The BEST episodes of The Dead Zone season 1

Every episode of The Dead Zone season 1, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Dead Zone season 1!

Johnny had the perfect life until he was in coma for six years. When he awoke, he found his fiancee married to another man. His son doesn't know him. Everything's changed, including Johnny. With one touch, he can see things.

Last Updated: 2/21/2025Network: USA NetworkStatus: Ended
Wheel of Fortune (1)
star
7.92
333 votes

#1 - Wheel of Fortune (1)

Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 6/16/2002

Johnny Smith was leading an idyllic small-town life: working as a high school science teacher, engaged to the love of his life, Sarah, and being a devoted son to his widowed mother, Vera, who lives nearby. But after a near-fatal car accident puts him in a deep coma, Johnny awakens six years later to find everything has changed: Sarah is now is married to someone else, local sheriff Walt Bannerman; the child they are raising is actually Johnny's son and knows nothing about his real father; and Johnny's mother Vera has passed away, leaving Johnny's finances under the thumb of Reverend Purdy, an influential religious leader who is also his mother's former lover. But, most importantly, Johnny himself has changed: he now finds himself with the gift (or curse) of second sight. Through visions he sees with a simple touch, he becomes responsible for saving a nurse's little girl from a fire, helping his Vietnamese doctor reunite with the mother he thought was killed during the fall of Saigon, and now must prevent a local serial killer from striking again. Now Johnny is faced with the daunting task of coming to grips with his new powers - and navigating his way through his new life.

Directors: Robert Lieberman
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Destiny
star
7.76
219 votes

#2 - Destiny

Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 9/15/2002

In the past Johnny Smith as a child and Greg Stilson, the son of a Bible salesman, briefly meet and Johnny has a future vision of danger. In the present Johnny has a vision of a restaurant graduation party tragedy and warns his employer, the father of a student. Stilson, now a Senatorial candidate being backed by Rev. Purdy, comes to town after the tragedy and Johnny gets visions of catastrophe in Stilson's wake. Johnny and Sara get together while in flashback we see how Stilson has been a total bastard all of his life, and that Johnny came out of his coma just as Stilson was sworn in as state representative. When they meet at a rally Johnny shakes Stilson's hand and sees him as the source of catastrophe - Washington D.C. devastated by a nuclear holocaust.

Directors: Robert Lieberman
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Quality of Life
star
7.48
276 votes

#3 - Quality of Life

Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 6/30/2002

Johnny returns to his old school as a substitute teacher and as a hockey coach. During practice, Johnny has a vision inside a player's heart that indicates he may have a serious heart condition. However, there is no medical evidence to support him. Johnny's vision of Todd, and his previous publicity, cause an outcry by the parents who demand that Johnny be fired.

Directors: John Lafia
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Enemy Mind
star
7.48
282 votes

#4 - Enemy Mind

Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 7/28/2002

While helping to track down a runaway, Jill, who is involved with drugs, Johnny is exposed to a drug that causes him to start getting weird (weirder than usual) visions. He insists on trying to find Jill, despite the concerns of Bruce and Sarah. Confusing matters further is that Jill's boyfriend is in trouble with his supplier. The boyfriend gets killed and Jill and Johnny go on the run. In the final showdown, Johnny manages to fight past his hallucinations and knock the drug dealer off a high ledge, while Jill is reunited with her mother.

Directors: Jon Cassar
Writer: David Benz
Watch Now:Amazon
Dinner with Dana
star
7.42
224 votes

#5 - Dinner with Dana

Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 8/25/2002

A jealous ex-lover stalks Dana as her affair with Johnny heats up.

Directors: Jon Cassar
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
What It Seems (2)
star
7.38
371 votes

#6 - What It Seems (2)

Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 6/23/2002

With the help of his new friend Bruce, Johhny attempts to stop the Bangor Strangler from claiming another victim.

Directors: Robert Lieberman
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The House
star
7.26
253 votes

#7 - The House

Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 7/21/2002

Johnny moves into his new house and starts having visions of a tub filled with blood. He also sees visions of his dead mother, and comes to believe that Rev. Purdy killed his mother. The facts seem to suggest that Purdy did indeed engage in a cover-up concerning the death of Johnny's mother. In a final confrontation Johnny touches Purdy and gains a vision of Purdy finding Johnny's mother dead by suicide. Realizing what the death of a child can drive a parent to do, he goes to the aid of a local neighbor girl whose brother died on a military mission and whose mother is preparing to kill herself.

Directors: James A. Contner
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Netherworld
star
7.22
279 votes

#8 - Netherworld

Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 8/4/2002

Johnny ends up in a fantasy world (or vision?) when he wakes up one day to find himself married to Sarah and the father of her two children.

Directors: Robert Lieberman
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Shaman
star
7.14
218 votes

#9 - Shaman

Season 1 - Episode 12 - Aired 9/8/2002

While travelling out in the wilderness Johnny is plagued by visions of a meteor hitting a mountain and people vanishing. To find out which mountain it is he goes out into the wilderness and injures his leg. Taking refuge in a cave, Johnny picks up a fragment and has a vision of an Indian shaman in the past...who can see Johnny as well.

Directors: Rachel Talalay
Writer: Joe Menosky
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Here There Be Monsters
star
7.03
211 votes

#10 - Here There Be Monsters

Season 1 - Episode 10 - Aired 8/18/2002

Johnny and Bruce drive into the small town of Hobb's Landing where Johnny gets a vision of himself being burned at the stake. He goes to the police and has a vision of the murder of a local girl. The police hold him on charges of witchcraft and he is sent to trial.

Directors: Michael Robison
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Unreasonable Doubt
star
6.99
345 votes

#11 - Unreasonable Doubt

Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 7/14/2002

Johnny is summoned to jury duty on a murder trial. Johnny starts to get visions which lead him to believe the accused is innocent. He is the only not-guilty vote

Directors: Robert Lieberman
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Siege
star
6.93
190 votes

#12 - The Siege

Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 8/11/2002

Conrad Hurley, a disgruntled electrician fired by the town council, goes into the bank with a shotgun and a revolver, tries to rob it, and takes everyone present (including Sara) hostage. Waiting outside for Sara, Johnny gets a vision of a future massacre and goes in to try to alter the future he perceives. Guided by his visions and scrambling wildly to adapt to the altering futures he keeps seeing in which he dies, Sara dies, Conrad dies, and/or everyone dies each time he changes something, Johnny soon becomes Conrad's unlikely ally. Finally Johnny manages to earn Conrad's trust and manage to talk him into releasing the hostages and giving himself up.

Directors: Michael Shapiro
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Enigma
star
6.69
300 votes

#13 - Enigma

Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 7/7/2002

Johnny becomes involved in helping an elderly patient find a long-lost love.

Directors: Michael Robison
Writer: Joe Menosky
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV