Heroes, Ep. 19: .07%
It’s back, and it’s still totally awesome. In this episode, HRG helps Matt and Ted try to escape from Primatech. Sylar and Peter have a wicked showdown that ends in Sylar being knocked out, and Peter apparently dead. Claire is reunited with Daddy and brings Uncle Pete back to life. Linderman tells Nate that he’ll be the President of the U.S. and his bro will explode the next day; then wants to get his hands on Micah, and Nikessica will have none of it. So Linderman does it anyway. Mystery Sock finally meets his killer and dies, but says he’ll be leaving a hint of his own. Hiro decides to remain in the past and comes face to face with… himself. Hiro, meet Neo Hiro.
(Sorry there's no photo with this post; I finished this at 11:20, and sat online until 11:47 trying to log onto ANY Heroes site, but they were all too busy, and I'm tired, so I'm posting and going to bed.)
That damn shape shifter: I totally didn’t fall for the Claire bit at the beginning (like come ON why would she be wearing the stupid cheerleading outfit?) But then when she impersonated Jessica, I completely fell for it, assuming Linderman had threatened Micah in some way. Damn her. She says she could show HRG things that would make him tear his eyes out. What would that be?
The Healer… well, until he kills off .07% of the planet: OK, so now Linderman is set up as some kind of Xavier, fighting the Magnetos of the world. He says they all have their roles to play in the events to come. He makes it sound like what we’re watching happened 30 years ago and this is the second generation: he discovered they had powers, met up with each other, worked together, some went bad. For some reason, he doesn’t count himself among that order.
“People need hope, Nathan”: Did you notice the 9/11 subtext in the scene between Linderman and Nathan? “I said people needed hope, but they trust fear… this tragedy will be a catalyst for good, for change. Out of the ashes, humanity will find a common goal, a united sense of hope, couched in a united sense of fear. And it is your destiny, Nathan, to be the leader to use this event to rally a city, a nation, a world.” The conspiracy theorists who believe 9/11 was something somehow organized by the White House to improve Bush’s approval rating and allow the U.S. to go to war are applauding.
“We Follow Orders”: So says Thompson. So who is he taking his orders from?
Evil superhero cage match: The showdown between Sylar and Peter was AWESOME. Loved them going toe to toe. Peter goes invisible, Sylar’s response, “Interesting, I can’t wait to try that one,” is classic. He picks up the glass, and shoots it everywhere. Brilliant. Why doesn’t Peter crouch down? Being invisible doesn’t make you blind.
Mohinder Suresh is mentally challenged: Ok, let’s go back to the previous episode, where he KNEW what Sylar was capable of, but he just HAD to get in his big speech, so he knocks the guy unconscious, waits for him to wake up, and then tries to kill him. Now he gets a second chance, Sylar is unconscious on the floor, and he LEAVES HIM THERE. There’s no denying Mohinder is hot, but he’s stupid. The sheer DUH of this man is mind-blowing. Let’s get rid of him.
Granny’s got a scheme: So what power does Claire’s grandmother have? Claire thinks she has the same power as Claire, but Granny doesn’t confirm that.
Comic book geek: How much do I love the courier guy who comes to pick up the comics from Isaac? “I’ve been dying to know what’s going to happen to Hiro… man, how do you come UP with this stuff?!” For us diehards, it’s like looking in a mirror. (Though I have less facial hair…)
Matt: “What the hell’s an EMP?”
HRG: “Matt, dude, it’s like what happened at the end of season 2 of Lost when Desmond turned that key, and there was the violet sky and the big noise and stuff? Yeah… do that.”
“Cool car”: OK, it was cool and all to see the shapeshifter turn from Jessica back into her real self, and then the real Jessica pulls up and Morphy walks by her commenting on the car, but… why did Linderman’s men leave her there? Do they expect her to take a bus? It doesn’t make any sense that she wouldn’t have gotten right back in the car… unless she’s going to impersonate DL in the next scene…
“This is usually the part where people start screaming”: I know a variation on that line from somewhere (or more than one place). Where do I know it from? (Still, it’s pretty spine-chilling coming from Sylar.)
“You can’t fight the future”: Isaac tells Sylar that he knows his part in all of this. “To die here, with you, but not before I show them how to kill you, and stop the bomb. I finally get to be a hero.” Was there something more in that sketchbook that we don’t know about?
“I don’t like the future”: What were all those scraps spread throughout Isaac’s room? Was Future Hiro doing it? Did you notice when they first entered the room, on the back of the door was 3/3/07, 6/2/07, 3/5/8, 4/7/08 (three dates in the future for us, and 3/3/07 is the day before “Parasite” aired). Did you also notice, right before Hiro faced himself, his attention is caught by an article in the Odessa Register, and from the way the light is shining through the paper, the headline appears to be Train Fire…
Awesome ending! I love this show.
