Shanice is starting to feel overwhelmed by all her new responsibilities. LaDonna returns to the hotel. Jharrell is excited to introduce his brother to his new friends.

Well, I have to admit that it’s starting to get hard to keep up with what might happen next on 4400, and this week’s episode just makes all of that a little bit harder still (in a good way).

Ji-Eun wants to get married to the man she was taken away from by whatever the green light is thirty years ago, but she also wants a specific favour from Isaiah – to have her powers taken away so that they can live a normal life together. That means there’s yet another thing added to Shanice’s to-do list, as she has to help organise the wedding.

On top of that, she’s essentially running the hotel, dealing with room allocations and basically in charge of almost everything that happens in the sanctuary. It’s starting to get to her, making her question who she even is anymore and whether she will ever be the same person again, even without her powers.

LaDonna returns, having experienced first hand the cruelty that the world has in store for the 4400. Not only has she encountered strangers who wish harm upon her and those like her, but she’s also had to deal with the betrayal of the one person she felt she might have been able to trust. The way in which the show illustrates this, via flashbacks, is extremely painful given today’s political climate. Though the concept of the show is fantastical, the prejudices and human tendencies to fear and cruelty in the face of the unknown or new is not, and but for the nature of the 4400’s powers, one could at times be watching a contemporary documentary.

Jharrell meanwhile is excited to introduce Manny to all of his new friends and especially to Claudette, but Manny doesn’t seem all that keen on revealing himself to anyone. More is clearly going on with Jharrell’s brother than might first appear, and it’s clear that things are about to get an awful lot more complicated for Jharrell before they get any easier.

An incident leaves Hayden questioning whether he wouldn’t be safer back amongst his own and the return of Mildred makes the residents of the hotel – 4400 and otherwise – understandably nervous even if she doesn’t any longer have her powers.

When Soraya organises a meeting with Jharrell, he can’t possibly be prepared for what she reveals (and I am so glad to see that Soraya is indeed on the side of the angels after all – a triple agent no less!). But there’s undeniable evidence back at the hotel that what she tells him is true, and things might be about to get even more complicated than they already were.

Verdict: Twisty, compelling and above all deeply human. 9/10

Greg D. Smith