“Weight of the World”

It’s 4400er of the week time again. “Weight of the World” is another filler type episode, with very little development of the overall arc. This episode centers around 4400er Trent Applebaum (played by genre regular, Robert Picardo). He was taken in 1989 and returns to find that his wife had died and his now older daughter had to quit school, to become a waitress to make ends meet.

He’s a salesman without good leads and he’s been borrowing money from a local thug named Dmitri Kazar. Dmitri comes into the diner and threatens Trent that he has 48 hours to repay him, before taking a swig from Trent’s beer.

A few days later, Trent has sold his daughter’s car and her television to come up with money to repay Dmitri, but Dmitri suddenly doesn’t want it. It turns out that mixing saliva with Trent has caused Dmitri to lose 75 pounds. He brings his wife to see him, wanting to lose 23 pounds or so. Dmitri forgets the money and Trent realizes he now has a better product to sell. All I have to say is that this is that we’re only on the tenth episode, and their already reaching for abilities. This could get ugly.

Back at NTAC, the team discusses the precedence of someone selling exclusivity to their ability. It seems that a dietary aid company is going to offer Trent at least $20 million dollars.

Meanwhile Richard, Lily, and Isabella arrive at a fellow 4400er’s house. Eric and Richard met in quarantine and they seem to be great friends. Unfortunately a friend of Eric’s husband is jealous about his wife’s infatuation with Richard and his past. The man is a caricature of a prick, but I guess it’s not altogether an unrealistic depiction.

Kyle and his new crush-teacher meet and Kyle learns he got an A- on his paper. He invites her to a party at a frat, but she declines saying she failed half the frat, but that he should definitely go.

He does go and we get the small arc-effecting portion of the show. He takes a drink of beer and then he flashes. The next thing he realizes, he’s standing before a storefront whose window is busted in by a garbage can. It’s intriguing as it recollects what happened to Kyle in season 1 so we’ll have to see where it goes. Unfortunately, it’s too small a moment in this episode.

Meanwhile at the 4400 compound, Jordan welcomes in a pop star named Chloe, hoping she’ll use her fame to promote the 4400. Jordan of course ends up sleeping with her and that destroys Devon who is infatuated with Jordan. Devon tries to kill herself, and Shawn is disgusted by the lack of morality. More and more he is disgusted by Jordan’s apparent hypocrisy. And still Jordan is able to weather the storm — is his ability to be charismatic enough to win people over no matter what the cost?

Eric offers Richard a job, and Richard tries to get Lily to agree to stop running and live her but she wants to move on to Salem. She brings up that Isabella doesn’t like it, which makes Richard angry and he storms off.

Meanwhile, April and Maia convince Diana to allow Maia to come to April’s tatoo parlor to watch her work for an hour. While there, April tells a customer to be certain to wear his helmet tonight. The customer is visibly shaken.

Diana also confides into Tom about Maia only pretending that the visions had stopped. Tom is annoyed, and honestly it doesn’t make much sense given that he kept Shawn’s secret for a bit. But at least Diana brings up this same argument, so it’s acknowledged.

Suddenly right after Trent signs his deal with a dietary aid company, Dmitri and his wife show up at the his door. His wife had already died of starvation and then Dmitri collapses in front of him.

It is discovered that Trent’s saliva contains a protein that speeds up metabolism so much that a person couldn’t eat enough to keep up.

Yep, it’s a rip off of Stephen Kings’ Thinner.

Unfortunately the dietary aid company ran tests that morning on 100 people, so they are all brought in to stabilize while they look for a cure. It gets worse when Trent calls his daughter and she drank from her father’s glass.

The cure is simple, but they need Trent’s liver. He agrees as long as his daugther can go to school.

Meanwhile the tatoo customer comes back to April’s and thanks Maia because he did get into an accident that night and the helmet saved his life.

Tom and Kyle share a moment where they discuss what happened the night of the party, but Kyle, afraid his father would take him back to NTAC Medical, doesn’t tell his father about the missing chunk of time.

As Lily agrees finally to stay and start a home with Eric, they learn that Eric’s prick friend called NTAC on them, after discovering on the website that they were on the run. They agree they have to move on.

We can’t end the episode though without some possibility of how Trent’s power could help and they theorize that it could solve the ozone problem, rid the world of pollution, etc. They just have to study his liver more.

Overall it’s an alright episode. Nothing spectacular, nothing horrible — except the power maybe.

C

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Next – 2.05