4400 2.6: "Life Interrupted"

Written by Ira Steven Behr
Directed by Michael Watkins

In which Tom finds himself in a world where the 4400 were apparently never abducted, but when his “wife” remembers being an abductee, the truth turns out to be more than he imagined…


Every so often, a series will begin with a well-worn plot device and end up in completely unexpected territory. Moments like those remind us why we love the show in the first place. When I was watching the trailer and first act of this episode, I thought I had it all figured out. I knew Alana had to be planting that fantasy world into Tom’s head, but never for a second did I consider that it might be something more than an individual action.

What’s great is that the episode doesn’t start off in “reality”. It begins in the fantasy world and continues to progress from there, right to the decision point. Ironically, I mentioned in my comments for the last episode that I wanted to get a better idea of how Tom’s role was supposed to play out. Sure enough, the writers were one step ahead of me. Instead of following up a huge episode with something predictable, they drop down an episode that is clearly important to the series and its mythology.

One thing this episode touches on, at least tangentially, is the concept of “consensual reality”. The fantasy world that Tom inhabits through most of the episode is not internally consistent. There’s no way that NTAC would let him back in the field if he were still showing signs of instability. He certainly wouldn’t be given a gun! The point was to get him to where the door is, so his mind could absorb that piece of information. As Alana says later in the episode: if he were to reject what was being given to him, he would prove that he wasn’t the right man for the job.

One of the most difficult things to do on a series is building a loving relationship. It usually takes a very long time, or methods of storytelling that skip over that time. It’s nearly impossible to have a relationship just appear out of thin air. And yet, that’s exactly what the writers have accomplished. Tom and Alana are given a nearly perfect relationship, complete with a shared sense of how things ought to have been, and that gives them an instant rapport. Tom doesn’t have to go through the process of explaining all his problems to someone new.

This ought to play out very nicely over the rest of the season. Things are about to get traumatic for Tom, and he’s going to want to turn to Alana for support time and again. She’ll be there, as planned by “the future humanity”, to serve that function and keep him on task. But how will the others in Tom’s world react to the idea of this sudden, fully functional relationship? At what point will NTAC begin wondering whether Tom is acting of his own accord?

And that brings up an interesting possible parallel with Kyle. Some have speculated (and I happen to agree) that Kyle might be receiving ongoing “instructions” from “the future humanity”, all part of a kind of maintenance program for the plan involving the 4400. Something needs to be done, Tom hasn’t done it in a timely fashion…Kyle is utilized. Isn’t using Alana and her ability essentially the same sort of thing? Using Tom against his will?

In a way, that says a lot about “the future humanity” and the intention of sending back the 4400. They say it’s for the betterment of the future. But their methods leave much to be desired, and if they used questionable ethics in creating and maintaining the 4400, why assume that their end goal is any less questionable? What if the evidence begins to suggest that the 4400 were seeded back into humanity for a malevolent purpose, and Tom and Diana are placed in even more conflict with NTAC?

A lot of the imagery was very creepy, especially the representation of the facility where “the future humanity” (I really have to think of a better name) altered the abductees. The writers took a risk by focusing so completely on a few characters and one plot thread, but it fundamentally alters Tom and changes the status quo completely. Not only that, but I had no idea what the twist would be, and that it would turn out to have so many layers of potential consequences. This is already one of my favorite episodes, if only because it demonstrates that the format can be altered successfully.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 3/4

Final Rating: 9/10