West Wing TV Show - Crutching Teacher, Hidden Psychic - West Wing Photos & Videos, West Wing Reviews & West Wing Recaps | TWoP

The film opens with a shot of a beautiful, old, large, gabled, three-storey house with lots of gingerbread trim. So far, I like this film a lot. This is followed by other shots from an idyllic small town, probably in New England somewhere, since this is based on a Stephen King novel. (Somewhere I read that this is King's favourite film version of any of his books, although he may have said that long before the release of Misery, The Green Mile, etc. I would have thought at that point, Carrie would be his favourite.) The ominous music tells you that all is not well in this lovely little town. Imagine that. The first scene is in a high-school classroom, where Christopher Walken -- wearing a hairdo Bill Gates would probably reject (a quasi-bowl cut, all combed straight down) and big nerdy glasses -- is reciting "The Raven" to his students. Man, he looks bad. His clothes are dull and ultra-dweeby too. He finishes and smiles weirdly at the indifferent class, asking, "Pretty good, huh?" He dismisses the class, and the kids can't peel out of there fast enough. As they leave, he tells them cheerfully that they're going to like The Legend of Sleepy Hollow because it's "about a schoolteacher who gets chased by a headless demon!" ["In light of Walken's role in Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, hee." -- Wing Chun] Out in the hall, Chris catches up with another teacher, played by Brooke Adams. He puts his arm around her and they walk along making googly eyes at each other. Apparently things were quite different back in 1983; a guy who looks like this could get a cute chick like Adams. I was eighteen at the time and I don't recall anything of this sort, but whatever. She wonders whether teachers can be expelled for kissing in the hallway; he says they can be fired. She giggles, "Thank God it's Friday!" He tells her he has a surprise for them for that afternoon. I bet it doesn't involve a trip to Brooks Brothers and Vidal Sassoon. The shot is the track of a roller coaster and the sound of the two of them screaming as the roller coaster races along. They're the only ones on it. As they fly along, Walken looks perfectly happy, but then all of sudden has a look of pain and horror on his face. He takes his glasses off and puts his hand to his head, compellingly foreshadowing of how I'm going to look around page nine of this recap. Girlfriend is oblivious. As the car slows to a stop, she looks at him and asks if he's okay. He says he doesn't know what's wrong: "It didn't used to bother me." The carny asks if they enjoyed the ride. Carny is ignored. They leave. It's nighttime now, and Brooke and Chris are driving home in a white Volkswagen Beetle. Okay, I forgive the hair and the clothes and the glasses, because this is one of my favourite cars. He walks her to the door of her house (another beautiful, huge, old-fashioned place). She asks if he'd like to come in; he thinks he'd better not. She asks again if he's okay; he claims that he is. She smooches him and says she had a wonderful time. It starts to rain heavily. My head is already hurting from the clichés and formulae that are limping through the film. She asks again if he'd like to come in. He says, "Better not. Some things are worth waiting for." He macks on her some more. He leaves, and as she watches him go, she suddenly calls, "Johnny, wait!" She runs out into the rain for some more smooching and to tell him, "I'm so crazy about you!" Personally, I suspect her of being after the car, but I may be projecting here. He tells her he's going to marry her. She says, "You better!" And they swap some more spit. Enough already. She runs back to the porch and calls out, "Drive carefully!" That's what I always say when people leave my house. That's the sort of old lady I am. He says he will. Off Johnny goes, in the Bug. It's foggy as well as raining heavily. As he drives along, another set of lights is heading toward him. Uh oh: it's a guy driving an eighteen-wheeler, and he's jerkily dozing off and waking up again. He loses control of the vehicle, and the trailer detaches from the cab, which drives off into a field. The load is a refrigerated truck full of milk, and it slides length-wise down the hill toward Johnny. Of course he doesn't see it in time to swerve out of its way, and crashes into it. Cow juice everywhere. (Insert your own joke about crying and spilt milk here.) The truck driver runs toward the overturned Bug and opens the door. Brooke -- wearing pyjamas, boots, and a winter coat -- flies into a hospital with the architecture detail of a mansion. Her face drawn, she finds her way to Johnny's room, where she finds him unconscious, heavily bandaged, bleeding here and there, and with a tube in his mouth. Naturally, she cries. She tearfully pleads, "Johnny, don't leave me, please." She says she knows he'll get better, and that they're going to get married. Silly girl. The shot is of a foreboding brick and concrete fence, and an engraved copper sign that reads "The Weizak Clinic." It's winter. The Weizak Clinic is in another fabulous old house. I'm hating the film, but I want to live in the set. We see Johnny awaken in a hospital bed. He's all fixed up, but looks slightly dazed, and his face is quite ashen; his lips are dry and cracked. He looks to his left only to see a fuzzy-haired, white-coated guy standing there wearing heavy black-framed glasses that look just like the ones Dr. Hibbert gives Bart in the episode where he turns into a nerd due to his various medical appliances and problems. The dude introduces himself as Dr. Sam Weizak, the director of the clinic. He tells Johnny that he's been their guest for a while. Doc asks how he feels; Johnny says his throat hurts. Weizak gives him some water. Weizak explains that Johnny was involved in a severe traffic accident, and asks whether Johnny remembers it. Johnny asks if he's okay. The doctor says he's been smashed up pretty badly. Johnny lifts his arms and looks at them. They seem fine. He feels his face and says, "No bandages. How come?" The doctor doesn't answer but just says that he's going to bring in Johnny's parents now. Johnny's elderly parents naturally seem relieved to see him awake. His mother announces that it was a miracle. Johnny says he was lucky; gesturing with his arm, he indicates, "Not a scratch." His mother kisses his hand and says, "The Lord has delivered ya from your trance." The doctor interjects, "Remember what we discussed, Mrs. Smith, please." Johnny wants to know what