S01.E02: All Things Are Possible

[AnimeMania]

A CHANGE IS GONNA COME - As the 4400 become even more disenchanted with their accommodations, new rules have everyone on edge. Andre (TL Thompson) and LaDonna (Khaila Johnson) help Claudette (Jaye Ladymore) push her new-found ability to new limits. Keisha (Ireon Roach) and Jharrell (Joseph David-Jones) explore a way to ease the tension for a small group of the returned and Shanice (Brittany Adebumola) gets an unexpected visitor. Meanwhile, Rev (Derrick A. King) begins to believe he may be part of a higher calling, but what will that mean for the rest of the 4400? 

Original Airdate: 11/1/2021   (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET)     CW

[AnimeMania]

The guard will be back any minute, so lets sit in the middle of the floor and eat an entire box, each, of BestTime Bars before he gets back. They each were given one special gift, unfortunately it wasn't intelligence.

[UnoAgain]

Liked this episode as well... Seems the "too political " crowd hasn't come to tell us how this is wokeness run amok yet... 

The guard is still way OTT... I'm hoping it's cuz the DHS lady wasnt around so it's lack of oversight... 

I think it's safe to say that claudette's husband from her timeline was not a good dude... I'm still not sure where we're going with this preacher... Seems like he was on the up & up in the 90s... Even walking away from his fam...  his dad did give one of the better explanations as to why they have all that preacher money... A common complaint against many "Mega-pastors" so even his dad seemed to be on the up and up.. Yet something still feels ominous... I guess we'll have to see

[meatball77]

I liked this.  I'm ready for them to move out of the hotel and back into society.  I'm interested in the characters but the guards vs 4400 plot is done and cartoonish at this point.

[Sakura12]

I get Keisha's skeptical but how does she think 4400 people came together to make up a story about being from different times? And maybe they should be looking for the families since some will be much older or dead. Then they could get pictures to see that haven't aged. The missing persons report should have pictures too. If teenage Mildred disappeared in the 1970's and is still a teenager wouldn't that make her story believable? Where are the investigators? Why do they only have a social worker and a correction officer interviewing them? At least the original had FBI agents involved. 

Maybe its because of the pandemic but this show seems very isolated. We are only seeking a handful of the 4400, some guards and 3 people that are supposedly helping (although they really haven't done anything) and that's it. We are not seeing the outside world or what happened after the reveal. You'd think surviving family members would be all over asking to see their missing loved ones. 

And the security really does suck if Shanice's daughter was able to walk right in. 

 

 

[Chicago Redshirt]

In fairness, we understand that most likely the people have traveled through time because we are genre-savvy and because it's the simplest explanation. If this happened in the real world, though, all bets are off as to what the explanation might be. They alluded to two possibilities in this episode: they could be aliens or they could be some sort of clones.

OG 4400 had NTAC, or the National Threat Assessment Command, a made-up division of Homeland Security. We probably have had more 4400 regulars than we did in the OG 4400. Originally, there was Shawn, Maya, Richard, Lily, Jordan Collier, Isabelle and I think that was about it originally as far as regulars. Plus each episode tended to have a 4400 of the week for the first couple seasons. There were recurring ones like Kevin and Tess and Tom's girlfriend Alaina.  

Although it's early, it seems like 4400 2.0 has at least 8 people who might turn out to be regulars: Doc, Rev, Shanice, Claudette, Party Girl, Telekinetic White Girl, Cryptic Black Kid, Gay Singing Lad, 

The trouble is that Homeland Security doesn't seem to be in a particular hurry to investigate the various possibilities and doesn't seem to be taking sensible precautions. 

It doesn't make sense if you're going to attempt to isolate the 4400 to have them anywhere near an urban center. It probably doesn't make sense to have them all in one location. It doesn't make sense to have them congregate. It doesn't make sense to not have every common area under way better surveillance than they do. I mean, in addition to the obvious video cameras, there should be hidden ones too. 

