Sylar takes Maya and Molly hostage and forces Mohinder to supply him with a cure that restores his abilities. Noah reaches an agreement with Bob that boils down to him resuming his job at The Company and Claire keeping quiet. Niki rescues Monica from a burning building, but gets caught in the fire herself. R.I.P. Niki. Meanwhile, Peter realizes he's been played by Adam and destroys the lethal strain of the Shanti Virus. Hiro buries Adam in a coffin deep underground and returns to Japan. And then Nathan decides to tell the world about the superpowered population, which someone obviously doesn't like because they shoot him. R.I.P. Nathan.
Review:
You cannot be serious, Heroes. Niki and Nathan in one episode? You couldn't take Maya instead? Like, permanently? Or Sylar or Claire or Cyborg Noah?
Whatever. I'm p**sed. Let's do the review.
Despite the death of two of the show's most compelling and shamefully underutilized characters, this turned out to be a solid finale. I don't know if it's because I watched it with lower expectations than I had for the finale last season, or if it's because this genuinely was a better episode. But as finales go, it wasn't too bad.
Whether it's a volume finale or a season finale, it did what "Fallout" and "How to Stop an Exploding Man" both managed to do last season: it resolved its over-arching story and strategically left several smaller story arcs unresolved and ready for Volume Three. And besides Peter forgetting he can phase through walls (we'll get to that) and the controversy surrounding two deaths which I still can't bring myself to admit actually happened (we MOST DEFINITELY will get to that), there wasn't the kind of Critical Problem Scene we got at the end of last season. From start to finish, this felt like a tighter story and a more fitting conclusion.
We start out with Mohinder.
Mohinder has A Box.
Sort of the way Peter had The Box; the difference being that the contents of this box aren't a mystery that'll be dragged out over several episodes with little or no pay-off, and that it's the core premise behind Sylar visiting Mohinder, which means we actually care where the box is and what's in it.
Mohinder stumbles into Chandra's Crib, and it's a deeply disturbing (/indescribably delightful) Mylar reunion. Did we need to sit through 10 episodes to get here? No. But now that we're finally here, it's a pleasure to watch. It also seems like Allan Arkush is intentionally trying to echo the history between Mohinder and Sylar in the apartment, because the way Sylar slides out of his chair and towers over Mohinder is eerily reminiscent of the way he broke out of restraints after Mohinder pumped him full of curare. Tense moment, and you wonder whether Mohinder's going to end up pinned to the ceiling again. Then ...
"Is that my apron you're wearing?"
Does the nod go to the props department or the costume department? Whichever it is, A+++. That's just ... genius. And it reminds you how good this show is at blending drama and horror and comedy.
Zach Quinto's having a blast with this scene, and it radiates from his performance. Sylar's so obviously enjoying confusing the hell out of Mohinder, and he's so obviously thrilled to be playing Maya for a fool, and it's kind of oddly enjoyable and thrilling to watch this little spiel play out.
Maya explains to Mohinder that she knows Sylar's a killer, and that she too is a killer. And, true to Maya's ability to make every scene visually compelling regardless of content, Mohinder gets the kind of expression that can't be conveyed with words:
"You know he's a killer ... and ... you're a killer ... and ... you're OK with this?"
"It doesn't matter anymore. I'm a part of your story arc now."
"What kind of alternate universe is this?"
Eleven episodes in, Dania Ramirez has the opportunity to express something besides distress, contempt, guilt, and naive infatuation.
Maya is angry. Like, demonically angry. That's FIVE facets to her character we've now had the privilege of witnessing. Wow. I'm sure everyone will agree that this more than qualifies Dania Ramirez for a cast regular slot -- the one which still eludes Cristine Rose and Ashley Crow.
I'm not saying the actress won't eventually earn it. Just that, on the strength of what we've seen so far, it hasn't been justified. Shalim Ortiz deserved it as much as Dania did; which is to say, NEITHER OF THEM DESERVED IT.
Sylar agrees with me.
"Don't even think about pulling that 'ALEJAAAAANDROOOOO' crap with me, woman!"
Everyone's eyes blacken, including Molly's, and Maya experiences Facet #3: Guilt. She applies the self-control that Sylar helped her achieve last week, mercifully sparing us another instance of her bellowing
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Apartment of Hospice Luxury. We learn that the murder charges against Angela have been dropped. It's unclear whether Angela's grateful to Nathan for getting her out of jail, or whether she's even glad to be out. As with Papa Sulu's death wish, it seemed like Angela was content to accept punishment for her role in The Company. By the end of this episode, though, it's as if it never happened. Angela's back to her devious scheming, neither of her sons trust her, and the Ice B**ch is once again seemingly untouchable.
Nathan reveals that Peter's alive. Angela's reaction is again ambiguous; it might be shock, or it might just be, "Oh." I'm not sure.
