Allison and Joe were so cute in this episode that I nearly died. Going back to revisit their wedding was a brilliant idea. I’ve always been curious about their past, and while we’ve heard about it in snippets here and there before, it was nice to actually see them back then. The show did a really good job of taking us back to this time, while still keeping in step with the rest of the show. It didn’t feel overly cheesy or desperate as flashback episodes often do.
Before I get into the actual episode, I would be remiss if I didn’t make a comment about the hair and makeup. Between lighting, camera filters, hair and makeup, the people working on this episode did an amazing job of making Joe and Allison look 17 years younger. I’ve seen enough bad wigs on TV coughHeroescough to be able to spot them a mile away, but if I hadn’t known better, I would have thought that both Joe and Allison’s hair was the real deal.
There were a couple of points in this episode where Medium started to lose me, but then it brought me back in. The biggest was when Allison started having dreams but didn’t seem to know what they were. I had been under the impression, and I mentioned this in the live-blog, that this is something that Allison had been dealing with for years, and that she had started drinking heavily at a young age in order to make them stop. At first, it seemed as though the writers had forgotten this, and I was about to get pretty annoyed with the show.
While I still think they may have fudged the timeline a bit for dramatic effect, Grandma Benoit came back to explain what Allison was dealing with. From what I gathered, Allison has had visions of dead people for most of her life, but her mother spent a lot of time and energy trying to convince Allison that she just had an active imagination. When she starts having dreams and waking visions about the missing girl, this is the first time she has ever had dreams that have given her information about a crime. At least that’s how I interpreted it.
I love Geoffrey Arend (aka “The Luckiest Man on Earth“) as an actor, so it was a pleasant surprise to see him on this episode playing the killer of the week. Between his awkward rehearsal dinner speech and murdering Ariel, he managed to be creepy all the way through. Speaking of which, as someone who has watched Medium for a long time, I wasn’t necessarily surprised to see Allison dreaming about one of her kids being in danger, but to have Ariel killed in a sex crime by someone who is family (by marriage) was undeniably disturbing. I appreciated that despite the fact this was an overall sweet episode, the writers didn’t pull there punches when it came to the crime.
The one thing that disappointed me about this episode was the resolution of the crime. Joe obviously doesn’t understand Allison’s dreams, and let’s face it: 17 years later he’s still having some problems. So why, after she canceled the wedding and made him think she’s a little crazy, did she not make a point of explaining exactly what happened? When she went to Joe’s room, she was vague and weird about everything, and if I were in that situation, the conversation would have been more like, “Look. I had another dream. It was your cousin, I saw where he dumped the body, I called the police, and they found her right where I said she was. By the way, your family is gross. Also? Suck it, dude. I was totally right.” I mean, I understand if Allison would have dialed it back a bit, but I would imagine she would want to get that basic point across.
So what did you think of the big Medium family reunion?
Clacked by Kona Gallagher 
on Mar 13, 2010 @ 10:17 EST5EDT
What? Ariel was murdered?!?!?
Nice review, Kona. This was a fantastic episode, wasn’t it? I knew it would be good, but it wasn’t exactly what I expected. But in a good way. It was well-written and acted (and the makeup jobs were amazing!) and intriguing. And even though we “knew” what was going to happen (that she would marry him), it still left me breathless when she gave his ring back. What had me worried though was the storyline with Ariel and how Allison was going to stop that from happening. But it was all beautifully handled. Excellent, powerful episode.
I liked this episode a lot, lots of Allison/Joe cuteness, perfect for when you’re feeling under the weather! I principally watch for the family dynamic so I’ve always wanted more glimpses into the backstory of Allison/Joe.
I’m still thinking they might have forgotten about Sweet Child O’ Mine, the episode where the miscarriage is revealed and Bridgette wants to ‘marry the stray dog and have its puppies’. I suppose considering Allison hadn’t met Joe’s parents previously, I guess Joe’s ‘I thought we were going to wait to tell everyone’ could be interpreted as sufficient. I was surprised they hadn’t met before, even if there’s a couple of states inbetween Joe’s hometown and Phoenix, especially since I’ve always had the impression Joe is the only son. I know he has a few sisters, none of whom were mentioned to be in attendance. Poor Allison, no family at her wedding, although we know Michael was intending to attend.
How old were Joe and Allison supposed to be when they got married? They did an excellent job making them look younger.
I love Joe’s dad, it was good seeing him without the cigar! The song choices were really good too, made me giggle more than once. Joe really had no idea he was in for so many interrupted nights of sleep!
just found your site–4 days later, just read the recap. cool. nice job. This episode felt like one of those thanks-to-our-fans type episode. They both looked good. ah makeup.
Oh yah, I won the Haiti Jacket auctioned from Clothes of our Backs and it has a few drops of what look like fake blood stains on it.