And moving the 4400 people is just something that probably could not have been done covertly. 

Think of how long it would take to do just the most basic of interviews with all 4400 to get them identified and the like. Like a superficial conversation of 15 minutes/interview means 1,100 hours of interviews. That's crazy, especially since as far as we've seen the only people doing any non-guard work are Keisha, whats-his-face, and now the new tech woman. 

[cdnalor]

9 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

Although it's early, it seems like 4400 2.0 has at least 8 people who might turn out to be regulars: Doc, Rev, Shanice, Claudette, Party Girl, Telekinetic White Girl, Cryptic Black Kid, Gay Singing Lad

I think I remember the last three from old Legion of Superheroes comic books :)

[shapeshifter]

On 11/2/2021 at 11:13 PM, Chicago Redshirt said:

It doesn't make sense if you're going to attempt to isolate the 4400 to have them anywhere near an urban center. It probably doesn't make sense to have them all in one location. It doesn't make sense to have them congregate. It doesn't make sense to not have every common area under way better surveillance than they do. I mean, in addition to the obvious video cameras, there should be hidden ones too. 

True, true, and true.
But at least they got ankle bracelets.
Inoculating them against Covid, polio, etc. and adding traceable nanobots to the injection material would be "better."

[Tachi Rocinante]

Random thoughts:

• Did the red/blue clothes mean anything or were they just extras from the hotel cleaning staff?
• The lead agent is not a good actress, but she hasn't been given much to work with.  Same for the the old-timey doctor.
• Preacher's Dad gave a pompous speech and explained absolutely nothing.  Sanctimonious word salad. Good performance, though.
• Claudette is jealous because she's not the only special one. Gag.

[Chicago Redshirt]

On 11/5/2021 at 7:22 AM, Tachi Rocinante said:

Random thoughts:

• Did the red/blue clothes mean anything or were they just extras from the hotel cleaning staff?
• The lead agent is not a good actress, but she hasn't been given much to work with.  Same for the the old-timey doctor.
• Preacher's Dad gave a pompous speech and explained absolutely nothing.  Sanctimonious word salad. Good performance, though.
• Claudette is jealous because she's not the only special one. Gag.

I didn't even notice a red/blue distinction of clothes.

I would tend to agree that the lead agent and Doc are so far the weaker links actingwise. But maybe that will change when they get more to do. It looks like they are setting up a CW love triangle/quadrangle involving him, Shanice and Logan (plus his new wife).

I think Papa Do Preach's speech was pretty clear in context. He raised Rev to be a man of God, "knew" Rev had a calling, was disappointed that Rev was abandoning the calling to be with some random atheist woman, thought that Rev should get over his BS adolescent rebellion, made the point that their lavish lifestyle was (to him) not hypocritical. Was it pompous? I guess that's in the eye of the beholder. I think the writers walked a decent tightrope between having him be sympathetic and a hypocrite. I was sort of annoyed that he for no particular reason took his super-expensive ring off, other than so Rev could take it, and that Rev for no particular reason left it at the island that they reappeared at, except so that the writers could do the "HE'S PUTTING ON THE MANTLE OF HIS FATHER" symbolism.

I don't read Claudette as jealous because others have abilities. Rather, she has an inherent distrust of Rev for some reason, presumably because either her husband or someone else in her life from the 50s/60s was a preacher or very religious and sketchy, and Rev reminds her of that person.

[DearEvette]

On 11/5/2021 at 8:22 AM, Tachi Rocinante said:

Claudette is jealous because she's not the only special one. Gag.

I don;t think it is just that.  I think she has a deep seated distrust of the preacher dude -- any preacher dude but especially black, oily ones.  I don't know if she would have been so salty if it was anyone else.  But she has never trusted him and frankly, I don't either.  There is something slick about him. 

That said, I did like that he orchestrated that whole thing to get them some time.  It is finally some forward momentum and is the first step in them using their powers.

