AUGUST 27, 2006
THE HUNTING PARTY

Kevin Speckmaier, one of our assistant directors, directed "The Hunting Party" -- our Season Five finale. This would be the third episode of The Dead Zone that he's directed and it, also, ended up being just a gigantic episode.

In Season Three, Kevin directed an episode called "Total Awareness" which we all really dug, as it dealt with the government conspiracy -- Big Brother watching you -- and really expanded the franchise in terms of the Government and their awareness of Johnny. This episode continues that, but continues it in a way that begins where the season opener "Forbidden Fruit" (the episode I directed) left off.

If you'll recall, "Forbidden Fruit" is the episode where Miranda dies, and Janus is revealed to be manipulating both Johnny and Stillson. We just continue that story in the season finale with the only other episode this season dealing with Johnny and Stillson being "Vortex" where Stillson was trying to take out Johnny and make him responsible for the death of Carter and the destruction of property at this sort of Waco-like situation.

We see here Janus putting Stillson to the ultimate test and we get to see how far Stillson will go to succeed, to get the power he's always wanted. It was interesting for me to see Stillson almost hesitant to sell his soul, to go down this road. You see him right in front of your eyes sort of rationalize the actions he's about to take, whether out of fear and self-preservation or some sort of ends-justifies-the-means. You can see that he thinks he it's his destiny to lead the country.

But there are some moments of humanity we've seen in Stillson along the way: with his father through the years (up until he killed him, that is) and with Miranda (before she was killed) and now with Johnny and Janus. You never really know exactly what's going on with Stillson, but there are always a lot of different levels to it. A lot of that is brought by, of course, the writing, but really Sean Patrick Flanery is such a great actor. He is always curious, and is always throwing lines away, playing things in a way that's fresh or surprising.

And Michael Hall really had his hands full in this episode with his storyline; starting off, it just seemed he was in a small storyline with a sort of anti-establishment webcaster, a subversive personality who ultimately ends up becoming the patsy. It's fun. I enjoyed seeing Walt and Johnny team up and hearing about Walt's military background while doing research for Johnny. We get to learn a lot more about Janus, about his covert unit, about how far Janus will go -- even killing members of his own unit, his own friends and people that he cared about -- in order to accomplish the mission.

But, no matter what Johnny seems to do, Janus seems to be one step ahead of him, almost just trying to demonstrate his cunning to Johnny and letting him see into what his plans are, yet knowing Johnny is always one step behind and unable to stop him. And, of course, I love the building up to the final scene where Johnny and Janus confront one another. It's similar to the end of the Season Four finale, "Saved," where Janus offers Johnny a place in power beside him. But this time, Janus takes it to the next level. Now, the confrontation is direct and not via a vision, and the offer is turned into more of a threat.

At the end of Season Four, Janus told Johnny he had a choice whether to become the Third Ruler in the Kingdom. This season ends with Janus telling Johnny he doesn't have a choice: join him and Stillson, or be destroyed.

This ultimatum, I think, leads us to a great place for Season Six, in terms of how Johnny's going to react to that. We've been thinking a lot about Season Six and -- I don't want to give anything away, but -- hopefully, you'll be hearing from all of us very soon!

I hope you enjoyed the great season. It's been a pleasure to continue my father's legacy that we started together when we created this show. And I can say on behalf of my studio partners and Lloyd Segan, my producing partner, that we really had a blast making Season Five of The Dead Zone, and we hope we can continue bringing new episodes to you.

We believe that we have a new way to take the series that, I think, will blow everybody's mind for Season Six!

Until (hopefully) our next season pickup,

Shawn Piller
Executive Producer

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AUGUST 27, 2006THE HUNTING PARTY

AUGUST 27, 2006
THE HUNTING PARTY