Rebecca takes Claire, Gretchen and two other sorority pledges to a slaughterhouse as part of their initiation. They wander around a lot, one of them gets splattered with fake blood, and then Rebecca tries to choke Gretchen. Claire fends Rebecca off with a meat hook, and the two other pledges learn that members of their sorority can turn invisible and extricate themselves from steel rods.Ooh! Halloween, Heroes-style! Scary!
No. Really. Scary.
Seriously, people, I’m not joking. This one was so awful in parts that it’s frightening. You’ve been warned.
Are you ready to witness unimaginable horror? Course you are! But before you write the episode off as a cheap attempt to cash in on Halloween, remember — it could have been worse. We could have gotten Kid-Hiro and Maya carving pumpkins at the carnival while playing Guitar Hero and texting one another on their Sprint cell phones.
One last thing before we get started:
You might need a drink to get through this one.
So, the great part about this episode — the part that’s well written and well acted and gut-wrenching — is not the part the episode opens on. It’s sad that an episode which contains an incisive social commentary opens with what’s basically an eye-grabbing shock tactic.
Sylar Sex!
Depending on your perspective, this opening varies from enticing to terrifying to hilarious. I’m leaning towards hilarious, mostly because it’s the second week in a row that an episode begins with Sylar topless, and because it’s hilarious that an episode with such incredible emotional resonance in places is so unashamedly awful in others. It’s easy to appreciate why the show wants to return to what made Season One great, but in this instance it falls back on everything that made it suck. Everything about this storyline felt familiar in the worst possible way, and although it’s been a while since that episode way, waaaaay back when Matt gave Janice what she really, really wanted…
… it’s not as if it’s any more entertaining now than it was then. The only difference is that instead of Matt burrowing into Janice’s head to figure out what makes her happy, Matt’s unwittingly being controlled by someone whose consciousness is stuck inside his head. The context is different, and this time there’s no coffee ice-cream, but the end result is the same: lots of heavy panting, and Janice being tricked into thinking Matt’s an amazingly intuitive guy. There’s an idea in there somewhere about the unkillable villain slithering into Matt’s private life, but it’s not so much creepy as it is laughable. If you’re Ghost-Sylar — the consciousness of a mass-murdering monster who slashes open skulls — would your first instinct upon taking control of a guy’s body be to screw his wife, or, say, to kill her, to use her as leverage to get your own body back, or to just RUN AWAY?
At least someone’s happy about this opening. It fails for me because it lacks any idea beyond “Oooh, Sylar has sex with Janice inside of Matt’s body! How awful!” It is awful, but not for the right reasons. It’s evidence that Sylar has become so insidious that he’ll dominate the teaser to an episode by doing something that not only echoes the most tedious moments of the first season, but also something that makes absolutely no sense for the character.
We cut to Cainan, Georgia, and the redemptive portion of the episode begins. Jeremy gets detained at the police station, Noah’s guilt trip intensifies, and the storyline that seemed to resolve itself so neatly last week unravels and reveals itself to be much more complex. It’s reassuring for the twist to what looked like a standard freak-of-the-week concept, and it’s the start of what looks like a broad character arc for both Noah and Tracy.
Credit to Ruth Ammon for some incredible attention to detail. The “Welcome to Georgia” sign on the side of a building is big and bold and looks convincingly authentic, but the real detail is in everything that you don’t immediately notice:
The lettering on the window that says “Serving Cainan.” The sign across the street that says “Cainan Municipal Building.” The “Cainan Police Department” logo a moment later. Small details, but evidence of the effort that went into making the location as believable as possible.
Noah explains to Tracy that the cops won’t release Jeremy without a member of his family present, and… Oh, no, you didn’t, Noah!
Fake ID? Fine. Hard to believe you drummed it up in a quiet town a hundred miles from your usual stamping grounds, but OK. Thing is, you don’t hand out fake IDs in front of police stations, and you certainly don’t hand out fake IDs WHEN A COP IS WALKING RIGHT BY YOU.
*PING!* That’s one Dumb As Award for Noah for brazen stupidity.
Noah: “He’s got nobody. You’ve been there.”
Putting aside that a government official is risking her career by fraudulently posing as a relative, it’s an effective way to set up the parallel between Jeremy and Tracy. It’s only a partially successful parallel, because besides Tracy’s initial suicidal guilt trip, there was never much to suggest that she felt all that bad about killing William Katt. There’s also the fact that Tracy went on a killing spree between the end of last season and the start of this one, so her depiction as the virtuous individual with an accidental kill when she manifested an ability doesn’t ring true. We know that Jeremy didn’t mean to kill his parents, but we also know that Tracy most definitely did intend to kill the Goon Squad agents she systematically drowned. The similarities only go so far.
Gretchen jokes that she’s going to “kiss-attack” Claire in her sleep, and Claire suggests talking about what happened.
Gretchen: “It was stupid and impulsive and bad…”
I need to pause to reflect on this, because it might be the first time Gretchen has made any kind of observation about her own actions instead of shifting the attention onto someone else. As a result, it’s the first sign that Gretchen might actually be becoming…
… a likeable character?
?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Take a moment to let that sink in.
Claire: “It wasn’t bad. I mean, you’re a good kisser, I just… I don’t wanna mess this up.”
Gretchen: “Mess what up?”
Claire: “My new, totally ordinary life. You know, the one I’m still chasing.”
So, to paraphrase the dialogue in this conversation without altering the meaning or the ideas:
Claire: “Let’s talk about the kiss.”
Gretchen: “I was wrong to kiss you.”
Claire: “No, but I want an ordinary life.”
Is it me, or is there something off about the logic behind this dialogue? Unless Claire’s implying that a relationship with Gretchen undermines her chances for a quiet, non-lethal three years in college, I’m not sure how Claire jumps from discussing the kiss to elaborating on her dream of a mundane existence. Something about the direction this conversation takes feels bizarrely abrupt. And by “bizarrely abrupt,” I think I mean “contrived.”
Claire: “Gretch, you’re the first real friend I’ve had since I left Texas.”
Sorry, West!
Rebecca and two cohorts burst in, and Claire demonstrates her ability to “go all Buffy” on her attackers. The comparison is apt and it’s a nice nod, but it’s a shout-out that doesn’t do Heroes any favors, because it reminds us that (a) Claire really is no Buffy, (b) this really is no Willow/Tara romance, at least not yet, and (c) the one season Buffy spent at college really wasn’t that show’s strongest, so the comparison doesn’t bode well for Claire’s storyline this season.
Claire: “Cannot believe they shoved us in a trunk. So lame.”
Looking back, I can’t decide if that’s intentional self-parody on the part of the writers, as in, “We know this idea is lame, but we’re going ahead with it anyway.”
Gretchen: “So, which way is it?”
Claire: “I don’t know.”
Gretchen: “What does that mean?”
Claire: “It means I don’t know.”
Gretchen: “Awesome.”
Gretchen takes the words out of my mouth. That in itself is shocking, but what’s equally shocking is that this episode devotes several scenes to Claire telling Gretchen that she’s not sure how she feels. So, essentially, the scenes between Claire and Gretchen amount to nothing besides postponing their relationship until Claire figures out how she feels. It’s great that the show explores what the kiss means to both of them, but the result is several scenes devoid of substance. It’s not even true to say that Claire tells Gretchen she’d prefer to remain friends; Claire spends the episode refusing to commit to a decision. It’s an episode of indecision, and that’s exasperating because it leads to nothing that advances the story.
Rebecca lets Claire and Gretchen out of the trunk and leads them into the slaughterhouse, and at this point, I have to ask:
I can believe that the two other pledges are vapid enough not to know any better, and I can believe that Gretchen cares about Claire enough to endure anything for her. But Claire? Is she really so desperate to be part of this sorority that she’s willing to go along with an initiation like this? Is joining a sorority and befriending the airheads she’s stranded with suddenly so important to her “normal life” that she’s willing to be bound, hooded, locked in a trunk and forced onto her knees in a slaughterhouse?
Tracy visits Jeremy at the police station and tells him about the paperwork Noah “fixed” to make her Jeremy’s aunt.
Jeremy: “Mr. Bennet said that everything would go away, that the cops would buy his story. Mr. Bennet said they’d let me go.”
Nicely delivered by Mark L. Young. You can hear the derision in the second “Mr. Bennet,” but whether that’s because he’s angry about being cuffed inside a cell or because he genuinely doesn’t want to be released is the part that’s compelling. It’s possible Jeremy blames Noah for calling the cops, getting him thrown into a cell and then failing to get him released, but it’s also possible — and, in a way, more likely — that Jeremy’s mocking Noah for being naïve enough to believe a kid who killed his parents should be released back into society. We end up thinking he should be released because we know that in the end he’s a well-intentioned kid, but Jeremy demonstrates surprising maturity when he implies that letting him out of his cell puts everyone in danger.
We return to the slaughterhouse and witness the more vacuous of the two other pledges speculating that “something died in here.”
These are the girls Claire wants to become lifelong friends with?
The one whose anxiety prompts her to say “Oh my God” about fifty billion times turns out to be named “Ash.” Given this week’s affinity for shout-outs, and given that Ash is clearly trying to break another show’s record, I’m surprised she wasn’t named Rachel, Monica or Phoebe.
Miss OMG opens a locker and gets sprayed with fake blood, then follows Claire’s recommendation to open the locker with the same number as the year when the sorority was founded. It reflects well on Claire because it demonstrates her ability to think through a problem while under pressure. The sad part is it underlines why Claire’s about a hundred times smarter than Miss OMG, and that putting herself through an ordeal like this just to be able to hang out with a dozen other Miss OMGs for the sake of Living An Ordinary Life makes no sense at all.
The other pledge acknowledges Claire’s intelligence and resolves to “bring it.”
Miss OMG: “Can I just stay here?”
Revealing dialogue. She isn’t the only one who’s happy to stay where she is. That’s part of the problem. It’s hard to care who finds the “treasure,” who suffers through an undefined Hell Week and who ends up getting fake blood sprayed across their face. We’re not especially invested in getting to know these two other pledges, but more critically, we’re not especially invested in finding out who wins this Screaming Scavenger Hunt. We’re interested in the dialogue between Claire and Gretchen, but when the context involves a situation as contrived as this, it’s hard to care where the slaughterhouse drama goes. When Miss OMG asks if she can stay here, we’re less inclined to want to dissuade her than we are to agree that staying here is about as exciting an option as any.
We’re rescued by the redemptive story thread. Tracy sits with Jeremy, tells him she understands what he’s going through and describes how she discovered her ability. It’s a scene that depends solely on the talents of the actors to determine whether it’s a success, and Larter and Young bring inflection and intensity to the scene, making it vivid without being melodramatic.
Now that’s impressive. It looks spectacular, particularly with the droplets dripping off the railing, but it’s effective on several levels: one super extending a hand to another, one of them ending up cuffed in a cell because of his ability, the other demonstrating the ability that helped her to drown a bunch of government agents and using it as a gesture of friendship.
You have to wonder what this storyline says about the show’s predominant focus on redemption. Jeremy would by all accounts be the poster child for redemption: the kid whose ability forced him down a dark path, but whose innate goodness guided him back to the light and helped him to make the world a better place.
Jeremy starts whimpering, and Tracy…
… looks like she’s about to start bawling as well. It’s a moment that’s largely to Larter’s credit, because that tear is so elegantly underplayed that you’d have to be looking for it to see it.
Noah insists on getting Jeremy released. Evil Deputy Gil reads out Jeremy’s journal lyrics about him being “the bringer of death,” and Noah speculates that half the lyrics on his iPod sound just like that. I’m inclined to think he’s just speculating, but I’d be very impressed if it turned out that Noah was drawing on his own musical tastes.
Evil Deputy Gil vouches for the schoolkids describing Jeremy killing animals “for fun.” It’s an odd detail, because even if Jeremy was inadvertently killing frogs in biology, would he be giving the impression that it’s “fun”? Given the grief he demonstrates over the course of these two episodes, do we assume that all of the kids at the high school hate him enough to distort the truth in exactly the same way? Or did Jeremy take a perverse pleasure in draining the life out of animals? Not a crucial detail, but certainly something that, with hindsight, sticks out as anomalous.
Dun-dun-DUN!
Or not. Perhaps he’s trying to freak Tracy out with the whole creepy-guy-in-a-leather-duster act. But the way Samuel shows up to greet Tracy, the way he invites her to the carnival and asks her to join them, suggests a dramatically different approach from the one Samuel used to meet Peter a few weeks ago. Did Samuel think Tracy would respond to a more direct approach? Is Samuel running out of time to take part in such elaborate set-ups? Or did Samuel just get sick of pretending in order to lure people with abilities into the carnival?
