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    Heroes: I Am Become Death
    Monday, 06 October 2008
    Image

    Huhmina, huhmina, huhmina....

    Heroes bangs out another action-packed, nonstop extravanganza this week with the episode "I Am Become Death", a reference to the quote that J. Robert Oppenheimer recited upon seeing the first nuclear tests at Trinity, New Mexico. As the story goes, a colleague then replied "now we're all sons of bitches", something that could also be said for the ever-growing Petrelli family.

    There's no excuse for abuse... or Mohinder.

    The episode picks up with Mohinder still frantically trying to find a cure for his super-herpes... err, I mean "rash"... but isn't having any luck. Upstairs, he hears a couple shouting and screaming at each other, and then a loud crash. He goes up to check it out (and possibly to fulfill that damn inferiority complex of his) and finds the couple engaged in either domestic abuse or a seriously  hardcore match of Scrabble.  When Moho sticks his nose in a little too far the husband gets agitated, and Moho sticks the hubby's nose into the door frame... repeatedly. So, to tally it all up, in 4 episodes Mohinder has gotten Spider-powers, did the horizontal hula with Maya, and now gets to randomly beat people up? Someone in the Heroes writers room likes Mohinder.

    Dr. Zimmerman
    "Yehs, vee all tahlk like ziss"
    Meanwhile, Tracy finds out from the good doctor that she was one of three identical triplets - Tracy, Nikki, and Barbara - who had their DNA manipulated by the Company, and then were seperated. On a tangent here - why is it that brilliant TV scientists always have that same Eastern European accent and stuffy warddrobe? Would it be too much to ask for the occasional mad genius with a thick Brooklyn accent, or maybe even a heavy Texan one? I mean, what are they teaching over there that we're not? I for one would love to see a scientist drawl on about "isolatin' the restriction endonucleases, y'aaallll...".

    Anyway, moving on.

    Tracy tries to press Doc Brown for more information (Doc Brown! There you go - mad scientist, American accent. Does it count if he's a little batty, though?), but the Company made all the scientists forget. Well, that's convenient. Tracy begs him to help her, to fix her and then lets her emotions get the best of her and nearly freezes him, but controls herself and lets him go.

    While Parkman is busy trippin' in Africa, FuturePeter and PresentPeter arrive in New York, four years into the future. Thankfully, this future doesn't have a massive New York explosion, or a deadly virus and stranded ex-girlfriends in it. It just has super-powered people... lots of super-powered people.  In this future, the abilities formula is released and now people can buy or steal superpowers. FuturePeter and PresentPeter argue over whether people can be trusted with these abilities, and FuturePeter reveals that some of the current heroes were born, and some were made (which would come as more of a shock if we hadn't just learned that in the prior scenes with Tracy).

    FuturePeter then goes on to lay out the entire season's plotline for PresentPeter: find whoever is developing the abilities formula, steal Sylar's ability and use it to figure out how to stop this future from happening. Thankfully, Claire stops him from revealing the entire season's plot by putting a bullet in the back of his head. PresentPeter (now thankfully just "Peter" again) turns around and when Claire sees him, she draws on him as well. Luckily, Peter escapes by using the classic "run away from the bullets and hit the Haitian in the face with a trash can lid" maneuver.

    As any good hero or adventurer knows, you can always avoid bullets by simply running in the opposite direction (unless you're a bad guy, then the bullets will conveniently wound you enough to drop you to the ground so that the hero can catch up). Works every time.

    Dystopia du jour

    This version of the future is officially insane. In it, Claire has turned dark (right down to her hair color and Trinity-tight pants) and is now working with Daphne and Knox for what appears to be the Company, and they have standing orders to kill Peter Petrelli. Claire explains to them that Peter is still alive and asks Daphne to use Molly to find him. Not enough parameters! You must have 4 parameters separated by "|" : e.g. {playerflv}290|140|false{/playerflv}

    While Hiro and Ando still bicker in their jail cell and work out their "your future self kills my future self" problems (who here hasn't had that conversation with a close friend at one time or another?),  Nathan picks out a historical desk (he picks the Kennedy desk) and argues with Linderman over his role in all this. For someone who, only an episode ago, was willing to chalk everything up to "God did it", he's actually pretty analytical about it all, reasoning that maybe Linderman was just a result of brain damage from the shooting. Linderman reveals that he's there to "guide" Nathan along his path, a path that leads from Senator to President one day.

