The 4400

The 4400 “No Exit” flies under the ‘episode with an moral' banner, as in no real advancement in the serialized aspects of the series, but a very cool abilities-centric episode with a message for the characters and – why not – for the rest of us as well.  As far as one shots go, “No Exit” is certainly one of the best executed so far, relying on familiar locations and an ensemble of performers at the top of their game.

The episode kicks off with Tom  coming to in his office to security claxons and strobes flashing.  Confused, he surveys the apparently empty ops center as Diana stumbles in.  Both of them are unarmed, and neither has a clue how they got to NTAC.  This is the prevailing theme for the first quarter of the episode as Jordan, Shawn, Isabel, Kyle, Marco, Brady, PJ, Maia, and Meghan arrive on the scene.

At first Jordan, and his people, are convinced NTAC brought them their, while Tom and crew think they have fallen victim to some Promicin enhanced terrorists acting under Jordan's control.  Everybody's first order of business, naturally, is to arm themselves.

Tom and Meghan try to open a weapons locker and find it empty, but Meghan is electrocuted in the process.  Tom is very broken up about the whole thing.  You can definitely see his feelings for Meghan showing, even if through the lens of grief.  It is a surprising loss for the show.

Meanwhile, Jordan, Kyle, Isabel, and a reluctant Shawn contemplate storming ops.  Shawn is taking his usual pacifist approach.  Jordan is all for diplomacy, after they are in charge.  Before they get a chance to attack, a strange wind comes from nowhere and a window explodes sending shards into Shawn's back, and killing him instantly. 

So, two major character deaths in one episode.  This has to be a dream or something, right?  Correct.  When Jordan, Kyle, and Isabel bring Shawn's body to ops, PJ admits that he has taken Promicin, and his ability is to bring feuding people into a dream in which they must mutually overcome a disaster to get out.

Their first inclination is to go for the easy way out.  PJ has discovered that his dreams often have a back door that he can use to end the dream prematurely.  When they arrive there, however, the back door succeeds only in removing PJ from the dream.  The rest must find a way out.

Jordan and Tom had accompanied PJ to the back door while the rest stayed behind to try to work out a contingency plan.  They decide that NTAC, as in the building, is the enemy of the game.  Defeat the building, win the game.  They come up with a way to short all electricity to the building, but before they can get out to execute their plan, the blast doors close and the room becomes a slow vacuum with the air supply slowly being sucked out through the vents.

Diana radios Tom about their plan and he and Jordan arrive at the junction point.  Unfortunately, they don't have enough cable to reach between the boxes, and time is running out.   Jordan decides that they must sacrifice themselves to make the plan work, using their bodies to complete the circuit.  Tom complies, and the plan is a success.

In the end, Tom goes into Meghan's office and gives her a pretty tight hug.   Big challenge to the rumor that Tom and Diana will finally hook up.  Meanwhile, Diana is feeling the need to rekindle her ‘friendship' with Marco, mostly at the urging of Maia.

As for PJ, with only seven episodes in our man PJ is now going into the slammer and probably won't be appearing on future episodes.  As a character, he felt good about what happened.  Tom and Jordan cooperated, and that can only be the beginning of a good thing as far as he is concerned.

The episode closes with Jordan calling Tom to tell him that they are all OK.  They reaffirm that the experience meant nothing as far as their standpoints are concerned, but Tom inadvertently calls Collier by his first name.  They muse over that for a moment, then Collier asks Tom if he would like to hang up on him, or if he should hang up on Tom.   Indeed, it seems things are changing.


- Jon Lachonis, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of USANetwork)