Overview:
Claire captures a Level 5 inmate who creates vortexes, but decides not to bring him in after discovering he’s a decent guy. It turns out Noah planned to use the same guy to suck Sylar into oblivion, but the inmate sucks himself into his own vortex rather than going along with Noah’s plan. Meanwhile, Mohinder cocoons Maya, Meredith gets forced into dinner with a puppeteer, Hiro stabs Ando, and Angela reveals that Nathan wasn’t born with his ability. The last of which has a lot to do with Papa Petrelli, who’s behind both Maury creating illusions of Linderman and Pinehearst building a superpowered army.
Review:
Fans who attended the Heroes Comic-Con panel this summer will recall that Kring described this season with the word “adrenalin.” Which, for better or worse, has so far proven an accurate definition.
This episode is a paradox because it bucks that trend in the best possible way. It has almost no adrenalin. There are no exploding cities, no especially ambitious pyrotechnics and no temporal migraines from a concept that blows your mind. And yet this episode encapsulates everything this show does best. It feels faster paced and it drives the story further forward than any episode so far this season, but it also achieves more with its characters than any episode so far this season. It serves as a reminder of what makes this show great.
It opens with … V.O. Nathan?!? It turns out to be a smart call for anyone who prefers their monologues lucid and honest over cryptic and pretentious, but it’s also a masterstroke for a character who, for the majority of the show’s first two seasons, was painted with broad strokes. This is one of the only episodes to get beneath Nathan’s skin and explore the story from his perspective.
Nathan monologues about his life being a speeding train, and how he doesn’t know where it’s going but believes God has a purpose for him. Tragic because, looking back, you realize Nathan’s faith in a higher purpose is about to be shattered; but also brilliant in the way it’s edited because we cut to Sylar as Nathan starts talking about having a “purpose,” reinforcing how interconnected this monologue is with the other characters’ dilemmas.
Linderman shows up at Tracy’s apartment while Nathan gets a drink from the fridge. Nathan asks Linderman if he wants to know what would make him happy. I’m pretty sure Nathan already got that, but for the sake of everyone who won’t be winning over every character played by Ali Larter, Nathan requests the next best thing: “SOME STRAIGHT ANSWERS.”
With hindsight, you do have to wonder how Linderman knew Tracy would need Nathan to save her. Unless Maury put the bridge-jumping notion into Tracy’s head, or unless Arthur has a clairvoyant artist working for him. Or perhaps it’s one of those plot details we’re not supposed to overanalyze. It’s worth noting, however, that Arthur sent Maury to mess with Nathan before Peter or Sylar. Given Peter’s gullibility and Sylar’s longing for a purpose, you wonder if they wouldn’t have been even easier to mess with than Nathan after his born-again epiphany.
We cut to Mohinder at Central Park …
… whose eyes are looking predatory. Great performance from Sendhil this week, from the eyes and the wary crouch when he’s standing here to the confident stride at the lab later on.
We return to The Basement, where Sylar gets throttled by Peter and ends up getting his neck snapped. You’d think Peter’s second murder in two episodes would warrant a little more impact, but since the first murder took place in the future and this one involves a serial-killing supervillain who can instaheal from the injury, it’s less impactful than it is comic. As with Future-Nathan casually pulling up a chair next to his dead brother’s body in the future, you have to wonder if two near-invulnerable brothers snapping one another’s necks will become a regular occurrence.
Angela rushes into the cell to reason with Peter.
We get several shots conveying the onset of both Peter’s inevitable descent into villainy and Milo’s contractual obligation to be shirtless as often as possible. This combination both repels and delights squeeing fangirls everywhere, but also has a certain theatrical merit: corrupted by The Hunger, Milo has a chance to play a darker personality without relying on Future-Peter’s scar, leather jacket or husky growl; and somehow playing a darker side without those frills comes across as more menacing. When he’s inches away from his mother and threatening to kill her, the horror becomes more visceral and immediate than Future-Peter pulling on a hat and shooting his brother at a distance.
Does Peter mind-read Angela in this scene? It’s not clear whether Angela’s blocking Peter’s attempt the way she blocked Matt in “Lizards,” or whether Peter could have gotten a read on Angela but wanted to hear her say it out loud before he killed her. Either way, it’s an effective scene, the kind I wish we could have had when Peter discovered the truth about Sylar.
“What other secrets are you hiding from me, mother?”
Great delivery, particularly the emphasis on the last word. Unlike the condescension Future-Peter delivered it with in “The Butterfly Effect,” it’s now more a contemptuous mocking.
As slapstick humor goes, it gives most of Hiro’s efforts a run for their money. It helps that — unlike most of Hiro’s comedy — it’s tangential to the scene rather than focal, but the amazing thing is it doesn’t detract from the intensity of the scene. If anything, it helps to make the family dynamic even more dysfunctional.
Noah shows up to give Sylar the “I’ll be waiting out here” nod. This raises the question of whether Noah stumbled into Level 5 a moment too late to help Angela, or whether he watched the entire confrontation on the surveillance cameras, hoping two of the three Petrellis would kill themselves. In any case, you do have to ask where all of the Company guards in the first couple of episodes have gone. With Bob gone, Company funding must have dried up completely.
Noah tells Sylar he has a lead on one of the inmates.
Sylar: “You want me to come with you?”
The sad thing is Sylar sounds hopeful. You can hear how he wants to feel valued. It’s difficult to reconcile with Sylar getting a kick out of dividing Noah and Claire, but if you figure Sylar’s insane enough to look up to Noah at the same time as hating him, this is an oddly validating moment for the character.
Except …
… Noah has The Smile of Crafty Scheming.
It’s nicely underplayed by Coleman, but I can’t help thinking it takes away some of the suspense. For a character who plays his cards so close to the chest, you wouldn’t think Noah would be so sloppy — even with the audience. We now spend the rest of this storyline waiting for Noah to doublecross Sylar, and even though we were expecting that from the moment Noah vowed to find Sylar’s weakness, the underplayed smile makes Noah’s motives a little too overt. Instead of the implication that Noah saw an opportunity to use a super’s ability to solve a problem, the implication is that the only reason Noah came up with this search-and-retrieve operation was to get rid of Sylar.
Canine Central. Sandra twigs that Claire played her and freaks out over the danger Claire’s in. Then Meredith walks in, and she’s like:
“Ah, well, it happens. I’m sure she’ll be fine.”
Great physical performance from Ashley Crow and Jessalyn Gilsig. Sandra’s shoulders become hunched with worry and her movements become jerky and sudden, and Meredith’s so laid-back she’s practically slouching. Subtle detail, but you get a sense of the overbearing worrier Sandra is and the trusting leave-it-be mom that Meredith would have been.
We meet Stephen “Bubbles” Canfield, whose ability is to create miniature rifts in space that suck everything into them.
Cool effect. Beeman mentions in his blog that it was limited by budget and time constraints; looking at it here, you’d never guess. Even cooler than the effect itself is the way the character wields it, because in spite of this mightily destructive ability Stephen comes across as one of the most vulnerable and human supers we’ve met.
Claire shows up to taser Stephen, and props to Anthony Hemingway for the way this scene was set up, because it brings out Stephen’s fear and paranoia when he hears the footsteps in the house — making us identify with him even more — at the same time as reinforcing that Claire is …
… enjoying becoming that badass mercenary b**ch we know she’ll become in the future. And is it me, or is the Make-Up Department going heavier on the eyeliner this week? Nice foreshadowing, show.
At the Cemetery of Sark …
I can’t put into words how wonderful a vicarious experience this is. Really. It’s the closest any of us will get to expressing how we feel about the direction Hiro’s storyline has gone in.
Ando pretty much stands there while Adam throttles the life out of Hiro. I guess he knows Hiro can take care of himself, but you have to wonder if Ando’s enjoying this as much as we are.
Even beyond Adam throttling Hiro, we know we’re meant to enjoy this scene. Perhaps the more relevant question is whether we should enjoy it. Ando is the voice of reason, reminding Hiro that he just dug up the guy who killed Papa Sulu and nearly wiped out 93% of the population. Hiro repeatedly freezing time to seal Adam back inside his coffin is amusing, but when he asks if Adam will “behave” and David Anders delivers his “OK” with this priceless “you’re-so-gullible-I-can-play-you-like-a-violin” nonchalance, the scene becomes genuinely funny. And throughout this episode, you know you should feel bad for finding it funny. But the humor is so spot-on and the guilty pleasure of having Anders back on the show is so appealing, it’s hard to care. You put aside your ethical reservations and don’t care if you’re laughing at a genocidal maniac. Which says a lot about the success the show is having with its focus on moral ambiguity, but also a lot about David Anders’s versatility as an actor, and a lot about us as viewers if we’re willing to embrace one of the show’s most sinister villains as a comical rogue.
Hiro summarizes the situation with The Formula. Adam doesn’t seem particularly surprised, running through a selection of extremely over-the-top and delightfully comical expressions …
… all of which underline how effortlessly he’s playing Hiro and Ando. He also immediately points the finger at Angela, which suggests that either Angela was the most notoriously reckless of the ElderSupers back in the day, or Adam figured out within minutes who sent Hiro and Ando to dig him up and decided it’d be fun to confuse them. Either way, this was the funniest scene Hiro has had since he met Nathan at the diner.
