Tuesday 20 October 2009

1304 The Common Touch,In the service of teh Country qith Lost and the Peter Green Splinter Group

Sometimes I only write my way into a theme, sometimes I write myself out of one theme into another, but this evening I am as clear as I can ever be about what I want to try and say, sparked by two very different Television programmes experienced at 8 and then 9pm. The first was about the capitalist merging of copy goods with branded goods manufactured in China as this country becomes the economic power of the world. The second was a brilliant episode of Lost which brings the 4th series into a new dimension, explaining much that has gone before and which is to come, or does it?. One programme blurring the nature of what is fake with what is real and one which created a coherent explanation for the ability to believe one is in two different dimension of actual time without any physical transformation.

I had woken early, struggling to break from a dream in order to put the rubbish bin out. The dream involved my mother in her latter days, something which I cannot recall happening before, and a building, a familiar scenario, with the building a college or residential facility which also becomes and office, occasionally department kind of store, or a large house, and while these buildings are familiar or have familiar aspects there are always problems in that I cannot ever get back to where I have been and want to be, exiting some distance away, again in territory with familiar aspects, but sometime distance away from the place I anticipated and always thinking I know how to get back and never being able to do so.
On getting up I redrafted and corrected yesterdays writing. Sometimes my days become more circular than others. It was cold as I pushed the bin out under the half opened garage back door. I boiled the kettle and only then decided on coffee rather than first thought tea, and cheese slices on toast rather than cereal. I thought if I wake up quickly and feel physically alert I will start the house clean cycle once more. What happened to the forecast sleet and snow? Perhaps the radio or TV will tell me. I did not start the house clean and failed to answer my query about the weather forecasting. I heard the bin men come and then later the recycle box run which I had forgotten as my box had not built up over the fortnight, so it did not matter than I have to wait another two weeks. I forgot to bring the bin back in until darkness remembering when taking the evening meal plate into the kitchen.

I had some of the cold chicken as a salad for lunch, another portion will suffice for tomorrow, and a tomato soup around 5 and a ham omelette around 7pm, a banana at lunchtime and too much butterscotch whip around 9 as I was then too tired to prepare some fresh pineapple, followed by strong percolated coffee at 10 to keep me going until the writing is done for the day.
I worked long and hard on my work project during the day in order to meet the new monthly out target of 125 new sets of cards, 3000 in total, my average since the autumn of 2003 when I first got underway. This work included information on the volume about scientific Matter which I quickly decided must commence with scientific creation and the 57 ( after one quick count) non scientific creation belief system from around our planet of which three are Islam, Judaism and Christianity and then the multitude of second and third sub category beliefs system which emerged as individual human being wrestled with the emerging sciences and the extent to which belief was put into practice and was not.

As I worked I first listened to a two hour set of the Peter Green Splinter Group, which I had never heard of before until I realised this was Peter Green, born Peter Greenbaum of Fleetwood Mac, who started with John Mayal's Bluesbreakers, after Eric Clapton's departure. In the beginning there was Adam and Eve, then you and me and we are all connected. He created Fleetwood Mac and with success followed the predicable route of taking drugs, particularly the hallucinatory LSD which a psychiatrist I admired used to take very disturbed adolescents and others, sinking deeper into the criminal and self destructive abyss, on a bad trip into their childhood and the precipitating experience of their subsequent behaviour, but which in his instance may have precipitated his schizophrenia, the self administered LSD trips I mean. With the help of family and friends Peter resurfaced with new music in the late 1970's/early80's and then again in the 1990's with the Splinter Group. Like Clapton he collected guitars having over 100, he should have had 101 which would have been interesting. In 2004 a further tour was planned and cancelled and then with the British Blues All Stars but this was also cancelled because of the difficulty he continued to experience with his problems, in part caused by the medication. His large body of work remains on record and some on film. It is timeless music which will be played long after much of today's output of popular music is forgotten.

In the afternoon as my work momentum flagged I enjoyed the 1941 British Classic film The Common Touch which was a romantic view of a Christian socialist capitalism in which an eighteen year old finds himself inheriting a major company, decides to investigate the effects of a plan cooked up by his chief executive to make personal profit from a deal which will evict the residents of a homeless shelter used by those who have been to prison or fallen on other hard times. He and a friend dress down to live in the shelter until they discover something to thwart the plans and convince his Board to adopt a socialist approach to the planned development. There is a sub plot in this film where a high class singer declines the proposal of marriage from an England Test Match Cricketer, of the Gentlemen public school wing in the days when the Players were the professionals who tried to make a livelihood full time from the game while the Gentlemen had separate interests which provided their income and life style. Bernard Miles had a miniscule role as a steward at Lords.

I then planned to have as background to further work what I thought was to be a World War 2 film, In the service of the country, only to discover it was a Russian language film in which their secret service set out to thwart an Arabic, Muslim, Terrorist group's attempt to launch Armageddon on all non believers commencing with bombings in Moscow, New York and Berlin city shopping centres. The hero of the civil service team is a cross between the leader of the A Team and bionic Superman Ninja, with his sidekick Lara Croft who take on Cat Woman, the brain behind what was is in fact a capitalist heist to strip some of the oil made Arab wealth, 200 million dollars to 14 accounts in Switzerland, letting off a few real bombs to cause some devastation and loss of human life to keep the Muslim extremists content, much like the American Mafia funded the attempted capitalist return to Cuba. I watched the nonsense because I became very tired and at times it was difficult to keep my eyes open to watch the action let alone read the sub titles. It was an interesting Russian perspective, given he 75% popular vote for the replacement of Putin as Prime Minister while he moves into the Presidency, well it could have been 99.99 percent like the good old days. This reminds me to mention that the Clinton succession is running out of steam which means that I hope Obama is now on assassination watch, especially as a new Presidential assassination film opens this weekend and is bound to trigger another political, Mafia. American secret state within a state, capitalist conspiracy, religious extremist, racist assassination attempt, or is their secret service that incompetent to enable a lone individual to get close enough?

It was while I was trying to recover from this prolonged siesta that it looked as if an hour long programme about the extent to which the major international capitalist companies were being shafted by their own greed until they worked out if you cant beat them you should join them. I have no idea when western capitalists first worked out that China would solve all their problems of squeezed profit margins and bonuses because of the accumulative effects in their countries of minimum wage legislation, structured and protected workers rights with good wage levels, good holiday and pension arrangements, and the need for higher taxes to provide social expenditure on top of that required for security. The prospect of unlimited wealth from trading with Russian and China was only identified as possibilities when I attended a senior management course in the mid 1980's, although by then the capitalists understood that one had to internationalise in order to be able to move the enterprises when political, trade union and trading conditions became too difficult to maintain and further profits in any particular country.

The allegation is a confusing film (which appeared to be on the side of capitalist enterprises who have little thought on the impact of their machinations on workers at home or overseas), is that the firms are now, at best, only going through the motions of opposing the copying of brand images, and that they are unofficially cashing in themselves where they can on the parallel manufacturing and trading.
The story in this documentary is that the companies were so keen to get into the emerging Chinese exporting market that they took up with whichever bilingual Chinese fixer that came their way, not realising that in order to maximise the profit potential and therefore speed up the economic growth of their country, the individual, often which official connections, if not outright blessing, would directly or indirectly set up other production units to create copies which would undercut the Brand and also make more profit because they did not have the same chain of profiteers to service. The reason why the Branded goods went to China more than to Russia because they could recreate the slave labour conditions of the industrial revolution, getting volunteers to work 100 hours a week in for coppers or cents, often using adolescents and children.

As with the agricultural workers driven to the Industrial revolution factories in the UK or the theoretically emancipated black and Mexican slave labour in the USA, the earnings were still better than previously, with the prospect of advancement for a few who were able to understand and use the system for their personal gain. The hoot is that many of those exploiting the Brands names by making authentic copies, are principled communists who have worked out that this is a good way to pay back the Western capitalist for their years of trying to break communist power and authority. I just do not understand how western capitalists get away with describing these goods as fake or counterfeit.
Take Burberry for example, who have closed British factories with the consequence that Burberry is now a Chinese made good and made according to Chinese labour conditions. Somewhere in China there are other workers making Burberry like goods sold in China and overseas, at less price. Top Shop in the UK sells look alike fashion goods where the originals cost £1000 for £50. I do not understand the difference. The gripe appears to be who pockets the profits. It is not about the impact of the development on British working conditions, protected through membership of the ECC and which was once hated by socialists and defended by capitalists.

The programme illustrated my point by interviewing one engaging woman who is able to frequent travel the world and who always visit her Bagman friend in Marbella who is able to provide her and her friends with bag look a likes costing a tenth or twentieth of the original where there is usually a waiting list which means that when you get your original it is already out of date. So the original manufacturing brand name must be raking it in within six months of orders making and selling bag ten to twenty to forty and fifty times the actual cost of materials and labour and others are able to also make money from silly women with too much money and just as little social conscience. This reminds me to have a moan about all those creating markets on E Bay for example by giving publicity to the mark up on scare resource items. I have long suspected the complaint was coming from those such as footballers and those associated with football clubs who planned to make money by selling their allocation of tickets to the official resale market, the companies which provide hospitality packages at all the main sporting, theatrical and cultural events. What they not like is ordinary punters getting in on the act as this undercuts the price which celebrity interests can get for their tickets, and the demand for the inflated hospitality packages. You think I am joking? On the news this day the HSBC bank was writing off billions because of its involvement in the sub prime market in the USA, but still announced record overall profits in the billions because of its gains in the Far East. I was also fascinated by a local news programme which is spending the week promoting the new Emirates route from Newcastle airport to Dubai with its links to the Australasia, nice work if you can get and afford it. It is obviously a freebie promoted by the airline and Dubai. However my complaint is not that this is the nature of society, but by the increasingly flimsy pretence of it all as the general population becomes more educated.

