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Episode Recap: Lady Killer
“The answer to the Allison question is Allison herself.”
The Arquette siblings have been out in full force for this season of Medium. Brother David directed an earlier episode and sister Rosanna starred in this episode as a woman of a certain age who seduces young men for a night of fun in the sack that never ends.
The theme song for this broadcast was Take a Walk on the Wild Side, and a more suiting song there never was. The lovely narrator tells us “40 is the new 30,” (and let’s hope that’s true – I feel ten years younger already). The opening sequence with the narrator, Michelle, luring us into her web with her white jacket and sexy toss of her head was fun, playful and well done; Rosanna could sell a ten-gallon hat to the headless horseman.
The first dream involved the narrator, a grieving young man and a large knife. Allison awoke from that dream and told Joe, “I don’t know what she was behaving like.” Then after thinking about it for a minute, she realized, “She was behaving just like a man,” and with that, Allison tossed Joe’s loving arm off her.
Cougars have made a comeback in the last few years as older women seem to have grown much more assertive when it comes to getting what they want. And what a fun show - I especially liked the part where the bartender had been nailed to death. He looked like that guy from Hellraiser. What a gruesome way to go. But at long last, women were not the victims! And not only were they not the victims, (spoiler alert) they were also not the ones responsible.
Scanlon was in rare form and back to doing his job. The surprising thing was that he actually acted on two of Al’s dreams immediately. But just as quickly as he accepted her visions, he began to question them and berated her as being off the mark. She is so often right it is hard for me to believe he still takes this stance with her. Then he waltzed her back into the station and she recognized the irony, stating that she generally feels like “persona non grata,” one minute and wined and dined the next.
Allison’s dreams only told part of the truth. She got the critical bits like the deaths right, but saw Michelle as the instigator and killer. Michelle may have authored the situations under her pen name, Charisma Kennedy, but had no hand in the deaths. She denied the murders and when Scanlon questioned her about the similarities to her book, she screamed, “Maybe it means that your killer can read!”
“The Manuel Momentum”
Manuel’s campaign seemed to be going well until Allison met one of his biggest supporters and got a bad feeling from him. Richard Madison was in cahoots (much to his own chagrin) with Van Dyke to try and take down Manuel’s campaign. Allison let Manuel know what she had gotten a bad feeling from Richard’s handshake and with a little help from his friends back in the DA’s office, it was not hard for Manny to draw a conclusion. I so enjoyed Manny taking Van Dyke’s little plan down in front of everyone. Van Dyke’s reaction was worth every lousy minute we’ve had to put up with his conniving, manipulating nastiness. Let’s hope he is going down in a big way. I want to see him burn!
This was a truly satisfying ending to the show. There was a bad MAN; Scanlon, was right all along. He never thought a woman could overpower a man enough to nail gun him to death. The owner of Michelle’s publishing house, Elliot, hit on Lee in the elevator and propositioned him with the now infamous "extra ticket". Luckily, Michelle had let him know earlier that was one of her stories. No, it wasn’t “Naughty nun with a bad habit.” It was the old, “I have an extra ticket to tonight’s big game,” ploy. It wasn’t until Eliot claimed “No one who has ever spent time with me has ever lived to regret it,’ that Scanlon was certain that he was the killer.
Scanlon had the best lines of the show
“I want to see that movie.”
“It’s 11:45. I never kid after 10 o’clock on a weeknight.”
“You don’t strike me as the ‘home-alone-reading’ type.”
“Murder of…a bartender I suspect you may have nailed.”
Although, Joe got a couple of good ones in, too:
“Want to keep your laughing down? I’m trying to fall asleep.”
“What are kids for if not to be used as excuses to get you out of things you don’t want to do?”
That last line jinxed the health of little Marie. She awoke the next day with an ear infection. She looked so sad in her bed when Allison was tucking her in. She is scrumptious. To add insult to injury, Joe ended up with the same earache a day later. Maybe God struck him down for making such a terrible joke.
Here’s hoping that someone actually puts up, “A social networking page like MyCougar!” But, while that’s being built, hop on over to our Online Video Guide and watch Medium clips to your heart’s content.
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Apr 8, 2008 2:28 AM
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I really liked tonight's episode, and it was nice to see Rosanna and Patricia together. It was also good to see more of Lee's dry humour.
I get why sometimes it seems weird that Lee still tends to take Allison's dreams with a grain of salt, but I think part of that is that he knows sometimes what she's getting in the dream can be symbolic rather than literal. There have been other occasions where they tried to follow a literal interpretation to her dreams only to find there was someone of a twist to them at the end. So, I don't really blame him for his occasional skepticism, especially when his instincts, developed from years of being a cop, tell him something might be a bit off.
Oh, and I LOVED seeing Manny give that butthead some nice upcommance there! Quite delicious to watch the news conference and watch VanDick watch the "career dissipation light" going into overdrive. ("Backdraft" anyone?  )
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Apr 8, 2008 6:56 AM
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How is it that Rosanna Arquette looks more lovely than she did in her "Desperately Seeking Susan" days? She was positively glowing last night. Whatever lighting they used on her, I want it to follow me around constantly!
