“Gone Part 2″

Part 2 takes the set up it was given in Part 1 and makes it work.  Unfortunately a show shouldn’t have to MAKE it work.  If it’s MAKING it work, that means characters and situations are being shoehorned into the plot against their will.

We begin with the immediate showing that Maia has indeed been forgotton…mostly.  Marco visits Diana’s apartment to have dinner but for some reason Diana has set out three plates for the meal.   At the same time Tom visits another of Alana’s fantasy worlds, where Tom is driving a sportscar at top speed when suddenly a girl pops up in the middle of the road and Tom strikes her.

Stopping the car, they look for the girl and eventually find her in front of the car…but she has no face. The two snap back to reality, but it really bugs Tom.  He tries to figure out who she was but can’t quite get there.

At NTAC, Tom and Diana are assigned the case of Christopher Dubov who was attacked outside his home and there is the possibility of it being a hate crime.

Tom and Diana go to Dubovs and reveals to them that it was his son who had attacked him because he had set up his ex-wife with her new husband due to his new ability.  He can “smell” when people belong together.

Afterwards in the car Diana breaks down over the thought of father and son fighting like that.  Tom asks what’s going on and Diana can’t quite explain it.

Meanwhile at the 4400 center Shawn and Richard square off over Isabelle.  Shawn apologizes, but Richard sees it as betrayal.  Their relationship should be important, but the way things have gone, I honestly couldn’t care less as I see it as just a way to try to latch Richard on to something after Lily’s death.  Richard almost seems useless and shoehorned in at this point.  I like the character but his leading the 4400 with Shawn…well it just seems forced.

In the meantime there is the subplot where Richard refuses to go along with the Nova group and Daniel causes Shawn to go paranoid, destroying his apartment looking for a bug and finally cutting into his own arm.

Tom and Alana visit fantasy world again, this time simply preparing  a meal for them and Kyle when suddenly Maia appears on the stairs and she reveals herself to be the faceless vision.  Tom asks if they’ve met before and Maia says not to be silly.  She tells him to think harder.  She is there because he brought her there, implying it is his subconscious.

Ok, here’s a shoehorn.  I just haven’t seen enough proof that Tom was that close to Maia.  Not close enough to have been able to cling to throughout the mindwipe or whatever it was Sarah did.  Again, can it be explained?   Sure.  Does it still seem a bit forced? Definitely.

Now Diana has had enough of the mindgames so she wants to visit the fantasy land to find the girl as well.  She gets in and relives the court scene where she adopts Maia and suddenly Diana remembers everything.  She goes back and tells Tom and Diana.  The two go back to NTAC and discuss it with Nina, but the kids are not on the list of the 4400, but good old Marco finds them.  He looks in history and finds that most of the kids did something very important in the past.  One invented artificial petroleum, one helped design technolgy used in the moon colony.

But Maia died of smallpox.  Ok.  So Maia is important enough to send back but not enough to vaccinate her.  Interesting.

Diana snaps and wants to visit fantasy world one more time in order to say goodbye to her.  Alana and Tom agrees, but in reality Diana decides to push Alana out and stay with Maia in the imaginary world.   However as she knows, that being in this fantasy world, will kill her after four weeks or so of inactivity.

Now here’s another shoehorn. I have no doubt that Diana loves Maia – that isn’t in doubt.   But Diana has always been the reasonable side of the partnership and to give in to an utter fantasy that she knows isn’t real is just a bit much.  Beyond that, if you want to say that her love for Maia goes beyond reason…well fine.  Than that side of her wouldn’t allow the real Maia to be out there still, while she yukked it up with a fake Maia.

Desperate, Tom decides to go big or go home.

He sets himself up in a noose and leaps off a bridge when as he thought(and was right) that the futures wouldn’t let him die.  They bring him to the future room.  While there he convinces Sarah to give the children back as if she doesn’t than he’s done helping the 4400. He offers to help in any other possible way.  Sarah tells him he will regret this bargain after he finds out the price, but will go along with Tom’s desires.

Tom wakes up in Sarah’s home and finds an envelope addressed to him.  Searching the house, he finds Maia and the other children and are able to bring them home.   He quickly brings Maia to the hospital to where Diana is and is able to wake her up.

While they are celebrating the reunion, Tom takes out the envelope, finds a needle and a note.  The note simply reads:

Kill Isabelle.

Overall it makes for an interesting direction for the show to go, but this episode is plain sloppy.

C-

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Next – 3.06