    Mohinder goes into full on creepy mode when Maya stops by to visit, closing windows and avoiding sunlight. She tries to convince him to come out with her, but he turns her down (I guess once is enough for ol' Moho) and then freaks out when she persists. They argue and Maya storms out. Mohinder picks up his voice recorder and makes a note that the "rash" is spreading and that every attempt to cure it has failed. In the future, Peter arrives at Mohinder's lab looking for information on Sylar and finds Mohinder, completely covered and hiding in the shadows.

    Just for fun, let's see if you can complete this sentence:

    "Mohinder has finally become a giant cock_____".

    That's right! Mohinder has finally become a giant cockroach! Way to go, team! What... did you think I was going to say something else? Shame on you. Get your mind out of the gutter. :)

    Peter asks him about Sylar, and when Mohinder skitters around and refuses, Peter reads his mind and finds out Sylar's location: Casa Del Bennett in California. Peter teleports there and slowly enters the house, blue flames at the ready (ok, are these an offshoot of Ted's nuclear flames, or did Peter absorb Flint's abilities? Does he have Knox's powers too?). What he finds however, is an adorable little boy who calls him "Uncle Peter" and tells him that his dad is making (drumroll please) waffles. His father? Gabriel friggin' Grey, aka Sylar.

    Family Ties

    Wow, ok. I hate to admit it, especially after baying for Sylar's blood throughout most of Season One, but Gabriel Grey makes one hell of a good guy. In this future, he's learned to control "the hunger" (which turns out isn't one of Angela Petrelli's manipulations) and has even raised a son (who he named Noah).  Noah asks Uncle Peter what happened to his scar, and Gabriel suddenly realizes who he is. He excuses himself and Peter to the next room, where he tells Peter everything he can, revealing that he is indeed Peter's brother (which also turns out isn't one of Angela Petrelli's manipulations) and that his power (or to be precise, The Hunger that comes with it) is too unstable and dangerous to be given to Peter. Peter tries to take it by force, but Gabriel blocks him. Peter warns him about the future, and when Sylar doesn't believe him, Peter tells him to paint it (using Isaac's power). Gabriel glances at Noah, and tells Peter "Don't let him see me... not like this", and begins to paint.

    Not enough parameters! You must have 4 parameters separated by "|" : e.g. {playerflv}290|140|false{/playerflv}The future only gets weirder and weirder. Not only is Daphne working with Claire and Knox for the Company, she's apparently shacked up with Matt Parkman and had a baby, along with becoming a mother to Molly. So much for all the Hiro/Daphne/Ando fan-fic floating around out there (and trust me, there's a lot). While that's incredible for Daphne, it's even more incredible for Parkman. Maybe losing Mohinder to a Sexy-Mexi turned him back onto girls.  Daphne and Matt argue about her going after Peter again, but finally Matt relents and lets Daphne ask Molly for help.

    Back in California, Gabriel sees the painting he made of the world crumbling apart and decides to help Peter. He hands Peter a broken watch, "a scar" he says, "a reminder of who I was, who I can be".  It's not just any watch, though - it's the watch. The actual "Sylar" watch that he broke back in Season One that led him down this path and gave him his pseudonym. Peter tells him he doesn't know anything about watches, but Gabriel tells him that it's part of learning to access his ability. Peter examines the watch while Gabriel talks him through it and how understanding the complexities of a watch will help him understand anything. Peter uses his powers to open up the watch and fix the damaged gears while Sylar lets him access his powers. "You have it now" Gabriel tells him, "I'm so sorry".

    Couldn't they have settled it with a dance-off?

