Hiro has a near-death hallucination involving a mock-court session at the Burnt Toast Diner. Adam represents the prosecution and brings Hiro to account for his many temporal screw-ups, and Papa Sulu finds his son guilty of using his abilities irresponsibly. Hiro accepts his fate and resolves to die with dignity, but when Papa Sulu grants him a sword to fight Adam and Mama Sulu shows up to heal him, it seems Hiro wins the battle in the real world and overcomes his inoperable brain tumor.
Some episodes start out with great material and somehow descend into something mediocre. Other episodes start out with nothing remarkable and somehow turn into something epic.
This episode somehow falls into both categories, finding the best and worst elements of its three story threads and resulting in something that’s at times profoundly moving and at others deeply disturbing. It has flaws in all three of its story threads; continuity issues, creative issues, and of course the inevitable Sylaire horror.
But in spite of its occasionally baffling developments, there’s something to be said for the innovative approach the episode takes. It’s in turns warm, intimate and funny, and while the scope of the episode is enormous, the themes the episode explores unify it with a sense of coherence. The end result is an episode that never quite achieves the greatness it aspires to, but one that’s emotionally involving and moves the volume towards its conclusion with ambition and purpose.
The opening scene in many ways sets the tone for the rest of the hour:
Brilliantly shot, for the mood it creates and for what it says about the character. Like any of the show’s strongest moments, the impact comes from the emotional undercurrent rather than the superpower spectacle. Within a moment, and without a word of dialogue, we grasp how despondent Claire has become.
Claire’s brief scene at the dorm with Noah last week is never addressed, but the impression we’re given is that she was as incapable of opening up to him then as she is to Gretchen now. In any case, Gretchen’s support this week highlights her strength of character at the same time as the total absence of any depth of character:
Gretchen: “I’m not gonna pretend to know what you’ve been through right now, but I want you to know that I’m here for you if you need anything. Anything at all.”
Stock-and-trade dialogue, but Madeline Zima delivers it with sensitivity, to the point where it’s hard not to be sympathetic when Claire rejects her. We’re left wondering, however, how Gretchen possibly could know what Claire’s going through. It’s in turn an unfortunate reminder that with the volume fast approaching its conclusion, we still know next to nothing about Gretchen. The point here is of course to show Claire pulling away from Gretchen, but we’re immediately prompted to wonder who exactly Claire is pulling away from. As heartfelt as some of the scenes between Claire and Gretchen have been, our emotional investment in a scene like this is hampered by the fact that the character reaching out to Claire is still a shell.
We cut to Noah’s apartment, where Lauren appears to have vanished (presumably to update Samuel on the arrival of the stooges) and where Ando brings Hiro a glass of water. Whether the glass is a metaphor for Hiro or for the show will depend on your perspective, but it’s either half-full or half-empty. Whichever it is, I can’t help wondering why Hiro’s the only one who gets a glass of water and a look of concern. As bad as he might be feeling, Ando’s the one who went on a psychedelic trip, and Mohinder’s the one who’s been drugged into a powerless stupor for the past two months — thanks entirely to Hiro. It’s not that I don’t feel sorry for Hiro, but when you look at the other characters in this scene, it seems like all of them deserve our sympathy.
Mohinder hammers together a new Magik Compass, and while I’ve covered why this is ridiculous, I find it doubly absurd that Noah would just happen to have the necessary components lying around in his apartment. For one thing, Mohinder was at least a scientist with some limited medical expertise, so he’d have medical instruments to take apart in order to put a device like this together. I don’t buy for a moment that Mohinder would remember how to build a gizmo like this from memory, but at least I can pretend he had the components lying around. But Noah? His apartment is so sparsely decorated that besides guns and cereal bowls, it’s not clear what would be lying around to take apart in the first place.
The other problem is the fact that this device, once built, will guide anyone with an ability to a large group of people with abilities. Which, well. “Magik” is one operative word. “Bulls**t” is another.
The scene skips over the logistics and jumps to the part where Mohinder throws in the towel and heads back to find his “girl.” Lest we forget, this was the woman who passively-aggressively told him that if he left to pursue his crackpot theories, she wouldn’t be waiting for him when he got back. And now, with the prospect of Samuel’s meteoric power looming and the world-in-peril danger coming into focus… MOHINDER DECIDES IT’S TIME TO CALL IT A DAY?!
*PING!* Chalk up a Dumb As Hiro Award for Mohinder for traveling 8,000 miles, discovering an individual who’s capable of killing millions, getting locked in a psychiatric hospital for two months and then, when he finally gets a chance to finish what he started, deciding to “make amends” with the girlfriend he left behind.
Hiro drops his glass of water, collapses, and BAM! You have no idea what’s going on or how it makes sense. You just know how you feel when two beloved characters show up on your screen again.
It’s a moment when actor charisma trumps storytelling. The appeal of the actors is such that you enjoy their scenes irrespective of the script. You don’t care whether there’s any logical reason for them to be there — just that they’re there. In this case, the episode is bolstered by having a relevant reason for them to be there in the first instance, and by combining the appeal of two fan favorites instead of just one.
The Burnt Toast Diner? Sally Champlin showing up to reprise her role as Lynette? Papa Sulu getting the American and Japanese flags on either side of him? Adam calling Hiro “Carp”? The list of reasons to love this storyline goes on and on, and the reasons to love it expand as the episode continues.
There are downsides, one of which is you can never tell if these are the actual characters or figments of Hiro’s imagination. The actors are playing their characters, but without any indication that they really recognize Hiro. When Papa Sulu reads out the charges against Hiro, it’s not clear whether it’s really Papa Sulu being very formal and very impartial, OR whether Hiro’s guilt has manifested itself as a judge and simply taken the shape of Papa Sulu. Papa Sulu’s expectations of Hiro are never mentioned. His pride at the way Hiro accepted his father’s death is only obliquely referred to. The whole issue of the family legacy never comes up.
Similarly, with Adam, you can never really shake the feeling that this isn’t actually Adam so much as a manifestation of Hiro’s subconscious self-loathing. It makes sense that it takes the shape of Adam because Adam’s quite possibly the biggest screw-up Hiro’s responsible for. But then, if the show was really going to explore the damage Hiro did to Adam, it would have needed to place more focus on Adam than on Hiro, and as loath as I am to consider it, it would have required a mention of that awful, purple-flag-painting entity known as Yaeko. Not saying I would have wanted that. Just saying, that was a relevant factor in Hiro inadvertently turning his childhood hero cuckoo, and the girlfriend-stealing issue never once comes up when Adam recounts Hiro’s numerous temporal whoopsies.
All of which comes back to the original point — that these actors aren’t really playing their characters, but rather figures in a roleplay taking place in Hiro’s head. It’s great to see the actors again, and it’s great that they get to be a part of what will hopefully be a turning point in Hiro’s storyline. But the actors aren’t playing their characters so much as taking on the appearance of their characters and personifying the voices in Hiro’s head. I’m not inclined to complain because any reason to get the actors back, no matter how flimsy, is a welcome one. But it’s somehow disappointing that when they finally show up, they’re not playing their usual characters.
Ando brings Hiro to a hospital in Washington, and while Mohinder’s sudden departure is the most glaring turn in the story of the stooges, I’m equally at a loss to explain where Noah disappears to. You can understand him wanting to stop Samuel right away, but to leave Hiro fighting for his life in a hospital thousands of miles from home while Noah goes off to fulfill his vendetta? I guess it’s consistent with that time he was watching Sylar and Elle have sex while his daughter bled out and died from infection, but doesn’t his absence here seem kind of heartless?
Claire shows up for her review session and finds Sylar waiting with “Why Claire Bennet” scrawled all over a blackboard. On the one hand, you almost want to laugh, because Quinto slips into the role of the professor so effortlessly that, if his movie career tanks, you know he’ll have a promising career waiting for him at colleges everywhere. On the other hand, you’re not sure how to express your horror.
Claire opts for her default indignation, although in this case it goes without saying that it’s very much justified. It’s the kind of scenario that forces us to wonder what the real reaction would be; whether Claire would immediately run, whether she’d lunge at Sylar and try to gouge his eyes out, or whether she’d just stand and stare because she couldn’t figure out how else to react. In this instance, inaction almost seems like the most believable reaction, if only because there doesn’t seem to be a clear alternative when Claire’s standing in front of the monster who terrorized her, who murdered her biological parents, who ripped her head open and stole her ability, and who forced her to endure his romantic advances.
Claire: “Do you know how much I would love to kill you?”
Nicely delivered by Hayden; with venom, but also with an implied powerlessness that echoes each time Claire lamented her inability to fight more proactively. In this instance, Hayden’s performance is vitriolic enough that you can sense Claire’s rage, and that the only thing holding her back is her uncertainty about how to go about avenging Nathan’s death.
Sylar: “Listen, I know you must hate me.”
Claire: “You killed my father.”
Sylar: “Nathan… Seems like a lifetime ago.”
Again, a very believable performance, with Quinto playing the moment with something that skirts between a hazy recollection, a fond memory and a hint of regret at everything that came after it.
Or it’s just faux-sympathy designed to placate Claire.
Or he really does feel something resembling guilt, which we know isn’t beyond the realm of possibility after he allowed his flesh to be fried off of him as penance for the murder of another blonde’s father. But then, that penance ended with Sylar murdering the blonde as well, so the extent of Sylar’s guilt is as ambiguous as ever.
This is where the plot becomes ambiguous for the wrong reasons. On the one hand, it’s hard to imagine the show believing for a second that Nathan’s killer can be redeemed. On the other hand, there’s a soft, melancholy piano motif that creeps into the soundtrack, which suggests we’re meant to feel sad instead of horrified or disgusted.
And then there’s Sylar himself…
… whose expression when he tells Claire he doesn’t want to be alone seems like an effort to evoke our sympathy.
The objectionable part is that the character was afforded even a moment of ambiguity. Ambiguity is great when it relates to a villain who killed in a moment of blind rage but whose charm and good intentions are such that you almost forget he’s a villain. It’s not so great when it’s applied to a villain responsible for an extensive series of methodical, merciless murders. I’d like to give the show the benefit of the doubt and believe they were toying with our reaction, but the fact that we’re even led to consider the option that Sylar might have something redeemable in him — especially after emerging from his latest victim’s body and waving at the guy’s broken-hearted brother — is the part that’s appalling. There shouldn’t be ambiguity about this. There shouldn’t be any hint of an attempt to dissuade us from the reality that Sylar is evil incarnate. The music in this scene and the way the character is portrayed are such that we’re prompted to wonder whether there might be a trace of humanity left in him. This was an ambitious attempt two seasons ago, but at this point it’s almost insulting. It is of course overturned moments later, but the fact that the show even tries to sway our sympathy towards the character is shocking.
Sylar: “How did we end up so different?”
Claire: “You wanna know what the difference is? You’re a psychopath. Mystery solved.”
The moment is remarkable for the unaffected look of self-awareness from Sylar, and for the inflection Claire gives her words…
… which resembles that of an angry victim who’s happy to inflict a moment of emotional distress in retaliation. Which, like the Righteous Indignation, is as understandable as ever when you consider the circumstances. But it also makes Claire look malicious. The underlying impression is she took this opportunity to hurt Sylar, and given that Gretchen is ostensibly in danger, you have to wonder whether this makes Claire look unnecessarily reckless.
Not that this is a big deal in light of the horror we’re now confronted with.
On the plus side, it seems like one of the few moments this week that doesn’t try to play up Sylar’s humanity. It isn’t portrayed as romantic or as acceptable…
… but it’s difficult to watch. It’s also a moment that was used as a selling point in previews, which suggests that the network considered it to be “OMG, like, totally SHOCKING!!1!1!“, when in fact, as with kissing Angela, it’s a moment that conveys how deeply grotesque and subhuman Sylar is.
I have no issue with a show vilifying a character by having him do something awful. I also have no issue with them attempting to redeem a villain, although when he’s done the kind of awful stuff that Sylar has, I’d say the chances of success are slim.
It’s when the villain does something awful and the show tries to turn it into something good that I feel there’s something to object to. The implication at the end of this episode is that Claire has learned a valuable lesson about herself. Which, in turn, implies that Sylar forcing himself onto Claire indirectly helped Claire, and that it indirectly achieved some good. That, to my mind, is a message that undermines the episode’s integrity. There are reasons to defend both the episode and the show: Sylar didn’t go further than a kiss, it wasn’t portrayed as romantic in any way…
… and Claire retaliated with a pencil to the eye.
And, hey, perhaps I’m overreacting. When one villain opens the earth to swallow up an entire town and its residents, does another one forcing a college student to kiss him really seem so awful?
I think it does, firstly because it crosses the line that separates fantasy television from real-life horror, and secondly because the show then indirectly portrays it as the first step to a learning curve for the victim.
Perhaps that was the idea. Perhaps, in spite of the twisted portion of viewers who find this appealing, the show realizes that a 30-something psycho forcing himself onto a teenager whose parents he murdered crosses a social boundary and precludes all options for redemption. But then, if that’s true, it’s hard to appreciate why we’re also subjected to emotive piano themes and an apparently anguished Sylar pleading for Claire’s help because he doesn’t want to be alone. When two such radically different aspects of a character are presented in the same episode and within moments of each other, it’s not so much ambiguous characterization as it is bipolar. This show has tapped into Sylar’s moral ambiguity so many times that the character’s arc has lost all meaning, but what’s horrifying about this scene — beyond the undertones that make Sylar a would-be rapist — is the impression that it gives the audience; the impression that, barely weeks after depicting the immeasurable trauma the character inflicted on Nathan’s family, they’re trying to tap into that moral ambiguity once again.
