Bleeping Geek.com - Heroes: The Second Coming/The Butterfly Effect

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Shooter McGavin, Pow Pow!

The episode opens four years in the future with Future Peter Petrelli, face scar and all, running from an unseen pursuer who turns out to be... Claire? The hell? It turns out that in this version of the future, Heroes are experimented upon, hunted, used, and it all stems from Nathan's press conference where he revealed his abilities to the world. Claire holds Peter at gunpoint while he tries to explain that he's going to go back into the past and fix everything. She tells him she always loved him and fires.

"Hey there, Charlie's Angel..."

Fortunately, the ability to stop time kinda trumps a bullet. Peter slows down time, steps around the bullet, takes Claire's gun, and then disappears into the past (our present).

In the present, Future Peter dons the coat and hat, walks into the hall where Nathan is holding the press conference, and shoots him twice in the chest. Present Peter catches Nathan, and then goes after the shooter, not realizing it's his future self. He chases Future Peter into a back room, but when Parkman catches up to them, there's only one Peter, holding the coat and hat. As we learn later, Future Peter puts Present Peter into an inmate's body and then ports back and assumes Present Peter's identity.

As they take Nathan to the hospital, Claire calls and wants to help, but Future Peter tells her to stay there in California. Once they get to the hospital, the doctors do what they can, but they can't save Nathan. When Peter goes in to see him however, Nathan bolts upright in bed.

A Hiro Reborn

Another masterful stroke by the showrunners is that Hiro is once again back to his joyous geeky self. Gone is the "heartbroken Hiro" of Season 2, who was a shadow of the character we know and love - a character who thankfully is back in full force. Now the head of his father's company (what happened to his sister running it?), Hiro is bored out of his skull. The opening scene with Hiro sitting at his desk, making time swing back and forth reminded me why I love the character so much: while he may be incredibly powerful, he's a regular guy like any of us. Who hasn't wished for the ability to make the workday fly by a little faster?

With the return of Hiro, we also get the return of Ando. The coy dialog between the two of them is back, something I missed last season as they were separated across time. Just as Hiro is lamenting his current bout of deskjockeying, his family's lawyer arrives with a special DVD message from his father, Kaito.

Back in California, Claire decides to go help after all, but when she opens the door she comes face to face with the boogeyman himself, Sylar. Besides being a little hammy (while in Mexico, he must have taken a correspondence course in monologuing), Sylar singlehandedly brings back the one element I've felt the show has been missing since the middle of the first season: the horror/thriller element.

Their game of "Near, Far" goes tragically wrong

I missed the feel of the original episodes, with their dark and sinister tone and hidden enemies. Watching Sylar stalk Claire through her own house, blocking doors with his telekinesis, eerily appearing behind her then vanishing again with that strange groaning sound, the creepy ticking sound when he stares at her... it felt like Season 1 again. After watching him impotently flirt with Maya and her fey brother all last season, it was amazing to see that he could again instill fear in a person.

Unfortunately, as soon as I start to praise the writers for their brilliance, the show hits a snag. A big snag. Sylar chases Claire through the entire house, at one point moving an entire dining room set across the room to block a door from upstairs, but what finally stops him? A chain, wrapped around the handles of a flimsy pantry door. Whaaaaaa? So he has all these powers and abilities, but he can't telekinetically unwrap chains from a door handle, or pull the door off it's hinges? Is there a "Pantry Door = Kryptonite" restriction to his powers, or what?

Back in Japan, Hiro is told by his late father that he is now the guardian of a terrible secret that could destroy the world, and that he must never open the safe. Hiro ignores that of course, because he's AWESOME. Inside the safe is one half of a chemical formula, and another DVD message from Kaito telling Hiro that he said not to open the safe. Haha! Kaito spouts off a kind of prophecy where he says if the formula gets out, there will be a "Chosen One" with "Purity of the Blood" and that he will bring "the light", whatever that all means. Hiro examines the formula and then poof, it disappears. Hiro reactively stops time and sees a speed trail leading down the hall. He follows it and meets Daphne, a speedster who's powers are negated by Hiro's abilities. She may be reduced down to normal speed, but he can't stop her completely. She knocks him down, breaking his concentration, and escapes with the formula.