We cut to Linderman and Daphne at the Pinehearst labs, where Linderman sells some lame story about being acknowledged and accepted by society, which I can’t believe would sway Daphne unless it came with a remunerative bottom line, but Daphne gets this half-skeptical/half-intrigued expression that’s begging to be expanded on, so my guess is Linderman isn’t completely barking up the wrong tree.
Daphne talks to herself. Funny in a disturbing kind of way, not least because the two doctors who walk past her don’t look especially surprised by this one-sided conversation.
Linderman’s folders contain files on Knox, Mohinder and — if you’re enough of a nerd to look (which I apparently am) — on Usutu. Which is a detail so well hidden that you need to want to find it, but it’s a hopeful sign that the whole Desert of Clairvoyance storyline isn’t as far removed as it seems at the moment, and that it’ll tie in with the larger story.
Noah and Sylar drive to Stephen’s home in the scene which very nearly didn’t make it into the episode. What’s great about this is it emphasizes exactly what makes this episode stand out: Sylar munching an apple and flicking through radio stations doesn’t forward the story, but it says something about the way the character is adjusting to normality. The only way to make it cooler would have been if Sylar found a station playing his brother on guitar.
Sylar: “Rehabilitation doesn’t happen overnight. I am trying.”
Sad, because the way Zach Quinto delivers it, you almost believe him. The translation is, “It’s common for people to relapse, so I may kill a few more people before I’m better,” but the fact that Zach could sell the line without it sounding like a Serial Killers Anonymous mantra is a testament to the way he can run with the material he’s given.
Noah remarks that killing is in Sylar’s nature, and the show cuts to Stephen stunned on the ground and Claire standing over him. Which, again, is a credit to the editors, because it forces us to ask whether killing is in Stephen’s nature — or, given the way the scene is set up, in Claire’s.
Intentional similarity to Future-Claire pointing a gun at Future-Peter in the premiere? You’d think so, and if so, it’s a neat way to bridge the transition between the two characters.
Stephen explains how he “made one mistake” and ended up vortexing his neighbor. Claire calls him a monster, and it’s the only time in this episode when the thematic work feels a little heavy-handed. The way this storyline played out, I don’t think we needed to be pushed towards a conclusion so forcefully. Andre Royo played his role with enough feeling that we were nudged in the right direction, and vicious-smiling heavy-eyeliner Claire invited us to hate her without calling the sympathetic villain a monster. It seemed like the show was determined to hammer home the angel/monster distinction and ditched some of its subtlety, which is a shame because the actors and material were conveying that distinction just fine.
Mohinder drags his drug dealer from Central Park to the Apartment of Clairvoyance. Which might be a hilarious plot hole, but I guess, in theory, he transported the guy with reptilian speed and agility and only became slow and clumsy when he got to the apartment. I say this not to excuse Mohinder’s idiocy but for the sake of the man he’s dragging along, because when Mohinder pulls him down a flight of stairs in the apartment the poor guy’s head bashes on every single step. It’s painful to watch.
Mohinder pulls the guy into the Lair of Clairvoyance and, amazingly, Mohinder’s trademark piano theme starts up on the soundtrack. It’s thrown in amid a lot of rattlesnake sound effects, but the use of the theme here seemed like an odd choice. It might be intended to maintain a connection between the audience and Normal Mohinder, or to evoke some kind of sympathy for Under-The-Influence Mohinder. I’d say what’s missing is some kind of motive — even if it’s just a sense of self-preservation or Mohinder’s need to finish his research to prove he isn’t sacrificing himself for nothing.
We cut back to Stephen pacing around his home and Claire pouting at the guy she just called a monster.
Stephen: “Your Company’s got it all wrong …”
^ ^ Is he flattering her? He actually took her for an agent? Probably the nicest compliment she’ll get all season.
Stephen collapses against his front door and laments that he can’t see his wife and kids and hold them. We get several wide shots that establish how alone Stephen is. Then several close-ups to establish how full of remorse and regret he is. Perhaps in spite of all this rather than because of it, we feel for the guy: not only because he’s a family man and because Claire’s now obviously realizing how her father robbed this guy of everything that mattered to him, but also because we get a sense of how an ability and one unfortunate incident with it can ruin lives.
Stephen’s essentially portrayed the way Maya and Tracy were: as a victim of an ability. And the sad part is there’s almost no one left on this show who actually enjoys their ability. Daphne, maybe, but after this episode even she seems to have reservations about where it’s gotten her. Micah, Monica and West are AWOL. Charlie and Candice are dead. For everyone else on the show, the abilities have become a curse.
Stephen lets Claire go, eliciting a “WTF?!” look from Claire and a moderate Shenkar wail on the soundtrack, although as ways to convey this guy as a Very Sympathetic Villain go, this is subtler than Claire petulantly calling him a monster.
At the Ice Fortress, Tracy recounts how she went cryo on Katt’s ass. Somehow this scene felt eerily reminiscent of the time Niki told D.L. how she tore two thugs to pieces. Again, it could just be an unintentional throwback, but I’d like to think the idea is to show history repeating itself, and how Tracy accepts what she’s done much more bravely — and with much less whining — than Niki did.
Tracy: “You think God gave us these powers?”
Nathan: “If He didn’t, who did?”
Tracy: “A doctor in Reseda, California.”
Again, great delivery. I love how Tracy gets this “Boy, this is gonna break his heart” look before she tells him. It is funny, for the way it undercuts Nathan’s earnestness and for the way it shatters the mysticism Nathan was happy to live with, but it’s also a little sad how the show again seems to imply that no one’s allowed any faith in their ability unless they’re ignorant or delusional. I kind of hope there’ll be a part of this synthetic ability storyline that can’t be explained by DNA splicing or evolution.
We cut to the Center of the Vortex, where Claire supplies Stephen with his wife’s cell phone number. Stephen gives Claire a heartwarming “thank you” — which, aww. Claire looks back at him with this sad little smile — and aww. Stephen calls his wife and looks like he’s about to start crying with joy when he tells her he’ll meet her and the kids — and aww yet again. And then Noah and Sylar barge in and screw everything up, and Stephen still feels like he owes Claire enough of a debt to warn her to hold onto something before he opens another vortex. And aww for about the millionth time in under a minute.
Claire’s about to get sucked into oblivion and deprive Paire shippers of any hope of further rejoicing when Sylar grabs hold of her. This justifies the most contemptuous glare Hayden can muster while she’s in a harness with a wind machine at full strength next to her. And it is kind of understandable when she’s looking at the guy who traumatized her enough to step in front of a train and go on a mission to hunt down Level 5 inmates, but at the same time it’s not like Sylar had to save her, or even ask if she’s OK, which he now does. He is trying.
Sylar: “When I touched your hand, I could feel the pain that I caused you …”
Bridget Bailey’s ability? So Sylar can see a person’s history as well as an object’s? Cool detail if it’s true, although you could equally argue that he’s just making a perceptive observation.
Noah implores Claire to tell her where Stephen’s gone.
“You can trust me, Claire.”
Maybe it’s just me, but it seemed like the show wants to remind us that Noah’s a fundamentally dishonest character who can’t be trusted by anyone — even the family he’s trying to protect. And I know that’s not an enormous departure from the shady-but-ultimately-well-intentioned character he always played on the show, but it’s somehow fitting to be reminded of that in a season in which the terms “good” and “hero” are relative, and in which Noah’s partner is a character who — for all his atrocities and unforgivable crimes — comes across as more open and trustworthy.
Adam, Hiro and Ando visit a bar that’s aptly described by Hiro as the Cantina. Oh, show. You do bring out our inner geeks.
Adam asks Hiro to “try and … look tough,” the pause expressing the hopelessness of that request. And, yes, Ando’s Roboto tough posture is hilarious, but not as hilarious as:
… Hiro mimicking Adam’s posture and slapping the counter the exact way Adam does, and then:
… apparently doing his utmost to imitate the guy who murdered his father and wanted to wipe out the majority of mankind.
Oh, yeah. Adam’s role model material.
You know it should be objectionable and appalling, but it’s so adorably pathetic that it’s funny.
Was Adam’s plan all along to provoke a fight and escape in the commotion? Or was he going to get Hiro and Ando so wasted that they wouldn’t be able to stand? Either way, the plan goes off without a hitch, Hiro gets pwned for about the billionth time, and Ando — loyal to a heartbreaking fault when you know how it’s going to be repaid — stays with his friend while Adam gets away.
Nice visual tie to Sylar three episodes ago. Peter’s effectively taking Sylar’s place.
Nathan and Tracy walk into Peter’s cell, Angela tells Nathan they’re in trouble now that Peter’s gone psycho, Tracy offers to make things worse by telling the world about their abilities, and Nathan gives this looooong look at Angela before he asks her what she’s hiding.
