S01.E13: Present Is Prologue

[AnimeMania]

(Season Finale) 
Tensions rise as an attack is made on the Bois Blanc, putting everyone’s life in danger. Shanice (Brittany Adebumola) and Logan (Cory Jeacoma) do their best to keep Hayden (AMARR) safe, while Claudette (Jaye Ladymore) and Jharrell (Joseph David-Jones) try to reason with Manny (guest star Calvin Seabrooks). Meanwhile, Mildred (Autumn Best) still believes her sister can be saved and LaDonna (Khailah Johnson) takes to the streets in an effort to end the threat against the 4400.

Original Airdate: Monday, February 14, 2022

[shapeshifter]

Does Soraya (Kausar Mohammed) not being in the finale mean she would not be in a season 2?
How about Shaunice (Brittany Adebumola)? Does her packing and going away mean she would not be in a season 2? And, if so, does that mean Hayden (AMARR), Logan (Cory Jeacoma), and Mariah (Sophia Echendu) are off the show too?
And should we assume The Rev (Derrick A. King) is not coming back? He's the only one who has other, current IMDb projects showing, but that could in part be owing to pandemic shutdowns etc. 

But all of this👆 is me putting the cart before the horse, so to speak, because genre shows are so often not renewed.

If there is a season 2, it looks like Claudette (Jaye Ladymore) will be having to recruit Manny (Calvin Seabrooks) to the cause, since he seems to have been mindwiped. 
Regardless, I got the impression that when the 4400 transfer download counter was running that it would stop at 4401 when Manny jumped in.
Too bad they didn't name the show "The 4401" so that scene could be a finale payoff on the title.

[Chicago Redshirt]

1 hour ago, shapeshifter said:

Does Soraya (Kausar Mohammed) not being in the finale mean she would not be in a season 2?
How about Shaunice (Brittany Adebumola)? Does her packing and going away mean she would not be in a season 2? And, if so, does that mean Hayden (AMARR), Logan (Cory Jeacoma), and Mariah (Sophia Echendu) are off the show too?
And should we assume The Rev (Derrick A. King) is not coming back? He's the only one who has other, current IMDb projects showing, but that could in part be owing to pandemic shutdowns etc. 

But all of this👆 is me putting the cart before the horse, so to speak, because genre shows are so often not renewed.

If there is a season 2, it looks like Claudette (Jaye Ladymore) will be having to recruit Manny (Calvin Seabrooks) to the cause, since he seems to have been mindwiped. 
Regardless, I got the impression that when the 4400 transfer download counter was running that it would stop at 4401 when Manny jumped in.
Too bad they didn't name the show "The 4401" so that scene could be a finale payoff on the title.

The CW has pretty low renewal standards, so I think the 4400 has a pretty decent shot. Of genre shows, it didn't renew Tomorrow People, Star-Crossed and The Secret Circle, the first two of which I think were better shows than this.  (I don't remember much about The Secret Circle). But they were both prior to the CW leaning so heavily on genre shows. 

I am still on the fence as to whether I want this show to have a second season or not. It has some interesting concepts but just everything is so poorly executed, so many threads are left hanging, so much worldbuilding is left undone, and so much doesn't make sense. 

Like the idea that the Green Lighters are trying to avert a white supremacist future has potential. But how exactly, or roughly, do we get from a 2020 that resembles the real-world 2020 to one where there is a white supremacist wasteland in just over 40 years? It definitely could use more showing and less telling to give us a better sense of the stakes.

Against this backdrop, how is it that people of color get the power to build a time machine AND a power-infuser without the white supremacists who are running the show (or at least, who have done enough to ruin the show) interfering? Don't they have the capacity to build their own time machine and super-power infuser? Let's assume that the non-supremacists somehow beat out the supremacists so they are no longer a threat. Aren't there probably dozens of ways with a time machine and superpower-infuser that they could improve things for their present that would make more sense than abducting people from as far back as the Civil War, giving them powers and then putting them in 2020 with no clue about what happened to them? One obvious change: tell the people they abducted what the situation is and count on them to help out. Or even more basic, get 4400 people from their present and have them go to the past. There doesn't seem to be any sort of inherent limitation on sending people from 2062 to 2020.

Putting all that aside...

It still is hard to suspend disbelief that the 4400-haters could basically have been openly mobilizing with guns and such, that they could storm the hotel without the cops or anyone being called to intervene, that they would go on this rampage and not harm a single 4400 that we saw, but rather gather them up for public executions. Why not just kill the iguanas on sight? Especially when they have who knows what sort of powers? And on the flipside, how come basically the 4400 didn't generally use their powers to defend themselves? I can buy that Mildred didn't because she wanted to try to see if she could bring Millicent to the Light Side of the Force. But there have to be some others among the 4400 who have had abilities manifest that could do more to stop these guys, right? Or even if we're to assume that people are not yet powered or have powers that are mostly useless in a self-defense context, certainly with the knowledge that the 4400-haters were becoming more militant, they could have done more to protect themselves and their "sanctuary" than they did.

