Heroes apologizes to airborne fans with message spelled out in rocks
It’s nice to see Heroes has finally gotten its teeth back. These last three episodes have booted the first six right in their collective crotch. Although one might suspect that the impending writers strike caused the show’s creators to accelerate the pacing for the abbreviated season, I don’t think that’s what’s happened here. As I understand it, only one episode was retooled to be a potential season finale, and that’s still to come. So this abrupt change from tedious death march to fast paced roller coaster of intrigue was planned from the very start of the season. It’s almost like the writers forgot everything they knew about pacing. One can only guess what the rest of this season would look like if it wasn’t interrupted. Eight episodes of Maya & Alejandro in a hot air balloon anyone?
One thing I really enjoyed about this particular episode was its limited scope. Only three subplots were present this time, with one of them taking up the vast majority of the screen time. This felt like a much better arrangement than past episodes this season, where five or more separate subplots got juggled back and forth, none getting more than a few minutes of screen time. I’d even tolerate the Wondertwins for half an hour, if by the end of it they finally did something.
More things we learned: (after the jump)
Mohinder’s motivations remain a real mystery for me. He’s always been a fairly transparent character, so I doubt he’s hiding anything, but I don’t think we’ve seen any particularly good reason why he’s gotten himself so morally invested in the Company. His progression from test tube jockey to gunslinger has been really unconvincing.
According to Bennet, Veronica Mars may not have come by her powers naturally. This would mark the first time (I think) that someone had their abilities forced upon them by a third party. Which provides a window of hope for all of us puny ability-less homo sapiens. I encourage every one of this blogs readers to plug your brain into some electricity, and post back in the Comments section with your results. With any luck, this blog will become a new gathering place for people with abilities – which is of course assuming that it doesn’t land me in jail first.
Aside from Mohinder’s dubious motivations, I really liked the way the “Bennet dies” prophecy was handled. No equivocations, no shape shifters, no swapping places with a bespectacled homeless guy. Bennet got shot in the fucking head, and he died. Not for long of course, but still. It felt raw.
Hiro’s visit with his father was a nice aside from the main event, and really solidified Hiro’s place as one of the most human characters in the show. From a writing point of view, it also neatly placed some boundaries on Hiro’s all-powerful abilities. If Hiro was capable and willing to travel back in time to save the life of anyone who died, the show would quickly become ridiculous. “Hiro, I need to dart across this freeway here to get to that AM/PM over there. If I get clipped by a semi or anything, could you be a bud and go back in time and stop me? Thanks dude.”
The other side plot this episode centered around Parkman, who has gone from being a sadsack to a possible psychopath with moderate to extreme father issues. We didn’t learn much new from his interrogation of Angela Petrelli, but his no-holds barred approach was a surprising development. He’s turning into a doughy Jack Bauer.
And finally, I noticed a lot of pretty glib one-liners this episode. Somewhat out of character for the show, but a welcome reprise from all the “Alejandro!” wailing we’ve sat through. Some particularly fine examples included:
“Hey Fight Club.” (Veronica Mars to a nose-bandaged Mohinder)
“Stings like a bitch don’t it?” (Bennet to a soggy and now smoking Veronica Mars)
“They were in an organization in the seventies. – You mean like a disco?” (Parkman’s boss)
Of course if I was writing the show (I’m not, for many, many very good reasons) I’d have capped off this one-liner spree with another during that scene on the Mystery-rooftop. When the camera cut to the close shot of Hiro as he finally sees Adam/Kensai’s face, I’d have punctuated that with an exclamation in Japanese followed by the subtitle:
November 20th, 2007 at 4:21 am
I really didn’t get the impression from Bennett that he meant Elle had the powers forced on her by zapping the crap out of her, I thought he was just saying that after her powers surfaced when she was young Bob was doing tests on her to see how much she could take (for starts to see if electricity still hurt her) and then had her mind wiped so she would stay a company lapdog (lapdancer?), which lead Bennett to realize that she could electrocute herself and not die or be otherwise injured.
November 20th, 2007 at 5:18 am
Perhaps Mohinder’s motivation is that he’s sick and tired of getting punched in the face. He’s mad as hell and he’s not going to take it anymore.
November 20th, 2007 at 8:13 am
I agree with Limmic; I don’t think that’s what Bennett meant when he said Veronica was just a normal girl. It, sometimes, takes awhile for a person’s abilities to actually kick in, so perhaps he was just training her to use them. I think that is the most likely explanation.
November 20th, 2007 at 9:09 am
Heroes writers need to take a lesson or two from Joss Whedon (Yep, I’m a Browncoat), regarding dealing with consequenses. I’m getting tired of every death in this show turning out to be a mislead seconds after it occured, usually after a mandatory mourning-scene.
IF you have to bring back everyone (Which I do not recommend), do it when nobody’s expecting it. Like the next season or whatever, just not right the fuck after the guy dies.