Angela explains that Zimmerman was involved in the Company’s development of “synthetic abilities,” then drops the bomb on Nathan. Although it has to be said: she does take a pause that’s even loooooonger than Nathan’s stare. And, to be fair …
… She does at least look a little guilty about using her son as a human experiment.
Nathan raises his head in shock, and this takes even looooooooooooooonger than either his previous stare or Angela’s dramatic pause. It’s as if Adrian and Cristine are battling to see who can own the longest shot of the episode. Adrian wins. It’s so slow that it’s slower than slow-mo, but it’s effective. Great performance from both actors in this scene.
Maya returns to the Apartment of Clairvoyance to investigate the trail of blood she’d seen. I can buy that she wants to know what’s going on before she calls the cops, and that she’s probably too afraid to contact them given her criminal record and lack of a visa, so I won’t Dumb-As-Peter that. Still, if she was expecting trouble, she could have brought the cricket bat.
Did Mohinder always have a framed photo of Papa Suresh next to the door to the lab? I never noticed it until now. Kudos to the Props Department because it goes to show how hard someone on the set tried to convey Mohinder’s humanity. But then, it’s really not clear what we’re supposed to feel about Mohinder’s transformation: whether we’re supposed to find it scary or tragic or fitting after he brought it on himself. This episode demonstrates the extent to which heroism and villainy depend on perspective, and the show doesn’t spend enough time with this storyline — or its central character — for us to gauge what Mohinder is thinking or feeling, or whether there’s any trace of Mohinder even in there anymore. Even when Maya tells Mohinder he’s a monster and Mohinder moves in to cocoon her, it’s hard to tell whether he’s angry or hurt or just an instinct-driven zombie.
Which isn’t a catastrophic failure on the show’s part because this scene still conveys a sense of horror and foreboding. But it’s disappointing that, in an episode which explores the complexity and humanity of its monsters, Mohinder never gets a chance to demonstrate either of those.
Angela brings Nathan and Tracy to the Midas Study and hands over all information about the way they were used as test subjects for The Formula. This is either an indication of Angela’s abundant goodwill or a sign that she doesn’t have the staff or authority to lock Tracy and her son up. Or even to have them Haitian-whammied and sent on their way.
Angela reveals that Nathan’s father was disappointed about his son lacking an ability, which seems to support Kimiko and Simone never manifesting abilities. Through gritted teeth, Angela admits that what the Company did was wrong, and that they “divided the formula and hit it.” I realize the Company might be short on cash, but would it be breaking the bank if the Company bought one of these?
Tracy drones on about Katt getting iced because of what Angela and her cohorts did, and for a moment I sympathize with Angela because you can imagine how she must want to b**ch-slap Tracy right about now, like, “You’re whining about one guy? Do you know what I’ve seen in my dreams because of this damn formula?” But she limits herself to describing the impending anarchy and destruction, and then asks Nathan for help, using the word “please,” which is surprising because the only other time she used it was when Matt used the Parkman Whammy to prize Victoria’s name out of her. It’s kind of a big deal for a character as austere and mercurial as Angela, particularly when it’s not because she’s being coerced but because she’s desperate.
And Nathan still tells her to go to hell, which is understandable, given that he never wanted his ability and that his involvement in this superhero drama cost him his family and his career. After this, you really have to wonder if anyone will help Angela besides Sylar.
Nathan berates Angela for ruining everyone’s life, walks out and leaves his mother begging him to listen to her. And you can hear Angela’s voice quivering as she calls out to him. Great performance from Adrian and Cristine in this scene. Just the right balance of outrage and anguish without it turning into hysteria and melodrama.
Nathan recommends visiting “harmless” Mohinder, and we cut to Mohinder burying Maya in a cocoon. Well played, editors. The show has officially turned everything we thought we knew on its head.
Claire finds Stephen at the Griffith Park Carousel, and we learn that his family never came to meet him. Then Noah shows up and AGAIN screws everything up.
Did Sylar use superhearing to figure out what Noah was planning? I’d say he didn’t, not because it makes more sense in the ongoing debate about whether or not Sylar still has all of his abilities, but because this:
… is the look of a guy who’s smart enough to piece it all together without an ability.
Noah promises that “this is all over” if Stephen vortexes Sylar. And he’s probably lying about that too, but it’s somehow to Stephen’s credit that even the prospect of freedom doesn’t persuade him to give up his ethical code. When he says, “You people, you’re taking everything from me,” Stephen’s essentially making Noah the monster for forcing him to give up his conscience.
Stephen: “I won’t be a monster.”
And aww for the final and fifty billionth time, and damn the show for writing him out, because the fact that I’ve said aww so many times in a smattering of scenes says a lot: about the way this character was written, the way Andre Royo played him, and the way he was brought to life. I don’t think there’s been such an effective guest appearance on the show since Jayma Mays last played Charlie.
Hiro regains consciousness at the Cantina, searches the area for Adam, doesn’t notice Knox pwning Adam and doesn’t think it worth freezing time to continue his search. He then drowns his sorrows with Ando and admits that they’ve “hit a slump.” That observation works on so many levels for this character that it’s not even funny.
Hiro: “We’ve made mistakes …”
The show’s writers talking?
Daphne and Knox show up to offer Hiro a job. It comes out of leftfield, mostly because it’s hard to imagine what possible use Arthur could have for anyone as incompetent as Hiro, but also because no one would have guessed that Papa Sulu’s boy could be so spineless and disloyal and monstrous that he’d …
… KILL HIS BEST FRIEND?!?
Poor Ando looks terrified. Across the nation, we look terrified. And you can believe Ando will have a right to zap Future-Hiro after this.
Bye-bye, Ando.
^ ^ Does he even look like it bothered him all that much? Even Daphne and Knox look more shaken than that. What a b*****d!
Welcome to BEHIND THE PSYCHOSIS, where the villains of the show answer YOUR questions about what it’s like to be a villain on Heroes.
This week’s villain: Hiro Nakamura
Describe your dream adventure:
Future Me and me battle an army! The army is big! There are dragons and Storm Troopers and Klingons and Orcs and cyborgs! But we bend time and space and slay them all! We save the world!
How important is friendship to you?
Very important! I would trust a friend with my life!
Do you think killing people can ever be justified?
Sometimes a hero must be tested! A hero must venture to the Dark Side before he returns to the Light! A hero must make sacrifices for the rest of the world! A hero must do bad things but it does not mean he is a villain!
What kind of hero do you think Kaito Nakamura was?
A great hero! He had no phasers or photon torpedoes but he fought Adam Monroe and saved the world!
After events this week, would you consider yourself one of the show’s “morally gray” characters?
Huh?
How do you see business at Yamagato developing?
I think there will be very big business at Yamagato in the future but we do not work for money! They are building a big army at Pinehearst! We must fight them! We must come together to battle the forces of darkness! We must save the world!
Do you ever worry that your role as the comic relief of the story has worn thin? Or, perhaps, that you’re an idiot?
But I am badass this week! I kill my friend to save the world! I am a badass hero but not a villain and not comic relief!
How would you respond to criticism that this season of Heroes is placing less emphasis on real people and more emphasis on fanciful adventures and superhero drama?
Adventure! Superhero! This is the best part of the story! We find out how the heroes battle the villains and save the world!
How would you like to see your character arc develop?
I must join with Future Me and battle the forces of darkness to save the world! The world is depending on me! Do not worry! I will save you!
Noah drives Claire back to Canine Central. Claire gets this blank stare that should speak volumes, but it loses its impact when you recall that she hated her dad for wiping Zach’s memory, then she hated him for lying about Sandra’s hospitalization, then she hated him for being a Company man, then she hated him for lying about a training program in Tulsa, then she hated him for bagging and tagging West, and then … well, she didn’t hate him for dying, but she definitely acted cold when Noah came back from the dead last season. So I’m thinking this might just be another cycle in Claire’s “Hate Dad/Forgive Dad” routine. Turning into Future-Claire and joining Pinehearst at least implies that Claire progresses beyond this.
Sylar brainwashes Claire with ideas of their common humanity, then turns her against Noah for being a “user.” The irony is he’s not really brainwashing her so much as enlightening her, and it’s what gives Claire’s appalled exit out of the car so much resonance: she’s appalled that he’s right.
Did he save Noah at the bank and Claire at the house just to break the family apart? Did he curb the serial-killing rampage because he thought it’d be more fun inflicting emotional and psychological scars? Or is he just chuckling over the way Claire repeatedly forgets how easily her father lies to her?
“Everything I do is to protect you.”
You know he means it, in his own ends-justify-the-means way, but if it means getting one guy to kill another guy and then probably killing the first guy just to keep her safe, can Noah still be considered a hero? And if so, how many people die before he stops being a hero?
Claire looks like she’s wondering the same thing.
Noah: “It’s all gonna be OK, I promise.”
Well, if forcing a guy to kill or be killed in front of Claire didn’t clear things up, I guess that did.
Sandra mentions Meredith leaving to find Claire. I think we can all be forgiven for forgetting about Meredith. We learn she’s not exactly being harmed … yet. Just coerced into piling on calories and making out with a guy she hates. And, OK, ew. Props to David H Lawrence XVII because he’s got even less screen time to work with than Robert Forster, yet we get a sense of Doyle’s amoral creepiness as vividly as we do Arthur’s. Brief introduction, but well executed.
