Heroes: Season 3, Episode 5 Review: Angels and Monsters

Angels and Monsters
Original Airdate: October 13, 2008
Writer: Adam Armus & Kay Foster
Director: Anthony Hemingway

At this point, the introduction is essentially over and things are transitioning to the next phase. It’s apparent through the episode as characters begin to make critical choices while wondering where they are going to end up. Unfortunately, this episode is a bit more scattered than usual, and could’ve benefited from a tighter focus, or at least benching certain subplots.

As seen with characters like Ted and Peter (most of the time anyway), some people with dangerous powers aren’t bad people, but just lack someone to help them hone their ability for good. Bennet’s told us that those who escaped from Level 5 are all bad because of their powers, but this episode showed that isn’t true, and adds to the plot as well.

Here we meet Stephen, a man who can create vortexes whose life was ruined by The Company’s abducting him. He’s a good man, but is haunted by his reflexive use of his power that resulted in a man’s death. Stephen is played by Andre Royo, best known for his role as “Bubbles” on the amazing The Wire (which also featured Jamie Hector as mentioned in an earlier review). Unlike Jamie Hector’s ruthless Marlo, “Bubbles” was a kind, troubled man. He was the crack addict you could bring home to mom. So it’s fitting he’s cast as the misunderstood Stephen.

Stephen is the first target for Claire, using a copy of her father’s files to stop her feelings of helplessness by hunting down escapees. While she’s ready to go after him to the fullest extent, his letting her go is proof that he’s not a bad guy. He just wants to see his kids. She clearly hasn’t fully transformed into the cold Claire we see in the future.

However, her father’s involvement in the situation seems like a key moment for that change. Despite her insistence, Bennet isn’t ready to be completely on board and let him go, attempting to coerce Stephen to suck Sylar into one of the vortexes and ultimately causing Stephen to kill himself rather than “become a monster”. Bennet’s involvement in Stephen’s suicide is a far more convincing treatment of dividing father and daughter than last season’s ill advised West fiasco. While Bennet no doubt loves Claire and would do anything to protect her, his moral ambiguity and history come to light often enough for her to question the man, like his forced partnership with Sylar.

It also plays along Sylar’s redemptive route, saving Claire from the vortex. Sylar’s been playing with the concept of redemption this season, and I’ve mentioned that that’s likely going to be the path for him as a long term character. He is making that transformation, but is still hoping to turn Claire against her dad.

It’s unfortunate that this storyline wasn’t developed more. This is the strongest plot in the episode, but unfortunately the time constrictions give us only the basic outline. Andre Royo doesn’t get to shine as much as Wire fans know he can. It would’ve been a good chance to show how cruel the Company practices of locking people up without trials, lawyers or informing their family. However, Heroes doesn’t and shouldn’t do allegory the way Battlestar Galactica does, which may be why this issue has only briefly touched upon without getting too close. The emotional core should’ve resonated more.

Puppet master Doyle shows a lot of potential, forcing Meredith to play a sick version of house. While he can control all of her motions, it only affects her body, not her mind as she tries to tell him off. There is some history here. Perhaps Doyle stalked Meredith. Since he is Claire’s likely next target, there will probably be more about him in the next episode.

On a slight tangent, the actor playing Doyle is credited as David H. Lawrence XVII. Now when’s the last time you’ve ever seen someone with XVII in their name who wasn’t a pope or royalty?

Nathan continues down the path that will lead him to be the perfect puppet for his father. “Linderman” is still putting thoughts in his head, and here it’s uncovered that Nathan’s flight is a manufactured power like hers. Besides pushing him further away from his mother and possibly closer to his father, this also has the implication that synthetic powers can be absorbed by Peter (hopefully we won’t see Peter entombing people in webbing).

The weakest link in the show has to be Mohinder’s adventures of growing increasingly bug like, entombing the abusive neighbor, some random drug dealer and now Maya in a nest in the loft. Several stories in this episode, like Stephen’s story, deserved more development, but lost screen time at the expense of this. One can hope Nathan and Tracy’s visit can help rejuvenate this plot.

Then there is Angela’s new dream, where Tracy, Nathan and Peter are brutally killed and the unseen Petrelli warns her she won’t be able to move or stop him when he comes. Clearly there are metaphors in these dreams, but there’s not much to go on besides Angela surviving a metaphorical massacre. Maybe the pipe in Peter’s head is the medically induced coma.

Hiro & Ando with Adam was a disappointment to say the least. There’s some jokes early on, but it’s over all too quickly and little is done with their history. It could’ve been anyone with them. Also, they set up the bar as the “Cantina” for specials, but failed to make it appear any different than any run down bar. Obviously it’s in character for Hiro to reference it, but if they’re going to put it in, they need to deliver on the promise!

