I guess this is a matter of personal preference, but I don't need a story to shock me with twists and turns if it has other strengths, like layered, vivid characterization, and I felt this episode contained a great deal. First, there was the intimacy between Sarah and Johnny. Their exchange when held captive in the bank showed all the passion and warmth that they are forced to withhold and repress, and I really felt their pain.

Then there was the bank robber, a man who, like Johnny, has lost his purpose in life and the woman he shared his life with. The bank robber was a dark mirror image of Johnny; both of them feel they have nothing left. And through understanding that, Johnny is able to show compassion and empathy for a man holding a gun on him, and the key to reasoning with the man is to make him feel he isn't alone.

I feel that's really the strength of "The Dead Zone"; to take admittedly standard television crime and mystery plots and infuse with them a character who sees in strangers the same grief and pain he himself is racked with. Because of those layers, I'm untroubled by any predictable plotting.

I suppose Little Johnny's abrupt disappearance is a hole; I never noticed until reading your post. Every time I thought of the kid's appearance, I thought of Johnny looking at his son on the coin-operated car-ride and asking, "Is that thing turbo-charged?" It's not in the shooting script, and I think Michael Hall improvised it.