she's talking about. The doctor explains that he's been in a coma. Johnny naturally wants to know for how long. His father jumps in to say, "We're just glad to have you back, son. That's all that matters." Johnny grabs his dad's coat lapel and says, "How long?" His mother tells him "Five years." She is one of the youngest-looking old ladies I've ever seen on TV. Oh, good Lord: I just checked the IMDB to look up the actor playing his mom, and it's Jackie Burroughs. ["In MBTV terms, she was most recently spotted playing a clairvoyant old lady onSmallville." -- Wing Chun] I thought she looked familiar. Assuming this was filmed no later than 1982, she could not have been more than forty-three at the time of filming. She's four years older than Walken, and she's playing his mother. So annoying. Also, Cancer Man (William B. Davis) is supposed to be playing an ambulance driver in this flick somewhere (his first film credit), but I couldn't find him. Anyway, Johnny's still trying to take in the news of his five-year coma, and asks, "What about Sarah?" His father looks grave. His mother advises, "Cast her from your thoughts, Johnny. She's turned her back on you." Well, come on...five years? It's not like she vamoosed after three weeks. His mother explains that Sarah (formerly known as Brooke) is married to someone else now. Johnny covers his face with his arms and turns away to cry. He's got a new hairdo, layered and puffily blow-dried. Apparently someone gave him the 'do while he was in the coma, probably while he was actually lying down. In the scene -- possibly the same day -- a nurse comes into Johnny's room to distribute some linens. He's sleeping. She decides to wipe his face with a cold cloth; as she is doing so, he suddenly clutches her wrist, and she screams. Johnny's eyes fly open, and he lifts his head off the pillow; he looks off to his left, where we see a dollhouse on fire and a little girl huddling in the corner of her bedroom screaming. He says the name "Amy" a couple of times. The nurse, her wrist still in Johnny's grasp, says that her daughter's name is Amy. He tells her that her daughter is screaming and that the house is burning. "It's not too late," he says. More shots of the fire spreading and the child screaming. Johnny keeps telling the nurse it's not too late, hurry up, her daughter's screaming. The nurse looks horrified and runs out. Sure enough, when the nurse arrives at her house, it's on fire; a fireman runs out with her daughter and puts her in her mother's arms. Back at the clinic, Johnny's sitting up in a chair, wearing an ug-lay bathrobe; the head and neck brace he's wearing has a white headband-like piece that is very odd-looking. His hair looks even poofier now that he's upright, and goofier due to the headband. Everybody Wang Chung tonight. Dr. Weizak is telling him that they need to get his body back into shape; Johnny's been exercised while in his coma, but his ligaments have shortened. Johnny wonders if he'll have to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. Doc says he won't, not for very long. The doctor's good, in that I can't tell yet whether he's evil (and I haven't read the novel, obviously, so I really don't know). He announces that Johnny's therapy will be "long and painful, but it will work." Johnny sighs and takes the doctor's hand to thank him. As he grasps Weizak's hand, he suddenly has flashes of scenes of war: tanks circling around some buildings, lots of fire and smoke, explosives going off, people screaming. He lurches in his chair a bit and then looks at the doctor, saying, "The wolf is loose!" For some reason, with the headband on, the effect is rather ludicrous. The doctor asks if he's all right. Johnny sees more images of the same things, with people riding on horses and more tanks. He whispers, "Horses...fire." People are fleeing any way they can; a young blonde woman and her little boy make a run for it, and she pushes him onto a wagon loaded with people; it rolls away as the boy reaches for his mother and she screams. Johnny announces, "The boy is safe." He's still clutching Weizak's wrist, and Weizak is trying to struggle free. In the vision, a man with a gun gestures to the blonde woman to come with him, and she runs to hide with him. Johnny struggles to his feet, repeating, "The boy is safe," and of course, falls down as soon as he gets up. He lies crumpled on the floor; Weizak rushes over, helps him sit up, and asks him to tell him about the boy. Johnny says, "You're the boy." Weizak doesn't understand. Johnny continues, "She saved you. She's alive, Sam." Weizak doesn't know what he's talking about. Johnny says: "Your mother." Weizak claims that's impossible. Johnny insists that she survived. Weizak says his mother is dead. Johnny maintains that she is alive, and that Johnny knows her name and where she lives. Weizak keeps saying it's impossible. How could he know that? Johnny says he's scared: "What's happening to me?" Weizak's in his office, staring at a piece of paper. He finally picks up the phone, dials a number, and asks to speak to Johanna. Johanna comes to the phone; when Weizak hears her voice, he doesn't say anything, but removes his glasses with a trembling hand. Johanna keeps saying hello, but Weizak says nothing; he just covers his eyes with his hand. Johnny's sitting in his wheelchair at a table with Weizak, who says, "Well, you are either in possession of a very new human ability...or a very old one." An orderly knocks and brings in some food. Weizak says they're going to have him back on his feet in a day or two. The doctor also tells him that he was right about his mother. He explains that he couldn't talk to her, and hung up. He feels "it wasn't meant to be." Johnny seems dismayed by this. Outside the clinic, Johnny's using crutches to practice walking. He's being encouraged by one of those energetic trainer types, who are always bouncing and springing about and slinging peppy little exhortations. Mind you, they're doing this attempted walking on a sidewalk thickly covered with ice. Hey, that sounds like an excellent plan for a guy to get back on his feet. The trainer complains that Johnny's only done eight lousy steps, and announces, "I'd really like to see you do some serious chugging." Shut up, dude. The trainer says he's going to take a run around the building, and tells Johnny to keep chugging. At that moment, Sarah comes out of the front door of the clinic. She has short hair now. It suits her much better than long hair, so she looks even cuter now. She says she didn't know if she should come or not. Johnny says it's all right. In a