Well, the season finale is finally here, and while I wouldn't go so far as to agree with the title and say that this is a great leap forward for this series, I will say that they at least found a way to shake things up on this show enough that I will be suckered into checking it out if it returns for another season. Recapping it again? That's a different story. At the same time, I've never understood why this show has to back load the season with story so heavily. When Billy Campbell was sailing around the world, it at least made sense on some level, but here they easily had enough story for two or three episodes and while the same events would have been watered down spread out that far, they still would have made for better episodes than some of the junk that was airing this season.

The 4400 is back from a short US Open hiatus and I was hoping that the time away would allow me to release my annoyance at where this series has drifted away to, but alas this was not to be. This episode gave us the return of Basil Exposition, I mean Curtis Peck, a vague, confusing explanation of what “The Future” is doing with Jordan Collier, NTAC agents that don't bother to warn their children when their family friend has turned evil and mysterious invisible ice cubes.

This week was certainly better than last week, but I have to say that with every moment that passes on this show, it becomes more convoluted as to who is on which side. The producers probably think that those gray areas are interesting and that it puts them in line with similar dynamics on a show like Battlestar Galactica, but where its interesting to not know whether to identify with the Cylons, the complexities on this show simply push the viewer further and further away from any point at which they cared. And with the revelation at the end of this episode, it seems like the writers aren't done complicating their story lines. Hint: It's okay to give the viewer multiple people to root for, its not okay to make them hate everyone. I think Shawn Farrell is the last remaining character who has an arc and a position that makes any sense in the long range scope of the series.

The quality of this show has decreased and my dislike of it has increased to such a degree that I am instituting a numbering system. Every time some piece of nonsense dialogue is spoken or a completely illogical or inaccurate detail appears on screen, I'm going to assign it a number. We'll see how high we get with each episode. We begin the episode presumably in the past in the future. And oddly enough, that isn't even getting a point. We're in the future of the timeline and in the past of the show's events.  Item (#1) – In the past/future, Richard would have his mid-century hair, right? I would even give the show the benefit of the doubt on his mini-series look, instead he has his 2007 bald head and beard. Huh? Did the future then shave him and give him hair before returning him in a ball of light? This point goes to the hair and makeup department, lest you think that only the writers were to blame for this show.

Well, I had pointed out that it seemed that all of Isabelle's storylines served solely to undo the damage that had been done to her character last season and now the writers have made moves to literally reset her character to before she rapidly aged. I've never seen a device used so ham-handedly and without any real reason. In other news, we're finally free of Tom and NewBoss's ridiculous flirting, but now we'll be treated to their “cute” exchanges. Oh, and River Tam's back.

I actually had to dig to find the name of this episode, because Directv had no data on the episode whatsoever. I'm curious where in the production schedule this episode was shot, because Billy Campbell's beard looked almost like an afterthought, as if he had shaved it, thinking he was done with the season, and then they stuck him with additional work. This episode is what those in the industry might call a “bottle episode”. You shoot all the material on your existing sets and all the action is contained and easily (read: cheaply) produced. And in this case, they didn't have to pay a significant number of guest stars either. Either they're saving money for something big that we have yet to see, or they got in over their heads budget-wise in previous episodes (which would be a shame) or they got to the end of their season and had to produce an episode for no money to offset what they already burned up in the course of the season. I'm voting for the last one due to the almost afterthought type lip service that they paid to the current storyline... and the state of Billy Campbell's beard. The real test is whether or not Billy's beard stays thin. If it's back to its full bushiness, we'll know that we just watched the television equivalent of Danny DeVito's character in Twins.

I think it would be easier if I were like the rest of the recappers (recapists?) on this site and simply expect a lot less of my summer entertainment. I haven't read any recaps for Damages or Saving Grace yet on the site, but aside from those two series, the summer is either a wasteland of bad reality shows (Pirate Master, anyone?) or extremely easy-going light-hearted (and light on plot) narrative shows like Psych and Burn Notice. I think that's the only thing that The 4400 has going for it at this point, no one judges it very harshly because they're not comparing it to anything else that's on the air. This week at least sees the continued absence of “extra crispy” storylines and at least focuses on what's been the issue dating back to the miniseries: Jordan Collier and the coming changes that the 4400 will bring to the world.

Tonight's episode felt like the show was finally trying to return to form and make sense of some of the disconnected bits that have accumulated over the last season and a half – albeit through the awkward exposition in the rantings of a crazy guy. Surely the fact that the episode revolved around an “original recipe” 4400 and actually had involvement from “the future” were the main reasons that this episode didn't grate on my nerves like the last couple. Of course, maybe it was because I half-watched it while doing some ironing. Maybe I set myself by sometimes paying closer attention to television than the people that are creating it.

I realize that I've become extremely critical of this show and I questioned why I've become so bitter about where this show has gone. I realized it was not simply because the show was bad (did any one see Blade: The Series?) but rather because the show is in no way living up to its potential and at this point has completely squandered away anything that was new and original about it. It feels like an exercise in television production now, rather than a story being told in the most interesting way possible. We waste time on plotlines that go nowhere (Diana's boyfriend and leaving the country), characters struggle with non-issues (Tom still questions whether 4400 abilities are “good” or “bad”), they let some interesting characters simply vanish for various money and production reasons (Lily, Richard, Alana, Collier, Kevin and Tess) and my biggest pet-peeve, they've pretty much abandoned the struggle of the 4400 being displaced in time for the easier issue of “extra crispies” getting abilities from a shot and the general public's disdain of them. There's very little going on here now to distinguish it from Heroes or forty years of The X-Men. As I point out every week, they've made their opening credit sequence completely obsolete. So at any rate, if you love this show as is, feel free to stop reading my critical recaps, but if like me you wish the show lived up to its potential, or at least was the show that it used to be, then come along on the ride with me.

Another week and another “extra crispy” story. At least this time it revolves around a character that we have at least a small amount of invested interest in. I, for one, have gotten mighty tired of the coming attractions that USA is cutting together for this show, highlighting interesting moments that never have anything to do with the relatively subpar main storylines that the writers are cranking out. Any one else notice how many characters have been completely absent since the season premiere? Does the absence of these characters really mean that the storylines that involve have to drop off the face of the earth as well? Hell, they spent four episodes talking about the mysterious chapter in code in the Book of Collier, only to have it decrypted by Kyle and Isabelle in about an hour flat. Why set it up if you're not going to build real tension with it? On the other hand, Collier has supposedly set the country afire with Promicin shots, but we're never shown that situation or that tension outside of Shawn and Kyle sniping at each other. I know this is a basic cable show producing content on the cheap in Canada, but if your writers and Production Designer aren't going to figure out a way to show some scope, what's the point of telling us that the end times are coming? We never see it nor feel it.