Overall their situation is frustrating to watch.  Because while I can buy people's rights being trampled on, I can't buy it with the crew that are doing it. All we are seeing is Keisha and Jharrel and they don't seem to be the sharpest knives in the drawer or have the muscle to carry this off.  They present as the B-team who are following orders, not the ones who should be giving them.  It is like we are not seeing the Grown Folks yet.   The whole operation comes off as rather Mickey Mouse.    I really dislike Keisha because she just presents as being unthinkingly obstinate. I wish she was written better and seen as questioning or using some analytical skills.  But she just seems willfully dumb.  By contrast I really like the new tech girl's energy.  She, imo, has the right attitude.

And I like the little cliques forming. 

[shapeshifter]

3 hours ago, DearEvette said:

The whole operation comes off as rather Mickey Mouse.

I agree that the internment operations of the 4400 "comes off as rather Mickey Mouse." Plus: 4400? Seriously? Where, exactly?
I know. Covid squelched the extras. Maybe they should've renamed the series 400.

The young, sadistic, Nazi-esque guard seems like a villain extra from another show. I hope he gets struck by lightning or sees the light soon.

Edited November 7, 2021 by shapeshifter

[TV Anonymous]

Two episodes in, I do not understand why that guard needs to be unreasonably rude and hostile. Seriously, as the story is being told, there is no reason for that kind behavior.

[paulvdb]

On 11/7/2021 at 1:13 AM, Chicago Redshirt said:

I think Papa Do Preach's speech was pretty clear in context. He raised Rev to be a man of God, "knew" Rev had a calling, was disappointed that Rev was abandoning the calling to be with some random atheist woman, thought that Rev should get over his BS adolescent rebellion, made the point that their lavish lifestyle was (to him) not hypocritical. Was it pompous? I guess that's in the eye of the beholder. I think the writers walked a decent tightrope between having him be sympathetic and a hypocrite.

I didn't see anything sympathetic about him. He's using religion to scam poor people out of their money to fund his own extravagant lifestyle. I don't care if he actually believes that God's ok with that or if he knows that he is a fraud.

I liked the son when he wanted to get away from that life, but looks like he is now changing his mind about that and wants to become like his father after all.

[shapeshifter]

11 hours ago, TV Anonymous said:

Two episodes in, I do not understand why that guard needs to be unreasonably rude and hostile. Seriously, as the story is being told, there is no reason for that kind behavior.

There are lots of circumstances that can trigger people in positions of power to act abusive——that doesn’t excuse the abuse, but can explain it. Maybe the Show will have the abusive guard repent? Or maybe he is just a stand-in for all cruel and vile people in positions of power.

[Chicago Redshirt]

3 hours ago, paulvdb said:

I didn't see anything sympathetic about him. He's using religion to scam poor people out of their money to fund his own extravagant lifestyle. I don't care if he actually believes that God's ok with that or if he knows that he is a fraud.

I liked the son when he wanted to get away from that life, but looks like he is now changing his mind about that and wants to become like his father after all.

I would  say that different people will view him differently. There was no evidence that he himself does not believe in God or that he's merely interested in getting over on his parishioners rather than actually trying to support their spiritual needs. I think the show didn't flinch from the notion that his lavish lifestyle wasn't Biblical but neither did it out and out condemn him the way a lot of shows would. And I don't think that  the show made Rev's embracing his father's ring/attitude the unmitigated disaster that it could have if it were wanting to emphasize the hypocrisy.

Rather, the show seemed to be accepting the notion that some people are chosen for their roles.

[UnoAgain]

2 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

I would  say that different people will view him differently. There was no evidence that he himself does not believe in God or that he's merely interested in getting over on his parishioners rather than actually trying to support their spiritual needs. I think the show didn't flinch from the notion that his lavish lifestyle wasn't Biblical but neither did it out and out condemn him the way a lot of shows would. And I don't think that  the show made Rev's embracing his father's ring/attitude the unmitigated disaster that it could have if it were wanting to emphasize the hypocrisy.