visiting room inside, Johnny remarks on Sarah's haircut. She says, "You lost weight." Well, duh. He affably replies, "They call it the coma diet: lose weight while you sleep." They both laugh merrily. No, not really. She mentions that she got married; he says he heard. His hair is blown dry so that it is almost vertical. It's really awful. Of her husband, Sarah says, "I think you'd like him." Oh, please. Yeah, I bet they'll go hunting and fishing together. Johnny wisely ignores this and asks, "You still teach?" She says she doesn't: "Mothering's a full-time job." Johnny didn't know she had kids. She thought Johnny's father would have told him. She says her son, Denny, is ten months old. Johnny smiles and says he's glad for her. She takes her coat off, and notices him looking at her with some degree of pleasure. She sits down and sadly says, "Please don't look at me like that." He asks, "What am I going to do? For you, five years have come and gone. For me, it's just the day. My feelings haven't changed yet." Sarah wonders why this had to happen. Johnny casually says, "Bad luck." She says she never should have let him go that night. He reminds her that it was his idea: "What a jerk." He laughs. She just looks miserable. She tells him everyone's talking about him. He thinks it's because he survived such a bad accident, but she tells him it's because of his psychic abilities. He says he keeps thinking of a line from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow about Ichabod Crane's disappearance: "As he was a bachelor, and in nobody's debt, nobody troubled their head about him anymore." Sarah asks if that's what he's afraid of; without hesitation, he replies, "That's what I want." But he's not very convincing. As Sarah drives away from the clinic, she stops the car, sobbing for a moment, and then drives away. Johnny is in Weizak's office, and Weizak is telling him, "I don't approve." Johnny says that the press has been hounding him ever since he regained consciousness and he wants to get it over with. Weizak is concerned about where it could lead. Johnny says, "It's already in motion. I just want to stop it." Johnny's holding a press conference, explaining about what happened with the fire at the nurse's house. A reporter asks, "What happened to the little girl?" It seems like this is the sort of thing a television reporter would probably already know, this being the sort of town where a big house fire probably makes the local news. Johnny says he understands she's fine. The same reporter asks hesitantly if he would call this a psychic experience. Johnny says no, and that he's never had such an experience before. The reporter asks for a demonstration. Johnny's confused. The reporter asks for any predictions, such as whether Greg Stillson is going to unseat Senator Proctor. Johnny has no idea who the reporter is talking about. Hello? Dude's been in a coma for five years. Cut him some slack already. Johnny turns to Weizak for some guidance. Weizak tries to cut the conference short, at which point the reporters all start clamouring. The same reporter keeps pushing for a prediction about the election; Johnny insists he doesn't even know who the reporter is talking about. He replies that Johnny didn't know anything about the nurse, either. Johnny says, "That was different." Everyone looks vaguely mystified. Johnny finally explains that he touched her hand. So you just know this reporter is going to go over to Johnny and ask him to touch his hand, which he does. He sits down to Johnny and asks, "Is my house on fire, Johnny?" I'm really hating the stupid smugness of this reporter. Weizak offers to break it up. Johnny says it's okay. He asks the reporter if he wants to know if he's going to die. The reporter kind of nods. Johnny points out the obvious, namely that we're all going to die, and that what the reporter really wants to know is whether he'll die tomorrow. Johnny starts to whisper, even before he takes the reporter's hand, "You want to know why your sister killed herself." The reporter kind of wants to back out now, but Johnny won't let go of his hand. The reporter says he won't talk about that, and they struggle a bit, before the reporter wrests his hand away and says, "Let go, you fucking freak!" We see Johnny's parents watching this at home on the television, with great concern. His mother says, "Leave him alone." On TV, Weizak breaks up the press conference. Johnny's mother rips off her glasses and stands up, saying, "You're hurting him!" Then she falls to her knees, making sounds like a choking bird. Her husband looks concerned. Johnny and Weizak arrive at the hospital where Mrs. Smith has been admitted. Johnny arrives at her bedside; she looks like she's been dipped in flour. She's delirious; she tells him to leave his boots outside and not track snow all over the house. He says he won't track snow inside. She says he's a good boy. Johnny takes her hand and kisses it; she wheezes out a last fluttery breath and dies. A police car drives up to Johnny's parents' house. I recognize the guy driving the car, but can't place him until I look him up: it's Nicholas Campbell, who now stars in a Canadian show I never watch, but which I see commercials for all the time, called DaVinci's Inquest. The other guy, playing the sheriff, is Tom Skerritt. Campbell tells Skerritt that he's wasting his time. He says to Campbell, who is playing Frank, that it's worth a try. He goes into the house, leaving Frank in the car chomping his Bubble Yum. Johnny's father invites him in. It turns out he's there to ask Johnny to use his psychic powers to assist him in his foundering investigations of some serial murders involving the Castle Rock Killer. Johnny isn't interested; his father tries to encourage him to consider it. The sheriff reminds him that several decent young women met with horrendous deaths. He admits he's exhausted all conventional methods and doesn't know what to do . Johnny's unmoved. The sheriff suggests that if God has seen fit to give Johnny this gift, Johnny should use it. Johnny takes exception: "Bless me?" He starts shouting: "You know what God did for me? He threw an eighteen-wheel truck at me! He bounced me into nowhere for five years! When I woke up, my girl was gone, my job was gone, my legs were just about useless...Bless me? God's been a real sport to me." The sheriff says that if Johnny changes his mind, he knows where to find him, and leaves. The sheriff goes back to the car, where his partner seems smugly pleased to have been right about Johnny's unwillingness to co-operate. In the house, Johnny takes some pills. His