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Heroes: Cold War
Monday, 23 February 2009
aka: "Re-heated plotline"
 
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In the fourth episode of the Fugitives story arc (episode 17 of the 3rd season), Parkman, Mohinder, and Peter kidnap Noah Bennett and interrogate him for information about who is after them and why. Through flashbacks, we learn a little more about "the Hunter" and who's side Bennett is really on.



Because of my recent lengthy absence (which I'm going to chalk up my temporary incarceration by a shadowy government team - damn these powers!) I haven't been able to review the first couple of episodes in the new volume of Heroes, entitled "Fugitives" but I have really liked what I've seen so far. The move away from hokey prophesied catastrophes and time-unraveling jaunts and towards more realistic, character-driven stories was a brilliant one and gave the show a much needed shot in the arm. I love how Peter's powers are now semi-limited as I feel it makes him a much more interesting character (all powerful = boring). All in all, I've been thrilled to watch this recent volume, and I had hoped to see it continue.

Then, like a seagull cracking an oyster on the rocks below, they went and dashed all my hopes in one single episode.

Roofies to the Rescue!

Tonights episode picks up where last week ended, with Peter, Mohinder, and Parkman spiking Noah's drink and capturing him for information. Again, I was impressed with the thoughtfulness in the writing when Peter (gasp!) actually uses his knowledge of medicine to pick out what to drug Bennett with. Once they nab Noah, they take him back to a seedy motel, tie him to a chair, drug him, and Matt Parkman starts forcefully pushing into his mind for answers.

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Maybe the flashback went a little tooo far back...
That's right - it's a flashback episode.

Five weeks prior, Noah meets with Angela Petrelli at a park, and she tells him it's all over. She pays him severance, gives him a watch, and tells him to spend time with his family. Noah refuses to believe that it's over however, and has no idea what to do now.

Back in the present, "The Hunter" (who we later learn is named Danko) pulls Nathan away from a state dinner when Noah doesn't check in and orders his team to pull up surveillance on Bennett, prompting Nathan to ask who else Danko keeps an eye on. He tells Nathan that he watches everyone, and that no one is above scrutiny (including himself), especially Nathan and Noah, who he feels are "tarnished" because of their relationship to Claire. Nathan then asks if Danko is spying on him, too. "You barely touched your prime rib", Danko replies coldly.

Matt keeps searching through Bennett's head, but Mohinder stops him, concerned that it's putting too much stress on Bennett's system. Parkman insists that this is the only way to get the information they need, but Mohinder is worried that it's just a personal vendetta because of what happened to Daphne. Before the argument can get too heated, Peter steps in and agrees with Matt, who continues to prod Bennett's memories.

He's Just Misunderstood...

Four weeks prior, Bennett is absolutely bored with normal life. Thankfully, one day there's a knock at the door, and surprise, surprise - it's Nathan Petrelli. Bennett tells Nathan that Claire isn't home, but Nathan says he actually came to speak with Noah. He tells Bennett all about his plan to round all the people with abilities up, contain them, then somehow find a way to take their powers away, which basically plays off as a weak "aww-look-he's-not-so-bad-he-just-wants-to-help" maneuver by the writers. Noah warns them that the others with abilities will find out and blame Nathan, paint him as a villain, but Nathan is okay with that. He asks Noah how he tracked them successfully for so long, and Noah takes him to a locked storage unit with weapons and twenty years worth of files and information.

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'Ok, porn, porn, more porn.. there! Grenades!'
Matt gets out of Noah's head and lets Peter know about his brother. Matt and Mohinder commence bickering again (aww, rekindled relationships) as Matt's convinced that Mohinder feels they deserve to be hunted. Mohinder doesn't believe Noah's memories can be trusted, so Matt writes down the storage unit number and combination, and Peter decides to check it out. He flies there and finds the weapons and everything just like Matt said, but unfortunately the unit is also under surveillance, so Danko and his men see Peter ransacking the place. Noah tells them to bring Peter in alive, and against his wishes Danko finally agrees. "You heard him men - set phasers to stun", he radios.

Danko's men corner Peter at the storage unit, but Peter tosses a flash grenade, then soars away. Back at the motel, Noah tries to get under their skin by telling them that they'll be looking for him since he didn't check in, and that Peter isn't back because they captured him or worse. When Matt hears about Noah not checking in, he realizes that there is someone else involved and goes back into Bennett's brain to find out who.

Three weeks prior, Nathan introduces Noah to Danko, and it does not go well. Noah begins to explain the Company way of doing things ("one of us, one of them") but Danko shuts him down, saying that he would much rather have "one of us, and one of us. Or ten of us, twelve of us, and none of them." He reminds Noah about Primatech's many issues - escaped prisoners, loyalty issues, etc. He leaves, and Noah confronts Nathan about who's really in charge, and Nathan tells him that "it's important that we look at everything from as many angles as we can". Basically, Noah's out - Danko is in.

