| Heroes: Cautionary Tale |
| Sunday, 18 November 2007 | |
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In the ninth episode of season 2, Heroes finally comes out swinging. Mohinder betrays Bennett in his season-long quest to become the most hated man on television; Hiro honors his father and finds the identity of his killer; and Parkman walks a fine line between good and evil as he comes to grips with his new abilities. Unfortunately, I didn't see any of that because the episode also had Kristen Bell in a bikini. Mmmmmm. Finally an episode worthy of the Heroes name! Whether it was the dangerous and inevitable standoff between Bennett and Bob or Hiro jumping through time to save his father, this episode delivered in a way that has been greatly remiss from the previous episodes of the season. God help me, I even didn't totally completely hate West in this episode, and that's saying a lot. A whole lot. Sins of the Son... Hiro may have returned to the present in last week's episode, but this week Hiro returns to the show. Gone is the lovesick Hiro, simultaneously fawning over both his princess and his surprisingly pale samurai idol. Here is the real Hiro; the strong Hiro; the determined Hiro. Two episodes from the season finale, and we finally have a main character again. Hiro, still in mourning over his father's death, cannot cope with the loss. He decides that he must save Kaito, and travels into the past to warn him. Things don't quite turn out as planned, however, and Kaito accepts his fate and chooses to face his destiny and his death. Hiro tries to convince his father otherwise by taking them even further into the past to revisit his mother's funeral. There, he runs into the younger version of himself and all of reality does not, in fact, tear itself apart. Ha! Take that, time travel theorists!  I get killed by a scrawny white guy? That can't be right. Their time together ends as Kaito faces his attacker on the balcony, as we've seen before. Hiro, however, decides that the best way to honor his father is to bring his killer to justice, and freezes time as his father and the assassin topple over the edge. Hiro edges closer to find the killer's identity and it is... Surprise, surprise: It's Adam Monroe/Takezo Kensei. Right about here, I burst into my "Oh yeah-take that-how ya like me now?" dance (patent pending) and it continued well into the commercial break. It's nothing that we didn't already know, but still: I was right, and that only happens once or twice a millenium, so I have to celebrate when it happens. Jedi Mind Trick 2.0 Continuing the thread of "badassery" that weaves through this episode, Parkman begins to fully discover his new abilities, and takes a very shady walk past Ethicsville and smack into downtown DoWhateverIWantLand. In a discussion with Molly, Parkman suddenly realizes that he's influencing her actions with his powers. What's worse is that when he realizes it, he actually uses it on her again to make her come back to the table and finish her breakfast. Sweet Jeezy Creezy, Matt! This is a little girl we're talking about here! Matt then continues his time on "Telepathics-Gone-Wild" by forcing his token black police chief to get off his back about tracking down the members of the Company, and then again by forcing secrets out of Angela Petrelli. Under extreme duress, Angela confesses about Adam/Kensei and about how old he really is. Matt tries to make her give up Victoria Pratt, the last of the original Company that's still alive, but Angela won't do it. It seems that Angela promised to leave Victoria alone and judging by the blood seeping from her nose, Angela isn't giving up the information anytime soon. She exchanges some choice words with Matt about how he's becoming more like his father (she even chides him about his "daddy issues" haha) and Matt leaves her be.  Miami Vice: The Fey Years Mohinder and Bob arrive in Costa Verde to find Claire, but they... guh. Kristen Bell in a bikini. ...guh. Whew, shake it off! Ok, where was I? Oh yes, Bob-o the Clown and Princess Mohinderina are in C.V. looking for Claire because her blood might be the cure to the deadly Shanti virus. Or more accurately, her blood might be a replacement cure because the previous guinnea pig (Adam Monroe) escaped his cage. My own hypothesis that Mohinder's special ability is the power of sidekickery (since apparently he's not allowed on the show unless he's accompanied by an adult) is put to the test as Elle make's her own astute observation:
Claire finally confronts Noah about the things he did in the past while working for the Company and tells her family about what he did to West. Noah begins his whole I-did-what-I-had-to speech, but Claire stops him. Noah tries to push her into packing her things and running again, but Claire pushes right back. The argument escalates until Claire tells Noah "I hate you" and leaves.  Cautionary tail. Claire leaves an apology in stones where West can see it, and he confronts her about her father. Because so much of the rest of the episode was excellent, they must have siphoned the good writing out of this part because it was sheer unadulterated crap. Every single lame line that these two vomited up should have been accompanied by a longing look and "I Don't Want to Wait" by Paula Cole playing in the background. Ecch. Maybe Claire completes West; maybe West had Claire at hello. Maybe I don't give a damn. Meanwhile, back with characters I don't want to throw off a cliff, Bennett tries to get Mohinder to track down West for him, but Mohinder has another, more novel idea: how about further shriveling up his already miniscule man eggs and turning Bennett over to the Company instead? Can we please have just one episode where Mohinder doesn't pussy up and go crying to Bob about something? Pleeeease? Bennett, tired of waiting, goes looking for West. West, tired of waiting, snatches Bennett as he's leaving the house and flies him high into the air to perform a little mid-flight interrogation. Once Bennett has convinced him that Claire does indeed care for him, he flies down to the ground and drops Bennett. Bennett returns the favor by dropping West. To the ground. With a knee in his back. Just then, Mohinder calls and tells Bennett that West is across town, tipping his hand and alerting Bennett that something is fishy. Having reached somewhat of an understanding with West, he asks him for his help. Bennett meets Mohinder across town and realizes that Mo has "gone native". When Bennett refuses to turn Claire over to him, Mohinder abducts him by gunpoint and takes him to meet up with Elle, who Bennett already knows from his time at the Company. Right before Elle can crisp-ify Bennett, West swoops in, knocking Elle unconscious. Mohinder draws his gun on Bennett, but Bennett (having seen this happen in the paintings already) is ready for it. He grabs the gun away and turns it on Mohinder. West unfortunately convinces Noah not to kill him, but we still get to see Bennett introduce Mohinder to the bottom of his boot. Kick 'im again for me, HRG! Bob, meanwhile, tracks Claire down to her high school where she's in her full cheerleader outfit and practicing her cheers. Chicka bow wow. Bob slips up and calls her Claire Bennett on accident, and Claire bolts for it. She goes home to warn her family, but Bob follows her and kidnaps her.  Um, couldn't you wait until AFTER I'm dead to do that? Noah, in return, has kidnapped Elle in hopes to get some information out of her. Is it weird that I actually kind of liked West in this scene? When he's not making awkward passes at Claire or moping around like Peter Parker in Spiderman 3, he actually becomes somewhat likeable when he just hangs around and kicks ass with Noah Bennett. I can't believe I actually just said that. This episode has thrown me way off my game. West hauls Elle into the Bennett's kitchen (with a coy hello to Mrs. Bennett) and HRG unfolds a little more about Elle's history. We learn that she was brought into the Company very young and was experimented upon, which is why she's a little "off". She doesn't recall all that because the Haitian took those memories from her. We also learn that Bennett never let them have Claire because he didn't want Claire to turn out like Elle: a sadistic killer working for a shadowy company. Back on the other side of town, Bob has Claire tied up and is drawing her blood. Which brings me to the following point, which may not be pertinent to the show, but nonetheless needs to be said: Whoever wrote this episode is my new personal hero. In one single episode we get Elle in a bikini, Claire in her cheerleader outfit jumping around, Elle soaking wet and tied up, and Claire tied up to a chair. Can you say "fanficfetishfodder" five times fast? The eventual "trade" occurs and tension is high. HRG breaks the silence by trying to "bond" with West. Bob arrives with Claire and Mohinderina in tow. Things start out well, as Bob releases Claire and HRG releases Elle. As soon as Claire gets to the other side, West flies her up and all hell breaks loose. Elle shoots West out of the sky (Claire takes the brunt of the fall unfortunately), HRG shoots Elle in the arm, and Mohinderina furthers his role as "biggest a-hole" on the show by shooting HRG right in the friggin' face. West revives and escapes with Claire. She returns home and has to break the news to her mother, who is understandably distraught. Which brings us to the twist ending of tonight's episode:
Sorry, this part is for members only and may contain spoilers. If you'd like to read it, please LOG IN or REGISTER. Alltogether, I was quite impressed with this week's episode. The writing was strong (minus the Claire/West parts) the action was consistent, and it held a small glimpse of what Heroes used to be and could be again. I can't wait 'til next week. Peter Sorensen is a part time reviewer and has to get back to writing his Claire/Elle fanfic. Thoughts? Opinions? Pics of Elle in a Bikini? Post a comment below and let us know! Comments (20)
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