Earlier in the day I had planned to spend time reading what Wikipedia has to say on Time but was over taken by this week's brilliant episode of Lost, one of the best of the 70 odd so far. Earlier in the 4th series the ultra realist Sayed had set off with the true love never hath so finer an advocate, Desmond, in the helicopter to the ship, only to fail to keep strictly on its course, and for Time to slip out of Time but with significant consequence Desmond who finds himself switching with increasing rapidity between his time in the British Army (it does not have an British army feel though) and being on the helicopter and the off island moored freighter. The reason why he has been affected in this way is because his previous experience of significant radioactivity and the electro magnetic storm which the helicopter passes through on its way to the freighter. In the past series the whole issue of convergent electro magnetic polarity was explored. In this episode the communications officer on the freighter and a friend have been also affected when they take the ship to shore boat and veer off the only course portal which craft can travel to and from the island. One of the two has already died and the other is shortly to die which emphasises the need for Desmond to find a treatment if one is possible. It is because on the island there is Daniel Faraday the Oxford experimental physicist who has worked out a means of transporting the brain (not the body) into the future and back in which you can experience the realities but not alter it… a device to ensure that those watching the programme cannot conclude that the mystery of the island is about alternate dimensions and realities, especially as in this series there are forward flashes as well as flashbacks. The beauty of this programme is that it provides a coherent explanation for what is happening with a Romeo and Juliet love story

During moments of onboard ship reality Desmond and Sayed are able to communicate with the island by telephone and with Daniel Faraday, the physicist from the freighter who explains that some of those who veer of the narrow sea or air course to the island experience a mental form of time travel in which the individual inhabits their actual physical body and memory in both dimensions and in order to stabilise himself in both and not bring his present to an untimely end he has to connect with a meaningful constant from both times, and which in this instance is Penny, the love of both their lives.

On discovering that Desmond believes the year is 1996, Daniel instructs him that the next time he is back in this reality he must go as quickly as he can to find him at Oxford University where he works and is at the early theoretical and experimental period of his brain travel work. When this happens he reacts that Desmond is a set up by colleagues to who ridicule his work but he has provided in the future a key to ensure that when in the past Daniel recognises that only someone inhabiting the future could know of the detail. He then explains to Desmond that in order to survive he must make contact with someone, a constant, from both moments in time.

The beauty of this story line will not be appreciated by those who do not know the history of Desmond's relationship with Penny and that she is using her family wealth to fund an ongoing search to find out what happened to Desmond and that despite what has happened between them and the years of separation, their love has remained constant, except for the time in 1996 which is where the brain time shift has taken him. To break the chain which is quickly leading to a brain seizure an death he must make contact with Penny in the present, where there is a double complication, he does not have her phone number, and the ship to outside world communication system has been sabotaged. Sayed the communications specialist is able to solve the latter but to get the phone number he has to go back mentally to 1996,find Penny's father and persuades him to given her whereabouts, he gives her address not her phone number, so Desmond visits and persuades Penny to give her number as a means of getting rid of him, and he registers with her that he will ring her on Christmas even eight years from hence, which he is able to do, they express their undying love how ever long it will take for them to be together, if ever, and in do doing he is saved, for now. The episode ends with Faraday going through his master notebooks where eight years before he has made a note, if things go wrong Desmond is my constant. Thus the situation is circular as I believe is time, and that what is imagined or dreamt reality and what is authentic reality is all part of reality, just as what is a fake, and what is a copy, or good representation or reproduction are all valid perspective of one reality.

Monday 12 October 2009

1812 Crime and Punishment: Criminal Justice, Murder by Numbers , teh 4400he

On every weekday evening last week at 9pm on BBC Channel One there was the showing of the second drama in the series Criminal Justice which I delayed watching until this weekend using the i player. The first series was BAFTA award wining and although this series was a different story with different actors I quickly understood why so much critically acclaim had been given. I have not previously experienced such an intense in depth and complex portrayal of human behaviour relationships over a five hour period. It was at times unwatchable yet I could not, and did not, want to stop doing so.

Throughout the outcome was uncertain although the tone was such that the audience became prepared for something which left one unhappy and angry. While the writers were unequivocally hostile to the male dominated Criminal Justice system where tribal relationships and prejudices dominated, the main target appeared to be a system which parted good parenting mothers from their children. In this respect the programme was fundamentally flawed because too often children have been kept with damaged and dangerous mothers as well as with damaged and dangerous men, accepting that the record of fostering and the residential care system in the UK is also open to serious and justified criticism. However there is a difference between well trained and experienced people making the wrong decisions and situations where incompetence, prejudice and failure to provide appropriate resources prevails.

In this drama an abused and overpowered woman kills her husband in a flash of despair and the whole weight of the criminal justice system turns on her because her husband was a highly regarded prosecutor and she had become isolated without friends or allies. There is no doubt that had not a solicitor with the qualifications to represent in court as junior council to a brilliant young female barrister then the woman would have been convicted of murder and the child removed from her after its birth and placed into care and possibly for adoption. This is the everyday reality and happens with considerable justification rather because of prejudice although resource issues will be an important factor.

In fairness there were two men in the programme who could and eventually did make a difference to the outcome, a police detective inspector who eventually provided information which was crucial to getting the woman to say in public what had been happening to her, although despite having major doubts he was [previously pushed by a junior colleague to lying to the court to protect him and it was the colleague also a police detective, who decided to admit the truth and raise doubts about an important aspect of her husband’s evidence. The senior officer was interesting because he had worked for five years catching paedophiles with a certainty until one case had created doubts that all was not as clear cut as he had believed. He had significant doubts in this case and redeemed himself towards the end.

The other male was the family GP and family friend and someone who had crucial evidence which he failed to come forward not because medical ethics but because doing so threatened his professional future, his marriage and family life. When push comes to shove most people will protect themselves and their interests. For some people only society through its institutions and the employment of good people can provide protection and care and when that fails the society in question is doomed, and rightly so. Fortunately, largely under the influence of his wife he came forward with the truth.

The brilliance of this drama is that is shows that individuals are more complex than usually portrayed, behaviour which can appear reprehensible can arise from good motives and just how difficult it is for outsiders called into domestic tragedies to determine the true nature of what is happening and risks and implications of the different courses of action that are possible,

Early on in the first of the five episodes we learn that the couple live in a white, minimalist, obsessively clean and tidy home, that the husband is a top notch highly regarded criminal prosecutor who is training to run in the London Marathon for charity and that the wife is feeling particularly guilty about a secret outing with the suggestion that she has had a lover. The husband appears to have an unusually close almost conspirator relationship with his teenage daughter and the mother also has a close and warm relationship with her child. Thus what I suspected was a red herring, the possibility that father was sexually assaulting his daughter was introduced. We know that at night the girl listened to audio books when in bed but she also listened and sometimes observed what was happening in the bedroom of her parents and had done so on the evening when her mother left the marital bed and went into the kitchen and selected one of three kitchen knives and admits to having inserted and left the knife in her husband and then left the house wearing a coat, disposing a jar of Vaseline in a street waste bin before sitting on a bench and then going to the hospital where she is apprehended by the police and taken to a police station.

It is the teenage daughter who finds her stabbed father and removes the knife and then attempts to stem the blood flow while talking to 999. This fact understandably governs the attitude of the police when they are immediately required to investigate and determine if a crime was committed and if so who committed it. The debate posed in the series is whether it is also the responsibility of the police is also ask why and if they obtain answers which mitigate the crime, to then provide that information to those employed to protect the interests of the accused of being crime perpetrators. Such programmes usually forget to mention that the prosecuting authorities do have discretion about whether most crimes should come to court. Many offences which could be tried in the criminal courts are never investigated because they are not reported. Is a bank clerk who steals £10000 from his employer more likely to be prosecuted than one who defrauds several millions? The managers of the same bank may take a different view depending on the individual and the circumstances and whether the loss has become or is likely to become public or not.

The police only investigate a proportion of reported offences and they have powers to caution if the offence is admitted in a whole range of situations. The state, the Crown Prosecution service has the power to decide that it is not in the public interest to prosecute and this covers a range of situations and offences. The nature of the charges is also a matter for the police and for the Crown Prosecution service. Then there is question of the decision to remand in custody or bail, including placement in a bail hostel and whether the case is tried at a Magistrates or Crown Court and whether there is a Jury or not. Is the individual represented by a solicitor or barrister in court Obviously in a single drama most of these issues cannot be covered which is where the five episode series has the advantage, especially if shown on a daily basis. The brilliance of the drama is that is made no attempt to simplify and for every position or issue provided different perspectives, explanations and possible outcomes.

I will not attempt to cover all the issues raised or present the chronology of the series but concentrate on some aspects which were of interest to me. The main one as already mentioned was the question of should someone who admits to manslaughter or murder or a crime not directly related to children, be allowed to be with and keep a child born while in custody and during a long period of prison. Is it right for the child which must be the first consideration. If the woman commits a murder in cold blood, has planned and calculated the crime and attempted to cover up, should she ever be allowed to have the care of any children again, especially her own. Even if the murder was calculated was it provoked. There world has become familiar with the case where a man imprisoned his own daughter for sexual reasons for over a decade and then kept the children he had fathered also imprisoned. She may well have known that only by a murderous act could she obtain freedom for her children let alone herself and that this might have taken time and planning? Should this be judged different from an act of the moment, the crime of passion?

In the film the woman was kept in custody throughout most of her pregnancy and the for a time after the birth of the child so there had been plenty of time to bring forward the trial or arrange for the provision of a place in a mother and baby unit within the prison system as well as to investigate the long term position for any baby and any other children. Only in relation to her daughter and newborn child was the situation appropriately investigated and prepared for and something of the background study and collective consideration portrayed on screen. Prejudice and personal inclinations can and probably always do have a part in decisions made by one individual about another but should and are usually countered by appropriate training and supervision and management. The film attempted to show this is so.

