The 4400 - "Fear Itself"

I know it was a concern of the producers, and I think they were right to be worried about it, but these episodes that focus entirely on the “extra crispies” just feel like they don't count somehow. What's the point of all these people that are not a part of “Future”'s plan? And in fact, if they have the ability to manipulate things in the past, pull people out etc, then why let us and the rest of the world waste our time on these noob 4400s? Unless there is a point to it all, but I've seen how this show simply changes its ideas and plotlines to fit the availability of an actor or to write out a certain blond character that was asking for more money, so I don't have a lot of faith in the master plan of the series. I mentioned it last week, but even the intro no longer fits what this show is about. They've forced it to no longer reflect the fact that it's a show about people out of their own time, but instead its simply about people that get powers. Did they not have enough “abductee of the week” storylines to explore with 4400 people?

Anyways, we begin with a woman who enters an empty elevator only to suddenly see people start appearing until the car is packed full. Claustrophobia is her real fear and when the doors open, she is alone on the floor, screaming in fear. Next we see a guy who is running through the streets from his own imaginary fear... the always stereotypical clowns. Although these clowns are awfully freaky.

Elsewhere, Tom and Diana meet up for the first time since she's returned from Spain, sans Maia, but why would you bring along your daughter that can predict the future. That wouldn't come in handy at all. Diana is still concerned about her sister April, who picked up a shot of Promicin. We've already spent a lot of time on this background story when clearly only one of three things could have happened. Either she hasn't taken the shot yet, took the shot and died or took the shot and got an ability. Since the first two are rather dramatically boring, I call that it's only a matter of time April shows up “unexpectedly” with some significant power. And that's the last I'm going to talk about April Skoras until then. Diana wants info on New Boss Lady since she's planning on coming back to NTAC. Shocker.

Tom catches Diana up on the craziness of the Alana portrait and how she's stuck in the past. Even crazier since the word is that the actress isn't on the show this season. Either this is going to go nowhere, or its going to be like waiting for Michael and Walt to come back to Lost. Tom believes Isabelle the Wonder Baby's concept of events, that the Future is punishing him. Diana talks Tom out of doing his suicide trick in order to talk to the Borg Queen again.

Tom and Agent Stargate get called off to look at the crazy clown guy. The people are seeing their worst fears come to life and they know that it must be a 4400 ability at work since eight people have lost it in two hours.

Cue obsolete credits.

Tom and Agent Stargate track the fear victims to the bank that they all share. They find ATM video including most of the victims which has also captured a kerfuffle just off screen.

At the hospital, Shawn is catching up on the nonsense that Jordan Collier has wrought upon the world. Shawn's not sure that he likes what he sees, but Kyle's a true believer. Shawn thanks Kyle for doing him a solid and paying back one coma awakening with another. At NTAC, Diana talks her way back in, convincing New Boss Lady that she's not just there for the Sister That Shall Not Be Mentioned, but by talking up even more nonsense about La Dolce Vita. Pfft.

At the prison, Isabelle the Wonder Baby is promised that she can move to a Martha Stewart jail if she can prove through a blood test that Promicin won't allow her to get her abilities back. I smell a rat though and I suspect that they're really just trying to find a way to replicate the 4400 stopping injection that Richard wielded against Isabelle.

Tom and Agent Stargate work their way through the list of names of people that used the ATM that morning, meeting plenty of idiots along the way. Of course government agents (with guns) have their life insurance covered. There was someone complaining about the lines at the ATM. Although the last dude is a character actor from many Canadian shot shows, so I suspect him immediately. The agents go after the bank complainer though and the dart him outside his apartment. The guy claims that Promicin only hooked him up with mad music skillz, and apparently Agent Stargate plays the clarinet. Another attack has happened since they picked up the kid, so they know that they've got the wrong Extra Crispy.

Elsewhere, Shawn is brought home by his mother and his brother Danny, who hasn't got a ton of airtime since the original mini-series. Danny's feeling bummed because he's not a 4400 and he's been thinking about taking the Promicin shot. Shawn isn't happy with the idea, since his brother is basically betting on black that he won't die. They don't seem to point out very often that even if you hit the fifty percent chance where you don't die, nobody knows what the odds are of getting a halfway decent ability. Yay! I didn't die! I can play the guitar instantly! Yay?

Tom and Agent Stargate arrive at the apartment building where the latest victim has cleaned the skin on his hands right off. They canvas the building through the power of montage until they come across a woman with an autistic kid. Now I think that they crazy autistic kid did it. Of course all I know about autism I learned from Vic Mackey. Ah, but my original suspect is the kid's father. A-HA!

