Drowned World weaves equally strong A and B plots throughout, and manages twists and turns enough to surprise even the most clever viewer.
In the A plot Allison Dubois (Patricia Arquette), a psychic who is often finds herself having to untangle the maze of her own visions, is asked by a young householder to speak to his wife after she claims to hear water and a crying baby late at night. Although Allison initially doesn't think there's anything to the wife's claims, she soon discovers that a baby died years before in the house.
In the B plot, guest star Kelly Preston plays the business partner of Allison's husband Joe (Jake Weber), who seems intent on seducing him.
The seamless way these plots are woven together is a deft show of excellent writing. Both plots move along at a quick pace, and the mystery deepens in one as the stakes are raised in the other.
In Medium, the centre of the series is the husband/wife relationship between the Dubois, and this episode puts an enormous and realistic strain on them. You have sympathies for each character, understanding each side of their misunderstandings. Because of the essential goodness of the personalities involved, you root for them to find a solution; because the conflict seems like such a real-world one, you aren't at all sure they will.
The episode also manages to bring in all the supporting characters for essential bits of business, from the three Dubois girls (including the talented Sofia Vassilleva as Ariel Dubois, who recently starred with Abigail Breslin in My Sister's Keeper) to Allison's frequent collaborators on the crime front Devalos and Lee Scanlon.
See how the dialogue avoids being "on the nose," ie talking overtly about what's going on, and how the characters talk AROUND their issues more often than ABOUT them. That makes the honesty between the Dubois, when it happens, even more refreshing.