Great episode indeed. I did pick up on the 9/11 thread and was surprised to see it, but if you can't have conspiracy theory in Heroes, what show can you?
ReplyDeleteYou're a mom, can't you imagine some horrible things a shapeshifter could show a parent? I could and quickly stopped doing so.
Thompson says he follows orders. Wouldn't they be Linderman's? That's what I figured.
Don't forget Sylar has the supper hearing (which seems under control now) so he could hear where Peter was, crouching or no.
Woo hoo! This episode was SO worth waiting for... okay, so sometimes the internal logic of the plot seems questionable, but for the purpose of dramatic effect, we must excuse them. For example, if Morphy drove off with Micah, then she and Nikessica wouldn't have that cool meeting, plus we would get to see that it was Morphy, because she can't change back in front of Micah. This is also the reason they have Peter WITH HIS BACK to Sylar, STANDING and getting stuck in the head. Just so Claire Bear can save him. But, oh, what a brilliant fight scene.
ReplyDeleteI think they're totally short-shrifting Mohinder's character by making him sink into these very 90s horror movie mistakes. Although for the purpose of driving the plot, it makes sense for Sylar to get up and take off. And Mohinder's just seen someone die who tried to save his life. So Sylar can be dealt with later.
I was sad to see Isaac die. He was hotness personified to me. After Peter Petrelli, of course.
Did you say Hiro decides to stay in the past? But he's in the future at the end. When he's on the terrace, he says to Ando that they need to go backwards and piece together what they did wrong to get to this point. And it looks like those clotheslines of things are them piecing it all together.
Finally, who thinks Season 2 of Heroes is going to be in a post-Apocalyptic world? (That is, if you think blowing up part of NYC is considered an Apocalyptic event.) And yes, TOTAL echoes of 9/11. I was thinking that myself. This is the second time we've seen a 9/11 reference on NBC now. First 30 Rock, now Heroes. Looks like the cow isn't so sacred anymore.
Candice is an illusionist, not a shape-shifter. Remember she can also hide bodies and stuff. And I was expecting her to change into Micah for Nikessica, but she didn't. Well, we can assume she has her own ride (maybe she was going to steal Nikessica's!).
ReplyDeleteNext season? With Hiro in the future, we get the post apocalypse stuff next week.
Um...maybe Peter turned away when the glass was coming at him? Uh...I got nothing.
Mohinder definately should have killed Sylar when he had the chance. But it's easy for us to judge, when he didn't have the option of thinking it over rationally.
Also, Linderman's plot of destroying New York in the name of global peace is the plot to Watchmen, a graphic novel published in the mid 80s.
ReplyDeleteGood call on the sketchbook. Remember when Issac handed it to the courier he said, "Maybe it will be worth something someday..." Perhaps that wasn't just a reference to the dead artist=paintings go up in value equation -- perhaps the real value is that the answer to stopping Sylar and the bomb is in that book. After all, why would he give it to some joe courier, no matter how much of a fan boy he is? The reason, because Sylar's after the ones with the powers and some regular guy won't be on his radar! Now, what instructions did he leave in it, and for whom?
ReplyDeleteOh... and I can't stand Peter. It may just be me, but I find him a whiny, petulant moron. Kind of like David Schwimmer with powers -- well, I guess Ross did have the power to annoy and kill careers, but you catch my drift...
ReplyDeleteVery BSG Season 3 of Heroes to skip ahead into the apocalyptic future. (You know it's a dark time cause Claire's hair is brown.)
ReplyDeleteI thought Candice was just a shapeshifter. I'm pretty sure I still saw the body lying in the bg when she was impersonating newly dead Simone.
Yup -- I found this in a recap of episode 18 (Parasite) on the NBC Heroes site: Two detectives question Isaac about Simone. When Simone herself walks through the door, he is stunned speechless and the cops leave. But it's not really Simone. It's Candice – she's a shape shifter!
ReplyDeleteMaybe I should get back to work...
“You can’t fight the future”:
ReplyDeleteNotice that when Isaac hands over the new comic to the courier, you see him place the last page into the book. A hand with a needle.
And then tells Sylar that he has let out how to kill Sylar.
Typo in the last comment. My bad. You see Isaac place the last page of the comic into the envelope.
ReplyDeleteThe instructions are in the comic, not the sketch book.
oooh, and Sylar may be able to see the future now, but a painter he is NOT. Did you see how Nathan Petrelli had webby green hands? Very early Picasso meets Matisse. The question is, Isaac paints recognizable people, but whose art would look better hung up on a museum wall?
