SPOILER WARNING! The discussion thread after this review may (and probably will) contain reference to the impending departure of one of the show’s regular cast members. There is NO direct reference to this in the review, but if you don’t want to be spoiled, please proceed with caution.
Hiro stops Sylar from scalping Charlie and negotiates with him.
Thank you for co-writing an episode with Aron Coleite that’s all about me. Also, thank you for writing a book about me. Also also, thank you for bringing back Charlie. Also also also, thank you for writing me in character. It was nice being selfless and noble and charming again. It’s much more fun than when I’m written like a total imbecile. It was a pleasure to enact the script you wrote for me. I especially liked having the opportunity to play scenes with lots of feeling. Getting angry at the Butterfly Man was lots of fun. Also, thank you for writing scenes where I got to kiss Charlie. I could do that all day.
Would you consider joining the HEROES staff full time? Please please please accept the job if they offer it to you. I really think you would be a valuable asset to the team. Seriously, you wouldn’t believe what they’ve put me through this past year. There was this one episode with a giant frying pan and a stick of bread. It was just awful. I know you’d never do that to me. You have a great understanding of my character and unlike the others, you don’t feel compelled to punctuate all of my dialogue with the words “Fate,” “Destiny” and “Hero’s Path”.
Best!
Hiro Nakamura
OK, so maybe he didn’t write that. But I’ll bet you he would if he knew he should, and this week he really, really should.
Part of the appeal is the way the episode takes us back to a time when the show was capable of no wrong, and when Hiro’s scenes were consistently a delight to watch. Part of it’s that the episode brings back a character whose charm lights up every frame she’s in, and whose romance with Hiro is so compelling and so completely believable that it’s impossible to look away.
Beyond that, though, this episode stands out as one of the show’s finest because, from start to finish, it’s beautifully written, beautifully crafted and beautifully realized. Which, as always, is credit that’s due to every member of the cast and crew. But in this case, it’s especially due to a co-writer who demonstrated that even the most fundamentally flawed character arcs can be fixed, and that even the most unlikeable characters can be made likeable again.
We start out with Hiro teleporting to Midland and, to the tune of David Ball’s “Stop the World and Let me Off,” getting a glimpse of a face we haven’t seen in three years.
Welcome back, Charlie! Welcome back, Jayma Mays!
Was the cowboy kid and the Charlie-recap necessary? Probably not, but if you’re a sucker for the original episode, the recap includes a montage of images that will never get old.
Amazingly, this recap doesn’t prompt the kid to burst into laughter and run away, but to give Hiro his dad’s Knight Rider T-shirt and follow him to the Burnt Toast Diner.
Dun-dun-DUN!
The contrast in the color-coding does make for a striking and stylish tone. I can’t help thinking the white-hat/black-hat motif was more heavyhanded than it needed to be, but it does help to set up the fairytale aspect to the episode. I also love how Hiro instinctively tries to shield the kid from the guy with the black hat the moment he shows up, recognizing right away that the kid’s in danger.
What’s great about Quinto’s performance is the subtlety he brings. It’s the third version of the character he’s played in two weeks, but Quinto brings a naivete to the role that sets it apart from Sylar-in-Matt and Amnesiac-Sylar. You see the traces of the character’s depravity and corruption, but somehow it’s a more straightforward villainy; instead of psychotic, he’s simply malevolent; instead of innocent, he’s uninformed.
We cut to the carnival and learn that Arnold’s about to pass away. It’s hard to feel bad about the death of a character so peripheral that we barely know who he is, but when we get a glimpse of the way his death is affecting Samuel and Lydia…
… it’s a death that affects us by association, because if it’s affecting them, it must be a big deal.
As always, Knepper brings depth and feeling to the part. And yet, as always, it’s feeling that’s accompanied with a tinge of subterfuge. You don’t doubt that this loss will hurt Samuel, but at the same time you know there’s a part of him that’s already figuring out the implications Arnold’s death will have. Lydia points out that even if Hiro’s unwilling to join them, Samuel “can convince an apple that it’s an orange.” It’s impressive that Lydia knows well enough to compare Hiro to a piece of fruit without ever meeting him, but it also speaks to her faith in Samuel’s leadership and persuasive skills, and in the end, that’s a faith that’s proven correct.
We get a brief look at the Midland Chronicle front page. The main story covers the homecoming game, but the second article — “Wildcats QB Out for the Count” — makes for an oblique reference to Rapist Jock Brody getting hospitalized and Haitian-whammied. Not a detail you’re likely to notice while Hiro cowers behind the newspaper and tries to be inconspicuous, but it’s early evidence of the tremendous attention to detail that went into the sets and props this week.
Charlie brings Sylar coffee, and one of the character’s traits that you immediately notice, and in turn the one that’s the most endearing and the most heartbreaking…
… is Charlie’s inability to sense Sylar’s malice. Even when he starts to scare her, you know she’ll never bear him any ill-will. Which makes Charlie a startling opposite to Samuel, and to some extent the opposite to every character on the show: a character who’s wholeheartedly good-natured, who’ll give everyone the benefit of the doubt and who’ll always see the best in the people around her.
The tragedy is in the way Sylar exploits this good nature, zeroing in on Charlie’s info-absorption and testing her ability. It’s sad because Charlie has no idea that this display is sealing her own fate, but it’s also sad because, looking back, you wonder why Sylar even bothered acquiring the ability. Besides one graphic novel involving an instruction manual, he’s never used it.
We learn that Noah was having breakfast at the Burnt Toast Diner on the day Charlie died. Not a huge breach of continuity, and in a way, it feels like less of a clunky rewrite to the backstory than a tribute to the repeated happenstance meetings during the first season.
Noah finishes a call to Sandra, and then…
Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no.
Come on, show. We’re only just putting the Troah behind us. Don’t throw another blonde into the mix.
It’s a trauma that’s somewhat assuaged by the fact that this blonde happens to be Elisabeth Rohm, who was on Law & Order for a couple of years, but who I know best as Kate Lockley on Angel. And, in case anyone wonders, yes, I am one of about four people who appreciated the way she played that character, and who saw her acting style as underplayed when everyone else saw it as wooden. The reason I point this out is to explain that I was predisposed to like Lauren, but the moment you see that hand lingering on Noah’s shoulder, it’s as if, even before we lay eyes on her, the show actively wants us to hate her. She’s encouraging Noah to cheat on his wife, she’s playing on Noah’s unhappiness over deceiving Sandra so she can hook up with him, and she’s so blunt to a fault that she’s brazen.
There’s also that whole issue of Noah working with Eden and the Haitian to stop Sylar, and Lauren’s pretty much dropped into that backstory with no real relevance that we know of. Which, to be fair, has more to do with the story than the character. Still, you look at the character’s self-importance as the episode goes on, and you just want to tell her to get over herself, because in the end, we know she won’t be more than a footnote in the backstory.
Lauren: “Traffic was an actual bitch. Homecoming — hooray!”
Did… did she just call the cheerleaders bitches? And Noah doesn’t even point out that one of those bitches is his daughter? He must really like her.
Lauren observes that Noah is making “the face.” It’s a nice way to establish how perceptive and in touch with Noah’s feeling she is; and, in a way, it’s sad to think that there was someone who understood Noah better than Sandra did. But then, that says more about The Company and the pressure Noah was under to lie to his family than it does about Lauren or Sandra. She’s a convenient outlet for Noah to vent his frustration. It’s not as if Noah would have been interested in her if it weren’t for the secrecy surrounding the job.
Or would he?
Lauren does that thing. You know, bats the eyelids, smiles sweetly, gazes at Noah with adoring eyes, books the motel room. And you’d figure that Noah would be immune to those cheap moves.
You’d be wrong.
Fight it, Noah! You don’t really care about her! You only care about having someone — anyone — to confide in. Go home to Sandra, tell her the truth and discover how awesome she is.
Noah: “I wish I could tell her the truth. I wish I could tell her that the reason I’m gonna miss homecoming is because I’m trying to catch a deranged serial killer with superpowers WHO I HELPED TO CREATE BY PROVOKING HIM INTO RIPPING EMO-TREVOR’S HEAD OPEN.
OK, so I added that last part. But it’s relevant! It should have at least been mentioned this week.
Lauren: “You and I, we can talk about anything.”
So can Noah and Sandra! It’s not as if she’s getting the chance to. She’s at a disadvantage by dint of the fact that she’s not a Company agent. How bad do we feel for Sandra, and how resentful does that make us feel towards Lauren? It’s the reason I’m convinced we’re expected to dislike Lauren.
The motel room is appalling, but the room number being 108? Nice shout-out to the episode the show’s paying tribute to.
Noah leaves for Primatech, walking past the guy he’s looking for — the guy he’s seen depicted in Isaac’s paintings — without even pausing to check the resemblance.
You’d think Noah would have spotted that. That’s one *PING!* Dumb As Award for Noah for an uncharacteristic lack of attention to detail.
On the plus side, the headline to Sylar’s newspaper reads, “Train derails, explodes.” Again, something so subtle you’ll barely notice it. It’s hard to believe the train crash would be headline news several weeks after it happened, but what the hell. The effort that went into making this episode as vivid as possible is astounding.
Samuel and Hiro watch the scene from a corner of the diner. There’s urgency in Knepper’s delivery, and it underlines how significant this portion of the episode is. The predominant focus both in this episode and in “Seven Minutes to Midnight” was the romance, and you wouldn’t peg this as a juncture in the show. Thinking about it, though, you realize that if Hiro killed Sylar now, vast portions of the show’s backstory would be altered, a number of key characters would still be alive, and several of them would never have met in the first place.
Also, and perhaps crucially, a certain beloved character would still be alive.
On the downside, we never would have had the chance to coo over Li’l Noah and meet Lionel Luthor.
You also have to figure that if Sylar was killed, Isaac wouldn’t have had much reason to paint New York exploding, or even a cheerleader getting attacked. Meaning Peter wouldn’t have had much reason to go to Odessa, and we never would have gotten the Paire.
Samuel: “This place is a minefield. One mistake and it’s kablooey, history. Awful lot of trouble for one girl. Pretty as Little Susie Flapjacks is, is she absolutely worth it?”
Great dialogue. It’s densely written, but Knepper delivers it with such ease that it sounds effortless, and it gains all the more resonance when Hiro fixes Samuel with a level stare and insists she is worth it. And, really, I defy anyone to disagree with that. Because, well, it’s Charlie.
It lacks the comic touch of Hiro pushing Ando in a wheelbarrow for 12 miles, but what’s thrilling is seeing someone get the better of Sylar. No catches, no caveats, no recovering from lethal sword wounds or feigning paralysis or slithering into people’s minds. Just properly outwitted.
AND BY HIRO, OF ALL PEOPLE!
Well played, writers.
But a luggage compartment? I get that Hiro was trying to preserve the timeline, and I know he didn’t want to leave Sylar so far off course that he wouldn’t be able to resume his killing spree, but what happened to burying people in coffins? Did Hiro really think a luggage compartment at a bus depot was going to slow Sylar down by more than a few minutes? That’s one *PING!* Dumb As Award for Hiro.
Hiro returns to the Burnt Toast Diner to be reunited with Charlie, and stops to fix his hair in a mirror. Aw. Such a cute and believable detail, and almost certainly Wallington’s touch. Anyone else and you can bet Hiro would be babbling about Destiny right about now.
To the episode’s credit, the show somehow manages to make even the overused mannerisms feel fresh again. Hiro adjusts his glasses in the mirror, and somehow even that seems new again.
Hiro visits himself in the restroom in the interests of maintaining the timeline.
Did I really just write that last line?
Past-Hiro: “You… You’re me!”
Present-Hiro: “Yes. I am Future-Hiro. Only now, instead of being a badass Ninja renegade with a soul patch and a sword and excessive hair gel, I rescue unsuspecting girls from projectile slushies and prevent grown men from copying their butts.”
He would have said that if it hadn’t been cut for time. I’m certain of it.
Aw. It shouldn’t work. After several seasons of contrived slapstick humor that turned him into a caricature, you’d think that returning to this point — when Hiro’s unflappable optimism and exuberance were infectious — would be a painful reminder of how disastrously his character arc has gone wrong. But even if present-day Hiro adopting a somber tone and instructing his past self about what to do suggests a wisdom he hasn’t really gained, that moment when Present-Hiro channels Papa Sulu and uses that deep, gravelly voice is so brilliantly played by Oka, it’s a role you’re willing to pretend the character has earned.
Present-Hiro: “You must save the waitress.”
Past-Hiro: “What waitress? Charlie?”
^ ^ Actual dialogue!
Oh, Hiro. No, he meant the other waitress. WHAT DO YOU THINK? I know you haven’t yet gone back and spent six months with her, but you’re already crazy about her, you just spent a whole morning at the diner reading a Japanese phrase book with her, and she should be the only thing on your mind right about now.
That’s another *PING!* Dumb As Award for Hiro for excessive ignorance.
*PING!*
*PING!*
*PING!*
*PING!*
*PING!*
I think we have a winner.
