Medium is a candy-cane kind of show, however, this episode took a creepy and somewhat disturbing turn. Here’s what happened.

Allison has dreams about a young girl trapped in a wrecked car. The girl reaches for her cellphone but drops it. By the second dream Allison can see that the girl is Ariel. This does not bode well for Ariel’s social life.

In real life, after being teased at school, a nice boy comes to Ariel’s rescue and asks her to go to a concert with him downtown. Of course, Allison and Joe do not want Ariel to go. Ariel sulks, goes to sleep and dreams. This is the best part. The dream takes place in 1987, complete with teased hair, off the shoulder tank tops, other asymetrical attire, and, of course, lip gloss. In the dream Ariel has taken on the identity of her mother’s friend and fellow student , K.C. Tunstall. ( I’m not making this up.)

The director made a very wise decision to cast an actress other than Patricia Arquette as the young Allison. Jennifer Lawrence is wonderful! See the link below to watch an interview with this actress. There were also several very amusing scenes. Patricia Arquette in ‘80s drag would have been too much.

While Ariel is having these dreams Allison’s dreams of the car wreck are giving her no insight into the location of a missing adolescent girl. Ameri-Tips, via the secretive deal with Cynthia, has hired Allison to psychically locate the teenager.I know. I know. The missing girl is in Allison’s dream wreck. I was shouting at my television.

Brace yourself for the creepy turn.

Ariel figures out how to go to the concert against Allison and Joe’s wishes by following the same plan adolescent Allison had concocted, about which Ariel knows from her dreams. The only exception is that in real life Ariel gets busted by Allison. They fight. Ariel goes to sleep and dreams. In the dream teenage Allison and Ariel/K.C. are in a car with boys. The car gets stopped by a cop. The cop takes the underage girls home and drops teenage Allison off first. Alone in the squad car K.C./Ariel is not taken straight home. The officer tells her he won’t tell her strict parents about picking her up after curfew in a car with boys if …. then he drives past her house and tells her she’s pretty. Creepy. Ariel wakes up screaming that she didn’t wake up in time. She saw everything and couldn’t make him stop. Disturbing.

Allison realizes that the experience Ariel had in the dream most likely happened to the real K.C. and this plunges Allison into guilt. She wants to find K.C.. Joe gets on the internet and gets a hit.

Here I am, gritting my teeth with the idea that K.T.Tunstall is going to make a guest appearance and there will be singing, but this grotesque story line quickly and thankfully dissipates. K.C. died twelve years ago in a car wreck. She hit a deer. This is starting to make sense. “But,” Allison asks. “Why now? Why is she showing me this now?” Joe consoles Allison by telling her that any teenage girl would get into a squad car if a policeman told her to do so.

Light dawns. Cynthia shows up, ready to fire Allison due to lack of results in the solution of the missing girl case. Then, Allison gives her a lead. Cynthia goes to police headquarters and meets up with Lee Scanlon. She obtains the files of police officers from 1987. Scanlon asks if it wouldn’t be easier to get her secret tipster to come downtown. Cynthia smiles and says no. (I just want to mention here that I love Angelica Houston because butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth.)

Flash to the Dubois kitchen table where Ariel looks through the files while mom looks on. The cop is identified. Scanlon and Cynthia go to the officer’s house. He lets them in and they find the missing girl, alive.

Allison and Joe watch the news report, comment on the secret nature of Allison’s work and then go into the bedroom.

At some point I do believe someone should send Ariel to a psychotherapist.