Then there’s the big moment where Hiro betrays Ando. Where did this come from? Yes they set it up with the vision of the future, but they seemed to have reached an accord at the end of the episode and were getting along here. They really dropped the ball developing Hiro’s fear over dying motivating him to make this huge mistake. In a few episodes this may be believable, but here it doesn’t work.

Regardless, this is setting up the key moment where Hiro and Ando find themselves on opposite sides just before Japan gets shaken to the ground. No doubt Ando will survive the stabbing (with the “No one ever dies” mantra on this show, and the unceremonious in the wrong way stabbing itself) and go after Hiro, fulfilling the vision. Knox’s comment about not needing a guy without powers may be his motivation for him getting the red lightning.

Obviously the big twist is that Petrelli is not only alive, but pulling the strings. There was clearly a reason that Petrelli has never been seen outside of a blurry picture, as well as the circumstances of his death never fully explained (it was a suicide that could’ve been construed as a heart attack). They were waiting to play that card, and what better way to introduce him than as the big bad?

Petrelli’s endgame is the establishment of the supers army. Having his son, a future president, under his thumb can make that happen (and he does in the alternate timeline). Also, giving anyone powers can help keep the ranks full. Why isn’t clear. He was a lawyer and had no known ties to defense interests. This could be what the mysterious Pinecrest company, whose logos are omnipresent on Future Claire and secret service agents, is invested in. Perhaps Future Peter coming back to 2007 was Petrelli’s idea all along, since it set off the chain of events leading to it.

How exactly the task force of Daphne, Hiro, Knox and soon Matt come into play is a bit more vague, but may support the “Future Peter coming back was part of his plan all along” theory. There purpose seems to have been to get Sylar off the wagon so he nukes a city and warrants Nathan to assemble the super army. However, what purpose will they serve before then? Clearly picking up Adam was for his healing blood on the very sick Petrelli, but what about the rest?

The big one will have to be Matt, who is being pulled into this by his father, who is awake, apparently one of the Level 5 escapees (according to interviews), and now working with Petrelli out of revenge. Considering their skills, of course Maury wasn’t going to be trapped in the nightmare world Matt made for him. It’s also no surprise that Maury’s responsible for the visions of Linderman, although him being a Level 5 escapee means he got involved pretty fast considering when Nathan first saw “Linderman”. Regardless, that should be an interesting down the road.

Overall, this episode is the season’s first miss. It just misses the mark. While Bennet and Claire’s storyline is good and could’ve been better fleshed out, others just go too fast in their plotting where the actions don’t make sense like Hiro stabbing Ando or take up space like Mohinder’s. However, I’m optimistic, and I’m looking forward to what Robert Forester as Petrelli will bring to the show.

Overall Score: 6/10

Heroes: Season 3, Episode 4 Review: I Am Become Death

I Am Become Death
Original Airdate: October 6, 2008
Writer: Aron Eli Collette
Director: David Von Ancken

Much like "Five Years Gone" and "Out of Time", this episode shows us a grim version of the future if our heroes don't change it. As mentioned in my earlier review, this is a necessary evil for a show where two characters can time travel. It's all about finding a new avenue for it, and this time it works as Peter literally learns the method to change the past.

Since Future Peter prevented Nathan from coming out as an evolved human, what exactly changed that still makes Claire kill Future Peter and eager to do the same to present Peter? People all over the world with enough money or street knowledge can get access to the powers serum, so there's no need to hunt down those with them naturally. However, anyone with powers exponentially amplifies the problem of controlling those with dangerous ones. While the flying people aren't a problem, the guy who creates a devastating earthquake is.

This is connected to the formula Mohinder is concocting. Future Mohinder, whose horrible mutations we'll hopefully see soon, claims he botched the formula. Perhaps the formulas in play are different, and Mohinder's is the worse evil. His does involve using a sample from someone with innate abilities, so evolved humans could be slaughtered for mass production.

Mohinder's mutations in the present grow more profound. His aggressions turn away Maya (whose accent is almost completely gone) and his intervention in a domestic dispute turn ugly when he presumably kills the man who seeks retribution for having his head smashed into the wall. He's also producing sticky stuff from his hands. In the future, it's implied that Mohinder's physical mutations have worsened and he is now a lot like an insect (and maybe a snake if the rattle queues are an indicator).

