The 4400
Season Three

Available on DVD

1. The New World
2. Being Tom Baldwin
3. Gone Part 1
4. Gone Part 2
5. Graduation Day
6. The Home Front
7. Blink
8. The Ballad of Kevin and Tess
9. The Starzl Mutation
10. The Gospel According to Jordan Collier
11. Terrible Swift Sword
12. Fifty-fifty

The New World

Following the scandal of the drugging of the 4400 by the government, a splinter group calling themselves the Nova group arrange the stabbing of Dennis Ryland and announce that a second demonstration of their power will take place in a few days. Using a telepath 4400, Tom and Diane search for the dissident 4400s, but they are always one step behind. Meanwhile Lily has aged prematurely and is dying. This could be linked to her daughter's sudden maturity.

Another series and another feature length opening episode. This one has so much plot that it will be almost impenetrable to new viewers, but the plot strands that were twisting away at the end of series two continue to writhe, whilst the introduction of the Nova group adds a new level of threat and a a blurring of the good and the bad on each side. This show is maturing in leaps and bounds.

As well as the main plot of trying to track down the terrorists (and how timely is that plotline?), all of the characters have their own side stories going on and several interesting developments are aready being lined up.

THE 4400 has come so very far from the first mini-series. It will interesting to see how far it can go.

Being Tom Baldwin

Tom walks into NTAC and shoots the prisoner TJ that they are holding from the Nova group. Diane confronts him with the news, but he claims his innocence and goes on the run. It soon becomes clear that there is a 4400 who is able to take on the outer shape of anyone he wishes. Whilst Tom and Diane race to clear Tom's name, NTAC start closing in.

This is an action episode that involves a lot of running around and doesn't move the plot along at all. Doppelganger episodes are commonplace in sci-fi shows and this adds nothing to the sub-drama, but it provides for plenty of double takes and uses all the conventions well enough. The side story with the all-grown up Isobel is an annoying distraction at present.

Gone - Part 1

Diana is shocked when Maia's sister shows up after two years of ignoring all contact and wants to get to know her. She resists the contact until such time as dna testing can substantiate her claim, but the woman kidnaps Maia and five other children, holding them captive. As NTAC uses the clues in Maia's diaries to track her down, she bonds with the other children to fight back against her captors.

This is a curious episode. It starts off really well with guest star Alice Krige turning up to kidnap Maia, but then the treatment of the kidnapped children is so obviously inept that annoyance steps in. When simply locking the kids' doors would solve the security issues, they are left wide open and any contact allowed. Suddenly, you realise that the reason for this is because nothing is quite what it seems and the plot twists in neat direction.

Gone - Part 2

Diana and Tom are haunted by memories of a little girl that they never knew and doesn't have a face. Using the dream world that Tom's wife can create, they access memories of Maia and remember all that was taken away from them. When Diana takes action that is destined to kill her, Tom tries out a plan that is equally drastic. He learns that the 4400 are failing in their mission to avert the catastrophe because of others from the future who have sent back a great evil, an evil that Tom must kill if he wants Maia back.

After the unsatisfying first half of this story, this week's episode is excellent. It starts with the heroes tracking down their memories of Maia, the effect of which is muted since we already know who she was and why she was taken, but then the surprises start to pile up. Diana's desire to stay in a dream world with her daughter until she dies is touching and Tom's willingness to risk death for his partner is even so. The final twist, Tom's instructions to kill Isabelle, is expected, but still works well.

Graduation Day

The head of the Nova group turns Shaun into a schizophrenic mess when he is rebuffed by Richard. Defying (not to mention killing) the manipulative Matthew, Isabelle sets out to track down the members of the Nova group and get them to tell her where he is, killing each one along the way. Finally, she is able to restore Shaun, but does this prove she is the evil that Tom must kill?

Straightforward and brutal, this episode clears up Isabelle's origins and Matthew's purpose once and for all, but also ties up a lot of loose ends by simply having Isabelle kill them all. It is easy to see why the 4400 are failing in their mission seeing as none of them seem to be helping mankind very much in any way at all.