Rather, the show seemed to be accepting the notion that some people are chosen for their roles.

That was my sense of it as well... The dad, didn't read as slimy as is usually the case with mega-pastors on TV shows... Partly I guess cuz we don't see much of him. His rebuke of Rev, only seeing their lifestyle as hypocritical seemed to come from a genuine place... 

 

As for rev and the ring.. It feels like an " accepting destiny" moment... That's not to say it can't break bad.. But I feel like at least initially they've positioned Rev to be on the Up & Up... Maybe even seeming more snake charmer than he really is, because he did grow up with his father's ways

[Zonk]

I don't remember much about the original show, but it wasn't this bad, was it? I was just bored most of the time.

All the characters are unrealistic. Everybody we know seems to be from the US. Couldn't get a bit more diversity in there? That might have made it a bit interesting.

On 11/3/2021 at 12:33 AM, Sakura12 said:

I get Keisha's skeptical but how does she think 4400 people came together to make up a story about being from different times?

And didn't they take some blood or something? That could tell you when/and or where they were from, by all the shitty stuff we used to pump into the air. There are scientific methos for this kind of stuff. You don't have to take it on faith.

On 11/3/2021 at 12:33 AM, Sakura12 said:

And maybe they should be looking for the families since some will be much older or dead. Then they could get pictures to see that haven't aged. The missing persons report should have pictures too. If teenage Mildred disappeared in the 1970's and is still a teenager wouldn't that make her story believable? Where are the investigators? Why do they only have a social worker and a correction officer interviewing them? At least the original had FBI agents involved. 

Yeah, all of this.

On 11/3/2021 at 4:13 AM, Chicago Redshirt said:

In fairness, we understand that most likely the people have traveled through time because we are genre-savvy

I doubt it. I mean the aliens must have altered them to give them powers, so it wasn't an immediate suck-off (shoutouts to Ghosts) and dump on the island. The more likely explaination is that the aliens had them in stasis, altered them and then dumped them off at the same time.

On 11/3/2021 at 4:13 AM, Chicago Redshirt said:

Think of how long it would take to do just the most basic of interviews with all 4400 to get them identified and the like. Like a superficial conversation of 15 minutes/interview means 1,100 hours of interviews. That's crazy, especially since as far as we've seen the only people doing any non-guard work are Keisha, whats-his-face, and now the new tech woman. 

Well at this hotel. But I gather there are other sites they were brought to. At first they were held in that one room all together and how many were there? Maybe 50? That seems reasonable to handle and interview these people. On the other hand, we should really see the command center and what's going on there. This micro-approach just doesn't suit this show.

 

 

[Chicago Redshirt]

35 minutes ago, Zonk said:

I don't remember much about the original show, but it wasn't this bad, was it? I was just bored most of the time.

All the characters are unrealistic. Everybody we know seems to be from the US. Couldn't get a bit more diversity in there? That might have made it a bit interesting.

OG 4400 was better in some ways, worse in others. and just different in ways, IMO. Of course, it's not quite fair to compare three episodes of 4400 2.0 to the four seasons of OG 4400, but who says life is fair?

I would say that the characters in both were pretty two-dimensional and unrealistic. One of the things about OG 4400 that bothered me was that there really was not much with culture shock. Other than hey, a black guy who got ostracized for dating a white woman in the 50s could now freely date that woman's granddaughter who looked just like her, I can't remember any friction based on the 2000s being very different from when they were from. Although the OG 4400 were also disappeared (I believe) from around the globe, I can't remember a single non-American 4400 being featured in its four seasons. 

I doubt it. I mean the aliens must have altered them to give them powers, so it wasn't an immediate suck-off (shoutouts to Ghosts) and dump on the island. The more likely explaination is that the aliens had them in stasis, altered them and then dumped them off at the same time.