Let’s see: he needed several very long moments to recognize the address of his own corporation. He didn’t even try to freeze time when one of his employees threw himself off a rooftop. He didn’t even stop to consider that a guy who copies his butt on more than forty occasions might have serious psychological issues. He thought storing a psycho-killer in a luggage compartment at a local bus depot would be enough to disrupt him from going after Charlie. And now, his past self doesn’t seem to know which waitress his present self is talking about — and this not a moment after he’d finished teaching the love of his life Japanese phrases at the diner.
Ladies and gentlemen, the fifth volume’s HeroSite Dumb As Award — based on repeated instances of stupidity — goes to Hiro Nakamura. Congratulations, Hiro! You’re responsible for the Dumb As Hiro Award.
It’s not over, though. Present-Hiro now explains to his past self that he needs to go six months into the past to prevent Charlie from being killed.
Past-Hiro is mystified. Who can blame him? Firstly, Present-Hiro’s basically asking Past-Hiro to put his whole save-the-cheerleader-and-stop-the-bomb mission on hold for six months. Admittedly, this hardly scuppers the plan because he’s instructing his past self to take a detour outside of time. But when you recall how focused Hiro was on his mission at the time, traveling across the world and stopping at nothing to find Peter and save the cheerleader, asking him to make it a second priority is asking a lot, particularly when Past-Hiro lacks almost all incentive. You could believe it when Hiro had seen Charlie’s corpse and was devastated enough to do anything to save her, but here, he didn’t even know she was going to die until he was told a moment ago. He’s going back in time with only a vague idea of what he’s trying to avert.
The other part of this that doesn’t make sense is Present-Hiro asking Past-Hiro to choose to go back six months. Which… really wasn’t an active decision on Hiro’s part back in the original episode. He ACCIDENTALLY jumped back six months. It’s an anachronism because Present-Hiro’s asking his past self to demonstrate the expertise he has now. Present-Hiro calls Past-Hiro a moron, and I’m not inclined to disagree. But I’d say the same is true of Present-Hiro, and he’s getting a sixth *PING!* Dumb As Hiro Award for expecting his past self to use his ability with a level of finesse which he KNOWS Past-Hiro doesn’t have. He doesn’t even give Past-Hiro useful advice before sending him back.
All of that said, Past-Hiro teleports back six months (without even scrunching up his face, you’ll note) and the photo of Hiro and Charlie is restored. So obviously the plan worked. It shouldn’t have, but it did.
Noah visits the Primatech Fun Factory and heads for the hidden level. Welcome back, Mr. Eeezuk! Welcome back, Eden! Welcome back, DADDY BENNET! I have very fond memories of this scene, because it was the one that took Daddy Bennet from being Recap Guy’s “Face of Evil” to a well-intentioned father who was pleading with Isaac to save his daughter’s life.
The scene has aged remarkably gracefully, blending with the tone of the rest of the episode and illustrating how consistent the show’s look and feel have remained over the seasons. Creatively, however, it’s hampered by previous efforts to embellish the backstory.
Noah: “You’re not the only one with special abilities, Isaac. There are others. Sylar is killing them one at a time.”
Isaac: “If you know where he is then why can’t you stop him?”
Noah: “Because nobody knows what he looks like. That’s why I need your help.”
?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Uh, Noah?
You’ve got raw footage of him doing his thing. WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT?
*PING!* Chalk up another Dumb As Hiro Award for Noah.
The inconsistency is redeemed a moment later, when we learn that Noah retreated to the staff room and kicked a recycling container to vent his frustration.
The amazing part is even the recycling container — the one you barely get a glimpse of before Noah kicks it — has “Recycle Odessa” written on it. If Ruth Ammon doesn’t win some kind of award for this episode — the real kind, not my kind — she deserves LOTS of bouquets. The attention to detail is staggering.
Lauren reveals that she heard about Sylar’s impending attack on Claire. You know she’s only trying to reassure Noah when she says “You and I will handle this,” but it’s another moment that seems designed to make us dislike the character. Unless there’s a huge, as-yet-unestablished chunk of the backstory taking place off-screen, we know she won’t have ANYTHING to do with handling it. Eden and the Haitian will.
Oh, NO! No, show! Please! MAKE IT STOP!
Noah hears my plea from several hundred miles away and pulls back.
Lauren: “We’re made of time. We’ll nail this guy.”
Given the way we’ve just seen Lauren behaving, perhaps “nail this guy” was a poor choice of words?
Present-Hiro persuades Past-Ando to wait for Past-Hiro to return from his six-month affair with Charlie. I can’t help wishing Present-Hiro would preempt Papa Sulu’s return in “The Hard Part” and explain that Past-Hiro doesn’t need the sword to regain control over his ability. But I also can’t help wondering what bearing this meeting will have on the timeline over the next several years. Hiro will vanish from Superhero Square and end up back in feudal Japan, and Ando now knows for certain that he’ll find his way back. Hiro will revert to the mental maturity of a 10-year-old, and Ando will know for sure that somehow Hiro will get his memories back. Even when Hiro’s getting nosebleeds and migraines and preparing to die, Ando will have it on good authority that there’s an older version of Hiro who revisits him at the Burnt Toast Diner. The downside to this much time-travel is that chunks of the backstory have become contradictory.
One word: aw.
If I was going to use other words, they’d probably be adorable, heartwarming and uplifting, because this is about the sweetest moment in Hiro’s entire arc. It recaptures everything that made the original romance delightful, and as the moment plays out, and even when Charlie suggests visiting Otsu to see where Takezo Kensei was born, the last thing you’re thinking of is that hideous affair with Yaeko. For once, a part of the backstory is ignored, and the story is infinitely better for it.
It’s never established whether Charlie’s ability was the direct cause of her blood clot. The way Sylar attributes her ability to it, the implication is that the two are connected. If that’s true, it’s a parallel to Hiro’s ability giving him a brain tumor.
If that’s true, however, you have to wonder what kind of message the show is putting forward about these abilities. Between Sylar’s hunger, Angela’s nightmares, Matt’s addiction, Emma’s fear of slicing stuff in half and Charlie’s ability prompting an extended recital of Otsu’s key facts, the emerging pattern is that almost all abilities come with significant downsides.
Which makes for compelling drama, but somehow puts a very bleak spin on the whole idea of extraordinary abilities. It’s almost as if the show’s slogan needs changing to “Ordinary people with TERMINAL abilities.”
Hiro returns to the bus depot and gets TK’d to the side of a bus, then seizes his opportunity and negotiates for Charlie’s life.
Take a moment to let the significance of this sink in. Putting aside the novelty of Sylar admitting that there’s anything he can’t do or understand, it’s a considerable twist that the guy who killed Charlie turns out to be the one who can save her. It makes sense, particularly when you recall how, in “Six Months Ago,” Sylar was able to see a part of Brian’s brain before he ever cracked the guy’s skull open. But more importantly, it’s a moment when the show turns the convention of a black-hat villain on its head. It doesn’t undo Sylar’s monstrosity for a moment, but it suggests that even the most irredeemable monster is capable of bringing hope to people who need it.
The alley showdown was amusingly written and realized. I still can’t decide whether the episode’s title is a nod to fairytale romances or a shout-out to this, or both, but the even greater humor here involves Sylar TK-slicing a wall instead of Hiro’s scalp.
Again, the detail is such that you marvel at the fact that it was all possible in one episode. The planning that must have gone into this episode boggles the mind.
Sylar becomes Dr. Sylar. It’s priceless for the look of incredulity from Lynette, but also for the look from Sylar that says, “Yeah, don’t ask me why, but I really am going along with this charade.” Funny, and a subtle precursor to Sylar’s emerging affinity for adopting new identities.
It could be that he’s studying the inside of her head and figuring out how to TK the blood clot. Or it could be that he’s astonished by the intensity of feeling between the characters. Nicely played by Quinto, and a sign that, already now, Sylar’s so far removed from humanity that any emotional attachment is alien to him.
Jayma Mays sells the character’s distress so convincingly, and the atrocities that the guy towering over her will commit validate that distress so completely, that we’re inclined to ignore the peaceful harp playing in the background and freak out along with her. Beyond the fact that this scene turns the villain into the savior, and the fact that the emotion the multiple close-up shots capture is so painfully raw, there’s the fact that Mays acts the heck out of this scene and conveys both the horror of what’s happening to her and the relief when, eventually…
… Sylar twists his fingers and gives Charlie the rest of her life to contemplate. The ramifications this has on the rest of Sylar’s character arc are immense, because you realize the miracles Sylar’s capable of performing, and the enormous waste his ability amounts to in light of the good we know he could achieve if only he wasn’t so rotten at his core.
Not that he’d get that impression from this instance, because Hiro and Charlie are so wrapped up in themselves that Sylar’s probably left wondering how helping people is in any way worth the effort. Poor Sylar. He needs Peter and Hiro to show him that even in a thankless world, it’s best to do the right thing.
What just happened here? It’s not as if Sylar did this for anything other than self-serving motives, and you can easily believe that if Hiro had given him the opportunity, Sylar would have ripped open Charlie’s head as soon as Hiro told him what he wanted to know.
But then, regardless of his motives, the end result is the same: the show’s irredeemable villain cures one of the most memorable one-time characters of a terminal condition, and he gives a couple in love a shot at a happy life together. If that doesn’t earn Sylar a gold star alongside his extensive list of horrors, I’m not sure what does. As redemptive actions go, this is about the most amazing thing Sylar could have done.
We cut to the Union Wells cheerleaders parading before the homecoming game. If that isn’t Danielle Savre reprising her role as Jackie, it’s a very close likeness. The show is also as meticulous as ever, with Claire drinking chocolate milk when she decides to “hang” with Noah. And, sure, the shout-out to Rapist Jock Brody’s observation about her fondness for chocolate milk back in “One Giant Leap” is so obscure that almost no one will notice it, but it’s there, and it makes the episode all the more extraordinary.
Claire begs Noah to tell her what he wanted to do when he was back in school. I find it adorable that Noah nervously glances around before whispering that he wanted to teach English. For a character whose entire arc was built on a propensity for deception, his fear of admitting this is about as ironic a revelation as the show could come up with.
Claire urges Noah to do what he loves, and although you have to wonder why this career choice never once came up when Noah was considering his options in “Acceptance,” the reason it resonates is because it’s an impossible dream. Noah tells Claire he doesn’t think it’s going to happen and that he’s happy with the life he has, but it sounds so strangely empty, and his expression…
… is such that you can see he’s putting a brave face on a tragic predicament; that as much as he still believes that he’s helping the world, he’s locked into a career that precludes the chance of ever returning to a normal life. The tragedy is in the fact that he’s probably better at his current job than he’ll ever be at anything else.
Sad piano music tells us we’re meant to feel sorry for Noah. I think I would have felt sorry for Noah with or without that soundtrack, but either way, it’s as effective a scene between Noah and Claire as any, and with hindsight, it adds something to Noah’s character arc when we know how conflicted he was, even when Recap Guy was branding him The Face of Evil.
We return to the Burnt Toast Diner and learn that Sylar sampled the pancakes as well as the coffee. Hiro then outlines the monster Sylar becomes right in front of the woman Sylar just saved.
It’s not as if I’m advocating Bennet-style Secrets & Lies, but allowing Charlie to stick around in the store room while Hiro fulfills his part of the pact with Sylar seems incredibly insensitive. Hiro’s basically revealing to Charlie that he used a mass-murderer to save her life, which, very understandably, is partly why she now starts to feel so crappy for being alive. As pivotal a role as Charlie plays in this episode, and, in all likelihood, in Hiro’s arc over the course of the series, it’s not as if she needed to witness this conversation. The focus is predominantly on Sylar’s reaction to learning he’ll become a psycho-killer, and although Charlie’s discovery about the nature of the man who saved her leads to some effective drama later, you have to wonder why Hiro didn’t ask her to wait in the diner while he brought his deal with Sylar to a swift conclusion.
Anyway. The other part of this scene that makes it difficult for us to get lost in the narrative is the fact that Hiro now recounts a lonely, solitary death for Sylar, and the whole time we’re all but laughing at him because we know how wrong he is.
Hiro: “We all gather to stop you. You alone. No one will mourn your death. No one will shed a tear. No one.”
It’s great dialogue, and Goodman captures every nuance of the actors’ performances with some extreme close-ups on both of them. But it’s undermined by the same issue that would undermine Peter getting a somber scene in which he recounts how he and his brother valiantly overcame Sylar: it’s not accurate. No matter how good the dialogue and the performances are, it’s hard to escape the fact that the show is unwilling to make the scene Hiro describes a reality.
But then, in a way, the whole point of this scene is not to reveal anything to us, but to glean Sylar’s reaction to the news and to judge what kind of a person hears they’ll become a mass-murderer and barely bats an eyelid.
I’m not sure whether it’s appalling or amusing that Sylar hears this monologue and at one point continues chewing on his pancake, but the remarkable part of the scene is Goodman’s choice to focus almost exclusively on Sylar. It’s very much the right call, because as brilliant as Masi’s performance is, the point of the scene is that Sylar takes in every word he hears, acknowledges what he’s going to become and forges ahead with it anyway.