The second issue was how the mother was put into the position of making statements and admissions without the presence of a solicitor to protect her interests. She was tricked by a particular police officer, colluding with others with the promise of being able to see her daughter who was also at the police station as rightly the police had to first establish who had knifed the father and it could have been the daughter if she was being sexually assaulted and the mother may have been trying to cover up for her. I was reminded that in the Almodovar film Volver the father is killed by the step daughter resisting rape, and mother then buries the body and the crime is successfully covered up and the issue while precipitating the film story is not the main subject. In this series the male detective wants to ensure someone who he believes committed calculated murder, abandoning her teenage daughter to deal with the situation, a situation where had the daughter left the knife in the body, where in some instances because of legal and social representations a custodial sentence is not given and the individual is allowed to carry on as before there could have been a greater chance of survival, will stretch the position of every police officer and face teh temptation of wanting and being able to bend the rules.. A brilliant aspect of the drama was to show that the killed man had more common with the police detective than the detective was able to see let alone admit to, although this became something which his wife came to recognise.

The third aspect was the behaviour of the Family GP who provided a home for the teenage daughter when the disaster first occurred but then insisted that the girl be allowed to remain in the home long after her presence seriously began to affect their own daughter and their marriage, yet rejected foster caring the baby which he knew was his own son. The acting of the daughter, GP and his wife and their daughter was of a very high quality and the dialogue of the highest order in terms of authenticity and credibility. It was not just that individuals were unwilling to talk about their true thoughts and feelings because of the potential consequences but they were unable to understand or express themselves such is the nature of shock and the trauma, T S Elliot I believe wrote the line in one of his plays that human being cannot stand or cope with too much reality to which he could and probably did add, especially of themselves. Contemporary society needs people to function without continuous analysis and introspection. Faced with helping a friend and patient and then the woman who was bearing his child after an impulsive sexual act which she had initiated he was torn between conflicting emotions and interests. A parallel drama could have been created out of his story and that of his wife and teen daughter and the police and the authorities could have become just as judgemental about his behaviour as they did about the wife who killed her husband. His wife on insisting that he volunteer the truth to the court and the husband in doing so showed great courage which I suspect in practice is not always the position. The consequences would be dramatic and traumatic for all three members of the family and of no less a scale than on the wife and daughter who were the main subjects of the series.

The outcome? It emerged that the husband and used his daughter to help in the control of his wife although there was no attempt to explain why he had behaved in this way and which was a major flaw in the production. Who speaks for this man? The clerk in chambers attempted to do so, a man with his own past whose parents had saved him from holocaust and who had come to love his boys, as he called the barristers in the Chamber and the deceased in particular. There was the hint that the relationship may have had a different basis given that the husband did not appear to want normal intercourse but one object was to emphasise the many possibilities or every action. The defence, understandably seized upon the fact that the clerk had given the barrister a large amount of cash and that the a barrister on his run had stopped to talk to a group of youngsters who were under surveillance of the drug squad and that the barrister had been found with a £20 pound note in his possession from one of the young men. The explanation is that the clerk had drawn the money as sponsorship for the a barrister undertaking the marathon to raise money for a cancer charity of which the Clerk was suffering. The minor drug pusher had given the money as sponsorship having come to know the barrister from his training runs. The police had made sure the defence had the basics of this information in order to mud sling and therefore raise doubts about their defence just as the defence was able to reveal that the detective had lied to the court about the way the confession has been obtained without the presence of a lawyer. So all was not as it seemed. When the mother begins to talk in court about why she did what she did and did not attempt to explain why before and there is a reconciliation with her daughter after the revelation that she had originally intended to kill herself rather than her husband but everything had changed with the pregnancy and the birth of her second child the audience is led to believe that the outcome will be a good one.

Then the judge after the jury had found her not guilty of murder, a verdict with which he agreed, sentenced her to five years in jail towards the maximum of the scale which could have seen her released under supervision in the community. He was not only punishing her but the daughter who needed her mother and the recently born half brother. He limited the earliest day of release to two and half years, a year longer than the time when a mother is allowed to keep a child with her in prison. Although the woman had become a product of her husband’s needs and power, she had nevertheless killed him, she had left the daughter to cope in a situation where unintentionally the action of the daughter had contributed to her father’s death, she had given different answer to different people about the risk of injuring herself which in turn raised concerns for the future of the child The justice of the sentence was open to debate.

In the sixth defined episode of the 40400 hundred I felt the series had come of age and that however derivative its concept it was executed in excellent fashion and had been unpredictable whereas the previous one had. None of the three episodes of the second disk of season, however, came Criminal Justice nor did Sandra Bullock, as a creative disturbed and driven detective controlled by her past in the film Murder by Numbers. This writing could be called three degrees of detection seriousness, two of them criminal.

The third episode of the second disk of the second season of the 4400 (Life Interrupted) stands out because it while it features Tom and his son, Shaun, his young brother and girl friend, their parents, Tom’s ex wife and Homeland security agent Diana, it is not about the 4400 directly. Tom is at the 4400 headquarters for the funeral of Jordan Collier when he is called to the room when the body had been laying in state only to find that it had disappeared. How Jordan Collier came to die was the subject of the previous episode. When Tom returns to the home where he and his son live he is immediately struck by the warmth of his son and when he returns to the office of the 4400 investigation Unit he finds everything normal except the 4400 has not existed and he is welcomed back after being on sick leave after an underground operation where he had been caught, imprisoned and tortured, followed by rescue, a period in hospital and sick leave for recovery. He has little time to work out what has happened when the unit is called to the Collier centre which is the same building but now an arts centre, because of a suspect reported in the building. Jordan Collier is just not dead but the state governor although he does not appear in the episode which one suspects is a clue of some kind. In the chase around the building Tom is separated from his colleagues and thinks he has seen a man enter a room which unlike all the others in the building which have solid wood doors, has a round window through which he looks and cannot enter when he tries to do so. His colleagues enter and apprehend the suspect. The door had become like all the others and room bears no relationship with that Tom had seen although we the audience had only obtained a fleeing glimpse.

When Tom returns home he finds his family and friends have gathered for a return to work party. In addition to his son being the fun loving student, his cousin Shaun is there, his younger brother and his beautiful, intelligent wife, Alana, who we subsequently learn owns an art gallery in the city centre. We learn that Tom is on good relations with his ex wife and her second husband and has a satisfying life as part of a good middle America urban community. When he persists that this is all unreal to him, the same words used by his son when he came out of the coma, his partner Diana traps him into a situation where he is then taken off to a psychiatric hospital for treatment.

It is at this point his “wife“ admits that she too is a returnee who has no recollection of him or his life and is just as distressed and perplexed about her present situation which appears to be a parallel reality much explored in the Star Trek and Dr Who series. They agree to cooperate with the medical and other authorities so that Tom can return home and together they can work out what has happened to them. This appears to work and two establish a good relationship which over two years develops into a loving an close one and what had been the charade of their marriage becomes an important reality. At one point Tom returns to the building and enters the room with teh glass window in its door and finds a corpse laying on a medical type table at the centre, in a room reminiscent of the second concert hall at the Sage which is circular with several narrow balconies. However this room is dark and stark and there are showy individuals standing looking down and for some reason I think of The Way to the Stars, although I may have got the film title wrong. Just when he is about to uncover the body on the table the room shatters and he finds himself in the room which existed when he first entered and remained when he had returned. For several days and weeks subsequently he returns to the centre to keep watch on the door hoping the mystery of what had happened has been revealed but as the relationship with his “wife” develops and he has the warmth and strength of his family and work colleagues around him he and his wife accept their situation and the episode jumps eight further years as they renew their marriage vows and go off on a honeymoon with all their friends and family at the ceremony, including his son who has become a doctor. He is set to become the new regional director of the Homeland security unit.

It is at this point he returns to the centre and finds the room and is able to enter and to remove the cover from the face of the body on the table and discovers it is that of his wife. He learns that all that he has experienced over past decade has happened in an instant and was intended to provide him strength for the challenge of coping with the 4400 and their purpose in the years ahead and that the way to break out of the dimension is for both to accept that this is unreality and end what is in effect a prolonged dream. However because they can now control their experience they bring together their family and friends to announce they have decided to extend their trip which is something they had been wanting to do for sometime but wanted to say goodbye and as they do they eliminate the present reality person by person and local community and home. He returns to his office and find it is back to the time of the 4400 and the challenges which they pose. He has just missed a returnee whose form he recognises and runs after her not only to find that it is the woman who has been his wife for eight years in his mind but she knows who he is and they embrace and we believe he is to have the love and support in reality which those who had unlocked the powers of the 4400 said he needed to help fulfil their mission. However I could find no reference to his wife and the actress who played her in the Wikipedia notes on the episode.

This episode contrast with the previous two in which Richard‘s wife Lily turns to her former husband a lawyer, for help when Richard is taken into custody for his failure to register as a 4400 living in the community. This leads him to Jordan Collier who comes a calling, and begs the couple and their child to return. Jordan has revealed that prior to trying to stop Richard and his wife taking the child away from the centre he had been full of personal ambition, power and the wealth of the situation but although the child and threatened his life when he had touched Lily, he had been fundamentally changed and become focussed on the mission. He wanted them to come back and participate in the mission freely and he wanted contact with the child again because he believed his present life would be validated. This turns out to be so and Jordan become a grandfather/uncle in their life and that of the child. Everything continues to go well as the time of great reunion approaches when the returnees will assemble from all parts oft he world.