Angela sits in the Midas Study and dreams a prophetic dream in which she finds Tracy’s throat slit, Nathan with a fatal wound to the head and Peter with a crowbar in the back of his skull. And if there was any doubt about whether Angela knew Papa Petrelli was alive when she told Peter about his suicide, the gasp she lets out when she sees him standing in front of her establishes that she didn’t. Or if she did, she got that knowledge thoroughly Haitian- and Parkman-whammied out of her.
Love how the camera focuses completely on her. It’s like we’re looking to Angela to gauge how shocked or horrified we should be.
Arthur: “You can see the future. I can’t have that. It’s too dangerous.”
No it’s not! Her dreams are garbled with cryptic double-meanings and metaphors — none of them make any sense! It’s not a dangerous ability at all!
Angela: “You won’t succeed. I’ll stop you. With a blockade of cotton footwear if I have to!”
OK, so they edited that last part out. She probably would have said that if she hadn’t woken up.
Source of his power? Could be. Or you could point to a scene from way back when Angela was telling Nathan to “prioritize” …
… and it seemed like there was an unusual focus on her ring too. Maybe these two just really like their rings. Not that it matters much to Angela now because she’s paralyzed in her chair in Midas Bob’s study, so jewelry’s kind of a moot point.
Daphne meets Linderman outside Pinehearst and expresses regret that Ando died, possibly scuppering the theory that Hiro froze time and that Daphne’s in on the “pretend” murder. If she is in on it, she’s giving a convincing performance to Linderman.
Linderman assigns Daphne to recruit Parkman Jr. … Or Parkman Sr. assigns Daphne to recruit Parkman Jr. … Or Papa Petrelli assigns Parkman Sr. to assign Linderman to assign Daphne to recruit Parkman Jr. … Somebody wants Parkman Jr. on Team Pinehearst, which is perhaps surprising when they’ve already got a competent Parkman on the team, but the idea of Grunberg and Blumenfeld getting more scenes together is promising, so I won’t try to poke holes in it yet.
Linderman describes Matt’s power, pretty much spoiling what’s about 30 seconds away, but still … Welcome back, Alan Blumenfeld!
Daphne agrees to recruit Matt because …
Because …
Because she trusts Linderman even after she’s found out he’s an apparition? Or because McDowell just has an honest face and Daphne’s willing to believe he has his reasons? Or because she’ll get paid whether her boss is a ghost or not? I’m leaning towards that last one, but as with the half-skeptical/half-intrigued expression, it’s a hopeful sign that Daphne’s got her own motives for going along with this gig.
Maury visits Papa Petrelli in his gargantuan bed inside Pinehearst and tells his boss “the team is coming together nicely.” Which is an understatement because Team Pinehearst is more or less the show’s Villain Elite. The remarkable part is the team came together through a lot of fluke circumstances rather than any concerted effort or contrived twists in the plot.
Which brings us back to the paradox of this episode, because the shocks in this episode — while necessitated by the plot — come across as very much character-motivated. Arthur being alive sets him up to be the daddy villain over Linderman, Adam and Maury, but you’re drawn to the story because of the ramifications it has for Angela and Peter and Nathan. The prospect of half of the show’s supers being lab rats who were given their abilities rather than born with them makes the ElderSuper backstory more necessary than ever, but it’s more intriguing for the way it changes the family dynamics than for the story possibilities it opens up.
The surprising part of this episode was its heart: for the way it recaptured the show’s first-season spirit, for the way it turned out to be affecting and poignant when you didn’t expect it to, and for the way it followed through on its original idea of duality and the lengths the characters will go to do what they think is right. It was less explosive than last week’s episode, but also the first truly character-driven episode of the season. Slower paced and bordering on elegiac, but in the best possible way: it unified the separate story threads with a common theme, as if the show suddenly remembered that, for all its explosive plot-driven appeal, the most appealing part of this show remains its characters.
4.5 out of 5
Excellent review.
Not much to add, except they better get Adam and Maury in a scene together - I want Adam to give Maury grief for failing to kill Angela and getting pwned by his son.
I agree Otto - best Season 3 episode yet. Hiro stabbing Ando was off-the-charts ridiculously bad, and I, too, am wondering why the Company didn’t invest in a shredder (or maybe even just a lighter?). Still, a lot of this episode worked well visually and thematically. Good review.
I agree that this is the best S3 ep, so far. However, I really resent being hit over the head with narrative 2X4’s. Kring and Company have obviously given up on giving the audience credit. When even HRG, despite Coleman’s best efforts to underplay it, becomes the story equivalent of a neon sign, there are problems.
Plus, I have to mention the exposition dialogue between Sandra and Meredith at the beginning. When Meredith points out that Claire can’t get hurt and tells Sandra she’s better equipped for the situation because of her fire power, it may foreshadow 3.05 and 3.06, but it undercuts the whole thematic point of the shipping container suffocation in 3.3. It’s like the writers dumped the whole point that Meredith seemed to be trying to make to Claire for the sake of expediency. It pisses me off a bit.
Otto, “Linderman” probably knew Tracy was going to jump because she was already planning it and Maury read her mind.
There’s a very simple reason why Papa Petrelli would want Hiro working for him. Hiro’s father slept with his wife. Corrupting his son is a great way to get revenge.
There’s also a good reason why Maury and Arthur need Matt on their team. Matt can figure out what Maury did to Nathan and undo it.
I imagine that the Company decided to keep the Formula around in case they needed their own Super-Army in the future.
i had too much of a nasty headache too really appreciate this episode, so i’ll have to watch it again later….but i have to agree 100%
but im gonna hold my ground that sylar got back all his powers. otherwise i will have to think the writers were daft enough to leave him with nothing but his TK and make him start all over again from scratch when he could see the future and had ted’s radioactive power in the going-to-the-future episode.
i cant’ wait til next week
I agree, Otto - the most compelling part of this show is its characters. But I guess I’m feeling like those characters aren’t being put to work like they were before this third season. Hiro is acting like a general ignoramus. Peter is killing everything within a ten foot radius that breathes. (I don’t care that he’s saddled with the hunger; nothing excuses murder. Nothing. He gets no sympathy from me.) Claire doesn’t seem to have learned a thing since the show premiered. Mohinder is evil because he’s evil.
I was quite happy with Nathan this week, because he was one of the only characters who hasn’t been completely desensitized to all of these freakishly weird events. When he hears about all the terrible stuff his mom has done, he is noticeably upset, and tells his mom to go to hell. Contrast that with Peter, who jumps four years into the future, is instructed by somebody he hardly knows (albeit someone who looks just like him) to go find Sylar, the man who has tried to KILL HIM NUMEROUS TIMES, and take his ability in order to save the world - and just complies without a second thought. If Peter weren’t a total boob, he would have teleported the heck out of that future. The characters seem to be steered by the plot more often than their consciences this season. Ugh, Hiro, why did you open the safe?! #($*%&)#($^%($*%#$%&
But I’m starting to rant.
Cool review. I didn’t catch Usutu in the files that Daphne was looking through, or the photo of Chandra on Mohinder’s wall. I thought 4.5 was pretty generous, but the grade isn’t why I read the reviews (though I was happy to find that I wasn’t the only one who didn’t care for 3×04 last week). I also agree that Royo played Steven Canfield with a lot of raw emotion. Talented guy - I was disappointed when he pulled himself into the vortex, because he outperformed a lot of regular cast members this week. The whole Claire/Canfield/HRG/Sylar storyline was well put-together, I thought, but I felt a little empty after Royo chose to end his life rather than compromise his morals. I won’t go into whether or not I believe he made the right decision, but I wasn’t as moved as I should have been at the end. All the way through I found that plot thread compelling, and at the end it kind of fizzled for me. Maybe it was something that could have been done differently from a directional standpoint, I dunno - I’m not big into cinematography. I am big into music, though, and I found that aspect of the scene at the merry-go-round seriously lacking. Maybe that was the missing puzzle piece, IDK.
Anyway, I recently saw a very cool promo for 3×06 on NBC, so despite a couple of episodes that haven’t met my expectations, I’m excited for next week. Hope it’s a good one.
Another smart and funny review. I agree with so many of your points. I do hope they have slowed down and have more episodes with this pace.
I have to make one observation. I think Adam named Angela not because she was the most reckless, but because from his perspective she is HIS villain.
Angela says she figured out Adam was wrong just before it was too late. Odds are she was his Judas. So to him she stabbed him in the back and was instrumental to him being in jail for 30 years.
And yes it says so much about Angela for her to have to almost beg Nathan. Great scene. When her voice quivered my heart broke. Even though Angela mad her bed, I feel sad for her. Cristine played such humanity, guilt under what she had done for Nathan. I think it’s an important point how Angela said Arthur was disappointed. Already we see how much Angela fears him. We know Angela has this strong women, but we don’t know who she was with her husband and he seems like no picnic.