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Reunited and it feels so goooood...
Later, Noah catches up to Mohinder and tells him about the government program. Matt breaks the link and confronts Mohinder about the fact that Mohinder knew about all this before anyone else. Mohinder claims innocence, as he didn'think Bennett was telling the truth, but that isn't good enough for Parkman, who attacks him. In the resulting scuffle, Bennett cuts his ropes with a shard of mirror and escapes. Once Matt and Moho realize this, they break off their lovers' spat and run after him, but he dodges them in the parking lot, breaks into a car and starts to hotwire it when BAM! Peter lands on the hood of the car with a simple "Hi".

Back in the room (because between the shouting, arguing, fighting, and car-smashing NO ONE has reported them yet - mmhmmm...), they duct-tape Noah back into the chair and this time Matt forces himself into Noah's mind without any medication to help with the pain. One week ago, Noah makes a surprise visit to Danko's apartment, where he tries to get Danko to see where he's coming from. Danko, however, holds his ground and flat out tells Noah that they're fighting a war, and that the people they hunt aren't people, they're "targets". He goes on to call Noah's focus into question, saying that he's been "dancing between Company Man and Family Man" and that he himself is "not one for dancing". He asks Noah if he can trust him to follow orders instead of undermining him, and Noah agrees. Matt breaks off the link and gives the address to Peter, and despite warnings from Noah, Peter takes a gun and goes after him. Outside the motel, swat teams arrive and start to take positions.

Subtle, Nathan. Real Subtle.

Peter gets the drop on Danko at his apartment and holds him at gunpoint, but true to his word even he is being spied on. An analyst notifies Nathan of the situation and instead of ordering a team to go in, Nathan heads off on his own. Danko messes with Peter, calling him "the good brother, the passionate one". "You think you're innocent? The good guy. You broke into my house, hold a gun to my head?" he says. Danko tells him that if Peter kills him, he'll get exactly what he wants, and that they're all dangerous. Nathan appears from the doorway and agrees with him, leading Danko to wonder "How did you get here so fast?"
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Super hair - activate!


Nathan tries to reason with Peter (like we haven't seen that scene a hundred times), but Peter shows that he's serious by shooting Danko in the arm. Nathan, in a last ditch attempt, warns Peter about the swat teams moving in on Parkman and Mohinder at the motel, and Peter jumps out the window and soars away.

At the motel, the teams move in, randomly breaking down doors looking for Matt and Moho. Really? They have the technology to track them back to the motel, but they can't nab a simple roomlist from the front desk or do a little recon before running around ramming down doors? Where did these guys get their training? The WWE School of Tactical Strategy? Why not just break out the megaphone and start shouting "olly olly oxenfree"?

Noah buys himself more time by revealing to Matt that Daphne is still alive (gee, what a shocker). While Mohinder holds them off (by getting himself captured in less than a minute - way to make a stand there, Moho) Matt finds out the truth - Daphne only suffered a wound to the shoulder, and that Nathan's team has her heavily sedated. Finally, the swat team breaks the door down and take Matt into custody and Noah asks to be the one to walk him out. As they march him through the parking lot, another flash grenade goes off and Peter sweeps in and rescues Matt.

Back at Building 26 (or Nathanamo Bay, as I like to call it), Mohinder is chained up and Nathan has a little talk with him, where he again spouts his "oh-I'm-trying-to-help-I'm-not-a-bad-guy" spiel. He tells Mohinder all about wanting to remove their abilities, but after everything that's happened, it's harder to keep the "hard-liners" at bay. He shows Mohinder a live feed of Daphne, and tells him that if Mohinder doesn't help him, Nathan's "associates" will kill her and everyone else.

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Deja deja deja deja vu.
At a park, Danko tells Noah that protocol after someone is captured is to give them some time off, but Noah refuses. He tells Danko about being kicked out of the house and that "the job is all that's left". Danko comments that "kid gloves are standard issue in this outfit", and tells Noah that they have to be the ones to change that. Noah agrees, Danko leaves, and then Noah walks over to a park bench where he meets Angela Petrelli and tells her that "everything went pretty well". Angela warns him not to be foolish, and tells him that he'll have to play the role and make some tough choices, to which Noah replies "I've always been comfortable with morally grey."

Elsewhere... wait, is that Isaac's friggin studio again? Wow, that set piece has got some serious mileage on it by now. Anyway, back at Isaac's studio, Parkman is painting the future, and it shows sticks of dynamite, Parkman wearing a vest covered in explosives, and finally, painted across the floor is a giant image of Washington DC in a fiery explosion.

Fool Me Once...