It is as this point that Maia has a prediction about Jordan who she sees on TV, he is to die. Diana and Tom first persuade their boss that it is important to try and intervene and then persuade Collier that he needs to take greater precautions and allow them to his help protect him and try and prevent what so far has been the inevitability of Maia’s predictions. In this respect they are supported by Shaun who argues that Jordan becoming a martyr would place the Mission in jeopardy and Jordan himself is ambivalent about what to do, agreeing that the unit and Tom and Diana can enter the 4400 complex centre and take control of security. They would still like the reunion postponed

Jordan decides to consult the child of Lily and Richard and while we do not immediately learn the outcome, Jordan believes that he should continue and that everything will work out well. For a time this also appears to be likely outcome as one major suspect is apprehended having come close to achieving the assassination. Then Jordan is shot from a vantage point outside the building where the main reunion ceremony is taking place, a flaw because in the real word this possibility would have been taken into account and he would have been moved to a position in the building where an external shooting could not occur. (Have you not noted the way Parliamentary building chambers are designed, The Houses of Commons and Lords, the Senate and Congress Houses and the UN building in New York. Although Shaun attempts to revive , Jordan, he is declared dead.

I suggest that no one is surprised that the body then disappears leaving the way open for a resurrection, reminding of Bobby Ewing in Dallas, nor is anyone surprised when we learn that the shootist, reminiscent of the shooting of President Kennedy also in Dallas, is none other than Tom’s son. This is not et tu Brutus but Judas.

The son and Shaun’s cousin have become increasingly aggressive towards the 4400, attacking everyone and everything associated with the returnees, especially Jordan and his chief assistant Shaun, with Kyle resentful and afraid of his ability to lose time and find himself transported from one situation into another and without memory of what has occurred in the intervening period.

Shaun also remains troubled as his commitment to the mission of the 4400 grows. He is challenged by a group of young misfits, drugs addicts, petty criminals surviving by voluntary hand outs and prostitution, living in the shadow of the city, in the first upside on teh disk, Suffer the children, a continuing problem in the Sates but which has been largely eliminated in the UK by in effect Government and police action supported by the establishment of refuges by independent bodies funded by voluntary contributions and government funds.

Shaun encounters one of these groups gate crashing a ceremony in which the guests are provided free food and he takes an interest in a young woman of similar age to himself and to her plight and those of her friends, donating food, blankets and medical supplies. Jordan warns against revealing his healing powers because to do so to one and all will seek help and it is not practical for him to heal everyone. However he responds to a call from the girl when her boyfriend appears to be a bad drugs trip and Shaun cures him with the consequence as Jordan predicted all the down and outs want his help. This leads to the girl being disillusioned with Shaun who has become her hero and potential saviour. He persuades her to enter the 4400 which does, we suspect not out of conviction but to get close to him. Unfortunately Jordan has been assassinated and Shaun has to take over the role of leader and becomes too busy with too great responsibilities to have a personal relationship and symbolically the doors to his office are closed to her as she approaches him having progressed within the 4400 process of enlightenment. The scene reminds when Corleone’s son becomes the Godfather.

The main focus of Suffer not Little Children is a returnee teacher accused of child abuse by some parents at her school because some of children have been changed dramatically for the good while others have not. She explains she has been able to recognise the untapped potential in many of the children, some creatively in playing a musical instrument, painting and sculpture with others in more traditional scholastic subjects but not all. One particular father and one pupil becomes very aggressive towards her and getting her removed from the school. When Tom and Diana investigate they are satisfied with the explanation of her power and she is returned to the school with protection but too late to prevent the most disturbed pupil from entering her class with a gun, not to kill in her but to persuade her to change him so his father will be proud The father has become the town failure the teacher explains that not everyone has untapped talent which can be immediately recognised and transformed this does not mean the boy will turn out like his father and does not find contentment through his work and relationships in the future. It is the father who persuades his son to hand the gun over and it is time for the teacher to move to an environment where her abilities will be appreciated and use to their potential.

So much of the second season second disk has been constructive and optimistic but there are warnings. The consequence of first husband assisting in getting Richard out of jail has led to problems with his second wife and to her first daughter overhearing and discovering that her first mother is alive and going in search and making contact. However when she has contact with her half sister there is a discordant note and later when she returns home she becomes seriously ill so the first husband makes contact with her mother when the danger is over for her visit in hospital, Do we detect jealousy and a child who requires the exclusive attention of her parents? There is also pressure on Diana and daughter Maia. The child continues to wrestle with her powers and wish to be normal while discovering that she is having further visionary predictions, Homeland Security subpoenas their employee to surrender the diary. Why did the baby tell Jordan he would be safe if he went ahead with the Reunion? One would like more answer and to know more those returnee who pass by only in one episode

All is revealed and settled in Murder by Numbers which is at times a harrowing film about a police detective played by Sandra Bullock who as the films progresses we learn married at sixteen to a man who became jealous and violent towards and when she decides to stand up to him and tells him she is leaving him for good he stabs her over a dozen times and dumps her body in the countryside alive but dying. Fortunately she is discovered and rescued and survives scarred in body and in mind towards men. She is asked to attend a parole hearing when her husband is being considered for release but her response is to dent the situation and her past. However it dominates her life in other ways, as she engages in casual sex with her male detective colleagues appointed her partners but then falls out with them, picking fights so they reject her and refuse to continue working with her. This is both an emotional and physical response to what happened to her, unwilling to show her scarred body.

This is the background to a horrific murder of a young woman which has the hallmarks of being a random unplanned killing and then the work of the high school janitor who conveniently commits suicide as the police close in. However Sandra is not convinced and suspects the involvement of two student who pretend not to be friends within the school environment but who meet, debate and plot at a disused house on a cliff top.

The first of the two young men is the intellectual with a perverted interest in forensic science so her talks of undertaking the perfect murder in which all clues to the perpetrator are removed and someone else is framed leaving the usual links which killers who commit crimes of the moment will leave of themselves. However he is a loner who thinks but does not act. His conspirator is the doer, the rich kid who has everything including the means to buy what is needed to create a sterile environment to hold and kill the victim, to plant the clues on someone else.

It is not just good enough for the two to commit a crime which remains unsolved. They must be involved with the detection leading to the identification and conviction of the chosen perpetrator. To achieve the this they leave the footprint of a particular expensive designer trainers which the investigatory team are able to trace to the super rich kid student. He demonstrates that it was stolen and has been reported to the college and to the police. The trainers are found in the possession of the janitor who is shown to be the supplier of drugs to the school.

But the first mistake is that at the scene of thee crime the thinker throws up having had a caviar starter at the expensive restaurant in the area, and which the detectives are able to trace that the student had eaten there on a regular basis and on the night in question. Assuming this was practical, the young man given the brilliance and extent of knowledge about forensic science would not have left his throwing up in the vicinity of the site. This is a plot flaw although by then both perpetrators had become emotionally caught up by what they had done.

This young man is helped by a female student in exchange for help with one of her subjects and this leads to inviting her to see his collection fo rare and beautiful flowering plants. She is impressed and they kiss, a kiss observed by ‘the doer’ who then not only seduces the girl but films the experience to reveal to his friend that the girl is not a worthy companion. The two young men are not true friends as such but comrades in the deadly enterprise. The incident with the girl builds a wedge between the two and when they meet up which was against their detailed plan Sandra is there observing with her camera to hand and this reignites the willingness of her latest detective partner and their boss to pursue what had become an open and shut case. Gradually the net closes and the two men fall out, the doer trying to blame the other and then force him into a one sided suicide pact. The thinker works this out in time just as Sandra arrives, having radioed in she has located the pair she pursues them without waiting for her colleagues to arrive. This fits into her personality and leads nearly to her death in a melodramatic last sequence in which she and the doer wrestle on a veranda at the Cliff edge and eventually he does crashed to his doom and she is saved by the thinker who then pleads for his life claiming that the other committed the murder and that he had saved her life should be taken into consideration. She nearly buys this but then in a second dodgy moment she released that the when the doer had tried to strangle her he had left a mark from his signet ring on her neck and the murder victim did not have such a mark. The is unbelievable crass on the assumption that if the audience had gone along with the premise of the plot they would not yell out that given the care taken with the crime he would have removed the ring before strangling the girl. This however enables her to trick the surviving murderer into admitting his guilt and Sandra then observes that whatever one does or does not do in life one should and needs to face the consequences and no one will be able t run away indefinitely. (A very questionable statement indeed) This leads Sandra to accepting she has also to face what happened to her and to attend the parole hearing. She has found the redemption she had been locking for the sense of guilt and horror experienced. It is therefore a fundamentally flawed albeit clever film made above average by the performance of Sandra Bullock.

The film is based on a true story unlike Criminal Justice and the 4400.Nathan Freudenthal Leopold and Richard Albert Loeb were two wealthy Chicago University students who murdered 14 year old Bobby Franks in 1924. The murder was an attempt to commit the perfect crime. One had written to the other A superman is, on account of certain superior qualities inherent in him, exempted from he ordinary laws which govern men. He is not liable for anything he may do. The two students 18 and 19 years of age had planned to become lawyers. They were saved from execution by a brilliant lawyers who argued before the judge who heard the case that it was not fair to hand a boy because he had taken seriously the writings of Nietzsche and other philosophers taught to him at University. Only one of then was to survive prison, being released after 33 years, emigrating, marrying and working after having taught himself to speak 27 languages nearly one a year during the prison experience. The other died in prison killed by another prisoner. The true life story has been covered several times in film, with Compulsion the most well known and in literature.

Saturday 10 October 2009

1811 The Politics of the 4400 while David Cameron sets out to change the world at the time of the great Itch

It is doubtful that the Leader of the Conservative Party and likely next Prime Minister next year David Cameron will not have seen an episode of the 4400 or know of the series but yesterday I was struck that both had adopted, however unconsciously, the approach of others.

