Through flashbacks, we learn that Mohinder returned to India two months ago, hooked up with Mira and started rewatching footage from the Coyote Sands film reel. Armed with the information on this reel, and using a Magik Compass which he built –
It’s surely a remarkable Hollywood coincidence that Robert Knepper once again finds himself on a show with an episode titled “Brother’s Keeper.”
The last time he was in an episode with this title, he was playing a character who liked hanging out with 8-year-olds. This episode involves playing a character who hangs out with Hiro, so some things haven’t changed. That said, Knepper has gone from playing a creepy convict to a cult leader, and although this character’s transition from drunken layabout to cult leader never quite feels believable, this episode is memorable for the way it introduces both Samuel’s backstory and his meteoric rise to power. It’s also memorable for its solid introduction to Joseph, and for the way it makes the most of the ongoing Sylathan Debacle.
If there’s a downside, it’s in the episode’s attempt to achieve an enormous amount in one episode, to the point where multiple story threads have been crammed into one hour and leave the episode feeling fragmented, and certain scenes feeling so involved that they lose the emotional resonance they’re meant to have. Which doesn’t make the episode a failure by any means, but an episode that extends beyond its reach and occasionally stumbles because of it.
But then, it also has frozen feet and Mohinder in a straitjacket. Some parts really are as simple and delightful as they’re meant to be.
The episode opens with Samuel and several carnival members loading a truck with recycling.
Samuel: “This green earth has given us so much. Feels good to give back when we can.”
Neat shout-out to NBC’s Green Week. Overt without feeling heavyhanded, and somehow in character for a guy whose ability involves controlling the earth beneath him.
Samuel: “I need you to go back eight weeks, Hiro. To a motel room in Texas.”
Hiro: “To save [Mohinder's] life?”
Samuel: “No, to save that film before he destroyed it.”
Sets up the premise behind Hiro’s storyline, although it’s amusing that Samuel doesn’t seem to care whether Mohinder survives. Which makes me feel sorry for Mohinder, but at the same time establishes how different this Samuel is to the one who was visibly upset about killing him at the time. Subtle shift in character, or inconsistent jump in temperament? We’ll get there, and you can decide. What’s worth noting here is that apparently Samuel still has no idea what’s on the film reel — specifically that surrounding himself with supers will enhance his power. Which makes you wonder whether he spent this season recruiting supers like a madman without knowing that their convergence will turn him into some kind of super-super, or whether he does know this and just wants to see what else is on the film. Not a detail that bugs you at the time, but looking back, it sticks out as either a plothole or something that needs to be addressed.
The episode cuts to Chennai.
It’s a pleasure to see Ramamurthy return to the show, not least because he’s playing the clean-shaven, healthy and (mostly) happy character he was playing before he became a bug. It’s a shame there’s never any mention of Molly, because with the footage from “Our Father” relegated to an extra on the Season Three DVD, this would have been an ideal opportunity to establish that she’s been living with Mohinder’s grandparents. Between the setting and the glimpse of Mohinder teaching again, however, there’s an oddly comforting sense of déjà vu to the scene.
Much less comforting is Mohinder’s decision to get back together with Mira.
Mira: “Your students adoooooore you, Mohinder. Teaching is what you were born to do.”
It’s a nice sentiment, and you know Mira means well, but knowing as we do that she looks down on Papa Suresh’s research and wants Mohinder to pretend he knows nothing about it, doesn’t it seem like she’s basically telling Mohinder what to do with his life?
Mira is furious! Mohinder kept a part of his father’s research! How dare he!
“But Mira, this research belonged to my father. My dead father. My father who was MURDERED. It’s all that’s left of him. It’s all I have to remember him. Can’t… Can’t I keep it?”
“Oh, pull yourself together, Mohinder. Throw it away or I’m out of here.”
“Done! Ah, this must be true love.”
I’ve changed the dialogue, but not much. The gist is intact. And, sure, Mira clearly cares about Mohinder enough to try to steer his obsession away from Chandra’s research and help him focus on their life together. But can’t he make his own decisions about the research he pursues? Doesn’t Mira’s insistence on ditching Chandra’s research imply that she doesn’t trust him? As well-intentioned as she might be, I watched this part of the episode with dismay, because not only is Mira basically forcing Mohinder to choose between his father’s research and her — she’s also blatantly forcing him to efface all evidence that his father ever existed. There’s chiding and emphatic exhortation, and then there’s passive-aggressive emotional blackmail. Mira expertly channels the second of these.
On the plus side, this scene is a delight to watch because of the mopeds. Whoever worked on the sound for this scene deserves a bouquet. Mohinder’s piano theme is playing throughout, but you can also hear all kinds of antiquated car horns honking in the background — and lots of mopeds.
The episode moves to Tracy at a diner in Washington, and although I say moves, it suddenly occurs to me that glides might be a better word, because Bryan Spicer’s direction at the start of this scene is so effortless that it feels like the camera’s floating: it starts on the carnival poster, gradually sinks to Tracy beneath the poster, then pulls round to reveal that we’re looking at Tracy in a mirror. Gorgeously shot, and a subtle way to convey how lost and disoriented Tracy is.
The banter between Tracy and Beth the Waitress felt like it was geared towards a relatively simplistic message — “Just because [the carnival folks] are different doesn’t make them freaks” — but it seems like the show also realizes the hilarity associated with Tracy joining the carnival. For all the talk of acceptance and super-solidarity, I’m struggling to see Tracy “spending [her] life in some trailer, moving from town to town.” Beth makes a point that we’ve all been wanting to make. Tracy isn’t the bohemian type. She’s the personification of creature comforts.
Tracy rebuffs Beth’s closed-mindedness with a stinging attack on her life “in some crappy diner,” which is so catty that it makes me love Tracy even more, but which is a verbal prelude to her going cryo on the mug she’s holding. Great effect. A season-and-a-half on, the frozen steam escaping from the fragments still hasn’t gotten old.
We cut to Petrelli HQ, and it’s established that the guy who flew away from the carnival and into Peter’s arms is indeed Sylathan as opposed to Amnesiac-Sylar-with-Sylathan’s-memories. It’s only vaguely alluded to in dialogue, but the implication seems to be that getting shot caused a shock to Sylathan’s system and disabled the Parkman Whammy, and that the Whammy has now re-asserted itself and blocked out everything up to the point when Sylathan was accosted in the parking garage by Millie’s goon.
René shows up at Petrelli HQ to reveal The Truth to Peter. We’re momentarily denied watching Peter discover The Truth because the episode goes from the opening sequence to Claire visiting Noah’s apartment with her laundry.
I kneeeeew it! I knew it wasn’t just a one-off visit! She tells him to back off and let her live her life and condemns her father’s ethics, but when it comes to saving on detergent and fabric softener, she’ll take everything from him!
We gather that Tracy is spontaneously freezing. Which makes for a neat idea, some great effects and some terrific drama. Thing is, I can’t help thinking that we’ve seen this exact storyline before, right down to Claire finding her kind-hearted caring side and bonding with the blonde who needs her help. Not that it’s any less effective now than it was then, but it’s effective for almost exactly the same reasons, and by that token feels very much like a rehash. It also pours salt into the still-open wound that was Kristen Bell’s departure from the show.
We return to Petrelli HQ, where it’s revealed that Angela wanted Peter and Sylathan Haitian-whammied to remove their recollection of Sylathan’s disappearance. This makes me wonder what would happen if René actually did try to wipe the memory of a regenerating, shapeshifting memory-dependent reconstruction of a character, but the focus of the scene is less on the memory-wipe than the prospect of the Haitian disobeying Angela. We can glean from this that René is stubborn about who he Haitian-whammies and why, but also that his principles will always win out over his steadfast loyalty. Which is a worthwhile point to reiterate in a volume about redemption, because as hilarious as it was to learn that René whammied Miss OMG and The Other One, it’s not so amusing to recall that, at one point, René’s memory-wipes seemed to leave Sandra on the verge of a very serious brain tumor.
René warns Peter that if he visits the address René gave him, what he discovers “may be more terrible than [Peter] can bear.” And what’s surprising…
… is how compassionate René seems. Which, considering the time he and Noah tried to bag-and-tag Peter and the time he chained Peter inside a cargo container and wiped his entire memory, seems like compassion that’s long overdue. Given that we’ve seen René attack (and in all likelihood kill) his own brother, there’s probably also a part of him that’s sympathetic to the anguish he’s inflicting on Peter by telling him the truth.
Mohinder retrieves Chandra’s research from the trash and fires up the film reel. It’s a delight for several reasons, from Ravi Kapoor’s return as Young Chandra to the reel itself, still clearly labeled as footage captured by “Lieberman.” It’s also worth noting that Chandra records the date of his first entry as March 5th, 1961. Which, based on the chyrons during the episode which chronicled everything else happening at the time, indicates that Samuel was born around the time that Angela started dreaming of an imminent massacre. What’s curious is that, based on what we later learn from Joseph, the operation at Coyote Sands continued long after the havoc we witnessed, at least long enough for Joseph, Samuel and Mama Sullivan to spend several years there before being released back into society.
Which doesn’t contradict anything we saw in “1961,” but the implication at the time was that Alice’s freak tornado decimated the camp, that virtually everyone with an ability was shot and buried soon after, and that Chandra and Zimmerman narrowly escaped with their lives before the project was shut down. The way this backstory is incorporated works for me, mostly because it adds texture to “1961″ and suggests that the episode at the end of the third season wasn’t just about showing us what a rough childhood Angela had. It does feel like an extension to the backstory, and it does feel like it’s been tacked on…
… but it’s such a pleasure to see Kapoor reprise his role as the obsessive scientist that I’m inclined to forgive whatever rationale the show uses.
Chandra: “I’ve been trying to alert the authorities to the potential danger of gathering so many persons with abilities in one location. My concern centers around an apparent force — small, but measurable — that emanates from all such individuals. When two or more of these forces are proximate, they amplify exponentially, like a kind of gravity or magnetism.”
Long and dense dialogue, but it’s apparently crucial to the premise behind the carnival, and to Samuel’s reason for bringing so many supers together. Like the inclusion of Samuel’s birth in the “1961″ backstory, it doesn’t feel like a contradiction so much as an extension. It comes out of leftfield the same way the adrenal-glands-are-the-source-of-all-abilities theory did in Volume Three, and you have to wonder how abilities that evolved independently over millennia ended up generating a similar magnetic force. But again, it leads to greatness — in this case Knepper’s presence on the show — and as such I’m inclined to forgive the premise in exchange for the outcome.
Did Angela dream about Samuel’s rise to power? If she didn’t dream about it at the time, you have to wonder if she’s dreamed about it since. You also have to wonder whether, with this storyline in mind, that whole earth-splitting concept in the third volume is now something we can attribute to Samuel. It might just be a coincidence, but the way Samuel’s portrayed as the Demon Spawn of Death and Destruction, it’s very possible he’s the one who brought about the apocalypse we got a glimpse of in Future-Tokyo.
Claire gives Tracy a bath. No, not like that, but it’s enough to fuel the fantasies of prepubescent boys for the rest of the season. What I found effective was the way we got to see Claire taking care of someone she barely knows out of the goodness of her heart. Which speaks to Claire’s good will, and to how deeply her reflection on her ability and its consequences has affected her. As with René and Peter, there’s compassion between these two characters based on a shared predicament.
Beautifully shot. Disturbing, horrifying and brilliant.
Tracy accidentally freezes Claire. The ominous music tells us it’s intended to be a scary moment, but then Tracy stares right into the camera…
… with an expression that says, “Well, I wonder if Noah will be able to figure out this was my fault.” And you want to laugh. Which undercuts the seriousness behind Tracy’s ability going out of control. But like Elle going Ellectric and nearly bringing down a plane, it’s played for laughs with an aim to convey that it’s less about the out-of-control ability and more about the bond that develops between the people overcoming it.
Peter and Sylathan follow the address given by René and find a storage unit. Credit again to Spicer for some adventurous camerawork, with the scene cutting from the Fugitives-style overhead shot as Sylathan opens the container …
… to the dramatic switch in perspective as Sylathan realizes what he’s looking at. The music is as superb as it is throughout the episode, with a metallic THOMP-THOMP-THOMP emphasizing how significant the moment is. What gives the moment the impact it deserves, however, is the long focus on Sylathan’s reaction to seeing a body that so closely resembles his own.
It manages to be in turns morbid, terrifying and oddly amusing. It’s morbid because we have to wonder what kind of a sick mind wants her son’s sliced throat stitched back together and his body put on ice in a storage unit. Terrifying, because although Sylathan is to all intents and purposes looking at his dead self, it means in turn that we’re taking in the full horror of what happened at the end of last season. And yet, somehow, there’s something amusing about Sylathan and Peter finding a body that looks just like Nathan, saying “Nah, it can’t be! It’s too weird!” and closing the container back up again. Even with Peter’s naivete and Sylathan’s patchy memory, you’d think they’d have realized by now that there are no limits to what Angela’s capable of in the interests of Doing The Right Thing.
