So, I'm watching The 4400, season 2 on DVD. And this one episode really got to me. The episode was Life, Interrupted. (More on it here.)

Here's the setup for what's going on: Tom Baldwin is a government agent who investigates things related to the 4400 people who were abducted and returned. He's got it kinda rough. He's divorced, his nephew is a 4400 abductee that's running the 4400 er, cult, and his son was in a coma for four years and things have been kinda wacky for him since he woke up.

Anyway, it turns out the people from the future who abducted, altered, and returned the 4400 also are vitally concerned with the state of Tom Baldwin's... love life. Like, to the point that they think he needs a girlfriend. Immediately. Because Shit Is Gonna Go Down Soon, and they think him being single isn't going to help him cope with that.

The concept of this boggles my tiny little mind. On the one hand, having a forced fixup on THAT level is...mindbogglingly irritating to me. Like, y'all thought I was THAT much of a weakling that you had to force a wife on me? Couldn't ask if I was interested in a fixup? You think I'm incapable of managing on my own alone? Eeesh.

And on the other hand, I think it's really freaking sweet that someone uh, took the time to do something nice for someone whose life is already heading up shit creek and getting shittier. And makes me kinda go, "Hey! Where's MY alternate reality where I'm with a hot foreigner and everything is peaceful? Don't I deserve one too?"

Yeah, I'd so hop into an alternate reality in a red hot second and refuse to come back out. You know that. (It'd sure beat doing what I did this weekend, arguing with Mom over whether or not having a viewing of Dad's body is reassuring or creepy and giving Grandma Mazur-like voyeurs something to look at.) I wish science fiction was real :P But, back to our show...

So, they decide to fix him up with a returnee, the lovely Alana. She's been given (unbeknownst to her) the ability to create alternate realities in her head that seem real and you don't lose any time in the real world. They do a little programming in Alana's head without letting her in on it, and set up an alternate universe for them to live in where there's no 4400 and T&A are the only ones who remember it existing. Oh, and they've been married for two years.

At first they're pretty baffled about the whole thing, but they eventually get used to it. Next thing you know, they've been together for 8 years and are renewing their vows. Everything's happy...until Tom finds the back end hack into Alana's programming and finds out that they've been fixed up. He decides they have to go back, which makes him a better person than me already.

At the end, Tom snaps out of his 8-year-fantasy life and wakes up at the office, where he overhears that Alana's leaving the building. He runs out to find her, and when she turns around, it's this whole breathless, "Does she still remember me?" thing. Then she smiles and says, "Thomas," and they get all schmoopy.

And then I went, "Awwwwwwwwwww!," promptly downloaded the song that was playing at the end, and then watched it again. (Note: anyone wanting to get me a gift, buying me season 2 on DVD would be nice...hee.)

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