In any case, the camera spins around them…
… and suddenly Tracy finds herself at the carnival alongside Samuel.
Teleportation? Phasing into an alternate dimension? A portal created by the Magik Compass? You decide. I’m less intrigued by this than I am by Samuel’s uncharacteristically transparent attempt to convince Tracy that Jeremy belongs with the carnival.
We cut from a scene with mysterious details and great thematic work to… a scene that doesn’t have those things.
Claire and Gretchen visit the slaughter floor, and Gretchen’s EXACT words are, “Come on, don’t tell me you’re freaked out now. Look! See? Nothing. JUST MORE LAMENESS.”
And again with the self-parody? I’d like to think so, because if it’s true then the show realized how awful parts of this episode were and how wrong they were to push for such hideous, campy scares.
The one semi-redemptive part is the dialogue between Claire and Gretchen:
Gretchen: “Truth is I’ve had more boyfriends than girlfriends.”
Claire: “Really?”
Gretchen: “Mm-hm.”
Claire: “How many more?”
Gretchen: “Eh, six or seven. That’s not a lot, right?”
?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Is she lying? She must be! It’s either that, or Gretchen’s now a completely different character, because there’s no way that shy, introverted, neurotic mess who was unable to make friends and who became so nervous talking about herself that she babbled incessantly about Claire is the kind of girl who’d chew her way through six or seven boyfriends before starting college.
Claire pulls Gretchen away from a swinging chain and realizes that “this isn’t a game.” And yet, for reasons that defy all explanation, neither Claire nor Gretchen at any point consider simply walking out of the slaughterhouse and putting the sorority behind them.
Samuel tells Tracy that Jeremy should join the carnival and be surrounded by “his true family.” It’s a remarkable scene for the way it plays on the conversation between Tracy and Jeremy, emphasizing the exhilaration of an ability instead of the sense of vulnerability it causes. What’s even more remarkable is that Samuel argues a point that’s near-identical to Hiro’s last week; that every ability is a gift and binds you to something greater than yourself.
Samuel delivers his spiel with such honesty that you can believe he’s trying to help, as opposed to simply recruiting the supers he needs in order to realize his plan for revenge.
Samuel: “What would you do? Give him a false name, a false life? This is a boy who can work miracles. Why should he be invisible?”
One of the few moments that taps into the biblical undertones behind Jeremy’s storyline. It’s hard to tell whether Samuel’s motive for inviting Jeremy into the carnival is purely to facilitate his plans. The way he sells the carnival as a haven for people with abilities, you can see why Tracy would be tempted to consider the option, if not for herself then at least for Jeremy.
Sylar recognizes Tracy as the one he “helped” back in the day. I find it amusing that he latches onto that part of their relationship instead of the part where he slept with her, fired her, captured her, double-crossed her and tortured her, but if Sylar wants to focus on the happy memories, who can blame him?
We return to Matt’s thread, and the quality of the episode again nosedives.
Matt: “Someone else can control me. My body.”
Janice: “Someone else? Matt, why do you always do this? Come on, we’re just getting close. We’re going on 15 years and you want to blow everything again?”
Is this Janice? Or is someone controlling her body too? For one thing, it’s really not clear what she means when she asks Matt why he always does this.
Always? As in, the time he left to find the people who captured him, or the time he realized he needed to stop THE PEOPLE WHO WERE HUNTING HIS SON? Whichever instance Janice is referring to, you’d think she’d trust Matt’s judgment a little better by now. This is a step back for the character, especially when you realize she was there when agents stormed the house looking for Baby Matt. When she says Matt always does this, you’d think she’d realize she’s referring to the time he left TO RESOLVE A VERY REAL THREAT THAT SHE’D EXPERIENCED FIRST HAND. That’s “blowing everything”? It’s ridiculous because it makes Janice look like she doesn’t trust Matt’s judgment in a crisis.
For another thing, this sounds less like the character who knows about the crazy stuff Matt’s been involved in and more like the character back in Season One. Which ties directly back to the sensational nature of the episode’s opening scene, because we’re reminded of how, a dozen episodes after Janice was written back into the show, she seems as clueless as she was three years ago. She’s stuck having amazing sex without any idea about what’s going on around her. Which is sad, because compared to Sandra, Janice’s role is still limited to that of the clueless spouse who needs to be placated so the story can move along. It’s exasperating to watch because we’re now forced to sit through Matt trying to explain The Sylathan Debacle and watch her incredulous reaction. You can understand why Matt left Janice in the dark about the whole thing, but even without any prior knowledge, Janice has seen and learned enough to know that when Matt says there’s a problem, he’s not just saying it to “blow everything.”
Matt shouts at Ghost-Sylar, Janice freaks out, and Matt tells her he needs to overcome the voice inside his head. Again, it’s saddening in a way, because you can appreciate why Janice would be terrified for herself, for Matt and for their son. And between that and the numerous close-ups on Matt as he tries to explain what’s happening to him…
… it’s not difficult to appreciate why Janice would want to run. It’s a neat parallel to the disintegration of Noah’s marriage, but the crucial difference in that instance is that Sandra made an informed decision, whereas in this instance Janice leaves because she thinks Matt’s crazy. Which is partly tragic and partly amusing, but in no way engaging, and it serves to underline how little character development Janice has gotten since being written back into the story.
Matt: “DON’T! Don’t tell me where you’re gonna go! I don’t want him to hear!”
Janice: “OK.”
Water Delivery Boy Roy! I’ll bet she’s going to stay with Roy!
Matt calls Mohinder and leaves a message to call him back. On the one hand, it’s a cute detail. On the other hand, it’s sad that we’re so delighted to get a name-check for a character simply because he’s been absent for nearly half the season and because any mention of the friendship between these characters is so long overdue.
Ghost-Sylar: “Mohinder? How’s he gonna help you? He’s probably still working on his faaahtha’s resuuuhch.”
OK, that was funny. Cheap humor, but it made me smile and wish we could get a scene between all three characters.
Matt takes a few gulps of beer, realizes it’s affecting Ghost-Sylar, and…
I just need to clarify: we’re watching one of the show’s main characters get drunk in order to… make the ghost of another character who’s stuck inside his head disappear? And… that’s after the ghost took control of his captive’s body to… have sex with his captive’s wife? And now that character is challenging the ghost to stop him from drinking beer?
Did I really just write that last paragraph? Because it’s about the most insane thing I’ve written all season, and that includes “Samuel gives Peter a Magik Tattoo” and “Claire goes from Arlington to Washington to do her laundry.”
Really, all you can say about this part of the episode is Oh. My. God. Should we laugh? Should we feel bad for Matt? Should we root for him to get as plastered as he can or lament what this storyline has come to? It’s so absurd that I’m honestly not sure how I’m supposed to react.
Howdy, folks! Nate P here! Well, you didn’t get to see my glorious face this week. I’m sorry for that. Believe me, if it were up to me, you’d be watching me look at planes every week. Sadly, I don’t make the decisions up there any more than I do down here.
My marketing strategy has taken a strange turn. It’s that damn precognitive artist. Can you believe the nerve of that guy? He told me I wasn’t appealing to the younger demographic and that I needed to create a more vibrant image. I think that’s a load of hooey. Who else my age gets tipsy with a group of frat boys in Mexico? Who else sends government agents to taser civilians and lock them up? WHO’S MORE EXCITING THAN ME?
You don’t want to know what he painted, but you’re probably going to see it sooner or later, so you might as well hear about it from me first. He painted me in tights and boots and wearing a cape and holding a cat under my arm.
I know. Isn’t it just terrible? What was he thinking?
I told him he needed to scrap the whole concept, and that there was no way anyone down here was going to vote for a guy holding a cat. Then he painted me with a ferret! Oh, the nerve! And it wasn’t even a normal ferret! It was some kind of aberration! With glowing eyes and electric energy balls in its paws! I just… Really. That cape! Those tights! That idiot smile! And that damn ferret! It’s just… It’s a bad side of humanity, folks. That’s what it is.
I fired him immediately, of course, but it left me without anyone to handle the marketing for my campaign. Then I figured, hey, maybe trying to persuade the people down here isn’t the best approach. Maybe I need an approach that’s a little tougher.
You’ll never guess who I just met! She looks just like the woman I ended up with in several alternate realities where I was president. But she says she’s not the one I slept with. Or that she is, but not the time I’m thinking of. She says it happened at Linderman’s casino years ago, only she’s not the one I talked to about flying over the desert, or the one who came at me with a giant syringe at the lab that Ma took over. She’s not the one I locked away, either. But she is the one who showed up before I became a congressman and wanted to kill Linderman. I’m very confused, but this might make some kind of sense to all of you. Anyway, she said something about inhabiting bodies and controlling people’s actions, and how that idiot cop up there is going through exactly the same thing she went through with her sister a while back. Have we seen something like this before? She seems to think we have.
She says she got the best death out of everyone here. Didn’t get her throat slit or her head sliced open or anything. She just kind of… vanished. That sounds a lot better than the way they got rid of me.
She likes what they’re doing with the one up there who looks just like her — that the way she sold out her nephew made her a bitch, but that the killing spree was cool. Also, this one likes ripping people’s arms out of their sockets. She says she likes killing people as long as it’s for a good cause. Oh, Ma, you’d love her! She’s EXACTLY the person I need for my campaign. Anyone who’s on the fence about voting for me? She just threatens to rip their limbs off, and suddenly they’re on board!
Well, that’s it from me for this week, folks. Have a great week, and remember to ignore any promotional images of me with electric ferrets.
Jeremy gets released, Noah tells him about the apartment in Washington, and Tracy keeps her magical carnival trip to herself. The fact that Tracy revealing her meeting with Samuel could have drastically changed the course of the entire story doesn’t grate as much as it could, mostly because it’s veiled by the apprehensive optimism that fills the scene. We get a distinct sense of Noah’s thrill at helping Jeremy, of Jeremy’s uncertainty about starting a new life with a new identity, and, crucially…
… of Tracy’s reluctance to confine the kid to a life where he’d need to conceal what he can do. The scene is deftly blocked out, with Tracy’s posture and distance emphasizing that she’s now a world apart from them and unable to share their relief.
Meanwhile, in a slaughterhouse somewhere in Virginia…
Gretchen: “So, wait, you’re saying there’s another one of you here?”
Claire: “It’s very possible.”
Gretchen: “And, what, they’re bored and they’re playing a college prank?”
Claire: “Not a prank.”
Interestingly, Claire doesn’t dispute the boredom part. And, really, given the glacial pace at which this storyline is unfolding, who would? For reasons that defy all logic, everything about this part of the episode is devoid of anything compelling. It should be scary. It should be creepy. It should be unnerving. And if Arkush was directing this the way he directed the third season premiere, and if the person hunting Claire was actually scary, and if there was the slightest sense that anything was at stake, maybe it would be. But somehow, this scene lacks any real tension, and it’s not so much a case of anticipating what’s waiting around the corner as it is counting down the seconds for it to jump out.
Finally, it does, and it turns out to be Miss OMG and The Other One.
Claire: “Let’s just stick together and get the hell out of here, and once we find [the treasure], you can have it. Deal?”
Translation:
Claire: “I really don’t care why I’m here, and all I want is to get out of here. Let’s get this over with.”
Us: “YES! YES! ABSOLUTELY, YES!”
Show: “Wow, this is one riveting storyline! The audience must be on the edge of their seats!”
Noah, Tracy and Jeremy come to the episode’s rescue, providing a string of scenes that are both hauntingly surreal and horrifically vivid. The way the first is shot and edited — handheld, and with muted, warped sound — it’s both hazy and immediate. We get a sense of panic and claustrophobia, but at the same time an odd sense of calm that emerges from the muffled sound and voices in the crowd. As you’re watching the episode, it comes across as just a neat director’s choice. Looking back, you realize it’s a reflection of everything Jeremy’s feeling: his resignation to imprisonment and death, and his realization that he only needed to show what he could do to justify getting locked away.
You could argue the alternative angle and say Jeremy had no intention of causing trouble as he made his way through the crowd, that Jeremy genuinely hoped Noah was right, that he believed he had a shot at a normal life, and that his sense of peace came from knowing there were two people in the world who knew what he’d done and still accepted him for it.
The reason I’m leaning towards the first interpretation is because of the way the scene plays out.
Jeremy’s expression seems less like the look of a kid who’s taken aback after a member of the crowd lunged at him, and more the resigned look of a kid who knows exactly what his actions will mean within the social and historical contexts it’s written in; which is to say, in a town built on prejudice and intolerance towards anyone who’s different.