Sylathan touches Nathan’s forehead and absorbs memories of Sylar TK-slicing Nathan, and Matt working the Advanced Parkman Whammy. This makes me wonder how Sylathan can absorb certain memories but not others. He appears to have some recollection of his confrontation with Sylar at the hotel suite, but does he remember some kind of rosy alternative version of the confrontation? Does he remember some bizarre scenario where Sylar just left Nathan in the suite and flew away to impersonate Worf before getting tranquilized by Peter? And if so, why are these memories from the dead Nathan not filling in the blanks and providing him with the correct story? It could be that there’s some kind of barricade by the Parkman Whammy to ensure that the Sylar-is-Nathan Mandate remains intact. Or it could be that Bridget’s ability gets a handle on the fact that it’s reading a dead guy on behalf of a brainwashed shapeshifting impostor and just says, “Hey, you know what? Forget this!” and gives up.
Meanwhile, Tracy makes a desperate attempt to unfreeze Claire by dragging her towards the bath tub. Then she breaks off Claire’s foot, and although we know it should be terrifying and that Tracy’s ensuing sobs should be moving, the moment is played with wit and sharp humor.
Funny, for the fact that the two of them bond over a severed frozen foot, for Claire’s nonchalance about regrowing a limb, and for Tracy’s immediate acceptance that there really are people out there with abilities weirder than her own.
Peter and Sylathan return to Petrelli HQ, and Sylathan reflects on the many mistakes he’s made in his life. Peter counters that he’s made plenty too, and although he doesn’t specifically mention it, I feel it would support his argument to point out that he’s got enough Dumb As Peter Awards to prove it. What’s surprising is that Peter puts aside his previous resentment towards Nathan and reminds him of the times he’s been thankful for his big brother.
Howdy, folks! Nate P here! Ah, Pete, you’re too kind to me. It’s so good of you to remember the good times like that, especially after you harped on about that trick with the playoffs. And even if you’re telling it to that phoney, I want you to know that your words have found a special place in my heart. I remember all those times we were there for one another. The time you burned me to a crisp and brought me to hospital. The time I caught you after you got shot and fell off a building. The time you covered for me after I had an affair. And all those other times we looked longingly into each other’s eyes.
Ah, those were good times, Pete. They’re the times I’ll remember. Not the time I humiliated you at a fundraiser. Or the time you shot me. Or the time we argued in the jungle. Or the time I got Bennet to taser you. Or the time I locked you up in a plane and wanted to take your power away. It’s good that you can remember me reorganizing my leave that one time, Pete, because I really was in two minds about whether to use that time to hook up with a hot blonde.
ANYWAY, I wanted to tell you all about the latest exciting developments down here. We’ve had a couple of new folks join Team Petrelli. One of them’s quite old, so I have to say I had my reservations. He says he wrote a book about special powers. I can’t remember if you ever mentioned that book to me, Pete, but he seems to be very interested in what’s happening to Suresh. Keeps on yammering about “Shanti” and “evolution” and how everything is his fault because he brought so much grief on his poor, poor boy.
I tried to tell him how much grief Ma and Dad brought on us, Pete, but I don’t think he wanted to listen. Plus, there’s something odd about the way everyone else sticks their nose up at him. Linderman? Simone’s dad? That bespectacled guy who Ma took over from at the lab? They’re all keeping their distance from him. I can’t imagine why. He seems so kind and caring. I felt sorry for him, so I’ve made him my press agent. Anything that’s written about me, it’s his job to find it and let me know about it. Not that there’s a lot of printed material down here, but it takes him over an hour to get through a couple of paragraphs. Then he starts weeping. It’s sad.
On the plus side, he brought a nice brunette with him! This one says she met you, Pete. You know, back when you were throwing yourself off rooftops? Turns out she died trying to stop the impostor. She says she liked the way she went out, but that ending up in a river wasn’t exactly what she had in mind. She’s amazing, though. She cooks for us! She brings us little cakes and makes us macaroni and cheese. I can’t think where she gets the ingredients. She’s been down here a lot longer than I have so I guess she knows the tricks to the trade, but really, that woman works miracles!
Well, that’s it from me for this week, folks. Remember to look back fondly on the time you’ve spent with your family. Tasering them and getting shot by them isn’t important. Giving them fun birthdays and touching them a lot is. And if some sweet brunette shows up at your door and wants to make you macaroni and cheese, remember to be thankful.
Have a great week!
Back in Chennai, Mohinder begins sifting through the information Chandra collected about superpowered magnetism and the Demon Spawn.
Nicely shot, and a subtle way to convey both the physical similarities and the shared obsession with uncovering the truth.
What drags this part of the storyline down is the extent to which we’re required to suspend our disbelief. We’re asked to accept that Mohinder takes THIS:
And builds THIS:
I’m sorry, but ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Mohinder builds his own Magik Compass? He. Builds. His Own. Ma-
Oh, look, it’s RIDICULOUS. Firstly, because the concept of the Magik Compass was absurd to begin with — that’s why it was called the MAGIK Compass instead of the SCIENTIFICALLY PLAUSIBLE Compass. Secondly, the compass is meant to be something indigenous to the carnival: it’s a symbol of their identity and what they stand for, not something that can be hammered together like some jerry-built do-it-yourself job. Thirdly, Mohinder himself later tells Joseph that he traveled EIGHT THOUSAND MILES to get to the carnival. Is the show really suggesting that the range on this little makeshift gadget is THAT good? Fourthly, the implication until now was that the Magik Compasses reacted to superpowers instead of guiding people to them. That’s why they spun like crazy when Peter and Tracy held them but wouldn’t budge a millimeter when Noah held them. And yet the implication here is suddenly that, in fact, the Magik Compass is designed to steer anyone towards a convergence of superpowered magnetism. And this little baby was designed using research gathered by Papa Suresh — because, apparently, in the midst of the experiments at Coyote Sands, Chandra knew that someday he’d need to track down a carnival of supers. Fifthly… Well, I can’t think of a fifth objection to this part of the plot at the moment, but I promise you that, given time, I know I could have thought of a fifth, a sixth and a seventh objection. And possibly an eighth, a ninth and a tenth. Let’s call it an even dozen potential objections. Suffice it to say, this part of the plot was objectionable. And absurd. And silly. Which is to say, IT’S GOOD TO HAVE YOU BACK, MOHINDER!
Here’s the heartbreaking part, though.
“Honey, you won’t believe the REMARKABLE DISCOVERY I’ve made! It’s going to change the world! It’s based on my father’s re-”
“*ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ…*”
Yes, I admit, I found the most unflattering screencap I could to support this. But the point is, she clearly doesn’t appreciate Mohinder’s enthusiasm, his passion for his work or his respect for his father’s dedication. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I MISS MAYA! As annoying as she was, she at least took Mohinder’s work seriously, and she didn’t roll her eyes sarcastically when she disagreed with his research.
We come to a scene that’s in many ways the centerpiece of the episode, with Peter healing Matt, Sylathan learning the truth and Sylar apparently switching back to his own body. It’s a scene that conveys the essential plot points, but it moves at such a brisk pace that it’s hard to keep track of who’s reacting to what and why.
We know he’s happy because he just saved a guy who can provide an explanation to the dead body he and Sylathan found. He’s probably also happy that the guy he just saved is his friend. And as much as the moment fails to carry any suspense thanks to an overly expositional promo a week earlier, it is a brief moment of relief.
We know he’s distressed at the thought that he’s standing a few feet away from the body Sylar wants to hop into, although it’s a distress that’s compounded with guilt over creating the monster he’s looking at, frustration from trying to explain the truth to Peter and Sylathan while barely coherent, anxiety over losing control of his body to Sylar, and in all likelihood dismay that his efforts to stop Sylar were thwarted.
Matt reveals that Nathan died, that Sylar is inside his head and that he’s vying for control of Matt’s body before he jumps back into Sylathan’s.
Which is an enormous revelation for Sylathan and for Peter, and one that’s undermined by the scene’s split focus. It gets the attention it deserves later in the episode, and the gist is that it’ll get more in next week’s episode, but what undermines the revelation here is that we’re trying to gauge how Sylathan’s taking the news that he’s a brainwashed facsimile; and how Peter’s reacting to the news that his brother’s dead, and that Matt created a fake version of his brother inside the killer’s body. And we’re trying to absorb those parts of the scene at the same time as watching Matt express his guilt over what he’s done, and at the same time as watching Ghost-Matt try to communicate with Sylathan; and all of that at the same time as Sylar relishing the prospect of surviving Matt’s suicide attempt and reuniting himself with his body.
This is too much to convey in one scene. We’re sifting through backstory and grasping each character’s emotional state at the same time as trying to keep track of whether it’s Matt or Sylar controlling Matt’s body, and now…
… whether Sylar’s going to end up controlling Sylathan.
There’s also the further complication from Sylathan and Peter’s reaction to the news that Nathan’s dead. Sylathan seems to buy the revelation based on the fact that it jives with his multiple abilities, but his reaction is given such short shrift that it’s impossible to gauge what he’s feeling. Is he stunned? Is he hurt? Is he upset? When he says it’s “time to end it,” is it an indication that he wants to relinquish control of his body and end the charade?
Peter tries to reassure Sylathan by telling him that it doesn’t make sense and that he doesn’t buy it, but is there a part of him that’s already processing the reality? Sylar-in-Matt persistently implores Sylathan to take his hand, and there’s a brief moment when Peter spins round and shrieks “I’LL KILL YOU FIRST!” It comes across as a believable reaction, but it’s hard to tell where the reaction comes from. Is Peter telling Matt he’ll kill him out of anger at concocting such a bizarre story? Is he afraid that if Matt touches Sylathan, he’ll do something that takes his brother away from him? Has he accepted the truth, and is he reacting to Matt’s deception? Or is he talking to Sylar-in-Matt’s body? All of those are plausible explanations, but the scene unfolds so quickly that we barely get a moment to figure out the correct one. As a result, the moment is robbed of its emotional resonance. We know Peter’s feeling something, but it’s hard to get a read on what it is because it’s competing for our attention alongside everything else that’s going on.
Sylathan TK’s Peter against a wall but doesn’t seem especially upset about it, then approaches Sylar-in-Matt while Ghost-Matt invisibly pleads with Sylathan to stay back. And before we have an opportunity to consider what’s going through Sylathan’s mind…
… we’ve reached a point where he’s willing to take the hand of the guy he thinks is Matt, which he’s under the impression will achieve… what, exactly? Sylathan says it’s time to “end it,” but when he says that, does he mean end himself? What does he think will happen when Matt works another whammy on him? The problem with the scene is the way it moves at such an alarming pace that we have no time to figure out what the characters are thinking and feeling, or what we’re thinking and feeling.
That’s Sylar? That little blob of light? Apparently so, and we spend the next few moments trying to figure out whether Sylathan’s about to morph back into Sylar, whether he’s picking up Peter and heading towards the window to throw him out, and whether, instead of bellowing “WHERE IS HE? NATHAN! IS HE IN YOU?” while Sylathan flies away, a now-Sylar-less Matt couldn’t just Parkman-whammy the guy to a standstill and decide what he wanted to do next.
We return to Mohinder eight weeks earlier, following his Magik Compass to the carnival and meeting…
Andrew Connolly!
Phenomenal casting, for the physical resemblance between Joseph and Samuel, and for the way Connolly plays Joseph. It’s telling that Joseph doesn’t even look up to greet Mohinder until he hears him mention Samuel, but once he’s on his feet, smiling politely and shaking hands with Mohinder, we begin to get a sense of the character’s warmth and sincerity. At the same time, there are distinct shades of ruthlessness and menace to his personality. Like Knepper, he brings an unpredictability to the character that makes you wonder whether, depending on the circumstances, he’d be more likely to pat you on the back or snap your neck. And that’s before we even know if he has an ability.
THAT’S SAMUEL TWO MONTHS AGO?!
Is the implication really that Samuel went from lazy drunk to community leader in less than eight weeks? It’s a startling twist, and it strains credibility because Knepper played his character with such a worldly, serene demeanor in the premiere that it’s nearly impossible to buy that that character emerged from this one in such a short space of time. I guess it explains why Edgar’s been so skeptical about supporting him, but what about the rest of the community? The proprietor’s good-for-nothing layabout brother takes charge of the carnival, and everyone just accepts that? You could argue that discovering the magnitude of his power and losing his brother have a dramatic impact on Samuel, but even then it’s hard to accept.
It’s also disappointing to accept, because the impression we’d gotten was that Samuel’s dedication to family, solidarity and intolerance to supers from the outside world were values he’d held for most of his life. The reality now foisted onto us is that Samuel developed his entire ideology over the course of a few weeks. Call me crazy, but doesn’t that undermine Samuel’s conviction? Even if the community at the carnival takes him seriously, can we?
It’s solid CG, but I never quite shook the feeling that the setting was fake. The breeze and the sound of the wildlife are a valiant effort, but you can tell right away that it’s a substitute. It’s not like I would have expected the show to fly the actors to the real thing, and I’m not sure if it’s the color or the fact that somehow sunlight’s falling on Sylathan and not Peter, but something about it is immediately fake.
Oh, Peter. Well, there goes the savior complex, and more importantly, there goes Hiro’s shot at benefiting from the Be-Healed Whammy. In Peter’s defense, he doesn’t know Jeremy’s dead, so if he didn’t just impulsively grab hold of Sylathan to absorb his flight, it’s possible he figured he could return to Georgia to re-absorb the ability later.
We return to the carnival and learn that although Joseph was always aware of Samuel’s potential, he dedicated his life to hiding the truth from his brother. Connolly delivers the dialogue with a suitably grave tone, and it makes for a subtle parallel to Peter and to Sylar, because there are now apparently three prodigiously special supers who grew up under vastly different circumstances and had no idea of the power they could wield.
It’s worth noting that Joseph sees Coyote Sands for what it is: an internment camp as opposed to a “relocation center.” It’s also worth noting that, by the sound of it, there came a point when test subjects were released back into society. It’s unclear whether that was because someone made a call on the threat each super posed to the general population, or whether the operation was shut down and all of the residents were released regardless of their threat to the population. Either way, it drives home the emotional scars Joseph suffered during his early childhood.
Joseph: “I’ve kept our community small in order to ensure Samuel’s power remains subdued.”
Again, telling dialogue. It suggests that while Joseph might have shared Samuel’s emphasis on family and super-solidarity, his efforts to limit a build-up of super-magnetism prevented him from bringing anyone into the community.
Joseph instructs Mohinder to burn the film and return to India. The parallels to Chandra’s backstory are overt, because it’s hard to ignore the fact that, as Joseph points out, everything was “just fine” until a Suresh showed up and started babbling about special abilities and the potential to be all-powerful. Mohinder walks away, and like Chandra before him, he’s oblivious to the havoc he’s caused.
Joseph is left on edge, with Connolly bringing out an anxious vulnerability to counter the character’s authority.
And Samuel, having heard the conversation from outside the trailer, apparently gets ideas about becoming omnipotent. It’s a moment which Knepper plays with subtlety, with Samuel’s eyes darting around excitedly and conveying the world of possibilities the character suddenly sees. It’s intended to be the moment when the Samuel we know begins to emerge. The problem is it’s such an enormous shift in character that no matter what the context — even the prospect of one’s power increasing a thousand-fold — it’s hard to imagine how Samuel became such a radically different character so quickly.
Mohinder calls Mira.
Mohinder: “You were right. This was all a mistake. I should’ve left that film in the trash. I should’ve left that box unopened. I should’ve never made my own Magik Compass and tracked down the child that my father clearly indicated was very, very dangerous, because when I found the child, I discovered that he’d grown up to become a man who could be… well, very, very dangerous. Wow. Thinking about that for a moment, I realize that I just traveled 8,000 miles to find out what I pretty much already knew. At least I know the child’s alive. And that my Magik Compass works. And guess what? In about three scenes, it’ll turn out that I put ideas into his head and turned him into a megalomaniac! That’s right — just like Papa Suresh did with Sylar! I miss you! I’ll be on the next plane home!”
OK, so maybe not all of that made the final cut. It should have, though.
Hiro freezes time and replaces the film with a fake, but it’s the moment when Hiro wipes blood from his nose that’s telling. You see a moment like that, so soon after Peter squandered Jeremy’s ability, and you wonder what Peter relinquished it for. Just so he could fly alongside Sylathan instead of being carried by him? It feels like such a waste, and it makes me feel sorry for Hiro more than ever.
We’re less inclined to feel sorry for Tracy, who regains enough control over her ability to drink the tea Claire prepared for her…
… and to discuss how she started thinking about “changing everything.” The parallels between Tracy and Claire are immediately apparent, the crucial difference being that Tracy gave up on rebuilding her old life whereas Claire is about to give up on building a new life. And while I have a hard time imagining Claire giving up her laundry privileges to live at the carnival, I have an even harder time imagining Tracy without her everyday luxuries. The culture shock alone would probably be enough to send sheets of ice across the carnival.
Knepper plays a less restrained version of Samuel — one who by turns laughs hysterically and shouts uncontrollably.
Mohinder: “Your brother warned me about you.”
Samuel: “After all these years, he’s been betraying me. Holding me back so that he could keep playing the king.”
Ohhh-kay. I think we can safely say the Samuel-killed-Joseph theory is back on the table.
Would Mohinder notice he was suddenly wearing a Kevlar vest? And isn’t it convenient that Mohinder only gasps back to life after Samuel has left the room? Who cares. Samuel using rock fragments as projectiles is such a cool effect that you can forgive any minor flaws in the logic.
Hiro explains that he came back in time to retrieve the film and rescue Mohinder, and while it never occurs to Mohinder that Hiro’s blatantly disregarding his instructions last season to not use his ability, it does dawn on Mohinder that he might have indirectly created this season’s central villain. Way to go, Mohinder!
Hiro and Mohinder argue over whether or not stopping Samuel is a higher priority than saving Charlie. Hiro wins by freezing time and teleporting Mohinder…
… into a psychiatric hospital? Now that’s impressive. Well done, Hiro! And I’m not just saying that because it’s Mohinder who’s stuck in the straitjacket. As sad as it is to think that Mohinder came back for one episode only to end up essentially written out again, this shows the kind of elaborate ruthlessness I would have attributed to Future-Hiro. It’s a delight to see it in the present.
Matt whammies a cop into handing over his uniform and allowing Matt to escape the hospital. It’s amusing for the way Matt casually makes up a story for the cop to recount as soon as he’s gone, and for the thought of this poor cop having to explain how he can’t remember losing the prisoner who’d been cuffed to his bed. It’s also a moment that makes you wonder how Matt can expect to go back to his family without any repercussions to his actions. Putting aside the fact that there’ve been no implications to making international headlines as the guy who wanted to blow up Capitol Hill, and even putting aside the fact that Matt caused enough of a stir with his suicide attempt to make regional headlines, the question is how Matt can expect to return to Janice and Baby Matt when Sylar threatened to kill everyone involved in the Sylathan Debacle. Shouldn’t Matt be more concerned about where Sylathan just flew off to? I’d give that a Dumb As Hiro Award, but Matt was recently in critical condition, so let’s cut him a little slack.
Let’s also take a moment to offer Matt some sympathy, because he too has to leave a message instead of talking to his loved one directly. We won’t be taking any bets on where Janice is. Roy the Water Guy must be thanking his lucky stars right about now.
Tracy meets Samuel at a diner — and as near as I can tell, it’s the same diner where Tracy insulted a waitress and shattered a mug into frozen pieces. We can assume she paid for the mug and picked a time of day that didn’t coincide with Beth’s shift, because no one gives either Tracy or Samuel a hard time when they sit down and introduce us to…
THE TRAMUEL?!
Samuel: “I’m glad you called, Tracy. I hoped you would. I felt a real connection between us.”
^ ^ Actual dialogue!
You cannot be serious, show! I’m all for the entire cast getting scenes together, and it’s great when certain actors appear to have chemistry with everyone they work with. But this? Someone please tell me I’m imagining it.
Samuel: “There’s something I’m gonna ask of you. A way for you to use your gifts to help make this a better world for all people of abilities.”
Cryptic dialogue, and supported by some exquisite music to create an appropriately sinister vibe. I’d prefer to believe that Samuel assigned Tracy something small-scale and low-key to start off with, because it’s more believable than the idea that, per this week’s graphic novel, Tracy now takes off to the south-west coast of Africa, finds a self-replicating super and promptly kills a few copies of him. I know it’s in self-defense, but has Micah’s influence on Tracy really diminished this much within half a season? Or is the idea to convey that Samuel’s just better at steering Tracy’s moral compass than Micah was?
The episode draws to a close with a scene at Peter’s apartment, and a scene which serves as a hopeful indication that Sylathan’s increasing self-awareness can be handled with subtlety and finesse. It’s a memorable scene because of Pasdar’s nuanced performance, but the nuances begin with an exquisite script.
Peter: “Nathan, this idea… this thought that you’re…”
Sylathan: “Sylar?”
Peter: “Yeah.”
It’s immediately heartbreaking, because you realize that Peter can’t even bring himself to say it out loud, and that it falls to the approximation of his big brother to be the brave one.
Sylathan: “Change of voice, change of face, still him underneath.”
So the show does realize this? Reassuring, because as deeply as they might have underestimated how offensive many viewers found this development in the story, it’s evidence that they realized the charade was never going to fool anyone.
Sylathan: “These hands have killed dozens of people, Pete. Friends of ours. Whoever Nathan Petrelli was is gone now. Just some random thoughts in a mass-murderer’s head.”
Again, it’s reassuring to hear dialogue which hints that at least two staff in the writers’ room have acknowledged the distinction between the character and the approximation. It’s also incredibly sad to hear Sylathan talk in the third person about someone he was designed to impersonate, because it reinforces how hollow the character now is. The saddest part is this approximation in many ways proved himself to be as noble and as full of integrity as the character he was standing in for.
I found it hard to get a read on what was going through Peter’s mind here. Has he accepted the truth? Is he trying to reassure Sylathan? Does he see Matt as the villain and Sylathan as the victim? Is he so determined to hold onto a part of his brother that he’s willing to keep Sylathan around?
Peter: “OK, look, assuming that I believe any of that, what would it matter? I mean, didn’t Matt say that he forced Sylar out?”
Sylathan: “You really think Matt could purge every sick thought from that head?”
Again, heartbreaking, because you can hear the rationale behind every word, and you realize that Sylathan’s arguing on our behalf, and that he’s lost all trust in himself. Which is just plain bizarre, because it effectively makes us hate Sylar more, and it makes us feel even more sorry for the character stuck inside his body.
Sylathan: “To the rest of the world, I’m Nathan Petrelli, Pete. But every time you look at me, the way you’re looking at me right now, you’re gonna see Sylar. Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me I’m wrong, Pete.”
OK, will anyone think less of me if I admit I got a lump in my throat when he repeated that last part? Because, really, the way it’s set up, with Sylathan alone in the dark, looking across the room at Peter; and the way Pasdar sells that final moment; and the way he’s practically pleading to Nathan’s little brother to tell him he’s not just a rip-off who’s trapped inside a murderer’s body…
… it’s close to impossible not to feel for the guy. And that’s if you can even call him a guy instead of a monstrosity.
This? This is about as close to making up for the awful twist that put the whole thing into motion. However objectionable the premise might have been to start off with, it’s generated such great material for the character, and it’s led to such amazing material for Pasdar, that it’s almost at a stage where you can forgive what started it off.
Almost.
Beautifully shot, and a perfect way to bring the episode to a close. You know the Petrelli brotherly touching will be back in full force before long, but in an episode about the emotional distance between brothers, that final, haunting shot captures the physical distance between them.
This final scene made the episode for me. I don’t care that the idea of Samuel going from drunken layabout to cult leader in two months defied all plausibility, or that Mohinder’s Magik Compass was laughable, or that Sylathan discovered the truth in a scene so densely packed that it was impossible to follow. Ultimately, it’s an episode that was memorable for the way it introduced the dynamic between one set of brothers and developed the dysfunctional dynamic between another. The backstory behind Joseph and the carnival is begging to be developed, and Pasdar’s performance as the suddenly self-aware monster is played with winning poignancy. And, sure, it’s an episode that serves in a functional capacity: it allows Sylar to jump back into his body, Tracy to join the carnival and Hiro to retrieve the film reel with the secret about Samuel’s potential. But what makes it more than a story-driven transitional episode is the brief focus on a character whose death is finally coming to light and having the impact on the people around him that it should have had long ago.
Occasionally puzzling and often ridiculous, but in the end illuminating, gripping and surprisingly moving.
3.5 out of 5
nice review, just a few things
first, I thought that you would give Peter a Dumb As award for ignoring Rene. I mean, he said “go alone” and next thing you know, he’s there with Nathan…
then, the theory that the compass points to people was the one that I had even previous to this episode, maybe the carnival just developed one that would only work for super people?
also, maybe drunk samuel was just at a party…I’m willing to forgive the show on this because he’s a great character
“But this? Someone please tell me I’m imagining it”
you are… I never saw it that way
your quote, sorry it’s not in italics [No worries. Fixed. -- Otto]
also (sorry I forgot) random trivia - the word abiogenesis means spontaneous regeneration
Otto, in Peter’s defense, he probably wanted to be able to keep up with Sylathan in case he did something crazy. Like slicing someone’s head open. If Peter decided not to take the flight power, and Sylathan flew away and killed someone, everyone would say Peter made the wrong decision.
Doesn’t Claire deserve a Dumb As Hiro Award for not warning Tracy that Samuel might not be a nice person?
Great review!
Eli from the GNs will be on-screen, so Tracy’s trip to Africa will apparently mean something. It makes sense. Samuel can use a self-cloner to gain multiple power conduits — elegantly efficient.
