S01.E08: The Kaminski Experiment

[AnimeMania]

RUN - Logan's (Cory Jeacoma) adjustment to Shanice's (Brittany Adebumola) return has been harder than he let on, meanwhile, Rev (Derrick A. King) is beginning to see the light. Mildred (Autumn Best) lets her emotions get the better of her, possibly endangering the rest of the 4400. The series also stars Joseph David-Jones, TL Thompson, Ireon Roach, Jaye Ladymore, Khailah Johnson and AMARR. Janice Cooke directed the episode written by Taylor Townsend.

Original Airdate 12/13/2021     (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET)   CW

[peachmangosteen]

No comments yet? Yikes lol.

I am so confused by most of these people. They're all over the place.

Was this episode supposed to take place like a damn year after the last one? That's the only way a lot of it makes sense lol.

[AnimeMania]

46 minutes ago, peachmangosteen said:

Was this episode supposed to take place like a damn year after the last one? That's the only way a lot of it makes sense lol.

I am pretty sure it was probably less than a week later. What didn't seem to make sense?

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, peachmangosteen said:

No comments yet? Yikes lol.

From last weeks episode discussion:

On 12/12/2021 at 9:41 AM, peachmangosteen said:

I love that literally every white male character that's gotten lines has been awful lol.

So Logan's personality got a makeover in this episode——which is much better than a retcon, IMO, meaning that they didn't deny that he'd been a jerk, they just explained it a bit, had him get some revelations, and, most importantly, talk to Shanice about it. And the timing was such that it seemed pretty organic. I mean, it makes sense that it took a while for him to accept that a supernatural event had happened etc.

Having Logan be a total mensch to poor Hayden was also a good way to show Logan is not just another evil racist white guy.

But what would make the whole Shanice-Logan drama more believable to me is if Logan and Shanice didn't look to be the same age in 2021.
A little white hair makeup brushed into Logan's locks would have helped.

 

The Rev got a bit of a personality makeover too. Right? I'm not sure. 
Maybe he always wanted to be a good guy.

 

Autumn Best (Mildred) did a great job of acting angry, but the episode needed a little more explanation of what was currently influencing her, IMO.
I mean, she shouted a bunch of reasons, but she seemed out of control, and it wasn't clear if that was a side effect of some drug or just her pent up anger.

 

Edited December 14, 2021 by shapeshifter

[peachmangosteen]

1 hour ago, AnimeMania said:

What didn't seem to make sense?

Most of it lol.

The characters are just all over the place. I enjoy them for the most part so I don’t really care but the writing is just really bad.

I always forget about Logan until he shows up again lol. The relationship he has with Hayden is too much imo. He’s known him for a minute. I like it and it’s cute but still.

The social worker guy said he and Claudette hooked up ‘awhile ago.’ That implies more than a week to me but with how these characters and relationships change every minute I guess it makes sense for them!

I am so here for crazy vigilante Mildred. And apparently she has a sister. I guess that’s who the ‘she’ is that her and Hayden talked about when she left a couple weeks ago.

[Chicago Redshirt]

Maybe I am just tired and grumpy, but this episode seemed particularly weak in the acting department. I'd be hard-pressed to come up with any lines or scenes that didn't seem obviously artificial or went above the merely competent in their execution.

As to plot, not much better either.

1. Why did Greene bring Firestarter out of the hospital to the hotel? Yes, there's generic speculation that Greene wanted him to cause a scene so that they could clamp down on the 4400, but how exactly was Greene going to cause that? And why did Firestarter just not cooperate? And how did they sneak Firestarter away? Shouldn't Greene and his minions have been keeping watch over him?

2. Mildred showing up at this particular time at the hotel seems a mystery. Was she there to target Greene? If so there are probably a half-dozen better places to ambush him or ways to expose what was being to the 4400. To shapeshifter's point, I get that she is pissed off because she was experimented and tortured and knew that other 4400 were as well. But blowing the lid off the hospital would be an easy first step. Surely someone might notice/care that there's an entire wing of a hospital with guards and semiautomatic weapons? 

3. Which brings to the lack of followup on the raid is a little disconcerting. Surely both the government and the 4400 would have to be thinking of various moves and countermoves knowing that there are people with powers who are being tortured and experimented on, that at any time, any of the 4400 could be next, or on the flipside that more than three of the 4400 (and more powerful 4400 than an illusioncaster, a clairvoyant and an injury-transferer) could strike. 