Which adds a shade of villainy to the character, because until now we’d been given the impression that, as deranged a psychopath as Sylar was, he never really paused to consider what he was becoming until he realized he was going to kill several million people. What we learn here, when Hiro leaves Sylar standing in the alley with the hat at his feet and a chance to change his fate based on the information he was given, is that in the end Sylar won’t just be a victim of his own psychosis. He’s going to actively choose to put the black hat on and become the monster Hiro said he’d become.
Howdy, folks! Nate P here. Can someone please tell me what’s going on up there? The picture quality down here is as terrible as ever, but I don’t think I’ve missed anything. Why is everyone down here suddenly looking at me like someone I know just died? Pete, did that chick turn evil and try to taser you or something? Just remember what I taught you: don’t hug them. Ever!
I’ve started thinking about appointing an envoy for my campaign. You know, someone who’ll do the legwork for me, tell everyone how amazing I am and how it really is in their best interests to support me when we get this show on the road. Not that there are many roads down here, but you know what I mean.
I think I’ve found just the guy: young, handsome, with a British accent and kind of a Nordic thing going for him. He says he’s the one who brought Ma and the rest of her crazy clan together. Wouldn’t say much else — just that they were the most self-involved bunch he ever met, and that when he got them all together and scheduled meetings to discuss world domination, no one ever bothered to show up except Ma, Dad and Linderman. And Ma always got what she wanted by shrieking “BUT THAT’S WHAT HAPPENED IN MY DREAM!” Oh, Ma. You always knew how to make things happen, didn’t you?
He doesn’t seem to like those elder folks all that much. Or me. He says they locked him up for trying to kill people for the greater good, then tried to do exactly the same thing. And that they pinned all their hopes on me when I wasn’t up to the task. I don’t know about that, but it turns out Dad killed him, so that might be why he’s so bitter. Then he started babbling about meeting a bunch of Petrellis in Milan in 1747, and how I shouldn’t presume to know him.
He’s pretty pissed at Nakamura’s boy as well. I’m not sure why he kept calling him ‘Carp.’ Maybe it was ‘Carl.’ Sometimes, with all the lava and rain of fire down here, it’s easy to mishear stuff. But he wants to know why Carl gets to prance around with that redhead and pretend he’s some kind of hero when he blew this guy up and buried him alive. And he wants to know why Carl didn’t put him on his list of mistakes to fix after stealing his girlfriend.
I tried telling him about that beautiful arm-ripping blonde who’s taking care of my PR, but he started babbling again — something about a blonde in L.A. dumping him into the sea, and how the death that brought him here was the lamest death he ever experienced. I told him I could relate after they burned me to a crisp, shot me and slit my throat. At least I can rest assured that the days of this show killing me off are behind me.
So, there I was thinking this guy had a worldly air about him, and then he started telling me how there was this big plan to introduce his latest bride after Carl buried him, and how no one on the show ever followed through on that, but that she was still out there.
So, if she shows up at your doorsteps, be sure to tell her you’ll be voting Petrelli! Have a great week, folks, and look out for Nordic goddesses who say they’re with Adam!
We cut to the one scene of the episode that I struggled to get beneath. Noah decides to take Lauren up on her offer to visit a motel room, gulps down a drink, then decides that he can’t bring himself to betray Sandra. Which, THANK GOD, but on a number of levels, this scene was rife with issues. Part of it’s (obviously) that I’m not especially fond of Lauren as a character, and the prospect of her coming so close to making Noah unfaithful to Sandra is so appalling that it makes me despise her even more. Part of it’s also the way we learn that Noah was wasting his time with an until-now-completely-unknown character when he should have been frantically trying to find Sylar, hide Claire and prevent the chain of events that led to Jackie’s death.
But ultimately, the reason this scene failed for me is because it never really expresses anything we didn’t already know.
Noah: “I love my family, and as complicated as it is, as much as I lie to them, I still love them. And maybe one day I can tell them the truth.”
^ ^ Dialogue from this episode.
^ ^ ^ Dialogue that’s been rephrased and conveyed in more than half the episodes over the course of the series.
I’m a sucker for scenes between Noah and Claire. I still cry like a baby everytime I watch “Company Man.” But hearing Noah express the same sentiment we’ve heard a hundred times — to a character we barely know, no less — lacks the resonance it used to have, regardless of when he expressed it or how much he meant it. It’s a nice way to foreshadow what we know will happen, but the real resonance comes from knowing that all of Noah’s scheming and plotting came from a place of love, that he’d take a bullet to the gut and a memory wipe to hide Claire, and, in the end, that his deception would cost him his family when Sandra kicked him out of the house and filed for divorce. The implication here seems to be that the reason Noah lost his family was because he couldn’t reconcile his family life with the requirements of his job. We know it’s not as simple as that. We know it extends to a compulsion to deceive and manipulate and then justify that deception and manipulation with good intentions.
You can see what this scene was trying to say: that Noah reached a point where he was so desperate to confide in someone that he was willing to cheat on Sandra just to feel something akin to honest, unguarded intimacy. That adds a layer to the character — certainly to the character we knew then, and even to the character we know now — but in the end it makes a point we already know: that Noah loved his family even when he was lying to them, Haitian-whammying them and putting them in danger.
Lauren: “Of course. And I will always be there to help you, Noah.”
It’s difficult to know how to respond to this, because unless we’re missing a crucial part of the backstory, this implies a relevance where none exists. If Lauren was there to help Noah, she didn’t help in any discernible way.
Hiro watches Charlie admiringly from outside the diner, tells Past-Ando to go back to his coffee until Past-Hiro returns, then gets an earful from Charlie about what a jerk he was for letting Sylar continue on his killing spree and for arbitrarily arranging for one of Sylar’s many victims to survive. And again, all you can do is applaud both Charlie’s return and Wallington’s involvement in the script, because everything about this scene is absolutely right.
Hiro: “I had to preserve the time-space continuum.”
Charlie: “You didn’t. You changed it. You saved me.”
Great dialogue. It makes a straightforward point, but one that needed to be made; that if Hiro’s willing to gamble on the course of events after Sylar’s visit to Midland, why not gamble on the two dozen other lives Sylar’s going to take and the havoc he’ll wreak. You can argue the butterfly-effect angle and say that saving Charlie is a small change in the timeline compared to killing off Sylar, but Hiro has no way of knowing what the repercussions will be in either case, which means it really is a gamble.
Hiro: “This is our happily-ever-after.”
You have to wonder if Hiro was ever going to tell Charlie he’s dying. I’m not sure whether concealing this makes Hiro noble or contemptible, because Charlie was going to be left wondering what kind of a hopeless romantic goes to inordinate lengths to save the woman he loves, only to die himself a short while later without so much as a warning.
Charlie: “Hiro, 300,000 people die every day. Young, old, they’re accidents, murders. Why am I any different? Why do I get to live?”
Hiro: “Because I love you.”
Charlie: “Then that’s just selfish.”
And again, great dialogue, and yet again a point that needed to be made, because Hiro’s essentially selecting one doomed individual and saving her because she’s special to him. Which is romantic, but also very unfair to all of Sylar’s other victims who weren’t saved because they weren’t fortunate enough to be quirky, attractive waitresses at a Midland diner. Hiro’s basically implying that he’ll make an exception to his rule to never change the past because he cares about this individual. Which is sweet, but somehow very hypocritical.
The extraordinary thing, and the reason why this episode is a masterpiece in spite of all its tiny flaws along the way, is that the moment Hiro and Charlie are together, you don’t even care if it’s selfish or hypocritical or wrong. Whether they’re arguing or embracing, it’s so delightful that the charm surpasses everything else.
Unlike, say, Lauren following up her offer to hook up with Noah at a seedy motel with her decision to “go Haitian.”
Does she really have her memory wiped? I couldn’t decide. The way she brings Noah her own note and the key to the motel, and the way she looks at him…
… I don’t know. It might just be wooden acting, but I got the impression that Lauren’s only pretending to have been Haitian-whammied for the sake of removing the uncomfortable atmosphere.
But then, that would require a certain nobility on Lauren’s part, and I’m more inclined to think she’s the kind who’d wipe her own memory to feel better about herself, and who’d leave Noah feeling like crap for leading her on and then deciding he’d rather be loyal to his wife. They’re both contemptible for this.
Charlie returns to the diner to tell Hiro how “terrible” she was to him, and while this would usually amount to an about-turn so soon after being furious at him, it’s performed so endearingly by Jayma Mays that you don’t even pause to wonder if it might have been inconsistent.
Aw to infinity. And the show said it couldn’t do romance.
Look how happy they are! Look how adorable they are together!
Which makes Samuel showing up to reveal that Charlie’s gone all the more heartbreaking, because Hiro goes from one extreme to the other.
Samuel reveals that he’s taken Charlie forward in time to the carnival…
… and Hiro’s devastation is so raw that you’re immediately hit with the extent of his loss; the happiness he’d clung to ripped away, and the dream he’d held onto crushed in an instant. It’s superbly portrayed by Masi, and the end to an episode that was already so intense that you have to wonder how emotionally draining it must have been for the actor.
And from delight to love to devastation, Hiro finally settles…
… on rage. And in spite of Samuel’s conniving nature and Hiro’s general idiocy, there’s a brief moment when you genuinely wonder what Hiro might be capable of if he’s angry enough.
Hiro finds Arnold dead, and it’s surprising how strangely unaffected Samuel seems as he describes how he died and how his final act was to trap Charlie in time.
It could just be that Samuel’s playing his cards very close to the chest because he knows how important Hiro is to his agenda. But given the importance Samuel placed on family up until now, the fact that Samuel is willing to sacrifice one of his own in order to coerce Hiro forces us to wonder how much more important than family the end result must be to Samuel.
Samuel explains that he’ll need Hiro’s help to undo one of his “transgressions,” and we learn that one of these involves…
… KILLING MOHINDER?!
Oh, Samuel. That’s not a transgression. That’s an achievement. Take the voice-overs — they’re yours.
This episode is a flawed masterpiece, but a masterpiece it most definitely is. There are myriad inconsistencies, out-of-character reactions and instances when the main characters seem a little Dumb, but what makes this episode memorable is the way its charm and spirit transcend its flaws. At its heart, it’s a moving tale about two people trying to overcome all odds so they can be together. What makes it one of the show’s finest hours is the way the delightful romance belies the complexity of the story behind it: the fairytale ending that’s made possible by one villain, only to be shattered by another.
Hiro’s antics have butchered the timeline to a point where almost every scene comes with at least some kind of a continuity issue. Noah’s near-affair with Lauren paints a muddled situation in a story that’s never quite sure what it wants to say. We still have no idea what Samuel’s ultimate agenda in all this is, although depending on your perspective, killing Mohinder might be a good start.
But even with all of that in mind, this episode is phenomenal for the way it embellishes a story that started in the first season, for the way it recaptures exactly what was compelling about that episode three years ago, and for the way it takes all of the ideas at the time and expands on them, making the story relevant to the current volume and developing the original premise into something even more moving and profound. We’re left wondering whether Sylar can ever overcome his psychosis long enough to rediscover his capacity to heal people; whether The Company ever realized the deep-rooted guilt and self-loathing it inspired in its employees by forcing them to lie to their families; and whether Hiro ever knew that the most effective way to redeem himself was to go back in time and relive what remains the show’s most delightful and completely believable romance.
This episode is nothing short of a miracle for Hiro and a milestone for the show. Enormous credit is due to Jayma Mays for capturing the heart and soul of the story, to Masi Oka for portraying a character whose heroism and nobility resurface for the first time since “Our Father,” to Aury Wallington and Aron Coleite for an exquisite and often deeply thought-provoking script, and to Nate Goodman for mining every nuance of an outstanding episode and realizing it to its full potential.
5 out of 5
FIRST!
Sorry. Couldn’t resist. Never done that before. Always wanted to. Now I get to do it with my own review. Yay!
Just a quick note to clarify the approach we’re taking on the news of a departing cast member: the review begins with a spoiler warning, so hopefully no one will reach this part of the page, read “ADRIAN PASDAR HAS BEEN WRITTEN OFF HEROES” and scream “GAAAAAH! I didn’t want to know that! You’ve ruined it for me!” I’m holding off creating a discussion thread devoted to the topic, but please feel free to sound off on the subject. I know it’s an issue that’s very close to some of our hearts.
Please be aware, though, that I will be censoring references to Pasdar’s departure in comments posted in previous discussion threads — as in, any comments made on the subject prior to this week’s thread will read, “‘I’m very sad/angry/happy that ********* is done with the show.”
Hope this makes sense and that everyone agrees it’s the most sensible approach. As always, any queries, please let me know.
Otto, great review. Remember, Ando knows the future can be changed- thus, he has reason to worry when Hiro is in danger, even though he saw Future Hiro.