ANYWAY. Samuel takes Vanessa to an ice cream parlor, orders milkshake…
… and demonstrates his disarming boyish charm.
Vanessa calls Samuel a “hopeless romantic,” and although she qualifies it as something she’s “always admired” about him, Vernon’s delivery makes it sound like an accusation as much as an observation. What’s intriguing is the difference between life in the real world and life as a super at the carnival. With the right ability, there’s no reason not to be a hopeless romantic. There’s no reason why someone can’t build their fairytale cottage and live out their childhood dreams. What’s beyond the realm of possibility in the real world — where practicalities, pragmatism and compromise dismantle childhood dreams — is very much within the realm of possibility for the carnival. This is where the tragedy of the carnival, and specifically Samuel, become apparent. Samuel has held onto his dreams because there was no reason to let them go. When Vanessa tells him, “there comes a time when you have to realize that you’re never going to have that cottage,” it’s an alien concept to him because words like “never” and “impossible” belong to the non-superpowered world.
Adam calls Kid-Kimiko and Kid-Ando to the stand and asks them to recount the Night of the Slushy Incident. What’s most telling is the point he makes about the moral stance on Hiro’s actions:
Adam: “On your personal scale of temporal justice, it’s OK so long as no one gets hurt.”
It’s a valid point, especially when you consider the ramifications that Hiro’s heroism might have had on the timeline. We never really stop to consider what happened to the suicidal butt-copying ex-employee, but there’s every chance he went from suicidal to homicidal, and if he did, the body count would be on Hiro’s head. It could be that the people Hiro rescued from a burning car will go on to become terrorists, or that the little girl Hiro rescued from a van will become a drug dealer. I’m exaggerating, but the point is that — as Angela told Future-Peter in “The Butterfly Effect” — you don’t screw with time. There are implications to tampering with the way the timeline was meant to unfold, and the smallest change — heroic as it might seem at the time — can be immense. What apppear to be heroic deeds by Hiro can inadvertently have catastrophic consequences.
The flipside is that besides sci-fi film and literature, Hiro has nothing to guide him when it comes to using his ability. He has no Claude and no Noah, and when it comes to using his ability responsibly, he’s had to figure out the rules as he goes. When Hiro insists that his definition of temporal justice is indeed the aid and rescue of people around him, there’s something sympathetic about the kid who had no one to consult and who did the best he could.
Then Adam calls his next witness…
… and there’s a jolt of electricity that goes through the scene. Regardless of where Sylar’s arc is currently headed, any scene that puts Quinto alongside Anders and Takei is phenomenal by default. You only wish these could be the real versions of the characters instead of the ones inside Hiro’s head, but the dynamic between the actors is such that, regardless of the context or the circumstances, there was never any way their scenes weren’t going to sparkle.
The throwback to “Homecoming” is brilliant, and it reinforces how epic the scale of this episode is. Again, though, the genius is in the point that’s made, which drives home how selective Hiro’s bucket list of temporal do-over’s has been. As far as we know, he still hasn’t saved the card sharks, and in this instance, as valiantly as he tried to save one cheerleader, another got her blood spattered all over a homecoming banner and Hiro brushed it aside as an unfortunate consequence of Sylar’s villainy.
Adam: “Tell me again, who else met their death by your hand after Hiro made this deal?”
Sylar: “Well, there was her. Then Eden… ish…”
Funny, if only as an acknowledgement that no one was ever really certain about how that went down.
Sylar: “… Melty guy, the mechanic, Isaac Mendez, my mother, some guy named Ted something…”
It’s interesting to note that these atrocities all took place in the first season. Chandra and James Walker are the only ones conspicuous by their absence.
Sylar: “SPRAGUE! Ted Sprague.”
Too funny. As questionable as parts of the plot might be this week, it’s hard to deny that Grigsby crafted an exquisite script.
We cut to the carnival, where Samuel recites the specs to Vanessa’s dream cottage and continues to charm his way into Vanessa’s good graces.
Am I the only one shipping these two? I generally go with whichever shipper abbreviation seems the most popular, but in this case it seems I’m the only one rooting for the Vamuel.
Is there really any difference between this and the Sylaire, though? I’d say yes, because although Samuel’s a murderer, he never relishes the thought of his kills, he never brags about his villainy, and this episode illustrates why his lust for power was borne of romantic notions rather than megalomania. That could still change, but the gist from this episode — and particularly from this scene and the next — is that Samuel is effectively a child. He has a child’s temper, a child’s wish to please, and a child’s wish to impress and to feel loved.
Which are admittedly attributes he shares with Sylar. The difference is that until this week, Samuel’s contributions to the superpowered population effectively outweighed his crimes. Judging from this episode, Samuel’s goal all along was to bring supers together to enable him to realize his childhood dream, and his calculating nature and persuasive skills — combined with the general sense of isolation and paranoia among the superpowered population — helped him to realize that goal.
The key question based on this development, though, is how it changes our perception of Samuel. It was clear from the outset that Samuel had his own self-serving motives, but the reveal that those motives are romantic instead of maniacal changes Samuel’s stature as the villain of the volume. His charm and idealism are such that you actively want to forget how he killed Joseph, leveled a police precinct, turned Edgar into a killer and ordered the deaths of several of the carnival’s visitors. His sincerity and heart are so endearing that you want to believe he’s a well-intentioned individual whose weaknesses bring out the worst in him, as opposed to a villain who uses a charming veneer and acts of kindness as a disguise.
It seems the show wants us to feel this way, because if the strawberry milkshake wasn’t enough to convince viewers…
… the sight of T-Bag frolicking through a meadow should be.
He’s not just skipping or trundling, or even ambling or galloping. Frolicking is the only word that adequately captures it, and it’s with such disarming exuberance and lightheartedness that you’re forced to reevaluate how you’ve looked at the character since he was introduced. The difference between this and Sylar’s redemptive arc is that Samuel’s is surprising and illuminating without seeming confused or contradictory.
Gorgeously shot, and such an amazing setting that you wonder how Vanessa could possibly turn it down.
Vanessa: “This dress, the milkshake… all of this. This is a fantasy.”
Samuel: “And I made it come true. For you.”
Vanessa: “No, Sam — for you. This is your fantasy. And it’s beautiful, and I’m happy for you. But it isn’t me. My life isn’t here.”
Part of what makes this scene superb is the way the reactions ring true. Vanessa’s rejection demonstrates her integrity, because she realizes that Samuel doesn’t care about her so much as the fantasy of a life with her in it. Part of it’s the performances, because while Vernon’s reactions dart between shock, delight and sadness…
… the look of undisguised disappointment that Knepper brings to Samuel is enough to make anyone’s heart melt for the guy. When you consider that, moments before, he was frolicking like a lamb, it’s all the more heartbreaking to see his dreams come crashing down.
Samuel: “But I changed everything…”
Vanessa: “Don’t tell me you did all this for me. Please, don’t — don’t tell me this was all for me.”
This is essentially where the episode’s dialogue echoes the audience’s reaction. I can buy into it, because as absurd as it is to think that the entire carnival story comes down to Samuel frolicking through a meadow and moving into a cottage with his childhood sweetheart, it’s enacted with enough charm to fly.
The counter-argument is that this last line from Vanessa echoes the response from viewers who’ll feel ripped off. Samuel was depicted as the most powerful super of all, the one with a momentous ability and an insatiable appetite for power. And as idyllic as this scene might be, there’s a lot to be said for the criticism that this grand masterplan comes down to something alarmingly provincial.
Samuel looks like the wind’s been knocked out of him, but the guy manages to force a smile, to hide his rapid blinking and to thank Vanessa for “indulging” him.
Aw, for the way Vanessa can’t bear to break Samuel’s heart, and for the way Samuel is noble enough to pull away.
Claire sprints back to her dorm to rescue Gretchen, and although we don’t know it at this point in the episode, it’s informative to watch the scene play out with the realization that this is in fact Sylar-as-Gretchen.
So, just to be clear, Sylar flew past Claire and beat her to the dorm; shapeshifted into Gretchen; bound himself to a chair and gagged himself; and then tried to look as helpless as he possibly could.
Now that’s empathy.
Sylar TK’s the power outage? OK. You’d think he’d have to concentrate pretty hard to pull off something like that, especially given that in the past he’s had to shapeshift back into his Sylar visage before using any of his other abilities, but OK.
This I’m not so convinced by. Something as large-scale as decimating the dorm with a shower of broken glass should at least require a flick of the fingers. As near as I can tell, Sylar-as-Gretchen is completely still and taken completely by surprise when those windows smash.
Claire and Sylar-as-Gretchen hide in a closet. The sad part is that if this had been a scene between Claire and Gretchen as opposed to Sylar-as-Gretchen, it would have been the most memorable scene the characters have had all season.
Claire: “I like to think of myself as just a girl who happens to have powers. That it’s just one thing in a list of attributes. ‘Loyal,’ ‘friendly,’ ‘regenerative,’ ‘good skin’…”
Sylar-as-Gretchen: “You do have good skin.”
Claire: “But when you put the chips down and life gets tough, I hide behind that one label — that one attribute. And I close myself off.”
Great dialogue, especially in an episode that focuses on how liberating abilities can be when they help you to make your dreams a reality. It seems like a generalization to say that Claire has been emotionally closed off from Gretchen out of fear of getting hurt. It would be more accurate to say that, as we’ve seen and per the Bennet Circle-of-Death Rule, Gretchen would be the one who’s more likely to get hurt just by having anything to do with Claire. But it’s also more accurate to say that Claire has been distant from everyone she knows for fear of revealing her ability at all, and simply because she’s never been in a stable environment long enough to form lasting relationships. You could argue that Claire has had ample opportunity at college and that she’s tried to widen her social circle by joining a sorority and going to mixers. But then, when Claire’s former roommate got pushed out of a window and the head sorority girl turned out to want her dead, it’s hard to blame Claire for withdrawing from emotional attachments. The people Claire has come into contact with throughout the series statistically have a hidden agenda of some kind, so a certain wariness doesn’t seem like a social impediment so much as a survival skill.
Hayden throws herself into the scene, to the point where it’s genuinely saddening to look back on it and realize that no one besides Sylar had a chance to witness Claire’s emotional outpour.
Claire: “No wonder Sylar’s so messed up. I can only imagine what a bunch of excuses could do to someone’s humanity.”
There’s something preoccupied and not-at-all-panicky about Gretchen’s demeanor, and looking back, we probably should have realized that it wasn’t consistent with the girl who was freaked out enough to book a flight home when Rebecca tried to throttle her.
Sylar-as-Gretchen: “Maybe that’s the answer. In order to become human again, he has to get rid of all his powers.”
?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
So, just to recap: at the end of the previous volume, Sylar’s goal was to become president. At the start of this volume, his goal was to taunt Matt into giving him his body back. Then it was to kill everyone who separated his mind from his body. Then it was to slice scalps and absorb abilities at the carnival. Then it was to figure out why he was impotent.
At the start of this episode, it was to discover how he can prevent himself from going through life alone. And now, finally, it’s apparently…
“TO BECOME HUMAN AGAIN.”
At the risk of repeating myself,
?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Does anyone remember a time when Sylar wanted to be the pinnacle of human evolution?
Is Sylar EVER going to figure out what he wants and follow through with it? More importantly, can anything the character decides to do carry any weight when he changes his mind about what he wants to do EVERY. SINGLE. WEEK? You know that even if he does find a way to remove his abilities, he’ll only want them back the following week.
Claire’s portion of this episode? Magic.
Sylar’s? Atrocious.
Sylar-as-Gretchen morphs back into Sylar, tells Claire where to find Normal-Gretchen, and… leaves. Which I guess would be about as fitting a way to wrap this story thread as any, but it gets better.
Claire immediately opens her heart to Gretchen and decides she’s happy to hold Gretchen’s hand. It’s heartwarming, but am I the only one who still finds something about the rationale wholly objectionable? The implication is that if Sylar hadn’t forced Claire to kiss him, unloaded his emotional baggage and made her think Gretchen was in mortal danger, Claire would not be opening up to Gretchen right now. It’s fair to say that many of the strongest relationships on this show have formed through unfortunate circumstances, but when those circumstances are associated with the kind of disturbing undertones that this one is, there’s something deeply unsettling about it.
Sylar watches Claire and Gretchen leave the cafeteria hand in hand and thinks to himself.
And, what, WE’RE MEANT TO FEEL SORRY FOR HIM?
WE’RE MEANT TO THANK HIM FOR GIVING CLAIRE A VALUABLE INSIGHT?
WE’RE MEANT TO UNDERSTAND SYLAR BETTER?
Let’s move on.
Ando calls Hiro to the witness stand and asks him about the “driving force” that motivates him.
Hiro: “To be a hero. Noble and true.”
On the surface, it’s a commendable mission statement. If you dig deeper, you can see that it goes right to the heart of what makes Hiro’s storyline abysmal. Based on a statement like this, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the heroism itself is more important to Hiro than, I don’t know, ACTUALLY HELPING PEOPLE. It’s a tougher gig when rewriting the smallest detail in history can affect people’s lives all over the world, but shouldn’t people be more important than stature? Isn’t that what distinguished Peter this volume when he was saving people anonymously?
Hiro: “I saved the world. Twice.”
The last time Hiro made this claim was “Our Father.” I feel obligated to reiterate the point I made then: THIS IS COMPLETELY UNTRUE. If Hiro is referring to the time he stabbed Sylar — well, in the first instance, he didn’t actually kill Sylar, and in the second, Nathan’s the one who flew the exploding man to a safe distance. If Hiro’s talking about the time he stopped Adam, however, then in the first instance Hiro created the maniac known as Adam, and in the second, Hiro removed Adam and left behind a virus that would have wiped out mankind if Peter hadn’t been there to catch it.