Elsewhere, Parkman confronts Peter and tries to read his mind, but Peter blocks him and reveals that he's Future Peter. Future Peter pulls Parkman to him and then poof! Teleports him to the middle of the African desert.

That's Nice... Now Who Are You Again?

Nathan wakes up in the hospital, gets dressed and goes for a little walk down to the hospital chapel, where live on TV, he tells them that he saw God and then launches into a three minute speech to a Latino lady and her kids about how we're all connected, how they need each other, how they're all there to do God's bidding.

Now, if it was me I'd be like "Well thank you crazy person! I'll just be... going.. now..." while I slowly backed my kids towards the door, but not this lady. Oh no. She just sits there and smiles at him like it's perfectly normal to have some pasty businessman looking guy deliver a sermon from out of nowhere. Nathan does however utter a catchphrase we'll undoubtedly hearing more of: "Save Ourselves, Save the World".

Tea, Crackers, and Lobotomy

Sylar, still facing down that power-nullifying pantry door, finds some of Noah's files and paperwork and learns about the people in Sector 5, the worst of the worst. Claire stabs Sylar in the chest with a knife and tries to run for it, but he catches her, pins her to the wall and slices her head open. He moves her to the coffee table for a nice polite conversation while he pokes around in her brain meats, and while he has her there she asks him if he's going to eat her brain. "Claire," he says, "that's disgusting." Haha! I love when the writers give a nod to the fans like that.

Sylar continues to examine her brain and then, after finding what he was looking for, pulls the knife out of his chest and the wound closes up and heals. So finally, we get to see a little more about how Sylar's powers work! Once he figures out how the brain produces the ability (or is it how the adrenal gland produces the ability?) he somehow modifies his own brain (without ever touching it) to mimic those powers.

Sylar stands up to leave, and puts Claire's skullcap back on her head, which immediately starts to heal. When Claire asks if he's going to kill her, Sylar delivers one of the most chilling lines from the series to date:

Poor girl. There's so much about yourself that you don't even understand. Your brain is not like the others, Claire. You are not like the others. You're different... you're special... and I couldn't kill you even if I wanted to. You can never die. And now, I guess... neither can I.

Dude.

All These Rebirths and Not a Single Zombie

Keeping with the show's title, "The Second Coming", Nathan and Peter talk about how Nathan survived. Peter mentions that they have all these powers and that he's come back from the dead before, Nathan's burns were healed, etc. Nathan is convinced that it's the hand of God, and that they can be angels, there to do God's bidding. Peter asks if Nathan still intends on telling the world their secret, and Nathan says no. They can't be angels if everyone knows about them, can they? After Peter leaves, Nathan turns and sees Linderman, apparently back from the dead as well, who tells him he's meant for great things. Elsewhere, we meet Governor Malden (Bruce Boxleightner FTW!) and his associate Tracy... who just so happens to look exactly like Nikki/Jessica.

The viral marketing for Cloverfield 2 begins.

While Parkman is still trapped in the desert, Ando tries to convince Hiro to travel into the past to ask his father what he meant in his prophecy. Hiro refuses to go into the past however, after being stranded there last time. Instead, he decides to travel into the future to see the results of the lost formula. When he gets there, however, he doesn't like what he sees: Ando, now with superpowers of his own, attacks and kills Future Hiro with a blast of red energy and takes the formula from him. Present Hiro then looks up as the whole world literally breaks apart and comes crumbling down. And I thought "the explosion" looked cool! Hiro jumps back into the present at the last moment and vows to find that formula.