It's still up in the air which side in the future is truly bad. Future Claire is sadistic in punishing Peter, and now hangs out with Knox and Daphne, the former clearly bad and the latter morally indifferent. The Haitian's involvement implies Company, but it's not clear enough to confirm. Alternatively, Future Peter lacks faith in mankind, not to mention his botched changing of the past lead to the nuking of 200,000 people and Matt refers to him as a terrorist. It's pretty early in the season to know for certain, but I've been inclined to believe Future Peter is the villain and Peter is being duped (again).

So Peter's quest to stop this future leads him to Gabriel (this Future Sylar will be referred to by his legal name), whose life is a complete 180 from his life as Sylar. Instead of scalping people and stealing powers, he's content raising his son Noah at the Bennet household. If Sylar's power really is an addiction, he must've gone to power rehab and is staying "sober" for his son's sake. Considering the age of the child, he's either going to be conceived soon or has been conceived already, assuming he isn't Bennet who took the serum and reverse aged.

If it is his biological son, Gabriel named his son after one of his biggest present nemeses. It could be because Bennet is partially responsible for domesticating Sylar, or doing something heroic to assure that. Since Noah is the grounding for Gabriel and his death causes Gabriel to go to his dark side again, that's a logical conclusion. It's worth noting that Bennet is no where in this future and Gabriel's allowed to live at his home relatively unimpeded.

Earlier it was said that Sylar's power arsenal was wiped clean after being infected last season. However, in 2011 Sylar uses both precognition and induced radioactivity, two powers believed to be lost. This could be either them going back on what they've said (which is easy to forgive as it hasn't been made official on the show) or he regains them from other people in the interim. One of the escapees could at least be able to emit dangerous levels of radiation.

On that note: how exactly does Claire survive a nuclear explosion that kills 200,000 people? Yes she can regenerate, but an explosion would destroy her entire body, unless somehow she could regenerate continually during the explosion, which is a tall order. Obviously Peter survived since he has radioactive powers (and presumably Sylar survived as well), but Claire? I don't think so.

It's odd that it took them this long for Peter to demonstrate Sylar's original ability or why he couldn't just use it since he's already encountered Sylar several times, but it works in terms of the story. To know how to change the future, knowing how things work and cause and effect is necessary to do what's necessary to change it. Future Peter tried doing it without using said power and it lead to a lot of big problems, so he sends Peter off to try to set things right.

However, this power comes at a price as Gabriel warns. This season has established that Sylar's power creates an addiction to wanting more and the leads to people losing the top of their heads. Peter, who wanted to believe in the inherent good of people, finds himself committing fratricide (at least for the future version) in the need to learn how his brother's brain worked. This could lead to the darker, scarred Future Peter. With Peter back in the present in Sylar's Level 5 cell, there are some interesting prospects for future episode (like maybe them teaming up).

Another factor in this future is Matt, who saw what's going to happen, albeit from Africa. While it isn't surprising the future woman in the painting is her, it helps keep Matt in the main story, and that's important when he's far away from everyone else in the present. However, the animal spirit guide he picks to locate the speedster is ironically a turtle, so this may take a while.

One problem with the jump between the present and future is the obvious captions telling us which time it is. It should be obvious which time we're seeing if Mohinder's tape recorder in the present gets buried in dust between scenes. Maybe the one exception is the establishing shot and the cut between Nathan and Tracy in 2007 to when Nathan's president and she's first lady.

Tracy uncovers that she was subject to tests that altered her DNA to give her special powers, as were her triplet sisters Niki and the unseen Barbara. Until this episode, it was implied that Jessica was Niki's twin sister, but that doesn't seem likely now. They now have another mystery of this third sister for Tracy to find en route to figuring out who she is. Also, there is the added mystery of who is seen in the rogue's gallery from Angela's dream.

Obviously upset that her powers have accidentally killed someone and feeling like a monster, she tries to kill herself only to have Nathan swoop in to save her. Whatever Linderman wants, Tracy clearly has a role to play (beyond being the future first lady).

Hiro and Ando have a break from Daphne outsmarting them to hash out the problems they've been having since Hiro saw Future Ando killing him using the sitcom device of trying to get out of a locked room. While they find some temporary peace, they now have to deal with Adam in the equation.

How Adam knows anything to prevent this formula from being released is anyone's guess, but his motivation was obvious back in season two. Adam is a powers supremacist, as he hoped his release of the virus would eliminate all normal people except a few evolved humans. Surely he would want to prevent everyone from gaining their own abilities. Of course carrying a 300 plus year grudge against Hiro, not to mention the rift between Hiro and Ando Adam can exploit, should make their dynamic fun to watch.

So far this season is shaping up really well. The use of the future storyline may have been too soon, but it had to happen for the sake of the plot. The episode title, taken from Oppenheimer's quote (from Hindi text) after the first atomic bomb test, foreshadows several characters becoming darker versions of themselves. It may be premature to whip out the "Heroes is Back!" banner, but if these episodes are an indicator, that may be soon.