Great review, couldn’t agree more. Especially about the show being able to bring out oyr ‘inndr geeks’ b/c I haven’t missed one homage yet lol.
The only thing I’m alittle frustrated over is the fact that Linderman turned out to be an illusion… I saw it coming mind you, but I was hoping for a good twist to tramp my theories. I love Linderman he is still my favorite villain. and I would have loved to have seen Robert Forster and Malcolm McDowell work together if the latter’s characer were alive.
Either way, Arthur Petrelli will be the show’s best villain.
Since Matt Roush posted my letter after it was outdated (hey, but it was the lead story, can’t complain), I don’t want to say much. Great review, great episode. Ando is coming back (Lee is contracted for more episodes).
But I wanted to point out that the verb “lindern” in German is “to heal.” “Linderung” is healing. “Lindermann” would be “healing man.” They cut off one n. Don’t know if anybody ever noticed that yet. Is there any more name symbolism? Any linguists? I just happen to know German.
KellyH,
Thanks for the German lesson. Very cool.
Yay, back to a fun, positive review.
About the only thing I want to mention is the reason Arthur goes for Nathan is because that’s his son, his Golden boy, his favorite. I’d say he was quite disappointed in Peter or just never thought much of him because he already had the son he wanted in Nathan.
David Anders was hilarious this episode. When Hiro asks if he will behave, the sigh and then “oh kay” cracks me up every time. He’s great as Adam.
Lastly, Cristine Rose and Adrian Pasdar should always have scenes together! That last one between them was absolutely amazing. All the emotions! Adrian choking up over the possible testing on Peter and Claire. Then Cristine almost made me cry, her “Nathan, listen to me. Nath…” was heartbreaking.
Again, great review, Otto! Thank you for taking the time to write these.
A critic caught a continuity gaffe that’s hilarious…
But the show’s dumbest, most insulting moment came this past week, when Tracy, after accidentally freezing a reporter to death, wanted to turn herself in to the authorities. Nathan warned her against it, explaining that he’d tried to hold a press conference to tell the world about his flying powers.
What was the response of Tracy, the governor’s aide who tapped Nathan to fill a vacant Senate seat while following his recovery from a high-profile assassination attempt at that very same press conference? “What happened?”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27201601/page/2/
To be fair,Raissa, it might not be clear to Tracy that the press conference where Nathan was shot was the same conference where Nathan tried to reveal his powers to the world.
Aye - she knew he was shot, but not what the press conference was about. They saw that he took to religion, but she didn’t have the dots connected.
Ian, thanks. It’s wishful thinking, but I’m hoping we get the Adam/Maury scene you mention and then a scene between Adam, Maury, Linderman and Arthur. Now that would be electric.
Pete, thank you.
Raissa, I’m with you on the Meredith/Sandra scene. I didn’t find the expo-dialogue too clunky, but I wasn’t sure about the message behind the scene; it seemed to be, “If you don’t have a power, you’re useless.” Somehow, I would have expected Sandra to put up much more of a fight before she agreed to stay at home and leave finding Claire to Meredith.
Michael — great explanations on all counts. I think we might have brought this point up last season, but I’m still hoping the show establishes the range on either of the Parkmans’ abilities: could Maury read Tracy’s mind from several miles away, or did he need to be in the same building or the next room when she decided she’d jump off a bridge? Can Maury create the Linderman illusion from the other side of town, or did he need to trail Nathan or Daphne every time they saw him?
I think Hiro’s turned corrupt without any involvement from Arthur.
With the formula, I’m going to speculate that it’s less about foresight and more about pride: I think the ElderSupers were too pleased with their achievements to destroy them, hence the last vial of Strain 138 and the blueprint to the formula. Unlike the human lab rats, most of whom will eventually die, this part of their legacy’s timeless.
caeporte, here’s a crazy theory to explain how Sylar gets his abilities back in the future: what if Sylar and Peter go back in time and SYLAR SCALPS HIMSELF? I don’t think he’d cease to exist; we’ve seen the “FYG” Hiro alter history and return to his present instead of disappearing. So could Sylar crack his past self’s head open, poke around his past self’s brain, rediscover how his powers worked back in the day, then return to his present with his old abilities restored?
Spencer, great points. I’m tempted to say Hiro has always been an ignoramus; it’s just that it was cute to begin with and we forgave it. With Claire, I’m not sure it’s that she hasn’t changed, just that she has a tendency to forget what she’s gone through, which is why we keep getting variations on the “Dad’s a liar, don’t trust him — oh, but he means well…” plot device. But I hear what you’re saying: a lot of the time it’s like she regresses back to the character she was in the pilot.
Heh, cool beans if you thought the score for this one was too generous. I still wouldn’t say I didn’t care for 3.04, only that I didn’t think it was as brilliant as it could have been.
Interesting point about the final scene in the Canfield storyline. Do you think your reaction might have been intentional on the show’s part? Maybe to emphasize how Claire had bonded with Canfield and how Canfield was forced to take his own life in an instant because of Noah’s scheming? I don’t know; it’s not like it fizzled for me, but I definitely think there’s an element of abruptness and a lack of resolution to the story, and I think that helped to justify why Claire was lost for words in the next scene.
Thepandorarose — thank you. I agree about Angela being Adam’s villain. Do you think it might be that Adam’s afraid of Angela? She’s a lot like HRG in the sense that she’ll do whatever she needs to for the sake of getting the job done: kill people, blow up cities, etc. The rest of the ElderSupers seem a lot more rational in that respect, so I’m wondering if Angela’s ruthlessness is what makes her such a threat to Adam and why he immediately tried to send Hiro after her.
John, I’m with you on the Linderman reveal. It is a little disappointing. It takes a little bit away from the character’s charisma when you know it’s not really him.
KellyH, well done on the TV guide letter — really well worded and well thought out. And dude, you just HAD to get a Caitlin reference in there, didn’t you?
Great catch with the German derivation. I wouldn’t have thought of it, but it’s a very clever detail.
Susan, glad you liked this one.
Interesting point about Nathan being the favorite son; ties in very nicely with his whole “birthright” speech in the car in “Six Months Ago.” I wonder whether Peter was sort of the Petrellis’ “second attempt” to continue the superpower heritage? And whether the fact that he turned out so emotionally fragile was what made him a disappointment, even if they knew Peter had won the superpower lottery?
Raissa, I have to go with Michael on this, I think it’s a fairly defensible continuity issue: Tracy might not have known if it was the same conference, or she might have meant “What happened?” in the sense of, “I know what the press say happened, but what REALLY happened?” Maybe?
Otto, good question about the range of Maury’s abilities. That brings up something I was wondering about when I watched the show. Did Knox just get lucky when he ran into Adam into the bar? Did Maury just give Knox a picture of Adam and tell him to ask the people at the bar if they’d seen Adam? Or did Maury sense Adam at the bar from hundreds of miles away?
That reviewer on msnbc is a little too harsh.
The Canfield story had a lot of potential and heart and just ended way too soon, I agree.
I think a lot of people are getting very tired of the HRG/Claire trust-distrust-betrayal-forgiveness-love-hate cycle. It’s repeated itself just a few too many times.
The Hiro arc hasn’t yet played itself out, so I’m having some grudging patience there. I know for a fact that Ando isn’t dead for good, as James Kyson Lee is contracted for the entire season. A little too abrupt a death for such a popular character, no? Remember how big a production they made of Isaac’s death, and he wasn’t nearly as popular as Ando. I’m surprised how many people have been fooled by this obvious red herring.
Incidentally, on the bittersweet front, it looks as if Pushing Daisies is (very sadly) going to be cancelled. ABC just left it off the air too long, and it was too fragile for that. The silver lining in that loss might be that Heroes will get back its best writer…
One cool thing about the episode, we now have context for Kaito wanting to die. If he really helped:
a) Create the virus.
b) Create synthetic abilities, and:
c) Plan the explosion of New York.
Then the guy has some seriously bad karma. He effectively played God to a horrifying degree, and likely felt he deserved punishment for the sins he committed.
It also makes me think - was Kaito referring to Sylar when he asked what Angela did for her son back in 2×01? Retroactively, it’s possible. They seemed close enough that he would know about that.
Maury wasn’t in New York when he attacked Angela, it appears he was at his home. So he has devestating long range. Also, remember that he was attacking Molly from his home too.
Ian, we don’t know that he was at his home when he attacked Angela. He could have hopped on a plane to New York, attacked Angela and hopped on a plane back home. As for Molly, it’s not clear if he could attack her at greater ranges because of her powers.
Michael
What happened to Hiro? He spent several episodes at the end of Season 1 being afraid/unwilling to stab Sylar, because he thought it was wrong to kill a man, despite thinking Sylar was going to blow up NYC. In fact, the argument that finally convinces him to do it is that in the future, there is no future Ando because Sylar blew him up.
Also, in Season 1, in “Five Years Gone”, it is stated that the reason Hiro became badass was because he was so upset at Ando’s death.
