The 4400 Explores Prejudice, Ethics and Destiny

USA's popular sci-fi drama, The 4400, is now in its third season. Since the pilot, the show explores recurring themes of prejudice, ethics, alienation, destiny, and free-will. The premise is that of 4400 people who have been snatched from their respective timelines and altered in the future, given special abilities by those in the future in order to prevent a major catastrophe that takes place in the future. While the science fiction current of this show is what draws its high ratings, it is also the way the characters are written with shades of gray and the just-below-the-surface play on powerful themes.

The 4400 are returned in a ball of light to the year 2003, making headlines in a major way. The returnees are no secret from the world and are viewed with fear and hostility even before their abilities start to emerge. They are treated as a threat by their own government, being turned over to quarantine at NTAC (National Threat Assessment Center). When they are finally released from quarantine, they not only have to deal with a life interrupted (many realizing their families have aged and died by the time they returned), they also have to deal with the fear and hatred of them. They are humans, certainly, but many view them as a threat to all humanity.

The idea is that these people were pulled out of their timelines and altered in order to play a part in the cosmic scheme of things, each contributing towards fixing whatever diaster awaits in the future. Are they really meant to be the world's saviors, or are they the catastrophe themselves? No one (including those who altered the 4400) can predict all of the variables that can influence and change the future. It could all be a guessing game, this manipulating of lives and genetics.