    Noah calls out from the next room and Gabriel and Peter find Knox holding him, with Daphne behind him. Claire is there too, and tells Peter to come quietly (which has never, ever ever worked ever). Gabriel tells Peter to teleport out, but Peter won't leave them. Gabriel tries to apologize to Claire, but she stops him. Peter tries to find out what made her like this, and she tells him "I learned how to take care of myself". She tries to shoot him, but he uses superspeed to avoid the bullet and knocks Claire out. Daphne zips in and knocks Peter through the glass doors into the other room while Knox lets Noah go. Gabriel tells him to hide and Knox attacks Gabriel.

    Not enough parameters! You must have 4 parameters separated by "|" : e.g. {playerflv}290|140|false{/playerflv}Daphne has the upper hand and super-speed-punches the crap out of Peter while Knox continues to pummel Gabriel. Gabriel tells Knox that he's not afraid of him, but Noah is close enough that Knox can use his fear. Gabriel screams for Noah to run, but it's too late. Knox slams Gabriel to the ground, and then punts him (and most of the table he threw him down into) across the room, directly at Noah who is instantly crushed. Honestly, the scenes leading up to this were good, but this was the point when Heroes really shined last night. Gabriel, distraught, takes Noah in his arms and holds him. The fighting stops momentarily, and Gabriel loses his sh**. He leaps at Knox and beats him down, then as his emotions race, he loses control and Ted's nuclear powers go supernova. Sylar explodes in a white light and everything around him for miles and miles is instantly disintregrated.

    Wait a minute... how the hell did Claire, Knox and Daphne all get there that quick? Were Claire and Knox in New York, or at the Odessa Paper Company when they had their discussion prior to this?  How far of a drive is it from where there were to Casa Del Bennett? Even if Daphne took thirty minutes to zip home, chat with Parkman, find out Peter's location from Molly, then zip back, tell Claire and Knox and then wait for them to arrive, is that enough time to get them all to the house? How long was Sylar painting for? If Odessa is close enough to Costa Verde for them to get there in such a short time would'nt it be close enough to either be destroyed or at least irradiated by Gabriel's explosion? Something is off here. Maybe they have a faster way to get places like a teleporter of their own or something.

    Oh that's right, there's other characters too

    Back in the present, Hiro is trying unsuccessfully to latch onto the air duct cover with his belt, and Ando offers to help. Hiro resists at first, but finally Ando just grabs the belt from him and latches it onto the cover on his first try. He tells Hiro to enjoy his escape, but Hiro can't reach the duct so he asks for Ando's help one more time. Ando helps him reach the duct and Hiro apologizes for the way he's been acting lately, but before they can get out, Ando turns around and sees the Haitian standing there.

    Not enough parameters! You must have 4 parameters separated by "|" : e.g. {playerflv}290|140|false{/playerflv}Tracy holes up in her house and even tries to call in and confess to murdering the reporter (the phone freezes before she can and apparently police stations don't have anyway to trace an incoming call. *cough cough*). Finally, she shows up at Nathan's office and resigns, then leaves. Linderman tells Nathan that his path begins by helping her, so Nathan follows her. Tracy goes to a bridge and tries to commit suicide, but Nathan swoops in like "Bam! Superman, Attorney at Law!" and rescues her. They talk back at her place and she shows him her freezing powers. He notes that her hands aren't even cold, at which point Tracy shows him just how "not cold" she can be. Bow chicka bow wow. Two out of three nailed, one more to go Nathan. Barbara better watch out, wherever she may be.

    Mohinderoachspiderwhatever is still working on a cure for the formula when he notices that his hands are secreting some kind of sticky goo (or maybe Mohinder is just going about his "research" in an entirely wrong way). There is a pounding on his door, and when Mohinder opens it, it's the beligerant husband from before looking to settle the score. Mohinder looks almost glad to see him, and yanks him inside. I wonder what Mohinder's going to do to him. Do you think he'll eat him? Personally, I think Mohinder's quite capable of becoming a man-eater.

    What? What did I say? There you people go with your dirty minds again. Sheeesh.

    The fallout from... um... the fallout.

