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The 4400 in 2007

The USA Network science fiction series The 4400 will return in June 2007 for it's fourth season. Jordan Collier (Billy Campbell) will be featured more this season.

Source: SciFi.com

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The 4400 Season Three

Season three of The 4400 begins Sunday, June 11 at 9pm Eastern. This will be a two hour episode picking up where last year's finale ended.

USA Network will run a 4400 marathon featuring thirteen pivotal episodes on Sunday, June 4, begining 9am Eastern.After the marathon, a special will be shown, including highlights from the first two seasons and a look at what we have to look forward to in this new season.

Source: sliceofscifi.com

The 4400 Season Three

The USA network science fiction series The 4400 will return for its' third season on June 4, 2006. I liked the second season very much, and I am eagerly awaiting the series' return, especially after such a long absence.

Source: scifi.com

The 4400 is Renewed

The 4400 has been renewed for a third season. Production will begin next year, for a summer 2006 release. There will be thirteen episodes in season three, but a year is a long time to wait. How many people will come back to it after such a long hiatus?

Source: The SciFi Blog

The 4400 "Mommy's Bosses"

Tonight's episode of The 4400, "Mommy's Bosses", is the season ender, and  it did not end as I expected.

The 4400s who have not submitted to the quarantine are being rounded up and forcibly put into the quarantine area. Thom Baldwin (Joel Gretsch) and Agent Skouras (Jacqueline McKenzie are helping capture them, but reluctantly. Baldwin wants to expose the secret of the inhibitor to the press, but Skouras wants him to wait, at least until she visits Maia (Conchita Campbell) in the hospital and sees how very sick she is.

After Shaun (Patrick Flueger) tells her Maia has been asking for her, and saying "Mommy will fix everything", she bursts into the doctor's office, pulls her gun on him, and threatens to kill him if he doesn't tell her what he knows about the inhibitor. Baldwin supports her in this. The doctor tells them the former director of NTAC, played by Peter Coyote, knew about the development of the inhibitor, which prevents the development of the powers of the 4400s, and conspired to administer it to every 4400 possible. Later, after they leave him, he commits suicide.

The two NTAC agents decide to go to Dr. Burkhardt (Jeffrey Combs), to see if he can find a way to reverse the inhibitor. Dr. Burkhardt is now working with the 4400 safe houses, trying to help keep the 4400s who have not been placed in quarantine free. He tells them he might be able to reverse the inhibitor if he could find a 4400 who had not been given it by NTAC.

Lily (Laura Allen) has taken baby Isabelle to a summer house owned by her former husband. There Isabelle gives Lily halucinations of dangerous situations. When her former husband brings them some food, Lily asks him to take them to the safe house to rejoin Richard (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali), as Isabelle misses him and is torturing her. They return to the safe house, where Dr. Burhhardt synthesizes an antidote from Isabelle's blood, but only enough for one dose.

They give the antidote to Thom Baldwin, to be smuggled into the safe house during a SWAT strike on it. Baldwin uses the knowledge he and Skouras learned about the inhibitor to stop his former boss' from continuing the quarantine.

When Baldwin returns from the quarantine camp with his new wife, they find Kyle (Chad Faust) has left the house. He goes to see Shaun at the 4400 Center. Shaun is recovering from his work in healing the other 4400s, and is glad to see Kyle, until Kyle tells him he killed Jordan Collier (Billy Campbell).

Shaun hugs him, then forces him to his knees, gripping him at the base of the neck Kyle thinks he is being killed, but Shaun says he is really forcing the alien entity out of his body. The alien leaves him (shown as energy waves of light), and leaves the two young men weak and shaken.

Kyle returns home, and is joined by his father as he turns himself in for the murder of Collier.

I had expected the plague would continue and be a cliff hanger, and was surprised when a cure was found and the 4400s went home. However, Maia tells her mother that everything is not over, the war on the 4400s has just begun.

There were some surprises at the end, as harbingers of what is to come next season. Skouras has invited the young NTAC scientest home for dinner. He has had a crush on her, and can't believe she invited him, This scene is nicely handled by both of them. Sweet and wry.

The biggest surprises were saved for last, of course. Lily is running through the house looking for Isabelle, who has disappeared from her crib. We then see an adult, nude young black woman in Shaun's office. She tells him she is Isabelle. She appears to be in her late teens or early twenties, though we only see her from the back.