I don’t think that HRG realized he was leading Lauren on. Lauren, OTOH, came across as completely horrible- who tries to seduce a married man when his kid is in danger?
Gettin in early this time :-p
Okay, so the whole Hiro thread - amazing. I’m really, really, really, really, REALLY curious to see if they actually manage to ANSWER THE CAITLIN QUESTION with all this. It’ll also be just high-larious to have a scene between Peter, Emma, and Caitlin.
But really, why I’m here is this:
1) Noah is not a special, but
2) The only person that knows more about how the specials powers work is Sylar, and even then I’d say for not actually being able to, y’know, USE the powers Noah’s doing a bang-up job.
3) Noah is fed up of not being able to help people.
4) Noah wanted to TEACH.
Who’s taking bets on Noah taking the Company money and becoming a combination Professor X/Batman? School for the Gifted, anyone?
That’s what I was thinking.
Me too…Noah would be the teacher of the gifted humans, for sure!
If this happens I demand Noah be referred to as “Professor Batman”
Call me cynical, but Heroes has often hinted at status quo changing developments such as that and never, ever, paid them off. As cool as Bennet-as-Professor X would be (something I’ve thought they’ve been setting up since the end of season one), I’ll believe it when I see it.
There’s also that whole issue of Noah working with Eden and the Haitian to stop Sylar, and Lauren’s pretty much dropped into that backstory with no real relevance that we know of. Which, to be fair, has more to do with the story than the character. Still, you look at the character’s self-importance as the episode goes on, and you just want to tell her to get over herself, because in the end, we know she won’t be more than a footnote in the backstory.
To be fair it would appear they are NOT partners, but two non-supers who bonded at work. We never saw any other people at primatech, when it would seem to believe that the company had many different teams and Sylar was a number one priority - And I wouldn’t put it past Noah to use anyone who he knew that well to help - since he was trying to not let Claire be known and his other intentions known. Gives new meaning to the idea that when Noah says only one other person knew who Claire was and we assumed it was Eden, could it be Lauren. Just a thought, but I’m sure it was Eden.
Fight it, Noah! You don’t really care about her! You only care about having someone — anyone — to confide in. Go home to Sandra, tell her the truth and discover how awesome she is.
Absolutly, people need someone to confide in about their job, let off steam, he had no one to do that. Many people say even if nothing happened that when a man starts confining in another woman and not his wife he has already cheated, I don’t know how much I believe that, but there is ever reason to see why this happened.
It’s the reason I’m convinced we’re expected to dislike Lauren.
I would agree, although most I felt bad for her, because she was always making a fool of herself, I think Noah did care for her, but he loves his wife and family, it was awkward, BUT i’m pretty sure this isn’t the last we’ll see of Lauren - so I can’t see we are meant to not like her.
You’d think Noah would have spotted that. That’s one *PING!* Dumb As Award for Noah for an uncharacteristic lack of attention to detail.
Its a painting of a shadow, a man in black, give the man a break, as he tells Lauren they have no idea what he looks like - and did he see the Sylar paintings BEFORE Eden brought them, don’t think so, but may be wrong, still…
You also have to figure that if Sylar was killed, Isaac wouldn’t have had much reason to paint New York exploding, or even a cheerleader getting attacked. Meaning Peter wouldn’t have had much reason to go to Odessa, and we never would have gotten the Paire.
LOL!!
Samuel: “This place is a minefield. One mistake and it’s kablooey, history. Awful lot of trouble for one girl. Pretty as Little Susie Flapjacks is, is she absolutely worth it?”
Noah: “Because nobody knows what he looks like. That’s why I need your help.”
?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Uh, Noah?
LOL! Very true. But that’s Gabriel Gray, does he really now Gabriel IS Sylar yet, I guess the MO would do it, but this was old footage. Darn, well I can spin it.
It’s never established whether Charlie’s ability was the direct cause of her blood clot. The way Sylar attributes her ability to it, the implication is that the two are connected. If that’s true, it’s a parallel to Hiro’s ability giving him a brain tumor.
I think so, even carnival time travel guy had one - Claire was sick for no reason when she was young, Peter had a melt down and was in a coma - I think it would make sense that the body may not be able to stand the power - it is a very human idea and along the lines of that “be careful what you wish for” will be interesting if we hear that perhaps Peter or someone else was sick as a child.
If that’s true, however, you have to wonder what kind of message the show is putting forward about these abilities. Between Sylar’s hunger, Angela’s nightmares, Matt’s addiction, Emma’s fear of slicing stuff in half and Charlie’s ability prompting an extended recital of Otsu’s key facts, the emerging pattern is that almost all abilities come with significant downsides.
Totally agree! Its be careful what you wish for - it’s great power, but its not a walk in the park - and I find that very human and compelling.
If that isn’t Danielle Savre reprising her role as Jackie, it’s a very close likeness.
It is, she’s on IMDB, but I don’t think she is as young and thin, sorry Danielle.
Also, I do feel there was a mila-second of a moment where Sylar doesn’t like what he hears.
when decides that he can’t bring himself to betray Sandra. Which, THANK GOD, but on a number of levels, this scene was rife with issues.
Ohh, interesting - I figure he came in the hotel room knowing he couldn’t and was there to tell her down easy. I’ll have to watch again…. hummm.
But ultimately, the reason this scene failed for me is because it never really expresses anything we didn’t already know.
Very true. Most of this storyline ran flat and all I could think was that it was laying seeds for future episodes.
If Lauren was there to help Noah, she didn’t help in any discernible way.
Saying it because she cares and to save face, maybe she already knows what she has to do.
And again, great dialogue, and yet again a point that needed to be made, because Hiro’s essentially selecting one doomed individual and saving her because she’s special to him. Which is romantic, but also very unfair to all of Sylar’s other victims who weren’t saved because they weren’t fortunate enough to be quirky, attractive waitresses at a Midland diner. Hiro’s basically implying that he’ll make an exception to his rule to never change the past because he cares about this individual. Which is sweet, but somehow very hypocritical.
I loved this scene so much! Her calling him out as fantastic, because he was selfish - a hero has to put their own feelings aside for the sake of others. The entire reason Angela had to tell Matt to kill Peter if he was going to let the Virus release - I loved how this was what the elders must have learned and I hope they go into more detail connecting this to the arch of the series.
Speaking of… you see the Mo’s dad’s Coyate Sands videos on NBC.com…
Masi is wonderful when Samuel tells him, the pain and the anger, it’s fantastic!
Oh, Samuel. That’s not a transgression. That’s an achievement. Take the voice-overs — they’re yours.
LOLOLOLOL!!!
“LOL! Very true. But that’s Gabriel Gray, does he really now Gabriel IS Sylar yet, I guess the MO would do it, but this was old footage. Darn, well I can spin it.”
Yeah, that was my spin as well. Bennet knows Gabriel Gray, he knows Sylar, but at this point he doesn’t necessary know that Gabriel=Sylar. The paintings are all vague and shadowy, and he may not have made the connection between Sylar’s head-slicing MO and the head-slicing he observed Gabriel perform.
Am I reaching? Yes.
Should the Company, if not Bennet, have made the Gabriel/Sylar connection at this point, especially since Bennet was “training” Sylar at the Company’s request? Yes, but then the Company’s own MO and relationship with its employees as been one of the show’s muddier and still unresolved plot points since day one.
Should this episode have somehow paid lip service to the “Bennet put Sylar on his path” retcon? Yes.
Hi Otto,
WoW , Second… (unless I took too long to compose) & my first post.
I think I have read all of your reviews and Thoroughly Enjoyed them, whether they reinforce my own thoughts or are a counterpoint to them - so many, many thanks for your hard work and detailed evaluations. One thing that seemed inconsistent to me was that in Season One, didn’t Noah (I guess H.R.G back then) ‘ground’ Claire and forbid her from going to the Homecoming game so that Zack had to convince her to sneak out? And here he is saying ~Can’t a father watch his daughter cheer at the Homecoming Game~ or something like that. Maybe he grounds her the next day. The only part of the episode that did not work for me was the ‘tacked on’ feeling the Lauren/Noah story had and the ‘goofy’ looks she kept throwing at him.
Thanks & keep the reviews coming…
Ooops, I just reread the ‘Homecoming’ review - and Claire giving Jackie the black eye (which hadn’t happened yet) was the cause of the ‘grounding’.
I thought in the Homecoming episode that Noah used Claire punching Jackie as an excuse to ground her, but was really forbidding her from going to homecoming because he had seen the painting where Claire was killed?
Hey Otto. Fantastic review.
I’m going to focus all my time talking about how great the Hiro/Charlie story was. And as for the Noah/Lauren story, well, I’ll just try to deny that happened unless it becomes relevant.
Now, on to the meat of the matter. Hiro has finally been made likeable again! I never thought I would live to see the day. Much of that likeability comes from the fact that he is acting to save the love of his life. We hve never seen Hiro up against a task more challenging or one that we can actually invest ourselves into too. Up until now it has been stupid stories about him trying to refind his heroic streak in India (by the way, you should have renamed the Dumb as Awards after him right then and there) or stuff even worse that I have blocked from my memories. But now he actually does something that could be seen as actual heroism (or selfishness if you’re so inclined. I don’t see it that way because, well, it’s Charlie!). One thing I can’t get of my mind: why would Sylar let them go? I get that at this point he hasn’t yet met any of our main charaters, save Matt when he tried to take Molly’s ability, so he wouldn’t be inclined to hunt their asses down and kill them. But still, he was hunting down abilities, yes? So why doesn’t he just take Hiro’s ability, go to the future himself and figure it out himself how he dies? His learing curve is so fast that he could probably master Hiro’s ability faster than Hiro did (like he did with that shape-shifting ability) and with his ability he could overcome the apparent brain tumor that comes with it. I just think the Sylar we know would have just scalped them both and moved on to Claire. But still, by doing what he did he saved Charlie and gave us one of the greatest episodes we’ve had in a while. So, I guess the good of his irrational move outways how out of character it is. On a side note, there is one benefit besides several characters being alive if Sylar had died here that you didn’t mention. The fact that two charaters would have probably been dead. Or at the very least, not introduced. that’s right, Maya and Alejandro would have never been a nuisance to us if it hadn’t been for Sylar. He was the only reason that their story made it a ‘viable’ part of season two. Without him, they probably would have died trying to cross the border. i don’t know how that affects the scales of whether it would have been better for Sylar to die in Midland, but it’s a thought.
And as for Mohinder, well i guess there was more to that film strip than i thought. I really want to know how that happened. Here’s hoping it’s actually vital to the Carnival’s story and not just some stupid polt device. Only time will tell. (Not meant as a pun)
I think that Sylar realized that he couldn’t defeat Hiro in a fight. He might have been planning to come back for Charlie
after Hiro was gone but Samuel kidnapped Charlie.
“i don’t know how that affects the scales of whether it would have been better for Sylar to die in Midland, but it’s a thought.”
So, it’s a toss-up between still getting the Paire and nixing the whole Maya storyline? Tough call.
Spot on, Otto. What gets me is that is episode rocked in some places and virtually sucked in others. I still give it a 4/5.
What worked:
Charlie and Hiro. I loved this so hard, I can’t even say it. I started watching the show fairly late so I missed a lot of the poignancy of this relationship. But seeing it up close…wow. Jayma Mays is truly a marvel, and she and Masi are so genuinely adorable I wanted them to skip off into the sunset and make little Hiro and Charlie babies. They have such chemistry, it’s sad to know that this is a one time thing.
Dr. Sylar. No need to elaborate.
Eden and Isaac. Especially Eden. I wasn’t the only one to yell “Welcome back, Eden!” was I?
Yeah, I didn’t think so.
Future Hiro. Even if it was a joke. And he called Past Hiro a moron. Hee hee. Frankly, Hiro can be stupid no matter what time frame.
First time I got a real “villainous” feel from Samuel. Wanted to kick in in the you-know-what after seeing what he did to Hiro and Charlie. Bad Samuel.
What didn’t work:
Noah & Lauren. Yeah, we never need to see her again. And this is nothing against Coleman or Rohm, for that matter. I’m just relieved that she mind-wiped herself so we don’t need to relive this. I can firmly believe that Noah was attracted to other women, especially in his line of work. But dedicating a plot to it when it offers absolutely nothing to the story is absurd. I just didn’t care.
For some reason, I hated the way they introduced the cheerleaders. They were just conveniently skipping and giggling when Sylar turned around. I dunno, it was like Girls Gone Wild or something.
I’m concerned about the time traveling thing. Even in a good episode, that has the potential to make so many things wrong. You were bothered by the whole “Save the Waitress” thing because the dialogue sounded corny, I was worried that past Hiro would actually take it literally and figure that Claire was safe so he wouldn’t bother trying to save her, thus changing the timeline.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I do believe that Sylar’s behavior near the end felt more like his present personality and less like he did in season one. The one thing that didn’t stick with me was that he didn’t kill Hiro or Charlie. I loved the twist, that in the end, Sylar was the one to save Charlie, but assuming that he had the “hunger” back then, there was nothing stopping him from at least killing Hiro and taking his ability, especially when Hiro tells him that he will be instrumental to his death. Sylar knew Hiro would eventually tire of freezing time; he could have killed him during an off moment.