To quickly go over some of the characters:

Shanice: When we were first introduced to her, she was a fiery attorney, a crusader for justice who happened to have lost the love of her life and the chance to raise her daughter. By this episode, she had almost entirely been stripped of her agency and defined pretty much exclusively as Doc's girlfriend, Logan's ex, Mariah's mother. I kind of hope that she does get written off if there's a second season because the powers that be didn't seem to know what to do with her. In fairness, she seemingly lined up this kind of ally, but the show had all that happen off-screen. I think it would have said a lot more if they had showed Shanice trying to recruit help for the 4400, using her knowledge of the law/politics for the group's benefit. Also, since she was from Detroit, maybe they could have had her connect to things besides her ex. Like doesn't she have any friends who are still around after 15 years who are curious about her situation, or who she's curious about?

Doc: I like Doc as a character but the development in this episode just doesn't make much sense. It is just too tough for me to take Green-Light Lady at her word. OK, the Green-Lighters for whatever reason allowed Manny a seat at the table when planning their strategy. OK, so Manny screwed things up with the time travel effort and broke it. OK, so they can't easily build another machine and they need help to do it for some reason. How the hell is a quasi medical doctor from the 1920s (because iIIRC, Doc was self-taught and not in fact credentialed or a graduate of a med school) supposed to meaningfully contribute to a feat that requires 2060s technology/engineering? It would be like trying to recruit a time-displaced Jonas Salk if you needed to build a better iPhone. There are lots of contemporary people who would just be way better calls. 

Hayden: He went from being autistic and crushing on Mildred to having both those character traits erased with not much explanation. I guess the latter could be explained by being frightened of what she did to Bill Greene or his visions or something. But that's the point: a better written show would have better established why his feelings changed about her, or played with the difficulty in reconciling the Mildred that he was so in love with that he forced people to go on the crazy plan to raid the hospital with the Mildred who had become a killer. Hayden's future visions are pretty weak if he couldn't foresee the 4400-haters storming the hotel and jumped to the conclusion that Mildred was on the attack.

LaDonna: She went from a more light-hearted character to one who was much more somber, but at least that transition had the groundwork laid in dealing with her father. One of the things I don't like is how she is the mouthpiece through which the writers get to portray the 4400-haters as white supremacists. As far as we saw, the 4400-haters aren't particularly motivated by the fact that the 4400 are mostly non-white. They are motivated by the notion that the 4400 are unexplained freaks of nature, and the explanation that they are really lizards is as good as any. Also, LaDonna's dad and ex-guard Steve are non-white people who see the 4400 as non-people, so it's not really a white supremacy thing. The show certainly tried to parallel with today's American conservative movement in talking about "taking our country back" which doesn't make any sense, because there's literally only 4400 of them, versus 350 million Americans, and the 4400 are mostly confined to one block in Detroit and mostly don't have powers and haven't done anything to take the country away from "us." The thing about making the dancing iguana was sort of cute but wasn't there a better illusion she could have made? And aren't all those bullets going to end up somewhere? 

Jharrel: Maybe it's me, but it seems like there should be more reaction from him when he finds out a) his brother attempted to kill Rev, b) his brother was somehow in 2062 and talks about trying to avert white supremacist apocalypse, and c) his brother is apparently willing to martyr some great number of 4400 to set off some positive change. 

Keisha: Another character that doesn't really interest me. I don't get how/why her girlfriend had a heel-face turn this episode, or if we are supposed to forgive her after she was seemingly high ranking in the hospital torture of 4400 and was trying to torture Jharrel to get info about where Manny is. 

Claudette: I like Claudette but I kind of think the situations they put her in were ridiculous. Unless the guy holding a knife to her neck is himself a 4400, he's not going to be able to decapitate. The foot stomp to get him to lose his grip was dumb as hell. 

Rev: I would have thought there would be some mention of his fate. But nope.

Soraya: No mention of her either. Hopefully it's her bowling league night or something. 

I hope if the show gets renewed, they whip the showrunners into shape. Take the time to do a good series bible so it doesn't seem like they're just pulling concepts from their butts. 

 

 

[shapeshifter]

6 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

Aren't there probably dozens of ways with a time machine and superpower-infuser that they could improve things for their present that would make more sense than abducting people from as far back as the Civil War, giving them powers and then putting them in 2020 with no clue about what happened to them?

At least for now, @Chicago Redshirt, just responding to this one ☝️ point in your detailed post—   
which is more clearly thought out than the show seems to have been:

Like all of the 4400 to varying degrees, Doc André seems to represent the infinite number of geniuses in the past whose value to humanity was lost because of societal prejudice–—primarily against people of color, but also against people of any gender identity other than CIS male, as well as against any who are differently abled. (Regarding Doc being “differently abled,” the character seems to exist somewhere on the autism spectrum—–including possibly some degree of Aspergers.)

