The 4400

Ok this Sunday is the second episode (really third since the premier was a two part episode) of the third season. As courtesy to other put all discussion of things seen in previews/spoilers in spoiler tags. Here is the show’s web site: the4400.usanetwork.com

For any one who hasn’t seen the show the basic premise is: 4400 hundred adducted people mysterously return in ball of light with no memory of where they have been and none has aged a day although some have been gone for decades. Some of these people eventually develop strange powers, precognition, healing etc By the end of the first season we find out that these people were reinserted in to the timeline by the future in order to prevent some great disaster that will doom the future. In the second season we find that all 4400 hundred have some short of power and the only reason everyone hasn’t shown them is that the government figured out the source of these powers and the government has been injecting inhibitors into each 4400, this is eventually uncovered and stopped. Which leads us to season three…

And all I can I am disappointed to keep it short there are too many things going on, too many changes in the shows directions, too many cliffhangers they needed to resolve, too many characters to keep track of, too many new questions, and perhaps most disappointing too many contracts that didn't get renewed. I could go on for a while explaining why I’m disappointed but for now I want to see if any one else watches the show and what they think of the new season

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Eh, it's been alright so far. The thing with Lily was pretty stupid, as was a lot of this episode's plot, but everything else was good, like the Nova group stuff. I admit that it'll probably be hard for them to follow up on season 2, which has been the best season so far in my opinion, but I still think that this will manage to be good.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I'm really starting to get into this show since I needed a break from LOST. I downloaded the episodes and ran right out the next day and bought the dvds. Now, season one was good and introduced us to the idea of the 4400. Season two was great at building up the conflict that would involve Isabel, but also established Tom and Diana as loyal partners. Now season three is really going to be action packed I think. So far the fifth episode has aired and the next episode looks like it's going to start everything off...especially if they are saying that a character will die...and it's someone you don't expect. Now obviously we would suspect Isabel since..

Spoiler:

Tom got the message from the future people saying, "Kill Isabel."

and I don't think Maia would go since..

Spoiler:

She pulled a big vanishing act on us in the last episode. Why would they kill her, when she was just placed back in the timeline.

So any thoughts, because I'm thinking one or two people...

Spoiler:

Richard (Isabel obviously is going to end up going to far at one point...she almost killed him after all)...or Marco (Even though he's a sweetheart to Diana). I don't think they would kill off Tom or Diana...since they are basically the heart of the show. Shawn is iffy...he's such a major character for Isabel to develop. Alana is definetly a possibility though.

Either way, we'll know tommorrow.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Cool, some actual discussion is going on.

Anyway, my thoughts:

Spoiler:

Richard would be my main guess as well. Now that Lily is gone and Isabel is grown up, he doesn't really have that major of a role anymore, so it could be plausible that he would be killed off.

As for Marco, eh, I never really cared for him that much. I guess that if he died it moght register some shock, but not the whole "someone you least expect" kind of shock.

Alana is someone I really doubt they'll kill off. I mean, she was just added to the cast this year, so I highly doubt she'll be the one killed off.

My number two pick would be Shawn, though. That would definitely surprise me, and I can see it being logical. They could work it in like maybe Tom is about to shoot Isabel or something, and he gets in the way instead. Not only that, but it could also set up the way for Jordan Collier's return, which has to happen sooner or later. Thinking more about it, Shawn seems more likely than even Richard now.

Regardless of who it is, I just hope it winds up being good!

How ya doing, buddy?

Hmmm...

Spoiler:

I would be really upset if Marco died. He's pretty much the only way Diana will ever get married, because she's not exactly looking for love. I really do want them to be together. I don't want Alana dead either.

As for the return of Jordan Collier...remember that new guy that was sent to help Shawn saw the pics of Jordan with the beard and everything and said something about how he didn't want Jordan coming back or something. I can't remember where it was and what episode. Either way the new guy has to be killed by Isabel or something because I can't stand him....

I was speaking idiomatically.

Spoiler:

I'm assuming you mean Matthew, and yeah, that guy is pretty annoying. But looking at the situation, there's really nothing he could do to stop Jordan Collier from coming back, despite the fact that he doesn't want him to. I ultimately hope that Jordan comes back, Shawn stays, and Matthew goes, as I loved the relationship between Jordan and Shawn in season 2 and would love to see more of that.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Spoiler:

I really don't like Jordan. The whole 4400 center thing really was creepy to me, even though it would be understandable to want to provide a safe haven for the 4400. But the way he did it, it really felt like a cult. It's like scientology!

