S01.E11: You Only Meant Well

[AnimeMania]

TEMPERS FLARE - While Shanice (Brittany Adebomola) helps to prepare the Bois Blanc for a celebration, others are preparing for war. LaDonna (Khailah Johnson) returns to the hotel and we learn what she has experienced out in the real world and what she knows about the 44orum. After a disturbing incident, Hayden (AMARR) realizes the comfort of Kaminsky home may not be what is safest for everyone. Jharrell (Joseph David-Jones) reunites with his brother but is Manny (guest star Calvin Seabrooks) to be trusted and what is his connection to Claudette (Jaye Ladymore)? Meanwhile, an unfortunate misunderstanding might prove fatal for one of the 4400.

Original Airdate: Monday, January 31, 2022   9-10 p.m    The CW.

[Chicago Redshirt]

Pretty decent episode this time around.

When last we saw Manny and Jharrel, they were up in a room in the hotel. They randomly relocated to the bar on the notion that it's somehow safer. This...makes no sense. There's no particular reason that anyone would think to look in a random room in the hotel. And contrary to what Jharrel said, a lot of people seem to know that the bar is there.  This was all done so that Rev could stumble on them, randomly suppress Manny's powers and the plot could continue. (Of course, we are ignoring that any half-assed evil conspiracy would have the entire hotel completely filmed and miked so that if anything happened at the hotel, the government would know about it.).

Speaking of Rev, I can't say that I will be sorry if they in fact kill him off. I tend to think that they won't. But it would be interesting for there to be consequences and a raising of the stakes. Did the powers that be decided to have Rev reach out to his son off-screen? Or was that just him being full of lies? Anyway, the ability to nerf at least three people's powers with a touch and indefinitely seems like a pretty threatening power to have. 

Back to Manny: so it's clear that he's a lot greyer than what he presented. I wish that  Jharrel was a lot more skeptical because his story doesn't seem to make much sense on the face of things. Most 4400 didn't have a clue about their abilities immediately (or even now). So the notion that he got transported with everyone else and managed to find out that he could turn invisible, and managed to do so before anybody saw him seems on its face a lie. So does the notion that he had to resort to all the cipher bullshit  And given that Manny previously told Jharrel that his work had involved theorizing about how affecting the golden ratio could manipulate both DNA and time, it seems like Jharrel should probably suspect that Manny was not just a random abductee.

I like that it was revealed that Claudette was undergoing 4400 guerrilla training. I am not as impressed with what it was. Being stabbed in the stomach and recovering from that isn't exactly pushing the limits of her power. Like if Manny were to cut off a digit and have her regrow it, that would be more like exploring the possibilities of her power. I have to call BS on her being surprised about Jorge/Manny though. She has been living in Manny's place, which Jharrel told us he kept just like it was. And Jharrel also has been going on about Manny. So we basically are being asked to believe that in Manny's place there's not any pictures of him, and that despite being close with Claudette, Jharel hasn't shown her a picture of his brother that he's been obsessing about. 

Tim "MFing Tuvok" Russ! While I'm glad to see him getting work in general, I wish he had a more meaty role. It strikes me that he's pretty darn old to be Ladonna's dad. The actor is 65 according to IMDB. The Ladonna actress looks to be in her early 20s. And I also wish that there was some more internal consistency. If Papa Ladonna was such a big listener to Not!Alex Jones, then why would he have invited her to visit him in the first place? I will suspend disbelief for all sorts of things, but I will not suspend disbelief that Ladonna was separated from her cell phone for Papa Ladonna to be able to keep it from her. It seems like Papa Ladonna and his friend should not have been scared by a bunch of iguanas showing up out of nowhere....or at least, not scared enough to allow Ladonna to escape. It seems like they would have attacked her, run out of the room and locked her in, or any of a half-dozen other things. It also seems like it makes no sense for Ladonna to pose and the friend for the whole ride from Florida to Detroit. That's a long way to keep up an illusion, and to what end? Presumably she can travel as herself fairly freely. Also, what if the real friend shows up? And really, would it kill the show to have a non-Logan cis white guy be something other than a complete scumbag? 

Speaking of Logan, I know the CW's gonna CW, but dammit, can he not be jealous of Doc and Shanice? 

I assume that the new 4400 benefactor is shady. 

[mythoughtis]

I agree there  should have been photos of Manny in his apartment, on Jarrel’s phone and on random missing person flyers. 
Manny asked Jarrell  to keep it on the down low, so Jarrel tells multiple people. Doc tells Charisse.  
I understand why Rev managed to take Mildred’s powers( he wanted to stop her), and Charisse’s ( she asked him to, so intentional).  But he’s touched people from day 1 with no intention and no loss of power.  So why did Manny’s power leave? Rev didn’t even know he had a power to take. 
 

The Rev wasn’t dead when the powers returned.   So it’s not that the powers returned upon his death. 

Edited February 2, 2022 by mythoughtis

[rwlevin]

Question: if Doc attempts to heal the Rev, will he lose his powers? Then will the Rev's wound reopen so Doc has to heal him again ad infinitum?

[shapeshifter]

3 hours ago, mythoughtis said:

So why did Manny’s power leave? Rev didn’t even know he had a power to take.

Or did he? I wonder if Rev knew exactly what he was doing when he took Manny's invisibility away. 🤨
 

1 hour ago, rwlevin said:

Question: if Doc attempts to heal the Rev, will he lose his powers? 

Why?
 

[rwlevin]

2 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Why?

Because he touched the Rev and now the Rev steals powers by touch instead of intent. 

[Chicago Redshirt]

6 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Or did he? I wonder if Rev knew exactly what he was doing when he took Manny's invisibility away. 🤨
 

Why?
 

The answer to why Rev took Manny's power away is because the plot needed him to. From what we saw, he had no real clue as to who Manny was or that he had a power, and he would have had no real reason to want to depower Manny deliberately that we saw. 

There could be a loop of Doc healing Rev, leading to Rev inadvertently shutting down Doc's power as he got better, then Doc's power loss causing Rev to get wounded again, causing Rev losing the ability to continue shutting Doc's power, causing Doc's power to work to heal Rev again, etc.

The trouble with such a loop is twofold: there's no reason to think that Rev now automatically shuts down 4400 powers or at least, could not stop himself from doing so, and there's not much reason to think that Rev's stopping Doc's healing would cause Rev to be re-injured. It would most likely just stop Doc from being able to start to heal someone or to discharge the injury to someone else. 

[TV Anonymous]

Seriously, Logan? A modern-day adult did not know how to play chess?

[peachmangosteen]

I don't know how to play chess lol.

[mythoughtis]

36 minutes ago, peachmangosteen said:

I don't know how to play chess lol.

Me either