Overall Score: 8/10

Heroes: Season 3, Episode 3 Review: One of Us, One of Them

One of Us, One of Them
Original Airdate: September 29, 2008
Writer: Joe Pokaski
Director: Sergio Mimica-Gezzan

As this season is split into two halves, the thirteen episode "Villains" and the twelve episode fourth volume, the arcs are a little different than a full season arc. Instead of a 6-8 episode introduction, it's likely going to be four, five tops. Therefore the plotting feels a lot faster than last season, where they meandered. It feels like the introduction is winding down as the complication phase is set to start, and that's what the show needs now.

The central piece of the episode involves the squad of villains with Peter holding up a bank, at first just to steal some money, but quickly the stakes escalate and soon they encounter both Sylar and Bennet. Knox is the leader of the gang, pulling strings even the rest of the squad aren't aware of. Unbeknownst to his associates, he alerted the police in hopes that it would draw Bennet out, which it did. He also takes care of NotMagneto, which is a more than welcome development. Clearly he's the one escapee with the other villains in Angela's dream for a reason.

As expected, Peter's imprisonment in Jesse's body is somewhat explained. Jesse was still there, but Peter's personality took over. As for Peter's powers, it's unknown whether he go any of them when he was freed in frozen time, or if he was still able to take them in Jesse's body (if he uses The German's power we'll know for sure). We'll have to see if it's in the future Future Peter helped create by silencing Nathan.

Angela is clearly playing Sylar, and the game is definitely twisted: moments after telling him she's his real mother she gets away with bringing in a fresh victim to "feed" him (after confirming he didn't eat the brain they pile on a whole lot of hunger/feeding metaphors). Also, why exactly was Bridget on board to have her head sliced open at the beginning of this episode? Angela is playing with some dangerous toys here, giving Sylar a justification to kill as many people as he wants. There isn't much keeping Sylar from taking her precognitive dreaming for himself.

Her endgame is simple enough: to control Sylar, possibly motivated by that image of Tracy, Maury, Adam and Knox where Sylar's her last line of defense. Peter's gone in the vision (and just forget Future Peter), and her attempt to manipulate Nathan failed miserably in the past. Assuming she is telling the truth, he's the last son for her to control.

Bennet and Sylar working together was fun with the two butting heads as Sylar, up until the scalping, turned out to be a pretty good agent. It's no surprise why Bennet doesn't want to work with him, but Sylar, at behest of Angela, is cooperative, helpful and even saves Bennet from what was likely going to be a fatal punch from Knox. However, Angela's mixed messages come into play when Sylar, instead of transporting the three, decides to take Jesse's power while Knox escapes. Too bad we'll never get a real scene between former Veronica Mars' co-stars Francis Capra and Kristen Bell.

With Sylar, they are at a crossroads: he probably shouldn't have survived the showdown at the end of the first season and was kept along because Quinto worked so well with the character. Now, Sylar's future could go either of two ways: he's killed off (unlikely) or he switches sides. They seem to be building up to one of them, as he dismisses chances at redemption (which only happens when a character is going to redeem himself), since Sylar as is can only be viable for so long.

Bennet has shown himself to be the guy who if his daughter is threatened will kill anyone in his way to keep her safe. With Sylar, he can't just shoot him. He has to be patient and cunning. Clearly, the Adam loophole will be brought up as Bennet figures out how to kill a man who can spontaneously heal and stop bullets or projectiles with his mind. Of course, he could have The Haitian block said powers and use that weakness against him, but Bennet may want to have responsibility rest solely on him, since this time it really is personal. Also he can be useful with eight escapees still on the loose, even if that means giving Sylar a little more power.

As Bennet deals with working alongside his daughter's attacker, so does Claire learn a bit from herself courtesy of her biological mom. Claire was ready to get involved in the fight despite her father's wish for her to stay at home. Considering she can heal from almost every injury and now doesn't feel pain, she has some formidable assets in a fight. However, her motivation doesn't stem from nobility so much as it's her way of dealing with her attack. This is certainly telling of not only Claire's mindset, but Meredith's history.

Tracy's pursuit of who she really is leads her to New Orleans and the reveal that Niki was killed in the explosion from the season finale. While it is a bit of a cop out to kill off the character only to have the actress play another (unless established in the mythology like on Battlestar Galactica), the avenue they're going has potential with all the talk of genetic experiments this season. At the funeral she runs into Micah, who uses his technopathy to uncover that they were born at the same hospital on the same day, although he conveniently can't find any more information (seriously, he doesn't even try with no hint of a road block).

