Let s get to the end of this episode first.

If you (yes, just the two of us, apparently) have been following this show and reading about it, there s been heavy speculation that Painkiller Jane is a neuro. For those who haven t been watching, Jane Vasco is a latecomer to a team that tracks and neutralizes neuros, who are genetically altered or damaged humans.

The malfunction in their brains manifests in a variety of ways we ve been seeing in the show so far, from mind control, to being able to raise the dead.

At the end of this episode Dr. Seth Carpenter, the resident doctor of what I ve been calling Strikeforce Vicodin tells its leader, Andre McBride, that an analysis of Jane s blood reveals DNA characteristics very similar to that of the neuros.

Jane s body heals itself of bullet holes, electrical frying, falling from great heights or anything. Though she has this talent, she still feels the pain of it all happening so it s not something she enjoys doing. But as part of the team to track neuros, her ability hasn t played much of a part in the last few episodes, including this one.

This show is often thought to be stealing from Heroes but the concept for Painkiller Jane started in the comic book of the same name printed years ago.

Andre, though surprise may be outside the realm of his emotional A to Z, tells Dr. Seth to keep that knowledge to himself, for now.

One of the mysteries of the show for the viewer is why the episodes are being aired out of order from how they were scheduled to run. The accidentally gives the answer to which ones are airing when.** But not why.

Knowing that Breakdown was supposed to air as the fourth episode instead of the sixth, the revelation from Dr. Seth causes me to mentally scan over the last two episodes to see if they make more sense imbued with this additional information. In one way it does; it explains Andre getting closer to Vasco, as much more of a confidant than anything else.

Maureen Bowers joined SF Vicodin at almost the same time and she and Vasco were close friends. Now? Not so close.

Though the most interesting part of the show is its potential, there was a story to be told in Breakdown.

I m not sure what I was doing while watching this, but I realized after it was all over I hadn t detected a plot. Now the show can be criticized for a lot but it always has a plot, however anemic at times.

I blame my fugue on a neuro. I did come away with the feeling that this was the second best after Catch Me If You Can.

Maureen and Jane are interviewing people about weird experiences they ve been having.

A lot of flashing back and forth of images, of climbing on furniture, of feeling trapped and things floating in the vision: flowers, hats. Two of the interviewees are in a hospital, another is long-time whacko Henry Perkins - identified as Patient Zero - who killed his family and neighbors with a butcher knife. They visit him in Greenmore Psychiatric, a mental hospital.

Maureen and Jane are buttoned up and looking business professional beautiful in black. After all, why wouldn t they dress up for the psych ward?

The people they re talking to have the same nightmare, or at least parts of what appear to be the same nightmare.

Mass hallucination is ruled out (good move).

Jane and Maureen walk in Greenmore as Dr. Lewis visits a few patients, including the butterfly-drawing Elyse Danzig, who looks like an even skinnier Ashley Judd.

Theresa is a looker, with a mad killer foundation seeping through the surface.

Got into medicine to try and cure people ..

. ah ..

. I ve became a warden, Dr. Lewis says, hesitantly, as if he rsquo;s forgotten his line.

The two talk to him about nightmares and that a variety of different people are having them. He s skeptical, saying dreams are a combination of fact and fantasy and can rarely be taken literally. ldquo;A cigar is just a cigar in some cases, rdquo; Jane says, with a Freudian nod.

Jane wants to talk with Perkins and hospital staff approach him with Hannibal Lecter-like caution; all weapons removed, security on alert. Perkins has a long face, strong hands, and a robotic voice, Hal more than R2D2. And he s taller than Jane.

She tries to get into his head and it s clear he enjoys causing people fear, but in this case he s a nightmare victim too, having three times stacked furniture to try and escape from something he can t remember.

She does a good job getting inside his head; too good as he breaks his restraints in a freakout. Though a few questions seem to calm him down, one more puts him over the edge and he starts hitting her with his arms, rather than closed fist.

Dr. Lewis is there to give her a calming brandy. She, of course, is fine, as Dr.

Lewis remarks, perfectly healed from any bruising. That brandy worked better than you thought rdquo; she says, sauntering out the door.

A nifty little exchange takes place later, that continues to hint that McBride and Vasco may become more than just colleagues.

Though she doesn t look much different, McBride back at HQ says she looks like crap. ..

. I guess you re not asking me to the prom. .

.. You re no good to me like this.

...

Well, how am I good to you?

Voiceover Jane says she barely sleeps at all these days, a couple of hours a night max. She does sleep that night but wakes up with her own nightmare remaining on the shuttered, silver screen of her eyelids - a mom flashback, and water, and what looks like flotsam from a plane crash.

The next morning, her furniture is stacked high against the walls.

Dr. Seth finds a narcotic in her bloodstream and Lewis brandy is the only thing she s ingested out of the routine of salad and wine.

Lewis cops to it after they track him down, he says he offloads rdquo; this nightmare to others, but never the complete nightmare because it would kill people. He says he discovered what he could do after he accidentally stumbled into Henry in the hall and felt a great relief as his pain ebbed away

But rather than take his word for it as they seem to have done with every other neuro, they double-check Dr. Lewis and, oops, Dr.

Seth says it s the wrong guy. His blood isn t the same as other neuros.

Faced with the medical evidence.

Dr. Lewis says he was trying to protect Elyse, who came to the hospital as a 9-year-old, having been found adrift off the coast of Maine. Elyse does not deliberately give other people the nightmares, it just happens.

Jane lies repeatedly and constantly to try and get Dr. Lewis to show them where he moved Elyse. This includes breaking her finger in front of him so he can watch it bounce back into place.

But he doesn t break. He walks with Strikeforce Vicodin to the motel and he persuades them she would be scared off if they all went in at once. so he goes in first.

He grabs her and tells her she needs to give me all of your pain. All of it, for good. Amazingly she complies, which seems selfish.

Now, go back to the beginning for the end.

-- Next Episode, airs June 1 on Sci-Fi at 10 EDT


** The Painkiller Jane lists the six episodes aired so far, pilot to the most recent. When you click on each episode the URL and the title in the browser window shows when the episode was supposed to air.

For the record, so far, pilot first, Toy Soldiers second, Piece of Mind fifth, Catch Me If You Can seventh, Nothing to Fear But Fear Itself sixth, and Breakdown fourth.

The reviewer at has apparently given up after the fourth show ( Catch Me If You Can ). Even the person who writes the very brief episode capsules at the official site can t resist a shot of sarcasm in descriptions of what s going on.

It makes me wonder if the focus of the show is going to be deliberately more camp. It s about supernatural powers. It doesn t need to be taken deadly seriously, though sci-fi fans are some of the most devoted to the reality of their unreal worlds.