Hiro reciting the opening to Quantum Leap, and Adam immediately zeroing in on it? Nicely done, show. Less nerdspeak and more of this, please.
Hiro: “Yes, I used poor judgment, but despite the sometimes disastrous effects, it was to make the world a better place. For family. And friendship. And love.”
THERE! That’s the kind of dialogue that makes Hiro sound like a hero instead of a repute-seeking clown. THIS is what should be driving Hiro, above and beyond notions of recognized nobility.
It’s a moment that’s played for all the sentimentality it’s worth, with an extreme close-up on Masi and a suitably dramatic theme to accompany Hiro flatlining in the real world. There’s also an underlying stoicism to Hiro’s acceptance, because he’s essentially taking responsibility for his actions for the entirety of the show’s run, from the first moment he teleported to New York to the moment he rescued Mohinder from Riverdale. There’s something epic about the scale of that story, but at the same time something character-based and focused about Hiro accepting that his interpretation of heroic time travel could equally be interpreted as reckless meddling with history.
Beautifully conceived and beautfully shot, from start to finish. The imposing corridor, the surreal, saturated light, and the fact that Hiro is surrounded by family, friends and enemies at a moment when his life is hanging in the balance.
Hiro changes his plea to “guilty” and resolves to die a hero…
… and Papa Sulu for once in this episode looks at his son with a hint of recognition, calling Hiro “son” and spurring him on to fight for his honor. And while there’s nothing especially inventive about a character’s internal struggle reflecting his fight for survival in the real world…
… there’s something reaffirming about Hiro reclaiming a sword that we hadn’t seen since the second volume…
… and overcoming the nemesis that helped to define who Hiro is and what his story arc was capable of.
It’s saddening to consider how many times Hiro’s arc has gone horribly wrong since then, but let’s try to focus on this scene, because it really is one of the character’s vindicating moments.
Welcome back, Mama Sulu!
Mama Sulu tells Hiro that she’s proud of “all the lessons” Hiro has learned. I wouldn’t want to undermine the triumphant tone of this scene, but what exactly has Hiro learned?
Whatever lessons Hiro might have learned, perhaps there’s a lesson we’re expected to learn from this: that when it seems like a character has reached an impasse and his life hangs in the balance, a deus ex machina will bring him back.
It’s not that I wanted Hiro to die, or that Mama Sulu showing up to give him the symbolic kiss of life wasn’t incredibly moving. The problem is that, as with Samuel’s motive turning out to be a quiet life at a cottage with his true love, it’s a development that comes out of nowhere and lacks the impact it should have had. If the plan was always for Hiro to survive, it needed a more substantial rationale than a symbolic kiss from his dead mom. As powerful an image as that is, it doesn’t add up to a fitting resolution to the character’s arc this volume. Hiro’s entire storyline had been building up to this, and if he wasn’t about to be killed off, there needed to be a solid reason why he survived. This doesn’t provide a solid, substantial reason why Hiro pulls through. It uses the symbolism of Mama Sulu’s miracle kiss to gloss over the issue in the real world: that Hiro was suffering from a terminal tumor and that doctors in a random hospital in Washington inexplicably managed to cure what the best doctors in Japan had deemed inoperable.
We return to Samuel at the ice cream parlor, and this…
… is surely one of the most heartbreaking images imaginable for the guy who was once portrayed as the unimpeachable villain of the volume. While he reclaims that title with his actions now, this episode is remarkable for the way it humanized him. It illustrates how the most powerful villain can be broken by his attachments, how his dreams can be shattered by rejection, and how even the most invincible adversary can be reduced to an emotional wreck by the person he cares about.
Samuel flips out at the waitress, and one part of his dialogue is especially telling:
“I’m done trying to change myself for you. Trying to fit into your world. Play by your rules. From now on, you’re all gonna play by mine.”
It could be that Samuel is declaring his intention to out the superpowered population and make their abilities known to the world.
Based on his emotional stability, that’s unlikely to go smoothly. From a visual standpoint, however, it’s worth noting that the camera that was focused on Samuel now rotates to what’s nearly a 45-degree angle, signifying that even if the carnival’s world isn’t about to bleed into the real world, its photography and directorial hallmarks most definitely are.
Amazing effect. Unfortunate for the timing, but an extraordinary culmination to an extraordinary episode. We cut from Vanessa in a car to Claire and Gretchen talking over candle light, from Hiro in recovery to Sylar showing up at Matt’s home and making sinister faces at Janice. What sticks with me at the end of this episode, though, is both the significance of the dialogue and the symbolism of the plot. When Samuel tells a random waitress that he’s done playing by someone else’s rules, it’s as if the show’s announcing that this isn’t a villain who’ll follow the usual conventions. Knepper has played Samuel as an unconventional villain, and this week’s developments for the character, as bizarre as they are, have changed the direction we assumed his arc was headed in.
Hiro’s story thread this week is about taking responsibility for failure and accepting the cards that fate has dealt. As unconvincing as the resolution to Hiro’s arc felt this week, there’s a curious parallel between Hiro’s fate and the show’s, particularly in a week when viewership dropped to a staggering low and the show’s own fate hangs in the balance.
I’m docking points for several reasons: the Sylaire was unequivocally bad, for the appalling undertones and for the sheer horror of the spectacle, which appeared to serve no purpose besides conveying to Claire that she needed to lower her guard with Gretchen. It’s difficult to grasp what kind of a statement the show wants to make when a confused villain forces himself onto his victim to get that idea across, but the unintentional message that comes across clearly is that Sylar is systematically diminishing every story and character he comes into contact with.
Besides the obvious horror, though, there’s the fact that Mohinder and Noah arbitrarily vanished at the start of the episode, that Vanessa felt like more of a plot device than ever, and that after a volume spent building up to Hiro’s imminent death, a miracle survival that can’t be explained enables him to pull through.
What rescues “Pass/Fail” from looking like a complete fail is its characters, its tone and its innovation. Grigsby infuses the script with wit and energy, Knepper and Hayden deliver outstanding performances, and as objectionable as parts of the storylines might be, there’s no denying that the episode as a whole is well crafted and well thought out. The result is an hour that builds momentum towards the volume’s finale, and at the same time an hour that explores the predicaments its characters are in and the circumstances that have brought them here.
A pass with numerous failings.
3 out of 5
Great review as always. I don’t want to seem like every time I comment it’s to criticize your reviews lol but I personally felt you were a little too hard on it. I felt that certain things, like Mohinder and Noah’s absenses and the mystery behind Hiro’s survival were things being set up for next week. The description (spoilers) for next week’s episode says that Noah will be attacking the carnival with the help of Lauren and Mohinder, which I thought helped explained their absense this week. Likewise, Hiro’s unexplained survival was something being held over to next episode. You also find it hard to believe Sylar’s recent developments, even calling him evil incarnate, but I saw it as being completely consistant with the guy who was willing to jump into the Sylar Petrelli role in order to feel accepted. As much as he likes killing people, deep down he’ll always have that need to be accepted and loved. I think you overreacted just a tad about the Sylaire kiss, which while disgusting, shouldn’t completely undermine Sylar’s later attempts to help bring Claire and Gretchen together. You also seemed to tear apart everything Hiro said at the trial, which is a little much. Sure, he may not have saved the world twice, but how would he know that? He stabs Sylar, next time he returns to the present, Ando tells him the explosion didn’t occur. He buries Adam alive, next he hears the virus didn’t spread. Why shouldn’t he think he didn’t save the world twice? I would if I were him. But like I said, I don’t want to seem like I’m just bashing your reviews. I just thought this was the best episode of the season, the best episode since Thanksgiving (which ironically was the last time I commented haha). I personally enjoy your reviews a lot, every week I look forward to a new Heroes episode Monday, a new Heroes graphic novel Tuesday, and a new review by you Thursday. Personally, I think that ever since Season 3 (especially Villains, which you surprisingly went very easy on), you’re reviews have been more and more harsh, attacking more little details. But no matter how much I may disagree with this particular review, all is forgiven when you describe Samuel in the meadows as…frolicking. You sir, went up a couple of notches in awesomeness by even using the word “frolicking” especially since I never even thought of that until you mentioned it in the review. Excellent review other than a few minor critcisms. I look forward to next week’s review!
Great review.
Get some rest.
Otto, I think Mohinder was gone by the time Hiro collapsed. That still doesn’t explain how Mohinder went from “Samuel must be stopped” to “I wanna go home to my girlfriend”.
Thank you for yet another wonderful review Otto!
Being very minimally interested in Sylaire and Hiro at this point in time, I had to force myself to watch this episode. Maybe it was the very low expectations, but I came away pleasantly surprised, and the 42 minutes went by fast. I liked the witty retorts sprinkled here and there, performances were solid all around, and as always, some shots were pure eye candy.
I was very befuddled with this emo-spewing Sylar that met up with Claire. Can there still be Nathan remnants in there?!? This episode also had me wondering why Claire had never signed up for a self-defense or combat-training of some sort. Why is she stuck in this blah-de-blah academic world when her real strength is her uber-body? Where’s that girl that ran into the burning train in Season 1 is all I’m saying…
I enjoyed Hiro’s imagination, as well as the little cut-scenes as Hiro goes from real-world to his head-world. Sylar was a hilarious witness, and lots of great zingers all around. I did get thoroughly lost once Hiro changed his plead to guilty, and in particular had no idea where that sword fight came from or really what it meant. Bringing in Hiro’s mom at the end had me wondering why he hadn’t just sought her out earlier, being a time-traveler and all… It was nice though to see the show examine Hiro’s past choices very explicitly.
Samuel’s story felt out of left field somewhat. I had a hard time accepting that he was doing all this for an estranged girlfriend, but I guess it serves as a motivation, so I’ll go with it for now. The scenes of the two of them together were lovely, and I liked the realism of her answers to him in the last scene. Knepper’s release of fury was also very impressive.
I didn’t miss Noah or Mohinder at all, although I agree that the rationale for Mohinder’s departure sounded lame. He couldn’t just say “I’m a busy actor, and have nothing to do here except providing an extra compass or two?”. What I did miss were Peter and Emma after the explosive cello-smashing scene last week. Those two are really the only two characters that I have any real investment/interest in anymore, especially since Angela hasn’t gotten much to do since Milly was last seen. Here’s hoping something juicy happens in the final three episodes!
I agree with you that I’m missing Peter and Emma. Although I still have an avid interest in all the characters, not just these two, their storyline is the most important in my mind. Luckily, from the looks of things, the last three episodes are chock-full of Deanne and Milo. Let’s hope the writers give them material worthy of their immense talents and chemistry!
Sylar/Claire - What I didn’t like: 1) the kiss - it was just creepy. I guess creepiness was the desired effect, but the fact that the show shamelessly hyped it up in its promos made it feel cheap all around. The only thing that somewhat saved this sequence was the pencil to the eye (in other words, THANK GOD Claire didn’t ENJOY it!).
2) Sylar’s sudden need to rid himself of his powers. I’m sorry, but for THREE AND A HALF SEASONS Sylar has been all about acquiring abilities. The show had him wavering when it came to choosing between good/bad, but he’s never stopped trying to get abilities. In “The Fifth Stage” when Sylar waves at Nathan and walks away, I just wanna know what the hell he was thinking on his walk back to wherever he was going. “Yeah, now’s my chance to go kill everyone involved in this! Damn I’m lonely!” ????????? What made this even MORE strange was having Season 1 Sylar in the same episode as Season 4 Sylar. They are so different… It makes me miss that feeling that SYLAR WAS THE VILLAIN. He knew exactly what he wanted and how to get it, no matter what. Now he needs “magic tattoos” to tell him what to do. THIS IS NOT SYLAR.
What I liked: the surprised of Gretchen being Sylar. Hey, I actually didn’t see that coming.
Samuel/Vanessa - Sorry, I totally disagree with you when it comes to shipping these two. I hate these two together. Since Vanessa’s introduction Samuel’s storyline has gone from a man with a dark purpose to a man who wanted to build a cottage in the woods and sip on milkshakes. Speaking of milkshakes… that milkshake sipping scene was one of the creepiest things I’ve ever seen in my life. I actually cringed. BUT, at least we finally got to see Samuel in FULL ON VILLAIN mode. Although I have to wonder how he manages to sink an entire city without getting sucked in himself - does he save himself a little piece of land or what?
Hiro - They almost fooled me. I actually thought he might die in this episode, and I would’ve had newfound respect for the writers if they had the guts to do that. But of course he went back and forth and back and forth with random sword fighting and healing. So that brain tumor sequence since the end of Season 3 was pointless? Pretty much. How are we ever supposed to care when a character gets diagnosed with a terminal illness or is on the brink of death if NOTHING EVER HAPPENS???
And correct me if I’m wrong, but Lynette didn’t die so why is she in the diner dream? I thought it was only dead people? I dunno… 2.5/5 for me. I’m in a love-hate relationship with Heroes.
Haushinka, it’s not only dead people in Hiro’s dream. Sylar was there, so was Ando, so was young Ando and Kimiko.
Hmm yeah that’s true, good point. I guess I just thought she kinda stuck out. Kimiko and Sylar were there to testify and Ando was Hiro’s lawyer, but I’m not really sure what Lynette was doing besides standing around lol. Oh well, guess we just have to take everything involving Hiro as it is!
Could it be that Lynette means more to Hiro than we’ve gathered from the on-screen story? It’s possible that she represents the life Hiro made for himself in the six months he spent working at the Burnt Toast Diner, in which case her role here — the quiet, serene figure in the background — is a reflection of the way Hiro remembers her, and of the way he remembers the diner itself.