Dr. Zimmerman hints at experiments done on Tracy and Niki by calling Tracy "Barbara" when they meet and says that he "created" her. While many people are going to take that and assume that this means only cloning, it could also be connected to test tube babies. Those experiments were performed back in the 70s, and the first successful one happened a few years after Niki's birth. It wouldn't be too hard to believe that there were secret experiments, possibly Company funded, to instill powers on ordinary embryos, and may be connected to the formula.

Hiro and Ando's comic adventures with Daphne are beginning to wear a little thin. Unlike a lot of other elements so far, there isn't much to it. The formula is really the interesting piece of the subplot. It's been basically the same thing in each hour so far. She's mean to Hiro and always gets the upper hand, which feels more like the relationship of two people who are bound to get together romantically.

Also, why is Hiro so quick to call Daphne her nemesis? Wouldn't that be more appropriate title for Adam? She's an annoyance and clearly what's going to happen is partially her fault, but with Adam there was a more personal dynamic that would make the nemesis title appropriate.

Daphne continues to exploit the growing rift between Hiro and Ando, and it works on Ando. Clearly lacking power, Ando wants to prove himself and that's increasingly hard when your best friend can bend space and time and you're not the smartest when it comes to strategy. This would be the likely motivation for him to use Mohinder's serum and possibly pointing to his villainy, of which I'm still skeptical.

While Hiro and Ando are now held captive in Level 5 next door to Sylar, there's no danger of Hiro having his ability stolen, which would certainly be a game changing ability. It wouldn't be surprising for him to show up and try to scorch them with Flint's blue flame though. It's an interesting set up, especially with the unclear rules over use of powers in these cells. Flint can scorch his cell, but why couldn't Hiro and Ando teleport away?

Usutu has to have one of the lamest powers in the history of the show, somewhere between liquefying stuff and negating only one person's power. Only seeing visions of some guy from LA (when you're in Africa) lacks any practicality until Future Peter sent him there. The interesting catch though, is how he induces it with music, a feat that works on Matt towards the end of the episode. Hopefully there's more to that that will be explored in future episodes.

There is more hinting at the dramatic altering of the future, as Usutu covers up a painting of Matt, a woman and a baby with one of Matt holding the limp body of the woman. Considering the hairstyle, it's likely that that woman is Daphne, setting up for a meeting down the road. Matt in Africa risks being another orphaned subplot, but at least there is an idea for them meeting up with the main story.

So far the season is shaping up well. The stories are all moving at a brisk pace with a lot of entertaining reveals and developments. While many were crying the end of Heroes last year, I'm cautiously optimistic this is the start of an uptrend.

Overall Score: 8/10

Heroes: Season 3, Episode 2 Review: The Butterfly Effect

The Butterfly Effect
Original Airdate: September 22, 2008
Writer: Tim Kring
Director: Greg Beeman

As mentioned Future Peter, unlike Future Hiro, didn’t consider that altering the past to keep Nathan from coming out would lead to such devastating consequences. Because of what he did, Sylar obtained Claire’s power and almost a dozen major captives with dangerous powers were set free. In all likelihood the future Future Peter’s created is far worse than the one he tried to stop in the first place. After all, wouldn’t he disappear if the dark future was averted, negating his reason for being there? Of course it isn’t until after that he begins to craft a time line like Future Hiro did in Isaac’s loft (guess Peter hasn’t gotten much smarter in the interim four years).

This alternate timeline is brought up in Matt’s trek in Africa, where a man named Usutu (played by Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, who was cut from the original pilot playing a different character) tells him that the future he saw is now contradicted by Matt being there. He can serve much like Isaac did down to the painting, only this time Usutu is far better aware of the details of his visions (like names). Of course it isn’t a coincidence that his painting of a world breaking along a line similar to the Symbol is on a rock in Africa as well as a pier in New York City, but how exactly did that happen?

Mohinder is also seeing repercussions in his research. While at first he becomes basically Spider-Man without the webbing, it turns out there is no free lunch as his skin begins to peel off in chunks. His behavior is far more aggressive and primal throughout the episode, which may indicate the serum is making him more like an animal.

Towards the end of season two, Elle realized how exploited and poorly treated she was her whole life, especially compared to Claire. She’s needed validation and in that selfish pursuit, became a hero by saving Mohinder, Maya and Molly (alliteration!) from Sylar. It seemed like that would’ve been the rest of her arc had the season continued (Kristen Bell was signed for more episodes than Heroes produced last season). Here, it seems like they are continuing that, as Bob reprimands her for letting Sylar get away, and for good reason as we see later in the episode, then as Angela fires her as she lost her protection in The Company. She’s been trying to prove herself, and maybe will find an outlet for that finding the escaped villains alone, or with Bennet.