Through the distorted sound, we hear Noah pleading with Jeremy to heal the guy who just collapsed. The fact that Jeremy doesn’t even try is perhaps because he doesn’t think he’ll get close enough before the sheriff opens fire. The more likely reason, however, especially after we see Jeremy voluntarily trudging back into the police station, is that Jeremy wanted a reason to be locked away, and that he never really believed he deserved to be free in the first place.
Which isn’t to say that Jeremy’s a true paragon or an outright killer, but when he ends up chained to a truck and staring into the eyes of a guy who’s willing to drag a kid around town until it kills him…
… it’s impossible to find it anything other than gut-wrenching. The fact that Jeremy lets out a nervous chuckle when Evil Deputy Gil tells him he’s “not normal” makes it worse, because you realize that Jeremy has convinced himself that the people who judged him were right. He won’t dignify that judgment by giving the deputy what he wants and fighting back, but it seems like he’s come to the conclusion that he deserves to die, and that a life spent concealing what he’s done and what he can do is worse than death.
Which, after watching a deputy with a mob mentality chain up and drag Jeremy around town and get away with it, is what makes Samuel’s vengeance alternately appalling and satisfying.
In a move that echoes a time when the show thought it would be a good idea to follow up 200,000 deaths with Hiro and Ando scuffling over a belt, we cut from Jeremy’s murder…
… to Matt drinking Ghost-Sylar into oblivion.
Which reinforces how catastrophically someone misjudged whether these storylines would flow on from one another, but which also emphasizes how vastly inferior this storyline is compared to the one that went before it.
Matt: “When you’re gone, Janice and I are gonna have a beautiful life together.”
On paper, it reads as decisive. The way Matt says it, it sounds hollow. Nice delivery from Grunberg, and a sign that even if Matt does figure out how to extinguish Ghost-Sylar, his marriage will be over.
Matt watches Ghost-Sylar fade away, just about makes out the image of Janice returning home with Matt’s supervisor in tow, and…
… We’re back to the slaughterhouse, where the grand prize at the end of this initiation turns out to be a teddy bear. Gretchen jokes that she’ll go find “Paris and Nicole,” which was probably intended to be a hip reference, but when you recall that these are members of a sorority which Claire wants to be a part of so badly that she’s willing to put herself through a horrific experience, it’s less amusing than it is hypocritical. If they think so little of their sorority sisters, doesn’t enduring an ordeal like this for the sake of remaining in the sorority seem contrived?
Gretchen: “I shouldn’t have put you on the spot and gotten all relationshippy on you. The last thing you need right now is –”
Claire: “I need you.”
Aw.
Wait, did I just aw that?
Oh. My. GOD.
Well, let’s chalk up one positive next to a long wall of negatives: this episode turned Gretchen from annoying to tolerable. There was less of the satanic smiling and deflection and more of something bordering on a character. I can’t say I find her likeable, but she was tolerable enough this week for me to feel a hint of concern…
… when Rebecca shows up to invisi-choke Claire’s roommate.
Claire thwacks Rebecca with a broomstick, gets skewered, then de-invisibles Rebecca by stabbing her with a meat hook. Miss OMG and The Other One show up in time to witness Rebecca turning invisible and Gretchen helping Claire to haul herself off a steel rod. It should be a moment filled with dread at the repercussions, but it loses a big part of its impact on account of the limited brain cells belonging to the people who witness it. Miss OMG and The Other One have been portrayed as so weak-minded that you can easily see Claire placating them with the idea that her injuries weren’t as serious as they looked, and that Rebecca’s disappearance was a trick of the light.
We return to Noah and Tracy discovering where Jeremy was taken after walking back into the police station.
A group of sorority girls wandering around a slaughterhouse to find a stuffed animal? I can’t say I found that especially scary. A kid’s mutilated body dumped in the middle of the street after getting dragged around town? That’s disturbing, and the fact that the final image is shot from the same angle as it was when Tracy drove into town at the start of the episode illustrates how much has changed for the characters in this story thread. The difference now is that the sun has gone down, the kids have stopped playing and the jokes about lattes have disappeared. Now, all that’s left is grief, guilt and remorse.
Tracy: “Did he have to be invisible? Do you ever think we could just live, Noah? Out in the open?”
Noah: “After today, no.”
Great dialogue, for the historical connotations as much as for the way it sets up Tracy and Noah’s character arcs for the rest of the season. After this, you can believe that Tracy would consider joining the carnival. You can believe that Noah would consider returning to The Company’s original methods if it meant keeping people’s abilities off the radar and preventing anyone from meeting this kind of an end.
Which raises the question about whether this story thread belonged predominantly to Tracy, to Noah, to Jeremy or to the carnival. I think it’s fair to say it advanced each of their character arcs, but particularly Tracy’s, and it’s enormously to Mark L. Young’s credit that he created a character who was sympathetic in spite of a limited backstory and very little screen time. We’re left wondering where Tracy’s storyline can go now that she’s lost the one shot she saw for redemption, and we’re left pondering whether Noah’s life could get any crappier when, instead of helping supers the way he intended to, he turned one of them in to the authorities and inadvertently put him in a situation that got him killed.
On the more lighthearted note, this is not a story thread without a funny side.
Tracy: “Don’t ever call me again.”
Did… Did she just break up with him? Is this THE END OF THE TROAH?
Shippers — you have my sympathy.
Non-shippers — finish your drinks!
No, wait. First, check this out: Matt wakes up, tells Janice and his supervisor that he’s “much better now,” and Janice…
… forgives him and tells him she loves him?
Wait, WHAT?! So she assumes Matt just went a little crazy? That he had commitment issues for a moment, but that he now knows he can’t “always do this” and “blow everything” if he wants his marriage to work? That he just really, really needed a drink?
Ghost-Sylar becomes Ghost-Sylar-controlling-Matt’s-body-with-Ghost-Matt-inside-Matt’s-head. Janice looks worried, but before long, you can bet she’ll be berating Matt for “always doing this” and “blowing everything after 15 years of marriage.”
In the final moments, the show does its best to claw back its credibility.
Beautifully shot. Morbid and horrifying, but the sight of Samuel showing up to avenge the kid whose blood stain he’s standing over? There’s something both grotesque and profound about that.
Again, spectacularly shot, but remarkable above all for what it says about the character — and about us, because it’s hard not to cheer for Samuel when he brings down the building that’s housing the people responsible for Jeremy’s murder.
Which, when you think about it, pretty much means we’re rooting for retributive murder. I wonder if that makes us a bad audience.
This is an episode that darts back and forth between outstanding and abysmal. It has one story thread that’s in turn thought-provoking, engrossing, heartbreaking and stomach-churning. Tracy and Noah’s notions about people with abilities are challenged, and the outcome to a town’s collective mentality is shown in all its brutal horror. From start to finish, this part of the episode was an easy 5 out of 5.
The quality of the episode is dragged into mediocrity by two threads that achieve little to nothing. Claire and Gretchen talk a lot, but in the end they say very little. We know that Claire values Gretchen’s friendship, but it’s not as if we didn’t already know that. Claire and Gretchen discover that Rebecca is malicious, which I guess is something, but given how much of Rebecca’s agenda is still a mystery to them, there’s still a long way for their discovery to go, and as dramatic as it should have been for two new characters to get a glimpse of Claire’s ability, the vacuous, vapid way they were written made them look so dim that the final reveal is something you can easily see being shrugged off.
Above all, the source of the story’s failure is in the setting. The kiss between Claire and Gretchen was not a gimmick. Setting a conversation about Claire and Gretchen’s relationship IN A SLAUGHTERHOUSE before Halloween? THAT’S a gimmick. The most appalling part is how this scary part of a scary episode failed in any way to be remotely scary.
Then there’s Matt’s story thread, which starts with Ghost-Sylar taking control of Matt’s body and ends with Ghost-Sylar taking control of Matt’s body. Inbetween, Janice devolves to her early-Season-One level of cluelessness, Matt gets himself drunk while unwittingly being played by Ghost-Sylar, and Ghost-Sylar mwa-ha-ha’s his way into outsmarting everyone around him yet again. There’s very little in the way of substance anywhere in these scenes, but what little substance there is is substance we’ve seen throughout the series, particularly when it comes to a villain whose ability to outwit everyone around him is predicated on the show’s willingness to stoop as low as it needs to in order to keep his story alive. In this case, they’re willing to suggest that the consciousness that nestled itself inside of another guy can now usurp that other guy’s own consciousness and turn it into the same ghost-state it’s been in since the original mind-control took place.
And I know there should be something tragic about that, but somehow all I can think of is how laughable it was to watch Matt thinking he was overcoming the show’s unkillable villain by getting wrecked.
At least Matt got a brief respite from this appalling storyline when he passed out. If only we all could have been so fortunate.
2.5 out of 5
Let’s hope next week puts the season back on course.
Great review Otto. First?
I didn’t think that this episode was that bad,Otto.
I actually liked the Matt-Sylar storyline. Sylar had some hilarious lines. I think that the point was supposed to be that Sylar knew he could take over Matt’s body once Matt passed out, so he manipulated Matt into getting drunk. Yes, it was stupid of Matt to think that he could get rid of Sylar just by getting drunk but Matt believed it because he wanted a normal life with Janice so badly.As for Janice’s “why do you always do this?”, I think she meant stealing diamonds, going into her mind to manipulate her into sex,etc.
I don’t think the kids deliberately lied about Jeremy killing the animals- I think they noticed animals tended to die around him a lot and assumed he was killing them for kicks.
The ending almost made you root for Samuel taking revenge but remember, Samuel’s rage has been directed against people who don’t deserve it- the woman who refused to allow him entry into the house he grew up in.
The rumor around the internet is that NBC has told the writers to prepare for a series finale at the end of this season. I hope they manage to come up with a satisfying conclusion.
Hey Otto. Good review as per usual.
I didn’t find this episode to be quite as bad as you found it to be. But that’s probably because I saw more hope in the Claire storyline than you did. The reason that Claire and Gretchen didn’t immediately strom out of the slaughterhouse and say ’sorority be damned’ is because they didn’t know how to get out. You’re still free to poke holes a plenty in why they went along with it in the first place, but as to why they continued, they probably figureed that it was the easiest way to get out of their situation. Also, I don’t care if you’re as brainless as those two were- no one sees someone unskewer themselves and can pretend that it just a flesh wound. And if I’m not mistaken, it was sticking out of her chest. She can’t even try to pass it off as a shoulder wound. That makes me wonder, will Claire’s story be turning into Jeremy’s story within the next few episodes? If the two girls tell people, Claire may find herself the target of even worse attacks, seeing as they could attack her till doomsday and she would just keep healing and taking it. And what would happen to Gretchen if that came to pass? She would undoubtedly stand by Claire, but what would the people do to her? And what would Claire do to them for doing that? Would she give them a reason to fear her? And if all that was to happen, you know that Samuel’s revenge here will be topped in every way possible by Noah. Claire’s story intrigues me for the myriad of stories it could hold.
And as for the Noah, Tracy, Jeremy, Samuel storyline, well, there isn’t really much to say there that you didn’t say. It was a fantastic story. I wonder something though. If Tracy chooses the Carnival, and the Carnival winds up facing off against the other heroes, who’ll she choose? The people she has fought with (but had a series off nasty incidents with i.e. fugitive, getting punched in the face by another, this episode) or the people that hold salvation for people like her? Only time could tell. And as for Samuel, I’m loving him. I love villains that do horrible deeds, but they could be justified (unlike Sylar). Morally gray villains are the best kind, because you can actually root for them.
And as for Matt… well you said it all there too. What happened? I used to like his stories. Here’s hoping next weeks Charlie episode makes this seem like a bad dream.
Hi Otto,
Great review. Can’t believe I’m among the early ones to comment. I’m glad you enjoyed the Tracy-HRG-Jeremy story. Myself can’t get into it. They tried too hard for it to work, it just didn’t make any sense. Why HRG needed Tracy to be there? Doesn’t by law it require social workers and lawyer to be present when a minor’s in custody? More importantly, why Miss Ice Queen cared and what’s her ground to ‘break up’ with HRG? How exactly they failed the kid? Can’t save the unwilling! Jeremy had so much guilt killing the parents he gave up on himself. I failed to see the difference if he went with Samuel. He’d probably end up killing himself anyways. The first half of this story was also very slow. I do appreciate the racism undertone though, and it paralleled well with the subtext of homosexuality in Claire’s story. People are just so cruel to the social outcasts.