Also - Hiro believes Sylar is dead. He’s not been told otherwise (no-one except for Noah/Angela/Peter/Claire know.)
Honestly? I can come up with several good reasons why Lynette could be there. Firstly, as Otto pointed out, there is the obvious fact that Hiro presumably came to know her pretty well while he was working at the Burnt Toast Diner. Secondly, it’s a good facecheck for an extremely minor character whom we’ve seen repeatedly throughout the years and have come to like. Who doesn’t like revisiting old faces? And thirdly, no courtroom is complete without a court reporter. And what better way for Hiro’s subconscious to depict that than by having Lynette transcribe the trial on her order pad?
Hey Otto!
Great review, as usual. You pretty much hit all the points that bothered me.
I’ll go with the Claire/Gretchen hookup despite the many holes in the story. In true Heroes fashion, they reach the arc of the plot despite it not making any sense. Claire’s feelings for Gretchen are so ambiguous that all those clues Sylar mentioned could easily go the way of friendship. I don’t see how Claire has really kept up walls (except for recently) because her entire purpose is to have a normal life, which means letting people in. I’m still not entirely sure that her feelings for Gretchen are romantic, but rather just the close connection that she’s been searching for. But I digress. If they really are a romantic couple, then they better start showing it. This ambiguity is getting tired.
Hayden’s acting…can’t agree with you there. It would be more convincing if she weren’t so breathy. Like she’s hyperventilating from anger. Madeline Zima was good, though. No matter where the relationship leads, hope to see more of her.
Sylar’s redemption is finally starting to happen, but there’s a big flaw here and Haushinka already said it: Sylar would never, and I repeat never willingly give up his powers. Even to regain his humanity, this is the guy who killed any and everything in his path to get these abilities! I knew that it would come down to that choice, but he wouldn’t be so casual with losing them. Really? Just trot on over to Parkman’s and have him whammy away everything Sylar’s worked so hard for? For a desire for human contact that just appeared this season?
Give me a break.
That said, I’ll go with his redemption only because it needs to stick this time.
Wow, I just realized there a few things I’ll “go along with” on this show despite their making no sense. That isn’t good, is it?
Hiro’s trial was amusing, although it only served a small purpose. Sylar worked as the surprise witness. And Adam…good to have him back. Did he always have that pursed smirk on his face? Sigh. What a waste of a good villain.
Hiro’s ending has me torn. Visually, it was outstanding, and as much as I liked Hiro, I was prepared to see him go. I don’t think that he could ask for a better ending. Even if it was all symbolic, it was beautifully done. His being saved by his “mother” was a nice touch, but fell flat because I’m not entirely sure of what saved him. It was an inoperable tumor right? What happened? The doctors got lucky? Divine intervention? Hiro’s own will to survive?
Samuel frolicked. That’s all I can say. I never laughed harder.
Two great action scenes: The explosion in Claire’s dorm. Too bad it didn’t mean anything. And Samuel bringing down a neighborhood in a very angry moment.
3/5
(Sylar: “Nathan… Seems like a lifetime ago.”)
Shades of Samson
re: Sylar… I have to do a mini-rant. Is he a nice guy? No. He’s horrible. But it’s becoming bizarre how many people are against him being ambiguous. Like we’ve never had a character like that on TV. You got Ben on Lost who everyone feels sorry for (despite being a manipulative asshole who caused 90% of the problems on Lost that Locke didn’t cause), Spike on Buffy (who tried to rape her, and was defended because “he didn’t have a soul”), Angel (who locked a bunch of lawyers in a room, WITH a soul) and never showed any regret for it… not to mention Noah on this show (who did horrible things long before Claire came along) - and that’s not counting Dexter.
What I’m trying to say is it’s fine to dislike the character and question the ambiguity, but it’s hardly the first time a show has played fast and loose when it comes to a character like this. Not to mention how, deep down, hating Sylar is what we’re meant to do. He’s the bad guy. GOOD TV doesn’t have us going ‘oh, he’s cool’ every week (cough - LOST - cough), it has us viewing the character as a monster who can change if he really wants to but doesn’t because there’s something missing in his personality.
Sylar’s constant chances to change aren’t going to make him a hero. He can do heroic things, but in the end he’s always going to be the flipside of Peter. Peter does heroic things out of a selfless need, Sylar does them to make himself feel better. For proper development, Peter and Sylar do - on occassion - need to subvert these tropes. Peter smashes a cello to help Emma, knowing she’ll resent him… Sylar tricks Claire into thinking he kidnapped Gretch when he could’ve easily done it for real.
he never relishes the thought of his kills, he never brags about his villainy,
Objection. Sylar wrote ‘forgive me’ on the wall in blood. Arguably, he didn’t relish the kill till much later… and we can even question whether he did until S3, because of ‘The Hunger.’
re: Samuel… I can’t see people being cheated. It’s the parallel to Peter’s story. Peter loves expecting nothing, Samuel loves expecting the world. When Samuel doesn’t get it, he turns to genocide. It harkens back to the start of S4, where Samuel lost his brother through an act of rage and Peter lost his through an act of cruel fate. Both tried to pretend that their brother was still there in different ways, Peter unknowingly and Samuel using Joseph as a lie.
As for not knowing Gretch, isn’t that the point? Claire isn’t allowing herself an in, and the relationship is from her perspective. (The only other time we see Gretch alone is from Sylar’s perspective.) As she’s not getting too involved and building walls, we don’t get to know Gretch beyond seeing that she’s somewhat lovely.
(TO BECOME HUMAN AGAIN)
Ties in with 304, and the addict nature of his character. He wants an easy out to deny responsibility for what he’s done. It’s the same as having a kid, Sylar doesn’t have to do any work because an external concept is giving him a purpose.
I don’t mind characters that are ambiguous or complex or layered or whatever you wanna call it. I’ve always loved that Sylar wasn’t just a “villain.” Season 1 did the best job of showing the different sides of him - the “forgive me” on the walls (like you mentioned), then doing things like killing Jackie and Charlie and Isaac, then putting on that Gabriel attire and visiting his mom, only to kill her and come to terms with blowing up NYC. But all of that never felt sudden or out-of-character; it added interest to the character.
What we have now is a show telling us that after three and a half seasons of Sylar at the bare minimum wanting POWER and to feel SPECIAL, he suddenly wants none of it? That’s not ambiguity, that’s poor writing. It would be like the show bringing back Micah as a techno-serial killer or something. It’s so out of character that it’s unbelievable and feels contrived.
It seems that the show is ultimately hoping to have Sylar save the world (as the promos for “Upon This Rock/Let It Bleed” showed us), but this shouldn’t be the way to do it. Don’t take everything the character is away from him - have him use what he is in a new way, like the way he used his ability to save Charlie in “Once Upon a Time in Texas.” It was a new facet of the character (saving someone’s life instead of always wanting to take away their life) but it didn’t come from left field.
What I’m saying makes sense in my head but I’m not quite sure how to type it out lol. I hope it made sense though…
You do make a fair point.
We have seen Sylar want power. But we’ve also seen him manipulated steadily since the end of S1. In S2 he has no powers because of The Company, so in essence they’re trying to manipulate him into coming to them so they can then GIVE him his powers back. When this doesn’t work, and he regains them, he goes to The Company… and is then manipulated into being an Agent. Then in V4, he’s manipulated by his Fathers words into searching for meaning.
I think the crux of Sylar’s story-arc can be the search for a purpose, rather than powers. The power itself was a means to an end to feel special. But see ‘Villains’ where after gaining power he tried to kill himself. The power isn’t enough, there has to be a goal there. And the goal has to spring from Sylar. As bad as this story-arc may be, at least Sylar is making the choice. You can argue about the tattoo, about Hiro and about Claire leading him towards it… but no-one is manipulating Sylar. He’s being given facts, and then reacting to them. Which is why the storyline is at least pushing him into making a choice based on what HE wants.
As for Sylar in Hiro’s mind being the only alive character, Hiro doesn’t know Sylar is alive. Hiro saw ‘Sylar’ burn at the end of S3, as far as he knows Sylar IS dead.
Ian, hats off to you for an amazing post.
Couple of thoughts:
“…it’s becoming bizarre how many people are against him being ambiguous.”
I don’t think it’s simply about the ambiguity per se. For me, at least, it’s about the repeated attempts at ambiguity being interspersed with the Nathan-killing and the Claire-kissing pseudo-rapist undertones. I’m all for ambiguity, but this is ~*ambiguous*~ ambiguity, and it’s, what, the fourth time the show’s gone there with Sylar? There are only so many times we can be prompted to wonder whether he might be a good guy beneath the psychosis and the mass-murdering tendencies. There comes a point when that attempt to humanize him loses its impact, and I think the show had played that card at the end of Volume Three.
With the Sylar/HRG comparison — yes, valid point, no one’s been nearly as critical about HRG’s moral ambiguity. I think the difference is in the consistency. HRG’s unspeakable acts are underpinned by altruistic motives. Those motives don’t make HRG’s actions any less reprehensible, but I do think they make him less reprehensible, and I think the ambiguity flies because it’s ~*consistent*~ ambiguity. HRG is a loving father who’s capable of monstrous actions in the interests of others. That, to my mind, can be deemed consistent ambiguity. But Sylar trying to be a good Petrelli, then killing Elle, then tracking down his father as part of his soul-searching foray, then going after the presidency and killing Nathan, then submerging Sylathan and waving at Peter, and then — after all that — getting the sad tinkly piano and working the morose puppy-dog eyes? I’m sorry, but I can’t agree that that’s even credible ambiguity, let alone consistent ambiguity.
I hope that makes some kind of sense. It’s not the ambiguity I have a problem with — it’s the way the ambiguity is handled, and the way TPTBs seem to go back and forth about whether they even want to commit to it.
“What I’m trying to say is it’s fine to dislike the character and question the ambiguity…”
See, at this point, I’m not even sure there’s a character left to dislike. Sylar’s arc in this volume alone has branched off in half a dozen directions (”Let’s ruin Matt’s life!” “Let’s kill everyone connected to the Sylathan debacle!” “Let’s taunt Angela over Thanksgiving dinner!” “Let’s make Peter’s life hell!” “Let’s scalp lots of carnies!” “Let’s go see Claire!” “Let’s ditch the abilities and go back to a powerless human existence!”), to the point where there’s no longer anything tangible about the character. EVERYTHING about him is now up in the air. There’s nothing you can say about Sylar for certain anymore — not even that he likes ripping open heads and stealing people’s abilities. The attempt to add ~*depth*~ to the character has robbed him of any depth he had to begin with.
“Not to mention how, deep down, hating Sylar is what we’re meant to do. He’s the bad guy.”
This is my biggest issue, because I’m honestly not sure if this is even true anymore. Based on the character’s scenes in this episode — or just based on the screencaps I selected for the review — can you say you’re absolutely certain that we’re still meant to hate the character? We do, but when you get a moment like the one at the college cafeteria — when Sylar’s staring into the distance ~*contemplatively*~ — can you say the show is writing the character with a clear objective? I mean, in the context of scalping Claire and killing Nathan and waving at Peter, can you really reconcile the backstory with a moment like this, which seems like a pretty clear attempt to suggest that Sylar is ~*rethinking*~ his atrocities? That, to my mind, lends the character a dignity that he simply doesn’t deserve. That, in my opinion, is where the show earns an “EPIC FAIL.” Some s**t can’t be redeemed, and when the show tries, it ends up looking like it’s trying to do something absurd instead of something ambiguous.
Re: the “FORGIVE ME” scrawlings: well, yes, OK, there was some initial self-loathing on the back of the first few murders. Does that negate the fact that he’s gone on to blatantly enjoy terrorizing and murdering his victims? Leaving HRG to howl in rage inside a Company cell in 1.16? Slowly and torturously hunting Claire in her home in 3.01? Declaring in 3.12 that he’d “forgotten how good it feels” to rip open heads and steal abilities? Telling Lydia in 4.14 that he kills “for fun”? I think the number of intances when he’s openly expressed enjoyment add up to a clear impression that he always got a kick out of it.
Excellent points.
Is it a hundred percent about redemption, though? The Volume is called Redemption, but it’s a thematic point rather than an actuality. Sylar hasn’t made an attempt to make amends for his sins of the past, rather it can be construed that he’s thinking about the future. The loss of his powers is likely him trying to see if he’s still got the same mindset without them - to make a choice governed by his own admission rather than an external force.
There’s also the fact that Adam (who wanted to kill 93% of the population) and Linderman (who wanted to destroy New York) have both been humanised by the show. I’d agree that they had stronger motives than Sylar, but it’s - arguably - his contrasting nature that keeps him around. Adam, Linderman, Arthur & Danko served a one season purpose. They could’ve stuck around, but the characters had one goal. Once that wasn’t achieved, what next? The same again? Sylar has, at least, had different goals for each season. Whether they’ve worked or not, he’s bled into each storyline somewhat logically in terms of the thematic constructs.
What is the most valuable lesson Hiro has learned?
Waffles!
If we do get a season 5, I hope we also get writers/showrunners who can achieve the potential this show has often fallen short of. And if we don’t, I’d say that ditching the virus volume has to be top of any “where Heroes went wrong” list.
Agreed on the virus volume part.
It just seems that they never had a season plan since then, or maybe didn’t are to have one.
I can’t blame them on ditching the virus part. The vitriol to S2 by the ‘fanbase’ is what I blame.
Myrystyr, you’ve read my mind. “Waffles” was my next choice.
Ian, I’m curious about the quote marks around “fanbase.” Are you saying that if we were critical about Volume Two we aren’t true fans?