FELIPE NO

Spoiler:

That's what I liked about him, though. I hated him in season 1, but in season 2 he became one of my favorite characters, just because of all the stuff he did like making The 4400 Center. Despite the Scientology undertones (that the producers admitted to purposely putting in there), you can't deny that The 4400 Center added a new dynamic to the show, especially in its willingness to go against NTAC.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Spoiler:

That's definetly very true. Especially when the 4400 disease outbreak happened and there was a mandatory quarantine and they stormed the center and everyone was gone.

Double Post:

Spoiler:

Ohhhh, wait, I just went back and looked at the preview. They say someone will die, but it's not who you think. So obviously everybody thinks Isabelle because Tom is supposed to kill her....but it could be ANYBODY. Even a major character

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Spoiler:

Well, considering how powerful she is, I never really expected Isabel to be the one that dies in the first place. I mean, she could be an amalgamation of every other 4400, which means she might have all of their powers. If this is true, she might not be able to ever truly die (this being linked to Jordan Collier possibly having the power of resurrection, since that's the only thing that can really explain why he's alive right now), so in a sense their way of wording it is kind of wrong. But oh well, we'll know who's dead for sure in the next hour. Can't wait to see it!

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Spoiler:

Well it seems Matthew was the person to die...thank god. That was a good episode, and we found out Isabelle is basically all powerful. We know she can't die from falling or drowning, and she can turn people's abilities against them. The fact that Tom could have killed her there when she basically told him to is probably going to come back to bite him. There is one thing I've been thinking about lately. When Isabelle talked to Matthew about trying to kill herself to save Lily...he gave her that same stuff that Tom has, at least it looks just like it. Why would he give her that if he wanted her to ultimately kill all the 4400s? I don't know what anyone else thought, but Matthew was a little bit stupid to say the things he did. He knew if he went to far Isabelle would kill him!

As for Jordan Collier's power, I dunno. Maybe the future took Jordan back and replaced him in the timeline because without him something terrible happens. I think if Jordan comes back soon...he and Isabelle are going to clash.

Now, for the previews. Someone they know is part of the Nova group? I hate how they are starting to go at every episode with a big revelation. Someone big was supposed to die this week, last two weeks...they totally forgot Maia existed and now this. I have no idea who it might even be. The only guess would be Richard because he kind of acted shady in this episode.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Damn, I can't read your post right now, because my electricity went out about halfway through the episode. I'm gonna have to wait until when they replay the episode again later tonight to read your post and give my impressions on it.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Ha, that's okay...it was a great episode though.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Okay, now I've seen the whole episode.

Spoiler:

I'm glad to see Matthew go as well, as his character was pretty annoying (don't get me wrong though, the actor who played him was definitely good, he just unfortunately had one of those characters that you love to hate, kinda like Gregory Itzin playing President Logan on 24). Even so, it wasn't that big of a shock, not only because his character wasn't that important, but also because if you look closely at the behind the scenes stuff, it kind of makes sense.

Take last season with Billy Campbell (Jordan Collier) for example. I found it weird that the actor who played such a major character, and one that had been in every episode so far that season, wouldn't be in the opening credits. Lo and behold, they wound up killing him off halfway through the season, and on the DVD commentary, the producers said they knew from the beginning of the season that he was leaving the show. I wouldn't be surprised if this was the same kind of situation that came up with Garret Dillahunt, which led to Matthew being killed of the show.

As for why Matthew gave that stuff to Isabelle earlier, my guess is that maybe he somehow knew for sure that she wouldn't use it, or maybe it was just a fake and he was testing her. Either way, I don't think he would have actually let her die, especially now that we know he had this secret plot in mind.

But anyway, the main thing is that he's gone now, which hopefully means we'll see the return of Jordan Collier sometime soon (since, as capable as Shawn and even Richard might be, neither of them seem to have the kind of qualities like Jordan or Matthew had when it came to running things at The 4400 Center).

I kinda doubt it was the future that took him and then put him back though, because if they did, why did they make Kyle kill him in the first place? I definitely think it has to be related to some kind of power of his on why he's still alive, which is why I'm guessing it might be resurection. I'm not saying that it's totally impossible that the future put him back, it just seems pretty unlikely to me.

And yeah, this whole revelation thing in the previews every week is kind of annoying. I don't know if they have always done this or not though, since this is the first season that I've watched on TV instead of DVD. If they keep this up, I might just stop watching them.