Angela launches into YET ANOTHER rendition of, "We were lost, then we found each other; we tried to fix the world, but it all came to nothing."
Seriously, show, NOT AGAIN. Linderman's done it. Kaito's done it. Maury's done it. Bob's done it. And now Angela's done it. Which leaves only Papa Deveaux, Papa Petrelli, Victoria Pratt, and four unnamed ElderSupers to deliver it from their graves.
The next time it's mentioned, can we actually see some of it? Or at least hear something less oblique and more substantial? It's one of the most intriguing storylines of the show, and it's been limited to the same regurgitated account over and over and over again. And to dangle it in front of us at the end of a volume titled "Generations" -- a volume which should have explored it in detail -- can only be interpreted as an instance of this show's bleak sense of irony.
Angela describes how the ElderSupers all bought into Adam's crazy-ass plans to wipe out mankind and start over. Nathan gets this hilarious look:
"Can you believe I nearly let a city explode because of this woman?"
Angela accurately theorizes that Adam needed an empath with lots of cool abilities to retrieve Strain 138 from the Primatech Fun Factory, and that he "chose" Peter. Circumstances inside the Company Jail didn't allow Adam to be especially choosy, but you have to wonder if Adam spent 30 years in his cell watching single-powered supers in the adjacent cell come and go, waiting for a super like Peter who'd not only show up and break him out, but who'd also be pliable enough for Adam to manipulate once they were free.
The fact that the empath who Adam had been waiting for just happens to be the son of one of the ElderSupers who Adam manipulated 30 years earlier? That's just another of this show's amazing coincidences. But it makes for a nicely symmetrical story, and it ties in with the ElderSuper backstory, so truthfully, I don't want to criticize it.
Canine Central. Claire prepares to deliver Noah's Company paperwork to the press, presumably expecting someone to read through it and have more luck finding the Secret Door at the Primatech Fun Factory than a cop and an FBI agent had when they tried.
Sandra gives Claire a reproachful look.
Sandra's actual dialogue: "You're really going through with this?"
More appropriate dialogue: "What do you think you're doing you little brat! How @#*%ing selfish can you be?!"
Claire: "They killed Dad. They're never gonna leave us alone."
Yes they will! Just make a conscious effort NOT to alert them to your location by staging a prank that involves a masked flying man and a death-defying fall from 30 feet in the air.
Sandra's actual dialogue: "You do realize what'll happen to us if you tell everyone what you can do?"
More appropriate dialogue: "You self-absorbed little b**ch! Who are YOU to drag your brother and me into a situation that'll destroy our lives?"
Claire's actual dialogue: "No more running, no more hiding, no more secrets."
Thought process behind actual dialogue: "ME-ME-ME-ME-ME-ME-ME-ME-ME-ME-ME-ME-ME!"
Sandra starts telling Claire how she dreamed of her daughter going to college and getting married someday, and how she's terrified of her daughter being taken to some lab and experimented on for the rest of her life.
... And the tears are welling up behind her eyes ...
... And Claire's just ...
"Whatever!"
I'd suggest a Selfish As Claire Award, but on the strength of the character's behavior over the course of this volume, Claire would win it by a mile every week, which I guess would defeat the point.
Claire wanting to expose an organization which kidnaps individuals and vivisects them? That's understandable. Claire wanting to stop running and hiding? That's understandable. But Claire ending any semblance of a normal life for her mother and brother and wanting revenge on the organization which shot her dad WHEN SHE'S THE ONE WHOSE ANTICS ENDED UP IN THE NEWSPAPER AND ALERTED THE COMPANY TO HER LOCATION IN THE FIRST PLACE?
PING!
Selfish As Claire.
^ ^ Less selfish than Claire!
Elle returns to the Midas Study and tells her dad she's sorry for disappointing him. Which is kind of funny after she learned that her father's the reason she has a few screws loose in her head, but it's so saddening to see her plead with him for forgiveness when she was doing the best job she could, it actually makes me like Elle. And I'd just like to take a moment to say what a wonderful surprise that is, because after Elle's first appearance, I really, really thought I was going to hate the character. Not only has Kristen Bell portrayed a character who's easy to not hate, she's run with her material and created a character who's layered and complex. And considering she started out with little more than Ellectrobolts, obnoxious pouts and an ultrasonic whine as defining characteristics, to accomplish that inside of six episodes is an achievement. More of this in the next volume, please.
Bob tells Elle she's being pulled from all field ops. I call that an empty threat because it's obvious The Company has absolutely no field agents or subsidiary teams whatsoever, but Elle's demoralized enough to watch Noah throw a ball at a wall.
Elle ... watches Noah ... throw a ball ... at a wall.
^ ^ Dullest plot development ever committed to film.
^ ^ Redeemed by the immeasurable talent of the actors involved.
