4400 Review: Group Efforts (Season 1 Episode 12)
A day prior, the residents of the Bois Blanc hotel were celebrating a wedding. On 4400 Season 1 Episode 12, “Group Efforts,” that’s all come crashing down.
The freshman series needs to come to some type of resolution before it concludes next week, even if that conclusion is just to give us a few answers to the larger mysteries. As we come towards the end of the season, it’s starting to see where the ensemble setup of this series may have weakened the overall story.
While we got attached to a lot of characters very quickly, the series jolted us into a quickly escalated conflict. This makes sense to some degree because the series needs to come to a conclusion and it needs to keep us interested.
However, as the series attempts to serve multiple storylines it gets harder to tell who’s behind the scenes.
This adds some interest, but going into the finale we now have Andre’s meeting with BHN, the 2062 group that Andre was involved in, Jessica and Homeland Security, and the 44orum to keep track of.
That’s a heavy load for an hour-long series.
I give the writers credit for balancing their subplots and giving us nuggets for each episode. It’s clear they have a bigger plot in mind and they’re not allowed to take risks, but those risks need to come with a somewhat satisfactory conclusion.
One of the things that makes me think that the writers are playing a long game is what happens to Isaiah’s storyline.
So much of what happens to Isaiah feels like what happens to Jordan Collier in the original series. They are both enigmatic men who members of the 4400 respect, and they’re both assassinated. More importantly, after the assassination, their bodies both disappear.
I don’t know what 4400 has planned regarding this revelation, but the fact that it’s swept under the rug and likely won’t be answered by the time the season ends could leave a huge hole for the series to answer for.
In the background, the serious also seems to have a couple of other groups forming. On the one hand, you have the 44orum which now counts Millicent as a member.
Millicent’s appearance does tie a few ends together, but her position opposite Mildred raises more questions than it answers. While we finally got to see a bit of where Mildred was before she was taken, the dynamic between herself and Millicent doesn’t feel like it has had enough room to grow.
Similarly, while tensions with the 44orum rise, the revelation that Manny is actually from 2062 feels rushed too. It is starting to feel like the writers are quickly trying to build a complex struggle for something that we don’t even understand the politics of yet.
While it’s necessary that the show grows from the present-day struggles, it also needs to give us something that’s at stake. Especially since, right now, the individual stories of each returnee getting buried in the worldbuilding.
In most cases, I would be worried about where we’re going to leave these characters as we go into the finale. However, in moments like these, I think back to the original series and where they left off in the first season. On that series, the first season finale only answered the biggest question.
Even then, it didn’t answer it completely.
If the series can gather itself and define what’s really at stake, then there may be solid ground to take the show into next season.
Stray Thoughts:
- Props for introducing a Civil War soldier in the most nonchalant way possible.
- I think if there’s one thing we can take away from this episode it’s that everyone thinks they are the good guy and depending on your perspective all communities can be cults.
- The series needs to answer how Manny’s invisibility works because I have a hard time believing that a man who can make his clothes invisible is going to be held by a handcuff.
What did you think of this episode of 4400? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Critic Rating:
User Rating:
4400 airs Mondays at 9/8c on The CW.
Follow us on Twitter and on 
Instagram!
Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!
Lauren Busser
Lauren Busser is an Associate Editor at Tell-Tale TV. She is a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose work has appeared in Bitch Media, Popshot Quarterly, Brain Mill Press Voices, and The Hartford Courant.