Fear Itself (The 4400 episode)

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For other uses, see Fear Itself.
"Fear Itself"
Writer Scott Peters, René Echevarria
Director Nick Copus
Season 4
Episode 02 (List of episodes)
Transmission date June 24, 2007
Preceded by "The Wrath of Graham"
Followed by "Audrey Parker's Come and Gone"
IMDb profile

"Fear Itself" is the second episode of season four of the science fiction television series The 4400. The episode aired June 24, 2007 on the USA Network.[1]

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

Kyle receives a lead from Cassie, leading to a book containing a prophecy about Jordan Collier. Someone is triggering imaginary phobias in regular people.[2]

[edit] Plot

A woman, Jackie Glendon, enters an empty elevator. On the ride up, she notices that two others have suddenly appeared with her. As she begins talking to them she notices more and more have appeared, although the elevator hasn't stopped. The elevator is soon full of people. When the doors finally open, the two passengers waiting to get on look in and see only the woman lying on the floor screaming, suffering extreme claustrophobia. The other passengers were in her imagination.

The scene quickly cuts to a man, Max Kopelow, running out of an office building being chased by a menacing-looking clown. He approaches two police officers that turn out to be clowns as well. As more and more people come to his aid, more and more turn into clowns. Suffering extreme coulrophobia, the man finally collapses into a fountain; the clowns were in his imagination.

Diana has arrived back in Seattle, looking for her sister, April. After she meets with little success on her own, she speaks to Tom about the possibility of coming back to NTAC on a short term basis. Tom tells her about the new director of NTAC, Meghan Doyle. He doubts that she will agree to bring Diana back for such a short period of time. He also tells Diana about finding the paintings by Claude Pierrot of Alana from 1885. Diana warns Tom to not try suicide to contact the future.

Shawn is released from the hospital and his brother, Danny, tells him that he wishes to find a supplier of promicin so that he can try to get abilities. Danny feels that there are now two kinds of people in the world: those with abilities, and the "regular schmucks." Shawn reminds Danny of his dream to be an attorney, and tries to tell him that promicin is too dangerous, but Danny is not convinced. Danny interprets Shawn's reluctance as Shawn wishing to be only family member with special abilities. Shawn voices his concern to Kyle, but Kyle tells him that he took a promicin shot three months before and that he developed no abilities.

As Tom and Agent Garrity search for clues on who has the phobia-causing ability, they question everyone who used the same ATM as the five of the people who have recently suffered from the severe phobias. During questioning they discover that another individual has suffered extreme mysophobia; he couldn't stop cleaning and tried to scrape his skin with iron wool to remove the germs. As this person had no ties to the bank they discover that the ATM doesn’t narrow down the list of suspects, until they discover that one of the ATM users lives in the building serviced by the mysophobe.

Kyle sees Cassie again and, after he confronts her about lying to him, she says that he will figure out who she is soon enough. She then directs him to a house where he will find out more about why she is there. The person who lives in the house has a collection of several artifacts relating the "White Lights," a cult founded in 1918. The cult believed that a messiah would come and bring mankind into a new world. Their scripture has a drawing of the messiah who bears a striking resemblance to Jordan Collier. Upon leaving the house, Cassie tells Kyle that he is the shaman mentioned in the scriptures who aids Collier, with Shawn being the obvious healer mentioned.

Tom and Garrity go to the home of the individual to bring him in for questioning and speak with his wife. Garrity goes over to occupy their son, Brandon, and picks up his toy train. Brandon, who suffers from autism, becomes upset at the disruption and the NTAC agents quickly depart. When the father is found to be promicin negative, it seems to be another dead end until Garrity begins to suffer from odontophobia, an acute fear that his teeth are falling out.

Isabelle is offered an opportunity to go to a low security setting if she agrees to a test of her blood. During the test it is discovered that not only has she lost her promicin-given abilities with the injection that her father, Richard, gave her but she is in fact allergic to promicin. If she were to take an injection to regain her abilities the allergy is so significant that it would kill her.

Brandon and his mother leave when the father admits to giving him a promicin injection. He later also tells the NTAC agents that he did so because although it carried a risk of death, he desperately wanted to be able to speak with his son. During the drive out of town, Brandon becomes upset by the break in routine and the mother tries to console him with a train. She then suffers an extreme case of ophidiophobia, imagining that her bag is full of snakes. Her attempt to move the snakes away results in her running off of the roadway, crashing into a pole, and knocking herself unconscious. Brandon wanders away from the vehicle unharmed.

When NTAC finally catches up with Brandon at a rail yard, Diana muses on how unfortunate that Jordan isn’t there to take away the promicin ability. Tom then decides to instead have Shawn try to cure the autism. Shawn is a bit reluctant as he normally doesn’t have much success with developmental disorders but he agrees to try. After collapsing from the strain of healing, Shawn looks up at Brandon only to hear him ask for his dad.

Kyle enters his bedroom to find Cassie on the bed. "Dad," he says to Tom, "I'd like you to meet Cassie." Cassie reveals that Tom can't see her -- she is the manifestation of Kyle’s ability.

[edit] Significance

Kyle's ability is revealed, showing that Cassie exists only in his mind, yet is guiding him on the path of Jordan and Shawn's rise to saving mankind.

It is also revealed that the shot that robbed Isabelle of her abilities has also made her allergic to Promicin, meaning she can never hope to have a 4400 ability again.

[edit] Cast

[edit] References

  1. ^ 4,400, THE (USA). The Futon Critic.
  2. ^ Episode Detail: Fear Itself - The 4400. TV Guide.
  3. ^ Baird Joins The 4400.

[edit] External links

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