The Home Front

Shaun is visited by Nikki, his brother's ex-girlfriend and the reason he ran away from home, visits with a request for him to help her sick father and perhaps rekindle a relationship, something that Isabelle doesn't take kindly too. Tom finds that Alana has been helping a member of the Nova group escape detection and has to go up against old friend and ex-boss Dennis Ryland in order to keep her out of jail.

This is a meandering episode that doesn't actually take us anywhere very much. Shaun's strand shows us that Isabelle is a ticking time bomb (which we already knew) and Tom's story shows his love for Alana and the rivalry that is now all there is between himself and Ryland. Not really news. The show has been doing well recently, so it would be a shame if it started to lose its way.

Blink

Tom and Diana are slipped a new drug called 'blink' and start having hallucinations from their past. Meanwhile, Isabelle has decided to marry Shaun and isn't giving him a choice in the matter.

This is an episode of two halves. The hallucination story is straightforward enough, but it does bring in Brian Dennehy as Tom's father. The Shaun and Isabelle strand is getting sillier and sillier and is dragging the rest of the show down. It's a shame Shaun's murder attempt didn't work out.

The Ballad of Kevin and Tess

Tess, the asylum inmate from the pilot show of series two, is hiding the professor who has been experimenting on himself to create a 4400 ability artificially. His health is failing and he has expanded his experiment to giving Diana the drug without her knowledge. The race is on to find him before Diana suffers the same fate as him. Meanwhile, Shawn gets involved with a rock star and Richard starts honing his ability.

Summer Glau (from Firefly) makes a welcome return as Tess in a story that is interesting without ever being anything special. That Diana is being drugged is something of a shock, but otherwise this is a lesser episode.

The Starzl Mutation

Someone is killing off seemingly random people with what appears to be a 4400 ability. As Tom and Diana investigate, they uncover a secret plan to create an army of soldiers with 4400 type abilities being run by non other than Douglas Ryland. One of the soldiers has gone AWOL and insane and is taking out people with the Starzl mutation, a genetic disorder that could lead to offspring with these abilities if they mate with a 4400. Shaun gets a wedding present that allows him to see glimpses of his future. If he marries Isabelle then he will kill Richard and if he doesn't then many thousands will die. Someone unexpected crashes the party.

The 4400 is meandering somewhat at the moment. Tracking down a rogue 4400 who isn't a 4400 brings nothing new and is actually gives a sense of deja vu from other episodes, but the strand involving Shaun's future actually holds some interest for a change after being annoyingly unbelievable in recent times.

You also have to wonder about the security at the 4400 centre. It's the most important day in their leader's history with nearly a quarter of the 4400 present and they allow any old tramp to wander in? I don't think so.

The Gospel According to Jordan Collier

After his appearance at the wedding, Collier disappears just as quickly. Shawn calls off the ceremony in order to help in the search for his former mentor. When they find him, he's lost his memory, but Tom's wife comes back and restores his memories to him. He tells Isabelle she has to leave as she is the enemy, gets Kyle released and announces that he has seen the future and knows what has to be done. Maia, meanwhile, tells Diana that she has just met the man she is going to marry.

Tom's life seems to be coming back together as we head towards the end of season 3. His wife is back, his son's out of the clink and all is good with the world. Trouble is, this all smacks of set up. Can Collier have changed his spots? Is it all some kind of scheme?

THE 4400 just got more interesting again.

Terrible Swift Sword

All the members of the Nova group in custody escape, Shawn and Richard learn that Isabelle is working with Dennis Ryland and Diana comes clean about her relationship with Ben, the new man in her life.

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Fifty-Fifty

War is declared between Isabelle and Collier. She half-kills Shawn to find out where the stolen promycin is, he turns it into a bomb that almost kills her. She heads out to the 4400 centre to start killing children until they give the promycin back. Diana, Tom and Richard set out to stop her. It's kill or be killed and the world will never be the same again.

It's the end of season 3, but the climax is a little flat. The destruction that Isabelle wreaks is so low key that she never seems to be the ultimate threat that everyone keeps saying she is. Sure, she hurts Shawn and is inches from killing her first child when the bullets start flying, but she still doesn't cut it as a doomsday device.

There's plenty of set up for the next season, which has been picked up and should be coming our way next year. The 4400 has struggled at times in this third outing, but it has done just enough to keep us interested as to what happens next.