West is smug and pretentious because he feels free. He’s also young and exists in a dual system of identifying individual’s roles in the world. He doesn’t grasp what Claire has had to go through, so he pushes her. Hell, he ran into Noah at some point - now probably just looks back on that experience as if Bennet were simply another “robot.”

I find West refreshing, in that he has confidence…

Noah has enough intel to know that the Elder Supers are marked for death. That, in and of itself, wouldn’t concern him, except that he now knows Claire is genetically linked to Angela. He needs Mo, the Haitian, maybe Claude, Matt, and the paintings to help him establish Superhoodie’s wherabouts and MO, so that the vendetta Angela’s on the receiving end of doesn’t become Claire’s problem by association. Even if Superhoodie doesn’t aim to eliminate entire Super Elder families, Noah wouldn’t take the risk to Claire implied by Superhoodie’s very existence.

Eccleston is returning according to the cast at the London Press Conference:

http://www.holymoly.co.uk/news/28/news-from-last-nights-heroes-press-conference-1347.html

Re: Noah & Kaito: That’s a good point. Noah is driven by the Claire Mandate, and he wouldn’t harm the source of that mandate without a very good reason that they’d have to establish.

Cool idea with Kensei ripping out his heart. If his ability is like Claire’s, he’ll probably grow a new one.

I think Noah wants the seven other Mendez paintings to help the Old Supers. I like your theory about Noah working with Superhoodie, but I can’t believe he’d want Kaito dead, because Kaito’s the reason Noah has Claire, and I can’t even believe he’d want Angela dead, because even though she’s the Ice B**ch, she’s still Claire’s family. It could be that the other Old Supers are people who Noah has a history with or owes a debt to; or supers like Papa Deveaux, who aren’t especially twisted or malevolent.

KellyH, I agree that a Zach namecheck would be cool. I think the show is definitely ignoring his role in the story, but whether that’s because of the way the character was written out or because the reference would make a lot of viewers compare him to West, I don’t know.

I hope SCC doesn’t tank. I thought the pilot was excellent, and I’m not sure Thomas Dekker would return to this show even if his new show did go under.

Do you think West is a “miscalculation”? I’m not disagreeing, but I don’t think this show’s writers are stupid; I think they know we’re going to feel “protective” of characters like Claire, who we know and sympathize with. I think the idea was very intentionally to make West an arrogant jerk, particularly the way he’s so determined to persuade Claire not to hide her ability. That’s where he becomes relevant in the conflict between Claire and Noah.

I don’t think the show has ever written a political undertone into its story, which is sort of an achievement when the story involves a congressional candidate and an aspiring president. I think a “universal” approach is definitely the way to go to avoid alienating a portion of its audience, but so far I’d say Heroes has very skillfully avoided that predicament altogether.

Claude as Superhoodie … Sorry, guys, I cannot get onto this train! It’s a great theory, but Claude isn’t a killer, he isn’t vindictive, and (as far as we know) he doesn’t have the ability to fly, to cause electrical power surges, or to inflict fleshwounds without making contact with the victim. I’m still leaning towards the Superhoodie-is-an-empath theory.

The other reason I don’t think it’s Claude is because of Christopher Eccleston’s scheduling and availability, which TPTBs have repeatedly said is the one thing preventing them from bringing the character back. If they weren’t sure the actor could reprise the role, I doubt they would make him the one who’s killing off recurring characters and emerging as one of the villains of the season. You could probably write the story without the actor making an appearance (like a scene where Claude’s standing in a room with the other characters but invisible), but I don’t think the show would risk restricting the villain’s identity to either that or an anonymous hooded figure. It’s OK at this point, when mystery is part of the appeal, but when it comes to revealing the killer’s identity, they’ll need to put a face on him (or her). It’d be great if Eccleston came back for this, but I don’t think Superhoodie would be Claude unless the show was certain the actor could return for the role.

The main reason West is such a miscalculation on the part of the show is that we didn’t already know him–and that’s big. Throw in the fact that he’s obnoxious, annoying, smug, self-righteous, and cocky, and it’s a deadly recipe for fans of an extraordinarily popular, beloved character.

One of the reasons Paire took off in popularity oh, round ’bout December ‘06 was because both characters were popular and loved. Now, looking back, we can admit that “Paire” was kinda creepy even before it became incestuous. Zach would have worked, since he was liked and introduced from the outset. But they bungled the sexuality thing–yes they did. If he was going to be gay, it should have been established in Ep. 1. No reason not to. If he was straight, then his interest in Claire romantically should have been clear. Neither was clear, so I call the Zach situation kind of a mess because of it.