During her attack, Claire remarked that she felt no pain. Afterwards she spends the episode in a state of shock, unable to feel anything and wondering what that means. As she’s mentioned, she felt pain, even if it was momentary as the wounds quickly healed. The shutting down of her nerves could be psychological, but maybe Sylar, knowing how the brain operates, flipped a switch inside her brain to turn it off as a way of further manipulation, or to keep her from screaming.

Tracy’s story begins to take shape with the obvious follow up of her resembling Niki. Nathan mentions it and in a nice call back, the investigating journalist uncovered the surveillance footage of Jessica and Nathan as well as Niki’s website. While we’ve been lead to assume they’re the same person, Tracy freezing the journalist is enough proof for us to assume that they are two different people. The two main theories are that either Tracy is the real Jessica, who didn’t die as believed and has a power and multiple personalities like her sister or that Tracy is a clone. I’d rather believe the former, as the latter may be rejected by the audience as a little too much.

With his resources, Hiro identifies the Speedster as Daphne, a woman living in Paris with a lot of expensive junk and no place to put it. Hiro’s plan to trade one of her prized medals for the formula reveals the rift beginning between himself and Ando. Of course, seeing a vision of your friend electrocuting you is going to lead to some awkwardness. While it may be easy to say Hiro isn’t being fair, the extremity of the vision is enough to explain it. It doesn’t justify telling Ando that he went bad. The scene is clearly ambiguous as to which one turned, but Hiro can’t be unbiased.

However, Hiro still stands by his friend when Daphne threatens Ando at knifepoint, knowing he has a way around Daphne’s super speed making her difficult to locate. Hiro’s smart enough to place a tracking device on it, leading them to her location somewhere in Germany. There are plenty of intriguing elements to this, such as who is Daphne’s boss, does he/she have the other half and why are they interested in getting it (not to mention Why Germany?)

If the premiere is an indicator, Angela is going to be a huge player in this volume (Cristine Rose has been promoted to series regular). All the major threats so far have stemmed from what Angela and her eleven associates did thirty years prior, but this time Angela’s taking a more active role earlier in the game. She finally reveals her power: precognitive dreaming which was Peter’s first absorbed power, and makes a power play by trying to put Sylar under her thumb.

Angela’s dream is rather graphic, a return to the more grisly imagery of the series’ early episodes, where all our heroes are torn apart so much so that not even Peter can recover. In it the rogue gallery includes Knox, an awake Maury Parkman, an unburied Adam and an undetermined character played by Ali Larter. Since both major villains from season two weren’t killed off, they must’ve computed that in anticipation for this.

An interesting theory stemming from Maury’s cameo is that he is influencing Nathan by showing Linderman to him only. It shouldn’t be a big surprise that Linderman has been an illusion all along, but why and how considering when we last saw him? The Maury theory may be the strongest to date, but it still doesn’t explain how Nathan was able to heal from who should’ve been two fatal gunshot wounds.

There are some questions about Peter’s predicament in Jesse’s body that will likely be answered soon. What happened to the real Jesse? Did he get “hollowed out” and Peter was thrown in? Do Peter’s powers still work and is he collecting the powers of the escapees with him?

There is one major problem with the rogue gallery: “The German” who can control magnetic fields. Seriously? I’m admittedly not well-versed in comics but even I know that’s obviously too close to X-Men’s Magneto.

And why did they let the pyrokinetic guy burn a woman to death not two yards away from the gas pump? One flame gets too close and they get in the worst gas pump explosion since Zoolander.

The other problem I have is with the reveal that Angela is Sylar’s real mother. The secret twist familial relationship has been done so many times, especially in soaps, that for it not to induce eye rolling they need to earn it. A great recent example of one that did is the first season of Dexter, which used a shocking family connection effectively since it was hinted at and alluded to throughout the first season and makes sense when rewatching those episodes. This almost sounds like fan fiction. However, they could easily make up for that shortcoming, like if this is Angela's attempt to manipulate Sylar, since physical torture isn’t going to do much now.

Bennet ends the episode with a new mission: to bag and tag the eleven other escapees again. Unfortunately Bennet had little to do in this premiere, which is strange considering he’s one of the series’ best assets. However, Bennet is on a mission and out to punish someone who hurt Claire, and when is that not entertaining?

Regardless of the nitpicks, this premiere was a solid effort and this one improved upon the first hour. Yes there are plenty of plot holes (as I’ve mentioned), but this felt as fun as an average first season episode and that’s a good indicator. The ratings, unfortunately, were down, but if the episodes maintain and eventually improve on this quality, Heroes could get its buzz back.