We don't know if it was aliens, future people, people from another dimension, robots or what. But my point is that it's easier to accept that it's not just  coincidence and not a hoax of some sort because we know we are watching a genre show and there is therefore a sci-fi explanation for it. Testing someone's blood and finding a high lead concentration or whatever doesn't necessarily prove that they are who they say they are and that they are telling the truth about what they remember (and don't remember) about what happened to them. 

Well at this hotel. But I gather there are other sites they were brought to. At first they were held in that one room all together and how many were there? Maybe 50? That seems reasonable to handle and interview these people. On the other hand, we should really see the command center and what's going on there. This micro-approach just doesn't suit this show.

There's nothing  that's been shown so far to suggest that any of the 4400 are at any place other than the hotel, or that there is a separate control center. That was one of the many ways the OG 4400 was better IMO. OG 4400 made it clear how and why the government was alerted to be there to get control of the 4400 on arrival (there was a big ball of light that people thought was a comet and observers traced it to the place where it landed versus there being absolutely no reason why/how the government could anticipate the people ending up in Detroit early enough to get a perimeter established etc), how the public knew about the existence of the 4400, and where the 4400 were taken and treated (it was clearly a government compound that seemed pretty sizeable).

 

[Zonk]

24 minutes ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

We don't know if it was aliens, future people, people from another dimension, robots or what. But my point is that it's easier to accept that it's not just  coincidence and not a hoax of some sort because we know we are watching a genre show and there is therefore a sci-fi explanation for it. Testing someone's blood and finding a high lead concentration or whatever doesn't necessarily prove that they are who they say they are and that they are telling the truth about what they remember (and don't remember) about what happened to them. 

And my point was that there is no indication that time travel was involved. There aren't any people from the future, afterall.

But to your point: You wouldn't look for lead. Well not in america, people are still being poisoned with that today. The protection of your citizens from poisons really sucks. There are very clear indicators in the blood that would tell from when they came. That's alsmost impossible to fake. Especially on this scale.

Also all the stuff that @Sakura12 said.

In conclusion, these people don't seem to be familiar with Arthur Conan Doyle: “When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

27 minutes ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

There's nothing  that's been shown so far to suggest that any of the 4400 are at any place other than the hotel

I think they mentioned something in episode one. Also it's impossible to have 4400 people in the lobby of a hotel all at once, without us seeing them, unless 4350 of them are invisible. So either it's the worst writing I've ever seen in any show, or there are other sites. I'm not sure if I should give the writers the benefit of the doubt here, they seem to be hacks, but I'm going to until specifically told otherwise, because even somebody totally incompent couldn't write something this bad.

 

 

[Sakura12]

It isn't so much that I know what's going on because I watch TV. It's that they don't seem to be doing anything. Keisha just seems to think they are lying and isn't really listening to them and the other guy seems to only be there because he thought his brother might be there. When they should be making files on all 4400 people, comparing them to the missing persons reports and should be finding and interviewing their families. All of that would make their stories more believable. Or maybe they should have actual investigators doing the interviewing. I don't understand why they put a corrections officer and social worker in charge of them anyway? 

Also a hotel is stupid place to hold people since it has multiple exits and windows and they just have regular cops guarding them. The original had Homeland Security holding them in a secure facility. The original had its flaws but they handled having 4400 people suddenly appearing much better and slightly more believable. 

[mythoughtis]

On 11/9/2021 at 5:28 PM, TV Anonymous said:

Two episodes in, I do not understand why that guard needs to be unreasonably rude and hostile. Seriously, as the story is being told, there is no reason for that kind behavior.

