Watching The 4400

In this episode of “The 4400″ we are introduced to Carl Morrissey, who disappeared February 16, 2003. Carl works in the seafood department of a supermarket, where he takes abuse from his boss over chatting with the customers. Carl’s wife, Grace, meets him at the market after work and they walk home together.

Grace tells Carl that, in the time he has been gone, their community has gone downhill-that no one cares any more. They walk past Bradley Park-the place where Carl had proposed to Grace. The park is filled with trash and graffiti. As Grace and Carl stand at the edge of the park talking, Carl catches a baseball-which appeared out of nowhere!

Later that night, Carl returns to the park by himself. We hear his memories of proposing to Grace. As he sits alone, remembering, he is jumped by thugs. Carl, who is not a big or tough man, beats up both of the larger men. When Carl goes home to his wife, he is very hyped. He tells her that he is a different man, that he beat both of his attackers. Grace is afraid and wants him to see his counselor. Carl tells her that he has too much to do to see a counselor. He plans to clean up the park and make it safe again.

The next night, Carl gets up in the middle of the night, leaving Grace sleeping. He goes to Bradley Park, where he begins painting and fixing things up in the park. While there, he hears screaming. Investigating, he finds three men attempting to rape a young woman. He saves her. When the woman he saved is questioned by Tom and Diana, she tells them that the man who saved her did not look strong enough to be capable of fighting off all three men.

In the supermarket the next day, Carl is talking with a customer, when he is once again confronted by his boss. Carl grabs the man’s wrist and forces him to his knees, telling the boss to leave him alone. The boss and customers are stunned.

Carl’s wife begs him to stop going to the park. He refuses, telling her that he is doing these things for them. He tells her that no one can hurt him, and that he can make the neighborhood safe again. He returns to the park at night and finds kids spraying graffiti on an area he has just cleaned. He confronts them and they begin fighting.

Tom and Diana have finally identified Carl Morrissey as the man they have been looking for. They go to his apartment, where Grace tells them them that he’s only trying to make things better. She takes them to Bradley Park, where they find Carl sitting on a park bench, stabbed and dying.

Also in this episode, Dennis Ryland, talks with Diana and Tom about Maia’s precognitive ability. When the two of them talk with Maia, they tell her that the doctor’s will check her again and run more tests. Maia asks Diana if she will check on her. Caught off-guard, Diana promises Maia that she will.

When Diana does return to check on Maia, she finds Maia has been left alone in an examining room by the doctors. Maia asks if she can go home with Diana, and stay with her. Diana tells her that this is something she will have to think about. Diana does end up taking Maia home.

Richard goes with Lily to help her check out apartments. In one apartment that they both like, Lily asks Richard to share the apartment with her. Still unused to the way things have changed since 1951, Richard at first refuses, then agrees to move in with her. As they are talking, Lily’s vision blurs and she becomes very uncomfortable, insisting that she has to get out of there.

Later, as they walk down the street, talking about the baby, Lily says that she knows the baby didn’t like the apartment. She tells Richard that she wants to see her daughter, Heidi. Richard tells her to give things some time-that once Heidi’s father is used to Lily being back, he will drop the restraining order against her.

Lily later goes to her former husband Brian’s house and watches Heidi through the window. When her vision again blurs, and she feels dizzy, she is caught by Brian, who has her arrested for violating the restraining order. Richard visits Brian, asking him to drop the charges against Lily, and promising Brian that this will not happen again.

Richard picks up Lily at the police station. At home in their new apartment, they have a candlelight dinner, with music and dancing. Lily promises Richard that she will stay away from Heidi, unless Heidi needs her.

Tom and his ex-wife, Linda, meet at Kyle’s bedside. Kyle’s doctor tells them that Kyle’s EEG shows he had a momentary burst of increased brain activity, and that he will run more tests. Tom and Linda agree to meet at a restaurant to sign their divorce papers. Checking with the nurse at the desk, Tom finds out that Shawn visited Kyle on the night his brain activity increased.

Shawn is visited at school by Tom. Shawn admits that he visited Kyle, but denies that he did or saw anything unusual. Nikki asks Shawn to see a concert with her, Danny, and some friends. Shawn refuses. Later, Shawn and his brother, Danny, talk at home. Danny wants to know what is going on between Shawn and Nikki. Shawn tells him that nothing is going on-that Danny is his brother; Nikki is Danny’s girlfriend and it’s all good.

Shawn is working on his car in the garage when Nikki shows up to see him. While they talk, Nikki burns her hand on the car’s hot engine. When Shawn takes her hand to look at it, the burns disappear. Although Shawn insists that he did nothing, Nikki knows that, somehow, he healed the burns. They kiss, and Nikki leaves.

At Homeland Security, Tom and Diana visit with Marco. Marco has checked out some random sites of disappearances and found that gravity is weaker at those sites, but only marginally. Marco also informs them that Adam Kensington, the insurance man killed by Orson Bailey in the first episode, was involved in insurance fraud. Orson Bailey probably saved the state of Washington millions of dollars by killing Kensington. Diana theorizes that Bailey may have been sent back for that purpose.

Dennis Ryland talks with Tom about his impending divorce. His advice is that Tom should go ahead and sign the divorce papers. Eventually, Tom does so.

The day after Carl Morrissey’s death, Tom and Diana sit in Bradley Park, wondering why Carl was sent back with his power, only to be killed. As they watch, other people from the neighborhood arrive and begin cleaning the park.

In the final scenes, Kyle goes into surgery to drain the fluid building up on his brain. As Tom and Linda wait in his room, Shawn and Danny arrive.