father comes in to try to talk to Johnny about "this thing," but feels that he's not any good at it and says he wishes Johnny's mother were there to talk to him about it. Johnny tries to reassure his father. His father asks if he wants to talk about it. Johnny says there's not that much to say. He explains that when he has the spells, he feels like he's dying inside. Naturally, his dad doesn't know what to say. Johnny's working at the kitchen table when he looks out the window and sees Sarah getting out of her car. He looks at his cane for a few moments and decides to leave it in the house. As he reaches her at the car, she's just taking her baby out of his car seat, and says she brought him a visitor. Johnny says he didn't know she was coming; Sarah says she wasn't sure herself. She tells Johnny he looks wonderful. Clearly, she's not looking at the poofy hair. She notices that he's managing without the crutches; he says, "I still got the limp." Sarah asks if his father's home; Johnny says he won't be back until later, and asks about the baby. Sarah introduces him as "His Majesty." Johnny misremembers the baby's name as Danny; Sarah cheerfully corrects him, "Denny." The baby is a real cutie. Johnny invites Sarah and the baby in. Sarah puts the baby down for a nap on a bed. She comes out of the bedroom and says he's asleep. She sits down beside Johnny on the floor, amidst several toys and baby items, saying, "The last time we were alone together, you said some things were worth waiting for." Johnny looks stunned. Sarah asks, "Well, haven't we waited long enough?" She starts unbuttoning her sweater. They embrace and roll to the floor. Johnny's sitting at the table holding Denny and telling Sarah, who's cooking dinner, that his father's always over at Charlotte MacKenzie's house. Since her husband died, she's always got his father working on building one thing or another, but Johnny suspects Charlotte just wants the company, not the bookcases. Johnny's father, who's dragging an old wooden baby high chair out of the basement, says, "I heard that!" Sarah puts Denny in the high chair. Johnny's dad asks what they've been up to all day. Sarah looks at Johnny, who pauses and says, "Making bookcases." Sarah tells them dinner is ready. When they're all seated, Johnny's father says a brief grace and they dig in. Johnny's father says it feels good to have a family eating around the table again. Sarah's put Denny in the car, and comes back to say goodnight to Johnny. He asks whether he's going to see Sarah again; she replies, somewhat sheepishly, "Not like today." Johnny doesn't have a coat on, and Sarah tells him to go inside. He starts to say that it doesn't have to end, and she cuts him off, telling him not to say it. He says, "I'll just say goodbye, then," and kisses her. She gets in the car and drives away. I look at the VCR counter and can't believe how much more of this banality there is to recap. Inside, Johnny's father is watching the news; he says he's going to go to bed. Johnny watches a news report about the Castle Rock Killer, and sees the sheriff making a plea for any help the public can give. There have been nine rape-murders so far. Johnny's head seems to be hurting as they show the body-bagged corpse of the latest victim, fifteen-year-old Debbie Linderman. As he watches the report, Johnny mumbles to his father, who's ambled back into the room with a glass of milk, that he's going to try to help the investigation. Sheriff Bannerman, Frank, and Johnny are walking through a large tunnel of some sort. The sheriff is saying that the killer was waiting for the last victim there; kids use it as a shortcut to get to school, despite being warned against it. Bannerman shows him a spot where they think the killer stood and smoked, waiting. He wonders whether this helps Johnny at all. Johnny asks whether they've got anything the killer might have touched or worn. Bannerman offers Johnny a cigarette package they found in the bushes, claiming it's the only real evidence they have. Johnny holds it while the ominous music plays and the officers stare at him. Finally Johnny says he doesn't get anything. Bannerman says at least they tried. Just then a call comes in on his radio that another body's been found. Bannerman is upset. Bannerman, Frank, and Johnny all make their way to a gazebo in a park, tailed by other officers and a bunch of reporters. Bannerman, Johnny, and a few other officers step up into the gazebo, where a body is covered with a red wool blanket. Bannerman asks if anyone knows who she is; Frank lifts up the blanket and says that he knows her as Alma Frechette, and that she worked at a coffee shop nearby. A reporter asks whose idea it was to have a psychic, at which point Bannerman orders his officers to get the reporters out of there. Bannerman instructs Frank (whose last name is Dodd) that no one should come up to the gazebo. Johnny makes his way over to the corpse and kneels to take her hand. When he does, he sees her whole murder: she's walking along in broad daylight when a man calls to her from the gazebo; he tries to convince her to come up to where he is, saying he has something to show her. Johnny announces that she knew her killer. Suddenly, the scene changes so that Johnny's still in the gazebo, but it's daylight and it's as if he was right there when the murder happened. The killer succeeds in getting her to come up into the gazebo. She walks in and stands to him. He says, "Ga-ze-bo...you like that word, Alma?" She wants to know what he wanted to show her; he puts his arm around her and open his long leather coat to show her a pair of long-nosed barber's scissors fastened inside. She says, "Jesus!" and tries to struggle away. He punches her in the face, and lowers her to the floor. He rips open her coat and blouse, and tears her bra apart. As he sits up, looks around and pulls off his hat, we see that it's Frank Dodd. He holds the scissors up, and as he goes to stab her the first time, Johnny lunges forward as if to try to stop him, but then suddenly he's back in the present. He tells Bannerman that he saw the killer's face; Johnny stood there and watched the man kill that girl. He manages to convey that it was Dodd who did it, but keeps going on about how he stood there and did nothing. Bannerman looks nervously at Johnny as he calls out for Dodd to get up there. Another officer tells Bannerman that Dodd just took off in the sheriff's car. Johnny keeps saying, "I saw his face...I saw his face...." Bannerman and Johnny drive up to what I presume is Dodd's house. Bannerman tells Johnny to stay by the car. Johnny