ReplyDeleteJeremy: No, I can't imagine what a shapeshifter would show me about my daughter, because I think my brain goes into shutdown mode with anything quite that horrible. :::shudder::: But you're right; stupid question on my part.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: When you say Sylar has supper hearing, does that mean he can tell if the oven is cooking roast beef or chicken just by hearing the sizzle?
Chapatikid: I agree; the writers are letting us down by making Mohinder such a complete moron. Oh, and you're right; I meant to say future and typed "past." Obviously it's in the future, because NYC wasn't annihilated in the past. Late hour getting to me again. I need to put warning labels at the top of all of my posts: "Warning: It's past 11, I'm pregnant and totally tired. Blogger cannot guarantee veracity of comments, and will not take blame for anything wrong. However, praise welcome." ;)
Chapatikid and Brian: Since he already let Sylar go once, he MUST have been hanging off that ceiling going, "Damn, damn, damn, why didn't I finish him when I had the chance?" so when that second chance came along, he'd take it instantly. If the first mistake hadn't happened, I think I'd agree with you on him being in shock, but because he's had time to kick himself for what he did, I doubt he would have done it again.
Jay: Peter's never been a fave of mine, either. Though I knew he wasn't dead when the glass went into his head, I certainly wouldn't have been upset if he had been. Maybe he just reminds me of Keanu Reeves too much. "Whoa. Like. The GLASS. In my HEAD. Whoa."
Brian: It would be great if season 2 were in an apocalyptic future. Then it would truly be turning to a sci-fi show.
Crissy: I agree, I think she's a shapeshifter, but then again, Brian, you sound like you know way more on the difference between a shapeshifter and an illusionist than I do... I'll have to go back to the scene and see if Simone is still in the background. I think you said a couple of months ago that an illusionist is someone who alters the environment around them, but I wonder if she's really altering it or they're just using cheesy special effects to exaggerate her magicalness.
Anonymous: Wicked observation! I did see the last panel of the comic that he slid in was a needle, and never put together that that's the key. You are totally right.
Chapatikid: His paintings are TOTALLY demented, eh?? I loved them, actually, and said to my husband, "Whoa... creepy... I want a Sylar painting." When I was a kid, my parents had bought me this book and I couldn't for the life of me tell you what it was about (though part of me thinks it was about da Vinci or something?) but it had the CREEPIEST drawings in it for a children's book, and everyone in it had hollowed-out black eyes. I used to sit and stare at those pictures for hours (which is why I can't really tell you about the text). I saw Sylar's painting last night and instantly thought of that book. THAT is what it looked like. I can't wait to see more of his pics!
Don't get rid of Mohinder. Just stand him quietly in the corner so I can say "oooh, look at the pretty".
ReplyDeleteLinderman reminds me more of Ra's al Ghul in the Batman comics. He wants to destroy people to save the world. And he's got that healing thing (okay, it's not a Lazarus pit, but it's sort of something like).
this is usually the part where people start screaming
ReplyDeletereminded me of jurassic park where jeff goldbum says something like "this is where people start running and there's screaming"
*@#$ typos! But yes, I assume he can tell what what's cookin'!
ReplyDeleteVery good episode.
ReplyDeleteI'm about 90% sure that the comic fanboy was played by David Jung, aka C-Diddy, a former World Air Guitar Champion.
If this is so, that is awesome, as I am very much into the world of competitive Air Guitar, and that would be hilarious to me.
Uh, maybe Mohinder thought he killed Syler and he played dead like he did when he escaped from Primatech?
ReplyDeleteOkay, I'm stretching here...
Oh, and btw, Wikipedia agrees with me and my illusionist theory. Go me! And my mother said 15 years of reading comics wouldn't get me anywhere!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_Heroes#Candice_Wilmer
Man, I take back what I said about Lost being the only show that generates commentary on here. I think this post has my most comments ever! ;) Go Heroes! (And come on Lost later this week... let's see if you can beat it!)
ReplyDeletefuntasticrich: Hmm... that's a good one! I'm wondering if I'm thinking of Buffy. "This is the part where..." is a phrase often used on that show, and maybe that's what I'm thinking. "This is the part where you leave." "This is the part where you tell me you love me." That sort of thing. :)
Jeremy: Sorry... my posts are usually full of them, and yet I couldn't resist. ;)
Jeff: That would be so awesome! I'll have to do some searching...
Brian: I bow to you and your superior comic book knowledge. You are absolutely our in-house (in-blog?) expert when it comes to all things comics. I must say, being an Arrested Development fan, I keep thinking "illusioneer" whenever you say illusionist. ;)