TV Verdict

The thought of Allison getting a new ability scares me. She really does need to start developing new powers: that would just be annoying and convoluted. The ads promoted this episode as Allison gets a new ability, so I was concerned. The ability ends up being a temporary one related to one of her dreams. This is no big deal. It has happened similarly in this series many times before. This new ability comes to Allison with some hilarious results. Allison has a dream after a dream about a couple on a game show where a lie is followed by a loud buzzer. When she wakes the next day, any time someone, anyone lies to her she hears the buzz in her head. There are two times when this buzz is laugh inducing. The first time comes when she actually discovers the ability. She catches Bridgette in a lie and she makes Bridgette continue to lie and then tell the truth to test when the buzzer goes off in her head. The scene is really cute and funny. The other scene involves a very realistic conversation between Allison and Joe except that she realizes that he is lying to her over and over again. The lies aren’t a big deal; he’s just trying to say what she wants to hear when all he really wants to do is sleep. The conversation ends with him telling one truth that makes her feel a bit better.The case that is tied to these dreams and the ability is actually quite disturbing. It’s not the darkest the series has ever seen, but it’s close. Two couples are having a weekend together when they experience a home invasion with one of the women being raped. Allison gets involved when one of the couples disappears many months later. It appears that the home invaders killed the couple but Allison knows that the invasion happened many months ago.

The weakest part of this episode involves a lawsuit filed against Joe over the technology he has based his whole business on. Apparently, someone he once worked with believes that Joe has stolen the idea from him and he has a document featuring Joe’s handwriting to prove it. This subplot is really bothersome because of just how obvious the answer to the problem is and the convoluted lengths that Joe goes to in order to discover the answer for himself. He didn’t need Allison’s help to figure the answer out. I figured it out within minutes of seeing the document on screen. This whole story just feels like filler.

The case of the week was interesting but for the best part of the episode is Allison’s discovery of her new ability through little white lies from her family. The humor of it all stood in stark contrast to the darkness of the case she investigated. This gets back thematically to what the show is about, the two sides of Allison. She has a nice family to come home to after a day job so full of darkness.