The last scene shows a raggedly dressed, long haired man on what appears to be an island. His hair is shaggy and unkempt and he appears bewildered as he stumbles about the beach. When he turns around, it is Jordan Collier. Was he ever really dead, or has he been brought back to life by the aliens?

A much better and more intriguing cliff hanger than the plague. I haven't seen any announcement yet about when the new season will begin, but I hope the break is a short one.I am growing to like the series very much.

The 4400 "The Fifth Page"

Tonight's episode of The 4400, "The Fifth Page", continued the story thread of the virus epidemic among The 4400 members.

Thom Baldwin's (Joel Gretcsh) new wife contracts the virus, along with Shaun Farrell (Patrick Flueger). The afflicted 4400's find that they lose their powers when they contract the virus.

NTAC, temporarily headed by their old boss, played by Peter Coyote, decides to quarantine all the 4400's now living in the United States, giving them twelve hours to report to a local NTAC Cener for transportation to a quarantine camp.

Shaun Farrell asks Richard (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali) to speak for the Center and tell the 4400's to surrender to the quarantine if they are infected, but if they are not infected, to remember that "it's easy to walk into a quarantine, but not so easy to walk out".

Lily (Laura Allen), still believing baby Isabelle is being tested somehow while she is in day care, follows the day care worker as she takes Isabelle on a walk. She and Richard break down the door of the room where Isabelle is, indeed, being tested. Lily immediately starts making plans to take Isabelle and leave the Center, but Richard tries to tell her there is no place to hide this time. They will be found and taken to the quarantine camp, where Isabelle will be taken from them forever, if the government finds out what she can do.

Lily leaves with the baby in the night, joining her former husband, who is waiting in a car for them.

Agent Skouras (Jacqueline McKenzie), while visiting her daughter Maia (Conchita Campbell), in the NTAC hospital, finds page #5 missing from Maia's chart. When she asks the doctor about it, he explains it away as an error due to having a new nurse.The page is later replaced, but with two lines blacked out, which the doctor also explains away as a data duplication.

While the 4400's are being rounded up for the camp, Kyle Baldwin (Chad Faust) sees a newspaper article telling of the vandalism to the house of the man accused of murdering Jordan Collier (Billy Campbell). He goes to the address, and helps the accused man's girl friend fix a flat tire. She invites him to dinner, and he seems to be becoming involved with her, probably out of guilt. When she finds out who he is really is, she slams the door in his face. Why hasn't his father tried to find him because of the quarantine?

Dr. Burkhardt (Jeffrey Combs), the former mental patient, gains copies of the NTAC investigation into the virus. He meets Baldwin and Skouras secretly to give them the information, and tells them the virus is caused by something in the blood, a kind of blocker. The blocker was administered to each member of the 4400 who came to the NTAC health center for checkups, so the virus was caused by the NTAC.

This series has slowly grown on me. I liked it, mildly, at first. Now, I like it more each week. With the war between NTAC and the 4400 growing with each epiaode, it has become a must see for me. There is excellent writing here, some good acting, and a lot to enjoy. Though it is not quite up the quality of Battlestar Galactica, it is becoming good science fiction television, and deserving of the Emmy nominations it has garnered.

The 4400 "Lockdown"

"Lockdown", tonight's episode of The 4400, did not seem as interesting as usual, but maybe that is just me.

Maia (Conchita Campbell) is ill with a temperature, so her mother, Agent Skouris (Jacqueline McKenzie) takes her to work with her at the NTAC Center. While she is in the medical center, a very high frequency noise is broadcast inside the building, heard by all, but causing all the men to become hostile and hyper.

After the Director is shot, Agent Baldwin (Joel Gretsch) takes charge, and attempts to roam the building looking for the cause of the noise. He finds Maia, Skouris, and three female 4400s barricaded in the gym, along with the male doctor, who is giving himself injections to keep his rage under control.

Baldwin breaks through the barricade, and comes face to face, or gun to gun, with Skouris. The doctor attacks Baldwin, and they are fighting, when Skouris knocks Baldwin out with her gun.