Basically, Sylar had the chance to kill his potential murderer and take his ability and he does neither. With the exception of his mother and Brian Davis, Sylar never showed any remorse towards his victims. In other words, his sparing Hiro and Charlie’s lives is inconsistent with the character he was during the first season.
Those minor quibbles aside, a great episode.
“I was worried that past Hiro would actually take it literally and figure that Claire was safe so he wouldn’t bother trying to save her, thus changing the timeline.”
This was one thing that bugged me. Present-Hiro told his past self that the cheerleader would be fine, but we know that Past-Hiro and Past-Ando eventually made it to Union Wells and found a blood-spattered banner, so he knows that someone ends up getting their head sliced open.
So, as far as Present-Hiro’s concerned, everything at Union Wells will turn out OK as long as it isn’t Claire whose head gets sliced open. Poor Jackie!
Marvelous review Otto, thank you for all your attention to detail (especially regarding the attention to detail)
From my point of view, the Hiro portion of the story really worked wonderfully. It’s virtually impossible to do a 100% logical time-travel story, but this came close. Regarding Hiro not killing Sylar, well then Hiro himself would get an entirely different story and not end up where he currently was, i.e. kablooey history! (…or “Hiro Caitlins himself”)
Regarding the Noah portion I found myself reading it differently on my second viewing. On the first viewing I kept being irked at how on Earth Noah could be even entertaining the thought of an affair hours before Claire was about to get scalped, and I was annoyed at the whole storyline.
On the second viewing I felt like the first scene in the diner was a somewhat logical, but ill-timed on Lauren’s part, conclusion to months of breakfast meetings, which started well before this whole Syler-is-coming-after-my-daugther crisis. The kiss I read as her being clueless/desperate. Somewhere during Noah’s meeting with Claire I got the impression that Noah decides once and for all that his family comes first, and then he goes to the motel room to deliver the message - not ‘check things out’ as it were.
From that point of view, the Noah storyline makes much more sense (at least to me). I’m also guessing this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Lauren. I mean, why else go to all this trouble?
The only thing that bugged me throughout the episode was trying to figure out which exact town things were happening in, and how and when people were travelling between them. Midland and Odessa are 30 minutes apart by car, so there’s some travelling involved, and presumably only Noah and Lauren have cars (and they both go back and forth). What got me particularly confused was Hiro arriving at the bus stop in Odessa on a scooter (no teleporting?) to find Sylar, then presumably walking to a nearby alley, and then returning to the diner in Midland with Sylar. But how? Walking? That must have been awkward… Are we then also to assume that Hiro leaves Sylar in an alley in Odessa? Anyway, this bothered me a bit.
Regarding the departure of Pasdar as a regular (future flash-backs anyone?), I think I’ll miss his very understated and nuanced acting, not to mention the bromance between Nathan and Peter, with Adrian and Milo working so very nicely off of each other. That said, the show has been repeatedly killing Nathan off for the past few years, indicating perhaps that they were having trouble figuring out where he should go next. I only hope that the departure will be meaningful, and I’m particularly interested to see what effect it has on Peter and Angela.
Can’t wait for this coming Monday for the saga to continue…
p.s. The Hiro-fan in the household commented that this was the best episode in years… I hope they keep this up!
According to an interview to TVGuide, Lauren will be back.
PS: totally agree, Hiro’s story had sense and it didn’t fail in the timeline
When I started reading the review, the only comment was Otto’s own. Now there are 8, and probably more by the time this is posted! Aargh–just glad I didn’t wait until tomorrow.
I think you kind of missed the inconsistency of the Ando thing, Otto. At this point, he already knew about the future-Hiro with the sword and soul patch, and still wondered whether he’d come back from Otsu or from the past without powers. I really didn’t see this as an issue. What bothered me more was the implication for the scene with Hiro and Ando at the end of 1.10. With this new continuity, Past-Hiro will come back on the bus thinking he didn’t save Charlie. He’ll meet Ando all dejected and Ando will say, “What the hell are you talking about, she didn’t die!” And then they’ll just think that Charlie and present-Hiro went off to Otsu, not that they are missing/lost-in-time? Or maybe Charlie didn’t tell anyone they were leaving. But still, what the heck did present-Hiro think would happen with his past self when he showed up to tell Ando he got off the bus–while he’s galavanting in Otsu, what is his past self doing at the Burnt Toast? And what is past-Hiro going to do when he finds out she’s alive and galavanting about with his future self? That’s the one retcon I had trouble with–what happens when past-Hiro shows up on the bus, and it seems like it was hand-waved.
But beyond that, they did a pretty good job preserving much of the timeline, especially given that Charlie ended up in a Caitlin-like limbo (and as Otto knows, a fanfic was posted just yesterday that had Charlie and Caitlin hanging out in the pub at the edge of nowhere). And here is a GOLDEN opportunity for the writers to deal with the show’s most egregious hanging loose end. You know, the one that Kring was so flippant about? The one he said they “leapfrogged”? The one that stains Peter’s heroic character? The one that pissed so many people off and caused Kring to insult his own fans? It’s a golden opportunity that will probably not come to pass for several reasons. If I were Katie Carr and I were approached about coming back to the show, I’d probably say tell them to go get bent given Kring’s asinine comments in ‘08, which were as insensitive to Carr as they were to anybody else. Also, I don’t see any of the writers except for Fuller (who is gone) having the guts to stand up to Kring. So no, it won’t happen. But it’s an unprecedented chance to deal with it without distracting from the current arc and to make it relevant…
We know Mohinder isn’t dead for real or for keeps like ****** is. Moving on…
And yes, the glimpse of the way Sylar could have used his ability for good is heartbreaking, especially when we know he could have gained abilities through empathy…perhaps the most heartbreaking part of the whole episode. He really was rotten to the core, despite Elle’s insistence that he “had a soul.” And yeah, I think we’re supposed to accept that Noah did not yet know that Sylar and Gabriel Grey were one and the same.
Great review and great episode. I wonder if its quality will influence NBC’s thinking. Airlock Alpha is still pretty confident in himself, but I still just don’t see NBC cutting their losses at this point. I guess we’ll have to stay tuned.
Oh, yeah, and you didn’t mention how much larger Hayden’s boobs are now than they were three years ago. That Union Wells cheerleader outfit made that abundantly clear…
Thank you for pointing this out, KellyH.
I had something similar in the first draft; not specifically referring to Hayden’s chest, but to the fact that she’s definitely looking older and that seeing her in the cheerleader uniform is kind of creepy. I chickened out because I didn’t want to offend anyone. Hayden is still very gorgeous, but unlike JC and ZQ — who look like they’ve barely aged a day since 1.08 — I didn’t think she managed to pull off this jump back in time quite so believably.
Great review!
Rohm gave an interview in which she intimated that Noah and Lauren were soul mates, and we’d be getting follow-up. I just hope it’s better written than the set-up, because YIKES!
I’ve watched JC reciting Shakespeare about 20 times. It’s just so cool. I’m sorry they’re not doing commentaries anymore, because I’d love to hear his thoughts on that and speaking Japanese again.
I’ve emailed you my thoughts on Papa Suresh’s videos.
Once again, Nathan’s commentary was priceless.
Raissa, I have faith about Noah and Lauren, but writing must be improved…and in general, I don’t believe it was a bad episode…but it lacked something more
If Lauren shows up in the present, though, doesn’t that make her even more contemptible? It’s probably more forgivable if she has no memory of her feelings for HRG, but we know how she felt, and there’s always going to be a part of us wondering if she was planning this the whole time, like, “I’ll wait until his marriage has fallen apart, then I’ll swoop in and snatch him up!” What a b**ch!
I have a feeling TPTB won’t expect this reaction, that we’d find it romantic and take it at face value. We’ve discussed how what they intend isn’t always what comes through before.
If Lauren shows up in the present, though, doesn’t that make her even more contemptible? It’s probably more forgivable if she has no memory of her feelings for HRG, but we know how she felt, and there’s always going to be a part of us wondering if she was planning this the whole time, like, “I’ll wait until his marriage has fallen apart, then I’ll swoop in and snatch him up!” What a b**ch!
Oh, come on! XD I think it could be played at ‘Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind’, if they are witty enough…I don’t expect her to be waiting his marriage to collide, I think it was selfish/sad not to help and ask a trip by the Haitian because she felt shameful or full of remorse…maybe this is how I feel about this, but I felt bad for the girl…you know, making wrong moves after MONTHS having friendship dates in the wrong moment. I think this character has been put as an ace in the sleeve for future facts. Well, she can fall in love again, she can inner and not understood feelings towards HRG and I could ‘buy’ it totally. Otto, no offence, because I really like your reviews and this site and I love coming week after week, but I’m just wondering if they would have casted another actress, you would have not been so prejudiced about this story.
Anyway, I liked the whole episode, and like S1 and S2, I hope this chapter 9 (or
we’ll see next Monday, will be the beginning of the action! 
Raissa,
“I have a feeling TPTB won’t expect this reaction, that we’d find it romantic and take it at face value.”
I’m still undecided about this. The way Rohm plays her, as warm and bubbly and open, I think the show wanted us to see why HRG would care about her and why he’d be so thankful to have someone like her in his life. But then, I can’t believe the show expected us to root for this ship after years of doting on Sandra. Sandra’s one of the recurring characters on the show who is universally adored, so if it never occurred to TPTBs that we’d have a problem with HRG nearly cheating on her, I’d be very surprised.
Elle,
“I think it was selfish/sad not to help and ask a trip by the Haitian because she felt shameful or full of remorse…”
You brought up something here that I hadn’t thought of: Lauren had her memory wiped right after she promised HRG that she’d be there to help him save Claire. So, by getting her memory wiped, she’s basically saying, “Our working relationship and my peace of mind are more important to me than your daughter’s life.” I hear what you’re saying about shame and remorse, but the more I think about this, the more awful it seems.
“Otto, no offence, because I really like your reviews and this site and I love coming week after week, but I’m just wondering if they would have casted another actress, you would have not been so prejudiced about this story.”
Absolutely no offense taken, Elle.
I think it might actually be the opposite; that my fondness for Rohm is encouraging me to try to like the character more than I usually would. The reason I dislike Lauren isn’t because of the way she’s portrayed. It’s down to the character’s actions.
Yeah, Otto, that’s the only thing I didn’t like about Lauren, I can forgive the rest, and feel bad because she was clueless and buy the future (if she appears again, it would be great for me :)). You know…she left him alone with a serial killer chasing his daughter…badly done, Lauren! but I suppose that a clueless agent who has been rejected could have been an added danger to the Sylar thing, and that why she decided she couldn’t go on. But she should have told HRG anything because it was not good.
Well, anyway, I am happy that you are giving chances to her, if, as I say, she appears again. I didn’t see nothing wrong in her protrait, but the script, who draw her a bit clueless and rude, although I liked her. I really hope this story was not a filler.
Totally agree with the review. I still think you’re way too easily giving out the PING!’s, but it’s okay, you’re right, and I’m actually surprised that you caught the inconsistency about Noah saying no one knows what Sylar looks like, and I totally missed it.
I have to go back to “Villains” to see if Sylar ever refers to himself as Sylar in that episode. Because there could be the big possibility that, while Noah did investigate Sylar and basically caused him becoming a serial killer, he might have gone off the radar enough to have the Company not really know he is the serial killer in question, though that would be quite a stretch.
There’s also the possibility that he might have been Hatian-whammied after that particular operation for some reason.
Anyway, great review. I was terrified that this episode wouldn’t deliver, because I had high hopes for it, and at first, during Hiro’s conversation with the little kid I was afraid my fears might be realized, but it surprised me by meeting every expectation. The fact that Hiro actually remembered to tell Ando to wait there for past-Hiro was one thing I IMMEDIATELY thought about after past-Hiro left, but which I was 100% sure they would forget to address since it was a small detail, but I was thankfully mistaken.
I’m loving Jayma Mays in “Glee”, and it’s great to see her in Heroes with a promise to be back at some point to hopefully be reunited with Hiro. She absolutely lights up the screen, and her characters are so lovable, that the scene in which Sylar is healing her you can absolutely feel her terror and you totally want to reach into the screen and comfort her, she’s amazing.
Awesome episode! I usually say plenty, but all I have really to say is this, I could have totally skipped the Noah/Lauren story line. I though they kind of weighed down the episode more than the little flaws that were in the Hiro/Charlie story line. I feel that maybe they could have contrived something else to fill the spot. I thought Noah/Lauren was an eye sore compared to the beauty of seeing Hiro and Charlie together again. What Samuel did to her in the end made me hate the bastard more than even Sylar, who ended up saving her even if it was self serving. The punishment I grant to Samuel is Sylar nagging at him inside his mind for all eternity. He’ll be nuts in no time.
Can’t wait for next week.