Not at all, Otto.
The ‘fanbase’ are the ones who called S2 slow, who complained that not everything was told to us like we were children, that it was a slowly evolving story rather than ”ADRENALINE!’
Here, while I might not always agree with the reviews, you lay out things in a concise fashion. You say WHY you dislike something. So do all the commenters. It means that we get a dialogue going that steps beyond ‘that sucked.’ A more adult mode of discussion that has kept almost the same core group of us coming back each week for years.
The ones who called S2 slow got the ‘ADRENALINE’ in S3… and then complained again.
Whereas here, you said WHY S3 didn’t always work for you. It went beyond ‘I hate Mohinder’ and into ‘his character continuity is non-existent.’ Same with Hiro. There’s ‘what you didn’t like’, followed by ‘why you didn’t like it’, and then oftentimes ‘what would have been better.’
Hiya there. Great review, as always.
Taking everything you said about Hiro’s storyline this week, I still think it was amazingly done. Although behind all the metaphor, his survival can be (relatively) easily explained. They’ve had no choice than operating the (apparently unoperable) tumor, and it was a success. These things happen in real life, and the symbolic healing kiss was just the surreal event pushing the miracle, I guess.
What I find amazing is how finally, the issues viewers have with Hiro’s actions are finally adressed. Maybe he doesn’t think he is, but time travelling to help people selectively, makes him selfish. Recogning it is, I hope, a big step in Hiro’s evolution. “Trying not to mess with the space-time continum” is just an excuse he uses whenever it’s good for him.
Since time travelling screws up time anyways, I just don’t see why he can selfishly save one people he care about, while why cutting off a serial killer’s head would be a bad thing.
The Adam and Kaito not really being Adam and Kaito doesn’t bother me that much, not as much as I would have wanted Ghost-Sylar to be in Matt’s head, rather than being his spirit floating in there, thus making Matt’s storyline more interesting.
Don’t have much to add to what you’ve said about Claire. However, I’m calling that guy emoSylar until something else happens to him.
Frankly, for me, I don’t know how we can talk about ambiguity for emoSylar anymore. To me, he’s evil, point. I can’t even beleive there can be a discussion about it anymore, after everything he’s done, and the several ocasions he had to leave this life behind. That seemed ridiculous specially considering there’s another part of the episode where Sylar laughs when making a list of people he killed (through season 1, and forgetting some in the process).
Should getting rid of his powers do the trick ? Wasn’t he trying to regain them when he was Shantied during S2 (hunger-free?) ? I’m sorry but the people he killed on his way back from Mexico (I think?) would disagree that he would regain his humanity simply by droping his powers. Same for the Eclipse episodes, when someone took a bullet to protect him from the snipping pervert, and ended up dead anyway.
I’m sorry, but it just seems like this is their way to keep him the show, shall the show survive (which is kinda doubful seeing the ratings).
Unless he kills Hiro or asks him to take him back in time to kill himself/stop himself/kill Chandra so he doesn’t show up in the first place, I don’t see any debate here.
Mixed feelings for Samuel. By itself, this week’s scenes were great, some amazing, but looking back at the whole season, I can’t help thinking that his potential was a bit wasted.
We’ve seen like several facets of his characters, while they should have been different layers of the same cake. The facet of the week seems to be the hopeless romantic. That’s not incoherent, but it’s somehow getting close.
- He went from the guy who *seemed* to want revenge for the government killing his brother, to the guy who killed his brother (act of rage, I agree, but he could have save him with Hiro’s help). *points for pointing out that he turned Edgar into a killer in the process.
- He went from the guy protecting his family, and expanding it in order to help the superpowered population, to the guy that uses his family, turning Lydia into a hooker (?), so he can be more powerful.
- There’s a point where we were saying that he could be a villain fighting intolerance (The episode Jeremi died), not so much anymore.
- Now he’s apparently done everything for the girl of his dreams, woman who’s been introduced 3 episodes ago.
- And finally there’s the guy who’s been trying to fit in the normal world, but is tired of trying. However, that is coherent with the guy who told amnesiac-Sylar he should impose his own terms by terror, which I guess is playing by their own rules.
Some of these things strike me as bad choices for the character - Him being Joseph’s killer, him using the carnivale to be more powerful, rather that growing powerfull as a consequence of his efforts to protect his family - but we may disagree there, which is normal. Some things, like Vanessa (and you pointed it out last week or the week before), should have fitted in the background the whole season (you know, by mentionning her name from times to times), specially if this was his ultimate goal. I’m all for multidimensional characters, but this just seems like a different character every 4-5 episodes, the new facet somehow negating the previous ones when it is explored.
Random questions poping up :
- You mentionned Becky, but where the hell is she ? I pretty much thought she wanted to avenge her father…
- <> And your mother!!! She never existed either, did she…
- Is it me or we had lots of Sylar this year? Sylar, Sylathan, Amnesiac-Sylar, Ghost-Sylar, emoSylar… That’s a lot of people ZQ has been playing…
(Should getting rid of his powers do the trick?)
It’s his choice to get rid of him. Not an external force manipulating him. That’s the difference. Going back to the addiction analogy, if you take drugs away from an addict it’s not solving the problem. They have to want to quit themselves.
Nice review. I agreed with most of your points regarding the characters’ motivation: Sylar’s and Samuel’s both seem insupportable considering the backstory. But Sylar, in the writer’s never ending attempts to keep him relevant, has wandered all across the board of good, evil and indifferent and confused, so it’s not quite as much of a stretch to believe that he suddenly wants to regain his humanity.
Samuel, however, WTF? All this power-mongering, fratricide, manipulation and destruction was to impress his childhood sweetheart? So Samuel the evil cult leader and would be demagogue is actually just a really nasty case of arrested development. I found that to be more than a little irritating, personally. Also, I was completely uninterested in his scenes with Vanessa; they were banal and boring. Show her the freaking cottage already, and quit blathering about it and slobbering on her. I FFd through most of their scenes, which is a first for me in an initial viewing of an episode. I was just that bored and irritated. I was impressed by the actor’s intensity in the final ice cream shoppe of destruction scene, however.
I enjoyed the Claire/Gretchen/Sylar stuff, right up until the somewhat implausible “let’s hold hands” ending. I can see Claire trying to overcome her perceived self-imposed isolation, but that seemed a little forced, a little too quickly. But then again, it is college.
I loved the Hiro storyline! It was fun, funny, poignant, treated Hiro seriously, and included many great appearances and cameos by favorite old characters. But I totally agree with you that, despite my hopes that the writers will now show Hiro some respect, the Mama Sulu healing was a bit too deus ex machina. I loved seeing her, but it makes it a seem a tad much ado about not that much to be really believable.
Hi! Yes…I’m here again!
Good review, but for me this was one of the most boring episodes of the whole Heroesverse. Yes, I can’t feel pity about Sylar, I can’t understand the basis of Gretchen/Claire and Samuel and Hiro, well, let’s not comment. It was a disaster of episode for me…
Only good moments: Jackie, Sylar’s list of murders and Samuel’s village destroy.
Otto, I’m slightly disappointed in you. You were rather harsh on this episode. I enjoyed almost every minute of it. The kiss was what got me, but listening to the dialogue before hand I managed to equate it to Bugs Bunny kissing Elmer Fudd. My logic on that? Well, it seems to me that Sylar would have had to plan that whole thing out. He couldn’t just walk up to her and say, “Hey Claire, I need help. Could you lend me and ear to talk to?” She probably would have stabbed him with some pointy thing she had laying around like the butcher knife or the piece of glass, or a pencil. He opened up to her, but he knew that with Claire, who’s father he killed, it was going to take some skillful maneuvering. Despite the ambiguity that everyone is complaining about (thanks for that argument Ian, way to go), he needed something and went for it. The only way he was going to get the answers was by having Claire reveal her issues, but no way in hell was she going to tell him. So he had to be Gretchen. He probably had the rope and the chair all set up before he stole Gretchen’s bag, or even after. The stalking thing, research (still creepy though). I saw the kiss as another step toward provoking her so that she would react, because as you said, her only reaction was inaction. As iffy as I am on Claire, I rather liked her this episode, especially since her reaction to emoSylar was the same as ours; she had no idea what to make of it as she told “Gretchen.” I definitely like her reaction to Sylar turning back, there was a sense of exasperation to it. I couldn’t help but smile when he said “Now that wasn’t so hard.” He got what he wanted from her, and answer. I view his willingness to get rid of his powers as admirable because of his drive for them this whole time. He made the decision to go to Matt for help, no one forced him too. I think that is the thing that people failed to notice. Its not out of character. I said that it would come down to making a choice between two things for Sylar: love or power. He chose love. He would rather die than live alone.
No problems with Gretchen, even if she is still not entirely developed, I’m just happy Claire has a friend and I hope that its permanent. I’m tired of them all disappearing.
For Sylar being a rapist, he already is if you consider the definition of rape as being the forceful taking of something as in the title of Pope’s poem “Rape of the Lock”. (I sound like I’m writing a paper.)
As for Samuel, I hate that bastard, and I don’t care what you say to dissuade me. Even if he doesn’t relish in the murders he’s committed, which I can assure you he does when it comes to that village and the police station, he’s still done a number of detestable things. Prostituting Lydia, framing Edgar, making Charlie go away, and thus leading to Arthur’s death. I would also put using people to make your childhood dreams come true under that list because it still involved manipulating people, but that would seem too harsh. It was sweet what was going on between him and Vanessa, but in the end I knew that it wasn’t to be. Something about Samuel’s instabilities makes him dangerous because he can turn too easy. With Samuel you could never tell what will set him off. I do agree though that Vanessa should have been “present” throughout the whole volume, even if just a name. Her appearance was too sudden. Maybe a picture in his trailer that we saw every now and then would have been nice. It would have gotten us thinking who the blonde he was with is and what is her significance. The scene in the diner after Vanessa left him I LOVED. That was what I was waiting for. The music in the background, the camera angles, I just smiled happily. I can’t wait till they take this guy down.
Now for Hiro… what is there to say. I loved it with a big grin on my face. I almost even cried when Hiro was talking to his mother. It was beautiful. Grigsby is awesome. (I follow him on twitter.)
Three episodes left! I hope for a 5th season.
Hey Otto,
Line of the night for me is tied between Hiro’s “Quantam Leap” bit with Adam, and Ando asking Hiro how long he had known the defendant followed by Masi Oka’s hillarious expression and delivery of “seriously?” Absolutely FLOORED by the scope of this episode and the writer’s bold and much-delayed decision to call Hiro out on his “Heroe’s Code.” The dialougue could not have been better if they’d tried. Well, maybe. Then came Hiro’s plea change to Guilty. Here’s where the storyline comes undone for me. The show actually had me believing they were going to kill off Hiro. Now honestly, I would have hated to see him go. BUT his death is where this episode (and whole season-long storyline) should have concluded. I 100% get the symbollism of Hiro defeating his Greatest Enemy. But with the dark undertones of this season, I can think of nothing more hauntingly beautiful in a deeply disturbed way than Adam to have impaled Hiro thru the chest and killed him, which would have metaphorically been the Tumor defeating Hiro. The good guy redeems his actoins minutes before meeting his end. I would’ve easily given this a 5/5 with no hesitation even if the rest of the episode had been Samuel and Vanessa painting purple flags while Sylar and Claire decide to get married! (Slight exageration. I’m not THAT crazy. :)) Instead, Hiro defeats Adam and is miraculously healed by his DEAD mother. Even if the surgeons did manage to operate on Hiro’s INOPPERABLE TUMOR, and his mom was just a metaphor for that, 1) It could’ve been made clearer to the audience that this is what happened. 2) It robs Hiro’s story arc of any emotional investment in the past 15 chapters that they spent convincing the audience Hiro was going to die. The nice way of saying it is Deus Ex Machina. The honest way of saying it is Cheating. Or even possibly Betrayal. As this episode clipped along, I was ready to give it a 5/5. By the end tho, I give it a 3.5/5. Tho I will change that to a 4 if they offer ANY kind of explanation as to how Hiro survived in the next 3 episodes. As always, keep up the good work! And even tho Sylar may be wandering aimlessly and changing the reason behinf his search for connecton several times in one episode, bear in mind that his character arc could have the chance of saving everyone else from being written into a corner, ala Hiro.
Awesome review. Almost spot-on to my entire opinion of this episode! I agree wholeheartedly that Sylar is too far beyond self-redemption, and that this episode didn’t know whether it wanted Villain Sylar or Hero Sylar. It does seem they found a balance about halfway thru, with EmoSylar (I love that name! How fitting for the character…) tricking Claire into opening up; tus making him good and evil at the same time. So even tho I loathed some of the earlier Sylaire scenes this ep (like you said, that piano motiff was deeply confusing) I’m glad they might’ve found a way to make Sylar relevant again- helping our Heroes comes to terms with their issues by using their hatred of him to trick them into realization. If this is where Sylar is going for the last 3 eps, I like it. Don’t fix Sylar- he’s unfixable at this point. Fix the Heroes with the writer’s numero uno Cautionary Tale of bad characterization. Loved Samuel and Vanessa this ep. I’m definitely a Vamuel shipper! lol. Agree with everything you said about their story thread, but you’ve gotta admit that Vanessa is the most convincing plot device Heroes has ever come up with, and I give full credit to Kate Vernon who, in my eyes at least, managed to make a very 3 dimensional caracter out of a papaer-thin plot device. I really didn’t find Mohinder’s departure to be out of character. Especially when you go back thru this season. Mohinder cannot possibly be thrilled at the notion of confronting the man who already killed him once (Remember when Hiro told him that?), and right before Samuel busted thru Mohinder’s hotel door, Mohinder was on a call to his girlfriend (I can’t remember her name, but does it really matter?), leaving her a message that said he was on his way home. Immediately after this, he was fake-killed, then put into a psych ward. And all the time he was in there, he was doped up to his eyeballs so it’s not that big of a shock to me that he wants to return to the last thing he remembers coherently thinking about. Now, on to Hiro. Where to begin? Well I’ll start by copying the master- SAAAARRRK! and PAPA SULU! sums it all up. I was not put off at all by the fact that it wasn’t the real Adam and Kaito. In fact, it enhanced the storyline for me. I think my BS meter would have imploded if the real Adam and Kaito had somehow found their way into Hiro’s mind. And no matter how much you want to deny it, you know it’s true.