Great review otto.. i think it deserved at least a 4 though.. for the best “power” based episode of the season imo.. I agreed about the ridiculous compass and had trouble buying the character growth of samuel and acceptance of him as the leader.. i also agree that he killed jospeh but then how are tehy gonna tie in danko getting the compass.. i dont have a problem with peter taking the flying cause A nathan was gonna leave him there and B peter since he got the new version of the ability has never hesitated to switch it up when need called for it so at least its consistent.. ive enjoyed the last few eps and hope thanksgiving actually does something to advance the plot cause there have been too many nothing happens eps recently..
also wanna add im now convinced the naming of the hatian was to give a name to a character called the hatian by some exec. i would of prefered he was still just “the hatian” unnamed and if they were gonna ever name him the best time to do it would have been last season in the africa story line with his bro revealing it.. now it just seems like they dont wanna call anyone “the hatian anymore”
futhermore sorry i keep thinking of stuff.. i kind think its hard to believe that hiro and mohinder could not devise a plan to trick samuel.. and the hiro that put mohinder in the crazy house was a cool moment and awesome step for the character.. but how could this guy who would do that .. take this b.s. from samuel.. hiro who really is currently the most powerful at that point that samuel said not yet to hiro in regards to charlie should of said not yet? okay then and just totally *@#%ed s**t up for a lack of a better scenario and forced him take him to charlie.. okay thats all i got
Man, oh man. First off, Otto, I can’t believe you only gave this a 3.5. First you hate 1961 (one of my favorites ever), and now this? If not the perfect score, I’d say it deserves at least a 4.5. Andyway, after her eyes with Samuel, I think that Tracy was just in her line of work (and by line of work, I mean being a prostitute in all but name), that it’s impossible for her to NOT establish a romantic (or at least sexual) connection between herself and whoever she’s with. Think about it, Malden, Nathan, even little glances in Arthur’s direction that made you look twice. It’s just her nature. Also, I for one, am all for Tracy being the Elle (RIP) if it means she’s not the new Niki. Ali Larter is an amazing actress that deserves to be more than just the same person with different powers.
No Emma this week (*sniff*), but hopefully she’ll be back soon. Speaking of absent-yet-awesome females, am I the only one thinking of Daphne during this whole Matt story. For starters, Daph never would’ve et him do that to Sylar, but say he did and she was still alive, she would’ve taken it all in stride, been brave, not called Matt’s partner, etc. At the end of last season, they were trying to convince us that Matt and Janice belong together because she’s a strong, independent, likable character, but this season it’s like the show is trying to show us why it is that we miss Brea Grant. Sad, sad, sad….
Overall, I think, though, it was a good episode and feels like something big is going to happen soon. Strange, how something big usually happens in the ninth episode, and neither this nor Shadowboxing (both of which could considered the ninth episode, due to the double premiere) had anything of the sort.
Potential SPOILER Re Emma next appearance: According to Deanne Bray on Facebook “Emma will be back on HEROES on Dec. seventh I think”. That’s an awfully long time away…
Subtle shift in character, or inconsistent jump in temperament? We’ll get there, and you can decide.
Or enough time has passed where he knows a man alive knowing his secret is bad - like what he did after seeing Mo - like maybe killing his own Brother.
Or villains sure can feel bad, but get how something has to be done - at least on Heroes.
Not a detail that bugs you at the time, but looking back, it sticks out as either a plothole or something that needs to be addressed.
Pretty sure he over heard EVERYTHING that was said in that trailer - so odds he does know - but who wouldn’t want more detail.
that’s why it was called the MAGIK Compass instead of the SCIENTIFICALLY PLAUSIBLE Compass.
Okay, HILARIOUS!!
you’d think they’d have realized by now that there are no limits to what Angela’s capable of in the interests of Doing The Right Thing.
LOL. Yes, but in this case I’m gonna side on the side of Rene, I really do, and have always thought, in this instance Angela is clouded by her emotions and is doing this for nothing more than her own good and sanity.
Sylathan instead of being carried by him? It feels like such a waste, and it makes me feel sorry for Hiro more than ever.
Its one of those “NOOO” moments, when the audience knows what the characters don’t - but a twist I saw would happen - but it works - the sadness of it all.
Ohhh-kay. I think we can safely say the Samuel-killed-Joseph theory is back on the table.
Yuppers!
I found it hard to get a read on what was going through Peter’s mind here.
Yeah, and I wonder if it is the actor, or the director not wanting to give something away until the next ep, but even a neutral face would have worked, it felt odd.
Agree on pretty much all counts to the Pasdar/Nathan stuff - what if you woke up one day to find out your the clone and not the real thing, that’s heavy.
Um.
So does no-one remember that Mohinder is a special now? It’s not like he made a compass that would would work for just any ol’ person…
Also, funny thing to note — go back and watch the very opening scenes in 401 — when Samuel is holding Joseph’s compass, it’s pointing to him (Samuel). Fun little detail…
ah… that definitely makes more sense
Great review Otto! Glad you’re no longer swamped!
I pretty much second every single word you wrote, except that I didn’t really have any objections to drunken-Samuel. It sort figured he’d been a lost soul, roaming about, and now all of sudden he has purpose (didn’t he mention something about “Purpose” and “Focus” during one of the voice-overs?) Also, I really dug Joseph.
This whole amplification thing got me thinking though. Would it then be possible to measure, and thus categorize, supers? Will we shortly be talking about Level 1 and Level 5 supers? Surely Papa Suresh must have tried. And how many supers does Samuel need anyway? He’s apparently had a time-traveler near him for years, and I’d imagine that’s a really strong power (Level 11!) He’s also been surrounded by a small truckload of weaklings for years, so what’s he really after? Is the show saying that the Heroes that we know and love are the biggest of them all, and that’s why he’s after them? How many strong ones does he need then (and how close?). Or would Samuel be better off gathering a larger truckload of weaklings? Anyway, I’m puzzled by the logistics - but in a good way.
I must say that I liked how the characters are intermingling more, that’s always a good sign. Another good sign was not hating Mohinder, which is a nice change. Oh, and that compass… Either Mohinder decided that Samuel was in the US, or there are simply no gatherings of supers in India, or the whole of Asia. Or Samuel is just _that_ special. Who knows. It got Mohinder from point A to point B, and got us a Villain. The big question for me is… will somebody use it again? Or will it be forever lost in the bucket of random plot-devices…?
What continues to have me most interested though, is the fallout from the Sylathan Debacle, particularly as it pertains to Peter, aka the Heart of the Show, from my point of view anyway. Like you, I had the hardest time getting a read on him throughout the episode, especially at the end. Basically I ended up interpreting him to be in massive denial, so we’re not getting the thinking furrowed brow, or contemplative cocked head. Just blankness - a refusal to really deal. The denial again ties in with Head!Sylar mentioning he has “no time for the 5 stages of grief” (Wikipedia lists them as: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance). So maybe the writers will give us a glimpse of Peter actually progressing through those in a logical manner. One can always dream… Also, huge props to Pasdar and his bewilderment.
All in all, it was yet another solid episode. I’m looking forward to the various family gatherings planned for next week.
I LOVE YOU REVIEWS OTTO. CONGRATS as always.
I don’t know what is with me and Heroes episodes this season. I absolutly love and hate them all at the same time. It’s crazy I know.
About Samuel sudden change, well the Suresh family can do that so well. Gabriel was just a watchmaker and then came Papa Suresh… Samuel was just a little (drunk) brother, and then came Mohinder… It’s magic.
I don’t know, I don’t like when Tracy appears… Maybe, just maybe is because she remembers me too much of Niki/Jessica (don’t know why - LOL) and in this episode she remind it me of Elle - as you point it out. I get sad, and nostalgic, and I forget to take any interisting in her scenes. But I remember Fuller talking about writing a great redemption arc for her, this doesn’t seems to be it.
p.s.: sorry for any mistakes, english is not my first language.
Need I say it? Okay, great review Otto.
I love it when you point out great behind the scenes work such as the director’s choices in Tracy’s first scene in the diner.
Your breakdown of the hospital scene was also well done. There was a LOT going on there, too bad it didn’t slow down enough to let us figure it out.
Just so he could fly alongside Sylathan instead of being carried by him?
He wasn’t going to be carried because Sylathan intended to leave him there.
Oh, and that final scene. What a heartbreaker!
I loved how they ended it with Peter not answering and then showing the distance Awww. To me, Adrian has been a lot more believable in this “dual” role than ZQ. Man, I’m going to miss the Pasdar and him and Milo working together!
Keep up the good work, Otto.
Oh, by the way, will the holiday effect when your review will be posted next week?
Nice review. The only thing I could think about in that super fast moving scene that was really confusing until you get time to think about it was how much Pasdar, Milo, and ZQ look alike. It moved so fast I kind of spaced the rest, but I got the gist of what was going on. I think that the only reason Nathan hasn’t changed to Sylar yet is probably the reason why it took him so long with Matt. It probably takes him a while to readjust to the body, but since its his it shouldn’t take that long.
As for the ending scene, it was so depressing. I agree with the idea that Peter is in massive denial, and I think Sylar knew that it was going to happen with his “no time for the 5 stages of grief” line. Its sad because once Peter finally accepts what has happened, he is going to be devastated to the point where I wonder if he’ll ever be the same. I don’t think so, but it might be a good growing moment for the character. I really want to see Peter and Sylar have more scenes together, because as much as him and Nathan are awesome together, they were meant to be complete opposites of each other. I have a feeling that that aspect of both characters has been criminally underused. There is potential there for good writing, but that would mean putting faith in the writers that they know what to do properly with foils (characters who compliment each other, but are usually opposites).
I’m going to be honest here for a minute, as awesome as Pasdar is as Nathan, I was always luke warm towards Nathan as a character. He never really was a good enough guy for me to weep over. I worry more about Peter because he doesn’t deserve it. Nathan on the other hand kind of did. Not the copy imprinted on serial killer thing, but the death thing, definitely. Nathan has done more than enough to deserve a slit throat the two-faced shark. Its sad when I think that Adrian Pasdar would have made a better Harvey Two-Face than Eckheart. Secondly, you don’t run in to a room head long to go after a super-powered murderer and expect to make it out alive. As weak an argument as it is, Sylar can totally claim self defense, which is quite sad (kind of like those burglars who break into people’s houses and get shot, but the guy who shoots them goes to jail). That and Peter’s stupidity at leaving his brother alone with Sylar. PING!
I agree that Samuel’s jump from drunken lay-about to cult leader seems a little abrupt for my taste and I can usually support most of the thin plot points in Heroes. (I hate the phrase “plot hole” because it is often used wrongly and used too much. “Thin plot point” makes more sense since “plot hole” means that there is nothing to fill it there at all.) Sure you can think that by finding out he’s super awesome powerful he had finally found a purpose and thus became the man we know today, but I’m going to have to see how the writers spin it before I can really believe anything. 2 months just seems too short, but I do agree that he might have offed his dear big brother. It wouldn’t be the first time that someone killed another person for lying to them and keeping secrets from them. I wonder if it is just me, or are we seeing strong parallels between the start of Sylar’s story and Samuel’s? You know that if the company knew about Sylar’s father then they might have speculated that his f-ed up genetics got passed on. Were there any warnings about that like Chandra warning the government? I might be jumping the gun a bit on that speculation (because that really is just pure conjecture), so ignore me if you think I am grabbing at straws.
Yay Mohinder is back! Ok, I’m done. I’ve never really warmed up to the guy, so I didn’t miss him much. As for Maya, never mention her again. Sylar should have left her dead. I honestly laughed when he shot her I hate her that much.
Can’t wait for next week.
“I might be jumping the gun a bit on that speculation (because that really is just pure conjecture), so ignore me if you think I am grabbing at straws.”
I don’t think you’re grasping at all, LeeAnna. I think there’s a reason why Papa Sullivan hasn’t been mentioned so far, and why everyone except Angela has either met or heard some reference to Samuel.
No, Sylar couldn’t claim self defense- he had just slammed Claire into a wall.
I said could, didn’t say he would. He seems like the kind of guy who is self aware of his actions and expected that two idiots (or more) would be running in sooner or later. I was just trying to put some things into perspective.
I can see LeeAnna’s point, in the sense that Peter and Nathan attacked Sylar and he retaliated. But to put it in perspective, Peter and Nathan knew that Sylar was about to go after the president, so they were trying to prevent an assassination attempt.
Exactly, but that was the point with my example of the burglar that breaks in, gets shot, but the homeowner who was protecting his family goes to jail and pays said burglar lots of money. (It happens, which is sad.) The burglar is obviously guilty, but its the hero that pays the debt. Peter and Nathan were trying to do good, but unfortunately, even if Sylar did give the killing stroke, I believe that had Peter stuck around than maybe he could have helped prevent dead Nathan. Even if he was there, and Nathan ended up dead, than he could really say he did something to save him. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not wholly blaming Peter (who could? He’s too much of a nice guy.), but something tells me that that is how the character is going to see it, even if just a little bit. I also have the feeling he might be angrier at Angela for lying to him about Nathan’s death. Sure, he’ll be mad at Sylar, but how effective has that been? Dude is still breathing. Besides, the prober punishment for Angela would be for her ‘favorite’ son to disown her, and I think that Sylar might allow this to happen instead of killing her. He has evolved passed putting other six feet under to the fate worse than death.