You see, that’s why I wonder why Sylar is needed any more. You despise Samuel for what he did to Charlie, but admit it, you cheered within yourself when he brought down that police station, didn’t you? Didn’t you?
No I didn’t. I don’t like those who fight intolerance with intolerance.
Excellent review of an excellent episode, Otto.
Question. At the time that Noah and Elle “created” the monster that became known as Sylar, wasn’t he still just Gabriel Gray? My point is, when Noah told Isaac that no one knew what Sylar looked like, wasn’t he telling the truth? Did he know that Gabriel Gray and Sylar were one in the same at this point in the story? Please refresh my memory. He should have at least recognized Gabriel at the diner in either case.
Also, assuming Charlie isn’t Catlined off of the show for good, and assuming Hiro can eventually rescue her (partly pending on the lovely, Ms. Jayma Mays’ agreement to return), then Samuel inadvertently aided in keeping history from going Kablooy, as she could just skip over the 3 years during which she was “dead” to avoid interacting with any person or event in the original timeline.
Usually I talk a lot about the reviews, but today… I can’t.
Utter word to every point.
Hey Otto, great review once more - no matter whether I agree or disagree with you, they’re always a pleasure to read! I loved your catch of the chocolate milk; I’d never have made the connection.
I was totally torn by this episode. It was pure fun. It worked well as pure fun. But I was hard put to it to find anything truly relevant in it - apart from the ending with Mohinder, of all things!
I’ll start with the thing we’re agreed on - The Loah was completely pointless. It seemed like a filler, to add another storyline to Hiro and Charlie’s. That was what angered me most, even if I enjoyed Noah’s scenes with Claire.
Hiro and Charlie was well-done, well-played, and well-written. But the more past episodes of Heroes I watch, the more I feel the past finally ought to be left to rest in peace. The scene fit in with season one, but, like you pointed out, it was as if Noah and Elle making Sylar a monster never happened.
Overtly, the point of the episode was for Samuel to get his hands on leverage against Hiro. But why on earth did he kill his own time-traveller by having him send him back to the past and then trap Charlie, when all the leverage he needed would have been to take a plane to Tokyo (he probably could have printed it with his fingers) and kidnap Ando without any time-travelling at all?
So, I’m left with the feeling that this episode was there solely for the necessity of every volume to have a past episode, which doesn’t sit well with me at all.
My other problem is that I simply can’t begin to fathom where the ending with Charlie stranded in time (presumably playing cards with Caitlin) could lead. If Hiro doesn’t save her, then the whole episode will have been reduced to utter irrelevance. If he saves her, and they get their happy ever after - will they end up married? Will Hiro settle down? Will Hiro drop out of the show? Will the fight evil together (with or without spandex costumes)? The only way I can see any of those happening is if Heroes ends after this season, and Hiro does get this happy ever after. I’d totally not begrudge it to the two of them, but the downside would be no more Heroes.
I’m still torn. I couldn’t even assign this episode a rating that would give it justice.
(Please excuse any mis-wordings, btw; I’m not a native speaker and am having a couple of doubts here and there in this post…)
4.01 Orientation finally aired down here, Wednesday night 8.30pm, and I’ve had a theory about Gretchen for a while now but I wanted to see her on the screen before mentioning it:
Gretchen is working for Angela. She is one of the first recruits to the new Company, and Claire is her assignment.
Come on, can’t you hear Angela chiding her? “Your orders were to get close to my granddaughter and report back, young lady, not get *that* close.”
I’ll have to watch Orientation/JPA again, but my impression is that the compass Samuel tosses in the grave and the compass Danko had in a safe deposit box were not the same compass. One was clearly broken, but the other didn’t look to be. Which leads me to ponder:
Compass = symbolic moral compass
Buried compass = throwing/putting away previous moral outlook/values
Broken compass = failed moral system
Giving Peter a magic compass tattoo = seeking a new moral guide/testing to see if Peter can serve as a compass
So, part of Samuel’s agenda, perhaps on an unconscious level, is to bring someone (or several someones) into his group who can give them direction - someone who can guide them to where he wants to go/be. Which maybe we can see in microcosm in this episode, as Hiro is able to guide Samuel to Mohinder being alive again? From the opening speech in Orientation, it looks like Samuel has already taken Mohinder’s voice-over spot. Poor Mohinder - not only is he only noticeable in his absence, this season, but his death/departure/downgrading-to-recurring-character has been completely overshadowed by Clairtchen, the Slitheen, cancellation deathwatch, and a-lead-actor-is-leaving rumours.
Apart from that… I cannot wait to see this episode!!!!
ps- “Ordinary people with TERMINAL abilities”; thank you for voicing one of my concerns with this show.
When Samuel put his magic ink compass into Peter, did anybody read it as he had in fact designated (not just testing) Peter as his “compass”, and thus will obey what Peter tells him to do? For example, right after the hand-shake, Peter tells Samuel he thinks he should go to visit his old house… and he does.
The fact that Samuel branded Peter with a tattoo — and that he doesn’t appear to have done that for any of the other recruits — suggests to me that he planned something special for Peter. We know that Joseph was the older brother and the leader of the carnival before he died, so if Samuel wants Peter to replace Joseph, it could be that Samuel wants Peter to take his role as the leader of the carnival. I can’t see Samuel relinquishing that role, but based on what we’ve seen, it’s interesting that Samuel seems to value Peter’s empathy and compassion more than he values Sylar’s arsenal of abilities. It could be that Samuel basically sees Peter as the leader and decision-maker, Sylar as the muscle and himself as the guy who oversees everyone else.
I totally agree about this review but Noah’s part. Maybe, because I am not prejudiced against Ms Röhm, and the fact of the sort of marriage HRG has in S1, I can understand the ‘not.romance’, I can’t only complain Lauren was very little subtle to get an answer from a man who invites her to have breakfast twice a week, if he’s married. Also, it gives a new subtle layer to HRG character
But I can’t complain in general against her and I’d love to see her again, especially because she wiped her memory, but not Bennet ;). Anyway, the episode was super, in details and everything, if we forget the Villains footage (did HRG know that Gabriel Gray was Sylar?, because I can’t remember…).
Really waiting to know how is Hiro in the Carnival, Mohinder’s death or the possible visit of Lauren to HRG who finally knows he wants to help people.
Great review
Always a good read :).
5 out of 5 for me too. I see we still agree on the season for the moment.
Ok here we go.
For the Noah part, personally, I didn’t dislike Rohm’s character (can’t remember her name) as much as you did. I watched the ep twice in 2 days, and the storyline isn’t necessary bad, but the timing “let’s have sex, you have untill tomorrow to save your daughter” was just horrible. If she doesn’t show up during the season at some point, it will be pointless.
- I’m still wondering how Noah ended up working for the Company : How do they choose the non-special ? Don’t tell me he was just selling paper before faking selling paper…
- Noah: “Because nobody knows what he looks like. That’s why I need your help.”. Okay, I didn’t even slightly doubt that he would get a *PING* for that. That’s the only problem I have with the timeline, but maybe they’re just ignoring S3 like they did with S2. Moreover, is it me or we STILL didn’t see Noah expressing any kind of remorse for being part of creating a serial killer ? If it wasn’t for him, the - Several murders (Which includes attempts on Claire, and success on her BioMom) / Keeping a serial killer / Insert anything Sylar did - would have never happened.
Time travel part ! Yeah !
- Timeline/Continuity issue : I’m actually shocked you didn’t point out, but “3 years ago” ? I’m all for the story not happening in few months, but there is no way 3 years happened since then.
- Ando/Hiro timeline issue : Considering how the things played out, Charlie was never killed, which raises some issue, but I don’t think we’ll really have to deal with it. I pretty much thought that once Hiro would be back in the present, the whole thing would be different for everyone except him. Not digging deeper from fear of headaches.
- The fairy tale / western theme was just perfect (specially considering the title).
- Nodding on your review for almost everything. I agree that a perfect time-travel story would be impossible, since there would always be at least one little thing to say. But they perfectly managed to keep everyone on their path.
- “We all gather to stop you” : lmao because it just seemed that Peter did all the job, and that NoAngela wasted the said work immediately.
Creepy Sylar is back, but only for one episode.
- Creepy
- Who said Hunger. Seriously ? ^^
- “But then, in a way, the whole point of this scene is not to reveal anything to us, but to glean Sylar’s reaction to the news and to judge what kind of a person hears they’ll become a mass-murderer and barely bats an eyelid.” That would be the only point I slightly disagree with you on. There is a point when his face kinda breaks down and he stares blankly. I’ll have to rewatch the scene but I guess it’s on the “Alone, …No one will shade a tear…” line.
I pretty much think he did consider changing his path but that Hiro by immediately teleporting him. There’s this moment where he stares at the cap, before putting in on, that I found pretty much perfect. In some way, I think Sylar’s path is the only Hiro *slightly* changed : In the *new but 99,9% same than the old* timeline, Sylar had the choice to turn back (and having seen he could do good things with his ability) but declined it, which indeed makes him more villainous, and definitevely unredeemable (at least to me). If Hiro didn’t go back, my guess is that he would have been creepy evil Sylar the whole time untill seeing AuntGrey again. Of course, he had another change to turn back last season, but who cares.
Carnivale :
- How awesome is it that Hiro stares at everyone EXCEPT SYLAR.
Off topic :
- Maybe it’s because I’m starting to learn Japense myself, but am I the only one finding Knepper AND Coleman speaking japanese priceless?
Geeez that post took me ages to write
Yeah! Finding Mays, Knepper and Coleman speaking Japanese is priceless :D, and I agree about ignoring S3 as well…it’s the only that make sense.
“I didn’t dislike Rohm’s character (can’t remember her name) as much as you did.”
Haitian Whammy? Tell me exactly where you found him and what you said to persuade him. I want to forget her name too!
Hey,
First posting, geat review as always. I love the way you pick on the small things, but I can’t believe you didn’t mention the two time travelling references. Right at the beginning with the cowboy kid Hiro sighs “Oh Boy” - Sam from Quantum Leap, and the later on after working out what he’s done will mean he won’t go six months into the past any more he utters, “Great Scott” - Dr Emmett Brown, Back to the future.
Love the episode and all the little touches.
just to let you know, HRG should knew how Sylar looks like because he created him as Otto said, or, if V3 rectcon never happened, Eden knew him (see Eden death scene) and if Eden knew, HRG knew as well, because they were spying Chandra. Infact Eden and the Haitian track down him and took him after the homecoming. Also they use a different cut of that scene (or just changed HRG’s words): I’ve used that very scene for a vid so I know very well what HRG said originally in S1: even then, they make him said “Nobody knows where he is” not “nobody knows what he looks like”.
-and HRG was at the Primatech soon after the speech with Isaac and Claire arrived there for a “paper emergency”, she certainly wasn’t at school with that cheerleader outfit.
This episode may be a masterpiece (and i disagree) if took as a solo episode, but if someone just remember what happened in the previous seasons is a slap in the face, with its abundance of inconsistencies and acting OOC of almost every characters.
and I forget the whole “3 years ago” mistake. no way 3 years are passed from that day. barely two.
Actually, i don’t think it has even been a year, if the timeline is correct. I don’t know why they decided to switch to real-time.
Two is about correct.
No, I’m pretty sure it is only one at best. Think about it. About a little over a month passed in the first season, from October of 2006 to November. Then it skipped four months ahead to February. Season Two took probably took about two weeks if you want to stretch it out. Maybe three. By the time the season ended we were in March. Season Three picked up right after Season Two, so we’re still in March. At most, the show could have carried into April of 2007 by this seasons end. Then the show jumped ahead roughly two months, to June or July if you really want to stretch. They were on the run, trying to stop Danko and Building 26 for what, three weeks? Four max. That could carry us to August of 2007. Not even a year yet and we’ve almost reached the shows ‘present.’ After taking down Danko we jump six weeks ahead. So we could either be in September or October. So a year could be argued. Unless you think that a lot of time passed between the Volume Five glimpse at the end of season three and the true beginning of season four, at most a year of time could be allowed realiastically. But then, this is Heroes. Realism is something you have to check out at the front door.
well in s1 claire was 16 and in fugitives she was 17 (see the scene with Alex and Sandra), between vol 1 and vol4 certainly passed just from 12 to 23 months…
Guys, don’t know if this helps, but there was a throwaway line from Nathan in 3.07 when he reminded Peter that Arthur died “over a year ago.” So, with that in mind, and adding a couple of months between Volume Three and Four, and then another couple of months between Volume Four and Volume Five, I think KellyH is about right: it should have been somewhere between a year-and-a-half and two years.
My guess is they’re wiping the slate clean so that we don’t have to reconcile all of these details. Which is sad, in a way, because putting it all together and figuring out why it didn’t make sense was part of the fun.
“… KILLING MOHINDER?!
Oh, Samuel. That’s not a transgression. That’s an achievement. Take the voice-overs — they’re yours.”
Lol X 1000.