Typos galore! Sorry
No need to apologise, that was a great post.
I think that a case can be made that Hiro should’ve died… but I like Heroes being reserved about death and wanting it to mean more. Nathan’s final death in 4×12, for me, had resonance because it was the first major casualty for a while. Having Hiro die a few episodes later, while thematically good, would have possibly struggled for emotional context because we’ve been spoilt by having multiple episodes where the aftermath of Nathan dying was explored.
It also would create a problem with Charlie. If Hiro dies, she’s stuck in storyline limbo. And I don’t think Heroes is going to do that again after the Caitlin mess.
I don’t know if we should make that much fuss about Hiro surviving. They decided to perform surgery because they had no real choice (as in he’ll die anyway if they don’t try). My guess is that they removed the tumor, and he was lucky enough to survive it. If it happens in “medical” shows, I don’t mind it happening on a sci-fi one.
Ian, I get your addiction analogy (and I don’t think it’s the first time you - or someone else - put it on the table), but overall, it still feels repetitive. It’s like “Sylar can change but he has to want to/needs a good reason to” (as opposite to Angela wants him to change when pretending to be his real mother). The fact is he didn’t need much to happen before giving up. Maybe I was wrong to assume that he got over the addiction (as in stop whining about the hunger) and thought he didn’t deserve redemption/thought he was beyond repairing (his words, not mine).
Also interesting is that we’ve been talking about Claire having to deal with her immortality, but not about Sylar, who will obviously not die, at least not for a while. If after 4 seasons, some of us are already tired, and thinking his storylines are repetitive, I think it’s a fact that he’ll get over the killing routine at some point.
- Lionel Luthor himself said that at some point it would be pointless, and it could be nice at some point (like before he dies from cancer) to see them have a conversation. Problem? I doubt this will happen this season, and chances for a 5th are fading at the moment.
- I’m still hoping we’ll sometime get to see what Adam’s 400 years had been made of. If Sylar can’t give up his powers and still try to attempt said redemption, it could be nice to see a parallel between the guy who originnally was a hero, then lost hope by observing the human race through the centuries, and the psycho trying to succeed in the opposite trajectory. I’m saying that because we’ve got Anders back this week, but I doubt the issue would be adressed.
- And, whether he gives up his powers or not, my problem would be that if *somehow* he “regains’ his humanity, I can’t see how Gabriel could move on, after all that he’s done. Specially if he’s immortal and have Claire around to remind him of it. If he is mortal again, then I can’t see how he wouldn’t end up killed by someone, either HRG/Peter/Anyone, either someone after him for one of his murders.
- Personnally, I find it ironic that he apparently wants to give up his powers, while some of us thought that taking his powers away would be the perfect punition/setence after all.
Well, maybe that’s the point. No powers, and he’s killed. That raises interesting points of morality, as then The Company doesn’t just control people with powers, but people in general.
Another great review. You can really never have too much Papa Sulu and it was great to see Adam back. I was so disappointed when they killed him off the episode after bringing him back. I loved those scenes and like you said it was an example of what made Hiro a good character. Adam’s Battlestar Galactica line and Sylar’s scenes cracked me up.
On the other hand there is the horror that is Sylaire. When I first saw the promo for the episode, I felt like crying. All I could think of was “WHY SHOW?, WHY?” The show needs to pick one theme and aim with Sylar and stick to it. I really think he is way past redemption but if that is what they are trying to do then do it in a logical way. Is it just me or does his new plan of getting rid of his powers contradict everything that the character is built on? And he certainly isn’t going to get redemption by making out with Claire.
From what I’ve seen and read in interviews, I get the impression that unless they can come up with some substantial material that makes sense, Zach Quinto will probably move on.
I liked that Claire is now opening up to Gretchen, who I like more than I did when she was first introduced but with the season drawing to a close it is slightly frustrating that we still know very little about the background and real purpose of many of the new characters introduced (Gretchen, Emma, Lauren, Lydia, whose power I still don’t get and others at the carnival). Mystery and tension is great, but to much and it drags storylines down.
Anyway, nice job as always. Keep up the good work
It seems like you’re missing a major point Otto. Back when Hiro went to save Charlie, he told Sylar he would die alone. This is information that Sylar didn’t have in the original storyline but now does. This was also reiterated when Sylar tried to kill Samuel, and Samuel mentioned that Sylar is afraid to die alone. It seems to make perfect sense to me.
I do wish however that we would have seen other ramifications of this, but it isn’t unreasonable that it took Sylar awhile to truly grasp the impact of dying alone - explaining why it is now that he is looking for a human connection. Obviously he thinks the only way to find that connection is by removing his powers.
I do understand your point about redemption for Sylar, and that he is too far gone for it, but the effort is reasonable nonetheless.
The problem with the “dying alone” notion is that it would have affected some of Sylar’s actions prior to this season. This isn’t a little butterfly Hiro stepped on. If Sylar was so afraid of being alone, why murder Elle? She certainly cared about him. Or lie to Maya so easily, or ruin any chances of a connection with someone else?
I don’t think Sylar would have killed people so easily if he knew this information before. We know he’s slaughtered at least a hundred people. One reason he’s been able to do that all this time is because he never cared about anyone. This thought of dying alone changes things.
The idea makes sense now, but it doesn’t apply to everything that happened in the past.
Plus, Sylar being unable to kill Samuel because of this fear really doesn’t make any sense. Sylar has had emotional lows before and they’ve never affected his abilities. And even if they did, he doesn’t have close ties with Samuel. I could see this happening with Lydia, maybe. But his powers just halting when it’s not even someone he cares about? Doesn’t add up.
Ian,
I thought about the fact that Nathan had died a few episodes ago too (and apparently, so did TPTB), and yes, while Hiro’s death might not have had as much impact as it should have if they had to decided to kill him off in “Pass/Fail”, It still would have been a 5/5 for just about every Heroes fan, I imagine. Hiro has failed. Plain and simple. He forgot what it meant to truly be a hero. He was called out on it, owned up to it, and accepted it. The End. and this is how things work in the real world. People realize their mistakes all the time and accept them. But very rarely do they get a second chance. And even if they do, they always have to work for it. Tho it was incredible symbolism with Hiro finally defeating Adam, I fail to see how that equals the right to a second chance. Hiro was found Guilty and should have been punished. And THAT is where logic leaves his storyline and I find myself stretching my imagination taut to comprehend.
And yes, it would have been very sad if Charlie had gotten stuck in limbo, and I’m sure the majority of fans would storm the Heroes set demanding Tim Kring’s blood if the show turned her into another Caitlin, but with the dark undertones of this season, I would have found it an acceptable, tragically poetic loss for Hiro. It’s one of the reasons that Caitlin’s magic departure from the show didn’t bother me too much (Aside from Peter just forgetting she even existed. Seriously, not one shred of regret for the girlfriend lost in a timeline that never happened?). That was another season filled to the brim with dark undertones. And even tho Peter had amnesia and it wasn’t entirely his fault, he too forgot how to be a Hero, and he paid the price. Cause and Effect. Every action should have an equal and opposite reaction.
(and this is how things work in the real world.)
Absolutely. But this isn’t the real world, it’s a live-action comic-book.
That’s not to say realism shouldn’t play a part in it. Even a fantastical world has to have internal logic. And every action should have an equal and opposite reaction. But out of everyone, only Hiro and Peter still believe in a sense of humanity and decency. While Hiro’s actions can be seen as childish, arguably they are vital given how dark the rest of the show gets. If there’s no light, then nothing offsets the dark. Now that’s not saying that the light always works, or that it couldn’t be done more effectively… but killing Hiro off, to me, would be a failure.
I come from the mindset that says you fix mistakes by improving them. Not by shutting them down. Hiro has hit the point of no return, he’s faced his mortality and seen the light. It could be that they botch it up and he becomes useless next season, but the flipside is that he’s been pushed down his ‘Hero Journey’ and passed a very significant test when it comes to who he wants to be.
When people want to see a character die, I think the showrunners have a responsibility to sit down and think about where they went wrong. Characters dying should have a profound effect on the audience. While Hiro dying may have had thematic and poetic value, from your post it seems you would have also been glad that he would’ve been gone. The best deaths in a narrative device come when the show loses something important… and we feel very sad about it. It’s why ‘Faux-Nathan’ worked, because it was playing on the fact that Pasdar wouldn’t appear on the show again.
Of course, this is an assumption that they’ll give Hiro meaningful material. It could all go wrong,
Ian,
“But out of everyone, only Hiro and Peter still believe in a sense of humanity and decency.”
I agree, and in a way this is one reason why I’m sad that we’ve seen so little of Mohinder this season. He was reckless and impulsive and stupid throughout Volume Three, and he paid the price for it by witnessing the horror of his mistakes, and instead of wallowing in guilt (which was the implication at the end of Volume Four), he went home, he tried to rebuild his life, and he tried to make the most of his other talents by teaching. That, to me, tapped into the same sense of humanity and decency that you mention; a guy whose foray into the world of evolution caused pain and suffering, but who never stopped believing that encouraging others to explore the same field could only be a good thing. I saw something hopeful and very redeeming about that part of his story.
More Mohinder would be good, but the fact he STILL thinks he can have a normal life is awesome. Previously, Mohinder was obsessed… yet he still believes in redemption. It makes me think he can slide into heading The Company if they get an S5, having achieved what he wanted to in terms of finding peace.
Wow amazing review, you were right it was a little hard on Sylar but I find every twist and turn they give him as interesting as when the show began. I’ll never get tired of Sylar as long as he dosen’t become predicatble in some ways. After Sylar, Adam is my favorite villain and seeing him again was exquisit, even if he was just a fiction of Hiro’s tumor!! So can’t wait untill “The Art of Deception Review” although I felt this one came a little late!!
Once upon a time, Sylar was my favorite character. Now I sincerely hope that he winds up dead by the end of this season and Samuel takes his place as the principle villain. To hell with their long-running themes of “where there is light, there must also be darkness” and “evil is immortal, you can’t get rid of it” and all that other deep stuff they’ve been trying to convey since the pilot. The character’s getting stale and not serving them well!
I do, however, find it interesting that Sylar’s storyline (aside the illogical, discontinuous waffling about what it is, exactly, that he’s after) seems to have become something of a foil and a mirror for Nathan’s storyline from Season 1. It says something. The trouble is, I can’t figure out WHAT it shows.
Agree with you wholeheartedly about Vanessa, Otto- if there had been even a MENTION of her about six episodes sooner, maybe just a name dropped or one of those Drawerful of Drawings revealed in passing, I’d buy it a whole lot better. And while it still feels believable (and as you said, it’s all down to the sheer talent of the actors themselves), it also feels contrived. However, I find myself hoping that we’ll be seeing Vernon return to reprise her role and actually take that storyline somewhere.
With regards to the Claitchen storyline… I don’t know. I’ve been supportive of the idea of Claire exploring her sexual leanings, and I like Gretchen in theory. She’s a likeable character. But again, you’re right. She’s still monumentally two-dimensional. No backstory. If she survives whatever cataclysm it’s all leading up to this time, I hope that next season (providing there is one, sadly, though if Grundberg is to be believed there will be) will bring about some more development for her.
Although Hiro’s storyline this week was not particularly CREATIVE in terms of originality, I think it’s safe to say that it was a significant upswing from previous episodes. It’s been tragic to see a character with so much potential being used for… well, comic relief and nothing else. I have a feeling, though, that this could be the beginning of a turning point for him.
And Otto, I have to agree with you: WHAT IS UP WITH MOHINDER??? I get that Sendhil is leaving the show, but if he’s just going to pop up in an episode, do illogical things, make trite comments, and disappear, why haven’t they just written him out already?
As always, I eagerly anticipate your review of The Art of Deception. I have mixed feelings about the episode, as it’s going to showcase two things that make me profoundly unhappy: Lauren, and the oddball Matt and Sylar storylines crossing (again). But it also harbors the return of Deanne Bray after far too long an absence (one episode without her is too much!), and this gives me high hopes.
Thanks for your thought-provoking insight!
(though I’d have given it a 4 out of 5, just for giving Masi something substantial to work with at last!)
Mike, thank you for the kind words, and please don’t worry about being critical towards the review — I’m glad you liked the episode! You put forward several valid explanations to the issues I brought up, especially when it comes to Hiro’s perspective on saving the world. I hope you’re right about certain details being explained in upcoming episodes.
With the reviews getting “harsher,” I’d like to think I’m applying the same criteria I did when I reviewed the pilot episode. The characters and the story are much more complex now than they were then, and I think that’s partly why there’s now sometimes more to be critical about: the bigger the backstory and the better we know the characters, the more likely it is that there’ll be plotholes and inconsistencies. Hitting on those points certainly isn’t intended as an “attack” on the show, though — just an opinion alongside yours and everyone else’s.
Raissa, thank you.
