Watching The 4400

I don’t think I’ve had a television show make me cry quite as much as this season finale did. Every time I thought that the heart-wrenching moments were done, another one, with a completely different character came up and smacked me upside of my head. While it answered pretty much just as much as it opened up new questions for next season, I think that this was a great way to end the season. I needed this finale, I think, more to help get the white hats and the black hats in order in my mind, though everything, as in real life, is just a perspective of how you’re looking at it.

It’s extremely difficult for me to pick my favorite part of this episode, but the first real pull I had on the heartstrings would have to have been when Marco stood over Theory Room guy (why do I have such a hard time remembering secondary character names?) when he said that it wasn’t fair because he hadn’t taken the shot. The look on Marco’s face was perfect, split between horror, sadness and a touch of relief that it wasn’t him falling to the floor. Or Danny, knowing that he is at fault, asking Shawn to end his pain. Or Isabelle, changing all of the television screens to serene and beautiful places around the world, knowing that she would never get a chance to see them because of the choice that she made in not killing Kyle.

Of course, the abilities of the NTAC people make me very antsy on having to wait until the fifth season to start up. Especially with Marco’s Hiro moment at the end.

What did you think? Was the episode worth it for you for a season finale?

The 4400, Great Leap Forward, TV, television, USA

I don’t check out the Production Blog on the official site quite as often as I’d like, especially lately, but I finally got a chance to read Amy Berg’s post on “Ghost in the Machine”, a few episodes back. One of the things that I love about the Production blog is the little nuggets from behind the scenes on the show.

Case in point. As I’m sure you noticed, “Ghost in the Machine” had quite a few theory room scenes. It was up to Marco, Brady, and new girl geek Abigail to analyze the attacks on Drew Imroth’s company and figure out who was behind it. To do that, they had to study the manifesto that was being spit out by computers running Ubient software. Then they had to sift through all the hate mail directed at Imroth and cross-reference the language with that in the manifesto. Tough task for anyone except the venerable Marco Pacella and his cronies. When they were explaining their results to Tom and Diana, they stood in front of a split screen with the documents projected behind them. If you paused the episode with your Tivo, you could probably make out a few dozen words. But in actuality, each document was three pages long. How do I know? Well, someone had to write them.

Read the whole thing here.

The 4400, Amy Berg, Chost in the Machine, Season Four, TV, television, USA

What a way to lead up to the finale… There was so much information packed into this next-to-last season-ender episode, which had so many things happen and prep to happen that by the teaser for the season finale I was sitting on the edge of my seat, not sure if I could wait an entire week for the finale.

In case you haven’t seen the episode, I’ll try to keep it a little vague, though I do have to say that Evil Tom, while the major figure, was just one of the many things and people that were stand-outs in this episode. Isabelle, Tess, Danny, Shawn, Diana, Maia and Jordan were all just absolutely amazing, and I really like how this season is ending, after some of the questions that I’ve had this season.

My favorite part by far is the quick little jaunt that Isabelle took down the corridor in Promise City, the fluorescent lights that blinked out one by one, and how easy she seemed to slip back into the subtle hand flip to knock back all of Jordan’s bodyguards. She was beautiful at that, though she does have so much more humanity this time around it should be interesting seeing how she handles unlimited power this time around.

The 4400, Tiny Machines, TV, television, USA

This was completely and utterly Tom’s show. Or, should I say, whoever it is that is the Marked inside Tom Baldwin. For all of my complaints about making Tom one of the “Marked”, I really loved Evil Tom. The only thing he was missing was a pair of leather pants, for all of you Buffy fans out there.

I think that these last few episodes really have turned the awkward, Extra-Crispy of the week around. The aforementioned P-Positive in this episode was a complete side-issue, a MacGuffin if you will, to show off the vile Marked Tom. Tom’s little fugue while standing and talking with Collier and Kyle in Promise City showed the difference that this really isn’t the Tom Baldwin we all know and love, and that’s I think why I liked this episode so much. His touch of ultra-violence, lashing out at not only Collier, but Kyle and Diana, showed that this Marked that’s cavorting around in Tom’s body means business.