^ ^ Vindication for Veronica Mars and Dynasty.
Elle's eyes actually follow the ball as it's bouncing around the jail cell. You wouldn't think that'd be such an amazing detail, but watching the ball instead of glaring at Noah somehow supports Elle's playful nature. I don't know if that was Kristen's call or Allan Arkush's or if it was in Jeph Loeb's script from the start, but it's brilliant. The whole blurred-image swing-and-tilt lens throughout this scene wasn't working for me, but some of the nuances the actors brought to the table were flatout brilliant.
Noah describes how Bob was the one who pushed Elle beyond her limit, even after a relatively vicious b*****d like Noah wanted to dial down the Ellectrification. I have no idea if Noah's embellishing this for the sake of turning Elle against her father, but it just about fits with the timeline if this is the kind of thing Noah was witnessing when he shot Claude. Chances are most of this storyline hadn't even been thought up at the time, but Noah's insistence to Claude that Claire wasn't "one of them" suddenly takes on a lot more meaning; you realize how much Noah wanted Claire to NOT have an ability so that he'd never find himself in a situation where he'd have to push her the way Bob pushed Elle.
Bob tells Noah that Claire's "becoming difficult." Noah gets this proud "That's my girl!" smile. Bob is seriously alarmed. I'm not sure why; it's not like he hasn't covered up Company activity before, and there's nothing in Noah's records which Bob wouldn't be able to spin or deny. But apparently, an obstinate teenager presents a greater challenge than covering up a nuclear detonation over New York, burying the murder of a billionaire entrepreneur, then averting the media circus that would ensue when a newly-elected congressman suffered life-threatening radiation burns. It seems to me that Bob could have solved this latest problem by snatching Claire and throwing her into a cell next to Noah's.
At the Primatech Fun Factory ...
Anyone remember the exchange between Future-Peter and Future-Hiro?
Future-Hiro: "Shall we freeze time?"
Future-Peter [guttural growl]: "No, I haven't had a good fight in years."
This is so similar that it borders on self-appropriation. I don't know if it was an intentional echo, but it was equally cool and equally unsettling. I mean, Peter's TK'ing the guards and knocking them out without injuring them, but Adam? He slices one guard across the face with his sword so swiftly that the guy's going to be disfigured for the rest of his life, and slashes another of them in the leg so forcefully that he's probably going to bleed out before anyone finds him. And they're hidden underground -- NO ONE'S going to find them.
Peter? Buddy? You think perhaps, maybe, possibly, this man might not be as well-intentioned as he seems?
"No, I haven't had a good fight in years."
But Future-You said that! You were disillusioned and weary and hardened from years of oppression and persecution and suffering when you said that! You're supposed to be an idealistic hero at this point!
That comes later in the episode!
"I couldn't wait -- I'm evil."
I'm calling it now: the central villain of Volume Three will be Peter. With Matt right behind him. And Sylar and Adam and Maury somewhere in the hazy distance.
Peter and Adam reach The Imposing Vault. Eerie music plays. Solemn expressions appear on the faces of our heroes. This might be their greatest challenge yet.
It's not like Peter could, you know, PHASE THROUGH THE VAULT WITH ADAM HOLDING ONTO HIM.
PING!
Chalk one up for Peter, because only an idiot forgets his own abilities.
PING!
Chalk one up for Adam, because only an idiot forgets how he broke out of the prison he was locked up in for 30 years.
PING!
Chalk one up for the writers, because
PING!
I
PING!
expect
PING!
them
PING!
to
PING!
remember
PING!
the
PING!
abilities
PING!
of
PING!
their
PING!
characters.
Adam: "I guess you'll have to pry it open with that brain of yours."
Peter: "I'm not sure I have that sort of power."
But you have a brain! That's more than anyone else has got right now!
Adam: "Not much at stake here -- just the fate of the entire human race."
So, in case we weren't clued in to that when we saw the body bags, here's a sledgehammer blow round the head to hit it home.
Thing is, this story really is on a larger scale than the bomb plot. It doesn't feel that way because it's only been building up to this for four episodes, but there is more at stake. The problem is that a smaller volume, by default, means less time to build suspense. I don't know if it's true that the plan before the writers' strike was for Nathan to contract the Shanti Virus instead of getting shot, but if it is true, you can imagine how the show would have told the Shanti Virus story over the course of 22 episodes instead of cramming it into 11. The way it's played out, we didn't get a sense of the scale of the threat until Peter teleported to the future, and the past four episodes didn't generate the sense of impending disaster that 22 episodes did last season. That's one of the tragedies of this volume: its premise was on a larger scale than the previous volume's, but the abridged structure prevented it from conveying that scale. It's why viewers are less inclined to care about the death of 93% of the population now than they were about 0.07% of the population last May.