Michael, yes, you’re right, Mohinder had left HRG’s apartment when Hiro collapsed. But like you say, there’s something jarring about his abrupt change of heart. It must have been the drugs talking.
Hrefna,
“Being very minimally interested in Sylaire and Hiro at this point in time…”
When even fans feel this way, it’s sad.
I think this is the disadvantage to the streamlined, three-character-threads-per-episode approach. I recall the same point coming up towards the end of the previous volume, but I think it’s even more valid now, when the show is taking this approach nearly every episode. If you’re not a Claire or Hiro fan and if the carnival storyline isn’t working for you, there’s very little to recommend the episode. With the first two volumes, even if you didn’t like two or three of the characters, there’d still be another 10 in the same episode whose storylines you could latch onto. I prefer the current approach, but I wonder if the downside to such focused storytelling is that viewers who aren’t emotionally invested in that particular selection of characters will struggle to be swept up by the story.
“Emo-spewing Sylar.” Love that!
It would be really cool if there was a part of Nathan still knocking around in Sylar’s head. I think I’d be more inclined to buy into the redemption arc if that was the reason for it. There’d be something poetic about one of his victims overcoming his villainy.
On Claire and the self-defense training: I had the same thought because it would be consistent with her wanting Peter to train her in 3.02 and jumping at the chance to learn from Meredith in 3.03. Perhaps she’s just afraid that she’ll end up getting ~*accidentally*~ kicked in the teeth and regenerating in front of a group of people.
“Where’s that girl that ran into the burning train in Season 1 is all I’m saying…”
I know what you mean, and I think perhaps it’s part of the larger issue a few of us have expressed about the show’s increasingly bleak tone. The message that keeps hitting home is that special abilities suck. Claire is socially withdrawn, Angela’s carrying the weight of the world because of her nightmares, Hiro’s dying, Lydia (per our own speculation) can’t go anywhere near large crowds. I know this issue goes all the way back to the earlier seasons (Ted killed his wife with his ability, Adam went insane because of it), but the only person I can think of at the moment who actually enjoys using his ability… is Eli. And maybe Disappearing Teddy and the TK guy who gives away stuffed unicorns. So, basically, the one-dimensional background folks at the carnival, and possibly Peter and Emma in the first few episodes of this volume. Everyone else seems to suffer because of their abilities.
Re: the swordfight and its symbolism: totally subjective, methinks. It’s the same as Hiro recovering from the inoperable tumor: you could go with several interpretations. I saw Adam as representing Death: he was there to prosecute Hiro and have him sentenced to death, and he was there to defeat Dream-Hiro when Real-Hiro was flatlining, so my take on it was that Adam was a manifestation of the Grim Reaper. Which is kind of ironic when Real-Adam was the immortal maniac who wanted to wipe out mankind.
Haushinka, word on the Sylar arc, and the Sylaire.
“The only thing that somewhat saved this sequence was the pencil to the eye (in other words, THANK GOD Claire didn’t ENJOY it!).”
Yes. I don’t think there was ever a chance that Claire would enjoy the kiss, but in a way I’m sad that we didn’t get more of an impression of how it affected her. I’ve already ranted about this ad nauseam and don’t want to belabor the point, but when you look back on that opening to 3.02, when Sandra was sweeping the glass from the floor and Claire was staring into space and emotionally numb — THAT’S the psychological damage that Sylar has done to her. I wish we’d gotten more of a sense of that here instead of Claire basically acknowledging how perceptive Sylar is and cheerfully throwing herself into Gretchen’s arms.
Great point about Hiro’s Dream-Sylar being the Volume One version of Sylar. I didn’t think of that, but you’re right; I guess because that’s the only time Hiro’s had any kind of contact with Sylar.
“They are so different… It makes me miss that feeling that SYLAR WAS THE VILLAIN. He knew exactly what he wanted and how to get it, no matter what.”
Yes. I think perhaps this is the downside to moral complexity, because even when it’s done right, there’s a certain clarity in the narrative that’s lost. It goes all the way back to that conversation between Isaac and Eden in 1.11, when they were talking about the appeal of a straightforward “good guys catching bad guys” comic. I think that’s the disadvantage to making Samuel a distraught, broken-hearted romantic; even if you think it works (which, it seems, you didn’t?), there’s a part of the character’s role as THE BIG BAD that’s undermined. When his motives come down to milkshakes and meadows and cottages, there’s a part of his villainy — the formidable, badass master-manipulator with a plot for world domination — that’s undermined. I have to say I still like this twist because I think Knepper sold it very believably, but I can’t disagree with the criticism that this ruined the volume’s main villain. I don’t think it ruined the character, but I’m not even sure we can call Samuel the villain of the volume anymore. The house- and police-precinct-razing are still valid grounds to hate him, and the Lydia-prostituting and Charlie-kidnapping still make him a b*****d. But a villain? A guy on Adam and Danko’s level? I think the reveal about his motive changes that perception quite considerably.
With the logistics of Samuel surviving the earthquake, can someone refresh my memory: I think it was Sparrow Redhouse in one of the GNs after 3.14 who produced an “earth-platform”…? So, in this case, Samuel probably kept a small part of the ground standing and used it to “carry” him to safety.
B., thank you, and I’m pretty much with you on the Claitchen: I’m not sure it’s romantic on Claire’s end, even with the hand-holding and deep, candle-lit conversations. It’s something undefinable; which, in a way, I find very cool. I get why the ambiguity bugs you, but for whatever reason this doesn’t bother me nearly as much as the Sylar ambiguity. If there is a reason to criticize it, though, I’d say my sympathy is with Gretchen. If Claire isn’t interested in a romantic relationship with Gretchen, she’s now sending very mixed signals. I can’t imagine Gretchen will complain about the hand-holding, but I wonder whether that’s setting her up for an awful fall.
“Really? Just trot on over to Parkman’s and have him whammy away everything Sylar’s worked so hard for?”
This is precisely my issue as well. I get why people have argued that the change in the timeline after 4.08 has changed Sylar’s perspective about an eternity alone, but Sylar went to enormous lengths — hideous, amoral lengths — to acquire these abilities. And now, pretty much on a whim, he’s ready to let them go? As persuasively as people have argued it, I’m sorry, but I’m still not convinced that this is plausible in any shape or form. Sylar’s “I’M THE MOST SPECIAL OF ALL!” complex *always* came before “I WANT TO BE LOVED!” And more disturbingly, I wonder what this says about the people Sylar killed in order to steal their ability: “Thanks for dying for me, but I’d like to go back to a regular life now, so I won’t be needing your abilities anymore.” So, effectively, Sylar went through a “phase,” and he’s now ready to move past it. A LOT of people died before Sylar reached this epiphany, and a lot of families and friendships and LIVES have been broken because of it, and it bugs me to no end that this hasn’t even been acknowledged on the show. It might yet be, but to my mind it only makes what seems to be a redemption arc for the character even more absurd. The extent of the damage that Sylar has done cannot be undone, and when the show even hinted that it could, it drove me up the wall.
Pas, thank you.
“Taking everything you said about Hiro’s storyline this week, I still think it was amazingly done.”
Oh, word. All of the issues aside, there’s still magic in his storyline this week, and like you say, it reveals a reassuring dose of self-awareness from TPTBs about how questionable Hiro’s behavior has been at times.
With Sylar, you and me are very much on the same page.
“Is it me or we had lots of Sylar this year? Sylar, Sylathan, Amnesiac-Sylar, Ghost-Sylar, emoSylar… That’s a lot of people ZQ has been playing…”
I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry. As funny as this is because it’s so very, very true, it’s also quite horribly tragic.
With Samuel, I’m not sure whether it’s the character or Knepper’s charm and charisma, but I’m willing to go with the reveal. Like I say, I definitely get where people are coming from, and I know what you mean when you say he’s ended up a character with “wasted potential.” But I think it’s possible to reconcile this week’s developments with the character we’ve seen glimpses of until now. You’ve got the community leader and super-crusader, you’ve got the little brother with an inferiority complex, you’ve got the frustrated social outcast who loathes the narrow-mindedness of the non-superpowered population, and now there’s a hint of a dreamer, an idealist and a romantic. They’re different sides to his personality, but I think it’s a testament to Samuel’s complexity (and Knepper’s portrayal) that they aren’t necessarily contradictory. What I love about it is exactly what I loved about Sylar’s character arc in the earlier volumes: the question about whether the guy’s life could have turned out completely differently if one factor had been changed: if he hadn’t been quite so bats**t crazy, or if he’d felt like he was part of a loving family growing up, or if Vanessa had returned his feelings even at this late stage.
Kevin, I’m sorry to hear the Samuel thread was “boring” and “irritating” for you, but I love your point about Sylar: he’s been all over the moral spectrum so many times now that anything he does seems ~*consistent*~ and ~*in character*~.
Elle, so glad to see you’re still reading, and thank you.
“… one of the most boring episodes of the whole Heroesverse…”
Ouch!
LeeAnna, I’m sorry if I’ve disappointed you. I hope I haven’t been unfairly harsh — I think I’ve dug into the episode and the character arcs fairly exhaustively, and I hope there’s a trace of logic in the critique somewhere. I see your point about the “skillful maneuvering,” and I love that we both called the “power vs love” dilemma weeks before the show ran with it. But it doesn’t change anything for me. Sylar’s willingness to renounce his abilities doesn’t strike me as admirable so much as baffling. Sylar has always considered it his destiny to be special. From what we’ve seen, that’s been true throughout his childhood and long before he even knew about his ability. His longing to be loved and to belong is what we (the audience) would consider his shred of humanity, but for him, it’s surely his flaw. It’s his Achilles heel, the vulnerability that stops him from achieving his “destiny” to be the apex of human evolution. And in my view, that entire character arc, the one the show pretty consistently (and, yes, at times beautifully) portrayed over the first four volumes, has now been ruined. I’m sorry, but this episode has categorically killed the character for me.
“As for Samuel, I hate that bastard, and I don’t care what you say to dissuade me.”
Fine. I’ll be an apologist for Samuel. You can take care of Sylar.
Renaldsrap, once again an AMAZING counter-review. Thank you.
“I’m glad they might’ve found a way to make Sylar relevant again- helping our Heroes comes to terms with their issues by using their hatred of him to trick them into realization.”
I agree with you in principle. I’m not sure how successfully it’s been executed, but I hope you’re right.
“… you’ve gotta admit that Vanessa is the most convincing plot device Heroes has ever come up with, and I give full credit to Kate Vernon who, in my eyes at least, managed to make a very 3 dimensional caracter out of a papaer-thin plot device.”
Absolutely. As plot devices go, she’s one of the best.
With Mohinder wanting to go back to Mira — yes, valid point, he was already on the phone to her when Samuel showed up to kill him in 4.10. I’d still say that Mohinder’s curtailed conversation with Hiro protrayed a guy who was adamant about stopping Samuel: “Our first priority must be stopping Samuel,” etc. Two months of tranquilizers has apparently persuaded him to rethink his priorities.
“But with the dark undertones of this season, I can think of nothing more hauntingly beautiful in a deeply disturbed way than Adam to have impaled Hiro thru the chest and killed him…”
Would have been very sad, but also very, very effective. Maybe what follows will be equally effective, though? Let’s be hopeful.
Well, might as well answer while I’m around.
Agreed on Samuel, however, if it wasn’t for Knepper, I’m not sure I would find the complexity beleivable. It just seems that as the season went on, he was this, then that, etc… while he should have been all those things at the time, or at least there should have been hints about the diferent aspect of his personnality (and hints about Vanessa’s existence more than 2 episodes ago) .
Now that you come up with it, I do find it hilarious that the season’s villain’s goal was to run around in flowers, specially when he’s portrayed by someone who also played a psycho like T-Bag.
By the way, since Lydia is so peripheral to the action, am I the only one who thinks Samuel is just using her as a giant piece of paper? Might as well save some trees while we’re at it :).
“I’m sorry, but this episode has categorically killed the character for me.”
I’ll have to wait till the end of the season to decide because I love scenes between him and Peter too much. If the kill him off when he saves Emma, then I won’t be too heart broken, because that would be the way to go. I agree that they should have done it better. I could come up with a million ways to do it better. (I won’t get started, trust me, it would never end.) If they keep him alive I have a feeling that he’ll be there, powers intact, and hopefully with a purpose. I agree that I don’t think I could do another season of his pitiful “I want a friend/No body loves me” whining and wondering. As much as I like the character, I hate self pity more. Even this antisocial yahoo sitting at her computer now has a distinct idea of what I want, and it gets me friends. I think one of the problems with this episode that I had is that it involved Claire to figure out where he was going. First off, don’t like her that much. Second, she doesn’t have any attributes that make her that interesting to begin with. She’s indignant and immortal. I would want to become mortal again too if I had to spend and eternity with her around. (At least with Sylar I could talk about books.) Here is to hoping that the last three episodes clean things up a bit. The show might benefit without his pity party, alive or dead.
“Fine. I’ll be an apologist for Samuel. You can take care of Sylar.”
I think we have deal.
To be honest, I don’t know what I don’t like about Samuel. I think its because he’s so vague on his loyalties. He obviously loves his people, yet at the same time he manipulates them to doing things for him which makes me not so sure. He wants to help them, but his actions against non-specials would only make it worse in truth. He just… I don’t know… doesn’t sit well with me.
I don’t know if that’s really part of the “ambiguity”, but my problem is that Sylar isn’t even morally grey (not anymore?). He’s black, point, which is what makes redemption unbeleivable to me. Maybe last season, but now nope. It doesn’t serve the show, but it also deserves the character himself. In the end, aren’t we just trying to find him a bunch of excuses (to quote Claire) to explain/justify who he is/why he turned bad ? Because to be that creepy/evil, You’ve gotta wonder if he even had a soul to begin with (to quote Peter, amongst others).
