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.
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
Overall Score: 6/10
posted by Matt @ 2:41 PM
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