Yesterday David Cameron made his final play before his Party Conference to appeal via the media to be accepted as more trustworthy the next Prime Minister than Gordon Brown with appeals reminiscent of President John Kennedy... what can you do for your country, and President Obama’s.... Yes we can. His speech and the presentation of the conference was brilliantly packaged to avoid any similarity with the disastrous triumphantalism of Neil Kinnock with respectful phases.... if we are elected and the image of a party and a government appropriate for difficult times now and hard times ahead with not hot a champagne glass in sight or a hoorah Henry‘s and Henrietta’s grasping glasses of champagne, toasting a confident return to power within six months. It was a clever tribute to the achievement of Tony Blair, however much he went on to criticise the outcome of Tony‘s decade in office with something to appease the hard line traditionalist and much to cheer the latest recruit and those sitting on the fence although my impression is that the overwhelming majority have already made up their minds.

Of I was a neutral I would go through the manifesto’s when published of each of the political parties and award 1 point for anything which you like and 2 for anything you feel as great. Taking away 1 point for anything you don’t like and two for anything you hate and then see what the respective final scores come to and then if the winner matches your gut reaction and person or party you will vote for anyway you will; have the consolation of knowing you did your democratic best if the Party does not come to power or remain in power or if it does and your are disillusioned or disappointed.
There was one moment when I did say “yes, you’ve got it,” to the TV screen when Cameron admitted that in reality it does not matter what is in the manifesto or what the policies and programmes are... For regardless of party, the civil service will do their best to draw up legislation which will carry out the final intentions of Parliament and try and ensure there is the appropriate funding, and prepare for the inevitable unexpected consequences and misinterpretation, sometimes deliberate of the subsequent guidelines and implementation requirements required of government national government departments and national agencies, Local Government and their agencies and of you and me more directly, knowing that whatever is done the outcomes are unlikely and rarely match up to the ideals and intentions, and that what is all boils down and adds up to is the calibre of the individual. It is how you cope with the major crisis and the day to day decisions of office which will be the difference as well as the people you appoint into Government office and to your inner circle of trusted advisers

His main pitch was to say I am a man of honour, conviction and integrity and I will not let you down. When faced with a crisis and those day to day decisions I will get it right.

He then admitted that Mr Brown was also such a man but had fouled up where as he David Cameron hoped he would not. But David all such careers end in failure! It is the way of things!

Bush, Blair, Brown and the US financial teams were guilty of trusting the capitalists and capitalist economists and their latest alleged fool proof systems and to be fair anyone holding their respective offices would have done so likewise. It is to Prime Minister’s Brown’s credit (he he) that whatever advice he was being given from across the Atlantic, from his Chancellor, the Treasury Department and the Bank of England he pushed through an immediate solution and subsequent policy which worked to prevent collapse and prevent a major long term regression of the world wide economic progress of the previous decade. We will never know if David Cameron and George Osborn had been in office if the would have done likewise to pursued the approach which they advocated at the time as Opposition/ This would get Mr Brown my vote if one has to sets this against the long list of blunders made since coming into office and the prospect of his being in office for the next five to ten years against the unknown Mr Cameron. We are all now in Mr Brown’s debt) another he he) or more accurately in the country’s growing debt and we must now all suffer in varying degrees. The approach of both parties will intentionally protect the underclass of criminals and social scroungers while the very rich will not be affected.

At the end of the day I like my local Member of Parliament and will vote for him and leave the rest to everyone else. I fear however that if the General Election is held at the same time or after the Local Authority elections, the local controlling Labour party will come close to losing office.

On Thursday morning I decided discontinue the over the counter brands of cream to treat the spreading itchy rash because both boxes suggested the possibility of teh kind of side effects I was experiencing, Later I was contacted by the Health centre and an appointment arranged of Monday which meant three and half days to cope without the crutch of the cream, although given the reaction this might become a blessing in disguise. The discomfort is significantly less than a tooth ache and there many who have to endure much much worse during as well as at the end of their conscious self awareness. It is a foretaste, I fear of what is ahead unless I am lucky, and hopefully some time ahead rather than around the corner.

My next ambition is not to reach 75 or 80 although both would be good the 2012 Olympics and the twenty twenty finals day planned for Durham, as well as completing payments on my present major loan. Then there is the work although there are issues about the ongoing expense at the present time and space with the house until I have reorganised, with in the meantime catching up with the photographing programme. I have heard that another first cousin has died.

I began by suggesting that David Cameron like the writers of the 4400 appeared to have drawn on the work and approach of others to get their message over. The references to previous sci fi and other work are many and I was immediately struck in the two part opener for the second series by the similarity between the feverish activity of inmates and staff in a an institution for the mentally ill with that in Close Encounters of the third kind. There individuals were called to a place on a large hill. In and given the opportunity for a new life in a world within the stars. In Wake Up Call a long term patient suffering from schizophrenia who had been abducted has a compulsion to construct a communications device with the future, having established at the end of the first series that the purpose of the 4400 is to save mankind in the future. This for some reason the authorities object to and an attempt to stop and destroy but are prevented by Tom and Diana with the consequence that the device works and there is an impulse burst which appears to knock everyone off their feet for a few seconds but to have not other consequence. Then a brilliant former scientist who became disturbed in his thirties and has not spoken for years speaks and says that he feels better, The man had been working on the unlocking of areas of the brain which he felt could give human beings the power to predict future events, move objects and develop other abilities which the some of 4400 have commenced to exhibit.

Later I learnt that this concept is based on the work of prolific writer of science fiction horror, poet and scientific commentator P Lovecraft, Necronomician, Herbert West re-animator, At the Mountains of Madness and In the Shadow of our Time. The suggestion in the double first episode of the second series is that the recovered scientist should be in a position to develop his work on which human being in the future has developed from his ideas which had stopped when the illness took hold. This is as far as the main story progresses over the first four episodes of the second series called Wake Up Call 1. And 2. Voices Carry and Weigh of the World. What I do not understand is why those from the future did not adduct the mentally ill scientist in the first place!

In Voices Carry a returnee is a former baseball player abducted just when he was about to break into the major league game. His problem is that he begins to hear what everyone within his vicinity is saying which made playing in a public arena impossible. He returns to quarantine for help where the new head of the unit promised Tom and Diana that the man will be helped to reduce the force of the multiple hearing if he agrees to help find out what Richard is doing at what has become the 4400 centre in having dealing with an international gangster arms dealer and gangster. While he is successful in this project the state renegades on the promise to help him because of his military potential.

There is also a one off story in Weight of the World when a returning salesman who reunites with his now grown up daughter finds that his saliva has the power to cause dramatic overnight drops in weight. The commercial potential of this is quickly realised and major companies enter an auction to sign him up giving up an advance of $1 million dollars as part of a $40 million deal. However the gangster money lender and his wife who accidentally come across this power then find that they are starving and cannot replace the lost calories quicker enough so they starve to death. The company has immediately launched a trial of the instant new product with 100 people and their is a race to find solution for them and to neutralize his power

Meanwhile there is a continuation of the lives of the ongoing chanters so far. Diana has been able to officially adopt Maia, the eight year old who has returned after sixty years with presumably no blood relatives interested or able to be interested in her. It is interesting that of all the agents in the world of homeland security two of those selected for key tasks with the 4400 also have direct links or interests with the returnees which reminds of the X Files where both investigators one a believer and one a cynic also had links in their own lives between what they were investigating which they only gradually discovered as the various series progressed.

In the first four episodes of the second series the adjustment of Maia an the parent child relationship begins. Maia understandably wants to be a normal child and resents the specific and general protection provided by Diana who has not been a parent before and who appears to rely a great deal on the provision of home carers. That she has any free time with the child is amazing and I would not have recommended an adoption in such a circumstance unless she had been prepared to give up her 4400 job and take something where she could have resulted on the parent role being a day to day realtiy, but then times and attitudes have changed and the upper classes in the UK were always able to continue with their social lives and personal interests sending their children off to boarding school and arranging for nanny to care for them while they continue to holiday and party as the opportunity arose. The contrast between her relationship and that between Tom and his son is relevant because Kyle is constantly complaining about his father having to attend to 4400 work at vital moments in their relationship after he has recovered from the three year coma.

Maia like Kyle wants to be normal and insists on going over to a sleep over but returns distressed because of the comments of other children participating, and which appeared to centre on her saying she had a crush on Frank Sinatra. At least the other parent involved is responsible, caring and does not reject. The main issue with Maia is her ability to predict and the trouble this usually creates for her so her response as has been the response of others in this situation, to pretend she has lost the power while writing up what happens in her diary, a diary which she does not attempt to hide and therefore we can presume wants her mother to find. The high point in their relationship is when she refers to Diana as her mother and the low is when she appears to prefer to be in the company of her Diana’s sister who as in the X Files there is a bundle of issues between the two. The sister is spontaneous and life loving, taking the girl out from school to show her the sights and allows her to eat whatever she fancies. She is a tattooist and appears that the purpose of this is to make body art respectable after decades when it was not. The number of new Tattoo shops has dramatically increased but nothing like the tanning parlours the new tobacco industry of teh 21sdt century.