The Matt-Sylar story was out of place in this episode, IMO. I’m worried it won’t go anywhere…Heck, who am I kidding? They are so entertaining I don’t even care where it’s going and how absurd these two are. It all depends on your perspective. If you root for Sylar (at least the writers do anyways), the Parkman taunting was HILARIOUS. Sylar has the best snarky lines. GG and ZQ work well together. I have the feeling they are this season’s comic relief so Hiro can be serious. They are way funnier, IMO. On a side note, how come Matt had a shirt on during and after the sex but Sylar’s shirtless? The shamelessness of TPTB…Seriously though, they need to tone down the Sylar overload, fast. We are having four episodes straight featuring heavily on three visions of Sylar, it’s getting ridiculous.
Great review! I’m absolutely loving the Nathan commentaries.
The teddy bear at the end of the scavenger hunt was the only thing I really liked about that plot. It was a nice shout out to Claire’s collection, and I wondered if Rebecca put it there as an in story shout out beyond the internal logic.
Hi Otto,
Wonderful review as always.
I felt pretty meh about all the stories this week, they were just all so grim. I personally prefer at least a dash of joy and dignity in the face of (possible) death. That said, all the stories had moments of goodness: Sylar’s one-liners to Matt, Claire and Gretchen talking quasi-sensibly, and the jaw-dropping “are they seriously going to drag him behind a truck?!?” moment. Ok, and Samuel taking down a building.
I totally agree with Senator Nathan’s new arm-ripping friend that Matt being controlled by Sylar is a rehash of Niki/Jessica, except that Matt isn’t stuck in a mirror (oh, the freedom!). I have absolutely no idea how “getting drunk” dislodged Matt from the controls of his body in such a way to give Sylar more control than he got when Matt fell asleep and he turned him into a sex-god (I’m assuming that people generally wake up while having sex… no?) It was all very non-logical, and not well explained. Couldn’t Matt just have woken up one day, and Sylar had figured out a way to permanently take him over overnight - and gone on a search for his body right there and then? As it happened, it felt like stalling.
Now, I kind of liked the slaughterhouse shout-out to Halloween, but as you say, it never felt scary. (Also, only four girls are joining the sorority?) Anyway, the main problem I had here is that the only person I care an inkling about is Claire (although, yes, Gretchen grew on me a bit this week), and it’s hard to worry too much about somebody who can’t die while running around a dark deserted house of horrors with no exits clearly labelled. The whole thing played like NBC had demanded a “scary story” for Halloween, except the writers weren’t fully on board with the oh-so-brilliant marketing idea - having already envisioned a chat in a sauna or something. That said, I was glad that the writers decided to present the “take charge” version of Claire as opposed to whiny Claire. I guess she got put into character-rehab along with the now-smiling-no-longer-whining Peter over the hiatus…
With regards to the superior Noah/Tracy/Jeremy story, I found it most intriguing that the writers decided to kill off the only currently known healer (I’m assuming Peter won’t hold on to that power forever) in the Heroes world. Too tricky a power to write around? Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see where Noah and Tracy go next…
Here’s hoping that next week brings good stuff.
I don’t know Otto, I think you entirely missed the point with this one review. Yes, Jeremy’s story was so painful and so well realized and moved the stories of three characters forward with strength, while cementing Samuel’s place as not just a villain for the sake of being a villain, but someone with a motive which is “not tolerating intolerance”, which is amazing.
I think the dialogue between Gretchen and Claire, WAS indeed profound. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only guy who was CERTAIN beyond a doubt that it would be Claire saying “I like you, just not that way”, and the fact that she even HAS doubt and is considering it is definitely worthy of applause, since I’m sure most people did not expect them to stick to it beyond the kiss episode. I think Claire telling Gretchen that “she just wants a normal life” means that, finding herself to be gay would be considered by MANY teenagers to be complicating their lives (hell, I thought so when I was a teenager) and not wanting to deal with it. I think “Paris and Nicole” were actually meant to be that vacuous, as a way to accentuate exactly just HOW MUCH Claire and Gretchen do not fit in, and we’re MEANT to know that the both of them should realize this, that it’s not worth it to go through so much crap just to try to fit in. I think it’s the whole point of this storyline and it accomplishes it, because, yes, you are constantly wondering “why do they take all this just to fit in?” when seen in counterpoint with what Claire told Gretchen in thier dorm room the intent of the thread is clear and successful. Claire telling Gretchen “I need YOU”, was not only brave and unexpected, but it’s the character realizing this is what’s really important, not the stupid sorority, for which sake she could’ve lost Gretchen. In contrast to Jeremy’s story, this was supposed to be lighthearted but with a deeper background, and I think it accomplished it.
As for Matt’s storyline. Sylar didn’t kill Janice because of his very own sadistic nature, we’ve seen him so many times before play with his victims like a predator playing with it’s prey before killing it. He DID tell Matt he would probably kill her next time. I find it to be FAR more evil to screw Janice and let Matt know how much she enjoyed it more than she would’ve with him. This to me is PERFECTLY in character for Sylar, and it’s FAR BETTER storytelling than having him kill Janice. As for Janice’s reaction to Matt’s news, I think this is where you missed the point more than you have in quite a long time, Otto; think back to season 1, and you’ll see it’s EXACTLY why she reacts that way; Matt kept bailing on her for reasons which, at the time, she did not understand fully, I remember all throughout the latter part of season 1 thinking “what about Janice? Matt just left her and forgot about her, she must be pissed” because he promised a million times things would change. What do you think her expectations really were when they got back together and he swore off his powers to work on their marriage? ANy normal wife would’ve thought “good, we’ll finally have a normal marriage”, and then all of a sudden there’s a ghost serial killer in Matt’s head? How ELSE could she have reacted? Now, Matt didn’t start drinking to get rid of Sylar, he was simply drinking, then he noticed Sylar’s slurred speech and strange behavior (THIS WAS SYLAR TOTALLY MANIPULATING HIM, HOW COULD YOU MISS THAT?) and fell right into Sylar’s trap, he thought he was doing damage, and all he was doing was drinking himself unconscious to give Sylar the chance to fully take over. To me Quinto’s performance in this episode was EXCELLENT, because throughout the whole situation I kept thinking, “I can’t believe Quinto’s acting so badly”, his groans and slurred speech looked SO FAKE, and I know he’s so much better than that, and then it all became clear: he was pretending, and in his performance Quinto was making it extremely clear on purpose. To me this story worked and opened up such a cool prospect, I’m excited to watch.
I agree with you on the last two points totally. The Samuel thing still needs some clearing up.
I didn’t think this episode was as bad as you thought it was.
Yes the Tracy/Noah story line was sad and heartfelt. Yes it made me think about the two different directions that the characters might go in, and I agree that it didn’t fit in this episode. The thing that bothered me about it is that we might have found out more about Samuel, but we didn’t find out more about his motives. He hates people who are against/harm specials, but his hate seems misdirected. Sure, we saw Jeremy get dragged through the streets, but only by two guys. What about the cop (I assume the sheriff) who seemed to want to do it legally? I can’t root for Samuel because it was pure, cold hate that fueled his revenge. If it was justifiable, he would just kill the two idiots who dragged poor Jeremy through the streets instead of downing a police station who could have had people who were innocent concerning Jeremy’s murder inside.
As for Claire and Gretchen, I never had the problem with Gretchen that you did because I knew weird, neurotic messes liker her that were never all that bad, just a little strange. I enjoyed the conversation about the kiss and their relationship between them, but I agree on the hazing/slaughterhouse thing, LAME (especially since I go to a hazing free school where that stuff isn’t allowed). I think it would have been much more poignant in a different setting. I admit it is good to know that Invisichick’s ability is out of the closet now, but I didn’t think “Paris and Nicole” were as stupid as you thought they were. They seemed just shallow to me. I have a feeling that their discovery of Claire might lead to Claire calling in a Haitian favor, or she might deal with it on her own. We shall see.
As for Matt/Sylar, I think I haven’t laughed harder at this show in the longest time, but not out of ridiculousness, but because some of it is genuinely funny. I like Sylar’s snark, it always makes me chuckle. As for the sex thing, I wouldn’t call it completely out of character. I understood why he did it, and it works on multiple levels. First is the obvious one about Matt being sensitive still about the whole Janise cheating on him with another dude. Second is the idea that he can control Matt’s body, and if he doesn’t do what he wants, he can take it over again to hurt her instead along with his son. In a way it illustrates that Sylar is willing to do anything to get what he wants, but he seems to be going out of his way to warn Matt, the dude just isn’t getting the message. I think by now Matt should have called Bennett to let him know about the massive issue “rattling around” in his head. (Matt deserves many PINGS for his behavior about this situation.) Unfortunately I think Matt is still latching on to the hope that he can keep Sylar from getting out into the rest of the world to harm others. Too bad that he just isn’t strong enough, or smart enough (because face it, he is one of the smartest characters on the show) to keep him in check. I hope that now that Sylar is in charge, things get done.
As for Janice, I never cared about her enough for her character development to matter to me. If she gets some, good. If she doesn’t, whatever.
Can’t wait till next week.
Hiya. Great review, as always.
Agreed on the quality (or not) of the 3 storylines.
- Tracy/Noah/Jeremy was the core of this week episode, and good thing that Samuel showed up. It was moving slowely before, and it gave a point/parallel to the whole thing. Not adding much to your analysis. Goodbye Troah!
- Sylar/Matt/Janice :
Well, it didn’t move that much forward, but at least it was entertaining. I’ve gotta say that Sylar screwing Janice for the hell of it just seemed out of character to me. It was just too “normal” and we all know how Sylar hates normality, at least I thought that was one of the point of his FAILED REDEMPTION ARC last season, and his whole second season arc that consisted in getting his powers back… etc.
Matt, I’ll give a point to the poster above that pointed out that he just started drinking and noticed he was going away. But he clearly deserves a *PING* for thinking he can drinking him away, especially since he clearly says that he thinks the whole thing is in his head. Of course, I’m sad to see that clearly, Sylar is in his head and it’s not Matt losing control over his ability, which I would have found more interesting.
Janice : sigh… While I would understand why, under normal circonstances, she would have left, or thought that Matt was crazy, I think she deserves a *PING* for not even trying to trust Matt. Since she clearly knows about supers (you know, because Matt and Matt are specials), I don’t see how she can act that cluelessly anymore. Geez, I miss you-know-who… Hiro has to go back in time save all the awesome characters…
- Claire/Gretchen… Meh, I don’t care… But, I’ll also point out that you can draw a (small) parallel to Jeremy with Claire’s ability being revealed although I’m not sure Dumb and Dumber even realized it (sorry but I didn’t get/care of their names). Also, Becky deserves a *PING* for turning invisible in front of D&D. I know she was stressed by, you know, getting stabbed but she could have played it more smartly. It wouldn’t be that hard to make D&D think that she was trying to help Claire and/or tell her Claire and Gretchen are crazy and stabbed her (can’t know at which part ot the scene they arrived) , or at least, running without turning invisible in front of them.
Overall, I see some good points in this episode :
- Troah splitting and going different directions, and maybe we’ll (finally after 8 eps) see the new Company to compare with the old AND the carnivale.
- Maybe see normal people’s reaction to superpowered people (Jeremy, maybe Claire), not in an alternate reality.
- Love the point someone raised about Samuel being a villain against intolerance. Poetic if that’s how the writers want us to see it and way more interesting than Sylar that has been one-dimensional (daddy/mommy issues aside) for a while now.
By the way : Is this a new writer that wrote the episode? (never saw the name before personally).
I have high hopes for next weeks, but it seems totally like a hit-or-miss episode. Hoping they don’t mess it up (*looks at the “3 years ago” chyron).
PS : “Forcing Sylar to rewatch Season Two 65%”. Not cool :(. I guess I’m the only one who prefered S2 over S3…
Another PS : Did you try not to give “Dumb as awards”? It seemed like lot of people deserved them this week…
I don’t think Becky deserves a *PING* for turning invisible in front of D&D- if Becky was arrested, it would be Claire’s and
Gretchen’s words against hers-two against one. It would be very likely that she would be convicted.
j meant that she was stupid for turning invisible * in front of them*. I just thought she could have waited to be out of the room to turn invisible, that way (depending on when they arrived in the room) D&D wouldn’t have known it.
Otto,
I was not looking forward to this episode at all, except for the Noah and Jeremy storyline. So it’s kind of nice to see that you didn’t really enjoy it.
Wow, Noah gets a “Dumb As” Award? Is nothing sacred? lol Actually I thought he handed her a picture of Jeremy, but I really don’t know.
We end up thinking he should be released because we know that in the end he’s a well-intentioned kid, but Jeremy demonstrates surprising maturity when he implies that letting him out of his cell puts everyone in danger.