Mama Petrelli visits Nathan, and asks Future Peter what he did with the real Peter. She then reveals her superpower as well, the very same power she passed on to her son Peter: the prophetic dreams. She saw all this happen, she saw Future Peter come back and change things for the worse. She tells him that by coming back to this time, he's changed the way things happen, but that the future is still the same. Future Peter tells her that Peter is safe and then we see our first glimpse of Sector 5: a row of cells caging the worst superpowered villains in the world... and Noah Bennett? Apparently, Bob isn't taking any more chances with him.

Parkman finds a painting in the African desert of the world being torn apart that looks suspiciously like the work of a certain far-seeing painter we all know.

Mohinder went to the "House" School of Medicine

Ugh. Then there's Mohinder. Here's a plea to the show writers and producers and cast and anyone else on Heroes that might be able to whisper some suggestions to the people in charge: get rid of Mohinder already! Back at the Casa de Suresh, Mohinder and Maya argue because Mohinder is ready to pack it all up and head home without curing her like he promised he would. She becomes upset, does the inky eye bit, and when she calms down, the little lightbulb above Mohinder's brain lights up and he realizes that the powers are a result of the "fight or flight" instinct in humans, the adrenal system. Yup, it just kinda happens that way.

Meanwhile, back at Mohinder's lab/Isaac's loft, Moho has isolated the formula to give people superpowers, but because of everyone's unique blood chemistry, the power can manifest in infinite ways. Maya tries to convince him to stop this, that these powers are a curse and that he should destroy it. Unfortunately, since Mohinder's only superpower currently is the total lack of common sense, he doesn't.

Mohinder takes the formula to the docks to... do what? Throw it in the water? You're telling me that a scientist that can isolate a superpower serum is actually going to dump hazardous biological material into the ecosystem like that? Of course not. I like that they've basically made Mohinder the equivalent of a superhero groupie: he just wants to have powers sooooo bad. He injects himself with the serum, freaks out, and then collapses. Unfortunately, he's not dead. Booooo, Heroes writers. Booo!

Which leads us directly into...

I am apparently so jaded that when I heard Heroes was a 2-part season premiere, I just automatically assumed that they were counting the clip-show recap as the first part. As a result, this second episode took me completely by surprise (and also is the reason for this review being posted so late).

At the Bennett house, Claire and her mother talk about what happened with Sylar, and her mom wants to know if there was... more that happened, if you catch my drift (and theirs, as the word is never actually said). Claire tells her it wasn't like that, and cuts herself on some glass on the floor. Even more unsettling than the previous conversation is the fact that while Claire still heals, now she doesn't seem to feel the pain of the wounds anymore. She describes that she was grateful for the pain because it was the only time she still felt human. This does not bode well...

Meanwhile, Angela Petrelli has a vision of the inmates escaping from Sector 5 and killing everyone: Hiro impaled on his own sword, Parkman's throat cut, Claire decapitated... it's a blood bath, and standing in the middle of it all is Tracy, Adam Munroe, Matt Parkman's father, and newcomer Knox (who can apparently turn fear into strength). And then, standing behind her and putting his hands on her shoulders (almost like he's protecting her) - Sylar.

Angela wakes up and tracks Future Peter down to tell him that his actions have caused a "butterfly effect" that will cause destruction and death in it's wake. She also tells Future Peter that because he told Claire to stay in California, she listened to him and had a "pretty bad day" because of it. Wow, understatement of the year there, Mama Petrelli.

With Great Power... Comes Fabulous Hair?

And here is where the story goes right off the rails. Maya returns to Mohinder's lab to find Mohinder hanging upside down from the ceiling. He leaps down with a little flip and reveals that the serum gave him Spiderman's powers. Yup, he's got the Spidey powers: super-strength, agility, heightened senses, wall crawling... lame. A powerset that cool... and you give it to Mohinder? Double lame.

Screw the powers, let's cure your McConaughey-itis

But that's not what's really unrealistic - after Maya finds out about his abilities, Mohinder puts the moves on her and they get it on right there in the lab. That's what is so unrealistic. You're telling me that the superpower serum not only gave him powers, but also turned him straight too? Ridiculous. Haha!

