Tom Baldwin (The 4400)

The 4400 character
name = Tom Baldwin


caption = Joel Gretsch as Tom Baldwin
portrayer = Joel Gretsch
first = "Pilot"
last =
spouse = Alana Mareva ("wife")
Linda Baldwin (ex-wife)
occupation = NTAC Agent
family = Susan Baldwin Farrell (sister)
Shawn Farrell (nephew)
Danny Farrell (nephew)
Kyle Baldwin (son)

Thomas "Tom" Baldwin is a fictional character and the main protagonist in the USA Network science fiction television series "The 4400". A former FBI agent, Tom is one of NTAC's lead agents and has developed a relationship with one of the 4400, Alana Mareva. His partner at NTAC is Diana Skouris. He has a son, Kyle Baldwin, and his nephew is Shawn Farrell.

Character History

Before Season 1

Tom was formerly at the FBI, and a longtime friend of Dennis Ryland. He joined Ryland at NTAC, but left after 5 months to investigate the circumstances surrounding his son, Kyle Baldwin, being comatose. He employed private investigators to find his missing nephew Shawn Farrell, in an attempt to discover the truth. Kyle's comatose state places great strain on Tom's marriage to Kyle's mother, Linda, and at some point before the Pilot the two have separated.

Season 1

Tom remains strongly devoted to Kyle, and when the ball of light returns the 4400 on Highland Beach, he glimpses Shawn in amongst the returnees. He rejoins NTAC and is partnered with Diana Skouris, and together they begin to uncover the Ripple Effect surrounding the 4400 and their abilities. It is Tom who first discovers the ability possessed by Shawn, when he witnesses Shawn heal a dead bird. When Shawn uses his ability to partially revive Kyle, Tom confronts him openly about his apparent gift.

When Kyle is finally awoken by Shawn's healing ability, Tom goes to even greater lengths to protect his son. When Kyle, claiming not to be Kyle at all, is taken by the Government under the orders of Warren Lytell, Tom rescues him and takes him back to Highland Beach. There he discovers that the 4400 were kidnapped not by aliens, but by Earth's own future; their purpose is to avert a great catastrophe, and Tom is to help them.

Season 2

Tom is finally reinstated to field duty alongside Diana, after spending the time since the revelation of the "future people" working at a desk as punishment for threatening Lytell. The new NTAC director Nina Jarvis makes it clear that she will not tolerate any behaviour she deems "out of line".

Tom's relationship with his son does not go as smoothly as hoped. Kyle is somewhat distrustful of his father following the time spent in quarantine, as a direct result of White Light. When Kyle begins having blackouts, he does not tell Tom what is happening; instead, Tom is left to assume that the first blackout, resulting in Kyle's arrest, is a result of drink.

Tom's role in NTAC forces him to violate his own principles. When 4400 telepath Gary Nevarro comes to him for aid, Tom assures him that he and Diana will help; however, Tom is left a liar after the government take Gary away to work for them. Despite his often conflicted feelings about 4400 mogul Jordan Collier, especially following Gary's revelation of Jordan's murky dealings, Tom offers Collier every help when Collier's death is predicted by Maia Skouris. After Collier is assassinated Tom believes that Shawn as leader of the 4400 Center will be a good thing for co-operation between the two parties.

He remains of particular interest to the future citizens who abducted and returned the 4400. His relationship with Alana Mareva is the direct result of her ability, which was given to her to ease him through the stresses ahead.

In the season 2 finale Mommy's Bosses, he discovers, together with his partner Diana, a government conspiracy led by Dennis Ryland which has caused the illness and death of many 4400's, in an attempt to keep their powers under control.

Season 3

Ever since Kyle handed himself in for the murder of Jordan Collier, he has been in prison awaiting murder charges. For unclear reasons, he refuses to speak to his father during this time, a fact that Tom finds it hard to cope with. He is reassured by Alana that Kyle is having to deal with huge changes in his life and needs some time alone.