Yeah, he did seem like a well-intentioned kid. The only issue I had with this story was the police saying he killed animals for fun. That definitely does NOT paint him as a well-intentioned kid.
Or are we supposed to believe that’s what the police believe on hearsay evidence? I had a hard time taking it as that, but it’s a minor fault for an otherwise amazing and sad story.
Was I the only one expecting Tracy to freeze his hand just a bit instead of going to water? That was another disappointment, but still not enough to ruin the rest.
Evil Deputy Gil vouches for the schoolkids describing Jeremy killing animals “for fun.” It’s an odd detail, because even if Jeremy was inadvertently killing frogs in biology, would he be giving the impression that it’s “fun”? Given the grief he demonstrates over the course of these two episodes, do we assume that all of the kids at the high school hate him enough to distort the truth in exactly the same way? Or did Jeremy take a perverse pleasure in draining the life out of animals? Not a crucial detail, but certainly something that, with hindsight, sticks out as anomalous.
Ah, I jumped the gun a bit. Actually what bothered me the most was the mention of killing dogs or did I not hear that correctly?
The scene is deftly blocked out, with Tracy’s posture and distance emphasizing that she’s now a world apart from them and unable to share their relief.
They’ve been doing that a lot this season - Noah and Peter, Peter and Angela. It makes me love the show even more with all these subtle little details.
Beautifully shot. Morbid and horrifying, but the sight of Samuel showing up to avenge the kid whose blood stain he’s standing over? There’s something both grotesque and profound about that.
Again, spectacularly shot, but remarkable above all for what it says about the character — and about us, because it’s hard not to cheer for Samuel when he brings down the building that’s housing the people responsible for Jeremy’s murder.
Yes, it was an amazing scene. Although, I didn’t even notice that was where Jeremy died. Not having an HD TV, I completely missed the blood on the road.
Let’s hope next week puts the season back on course.
I hope so, but after the preview I’m a bit leery of it. I’m already bracing myself for the “RETCON” claims that are sure to appear. If nothing else, I’m looking forward to Monday’s preview of the NEXT episode for more Peter.
I didn’t hear anything about dogs, but the frog theory was mine, if that helps.
Good news! Channel 7’s second digital channel (called, imaginatively enough, 7 TWO) starts this weekend, and they’ve been showing clips of season 3/volume 3 in the launch promo - so it looks like I might be seeing season 4 soon…
Since the next episode involves Hiro and his bucket list, I have to ask: is he going to go back at some point and save those gamblers that Jessica ripped apart? You know, a “do over”, like he said he would way back when it happened?
Hey, at least the Halloween-themed storyline didn’t stoop to “and then she woke up, and it was all just a dream… but then someone walked past who’d been in a dream, so maybe it wasn’t a dream after all.”
Another point. My reaction to Claire/Gretchen is purely subjective in that I’m a fan of Doctor Who and its spin-off Torchwood. These shows feature an omnisexual immortal named Captain Jack Harkness, played by John Barrowman, who is openly gay. These shows air on the equivalent of network TV in Britain and integrate the issues of sexuality into the narrative. American TV is too tentative with this stuff, even when TPTB mean well. As a result, I find Claire/Gretchen flat and pedestrian.
The sad thing about this show is that the bad parts are always glaringly apparent and never fail over-shadow the parts that really should make the episode a good one. I just skipped over the last part of Claire’s story-line, knowing it would be terrible and that I could find out what happened here. My eyes were watering along with Tracy’s when she dumped Noah. I’m not sure what I’ll do with all the Troah T-shirts I made. Unrelated: Are you in need of shirts, Otto?
Heart-braking how Jeremy’s story ended. It was sickening and atrocious and just all-around tragic. I’m refraining from mentioning Matt’s story as I’m eating at the moment and we just had our carpets cleaned.
Hey, Otto. I have to say, I didn’t think this episode was nearly as bad as you made it out to be. It’s far from their best, but wasn’t the worst. I think that the performances were strong all around, but some things didn’t work.
Regarding the Claire/Gretchen plot, I thought it was handled well. I’m starting to like Gretchen. I like how it’s unclear how Claire feels about the kiss, she didn’t just rush into the “It’s not you, it’s me” spiel. She might genuinely like Gretchen as a potential gf, but she doesn’t know that yet. As for the slaughterhouse, I can see how the Halloween thing would be disturbing or even cheap, but honestly, the setting didn’t surprise me. Sorority hazings can be brutal, and yes, in some cases, downright dangerous. It’s not just a Claire thing; plenty of girls have gone through hell in order to pledge. But in this situation, I can see Claire doing just that; willingly going through hell to get the life she truly wants.
I was also impressed with how Claire handled herself. I’m the first one to gripe about her many issues, but you can’t deny that she has really grown since the first season. She’s not the cheerleader from Odessa anymore. The way she defended herself & Gretchen during the midnight kidnapping was well played. You could tell that was relying purely on instinct and experience.
I believe the “Oh My God” Girl was a direct contrast to Claire; who probably would have reacted the same way three years ago. Her telling the girl to shut up and get a grip was a nice touch. Claire was clearly the most level-headed and practical of the group. And the fact that now 3 girls know her secret is intriguing.
Sylar/Matt. Well, this bothered me for a few reasons, but not the ones you mentioned. I’m in the minority that honestly thought that Matt’s drinking ploy was working. Was it silly and contrived? Yes, but the reason I thought it made sense was because if Sylar’s consciousness really is in Matt’s brain, then anything that would affect Parkman’s mind would inevitably affect Sylar. Alcohol is a sedative; so I figured he was literally sedating Sylar. I knew it wouldn’t be permanent; Matt would have to be bombed 24/7 in order to keep Sylar at bay. But when it was revealed that Sylar was playing Matt all along, I felt cheated. It was the Ink storyline all over again. Once again, Sylar proves to be unbeatable. Even when Quinto did his “evil laugh,” I felt nothing. Although he did have some of the best lines of the night. But the plot didn’t feel stupid, just lazy.
The Jeremy plot was heartfelt, but lost on me. I just couldn’t get into it. The ending was tragic, but took too long to get there. Heroes was lifting a few contemporary events this week; the parallels to Matthew Shepherd were obvious. But I cannot lie, I am so glad that Troah isn’t happening.
Extremely thrilled. Beyond overjoyed.
As for Tracy’s brief stint at the Carnival, I knew she would be going back there. Samuel is awesome. The scene would have been great save for the cabana-boy hat that Sylar was wearing. I know that actually belongs to Zach Quinto, but he should leave that in his trailer. I honestly can’t see Sylar or Gabriel wearing it. Cracks me up.
I give the episode a 3/5.
“Matt would have to be bombed 24/7 in order to keep Sylar at bay.”
Let’s hope that’s not where they’re going with this.
I’ll be honest. Samuel is the only thing saving the show for me right now. Yes, there were innocent people in the police station, but it was really, really difficult not to cheer when he brought it down. And here is why I (again!) don’t understand the need for Sylar–at least not the need for two/three/four of him. Samuel one-ups Danko, who one-upped Arthur, who one-upped Adam, and right now I’d take ANY of them over Sylar.
Funny thing is, when Sylathan first was taken out by Millie, I groaned because while I thought I could take Sylar-in-Matt, I wasn’t ready for the real thing. That turned out to be reversed since the real thing IS Sylar-in-Matt, and now THAT’S the storyline I can’t stand. Empty Shell Sylar at the carnival is actually less painful.
I’m still not feeling the Glaire, and that flying shot of her with West is one reason why. Thanks for the reminder, Otto. Not that I felt anything but contempt for West. I guess they’re going the “bi” route with both Claire and Gretchen.
Now I have to comment on the “Fallen Heroes.” THAT made me feel some nostalgia for the lost second half of season two as well as some abandoned elements of early season 3. How much more interesting would it have been for Tracy to further explore her origins and to reveal some backstory on the dearly departed Niki in the process? Think about it. We now know that Niki and Tracy were triplets, but we have no idea who the REAL Jessica was. We always assumed she was an identical twin, but Zimmerman shot that theory all to hell (and with Niki and D.L. dead and Micah’s “Rebel” role now expired, we probably never WILL know just who the hell the real Jessica was). They were clearly going to go in some now-abandoned direction with the Zimmerman story, and now it appears we’ll never get any of that, and that’s really too bad. I’d have preferred it to another rousing performance of “Variations on a Theme by Sylar Grey Quinto.”
About the “series finale” thing…how certain is that? I was under the impression that Kring had some sort of agreement with NBC that the show would be on for five seasons. As far as I can tell, it is STILL the network’s flagship scripted non-sitcom. As far as I can tell, the ancillaries STILL bring in a lot of cash. Is it really set in stone? Otto, what do you know? What have you heard?
Oh, and writers, if there’s any way to avoid the consciousness of Sylar-in-Matt making it back to the shell at the carnival, that’d be swell. I know that there’s no chance you’ll be able to resist the temptation to do just that, but let’s hope you have it in you. Come on, you KNOW you can do it. Resist…resist…resis…ah, what’s the point.
Oh, I agree, 100%, that we need to get a legitimate backstory for Tracy - AT LEAST. So far, we only know that she’s a triplet, was given her powers when she was a baby, lived in SoCal, and then got into politics. But we know NOTHING about her family life, her school life, WHY she got into politics, HOW she got into politics…And, yeah, I’m of the firm belief that Jessica was never just an identity created by MPD. I still believe that, had Bryan Fuller remained with the show in season two, we’d have gotten a heck of a lot more Niki (because Fuller is an admitted MAJOR Larter fan) and probably would’ve seen the Niki/Jessica storyline fleshed out more because the ending in 1.23 was not much of an ending and the entire first season never made it obvious that it was just MPD. It was when Bob came in and when Gina was introduced that those chances were ruined and I don’t think that would’ve happened if Fuller had still been on the show.
ANYWAY, long story short - YES, Tracy needs to explore her history and we need to get some more details on her life and the people around her. Maybe she could go to learn more about Niki and run into Hal in the process? Maybe we could see if her family was messed up and that could be a reason why she turns to the Carnival for one? Maybe she could GO LOOKING FOR BARBARA, an attempt to find family, and end up turning to the Carnival when she can’t find her or finds a woman that she doesn’t want to be a sister to?
I dunno. But I definitely feel like we should be getting a Tracy backstory instead of a rushed lesbian-Claire storyline that should be stretched out over an entire season and not crammed into almost every episode.
It would make a lot of sense for Tracy to look Barbara up. If Tracy’s looking to connect with family and trying to figure out how to come to terms with what she can do, knowing there’s a sister out there with an ability would be a major factor.
I think there’s also the fact that the picture she saw of the Zimmermans in 3.04 showed Barbara looking quite happy; so, whatever ability she has and whatever she’s been through, it looks like she’s reconciled to her ability to a point where she’s able to live with it quite comfortably. Which is more or less what Tracy is looking for right now.
Hm…I agree 100% with your view of the Tracy/Noah/Jeremy storyline. It was truly perfect and profound and really heatbreaking. Everyone involved delivered stellar performances and I was really happy to get a legitimate Tracy storyline for the first time this season - seeing as the season premier had her working with Noah, 4.04 barely featured her storyline (though it was still great), and everything else has been relatively minor. But here? Here she’s finally roped into the major story arc and that, for me, is REALLY exciting since she’s easily my favorite character.
However, I don’t think the Sylar/Matt storyline was all that ridiculous. It worked, for me - maybe because I was a huge fan of the Niki/Jessica storyline and almost wonder if THIS was how it was supposed to go (us finding out Jessica’s “mind” was somehow implanted in Niki’s, just like Sylar’s is in Matt’s). The drinking part could lead to a really dark, realistic alcoholism storyline for Matt and the logic behind it makes sense, too. Alcohol alters the way your brain works and Sylar is only in Matt’s head. Naturally, the alcohol would wound Sylar and weaken him. Also, I think it makes perfect sense for Sylar to start reaching out and taking complete control of Matt’s body. If he manages to do this, he could force Matt into telling him what happened to his (Sylar’s) body and forcing him to give it back to him. In my opinion, it just works. And both actors did a fantastic job, I felt - Quinto was hysterical and Grunberg was so…pitiful (but in a good way).
The weakest part of the storyline, for me, was the Claire/Gretchen one. I don’t buy their chemistry “as a couple” and I would greatly prefer for them to draw out their emotional conflict - or, rather, CLAIRE’s emotional conflict of doubting her sexuality. The writers can’t flip a switch and, between last week’s episode and this one, suddenly have Claire considering a relationship with a girl. We need to see it progress and develop. That’s what made Willow’s becoming a lesbian on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” so powerful and effective and believable. Both characters have some serious similarities in their love lives - Willow only ever had feelings for two guys and only really date one, Claire has had feelings for two guys and only really dated one - and I just feel like the change for Claire isn’t as…realistic as Willow’s because it’s too abrupt, for me. The kiss last week was PERFECT - shocking, funny, but also really powerful - but this week it seems like the writer are making an organic moment INTO a cheap ratings gimmick by instantly having Claire consider being gay.
