HEROES
The Hard Part
aka: "More setups than a crooked cop convention"
by Peter Sorensen

In this weeks episode of Heroes, we get a glimpse of things to come. Peter and Claire are still trying to save the world (and keep their hands off each other), Sylar gets to play a little Norman Bates, Hiro contemplates a tough decision, and Niki and D.L. basically just run around and suck up screen time.

Let's get right into this at the beginning so I can get it out of my system: I hate setup shows. These are the shows that accomplish nothing during their time other than to move players into position for the next episode(s). It's commonplace in lesser dramas where you're focusing on one main storyline and the writers don't know how to get their characters where they need to be. On a show like Heroes though, you would think that with all the characters running about with all their different storylines, you would never have to succumb to such a screenwriting faux pas. Apparently, this is not the case.

Hiro's back from the future and despite a heartbreaking goodbye with Doc Brown, he's ready to kick the flux capacitor outta Sylar once and for all. One problem: he's not quite sure how. Hiro decides to go see Isaac and try to sort this whole thing out, and well... you get the point. Isaac is currently busy auditioning for the role of the corpse in next week's CSI:New York. Wait, is that show even still on? Oh, that's right, it's up against a little independent show by the name of LOST. Good call there, programming director. Someone give that man a raise.

"Could you get that loose thread for me? A little to the left..."

Here's the thing about this week's episode. Part of the reason I like the Sylar character is that it gives the Heroes world a very definite dark side, a quality that has been lacking lately as Sylar stumbles around trying to perfect his Lex Luthor impression. I don't care that he wants to take over the world. I don't care if he's the bomb. Sylar was at his best in the early episodes, lurking in the shadows, violently killing people with special abilities. Maybe he should have put down the copy of Superman Returns and picked up a copy of Se7en. A superpowered serial killer? That was the draw of the character. I think they've strayed to far from that by putting him in the limelight. Sure, he has more lines and we get to see him use his powers more, but as we learned from Aliens, things are creepier when you don't see them.

That being said, it feels like they attempted a bit of course correction this week by including the whole Sylar plotline. At times it was good, like when Hiro and Ando were hiding behind the painting and all Sylar said was "I can hear you". Chilling. Unfortunately, we were also taken by the hand and led through his motivation by the writers, something that I cannot abide.

The Dude does not abide.

"It seems I've glued my hands to my desk again."

OK, so the writers think we need a reason for Sylar to be so messed up. Do we? Wouldn't it be scarier if we never found out his reasons? If, after all this time chasing him, we never found out why he killed these people; why he had to be "special"? Do we really need a slapped on storyline bandaid about his overbearing religiously zealous mother? More importantly, does Anthony Perkins have enough money left in his bank account to sue the show for the obvious character plagiarism? Is Sylar going to set up a motel on a rural highway somewhere and start wearing a dress? I dunno. Maybe I'm just spoiled by shows like Showtime's "Dexter". Shows that know how to keep a serial killer frightening, even when he's the main character.

We revisit common ground this episode with another round of "How to almost kill Sylar" . After the last few botched attempts, Hiro tries his hand at it and unfortunately pulls a Mohinder. And yes, I am officially using the term "pulling a Mohinder" to describe any time someone has an extremely easy task that they just can't seem to do right. At first, Hiro holds true to the Bushido code, which was a nice addition storywise. It shows that Hiro is trying to be one of the good guys while still dealing with his obvious course of action. But, even after Sylar has plunged a pair of sewing scissors into his crazy mother's chest and Hiro has him frozen in time, he still can't seem to muster up the huevos to chop Sylar into a side order of curly fries. Instead, Sylar somehow breaks free and then breaks the sword. And apparently the writers were too busy explaining away why he's so crazy that they didn't have time to explain how in the heck he unfroze time to confront Hiro.

"How YOU doin'?"

Hey, what do you know? It's character setup time!
Nathan Petrelli gets a little pep talk from Thompson, and then again from his mother, and gets ready for the upcoming election.
Niki and D.L. vie for bragging rights as the most pointless character on the show as they learn a little more about Linderman and head to New York.
Parkman, Nuclear Ted, and HRG steal a car and head to New York.
Micah realizes he's being tricked by Candace, and tries to escape.

Meanwhile, Peter and Claire continue to give me a case of the creeping willies as they try not to act like they want to play tonsil hockey behind the bleachers. Bleh. I know that they are close now after everything they've been through, but do they have to look at each other so... longingly? I don't know if it's the dialog or the acting, but everytime these two are in a scene together I keep expecting porno music to kick in out of nowhere. That unpleasantness aside, these two accomplish exactly one thing this episode: they get across town. That's it. Peter asks her to stay, Claire doesn't know, Peter shares his inner feelings, blah blah blah, Claire decides to help him, they go across town where they run into Parkman, Nuclear Ted, and Bennet.

So here is where my brain gets me in trouble. After the events at the end of this episode I can't help but bring this up:

Sorry, this part is for members only and may contain spoilers. If you'd like to read it, please LOG IN or REGISTER.

Registration is free, and allows you to access member only content like this.

So, next week looks to be an incredible episode, and I can't wait to see what happens. I'm still standing fast on last week's theory, so I don't feel the need to list it again (you can read it here if you haven't already).

See you next week for "Landslide"!

Comments (6)

Peter Sorensen wrote...

I just thought of something I wanted to add: Instead of Candace being killed next ep, it's probably Nuclear Ted, hence why he's not included in the line "HRG AND MATT learn another surprising secret". Peter Petrelli has the nuclear power now, so it's just Sylar that needs to get it still. And we all know how he gets other people's powers...



Also, maybe the real reason Claire needed to live was not only to prevent Sylar from healing, but to get HRG to New York to help Peter master Ted's power. If Claire had died by Sylars hand, HRG probably wouldn't have rebeled against the company and headed to New York to help Parkman and Ted.

|| May 08, 2007

manzy704 wrote...

I think the comic shows that Hiro may accidentally stab Peter after he has absorbed Candace's power. Future Hiro thought that Sylar had not died because he had taken Claire's power when he killed her, but what if they person Future Hiro stabbed was Peter who had absorbed Candace's power and simply was trying to look like Sylar.



The Company wants Claire for some unknown reason. Yet the Company also wants the blast to occur. To me this says that Sylar is absolutely not the person who blows up because they could have easily provided Sylar with Claire when he was captured.

|| May 08, 2007

manzy704 wrote...

POSSIBLE SPOILER****



Future Hiro claims he stabbed Sylar but that Sylar was able to regenerate with Claire's power. What if Future Hiro actually stabbed a shamed Peter disguised as Sylar (after absorbing Candace's power in one of the next two episodes) and this caused Peter to explode. What if the cause of the explosion IS Hiro trying to stop it.



The comic shows Hiro stabbing someone that looks like Sylar. It could be Peter.



POSSIBLE SPOILER

|| May 08, 2007

Peter Sorensen wrote...

It is possible that Peter Petrelli could swipe Candace's powers, but he still has Claire's healing power. So, if Hiro stabbed him, he'd probably just heal from it. Whether or not that would be enough to make Peter lose control of his powers, I don't know.



This is why the show is so popular. We really can't say for certain who "the bomb" is really going to be, but I do know for a fact that we'll find out in 2 weeks!



Thank you for your comment, manzy704!

http://www.bleepinggeek.com || May 08, 2007

Stevo wrote...

I am the bomb.

http://99pointspodcast || May 10, 2007

Peter Sorensen wrote...

Don't forget to run away from the main group.



WoW humor, ftw!

http://www.bleepinggeek.com || May 11, 2007

Name

Website

Comment

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment