Category: Heroes (Page 19 of 22)

So we’ve now seen the last “Heroes” of 2006…and, thankfully, it lived up to most expectations.

So Claire comes clean to her father about her abilities, only to have him admit more to her than, frankly, I would’ve expected. He was still evasive about what he’s done, saying only that “I’ve done some things I’ve not very proud of” to keep her safe, but he ends up telling her a hell of a lot. By episode’s end, it appears that the reason he’s done so is because, hey, it doesn’t matter what you tell someone if you’re gonna wipe their memories, anyway! For a moment, I thought sure we were going to find out that the memory wiping was done at Eden’s behest, but if the Haitian can be believed, it was indeed done at Mr. Bennett’s request. It appears, however, that our Haitian friend has an agenda of his own…which is good, since Eden has neither an agenda nor an ongoing existence any longer.

Actually, the presumption that Eden’s dead is based on next week’s preview rather than what I actually saw on the screen; I honestly couldn’t tell whether the blood spatter we saw belonged to her or Sylar, but the implication from the preview is that Sylar is the one who makes it out alive. Again, thanks for the spoiler, NBC…but, then, I really should know better than to watch those damned previews by now. By the way, the shots of Sylar in the cell toward the beginning of the episode, where he has multiple shadows, were particularly cool…though not as cool as the move where he punched through the glass and pulled Eden through. Definitely an “oh, shit” moment. You figured Sylar wasn’t completely powerless in that cell, but, still, seeing him finally act was completely kick-ass.

Watching Matt and Peter go back and forth with their psychic powers was pretty cool, with the apparent “feedback” resulting from Matt trying to used his power and Peter suddenly discovering that he had the same power. Greg Grunberg and Milo Ventimiglia were both acting their asses off. It was awesome. I’m not entirely sure what to make of that last scene with Peter, though…or why he had the vision that he did. Whose abilities was he accessing?

Hiro and Ando meeting Isaac was pretty cool…particularly when Hiro greeted Isaac with the Vulcan salute of “live long and prosper.” (Is it me, or are you already psyched to see the battle between Hiro and a dinosaur?) It’s a testament to how you begin to feel for these characters that I was genuinely smiling when Isaac realized for certain that he didn’t need drugs to access his abilities.

We didn’t get too much Mohinder this week, though his connection to Eden made his two brief appearances notable; also, the scenes with Niki, Micah, and D.L. were okay, but, damn, get together with the rest of the gang already!

January 22nd seems a lifetime away…

Anyone care to hazard a guess about the subject line? It’s the opening line to a song that I was reminded of while I watching this week’s episode, that’s all I’m saying.

And, wow, what an episode! This is the one that all the fans have been waiting for, even if they didn’t know they were. I can’t believe I went into it with skepticism, thinking, “Ho-hum, whatever, get back to the present.” Finally, we got answers to a lot of questions that had been bugging us…

1) Who is Sylar, and what’s his story?
2) How did Eden end up working for Claire’s dad?
3) Why is Niki’s alter ego named Jessica?
4) How did Nathan’s wife get crippled?
5) What’s the story with this Mr. Linderman?
6) Can Hiro use his powers to change past events?

Actually, maybe these hadn’t all been bugging us…but the answers were invaluable nonetheless.

Little moments of note:

Nathan giving Peter a pair of women’s shoes to celebrate his becoming a hospice nurse was a nice way of saying, “Yes, I was kind of an asshole six months ago, too.” (Nice use of Roxy Music for the dance, by the way.) The death of Peter and Nathan’s dad was so sudden that it seems suspicious to me, but maybe I’m just paranoid. Even so, I’m now even more convinced that Eden is in the midst of a power play against Claire’s dad, given what a complete and total bitch she was being when she first discovered her abilities. Matt is shown to be a real whiny guy. We don’t get much revelatory about Claire, but we do confirm that her friend Jackie has also been a real bitch from the get-go. Niki, however…well, maybe I’m wrong, but it sure sounds to me like there’s been some molestation going on, though whether Daddy did it or he’s just aware of who did it but didn’t do anything to stop it, I couldn’t say.

Everything in this episode that involved Sylar – a.k.a. Gabriel Gray – was enthralling. We still haven’t found out how he’s able to take on the powers of the people he de-brains. I just figured he was eating them or absorbing them or something, but there’s a theory running rampant on the ‘net that says that he’s looking at the inner workings of the brains and rewriting his own to enable him to utilize their powers as well. It’s kind of a complex idea…but it’s not so crazy that we should completely write it off.

But, dammit, the whole Hiro / Charlie romance did nothing but break my heart. You want that guy to save the world and get the girl, but, as noted above, we find out that Hiro can’t save the day this time…and even if he could have kept Charlie from dying at Sylar’s hand, her own body would’ve failed her soon enough. Still, the scene where he accidentally called himself and did an impression of Christopher Lloyd (if he was Japanese) was a nice way to briefly score a laugh in the midst of alternatingly poignant and depressing moments betweem Hiro and Charlie. (Additionally, film geeks no doubt giggled knowingly when the Alamo Drafthouse was namedropped.)

Next week, someone dies. The easy bet is the heroin-using Isaac. Any other thoughts…?