Overall Score: 8/10

Heroes: Season 3, Episode 1 Review: The Second Coming

The Second Coming

Original Airdate: September 22, 2008

Writer: Tim Kring
Director: Alan Arkush

It’d be an understatement to say that Heroes has had a bad year. Its breakout season ended on an anticlimactic note and the second season was bogged down by unimportant plot lines and a lack of momentum. Before it could prove itself, the writers’ strike happened and cut the season in half. When the writers went back to work, Heroes opted not to return in the spring because their demanding post production meant too few episodes to bother. Adding insult to injury, Heroes had to stew in the breakdown lane figuring out how to get back on track as Lost was doing victory laps while blasting “Machine Gun” by the Commodores in their best season yet. While Heroes isn’t on Lost’s level, it still can be very entertaining (a similar analogy can be made between Prison Break and 24), but they lost their way. Not to mention the lack of momentum didn’t help this episode. However, this reboot has a lot of potential of reviving the popcorn fun of the first season.

The reveal that Peter from the future shot Nathan is pretty satisfying. In 2011, Peter (here after will be referred to as Future Peter) travels back to the moment where Nathan comes out as an evolved human. Apparently, this moment sets off a chain of events leading to a future where evolved humans are hunted and killed, and Claire wants to blow Peter’s brains out. I’m inclined to believe that Claire, despite dying her hair black to imply that she’s gone bad, is still good and that Peter is bad. Really Peter couldn’t go back a little further and convince Nathan not to go ahead with the press conference? He has to shoot him?

Contrast Future Peter’s tactics to Future Hiro. Future Hiro presumably spent a long time learning the rules of his time travel so as not to create a rift. He even makes sure to be careful how he words his warnings. Future Peter, however, shoots his brother twice within minutes of his arrival. It’s almost like that “Treehouse of Horror” where Homer goes crazy in prehistoric times after failing to reverse his mistakes in careless time traveling.

Future Peter messing things up in the present paired with Hiro’s brief encounter in the future bring up the important issue of whether time travel is an overused device on the show. So far it’s been done four times, three of them involving Hiro. While it is a valid complaint, the uses are brief (Hiro seeing his death) or done in an interesting angle (Future Peter as a major character). Seeing that two characters can bend space and time, this is going to be part of the show until both of them leave and that is unlikely.

Much like the one in “Five Years Gone”, Future Peter is more adept at using his powers than present Peter. He can transport people to different sides of the world like Matt or their consciousness into another person like Peter. He also helps override a lot of those plot contrivances where a problem exists only because Peter doesn’t use one of his powers, like him blocking Matt’s attempt to read his mind. It doesn’t explain why he doesn’t heal that scar, which is really more the classic identifier of who’s from the alternate reality.

This Peter also brings up interesting questions about his powers. Peter has so many powers and presumably encounters more that it’d be easy to be corrupted. The only problem he faces is decapitation, and several of his other powers can easily avoid that problem. So he gets greedy and thinks he can do whatever he wants, leading to disastrous repercussions.

After Nathan is shot, he is presumed dead when suddenly he makes a full recovery. Now how that is possible is left for some speculation. Future Peter doesn’t try to inject some of his blood, which would surely help like Claire’s or Adam’s. Then we see Linderman in Nathan’s hospital room. Since he can heal the wounded, it’d make sense that that’s what saved Nathan, except DL scrambled Linderman’s brain months earlier. Whatever the reason behind Linderman’s presence, seeing Malcolm McDowell back is more than welcome.

With his figurative but not literal bullet dodging, Nathan is thinking that he is “born again”. It may be a slightly annoying angle, but it does garner the attention of the Governor of New York, who sees him as a fitting candidate to fill the vacated space in the Senate. While the plans of Angela and Linderman in season one didn’t pan out, they may get their second chance here. Nathan may be willing to be plied for a higher power as he has for political reasons.

Not directly addressed in the premiere is Niki, last seen in an exploding building in New Orleans. Here she appears to be mistress of the New York Governor, under the name “Tracy”. It would be a safe assumption that this is another personality like Jessica or Gina, but the lack of explanation of how she got there, not to mention the missing Micah and Monica, raises some suspicions.

Hiro, who apparently runs his father’s company rather than his more involved sister, is growing restless and looking for another adventure. So learning that his father had a secret safe containing a formula that could create devastating consequences for the world that he has to protect and never open no matter what, his curiosity gets the best of him (as his father predicted), leaving it exposed and ready for Daphne’s taking.

