Heroes Ep 10: Six Months Ago
Best. Episode. Yet. WOW!! Heroes’ 10th episode moved back in time 6 months, to a place where all of the heroes were just finding out about their powers, and where Suresh is starting to put the pieces together. In a move that is very rare on television, the audience knows far more than any of the characters about what is going to happen to them (it’s like those flashback episodes to Angelus on Buffy, where we go back 100 or more years to find out why Angel is the way he is). Suddenly, SO much of this show makes sense:

Niki: She had a twin sister named Jessica (a little more Sweet Valley High for ya, but it seemed less cheesy than just naming your alter-ego) who was killed when she was only 11. It is often said that twins have the power to know what the other one is thinking or feeling, and perhaps some of this ESP has passed from one to the other, and now Niki inhabits both sides. Their father was an abusive alcoholic who would beat Jessica (it’s not really mentioned if he did anything sexually oriented) and Jessica, looking out for Niki, would take the brunt of it to protect Jessica. So Niki’s power derives from having a twin, and the emotional trauma that she was split in two when her twin was killed. It’s only when her father shows up to try to be BFFs that the dormant twin reared its head.

Nathan: There’s no real scientific explanation for why Nathan can fly, but we see the accident that left his wife paralyzed, and in the moment where he could have saved her, he flew out of his seat. No wonder he sees his power as a curse, and not a blessing. Had he not flown away like a pilot ejecting from a crashing plane, he could have steered the vehicle away from the concrete abutment and probably saved his wife. Before the accident, he’s actually a pretty funny, laid-back guy. Lieberman is a guy whom the Petrellis’ father worked for, and they’ve both done shady things, so if he has some sort of mafia presence, as Peter suggests, it would link him to Nikessica and the shady things she undertakes in the months to come.

Peter: It’s been established that his power is to take on the power of anyone else he’s close to, but we can’t underestimate the power of the prophetic (Buffy-like, I have to say) dreams he’s been having. He dreams of the car accident and knows exactly what happens. He dreams of Simone’s father right before he dies. He dreams of what Isaac is painting, and then the dream comes true when he acts it out on the building. What has triggered those dreams?

Matt: He’s dyslexic, and has the brains and knowledge to pass the exam he’s tried three times, but not the ability to read. Dyslexics have been known to develop skills in other areas to compensate, and maybe Matt’s power grows out of this (researchers who have worked on dyslexia claim it’s a genetic problem). We see an early moment where he overhears his wife saying, “You’re my hero, buddy” but his reaction suggests he thinks she actually said it, and he doesn’t pick up that he’d actually read her mind.

Eden: As already shown, she has the power of persuasion, and arguably the biggest power of the bunch. She runs into Matt as he tries to pull her over, and when she tells him to go eat donuts, he does, and then ends up sitting there, baffled about what he’s doing. Did her mental suggestion to him spark his own ability to hear voices? After all, in order to persuade people, as we see in this episode, she says it out loud but a much deeper, growlier voice transmits the message directly to the person’s brain telepathically, and maybe it triggered Matt’s new power.

Claire: She’s just at the beginning of her realization that she’s invincible, and the focus seems to be more on her father than her, but the power seems to have come with her getting onto the cheerleading squad. Maybe when she graduates, she’ll lose all of the powers that the outfit got her (i.e., she’d be like every other high school cheerleader who ever graduated high school and realized their best years are behind them)?

Horn-Rimmed Glasses: He’s still a little grey, because while we see his reason for being so involved in everything (he wants his daughter’s name off the list), he also seems to have an immense knowledge of everything before Suresh contacts him. He seems to know there will be a predator out there, and if his daughter’s name is on Suresh’s list, then it’ll mean she’ll become his prey. He finds Eden through his Haitian guy, and helps her hone her powers. He’s definitely someone who, like Suresh and Sylar, wants to find all of the heroes, but unlike Suresh, who wants to catalogue and study them, and Sylar, who wants to kill them, HRG seems to want to help them develop their skills. Whether it’s for good or evil, we still don’t know.

Sylar: Most importantly, we see how Sylar came to be. His real name is Gabriel Grey, definitely a reference to the archangel Gabriel, who is seen as the messenger of God, but this messenger is a perverted version of the biblical one. This was my favourite part of the episode. We discover why he’s been killing off the other heroes – it’s nothing more than blind jealousy. Not only does he kill them, but he sucks up their powers as well. That’s why he seems so untouchable: he’s picked up the guy’s telekinesis, and dozens of other abilities along the way. Now that he’s killed Charlie, he’ll be able to remember absolutely everything. Eden got to him first, though, as we saw in Homecoming, so it means that despite all of his powers, she still managed to trump him.

Hiro: Poor Hiro. He stands alone in this episode as the only one who goes back 6 months with the knowledge of what would happen 6 months hence (and beyond, actually). But what happens to him there is the opposite of what happens to everyone else. Six months ago, all of these people had these new powers budding within them, and some of them became aware of the powers and wondered at the potential. Hiro, on the other hand, already knew about his powers, and six months ago realized there is no potential for him. He’s a hero with a power that’s bigger than him, one he can’t rein in, and if he doesn’t know how to use it to help people, then what good is it? Poor Hiro…

Next week: Though this week’s felt like the fall finale, and would have been the PERFECT way to cap things off, next week’s episode (“Fallout”) will deal with the aftermath of the Homecoming night, and as things come to a head and the heroes all begin to join forces. As the creepy voice on the preview says, “A hero will be lost.” Who will it be? DL? Nathan? And does anyone else think that HRG is holding Sylar in Spike’s old Hostile 17 room from Buffy? Here’s the preview on YouTube.