Thankfully, they redeem themselves after this with an almost whimsical scene where the Company sends two agents after Sylar. They find him in the middle of the suburbs and try to tazer him. Now able to heal himself, Sylar just shrugs it off like a minor inconvenience and takes them out. All to a happy little alt-rock tune. Good stuff.

In other parts of the world, Elle and Bob review the tape of the incident and Elle asks to go after him, but Bob refuses. Hiro is worried about Ando becoming Future Ando, and hires investigators to help him find Daphne. Tracy (the Nikki/Jessica lookalike) is trying to convince Governor "I was Tron" Malden to appoint Nathan to an empty Senatorial seat, and - in a brilliant bit of cameo magic - The Greatest American Hero is trying to crack the case of why Tracy looks so much like Nikki.

Claire isn't handling her new powers so well, and tries to step in front of a train in order to feel something again. Future Peter flies in and saves her at the last minute however, and they talk. Peter learns that Sylar can heal now, and tells her that it was never supposed to happen. Claire feels helpless and like a victim, and turns to Peter for help. Instead, he tells her that he can't help her because he might change something that causes problems in the future. So he turns his back on her, which I'm going to go ahead and assume causes problems between them later on.

I See Dead People

At the hospital, Nathan is praying at the window for forgiveness when Tracy arrives and offers him the Senator position. He's a little confused of course (as we all are) because he thinks she's Nikki, but she denies it and leaves the offer on the table. As she leaves, she walks right past Linderman without a word (which was the first thing that clued me in that he wasn't really there). Linderman mentions to Nathan that maybe there's a reason that someone who looks so familiar would appear at this moment and offer him that job.

Back at the Company, Elle goes to see Bob again and try to convince him to let her go after Sylar, but she finds him dead in his office, decapitated. She bolts to Sector 5, releases Noah Bennett, and tosses him a gun. Sylar attacks her, and Noah guns him down. Sylar heals back up and flaunts his new healing powers by letting Noah know where he got them from. He knocks Noah out and then goes after Elle. However, right as he's slicing into her head, she releases a massive explosion of electicity, knocking Sylar back and destroying the power grid. The inmates escape and Noah drags the unconscious Sylar into a cell.

In France, Hiro and Ando have tracked Daphne to her house, which is filled with loot including the Mona Lisa. They bicker, and finally Hiro reveals what he saw in the future. Ando tries to deny it saying that it was a robot or someone who could change to look like him. Hiro seems partially satisfied by that and decides to set a trap for Daphne, like Batman would for Catwoman. He finds her 12th grade running metal, and starts to formulate a plan.

"Any comment before this goes to press?"

Back at the hospital, Future Peter comes clean to Nathan and asks for his forgiveness. Then he leaves to set things right. Nathan calls Tracy and accepts the job as Senator, but only as long as Tracy is part of his staff. Tracy has another run-in with the reporter ("believe it or not, I'm walking on air...") and he shows her the video of Nikki grinding down on Nathan Petrelli from the Corinthian video files. He threatens to take it to the press, but quicker than you can say "FATALITY!" Tracy accidentally freezes him solid, then shatters him into itty bitty human ice cubes.

In Sector 5, Elle has Sylar under heavy sedation when Angela Petrelli arrives. Angela, now in charge (since Bob has gone a little more than just bald), immediately fires Elle. Again, maybe not a smart move to piss people off when you know the end of the world is looming because of something that happens in the present.

Hiro setsthe trap for Daphne, even going so far as to refer to her as his nemesis. Cute. She tries to grab the medal, but he keeps porting away before she can get it. Finally, she agrees to trade and Hero sends Ando over with the medal. Daphne pulls out a knife and threatens to kill him if he doesn't give her both, and Hiro agrees. She takes the medal and the formula and escapes. Ando is a little upset that Hiro put him in danger like that, especially when he finds out that the whole thing was a set-up to begin with and that Hiro had placed a tracking device on the medal. When Ando asks Hiro how he did that without him seeing, Hiro replies "I stop time and teleport. I do many things that you don't see." Trust issues aside, Hiro claims "the game is afoot" like Sherlock Holmes and they 'port after her.