The problem with Kyle is that remnants of the being from the future appear to remain in his body and which causes him to have blank moments one of which leads him to be the suspect in a store trashing a second after he was drinking alcohol at a wild student party. The main development so far is his attempt to see Shaun at the 4400 new headquarters from which he prevented but when he does meet up with Shaun he dos not understand the perspective of his cousin. In general Shaun appears content with his new role as a healer and life within the 4400 centre community although he has considerable reservations about the commercial approach of its leader - Jordan Collier, and his fascination with the very things he denounces about contemporary society. Jordan had written and published a book about his aim of releasing the 4400 in everyone and which connects with the Lovecraft concept that there are unused parts of the brain which could give humans significant new powers if they could be unlocked. There are three aspects of Jordan’s behaviour which concern Shaun. First the naked selling of Shaun’s power to the highest bidders. Secondly his involvement with the international arms dealer and gangster and thirdly his taking up with a mega super star celebrity who was not an abductee but who is welcomed into the centre and its induction programme for other 4400 returnees. Shaun finds that Jordan and the woman are sleeping together. This also has an impact on one of the other returnees and a devoted helper assistant to Jordan who is in love with him and who attempts to commit suicide when she discovers his latest affair. Jordan tries to placate Shawn by saying that he has arranged for the young man to take over from him in the event of anything happening before the mission is accomplished. The Unit are concerned of the development of 4400 as a cult, a following led by someone who has written that he has declared war on the world as it is. The Christ symbolism between Shaun and parts of Jordan are obvious.

This brings us to the child of Richard, the black airman from the Korean War and his young bride who returned to find her husband remarried and a step mother pretending to be the birth mother of her daughter. In the first series the couple escape to a deserted cabin in the countryside to await the birth of what appears to be their child and who is six months of age when they find a flyer at the property condemning the 4400 and seeking the vengeance of God for the those who have been with the devil. Richard then finds that this is not the work of someone who has discovered their identity but a local preacher complete with large hat spitting fire and brimstone and with two gun totting sons prepared to do his bidding. They stay but the problem arises when his wife goes to the local store for supplies and encounters the Preacher who reacts to them and that the baby is mixed racial. The child reacts to this situation and to others which develop. We begin to appreciate that the child appears to have all the powers of others, the ability to know what others are thinking and feeling directly, the power to predict what is going to happen, the ability to intervene in nature as well as move matter and the power over the minds of other human beings. This is first demonstrated when the couple have to flee at night when the preacher and his two sons come calling with their weapons and the vehicles kids off the road into the forest where the couple try and escape via the a river bed back to teh highway. They are hungry and his wife comments it is a pity that the season is wrong for some edible berries and child makes these develop instantly but whereas this power is constructive, when the Preacher and the sons catch up with the couple who have separated, one trying to lead the pursuers from the other, the child intervenes and three men turn the guns on themselves. From Wikipedia I learn that they are able to fun their existence from money Richard has been due from his interrupted military service although if it is mentioned in the films I missed. However they flee before it arrives and taking refuge in a motel when his wife requests another blanket and is refused until she parts with a five dollar bill at the expense of food, the child opens the till for her when the man is called away and she takes not only the five dollars but more for food. This upsets Richard, the dishonesty and his inability to provide for his family. He is also concerned about the power of the child and how it has been used.

They, the Fugitives, always it seems having to move just when they have settled, go for help to another of the returnees who had become a self employed handyman, living in a middle class country style homestead in a part oft he country with great sunsets, climate in general and local accepting community. This is the best of middle America and a good place to settle when Richard is offered in effect a partnership with his friend and they begin to socialise with friends including a young black couple, where the wife is the daughter of a military man who has passed to her his admiration for the original black pilots what they achieved and how they managed to achieve it. Her husband is resentful of this, and jealous, controlling and abuse and picks a fight with Richard who shows that despite his actual and historical age is able to defeat his opponent and warns him to behave in the future, particularly towards his wife. The man retaliates by informing homeland security for the whereabouts of the couple who decide they must take to the road again from fear of the information finding its way to Jordan and his ambitions for the child.

Wednesday 7 October 2009

1810 The Itch, The Fixer, The Bramble Bush The X Factor Finalists

Itchiness predominates my life at the moment although the medication taken in the evenings is resulting is deep sleeps where although I wake to go to the toilet as usual I awake in the mornings feeling refreshed for the rest of the day and I have stopped feeling sleepy after taking food. It is a good trade, for the moment. I wrote this on Monday after first few days of taking the drug Loratadine, an antihistamine prescribed for the treatment of Urticaria which covers a multitude of pathophysiology, diagnosis, types and related conditions according the greater explainer of everything Wikipedia. However over the past two days the rash itchiness areas have spread to two other parts of the body and it is not clear if this is as a reaction to Loratadine or the itch relief cream or from having touched the affected area and then touched the other parts of the body or from a combination of both. Because of this I have written to the doctor seeking advice whether to continue with the medication itch relief cream, or to cease one or both or for another treatment to be tried.

The sleep affect is interesting because from what I have read Lorartadine is regarded as an antihistamine drug with one of the least sedative impacts and in the USA is marketed because of this and sold over the counter. If the medication has caused the spread or has to be time limited I will enquire if there is an alternative which could bring the same sleep relief.

On the way to the Health centre I stopped at a pub restaurant with voucher for traditional breakfast and small coffee or tea. This was an excellent decision as the breakfast was well cooked and presented comprising egg, sausage, two pieces of bacon, hash brown, beans and a good size mushroom. The price was £1.99 compared to a coffee and bacon Role at the Ship and Royal and £3.86 usual price.

The relaxed good humour state in which I awoke on Monday helped me cope when the computer refused to start and took time to sort itself out and the Norton announced it was no longer provided protection took a while to sort itself out and re establish itself so that everything then worked normally. This has happened since the arrival of the latest Vista service pack which may explain what happened. or the consequence of loading the Luxor game, (more on that later), or most likely that I had knocked the mains connection loose when going behind the desk to open to close the curtain at the far side of the window. Before moving the TV in front of the gas fire I used to pull the far curtain backwards with the consequence that one and sometimes more of the hooks would come off the rail leaving a gap when the curtains were closed again. Since moving the TV I can squeeze between the TV and the side of the desk to behind the desk and reach either the book case, previously I had to get under the desk, or open and close the curtain. I can also use the tie back which increases the light into the room. Without this development it was necessary to move chair and trolley to place a step ladder and then stand on the desk to refit the curtain. However as the space between the desk and bookcase is still tight I may have knocked the power cable or it may never have been properly connected since the great crash when I dissembled and assembled. Whatever the cause once righted I copied all the current documentation and records to one DVD, the non work pictures to another and the work photos were then added to the separate DVDs for Creative Work, Development, Events, Records and Confidential. I then had a monster purge on the loose papers in the work room for two reasons I needed to find some papers to complete the latest organisation of household and financial records with the water and Council Tax notices for this year astray. I also needed to find out how long the Internet and phone contract with the free lap top lasted. However the main motivation was to have control over what was where. Having completed the task I was then able to continued with work creating some new sets and registering and photographing others. I continued to make progress on Tuesday but decided to attend to correspondence after returning from the health centre with lunch and a film before completing these notes and finishing a snail mail letter.

One reason for the good humour start of the week was the decision of Cheryl Cole from Newcastle in the X factor to select the young 18 years singer from South Shields Joe (Joseph) McElderry as one of her three to compete with the other judges in the live audience participation competitions over the next three months. To reach this points he participated in the long selection process earlier in the year. Almost before one series ends people are invited to apply to attend auditions for the next series. The applications are processed by the large programme team and no doubt music agents throughout the land are seeking auditions for their hopefuls who are yet to be given recording contracts and these include the miner army of entertainers who are booked into clubs and pubs, or hired from weddings and other private parties. It is unlikely that they will be asked to undergo the process endured by everyone else. The great public of hopefuls are auditioned twice before they are get to perform, before the great four and this year there was the twist of performing before an audience of four thousand given the task of putting through 200 into the second phase of the competition. Over one week in London the 200 were reduced first to 100, then to 50 an then to 24.

The twenty four then get a mini trip to somewhere exotic, Dubai, California, Lake Como and Marrakesh in Morocco. Here each group of six are given a taste of the high life before a further performance , in theory to persuade the judge. The emotions of everyone are real enough knowing that they have a fifty fifty chance of achieving national recognition and then a 12 to 1 chance of reaching the very big time, at least for a few months with live shows around the country, a Christmas number one and a Long Playing record and a national tour. Only Will Young has stayed the course and lasted since winning Pop Idol although some have fashioned professional careers, albeit for a time. The selection of final 12 took place up to three months ago in order that the they can prepare songs for the live performances and those selected and their families have to keep quiet until the final twelve decision programme is shown as it was on Sunday. Even then publicity is strictly controlled and it is interested that only ITV regional News feature Joe, his school and pupils and not his home and the programmes called upon everyone in the region to vote for him. The BBC made no report. Joe who was South Tyneside’s Young Performer of the Year in 2008 is only quoted 12/1 by the bookies which is the greatest odds you can have of course. The Local Paper has already printed posters and Foreign Secretary Local Member of Parliament David Miliband expressed enthusiasm saying he had written to wish Joe well a couple fo weeks ago which suggests the publicity at this stage is being orchestrated. Wikipedia has an excellent coloured chart covering he 12 and the Ten week double shows with the singing on the Saturday and the results show on the Sunday with the winner of last year Amanda Burke and Robbie Williams appearing next Sunday and Susan Boyle later.

On the whole I supported the decision of the judges with the exception of one rejected by Simon Cowell. Of the 24 three had appeared in bands before, two had auditioned before and he appeared in Britain’s Got Talent, thus reinforcing the view that the average applicant is wasting their time. Adverse publicity probably resulted in in one or two not being chosen although did select a group of four girls who have all worked as strippers. He also selected to obnoxious twin seventeen years although this is clearly part of their act because they look good and are twins although Simon had hated them from the outset. It is also evident that in addition to looking for someone to win the contest attention is given to geography, to race and hard luck stories, with a recent death of partner or parent helpful, genuinely overcome poor health, minor delinquency and so on as well as having performing charisma.