Ok, I must admit that I fell asleep periodically throughout the episode. Not b/c the episode was bad, I'm just not feeling that well. So, I got most of my questions answered (thanks Paula!), but I'm unclear about exactly WHAT Van Dyke did and what his involvement with Madison was and how it affected Manuel's campaign. Can anyone help?
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Apr 8, 2008 8:59 AM
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...Good morning...just wanted to say that I agree, detective Scanlon had the best lines; my favorite was "I never kid after 10PM on a school night" and I also think he looked very very hot..not that it matters, really, but did anyone think that Patricia Arquette looked just a little bit more curvier than in other episodes?...and where is Ariel??...
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Apr 8, 2008 9:21 AM
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Daesey, Madison had committed some sort of illegal act. I can't remember what exactly but it's not too important--just the illegal part is. OK, so, Van Dyke knew this and blackmailed him. Van Dyke wanted Madison to give Manuel a ton of money for his campaign. In return, Van Dyke would give Madison a lesser sentence for his crime and he would use Madison's contribution as a way to discredit Manuel's campaign (because accepting money from someone who has committed a crime is not going to help anyone's campaign--even if they didn't know about the crime at the time...).
Hope that helps.
About this episode, I was glad that it wasn't "to be continued." I really feared it might be around 10:53... I thought "is there time to resolve this?" I should have known better.
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Apr 8, 2008 9:30 AM
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Daesey
Madison was some kind of public official (building inspector?) that was taking bribes. Van Dyke found out and came up with a plan that Madison would make a big contribution to Devalos's campaign and then Van Dyke would announce Madison's crimes and make Devalos look bad for associating with him. Madison agreed to go along with it because Van Dyke promised him a suspended sentence. But Devalos found out about the whole plot and got Madison to go public before Van Dyke could make his announcement.
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Apr 8, 2008 9:32 AM
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Daesey,
Madison was a building contractor that was bribing government officials to get contracts that he might not otherwise get (government corruption).
Van Dyke found out about this and was using Madison to destroy Manuel's campaign. His plan was to have Madison contribute a large donation to Manuel's campaign and than Van Dyke would announce Madison's indictment for bribing government officials. Manual would look bad for taking money from a criminal. Than Van Dyke would give Madison a lesser sentence. Instead Manuel flipped the table by announcing that he was representing Madison in the bribing case.
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Apr 8, 2008 9:46 AM
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I loved everything about this episode. Finally, my Medium is back!
We gots lots of Lee and Manny, adorbable interplay between Allison and Joe, and a crime that wasn't drawn out (horrible but, at least, we didn't have to witness all the horror). I'm glad we didn't have to worry about the DuBois' finances.
And I really liked "Charisma Kennedy". What a hoot that woman was.
Loved this episode. Went to bed with a smile on my face and the universe (the TV universe!) in balance.
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Apr 8, 2008 10:00 AM
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Wee! what a fun episode. I loved Rosanna as the narrator/killer cougar but I was equally happy to learn that she was really just a bookish type that likes to take her theories on a test drive 
I got the distinct impression that the writers have been reading the message boards because both Devalos and Scanlon were much more ready to follow Alison's impressions. Devalos' campaign guy was ready to completely dismiss her but Manny said it was not just a woman it was Alison DuBois and Scanlon immediately jumped on searching the restaurant even though no one had even found the body yet.
I loved the smirk on Lee's face in the elevator as the publisher guy/killer was hitting him up following Michelle's tried and true extra ticket.
All in all, just a really fun and refreshingly complete and just episode.
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Apr 8, 2008 10:09 AM
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Hey Paula, no need to sound so gleeful that the murder victims in this episode were men. You don't want to sound like a male-bashing sexist now, do you?
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Apr 8, 2008 10:22 AM
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GarryB--her "glee" was just because the victims are almost always women (or children)--and it has bothered many of the posters. It was a nice change of pace from the norm. I do not read any sexism there. Just someone happy for a little change--big difference.
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Apr 8, 2008 10:51 AM
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To Garry B: I don't think the writer was "gleeful" that the victims were men, so much as relieved that this wasn't another of the "women/children being tortured, raped, murdered" storyline that so many fans have gotten sick of or turned off by.
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Apr 8, 2008 11:06 AM
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Well - it was a fun episode and I know that many people are troubled by the child victims that this show often features. It was good to have a bit lighter fare - even if lighter does include chopped and nailed victims!!!
I do hope that we can get back to Joe's incredible solar cell magnifier though!
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Apr 8, 2008 11:57 AM
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I loved last night's episode. I was worried too that they would not find the killer before it was over. I am so glad they did and the guy hitting on Scanlon in the elevator was funny.
Just about every scene with Scanlon last night was funny.
I read somewhere that Sofia(Ariel) was making a movie. She had to cut off all of her hair for the role.
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Apr 8, 2008 12:28 PM
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YAY! I liked this episode very much. First in a long time.
I didn't even look on the murder scenes as horror....more dark humor than anything else. Rosanna Arquette was the best I've ever seen her! And I've seen her for years and years.
I think I liked everything about this episode, so for once....no criticisms!
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Apr 8, 2008 12:35 PM
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