Overall, I’D have given the episode maybe…3.5 out of 5. Just because the Tracy storyline was genius and exciting and thought-provoking and emotional and the Matt/Sylar storyline was really entertaining and intriguing, to me. Claire’s storyline was the weak link and I really think we need some real time without Claire - like…two episodes without her.
Sorry, West!
He’s a boy - they don’t count (LOL) in the way Claire is telling it, to her own defense, and I HATED this part of the ep, so take that into consideration. Boyfriends are different and she didn’t know him that long did she.
Gretchen takes the words out of my mouth. That in itself is shocking, but what’s equally shocking is that this episode devotes several scenes to Claire telling Gretchen that she’s not sure how she feels. So, essentially, the scenes between Claire and Gretchen amount to nothing besides postponing their relationship until Claire figures out how she feels. It’s great that the show explores what the kiss means to both of them, but the result is several scenes devoid of substance. It’s not even true to say that Claire tells Gretchen she’d prefer to remain friends; Claire spends the episode refusing to commit to a decision. It’s an episode of indecision, and that’s exasperating because it leads to nothing that advances the story.
Totally agree and makes you feel like the whole idea is contrived the writers, this being a way for it to be prolonged and get people to watch only to end in Claire releasing she confused her friendship with Gretchen, but does like boys. But as Gretchen had to go on about she had more boyfriends then girlfriends… (like Claire??)
Is she lying? She must be! It’s either that, or Gretchen’s now a completely different character, because there’s no way that shy, introverted, neurotic mess who was unable to make friends and who became so nervous talking about herself that she babbled incessantly about Claire is the kind of girl who’d chew her way through six or seven boyfriends before starting college.
I see your point, but low self esteem prompts promiscuity in girls.
Samuel delivers his spiel with such honesty that you can believe he’s trying to help, as opposed to simply recruiting the supers he needs in order to realize his plan for revenge.
YES! And this is where Heroes is at it’s best - that you get where the villains are coming from - you may not agree with their means, but you get it and you feel for them.
>One of the few moments that taps into the biblical undertones behind Jeremy’s storyline. It’s hard to tell whether Samuel’s motive for inviting Jeremy into the carnival is purely to facilitate his plans. The way he sells the carnival as a haven for people with abilities, you can see why Tracy would be tempted to consider the option, if not for herself then at least for Jeremy.
I think he actually believes both. But in general is what’s great about this story line, other than showing us the two worlds “the company” hide and the carnival out in the open - and plot wise makes for a major believer reason she would go toward the carnival.
As for Jancie, I was appalled! People say Heidi should have believed Nathan, but I mean what proof does she have, Janice has proof. I mean yes she seems to not know the extent to what Matt can do, or the world he is from, but to not only not believe him, okay maybe she just still can’t fathom this since she hasn’t been in that world - but to call his sponsor. She knows he’s NOT an alcoholic - he’s faking to be in AA.
Which is partly tragic and partly amusing, but in no way engaging, and it serves to underline how little character development Janice has gotten since being written back into the story.
If she ran scared that would be another thing, but this…. oh I shake my head.
Water Delivery Boy Roy! I’ll bet she’s going to stay with Roy!
Hehe
“Claire goes from Arlington to Washington to do her laundry.”
Well, we could say it was a rouge to check up on dad, she was worried for him.
Through the distorted sound, we hear Noah pleading with Jeremy to heal the guy who just collapsed. The fact that Jeremy doesn’t even try is perhaps because he doesn’t think he’ll get close enough before the sheriff opens fire. The more likely reason, however, especially after we see Jeremy voluntarily trudging back into the police station, is that Jeremy wanted a reason to be locked away, and that he never really believed he deserved to be free in the first place.
I saw a boy who had given up. Very well done.
Tracy: “Don’t ever call me again.”
Did… Did she just break up with him? Is this THE END OF THE TROAH?
YAY!!
The end with Samuel, I totally agree.
“I see your point, but low self esteem prompts promiscuity in girls.”
That’s exactly what I was thinking. Those six or seven boyfriends weren’t the captain of the football team or the Prom King, but I have no problem believing it’s possible for a girl like Gretchen w/self esteem issues that isn’t afraid of, ahem, experimenting, to have had six or seven boyfriends in high school.
It’s episodes like this one that just make me cringe. If not for Sylar’s snark and the Georgia storyline, this would’ve been the worst episode I’d ever seen. I mean, really show? You really think we wanna see Parkman get it on?
Also, being a proud Straight-Edger, the alcohol portion made me rage so hard. You know what kind of message that sends? “Hey kids! Got a problem? Drink it away and all of them will disappear!”
And repeating once again, AWESOME REVIEW Otto
Going into this episode, I REALLY wasn’t sure what to expect from it. I thought it was abysmally placed in schedule. Considering “Tabula Rasa” ended with the shot of Hiro back in Season 1, having this episode here made me cringe. And the best part of it is that you actually pointed out what I loathed about this episode and what I loved. Claire’s storyline was underplayed and ridiculous, and in the end, some kind of a waste. I thought that this was the moment where they could have write off the kiss “gimmick” and establish what they meant with them kissing in the first place. But again, you said it. The scenario was a cheap GIMMICK attempt at cashing ratings for Halloween when there was no type of theme for Halloween throughout, Claire and Gretchen talked A LOT and in the end their conversation meant NOTHING. And the last thing, Claire and Gretchen are NO TARA/WILLOW. They don’t have the writing those previous characters enjoyed. So yeah, the whole Claire storyline, TERRIBLE.
Matt and Sylar’s thread was a mixed bag in the biggest of the cases. The only thing serving for this storyline in my opinion was ZQ’s performance as Sylar. While haphazardly shown, this episode really shortly kind of gave me a glimpse of dynamic TV with both Sylars. And I still like devilish fun Sylar. But as your review pointed out, the things sucking the fun of the storyline was character regression with Janice and the amusing-but-in the end crappy solution of drinking was ridiculous. Actually, Otto, didn’t this remind you of “that time” of the bread baguette in a certain episode of Vol.4 ?
And then there was the Noah storyline. You perfectly nailed that part in you review. I think that if the episode had focused on JUST THIS STORYLINE ala Company Man, it would have been the perfect episode. Heart felt, thought provoking, gut wrenching, etc. This, and the shot of Samuel sinking the building, were the redemptive parts of an episode that was surely going to get a big backlash in the wait of a more promising looking episode next week, which in my opinion, SHOULD HAVE BEEN the one airing this week. They did the same thing in Homecoming and right next was Six Months Ago. Why didn’t they do the same thing after “Tabula Rasa”? Did they want a gimmicky sort of “Halloween” episode this week? I will never understand NBC executives.
So going into next week, Otto, how BIG are your expectations? Will you raise your expectations as high as in “1961″? Last time it didn’t work well, remember. I will somehow be somewhere in the middle. Thankfully it is Hiro literally going BACK to the past instead of a vision. That way he will literally rewrite the past instead of the writers looking like retardeds. I am not expecting another “Villains”. But on the other hand, after reading the comment of Masi Oka about this being his “FAVORITE EPISODE OF THE SERIES SO FAR HE HAS MADE”, Hiro’s “Company Man”, I will remain optimistic. They promised the same thing with “1961″ and failed. And I don’t want “Once Upon a Time in Texas” to fail. It’s the perfect time to fully redeem Hiro. Finish what he started with in “Tabula Rasa”. I hope it delivers. Until then, see you until next Friday.
Matt’s current story line is no more absurd than his ’spirit walk’ in volume three imo.
Zack, welcome, and thank you.
Michael, I’m glad you didn’t think it was as bad as I did. I agree, Sylar had some amusing lines. I’m not sure entertaining dialogue was enough to save the weak story, but I agree that at times it was funny.
“I think that the point was supposed to be that Sylar knew he could take over Matt’s body once Matt passed out, so he manipulated Matt into getting drunk.”
Absolutely, but that’s a big part of my issue with it. As B. mentioned upthread, it’s a riff on 4.03 — Sylar: “A-ha! I’ve outwitted you with my deviousness yet again!” — and it makes Matt look like a fool. I’d almost prefer to think Sylar had no idea this would work, and that he just jumped on the opportunity when it presented itself.
The other part about the twist that bugs me is that Sylar knew about it at all: I mean, HOW? Matt doing something that affects his head = something that affects Sylar-in-his-head. Fine. That makes sense. But Sylar somehow knowing that Matt getting tipsy = opportunity to take over Matt’s body permanently? How could he possibly have known that? It’s one of those instances where we’re meant to shrug it off and say, “Oh, he’s Sylar, he just ~*knows*~ these things.” I can usually let that kind of stuff go, but in this case taking control of Matt’s body is a pivotal part of the plot, and we’re meant to buy it because, well, Sylar just ~*knows*~ these things. As contrived plot devices go, this strikes me as one of the worst.
“As for Janice’s “why do you always do this?”, I think she meant stealing diamonds, going into her mind to manipulate her into sex,etc.”
Yes, but surely that’s precisely why it doesn’t work: she knows better after having a kid with an astounding ability and discovering that her spouse has the ability to read minds and control thoughts. If Matt says there’s a problem related to his ability, surely the solution is to figure out how to help him or to find someone who can help him, as opposed to basically saying, “Well, there’s obviously something wrong with you, I’m outta here, and I’ll bring back your supervisor to help with what’s obviously an alcohol problem.” Janice is still in the dark on a lot of parts of Matt’s life and abilities, but she knows enough to trust that Matt isn’t trying to ruin his marriage for the hell of it when he says there’s a problem. She knows there are implications to having an ability — she’s seen that stuff for herself. The fact that that was ignored completely in this episode is why I think it undermined her character arc, and, by extension, Matt’s entire story thread.
CJM,
“I don’t care if you’re as brainless as those two were- no one sees someone unskewer themselves and can pretend that it just a flesh wound.”
I don’t know, I can see Claire taking the same “Whatever you think you saw — you didn’t see it!” approach that she took with Gretchen, and I can’t imagine Paris and Nicole being nearly as persistent as Gretchen about getting to the truth. They’ll probably be traumatized enough that they just want to put it behind them.
Great point about Claire’s story taking a similar turn to Jeremy’s. That would be a neat thematic tie, and it would achieve what Rebecca was trying to accomplish with the flagpole in 4.05.
JamieD, I’m sorry the Tracy/HRG/Jeremy thread wasn’t working for you. I’m surprised to hear you say the show “tried too hard for it to work.” I thought they managed to say a lot with very little, kind of the opposite to the Claire storyline this week. I think “Miss Ice Queen” cared because she’d gone through the same guilt trip at the start of Volume Three, and because she’d decided she wanted to make a difference in the world in 4.04. I saw this as a nice development to something that had been set up quite effectively, which is why it didn’t strike me as if they had to work too hard to make it look like a logical progression. It is very much a YMMV thing, though.
With Tracy breaking up with HRG, I saw it mostly as Tracy wanting to get as far away from HRG as she could because she realized that everything he touches goes wrong and causes pain and suffering and death for the people around him. That’s part of the tragedy behind HRG’s character arc.
“How exactly they failed the kid? Can’t save the unwilling!”
I think Tracy and HRG both felt that somehow they could have inspired Jeremy with more optimism, or that they could have convinced him that his parents’ deaths weren’t his fault if they’d been more emphatic, or that they could have found a solution that didn’t involve concealing his ability for the rest of his life, which is where Tracy’s visit to the carnival comes into play.
“I failed to see the difference if he went with Samuel. He’d probably end up killing himself anyways.”
I’m tempted to disagree with this, because it’s very possible that if Jeremy had gained a sense of belonging and acceptance at the carnival, and if he hadn’t felt like such a freakish outcast, it might have changed his perspective quite dramatically.
Raissa, thanks. I’m glad you’re enjoying the “Fallen Heroes” sketches. I love writing them.
I had the same thought about the bears from around the world, but it didn’t occur to me that it might be a shout-out of sorts. If Rebecca’s been lurking in Claire’s dorm room on more than one occasion, it’s very possible; sort of her way of saying, “This is the comfortable, normal life I’m going to snatch away from you.” Great point.
Hrefna, thank you.
“I felt pretty meh about all the stories this week, they were just all so grim.”
