Episode 9: Daddy's Little Girl
Summer Glau! I was just mentioning not even an hour ago that I wanted her to come back to the show. I should have said it yesterday. Tess is back, but she's kind of broken since she's not been on her meds. She imagines that she's at her sweet 16 party and holds a diner full of people hostage making them dance to songs on the jukebox. Not a bad little storyline at all.
Another one of the original 4400 regulars is back, too. Richard comes to Promise City to meet with Isabelle and then kidnaps her and tricks her into drinking this water that has been changed by a 4400 that makes her grow younger both physically and mentally. He wants to have a normal life with her so that she can grow up normally instead of aging 20 years physically in one night. That's pretty messed up when you think about what he's doing. He's taking an adult, albeit a 3 year old adult and forcing her against her will to be a child again, well for the first time really, but wiping away all of her memories, presumably including her knowledge which was literally encyclopedic.
Episode 10: One of Us
So (yes, I know I shouldn't start a thought off this way), looks like the showrunners have revealed their hand. The new plot device they shared with us a few episodes back about a group from the future who have taken control of the bodies of influential people to work against the 4400 has put into full action with one of them taking over Tom. Aside from the fact that he's now some crazy mad scientist, he's a lot more personable.
I'm guessing that the Marked (that's what these time traveling muckrakers are referred to as) were an idea that was going to be played out across a couple of seasons, but when finding out that they've been cancelled, they decided to spring them on us now.
The show did one very cruel and mean thing to me...they brought Laura Allen back, but thank god it was only for this episode. Probably. How mean, they give me Summer Glau one episode and then Laura Allen the next.
Episode 11: Ghost in the Machine
The thing about having the main character possessed by another person's will is that you will want to give the audience some satisfaction at some point by having the main character fight back and regain control of his own body.So, (there's that word again) if you spend episode 11 making the possessed Tom being more and more manipulative and evil and don't even show us a little hint that the old Tom is still there, what are you going to do in the final two episodes to show us a struggle and eventual victory of the protagonist? I have this funny feeling that they're going to skip that all together and have the other two main agents figure out a way to get him back. And we already know how they'll do it, since they have been telling us all season that a (roughly) 100 year old book has a list of names of people that must take the promicon and it implies that they'll live through the ordeal.
Episode 12: Tiny Machines
Beware the nanite invasion! I'm positive that at least one other sf franchise has used the name nanites to describe self-replicating nanobots. I'm glad that it was finally revealed to us how the Marked took over Tom and the others. It was a bit predictable since when I brought the season 4 dvds home I read the episode names. There aren't too many things that 'tiny machines' can refer to in this context.
The shooting has started. I guess I should be impressed that they were able to wait until the second to last episode before steeping into the fracas. They did start wrapping up some of the characters story lines, like Tess and Kevin, which means I am unlikely to see Summer Glau in the final episode, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
I would like to say that they managed to dazzle me with a twist I didn't see coming, but they didn't. They also did disappoint me by missing any steps. Predictable but good quality television is something I can live with.
The 4400 at IMDb
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