My favorite part, after that little tirade on the Evil Tom, actually had absolutely nothing to do with him. The scene between Kevin and Collier walking down the street in Promise City was by far my favorite scene in this episode. And yes, Kyle was there, but that was all about Kevin and Collier, no one else.

The 4400, Ghost In The Machine, TV, television, USA

**WARNING!!!!!!!!!!!! SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**

Looking for some extra-spoilery goodness on the eleventh episode of Season Four? Look no further than SpoilerFix.com!

Seriously, don’t read below the fold if you don’t want the information, ok?

(more…)

Richard’s really got a screw loose, along with developing his ability to amazing levels. Considering how much he struggled with his ability for so long, it was really cool to see him go from throwing a pylon away like it was nothing around Promise City to the detailed minute ability of cutting off the flow of blood to a person’s brain just for a moment to knock them out.

And, the secondary story of Tess’s 16th birthday party that she never got to have was just beautiful. Summer Glau does seem to have a knack for getting the horribly flawed characters, but in part that’s because she does so well with them. I did love how Shawn slipped in the solution for the two-day-long dance party straight out of the 1950’s by using Tess and Kevin’s love for each other for her to calm down enough for Shawn to heal her.

My favorite part has to be Tom hiding Kyle away from the NTAC agents outside of Richard’s safehouse, and Diana helping him. I love the teamwork from those two, though the explanation of what he was doing was for the audience, not Diana.

What I’m not so fond of? How they’ve done the love interest up between him and Meghan. And this whole “Marked” thing with him. I just didn’t find it worked with the flow of the story this episode, which I hope will turn around next week.

What a great old-style horror story! Much more Vincent Price than Saw, which I absolutely adored. PJ’s ability is something that could easily go either very well or horribly wrong, and I thought that they showed a really interesting, non-Superhero-style ability with this episode.

While this could be considered a true one-off, non-arc episode, anyone who’s watched this show through more than one season really knows that there really isn’t a one-off show in this series. Everything always seems to tie together, and I think a telling point is Tom and Jordan’s conversation on the phone at the end of the episode.

My favorite part for this episode really is PJ. From one of the Junior Smoking Gun Club, which is how I’ve come to view the “guys in the Theory Room”, Marco included, I love that he took Promicin because he knew that it was going to be the thing that changed the world, and he just had to be a part of it.

The 4400, No Exit, TV, television, USA

I always try to use the image for my first thoughts that I think was the center of the story, but this episode really was all of their stories. This episode will be the turning point in the story of this season, if not the entire series.

If you’re interested, the title of this episode comes from a poem by William Blake, which is sung as a hymn which has been used in the past for the Labor Party and Women’s Party meetings. It is very fitting when it comes to Promise City, which is reminiscent of the labor movement in the beginning of the 20th century in America, at least to me.

My favorite part of this episode has to be Maia’s “vision” that if Jordan retaliated with war, no one would win. I adore the fact that they are writing her character older, and the fact that she’s willing to lie to make sure that people won’t die.

The 4400, Till We Have Built Jerusalem, TV, television, USA

It’s as if the writers know my overwhelming love for bad, Roger-Corman-esque movies, and gave me everything that Ed Wood couldn’t last night.

I adored the way that they’ve introduced the Others (anti-4400 is what I’ve been calling them in my head since the beginning), without making it too dark and menacing. It really was a camp piece, but it gave us information that we’ve been waiting for so long for.

My favorite part would have to be Diana’s quick comeback to Meghan in regards to “I’ll just send an email to you”. I adore her.

The 4400, The Marked, TV, television, USA

Poor Tom just keeps losing people, just when he’s starting to feel secure in his relationships. I feel for him.

I think I would have been happier tonight had they stuck to either the Evanston plot line, or the Maia/Shawn plot line, but to me, at least, I was torn from one to another every time they flipped. Both of the plot lines are perfect (and less Look At the Extra-Crispy of the Week like past episodes) for this season, in my opinion, I just got a little confused flipping back and forth between the plot lines.

My favorite part has to be right at the beginning where Jordan emerges from the water to stand, dripping and seemingly unarmed, in front of Kyle and Isabelle, his two nemesis (is it nemesii in the plural?) standing there, shocked, in front of him.

The 4400, Try The Pie, TV, television, USA