I really wanted to give this volume the benefit of the doubt, I really, really did. I was willing to put aside the last two seasons of complete crap if Heroes wanted to behave themselves. Instead, now I feel like I'm the battered wife who just keeps going back to her abusive spouse claiming "he's changed, he only hits me when he drinks!" Every time I give Heroes a little trust, and it stomps all over it with this drek.

The episode read like a list of the show's major flaws: The exposition-heavy flashback scenes, the unrealistic situations (seriously? No one called the cops to report that 3 guys in the next room were screaming at each other and breaking things?), bringing characters back from the dead for no reason, the relentless "who's side are you on" flip-flopping, and finally, the introduction of the worst thing to ever happen to Heroes: the big reveal of this volume's prophesied catastrophe. It's not even a new catastrophe! It's essentially the same as the first season, only now it's Washington DC instead of New York. Give me a break.

And while yes, I am happy that Daphne isn't out of the show just yet, her reappearance makes absolutely no sense. Parkman didn't scan her mind real quick after she'd been shot to see if she was dead? No one checked a pulse or looked to see if she was breathing? No, they just saw her get shot and then left her for dead. Way to go, guys. Then, at Building 26, they "notice" that she's still alive (same thing - no one checked before they transported her back to the building?) and dope her up, but in the last episode Noah clearly told his "new boss" (who's suspiciously absent, maybe she was a one episode appearance) that they only had one detained prisoner. Just one.

Even then, I was willing to forgive the show and say "well, maybe Nathan just didn't know about Daphne" because Danko is obviously pursuing his own agenda. But then Nathan shows Mohinder the live feed, so it's obvious he does know, so he either lied to his boss about only have one captive with abilities, or the show is written by people who can't be bothered to keep this sort of thing straight. Judging from it's history, I'm more likely to believe the latter.

And as for Danko, this episode might as well just telegraph his entiry backstory for us. We know that he doesn't appreciate "family men" and that he's committed to hunting these people and proving that they're dangerous. We also learn that he wants one of them to do something really bad so that he can prove his point. I'm going to go out on a limb here and just guess that this is going to turn into one of those "aww, his family was killed by someone with abilities, so now he's out for revenge" storylines.

And "The Bomb v3.0"? Really? At least this time it looks to be an actual physical bomb, but still - unnecessary. Let me guess - maybe the paintings are misleading? Maybe what they show is what happens, but not exactly how they think it looks? What a surprise (sarcasm). I'm putting money on Danko putting Parkman in the explosive vest and trying to blow him up just to prove that people with abilities are dangerous. I suppose next week, they'll give Hiro his powers back and we can start doing the time travel stories again too.

*sigh*


Having Volume III flashbacks? Excited that Heroes is doing the exact same story for the fourth time? Need more cowbell? Post a comment below and let us know!
Comments (12)
manzy704 wrote...
Glad to have you back Peter, wish I could say the same thing about Heroes. It's garbage. Starting with episode 19, one of the main writers from the first season is taking back over but I don't think he'll be able to dig himself out of this crap.

Honestly, I didn't watch last night's episode. For the first time in a loooong time, I missed it and after reading your review, I'm kind of glad I did. I can't believe they are reusing the painting/bomb device.

The bomb is the big crumble is the virus is the bomb!
|| February 24, 2009
Peter wrote...
Haha - "Big Crumble". Sounds like something you'd order for dessert at Applebee's. I like it.

I just don't get it - they're supposed to have Mark Verheiden on board (Battlestar Galactica) and Brian Fuller (Dead Like Me, Pushing Daisies)... couldn't they find someone to write these preceeding episodes who wouldn't screw them up? I was ready to start defending Heroes again, but after last night's ep I'm just waiting for news of it's eventual cancellation.

http://www.bleepinggeek.com || February 24, 2009
darthmike431 wrote...
We already know the writing is bad, but how does Tim Kring really approve of this crap before it goes into production?! Did anyone think re-using the bomb plot was going to do the show any good? By the time they wrote this episode, the show was already getting bad reviews for Volume 3, so wouldn't they at least TRY and come up with something new and original? I really thought for once that this Volume wouldn't have a "change the future" type storyline but here we go AGAIN. And one of the biggest complaints of the last 2 volumes was that death wasn't that big of a deal because nobody stayed dead. So why did they have to go and bring Daphne back?

While I am well aware of and thankful for some of the TV industry's amazing writers (Fuller, Lindelof, Cuse, just to name a few), I am offended when I look back on the Writer's Strike, and know that some of the writers on the picket lines were the ones making steaming piles of crap like Volume 3 and 4. To think that those writers were demanding more money to write this horrible stuff...
|| February 24, 2009
crood wrote...
The main problem with this exposition heavy episode is how little of the exposition was necessary. We already knew the Company was shutdown. It didn't take a genius to figure out Nathan recruited Noah. Noah had to have met Danko at some point and it was already obvious that Danko was in favor of more extreme measures.

