Let’s take stock of where we stand going into the season (series?) finale: Tom, Meghan and Diana are no longer pretending that Tom is really Tom, and in order to save him, Diana may have killed him. Kyle distrusts Cassie more than ever now that pretty much everyone she’s told him to trust has betrayed him. Shawn and Danny’s mother could be dying, and Collier is possibly Marked. Think they could have packed any more in?The Baldwin/Farrell clan really can’t catch any breaks, can they? On the upside, Shawn, Kyle and Danny are now all Promicin-positive with few ill effects. On the downside, it looks like Mrs. Farrell may be dying from the shot and Tom is lying in the back room of a home-goods store with two bullets in him courtesy of Diana. Isabelle needs to extract herself from that extended family posthaste.On the whole, the episode really was one of those good-news/bad-news kinds of nights. We got Curtis Peck back (good), then Tom killed him (bad). We can kill off...
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For most of the episode, I was really feeling sorry for Diana, since she was being betrayed by just about everyone she cared for. Then Drew Imroff blew his brains out. Not only did this guy lose most of his fortune and have his company’s reputation ruined, but his Marked buddies decided this made him too much of a liability. What’s that saying? True friends stab you in the front?Their plan is to implant Drew’s personality into Jordan Collier — not exactly a low-security candidate. I’m not sure about the long-term viability of the plan, but then again the Marked know how the future turns out, and I don’t, so I’m not going to judge. On the other hand, based on what we’ve seen in the last two episodes, it might be a moral step up for Jordan to be someone else for a while, as he presumably won’t be intent on seeing half of the planet die. Of course, considering the Marked hate P-positives, maybe it’s trading one side of this genocide for...
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I wanted to like this episode, really I did, but was there even an episode there? All I can remember is what seemed like hundreds of commercial breaks. Perhaps I’m just profoundly disappointed in this episode. It was such a great setup: The NTAC-ers and Collier & Co. wake up in NTAC headquarters with the place in lockdown with no knowledge of how any of them got there. Before we’ve even reached the end of the first half hour, Megan and Shawn are dead. And then, with bated breath we wait for the big reveal (Is it the people from the future? The Marked?), only to find out that it’s all the work of... PJ’s dream? PJ, the third anonymous member of the NTAC geek squad? It almost made me want to flip to the rerun of that Pussycat Dolls show.PJ, despite being a government agent with access to sensitive materials regarding the 4400 and Jordan Collier, apparently decided a couple of months ago to take the shot for no discernible reason whatsoever. His power allowed hi...
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Being a former citizen of “Charm City” (Baltimore), and a current citizen of “The City of Brotherly Love” (Philadelphia), I can’t say that the thought of a place called “Promise City” really appeals to me. Blighted, polluted, crime-ridden places tend to have hopeful names, and Jordan’s new compound — lovely as it may one day be — is somewhat less than a shining beacon. On the other hand, if there’s anyone who can make the situation better, it’s probably him.Just to refresh everyone’s memory, here’s our situation: Jordan has taken over the worst part of Seattle to transform into the precursor to heaven on earth. Anyone with an ability is welcome to join him, but if he gets attacked, he expands the perimeter by 100 percent. Did I mention that the perimeter markers cause massive headaches in those who aren’t Promicin-positive, therefore displacing “normal” people? What a generous guy.But even with all ...
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I could have really used that mechanic who can create incredible machines on Sunday night when my computer died. To tell you the truth, I could also have used that nice anxiety extractor. I’m sorry that I couldn’t get this up for you all sooner, especially considering that this was by far the best episode of the season. The upside is that I got to view it a second time, which I think allowed me to better digest what is being set up.This show does ambiguity like no other. I’m not talking about Hewitt, who is an opportunistic little man with a hateful heart — and good for Shawn for telling him so. Shawn usually doesn’t realize what a bad spot he's in until he's well past the point of no return, but he’s definitely gotten smarter this season. — and he is undeniably evil. I’m talking about this bizarre cult of Jordan, which has morphed into something semiapocalyptic.Maybe I’m in the minority here, but I’m undecided about whether these ...
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I don’t know how everyone else feels, but I’ve always been an April fan. It’s been like a look at the bizarro Diana. Of course, now she’s more like Diana-lite — or the female Gary Navarro (Sharif Atkins’ character, who could read minds and was therefore hired by the government). Yes, it was a little like a rehash of that second-season episode, but it seems in keeping with the cyclical nature of this season in the context of the larger mythology of the show.It certainly seems convenient that all of our main characters’ loved ones who’ve taken the shot develop abilities instead of dying (as 50 percent are supposed to), but it’s to be expected. In terms of abilities, April sure developed a convenient one. OK, maybe not convenient considering it got her boyfriend killed, but if she can prevent murders by getting corporate bigwigs to confess to hiring hit men to kill whistle-blowers, she’s at least contributing positively to society.Even ...
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I suppose it’s time to add Seattle to my running list of the most dangerous places on television. As if Meredith Grey and Co. weren’t bad enough, we were almost subject to growing legions of 16-year-olds with really bad taste in clothing and music (and gym class activities — thumb wrestling, anyone?). But seriously, this Promicin distribution is shaping up to be a catastrophe in and of itself.The past three seasons have all been about controlling a limited group of people with unpredictable powers, but now the whole premise has been turned on its head. What do you do when people are given a choice in the matter and that group expands? The 4400 were all torn away from their families, and many seemed at best ambivalent and at worst downright scared regarding their abilities. Remember Maia just wanting to be a normal kid two years ago? Graham Holt reveled in his power and grew more ambitious by the minute. Basically, the third-season finale (“50/50”) and last n...
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Question: You are always digging at the cast of The 4400, to the point that I can't get past my curiosity about whatever it is that you mean. Certainly you aren't referring to Patrick Flueger (who can bring me to tears, and is so pretty that it doesn't matter anyway), or M. Ali (who infuses his character with the dignity of a pre-civil rights era black man). And certainly you don't mean Conchita Campbell, who is one of the best child actors I've seen on TV for a while. OK. Maybe you're referring to Joel Gretsch, whose two notes, intense and angry, do get a bit tiresome. P.S.: I loved the last few seconds of the finale with naked Isabelle and bummed-out Jordan. Heh.
Answer: I really wasn't trying to single anyone out, but just about everyone you mentioned contributes to what to me is an overall bland earnestness in the regular cast. (Probably the worst offender, when talking about the show's generic nature, was the new female boss brought in to NTAC, a pale shadow of what Alberta Watson
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