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!
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!
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