Only reason for captivating Bennet gotta be some planned exchange with his daughter. Which might mean that she’s leaving suburbia, which is great, but she’s probably bringing West, which is not.
Victoria Pratt..My guess: Bob’s wife/Elles mother.
November 20th, 2007 at 9:20 am
Great episode! No Wondertwins! Mohinder needs to go! I look forward to this post every Tuesday, keep it up!!
November 20th, 2007 at 9:40 am
It was awesome. My friend was trying to be a no it all. I was like dude HGR is coming back dipshit. And then he goes no, he is dead, he got shot in the fucking face. One second later the cut to HGR chillen on the table, he again denied it. He isn’t coming back. Then he started breathing. I laughed in his face.
November 20th, 2007 at 11:05 am
@ satanikus: Yeah, I think Mohinder getting punched in the face a bunch of times this season is both a means to satisfy the many of us who long have desired to punch him in the face and also, apparently, to force his balls to finally drop.
November 20th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
I think Mohinder fired that gun because he didn’t trust Bennet anymore after what he did to his former mentor and because he truly believed in the power of Claire’s blood to save so many people. He saw Bennet as having gone insane and being the danger while the company truly had the ability to help. Bob has played into Mohinder’s hands. Every time Mohinder raises a red flag Bob says “ok, we’ll do it your way. I’m glad we have you around to keep us on the right path.” Making Mohinder believe that Bob trusts him more than Bennet and could really be persuaded into doing the good they are capable of.
November 20th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
@BostonRob: Yep.
@Neil: Nope.
November 20th, 2007 at 2:07 pm
I appreciate that Bennet had the same reaction to coming back to life as Claire did when she had the stick pulled out of her head. Nice touch.
November 20th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
Molly has two daddies.
And I think that Suresh basically has this doctor thing where he has to save anyone who is in trouble. He may well have shot Bob if Bob was about to execute Mr. Bennett, but as soon as he saw a cold-blooded killing about to take place, he felt that he had to intervene. And it just so happened that Mr. Bennett had the upper hand over Bob. I think that his motivations are purely circumstantial.
Also: I think that they are going to Haitian Mr. Bennett and use him to track down Claire.
Did anyone else notice that just two episodes ago, the writers finally acknowledged the word “Haitian” as a verb?
November 20th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
Not a bad episode overall. I had the exact same reaction to Mohinder shooting Bennett in the face - I really don’t get where he’s coming from anymore. The arc of his character has gotten so fuzzy recently he seems to be acting on a whim most of the time.
I had the same reaction to Bennett’s comments regarding Elle as Chris - Bennett seemd to be suggesting she had been given these powers somehow, although it was admittedly ambiguous. It was nice to see Elle humanized a little with her obvious concern over Bennett’s allegations. Maybe she’ll end up interesting after all. So far she’s been irritatingly one dimensional.
One thing that occurred to me was that if the Company was involved in the creation of super powers rather than just their supression (which has always struck me as an utterly unconvincing motivation) it gives them a much more interesting back story.
I’m with Bel-Rand, they’ve taken a video game approach to death. Getting shot in the face actually only takes you down to zero hit points, but if you rest you’ll recover. Better find some health packs, quick! Of course, if they were really killing Bennett off they would have done a carpet bomb ad campaign boasting that “Someone Dies.” I’m actually kind of surprised they didn’t do that anyway, since he was technically dead for several minutes.
I will say that at this point the Haitian is hands down my favorite character. I can’t wait until he gets his own subplot.
November 21st, 2007 at 2:02 am
Experiment; To zapp self with hitloads of elecrticity in the hope of developing powers.
Method; I’m going with the good ‘ol toaster-in-a-bathtub.
Effect; Ow.
Results; Nopne apparent as of yet. Wait, I didn’t mean to type that “p” in none, does that count?
November 21st, 2007 at 6:47 pm
You forgot the best one liner. Clairs mum: You know girls tend to go for girls like their fathers.
Mr Bennet: what, they can fly?
November 21st, 2007 at 9:39 pm
Screw you Bucholz.
I exposed myself to mass amount of radioactivity after reading this article and the only powers I got out of it were the ability to talk to snails and the ability to blow up watermellons with my mind.
Snails aren’t very interesting you know. THEY LIVE VERY BORING LIVES!
Then theres the watermellon thing that would only be useful if I were to be involved in a superhero showdown in the middle of a fruit shop, which let’s face it, is unlikely.
I feel like a character from X-men 3. You know the shit one, where they just crammed as many useless characters as they had leftover into it.
And now I have cancer.
March 10th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
A Realistic $250K First Year Income Potential
Less than four years ago I was driving this beat-up ‘94 VW with a rusty muffler. Within two years of creating this system I was making more than my doctor, accountant, and attorney COMBINED… while working less than 40 hours a week FROM HOME! Together with my group of leaders we are now seeking qualified entrepeneurs sharein the incredible results of our system.
for more information check this site out….
make money online
March 29th, 2008 at 3:41 am
Friend of the Rugs…
…