I know what you mean. To me, grim doesn’t automatically = meh or suck, and as a couple of people mentioned, there was some entertaining banter in the Matt thread. I like the point you made here:
“…it’s hard to worry too much about somebody who can’t die while running around a dark deserted house of horrors…”
That never occurred to me, but I wonder if that’s partly why the scenes at the slaughterhouse lacked any sense of urgency. I guess, with the scenes at the Bennet house in 3.01, the peril came from knowing that Sylar’s ingenuity would somehow end up trumping Claire’s regeneration, and from knowing that even if he didn’t kill her, he’d scare the hell out of her. But a big part of that was the claustrophobic atmosphere, and this episode lacked that entirely.
I like your point about killing off Jeremy to solve a creative crux. I agree, he probably would have become a walking Magik Blood deux ex machine if he’d stuck around. Whenever anyone was injured, he could have helped them. Based on one of the promos for 4.08, it seems like that was one of Samuel’s big incentives for recruiting Jeremy.
LeeAnna, I’m glad you liked the episode more than I did (I seem to be saying that a lot this week…
). I’m still of the same opinion as you when it comes to Samuel’s motives needing to become clearer. I think we got more of an impression of his sincerity this week; the way he led Tracy through the carnival and explained why he wanted to make Jeremy a part of the community, it seemed more than ever like his intentions were genuine. I agree with your choice of words when it comes to Samuel — he really does hate anyone who displays any form of prejudice against people with abilities — but I’m not sure how much I agree that it was misdirected hate. I think the sheriff was intentionally written and portrayed as a weasel, even if he wasn’t directly complicit in Jeremy’s murder. I’d say Samuel was lashing out at the institution that failed Jeremy, partly out of hate, as you say, but also out of anguish. I agree that there were probably a dozen people in that police station who had nothing to do with the murder, but perhaps that ties in with Angela and The Company’s whole “collateral damage/acceptable losses” ethos. That’s another parallel between the carnival and The Company.
“As for the sex thing, I wouldn’t call it completely out of character. I understood why he did it, and it works on multiple levels.”
Valid points, and you articulate them perfectly in your post, but I think, after six episodes of “I want my body back, give me my body back, find my body so I can get my body back,” the switch back to “I’m Sylar, I’m so ingeniously vicious, watch me inflict PAIN on you and ruin your pathetic life!” seemed like an abrupt shift. Sylar is acting in character by wanting to hurt Matt, I agree, but he’s had a key motive since the start of the season, and it seemed to me like he threw it out the window this week.
“I think by now Matt should have called Bennett to let him know about the massive issue ‘rattling around’ in his head.”
I had the same thought. I wonder if it’s out of principle? HRG’s the guy who helped to orchestrate the crazy plan that caused this problem in the first place, and perhaps Matt’s afraid that whatever HRG comes up with next will only make the problem worse.
Pas, great post. Thank you for articulating all of the same issues I have with the Matt/Janice/Sylar story thread.
With the Sylar-vs-Matt’s-head-messing-with-itself debate, I saw this episode as almost melding both ideas. It’s now clearly Sylar in Matt’s head, but one thing I liked is the way Sylar draws on every detail of Matt’s life to illustrate why he’s a loser. When he tells Matt that his marriage is in trouble, he’s playing on doubts that were already in Matt’s mind. So, in a way, Sylar’s using Matt’s own doubts against him, and in a way the whole Matt’s-head-messing-with-itself aspect is still a part of the story.
Myrystyr, good to know Australia will be catching up soon. Don’t let this review put you off — it’s been a terrific season so far, and judging from the reaction here, I think it’s fair to say I’m in the minority who thought that overall this episode was a bust.
Re: Hiro’s bucket list: wouldn’t it be awesome if he went back to save the gamblers in 1.06? I’d be curious to see what else he has on that list (”Don’t open that damn safe,” “Make sure Sylar’s really dead when you stab him,” “Don’t p**s off Kensei by kissing his girlfriend,” etc.). I’m hoping there’ll be at least an oblique reference to Kaito’s death next week, because I see that as very closely connected to Hiro’s effort to save Charlie.
Caleb, thank you for making me laugh. Hold onto the T-shirts — we need to keep the Troah alive somehow!
B., great post.
“I have to say, I didn’t think this episode was nearly as bad as you made it out to be.”
This seems to be the general feeling, which is cool. I find it interesting that most of us seem to have a problem with at least one story thread, but not necessarily all of them.
“I’m starting to like Gretchen.”
Me too! Isn’t it amazing? Do you think it’s the character growing on us, or is she being written as less grating?
“[Claire] might genuinely like Gretchen as a potential gf, but she doesn’t know that yet.”
Yes, but when the show devoted a third of an episode to these two characters discussing this exact thing, I kind of expected it to move forward a little further. Not necessarily with Claire deciding whether or not she wants a relationship with Gretchen, but at least getting to a point where her “I need you” line felt like it had been qualified. I liked the line and I liked how it was expressed, but what Claire means by it is so murky that I think it loses a lot of the resonance it should have had.
On Claire being the most level-headed of the four and demonstrating resourcefulness: yes, absolutely. That was a cool moment for the character after years of whining about how she wanted to take control and fight back.
“I believe the ‘Oh My God’ Girl was a direct contrast to Claire; who probably would have reacted the same way three years ago.”
I’m not sure; in Claire’s defense, she’s often been written as brave, even inbetween lamenting that regeneration doesn’t allow her to be as proactive as she wants. I think you could point to the moment in 1.09 when Claire was desperately trying to stop Sylar from scalping Jackie and argue that she was never quite as helpless and hysterical as Miss OMG was here.
ZQ’s hat: heh. I liked it. I thought it added a nice bohemian touch to the scene.
KellyH,
“I’ll be honest. Samuel is the only thing saving the show for me right now.”
Hang in there, buddy.
Re: the respective merits of Sylar-in-Matt’s-head and Tabula Rasa Sylar: I agree, although I liked the way this episode showed both and allowed us to compare them. I think it helped to show that Tabula Rasa Sylar is non-homicidal enough to be quite likeable by comparison.
Part of my issue with the Matt thread, and I think this ties in with your point, KellyH, is that it’s now less about Matt than it is about Sylar. Before, the focus was on Matt readjusting to family life, restraining himself from using his ability, accepting his guilt about what he’s done, reconnecting with Janice after YEARS apart (if we’re following the ~*adjusted*~ chronology). But now it’s more, “ZOMG! SYLAR is taunting Matt! SYLAR is controlling Matt!” I like how Sylar is using his awareness of Matt’s failings to hurt him, but the emphasis has shifted quite heavily from Matt to Sylar, to the point where it feels like it’s saying more about Sylar than it is about Matt. Ties in with the point you’ve often made about the way Sylar contaminates great ideas and monopolizes entire story arcs.
Re: the Niki/Jessica backstory: absolutely. Was Jessica actually Hal and Mama Sanders’ daughter? Did The Company send Niki to this family for a specific reason? Did they intentionally send Niki to a family with an abusive patriarch to study how Niki’s ability would react? There’s still a huge part of that backstory that could be explored.
Re: the cancelation rumor: they’ve updated the site that started the rumor to say it’s been debunked. I wouldn’t want to ask the cast and crew I trade mail with if they know whether they’re losing their jobs, but I’d be amazed if NBC made a call on the show’s future before it even hits November sweeps. They might have instructed TPTBs to prepare for a series finale if the ratings drop even further, but I can’t believe there’s already been a definitive decision either way.
Ryan, I agree, the Tracy part of the episode worked really well. It seemed like her character arc moved forward even more substantially than HRG’s did, which is great. Compared to this time last year, when Tracy was Nathan’s fling and trying to manipulate everyone for the sake of being manipulative, this is so much more thoughtfully written.
“Quinto was hysterical and Grunberg was so…pitiful (but in a good way).”
See, I’m with you all the way up to in a good way. I think that’s the deciding factor.
PandoraRose, “boyfriends are different”? Hah! I see the point you’re making, but I have to disagree. The reason I selected a screencap from that Hollywood sign scene in 2.05 is because that conversation is exactly the kind of conversation that Claire is having with Gretchen now. Claire had known West for about as long as she’s now known Gretchen, she opened up to West in the same way she’s now opening to Gretchen, and she was thankful to have someone to confide in in the same way she now does with Gretchen. So, yeah, boyfriends are different, but boyfriend or not, West was very much a friend, and that friendship was very much real, at least insofar as it was expressed in the same way between Claire and West that it’s now being expressed between Claire and Gretchen.
Re: Samuel: “…this is where Heroes is at it’s best - that you get where the villains are coming from - you may not agree with their means, but you get it and you feel for them.”
Have we found a worthy successor to Angela?
Thank you for articulating exactly my problem with the Janice storyline. She’s Heidi when she should be Sandra.
Saiyavenger, word to your post.
“I mean, really show? You really think we wanna see Parkman get it on?”
I think the show thinks we want to see Sylar get it on. A lot. (Any excuse will do.)
“‘Hey kids! Got a problem? Drink it away and all of them will disappear!’”
I didn’t see it this way, but it’s a valid interpretation. In the show’s defense, Matt discovered how horribly the tactic backfired, so perhaps there’s a message in there about alcohol not solving any problems.
Alfredo, thank you, and great post. My expectations for 4.08 are very high; like, “1961″ high. Based on the promo clips that NBC released, though, I’m very optimistic. I’m not sold on the way a character’s been dropped into HRG’s backstory, but if the episode’s even half as good as the promos suggest, it’s going to be phenomenal. And, as you say, it’s a perfect opportunity to do some great work with Hiro.
That never occurred to me, but I wonder if that’s partly why the scenes at the slaughterhouse lacked any sense of urgency. I guess, with the scenes at the Bennet house in 3.01, the peril came from knowing that Sylar’s ingenuity would somehow end up trumping Claire’s regeneration, and from knowing that even if he didn’t kill her, he’d scare the hell out of her. But a big part of that was the claustrophobic atmosphere, and this episode lacked that entirely.
Maybe this is one of the “casualties” of firing Beeman and Arkush?
I think context is a big part of it. In 3.01, the scene gained enormous tension from the fact that it was Sylar trying to attack Claire, and it was a season premiere, so something shocking was bound to happen. But I think it’s also the fact that Rebecca isn’t so much scary as she is intriguing, and we knew that whatever she was trying to achieve at the slaughterhouse wasn’t going to involve harming Claire in any way.
So, the stakes were killing off Paris and Nicole (which wouldn’t have left much of an indelible mark) and possibly Gretchen. Which I admit would have been sad, but since she’s a character who’s only just beginning to develop something resembling depth, I think the sadness would stem from a curtailed opportunity (to develop the character and to develop her relationship to Claire) instead of any real attachment to the character.
I disagree with the review. Sylar and Matt’s scenes were the most enjoyable for me then HRG’s and least liked was Claire and Gretchen.
Good review! It was a ‘passing’ episode: Claire discovers Becky, Matt gets out of his body, HRG and Tracy have different points of view about evolved humans.
Of course, the best story was Jeremy’s one; the sorority horror house was cheap and Matt, well, drinking and letting Janice think he’s crazy, well, not the most intelligent.
About Troah, it’s over. I was supporter but no, this kind of relationship with a non confidente Tracy and a vulnerable Noah wouldn’t work. Also, Glaire, err…I don’t hate Gretchen like last week or the other, but I can’t feel them as a pair. Claire shouldn’t be so confused after all she has been living.
And I almost forget it. I’m pretty excited about next week’s episode, it can mean heaven or total apocalysis for the series. It has all the good points about Hiro, Charlie, Samuel, Sylar and even HRG’s new secret…I hope they handle it finely.
“With the Sylar-vs-Matt’s-head-messing-with-itself debate, I saw this episode as almost melding both ideas. It’s now clearly Sylar in Matt’s head.”
Indeed, but I would have found it so much better for Parkman’s character if Sylar wasn’t really in his head. Now we can basicly that Sylar is responsible of everything, while Matt’s responsability for what goes/went wrong could. I just think that it would have been way more interesting for Parkman’s development if it wasn’t just the supervillain messing with him and “just” a combination of his different problems (Losing control over his ability, what he has done to keep a serial killer alive, mistrust between him and Janice, etc…). Seeing a guy drinking his problems away instead of drinking Sylar away. No *PING* for that still shocks me. Seriously, he didn’t think that even if he could drink him away, he’d come back when he’d be sober again?
I see we’re all eagerly waiting for next monday’s eppy.
- By the way, I dare hope they’re not gonna make something stupid with the timeline. That “3 years ago chyron” worried me…
- Like I’ve already said, with Hiro dying, I’ll be pissed if we don’t get to see PapaSulu this season. A mention next week would be welcome. Of course, there are lots of characters I’d like to see (again or GNs ones) but I made peace with the fact that it won’t happen for most of them.