But anyway, as for who this person is that is a part of the Nova Group, I wouldn't be surprised if it was Dennis Ryland. They set him up to return at the end of this episode, and he certainly would be one to betray NTAC again. The only problem with this, of course, is that the Nova Group was trying to kill him in the first place. If he does wind up being the one in the Nova Group, they certainly have some explaining to do.

How ya doing, buddy?

Spoiler:

Or it could totally be Alana....I hate to think it, but that's probably the one person you wouldn't suspect. Or what if it's someone who's not even a 4400...just someone who's in on the big things? It could end up being Marco or something.

EDIT: Btw, is anybody into reading Maia's Diary online and trying to get the phrase from the highlighted letters? This week the letters are "aareureimonaawbtrotgs". The only phrase I can think of that goes along with this is "Beware a traitor among us." And she says in the predictions Heather (As in Heather Tobey, the 4400 who unlocked artistic stuff in students) with tell a lie. And Alana will do something that gets her in big trouble. Maybe I'll just post all the predictions.

The Field Trip will be cancelled.

Shawn will have a visitor from his past who needs his help.

Alana will do something that gets her in big trouble.

My teacher Heather will lie.

Mommy and Tom will do something that they shouldn't do.

Somebody is going to go to jail.

Now, with those said. The field trip could easily be cancelled if Heather, her teacher, is a part of the NOVA group and ends up arrested. In the previews you can see Heather walking through the 4400 center with some people escorting her and she looks kinda dodgy. Alana might admit to do something to the Keene and get in trouble for it. Diana and Tom are in a forest in the previews and Dennis Ryland is in the same forest. In the previews, Tom yells "I trusted you." Obviously that will probably end up being the place where the NOVA members reveals themself. It could still very much be Alana, but maybe Heather will tell Tom that Alana is a member of the NOVA group, then Alana will get in trouble, but it will turn out Heather will be a member and go to jail. I bet Tom and Diana will end up hurting Dennis Ryland because they obviously don't like him anymore and they are going to be forced to work with him in the next episode.

FELIPE NO

I haven't read that diary. Is it on the official website or something?

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Yep, I think it's under Web Exclusives. She just writes what happened in last weeks episode and then writes what she sees. Lately they have been highlighting certain letters and you can rearrange them to maybe offer insight on what might happen.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Spoiler:

I'm not putting too much stock in those revalations in the previews since last week's was something to the effect of

"One of the 4400 will die!"

Yet it turns out that several died and none of them were persistent characters. In the preview for next week they show Tom all shockified saying "I can't belive it's you" or whatever (at work so I can't hit the site and get it verbatim)... I bet that line/scene isn't related to the Nova Group mole whatsoever.

Quote:

Lo and behold, they wound up killing him off halfway through the season, and on the DVD commentary, the producers said they knew from the beginning of the season that he was leaving the show.

Hrmm... I downloaded the 2nd season so I missed out on the commentary, but why even bother with the shot of Jordan on the beach if the actor left the show? The character being alive and being a major character through the entire 1st season and part of the 2nd would lead one to believe Jordan would come back into the plot somewhere.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Spoiler:

Well yeah, the previews are always going to be misleading. If you're a fan of LOST, you know what I mean. As for the guy playing Jordan, I dunno. Maybe the producers decided that they needed to kill him off and then realized that they maybe should bring him back somehow. And with the killing of Matthew, it's pretty much set up for him to come back. Who knows, maybe they knew from the beginning he was coming back and just kept it a secret.

Just one question, why did Isabelle go to see Dennis Ryland? Of course we don't know the real answer yet, but what do you guys think. Obviously she didn't kill him cause he's in previews for next week. Isabelle is really a mystery right now. At first I thought she was just plain evil, then she killed Matthew, which is a bad thing, but he was trying to tell her to kill all the 4400 and she made her own choice that she didn't have to do that. So another question....is Isabelle evil, or something else? Obviously we can see where this is going with Isabelle possibly being the evil thing that has to be stopped by Tom. The finale will probably be the final decision by Tom to kill her or not and who knows...she may end up killing herself.

One other thing, I know how the future has made it clear that Tom is very important to preventing the catastrophe...but what about Diana? It probably makes sense that Tom is the big key to it all and Diana is just an important part of Tom's life, but Diana adopted Maia and keeps Tom in check from time to time, so she's probably important too. Anyway, these are my thoughts. Enjoy.

