[4400]Season 4, Episode 1

[wiseblood]

Spoilers obviously and if someone could fill me in on the painting that Tom was about to look at when my DVR cut off I'd appreciate it. I assume that it was Illana in the past.

The main story was sorta interesting but ultimately forgettable except for what it revealed to us. Jordan Collier has the ability to remove promicin from people's bodies. And also there have been a lot of pitfalls (at least 6,000) plus hivemind kid and Summer Glau's character having a breakdown. And Collier isn't looking so hot himself.

Not sure how I feel about the new head of NTAC. Is she being upfront with Tom or is she giving him rope to hang himself with?

I liked it overall but it didn't wow me. Which pretty much sums up the entire series for me.

[ShannonA]

The painting was indeed of Alana, painted in the 1880s, and just to be sure we didn't miss the relevance, it was labeled Alana in Repose.

The 4400 went more heavily toward the monster-of-the-week type story in season 1, and I thought it was never to the show's benefit. Things were much improved when we started having more continuous storylines in season 2.

I suspect this story was just to show us two things (1) How disruptive the promicin distribution could be -and- (2) What Jordan's power is. I'd bet they're not going to stick with monster-of-the-week, but we'll see.

--

Now what befuddles me is the question of what's going on, and what the purpose of the people in the future is.

As far as we've been able to ascertain in the past, there are two groups in the future, the group that sent the 4400 back to try and change the future, the group that sent Isabel back to try and stop it.

(I think, if I remember that right.)

So what I'm trying to suss out is whether the distribution of the promicin was an intended ripple or not. It depended on Summer Glau's character fixing Kevin, then Kevin doing the research and Collier being the demagogue who could carry it out ... but it also depended on Isabel since her promicin was the source.

Of course the 4400 might all be dead without Isabel's promicin in the first place.

I'm really hoping that the future plans eventually become clearbecause they seem like a muddle to me, especially with at least 6000 new 4400s all having their own ripples now.

[wiseblood]

I've been wondering if either of the future factions plans are still even coherent at this point or if they are both so screwed up at this point that what we're seeing are attempts at damage control.

[ShannonA]

I suppose we could take the in-world explanation that the futurists couldn't control their plans in the chaotic, ever-changing world of the present, rather than thinking that the writers couldn't.

But I just wish they'd stop ignoring the topic. 90% of the time the show is treated as a modern look at super powers coming into the world, and that'd be fine if there weren't this backstory hanging in the air.

[wiseblood]

I suppose we could take the in-world explanation that the futurists couldn't control their plans in the chaotic, ever-changing world of the present, rather than thinking that the writers couldn't.

But I just wish they'd stop ignoring the topic. 90% of the time the show is treated as a modern look at super powers coming into the world, and that'd be fine if there weren't this backstory hanging in the air.

I agree. I and maybe we'll get some payoff with this Tom/Alana storyline.