sees Dodd in an upstairs window. He goes to the front door, where Bannerman is knocking repeatedly, and tries to talk to him; Bannerman tells him to stay by the car. Suddenly, Colleen Dewhurst answers the door, claiming that her son isn't there. She keeps insisting that he isn't there despite much evidence to the contrary, and Bannerman basically forces his way in. Meanwhile, we see Dodd go into the washroom upstairs, apparently naked. He locks the door. As Bannerman climbs the stairs, with Mrs. Dodd tearing at his clothes, Dodd's putting on his leather coat in the bathroom. Downstairs, unable to stop Bannerman, Mrs. Dodd grabs Johnny and orders him to leave her boy alone. Big mistake: Johnny grasps her hand and immediately realizes she knew that her son was the murderer. He accuses her of knowing. She looks terrified and says, "You...you're a...you're a devil...sent from hell...yes..." Yawn. She struggles away from him. I struggle to keep my eyes from rolling up my forehead, over the top of my head, and onto the floor. Johnny goes upstairs. Dodd's taking his scissors out of a jar of sterilizing solution in the bathroom in front of the most godawfully dirty bathroom mirror I've ever seen. Bannerman lunges out of a room into Johnny's path. Nobody screams. Bannerman's gun is drawn as he searches each room. In the bathroom, Dodd is holding the scissors out in front of him in an overly dramatic way; using the little finger brace on them, he manages to position them so that the scissors are open and pointing up, balanced in mid-air with the finger brace tucked into the edge of a wicker basket or something. He's all bundled up in his leather coat; his eyes look dead like those of all defeated psychos, and he puts his hands behind his head. He opens his mouth, and leans forward, carefully inserting one blade of the scissors into his mouth and the other into his nostril. Um. Crazy way to commit suicide, dude. Johnny and Bannerman are in Dodd's bedroom which, not surprisingly, is pathologically childish with its cowboy wallpaper, comic book on the nightstand, and toys and puerile accoutrements everywhere. Bannerman finally figures out he's in the bathroom, busts in, and finds Dodd huddled in the bathtub, scissors stuck in his face, bleeding from the nose and mouth, eyes rolled up in his head, convulsing spastically, blood everywhere. Bannerman is stunned enough to throw himself back against the door; Johnny takes it in pretty calmly. That seems like a suspiciously quiet death, given the method he chose. But wait! Where's the psycho's mom? Uh oh. We see a shot of Dodd's holster draped over a wooden horse and a hand reaching for his weapon. It's Ma Dodd, of course. As Johnny goes down the stairway, he doesn't see her come barrelling out of another room; by the time he does, it's too late, she's shot him through the flank. Bannerman comes running, and she fires at him. He takes her out with one shot right to the inferior vena cava in the middle of her stomach. Or so I surmise. Where's Benton when you need him? ["Schaumburg." -- Wing Chun] Ma Dodd emits a howling groan and drops the gun, falling to the floor. Johnny is thoroughly shaken now, especially since her bloody hand is projecting through the stair posts, inches from his face. We see Dr. Weizak driving up to yet another lovely old house with a great belvedere. (Three guesses as to what aspect of this film is interesting me the most.) It's still winter. Across the street, a billboard is being erected. It's Johnny's house; he answers the door wearing the ug-lay bathrobe, and with his hair looking worse than ever: it's poofy, but it's bed-head poofy. It really looks like a muskrat died on his scalp. Weizak doesn't seem to be expected, and Johnny doesn't seem thrilled to see him. He lets him in anyway. Johnny wonders how Weizak found him; through his father? Weizak says yes, he went to see Johnny's father, who told Weizak that Johnny moved to a new town. Weizak says that both he and Johnny's father are worried about him. Johnny says that there's nothing to worry about. Weizak asserts that he is still Johnny's doctor, and that they have to stay in touch. Johnny seems indifferent about this. Weizak asks about his injury at the hands of Ma Dodd; Johnny says the bullet went right through him. "It's nothing." Weizak says, "Good. Nice place you have here." Johnny's head seems to be hurting again. Weizak asks, "Those headaches are getting worse, aren't they?" Johnny, resting his head on his hand, admits, "Three, four times a day sometimes." Yow. That's gotta suck. Weizak reaches into his doctor's bag for some new meds, but Johnny wants no part of it: "No more pills." Weizak reminds Johnny that the healing process takes time. Johnny replies, "I'm not getting better, I'm getting worse. Isn't that right?" Weizak sighs and hesitates. He mentions that he's been doing research into psychic phenomena, and has discovered several cases like Johnny's. ["Cordelia among them, perhaps?" -- Wing Chun] He's found that, in every case, as the spells or visions grow stronger, the body weakens: "But I don't really need any research or documentation to see that this thing is sucking the life right of you. One look at you can tell me that." Johnny asks, with a wry smile, "You mean I'm going to die?" Weizak thinks they can arrest or even reverse the process, and asks Johnny to come back to the clinic with him. Johnny wants no part of that. Weizak insists, and says that it's not to study Johnny, but to protect him. He thinks Johnny needs to be in a controlled environment. Johnny wants to show Weizak something: he opens a closet full of unopened mail and packages. He explains that the people who wrote to him all want the same things, things he can't give them: help, love, reassurance. He says these expectations are why he can't go out, why he stays locked up in the house. His point is that he's already living in a controlled environment: "Nothing can touch me here. I'm alone. I'm safe." Johnny is sitting at a table with a little girl, who is struggling with reading. Apparently, he's making a living by tutoring people in his home. Her mother arrives, honking the horn, and Johnny lets his student out the front door. At the same moment, a man gets out of a limo and comes up the walk, introducing himself as Roger Stuart, and asking to speak to Johnny. Inside the house, Roger explains that he would like Johnny to tutor his son Chris, who is bright, but withdrawn and anti-social and not doing well in school. Johnny says he doesn't know if he can help Chris without meeting him. Roger says that Chris refused to come with Roger