Another theory that I’ve had would be for Peter to get his original powers back he would have to gain back his full empathy. To do this he might have to empathize with someone he wouldn’t originally empathize with and the best available candidate at the moment would by Sylar. (Come on, you know that would be interesting. Gain the power to take the guy down by patting him on the shoulder and saying ‘there, there’. The show has a strong sense of irony, so I wouldn’t write this idea off just yet.)
Defies all plausibility?
They didn’t show enough of it, but I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility that Samuel moved into being a king. Firstly, because the death of Samuel would mean those people NEED someone to watch over them. Secondly, because in S1 every single character over those twenty-three episodes changed incredibly. From Noah to Claire to Pete. Sure they had more screen time, but it was still the same eight week period. Thirdly, his power is to do with the Earth. The Carnival travels. Samuel likely felt more in tune with the Earth when he discovered he had potential. And finally? Simple. Samuel’s power involves connecting with others, so he likely started small with an Arnold and then his power and confidence grew with each successive one.
Mohinder’s compass is far-fetched, unless you take in the fact that the compass focuses on magnetic anomalies. It’s not supernatural, it just picks up on slightly different DNA that metahumans have.
It’s not the “moved into being a king” part that’s bugging me. I could buy into the transition if there were traces of the same volatile character in the present, or if there’d been traces of a born leader in the past. But the impression we got of Samuel in 4.01 was that of a fountain of knowledge and wisdom; a guy who’d been plagued all his life with questions about his purpose and his role within a community. I do like your theory about Samuel maturing as a result of the energy he’s drawing from everyone around him, but I just can’t see the resemblance between the past and present versions of the character. They’re fundamentally different people. Past-Samuel blatantly didn’t care at all about family or community or a sense of belonging, and Present-Samuel until now came across as a guy who used his power as a means unto an end, not as an end unto itself.
But isn’t that part of the subversion.
We see him as this wise, sage guy… but in the end, he’s struggling for answers the same as anyone else. It explains his demands to Edgar in 401 (which, at the time, felt extreme… but now we can see are the hallmarks of someone who clearly isn’t as wise as he thinks.) He inspires confidence in his troops through Joseph’s lessons - something the Carnival folk spent years witnessing. And any time Samuel deviates from them, there’s resistance.
I think what we’re missing is a connective point. Hopefully we’ll get it at some point, because I think the backstory is meant to be suggesting that - ala Sylar - Samuel was going to live a boring life before a Suresh showed up. Which should prove interesting when Peter meets Samuel again.
In addition to that, we still do see some of the drunk, more immature, samuel when he in anger tears down whole houses and buildings just to get back at one or two people, if he were a wise and sage leader, I’d think that he would have handled it a bit better
I guess it depends on how they follow it up.
I mean, I could’ve SWORN Samuel regretted killing Mohinder. But here he doesn’t.
“We see him as this wise, sage guy… but in the end, he’s struggling for answers the same as anyone else.”
But Ian, the answers he’s struggling for apparently all pertain to himself. That’s why I can’t get on board with this twist. The transition itself is a tough sell, but there’s also the whole issue about where it leaves Samuel’s motives. Until now, Samuel was this wholly selfless, borderline-martyr-like character. Even when he was talking about vengeance, the implication was that his primary goal was the safety of his larger family — the family he took care of alongside his brother. That’s pretty much been wiped out now. It’s less about protecting his family and more about “I need them because — mwa-ha-ha! — they give me POOOWER!” That’s the only consistent part: that Samuel started out as a guy who had zero interest in being a part of the carnival’s community, and that now, apparently, his only reason for expanding the size of the carnival is to rake in super-magnetic fuel for himself.
I hope you’re right about there being more to this storyline than we’ve seen, because to me, if there isn’t some kind of development to justify both Samuel’s transformation and his endgame, this twist will undermine Samuel’s complexity as a villain and as a character. He was compelling because his villainy arose out of loyalty and love for his family, not because he wanted to become super-powerful and stronger than everyone else. That’s Sylar’s shtick. Samuel’s motives were supposed to go deeper than that.
Just a few things… Peter had the “healing” power when he saw Nathan with a sliced throat… admittedly, probably confused on what to do since he believed his brother is standing next to him breathing, and seeing his brother dead with a sliced throat… But he could’ve healed his brother! Remember, the power is the “Giver and Taker of Life”… the guy can be dead and it’s possible to bring them back…
Never liked that Nathan got killed off…
Was SOOOO happy to see Parkman get shot-up last week, such a shame he pulled through…
When are we gonna see the third sister, Barbara I think? Tracy getting too whiney for me…
Peter touching Nathan to absorb the ability, weird because it’s obvious now that he can choose which one to take, so therefore he should’ve noticed that he’s cycling through all of these abilities that Sylar has… At that point, he should realise it’s definately not Nathan…
Weird that Claire didn’t re-attach her foot, instead she grew a new one and nicely placed a dead frozen foot on her dad’s coffee table… nice!
Tracy annoyed the s**t out of me when she was freezing Claire… carried on standing there, when it’s obvious she’s the cause, and then stayed there staring at what she did… weird how nothing else froze… just Claire…
Mohinder in a straight-jacket… hmm… you’d think with his “extra strength” he might be able to rip out of that, maybe not with ease, as we don’t know how strong he is… but it’s implied he’s quite strong… fair enough he was tranquilized in that scene… but I’m sure there are times when there are no sedatives in his blood…
How did Hiro admit him into that mental hospital? How did he get into that straight-jacket in the first place… surely Mohinder could’ve fought off Hiro…
Just a few things… Peter had the “healing” power when he saw Nathan with a sliced throat… admittedly, probably confused on what to do since he believed his brother is standing next to him breathing, and seeing his brother dead with a sliced throat… But he could’ve healed his brother! Remember, the power is the “Giver and Taker of Life”… the guy can be dead and it’s possible to bring them back…
Actually they addressed that in a conversation between Peter, Claire, and Noah back in “Tabula Rasa”. Jeremy’s ability can heal the near-dead but still twitching, but can’t do anything for the stone-cold, in a storage unit for a few months, dead.
Peter touching Nathan to absorb the ability, weird because it’s obvious now that he can choose which one to take, so therefore he should’ve noticed that he’s cycling through all of these abilities that Sylar has… At that point, he should realise it’s definately not Nathan…
I agree - and thought there was a pretty sudden change in Peter’s behavior afterward. I didn’t get the impression at all that Peter was in denial about the whole thing, rather that Peter knew it was true but had no clue how to deal with it. The Peter/Nathan moment at the end of the episode was very different from the one at the beginning.
How did Hiro admit him into that mental hospital? How did he get into that straight-jacket in the first place… surely Mohinder could’ve fought off Hiro…
I’m more curious about the fact that Hiro seems to have released the crazy guy who was in the straight-jacket before Mohinder…
Healers can’t heal the dead, just the sick. If someone’s dead, they’re dead… unless they’re not!
I predict that “Nathan” will remain somewhat as “Nathan” until the season finale. It’s like a tradition that Pasdar gets killed in the finale every year.
WHERE’S MOLLY?!?!?!
Seriously, why have Mohinder build a magic compass when he could ask his adopted daughter to use her power?
I’ve been watching The Molly Walker Show (aka season 2) again lately, in which the word “redemption” gets mentioned a fair bit by several characters… also, Tabula Rasa aired here this week, and Hiro and Emma were great.
PREDICTION: if Noah meets Emma, he will use sign language *Peter tells me you have an amazing ability*
Do Hiro and Ando still have their GPS implants, and why haven’t we seen Ando trying to find Hiro?
Why do I get the feeling the straitjacket is the last we’ll ever see of Mohinder?
At least the whole slitheen thing is finally getting somewhere, even if it means Gabriel Petrelli 2.0
Anyway, thanks for a great review; it will cushion the blow when this episode airs here.
He doesn’t want Molly to have anything to do with that life. That’s why we don’t see her.
to think that hiro and ando either still have the gps implants or are ever gonna use them again would be called giving the writers of the show way too much credit for following their own rules or even having any memory or care to carry on anythin previous episodes..
i do love heroes.. but the show is clearly ever changing and made up as it goes along which is sad
@Marc
I wish I didn’t, but sadly, I couldn’t agree more. As much as I love and enjoy Heroes, its entire run is littered with plot points and character developments dropped to the wayside by a combination of ignorance, forgetfulness and willful disdain on the part of the shows’ writers.
Great review, as always.
It’s sad to say that but somehow I’m glad to see you’re as mixed about this episode as I am. Quickly reading some review, It’s nice to see positive feedback but I’m realizing that the episodes that work for most people mostly don’t for me while those I love (ie “Once Upon A Time In Texas”) get bashed regularely. I guess a few of us don’t watch Heroes for the same reason than the others.
The episode works plot-wise (I’m thinking only the Tracy part is below the rest) but I felt the characterisation suffered a bit.
Ps : Apparently, the credited writer for the episode is the guy who wrote “Villains”. meh.
So, for the different parts :
- Mohinder/Hiro : nice to see Mohinder back. Non-Stupid, Non-Spider Mohinder :). I’m with you on the Molly case, but I guess she just vanished in the nature like others… Mira seems like another Janice… Non-Stupid Hiro. Rejoice ! By the way, am I the only one considering the eventuallity that Samuel *could* die before telling Hiro where Charlie is ? Really sad but would be a development to future Hiro, shall that happen.
- Tracy/Claire. Well, first, Claire and her Laundry, seriously ? I have nothing against both actress, and maybe it’s just me, but it seems that the don’t know what to do with their characters. To me, Claire and Tracy’s storylines have been the negative points of the season so far and I don’t really what they could do to make them better. That week looked too much like “Eris Quod Sum” from last year (You’ve gotta love how Claire always send people to the “ennemy” though lol). I hope that’s not the redemptive storyline Fuller had in mind…
- Nathan/Peter : Finally some outcome to the Sylathan mascarade. However, am I the only one thinking Peter deserved several Dumb As Awards during the episode?
*Eluding René’s request to go alone (at least to go alone first) **No it’s not you, maybe a shapeshifter (Hello your brother has lots of Sylar’s powers recently) ***Does it really matter that you are Sylar ? OF COURSE IT’S SYLAR. ****Thinking of other ideas.
Agreed though, it’s unfortunate that he had to dump the healing (and he doesn’t know Jeremy is dead) but it was actually smart to follow Sylathan.
That said, I agree with you on the final scene. Waiting for next week for some development.
Btw : Looks like Angela clearly knew what Millie had in mind…
- For Samuel/Joseph, some good and some bad points.
Good for Joseph, for all the reasons you said.
For Samuel, it just feels like what we reproached to “Villains” last year. It’s not necessarly inconsistant, but 8 weeks is not enough at all for the evolution from “lazy drunk” to leader. Since he didn’t see what was taped by Chandra, I choose to beleive that his motives are true and that he really is trying to recruit people for whatever he plans to. But, if he killed Joseph, he’ll just turn out to be a power-seeking-villain, basicly wasting everything we know from Samuel from the 9 first episodes (on top of making Danko useless). I’m gonna watch that one REALLY carefully.
On a side note, it turns out I don’t like at all how female characters are written this season. Outside Emma, and Angela at some degree (putting aside her stupid decisions), I find it sad that I don’t like or don’t care about the other women on the show. :(.
It’s sad to say that but somehow I’m glad to see you’re as mixed about this episode as I am. Quickly reading some review, It’s nice to see positive feedback but I’m realizing that the episodes that work for most people mostly don’t for me while those I love…get bashed regularely. I guess a few of us don’t watch Heroes for the same reason than the others.
Thank you! I’m glad I’m not the only one.
Peter trusting “Nathan” over Rene makes sense- they’ve both done morally questionable things, but Nathan is Peter’s brother.
I’m not sure Peter should have figured out “Nathan” was Sylar- (a) he probably didn’t want to believe Nathan was dead
(b)he didn’t think his mom was stupid enough to put Nathan’s memories into Sylar.
Trusting Nathan over Rene wasn’t my point. I think it would have made sense for him to (at least) go alone first, then decide if he should come back with Nathan. The fact that The Haitian disobeys Angela to come to him should have been a sign huge enough coming from someone that devoted to her.
He was then told quite a few times that NeoNathan IS Sylar, including by NeoNathan himself. What bugs me more is the “who cares” (okay he says “does it matter”) reaction. NeoNathan isn’t right with this (and he is right not to) but judging from the reaction, Peter seem to be. I know thinking Angela would have put Nathan in Sylar would be stupid, but if it’s not denial, that’s even more stupid to go along with it knowing Sylar killed several people he has known, including his brother, his father (okay he was *maybe - after all we don’t know what he wanted to do* a bad guy), Claire’s BioMom, etc… So I’m saying denial, at least untill next week.