The terrorist 4400 faction called the Nova Group target Tom. Impersonating him, they shoot dead the captured Nova member TJ Kim. Tom manages to subdue and capture the impersonator, Boyd Geldar.

After Maia Skouris' re-abduction by the future, Tom is forced to watch his friend Diana slide slowly towards death as she cannot cope in a world where her daughter died. Using the fact that the future people prize him highly, he gains their attention by attempting suicide. This attempt forces the future citizens to remove him from the timeline before his death; it is here he communicates with a future representative directly and brokers the return of all the 4400 children who had been re-abducted and inserted in the timeline at different points.

The price for the children's return is that Tom must destroy a "great evil" that has been sent into the past to thwart the mission of the 4400. Upon his return he receives an envelope with a hypodermic needle containing an unknown substance, and a two-word note: "Kill Isabelle." However, Tom can't bring himself to kill Isabelle, promising that he will only do it when he's "sure".

Tom's history with his late father is examined when Tom unknowingly takes the Blink recreation drug. The drug forces people to relive hard facts about their lives, in order to give them resolution. Tom's father, a police officer, was often drunk and behaved harshly to Tom. When he finally went into hospital for the last time, Tom - knowing his father was dying - couldn't bring himself to visit the man. The illusion of his father forgives Tom, giving him a chance to come to terms with his past, and enjoy some time with the memory of his father.

When the amnesiac Jordan Collier reappears, Tom asks him to help secure Kyle's release from prison. His memory restored by Alana Mareva, Collier agrees on the condition he is set free. Tom leaks Collier's picture to the 4400, who pressure NTAC into releasing him. Collier stays true to his word and intervenes with a judge to secure Kyle's release. However, after Kyle returns, Tom is saddened to find out that Kyle is determined to help the 4400 any way he can, and has taken a job touring and speaking on behalf of Collier and the 4400. In the season 3 finale "Fifty-Fifty", Tom finally decides that he must go through with his promise to kill Isabelle, who has gone on a killing rampage against the 4400. He is almost killed by Isabelle, but she is injected with the serum by her father, Richard. The serum doesn't kill her as they expected, but instead seems to have stripped her of her abilities. Tom shoots her in the shoulder, wounding her and verifying that she is no longer a threat. She is taken into custody.

Tom says a sad farewell to Diana, who is leaving NTAC for Spain with Ben and Maia. Unknown to Tom, shortly afterwards Alana is re-abducted by the future, and is not seen again.

Season 4

Unlike Diana, Tom decides to stay on with NTAC and prepare for the inevitable upheaval from the mass distribution of promicin. He is partnered with Agent Garrity whilst Diana remains in Spain. It is at this time that Alana goes missing, and Tom, despite his best efforts, can find no trace of her. After Meghan Doyle is appointed the new head of NTAC, she offers confidential information to Tom, revealing that Isabelle Tyler can now receive visitors. Tom visits Isabelle, desperate for information on his missing wife. At first Isabelle asks if he believes that Alana has been re-abducted by the future as punishment [for Tom not killing Isabelle] ; however she later directs Tom to an art gallery, which has a painting of "Alana in Repose"- painted in 1885.

When Diana Skouris returns to the USA, Tom helps convince Meghan to reinstate her. Mourning the apparent loss of Alana, Tom spends much of time around the painting, his last link to her. He debates again attempting suicide to contact the future, but is warned by Diana that he isn't as important to them as he initially was, and would most likely die. Tom is finally influenced by Meghan to begin the process of letting go, and Tom begins to accept that Alana is gone forever. He is later told by Diana Skouris that Meghan appears a little intense on him, which Tom initially rejects.

Kyle returns home, living with his father. However, Tom's complex relationship with his son is further damaged when he suspects Kyle of taking promicin. After Marco tests Kyle's hair and confirms it, Tom plans to talk with Kyle; however, warned by Cassie, Kyle leaves with Isabelle Tyler to join Jordan Collier's movement. Pursuing Kyle before the situation gets any worse, Tom discovers a town settled entirely by promicin-positive people. Initially detained in the town, he experiences the life of the promicin-positives through an ability that allows them to share each others' memories. Although impressed by Collier's vision of a utopia modelled on the town, he still refuses to take the promicin shot offered by Kyle and believes the cost is far too high. Kyle escapes with Jordan and his followers as Tom is sedated.