Be Annoyed. Be Very Annoyed.

Mohinder wakes up in the middle of the night just in time to completely re-enact (read: ripoff) 1986's "The Fly". BrundleMohinder finds his veins pulsing and strange things growing out of his back. After seeing previews of next week's episode, it looks like Mohinder is going to have to start his very own Brundle Museum of Natural History. And lemme guess - Mohinder totally just made a little ginger Eric Stoltz inside of Maya, didn't he? Mwahahahaha!

*cue lightning clap and spooky music*

One more time, Heroes writers: Killllll him.... pleeeeease....

Elsewhere, Parkman is rescued in the African desert by a man who not only knows his name, but is also the man who painted the picture of the world crumbling apart. Claire sees someone in the house, and finds her dad preparing to leave again. Nathan and "Linderman" play chess and when an orderly comes in, she reveals that he's all by himself - Linderman is only inside Nathans head (kinda like the burns he used to see in the mirror maybe?).

"Who ordered their driver medium rare?"

Noah tells Claire about the prisoners that escaped, and they got the equivalent of the Brotherhood of Mutants here, right down to a German who can control magnetic energy. Along with Knox fulfilling the Sabertooth role and a Pyro poweralike, the final part of the group is named Jesse, and he just so happens to have Peter Petrelli dancing around inside his body at the moment. Noah won't comment on Jesse's powers, simply saying "you don't want to know", but with the powers of magnetism, fire-starting, and animal strength already there, the only missing element to complete the sinister group would be either Blob-like powers, or Avalanche-like powers. And at this point, it could be either one. Avalanche powers might tie into the Earth cracking apart, but "Jesse" is also a chubby kind of guy, and invincibility stemming from your fat might just warrant Noah's "you don't want to know" comment. Finally, there are rumors that his powers stem from his voice, so maybe he has the ability to influence people like Eden had?

Anyway, Noah leaves Claire in the hands of someone he knows will protect her: her fire-starting mother. Oh yeah, that couldn't possibly be a bad idea.

Back at Sector 5, Future Peter arrives to find that all the inmates have escaped, taking Present Peter with them. Out in the world, they attack and kill and generally just raise hell everywhere they go. Faced with his current options and none of his powers, Peter reluctantly goes with them.

Then, as the episode closes, Angela Petrelli goes to see Sylar in his cell and offers him everything a boy could want from his mother: inspiration, guidance, comfort. He tells her "you're not my mother" to which she coldly replies:

"But I am, dear... I am."

Which is as good a place as any to restart the theory section:

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And that does it for the doubly-long season premiere event for Heroes Season 3!

Come back next week for "One of Us, One of Them" where Bennett goes after the four villains with a new super-powered partner in tow (c'mon - you know who it is), Peter tries to figure out what goes wrong in the future, Hiro and Ando meet with the Haitian, Tracy tries to find information on Nikki Sanders, and Mohinder becomes Brundlefly.

[THE CRUMBLING IS THE NEW VIRUS IS THE NEW BOMB - DIGG THIS ARTICLE]

Peter Sorensen is a part-time reviewer and didn't know the fly was in the teleporter when he got in. You can email him here or follow his updates on Twitter.

Thoughts? Opinions? Too much gore for you? Not enough gore for you? Post a comment below and let us know!

Comments (14)

Peter wrote...

Damn it's good to be back.

Sorry it took so long to post this, I really didn't expect the extra episode and I wanted to review/recap them together.

Also, I don't like that they brought back so many old characters, but I love that they brought them back in interesting ways.

http://www.bleepinggeek.com || September 23, 2008

manzy704 wrote...

Great review Peter. A couple of things...

I just can't help being very annoyed with Nathan Petrelli's God/Angel thing. I really want to know what the hell is going on with Linderman too. I mean, it would appear that only Linderman could have healed Nathan (or Claire's blood) but we clearly saw him with a hole in the back of his head complements of DL.