Waking the dead has finished but the Fixer continues with most challenging moral question asking episode todate. The unit is asked to take out an assassin who has entered the country to kill the child heir to a fortune. The unit is approached by a Greek man whose business appears to have brought him to the attention of Unit and the government authorities and who reveals that the assassin is his brother. The assassin has been hired by the brother in law of the child’s mother who is killed while protecting her child as her protector is knocked out after the assassin escaped the two other members of the unit who were meant to stop and kill him beforehand. The child is taken to be looked after by the girl friend of the junior member of the team who lives in a flat on a housing estate traditionally used by the underclass. The flat is shared with the unit’s chief assassin. The unit pretend to have moved the child as bait to the home of the entrepreneur who asked them to intervene, and indeed there a confrontation between assassins which leads one breaking the neck of the other in a manner which caused me concern because it provided a dangerous demonstration to disturbed and psychopathic individuals.

While this is happening Tanya Outhwaite who is protecting the child and carer at the flat is persuaded to leave for a talk with the dodgy M5 administrator who wants to take over the unit. That she left her post in this way would led to summarily dismissal in most circumstances but I suppose Government arms length assassins are the exception. She has been persuaded away by the ambitious British homeland security official with a proposition to become his eyes and ears which as anticipated she rejects but her absence enables an operative for the official to break into the flat to plant a listening devices. However on encountering the girlfriend he kills her as humanely as possible on one for the most moving victim hopeless appeals moments ever seen on TV, only a short while after the girl has told the boyfriend that she wants the relationship to be become as serious as he has wanted, Understandably the young man is devastated when he finds the girl killed and there is a moving scene in which they secretly bury the girl in a closed cemetery. The chief assassin feeling the grief of his friend and having already encountered the treachery of the official sets out to kill him. However he is warned off by the Unit chief explaining that he has to take account of the bigger picture and that he will use what has happened to neutralise the official once and for all. However this is not good enough for the chief assassin who sets off on his mission. Tanya warns her boss and the grieving young man also pleads with his friend not to pursue this course. The head of the unit gives the instruction for someone else to officially stop his senior and most effective worker.

The audience hopes the assassin will succeed and the official is executed and that he will get away with a personal vendetta and form of justice but thinking people will appreciate that whatever aught to be the responsibility of those who work for national security on behalf of the people is the national security of the state. Individuals including bystanders will get hurt, some fatally. This in in the nature of government. It is also a reminder of the wisdom taught on the International Management course which I attended two decades ago. It is important to have at ones behest a group for the most creative and risk taking of individuals as from these will come the most commercially successful ventures. However when they foul up either in their professional activities or personal life it is essential to have the means of ensuring that they quickly disappear from the organisation and that all reference to their existence and ones involvement is eradicated with them. Such is life.

I do not remember seeing the film, the 1960 Richard Burton film The Bramble Bush before although I recognised a young Angie Dickenson as the of his school college friend who has Parkinson disease. The information about the illness of his friend who has qualified as a doctor is the only thing which persuades him back to the community of his childhood. The friend knows he is going die and wants Richard to look after his wife when he is gone. When the pain of the illness becomes too great he also pleads to be helped to die something which Richard tells a senior colleague. Richard resists a relationship with the wife especially when he learns that she has been having a physical relationship with a local law officer with ambitions of elected the District Attorney, The a nurse discovers that the man has been assisted to his death she blows the whistle and Richard is arrested and tried and found not built of murder by a jury of local people with a high regard for him. Beneath this simple plot there are two stories which gives the film its above average quality. When Richard was twelve years old he discovered his mother naked in bed with the father of his friend, a man who has become the town drunk. In a moving and believable disclosure Richard admits to Angie they he told his father who had them committed suicide jumping off a cliff above where Richard had run away to. While superficially he blames the man in bed with his mother, he blames himself for the death of his father. The second story is the development fo teh relationship between Richard and Angie in which they eventually fall in love and she becomes pregnant, but the death and the trial means that they do not feel it is right to be together at least for the foreseeable future. It has taken fifty years for the British Prosecutor to set down in the form of a consultation document the approach his office takes when confronted with the evidence that a death may have been assisted, What was made clear is that there will be a full investigation possible one which could lead to a criminal prosecution but if there was clear evidence that the deceased had requested help where death was the only outcome then there would be no prosecution

Sunday 4 October 2009

1809 The 4400, Choices and the Keegan Settlement

Why is it some people can make consistently better choices than others when outcomes are evaluated. Is it a question of intelligence, intuition, childhood background, education, experience, divine intervention? I believe it is having the right mix of all these and more, except into relation to the latter when from experience I understand that intervention is not in the form of human understanding but the ability to keep within a balance of forces which make up the universe.

When I discovered that the second disk of the series the 4400 was missing with its three final episodes of the first series I was tempted to continue with the remainder, expecting it could take some time to replace the duplicated first disk. I decided to contact the gift provider and amazing quickly the good customer relations of Amazon had supplied not just the disk but a replacement full set. Although watching West Wing had been my priority, I elected to start with the 4400 in the run up to the Christmas Season. This reminds that I must remember to stock up for Halloween callers and where there was the first signs of the commercial build up at Asda yesterday. When is it? I think before November the 5th?

The West Wing was a 70th birthday present to myself as had been the decision to concentrate on cricket watching experience this summer having the intuition that it would be a second good year for Durham, although not as good as the season became which Di Venuto came second and Benkenstein 11 in the top 12 of those who played 20 or more innings in the first division of the championship. Mustard and Blackwell also did well and Chandepaul topped but was discounted because of just six innings but Liam Plunket had an average of 44 from his 12.00 In the championship Onions headed those who had bowled over 100 overs with Harmison and Blackwell second and third and Liam Plunket 5th Thorpe 9th and Davis 13th and Claydon 22nd . I had trips to watch Durham at Sussex(4 days), Yorkshire (2), Nottingham(2) and Worcester (3) as well as being able to watch one championship match on Television, at Somerset (4). It is an indication of the situation to come that Sky appears to have abandoned the championship in favour of the one day games. This is understandable in a situation where I suspect perhaps less than a couple of thousand people will have tuned in to any further games between Durham and other counties over the full four days such is the support for the four day game at the present time. This had been an excellent judgement and decision in terms of ongoing and ultimate outcome.

Now like a good holiday, does one try and repeat or move on. It is a question of age and time left now and I tend to keep with things that work for me and which I can sleep easy at night over than too much adventuring or risk taking, but equally I have no inclination to watch sport which is without interest, especially when it ends in defeat. Hence I soon switched off the England game in the Champions Trophy semi final as the wickets continued to fall and then took further interest when after a stand England reached a respectable 250 although given the in ability to bowl out Australia in previous one day games and I quickly had doubts and switched off again to do something else, not bothering to keep one eye on the Teletex. This was also a good decision. England had approached he game in the right way but were not good enough.

I faced a dilemma on Saturday on finding that the Sunderland game at Manchester United was on ESPN, the company which has taken over the Satanta Contract. This meant that Sky would not be including the game in its 60 minute editions of Premier Games later in the evening which would have meant I could watch without knowing the score and then decide to continue with wholehearted attention or leave if things went badly as was likely. I had rejected the idea of taking out the assumed minimum 12 month commitment because it would not includes. Later I discover that one can pay just for one month and that there is a showing of the Man City game on Monday evening, so good value at £4.50 for each game and other games which could be of interest later in the month.

The problem is the ongoing and increasing cost of TV and the Internet although phone lines and phone calls are coming down when part of TV and Internet Packages. I have been investigating the position although I am tied re the Internet having taking out a package commitment which last two years with six months more to go. However I might switch to Virgin from Sky in the interim on finding that they are offering the ESPN station free, a full works record box which includes the ability to see on TV the replays now available on the Internet and the free HD next year on BBC and some HD free now. The issue is one of transfer costs and future pricing.

The Sunderland game was excellent with the Manager playing attacking football with two forwards and taking the lead twice and with only an own goal scored in the last seconds of extra time similar to what happened in the Manchester Derby last weekend. The resulting draw was a fair one on the overall play, The sending of a Sunderland Player for kicking a ball away, his second bookable offence did not help in the dying seconds when Manchester with having all their team forward in an attempt to get the three points. Newcastle also continues to do well in the championship although they have gained only two ores from the last two homes games but still have a four point lead at the top, which should have been eight, especially on Saturday when a clear penalty was said to have been turned down.

Some of the truth of the Keegan Newcastle affair has now been published in the statement of finding in the arbitration award in the case taken by Kevin for constructive dismissal. The finding is available on the Club internet site and Football Association. Both sides were represented by lawyers who obviously did what lawyers do and concentrated on the written contract between Kevin and Club taking into account what both sides was said orally and was subsequently reported or written about. The key issue is whether Keegan was told that he would have the final say in player recruitment and presumably also in player selling or not. What emerged is that Kevin was aware of the proposed managerial structure when he agreed to the contract, and that Denis Wise was one of those under consideration as Director of Football. It would be his job to find players and for another Club Director to arranged negotiate and finalise the contracts, but Keegan would have the final word. This was Keegan’s understanding when appointed and Mr Wise and the Club subsequently made statements to the media confirming the position. The club claimed that it was never agreed that Keegan would have the final say and that what was subsequently written was public relations because of the situation which developed when according to them Keegan walked out on the club. The Tribunal found that the club were in breach of contract and therefore they had constructively dismissed Keegan for which he was due compensation. The question of reinstatement is not covered in the judgement so it is not clear if this was an issue although Keegan in a brief interview before the Manchester United game gave the impression that he had wanted to remain as manager and was forced out.

The precipitating issue was the decision to contract a player on loan at cost reported to have been £1 million over a year on the basis of a U tube clip of his playing and where no one at the club had seen play or where there was footage of his playing available. The club were said to have agreed to the deal as favour to South American agents on the basis that it would lead to the signing of first team players in the future. The disclosures reveal what top flight football club management has become.

