In terms of revelations-per-episode, the third season of The 4400 makes the third season of Lost seem as insipid and languid as a soap opera by comparison. Granted, the two are entirely different programmes; both have strong underlying premises that the writers have had to rely on in order to flesh out the additional seasons.
Lost, however, has to had to rely more and more on the strength of its characters in order to continue the show’s momentum. At the end of the day, its so-called Big Ideas may prove too insubstantial for the weight the fans have already accorded them.
Curiously, this also makes Lost much less of an SF show than The 4400, which has a far more complex and practical premise that the writers have been able to recomplicate and reflect upon in subsequent seasons. Unlike Lost, I suspect the writers of The 4400 are not motivated by drawing out the show simply to maintain ratings and viewership figures.
The 4400 does not pull any punches in terms of character development or its own basic set-up. A stunning example of this no-holds-barred approach is the fourth episode of the third season, ‘Gone Part 1’.
There is not a single wasted frame in this excruciatingly taut episode; yet it still manages to pull off a stunning ‘sense of wonder’ ending that leaves a viewer’s jaw on the floor. (Lost tends to save such instances of epiphany for its finales; The 4400 is managing this feat on a weekly basis.)
The episode begins with Shawn and Isabelle in bed together, as if to pre-empt the cluck-clucking of tongues at the end of the last episode, which ended with The Kiss. See, The 4400 seems to be saying, our characters can have uninhibited sex …
Shawn answers a knock at the door – of course, it’s Richard, who has taken over Lily’s role of financial manager at The 4400 Centre, enquiring about mysterious withdrawals. Mmm, his boss has just been making unauthorised deposits in his daughter. The viewer feels suitably embarrassed on Shawn’s behalf, so I suppose that is that.
Maia and Diana are preparing for a little quality R&R. Maia runs back into the house to fetch a jumper she had forgotten, but not before cryptically telling her mom: “You are going to forget me.” Gee, that sounds exactly like the sort of pseudo-meaningful asides that Lost panders to.
When Maia fails to reappear, Diana goes upstairs to look for her – and finds her conversing miraculously with Maia’s long-lost sister, Sarah Rutledge (played with shimmering menace by Alice Krige. And just when has dear Alice ever played a ‘normal’ character? So we just feel in our bones that trouble is on the way.)
Shawn attempts a mass healing at a hospital, but is rudely interrupted by a male nurse who throws red paint on him and who calls him a traitor to his own kind … Just what is going on here? Is the fake male nurse a member of the radical Nova Group, or just a loose nut rolling around? And if he does represent the former, is it now advocating some form of Aryan separatism based on genetic superiority? It is an uncomfortable and chilling moment. Is it possible that true evil can emerge from such mundane circumstances?
Tom tells Diana that a DNA test had revealed that Sarah was not Maia’s sister. They rush over to Amy’s house where she is supposed to be playing in the backyard, but Amy politely tells them Maia had gone off with her big sis.
It is as if Maia has vanished without a trace.
Diana desperately scours her daughter’s mound of notebooks in search of some clue, but it is mostly doodles and stream-of-consciousness stuff. Rarely does foretelling the future involve something as straightforward as predicting the Lotto results, for example. So mayhap Nostradamus was right?
Sarah takes Maia to a house containing an exact replica of her bedroom before her abduction. However, she quickly realises she is being held captive. And she is not alone. Lindsey solemnly tells Maia she is now part of Sarah’s collection. Soon after this, a silent mysterious man comes and drags a screaming Lindsey away to some other part of the house. She is returned later in a dazed state – and she can no longer remember who Maia is.
It is not long after this that it becomes Maia’s turn to discover the secrets of Sarah’s house. Sarah offers her what looks like a glass of milk, and two pills. To make her feel better, she says soothingly. Yeah, right. No one can do creepy unction quite like Alice Krige.
Suddenly the lights in the kitchen start to flicker, and Maia shouts: “They’re doing it! They’re doing it!” She means that the other kidnapped returnee kids are using their respective powers to stage a revolt. Sarah begins to turn waxen and literally melt as one of the kids begins to draw all the water content from her body. Eww!
Meanwhile, Tom and Diana have deciphered a repeated drawing of butterflies in one of Maia’s notebooks as an emblem on a house’s gate in the area. They rush out to the house and prepare to storm the door …
Maia runs from the kitchen to escape Sarah’s evil clutches, and heads for the front door …
Tom and Diana barge inside … only to find a house completely empty except for an estate agent and his startled clients …
And Maia rushes through the door into the dimly-lit, amphitheatre-like room first seen in ‘Life Interrupted’, with a single operating table in the centre bathed in a glaring spotlight. Sarah tells Maia she is from the future. And the future needs her help.
They had screwed up the calculations, and now needed to ‘seed’ Maia much earlier in the timeline in order to bring about the necessary corrections and thereby avert apocalypse. Sarah tells Maia soothingly that no one will know she even existed, so why cry about such a trifle? “All hope we have rests with you.”
There is a flash of bright light, and Maia is gone.
Isabelle, meanwhile, realises that Ross has been manipulating her feelings for Shawn in order to exert his influence over him. She tells him she is beginning to realise the extent of her own power, and is not afraid of him anymore. Whereupon she uses her mind to bend Ross over backwards like a pretzel. God help Shawn the day he fails to perform in bed.
And Maia? In all photographs, we see her slowly begin to fade until nothing is left …
