Review - Medium: Time Out of Mind

This was a very uncomfortable episode for me to watch - but uncomfortable in a good way . . .

I just felt so scared for Allison watching the beginning of this episode. I remember thinking, oh my God, could Allison really be crazy - was her whole life just a delusion? Happily for me, it was not. And this is the thing with Medium, I really feel for all of the major characters. Finely developed characters, I must say.

At any rate, in this episode Allison dreams about Beverly Waller - a woman who in 1959 threw herself and her baby off a bridge. She was rescued, her baby was not. Subsequently Beverly was taken to an insane asylum where she was “treated” by an up an coming psychiatrist who was very into alternative therapies - definitely some creepy stuff. Even creepier is the fact that Beverly Waller in 1959 claims that she is Allison Dubois in the year 2005 and she knows all the names of her husband and three kids. There is definitely a reason why Allison is being contacted, but what exactly is it?

The insane asylum also happens to be the same one where Allison has to go to meet with a defendant in a current case of the District Attorney’s office. We aren’t really sure how this case relates to her dreams at first, but sometimes her dreams are ambiguous at best.

Turns out that Beverly’s daughter was never really launched off that bridge with Mom. She is alive and not doing so well. Beverly needed Allison to find her because she had a very serious, hereditary liver condition and needed a transplant. Allison to the rescue again discovers that the attorney for the defendant is actually the long lost daughter of Beverly that everyone had assumed for dead so long ago.

But why did Beverly do it? At one point during the episode Allison tracks down Beverly’s sister and finds out that Beverly was having terrible nightmares about her then husband, Walter. In them Walter was doing terrible things to their daughter. Unfortunately, Walter was a pillar of the community as a principal in a local school and had very good standing so he won custody of the baby. Beverly could not let her baby endure the years of torture she saw in her dreams, so she jumped off the bridge (with a baby doll wrapped in a blanket) in front of her sister and Walter to make it look like she and the baby died. Only problem was, she didn’t die and had to live out the rest of her days enduring the pain of everyone thinking she murdered her only child. Years later, Walter was shot dead by the angry parent of a child that he had been molesting since the sixth grade. Turns out Beverly’s dreams were really premonitions and she did what she had to do to protect her baby.

One of the best episodes so far in my opinion.

Directed by
Jeff Bleckner (episode 1.03 "Couple of Choices, A")
Glenn Gordon Caron (episode 1.01 "Pilot")
Duane Clark (episode 1.11 "I Married a Mind Reader") (episode 1.14 "In the Rough")
Eric Laneuville (episode 1.10 "Other Side of the Tracks, The")
Aaron Lipstadt (episode 1.05 "In Sickness and Adultery") (episode 1.15 "Penny for Your Thoughts") (episode 1.16 "When Push Comes to Shove: Part 1") (episode 2.01 "When Push Comes to Shove: Part 2")
Artie Mandelberg (episode 1.04 "Night of the Wolf") (episode 1.07 "Jump Start")
Robert Duncan McNeill (episode 2.09 "Still Life")
Vince Misiano (episode 1.02 "Suspicions and Certainties") (episode 1.06 "Coming Soon") (episode 2.02 "Song Remains the Same, The")
Bill L. Norton (episode 1.09 "Coded") (episode 1.12 "Priest, a Doctor and a Medium Walk into an Execution Chamber, A")
Ronald L. Schwary (episode 1.13 "Being Mrs. O'Leary's Cow")
Peter Werner (episode 1.08 "Lucky")

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Michael Angeli writer (episode 1.03 "Couple of Choices, A") (episode 1.05 "In Sickness and Adultery")
Glenn Gordon Caron creator
Glenn Gordon Caron writer (episode 1.01 "Pilot") (episode 1.02 "Suspicions and Certainties") (episode 1.03 "Couple of Choices, A") (episode 2.01 "When Push Comes to Shove: Part 2")
Moira Dekker writer (episode 1.06 "Coming Soon") (episode 1.09 "Coded") (episode 1.15 "Penny for Your Thoughts") (as Moira Kirland)
Chris Dingess writer (episode 1.10 "Other Side of the Tracks, The") (episode 1.12 "Priest, a Doctor and a Medium Walk into an Execution Chamber, A") (episode 1.16 "When Push Comes to Shove: Part 1")
René Echevarria writer (episode 1.04 "Night of the Wolf") (episode 1.11 "I Married a Mind Reader") (episode 1.14 "In the Rough")
David Folwell writer (episode 1.08 "Lucky")
Melinda Hsu writer (episode 1.07 "Jump Start") (episode 1.13 "Being Mrs. O'Leary's Cow")
Bruce Miller writer (episode 2.02 "Song Remains the Same, The")

Cast (in credits order)
Patricia Arquette .... Allison Dubois
Miguel Sandoval .... D.A. Manuel Devalos
Sofia Vassilieva .... Ariel Dubois
Maria Lark .... Bridgette Dubois
Jake Weber .... Joe Dubois
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Troy Blendell .... Elliott

Regular guests:
David Cubitt .... Detective Lee Scanlon / Det. Lee Scanlon (13 episodes)
Kendahl King .... Devalos' Assistant / Devalos's Assistant / ... (8 episodes)
Tina DiJoseph .... Lynn DiNovi - Mayor's Liaison / The Mayor's Liaison / ... (8 episodes)
Seth T. Walker .... Detective / Forensic Tech (5 episodes)
Conor O'Farrell .... Larry Watt (4 episodes)