    Back in Possible Future #5,905,743, Costa Verde is toast. Nathan Petrelli (now the President), alongside his first lady (Tracy) hold the tiniest Presidential conference ever to comment on the terrible loss. Peter wakes up in the same morgue that they're storing DeadFuturePeter in, and tries to teleport, but the Haitian is blocking his powers.  Claire picks up a knife and starts to cut Peter, wanting to make him feel the death of every person that died at Costa Verde. Nathan arrives and stops her though, and asks them all to leave him alone with Peter.

    Not enough parameters! You must have 4 parameters separated by "|" : e.g. {playerflv}290|140|false{/playerflv}Nathan tells Peter that he knows what he's doing, and that now because of the Costa Verde accident the government has agreed to create an entire army of superpowered people to keep things like that from happening. Peter tells Nathan that he can't trust him, that he was tricked before by Linderman and wanted to destroy half of New York (which is odd because Peters explosion in the sky did absolutely nothing, but Sylar's explosion destroyed and irradiated the entire area.... huh). Nathan tells Peter to read his mind to be sure. Peter starts to, but The Hunger sets in and Peter can't control it. He gets Nathan all the way up on the wall and is halfway through slicing into his brain with the ol' telekinetic finger scalpel before he stops himself and realizes what he's doing. Nathan falls to the floor in a pool of blood, and Peter teleports away.

    He arrives back in the present, right inside Sylar's cell. Sylar senses him without turning around and Peter attacks him and tells him that he went to the future and took his power. "You have my ability, you have the hunger, you're like me", Sylar realizes. Peter says he'll never let himself become like Sylar. Sylar replies, "You already are... brother."

    Still frying in Africa, Parkman sees the Costa Verde explosion happen. Daphne makes it home, but wasn't fast enough and apparently the radiation burns on her back are enough to kill her dead right there on the spot, but not before allowing her to utter a lame one-liner. Maybe she could have used a little help from these guys . Anyway, Parkman snaps out of the peyote dream, and is committed to stopping the future from happening, but c'mon - how can you take a guy seriously when he's running around with cat whiskers painted on his face? The Storyteller tells Parkman that he needs to find his totem, his spirit guide, and that it will lead him to the next step on his path. Parkman sees a tortoise nearby and decides to pick that, which means a loooong and slow walk ahead of him.

    Back at the Company, Angela rakes Hiro and Ando over the coals for losing both parts of the formula and Hiro hangs his head in shame, but Ando comes to his rescue and defends him. Angela tells them that they need to understand who it is that's manipulating them and why, and that only Hiro knows someone who can help. The next thing we see is Hiro digging up his fathers grave. That's right, Adam Munroe is back. Hiro opens the casket and Adam is lying there, completely still. Suddenly, his eyes shoot open and he grabs Hiro by the throat. "Hiro, you son of a b..." [cut to black]

    Wow. What an episode. Let's get right into the thoughts and theories:

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    And that does it for Heroes Season Three, Episode 4: "I Am Become Death"

    Come back next week for "Angels and Monsters" where Claire attempts to bring down her first target using HRGs files, Peter has a little "me time" to recover from becoming Sylar 2.0, Hiro reaches out a hand of friendship to some unlikely allies (which apparently impacts Ando's mancrush on him), and Mohinder's urge to correct research errors puts Maya and others in a "sticky situation" (groan - NBC's words, not mine). Also, I'm guessing that Parkman wanders around in the desert for a while, Linderman chats Nathan up about how important Tracy is, and Angela Petrelli runs around telling everyone to do like everyone's a child and/or idiot. Just a guess.

     





    Peter Sorensen is a part-time reviewer and has successfully run away from bullets on at least three seperate occasions. You can email him here or follow his updates on Twitter.

    Thoughts? Opinions? How many more alternate futures are we going to see? How many of the triplets is Nathan going to shag?     Post a comment below and let us know!
    Comments (8)
    darthmike431 wrote...
    I was also wondering about how Claire, Daphne, and Knox made it to Costa Verde so fast. I figured since in the future, everyone can be given a power:

    a) Perhaps people with superhuman genius developed faster methods of transportation.

    b) Maybe the injection of powers perhaps doesn't limit people to one ability so maybe Claire and Knox could fly too (though this is probably the least likely explanation)

    c) The writer's just fudged this continuity error up and we're expected to ignore it.

