Is it just me, or are Joel Gretsch and Megalyn Echikunwoke acting their socks off this season?

Let’s face it. Up until now, their characters, while not one-dimensional, were rather (well-acted and) predictable.

Tom Baldwin, though torn between his love for his 4400 wife and nephew and what the future folks did to his son, plus his job, has always been a wee bit predictable. He always, in the end, does the Right Thing. He loves his country and his family and wants to make sure he does the best he can for both.

But Tom with Evil Future Person inside him is a revelation. He really is acting like a totally different person. When he’s with other EFPs, he’s very clearly one of them. When he’s with Diana or Meghan or other regular ol’ NTAC folks, he’s very clearly trying to be just good old Tom.

As for Isabelle, she rather quickly evolved from a little girl all grown up into the evil Isabelle. But even as she was innocent and trying to be good, she too easily enjoyed the bad side of her.

New Isabelle actually has enjoyed her time as a good person. She very clearly is being Bad because that’s the only way to save her father—her father who sacrificed so much just for the sake of his little girl. Even by being the one to take away her powers because he’d failed at helping Isabelle stay Good.

Not that there’s really any love lost between her and Jordan. Somewhere inside her brain, she remembers how much he tried to manipulate her parents when she was still in utero. And Jordan never really trusted the new and improved Isabelle.

I’m sure they will be overlooked, but both Joel and Megalyn deserve Emmy nods next year.

Anyway, back to the show.

So Jordan has now been infected with the Tiny Machines and will become an EFP. Will he? Will his ability enable him to cleanse himself of the nanites (I suspect not)? How will he be able to explain his escape and return to the 4400s? Of course, they don’t know about the EFPs, so that might be easier than I’d assume.

Is Kyle going to be his first victim?

I tend to think not, if for no other reason than, whoa! Cassie is totally bad. Why do I suspect that some of the powers people are getting now might have been developed by the EFPs? Or is it just that some people’s brain chemistry causes the powers they develop to be more bad than good? Cassie brought Kyle to Isabelle and to Jordan. She basically set the whole thing up. What exactly is Cassie? And will Kyle be so caught up in the idea of having so much power that he won’t care?

Other random thoughts:
• Who knew Diana had it in her to shoot her best friend in the chest, point blank? I know they’re going to bring him to Shawn, hoping he can heal Tom. But can Shawn heal the nanites out of Tom? Are they going to irradiate Tom first, and then have Shawn try to heal him? Given that Shawn can now heal mental illness, he’s obviously far more powerful than ever before. Perhaps he can.
• How about Shawn’s brother? Show of hands if you think his power is what caused his mother to start bleeding from, well, everywhere. Irony, him gaining a power that’s the exact opposite of Shawn. But can he control it? Who’ll be able to get close enough to him to inject him with the promicin inhibitor to stop him from killing folks? Or will he take it willingly, just so he can stop hurting others? All he really wanted was to be just like his big brother and at every turn he’s just been thwarted.
• Meghan. I’m really not sure what to think of her. Though I still think there’s more to her than her just being the new head of NTAC and Tom’s lover, my opinion of her has totally changed. There’s no way she’s working with The Marked. Is she totally good? Jury’s still out. But she’s done nothing so far to indicate she’s not trying to do the best job she can while hurting as few people as possible.
• More Maia! She’s had so little to do so far this season. She’s always been a really well-developed character, and we’ve seen so little of her this season. What we have seen of her has been so much window dressing. There’s been no Maia-centric plot (last night was the closest we’ve come so far this season), no major visions. She’s mostly just been a pretty well-behaved pre-teen. Bad hair last night. Looks much better straight. It was a wee bit too frizzy last night for my taste.
• How much do you love Kevin and Tess? I mean, really? Awww. (And how cool did Tess look when the door came crashing off its frame and she was standing there, silhouetted in the doorway? She kind of brought to mind the good Terminatrix she’ll be playing this winter/spring in The Sarah Connor Chronicles.)