Hayden concocts a plan to break Mildred out of Ypsi Med and enlists the help of Mariah, Andre and Ladonna. Meanwhile, Isaiah is growing his flock.
Hayden seems to have settled in well with the Kaminski’s but while Mariah plans an anime marathon, he is hyper-focused on breaking Mildred out of Ypsi Med. His vision of Mildred screaming and being injected by Jessica is on repeat. His visions don’t normally repeat like that so he feels something terrible is going to happen to her and Noah.
When Hayden tells Mariah of his visions, she is accepting of the possibility of them and is on board with a breakout plan providing her dad doesn’t find out.
I liked the moment when Logan interrupts their discussion to announce that he’s baked a big batch of cakes because he knows Hayden enjoyed them the last time he made them. He was taken by surprise when Hayden said. “I don’t enjoy them.” The look on his face made me laugh then Hayden says: “I don’t enjoy them. I love them. They make me feel like this is home. That I’m wanted.” Aw. So sweet.
Hayden seems very dependent on Mildred. He doesn’t know if he can be without her. It seems she has been the one holding him together. If that’s the case who held him together in the past?
Exploring the past: Hayden’s story
Hayden’s story is a sad one. From the first episode, I’ve had a feeling that he and Mildred came from a past they were more than happy to escape from, in this episode, we learn where Hayden came from.
It appears that Hayden is on the autism spectrum and although there may not have been words for his condition back in the 1930s, his mum Ruth (Celeste M Cooper) was very good at calming young Hayden (Mace Montgomery Miskel) and giving him the tools to cope. She taught him to analyse a situation and problem-solve to get a desired outcome. Chess was one of his coping mechanisms back then which is why the chess set Mildred acquired for him was so important to him.
His mum was a confectioner which explains why Hayden loves sweet treats and why he finds Logan’s cakes comforting. The way to this man’s heart is through his stomach. In order to expand her business, she had to leave Hayden with his uncle Otis (James Earl Jones II) while she went on a business trip. It was only meant to be for one week but sadly she died.
His uncle Otis considered Hayden an odd duck so it’s no surprise that when Hayden’s mother dies, he dispatches the poor young boy off to a sanatorium where he is poked and prodded and continuously experimented on.
Protect and serve
Keisha is now quite protective of the 4400 and can’t believe the government are releasing them into the world just like that. She doesn’t trust the government. She also doesn’t believe that Claudette is the only one with superpowers. She and Jharrell have to come up with a way to get the returnees to trust them so they can keep them safe.
As a start, Jharrell arranges for Andre to shadow a doctor at Ypsi Med this gives him the opportunity to follow up on Mildred and Noah’s care. It also gives Andre a chance to do some reconnaissance on the facility to aid the breakout plan. Armed with a mobile phone, he gleefully takes photos of everything included the door in Hayden’s vision. Meanwhile, Jharrell discovers that the 4400 are being held in a section of the hospital that has a no visitor rule.
Keisha’s attempt to get Shanice onside didn’t go down very well as Shanice doesn’t trust her at all. It’s going to take more than a drink in casual surroundings to get Shanice to cross that bridge.
The power of three will set her free
When the breakout crew discover that Andre’s mission was a flop, they have to enlist the help of Shanice to recover Andre’s vision of the key code to the green door. Shanice believed that Andre was avoiding her and when she sees his memory where she calls him Logan, she understands why.
Whilst Mariah provided the crew with supplies to help with the great escape, it’s LaDonna who actually made sure the breakout went as smoothly as possible. She has really mastered her powers. As Andre and Hayden are led to the chartreuse door by the doctor, I had no idea it was LaDonna disguised as the doctor. Not only that, it turns out she was the one in Hayden’s vision giving Mildred an injection disguised as Jessica.
Mildred was obviously treated terribly and the experience left her feeling extremely angry and powerless as she told one of the guards as she returned the favour by breaking his bones. Many fans were wondering if and when Andre’s powers would kick and what they would be. Well, the doctor has a healing power that triggered when he touched the guard.
If Keisha’s turnabout in the last episode was a surprise, Logan’s was a big shocker this week. When Mariah got herself into trouble over the expired car tags, she immediately called her dad. Both Logan and Keisha aided and abetted the breakout. The team just got a whole lot bigger!
I have to say, I was taken aback by Logan’s attack on Shanice later when she called out Hayden for getting Mariah involved. She’s not wrong. If Logan now understands the situation with the 4400 how dare he make it seem as though Shanice just skipped out on her parental responsibilities. He clearly has some unresolved issues. Maybe he feels guilty for moving on with his life knowing that she didn’t really leave him. I dunno but he needs to choose his words more carefully.
The church is sanctuary
Rev Isaiah is growing his church and in talking to people he learns that there are many like him, who don’t want to leave the hotel as they have no family to return to. They are terrified of being thrown into a world that they don’t know. After asking Shanice for advice, he decides to declare the hotel as a sanctuary which means the government will have to go through a huge legal battle to remove them.
The Rev proves that he will use the returnee’s superpowers for his own ends. Whilst Shanice live streams his sermon the Rev arranges for Ji-Eun Jeong (Crystal Park), a woman with a light power to cast a glow over him making it look like his speech is a message from God or something. He’s a piece of work. The hateful Bill Green attended the sermon and seems very interested in the Rev. We know that the government are already experimenting on the 4400, so what could Green want with Isaiah? Will these two men team up to exploit the returnees?
4400 superpower logs
In my episode 4 review, I mentioned that I wanted more sci-fi to go with the drama but I didn’t want to see the 4400 experimented on. Call me a sweet summer child because of course, that’s what the government are going to do when they discover people with superpowers. In Ypsi Med we saw a woman with raggedy wings and a man with some sort of volcanic power who was doused in water.
It seems the government have known about the powers all along. Which makes sense when you think about it. The returnees that we see at the Bois Blanc hotel are cautious about revealing their powers but it’s obvious that some returnees in other detention centres have not been able to control their powers or keep them secret.
As we heard from Mildred, the government are forcing the superpowered 4400 to push themselves in order to learn more about their powers. It wouldn’t surprise me if they are trying to weaponize the powers somehow.
Andre finally comes into his powers but it seems there is a downside to them as he appears to take on the pain of the person he heals. He definitely seemed weakened and in pain for the remainder of the episode. I just hope he doesn’t manifest broken bones otherwise, there’s bound to be trouble trying to explain that away.
LaDonna’s powers also come with a downside. Although she can project the illusion of a person, she can’t take on their voice.
Mildred has made a decision to leave, where she is going and what she intends to do, we have no clue. Judging by Hayden’s vision it seems quite dangerous. As I worried that Hayden was far too reliant on Mildred, it turns out his mother provided him with skills to know when to let go. He has all the tools to be on his own and succeed.
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