“In the end, aren’t we just trying to find him a bunch of excuses (to quote Claire) to explain/justify who he is/why he turned bad?”
^ ^ This, exactly. It was The Hunger in Volume Three, it was “repressed childhood trauma” in Volume Four, and now, apparently, it’s all the fault of the abilities themselves — several of which the original owners used in moderation and with no signs of villainy.
One counter-argument is that Peter held onto a similar selection of abilities for two-and-a-half volumes and there were occasional signs that he was becoming corrupted by them. Looking back on that moment when he choked Will and smiled that ~*evil*~ smile in 2.03, and the way he TK-choked Hiro in 2.11, and even the “conflicted” badass he came in “FYG,” there is an argument to be made that possessing multiple abilities is a trigger to insanity: Arthur, Samson and Sylar — all possessing multiple abilities, all ending up bats**t crazy.
I have to admit that the powers themselves might cause this problem, but I think that the reason Peter only ended up “questionable” instead of entirely corrupted is because he’s naturally good at heart. Sylar, Samson, and Arthur were probably not always as good hearted as Peter to begin with, although it appears that Gabriel was mostly just withdrawn from the world with strong repressed desires to be connected with it, thus leading to the “i want to be special” issue. I have another argument to support that, but it’s going to have to wait till later.
Noah had a line in Season 1 about Sylar taking on so many abilities it’s corrupting him.
As for Peter, well him taking on the emotions of who he originally got the power from seems to me to be a discarded idea the writers apparently couldn’t handle. That could have been interesting though if the writers could have written it well, which is doubtful.
It seems like they go to this occasionally. He took on Sylar’s cold, calculation in the S3 finale… The Haitian’s control in 412 etc.
In the end, all those things, at best, explain why he turned out evil. It doesn’t justify it, which is what makes redemption impossible.
Having an ability itself creates a tempation, but any kind of power does. And since there were empaths before Peter (at least I think Claude hinted that), I think Angela/HRG/Anyone would have mentionned if it corrupted everyone who ended up with multi-abilities.
Sylar ? I think having multiple abilities is the result of his corruption, rather than the opposite. After all, he had only one ability before killing the TKing guy, and he had no guarantee that he could take his ability when he killed him. Samson ? From what we’ve seen, it looks like Sylar, but older. They haven’t explored Arthur enough for me to decide if he was crazy or not though.
The “Hunger” *could* have been a good idea, but they overlooked it too fast for me to consider it.
Pros :
- It was also briefly mentionned by Sylar himself on a message he left to Chandra. “I can’t fight it; I DON’T WANT TO” (emphasis on the “I don’t want to”).
- Peter killed IABD-Nathan and almost Angela because of it.
Cons :
- Arthur was immuned to it when he took Peter’s abilities ?
- Apparently meeting Elle was enough for Sylar to fight it (?) but it resurfaces because of his jalousy (?) or when he sees emoTrevor’s lame ability (?)
- Sylathan/Amnesiac-Sylar/Neo-Sylar/emoSylar apparently don’t have to deal with it (?)
Are we supposed to consider the Hunger serisously after all ?
Chances are Claude was referring to Papa Petrelli re: The Empath thing. As we’ve seen with Peter, Sylar and Sampson the power worked differently depending on the upbringing. But it is, essentially, the same ability.
Late to the party, but made it finally.
But Noah? His apartment is so sparsely decorated that besides guns and cereal bowls, it’s not clear what would be lying around to take apart in the first place.
Count on me to bring Peter into this, but Noah’s apartment looks like the Ritz compared to Peter’s.
You just know how you feel when two beloved characters show up on your screen again. …and by combining the appeal of two fan favorites instead of just one.
Speaking of beloved characters and fan favorites, it sure would be nice to see Claude again!
temporal whoopsies
Ahahahaha! That’s a good one! lol
I’m equally at a loss to explain where Noah disappears to.
The cutting room floor?
On the one hand, it’s hard to imagine the show believing for a second that Nathan’s killer can be redeemed. On the other hand, there’s a soft, melancholy piano motif that creeps into the soundtrack, which suggests we’re meant to feel sad instead of horrified or disgusted.
Thank you for giving me another reason to hate this storyline and/or Sylar. Ugh!
I’d like to give the show the benefit of the doubt and believe they were toying with our reaction, but the fact that we’re even led to consider the option that Sylar might have something redeemable in him — especially after emerging from his latest victim’s body and waving at the guy’s broken-hearted brother — is the part that’s appalling.
Yes, yes, very much so! Makes me dread the coming episodes.
You just HAD to include pictures of the kiss, didn’t you? *runs away screaming*
This show has tapped into Sylar’s moral ambiguity so many times that the character’s arc has lost all meaning, but what’s horrifying about this scene — beyond the undertones that make Sylar a would-be rapist — is the impression that it gives the audience
That impression being that TPTB are completely unwilling to get rid of a character and/or the actor long past his usefulness?
This is where the tragedy of the carnival, and specifically Samuel, become apparent. Samuel has held onto his dreams because there was no reason to let them go. When Vanessa tells him, “there comes a time when you have to realize that you’re never going to have that cottage,” it’s an alien concept to him because words like “never” and “impossible” belong to the non-superpowered world.
Very nice point.
Am I the only one shipping these two? I generally go with whichever shipper abbreviation seems the most popular, but in this case it seems I’m the only one rooting for the Vamuel.
You didn’t like Samnessa? lol As for shipping them, I could, but didn’t really think about it. Although I did enjoy their scenes, especially this one. It was the closeness and ease they had with each other, in addition to the technical side of how it was shot. Or maybe it was just my HD TV making it look better? lol
So, just to be clear, Sylar flew past Claire and beat her to the dorm; shapeshifted into Gretchen; bound himself to a chair and gagged himself; and then tried to look as helpless as he possibly could.
Well, he does have Nathan’s super-sonic flying … uhm, yeah, still hard to believe.
Is Sylar EVER going to figure out what he wants and follow through with it? More importantly, can anything the character decides to do carry any weight when he changes his mind about what he wants to do EVERY. SINGLE. WEEK?
It’s called desperately trying to keep an overused character and/or actor (just the character is overused, not the actor) and pandering to the legion of followers (viewers) this character/actor seemingly has and is supposed to improve the ratings because he has to be in (almost) EVERY SINGLE EPISODE! Ugh!
Sylar watches Claire and Gretchen leave the cafeteria hand in hand and thinks to himself.
Well, he wouldn’t be the focus of the episode if we didn’t see every moment possible of him. Meanwhile, other characters get shorted out of any meaningful emotional reactions (PETER!!
).
Isn’t that what distinguished Peter this volume when he was saving people anonymously?
Yes, yes it did! *fangirling* Yay, a Peter shoutout! lol
Whatever lessons Hiro might have learned, perhaps there’s a lesson we’re expected to learn from this: that when it seems like a character has reached an impasse and his life hangs in the balance, a deus ex machina will bring him back.
Except for Nathan
What rescues “Pass/Fail” from looking like a complete fail is its characters, its tone and its innovation. Grigsby infuses the script with wit and energy, Knepper and Hayden deliver outstanding performances, and as objectionable as parts of the storylines might be, there’s no denying that the episode as a whole is well crafted and well thought out. The result is an hour that builds momentum towards the volume’s finale, and at the same time an hour that explores the predicaments its characters are in and the circumstances that have brought them here.
Here is where my intolerance of Claire and Sylar have ruined the episode for me. I tuned out for most of their storyline, especially the kiss. Hiro’s storyline was good until Sylar showed up, again, sick of seeing him, I turned away and didn’t really pay attention. So the only storyline I paid any attention to was Samuel’s. Maybe that’s why I noticed it more. Oh well, here’s hoping that next week’s is better. All this means is I couldn’t see that the episode was well-crafted or thought out because of Sylar and Claire overkill. If this show gets another season, I hope they back off of this idea that any character needs to be in ALL episodes. Although, Sylar wasn’t in one episode, but his appearing in more than one storyline in multiple episodes seems to make up for that.
Thanks for posting these ever-insightful reviews. I really do appreciate them. Until next week, take care, Otto.
You didn’t like Samnessa?
Meaning the name, not the ship.
It has a more poetic ring to it, I agree. Doesn’t quite roll off the tongue in the easy, Anglo-Saxon way that “Vamuel” does, though.
Renaldsrap, just wanted to come back to a point you made earlier:
“Hiro has failed. Plain and simple. He forgot what it meant to truly be a hero. He was called out on it, owned up to it, and accepted it. The End.”
I’m on the fence here. As much as he’s screwed up, he has done a lot of good with his ability: saving the schoolgirl from the van in 1.03, the couple in the burning car in 1.07, bringing Baby Matt to Matt and talking Matt out of suicide in 3.22, stopping Danko in 3.25, and of course saving Charlie. I think even the stuff that involves Hiro fixing what he messed up to begin with (burying Adam in 2.11, ripping up the formula in 3.13) can still be considered “Plus Column” material. Perhaps that’s where this episode’s title has meaning for Hiro’s story thread? It’s about him getting a definitive pass or a fail, but perhaps it’s also about whether Hiro’s success over the years balances out his failures.
Pas, one thought on this:
“… since Lydia is so peripheral to the action, am I the only one who thinks Samuel is just using her as a giant piece of paper?”
Would anyone say that Lydia’s ability and the whole ink-tattoo concept has become clearer now that we (apparently) know Samuel’s endgame? I mean, is the gist now that the tattoos she manifested with Samuel’s ink were designed to guide Samuel towards realizing his dream life with Vanessa? Lydia said to Claire in 4.12 that there wasn’t anything precognitive about the tattoos, so were the images of Peter, Sylar, Claire, HRG and Danko manifestations of Samuel’s own dreams or desires? Was he looking for them in order to help him create the valley, the cottage, etc.? Because if it all just comes down to this one goal, he really didn’t need any of them. The only people he needed were Emma (helped him recruit Ian), Ian (made the valley look pretty) and whoever he found to build the cottage.
Long story short: could Lydia’s tattoos throughout the volume — and Samuel’s line in 4.12 about Claire not being the one he’s “after” — be an indication that we haven’t yet been shown his entire Grand Masterplan?
I’d imagine it goes like this:
Samuel fears HRG and Danko. He knows Sylar has enough power to fuel him (witness the mini-tornado he gained.) Peter, if you can get him on your side, will fight with you to the end. And Claire, if manipulated, can run The Carnivale for decades.
Ah, Lydia’s tattoos, they are confusing. My best guesses: HIro was his replacement for Arnold; Claire is who he needed to get to Noah; Peter is his Joseph replacement (which it seems that he desperately needs to keep him in check because in reality he can’t handle being in charge); and Syar … uhm, okay I have no idea, unless it has something to do with Sylar having a stronger effect on his “Supers make him stronger” thing or it’s just TPTB’s needing to make him involved in as many storylines as possible.
As for what Claire saw I’ve wondered if Samuel was nearby to manipulate that.
Sylar could’ve also been a candidate to replace Joseph. He’s an Empath too, technically.
I doubt that, Ian. When Samuel first set out to meet Peter, he seemed to be looking for a quality of compassion and goodness. That is NOT Sylar, not in any way, shape or form.
Speaking as a Peter fan, don’t even get me started on Sylar being any kind of Empath, technically or not.
Funny thing, why didn’t anyone point out the fact that Hiro’s not supposed to know that Adam’s dead? As far as I remember, only Knox, Arthur & his doc knew that Adam was dead. :/
Good point!
Well, I am not a common reviewer, but I spent a long time just now looking over these nice little reviews. Very well done, by the way, but anyways, onto the point:
As far as the other episodes this season, I cannot say I would pick this over many others. For starters, there’s something about Vanessa that kind of bothers me. All in all, I am alright with their decision to boot her out. Although, I thought it was a little… odd to begin with her and Samuel’s storyline, what with milkshakes and all, I thought it was a nice, soft kind of approach, especially on Samuel’s part. Of course, he just tends to give off those creepy vibes as a person. It’s natural, so I thought it was a near fail when it came to him being all cute and boyish. Still, I was fairly alright with the way they went along. And the ending kind of defined Samuel as a villain, which started out questionable at the beginning of the volume, and made it’s way to be pretty clear. So, one down!
Second, Claire and Sylar. Um, being 100% honest, I thought they could have made that a little more… I don’t know, solid. I thought with the promo the week before “Oh, great, we’re taking this approach? HONESTLY?!” But as I was watching I kind of thought “Hmm, yeah, I guess they could squeeze in some of this.” As it progressed, and after the BIG MOMENT, they just dropped it. Of course, they kept the overall theme, until the very end. Like you said, he does need to decide what he wants instead of keep changing it up. That could get confusing. I thought it would have been better for them to have a stronger moment. Not “OMG let’s make out!” kind of thing, but I would have liked something else, perhaps for shock value.
Finally, the Hiro-thing. Now, during the commercial for the episode, I thought they could go two ways: screw it up and make it look bad, or make it a very interesting subplot. I LOVED having Adam back. Such a humorous man, it was satisfying to seem him once again. I was not much of a fan of Hiro’s dad, though, but I found it quite interesting with the way they played it out. I mean, I would have liked to see Charlie, but I understand that she was… gone. Part of that is probably due to the fact that Jayma Mays is busy with Glee, and she let go of Heroes. All the same, Adam and Sylar in one room equals a very nicely done moment. I wish they could have done more together in earlier volumes.
Overall, not the most disappointing I had ever seen. If I had been writing this, I would change a few things.