Peter asks Adam, straight up, whether he killed Papa Sulu. Adam admits, straight up, that he did.
... And Peter's going to stick to the original plan and help Adam get his hands on the virus because ...?
...?
...?
Forget Dumb As Parkman. We're onto Brainless As Maya.
Adam spins the situation by asking why Papa Sulu chose to keep Strain 138 intact instead of safely disposing of it. Which ... is actually a very relevant question.
ElderSuper backstory, please!
Then Adam remembers what Peter's first priority is -- "CAITLIN!" -- and manipulates him into TK'ing the vault open.
Let me get this straight: if Peter averts the outbreak of the Shanti Virus, Past-Peter and Caitlin will still teleport to Times Square in June 2008, only now it'll be populated and the disaster will have been averted and Caitlin won't get deported.
But if that's the case, Past-Peter won't end up clinging to a fence while he watches his girlfriend dragged away from him, he won't end up screaming "CAITLIN! CAITLIN! CAITLIN!", and he won't end up teleporting back to the past to meet Adam in the Montreal Junk Room.
But then, if he doesn't teleport back to Montreal, none of this can happen.
Or it can, but Present-Peter could now end up meeting Past-Peter.
HEADACHE!
The point being, WHAT HAPPENS TO CAITLIN NOW? Will she suddenly pop up in the future without Past-Peter in tow? Has she been wiped out of the space-time continuum along with the averted timeline? Does Peter have the ability to jump between alternate timelines and bring her back to this timeline?
I'm going to assume this storyline will be picked up again at some point, because if it doesn't, the hilarity behind Peter's motivation for wanting to stop the virus fades, and the love of Peter's life gets lost to the intricacy of a time paradox, which ... is kind of lame.
Team Mylar arrives at the Former Apartment of Clairvoyance, which Sylar doesn't hesitate to point out is where he scalped a clairvoyant artist. If only we could feel as bad about this death as we did about that one ...
Mohinder stalls for as long as he can, figuring the security cameras in the apartment will alert someone to the fact that Sylar's alive and about to get his powers resto-
Whuh? W-wa-waaaaait a second!
THERE ARE SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS IN THE APARTMENT!
The apartment which Mohinder went snooping around when he wanted to find the missing Mendez paintings!
Who cares?! Someone's actually using the surveillance cameras! It's a triumph for [PRODUCT PLACEMENT] Cisco Video Surveillance!
Midas Study. Bob gets three boxes of files, Angela gets seven (her punk-rock days were prolific), and Elle only gets one? And the box is empty? Aww.
Duzac's Diner. If you were a gangster in New Orleans and you'd been hired for an arson job, this is totally the place you'd be hired to burn down.
Monica tries to call Micah using her [PRODUCT PLACEMENT] Sprint cellphone. Micah uses Monica's cellphone to triangulate her location and track her down. And Niki gets the most favorable traffic ever because Micah's screwing around with the traffic lights.
OK, that last part's contrived, but it is funny. If I had that ability, I'd abuse it shamelessly every day on the way to work. And Micah only uses it when his cousin's in mortal danger. This demonstrates remarkable restraint on his part, and gives me reason to believe that, despite the fact that his powers are evidently growing exponentially, the ATM heist was a one-off which won't necessarily put Micah alongside Peter and Matt in Volume Three's selection of heroes-turned-villains.
Nathan flies Matt from New York to the Primatech Fun Factory.
As in, Petrelli Airways. Nathan flies Matt.
That's got to be the funniest thing ever to not be captured on camera.
Then the hilarity gets ruined by a joke which by now feels as if it's been used about 36,629,476,078 times.
"FRYING MAN!"
NOT AGAIN. It was funny the first time. It was a nice echo the second time. The third time it lost its humor. By now, it's just dumb. And unintentionally funny when you recall the last time these two characters met. Hiro should be all, "You already bad guy! You are virran! Virran!" for refusing to help Hiro and Ando stop the bomb last season. It was a while back, but for Hiro to somehow know that Nathan went on to save the day seems like a plothole.
Does Hiro recognize Matt as the guy who tortured him? Maybe he does and it's just not established on screen, but again, the continuity here felt a little sloppy.
But, hey, "FRYING MAN!" Funny. Or not.
THIS is funny, though. West stops by Canine Central to talk to Claire:
"Oh good, you're here! These two boxes are done. They can go in the car."
^ ^ Actual dialogue!
West: "I came to stop you."
"You mean you're not going to carry my boxes?"
Put your hands together for this, folks. This is a sympathetic character.
Claire: "These people ruined my life!"
Her life, but not the life of the woman whose husband is dead and whose daughter is about to bring reporters and cameras to her family's front door? Not the life of the boy who lost his father, and who's now going to be branded the brother of a mutant?
Can you believe there was a time when we wondered if West was good enough for Claire? I mean, I got to the end of this scene and I was sorry to see him fly away, because the way Claire was written this week, West comes across looking selfless by comparison.