today, and that Johnny would have to come to his house. Johnny says it's out of the question. Roger pleads with Johnny, saying that if he'll come out to the Stuart house and get to know Chris, Johnny can then bring Chris back to Johnny's house for lessons. Johnny relents, and Roger says he'll send a car to pick Johnny up the morning. As Johnny watches Roger leave, he notices the billboard in the park across the street, which is still under construction. Now the ad on it is almost fully pasted up, and it's promoting the senatorial campaign of Greg Stillson, who's wearing a hardhat in his photograph. Why exactly this billboard is being erected so that it directly faces a single residence is anyone's guess. Johnny pulls the blind down. The morning, Johnny rides in a very swanky old limo to Roger's huge, stately house. Inside the house, Roger is chatting with someone whose voice we hear before we see his face: it's Martin Sheen's voice, doing a southern accent. Ah, this is the reason this reeking bag of formulaic dreck is being recapped at all. Sheen plays Greg Stillson. Obviously, he was twenty years younger and rather cuter here, so keep that in mind. My God, he's certainly kept his hair well. Stillson's flunky is helping him put on his jacket and coat (alas, no coat flip) as Stillson tells an obnoxious story about an opponent of his, who handed out dollar bills to black people in a ghetto; Stillson says that he went down there and told them to get all the dollar bills they could, but that when voting day came, they should go into the booth and vote for whomever they pleased. And Stillson won that election by twenty-nine percentage points, and they've been winning ever since, and "those people spent that money with a clear conscience!" Roger, Stillson, and the flunky all laugh heartily. Yeah, great story. The butler has just finished letting Johnny in, and Roger greets him warmly and introduces him to Stillson and the flunky, Sonny. Instead of a proper handshake, Stillson slaps a campaign button the size of a bread plate into Johnny's hand. Stillson makes one last pitch for Roger's support on his way out the door, and pins a button on him. Meanwhile, Sonny just gives Johnny the stink-eye. Sonny has the ferret-faced look of a low-grade thug. Stillson says, "I need your expertise, I need your input...and most importantly, I need your money!" Stillson erupts in a big, good-ol'-boy laugh. I hate this character, but Sheen is so adorable. Out on Roger's porch, Stillson declares over-enthusiastically, "My God, what a glorious day!" Sonny, on his heels, says, "Amen." Oh, lord. Roger takes Johnny upstairs to meet Chris. Chris, naturally, has a bedroom larger than a house I once rented. Chris is working at his desk, and more or less ignores his father's introduction of Johnny. It's Saturday morning, and the kid is wearing a school uniform with a tie. Roger leaves Chris and Johnny alone to get acquainted. Johnny wanders around the room, and says, "Your father says there's something wrong with you. He wants me to bring you out of your shell." Very sensitive. Chris is drawing, and doesn't look at Johnny, who says that he doesn't know what to do. Chris placidly says, "You don't have to do anything. It's my dad that lives in a shell, not me." Johnny allows himself to laugh openly at this. Roger's inside the house, drinking tea and watching Chris and Johnny as they walk around outside, talking and laughing. He seems pleased. Later, Roger tells Johnny that Chris has really taken to Johnny, and that he made a lot of progress for one day. Johnny says they just had a talk. Roger says that's an achievement considering his son's nature. He persuades Johnny to have a beer, and turns up the television to watch Stillson, who's on TV doing pushups for no particular reason. He's at some sort of rally or whatever. He makes some banal remarks about staying in shape in order to go the distance with the big boys down in Washington. Stillson blathers on about staying in better shape than the country, and what the hell is wrong with the country, can anyone tell him, etc. Roger says, "Can you believe this guy? He's just getting warmed up. You gonna vote for him, Johnny?" Johnny indicates he's not even registered. Roger tells him, "Well, get registered, pal, and vote against this turkey. He's dangerous." My father talks a bit like this. Onscreen, Stillson is bellowing about unemployment. Sheen really excels at speechifying. Roger complains that Stillson's putting on an act, and wonders why people can't see through this guy. Johnny, incredibly naïve soul that he is, admits that he's confused. He got the impression from this morning's gladhanding that Roger and Stillson were friends. Roger explains that you have to be careful with guys like that: if Roger's too close to Stillson, and Stillson loses, Stillson will take Roger down with him; and if Stillson wins, Roger has to be sure that he'll be seen as a supporter. He gives Johnny a friendly punch on the shoulder. They turn their attention back to the TV, where Stillson is lobbying the largely unemployed crowd to whom he's speaking (or rather, shouting) to volunteer for his campaign. He concludes by saying, "Let's send Greg Stillson to the United States Senate, and mediocrity to hell!" No, let's get Aaron Sorkin in here pronto to write a half-decent script already. A man in a trench coat enters a darkened office at night. He tries to turn on the lights, but they don't work. As he walks over to his desk, he notices two people sitting there in the dark, waiting for him. It's Stillson and Ferret Face, a.k.a. Sonny. Stillson turns on the desk lamp. Stillson explains who he is; the guy knows. He asks Stillson to take his "pink gorilla" and get out. Actually, he says "paid gorilla," but it really sounded like "pink gorilla." The pink gorilla gets up and shoves him a bit. Turns out this guy's a newspaper editor named Brenner. Stillson says that he's damn near even in the polls, and that he's catching on big: "I'm gonna win, and I'm gonna win big. And I'll tell you something else..." Stillson stands up and glowers, "I've had a vision that I'm going to be President of the United States someday." Damn, he's as good as Johnny. "And I have accepted that responsibility and nobody..." He suddenly becomes enraged and throws a framed picture that shatters glass all over the place: "...I mean nobody is gonna stop me." Well, we'll just see. He goes on to complain about an editorial that's going to be in the papers the following day, which is not supportive of his campaign. Brenner is defiant, but Stillson, feet up on the desk