When Curtis Peck's conspiracy movie "The Marked" threatens to unravel the biggest global conspiracy in history, Tom is drawn into a series of events that will change his life. Peck has discovered that agents from the 4400-opposed faction in the future have taken over ten people alive today, including important figures in society. When Tom reports his claims, he is taken to a pyschiatric hospital and operated on, leaving a mole behind his left ear- according to Peck, the symbol of "the Marked" themselves. Though he has the mole surgically removed, it quickly regrows.

Tom and Meghan begin a relationship, following some flirting and a near-death experience thanks to one of Marco's colleagues taking promicin. Initially the relationship is casual, but by the time Richard Tyler reappears seeking Isabelle, Meghan is staying at Tom's apartment more and more. Unfortunately, Tom is now becoming one of the "Marked" proper. Following nightmares where he witnesses himself and a mystery colleague impregnating Lily Tyler with Isabelle in the future, NTAC is visited by Rebecca Parish, director of National Intelligence. She reveals to Tom that she is one of the Marked. Eventually the dormant consciousness within him - once the agent that controlled Matthew Ross - takes over.

Tom as one of the Marked

Following a dream where Rebecca Parrish tells Tom he's "One of us now", Tom awakes, but the agent within him now has taken over his consciousness. "Tom" meets with Rebecca, and it is revealed that he is actually the agent that once controlled Matthew Ross, extracted after the death of the Ross host. He is ordered to capture Richard and Isabelle Tyler. "Tom" does so, and after Richard is put in prison, he tells Isabelle that the only way to secure her father's release is to take her abilities back, and bring Jordan Collier to him.

He later kills Warren Trask, a promicin-positive man bent on ruining Drew Imroth, in order to prevent him from interfering with the Marked's plan. During these events, he helps Isabelle regain her powers, and coerces her into helping the Marked by threatening to kill her instantly with a "fail-safe" injected into her bloodstream if she doesn't comply. He later confronts Imroth and tells him that Trask's dying act was to spread Imroth's personal information across the Internet, and while this leak could be effectively covered up, it would not be enough to silence conspiracy theorists. Tom's host convinces Imroth's to commit suicide, so that he may be re-implanted in Jordan Collier. Tom eventually succeeds in capturing Jordan Collier with Isabelle's help, and presumably implants the future agent that Drew Imroth formerly hosted in him. At the end of Tiny Machines, Diana shoots him twice in the stomach. Then, at the beginning of the season finale, Tom is dragged, bullet-ridden, into a truck by Diana and Meghan. In the truck, Marco injects polonium into Tom's spine. This destroys the nanomachines that are controlling him, but almost kills him. Shawn, who is also in the truck, saves Tom by immediately healing him after the injection, thus returning him back to normal.

Aftermath

After returning back to normal, he attempts to rescue Collier from the Marked, pretending to still be possessed, but Rebecca sees past the facade and her lackeys restrain both him and Collier. Tom and Collier are later liberated by a repentant Isabelle, who gives up her life to save them after rebelling against her superiors. Using his intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the anti-4400 faction, Tom hands Collier a list of the remaining agents, knowing that he himself can't fight against the Marked legally. After the chaos of the promicin infection caused by Danny Farrell and Collier's annexation of Seattle to Promise City, Tom is left contemplating taking a promicin shot.

At the beginning of season 4, Tom is seen in a vision/dream of Jordan Collier. There he takes his car keys by looking at them and raising his hand. This would be a sign of telekinesis or possible magnetism manipulation.

External links

* [http://www.usanetwork.com/series/the4400/theshow/characterprofiles/tom/ Tom Baldwin's profile] at the official 4400 website provided by USA Network.