Now he gladly and easily kills Ando, just because Knox, a guy he’s never met before and working with Daphne, who Hiro describes as “his nemesis,” tells him to? Why? To save the world? How does killing Ando save the world? At least with Sylar, there was a defined reason (killing Sylar would prevent a nuclear explosion). What does killing Ando do? How did he know he could trust Knox? What is Knox still refused to take him, even after killing Ando? How does he know joining Daphne and Knox will save the world?
This decision make Hiro a villian. The fact that he killed Ando so quickly, without even thinking about it, based on nothing! If there was definitive proof that not killing Ando would lead to the end of the world, then it would be different, but Hiro just killed him on a hunch that Knox and Daphne had some info for him. Also, he didn’t he seem remorseful or upset at all (whereas he struggled with the decision to kill Sylar, who was a true villian and there was “proof” (by Hiro’s visit to the future) that if he didn’t kill Sylar lots of people would die.)
Also, Ando’s probably coming back somehow (he did exist in the future of this season, also Adam was tied up a few feet away with his magic blood). And I bet he will “lightning” Hiro, not to get revenge, but because Ando remains a good guy while Hiro evolves into a villian while working for Pinehearst. It’ll be ironic, Ando and Hiro will both kill each other, each for the purpose of saving the world.
Also we don’t know if the red lightning from future Ando actually kills Hiro, maybe it only stuns him.
True - but if he went to New York to ambush Angela, why not ambush Bob at the same time?
Otto - Yep, Hiro has definitely been a bit of a goofball all this time. Guess some of the charm has worn off. =( And it’s definitely possible that I’m too harsh on Claire. There are times, when her story falls back into this familiar “can I trust my dad” territory, that I’m tempted to think that Claire is a main character simply because Hayden is a beautiful young woman with a talent for acting (I loved your offers to write poems for her in your earlier reviews, lol). That kind of “she’s a ratings machine” thought process can easily poison her character for me, so I’ve got to be on my toes, I guess.
For the Canfield scene: Abruptness is a great way to put it. Good diction! I think that the suicide-by-black-hole thing was intended to be a little abrupt, yeah. It leaves the viewer to ponder the depth of the scene afterwards. HRG having finally found a way to get rid of Sylar and his “kill or be killed” ultimatum versus Canfield’s longing for a normal life and hatred of the Company for what they did to him is a great way to move the plot forward on the Sylar vs HRG front in an engaging way. But I don’t know - that abruptness that you’re talking about - should it have been so jarring that it lessened my enjoyment of the scene? (It was still one of my favorite narrative threads of the hour, I just felt that a little something was missing from the ending.) Again, I could be overanalyzing.
KellyH,
I think a lot of people are getting very tired of the HRG/Claire trust-distrust-betrayal-forgiveness-love-hate cycle. It’s repeated itself just a few too many times.
I know I’m getting tired of it, and HRG & Claire are my favorite characters. There are ways to move them past this dynamic. But, they would require the writers to explore different themes than they’ve been going with up to now.
Otto & Michael — Re: Tracy, good point.
I don’t think that Angela is more ruthless than any of the elders we’ve met. Kaito and Charles perhaps, but we don’t know what they use to be like. Kaito admitted much wrong doing and believes one must cut out your own heart to win. A motto I feel Angela tries to do all the time.
Also, her goals are to safe the world, not any old “I want my way only” - wrong or right she’s looking for peace. On the heads of millions, but the she knows she sold her soul a long time ago.
And I’ll guess in the ruthlessness area Angela is a pussycat compared to her husband, but we’ll see.
And let us remember Kaito was also Adam’s Villain and that was for putting him in jail.
As for Adam, I don’t think he’s afraid of anyone. Because of his power and his cockiness.
Angela seems to have learned at the knee of Arthur and Adam. The way Adam is talked about it’s almost like they were in the cult of Adam, with Linderman, Arthur and Angela is most argent followers.
Following him as far as cleansing the world. But she releases how wrong is was right before it was too late. She double crossed him.
Adam also hasn’t known Angela and her actions for 30 years, I doubt she was as ruthless as we know her as now. To Adam Kaito and Angela are the worse of Villains, as much as Hiro is to him.
Michael, great catch with Knox showing up at the bar to bring in Adam. I’ve got nothing — anyone else have a theory? Could it be that Arthur and Maury are tracking The Company’s activity? If that were true, it would explain how they knew that Angela had sent Hiro to dig up Adam.
KellyH, interesting point about the Ando twist. Could it be that the general reaction has less to do with being “fooled” and more to do with the principle behind it — that Hiro was cold-hearted enough to stab his best (and pretty much only) friend? It’s gonna be a lot tougher for the show to pull off the slapstick comedy after this. Even if Ando’s brought back (and I agree — he almost certainly will be), can we ever look at Hiro without wanting to stab him ourselves? I wonder if that was the intention: to make the audience as wary of Hiro as he was of Ando after that scene in the premiere.
Ian — awesome point about Kaito’s death wish. I think you could rewatch his scenes in “Cautionary Tales” and have a totally different take on them now.
I think this goes to show why we really need a two- or three-episode backstory to establish the internal politics at The Company. Even if Kaito and Charles were aware of it (which Charles obviously was), I can’t believe they’d be involved with the New York plot or the synthetic abilities project. Takei and Roundtree seem like they were cast to make their characters as warm-hearted and affable as possible, so I can’t see them condoning that stuff unless there was the possibility of a large-scale medical breakthrough. They were probably overruled or kept out of the loop altogether.
Neat theory on Kaito’s meaning when he asked Angela about her son. Even if he didn’t mean Sylar, Angela’s slap seems even more justified now than it did at the time.
Jason, great post. Do you think there might be any truth to the theory that Hiro froze time before he stabbed Ando? Maybe he was crushed by the decision and we just didn’t get to see it? I definitely get what you’re saying, though: I don’t think I can look at the character the same way after this, even if there turns out to be a great twist to it.
Thepandorarose — all valid points, well made.
I’ll be interested to see whether there’s any reference to a scene in “Landslide” when Linderman told Nathan that his father was “weak” and “gave up.” I think that’ll tie in very closely with your point about Angela being a pussycat by comparison.
I’m totally speculating here, but between the show and the GNs, I always got the impression that Linderman and the Petrellis were kind of the visionaries behind The Company. It seems like Victoria was the brains, Kaito and Bob were the coordinators and general operational heads, Maury was the tool, and the rest of them were there to look pretty. It seems like Angela was one of the more involved members when it came to the really huge decisions about altering DNA and killing off millions for the greater good; and to make decisions like that, I think Angela would need to be ruthless.
So, to come back to the point about the way Adam sees her, I’d still say Adam might be terrified of Angela, and for that exact reason. She realizes that her decisions and motives are questionable (”We mortgaged our souls,” “We did something terrible,” etc.), but Angela has conviction and she’ll follow through on a plan without letting her conscience get in the way, which makes her more of a threat to Adam than the ElderSupers who would dither over whether they were doing the right thing.
She’s also very good at rationalizing her decisions and making them sound plausible — which Linderman and Adam aren’t. As we’ve seen (in “.07%” and “Powerless”), they come across sounding deranged rather than rational. I guess Adam managed to brainwash them to begin with (as Angela says in “Powerless”), but that might have more to do with the rest of the ElderSupers desperately wanting to believe him than with Adam’s persuasive skills. I think Adam feels threatened by Angela’s influence because it makes her as dangerous as he is: she can manipulate people as effortlessly as he can.
Like you say, though, that might not always have been the case. I’ll be interested to see where the show goes with this part of the story.
One more thing re: Adam. When they were digging him up, did you notice that yes, they mentioned him killing Kaito, that he was a bad person, etc., but the virus did not come up at ALL? For all Adam knows, the virus was released. They are skirting around that entire arc almost desperately.
NBC must have lowered the boom any any further mention of the virus plot AT ALL.
I think they want to pretend the virus thing never happened, but one could make the case that the second Adam saw Hiro and Ando alive he knew he’d failed.
KellyH,
Re: Names
‘Claire’ comes from French and Latin origins and means ‘bright’, ‘clear’ or ‘famous’. ‘Bennet’ is derivative of ‘Bennett’, meaning ‘blessed’.
Both ‘Peter’ and ‘Petrelli’ come from petra, Latin for rock. Ironic, since the only thing that DOESN’T change about Peter is a consistent talent for getting himself into the worst POSSIBLE situation ever; even his abilities fluctuate with his moods xD His brother Nathan’s name is of Hebrew origin and means ‘gift from God’ [read: godsend].
‘Angela’, of course, is derived from the root of ‘angel’ or ‘angelic’; her son Gabriel shares his name with an angel commonly hailed as God’s messenger. Gabriel’s last name, Gray, strongly implies ambiguity. (On a slightly random note, the word ‘Sylar’ is a German surname meaning ‘ropemaker’. Go figure).
‘Arthur’ is a word of Celto-Latin origin meaning ‘bear-like’ or ‘bear-man’. It could also be related to ‘Artorius’ (’plowman’ or ‘farmer’).
Linderman, in addition to the German connection, shares a name with the biblical character Daniel, who was a prophet; in keeping with this, Daniel HealingMan is obssessed with the future, buying as many paintings as he can from any clairvoyant artist he can find.