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Originally Posted by FadedReality

Spoiler:

Hrmm... I downloaded the 2nd season so I missed out on the commentary, but why even bother with the shot of Jordan on the beach if the actor left the show? The character being alive and being a major character through the entire 1st season and part of the 2nd would lead one to believe Jordan would come back into the plot somewhere.

Spoiler:

Well, the only reason the actor left the show was so he could go on some 18-month cruise around the world. I guess they knew that he would be willing to come back after this so they filmed that scene in anticipation of that.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Spoiler:

Something my GF and I have been going over in conversation... if the 4400 do affect the timeline and save humanity, won't that mean that by the time humanity would have gotten to the point in time where they abducted the 4400 and unlocked their abilities that there would be no need to do so and thusly no one would know to send them back? Or would it be that the people in the "fixed" future know that they have to send them back and make contact with Tom to arrive at the humanity the people of the jacked up future desire? Basically... is the whole future people part an act on their part because they know what could have happened if they didn't send back the 4400

I was speaking idiomatically.

Spoiler:

You know, I thought of something similar to that. The 4400 were sent back and everything and alot of them have done bad things, some good things, but won't all the 4400 pretty much be dead and all the stuff they've done probably be extinct by the time we get to the future when we can manage to pull people from different times and alter them and send them back. I've always wandered what time they were sent to.

As for your points, FadedReality. I don't really understand you're first question. If you asking if the 4400 save humanity and everything there would be no need for 4400, that's almost a paradox. I guess you think of it as two realities. The one where humanity dies and the one where humanity is saved. Essentially, what I think you're saying is like having a tape that constantly plays then rewinds. It's really hard to say because it's kind of paradoxal. They make the 4400 send them back and would they take and send 4400 back again? Who knows. The idea is that they made the 4400 and they'll fix everything and they won't have to do it again. So I don't really know if that's an adequate answer. Of course, they realized that it wasn't enough and sent the 5 children further back and that didn't work, so then they realized Tom has to kill Isabelle.

Then I read the last part and realize I've probably been typing crap. Yes, the future lived out life without having the 4400 fix things and everything ends. At least that's all the channel through Kyle tells Tom. So they made the 4400 to fix it.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Spoiler:

Ok here's the basic gist...

The timeline without the 4400 ends up with humanity on the verge of extinction and the people of the future eventually dying out or whatever (since the show doesn't addreess that possibility at all).

Now, the timeline that we get in the show goes like this...

People get abducted over time.

the 4400 are returned.

all sorts of stuff happens in the present day.

in the future, the 4400 are abducted and returned to try and alter the crash course humanity is on.

----

Now, what I'm trying to figure out is this. Think of Back to the Future 2, where the sports almanac goes into the past and alters the present to make Biff rich and all that stuff. Now think of the 4400 in that regard, with the 4400 being the sports almanac, if you will. So if the people of the future send the 4400 to prevent the extinction of humanity, the 4400 would alter the course of events, creating a better future, negating the need to send the 4400 back in the first place. Yet, if they succeed in changing things, no one would ever have the idea to abduct people and send them back to alter things, but then that leaves the question of how did they get there to make it better if their betterment actually prevents the downfall of humanity?

FELIPE NO

Spoiler:

That's a confusing question though. It's like I said. It's like having a tape and continuing to rewind it once it gets to the end. I'm assuming that if the 4400 fixes the world of the future...there is no need to send them back. I think that the legend of the 4400 would probably live on and they might know about it that way, but no they wouldn't really have the idea to abduct them if the world is fixed. That's very paradoxal. I guess to make it clear the world is a certain way in the future. They fix it with the 4400. The future is fixed and everyone is happy. The 4400 still would have happened and I guess Tom and the 4400 would just pass on the knowledge that the future helped them even though they wouldn't know it.

....I'm confused.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Spoiler:

I just thought of something right before I was about to head off to bed. They said that the scientist/researcher guy (can't recall the name atm) goes on to create the technology or procedure or whatnot that allows the 4400 to exist, the unlocking of that part of the brain... Well, if not for the returnee who was in the mental institute who in essence cured his insanity, he presumably never would have gotten out of there. Without that girl being a returnee and having the visions of the tower, there would have been no cure. So maybe the angle the show is going for in this regard (if any) is that even with the 4400 in place to better the world, they really don't ever have an effect. That mankind will destroy itself despite what the people from the future are attempting.

Without the 4400, there is no 4400... hmmmmm...

I'm off to bed

Jam it back in, in the dark.