(S03E01/S03E02) I had so many questions in the weeks leading up to last night's third season premiere of The 4400. Two, however, were keenest: Jordan Collier is alive!?! And, Isabelle went from baby to young woman in the space of a minute? (and, did she do it on purpose? and, is she really evil?)
Surprisingly, we saw absolutely nothing of Jordan Collier (not even a hint, really). Instead, the episode was largely centered on Isabelle's instant aging which was, literally, sapping the lifeblood of her mother, and on the rise of a dark subset of the 4400 who were using their powers for a bloody fight against evil: evil, that is, as personified by the NTAC elite whose fear of those very powers led to so much illness and death at the end of season two.
Chief among their targets is E-vil himself, Dennis Ryland. When he proves to be indestructible (just how many times can one man escape death, anyway? Does he have special powers we don't know about yet?), the Nova Group announces their plans to show the world their true power, on October 19.
October 19 becomes a futuristic version of Y2K, with the entire world's security forces focused on protecting key targets and in prying the surely-deadly information from Gary Navarro, the telepath who's the Nova Group's plant in the NSA. Cue grisly torture scenes (uggh. I hate torture scenes. Did we have to go there?). The tension building to the final date is palpable, but I'm not glued to my seat -- I think the heavy-handed interrogation tactics have me averting both my eyes and my attention.
Throughout this countdown to what terrible fate we can only imagine, Lily is dying while wide-eyed Isabelle devours first the encyclopedia and then the entire syllabus of Philosophy of Evil 621. She's trying to find out if, as Matthew tells her, she is just evil and should die to save Lily (and, what's up with Matthew? I don't get his abusive dad schtick at all, except to think that he, himself, is the truly evil one).
Lily dies and, though I'm sad, I can only wonder: is any death on The 4400 truly permanent? If Jordan was resurrected, couldn't Lily be, as well? Or is she the sacrifice for the Jesus-like Isabelle?
That's the most obvious answer: every truly great science fiction saga has its Jesus, its Judas, its mother Mary, its Magdalene, its prophets, its heretics, its Pontius Pilate. You know as well as I do that Mary is Lily, Isabelle is Jesus, Dennis is Pilate. Kevin Burkhoff is a prophet. The Nova Group, with their October 19th miracle -- turning the African desert into wheatfields -- couldn't have done anything more 12-disciple-like if they tried. And yet, they're a destructive force, too, meting out the terrible wrath of four thousand-some powerful folks who've been terribly wronged.
Is Shawn Judas? Is Alana Mary Magdalene? In the world of the 4400, everything seems familiar and yet nothing is as it seems. And while I haven't yet deemed the third season of the show the best yet, I'm eager to see what the writers have in store.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-13-2006 @ 4:08PM
Jon said...
"Surprisingly, we saw absolutely nothing of Jordan Collier (not even a hint, really)."
We did see something of Jordan Collier. I don't remember the exact details but someone was holding a picture of him from the past and there was a picture of a long bearded man. And the guy said, "So he's back"
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6-13-2006 @ 4:19PM
Jennifer said...
For what happened with Laura Allen, read here. I don't think she's coming back, though.
http://www.usanetwork.com/series/the4400/blogs/writer01.html
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6-13-2006 @ 5:11PM
MrsEldubya said...
the further and further we get away from the original mini-series, which I really liked, the more I could care less about this show. I watched this 2 hour episode and couldn't get into it at all.
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6-13-2006 @ 6:30PM
Brett said...
Collier's photo (it looked almost like a whole dossier) was held by his old assistant, the guy who came back and slapped Maya. There's some huge backstory with that guy that hasn't been tapped.
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6-13-2006 @ 6:34PM
Lebowski said...
I went to school with the chick who now plays Isabelle (who is pictured above). She was a total "c-word"; guess you could say who wasn't in high school. Anyways it drove me nuts the full 2 hours seeing her. I thought I had a chance when she jumped off the building but looks like she is here to stay. What a pisser, I dont think I can overlook this. So long 4400. Agree with MrsEldubya tool. The fake tans, new hairstyles and production sets is bad sign.
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6-13-2006 @ 6:56PM
Brett said...
The guy who slapped Isabelle I meant, not Maya. (or Maia)
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6-13-2006 @ 10:14PM
Pedant Joe said...
Jordan was missing (and will continue to be for a while) because Bill Campbell is on an 18 month round-the-world cruise. Apparently it had been planned for some time, but the 4400 folks didn't find out till after they brought him back in the finale. (I can't find the original article, but Google should help with that.)
It should be exciting to see what Jordan's been up to when he eventually shows up. He'll have had a lot of time to put some plans in place.
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6-13-2006 @ 10:35PM
Man said...
Someone has spent too much time in Bible class.
This episode continues the down fall of The 4400. The show went from unique idea to a typical X-men/sci-fi crapfest.
Laura Allen has a bad habit of leaving shows for others she left All My Children in the middle of a storyline, now she does the same here for "Dirt" on FX. That explains the elder Lily.
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6-13-2006 @ 11:12PM
Bryce said...
Matthew also said that Jordan would "need to be taken care of" when he was holding the file that had Jordan's picture in it.
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6-14-2006 @ 11:33AM
devilbun said...
Apparently Laura Allen was pulled for "business reasons" and not creative. The
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6-15-2006 @ 1:25PM
Cold Chilli said...
Why would Isabelle be scared of someone hitting her? She just found out she can't be hurt.
More info on Lilly http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?id=36546
Also, On of my pet peves with Show blogs, NO RSS!
Blarney's blog does the same thing
Good start of season 3.
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6-16-2006 @ 2:19PM
Scott H said...
I agree that the show is headed in some new directions, but they feel natural to me. A few 4400s have powers. Why only a few? Why do the powers seem to be fairly small or vague? Promicin inhibited them. No more promicin? You're going to have to move in an "X-Men" direction with the storyline.
I can't say I care much for the Isabel character. There are enough interesting characters and performers on the show already, and I hate to see valuable screen time go to such a badly-written, clunkily-acted oddity.
I also agree that Dennis survived at least one too many times to be realistic. Speaking of realistic, I also think it's a natural direction to make NTAC the "bad guys", mirroring how many of us in the U.S. now feel about our own government in this day of King George, where torture and spying without warrants are all OK because a) he's the president, and b) we're fighting an endless war against unknown enemies. Here, the torture almost seemed justified--it was the textbook case of "you know an attack is coming, and that he knows something about it". It was still wrong, in my opinion. Once we treat prisoners like the enemy, we become the enemy.
There are still lots of interesting characters here -- the 2 leads, Maia, Sean, Richard, and hopefully Kyle if he comes back. I think the show is maturing and moving in interesting directions. I'm looking forward to more, unless it becomes The Isabel Show.
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6-29-2006 @ 1:06PM
eisy said...
do you plan to do any more tv after roseanne?
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