Even he agrees with me. He can't believe what he's seeing.
Then ...
Behold -- Prototype Cyborg Noah!
Noah [monotonal Stephen Hawking voice]: "Hello ClaireBear."
Is it a robot? Is it Candice on drugs? Is it some kind of apparition? No! It's Noah ... being forced to return to his family. Which, OK, has got to be difficult when he needs to tell Claire to back off sabotaging The Company. But does that mean the reunion with the family who thought he was dead would be so ... robotic? I mean, shouldn't everyone be overjoyed that he's alive? Shouldn't he be overjoyed to see his family overjoyed? Shouldn't there be sonic waves of relief emanating from this house?
"Come on, guys! Is anyone happy I'm alive?"
"WTF?!"
"WTF?!"
Cyborg Noah explains he's alive because of Claire's blood, and that he made a deal with The Company that'll keep everyone alive and able to live a normal life and free to remain where they are in Costa Verde -- so, basically, everything short of a hi-def television and a free trip to Disneyland. And Cyborg Noah's STILL not feeling the love, so he finally drops the cyborg charade and emotes: "I never meant to hurt you." But they're not buying this either, so Noah just ... walks away.
WHAT. THE. @#*%?
What just happened here? I get that everyone's still in a state of shock and that Cyborg Noah's doing what he's been ordered to by Bob and isn't exactly the guy the family expected to show up at their doorstep, but WHAT JUST HAPPENED HERE? Was everyone in this scene compiling mental grocery lists while the camera was rolling?
Cyborg Noah [to Bob]: "It's done."
What, weirding your family out? Confusing them into stunned silence? Alienating them from their patriarch until they want to run away?
THIS is how the storyline was resolved before a hiatus?
Whatever. I'm sorry, but WHATEVER.
Former Apartment of Clairvoyance. I think it's extremely telling that Maya seems to have more chemistry with a pre-teen than with anyone else on the show. To be fair, Adair Tishler's probably very easy to get along with, and that probably translates to on-screen chemistry with just about everyone. And Maya hasn't had a chance to meet many of the characters, so there's not a huge basis for comparison. But it's also extremely telling that Molly's the one who needs to be reassuring and tactful with Maya instead of the other way around.
Molly offers to "find" Alejandro. I don't know if Maya expected to hear he'd miraculously traveled hundreds of miles and was already back home, or if she just wanted to know he wasn't wearing an orange jumpsuit or racking up speeding tickets after boosting a Ferrari or something. Either way, the responsibility of telling Maya her brother's dead falls to a kid. Which Molly handles extremely well by telling Maya that Alejandro's "not anywhere." Great euphemism.
Maya storms into the middle of the apartment and bellows, "YOU KILLED MY BRUUUUUTHER!" And Zach Quinto's expression here is so fleeting that it can't even be captured as an image, but it so accurately conveys our exasperation with the character that I'm certain it's an in-joke. It's partly, "Can't you see I'm busy? I have zero patience for this!", partly, "Oh, for God's sake, SHUT UP!", and partly, "Oh, no, NOT AGAIN -- this one's for you, dear viewers."
And *BAM!*
Maya gets a bullet in the chest and collapses to the ground. It's intense, it's tragic, it's so sudden and shocking that we don't know how to react.
BUT WE APPLAUD. WAY TO GO, SYLAR! IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW USELESS YOUR STORYLINE WAS THROUGHOUT THIS VOLUME -- YOU CAME THROUGH FOR US WHEN WE NEEDED YOU!
Primatech Fun Factory. Peter's really having fun giving himself a nosebleed while he TK's The Imposing Vault from its hinges. This is so much easier than phasing through it. It does look like an extremely formidable effort, though.
Hiro teleports in front of Adam before he has a chance to enter the vault. He's unarmed. As near as I can tell, Hiro's plan is pretty much to leave time unfrozen and run towards Adam and blunt the blade of Adam's sword with his head. I don't know. Peter TK's Hiro against a wall and it's intended to underline Peter's Emerging Evil, but it probably just saved Hiro from decapitation.
Peter starts choking the life out of Hiro, and it's the same look of perverse enjoyment he had when he was choking Ricky's lackey. Except he had amnesia back then and had no idea who he was and why he shouldn't be enjoying it; at this stage, when he's supposed to be saving mankind, you'd expect him to curb his dark side and exert a little more self-control.
Matt shows up and tries to Parkman-whammy Peter into releasing Hiro and stopping Adam, but Peter's apparently immune to the Parkman-whammy, having absorbed the Basic Telepathy package last season. There's something so cool about the way they're communicating in one another's heads. I get why the show doesn't want to do a scene like this every week and become a superpower extravaganza, but this was awesome.
