Episode 5: Try the Pie
This was a building episode, laying the groundwork for things to come. We had Maya back in the story, so that was good I guess, except that the actress still kind of gives me the creeps. I don't know what it is about her, but she gets the hair on the back of my neck standing up sometimes. Weird.
The road map for the rest of the show has been laid out in this episode. Sure, I have the advance knowledge that the show was not coming for a fifth season, but I think even without that, I would have known. It is much better to know for sure though, since I have hope that they actually will wrap the show up, where if I was watching this when it aired I would be afraid that they were just going to drag it on forever.
Based on the name of the episode and the fact that this show is set largely in Washington state, I was hoping for a nod to Twin Peaks, and maybe I got a little one when Tom finally ate a piece of the pie and as he finishes turns to the room and calls for a cup of coffee. Kind of weak if it was a nod, likely my just wanting to see a connection.
Episode 6: The Marked
This episode kind of rocked. It reminded me of the Lone Gunmen episodes of the X-Files, whacky and conspiracy filled and in fact so whacky that what they would claim was going on made a warped kind of sense. Not the confused with the series spin-off The Lone Gunmen, which was for the most part, lame.
This was the introduction of a conspiracy of agents sent back from the future to battle against the 4400. The revelation was handled in a pretty unique way, I thought. One of the 4400s makes really bad movies - he writes them, directs them and stars in them. He claims that his ability is manifested while writing the scripts and that the movies are real, in which case he revealed where Jimmy Hoffa was married and the real assassin who killed JFK. The movies look so awful that even Mystery Science Theatre 3000 wouldn't watch them. But, like several of the regulars, i would so watch every one.
The drawback to this episode was that the revelation of the conspiracy was somewhat heavy-handed. The X-Files took three years to reveal what the 4400 did in 20 minutes or so. How are we going to be drawn in if they give away a lot of their secrets at the start? Wait and see, I suppose.
Episode 7: Till We Have Built Jerusalem
I appreciate when a series focuses on telling a story and uses elements from earlier seasons, proving that they weren't just a throw-away plot device. What I really like is when they reward me by not wasting time explaining something that I already know. It's like my fanboydom gets to be it's own reward.
I know that this is episode 7 and there are 13 episodes in the final season. While this was probably the best episode this season thus far, I have to wonder about why it happened so early. There was a confrontation between the government and the 4400 and both sides showed their hands, albeit a brief peak, to the viewers. I hope that they don't do what a lot of shows do after a big episode and just give me a couple of throw away episodes, but I have to wonder what they are going to fill up the last half of the season with. Obviously, my promicon ability is not seeing the future.
Episode 8: No Exit
Remember that bit above where I was fearing that since ep 7 was a big episode relatively early in the season that they were going to give me a throw-away episode next? Totally called it. Wished I'd been wrong.
I was hoping with a name like 'No Exit' that there would at least be allusions to Sartre's play, but instead we got a literal interpretation. In some respects, I am willing to concede that there was a slight similarity to the play, but really it's only in the set up. In the play, we discover that hell is other people, in the episode we discover that people we didn't like really aren't too bad when a building is trying to kill us. That, and Tom has a little ting for his boss, but mostly the first bit.
I've got to say that if my ability were to trap people in a game like scenario while we were asleep so that they would lean to work together, I would feel totally ripped off. I guess if it could be just a game that was cooked up from our collective subconsciousness (esseses) that might be cool, but only if I knew going in that death in the game did not mean death in the real world. Still, it's an ability I would want my friend to get, not me, because it's a pretty lame ability.
The 4400 at IMDb
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