    By the way did you notice that when Sylar blew up Costa Verde, it showed the same footage of the house's doors lighting up that was from "Company Man"? Did they really have to re-use that? "Heroes", a show with fans who watch every episode literally hundreds of times should be the last show to reuse footage and expect nobody to notice. Just a minor gripe I had, but I hope it doesn't mean that the crew isn't getting lazy...
    || October 07, 2008
    manzy704 wrote...
    Great review Peter, you're picture captions had me in stitches. I'm not sure if I like the Clinton desk joke better or the one about Mohinder's failure at being master of his domain.

    Onto the episode...I have to admit, I wasn't really digging this season at all until this episode. There were just too many reused plot devices from previous seasons and not enough fresh material. Clearly this episode was a game changer for me. I really enjoyed the scene between Peter and Gabriel. I have a son who is just about young Noah's age and seeing him get crushed like that, well, it totally made me want to see Sylar unleash his version of a Berserker attack. It kicked serious ass.

    One thing I'm having a hard time with though is that Sylar was somehow able to prevent Peter from accessing his ability, what gives? Is that part of understanding how things work like Sylar does? I dunno. I definitely agree with you about the writers dropping the ball on the Petrelli family tree revelation.

    I'm also glad to see Kensei back as he was definitely my favorite character from the aborted fetus that was season 2.

    Some questions linger: Any chance we'll finally get to meet Papa Petrelli this season? Will Caitlin (the Irish chick Peter ditched in the future who served as one of his main motivations for destroying the virus) ever be seen again? Didn't Nikki have a twin sister (Jessica) that her father somehow killed?
    || October 07, 2008
    Peter wrote...
    @darthmike431 - I'm going to bet on option C. :) Also, I didn't notice the door thing, but now that you've mentioned it, it's stuck in my mind. They probably reused it to cut costs - this season is a lot more effects heavy than previous seasons, and the effects are much better quality... well, most of them. They still haven't quite gotten the flying right, in my opinion.

    @manzy704 - I think it all comes down to Gabriel/Sylar fully understanding and being able to control his abilities versus Peter's unconscious copying and accessing of his abilities. When Sylar got his powers, he had full control of them because he figured out exactly how they work. Peter had to be trained to access them and use them in conjunction with one another. Peter may be able to copy other people's powers, but Sylar may have been able to absorb a power, or at least study (because in the future he may not need the whole braining thing to learn - he figures out Knox's power pretty easily) enough to learn how to block Peter's ability (or any ability).

    As for Papa Petrelli, obviously there are going to be questions raised about how and why Sylar came to be and who his father was - we're just waiting for them to actually get around to asking them. However, I don't think we'll see Papa Petrelli anytime soon as they'll be busy with the Villains soon enough.

    Volume III is called Villains, then there's a Volume IV which is supposed to be called "Fugitives", which leads me to believe that whatever happens in the next 8 episodes will result in either the villains or heroes taking flight and being pursued. Finally, Volume V is entitled "Our Father", so I'm guessing (religious symbolism aside) that this is where we'll finally meet the head of the Petrelli family.

    And no Caitlin. Several of the head writers have been quoted as saying that she got stranded because of the change in the season, and that even if they wanted to bring her back, "their heads spin" trying to figure out exactly what would have happened to her and come up with some way to bring her back. She's a casualty of bad writing.
    http://www.bleepinggeek.com || October 07, 2008
    Tom wrote...
    Master plan or meandering river?

    I believe there was a meandering river in season one...they managed to tie enough threads together into a finale which caused us all to "wow".

    I'm quite convinced, especially after the abysmal second season, there's nothing but a meandering stream here. Quick flowing in parts, but lost...no pun intended.

    The timeshifting must come to an end. Seriously.

    The death, oh, not really dead, nonsense must come to an end. Seriously.

    The nuking power must be put to rest, seriously. Overdone.

