Remember last week when we said that the Heroes defection might be upon us? Well, it's definitely still on -- except for here on The Remote Island, where we're starting to get into the third season a little. Here with our weekly recap, Jake Kalish, author of Santa vs. Satan: The Official Compendium of Imaginary Fights.
Finally. BY FAR, the best episode of the season. And, not coincidentally, the first one without time travel.
Stuff actually happened! There were real fights, not in hyperspeed. There was moral ambiguity. And, most importantly, it felt like stuff mattered; like our heroes were in danger. With all the time travel and rising from the dead, one got the sense no matter what terrible crap happened, it could all be fixed - so why should we care?
There have been a lot of theories about how Heroes has gone wrong this season and last, and many of them have centered around the lack of conflict; that, in a superhero show, good guys should actually be fighting bad guys. That's a problem, but to me, especially this season, it wasn't the big one. The big problem was nothing was at stake. If the Heroes can just go back in time, if Peter Petrelli can watch Peter Petrelli get shot, if Claire Bennett can know she will never die, then even if they say they have to "save the world," it feels like nothing matters - everybody gets do-overs, like the awkward kids in a gym class kickball game. Peter Petrelli has unbelievable superpowers; you don't need to give him four strikes. Look, superheroes' weaknesses are almost as important as their strengths. If Lex Luthor gets a hold of some Kryptonite, Superman's in trouble. For chrissakes, Daredevil is blind. But the time travel in Heroes made it so that those weaknesses, even death, seemed fairly irrelevant - and would anyone care about Achilles if not for his heel?
Done with my lecture; feel much better now. Episode 4 opens with Nathan asking "Am I an angel or a monster?" He wonders if Linderman is a messenger from God. Meanwhile, Soresh is twitching like a junkie and Peter Petrelli is pissed, snapping Sylar's neck after the meanie calls him "brother." Sylar snaps his broken neck back into place, Angela Petrelli comes in to break up this dustup between her boys, Peter starts slicing open her head, and Sylar flings him into the glass wall. Now that's a dysfunctional family.
But it's not the only one. Claire's rebelling against Dad, and wants a taste of her first bad guy. Rather than getting wasted and making out with Russell Brand, she decides to take on a dude who creates vortexes and makes people disappear forever - in other words, the one fellow who could actually do her in. Claire shocks him with her stun gun, and it feels so good. Meanwhile, Hiro is being choked by Adam Monroe. They decide to work together to find the formula. We see that Daphne the speedster sees Linderman too, and is talking to him. Sylar and HRG are being wacky partners, and Vortex guy wakes up and whips Claire's gun into a vortex. Uh-oh.
Meanwhile, Sylar goes up to a drug dealer in a park and explains that he doesn't want his stuff, he wants him. Apparently, this is not Mohinder going all George Michael, as we cut to him dragging a bloody pusherman through his apartment, back to his lab. Foxy Maya shows up later all dressed like a Boricua Mami in some tight-ass pants and I wonder if the Heroes writers are just working out all their fantasies about Hispanic women in one character. Soresh and Maya make out a little, and I am surprised she does not say "Ay, Papi." Cut to the Doc's lab, where some dude is caught in a cocoon of fly goo.
Vortex guy is explaining his case to Claire. He seems sympathetic, saying he just wants to see his family. Claire offers him help. Tracy Strauss wants to turn herself in for freezing reporter William Katt, formerly The Greatest American Hero. Nathan explains she can't do that. Then, as Claire is about to help Vortex guy, HRG shows up with Sylar to take him out, totally confusing poor little Claire. In the confusion, dude whips up one hell of a vortex - and when Claire is about to fly in, Sylar saves her! Who's good? Who's bad? Don't matter, 'cause they's fighting, and I likes it.
Hiro and Ando go with Adam Monroe to a bar, where Adam gets into a fight with the bartender. In the scuffle, Hiro gets decked and Adam gets away. Angela Petrelli has put her son Peter in a coma. Tracy Strauss and boyfriend Nathan P get into it with Angela over Dr. Zimmerman, who apparently gave both of them their abilities. Maya discovers Mohinder's cocoons, gets upset, and starts with the old ink eye, almost killing Soresh, before she pulls it back. I notice every time people get over almost being killed by Maya, their gasps are distinctly postcoital. Ah, le petit mort.
Hiro and Ando lose Adam Monroe - but then the dude from The Wire takes him out with one punch. Soresh puts Maya in his cocoon of fly goo - so not a good look for her. HRG has a gun to Vortex guy's head, and tells him to vortex Sylar out of existence. Vortex guy says "I won't be a monster," and vortexes himself. Excellent, although I totally would have gone with being a monster in that situation. Hiro wants to join up with the dude from The Wire and Daphne the Speedster, and says he's a bad ass. Dude from the Wire says if you're such a bad ass, stab Ando wit this sword. Hiro does it! My guess is he'll be going back in time to fix that little problem, which makes me sad.
Back in the car ride with Claire, HRG, and Sylar, we've got some tension, given that Sylar knows HRG tried to have him killed. He tells Claire HRG doesn't understand them. Will Claire ally with bad dudes with superpowers or her own daddy? It's the classic teenage girl question, but the fate of the world might rest on her decision. And I'm wondering why, if Sylar's such a monster, he didn't take out HRG right there in the car? Guy tried to have him offed. Don't get it.
Meanwhile, Claire's biological mom, with the fire hands, is telling some gross fat guy to go to hell when he shuts her mouth and she leans in to kiss him. We see some marionettes and realize that's this guy's power - he's The Puppeteer. I like that power, and I like that a disgusting fat guy has it - not like Zapped, where the power to telekenetically strip girls naked was totally wasted on Scott Baio, who could land Pamela Anderson, Heather Locklear, and Denise Richards without the telekenesis. Linderman is talking to Daphne the speedster, and telling her she has to get Parkman over to their side - looking at his fat , stupid head in the confidential file, it occurs to me he hasn't been in this episode! Maybe that's why I've enjoyed it so thoroughly.
Angela Petrelli has a vision of the future in which she sees Nathan, Tracy, and Peter all killed, Peter with a knife in the back of his head. She comes upon the mysterious older man who did this, who we only see from the back. Cut to Parkman's dad, who we discover has been responsible for these visions of Linderman folks been seeing. He comes upon a bedridden man to report on recent developments, and says "whatever you say goes, Mr. Petrelli." Pan back, and we see the man in the bed is also the man from Angela Petrelli's vision, Robert Forster, apparently taking a break from his motivational speaking engagements.
To Be Continued...
-- Jake Kalish
PREVIOUSLY:
"Heroes": How Not To Put The Nuclear Back In Family
"Heroes": Sylar Joins The Super Fuzz