I’m guessing what we saw this season was an early attempt to use time travel to prevent an apocalypse based on the loss of that vast store of genius.

My response, of course, is mostly playing The Devil’s Advocate.   
The show was pretty bonkers.   
Wikipedia attributes a lot of different writers to the different episodes. Maybe they needed a Zoom meeting meister?

Still, I hope it at least gets renewed.  
Even if the show devolves further into chaos, I’d like it to at least have a chance to get pulled together into a unique, cohesive whole–—or even a uniquely chaotic whole.

Edited February 15, 2022 by shapeshifter

[cdnalor]

I really couldn't care less if this show comes back but if it does I'll probably tune in despite all the quality issues raised by other posters, as I'm a fan of the sci-fi genre and time travel stories in particular.  But I have to say the heavy-handed "white heteros bad/everyone else good" theme borders on offensive, although I've come to expect this from the CW.  I just didn't expect it to be this blatant and crude.

[Chicago Redshirt]

It really wouldn't have killed the writers to be less heavy-handed. Or would it?

But having Logan as basically the only decent hetero white guy is pretty thin. I think we are supposed to think of Manny as a villain despite being a POC.

As an aside, I wonder what the story is behind Manny's last name (Campos) being different from Jharrel's (Mateo). They seemingly have the same father and  so normally would have the same last name. 

[rwlevin]

So if I understood things correctly, every time a 4401 (accounting for manny) gets killed, or is about to get killed due to Autumn Reeser playing with the timeline, they get scooped up back into the future, healed, have their mind wiped and reinserted to start again. So that means Rev, Hayden and Logan-although I don’t know why he was taken since he’s not a 4401, are currently alive in the future and can easily come back.

I liked this show. I mean, sure it was convoluted but not nearly as confusing as the original show with its multiple future factions and power/death inducing promicin shots. But if it comes back, can Joel Gretsch please make a cameo? Or Billy Campbell? Please?

[Chicago Redshirt]

4 hours ago, rwlevin said:

So if I understood things correctly, every time a 4401 (accounting for manny) gets killed, or is about to get killed due to Autumn Reeser playing with the timeline, they get scooped up back into the future, healed, have their mind wiped and reinserted to start again. So that means Rev, Hayden and Logan-although I don’t know why he was taken since he’s not a 4401, are currently alive in the future and can easily come back.

I liked this show. I mean, sure it was convoluted but not nearly as confusing as the original show with its multiple future factions and power/death inducing promicin shots. But if it comes back, can Joel Gretsch please make a cameo? Or Billy Campbell? Please?

I don't know if we can necessarily draw that conclusion. We have only recently seen the Green Lighters take four people in two sets of 2020 abductions:

Manny, who was wounded and we know reinserted back in 2020 with an apparent memory wipe;

Logan and Hayden, where Logan was wounded, and we don't yet know when/where they are going to be returned or what condition they'll be in.

Rev, who was injured and we don't know where/when/if he is returned.

Things are more complicated because according to the one Future Lady, the machinery that they were using to guide time travel was broken. So are these changes happening deliberately? As a product of time being broken? By some group other than the one that seeded the 4400 initially who still has a working time machine? 

I don't think through 13 episodes we have had an instance of a 4400 having an on-screen death. Could be that I have forgotten one, though. 

I don't think the original was all that confusing. There were (as far as we were told) only two future factions: the ones who sent the 4400 back in the hopes of improving the future by introducing promicin and thus somehow avoiding class warfare and ecological disaster, and the evil people, who wanted to maintain a status quo where they were rich. 

The new show seems to have a white supremacist faction (obviously bad), the people who have sent the 4400 back (who may or may be only interested in incremental change and may be less altruistic than we might think, and then Manny. 

This show has introduced ZMT, which presumably might as well be promicin. 

[shapeshifter]

14 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

Logan and Hayden, where Logan was wounded, and we don't yet know when/where they are going to be returned or what condition they'll be in.

It would be interesting to have Logan reappear 15 years later when his current wife has moved on, and then have Shanice and Logan reunite–—in part over their now-shared experiences of having been presumed to have deserted their spouses, only to return 15 years later. Their daughter would be about 29 and perhaps there would be a grandchild.
But I don't think that kind of plot would work on a TV series. It would have to be either a book series or a movie.

 

14 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

Manny, who was wounded and we know reinserted back in 2020 with an apparent memory wipe

I'm now guessing that Manny's mind wipe is how they deal with criminal tendencies in the fictional future, rather than something that all green-lighters experience.
However, none of the 4400 recall anything between when they were taken and when they arrived at Belle Isle, so there could be missing memories, but we don't have anything definitive on that yet.

