"Things are winding down as we've started production on our 13th episode in Vancouver, a show that explores the life of Bruce [John L. Adams] and his impact on Johnny's life," Piller writes. "Oscar winner Louis Gossett Jr. guest stars as Bruce's father. He joins Ally Sheedy, Robert Culp and Osama Bin Laden as guest stars you'll be seeing in the last half of the season on The Dead Zone."

Piller says stiff competition on Sunday nights has caused a dip in the record-setting show's ratings of late but he's confident USA will renew the series for a third season.

"We've done 26 of these this year and I don't mind admitting that I'm looking forward to some time off," he admits. "Haven't worked this hard since season three of Next Generation. Although the ratings have been hurt by special competition virtually every Sunday, the network is very happy with the creative quality of the episodes and I have every reason to believe we'll be back for another go round."

The exec offers some insight into the next episode of the series, "Misbegotten," which he says is a personal favorite.

"One of my favorite episodes of the season is coming up this week," he begins. "I guess "Misbegotten" appeals to my perverted sense of humor. Jill Blotovogel - expressing the feminine point of view on the staff - calls it the "Dear Penthouse Forum" episode ... as in "Dear Penthouse Forum, Last week, I was abducted by three beautiful women who proceeded to tie me up and... It isn't a comedy per se - in fact, it's the scariest, most horrific show we've done - but I find humor in the darkest situations."

Piller also reveals that after working on a special mythology-laden cliffhanger for a while, he eventually decided to shelve the idea for later in the show's development. He says creatively it just didn't feel right to rush things with the show's now numerous ongoing story arcs.

"We worked several weeks on a story that would have had all the various characters arcs colliding - Purdy, Stillson, Sarah, J.J., Walt - there was murder, and suicide, and blackmail, and a visitor from the future," he tantalizes. "Gee, it sounds terrific... why didn't we do that? Because it felt too soon to me. I felt we would be pushing the continuing story lines too far too fast... and I wanted to stand back and give the long view of the series a good hard look before making creative decisions that would literally turn the franchise on its ear. We may still do all of these story elements but getting perspective is hard during the rush of production. Now we have the chance to take a deep breath and get a fresh look at things."

Piller says forcing a cliffhanger after every 13 episodes might be a mistake: "If it feels right, do it. If not, don't do it just to do it. That's how I feel."

You can read more from Piller's message at TheDeadZone.net soon. You can read the first act of the "Misbegotten" script there as well, in PDF format. All the show's scripts are archived at the web site and appear in their entirety after the episode airs. TDZ airs Sundays @ 10p on USA Network.