Now, about Sylar himself, nothing against Pasdar but I’m expecting/hoping to become himself again? Why ? Because it *seems* he is going after “everyone even remotely involved” so I guess most of the main cast is on the list. The real question now is when. It would be delusional thinking someone would die (besides Nathan who is already dead) but that would be the development I’d expect, if I didn’t know there’s no way they let Quinto go (nothing against him though). Angela/Bennet/The Company let him go too many times, there’s gotta be a point when someone has to pay. If Sylar doesn’t die, someone on the good side have to. Unfortunately, we all know that won’t happen.
By the way, is it even possible to kill Sylar now? He has Claire’s ability, can move the death spot, etc… I’m not evens ure if beheading him would do the trick since I guess another body could grow back. That would be another problem for the good guys…
Hey Otto, great review- even if i wholeheartedly disagree and put this one with HYSTERICAL BLINDNESS and ONCE UPON A TIME IN TEXAS as one of the best things to come out of HEROES in years! The one thing i CAN’T BELIEVE you didn’t mention: when Claire hears Tracey behind her, whirls around and yells “Freeze!” HAHAHA!!!! PRICELESS! definitely should have been the line of the night! a solid 5 out of 5. only thing that bugged me was Matt’s call to Janice. I understand the guy misses his wife, but come ON Matt! Sylar told you he was gonna kill everyone remotely involved in the Sylathan Debacle! Bros before hos, Parkman
LOL! Bros before hos! It is his wife… and besides, i got the impression that he meant he was going to stay and help out rather than go home so soon, although the call did bug me too. I mean, he could have said something about whether he was coming home or not (or did he? maybe i missed it). Anyhow, Matts supposed to be in next week’s episode too so maybe hes not going home straight away…
I liked the Claire and Tracy storyline! Theyve barely interacted on screen together before, so i felt this was nice. And i like that Tracy is going to the carnival, as it immediately places her in a few more episodes (hopefully) since most episodes have a Carnival storyline, and it means she will have a role to play in the finale (the last few season and volume finales have been letdowns for Tracy and Niki’s storylines), since the finale will presumably be all the specials at the carnival trying to stop Samuel from cutting the earth in half or whatever he plans. Which hopefully means more Tracy backstory, which is still severely lacking, as i have a feeling her parents would be quite interesting people.
And in saying that about the season finale, i really hope its Carnival based and not another stupid stop-Sylar story. Cos FYI, thats getting repetitive and booooring!
All in all, awesome episode, and next week’s looks awesome too.
LostAtSea
You’re not the only one who had a lump in their throat during that scene.
From the way the synopsis for “The Fifth Stage” is worded and the way Peter has been repeatedly denying the possibility of the Sylathan Debacle, it seems like he’s desperately grasping onto whatever remains of Nathan. I honestly think that Peter can’t imagine himself without Nathan at least having some kind of presence in his life, and it’s because of that I think Peter will “takes extreme measures to get what he wants.”
Nice review, Otto. However, I give this episode at a 4/5. A lot was going on here, but it was a huge step up from the middling blah of Shadowboxing.
I watched this part of the episode with dismay, because not only is Mira basically forcing Mohinder to choose between his father’s research and her — she’s also blatantly forcing him to efface all evidence that his father ever existed. There’s chiding and emphatic exhortation, and then there’s passive-aggressive emotional blackmail.
I think you’re being a bit hard on Mira. Mira told Mohinder that whenever he starts looking at his father’s work, he “goes down the rabbit hole and disappears into it.” I think she’s more concerned with him ignoring life around him (not just ignoring her) and becoming obsessed Chandra’s work because Mohinder was at odds with him when he died. Unless I’m mistaken, Mira only knows a little about what Chandra’s studies really entail, and if she knew more, she’d probably be more understanding of why Mohinder is so obsessed with it. But he keeps her at arms length so she doesn’t know the whole story. Now Mohinder shows up after being gone for months and he’s about to get involved with the same thing that took him away. I think that’s how she sees it. And as for Maya, she knew Mohinder’s research because she was a part of it, remember?
Loved Tracy’s cattiness with Beth at the diner. I agree that the show needs more of her snarkiness and less of her mopey attitude. The scene with her and Claire (besides the obvious ‘two hot girls in the shower’ bit) was nice, albeit a little cheesy with them sitting on the couch drinking tea. It was like an International Coffee commercial.
What’s surprising is that Peter puts aside his previous resentment towards Nathan and reminds him of the times he’s been thankful for his big brother. Surprising, yes, but one of the saddest moments in the episode. Part of this is because he really loves Nathan, and the other part is denial; his mind can’t even comprehend that this could be Sylar.
The Sylar/Nathan/Matt/Peter thing is very confusing, and I’m not sure what happened in the hospital. I do agree that a lot went on there so the emotional resonance was stilted. It could have been paced slower, or done in two separate scenes. I’m just glad that the Sylar/Nathan transfer is nearly complete. But when “Nathan” realized that Matt was telling the truth, the look on Peter’s face just broke my heart. You could tell that he was thinking it could be true, but not allowing himself to believe it. Peter is becoming one of my favorite characters, even with his stupid actions. But nowhere near as many as before.
The makeshift compass…yeah, that was ridiculous. I thought I was the only one to notice that Mohinder freaking mac-Guyver’ed a compass out of nowhere. Whatever. It brought him to the Carnival.
Which brings me to the good and bad of that. Glad that we finally have Samuel’s intentions, but he looked like a biker bar reject. Very predictable bad a**. But I don’t see him as a morally gray character anymore. He’s just a baddie. I have no doubt that he killed Joseph, and has bad intentions for the rest of the Carnies.
Tracy & Samuel…well, it’s better than Tracy and Noah, right? But I agree with Caleb that Tracy seems to hook up with dudes pretty easily, so in a bizarro way, she and Samuel make sense. As long as she’s not shacking up with Noah, I’m happy.
Also, Noah’s screentime was AWFUL this episode. I mean he said like 5 words and had about two seconds on camera. Like Claire in OUATIT, he had no point!
Concerning the Tramuel: You’re imagining it. I guarantee.
Also, I just wanted to say that the scene between Sylathan and Peter was AMAZING, and I am so going to miss Pasdar!!! But anyways, that scene was the sort of material I was desperately hoping would come from the Sylathan incident. I have a very good feeling about next weeks episode.
Concerning Hiro: I think we are truly seeing a Future-Hiro-like being emerge. If this being becomes obvious before Charlie is rescued… it’s gonna feel like Batman and Rachel Dawes. To me, at least.
Deanna, thank you. I’m glad I’m only imagining the Tramuel. It seems I’m not the only one, though.
I’m giving Peter a pass for ignoring René’s instructions. It’s a reminder that he’ll never hide anything from his brother. Which, aw.
Re: the compass: I agree, there is a bizarre internal logic to the way it works, but as Hrefna pointed out upthread, did Mohinder really find nothing in the way of magnetic energy between Chennai and Texas? And Mohinder followed the compass across the world on the off-chance that, forty-something years after Chandra came up with a crackpot theory, the mythical child he mentioned in the film reel might have surrounded himself with supers? That’s a big strain on credibility.
Michael, I agree, Peter wanted to keep up with Sylathan in case he morphed back into Sylar. But that’s assuming he’d even bought into the idea that Sylar was inside Nathan. Based on the scene at his apartment, I’m not sure he had yet. And even if Sylar did emerge, there’s not much poor Peter could have done to stop him besides acting as a human shield and getting his own head sliced open.
“Doesn’t Claire deserve a Dumb As Hiro Award for not warning Tracy that Samuel might not be a nice person?”
Does she think that?
Raissa, thank you. This is the first I’ve heard of the GN self-replicator making it onto the show. Very cool, and as you say, it will make a lot of sense. I’ll be curious to see how the effect is realized on screen.
Marc, thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed the episode.
With Danko finding the compass, I’d guess that he was tracking the carnival at the time, and that Danko found Joseph’s body right after the confrontation with Samuel and made off with the trinket he found in Joseph’s hand.
I’m still not sure what the deal is with renaming the Haitian. Nathan specifically referred to him as “the Haitian” when he and Peter were outside the storage unit, so it’s not as if the show’s trying to pretend that he never went by that name. Perhaps, like Noah being called “Noah” by some and “Bennet” by others, it’s a way to distinguish who feels closest to him?
Re: Hiro and Mohinder tricking Samuel: I don’t know, they are two of the show’s Dumbest…
Caleb, it’s cool if we disagree on each episode’s merits. That’s where the debate begins. For what it’s worth, I did NOT hate “1961.” I was disappointed by it, and I saw a lot of problems in it, but that’s not to say I hated it. I still rewatch it with an eye for everything it did right.
Re: Tracy’s chemistry with everyone she has a scene with: word. Let’s be thankful we didn’t notice it when she went to visit Zimmerman in Volume Three.
Re: Daphne, aka She Who’s Been Wiped From All Established Canon: yeah, I agee, she would have been a lot more open-minded about Matt’s situation, but in Janice’s defense, she hasn’t had the insight into Matt’s world that Daphne did. To me, that’s the problem. Given that Janice has a superpowered kid and a superpowered ex-husband, you’d think she’d earned the right to become a little more clued in. Fifteen years from now, when Baby Matt’s an obnoxious teenager who’s shutting down the power to downtown L.A., she’s going to need to be more clued in.
PandoraRose, great post. Couple of thoughts: with Samuel overhearing everything in the trailer, I think it’s a key detail that neither Mohinder nor Joseph actually mentioned specifically how Samuel could increase his power a thousand-fold. That’s why Samuel came to see Mohinder at the motel. Mohinder only mentioned what could happen “under the right circumstances.” The only time those circumstances were mentioned was right before Joseph brought Mohinder to the trailer to meet Samuel.
“… in this instance Angela is clouded by her emotions and is doing this for nothing more than her own good and sanity.”
And for Peter’s good! And for the good of Nathan’s family!
Re: Peter’s reaction to the Sylathan reveal: I’m still thinking it’s an expression of denial; that he’s willing to consider the possibility, but that he’s skeptical about it, in part because it’s so crazy and in part because he doesn’t want to believe it’s true. Thing is, even if he’s in shock, I would’ve imagined a more emotional response from Peter. Not necessarily breaking down into tears or smashing stuff up, but something more expressive.
Van, welcome! I had the same thought as you about Mohinder’s ability. I wonder how Mohinder feels about a community of people with abilities, and why no one wanted to invite him into it. Poor Mohinder.
Hrefna, thank you.
“I didn’t really have any objections to drunken-Samuel. It sort figured he’d been a lost soul, roaming about, and now all of sudden he has purpose…”
I know, and I know that’s how it was intended, but if Samuel went from drunk good-for-nothing kid brother to community leader practically overnight, he didn’t even have time to be a lost soul. That’s part of the problem for me.
I like the Super-Scale! I had the same thought; there must be certain abilities that generate more super-magnetic energy than others, and Peter’s and Sylar’s are probably two of the jackpot prizes for Samuel (although Peter probably less so now that he’s down to the one-ability-at-a-time crux). I’m guessing, though, that Samuel realizes that the more powerful supers represent more of a threat to his authority, which is probably why he surrounds himself with docile fire-breathing families instead of the stronger free-thinking supers who’ll start trouble.
Nina, welcome, and thank you. I like your point about the Suresh family turning harmless, mild-mannered individuals into psychotic maniacs. Too true. And don’t worry about making mistakes — your English is great.
Susan, thank you.
With Sylathan leaving Peter: I’m confused — didn’t he come to the Grand Canyon to isolate *himself*? (Sylathan: “I shouldn’t be around people right now.”) I got the impression that Sylathan expected Peter to make his own way home and to leave him there.
“To me, Adrian has been a lot more believable in this “dual” role than ZQ.”
Perhaps that’s down to the material and the screen time as much as the acting. ZQ hasn’t had as much of an opportunity to play the same layers; AP’s been playing the facade element while ZQ’s been stuck with the amnesia. I’d say “Hysterical Blindness” showcased everything ZQ can do when he’s given good material, but he hasn’t had the same opportunity as AP to dig as deep into the character.
Re: Thanksgiving and the review schedule: it shouldn’t be affected. (*… he says, right before another three-day delay…*)
LeeAnna, great post. I really like your point about the ~*adjustment*~ phase for Sylar, although as you say, it shouldn’t take long when he’s back in his own body. I figure it’s a case of Sylar biding his time, or perhaps it’s that the Parkman Whammy is strong enough to offer some resistance.
“…once Peter finally accepts what has happened, he is going to be devastated to the point where I wonder if he’ll ever be the same. I don’t think so, but it might be a good growing moment for the character.”
^ ^ This. Exactly. And it’s another reason why I’m starting to think that as poorly executed as Nathan’s death was last season, it’s been redeemed by some great material and some great possibilities for the rest of the characters to grow.
Re: Nathan “deserving” to die: I agree because I saw it as a logical development when the body count began to rise in Volume Four. But then, you look at Sylar slithering his way out of crises every season, and then you look at Nathan getting his throat slit, and you just have to ask… WHY?
Leo, I had the same thought as you about Hiro admitting Mohinder to the hospital. Only thing I could figure is that Hiro either forged records to put Mohinder in there, or he switched Mohinder with a guy who was already there. If it’s a switch, though, you have to wonder (a) where the original guy is, and (b) why the staff administering the tranquilizers don’t realize they’re treating a different guy.