[mythoughtis]

This episode yet again left me going ‘ what happened after the last episode’ because every episode seems like there’s an entire episode missing between episodes.  The original 4400 was not like that except when it came to Jordan in the later seasons and Lily’s baby/Instant adult. 
 
Like others have noted, Manny was just a mess.  The people that had the time machine were obviously the people in power, so the concept of white supremacy being a problem in 2062 and also being the reason for trying to change the past was a fallacy.   What is it that Doc, who has a 1920  education,  is going to offer to people from 2062 that they don’t already know?  You can’t tell me they need him to build a time machine they’ve already built and used multiple times? And why is he the only 4400 that they feel is valuable to bring into the fold? What’s the other 4399 supposed to do?  
 

This episode seemed like it was written by 14 year olds.  At least the original 4400 seemed to be written by adults 

Edited February 19, 2022 by mythoughtis

[ottoDbusdriver]

The giant iguana was dancing to 'Levitating' by Dua Lipa.  Sure, why not, makes about as much sense as the rest of this show.

Not to be even more confusing, but when Mildred was talking to Millicent they both called each other 'Millie' -- come on writers, couldn't you have picked two names for sisters that were different enough so that their nicknames weren't the same.  Seriously.

Millicent's power was that she had an ironfist or something that glowed around her hand that gave her super punching ability.  Did we know that was Millicent's power before this episode ?

How is the group from 2062/2064 insulated from the changes in the timeline ?  i.e. how can they detect the changes that they make to the timeline by abducting people ?

What if Dr. Amber Campbell and her group are not the only ones with time travel capabilities ?  Maybe there's a group even farther in the future trying to correct the mistakes of the group from 2062/2064. 

If Sienna Stone and Amber Campbell are the same person, from what year did Amber/Sienna travel back in time to establish her substantial fortune to fund time travel research ?  And what year did she arrive ?  Or is the Amber/Sienna that is working with the Doc from yet another timeline ?

Kind of reminds me a bit of what we learned about time travel from the TV show '12 Monkeys' -- you can't invent time travel without time travel.

Edited February 20, 2022 by ottoDbusdriver

[shapeshifter]

Oh, dear @ottoDbusdriver, I think I'm too old to follow your theories anymore.😭 

But about the giant dancing iguana...
When it showed up, my first thought was: 
Oooohhhh...That's why they had LaDonna's dad talking about iguana's (and why they had LaDonna vision-cast a bunch of normal sized iguanas to chase a bunch of grown men out of a room).
There was a big sale on Giant Dancing Iguana CGI scripts.
 

[peachmangosteen]

12 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

Millicent's power was that she had an ironfist or something that glowed around her hand that gave her super punching ability.  Did we know that was Millicent's power before this episode ?

No, that was the first time they showed Millicent using her power.

[Chicago Redshirt]

18 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

The giant iguana was dancing to 'Levitating' by Dua Lipa.  Sure, why not, makes about as much sense as the rest of this show.

Not to be even more confusing, but when Mildred was talking to Millicent they both called each other 'Millie' -- come on writers, couldn't you have picked two names for sisters that were different enough so that their nicknames weren't the same.  Seriously.

Millicent's power was that she had an ironfist or something that glowed around her hand that gave her super punching ability.  Did we know that was Millicent's power before this episode ?

How is the group from 2062/2064 insulated from the changes in the timeline ?  i.e. how can they detect the changes that they make to the timeline by abducting people ?

What if Dr. Amber Campbell and her group are not the only ones with time travel capabilities ?  Maybe there's a group even farther in the future trying to correct the mistakes of the group from 2062/2064. 

If Sienna Stone and Amber Campbell are the same person, from what year did Amber/Sienna travel back in time to establish her substantial fortune to fund time travel research ?  And what year did she arrive ?  Or is the Amber/Sienna that is working with the Doc from yet another timeline ?

Kind of reminds me a bit of what we learned about time travel from the TV show '12 Monkeys' -- you can't invent time travel without time travel.

I wouldn't be surprised if real world parents named their kids close enough that they'd have the same nickname. George Foreman's got some number of sons he all named George. But it was a dumb idea for the writers to do that with a pair of secondary characters. 

Almost all time travel plots allow for at least some people to realize that the past has been altered, because otherwise the characters would be just going forward with their lives thinking that how things are is how they've always been instead of trying to change them back. 

I don't think it would take much for Amber/Sienna to accumulate a fortune with advanced tech and knowledge from 40 years in the future. It would be pretty easy for someone to exploit being from the future to make big bets on sports and other events, stocks and blockchain, before even starting to leverage the sale and marketing of ideas and technology decades before their time. 

I tend to doubt that the writers of 4400 have put much thought in the mechanisms of time travel in their universe, or the big picture, or really anything else.