Heroes, Chapter 22: Landslide

“My name is Hiro Nakamura, and the fate of the world is in your hands.” Another lead-up episode, which means all the action is being saved for that big final hour next week.

Hiro and Ando search for a way to fix Hiro’s sword, and Ando finds the special symbol in the phone book. Just happens Daddy Takei is there, and he’s a GOOD guy. He comes from the Linderman/Granny Petrelli generation of heroes, but where some of them “lost their way,” according to Mr. Nakamura, he wants to help fight evil, and he will help Hiro. I never saw that one coming!

One who lost his way was Linderman, who possesses an incredible power that we see again when he heals Nathan’s wife by simply holding her hand. Linderman is masterminding Nathan’s election by making sure he wins by a landslide, and then he will be the puppet master from that point on. He reveals that Nathan’s father was one of the heroes who tried to make a difference, but it wasn’t enough, and he gave up. He says he was weak. Nathan counters that his father was his hero. He sees through Linderman’s story, and knows that maybe his father gave up, but it was only because he couldn’t fight the evil without and the evil within their group, i.e. Linderman.

We realize Linderman is going to ensure that landslide by using Micah’s power at the voting booth (see, this couldn’t happen in Canada, where we still vote with a pencil on slips of paper and they are counted by hand). After much speculation on just what Micah’s power is, it’s clear he doesn’t manipulate machines, he “talks” to them and communicates by telling them to do things for him, and they comply. Weird.

Candice is apparently really an overweight person (not clear if she’s really a man or a woman, but I’d guess woman) who was hurt growing up by people who made fun of her for the way she looked, so she is apparently ALWAYS creating the illusion of being an attractive woman, when in fact she isn’t. For the first time, she comes off as someone other than the two-dimensional illusionista she’s been up til now. Linderman clearly preys on the weak, and lets them know he’ll change the world for the better, and they believe him.

Jessica and DL are looking for Micah, and you know, I’ve disliked Jessiki for most of the season, but I must say seeing her paired up with DL as a superhero duo is actually pretty cool, and I’m rooting for her for the first time. Too bad it looks like DL might be toast now. But he seems to have taken out Linderman doing it.

Claire, Ted, and Peter are trying to get out of the city so the latter two can’t blow up New York, but Ted is stopped by Agent Harris, and Sylar gets the best of him. And that’s when Claire and Peter realize it’s not one of them who is going to blow up the city, but Sylar. (Duh… welcome to where the rest of the audience was about 10 episodes ago.)

Bennet and Matt head into the building to get rid of the tracking device. You know, last week they were discussing a tracking device and eventually called it the Walker Device, but I never caught that until they ran it and the “This is Molly Walker” scene back to back in the “previously on” section at the beginning of the show! Talk about a pretty big thing to keep subtle and easily missed.

Meanwhile, Molly proves to Mohinder that she really can track anyone, and begins to point out that Matt – her other hero – is in the building, and she can’t wait to see him. Thompson runs in to say that they’re in the building, runs out, and Bennet shoots him in the head (since this was in the preview, I assumed he didn’t actually die… way to COMPLETELY SPOIL this scene in the preview!) Mohinder sees that Matt and Bennet are coming, so he puts his hands up on the door because hey, he can TOTALLY stop the door from opening by using only his fingertips (I wanted Bennet to try shooting through the door and hope we’d get lucky that a stray bullet would end up where one should have gone a long time ago) but then he mysteriously disappears and they casually walk in. In a very Reservoir Dogs scene, Bennet holds a gun to Molly while Mohinder holds a gun to him, and neither can do anything.

Highlights:
-Mr. Nakamura unsheathing the sword, swinging it around until it touches Hiro’s neck, and him raising his eyebrows. The look on Hiro’s face is priceless.
-Bennet giving Matt the long explanation for why he needs to go up to floor 42, and Matt saying, “Ok, a simple No would have been fine.”
-Matt convincing Stan the guard to let them pass.

Lost Numbers:
-anyone else catch all the Lost numbers in this episode? Just a couple of examples: Molly is on floor 42, Nathan wins by a 64% margin, which is 8 x 8 or 32 (reverse 23) x 2.

Nitpicks:
-why is it when Sylar flipped over the police vehicle, he did so on a deserted street with no cars, no pedestrians, no witnesses whatsoever, yet about half an hour later it’s a major thruway out of the city and the traffic jam is enormous?
-Jessica has gone through hell to get to Linderman to get Micah back, and yet the moment Linderman tells her he’s going to make her kill her husband as long as she looks in the bag, she looks in the bag. O…kay. And then there’s this long scene about how all she cares about is money “like any woman who’s been hurt by a man.” No misogyny in THAT statement. Sheesh. The writers on this show can go from awesome to blech in a single scene.
-Linderman dies face down on the floor so you can see the big gaping hole in the back of his head. When the camera pans away, Linderman’s head is facing to the left, we can no longer see the wound.

Worst line:
Linderman: I believe destiny is intrinsic.
DL: Your destiny, is to GIVE ME BACK MY SON.

Ugh.

Questions:
-Did Candice really give Micah an original Silver Surfer #1, or is it just the most recent issue of the Buffy comic that she’s made LOOK like the Silver Surfer comic?
-Is DL going to die?

-Is Linderman really dead? If so, I must admit it’s a pretty huge loss. His power is amazing, and I was hoping we’d see a way he could use it for good. It seems like he died a little too easily.
-what is Granny Petrelli’s power?
-after Harris catches Ted, she turns around and only hears Sylar say, “I’m not most people,” but he’s not actually there. Does this mean he’s killed Claude and sucked his power? Remember, he’s not like Peter – he can’t just absorb the power by being next to someone. Peter went invisible moments earlier and ran away with Claire, but Sylar doesn’t work that way. So is Claude dead? Or did Sylar just run away very quickly?
-will the cops EVER find Isaac’s body or will he just lie there for most of season 2?
-will Ando get himself killed?
-does something happen to Micah when he talks to computers? He looked pretty exhausted. Candice looks concerned when he asks to go home. Perhaps it’s because he’s so young and has never had to use his power on such a huge scale.
-how long has Jessica been able to allow Niki forward? Niki’s clearly been influencing her from the inside. Jessica would never have allowed Niki to come out and stop her just a few episodes ago.
-Is Thompson really dead?
-how awesome is Sylar when he flips the truck over? I love watching that.

Next week: The finale!! It's airing at 10pm in Canada, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to get my blog out on Monday night or Tuesday morning, but I'll aim for the former.