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A Necessary Evil

Season 5, Episode 7, Aired Mar 23, 2009

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Allison is visited once again by the ghost of Agent Cooper, who tries to help her figure out who the real murderer is in a confusing case. Allison begins to question Agent Cooper's motives though and is unsure whether or not she should heed his advice.moreless

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Cast & Crew

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GUEST STAR
Kurtwood Smith

F.B.I. Agent Edward Cooper
GUEST STAR
Charlie McDermott

Brandon
GUEST STAR
John Ales

Hal Monzel

Jake Weber

Joe DuBois
Patricia Arquette

Allison DuBois
David Cubitt

Det. Lee Scanlon
Sofia Vassilieva

Ariel DuBois
Miguel Sandoval

D.A. Manuel Devalos

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Fan Episode Reviews (2)

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The ghost of Agent Cooper is back to help deliver crime tips to Allison but also to help a young man commit a series of justifiable homicides.

9.0

"Superb"

By marvelfan89, Oct 04, 2011

"The accomplishments will live on that's what you need to revel in young man". LMAO The ghost of dead Agent Cooper comes back to help deliver tips on several criminals but Cooper is also helping a would be criminal commit crimes himself so what is Allison to do?

Interesting for the most part. The first half shows people in general to not always fall for what a crime scene says but rather to think outside the box. We see a couple of really depressing characters kill themselves at the behest of a hooded killer. As we learn more about the dreary characters we learn that they aren't the best people. Allison herself has dreams of them but then she uncovers that the alleged suicides shown aren't really suicide. Still the fact that there is no real evidence makes finding the hooded killer hard to track down. Then Allison finds out that Cooper is try carry out with his demented outlook on justice. In this case, the dead Cooper is trying to live vicariously through this troubled young man manipulating him into carrying out his deeds. Like for instance, the first victim was a borderline sociopathAllison dreams that he will commit a massacre in a diner thus giving Cooper all the possible circumstantial evidence that may or may not to prod the young killer to kill this man and so on and so on. For such a dark episode this dude a few funny moments...the confrontation with the dead Cooper and Allison was funny. It's almost like Cooper was rubbing it in Allison's face that she can't do anything while at the same time Cooper (as before) sees the deeds of the killer as due justice...taking the lives of people who in his eyes deserve to die. The ending was a little predictable but still entertaining how they put all this together. Kurtwood Smith is great as always. He really does these characters well. There was a side story with Joe uncovering a possible fraud with the thanks of Ariel. The guy was basically trying to steal a dead man's ideas. However, for me the I was more interested in the Cooper story.moreless
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seems like pretty familiar terrain, but not as well done

7.5

"Good"

By sramv9, Oct 04, 2011

This show is starting to really bore me. With Allison's psychic gift no longer a secret, and Joe such a believer that he would propose to to fire an employee on the basis of a dream of his psychic daughter and what's more actually tell his boss that is the reason - there aren't the same hurdles to go through that there were before, and a key source of interesting dramatic tension is gone. Joe used to be the voice of reason, the devil's advocate, the un-psychic guy in the household, that created interesting dialogues. Now, it's like they all just wind their way through each murder plot and sometime occasional psychic subplot matter of factly. And it feels so predictable. This episode's little crisis near the end was so predictable as to how it would end. I wonder if there's been a loss of writing talent on this show. That's what it seems like - like the eps are just pale recycled imitations of previous seasons. sigh.moreless
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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (1)
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- While Allison and Joe are talking in the kitchen, Joe mentions that he left a potential new employee (Hal Monzel) a message and hopes he won't call back, but then a second later a phone rings. Joe says he may have spoken too soon, but then Allison says that she "thinks" it's actually her phone that's ringing. Allison has had the same ring tone on her phone for years now though, so it's not reasonable for her to say she "thinks" her phone is ringing, nor is it reasonable for Joe to think that it was his phone (unless he has the same ring tone as Allison, which would not make much sense).
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NOTES (3)
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- International Air Dates: Latin America: August 17th, 2009 on Sony Entertainment Television (Canal Sony) Norway: November 24th, 2009 on TV2 United Kingdom: April 7th, 2010 on Living TV
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- Kurtwood Smith is billed as a "Special Guest Star."
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- Although credited, Maria Lark (Bridgette) and Madison and Miranda Carabello (Marie) do not appear in this episode.
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