Shawn Farrell

Season One

Shawn was born December 12, 1983, and disappeared April 22, 2001 from Highland Beach near Seattle, Washington, while with his cousin Kyle Baldwin. Shawn was not intended to be a 4400; as Kyle and Shawn are drinking at the beach, Shawn witnesses Kyle in the act of being abducted, and in an effort to help him, interrupts the process and is taken instead.

After his return, he attempts to avoid but eventually succumbs to a relationship with Nikki Hudson, his brother Danny's girlfriend/ex-girlfriend. Shawn returns to his high school to continue his education but instead gets into trouble. He later meets Jordan Collier, who takes an interest in his ability. Shawn begins to drift away from his family, who either hates him for what he has become, what he was accused of doing to Kyle (hospitalizing him), or for fighting with his brother. After almost killing Danny, Shawn runs away to the 4400 Center, where Jordan takes him in.

Season two

Shawn's healing ability makes him very valuable to Jordan Collier and the Center. Aside from bringing in clients that are willing to "donate" large sums of money in return for Shawn's healing of otherwise incurable diseases, Jordan himself frequently needs to be healed after suffering serious damage from the unborn Isabelle Tyler.

Collier's actions gradually allow Shawn to see him in a less flattering light, though he continues to believe his goals are worth fighting for. After Jordan is assassinated, Shawn takes over the leadership of the 4400 Center. Unprepared to run the Center by himself, Shawn receives help and guidance from other staff members at the Center, mainly Matthew Ross and Richard Tyler.

Season three

He later secretly funds the Nova Group, a radical defensive group of 4400s. When he realizes that Nova is willing to kill for their goals, Shawn cuts ties with them and even helps his uncle Tom Baldwin and Diana Skouris capture a Nova member. When he reveals to Richard Tyler and the board what he had done, he agrees to share power with Richard.

He enters into a relationship with Isabelle, but tries to break it off when he realizes how dangerous Isabelle is. She will not allow it, making wedding plans instead. Collier returns from the dead on Shawn and Isabelle's wedding day, causing the wedding's cancellation. Shawn and Isabelle break up, and Shawn turns leadership of the 4400 Center back over to Collier.

After being attacked by Isabelle, at Haspel Corporation's request, Shawn is comatose mirroring his cousin's coma in the first season.

Season four

Kyle wakes Shawn from his coma with a shot of promicin. Once back home, his brother Danny confesses his desire to take promicin. After a strong disagreement—with Shawn believing that Collier did the wrong thing in distributing the potentially fatal drug—Shawn reluctantly provides Danny with the shot, asking him to follow the news and to hold off for a few weeks.

Shawn's desire to show the world that the 4400 can do good leads him to reopen the disgraced 4400 Center as the site of his healing foundation. He is advised by NTAC that the government will come down hard on this action and is almost arrested, until Tom persuades the government forces to back down. Shawn begins his healing work, and shortly afterwards, he is contacted by U.S. senator Lenhoff and asked to run for a position on the city council. Shawn does so, and publicly states his opposition to Collier's distribution of promicin, leading Kyle to confront him as a "traitor."

Shawn comes under political attack by Gabrial Hewitt, who is using Shawn's status as a celebrity 4400 to further his own publicity. After Maia Skouris has a vision of Hewitt becoming President and imprisoning all "P-positive" individuals, Shawn is determined to build a middle path between people with abilities and those without. Jordan Collier and Kyle attempt to bring Shawn back into the movement, even sending him a copy of the "White Light" book, but Shawn refuses. After Hewitt suffers a stroke, Shawn believes Collier responsible and heals Hewitt, saying "Don't thank me ... just change." His political ambition is damaged by the revelation that he slept with the daughter of an elderly woman he had healed; it transpires that she was paid by anti-4400s to discredit him. Shawn publicly admits he made a mistake and redoubles his intent to build the middle way, in opposition to Collier after Collier annexes part of Seattle as "Promise City."

After Kevin Burkhoff begs Shawn for help, with her schizophrenia completely out of control, Shawn manages to heal Tess. The two fugitives are secretly welcomed into the 4400 Center, and Kevin announces that he is researching who will live or die after taking promicin. Shawn is further encouraged when Burkhoff deduces that he will soon be able to use a CAT scan to determine a person's chance of survival. However, when Shawn attempts to convince Jordan Collier to encourage people to wait before taking promicin, Collier warns him that it will create a world with "positives" and "negatives" and that the two could not live side by side. Furious at Collier's desire to see half the world die as a "sacrifice," Shawn goes on television to announce the findings and asks people to wait until the tests are ready. When Collier later holds Dr Burkhoff in Promise City—announcing he will not release him unless Shawn publicly supports taking promicin—Shawn prepares to rescue Kevin, with the help of Tess.

Abilities

Shawn has the ability to control the flow of life in living organisms, usually manifesting itself through healing physical damage done to the bodies of others. Limits for this power are unclear; although he is capable of basic healing, having successfully healed broken bones, severe burns and even a mortal stab through the chest, but is later able to heal people with cancer and all sorts of diseases. His ability is by close proximity - he tends to touch his targets, but can heal through clothing. When threatened he can reverse his power and drain the life-force from others, effectively killing them. He uses this latter ability to drive a possessing entity out of Kyle, and in a vision of the future he witnessed- in which, the catastrophe itself ripped the United States apart- he kills Richard Tyler, in apparent retaliation for Richard's pre-emptive strike (against whom has not yet been explicitly revealed). He is also forced to use this ability on his brother Danny as a mercy killing.