Mohinder’s name is likely a twisting of the Indian word Mahendra, a combination of the words “maha” (great) and “Indra”, a Hindu god. His last name is derivative of the Indian word “Suresha”, which means ‘ruler of the gods’. I have no idea how this fits in with anything, since it seems that Arthur Petrelli is aiming to rule the gods, whilst Mohinder is shooting for becoming the ruler of all cockroaches/spiders/lizards xD
Adam is a reference to the ‘father of mankind’; in this instance, the father of the Company. His name is also associated with the Hebrew word ‘adamah’, meaning ‘earth’ or ‘dirt’.
Bob [Bishop]’s name means ‘bright’ or ‘famous’ and is of Germanic roots.
‘Kaito’ is Japanese for ‘Phantom Thief’ and is comparable to the ‘gentleman thief’ [read: Japanese Robin Hood, but in a tie]. I guess we know now how Nakamura got so rich
Matthew [Parkman] is of Hebrew origin and, like Nathan, means ‘gift from God’ [read: godsend]
Niki, derived from Nicole, is of Greek origin and means ‘victorious people’, which I suppose we can chalk up to ironic sarcasm. The name of her son, Micah, means ‘unique’ or ‘one who is like God’; it can also mean ‘who is like God?’ Her sister Jessica’s name means ‘foresighted’, either implying ‘able to foresee’ or ‘one who was foreseen’. The name of her sister Tracy likely is derived from Theresa or something similar, and means ‘one who reaps’ or ‘harvester’. Barbara is also of Greek origin and can mean ‘foreigner’ or ‘barbarian’. Doctor Zimmerman’s name is German for ‘carpenter’.
Finally, we can probably assume that Maya means ‘one whose storyline has been mostly boring but may perhaps stumble upon something interesting in the future’, but that’s only my personal conjecture xD
Note: some of the above information was copied from HeroesWiki and/or Wikipedia.
Otto:
I’ll be interested to see whether there’s any reference to a scene in “Landslide” when Linderman told Nathan that his father was “weak” and “gave up.” I think that’ll tie in very closely with your point about Angela being a pussycat by comparison.
Absolutely. So many people assumed that meant Arthur was the pussycat, but I’ve always said - weak means different things to different people. I can’t wait.
I’m totally speculating here, but between the show and the GNs, I always got the impression that Linderman and the Petrellis were kind of the visionaries behind The Company.
Yes, I agree, but now with the introduction of Adam it seems he was a god to them.
… Kaito and Bob were the coordinators and general operational heads, Maury was the tool, and the rest of them were there to look pretty.
Well, we don’t know what the others did, so looking pretty, but I guess your kidding.
I agree with Maury. I think he has low self esteem like Matt did in season one, he seems to follow people when he’s the most powerful, of course he was scared of Arthur. Maybe he was never scared of Adam and it was Arthur he was fearful. I just find that interesting for he is the most powerful, it would seem.
It seems like Angela was one of the more involved members when it came to the really huge decisions about altering DNA and killing off millions for the greater good; and to make decisions like that, I think Angela would need to be ruthless.
I really don’t think we have any proof (and I know it’s spec)to say Angela was the only one involved in that kind of thing. Based on what we know about Arthur it would see a couple married in 1965 - Angela was seen by him as the wife, sure she was involved, but not like the men. I mean she only took over after everyone was dead or in jail. Arthur was the one who taught Linderman about scarfing one for the sake of millions. Kaito had the motto of cutting out one’s own heart. I don’t think she gets all the blame. I think when it comes to Angela your a little clouded.
So, to come back to the point about the way Adam sees her, I’d still say Adam might be terrified of Angela, and for that exact reason. She realizes that her decisions and motives are questionable (”We mortgaged our souls,” “We did something terrible,” etc.), but Angela has conviction and she’ll follow through on a plan without letting her conscience get in the way.
I think she feels the pain and the gulit she just pushes on, for she has to - I think in her world it’s considered selfish. She cuts out her own heart, but the tragedy is she can’t. She seems to be the only one who shows any remorse to me.
which makes her more of a threat to Adam than the ElderSupers who would dither over whether they were doing the right thing.
I again remind you no one is born evil. Sylar use to be a mild mannered watch repairman. Linderman was a book worm who couldn’t kill a child. I don’t remember any other elders involved in bad things who second guessed what was right. I am open to examples. I think the Angela we know now came from experience over time and trail and error.
She’s also very good at rationalizing her decisions and making them sound plausible — which Linderman and Adam aren’t. As we’ve seen (in “.07%” and “Powerless”), they come across sounding deranged rather than rational.
That’s really more of a talent, then ruthlessness.
I guess Adam managed to brainwash them to begin with (as Angela says in “Powerless”), but that might have more to do with the rest of the ElderSupers desperately wanting to believe him than with Adam’s persuasive skills.
Oh, absolutely! And Adam had seen their kind before, he knew what to say. He sized up Peter in two mins and it sounds like just how elders must have been. Lost people looking for a purpose, looking for someone like them, wanting to save the world - after all it was the 70’s - and he was there to be their god.
I think Adam feels threatened by Angela’s influence because it makes her as dangerous as he is: she can manipulate people as effortlessly as he can.
She learned from the best and out did the teacher. I again have to go with people change over 30 years of time, usually getting worse. He has no idea the women she is today. Even Peter remarks that she didn’t speak her mind to him until AFTER Arthur “died”. I find that telling.
Like you say, though, that might not always have been the case. I’ll be interested to see where the show goes with this part of the story.
Aren’t we all! Nice debating. Always highly intelligent.
I loved this episode
I especially liked when Hiro and Daphne both shouted “kill Ando?” when Knox told Hiro to kill Ando. Even Daphne seemed astonished!
btw, loved your link to the paper shredder! lol! I laughed really hard at it. :p
Anyways, as always, hilarious and effective review! Thanks otto.
P.S. I have a question: what’s AWOL? “Micah, Monica and West are AWOL.” I assumed that it means written off without explanation… is it?
+ p.s. What became of Molly? Can anyone tell me? Is that little girl alone or is she still living with the dangerous momo and not killed…yet? Is no one looking for Matt, even though he’s been missing for days?
++p.s. I want kaitlin back! I guess the writers had to abandon her because of the writer’s srike and loss of episodes, but still… poor kaitlin- her brother’s fried and now she’s stuck in a horrid future!
+++p.s. I want Micah back as well! wow, am I wishing too much? +_+
Harlin - it’s assumed that Mohinder sent Molly to India to stay with his Mother. She’s nowhere near Mohinder, which is good given his condition.
KellyH, Ian, do you think the disconnect from the Shanti Virus storyline is about “streamlining” the current season arc? Ando calls Adam a “villain” and mentions Adam killing Hiro’s father: those are the two crucial points for the immediate story arc. Perhaps the thinking was, “Is it essential for an understanding of this season’s storyline? If not, ignore it.” Sad, but it seems like they’re going with that approach with Meredith as well.
Siege, great post. “Ropemaker Sylar” made me laugh.
Thepandorarose — again, great post. Just a couple of thoughts to add:
So many people assumed that meant Arthur was the pussycat, but I’ve always said - weak means different things to different people.
Totally. My guess would be Linderman thought Arthur had lost his belief in either The Company’s methods or The Company’s ideology. I’m hoping the show clarifies what sets Pinehearst apart from The Company in those respects, and I’m thinking there’s a touch of irony to the fact that Linderman — the guy who called Arthur “weak” — is now unwittingly having his image used to strengthen a rival to The Company. Arthur’s gotta be getting a kick out of that.
Well, we don’t know what the others did, so looking pretty, but I guess your kidding.
I was very much kidding.
With Maury, do you think it’s a self-esteem issue? I find Maury kind of a mystery because it’s not really clear what he wants. The other folks have lofty goals about helping mankind or leading a new world, but Maury doesn’t seem to want anything — or to even have a self-serving motive. He seems to do what he’s told because that’s all he knows how to do, even with a power that could wreak a lot more havoc than Adam’s or Linderman’s.
I really don’t think we have any proof (and I know it’s spec)to say Angela was the only one involved in that kind of thing.
Sure, and I very much doubt she was the only one. My theory would be that she was part of a triumvirate with Linderman and Arthur, and those were the three who were making plans several decades down the line — probably thanks to Angela’s ability. Based on what we know about Adam being incarcerated — and, this past week, about his objection to the formula — I’d say Adam had been dismissed as a lunatic pretty soon after the ElderSupers came together. I think there’s a good reason why he isn’t in that ElderSuper group shot.
I don’t think she gets all the blame.
Oh, me neither, but like I said, I can definitely see her being more involved with the ethically questionable decisions that Kaito and Charles and Victoria would have dismissed as insane. That’s because — coming back to the original point — she’s ruthless enough to make those decisions without her conscience getting in the way. I agree with your point that she has a conscience and needs to cut out her heart. For all of Kaito’s talk about cutting out his heart, we’ve seen in the end that he didn’t: he handed out babies to Company agents, but when it mattered, he took a stand and he had Adam locked up. Angela didn’t let her conscience get in the way of The Company’s objectives: she forged ahead with the kind of thinking that led to plots involving the destruction of cities and the deaths of millions. I don’t see how she could help to formulate plans like that without being ruthless.
