Dow Jones’s Reviews > The Dead Zone > Status Update

J shows up at the Timbull rally for Greg Stillson. Meets with Ngo as his class shows up and everyone’s excited for their first rally. J knows he shouldn’t go for the touch but his instincts are overpowering. He’s pressed through to the front near the bike gang & towards the end Greg grabs his hand & J sees him being sworn in as president. G is shocked & as J turns to escape, he blacks out.

J and Mr. C watch and comment on Stillson’s buffoonery on TV. Ngo’s citizenship class field trip is going to his rally & J fights the urge to go but can’t help himself. Herb is finally making moves on a family friend whose house he’s fixing up.

Johnny has a breakthrough with Chuck to redirect his thoughts when answering reading comp questions & Mr. Chatsworth gives a $500 bonus and reveals he knows of Johnny’s abilities. Now they see Stillson on the news of the campaign trail. When J was short-order cooking, he met many politicians and shook hands w/ Carter & told of his vision of Carter winning. Secret Service agent is psycho assassin?

Johnny begins private tutoring a high school athlete class president, Chuck Chatsworth, in reading and comprehension. $600/mth and free room & board in their guest house. Sweet deal after so many unwanted packages and visitors showing up in Pownal. Different age than movie & I wonder if the dad knew of J’s abilities before interviewing him as in the film.

Johnny blacked out for 4hrs and the next few pages revealed his heroics but also that his new teaching contract was withdrawn due to being too controversial to teach high school. New letters and packages pile up for him but all he wants is privacy. Poor guy. Next starts part II: The Laughing Tiger.

Johnny names deputy Frank Dodd as the killer & Bannerman punches him & argues in his defense but slowly succumbs to the realization that the timeline matches & there’s another case when he was on police training. Dodd’s mom knew all along, covered up, & J seeing into her intensified his headache. Found Dodd w/ lipsticked “I CONFESS” & his own slit throat in a bathroom. Wild stuff & like the movie a bit.

Johnny meets Sheriff Bannerman after seeing a 9yr old girl was raped and strangled in the middle of town in the morning. They go to latest scenes and Johnny has visions of everything. Very grotesque description of finding her body & scary just how close his own daughter was to being a victim, within 10 minutes. Reporters crowd them & shit hits the fan now that a psychic’s involved.

Johnny’s brought up to date on the strangler by reading the newspaper and he calls Weizak to give him a piece of his mind for his indiscretion. Weizak agrees, apologizes, and Johnny feels worse knowing Sam sides with him and was only doing what he felt was the right thing. Johnny’s having a killer headache; is this a tumor? Impending death signal?

S&J have sex twice during her visit to consummate the marriage and child that never were & then they don’t talk for 3 more years. Inside View dude wrote a piece calling J a fraud & he gets hate mail til Christmastime when Castle Rock’s sheriff calls to get his help w/ the strangler case & J flips hearing Weizak gave his unlisted number. Also prepping to start teaching again soon w/ new apt. Driving again.

Johnny kicks the Inside View editor out of his house literally & feels bad for all those poor readers being duped by fraud staff writers. Greg Stillson blackmails his banker bro, Chuck Gendron, to use his Lions Club & businessman powers to find him $50k to run for House of Reps. No violence, just pics of his infidelity.