Cade investigates a murder among a community of psychics in Maine.
(U.S. premiere January 30, 2000)
Written by David Wilcox
Directed by Michael Rohl
GUEST STARS
Peter Flemming -- Quinn
Patricia Drake -- Ellen
Gabrielle Miller -- Molly Simon
Michael Tayles -- George Sedowsky
Karen R. Holness -- Rachel Cates
WHAT HAPPENED
One night, the French doors blow open in a well-furnished New England house. The wind knocks over a framed picture, smashing it.
A woman comes to investigate. When she picks up the picture, which depicts her with a friend, she has a vision.
She sees her friend running through a graveyard, and cries out, "Keep running! Don't stop!" The friend does stop, though, and stares at a grave.
Its tombstone is inscribed "Rachel Cates. 1975 - TODAY". As the woman in the house looks on in horror, the vision ends with her friend -- Rachel Cates -- falling into the grave.
Shaken, the woman calls 911, sending the police to Rachel's house. When the police arrive there, they find Rachel dead. (more spoilers)
ANALYSIS
"Susperience" is a solid mystery story, even though it's filled with psychics who could easily short-circuit the plot with a convenient vision of the killer.
Fortunately, writer David Wilcox avoids this trap. Cade must conduct a careful, step-by-step investigation to find out what's going on and why.
The clues are clearly presented and flow naturally into each other. The mystery itself is fair, presenting several logical suspects and a reasonable but non-obvious solution.
In addition to adding spice to an otherwise quiet episode, the powers of the psychics are integral to the mystery.
George's hypnotic projection casts crucial doubt on Rachel's reappearance at the end of Act Two. As presented, it's a fairly obvious clue, but it would have been a dead giveaway if we were certain she was really there.
The one twist that isn't quite fair is the resolution. Presumably Cade, Eddie and Quinn decide that Cade will go to sleep and set up a trap for Rachel, but this decision occurs off camera.
There's no clue that this is what happened until Quinn awakens next to Cade after the confrontation. It makes the suspense of Cade "unexpectedly" falling asleep ring a little hollow in retrospect.
This is a minor flaw, though. By and large, "Susperience" is thoughtful and well-constructed, making it a nice change of pace from the show's more action-oriented episodes.
WHAT WE LEARN
Humans and Gua with reliable psi powers exist in the world of First Wave .
TUNE IN THREE WEEKS FROM NOW. . .
That's right, First Wave is going on a brief summer vacation so the SCIFI Channel can bring you a bunch of movies and other genre treats. Next time we see Cade (on June 4), he'll be infiltrating the military to ferret out Gua connections in the Army. Be there, for "Red Flag".
What do you think? Send comments to the author or editor.
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