Patrick Flueger as Shawn Farrell on THE 4400.
© USA Network
Mania Grade: B
Episode: The Great Leap Forward Season Finale
Starring: Joel Gretsch, Jacqueline McKenzie, Patrick Flueger, Conchita Campbell
Created By: Scott Peters
Episode: The Great Leap Forward Season Finale
Starring: Joel Gretsch, Jacqueline McKenzie, Patrick Flueger, Conchita Campbell
Created By: Scott Peters
THE 4400: The Great Leap Forward Season Finale
By: Stephen LackeyReview Date: Tuesday, September 18, 2007
This may be the busiest episode of a series that features some really busy episodes throughout its run. The rush of the episode may be its biggest problem. There were tons of things that happened in this episode that probably should have at least been building over the last couple of episodes. This should have at least been a two hour finale.
The whole finale hinges on Shawn’s brother Danny. Last episode he took the shot and when he told his mother she died there in his arms. Some people predicted that Danny’s new ability is simply a kill power but his mom went down just like someone did who had taken the shot. So at the end of that episode I figured that she had taken the shot too. The truth about his ability is a pretty clever way to push the story arc of the series forward in a rapid way. He’s actually able to infect those around him with promicin; as if they had taken the shot and once he gets it started it spreads. By the end of the episode 9,000 people are dead and 9,000 others will be developing new abilities. The CDC quarantined the entire city of Seattle leaving NTAC and whatever is left of the local law enforcement to try and deal with the situation. Eventually Meghan approaches Promise City to take Kyle up on an offer of help from his “P Positives”, people who already have abilities that aren’t affected by the virus. When she meets with Kyle she wants information on the P positives and their abilities so a plan can be formulated to lock the city down until this virus can be dealt with. Kyle says there's no point in waiting because Jordan has a plan in place for taking over the city. Meghan’s reaction is that she thinks that’s great but she wants her city back after everything’s over. I think she knows that won’t happen, but she has to say it. All of this feels pretty epic in scope and in story and the fast pace works for me, but the smaller stories that are rushed through are where I have problems.
Tom has been a Marked for several episodes now, and in a matter of a few minutes of extremely predictable footage he’s back to normal. It just seems to me that Joel Gretsch didn’t get enough time to really explore this new character he was playing. At the same time Isabelle has been ordered to go and kill Kyle while the Marked wait for Jordan’s mark to take effect. Well, Isabelle tries to kill Kyle but she can’t. So, she instead heads back to the Marked hideout and kills the woman who was apparently the leader of the Marked and she’s paid back by the kill switch going off in her head and she dies. Does she not care about her father anymore? Just because she kills the Marked that she sees doesn’t mean there isn’t another one somewhere else holding a gun to her daddy’s head.
The potential of having Jordan as a Marked was fantastic but instead it’s all over in mere moments. Why put Jordan through this mini story if all you’re going to do is switch it around with a simple plot device and put him right back where he was as the leader of the P positives? These stories with Jordan and Tom were set up for so much potential fun and it feels like the creators thought suddenly “Oh no! We have to change everything to progress this story forward!” and they change everything. The fallout is Danny, who has to die to stop the virus, Shawn and Danny’s mother, Isabelle, Marco’s partner in the NTAC offices, and 9,000 others all had to die. The end of the episode finds its way back to a place we’ve been before, with Kyle trying to give Tom a promicin shot to take.
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I guess marco is sort of a teleporter. It seems he can look at a picture and he's in that location, yet unlike Hiro in Heroes, he cannot time jump.
** End Spoiler Alert **