By the way what reason does Mohinder have to not trust Noah? He's the one who turned on Noah and then shot him.
|| February 25, 2009
crood wrote...
My prediction is that Matt's bomb and the D.C. explosion are two separate events.

First of all, the DC image showed a mushroom cloud, which doesn't indicate a bomb strapped to a human. My guess is that Matt's bomb will be little more than a threat to into and/or out of Building 26 to rescue Daphne.

Back to this episode:

I didn't think it was terrible, just mostly unnecessary and definitely things we've seen before.

Every volume has had "Mohinder, come work on our side or Molly/Nikki/you/Daphne will die." This is followed by about two seconds of resistance by Mo and then it's on with the lab coat. While repetetive, it's actually an incredible moment of a character consistency for this show. Yes, that was the worst case of 'holding them off' I've ever seen. What's weird is that I thought they were already searching the second floor rooms, but Mohinder went after the guys on the ground.


|| February 25, 2009
Tom wrote...
What do Enron, AIG and Heroes all have in common? BANKRUPT.

Daphne's resurrection is only as confusing as the complete lack of emotional reaction by anyone to her apparent death. Do the characters feel the same "oh hum" of death the viewers do?

Pretty hard not to see through the writing: evil government / soldiers hunting down mutants...hmmm, contrived, overdone (X-Men anyone) and first-year creative writing. Right now, the most interesting bit for me is the "chime" part before NBC's broadcast...Parkman and Hiro's rap was clever, and this week's Jessica/Nikki/Tracy thing was subtle (playing off Ali's strengths?) but passingly amusing.

Which is more than I can say about this episode.

Quick question: I understood Peter now can only hold one power at a time, and new ones cancel out the old. Okay, that's a lot more manageable. So I'm guessing just being around people is enough, so how come he's flying around after being in contact with Moho and Parkman, and which one of Parkman's many powers now does he absorb?

Parkman = mulitpowers of plot convenience, showcased in this static episode. You really must feel for Sendhil and Greg having to shoot an entire episode on a sound stage.
|| February 25, 2009
Peter wrote...
Just to recap, let's go over what we've seen before:

1. Noah switching sides or playing one side against another
2. Peter and Nathan on opposite sides of an issue
3. Peter holding a gun on someone and Nathan having to talk him out of it.
4. A mysterious figure offering help (Rebel is the new Wireless)
5. The bomb
6. Mohinder being forced to do science.
7. Someone hunting down Heroes (Danko is the new Sylar)
8. A character not actually being dead.

I could go on and on...

As I recently told a friend of mine, I'm reasonably sure that they just took 2 or 3 scripts from the past seasons, mixed them together, and then just changed the names to fit the current show. Terrible writing... just terrible.

I don't feel bad in the slightest that Monday's episode had the show's worst ratings to date (barely 6 mil viewers).
http://www.bleepinggeek.com || February 25, 2009
crood wrote...
It's been shown that Peter needs to touch someone to take their powers. The only exception is when he initially duplicated Nathan's after taking the formula. The "Behind The Eclipse" column on ComicBookResources has indicated that he might be having problems with his empathy. I guess being betrayed by every family member will do that.

I'd have liked to have seen the government side shown more balanced. What would be done with someone who can travel in time and space like Hiro used to or manipulate minds like Matt?
|| February 26, 2009
SimpleMind wrote...
I was kinda pissed at the apparent forgetfulness of Parkman. Didn't he make some of the govt gunmen turn on each other with his ability before Daphne got shot?

Well why not do something similar when they came into the hotel room? Sickening, really. Have one shoot another and they all turn on him and Matt can shoot one or two of the remaining ones.
|| February 26, 2009
darthmike431 wrote...
Heroes lost common sense halfway through Volume 2...

Then during Volume 3, it lost any kind of sense at all...
|| February 26, 2009
Peter wrote...
@SimpleMind - I actually thought something along those lines, but I was wondering why he couldn't just make them all think they shot and killed him so that they'd leave and he could escape. I'm guessing they're using the same "oh, he was too tired from using his powers on Noah" excuse like they did with the Haitian and Sylar last season...errr, volume.

@darthmike431 - Haha, true... true. At this point, I really have to wonder if even having all these great writers coming in can save this show. This ep brought Heroes their worst ratings ever (over half of the viewers have left since this season's premiere), so it may be a lost cause.
http://www.bleepinggeek.com || March 03, 2009
Rain wrote...
Interesting post! I like Fugitives. I like Peter Petrelli a lot. Is there anything important hecannot do. I've found a video with all his abilities. It was interesting to see it in one video. It does impress.

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