Earlier, Skouris had managed to get in touch with her assistant by cell phone. He has now found a way to fix the sound problem, by broadcasting a canceling noise, apparently.

Maia, who has developed a rash all over the inside of her right arm, is taken to the hospital. Baldwin realizes one of the female 4400s has escaped while they are getting the dead and injured sorted out.

Meanwhile, at the 4400 Center, Shaun Farrell (Patrick Flueger) sees a televised interview with Dr. Burkhardt (Jeffrey Combs), who had been rescued from a mental hospital in an earlier episode and been partially cured. The Dr. says the 4400 Center is taking financial advantage of the 4400s abilities, and Shaun believes him to be right. Shaun goes to see him, and talks him into coming to work with him at the Center.

For the past few weeks, Richard (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali) and Lily (Laura Allen) have not been in the show. It was a pleasure to have them back, and to see baby Isabelle again. She has grown a lot, and is so adorable. What a beautiful child! Lily thinks she is being treated or tested in some way at her day care center, when she finds marks on her little body. She doesn't want to take the baby to the day care center. Richard talks her into trying again, but he seems reluctant to leave the baby there.

Shaun tries to heal a blind woman, but finds himself unable to use his power. When he attempts to get up and talk with Lily away from the patient, he staggers and falls back on the couch, telling Lily he is ill. He then rolls up his shirt sleeve and they see the same rash on his arm that is on Maia's.

In the previews of next week's episode, apparently this rash is spreading quickly and becoming a plague threat. Only two more episodes left in this season, so apparently this plague is going to be the the season cliff hanger, or at least part of it.

Last week, at the end of the episode, Maia told her mother that the man who is in jail for killing Jordan Collier (Billy Campbell)  is not the killer, so probably Kyle Baldwin (Chad Faust) will be discovered as the sniper, and his father will try to keep him from being arrested.

The 4400 "Life Interrupted"

Tonight's episode of The 4400. "Life Interrupted", was a departure from the ususal style of the series. Instead of featuring the large cast in short scenes of various subplots, tonight's episode focused on Thom Baldwin (Joel Gretsch), who woke up to find himself living in an apparent alternate universe.

His son Kyle (Chad Faust) is an attentive, loving boy, now, applying for medical school. When Thom goes to work, he finds a welcoming party for his return from a medical leave. Everyone he attempts to talk with about The 4400 say they know nothing of it. He cannot find any mention of the returnees on the internet.

He goes with Agent Skouras (Jacqueline McKenzie) to the site of The 4400 Centre, only to find that in this universe it is now the Collier Museum of Contemporary Art. In the museum, he finds a door made of black obsidian. Through the windows of this door, he sees a sheet-draped body on a gurney, and people moving around. No one else can see the door. Agent Skouras injects him with something to knock him out when he becomes overly agitated.

When he regains consciousness, he learns he has a new wife in this universe, Alana (Karina Lombard). They decide to play along that they are married in order to get him out of the hospital so they investigate what is happening to them, She told Thom she is a 4400.

She moves into his home and grows to love Kyle and the other members of Thom's family. Though Thom tries for eight years, he is never able to see the door again until one night he and Alana attend an event at the museum. He goes throught the door, to find Alana on the gurney, not dead. She tells him the future has decided to give him a wife and the eight years of relative peace to prepare him for very tough times to come in his original reality. In order to return to that reality, he must convince the real Alana that this alternate world is not real.

He does convince her, and they decide to go through the door together, after saying goodbye to the family, telling them they are going away on a trip for an indefinite stay.

Back in his real world, Thom finds that The 4400 do exist. He leaves his office looking for Alana, sees her in a hallway, and follows her to a parking lot. She knows him from the alternate universe, and they leave the building together.

Joel Gretsch gets a chance to shine with the focus on his character, and he does indeed. He is a good actor; I like him. Karina Lombard looked so familiar to me, but I couldn't remember from what film or series. When I looked for her on the internet a few minutes ago, I found that she appeared in the L Word series on Showtime. She is a very beautiful actress born in Tahiti, with exotic looks and a charming accent. A nice addition to the series.