I agree with you for the most part about Mohinder, but I don't necessarily want him dead. He was a useful character the first season, but maybe things would move a little quicker without his postulating and bitching.

Sylar tells Claire that she can't die, yet Angela sees her apparently dead in her vision, what gives? Any theories on Tracy? Could she be Nikki's long thought dead twin sister? That seen with the Pyro dude burning that woman was intense, as was the Claire sans skullcap scene. Very interesting and mature stuff, kudos to NBC for not wussing out about it.

The Amazing Sylar-Proof Pantry door is available at Lowes for 89.99. I'm getting a few installed because you can never be too careful.

|| September 23, 2008

Matej wrote...

The only episode reviews I'll ever read, great just as always!
Go to the TVsquad.com and ask for a job, I'm sure you'll get one !

One thing, what's the name of a font that it's used for episode tittles ?

http://www.heroestelevision.com/ || September 24, 2008

Peter wrote...

@manzy704 - You're not alone about the God/Angel thing. Apparently that's a bit of a hot topic right now. Personally, I think it's totally okay for one of the crazy people on the show (remember how he kept seeing himself as burnt even after he was healed?) to have a near death experience and to come out of it with delusions of a higher religious calling. Plus, you know he's going to screw up somehow down the line. There are people who don't want to see religion introduced into the show, but I don't think that was the point. The point is that everyone on the show reacts to their abilities in a different way. Mohinder sees it as a purely scientific phenomena, Hiro sees it as a divine destiny bestowed upon him, and apparently now Nathan thinks he's supposed to be an Angel of God. Strange thing is, with his ability to fly he's probably closer than his goal than most.

Well, until they introduce a bird like character. smilies/cheesy.gif

And yes, I think we all should pick up a few of those Sylar-Proof doors.

@Matej - Thank you! The font is actually called TimSaleBrush (italic for the titles) and it's available from Comicraft for a fee. You can find similar knockoff fonts that are similar under names like ClaireBennett, or Letter-o-Matic on free sites as well.

http://www.bleepinggeek.com || September 24, 2008

Matej wrote...

Thanks for the info Peter, I appreciate it. Cheers!

http://www.heroestelevision.com/ || September 24, 2008

jbsoren wrote...

Blob or Avalanche, huh? I could have sworn the file said something like "sound manipulation" powers for Weevil, I mean Jesse. So maybe he's like Banshee, or Klaw, or Songbird?

|| September 24, 2008

Boomer wrote...

Peter!
I absolutely agree...this episode/reboot was a complete homerun! I was equally skeptical about season three after the hohum half Season 2, but Kring and Ko. have pulled it off.

My wife and I have pretty differing opinons about how this reboot/retcon comes off, but the bottom line is that the writers really listened to what the fans had to say. We all hated Mohinder's character and dialogue. We all wanted evil Sylar back. We mostly hated/got bored with Nikki. And so on.....
So the writers practically blew up what we knew/expected out of these characters and took it to the next level.....Amazing!

I kinda disagree with your fervent desire to kill Mohinder off....I hated what the writers did to him last year (impotent human wannabe with serious inadequacy issues) and they did better than kill him off. Now he gets to be a seriously flawed antihero-villain. With his background, good intentions etc, now he gets to be a Magneto-like character. How can't you like the evolution from goofy sidekick to supervillain? (like Robin for instance) I think his stilted delivery (never a great actor, I think he must have been taking acting lessons as well as lots of weight training this summer) should be perfect for the well meaning 'Smarter-than-you-I know-whats-best-for-you' supervillain.

I Loooooove the religious angle they have brought in for Nathan! I don't know if it's a ruse or a PTSDlike delusion or if he really believes it, but how can't you bring in religion to to a show like Heroes. Look at how interesting and discussion provoking BSG has been with their storylines. The show's about superheroes, but if mainstream comics can ask tough questions about belief and a greater power, Heroes should too.