Myrystyr, HRG communicating with Emma with sign language would be awesome. Let’s hope that’s how it happens. Also, great point about Hiro and Ando’s GPS. I wonder if the equipment Hiro set up is still even running, but you’d think it would have occurred to Ando to give it a try.
Pas, great post. I’m going to defend Fresco because he and Verheiden aren’t necessarily the guys who crafted the plot in this episode (or even in “Villains,” which I still maintain is unfairly maligned). There’s very little in the script itself that I could find fault with. Some of the dialogue was superb, and there’s nothing in the way the scenes were crafted (the jumbo-packed Peter/Sylathan/Matt/Sylar event aside) that could have been improved.
Interesting point about Samuel getting killed off before he gets around to revealing where Charlie is. I wonder if that will be the opportunity the show is waiting for to bring back Molly. Let’s hope so.
Re: the weak writing for the women: I’m going to have to disagree about Claire. I think she’s been extremely well written this season. TPTBs have removed the brattiness and turned Claire into a perceptive and resourceful character, and to me, the joy is that she’s a likeable character again.
Renaldsrap, welcome, and thank you. I agree, the “Freeze!” moment was very cute. With Matt’s phone call, I guess he was trying to put Janice at ease while he went after Sylar, and that telling her about the psychokiller who’s on his way to kill her and their son would only freak her out even more. I wonder if Janice even knows that Matt (ostensibly) tried to kill himself. The hospital ID’d him and he made it into the Midland Chronicle, so wouldn’t the cops or the hospital have alerted his family? I’m not sure if it will be addressed, but it should be. This is the kind of craziness Matt’s bringing into his family’s life. It would be a believable way to tie into Matt’s distance from his family in “FYG,” because it would justify his reason for staying away from them.
RozCodeTheory, welcome! I’m with you on Peter desperately holding onto some semblance of his brother. I think that’s it exactly. And, yes, Peter’s acceptance is probably what the 4.12 episode description is referring to when it mentions his “extreme measures.”
B., thank you, and great post. I’m glad (albeit slightly surprised) that so many people feel I was too harsh on this one. It wasn’t that good, was it?
I agree that Mira’s heart was in the right place, but it’s the way she went about expressing herself that seemed wrong to me. She more or less gives Mohinder an ultimatum — “Forget the work that you and your father devoted your lives to, or I’m leaving.” That, to me, does not suggest a happy, loving relationship, and certainly not a likeable character. And, yes, she’s trying to curb Mohinder’s self-destructive obsession, but he has a RIGHT to be obsessed, especially when he’s involved in groundbreaking theories and research. And even if Mira has no idea what it involves, she doesn’t even show an interest in it or hear Mohinder out. She makes a judgment right away based on her skepticism. I know it’s only a minor thing, and I hope everyone realized I was having fun with it, but when you look at Mira’s actions objectively, Mohinder really did himself a favor by burying himself in his work.
Two lines in your post that I absolutely loved: firstly, “the International Coffee Commercial,” and secondly, Samuel turning out to be a “biker bar reject.” Brilliant.
I’m not necessarly thinking it’s “insert writer’s name” fault. We all know the plot writing is collective. Like that was the case for “Villains” (that I didn’t dislike at all, far from it), there are nuances - even small - that make some scenes beleivable or not : The 8 week transition from drunk Sam to leader Sam is not for me. To keep the comparaison with Villain, we wouldn’t have said Elle’s writting was inconsistent if she acted at least a bit crazy/unstable in her scenes with HRG (after all she could be acting around Sylar).
That’s not necessarly inconsistencies, but that’s what will bug people that follow regularly, even if most won’t bother. And I guess someone has to look over those details.
I agree that there was little to do to make the episode better, but that’s kinda the problem isn’t it ? In some way, it’s not bat, but dissapointing, and it couldn’t have been better. Peter not listening to the guy that barely talks when he says it’s important he goes alone (I might repeat it, but he could have checked the thing out alone first), or saying it doesn’t matter that the serial killer who wiped out half of his family is hosting thoughts of his brother, etc… I agree that some dialogue was superb, but it’s hard for me to see brillance followed by what seems to be downright stupidity. That problem in writting isn’t new, but it won’t in the show’s favour when people will only remember the bad stuff.
For Claire’s writting, she’s well written, I agree. Non-bratty, etc… Maybe it’s because 95% of her scenes involved Gretchen, but even if she’s written a better way than past seasons, I don’t find her storyline compelling at all, compared to all the other main characters. That’s what I had in mind :).
I’m with you with denial for Peter, at least for now.
Ps : Seeing the promo, it looks like our favourite characters this season (I’ll let you guess which 2) are coming back.
Ps : Hello, it’s World Hello Day
Myrystyr, HRG communicating with Emma with sign language would be awesome. Let’s hope that’s how it happens.
From a recent interview with Bray (Spoiler blacked section)– a scene like that will occur…
RR: (Alessandra) What is the most difficult part of playing your character?
DB: Reading the actors’ lips. I try to add lines of playing Emma who doesn’t catch everything a person says. For instance, if someone says “My name is Megan.” Then I’d have Emma gesture for Megan to come closer so I can see her lips and say “Your name is…” Then the person would repeat “Megan”. Little things like that. Sometimes the writers allow that. Of course, before doing it, I would ask the writers before the day we shoot the scene.
I’m happy to be working on an episode right now, 4×13, where one character understands my ASL and it will all be in subtitles. The character signs some as well. It’s not Peter or Emma’s mother, I can tell you that much.
http://boards.9thwonders.com/index.php?showtopic=70231
Pas, I’m speculating, but my guess would be that even the eight-week timeframe between Layabout Samuel and Community Leader Samuel was a collective decision. The reasoning probably came down to dramatic impact; the shorter the length of time, the more astonishing the transformation would be. And in all fairness, it is astonishing. But there’s a fine line between so-cool-it-leaves-your-head-spinning astonishing and so-implausible-it’s-practically-impossible astonishing, and I’m not sure the twist ended up on the right side of that line. But YMMV.
You’re not the only one to pick up on the way Peter ignored René’s instructions. I’m still inclined to defend TPTBs, because I’m not sure how checking out the storage unit on his own would have made Peter look smarter; from a creative standpoint, it also would have drawn out the plot instead of streamlining it:
(1) Peter goes to the storage unit alone, finds Nathan’s body, returns to Petrelli HQ to tell Sylathan; they both go to the storage unit; the rest of the episode continues as before.
(2) Peter goes to the storage unit alone, finds Nathan’s body and has no idea what to think; questions Angela and the Haitian; gets nothing; tells Nathan; they both go to the storage unit; the rest continues as before.
^ ^ Both of those strike me as believable variations, but that’s like a whole extra episode… of basically nothing.
(3) Peter goes to the storage unit alone, finds Nathan’s body, realizes Sylathan is a fake of some kind (although not necessarily Sylar-in-Nathan), confronts him, and learns nothing because Sylathan has nothing in the way of useful information to offer. Creative dead end if Sylathan can’t volunteer any information and both Angela and the Haitian won’t offer any information.
^ ^ Again, I can see something like that being considered, and even happening on screen, but ultimately I can’t see where the idea would go except the same place it went this week: Peter and Sylathan learn the truth from any of the three people involved in the Sylathan Debacle, and then it’s all about exploring how they react to it. You know how I feel about the scene where they found out the truth, but I’m not sure the way the characters got there could have been improved in any way, and to me, having Peter immediately share with Sylathan what he’s been told by René says something about Peter’s trust in his brother; it says that Peter keeps no secrets from Nathan. Which is kind of an aw in itself, but when you consider that Peter’s unwittingly sharing everything with the monster who killed his brother, I think it becomes even more tragic.
Well, put that way, that does sound stupid. :). The only reproach I still have would be Peter’s reaction, which we interpret as denial but doesn’t look like it. I’ll have to wait next week to make my opinion though.
They’ll have a much bigger problem whenever Sylar really resurfaces, since I doubt he’ll get tricked easily again in the future. I doubt anyone he’s going after will die, but there has to be something coming out of the situation.
Otto-
“Re: Nathan “deserving” to die: I agree because I saw it as a logical development when the body count began to rise in Volume Four. But then, you look at Sylar slithering his way out of crises every season, and then you look at Nathan getting his throat slit, and you just have to ask… WHY?”
Thats easy for me to answer, especially since I stated something that could be considered the answer in my post. Peter and Sylar are opposites. You can’t have one without the other essentially since there would be no balance. That is the point of binary opposition. Even though Peter is now ‘weaker’ than Sylar, his attitude is still the opposite. The basis of this goes all the way to the way the the two characters are represented. Sylar is intelligent, vindictive, malicious, and essentially greedy with attachment issues due to having been abandoned by first his father, then his uncle, along with a very pushy aunt. He never really had a family. Peter on the other hand isn’t too smart, but he shares easily and is extremely compassionate even with all the things he’s been through. Unlike Sylar, he had a family, as messed up as they are and was very close to someone. Also, unlike Sylar who tried to be what he thought others wanted (ie: a watchmaker to make his uncle come back), instead of being what he wanted. Peter rejected what others wanted out of him and stuck with his principles. He became a nurse because he wanted to help people, not because someone else wanted him too. I could go on and on about all the things about these characters that parallel, but I think I have enough to make my point that you really can’t have one without the other.
I know that there are those that would like to argue this point, but then there would be no comparison between the two extremes. These characters were developed like this from the beginning - including their powers. I have a feeling that Peter will get his power back eventually, but as stated before in reply, he might have to do something, empathize with someone, that he normally wouldn’t empathize with.
Renaldsrap, welcome, and thank you. I agree, the “Freeze!” moment was very cute. With Matt’s phone call, I guess he was trying to put Janice at ease while he went after Sylar, and that telling her about the psychokiller who’s on his way to kill her and their son would only freak her out even more. I wonder if Janice even knows that Matt (ostensibly) tried to kill himself. The hospital ID’d him and he made it into the Midland Chronicle, so wouldn’t the cops or the hospital have alerted his family? I’m not sure if it will be addressed, but it should be. This is the kind of craziness Matt’s bringing into his family’s life. It would be a believable way to tie into Matt’s distance from his family in “FYG,” because it would justify his reason for staying away from them.
Otto, Very Good Point on the “FYG” theory. it seems the more i re-watch seasons 1-3 and what has so far been shown of season 4- and believe me, that is a LOT of repeat viewings cuz i have Lost Syndrome, LOL- the more the writers seem to be steadily course-correcting themselves to that foregone time-line. which is just fine with me(and i’d guestimate at least 50% of Heroes fans everywhere). i can only hope for a couple of thngs to ensure that if Heroes is indeed setting up the most loyal of their fan base for the (possibly) best episode of Heroes to become reality- which i have in a list in no particular order except what came to mind first(and if i miss anything, let me know, cuz everyone’s opinion is most highly valued on this still untarnished website)
1) THE CIRCUMSTANCES NEED TO CHANGE. As much as i love Heroes, the writers on this show have a tendency to re-hash plot devices. And in the case of Universe FYG, they will probably have to. either New York will suffer some unknown tragedy, or Samuel will(as most have predicted) split the world in half and bring about the destruction predicted in Volume Three. I’m personally hoping for the latter, as not only would it make Samuel EASILY the most memorable villain, but it would actually give Volume Three some subtext- other than the set up to Volume Four, cuz that’s honestly the only way i see Volume Three holding any relevance. but if they do decide to go for the classic “New York gets devastated” approach, they’re gonna have to bring their A-game to the plot. maybe have Sylar usurp Samuel’s carnival, power(s), and life(for the betterment of the carnival as well as personal gain) put Heroes and Company 2.0 against Sylar and Carnivale in NYC, and make it eerily reminiscent of “How To Stop An Exploding Man”. really the only way to sell it is to completely leave the viewer in the dark- until the Season 4 finale- to the fact that the Heroes are going to converge in New York. then once it happens, the $#!* hits the fan. Sylar’s magnified ability sends him into complete overload and he goes nuclear(as he should have done in the S1 finale). Hiro and Peter freeze time. they(and maybe a couple of other Heroes) search frantically thru time-frozen NYC for a way to avert disaster, and realize there is no quick-fix plothole or magik blood or eclipses or unknown Petrelli siblings or… Um, sorry- went on a tangent for minute, but i’m back. bottom line being that Sylar goes Uber-Nuclear, takes out a tri-county area(raising the loss of human life from .07% to somewhere around 1%)
The Heroes try in vain to stop the destruction. they fail. a few hereos die. the world becomes a very bleak place.
2) SEASON 5 IS A MUST!!!! (this only applies if the writers are indeed trying to steer the audience into FYG territory). We all want to see Heroes go on for at least one more season(especially since season 4 has pretty much been firing on all cylinders), but for FYG to really work, it’s in the title- FIVE years gone. now according to whichever chronology of the show you follow- it still isn’t even close to being 5 years. at current, the show is saying it’s been 3 years since Charlie was (nearly!) scalped by Sylar. but i think all the fans would be able to forgive the fact that FYG came 2 years too early if the 5th season was entirely about the FYG Universe trying to fix the situation they live in now, and not about changing the past. even better idea - after Sylar goes Uber-Nuclear, have season 5 start 2 Years Later so the audience is completely in the dark as to what’s going on. either way, the only way to make the possibility of FYG coming true actually mean something to fans is if they give us a whole season to care about how the Heroes fix their new world.