The 4400 "As Fate Would Have It"

Tonight's episode of The 4400, "As Fate Would Have It", was excellent. Maia (Conchita Campbell) has a vision of Jordan Collier (Billy Campbell) being killed. Agent Skouras (her mother; Jacqueline McKenzie) and Thom Baldwin (Joel Gretsch) visit Collier and try to convince him to cancel the convention of The 4400, which is coming up shortly. He refuses to cancel, and refuses their protection. He later visits Maia, hoping to talk with her, but instead frightens her.

Collier has been spending a lot of time with baby Isabelle, much to the displeasure of her parents, Lily (Laura Allen) and Richard (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali). Collier asks the baby if she has anything to tell him. She grabs his thumb, and he sees visions of himself growing older. He tells his staff the conference will proceed, and he will appear as planned.

Lily's daughter, Heidi, from her first marriage, before her abduction, comes to visit her. When she attempts to get close to Isabelle, her baby sister, Isabelle begins to cry, so she leaves. Lily learns the next day, that Heidi has been hospitalized with a ruptured spleen, which the doctors can't explain. Lily suspects Isabelle.

The 4400 convene from around the world at Collier's Centre. Collier begins his speech before them, only to be shot four times in the chest. Baldwin sees the shooter from a distance, and tries to catch him, but can't.Shaun (Patrick Flueger) manages to get his hands on Collier's chest to try to heal the gunshot wounds, but fails, and Collier dies. He later disappears from his coffin during the funeral. Is he going to come back alive? Did Isabelle lull his fears of death in order to have his death actually happen?

This adorable baby girl seems to be anything but a baby, except in physical form. She seems to be the essense of The 4400, but how and why? This series is getting better with each episode, and I look forward to seeing it.

As a side note to tonight's episode, there were several wonderful commercials featuring Conchita Campbell. USA Network has started an ad campaign called "Characters welcome". In these commercials, the character of the prescient child is presented with humor and grace by Miss Campbell. My favorite is the one where she walks through an office filled with pregnant women with her "mother", Jacqueline McKenzie, and tells her mother the sex of each unborn child. The expressions on the faces of the women are wonderful. Good stuff.

The 4400 "Suffer the Children"

Tonight's episode of The 4400. "Suffer the Children" is the best I have seen so far. One of the returnees is a junior high school teacher in Washington state. She has the ability to observe her students closely, and to sense latent talents in them, which she can somehow bring out into the open. One child becomes a violin prodigy, though he had never played the instrument before the teacher handed him one. Others become sculptors and painters. One boy seems to have no special talent, which upsets him. His blue collar father is the leader of a group of parents that wants the teacher fired.

Agents Baldwin (Joel Gretsch) and Skouras (Jacqueline McKenzie) are sent to investigate the parents' claims. They discover a witch hunt has started centered around the teacher. Many parents are angry and want her out, but others are happy that their children have developed such wonderful talents. The boy who seemingly has none brings a gun into her classroom, and threatens her if she does not find something to develop in him. The agents bring his father into the school and put him on the intercom. He talks his son into giving the gun to the teacher. She was not able to find any hidden talent in him, and at the end of the episode, leaves to find a new job in another part of the country.

The secondary story line is again that of Richard (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali) and Lily Taylor (Laura Allen), who are still on the run with their baby daughter, Isabelle. Richard is recognized and arrested in a convenience store. He signals Lily to drive away and leave him. The police notify Jordan Collier (Billy Campbell). founder of The 4400 Center, who comes to the jail to talk with Richard. He convinces Richard to let him visit Isabelle. If she does not feel safe around him, she will punish him. If she does not do this, then Richard and Lily can trust him and stop running. They agree, and meet him in the open with Isabelle, who smiles at him when he touches her hair. She is such a beautiful child. That smile could light up a room.

The third story line finds Sean (Patrick Flueger) aiding a group of young derelicts who were evicted from their living space by the construction of The Center. He brings them food, coats, and a guitar for a pretty redhead, who later tells him to leave when her punk boyfriend returns to the camp. Sean saves the life of the boyfriend, after he overdoses on some drug. All the other derelicts want him to cure them, but he can't. He runs away, obviously disturbed.

This series is beginning to grow on me. At first, I didn't really like many of the characters except Richard, Lily, and Isabelle. Now I am becoming interested in their problems. The stories are becoming more complex and the characters lives more intertwined. Some good acting and good writing here. The children on the series, particularly the baby Isabelle, are charmers.