You are truly hilarious dude. I love reading your reviews. Keep on rocking it heroes style.
dl : Everybody tracking down Sylar should know what he looks like simply because the Company has videos of him, point. That said, like you say, if they ignore S3, Eden knew him (when she died) simply because she took him down (with the Haitian) and we don’t really know if they monitored PapaSuresh. Even if they did, I don’t remember Sylar opening anyone’s skull in Chandra’s apartment though (I don’t remember where he killed the TK guy though).
Same for the Claire timeline problem. All the eps’ scenes didn’t happen back to back. Wouldn’t be that hard to think that Claire finished her cheerleading practice and changed clothes before going to Primatech.
Elle : urgh, can’t beleive I forgot Mays on the Japanese speaking people list
KellyH : Dunno about the boobs, didn’t pay that much attention. I was too distracted by her hair and her makeup… She didn’t look at all.
Overall, I’m just amazed by how they handled the episode. It was a huge risk to revisit a beloved storyline and I’m more than satisfied of how it turned out. HRG’s line basicly eclipsing what happened in “Villains” is the only thing that dissapoints me a bit, specially when they could have avoided it by keeping the original line (I watched 1×08, and the original line is indeed “Nobody knows where he is”). Even the “3 years ago” doesn’t bother me that much, though it could have been avoided by simply a bigged time jump between the seasons.
well, in “6 months ago” HRG recruited Eden to spy Chandra (and made him forget about Claire), and in Eden’s death scene Sylar said “I know you, you’re the girl next door, you could have stop me” so Eden certaingly knew Gabriel Gray… and as Otto said, put 2+2 was not so hard for them, knowing that sylar’s victims where on chandra’s list. (and this all from the s1 canon)
as for the “timeline issue”: in a show where precise reference to the time with dates (like the election day in s1 or the spread of the virus in s2 etc) were made, that used temporal references as episode titles, and also with explicit references to the age of the main character (Claire) through all the seasons, the timeline tend to stick in the head of the faithful fans. And due to one or more characters being time-trevellers, is not something that can be dismissed as not important.
I’m curious about how mohinder died….all I see are gray things sticking out of his chest…did Samuel fly stones at him?
I do not see this episode as that great of a triumph Otto, sorry. It was hyped up to be, and could have been, but I see it as nowhere near as good as “Company Man” “Our Father” or even one of my personal favorites, “Tabula Rasa” But this is all just a difference of opinion, of course.
First-off, the entire Lauren storyline leaves us wanting more. We’ve never met her, but she’s physically been with the company at least since before season 1. If she mattered now, they would’ve made her relevant beforehand. This is ( I hope) the show’s way of establishing continuity to bring her into the present… hopefully.
As per the main event, it seemed very confusing and forced. In an effort to patch up as many plot/time holes as they could, they made Hiro do all these things that even the best dialogue in the world couldn’t make out to be perfectly coherent. Though the name “Future-Hiro” was a nice little gift to the fans saying “We listen!”
It all seemed like one big ploy to get Charlie and Hiro to kiss, and then take her away with very little explanation. Did the carnival not realize that Hiro was being blackmailed by Samuel taking away his love? It seemed that was true, but Samuel says otherwise. They could have played out all of their needs plot-wise, but the show decided to take a more confusing route.
To me, this was THAT episode where the plot-holes outweight the epicness. I’m sorry, but this episode did not deserve a 5.
And while I’m at it, I think last season’s episode “1961″ deserved a 5. Yeah… I know you hate me now.
This had plot holes…and 1961 didn’t?? 1961 retconned EVERYTHING we knew about Chandra Suresh. Weird logic. To me, the only retcon in OUTiT that bugs me is the lack of explanation as to what happens now when Hiro gets back to the Burnt Toast on the bus after thinking he didn’t save Charlie…
…and whether Charlie has been a “missing person” since then…
Oh don’t get me wrong KellyH… 1961 had plotholes this, that, and the next way. I just thought that it played out to serve the Fugitives story arc well, and that the writing and directing and most of the plot was very solid. As Otto believed for THIS episode, to me, 1961 accomplished some great elements to the canon of Heroes, and a lot of the plot/ character holes were barely enough to make me think the episode was really bad. 1961 ended with me being satisfied and content, whereas this one did not.
But without argument amongst fans, this episode and 1961 had plenty of merits. Nothing I could say could bring down the scene where Sylar is healing Charlie and she feels like she’s dying and Hiro is with her and there’s sad music and… ughh, makes me teary. :’(
Charles, I find it interesting that you distinguish writing from plot. For me, the script for “1961″ was outstanding. Some of the Angela/Alice dialogue felt a little clunky, and Claire talking about movie night in the middle of a graveyard still strikes me as hilarious, but I agree that, for the most part, the script was solid.
Looking back, my main issue with “1961″ is still everything that we didn’t see; everything about the ElderSuper backstory that we were hoping for and everything that was glossed over or ignored. The rest of the retcons and the way Chandra ended up looking like a fool for retreading his research still bugs me, but I don’t think that dragged the episode down for me any more than it did for you. It’s the fact that we were promised A Great Backstory that would depict how the Eldersupers came together and how The Company came about — and that what we got was so insubstantial compared to what we were hoping for — that still saddens me.
With this episode, we were promised an episode that would go back to a formative moment in Hiro’s character arc and see a development to a romance that was heartfelt and poignant — and that’s exactly what we got. To me, that’s the big difference between this episode and “1961.” It delivered what I was hoping for in spades. As you say, though, it’s very much a subjective thing. Not everyone was as invested in the Hiro/Charlie romance, and not everyone was as hopeful to see Hiro’s character arc repaired after a season of consistently being the show’s clown.
Best line of the show, Hiro to Charlie, (in his own defense): “I know the world is a better place with you in it.” Succinct. Sweet. And very true. Lord knows the show is certainly better for both the character and the actress.
Spot on review, Otto. I don’t have much to add, really. I’m still a little perplexed/frustrated by the whole, Hiro lost his powers, then regained them from the precocious and sweet smack of Baby Matt Parkman, but only the time-STOP, not the ‘port or the time travel, but now it’s killing him and he can barely use them, until his powers (or “Destiny”) start spontaneously sending him through space-time, until he starts to learn to harness them himself again, still with tumor, but without stupefying pain. A tiny continuity issue? Or the writers just didn’t want to use time travel anymore, until they did? Whichever, it’s fine, because it was so utterly refreshing to see Hiro well-written for a change. Also, loved the WAY he saved Charlie’s life, by using the man and the power that killed her in the previous timeline. It was completely believable, and really satisfying, AND dealt neatly with the whole, “I tried so many times to save her and couldn’t” issue. Inspired, really.
I’m really enjoying this season. Now that they seem to have gotten back on track, I do hope they get a shot at a Season 5.
Oh, I wasn’t able to stop by last week, but I agree with the general trend of the comments that you were a little too hard on last weeks episode. ;^)
Have a great weekend.
Michael, I agree, Ando knows the future isn’t immutable, but there was also that moment at the crash site in 3.15 when Ando rationalized Hiro’s survival by pointing out that Hiro would eventually kill him in the future. Perhaps Ando takes a fatalist stance in this respect: if he knows Hiro will eventually come back to visit him, it’s got to be comforting whenever Hiro’s in danger.
“I don’t think that HRG realized he was leading Lauren on.”
He didn’t realize, no, but he should have told Lauren to back off the moment she booked the motel room. It could be that HRG really didn’t realize how Lauren felt, but I wonder whether there was also a part of him that was afraid to reject her advances because he didn’t want to lose the one person he felt he could talk to.
PandoraRose,
“Gives new meaning to the idea that when Noah says only one other person knew who Claire was and we assumed it was Eden, could it be Lauren.”
This brings up something that never occurred to me: does anyone have any theories on whether Lauren even knew why Sylar was coming after Claire? Did she know Claire had an ability, or what that ability was?
Re: Gabriel Gray, Sylar and HRG trying to find him: valid point from you, Jonathan and Elle, but I think Sylar’s M.O. is unique enough that HRG would have made the connection. He had one instance in 3.08 that he witnessed first-hand, and we know The Company was aware of Sylar finding and scalping Papa Walker and numerous others before 1.08. He must have made the connection.
Microz, welcome, and thanks so much for reading. Yeah, the black eye incident was later. Was HRG already trying to come up with a reason to keep Claire away from the homecoming game, though? You have to wonder.
CJM,
“One thing I can’t get of my mind: why would Sylar let them go?”
I have to go with Michael’s point: Sylar wanted abilities more than anything, but he knew he was outgunned by a guy who could stop time and chop his head off. And, as Michael says, Sylar was probably planning to stop by later to steal Charlie’s ability anyway. His logic was probably that by knowing what happens later, he’d have a better opportunity to stop whoever killed him and gain even more abilities.
Hrefna, thank you, and awesome post.
“Somewhere during Noah’s meeting with Claire I got the impression that Noah decides once and for all that his family comes first”
This is exactly what bugged me, though, because surely this is a decision HRG made long ago? I think there’s room for speculation based on what we saw of his relationship with Sandra in 3.12 and his boredom with a mundane life in 3.17, but surely HRG’s motive from the outset was to take care of his family? Somehow, for me, the prospect of him only now coming to that decision undermines the devotion he’s shown his family all these years. I could buy the idea that he wavered for a moment and that his loneliness and despair overwhelmed his devotion to his family, but if that’s what this was, I think it needed a little more dialogue.
Re: the locations: I got the impression that the bus depot, the alley and the cheerleaders were all in Midland. Only reason that made me wonder was a sign in the window during the Claire/HRG scene that said “Odessa.”
KellyH, great catch on Past-Hiro wondering what was going on when he got back to Midland. There’s this, and there’s also the off-screen canon from Saving Charlie, because factoring in that, Hiro would have come back to Midland WITH Charlie after their trip to Japan. So, when Present-Hiro and Charlie talked about going to Otsu, weren’t they talking about a second trip around the world? I think this is where the alterations to the timeline become muddled, and where factoring in on- and off-screen canon becomes an issue.
There’s also the whole question about what Past-Hiro thought he was supposed to do now. Based on what Present-Hiro told him, was he supposed to carry on with his mission to rescue the cheerleader and stop the bomb, or was he meant to stick around in Midland for the next few years and wait for the love of his life to show up again? He needed better instructions from Future-Hiro!
Jonathan, thank you.
Ian, you and me agreeing on everything — is this a first?
GoldSeven, thank you. Valid point about what this episode accomplished in the big picture. From my point of view, it’s a turning point in the show because it restores our (or at least my) respect for Hiro and his storyline. It’s very much a YMMV kind of thing, but that seemed like a very big deal to me. He went from being the show’s clown and back to the hopeless romantic.
I think it’s also a major episode for the way it vilifies Samuel, because after an episode that reminded us how beautiful the Hiro/Charlie romance was, discovering that Samuel ripped away their happy ending was about the most effective way to make us hate him that the show could come up with. I think that ties in with the show’s whole preoccupation with whether or not the future’s written in stone. Hiro proved that Charlie could be saved, but the moment he saved her, Samuel stepped in and thwarted his effort to be with her.
“…why on earth did he kill his own time-traveller by having him send him back to the past and then trap Charlie, when all the leverage he needed would have been to take a plane to Tokyo (he probably could have printed it with his fingers) and kidnap Ando without any time-travelling at all?”
I think Samuel was looking for the biggest bargaining chip he could find in order to coerce Hiro. Hiro and Ando are lifelong friends, but Hiro loves Charlie.
P.S. Don’t have any linguistic doubts, your post is flawless.
Myrystyr, I’m so glad you’ll have the chance to catch up with the season! Love the Angela/Gretchen theory. It would be very in-character of Angela, wouldn’t it?
One other possible purpose for the compasses: they might be tracking devices.
Pas, I think you and I will be on the same page for the rest of the season.
“I’m still wondering how Noah ended up working for the Company : How do they choose the non-special?”
Raissa, you want to weigh in here?
I figured he was in civil service and recruited by Thompson after he demonstrated a capacity to handle unexpected or bizarre situations. Probably some kind of incident where everyone else freaked out and HRG was just, “Eh, telekinesis, teleportation, regeneration, what’s the big deal?”
“Timeline/Continuity issue : I’m actually shocked you didn’t point out, but “3 years ago” ?”
I do have issues with it too, but I took it as the show’s way of trying to clean up the timeline. Perhaps you justify it yourself when you say, “Not digging deeper from fear of headaches.”
“How awesome is it that Hiro stares at everyone EXCEPT SYLAR.”
I completely missed this! That’s a really good point. What’s to stop Hiro from killing Sylar now that there’s no longer any risk of screwing up the timeline?
Craig, welcome! Great catch with the Quantum Leap and BTTF shout-outs. Those were both very cool.
Jerrud, thank you.