Depending on your perspective, it now gets even more awesome. Peter TK's Matt back down the tunnel, and he's probably about to choke the life out of Matt, when ...
"You have much to learn, little brother. Like, for instance, if you just unbuttoned your shirt a little, you could wield the kind of influence that I do."
"Bite me, big brother! I ran around a harbor shirtless! You're telling me the upturned collar and intense stare aren't working for me? Also, do you think Adam might not be such a terrific guy? It's occurred to me, but perhaps I haven't given it as much thought as I should."
"He's using you, little brother. He's playing on your fears and insecurities and your willingness to do whatever anyone wants."
"You'd know what that feels like, wouldn't you?"
"That was different. I was going to be president. And it was our mother. Oh, by the way, she says to put a bullet in your head if we can't stop you."
"That's mom..."
"Yeah ... So how about stopping the crazy guy who's about to unleash a virus that wipes out most of the population?"
"Am I really so craaayyyzeeeee?"
David Anders must be enjoying this episode so much. Even more than Zach Quinto. It's like he gets to be as over-the-top as he wants to as Adam. I hope he gets to play with the role more in the following volume.
Masi Oka's performance is much more subtle. It's like Anders sucked all of the exuberance out of him, because Hiro's more or less counteracting Adam's craziness with subdued sadness and regret. When he tells Adam he should have killed him, he's practically whispering. Which makes for an interesting acting choice, because I think Masi could equally have played this scene as resolved or vengeful and only showed Hiro's loss of spirit after he'd buried Adam. But already at this point, he's playing the character as defeated. I'm not sure how it fits in with the Epic Marathon across the warehouse and greeting the "FRYING MAN!", but Masi takes the material and delivers a surprising performance with it.
Hiro teleports Adam out of the vault, causing the vial of the Shanti Virus to fall to the ground. So, if Peter hadn't gotten there in time to TK the vial before it smashed, Hiro would have indirectly created the lunatic who planned to release the virus AND indirectly caused the virus to be released.
Anyone want to place bets on Hiro taking center stage as the villain next volume?
Peter nuking the virus was a neat touch, as was the S-helix beneath the powder of dust which the vial leaves behind in his hand. I would have figured he'd never dare to use Ted's ability knowing the disaster it could cause, but given the alternative, it makes sense that the most effective way to dispose of the virus would be to incinerate it.
Former Apartment of Clairvoyance. Maya gets a shot of Claire's blood and instaheals. The collective groan of 11 million viewers can be heard across the nation.
Maya: "I thought I was dead!"
SO DID WE! We were shamelessly misled! Why, Heroes, WHY? Why couldn't you let her stay dead? We would have liked her so much more if we knew she wasn't coming back.
Here's the bizarre part, though: I'm reassured that the show's keeping her around. If they'd killed her off, it'd be like admitting they'd failed catastrophically with the character. Keeping her alive is at least a sign that there's some kind of a plan for the character beyond the Crying & Dying Routine and screaming
"ALEJAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADROOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
and
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Dare we hope? The next volume might explain the show's purpose for introducing the character.
Sylar makes a rapid exit with the Mohindaire Cocktail. Elle arrives in time to bellow his name.
PING!
Don't advertise the fact that you're about to attack them, Elle -- just shoot.
Elle fires off an Ellectrobolt which barely slows Sylar down. I'm beginning to think Sylar is the human cockroach. If he can fall five stories and take a sword to the gut and wander through forests and deserts for days and still not die, he's clearly as invincible as Adam, and can apparently look forward to surviving the show's entire run.
Unlike certain individuals.
Oh, crap. We're here, aren't we? The part of the episode which I'm quite happy to pretend didn't happen. Fine. Let's get on with it.
Duzac's Diner. Anonymous Gangster discovers Monica's cellphone and sets fire to the building using Micah's 9th Wonders comic.
Anyone remember what happened last week? Anonymous Gangster and his (suddenly-conspicuous-by-their-absence) crew stole the comic from Damon because it was so valuable. And now Anonymous Gangster ... sets fire to it?
Micah and Niki find Anonymous Gangster leaving the scene in his van. Niki plays chicken with him and wins because -- duh! -- he's not driving a [PRODUCT PLACEMENT] Nissan. By the looks of it, though, neither is Niki. Probably why Micah couldn't "tell" the car to go crashing into the diner to rescue her.
Niki kicks him in the groin and thwacks him across the head with his own gun. This is a moment of vindication for the character and for the actress, because not only is she Jessica-less and powerless, she's also whiny-less. And apparently still capable of kicking anyone's ass. Which, yay, even though with retrospect you realize it was only inserted into the story for the sake of giving the character one final kickass moment to remember her by.
Does it make up for a season-and-a-half of minimal screen time and a meandering dual personality story arc which was never fully explained? You decide. My feeling is Niki drew the short straw for ending up with an aimless story, and that Ali Larter drew the short straw for having virtually nothing to work with and STILL managing to shine.