Just a few thoughts to start - I'll be back later!

|| September 25, 2008

Peter wrote...

@jbsoren - Yes, you're correct. I hadn't realized that part of the Heroes ARG was an area you could access that listed Company "assignments", and that somewhere in there, Jesse Murphy's power was listed as "sound manipulation" (much like Echo's abilities in the "Going Postal" webisodes and comics).

There are also apparently quite a few comics that I've missed that deal specifically with the members of Sector 5 like "The German". I will have to go back and catch up.

@boomer - I do like that they're finally doing SOMETHING with Mohinder, it just feels like he's a character that they just don't know what to do with. He had a purpose the first season as the narrator/everyman who slowly put the pieces together. But once we knew how everything fit into place, I think he become unnecessary, hence them trying some different things with him in Season 2 (like his horrible, horrible stint as a Company Agent). Finally, this Season they've taken away the everyman concept and just given him superpowers too, and personally it feels a little tacked on to me. Like they just couldn't decide on a good way to have him stay on the show, so they just made him a Hero too.

I think the reason I'd like to see him die (maybe not right away, but eventually) is that I think his time on the show has run it's course, but that he can still serve a purpose before he goes. Plus, the Spiderman fanboy in me is livid that they gave the Spidey powers to him. He should have been given someone else's powers... like maybe Dazzler or something smilies/grin.gif

Also, I think the reason that people are so angry about the whole Nathan/Angel thing is that they don't want to see religion in a SCIENCE fiction TV show, which I can understand. However, I'm with you that I think it's a good idea. People will believe what they believe, and I think it's awesome of the writers to show how different people from different backgrounds attempt to understand and cope with suddenly having these seemingly miraculous abilities.

Oh, and one more thing: to all the people who complained that they just brought everyone back this season, I have only one thing to say: at least they didn't bring back Alejandro. Be thankful. smilies/cheesy.gif

http://www.bleepinggeek.com || September 25, 2008

james wrote...

You meant to say, "At least they didn't bring back Alejandro... yet," right?

|| September 25, 2008

Peter wrote...

@james

AAAAAHHH! Bite your tongue! Quick, someone knock on wood! Throw salt over your shoulder!

*flees*

http://www.bleepinggeek.com || September 25, 2008

Tom wrote...

Ack! I must be the dissenting voice. Didn't care for this two-part episode at all, and stopped watching mid-way through the second episode. I caught up on a re-run this weekend and did not miss much.

Excellent summary as usual, Peter.

What's missing? Well, it sounds mundane, but where is the mundane. What is the best episode from season one, hands down? Right, Company Man. This show used to be a model for what regular people can do to be heroes themselves. Regular folk confronting very unregular incidents and developments, and how they deal with it.

It is becoming, sadly, a complete superhero fest, and to steal from a certain movie: When everyone is special, no one is. There has been an exponential escalation in power for Sylar/Peter and frankly there's no keeping track of them anymore...what can they not do? Parkman has been parked...just like Molly for much of her season.

Beyond that, the mystery is gone. Story lines like the paintings and their interpretations, the subtle hmmmm....wonder what this is all about? is gone. Replaced by special effects, lots of bad guys and trading card superpowers. Even the non-powered foil - Mohinder - has abandoned brains for brawn, and shown that there is in fact shame in being happy as a "non-powered" fellow. I see through the developments with Mohinder and can hear the conversation around the boardroom table at NBC: yeah, they're saying he's a wimp and possibly gay. Let's make this better. We'll give him kick-ass powers and get him laid in the season opener. Yeah that's it.

And what does this say for Maya? Seriously degrading.

Final bit of negative rant: SO MUCH FOR SAVE THE CHEERLEADER SAVE THE WORLD. The whole story arc of the first half of season one, destroyed here in the first outing of season three. How sad. Everything people worked towards in saving Claire / my daughter / the cheerleader from Sylar's grip is all undone. Value of season one DVDs just plummetted...sad.

