little tribute to KT Tunstall?

The music was freaking great. When teen-aged Allison was singing “Don’t Dream It’s Over”, the Crowded House song, I felt like I was back in my teen skin when everything that went wrong was the end of the world.

(Didn’t Ariel look so young with all that 80’s make-up on? It made me really sad.) When she was left in the car with the creepy cop and she kept telling herself to wake up I was in tears, just as I am now while I think about it again. What a horrible dream.

Once they figured out that Casey had been killed in a car accident and that Allison and Ariel’s dreams were parts of the same puzzle, it was just a minor detail to find the sludgebag cop and the missing girl. Though if Allison hadn’t told Cynthia of Melanie’s probable whereabouts, she might not have been found alive. Ariel’s dreams were critical to solve this crime, and it will definitely be interesting to see her and her mother share their abilities in the future.

What I loved most about this episode was that after all the “ I hate my mother” comments, Ariel ended up liking her mother enough to go roller-skating together and wanting to be there. I know there were many similar episodes in my childhood and I really “got” their relationship in this ep more than any other one.

Since this song was so instrumental in telling the story I thought I would leave you with a few of the lyrics. From Crowded House, “Don’t Dream It’s Over”:

There is freedom within, there is freedom without
Try to catch the deluge in a paper cup
There's a battle ahead, many battles are lost
But you'll never see the end of the road
While you're traveling with me

Hey now, hey now
Don't dream it's over
Hey now, hey now
When the world comes in
They come, they come
To build a wall between us
We know they won't win

We know that Allison will always win and we’re grateful for it. If you want to spook yourself out some more, watch these Medium clips on our Online Video Guide.