She seems to be the only one who shows any remorse to me.
I dunno: I’d say Kaito, Charles and Victoria all showed varying degrees of remorse. The reason we haven’t seen the rest of the bunch (the ones who were there to look pretty) is probably because they were appalled with their company — and with themselves — and ran a mile when the genocidal plans started coming together.
But to come back to Angela: yes, she obviously feels remorse, but she doesn’t let it get in her way — because, as you say, she can’t. Maybe, as you seem to be saying, that’s what makes her tragic. But I think that’s also what makes her so dangerous to Adam — more so than the other ElderSupers: from what we’ve seen, she isn’t deterred by anything — not even her own conscience. I don’t think that necessarily makes her a villain, but in my view it does make her ruthless.
I don’t remember any other elders involved in bad things who second guessed what was right. I am open to examples.
I can’t think of any either, although I’d say the evidence is in the fact that The Company — as it stood in the late seventies — disintegrated. That’s most likely because the majority of the members realized they were involved in something certifiable.
Re: Angela’s ability to rationalize her decisions: That’s really more of a talent, then ruthlessness.
Yeah, the point I was trying to make here was separate to the point about her ruthlessness: this was about why she’s a formidable opponent to Adam. Her influence makes her a threat.
Harlin, thanks. AWOL = absent without leave.
well we know that hiro can teleport people and objects, he could have easily teleported the end of the sword somewhere else, then as He pulled it out, teleported it back and just cut the top layer of skin for the blood effect.
About Maury, it’s possible he has good reason to be scared of Arthur. We don’t know what Arthur’s powers are yet, but the promos for the next episode appear to show Peter helpless.
It’s interesting actually, back in S2 they didn’t really mention the end of S1 that much either. We got a few mentions, but even an episode like 2×08 didn’t really go into detail on things like Niki whacking Sylar, or Micah meeting Molly
Thepandorarose — again, great post. Just a couple of thoughts to add:
Thanks. I’m enjoying this more than on any boards. I may only come here now for good discussion. Thanks to Susan for pointing me here.
Totally. My guess would be Linderman thought Arthur had lost his belief in either The Company’s methods or The Company’s ideology. I’m hoping the show clarifies what sets Pinehearst apart from The Company in those respects,
I think it’s even more than that, but yes right on the money. To Linderman and I’m gonna guess Angela too, he was no longer willing to save the world - he lost his way, he was unable to sacrifice for the greater good. As Kaito says to Adam “You’re going against everything this Company stands for.”
and I’m thinking there’s a touch of irony to the fact that Linderman — the guy who called Arthur “weak” — is now unwittingly having his image used to strengthen a rival to The Company. Arthur’s gotta be getting a kick out of that.
Oh, totally! As much as Linderman, I think, got a kick out of using Arthur’s son, considering how he treated Linderman in the GN, and if he is as all powerful as we think he is, the rest of Linderman’s life.
With Maury, do you think it’s a self-esteem issue?
I find it so interesting the most powerful one, as far as we know, is the lackey. I do think helping Adam kill the elders had to have some satisfaction to Maury, that he had his own gripes. The Company after all was looking for him (via Molly) so he was on the outs. I always wondered if THEY were the ones he stole the money from that Matt talks about.
Maury seems to be a con man. Now, he and Matt have the same power even thought it seems most of his life, Matt’s father wasn’t around. I am a little clouded on how ‘I’ wrote him in my story, since we don’t know as much about him, but I take clues from Matt to see who Maury is.
If Matt grew up similar to his dad and didn’t know it, it could create the same result - same power. I happen to be dyslexic and it can bring about self esteem issues, issues I saw in Matt in Season one. Even the shame of his dyslexia.
That to me, links into wanting to be liked and fit in. I always felt Matt’s power was perfect for a dyslexic. A dyslexic sometimes has trouble picking up on social cues (not all, I know I out grew most of it) or picking up on things. I know sometimes I still take directions a little too literal sometimes. You also feel at times your in a world were no one listens to you, because you live outside the box. Reading minds and getting people to do what you want, so works for that.
Also, most lackys are looking for approval, for friends. Sometimes they even compensate with obnoxious personalities, or that is a result from bad social skills. Just in general, I don’t mean dyslexics are obnoxious. lol. I feel like the only thing, on what little we know, is that he is looking for approval. Maury also comes across as very, very angry to me. Like he feels the world slighted him, that he has an ax to grind.
Sure, and I very much doubt she was the only one. My theory would be that she was part of a triumvirate with Linderman and Arthur, and those were the three who were making plans several decades down the line — probably thanks to Angela’s ability.
Yes, but I don’t think we can say that all 12 weren’t involved at first. Absolving Characters we just haven’t met (who who were played by extras in a pix, so odds are we don’t lol) isn’t fair to me.
Based on what we know about Adam being incarcerated — and, this past week, about his objection to the formula — I’d say Adam had been dismissed as a lunatic pretty soon after the ElderSupers came together. I think there’s a good reason why he isn’t in that ElderSuper group shot.
Well, to be fair he’s not in the picture because it was almost 30 years after he was in jail, yes. But by the time Adam was incarcerated they had two up and running facilities - in Oddessa AND Upstate NY (Hartsdale) it couldn’t be THAT new. And for a time Angela, Arthur and Linderman helped him, I would even venture to guess Maury was part of that group. But Angela did something at the last min. Called Kaito perhaps? I hope we find out.
Oh, me neither, but like I said, I can definitely see her being more involved with the ethically questionable decisions that Kaito and Charles and Victoria would have dismissed as insane.
We really have no idea when Kaito and Charles broke from the group. Kaito admitted to much wrong doing and as of 1991 was still involved.
That’s because — coming back to the original point — she’s ruthless enough to make those decisions without her conscience getting in the way. I agree with your point that she has a conscience and needs to cut out her heart. For all of Kaito’s talk about cutting out his heart, we’ve seen in the end that he didn’t: he handed out babies to Company agents, but when it mattered, he took a stand and he had Adam locked up. Angela didn’t let her conscience get in the way of The Company’s objectives: she forged ahead with the kind of thinking that led to plots involving the destruction of cities and the deaths of millions. I don’t see how she could help to formulate plans like that without being ruthless.
Like we don’t know when Kaito left the Company we don’t know when Angela started doing such things. And considering the way they show villains on this show… I can’t see her always being this way, even to a small degree. Therefore NOT the same women Adam knew 30 years ago. I again remind you she was pretty much last in line to head the company, I find that very telling. She is a wife of a different generation, remember that too.
I dunno: I’d say Kaito, Charles and Victoria all showed varying degrees of remorse.
I meant people still involved in the doing of the bad things.
But to come back to Angela: yes, she obviously feels remorse, but she doesn’t let it get in her way — because, as you say, she can’t. Maybe, as you seem to be saying, that’s what makes her tragic. But I think that’s also what makes her so dangerous to Adam — more so than the other ElderSupers: from what we’ve seen, she isn’t deterred by anything — not even her own conscience. I don’t think that necessarily makes her a villain, but in my view it does make her ruthless.
I totally agree and in a way I don’t. For one, what I’m arguing is who Angela is now compared to the woman Adam knew. A woman who ended up on the side of Kaito. “This man needs to be locked up for his insane ideas, what was I thinking.”
Your thoughts are on the money about Angela, but I am really debating here her now and her when Adam knew her. And on another topic I guess for me it comes down to semantics. Ruthless to me is someone who has no heart - I believe Angela has a heart.
I mean I loved that you also noticed how Angela’s face changed when she heard Bridget’s screams. That means she was effected by it.I mean here is a woman who feels and knows all her actions are wrong, but larger things are at stake, but I digress that’s not our issue.
Yeah, the point I was trying to make here was separate to the point about her ruthlessness: this was about why she’s a formidable opponent to Adam. Her influence makes her a threat.
She was the oracle and wife of the most powerful Hero it would seem so yes. But something has to be said about the fact that people grow into becoming what they… well become. Married at a very young age in the 1960’s odds are Angela was a different person at 22 then she is now at 60 something. She never spoke her mind until Arthur died. Perhaps it’s a generational thing (mean hers not ours), but I just don’t believe Angela was the woman she is now in 1977, which would be the last time Adam knew her.
Angela stressed it was Arthur’s disappointment that led to giving Nathan abilities, to me, says even more about who Arthur was and in turn how his wife was seen at the Company Okay, I’m off on a tangent,but on Adam: After all he was able to convince her that helping him kill most of the world’s population was a good idea and we know she doesn’t believe that now. As the virus and the entire world falling into havic, slitting into 2, not really a good thing to her.
Even Linderman, 30 odd years ago, was a book worm who wouldn’t kill a child to save the world. Experience had to show Angela the way to save the world is her ‘ruthless’ behavior.
Hope I made sense today, I’m on very little sleep.
And may I ad I do think Angela has done much, much wrong doing over the last 30 years and and she’s made her own bed, her bed of secrets.