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(S06E08) I enjoyed this episode tonight, with the loopy Elaine and the Clive Owen-look-alike Homeland Security officer. I also enjoyed this episode way back in Season 2 when it was called “Precipitate.” In that episode, Johnny had a blood transfusion with the blood of six different people. He had a vision that one of them was going to die, unless he intervened. So, he and Bruce ran around, tracked down all of the blood donors, and made their lives better so the tragedy didn’t happen. It was a great episode.

Tonight, instead of Bruce, we have Sara’s loopy friend Elaine, who is still single in her thirties and designs crossword puzzles for a living. She’s kind of cute when she takes her glasses off for the Homeland Security guy, who seems lonely and perhaps a bit lacking in boundaries. However, the fact that she never puts her glasses back on begs the question of why she needs them to begin with (just kidding, she probably just needs them for reading).

Johnny, of course, has a vision at the bus station of an explosion. True to form, as we have already seen in, oh, every episode for six seasons, including “Precipitate,” Johnny would not be Johnny if he didn’t try to stop the tragedy from happening.

What saves this episode from being a repeat of an earlier season is that his vision actually plays a trick on him: His vision is dependent on his own better nature in order for the tragedy to occur. Elaine is on the right track when she ways that all puzzles have a pattern. The common thread of this puzzle is that for every person Johnny suspects, he ends up helping that person– and their loved ones. Helping those people brings him to the next suspects, until finally, all of Johnny and Elaine’s wacky running around causes the Homeland Security guy to be curious about what the hell they are doing. This episode was the very epitome of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

However, it raises a good question. If Johnny had just walked away from the situation, from the vision he had seen transpire, it was guaranteed not to happen. Johnny’s poking around was the very thing that almost caused the explosion to happen. His meddling, if you will. However, as Elaine points out, his meddling also positively affected each of the lives he meddled in. Not that it would have done them any good if they had blown up though. It’s an interesting dilemma.

But I think the key is that his propensity for visions and meddling is causing him not to move his relationship forward, as Elaine tells him. Sara is wondering why he isn’t moving. Don’t they both want this? Haven’t they always wanted it? Johnny lost Sara when he was in his coma, but he gained his ability. He lost true love, but has helped countless people. So, if he has to choose between Sara and his own ability (or, moreover, his own nature to help and not to simply ignore his visions), what will he choose? Will he become the author of his own dysfunction? Or will he choose a family life that can bring him real happiness? Does the world need the talents of Johnny Smith? Does the world need them full-time? At one point this episode, I muttered, “Just stop touching things! Wear gloves!” and that was even before I knew how meta the episode and vision really were.

However, my real question of the evening is this: My close-captioning and two rewindings caught Johnny saying to J.J. as he left the house, “Goodbye Anthony.” Did anybody else catch that? What on earth? Was that just funky captioning, or was Anthony Michael Hall (who goes by Michael from what I’ve read) playing around a bit?