4. The PR people pretty much suck at their job. There is no way IMO that telling the Shanice/Logan/Hayden story is going to work in the abstract better than all of the other 4399 stories they could tell, and then when you get into the details, it's even worse. It's messy given the near-breakdown of Logan, that he remarried, that her daughter was interrogated for spreading mistreatment of the 4400, that Shanice was at the start of the series deemed a troublemaker for insisting on her rights, There are so many ways that the interview could go wrong if the interviewer (or anyone following in her footsteps) did the minimal legwork to find out the backstory of this "ideal" family, including that Shanice isn't going to be living with her husband. Even among the 4400 we know, it would make way more sense to continue to pitch Ladonna as the most relatable, since she is a known reality-TV star and she's very comfortable and relatively predictable in terms of what she would say or do, plus she is apparently having a heartfelt reunion with her dad. 

5. The whole contracts/conservatorship thing: It seems like it would be not that difficult to convince a court that the 4400 who signed them were operating under duress and to get the contract nullified. Or at least, before it came out publicly that they had powers. Having time-displaced people of various ages/levels of sophistication sign something without legal counsel to guide them does not seem like most courts would uphold it. If only there were a 4400 who had a legal background and who could make some inquiries....

6. Logan as a character is just kind of all over the place to me. The Logan/Bridget/Shanice/Doc love quadrangle is perhaps the worst one that I've seen, and I watch a LOT of CW. 

[AnimeMania]

22 minutes ago, peachmangosteen said:

I am so here for crazy vigilante Mildred. And apparently she has a sister.

How old would her sister be? And in what country? Is Mildred from America?

Edited December 14, 2021 by AnimeMania

[Chicago Redshirt]

10 minutes ago, AnimeMania said:

How old would her sister be? And in what country? Is Mildred from America?

They haven't explicitly said much about Mildred's backstory but she appears to be from the 70s and is supposed to be a teenager. I would imagine that she is from America, as that seems to be the default.(Although I think we were told that there were people from around the world taken, I don't think we have been shown anyone confirmed to have been Green-lit from outside America. Firestarter was according to closed captioning supposed to have a Haitian accent, but he could have immigrated to somewhere in America before he was taken, or he could have been taken from Haiti or elsewhere.

Anyway, assuming that Mildred and Millicent(?) were about the same age when they were taken, I would assume the sister would be in her 60s, give or take. Of course, if Mildred was taken in 1979 and Millicent was a baby, then Millicent could just be only about 40, and if Mildred were taken in 1970ish and Millicent was an older sister of 20ish, she could be in her 70s. 

[mythoughtis]

I agree the timing is off.  If it’s only a  few days between episodes, Claudette has barely worked a couple weeks.  Yet she is out of town?  She feels comfortable doing that? I doubt her deeply justified fears of racism is going to be  enough for her to travel this quickly.  She is not like LaDonna who grew up in this century. 

Jarrell feels comfortable enough to drink out of a pitcher in her refrigerator and go through stuff with Doc? 
Logan finally acted in a realistic manner towards Cherise. He finally gets it that she didn’t leave voluntarily.  He’s better at this than Lily’s husband in the original 4400. 

This is called the 4400.  Yet it might as well be named the 10 or less.  The original 4400 brought a new guest star person or two each week to explore other 4400.  This is just about the few. Fire starter guy gets a scene and that’s it. 

i don’t think I will watch this if it gets renewed.  It’s not must see tv for me. 
 

 

[AnimeMania]

23 minutes ago, mythoughtis said:

I agree the timing is off.  If it’s only a  few days between episodes, Claudette has barely worked a couple weeks.  Yet she is out of town?  She feels comfortable doing that?

Claudette was taking a bartending class, I am not sure that she had to leave the city to do that.

[Tachi Rocinante]

The only character I'm really interested in is Jharrel's brother, who hasn't even shown up yet . . . 

[shapeshifter]

48 minutes ago, Tachi Rocinante said:

The only character I'm really interested in is Jharrel's brother, who hasn't even shown up yet . . . 

Hah! But Jharrel is tolerable.