Niki dives into the diner and rescues Monica. Then a flaming beam falls in their way. And I'm sorry if this is unfair to the production crew who built the set and choreographed the scene, but COME ON:
There's an escape route AROUND the beam so blatantly obvious that you'd have to be blindfold not to see it.
I appreciate that the show might have produced this scene on a budget, but at least bring the cameras in closer so that we can't SEE the escape route so clearly. Because this makes Niki's death even more tragic.
The fire spreads. Monica exits the building. Niki's trapped inside. We're thinking maybe she'll find another way out. Or a corner to shelter in.
Any chance someone could survive that?
You're really trying to stifle our hope, aren't you, show?
All right, enough with the pyrotechnics! It's just gratuitous now! We get it -- she's dead.
Hiro returns to Yamagato Empire and goes back to his old life.
Again, kudos to Masi, because the guy nails the character's reaction to condemning his father's killer to an eternity without food or light or oxygen or movement. It goes beyond forsaking adventure and heroism and returning to his cubicle to wear a shirt and tie. It turns Hiro into the kind of avenger who's forced to mete out punishment for a villain who can't be killed. Which is probably a large part of what turns him from "Yatta!"-Hiro to Future-Hiro: the fact that he's forced to inflict torture and suffering on a former friend; the fact that Hiro might secretly feel his father's killer deserves that kind of suffering; the fact that the memory of his childhood hero will haunt him when he thinks of his icon buried underground, alive and screaming.
Odessa Police Station. The show does its best to make this scene even more traumatic by giving us an extended session of Petrelli Brotherly Bonding:
"You know I'll always be with you, little brother."
"But what is one Petrelli brother without the other? Who'll explain to me that serial killers are bad?"
"You'll find your way, little brother. Try not to explode, and try not to be so gullible. You'll be fine."
"You give me such great advice, big brother. I don't know what I'll do without you."
"Oh, little brother ... You don't need my advice. And even if I'm dead, they can always bring me back. If there's enough of an outcry from the fans, the show won't be able to leave me dead."
"Leave you dead?! Over my dead body! I'll hunt Kring down and force his hand to the pen and paper if that's what it takes for the words NATHAN COMES BACK TO LIFE to end up in the script."
Nathan uses Matt to Parkman-whammy the press into listening to a speech about "special people," which is basically an excuse for an extended trailer to Volume Two. If you take out the montage, the speech is pretty deranged. I mean, Nathan's talking about ordinary people doing extraordinary things and organizations not wanting other people to know about those things and something incredible happening to Nathan and him being afraid but then not being afraid anymore. And on paper, that's all a little vague and uninspiring. But then it's put alongside the montage and it makes a little more sense.
We see drunken Pasbeard Nathan. And Molly leaping into Mohinder's arms. And D.L. rescuing a little girl from a fire. And Matt taking his detective's exam. And Hiro stealing swords from the Twelve Stupid Samurai Who Were Afraid To Lose Their Clothes. And Claire jumping from the Hollywood sign. And Maya crossing from Guatemala into Mexico. And Monica 619'ing the robber. And Peter and Caitlin teleporting into the future. And Elle Ellectrifying West and Claire out of the sky. And the Haitian wiping Peter's memory and locking him in a cargo container bound for Ireland. And Nathan flying away from Noah and the Haitian. And Peter catching Nathan in the sky after he was burned to a crisp.
And, looking at that, you could be forgiven for thinking this had been an amazing volume which brought the characters an enormous distance and told an incredible story. Problem is, it really is just one giant trailer. It really is just a smattering of remarkable moments thrown inbetween a lot of insubstantial material which dragged on much longer than it should have, which took the characters and the story nowhere, and which failed to cohere into a consistently entertaining, well-structured, well-told story. That's the sad reality of this volume; that no matter how outstanding a trailer you place at the close of the 11th episode, it doesn't undo or roll back what we felt while we sat through the other 10 episodes. Less than half of them were outstanding. Most of them were mediocre. Some of them bordered on unwatchable.
But, look, none of that matters now. Nathan's here to tell all of you Parkman-whammied lemmings he can f-
Oh, no.
Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
Oh, no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no.
Come on, Peter, time for a miracle transfusion. If your blood doesn't work, teleport to Costa Verde and grab Claire's. If that doesn't work, go find Adam in his coffin and use his. And don't worry about the whole cheap-plot-device garbage I rambled on about two episodes ago. Seriously, dude, @#*% that. I didn't know what I was talking about. I didn't know they were going to kill NATHAN. Do whatever you have to -- cheap plot devices be damned.
BRING HIM BACK.
And this would be ... Noah? West? Future-Peter? Adam? Sylar? Papa Petrelli? Claude? Zach? Lyle? Mr. Muggles? Let me know when I'm getting warmer, show.