    I am intrigued by the good guys turning bad, and the bad guys turning good, but the normalcy of this show made it exceptional to see these heroes in action.

    Where are the villans? Where are the heroes? We see lots of superpowers, but no heroics, and perhaps not enough of a coherent conspiracy to rate anyone as a villan, per se.

    This episode was a mess. There are far too many time-related threads, too many parked characters (i.e. Molly, where are you again this season? Let's put Parkman out in the desert to find himself.) Seriously, the Love Boat never set its cast adrift in a lifeboat for episodes at a time. A mess.

    Disappointing. Best part, however, is Malcolm M as Linderman; he could speak jibberish and it would sound intelligent. Fantastic.
    || October 08, 2008
    Peter wrote...
    Wow, was I totally off!

    Apparently we get to meet Arthur Petrelli NEXT EPISODE! The commercials for next week tout him as not only the father of the three Petrellis (which means that Sylar is full Petrelli too), but he's also the leader of the villains! What?!?!

    I'm hoping that this is some kind of illusion, like maybe it's Matt Parkman's father behind it all and it just appears like he's Arthur Petrelli back from the grave, but you never know.

    And as for who's playing him?

    Robert Forster.
    http://www.buddytv.com/articles/Image/heroes/heroes-s3e5-arthur.JPG

    While admittedly he's been on some crappy shows, he is an experienced TV actor and definitely exudes some of the Petrelli personality traits.

    The wait until Monday just got a lot longer.
    http://www.bleepinggeek.com || October 10, 2008
    manzy704 wrote...
    Hey Peter,

    That is crazy news. I was wondering if it could be him in the previews that prompted Angela Petrelli's surprised look, but other people seemed to think it was Parkman's dad.

    Hey, are there any other shows you watch that you've considered reviewing? I enjoy this site because you write enjoyable review of two of my favorite shows. Though I consider Lost to be the best TV show of all time...
    || October 10, 2008
    Peter wrote...
    @manzy704 - It may be both. I've heard that part of the episode supposedly shows Matt's father and Papa Petrelli back in their heyday with the Company, so maybe it is or maybe it isn't the real deal.

    As for other shows, I would looooove to. If I had my way, we'd have a Heroes review Monday night, a Fringe review Tuesday night, a Comics review Wednesday night, a Smallville review Thursday night, a "current movie in theater" review Friday night, and then a general podcast on Saturday and an upcoming DVD review on Sunday (also add in Sarah Connor Chronicles, Dexter, and True Blood somewhere in there). Rinse, and repeat.

    Unfortunately, that's just not possible for me right now. While this site is my pride and joy and I'd love to do it fulltime, I have to work a regular job and my real life is actually quite busy and stressful. For instance, just to make sure I complete my Heroes review each week, I've had to put off writing the Deuceday DVD and CotW articles for the last two weeks (they're coming back, I just have to streamline them a bit more).

    Hopefully, I'll be able to cover a few more shows each week once my "Video" section goes live (see the link at the top?). I've spent a lot of time working on the code for a video section where I can post a weekly video podcast, and hopefully video reviews of a few shows that I usually don't have time to cover. However, again - real life gets in the way and I haven't had the time to finish building the flash applications and player. Soon, I hope. :)
    http://www.bleepinggeek.com || October 11, 2008
    Peter wrote...
    I also wanted to go on record and say that my reasoning about Jesse's power actually wasn't too far off base. I had written in a previous article that to complete the Brotherhood of Mutants scenario that Jesse's power would have to be like the Blob or Avalanche (Earthquake-inducing powers).

    According to series director Greg Beeman, they had to change it at the last minute due to budget constraints:
    There were changes made to reduce budget in the bank scenes as well. Most noteably – at first Jesse’s power was Earthquake-stomp (like Avalanche from X-Men). But this power implied cracking floors and walls and all manner of damage that would be expensive to produce. At the last minute we changed him to a Sonic scream (like DC’s Black Canary) – this was easier to accomplish but was a bummer too us because we already had Echo from the online webisodes with sonic power – Oh well…

    http://www.bleepinggeek.com || October 13, 2008

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