AIR-DATE: 27/8/06
Written by: Ira Steven Behr and Craig Sweeny
Directed by: Nick Copus
Starring: Peter Coyote, Summer Glau, Sean Marquette, Jody Thompson
Rating: 5/5
Synopsis
4400 Centre
employee Devon appears in an
internet video, injecting herself
with promicin and promising
that the shots will soon be
available everywhere. Tom and
Diana meet a wall of silence at
the Centre and Diana pulls Maia
from her classroom. Marco
analyses Devon’s video and
pinpoints her location.
At the hideout, Devon begins
to seize and despite Shawn’s
efforts, she dies just as NTAC
agents arrive on the scene. Tom
and Diana approach Ryland, who
says he’s not surprised – there
was a 50% rejection rate among
his super-soldiers. Shawn’s
arrested and, when he won’t
talk, Nina has Tom convince
Alana to help, but Ryland gets
there first with Isabelle. Her
interrogation leaves Shawn
hospitalised and Tom finally
decides to kill Isabelle.
Ryland’s soldiers go with
Isabelle to Collier’s warehouse.
She holds Collier in a chokehold,
but one soldier finds the
promicin is fake, and it’s not
really Collier – it’s Boyd! He
detonates a bomb and destroys
the warehouse, but Isabelle
survives. She decides to attack
the 4400 Centre and takes
Maia’s classroom – including
Maia, who’s come back without
Diana’s knowledge – hostage.
Maia tells Isabelle her plan won’t
work, just as Tom and Diana
arrive. Diana shoots Isabelle as
the kids run away, but as Tom
tries to inject Isabelle, she wakes
up and flings both them across
the room. Isabelle and Tom
struggle for the syringe. Richard
arrives and levitates the syringe,
thrusting it into Isabelle’s throat.
The injection doesn’t kill her, but
depowers her. Tom shoots her in
the shoulder.
Following the stand-off, Diana
decides to take Maia and go to
Spain with Ben. Maia tells Alana
that they’ll be back, but Alana
won’t be there. Later, Alana’s
reabducted. Kyle and April both
consider taking the promicin as
the first reports of new abilities
come in.
Review
Unlike last year’s
season finale, this one won’t
have you shouting, “Oh my God!”
repeatedly, but it’s great viewing
nonetheless. You can tell that it
was all shot before the
announcement of a fourth
season was made – the final shot,
where the promicin distributor
breaks the fourth wall to say
“how about you?”, is a classic
“the end” shot. Fortunately, the
closing moments make for a
satisfying finale without tying up
too many loose ends (and,
indeed, opening a few new plot
points) so it doesn’t suffer. I love
the twist with the syringe too –
although since Tom just
incapacitated Isabelle rather than
killing her, I wonder how that’ll
impact things later on. I’m really
looking forward to season four
now. Let’s just hope they start
out strong this time…
Dialogue
Boyd Gelder: “I
have a message from Jordan
Collier. It’s a new world. And
there’s no place for you in it!”
Leah Holmes