The facts are that Claire is popular. Hayden is extraordinarily popular. The fans are invested in the character’s life, her hopes, her dreams, her passions. If she’s going to be in love, we need to understand it, and most importantly, we need to feel her falling in love and sort of, yes, “approve” of it. That will clearly work best with a character we already know.

As a character and as a romantic interest for Claire that will resonate with fans, West fails on all counts, and I can only hope that the character is not particularly long-term. Of course, I also hope that his eventual departure or decease will not turn Claire off to love…we’ll just have to wait and see, I guess. Maybe, just maybe, “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” will tank…

We can dream, can’t we?

There’s a Heroeswiki interview with the writers of that Claude GN series with some pertinent points…

SS: I’m really happy with what we were able to show in Claude

Otto, I’m really curious on your thoughts about politics being injected into storylines by fans or the writers. I’m seriously against it. Absoultely yes on religion/philosophy (but please keep the religion non-denominational). If the Maya/Alejandro storyline is an immigration policy statement, it’s a horribly clumsy one.

First, the usual nits:

1. It seems to me that the show might be wanting to bury the existence of Zach–to forget he ever was. Why else would Claire not tell West that she was familiar with the book, even if, as we can assume, it perished in the Odessa home?

West is an extremely troublesome character, and the writers are probably surprised about the backlash he has generated. Certainly a lot of promotional hype was put into the character’s appearance and the actor’s joining the show. Even the graphic novel devoted a chapter to him (although, sadly, it only made him more obnoxious and less sympathetic). I can only assume that all of this was to put Zach and Thomas Dekker out of our minds. It is only through seeing how badly West is coming across that I am convinced that the Zach character was badly bungled. Conceiving him as ambiguous in sexuality was a bad idea, no matter what Dekker felt about it. If somebody is going to be making out with our beloved Claire Bear, it had better be a sympathetic character. Zach fit the bill. West does not. And for that reason, there is not a male fan of the show that will not hate him, even if he weren’t so annoying. Now that they know how fans feel about the character, it will be interesting to see what they do with him. And geez, shouldn’t Claire at least name-check Zach at some point??

I’m curious what would have happened had she held the severed toe up to the wound before it grew back.

Anyway, enough with the Claire story. I like Caitlin. She made the Ireland plot bearable, although I must say that the rustic, kindly Irish lass with the heart of gold is yet another stereotype, even if it is a positive one. I agree that the box plot twist is problematic. The amnesia deus ex machina can only last so long as a device for this plot. Having already discovered several powers, cowering to Ricky just didn’t ring true for Peter. Regarding the accents, did you catch the absolutely WONDERFUL “Pushing Daisies” pilot this week? There you had Anna Friel, whose British accent is as thick as they come, copping a PERFECT American accent. If she can do it, these actors should be able to bring off the Irish a bit more convincingly. Caitlin’s was by far the best.

Mohinder and the Haitian. Here, just enough was explained and just enough was left to the imagination. The GN was wonderful and added just enough information. I don’t need to know if Noah found some way to manipulate Bob into revealing the Haitian’s location, whether the disease was purposely infected, or whatnot. Just the right amount of mystery there. And a VERY nice parallel/contrast to FYG where, instead of saving the Haitian, the power-free Mohinder was the one who was able to take down this most powerful super!

I don’t mind the Hiro/Sark/Yaeko plot as much as you do, mostly because it amuses me. The fake documentaries work very well with what’s going on in the story, in my opinion. I do want to know if this is the first Sark!Kensei knew of his ability, though.

I think Claude is the prime Superhoodie suspect, and I have seen nothing to contradict that (including Kaito’s last words). Deveaux’s (cancer) and Linderman’s (head salad) deaths aren’t really connected here, and I wonder about Pa Petrelli. Claude has motive, he has the requisite ability, and there’s the additional point of a four-part GN being devoted to him this summer. I think whoever attacked Angela might be somebody in cahoots with Claude. Or Claude himself. I dunno. If Claude is not the ringleader, I theorize that he is DEFINITELY involved with the attacks on the company old guard. I’d bet on it.

Didn’t initially get that Ando recognized Matt. Good catch!

Finally, the Latino wonder twins. I have seen it written that the writers are trying to make some political point about illegal immigration here. God, I hope not. I HATE to think of any political message disturbing the universality of the show, and I deplored the idea that found itself on a CBR interview suggesting that the future Sylar-as-Nathan presidency was some sort of allegory for the Bush administration post-9/11. I utterly refuse to EVERY read politics into the show. Religious and metaphysical philosophies and questions, yes. Politics, no.

Looking forward to next week, and hoping against hope that West becomes more likable.