3) TIME-TRAVEL CANNOT SAVE THE DAY!!! I Can Not Stress This Enough. Neither Hiro or Peter should be able to stop Sylar from going nuclear in the past, present, or future. if “FYG” is to be, then it is to be. That’s not to say it wouldn’t be cool to see Hiro try to change hisory(so long as it’s badass Future-Hiro and not Yatta!-Hiro.). in fact it would be a pretty cool subplot to see badass Future-Hiro trying desperately to change history with no idea who to trust, and the world calling him a terrorist for his extreme and deranged plans. Hiro comes up with what would even seem to the audience to be a fool-proof plan to reset time. the plan puts several Heroes(and civillians- why not?) in peril. a few even die in the name of(or against) Hiro’s cause. And the plan STILL FAILS. come to think of it, i think i just single-handedly saved Hiro’s story arc from becoming another repeat of “i need to grow up, but i don’t want to, oh, wait! i did! Yatta!- uh, i forgot how to grow up again”
4) NO EFFING SYLAR! PERIOD! - I want it to be known that i am and always have been a die-hard fan of both Hiro and Sylar (haterz, take your shots at me), so when i say the only way to save Hiro is make him badass and despondent, maybe you can now understand the pain that caused me. Same stroy with sylar. Once the best villain to come from any form of media, humanizing sylar in season three was the most inhumane things the writers have ever done. they took an ambiguous serial killer and tried to force the audience to empathize. all they did was prove sylar’s a one note villain worthy of recurring-guest-star, NOT the freakin’ emotional centerpiece of a season. And though season 4 is doing a good job with sylar’s storyline, he needs to disappear after this season. whether he dies by Samuel’s hand or from going Uber-Nuclear(i love saying that!), he needs to stay out of the FYG Uinverse entirely. Nothing would undermine the social collapse of the Heroes universe more than Sylar running around scalping people with no purpose. And the only thing worse would be Anti-Hero Sylar running around with abandonment-and-daddy-issues. there is no way to make this character viable to an FYG Universe- which is a real shame considering the massive part syalr played in the original “FYG”. which brings me to my next point-
5) FYG 2.0 - Some of the major components that created the original FYG Universe are no longer in play: Nathan is dead, New York didn’t explode, Sylar is a tool, etc. The only way to make “FYG” work now is with one of the Heroes Writers’ favorite words - Retcon. key elements must stay the same: Noah must continue helping supers without the government knowing. Matt needs to hunt down his own people in the name of keeping his family safe. Hiro needs to do everything in his power to fix the timeline and remain morally gray the whole time so you’re not sure whether to root for him or demand his capture. Peter needs to be the Anti-Matt. doing anything in his power to save the Supers with little to no regard for the rest of humanity. The rest is in serious need of a Retcon. throw Emma in as Noah’s partner and make her peter’s only hope of finding his soul/humanity/ whatever you wanna call it, i call it what makes Peter, Peter. set up Claire as the yin to peter’s yang. the Harriette Tubbman of the Heroes universe(which is borrowing from Claire’s storyline in FUGITIVES, but would hopefully be more consistent, and is- coincidentally- the only Claire storyline i actually invested myself in, not counting her storyline in S1 which is the reason everyone still loves, or at least puts up with, her), trying to keep Supers safe while trying to find a compromise between the Super and Non-Super communities. have Mohinder look for a cure for Abilities and have a shady new Organization pervert the cure into a bio-weapon that threatens both Supers and Non-Supers, forcing them to work together and tying in the one great story-line of Volume Two into “FYG”. …OK, that last part might be asking for too much, but a man can dream. Anyway, throw all of these elements, both old and new, into the same storyline set in a “FYG” Universe tie all the threads together as intricately as S1 did, and- BEHOLD! A series ending season 5 that’ll not only restore the show BEYOND its former glory, but bring the whole series around full-circle in the most fan-pleasing way possible.
-i’m sure there’s more i can say but i lost my train of thought. anyone with questions or comments(or even complaints) feel free to reply. Otto, i await your reply the most!
Renaldsrap, awesome post. I like how your ideas tie the current storylines back to the Season One storylines. Hopefully that’s what the show will try to do. It would bookend the broader story really nicely and give the whole show a certain symmetry.
I found this point especially interesting:
“… maybe have Sylar usurp Samuel’s carnival, power(s), and life(for the betterment of the carnival as well as personal gain)…”
A few fans have put forward the theory that Samuel will be the one to cause the earthquake in 3.01, but imagine if it turned out that Sylar killed Samuel, stole his ability and caused the earthquake.
I think I’d prefer it to be Samuel, mostly because I’d prefer to see this new villain have his own stake in the larger story. But the idea that Sylar’s behind the earth-splitting moment is also kind of cool (/disturbing).
Rene says “Go alone… to Virginia”. Peter thinks “No way I’m driving! But darn, I’ve got this healing power and I’d rather not let that go… better get Nathan to fly me over. Plus, that way I don’t have to fill him in afterwards.”
That’s what methinks happened…
Nice review, but low points, in my opinion. It was very interesting that we are going to see the final, real final of Nathan…and Back to the Future is always beside Hiro’s actions :). S1!Mohinder with all his silly things is back, and I prefer him than bug!Mohinder :). Tracy and Claire brought a bit of dry sense of humour…and Claire wasn’t a bratty…which I thank
I really enjoyed the episode.
I forgot it….but Molly could have been the student in India
It looked like her, but I don’t think so. If they did get Adair back, they’d make a much bigger deal of it.
I know :(, I would have liked to see Adair again…
Concerning Claire’s spare foot… any other Doctor Who fans see a certain parallel here?
Looking forward to seeing many episodes with Emma in them!
I did, but who knows if the spare foot will be used for anything.
PandoraRose, great post. Couple of thoughts: with Samuel overhearing everything in the trailer, I think it’s a key detail that neither Mohinder nor Joseph actually mentioned specifically how Samuel could increase his power a thousand-fold. That’s why Samuel came to see Mohinder at the motel. Mohinder only mentioned what could happen “under the right circumstances.” The only time those circumstances were mentioned was right before Joseph brought Mohinder to the trailer to meet Samuel.
Thanks and darn!
Well, hummm…. could Lydia have told him it was his future to build the family, well I hope it’s explained for it would appear to be an odd coincidence… unless if he did go back to the Carnival and kill Joseph - old Joe let it slip, and Samuel use his brother’s name to build the “family” up.
Idea… as much as I can’t believe, but I will in comic book land, that Samuel changed so much in the last few weeks, perhaps it is the idea of filling the role you are pushed to be - Joe does imply that he believes Samuel as that ambition inside of him… and if we look at the parallel of Peter and Nathan, which I’m sure effects the SAM/JOE storyline - that in all the future’s, it was only his brother’s death or separation that cause Peter to grow up (maybe not for the better, those futures) to be his own man, get out of his brother’s shadow and be his own man, not his brother’s brother. With out Joe perhaps Samuel wasn’t subconsciously obligated to play the kid screw up brother. Maybe we fall into the pattern that is assumed of us, because we never had the chance to be anything else. Arthur and Angela had roles for Nathan and Peter to play and they grew into those roles by themselves and expectations. As Nathan says to Peter, maybe he is who is is because of Peter, in season one - the good or bad. Maybe the bird can fly from it’s nest the sun is in reach. Perhaps being the only lone Petrelli brother opens up the son to Peter, that was before always blocked by Nathan.
That’s just all off the top of my head here - and a small idea of it was kicking around, but the Sam/Joe debate brought it to fusion.
“… in this instance Angela is clouded by her emotions and is doing this for nothing more than her own good and sanity.”
And for Peter’s good! And for the good of Nathan’s family!
Absolutely, but mostly for her own sanity… lol, but yes for her FAMILY - which I’m sure the Company founders mantra would consider nothing, but selfish. Family is her won interest and not the worlds, it’s a few over the many.
“On the plus side, he brought a nice brunette with him! This one says she met you, Pete. You know, back when you were throwing yourself off rooftops? Turns out she died trying to stop the impostor. She says she liked the way she went out, but that ending up in a river wasn’t exactly what she had in mind. She’s amazing, though. She cooks for us! She brings us little cakes and makes us macaroni and cheese. I can’t think where she gets the ingredients. She’s been down here a lot longer than I have so I guess she knows the tricks to the trade, but really, that woman works miracles!”
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I’ve been racking my brain and I can’t figure out who this is referring to.
Welcome, Leesh. It’s not a dumb question at all. It was an oblique reference to Eden: briefly met Peter when he visited Chandra’s apartment looking for Chandra; mentioned early on in the first season that she used to cook macaroni and cheese for “Papa Suresh”; ended up a corpse after she tried to kill Sylar, and was found in a river after revealing her identity to Mohinder and trying to redeem herself.
A sad story indeed.
…I think he’s talking about Eden, but i’m not sure. that kinda confused me too. especially the river part
That’s what I thought but you referenced her before so I wasn’t sure.
Otto, thanks for the kind words man! I too hope the writers will use “FYG” to bring symmetry to entire run and wrap up all plot threads as elegantly as they can.
I completely agree that Samuel should be the one to trigger the earthquake and start “FYG”. He is easily the most complex villain the show has ever had, and to have him trigger the earthquake would cement his staus as the best villain the show ever had(sylar be damned!) In fact they should have Samuel defeat the Unkillable Killer by trapping him at the center of the earth inside the molten core!(oh, wouldn’t that be awesome!) But I’m a realist, and as great as this season has been, it will more than likely end up being Sylar vs Heroes at the seson finale. Especially if this does turn out to be the final season. I can only hope i’m wrong, but sadly, i’m probably not. If this does turn out to be the last season, and it does come down to Heroes vs Sylar, i (and most of the fanbase, according to forum posts) want every single cent of the budget spent on that final fight. Including a decent coreographer/editor cuz the final fights in every single finale needed better production values. Forget effects. I want production values. They make or break any show/movie/music video/whatever/etc. Special effects are only skin deep and even the best look fake with time.
renaldsrap your ideas above were excellent .. i hope someone reads this forum and checks it out cause well they were very creative ideas.. and a two year gap in the story would be the start over the writers have needed since season one.. sometimes that is the best way to do it.. or just start two years in the future then switch to total non linear story telling.. that would also be a great idea.. if i do say so myself lol.. but seriously hope to read more commens form u in the future srap
Time for another prediction/theory/wish:
The second half of season 4/volume 5, airing Jan/Feb, will wrap up the series as it is… and then season 5 will be a relaunch, in a new format with new main characters and storylines (with season 1-4 characters becoming recurring/guest roles - although having Molly as the season 1 teen girl would be interesting), set a few years later, and we go from there; if Doctor Who can thrive on replacing the entire cast every few years, for 26+ seasons, I don’t see why Heroes can’t. The ‘epic journey’ (mentioned in the opening credits of 1.01 Genesis) is bigger than any one character… although, I’m not entirely sure the spare foot ought to get its own spinoff series - unless its an amnesiac Dark Claire.
Seriously though, the classic Doctor Who series is a better model of serialised storytelling than the disjointed/mismatched/patched-together-and-rewritten-at-a-moment’s-notice format Heroes currently has. I watch SF TV for the characters and story, not the special effects or production values; the heart/core, not the surface/shell.
Also… Charlie is not at the Carnival in the future, she’s in 17th century Japan - with Yaeko.
“… if Doctor Who can thrive on replacing the entire cast every few years, for 26+ seasons, I don’t see why Heroes can’t.”
I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep this gig up for another 22 seasons, but I promise I’ll do my best.
although, I’m not entirely sure the spare foot ought to get its own spinoff series - unless its an amnesiac Dark Claire.
Good points.
Well nice review. Look like will finish the season with THE SYLAR CHRONICLE again. Oh well about time to drop this show anyway.
Marc, thanks man. Don’t know if you’re a fan of BSG, but if you are, and you liked my “FYG Universe” idea, you should read my ideas on how things could’ve gone down after season 4.0. I’m currently making a fan-fic website that’ll hopefully be up and running with my complete BSG Opus by March 2010(fingers crossed) I’ll definitely post a link to you whenever it’s up and running. And if enough people like my “FYG Universe” idea i’ll probably add it to the site as an ongoing volume, so please people - if you like it, love it, or hate it let me know cuz your insight helps.
renaldsrap
I have not watched BSG but have been thinking about checking it out for a while now, probably after lost ends though.
http://scifiwire.com/2009/11/secrets-revealed-and-ever.php
Good news or bad? Either way, the season looks to end with a bang.
I’m hoping for a relaunch with a new direction.
Can we give Claire a dumb as award for putting a a person with out of control cryokenesis in a bath tub full of water? I feel that would be appropriate.