AND ANGELA WAS IN ON A PLOT TO KILL HER SON?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!
That's it. No more praise for character complexity. She's just plain evil. No redeeming qualities. Period.
Wait, that's it? You're going to leave us with Nathan and Niki dead and Angela evil and Hiro in a cubicle and Adam in a coffin and Cyborg Noah walking out on his family and MAYA ALIVE?!
AND SYLAR JUST GOT HIS ABILITIES BACK?
SOMEONE SORT THIS WRITERS' STRIKE OUT RIGHT NOW!
NBC? GET THIS SHOW BACK ON THE AIR!
KRING? FIX CLAIRE AND GET RID OF MAYA AND DON'T EVER PUT YOUR CHARACTERS IN IRELAND WITH AMNESIA AND DON'T EVER SEND THEM ON ROAD TRIPS ACROSS CENTRAL AMERICA WITH A CHARACTER WHO CRIES BLACK GOO AND DON'T EVER PUT THEM IN FEUDAL JAPAN 336 YEARS IN THE PAST WITH A LOVE INTEREST WHO PAINTS PURPLE FLAGS. THAT WAY, I WILL NEVER AGAIN BE FORCED TO WRITE AN ENTIRE PARAGRAPH IN CAPITAL LETTERS. THANKS -- OTTO.
Was this a good finale?
Yes.
Was this a good volume?
Only in places. It had some great moments, particularly towards the end, but overall, it struggled to be anything above average.
And therein lies the merit of this episode, because, against all odds, it managed to make the most of the storylines which had been set up over the past 10 episodes and change the direction the show was headed in.
Paradoxically, that direction's pretty much the way it came -- back towards Volume One. Several of the characters are now essentially where they were back then. Nathan once again may or may not be dead. Angela's once again the evil mastermind. Noah's once again the Company Man. Mohinder's once again the high-minded scientist. And Sylar's once again the superpowered villain. All of which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it doesn't say much for the distance this volume covered. For a volume which was titled "Generations," a volume which seemed like it was going to explore the story behind the previous generation, the past 11 episodes haven't been especially enlightening. We learned that Kensei became Adam, but most of the rationale behind that transformation was recounted through dialogue instead of being shown. Bob, Maury, and Victoria were introduced, but most of the questions surrounding how the ElderSupers came together are still unanswered. The Company's plan to use Shanti's illness as a bio-weapon was revealed, and it made for a compelling backstory, but again, it was mostly hinted at instead of being explored. We don't know how Shanti's virus developed in the first place, and we don't know how the ElderSupers found out about it in the first place.
Irrelevant details? A dead-end storyline for peripheral characters? Maybe. But those were the details and storylines and characters which I'd been looking forward to since the title of the volume was first unveiled.
Now, with all that said, the surprising thing about this volume is that it covered a considerable amount of ground with other characters, particularly the ones whose story arcs last season didn't get anywhere near the attention they deserved. Matt and Mohinder both got more prominent roles, even though they were competing for screen time with an influx of new characters.
Elle? Caitlin? Bob? Adam? Monica? Maury? Even West? Most of those turned out all right, both in terms of servicing the plot and presenting themselves as compelling, consistent, sympathetic characters. If nothing else, this volume threw a dozen characters into the mix, and most of them deserve to stick around.
But then, it's not as if Niki, D.L., and Nathan didn't deserve to stick around. The way they were killed off and written out felt like either an admission that their story arcs failed or an attempt to garner viewers with the prospect of a sensational death. That's great for boosting viewers in the short term, but when characters we love and identify with are killed off because they're competing for even a minute of screen time alongside a dozen new characters, the show loses ones of its inherent strengths during the first season. When characters we'd become attached to are unable to take part in any meaningful story because they're constantly being shunted into the background by newer and infinitely less compelling additions to the cast, it becomes a frustrating viewing experience. And it's the kind of frustration that a lot of viewers experienced throughout this volume.
This episode demonstrated that the show isn't unsalvageable, that it hasn't completely lost its way, and that there is a plan, even for the story arcs which, for most of the volume, didn't seem to make sense.
Which, in a roundabout way, brings me back to the original point: as a conclusion to a less-than-stellar volume, this really wasn't a bad finale. As finales go, it was pretty good.
4 out of 5
And that, dear readers, is the end of HeroSite's reviews for Heroes: Volume Two. As always, I'd like to thank everyone for reading. I'd like to thank Craig for continuing to let me review the show, Brenda for designing and maintaining an amazing blog, and everyone else who knows they deserve enormous thanks but whose names would probably result in a list longer than this review. You guys know who you are, and these reviews would never have been written without you.
I wish everyone a happy holiday and new year, and rest assured, we'll be back to cover the show as soon as it returns to production.
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