Charles, I’m pretty much with you on the Lauren storyline. You’re not the only one who found a lot of problems with the main Hiro storyline, but to me, the brilliance is in the way the show navigated through a lot of the continuity issues and added so little to the headache. As KellyH mentions, “1961″ pulled the same thing off with far greater issues and far less success (although, as you point out, that’s debateable
). To me, though, this episode wasn’t about patching up the timeline or setting up a ploy for Samuel; it was about Hiro trying to fix what he considered his biggest failure, doing everything he could to hold onto the love of his life, and losing the love of his life because at the last moment, one guy stepped in and took her away from him. That says a lot about Hiro, and it’s the reason we’re now inclined to hate Samuel (above and beyond leveling buildings and sanctioning murder).
But, no, I definitely won’t hate you for disagreeing on that count.
Ah, finally, the Uber-Otto-responds reply!
First, thanks.
I just wanted to point out Re: Locations that there are TWO bus depots, and they’re both clearly marked with big signs. Hiro puts Sylar on the bus in Midland, and then goes to Odessa to find him again. So the alley and the cheerleaders are in fact in Odessa. Which fits, because Noah bumps into Claire there after leaving Primatech. The only awkwardness is then that presumably Hiro teleports him and Sylar back to Midland… and how can Sylar then just not automatically whack him with something in the head to get at that aaaawesome power?
This is exactly what bugged me, though, because surely this is a decision HRG made long ago? I think there’s room for speculation based on what we saw of his relationship with Sandra in 3.12 and his boredom with a mundane life in 3.17, but surely HRG’s motive from the outset was to take care of his family? Somehow, for me, the prospect of him only now coming to that decision undermines the devotion he’s shown his family all these years. I could buy the idea that he wavered for a moment and that his loneliness and despair overwhelmed his devotion to his family, but if that’s what this was, I think it needed a little more dialogue.
I think it made perfect sense. Noah’s having noun trouble again. He said “family” to Lauren, but had the epiphany after talking to Claire. When he said, “I am…happy,” he genuinely was happy talking to Claire, his “family.” He realized that Claire would be hurt by his personal trouble. The momentary temptation stemmed from the realization, if only partial, at that point that things weren’t what they needed to be within the family construct he maintains for Claire. Granted, I don’t think that’s the subtext TPTB quite intended, but it’s what’s been there for four years now.
Raissa, you want to weigh in here? I figured he was in civil service and recruited by Thompson after he demonstrated a capacity to handle unexpected or bizarre situations. Probably some kind of incident where everyone else freaked out and HRG was just, “Eh, telekinesis, teleportation, regeneration, what’s the big deal?”
Something like that.
It depends, though. Theme and characterization are intertwined. If you go with the show’s interpretation — Secrets & Lies Are Systemic In Noah, you’re scenario makes sense. However, as we’ve discussed before, TPTB refuse to factor Claire’s immortality into Noah’s characterization as well as hers in a meaningful way. Because of that, the underpinning of both their stories, together and separately, is incomplete, imo. Logically, his backstory should be something that allows for commentary on her situation from his POV — ie a beloved family member dies at an early age, and he now must protect another beloved family member who will live forever. He must use Secrets & Lies, something that other relatives with Black Ops careers have done, but this will damage his family unit. It will damage it, because Sandra and Lyle need a normal life without them; it will damage it because Claire will need the Secrets & Lies to varying degrees over the centuries in order to maintain a normal life at all. Immortality is paradoxically sucky that way.
I guess that if Rohm is coming back, I might have to learn her character’s name ^^. Kinda funny that I don’t remember it while I was one of the few not to dislike her.
Ultimately, I think all those “timeline issues” aren’t that much of an issue, which is why I don’t think they dragged down the episode at all.
For the “3 years ago”, I just took it as a “Present is 2009, POINT”. It’s not like 2009 instead of 2008 mattered a lot for the story itself, and except for those who analyse the show, the problem won’t even pop in their mind.
For the rest, everything is more or less explainable if you think about it 30 sec.
For past Hiro thinking he didn’t save Charlie, I just assume that everything happens like in “6 months ago”, and that when he comes back, he will learn that Ando will tell him he will be able to come back later to save her (a bit like the poker guys, except that he didn’t come back for them lol) and go to Odessa anyway. I think Present Hiro was so obscure in his babbling that he would go to Odessa to check what happened anyway.
“So, it’s a toss-up between still getting the Paire and nixing the whole Maya storyline? Tough call. :)”
I don’t mind for *incest cough* Paire ^^. Of course, we all know it’s more than that, Sylar being the central element of the whole S3. No Maya is just a super bonus in the process.
Personally, I knew it wouldn’t happen but I would have loved Hiro to kill off Sylar in the past (Now, or even making sure he’s dead at Kirby Plaza).
Most of S2 would be intact, Sylar barely doing anything in it, but : no fake mommy/daddy issue for Sylar, no President-wannabe Sylar, no SYLATHAN !!! etc…
That wouldn’t rewrite the whole storyline (I think the big lines could stay in place quite easily), but the possibilities are nearly unlimited to do something awesome, on top of getting back REAL Nathan and other characters. Hiro would come back in the present having no clue of what really changed and would have to deal with the butterfly effect after the Carnivale storyline. Did that mention we wouldn’t get Maya?
I suppose taking that kind of gamble would be a huge risk, but considering how people bash Heroes even when it’s good, I don’t know how big a change that would be lol.
I would love it if we got someone who has the ability to see the alternate realities (a bit like Usutu who could see that the future changed). Just so they could give NoAngela or other main characters what they’ve messed up (I think PapaSulu was supposed to have that kind of ability but we still don’t know what it was…).
Hrefna, thanks for rechecking the locations.
“Hiro puts Sylar on the bus in Midland, and then goes to Odessa to find him again… The only awkwardness is then that presumably Hiro teleports him and Sylar back to Midland…”
Am I being completely dim here, or does that then suggest that Sylar stayed in the luggage compartment while the bus went from Midland to Odessa? If that’s the case then, really, Sylar absolutely MUST get a retroactive Dumb As Hiro Award.
Raissa,
“When he said, “I am…happy,” he genuinely was happy talking to Claire, his “family.” He realized that Claire would be hurt by his personal trouble.”
See, I think this is part of my issue with the storyline, because that suggests to me that HRG only spurned Lauren’s advances for Claire’s sake; that he wanted Claire to believe they were still a happy family unit, but that he wasn’t especially guilt-stricken over cheating on Sandra.
Which we know isn’t the case, but I can’t help thinking it undermines Sandra’s role if HRG’s main reason for rejecting Lauren’s advances is Claire’s perception of a family unit. He does say to Sandra in 3.16 that they “owe it to Claire and to Lyle” to hold their marriage together, but I’d like to think that one of HRG’s main reasons for rejecting Lauren is because he knows he also owes it to Sandra.
I think this is where budget comes in. They had to pay so much to accomplish so much in this ep that they couldn’t afford to bring AC back. I think they thought that his conversation with Claire would represent his conversation with Sandra. Instead, the subtext gives us a dynamic that’s the other way around.
I agree with that. I’ve always thought Sandra and Noah (at a certain degree) were good parents but not a good couple, which is why Sandra finally left him. The facade couldn’t go on forever, and it didn’t.
On another note, I too wonder how much Lauren knew about Claire’s ability or even if she covered her for Bennet (which would obviously be putting herself in danger). That would be quite a lot of people (with at least The Haitian and Eden) helping Bennet considering how he treated superpowered people like garbage back then.
I hope some background is explored whenever she comes back, if she does.
“Am I being completely dim here, or does that then suggest that Sylar stayed in the luggage compartment while the bus went from Midland to Odessa? If that’s the case then, really, Sylar absolutely MUST get a retroactive Dumb As Hiro Award.”
Now, now, aren’t you being a tad harsh? One has to find the darn end of the duct tape before one can start TK-ing it off… _not_ an easy feat by any means. Also, the poor thing probably had to levitate himself in a cramped compartment, while unrolling the duct tape, and by the time he was free, the bus was surely rolling. What’s he gonna do? TK-stop the bus, burst flying out of the compartment… although, hang on, that could look kinda cool!
H’mmm… from the way the ‘broken’ compass reacted to Peter, upon rewatching the episode, i got the impression it was a “detect powers” item, which would explain why Danko had it (something to help him find and kill people with powers). From a Dungeons & Dragons perspective, it makes sense to have magic items for people who can’t cast magic spells… which makes me all nostalgic for the scenes in the Primatech vault full of stuff - and makes me wonder if that’s where Danko found the compass.
Is there any way we can start a Dead Gamblers Do-Over petition? It’d make a great scene for the finale, if the show is indeed cancelled (not that I want it to be, I’d love to see Heroes get a Doctor Who kind of 26+ seasons, but the writing does seem to have been on the wall for some time now).
I’d like to think this episode finally rehabilitates Hiro’s character, but I guess we’re going to have to wait another week or three to see whether or not the rest of his bucket list is written in Special Magic Destiny Ink. Here’s hoping Hiro has finally gotten back onto the track we all thought, back in season 1, he’d be on by now.
Oh, and… is Peter EVER going to get that scar?
This brings up something that never occurred to me: does anyone have any theories on whether Lauren even knew why Sylar was coming after Claire? Did she know Claire had an ability, or what that ability was?
Good point, I didn’t even think if nor not, I assumed she did - Noah goes on about how he can’t tell Sandra how he is trying to save their daughter, and she over hears him almost losing it to Issac about how much he cares about Claire. They are going after a man who takes the powers of supers - I think Lauren knows. What made me think… Lauren? Was the fact that Eden wasn’t in the room while Noah poured his heart out to Issac.
Oh, and… is Peter EVER going to get that scar?
Myrystyr, I’d be curious to Otto’s thoughts on this one, but I personally can’t see NBC letting the show scar up permanently one of their “matinee idol” leads. If it ever happens, I’d think it would be the final episode, BUT I also believe that not only was the scar the way for the writers to visual let the audience know the difference between Future and Present Peter, but as the scar is always part of the bad future they are trying to stop - wouldn’t the scar represent that they failed… not that it’s not coming true already with the unstoppable nature of Nathan’s death, now come to fruition. If I didn’t know any better I’d expect Ando would be the next to go (Not before impregnating, Kimiko I’m sure) Speaking of has Wendi (via Twitter) mentioned JKL on set at all recently….
A girl can dream can’t she.
Last!
Well, it took me way too long to get this read and it was a joy, as usual Otto. I really wish I could have seen it as positively as you did and perhaps when I get around to re-watching it, I will. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been time to re-watch it.
It was great to have Jayma back. She was just as wonderful as Charlie this time as she was three years ago. I totally did not see the twist of Samuel being the one to take Charlie away. I really do want to re-watch to appreciate Masi’s anger in that scene. Although seeing Charlie get the “Caitlin” treatment was quite distracting to me. I kept thinking “Really, show? You’re going to send another one lost in time somewhere? And you INSIST we never mention Caitlin again? REALLY?” *shakes head*
How or why is it they can get the Charlie and Hiro romance so right and so many others so wrong?
As for Noah not recognizing Sylar because of the retcon that happened with Elle … Otto, didn’t you know that didn’t happen. Isn’t everything that happened in Volume 2 and 3 being ignored and/or forgotten?
I wish it hadn’t taken me so long to get through this and respond. There were a few other things I wanted to mention, but can’t remember them now. Oh well.
So glad the Dumb as Award got named after someone other than Peter.
Well, at least Peter and Emma will be in the next episode and I can’t wait for it … and your review.
Remembered something I wanted to mention … LOVED how you found a way to link to Milo’s Responsibility Project commercial. That was good.
The Lauren/Noah bit REALLY bothered me. In an episode with the best romance the show has ever come up with, whyyyy would we ever want another romance with ANOTHER blonde? And can I raise a general question, which is WHY does everyone trust the Haitain so much?? How many secrets is the guy walking around with?? Did Lauren just go up to him and say, “Hey so I had this pseudo-affair with Noah, but it really isn’t working out and it’s just embarassing and painful, so please make me forget it?”
I also wasn’t too fond of Claire and Noah’s scene…but I think I was mostly just creeped out by how strange it was seeing Hayden back in her cheerleading outfit. I can’t say I made the same observation as Kelly H lol, but her hair has changed and her face is older and she just has a more mature air about her. I’m also not convinced about the idea of Noah wanting to be an English teacher. His character AFTER having raised Claire would be a great English teacher, but from the glimpse we got of him as a young man in Company Man and later in….um, whatever the Cataylst backstory episode was…Noah pre-Claire was generally ruthless, action-oriented, and single-minded. That Noah just doesn’t strike me as the English teacher type. But who knows. Actually, I’d be very interested to learn how Noah got involved in the superpowered world in the first place.
However, I LOVED the Charlie and Hiro scenes and I love your observations about ZQ’s distinctions about this version of Sylar! great review, Otto!
And by the way, I think Claire just really likes chocolate milk and it’s more of a general reference. Brody was the first to mention it, but in a later season 1 episode Noah poured some for her, and she recently drank some again with Gretchen. (Writing this makes me want chocolate milk. I think I need to go get some….ok, I’m back).
Um. If I’m not mistaken (I might be), wasn’t Claire supposed to be grounded around this time? So she wasn’t supposed to be out and about excited about the Homecoming?