Daphne, who looks a little too much like Kristen Bell, is poised to be a counter to Hiro. While she can’t stop time, she is fast enough to override Hiro’s ability and that is certainly interesting. She must have a way not to run full speed into a wall and liquefy herself. It wouldn’t be hard to believe she uses her power like Hiro’s and can actually slow time, enabling her to appear to be going at super speed. Whatever it is, it’s an effective way of stealing the formula, leaving two questions: who wants it, and how did they figure out when it’d be vulnerable.

Instead of going back to the past to ask Kaito what exactly is the formula and what does it do, he travels ahead to see if it is as bad as his father believed and witnesses Tokyo as it is literally collapsing. He finds another Future self arguing with Ando, who presumably kills him with a shot of red lightning. So this leads us to the likely conclusion that Ando will get a taste of this serum Mohinder’s concocting. It’s also going to make things awkward, as Hiro now believes that Ando’s going to betray him. That’s a good observation, but like Future Claire and Future Peter, looks can be deceiving. We’ve been told some of our heroes will engage in more villainous activities, and really Hiro would be the biggest fall.

It’d be a safe guess to assume that this formula ties into Mohinder’s serum of unknown powers. While Mohinder is ready to get on board with a breakthrough that could give anyone powers Maya, who somehow managed not to get hit by a bus in the first two minutes of the episode, serves as the counter to that argument. While some may get powers that serve a good purpose like regeneration, they could also get Ted’s and go nuclear. However, Mohinder could care less at this point and wants to take it for a test drive. While his power wards off his would be attackers, they are likely going to lead to major trouble, like what causes Tokyo to lose power and collapse in the near future.

In Kaito’s video, he mentions a “light” that can help avert the disaster this formula can unleash. Here it sounds almost certain that that light is Claire with her conversation with Sylar after he gains her power. While Sylar’s killed all his victims to steal their powers, he can’t do it with Claire, claiming she’s more special than the others and that she (and now he) can’t die. Sylar likely doesn’t know Adam’s exception to that rule where decapitation becomes unrecoverable, but maybe Claire’s regeneration has improved over centuries as one more advanced than Adam’s.

After two seasons, Sylar and Claire have the showdown Isaac predicted and Sylar gains her power. The Claire and Sylar scenes clearly mimic Halloween down to Claire hiding in the closet. This is reminiscent of the early Sylar stuff before Zachary Quinto was cast and detracts a bit from him as a villain. Also, how does Sylar blow up the light fixture?

Not to mention the complete lack of connecting Sylar in the gutter curing himself to him across the country at the Bennet house. This may have something to do with the strike curtailing last season. Originally Sylar wasn’t going to appear at all in Volume Three while Quinto was working on Star Trek. This could work, but with that cut storyline, his abrupt arrival feels like a rewrite without rereading thoroughly.

This is the first time Sylar’s power retrieval process is shown and it may be a bit disappointing. He just pokes at her brain until he finds the right spot. Then again, Sylar grabbing the brain and suddenly getting a rush of power wouldn’t work either. Sadly, those hoping for him to eat brains will never get their moment as he dismisses it as “disgusting”.

Sylar gaining Claire’s regeneration gives him another boost against Peter, even if Peter knows the one thing a regenerator can’t survive. By the end, Sylar reveals he has an ulterior motive for stealing the power besides the obvious. Sylar now has a “shopping list” of abilities of the most powerful, dangerous men The Company have under their control and now few have the power to stop him.

Unfortunately, the big reason behind Sylar’s shopping spree isn’t revealed in the episode. As staff writer Remy Minnick and executive producer Jonah Weiland said in a chat on CBR news, Sylar lost all the powers he gained throughout the first season except for his telekinesis because of the Shanti virus. This should’ve been included, or at least made more explicit, as it makes Sylar’s motivation more interesting than him just getting more powers for their own sake.

One of the big elements of this season’s advertising was the hype over Level 5 (“Where evil resides”, the ads promise). Here they are cells not much different than what we’ve seen in Primatech. Bennet is one of the prisoners, as if The Company would let him back with no reservations after what he’s done. Another, claiming to be Peter, is played by Francis Capra, who was on Kristen Bell’s previous show Veronica Mars. The one that I’m really excited about is Knox, played by Jamie Hector. Hector’s best known for playing Marlo Stanfield on The Wire, and he was stone cold evil on that. Every other character on The Wire had some degree of redemptive characteristics, but not Marlo. He’d kill anyone who looked at him wrong.

So while some things in this first episode don’t work, it’s a step in the right direction. The stories are moving ahead with enough speed that the uneven elements are easy to forgive, much like Heroes is at its best. Hopefully this season gels faster and in a more entertaining way than the last.

Overall Score: 7/10