There was further insight over the row that has developed over the practice of signing 16 year old players direct from academies before they have entered contracts which means the academies can profit from sales. What happens is that the big clubs who can offer the top flight wages employ people to watch the academies all over the world and keep track of the progress of youngster from the moment they are admitted. The biggest club therefore start to make contact with the families of the best prospects from the earliest stages and make them offers to sign with them as soon as they are free to do so without having to pay the academies a fortune as compensation for the world that has been put in. The programme revealed that some of the clubs who are complaining about the loss of their academy players are themselves doing likewise.

There was a further turn off from the Motor Racing Grand Prix yesterday when Jenson Button and his racing partner were dropped five places because they ignore a flag to slow down after a car accident when had they slowed down they would have not been able to complete a qualifying practice lap. They had left the qualifying until late in the session but the outcome of the decision could result in affecting the Driver’s world championship and Constructors award and is therefore translated into significant financial sums. After years in which many argued that Formula 1 had become a procession based on car technology with the drivers playing second fiddle it is fair comment to say that in the ‘drive’ to make races more competitive the pendulum has been swung the other way. It is all about TV ratings and TV advertising although I did hear that advertising on the Internet is no greater than TV advertising in the UK and another indication of the times is that the London Evening standard is to be given free on the basis that advertising revenue will increase and the size of distribution increases. On my recent visits to central London I was struck by the extent to which everyone was being offered copies of the two free evening newspapers then available. One of these has now folded hence the decision of the Evening Standard to compete and presumable drive the remaining free out of business.

So having digressed about the exercise of choice and its outcomes, back to the 4400 and where the whole series appears to hinge upon the choice made of one young man three years before the date when the series is set after 9/11 and the formation of Homeland security in the USA

First I had to remind myself that the series is about 4400 people, (will we learn the significance the number or was it just a creative notion which sounded good?) who are returned from where they have been after having disappeared for up to a century but interestingly not longer. Was this because the creators were limited in their imagination or because it would have been difficult for those from previous generations to have made an adjustment to the present had society accepted their return Their return is associated with a Comet which become a large white light cylinder in shape and subsequently has the form of a white electrical charge.

It was evident from the two episode pilot and the one that which followed that the series would follow the experience of three distinct groups of people and this was confirmed from watching the three episodes of the second disk to complete the first season on Friday afternoon.

The first group are the investigators/monitors. There are three of these who work for the new Threat Assessment Unit part of the Homeland Security Service in the USA. Tom Baldwin, played by Joel Gretsch works for the government and is assigned to monitor what happened when the 4400 are released into the community after it is legally decided it would be unconstitutional to hold them for longer in quarantine. The reason why the 4400 are considered a threat and ostracised by the society generally is because the public becomes aware that they have extra terrestrial, Godlike or devil like powers.

Tom’s role becomes more significant when we learn that his son was one of those intended to have been taken three years before but his cousin moved him out of the white light force/electric charge and takes his place. This is the exercise of choice with profound consequence for both of them. The son Kyle, is played by Chad Faust and lived with his mother Linda (Lori Ann Trioli),until the event which has left him in a coma who is estranged from her husband, but they really love other and it appears to be his work which has caused the rift. More on the significance of the choice when I have covered everyone and everything else that has occurred to date. She appears to have no control over what and when she sees.

Tom works closely with Diana Skopuris (Jacquline McKenzie) a single woman who can barely cope with her own life but appear to be good as her job. She befriends the youngest of the returnee Maia born 28 Feb 1938 and disappears in 1946 aged 8. She is the first often returnees to attract the interests of the authorities because of her uncanny knack of predicting what is going to happen with infallible accuracy. She begins to write her visions in a diary.

This duo are commanded by Denis Ryland (Peter Cope) who heads National Threat Assessment Unit. Because the majority of the 4400 chose to settle in the area of his posting. Washington, we learn has doubts about his abilities and sends someone to keep an eye on and potentially take over as the first season progresses.

The second grouping are the majority of the 4400, who we never learn of their backgrounds or their role in the mystery although a selection become the main subject in every episode. The third group are the core returnees, five todate who are to have an on going role, or at least this is what the first series indicates with Maia already mentioned..

Lily Moore Tyler (Laura Allen), is a young woman who finds she is pregnant when she returns and that her husband has had her declared missing believed dead and remarried and where his new wife is bringing up Lily‘s child as her own. She was character born August 1966 and disappeared May 26th 1993. Her grandmother had an unrequited relationship with Richard Tyler born 1922 (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali), who was abducted May 11th 1951 15 years before the birth of Lily, after being framed for assaulting a white girl when it became known he had a white girlfriend. Richard is amazed at the progress in race relations and rights since his abduction and he is struck by the similarity in appearance between Lily and his former love and when both find they do not fit in and do not have relatives with whom they can relate they establish a relationship even though Richard knows Lily is pregnant, assumed by her former husband. Lily has the ability to communicate with her unborn child. There is the possible parallel of Lily being the Virgin Mary, Richard is Joseph and the child, well we shall see! However the twist which emerges towards the end of the first season is that the unborn child has the same DNA as Richard. What does this mean?

When they find life in the community difficult with bomb attacks on some of the returnees they seek the help of another returnee Jordan Collier. He is featured in the first season episode (4) Becoming, A real estate financier and developer he disappeared in April 2002 and when he returns he decides to take on the government and society by declaring that he is a returnee and offering a new luxury private housing estate as a refuge for other trainees and he offers to provider a home free for the Lily and Richard and a job as head of security for Richard. However his support becomes suspect when he takes an intense interest in finding out what is happening to the pregnancy and when he attempts to separate the couple. They break out of the estate with the help of the unborn child and going into hiding until the baby is born. How they manage to fund their life is not explained and I learn that their fully furnished log cabin they use was found abandoned!

The main focus of the episode Becoming is the suspicion that another of the returnees Oliver Knox was a serial killer before he disappeared and is responsible for a further series of killings since his return. What emerges is that Oliver is able to get other men to kill victims he identifies to them and to then take the blame for the original killings thus taking the pressure away from himself. He is however apprehended. It is a relative of one of the murder victims who starts the bombing campaign against 4400 returnee and he and a associate are caught before their attack on Jordan Colliers property refuge takes place. Oliver disappeared in 1983 and uses mind control through speech.

The pilot is a double episode and in the second the main story focus is on Orson Bailey a partner in an insurance firm who disappeared in 1979 only to find on return that he has been removed from his company which is now being used in a corrupt way. When put under stress and frustrated Orson finds that he has awesome telekinetic power in the form of shaking vibrations to the extent of causing a minor earthquake and the death of the man who has taken over his company. However when it appears that his power is out control is shot by homeland security but lives and is taken into secure custody.

The third episode also is about a character, Carl Morrissey, the New and Improved Carl Morrissey, a minor Supermarket employee, also some who disappeared recently and returns to live with his wife and his old job. He is presented as someone who accepts what life throws at him but rebels when eh finds that the part where he courted his wife has been overrun by drug addicts, and gangs including rapists. He finds that he has developed great strength and movement and sets about cleaning up the park at night. He is the first to communicate the idea of being on a mission, However he misunderstands his abilities and is killed when taking on several hooligans at the same time. However this is not the end of his mission as the community responds to his death by getting together to reclaim the park. This can be viewed as an episode message that it is up to communities to band together to sort out similar situations but also alerts the viewer , and the investigators that the returnees are on a mission but which we have seen appears to have contradictory purposes ranging between extremes of good and violent evil.

This brings me to the significance of Tom’s son Kyle who was drinking beer on a beach at night in 2001 when the white light strikes him but on appeal to his drinking companion and cousin Shawn Farrell, it is Shawn who pushes Kyle out of the way and takes the full force of the light and is abducted. Kyle remains in a coma visited by his parents until Shawn returns.

On his return Shawn discovers he has the power to heal which eh finds it difficult to admit to and this includes healing the hand of the girl friend of his young brother who has a relationship with a girl at the High school who had a crush on the disappeared brother before his departure. This leads to a violent confrontation with his brother and taking teh decision that he needs to take refuge run by Jordan Collier who previously had taken an interest in the young when realising the nature of his powers. Shawn is upset to find the condition of his friend and on a visit to hospital places a hand on Kyle who appears to make progress which does not last. When eh visits again Kyle appears to regain full control over himself but cannot remember anything or anyone of his past including his father and mother. He claims that he is not their son and appears driven towards searching for someone or something. Meanwhile the person placed to watch over the activities of the Special Task Force takes Kyle into protective custody and for study and Tom and Diana embark on a plan to break the boy out of quarantine and into a place of safety with his mother. They are successful but the young man forces them to take him back to the beach where he was abducted and where father and son become transfixed by the white light which appears tom hold them in a trance like state. We the view know that this is not the situation as the being who has taken over the son is having a conversation with Tom. This is not evident to both the head of the unit and the man planted to take over when they arrive or to Diana, however the spy in the camp pulls a gun a shoot Kyle and breaks the white light connection. The episode is called The White Light. Kyle recovers from the shooting after the being inside him leaves and he appears fully recovered but to where he was three years previously.

And the conversation between Tom and the being ? We learn that the being is not an alien but a human, from the future, unstated time, and that the human race is dying out and that the time travelling was take the selected 4400 and return them in order to change things to change the future. So there is a mission which the 4400 must be allowed to undertaken. Kyle had been selected as the one to communicate the task when they returned but because of the intervention of Shawn he had not been taken and had been kept in the coma state until the appropriate time. They were therefore using Kyle to communicate with Tom and given him the responsibility of protecting the 4400 and the in so doing the future saving of humanity from extinction. Hmm!