now, suggests that they make a deal. At Stillson's behest, the pink gorilla shows Brenner a bunch of blackmail pictures, which are obviously of him and some woman with whom he's having an affair. Brenner knows he's screwed. Brenner calls Stillson a son of a bitch and accuses Stillson of setting him up. I yawn, wondering how this could possibly be more pedestrian. Sonny starts to get rough with Brenner again, but Stillson starts to leave, suggesting they give Brenner some time to think about his wife, kids, and position in the community. As Stillson's putting on his coat, Brenner asks what happens if he won't make a deal. Stillson assures Brenner that he will make a deal, or he'll have Sonny "take [Brenner's] goddamned head off." It's just too much to buy Martin Sheen as a character who's basically a thug. My head hurts. Stillson and Sonny depart with some wise-ass remarks, leaving Brenner standing there looking dejected. Johnny is tutoring Chris at his house; Chris is reciting "The Raven." Johnny asks him to skip to the part about whether he'll ever see Lenore again. Chris dutifully reads. Then the doorbell rings. It's one of Stillson's campaign-bots. Johnny unwisely admits that he's not familiar with what Stillson stands for, giving the drone the opportunity to prattle on about Stillson's many supposed virtues. Johnny quickly realizes that was an error and asks if the guy can come back another time, since Johnny has a student. The drone asks whether he may leave some literature, and Johnny acquiesces. The drone turns to another campaign worker at the curb and says, "Honey, can you bring some of those brochures?" Naturally, "Honey" turns out to be Sarah, who stops short when she sees Johnny standing on the doorstep. She comes up and warmly says, "Hello, Johnny." Her husband quickly realizes who Johnny is. She introduces her husband, Walt. Walt tries to make nice, saying it's good to meet Johnny, and that he's heard Sarah talk about Johnny very often. It's pretty uncomfortable for all three of them. Chris wanders up at this point to ask Johnny to come back to the tutoring. Walt suggests that they should get back to work themselves, and Sarah hands Johnny a brochure. They leave, and Johnny watches them go. As Walt gently puts his hand on Sarah's back, Johnny closes the door and leans against it, his face turned away from Chris. He's crying. Chris asks, "Who was that?" Johnny just gestures with his hand for Chris to leave him alone. Chris is really concerned and wants to know why Johnny's crying. Johnny finally turns and hugs Chris, who looks appropriately nervous. If my tutor were crying for some unknown reason and started hugging me, I think I would be freaked out. Johnny stands back a bit from Chris, with his hands on his shoulders, and suddenly winces violently: he's having a spell. He sees Chris in a hockey uniform plunged underwater, along with two other kids. They've fallen through ice. Chris is even more scared now and asks, "What's the matter?" Johnny says it's nothing. Chris's limo driver honks, and Chris leaves. The limo drives up to the Stuart house; apparently Johnny went back with Chris. He tells Roger, who's out in front of the house, that he's got to talk to him. Roger announces that he organized a hockey team for Chris and some of his friends, and that the first practice is that afternoon. Johnny commands, "Call it off." He insists that there's going to be an accident, and that they've got to call it off. Roger blows this off. Johnny follows them into the house, pleading his case. Roger says that they always skate on that pond until March, and wonders what the hell is the matter with Johnny. Johnny asks, "You want to kill your own son?" Chris says he's scared. Roger's getting mad. He tells Chris not to be scared, and to go eat. Johnny asks, "Don't you know who I am?" Roger wonders if Johnny thinks he would have been hired without being thoroughly checked out first, adding, "But I hired you for your abilities as a teacher, not a fortune-teller!" Johnny freaks and smashes a glass candy dish on a small table, knocking over the table in the process. He bellows, "The ice...is gonna break!" Roger calmly tells Johnny that he wants him out of there, and he doesn't want Johnny in Chris's life anymore. He turns and tells Chris that he doesn't want any argument from him either, and that he must do exactly what he's told. Chris is very upset and argues with his father, saying it's not safe. Roger gives in and says to hell with the team, the practice, everything. He tells Johnny again that he wants him out. Johnny, seeing that Roger's relented, is calmer now, and agrees to go and apologizes for breaking stuff. Roger says he'll see that Johnny gets his final cheque. Johnny states, "I'm not crazy, you know. Don't let the boy think I am. I'm right about this." Roger says, "But we'll never know, will we?" Johnny asks for Chris's hand. Chris offers it; Johnny holds it and says, "Nothing to worry about now." Johnny leaves. Chris is upstairs working on his computer when his father comes into his room and says, "What's going on? You're not even dressed." Chris turns, puzzled. "You called it off. I thought you called it off." Roger says he just said that to get rid of Johnny. Roger tries to convince him to go: "You gonna sit here and pout like a baby in your room, or you coming outside to play hockey with your friends?' Well, gee, Dad, when you put it that way... Chris turns back to his computer. Roger says, "Great," and leaves. Johnny is crossing a slushy street carrying a bag of groceries. He notices a newspaper box and pulls out a paper. (Remember when they were sold in open boxes, and you were just trusted to pay for them? I just barely remember that. Now if you're the sort of low-life who wants to steal papers, you have to pay for at least one.) He reads the headline: "Two Drown in Skating Accident." At the Stuart house, Roger's sitting morosely in a wing chair by a fire, wearing a bathrobe. The phone is ringing, but he ignores it. We see Johnny at a pay phone. Chris finally answers the phone, since his father seems not to care one way or the other. Chris asks who's there, but Johnny says nothing. Chris whispers, "Johnny?" Johnny just holds the phone to his chest. We see a Stillson campaign sign outdoors, with lots of images of him in a hardhat. I guess he thinks that's going to appeal to the working class or something. Things are being set up for a rally, and a band is tuning up. They're all wearing white hardhats, too. Because the members of the working class are that gullible. They start playing some cheesy rally-type tune. Inside