What did I like? Yes, the banter between Ando and Hiro...we needed that and their innocent approach to their reality. Maybe Ando can find some hero-juice and inject himself with Mohinder. Sad. I digress. Sylar being scary? Good, but so much of the dramatic tension should be less obtusely stated; his eerieness in season one was subtle. And I am glad to see Ali Larter back, and not Nikki per se...such a wimp...but the bright red lipstick is too much. And where does her character have room to grow, really?

There were vast improvements over season two which, as you say, was a complete wash. Forgettaboutit. But the new direction is all powers all the time, and I'm afraid it's an escalation that has a ceiling...we haven't perhaps hit it yet, but when everyone's a superhero, no one is left to be a hero.

|| September 28, 2008

David885 wrote...

Great review, as always.

When Sylar says that he and Claire can't die, is that him thinking that the two can't die, or was Adam/the Company/whoever wrong about the losing the head bit? I mean, if Adam's the only one, they can't have tested it, and, for example, relating the series one, when Peter blows up, I'm pretty sure that would take off the head, too.

An idea about Tracy - could it be that her multiple personalities each have a power, and she can just access them when she feels like? That could explain ice business, and also why it was so easy for her to break the reporter into pieces.

I was really hoping Angela's power would be cooler than future-dreams. Hopefully there will be more. And her telling Sylar she's his mum might just be a trick to get him to work for the Company? Him and Peter working together would be unstoppable. You'd have no need of Noah.

So far, this series has been amazing. Hopefully the rest will be just as good (or better). Some of the titles are quite cool, "Villains", "War" and, possibly the most exciting, "Our Father". *crosses fingers for Papa Petrelli*

|| September 29, 2008

Peter wrote...

@Tom - I agree. I really like seeing the human aspect along with the superhuman, which is why I'm hoping that HRG again takes a larger role in the upcoming season. He's an amazing character, and he's played to perfection by Jack Coleman. I can't wait to see how he handles having Sylar for a partner!

As for the overarching story, you're right. It seems like they're doing the whole "one crisis averted, now the future comes about another way" Terminator cop-out. I'd like to see them continue the current storyline, but still find a way to show that saving Claire was somehow instrumental in saving the world after all, not just by keeping Sylar out of her brain for the first two seasons.

On a side note - I'd like to find out that Nikki/Jessica/Tracy are all the same person, and that the original was like Multiple Man in X-Men, only when she splits into multiple people, she gets multiple powers too. Then, maybe something traumatic happened (like the loss of her sister for example) and she splintered into all these different people with different powers and somehow forgot (*cough cough* Haitian *cough cough*) that they were all part of a whole. It would also explain how Nikki had the Godsend tattoo without remembering getting it. But that's just what I would do if I was writing it.

@David885 - I was thinking the same thing. Is Claire like Adam where she can die by losing her head, or like Sylar said - is she "special, different"? Maybe she's the next evolutionary step up - the daughter of 2 super-powered parents. Perhaps she can regenerate even past beheading? I don't know. One thing's for sure - I'm sticking around to find out.

Stray thought - doesn't Sylar have freezing powers too? Wonder where he got them from?

I actually thought it was perfect that Angela had the prophetic dreams, because what makes her a great character isn't her power, it's what she does with it. She's a schemer. I have a feeling that she's used her powers to put herself in exactly the right place at exactly the right time on numerous occasions for her own personal gain. For instance, surely she had to forsee that Thompson and Bob would be killed by Sylar, and yet she let it happen because now she's in charge. She's shifty, that one, and I can't wait to see how she manipulates everyone from this point on.

http://www.bleepinggeek.com || September 29, 2008

Tron wrote...

Nice review Peter, great to have heroes and this forum back! Always interesting and friendly.

I think it was a solid start to a potentially great season. There are floors and holes a plenty but I'm going to ignore those for now and see where this one is going......

Also I'm intersted to hear your thoughts on JJ's Fringe and also if Dex season 3 is going to get your treatment?

|| September 30, 2008

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