Re: The 4400 Season 4
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Originally Posted by Andres Munoz
Right. Just my assumption after seeing how the mother got really sick within seconds of Shawn's brother showing up.
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Ah. Gotcha. Thanks for the clarification. As Sunday's episode made clear, it was close but no cigar anyway.
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| IMO, it'd really make sense in an ironic kind of way to give him this "destructive" ability after Shawn told him multiple times not to take the shot. That, plus Shawn's ability to heal would make the brothers total opposites. |
I think during season one we saw that Shawn has the power to both kill and heal, and it was reiterated here tonight.
Which doesn't make the ability Shawn's brother actually had any less ironic. Here's a kid who was pining all season "Let me take promicin! Give me promicin!" And he got it all right. In such levels that it killed him.
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Originally Posted by Chris
Just an absolutely brilliant episode. This entire season was on fire as far as writing goes, they really found how to use the first two seasons as solid setup, and they've now changed the course of how you could view this show.
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Each season finale for this show has radically reshaped the game. The season one finale revealed that future humans were at the root of the abductions, not aliens, and they had a purpose for the 4400. The season two finale setup up the war before promicin positives and negatives. The season three finale revealed that
anyone could gain a 4400 ability, if they were willing to risk dying. Now the season four finale sets up a genetic hierarchy, and gives the movement started in the season three finale a certain inevitability.
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| Tonight's episode was from start to finish well thought out and incredibly well scripted. The script was tight, focused and it made you feel on the edge of your seat as to what the heck was going on. |
What was fascinating was the abnormal structure of the episode. If it fit the traditional mold, it would have ended after the funeral. Instead, it kept going for a significant chunk of time and charted out intriguing new possibilities.
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| I mean, we knew in the end what was happening: the positives were taking over the city, but it's how it came about.. and the rise of the more telegenic, beer-hall-puscht Jordan Collier that was rousing for the people as well as troubling for how dismissive it was for the thousands of dead. |
It's not just that the positives were taking over the city, they put the rest of the nation on defensive. After season three, people needed to inject a substance into their body to become promicin positive. After season four, people now need to ingest a substance to
prevent their body from becoming promicin positive.
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Originally Posted by Chris
I just realized something about last night's episode. When Collier spoke on the capital steps and called those who died "Heralds" of a new great future.. what would that new great future be? Are they Heralds of more with abilities, or Heralds of the death of those genetically not-predestined to get abilities?
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I thought the even more chilling scene was the parallel on the other side of the television from the news report. Maia and Diana are sitting watching as Jordan takes over Seattle. Maia expresses her confidence in him. Diana points out that he's a dictator. Conchita Campbell pulls off a truly frightening and subtle performance in this scene. As she says, "see, I told you he was a good guy" it's a firm statement, not a plea. And then she looks over at Diana like she's a particularly interesting zoo exhibit. When Diana decries Jordan as a dictator, Maia rolls her eyes with impatience. "You're wrong, Mom," she tells Diana, like she's a small child or an overeager pet. "We're in charge now," she declares. "It's better that way."
Here's a 4400 who has benefited from the charity and hospitality of a negative more than any one. Yet she's clearly been doing some thinking since her first visit to Promise City, and as the ideological movement has swept through with the promicin virus she's clearly decided she's a higher lifeform than the woman who has loved her, adopted her, and taken her in.
It was that moment that I realized the moment had flipped and the prejudice had flipped. Jordan Collier's religion is a kinder and gentler Nazi regime. And its higher people, its designated Aryan race, actually have something to show for it.
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Originally Posted by todd s
Great finale. I thought they were going to make us wait until next season to see what abilities the NTAC agents were going to get. Still stinks we have to wait another year for new episodes.  |
I think the epilogue raised more questions than answers. It certainly left us hanging on Tom Baldwin. This everyman protagonist is clearly at the center of things; and not just because he's the last name in Kyle's book. Both sides have been eager to use him as their pawn, to the point where the pro-4400 faction yanked him to the future to prevent a suicide. I think the fate of everything will ultimately rest in Tom Baldwin's hands.
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On a side note. Can you imagine getting an ability and its a lame one?  |
In Piers Anthony's lighthearted fantasy series Xanth, in which every person has a "talent", they were called "spot-on-the-wall" talents, in reference to a poke bloke whose special power was to make a colored spot appear on the wall.
The racial hierarchy of Jordan's regime raises interesting questions: will the value of a person be ranked by the usefulness of their ability? Will, for instance, a precognitive like Maia rank higher on the social totem pole than someone whose ability is to refill fountain pens with ink?
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Originally Posted by Patrick Sun
I watch this show, but I think I'm not enamored with it because I seldom feel much for the characters since the plot swings and changes are so fast and furious. So when stuff happens, I just brush it off, waiting for the next shoe to drop and seeing how it all plays out.
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It doesn't feature the most deeply sketched characterizations on television, but after four seasons with these characters I feel more than a little pull for them. They've been pretty damn consistent through all the twists and turns, and the most thinly drawn characters like the Tylers have been weeded out from the pack.
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Originally Posted by Sean Bryan
Great episode. Great season.
More please.
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Ditto.