his house, Johnny is lying on his couch in his bathrobe. Yes, that one. You can hear the band dimly in the background. He gets up and looks out the window at the campaign hoo-ha in the park across the street. He sees Sarah get out of Walt's car. The shot is Johnny hightailing it out of his house to the rally. The band is playing "Yankee Doodle Dandy." As he walks through the crowd, Johnny looks around for Sarah. He finally sees her. Just around then, Stillson's limo arrives. Everyone starts chanting his name. He gladhands his way through the crowd; when he comes to Johnny, he shakes Johnny's hand. Uh oh. Johnny doesn't let go and just stares at him. Stillson looks at Johnny with some alarm when Johnny won't relinquish his paw. Johnny has this spell, the content of which is so ridiculous and over-the-top that I'm embarrassed to have to report it to you. Johnny sees Stillson, wearing some expensive striped pyjamas and matching robe, in a semi-rustic looking room (at Camp David, perhaps?) with two other men. One of them is Sonny, the Pink Gorilla. They have some kind of computer on the table that's inside a briefcase. In the bottom half, there's this screen or plate where you put your palm, and it reads and identifies your palm print. There's also a bunch of big unlabelled buttons. Stillson puts his hand on it and presses the button. He then commands one of the other two men: "Do it, General!" The General replies, "You're insane! I won't." POTUS (God help us) barks, "Do it! Put your hand on the scanning screen and you'll go down in history with me!" The General replies, "As what? The world's greatest mass murderers?" Sadly, guys, you have a lot of competition. Jed...I mean, "Stillson" roars in a fairly hysterical way, "You cowardly bastard! You're not the voice of the people! I am the voice of the people! The people speak through me, not you! It came to me while I slept, Sonny -- my destiny. In the middle of the night it came to me: I must get up now, right now, and fulfill my destiny!" Which appears to be to chew all the scenery from Maine to D.C. "Now you put your goddamn hand on that scanning screen, or I'll hack it off and put it on for you! Do it!" Oy. Although, I have to give him that he's got great spittle control; this is the sort of line delivery where the other actors in the speaker's proximity frequently need to be wiped down. The General -- a mild-looking old guy in a turtleneck and a large-collared jacket -- complies, saying, "May God forgive me." Stillson shakes his hand, saying, "Congratulations, General." Sonny instructs Stillson, "Complete the sequence, Mr. President." POTUS slaps his paw on there again and presses some buttons, which cause the biggest button to light up in red. He looks up at the other two, and says, "My destiny." He presses the biggest button. He shakes Sonny's hand and thanks him. He goes to the door of this room, which opens onto a balcony and stairs. He tell some guards to "let them come up." A bunch of men run up and one says, "This is not necessary, Mr. President; we have a diplomatic solution." POTUS shakes the hands of the two men at the front of the crowd and says, "Mr. Vice-President, Mr. Secretary, the missiles are flying. Hallelujah. Hallelujah." Wait! Can't see the screen anymore...eyes have rolled right out of my skull. This is making David E. Kelley's writing look good. Okay. Eyeballs resocketed. Shouldn't they be in the Situation Room or something? Where the hell is Leo? The day, people start to filter into the auditorium. Johnny's sleeping in the balcony, hidden by the banners swagged over it. As he begins loading the bullets, he drops one. Fortunately, people are making a lot of noise and walking all over the place and no one notices. They're all clapping and cheering as Stillson comes in. He's shaking hands and kissing babies; one of them is Walt and Sarah's son, Denny. Stillson urges her to bring Denny up on stage. Lots of people are wearing their white Stillson hardhats. Johnny picks out his vantage point. Stillson gets up on the stage, raising his arms in expectation of victory as much as gratitude and greeting. Martin Sheen is too adorable to play this guy convincingly. Plus it's a really lame role. The crowd finally sits down. Stillson starts congratulating them on what a great campaign they've helped to make it. Suddenly, Johnny stands up and aims his rifle. Um, why? Why not shoot from between the balcony rails? Just more cinematic dumbness. Anyway, Sarah sees him and cries out, "Johnny!" Johnny fires and hits the edge of the podium, missing Stillson. Everybody starts scrambling and Stillson, thinking fast, grabs Sarah's baby and holds Denny up in front of him. A photographer takes pictures. Sarah screams and finally grabs the baby back from Stillson. Sonny pulls out his handgun, to no one's very great surprise, and shoots Johnny in the wrist just as he's about to fire on Stillson again. That shot causes him to twist and drop his gun, and this time Sonny gets Johnny just below his heart. He falls over the balcony in slow motion and drops to the floor below, breaking a bench as he does. Stillson looks petrified. Sarah hugs Denny; Sonny runs over to hold a gun on Johnny, and Stillson runs and grabs Johnny by the collar, growling, "Who are you, you son of a bitch? Who sent you? Huh?" Johnny, still conscious, touches Stillson's hand with his own bloody one, and has one last vision: he sees a copy of Newsweek on a nightstand, with a handgun on top of it. A cigarette burns in an ashtray nearby. A hand picks up the gun, revealing the magazine cover to be a photo of Stillson cravenly holding Denny up as protection, with the headline, "No Future for Stillson." We see Stillson sitting on the edge of the bed, shirt and tie dishevelled, looking bleary-eyed. He looks at the gun, and then points it under his chin. We hear the shot fire as we see blood splatter all over the magazine. Back in the auditorium, almost everybody has cleared out. Johnny whispers, "It's over. You're finished." Stillson drops Johnny and goes over to Sonny, screeching, "Where's that kid with the camera? He was taking pictures!" He punches Sonny in frustration. Sonny calmly says, "I don't see him." Stillson furiously replies, "You asshole!" He grabs Sonny and pushes him aside as he storms out. Sonny slowly follows. Johnny flounders on the floor. Sarah hands the baby to Walt and goes over to Johnny, crying. She kneels beside him and asks, "Why? Why?" She leans over to hug him. He whispers, "Goodbye. I love you." Sapped of energy and having fulfilled his purpose, Johnny leans back, as Sarah cries over his dying body.