Shawn tries to get Kyle to help him talk his brother out of taking the shot. Kyle's all for it though and reveals to Shawn that he did the exact same thing. But no ability. Doesn't that just mean that its going to rear its ugly head at the worst possible time? Kyle convinces Shawn that he has no right to stop his brother.

At NTAC, New Boss Lady tells the boys that my original suspect has no ability and no Promicin in his system, so they had to let him go. But Agent Stargate is freaking out, pulling his teeth out. Apparently his greatest fear is falling apart? Is there a phobia name for losing structural intensity? Diana visits Stargate and Tom in the hospital and it takes Tom an eternity to figure out that the only person that they didn't both have contact with during the course of the day is the autistic kid. At the kid's house, Daddy reveals to Mommy that he shot the kid up with Promicin. Did he think the kid's ability would be Not Being Autistic? That has to be even tinier odds than ending up with a not stupid ability.

Tom and Diana show up to autistic kid's house to find Daddy feeling sorry for himself. He lays out Mackey's Lament, but he has no idea where his wife would have taken his kid. He tells the agents that he is to blame for the situation and that they can't take it out on him. At the prison, Wonder Baby gets some blood drawn and has to wait on the results.

Kyle runs across his mysterious future chick, who plays coy about who she is and what she's about, but she tells Kyle that she'll take him to someone that can tell him more. She directs him to an unassuming house, where a bizarre man (an Ori prior from SG-1 – glad those Canadian character actors enjoy our runaway production) tells him about a tiny group called White Light, that never grew over a handful of members who were all burned up at once. They believed that a messiah would return from the dead to lead the world to salvation. Of course the guy looks just like Jordan Collier. Or Jesus. Or Grizzly Adams. The man gives Kyle the White Light bible to read. All except the chapter in code.

Elsewhere, Autistic Kid is freaking out in the car and makes his mother see snakes. This of course also makes her lose the ability to hit the brake pedal, so she flips the car. Thankfully, a mother with an autistic child didn't think to have child locks on the car, so the kid just opens the door and wanders away to wreak more havoc. Much later, Tom and Diana are on the scene. Mom doesn't know where the kid is, but Tom makes another brilliant deduction connecting the kid's love of trains and the nearby tracks. The kid is already at the station, lashing out at a security guard, the whipping boy of dramatic plotting.

Back at the White Light house, annoying chicky wants to know how Kyle liked the New Testament of Collier. Kyle admits that a lot of it sounds very familiar, but it's mostly coincidental. Plus there's the chapter in code. Kyle reacts to the fact that he's not a vision-seeing shaman because the idea of the book being about them is ludicrous... but not because he doesn't see visions. Nice writing, guys. Kyle doesn't want to have anything to do with a cult piggy-backing on Collier for a religious revival and he tells the redhead to leave him alone.

Elsewhere, Shawn doesn't approve of taking the Promicin, but he's Pro-Promicin-Choice, so he brings Danny a shot anyway. He asks him to wait though before making his decision and Danny agrees.

Back at the train station, Tom and Diana follow the kid's trail of fears, finding his hanging out on the train tracks. They distract him with his toy train and again take the longest time in hitting on idea that Promicin inhibitor shots could control this kid's ability. They dart him and bring him to the hospital. Shawn is there and he's going to attempt to cure the kid's autism. Shawn does his thing and I wonder if the Promicin amped up his abilities. The kid is cured of his condition and his dad is going to jail, happily since he freed his son of his prison.

Speaking of prison, Wonder Baby is moving to Martha Stewart prison since she's now allergic to Promicin and would die if she got a shot of it. Tom continues to ponder Alana's portrait when New Boss Lady finds him and tells him that Agent Stargate is getting better. Tom says, screw that, he'd rather have Diana. She remarks that Shawn has an amazing ability and Tom tells her to remember that. She then tells him that he should think about letting Alana go. This is all ridiculously juxtaposed with her finding out that her hereto unforeseen father is dying. She can't let go herself and Shawn ability is going to come in handy.

Back at the homestead, Tom starts to move on and Kyle finds Annoying Redhead in his room... magically. Tom barges in and Kyle attempt to introduce his dad to Cassie, but he can't see her. She's apparently not really there. She's Kyle's ability. Apparently John Nash had 4400 abilities in A Beautiful Mind. Like I said, fifty-fifty that you may die when you take the Promicin shot, but what are the odds that you end up with a crap ability... like seeing visions of an annoying redhead?

NEXT WEEK: People are still afraid of 4400s.