As the 4400 become increasingly restless with no end to their incarceration in sight, Isaiah takes matters into his own hands and Claudette starts to test the limits of her new powers with the help of Andre and LaDonna. But Claudette may not be the only one to have new abilities…

After a fairly promising opener, this second episode certainly delivers an awful lot, and the only question is whether you’ll manage to take it all in in one sitting.

As you might expect from a group of strangers cooped up together in a hotel under armed guard and being told nothing about their situation, the 4400 are getting a bit restless. That means that tensions are running high between them and the guards, one in particular, and it also means that various members of the cohort are looking for ways out.

For Claudette, that means testing the limits of her newfound rapid healing. Is it limited to just cuts and bruises, or might she be able to recover swiftly from more extensive injuries, and could that prove a useful talent? Only way to find out is to test herself, with the help of her two closest allies so far, Andre and LaDonna. The results are quite surprising.

Meanwhile, it would seem that Claudette isn’t the only one who is manifesting strange new abilities. We already had a hint that Mildred, as well as being a little kooky, had some sort of strange talent, and that gets properly confirmed here, as well as Noah having an extraordinary ability that proves equally potentially useful, if only it can be applied in the right way.

And that’s where Isaiah comes in. It seems that Claudette may have been correct in her instinct not to fully trust this smooth talking young preacher, but then again he does seem to be a truly complicated character. We get some insight here into his background – exactly what it was that he left behind when he ‘jumped’ and why it is vitally important to him that he gets back. It seems that perhaps contrary to surface appearances Isaiah’s faith might be genuine – more genuine than his father’s even – but it also seems that firmly held belief makes him able to justify whatever actions to himself he needs to take in order to get what he wants.

Isaiah’s easy way means he’s able not only to get his fellows to trust him with their secrets, but also to convince Keisha and Jharrel to entrust him and some of his fellow inmates with a special trip to a significant place – there, he can put his plans in motion. Clearly he will be an important character to watch, going forwards.

As to Shanice, well a visit from her now ex-husband doesn’t really work out the way she might want it to – he’s going to take some convincing and she may have to accept that she’s lost her family as she understood it, though there may be someone already waiting to fill the Logan-shaped hole in her life…

Verdict: It’s balancing an awful lot of spinning plates but for now it’s doing it well and getting me invested in the characters. 8/10

Greg D. Smith