Nor would it be tolerated today.  4400 people -lots of reporting to other guards would be happening 

Edited November 15, 2021 by mythoughtis

[Check Sanity]

On 11/12/2021 at 7:08 PM, Chicago Redshirt said:

There's nothing  that's been shown so far to suggest that any of the 4400 are at any place other than the hotel, or that there is a separate control center. That was one of the many ways the OG 4400 was better IMO. OG 4400 made it clear how and why the government was alerted to be there to get control of the 4400 on arrival (there was a big ball of light that people thought was a comet and observers traced it to the place where it landed versus there being absolutely no reason why/how the government could anticipate the people ending up in Detroit early enough to get a perimeter established etc), how the public knew about the existence of the 4400, and where the 4400 were taken and treated (it was clearly a government compound that seemed pretty sizeable).

On 11/12/2021 at 7:47 PM, Zonk said:

I think they mentioned something in episode one. Also it's impossible to have 4400 people in the lobby of a hotel all at once, without us seeing them, unless 4350 of them are invisible.

They did suggest that actually, in the pilot with Jharrel on the phone with someone at another site who said his brother Manny wasn't there. Suggesting Jharrel knows other social workers at other places. The show showed people dropping from green light openings for awhile, who knows how long it took to drop 4400 people like that. I think the idea is that there was no warning, which is why the response has been so slapped together. However, there should have been more of a gov/military presence after a few hours or a day. 

On 11/12/2021 at 8:14 PM, Sakura12 said:

When they should be making files on all 4400 people, comparing them to the missing persons reports and should be finding and interviewing their families. All of that would make their stories more believable. Or maybe they should have actual investigators doing the interviewing. I don't understand why they put a corrections officer and social worker in charge of them anyway? 

Also a hotel is stupid place to hold people since it has multiple exits and windows and they just have regular cops guarding them. The original had Homeland Security holding them in a secure facility. The original had its flaws but they handled having 4400 people suddenly appearing much better and slightly more believable. 

I mean, they have alluded to doing the missing persons aspect of that. Why they have been keeping--those "young" enough to have--them away from their families is a good question. It makes sense that the city of Detroit is stretched thin with qualified people to take on this problem. I do wonder what else it happening in the country and world within the show for things to be delegated the way they have been. Is it a similar 2021 to ours? Maybe with the exception of the pandemic?

The hotel isn't that strange, exits can be guarded. There are already cameras everywhere, as well as sleeping and lounging areas. Hotels have been used for quarantining travellers during the panini. Having them at a hotel sells the idea of not imprisoning them for a bit too. 

[UnoAgain]

7 hours ago, Check Sanity said:

They did suggest that actually, in the pilot with Jharrel on the phone with someone at another site who said his brother Manny wasn't there. Suggesting Jharrel knows other social workers at other places. The show showed people dropping from green light openings for awhile, who knows how long it took to drop 4400 people like that. I think the idea is that there was no warning, which is why the response has been so slapped together. However, there should have been more of a gov/military presence after a few hours or a day. 

I mean, they have alluded to doing the missing persons aspect of that. Why they have been keeping--those "young" enough to have--them away from their families is a good question. It makes sense that the city of Detroit is stretched thin with qualified people to take on this problem. I do wonder what else it happening in the country and world within the show for things to be delegated the way they have been. Is it a similar 2021 to ours? Maybe with the exception of the pandemic?

The hotel isn't that strange, exits can be guarded. There are already cameras everywhere, as well as sleeping and lounging areas. Hotels have been used for quarantining travellers during the panini. Having them at a hotel sells the idea of not imprisoning them for a bit too. 

The choices themselves do make some sense.. But I had to sit and think of why.. Now it wasn't a problem for me... But I didn't Come to the show seemingly with a rage-b*ner for the makeup of the cast... So anything that can be picked apart to further the line of ... It's trash because it's too woke.. Is used... In my head and reality.. This takes place in a post covid.. Post "defund the police" Detroit... So a city already stretched thin.. With out help as ppl still aren't doing tons of travel unless absolutely needed.. Instead of just locking them up and forcing cops who should be out keeping us safe... They have parole officers and social workers to help with re-intergration and tracking... My problem is.. Why not just give us a few lines to explain...