“I just think that it would have been way more interesting for Parkman’s development if it wasn’t just the supervillain messing with him…”
I agree, but I’ll be curious to see what Sylar does if he’s now in full control of Matt’s body. If the last thing he remembers is fighting Peter and Nathan and going after the president in 3.25, will he immediately go after either them, Angela or HRG, suspecting they’re responsible for separating his consciousness from his body? Or will he actually stick around in L.A. and keep up the pretense that he’s Matt in order to inflict the worst possible pain and humiliation?
On a related note, does anyone have any thoughts on whether Sylar-in-Matt has access to Matt’s abilities? Because Sylar with mind control raises disturbing possibilities.
Well, with the fact that Sylar is clearly in Matt’s head, the “I’ve used your power against you” line becomes pretty clear.
My guess would be that he has access to the ability but doesn’t control it as easily as much as he used to with the ability he stole by brain exploration. A bit like when he got Ellectricity by *cough* EMPATHY *cough* or like Peter had access to not-that-villain-even-if-he-was-supposed-to-be-worst-than-Sylar-like-all-the-other-level-five-villains Jesse’s Super-Scream when he was trapped in the body by his future self.
With what he’ll do next, maybe he could create an ice cream business ? Or go eat cake (or pie but since he killed people to have lie-detector’s cake for himself alone I guess he prefers cake). The guy’s actions haven’t made that much sense to me for a while now. Or maybe he will FINALLY go after HRG/Angela, who knows :).
Interesting … the question is does he really have any memories? They really haven’t indicated what if anything he actually remembers. It seems to be all “I want my body back”. He doesn’t seem to have access to Matt’s memories either.
If he does have any memories, I would think the last thing he may remember is Peter getting the best of him. Uh oh!
Sylar seems to remember Mohinder and his faaahtha’s resuuuhch, but besides that, are we missing anything? I can’t remember him ever mentioning any other characters or storylines. And, yes, if he wanted his body back, you’d think he’d be pointing a finger at the last guy he saw when his consciousness was still in his body.
That might just be the show’s way of not getting ~*sidetracked*~ with the backstory, but it could also be an indication that he’s Sylar’s consciousness without any recollection of what he’s done.
Waw… My bad for the spelling mistakes :/
“boyfriends are different”? Hah! I see the point you’re making, but I have to disagree. The reason I selected a screencap from that Hollywood sign scene in 2.05 is because that conversation is exactly the kind of conversation that Claire is having with Gretchen now. Claire had known West for about as long as she’s now known Gretchen, she opened up to West in the same way she’s now opening to Gretchen, and she was thankful to have someone to confide in in the same way she now does with Gretchen. So, yeah, boyfriends are different, but boyfriend or not, West was very much a friend, and that friendship was very much real, at least insofar as it was expressed in the same way between Claire and West that it’s now being expressed between Claire and Gretchen.
Yes, you are correct, well put, I see it now and forgot most of West’s part, and I was a person who had no issue with him. And maybe it is a burn to West as they ended kinda bad - I mean in Teenage-dom, but the Heroes world, lol.
Have we found a worthy successor to Angela?
LOL! Never! I mean I don’t know Samuel’s goal yet, but he seems to have far selfish reasons as appose to “saving the world” - but we will see.
Thank you for articulating exactly my problem with the Janice storyline. She’s Heidi when she should be Sandra.
If I may be so bold it is the worst writing on Heroes ever! I can make any of it make sense.
I think there’s also the fact that the picture she saw of the Zimmermans in 3.04 showed Barbara looking quite happy; so, whatever ability she has and whatever she’s been through, it looks like she’s reconciled to her ability to a point where she’s able to live with it quite comfortably. Which is more or less what Tracy is looking for right now.
Or is this a picture of happier times. The way Zimmerman looked flabbergasted to see “Barbara”, a person we are left to believe was most likely brought up as his own daughter. I assumed she was off missing somewhere - maybe she isn’t able to be found, that is until the writers feel like it, I’d hope they would come back to it at some point as I generally don’t like Tracy’s storyline.
What I really would love to see is Angela and her friends coming to terms with working with someone like Zimmerman, who was on Coyote Sands, wammied memory or not, to look that person in the face. Chandra as well - let alone the idea of HIS son bringing Angela Peter’s body, but that idea we are who we are at the it’s core and it didn’t matter that they took his memory from their point of view he was looking for them again.
Could it be that Zimmerman’s memory of Barbara had been Haitian-whammied out of him? It would be consistent with The Company’s policy of “neutralizing” a potential threat to their secrecy, and I guess it would tie in with HRG’s decision to wipe Ivan’s memory of his daughter in 2.06; if Angela and the other ElderSupers at CS were angry enough at Zimmerman for experimenting on them, what better way to hurt him than to exploit his expertise, allow him to grow attached to one of the prime examples of his success, then wipe his memory of the person he’d come to think of as his daughter.
If that were true, the implication seems to be that Zimmerman recovered a smattering of memories of Barbara and his involvement with The Company over time, probably the same way Peter recovered his memories in 2.08, by recalling the person he cared about the most.
Could it be that Zimmerman’s memory of Barbara had been Haitian-whammied out of him? It would be consistent with The Company’s policy of “neutralizing” a potential threat to their secrecy, and I guess it would tie in with HRG’s decision to wipe Ivan’s memory of his daughter in 2.06; if Angela and the other ElderSupers at CS were angry enough at Zimmerman for experimenting on them, what better way to hurt him than to exploit his expertise, allow him to grow attached to one of the prime examples of his success, then wipe his memory of the person he’d come to think of as his daughter.
Anything is possible, I would think they would take the entire memory - and even if they did he still had a picture of her, again anything is possible, I just want to know - the past is far more interesting than the present, but also because of how it reflects on the present, but I fear they will never show us.
If that were true, the implication seems to be that Zimmerman recovered a smattering of memories of Barbara and his involvement with The Company over time, probably the same way Peter recovered his memories in 2.08, by recalling the person he cared about the most.
But Peter was able to heal himself because he “had the power all along” - but instead of clicking his heels he was able to jump start the power - for not knowing he had it - was like a tree in the forest - if he didn’t know he had it, did he really have it at all. If an empath never meets another person with a ability was he ever an empath at all. lol. Adam just jump started what he already had. An empath, an adam or Claire, or a Linderman or a Jeremy would be the only one to bring about Haitian-ed memories - or from the 1960’s to who knows how long - Charles
Hey, Otto. Even now, I still haven’t able to decide if I liked Claire and Matt’s storylines or not. I absolutely loved Sylar and Matt in “Ink”, but things felt slightly off this episode. However, I do think that Sylar taking control of Matt’s body during sex does make sense and ultimately is inspired by Sylar’s current direct motive–getting his body back. He’s crossing boundaries and playing on Matt’s insecurities in order to further the desire of Matt’s to get him out of his head. He’s trying to piss Matt off to the point where he’s willing to put Sylar’s consciousness back into his body. And the dialogue was very inspired. I loved the ending though, and I’m seriously hoping that it’s a sign that Janice is going to take a proactive role in forcing Sylar out of Matt’s head.
I also felt that Claire’s storyline both hit and missed. She’s showing signs of the intelligent, calm person she should’ve been these past couple of seasons, and I think they haven’t played up the lesbian storyline past a point of believability yet. But at the same time, the whole slaughterhouse thing was just..meh.
And this is going to be redundant, but Noah/Tracy/Jeremy’s storyline was A+.
I thought it was called Noacy.
So, finally going to post something after following your reviews for…ever, Otto :-).
I’ve thought about the Matt/Sylar thread, and I’ve decided that the only way for this ep to make sense as part of what as been so far a very well thought out and executed season is that it absolutely is NOT Sylar’s actual consciousness in Matt’s head. All the pieces still fit — Matt lived with Mohinder long enough to have heard the “fatha’s resuuch” line enough for “Sylar”’s comeback to be Matt’s own dismissal of the possibility of Mohinder helping him out. All of the ingenuity/deviousness/omniscience that “Sylar” has been showing can very easily be simply putting a face on Matt’s demons — even to the point where yes, Matt is imagining/fearing a handsome, amoral bad boy infiltrating his life (and wife). And that Matt has to continuously justify to himself completely wiping a person from existence — evil as that person may be — and that “Sylar” seems to pretty much be muwahaha-ing in exactly the way Matt would imagine an Bad Guy to act to a Cop all ( for me ) points to guilt + low self-esteem + reality-altering mental powers = Hallucination I can’t get rid of.
Which basically means that instead of “Sylar” tricking Matt in to releasing control of his body, Matt just gave up, drank himself into oblivion, and woke up saying “Screw this, why shouldn’t I have what I want”, furthering his downward spiral.
Plus Maury just “got up and left” one day? And how many times has Matt just “got up and left” with perfectly good reasons once you knew them? Fairly sure that 2.07 proved that the Rule of Ted doesn’t apply to telepaths being stuck in their own nightmares any more than regular folk, albeit in 1080p HD with Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound. Does the fact that Angela almost immediately went to “Put my son in this guys body” imply that she’d seen Maury do the same thing already? Would tie in nicely with the “whatever it is you people do line” in 4.01.
I think if they stick with the idea of making Sylar — ultimate evil to Matt — a hallucinatory manifestation of everyone of Matt’s perceived shortcomings — which they’ve been pretty consistent about detailing as far back as 1.10 — that we’ll look back at this thread in the this ep in a completely different light. Here’s hoping!
Van, welcome!
Great theory, very well thought out. It would enrich Matt’s character arc and, as you point out, it would say something about the similarity between him and Maury if it were true.
“… instead of “Sylar” tricking Matt in to releasing control of his body, Matt just gave up…”
This is why I think it would be a much more interesting option. The impression we got from this episode is that Matt’s attempt to save his marriage is failing, so it would make sense for Matt to find something or someone to blame for that, and the imaginary voice of a psycho-killer taking up residence in his head and then gaining control of his body is probably the best excuse his subconscious could have come up with.
The tragedy is in the way the voice ends up telling Matt that, as you say, it’s his own perceived shortcomings that make his happy future with Janice impossible.
Great review as always, but I have to say I enjoyed the Sylar/Matt storyline more than you. But I’ll freely admit a large part of that has to do with my own prejudices when it comes to the show they’re giving us instead of the show I want to watch.
What I really want to see from Heroes is people with extraordinary powers using those powers, not whining about how tough their life is now that they have awesome powers. If Radioac-Ted wants to complain, I won’t begrudge him that, but Parkman has long been the poster child for the reluctant hero and it’s made me terribly intolerant of him. He should be using his telepathy to become the greatest detective ever and feeling good about all the people he’s helping; instead, he spends most of his time denying his power, pretending its an addiction, whining about his lot in life or otherwise chumping it up. So it’s reached the point where the only time I enjoy anything Matt’s doing is when he’s being ridiculed by Sylar for being such a chump. So I loved that portion of this episode.
I’ll admit though, I hadn’t thought of the fact that the first thing Sylar should have done when gaining control of Matt’s body was hightail it out of there and not schtupp Janice *shudder*. That realization does bring it down a notch for me, but frankly, I’m never not going to enjoy a storyline that involves Sylar making fun of Parkman.
Samuel remains a fascinating and well drawn character, but he REALLY needs some clarification regarding his motivation and ultimate plan, and soon. This episode seemed to set him as Heroes’ Magneto, a figure gathering his people to protect them from persecution while maintaining some kind of sinister agenda. He’s a great character, fun to enjoy, but man alive, we are WAY past the point of knowing what his ultimate goal is (in a lot of ways, he’s the opposite of Danko, a character we knew little about OTHER than his ultimate goal).
My only hope is that if the show is building towards a carnival vs. Heroes showdown at the season’s conclusion, and this is the last season, they throw budgetary constraints to the wind and give us a super-powered battle royale instead of the Kirby Plaza skirmish or watching Claire watching a fight.
Is she lying? She must be! It’s either that, or Gretchen’s now a completely different character, because there’s no way that shy, introverted, neurotic mess who was unable to make friends and who became so nervous talking about herself that she babbled incessantly about Claire is the kind of girl who’d chew her way through six or seven boyfriends before starting college.
It’s not as unbelievable as you think. Gretchen’s an insecure girl, and one that seems to need someone to attach in order to define herself. It’s not surprising that she would have had several boyfriends through high school, and also not surprising that those relationships did not work out. Either she didn’t find what she was looking for, or the young man realized that Gretchen was crazy.
I figured out that the guy Jeremy killed in the crowd used to play the dad on Drake and Josh. Weird…