Welcome to Promise City: Built on the graves of 9,000 people.What a sad yet awesome episode. We said goodbye to the Bill Gates look-alike NTAC geek, Danny Farrell, Mrs. Farrell, Isabelle and Penny Johnson’s Rebecca Parish. For whom did I shed the most tears (yes, that was me you heard bawling through the whole episode)? Danny Farrell. He was estranged from his brother for so long because of Shawn’s abilities, and yet his newly acquired ability caused the deaths of at least 9,000 — and he went to all that trouble to make sure it didn’t kill him. Maybe it was only fitting that he had his brother kill him, in some twisted sort of poetic justice. It didn’t make it any less sad. As Shawn put it, he didn’t want to lose his brother and his mother on the same day. At least it’s brought the whole remaining Baldwin/Farrell clan closer — perhaps our only consolation.And what has become of those who didn’t die? Everyone in Seattle who survived now ha...
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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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Holy flurking shnit. Best part of this truly stellar episode? It had to be Richard’s line about his daughter not being a moody toddler (“Oh, Isabelle’s had her moments”). It looks like she’ll be having more of those types of moments in the future, considering “Tom” wants her to get her powers back, but at this point, that should almost be the least of everyone’s worries.Not only did we find out that Tom is in fact one of the Marked, we now know that he’s got Matthew Ross’s old personality. Oh, he’s also got Isabelle locked up in Kyle’s old room, he shot poor Richard and Cora with enough tranquilizer darts to take down a rhino, and his Marked personality is responsible for Isabelle — who, by the way, is an adult again — coming into being in the first place. OK, this new Tom is a total jerk, but it’s great to see Joel Gretsch stretch his acting muscles a little bit and play someone completely different. On the ...
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It would be really nice if just once Tom could have a fun, conflict-free day. Getting lucky and having a lucky day apparently do not go hand in hand. It’s good to see that he and Kyle are, if not exactly back to being a normal family, at least not averse to working together. I’m not sure if they’re more or less dysfunctional than the Tylers, but at least they don’t seem to be on totally opposite sides anymore.As for the Tylers, well, it could be an SVU plot if it didn’t also involve telekinesis and reverse aging. Let’s not forget that Richard did try to kill Isabelle at the end of last season, and has now kidnapped her, drugged her and turned her back into a toddler. I’m shocked any parent would voluntarily return to the diaper days, but to each his own. What’s interesting about this whole situation (besides, you know, the whole going from 20 to 2 in a day via the amazing antioxidant powers of water), is that we’ve witnessed a complete ro...
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"No Exit"
Season 4, Episode 8
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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In honor of the upcoming Simpsons Movie, can I just say it? Best. Episode. Ever. There was a wonderful, vintage X-Files vibe running the whole way through, complete with Lone Gunmen analogue and everything. Plus, that final shot of Tom staring into the mirror while the evil software CEO proclaimed, “When we need him, he’ll be there for us,” gave me goose bumps.OK, I admit it: This show has me psyched again in a way that I haven’t really been this season. The idea that there are nine other Matthew Rosses out there — 10, if you count Tom — doesn’t bode well for our original-recipe 4400s. I’m not sure what it means for the extra-crispies, but I doubt it’ll be all sunshine and rainbows for them either. Plus, I’m going to venture a guess here, but somehow I doubt that Gabriel Hewitt’s newly restored health means that he’ll change his mind on the 4400, despite the fact that it was Shawn who cured him. In fact, how do we know that...
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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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When Jordan said, “We’re not the enemy, we’re salvation,” do you think he was including Isabelle? That last scene certainly set up some big questions for the show. If, as Cassie kept insisting, that was where it all starts, are we really not out of the woods with Ms. Tyler yet? I can’t believe she’ll manage to elude the law for too long after the police find the van that transported her wrecked. Call me a dope, but somehow I think she’ll regain her powers and then she’ll be — dun dun dun — back with a vengeance. Actually, I found myself wondering before her escape whether that whole future crisis had been averted at the end of last season, and if so, where was the show going to go? Those crazy Promicin-puffing producers must have been reading my mind.Audrey Parker’s story seemed so familiar (it was like a certain Star Trek: Enterprise episode crossed with that Michael Keaton movie about ghosts), but it was nevertheless engaging....
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“I forgot how much I liked this.” Shawn, you are wise. We’re only two episodes in and this season is so dark that it’s nice to see someone doing something good with his ability. I’m hoping that these first couple of shows were just setting up something big for the rest of the season, because in comparison to the first couple of episodes last year, both the stories and the characters, though grander in scale, are much less dynamic. What can I say? Cassie Dunleavy is no Isabelle Tyler.Speaking of Isabelle, Megalyn Echikunwoke is somehow doing much more with the denuded character than she ever did as the personification of evil, so brava to her. Her reaction to finding out that Promicin would kill her was so heartbreaking and understated (and quick) that I almost wished she were once again the main focus.Things are going only slightly better for her former fiancé. His cousin has taken the drug, his brother, once rabidly anti-4400, wants to, and he himself ...
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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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