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?
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.
-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.
Fun Fact: Claremont, the sword repair guy, is named after Chris Claremont who took a D-list reprint comic and turned into Marvel's top selling book (the X-Men).
ReplyDeleteQuestion: Why doesn't DL just phase Nikki out of harms way when Linderman shoots her? His power does work on other people, as evidence when he phased Nikki through the wall. Granted he didn't have time to think, but bad move dude!
Highlight: Micah speculating that Candice bends light. The producers must be reading your blog, Nikki! And then somehow going back in time to film the episode. Or something.
Heh, illusionista...I like that. Also, Candice got some depth this episode. This was a why didn't I think of that sooner. She wouldn't be the first illusionist to pull this trick (Mastermind did the smae thing during the famous Dark Phoenix Saga arc by the aformentioned Chris Claremont).
This episode has a pretty high "death" count: DL, Linderman, Ted, and Thompson!
Also, I can't believe I didn't put the Molly = tracking device together before tonight's episode.
Hiro and Ando, maybe you should clean up Issac's body. Gee, no wonder the cops thought Hiro was the murder. He's been walking around a dead body for days and not doing anything about it.
Save Ando!
I noticed Sylar disappear, and figured it meant Claude is toast. Which makes me very, very sad.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting that Linderman's power was healing things. Usually that's a power that would be associated with a hero, not a villain. But he seemed to be a very bad man.
Then again, so did Bennett. Looks can be deceiving on this show.
I'm hoping Peter turns out to be adopted, or that Clare, Peter thing is really creepy.
There's two Heroes guests in Toronto this summer - Suresh Mohinder (Erick Avari) at the Polaris convention, and Clare (Hayden You-dont-expect-me-to-spell-her-last -name) at Fan Expo.
-"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.
ReplyDeleteOkay, this is a bit of a pet peeve of mind. Just because a character says something like this doesn't mean the writers believe it. You don't think the writers think blowing up New York is a good thing because Linderman said that, right? So why would you assume that he is esposing the writer's philosophy here?
Also, I wouldn't write off Claude just yet. There could be more than one invisible man. Sylar's comment on "I can't wait to try that!" in a previous episode seems to indicate he didn't have the power of invisible previously (remember, he has more powers than we know about as he had several victims before the show). Or he could have teleported or used superspeed (could that be why he was able to shake Hiro's time-freeze? I mean, if Hiro can't really freeze time but just really slows it down--remember the scene where he stole the fake sword-- perhaps Sylar's superspeed alowed him to act "normally?"). Heck, we can't really be sure he used a power at all due to the way the camera panned. He could have just slipped away into the crowd for all we know.
Colleen: I agree with you on Linderman; he's coming off as a bad man, but so did Bennet, and Mr. Nakamura. But we've been proven wrong on both of them, so I'm hoping Linderman isn't actually dead. His power far too valuable.
ReplyDeleteBrian: Interesting point on the Chris Claremont connection!
And I don't think DL thinks, so that's why he didn't think of moving her out of the way. ;)
I can't take the credit for illusionista -- that was Roland's last week. :)
As for your second comment, the irony is, your pet peeve is people who attribute thoughts to writers, but you've just put words in my mouth that I neither said nor implied. I never said the writers believe in what they write, I said it was BAD WRITING. Huge, huge difference. I watch The Shield and The Sopranos, for god's sakes, do you REALLY think I'm so naive that I think writers believe absolutely everything their characters say? Come on... you MUST know me better than that by now, even if it's just as a blogger. ;)
I think the speech by Linderman about Jessica's love of money was cliched and stupid. I think her immediately falling to her knees in a daze in front of the money was cliched, misogynistic, and stupid. The writers handled that scene very badly, which is what I said, but I don't for a second believe that they believe what they wrote. That's you making a huge leap of logic there that I never even considered. Please give me a little more credit that maybe I don't think the writers think blowing up NY is a good thing. :/
Thanks Nikki for the illusionista shout out! I almost forgot I came up with that one ;) Feel free to use it!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree, I thought the Nikki/Jessica/DL scene was totally lame (your destiny is to give me my son...still cracks me up!) and also the bribe from Linderman, even Jessica wants Micah back, I totally don't believe she would kill DL for the money.
I actually hope DL is still alive, Linderman's brains must have healing power!
It'll be interesting to see how they can blow Sylar up without killing him (since he's supposed to be on next season).
It never ceases to amaze me how Dr. Mohinder can be such a doofus LOL
Heroes is on at 10pm here? I wonder if we will get the NBC feeds earlier...
Nikki, sorry if I misunderstood your comment. It wasn't very clear whether you were bashing the writers for bad writting or for Linderman misogynistic statement (or rather whether you were bashing them for bad writing AND misogynmy, or just bad writter).
ReplyDeleteI don't see how DL can die here. Assuming that if Hiro et al. don't stop Peter/Sylar from going Nitro results in the future Hiro just visited, I don't see how DL can die. Hiro hasn't done anything to affect DL's storyline, and we know in the future DL was captured by Bennet/Parkman and then presumably killed by President Sylar. Unless Hiro didn't do something to alter DL's journey this time, and he died earlier. Ack, my head hurts thinking of this temporal stuff!
Can Linderman can heal from DL's labotomy? Will he, dead or alive, somehow heal DL's injuries?
Also, did Peter turn Clair invisible too this episode? I think he did, and this is the first time either he or even Claude used the power on another person.
Did anyone else get the sinking feeling, as we heard the legend of the warrior who sacrificed his own heart, that it was referring to Hiro sacrificing Ando?
ReplyDeleteOh man. I never even thought of that Colleen. Now it's a whole new sinking feeling I've got in MY heart.
ReplyDeleteDL/bullet. Methinks that DL couldn't phase out Nikki because he usually phases THROUGH something -- a wall, a solid object, etc. He could have phased himself through the bullet, but then it would have just gone through him and hit Nikki anyway. Also, I think it's pretty apparent, if you see previous phasing scenes of them, that they shoot the phasing process as a slow one, not something that DL can do instantaneously. As we've seen previously, he always requires mental focus to phase, and this instant reaction, to take the bullet for Nikki (SO 80s Bollywood), is one in which his reaction is unconsidered/impulsive. What I don't get is what he phases into in order to get behind Linderman. He'd have to go into the ground! That was the one part where I got confused, because he's not Claude.
I don't think Claude's dead. I thin Sylar can just move really fast. The way that scene was shot was to make his voice heard, but focus on the detective, and when she turns around, she finds Sylar gone. So I think he can just move from place to place at great speeds.
Finally, I am insanely bugged by the fact that Linderman "engineered" Micah. HOW, pray, can he know that by putting DL and Nikki together, he's going to get Micah out of it? With those powers exactly? That's a bit strange, don't you think? That's a very god-like thing to do. Also, while we know D.L. has powers, how does Linderman know that Nikki does? I mean, it's only after her sister dies that she takes on her personality. And we've seen her discover it and come to terms with it. So how does Linderman know from the get-go that she's "special"?
Roland: I don't think I'll miss DL; I really did find his and Niki's storyline kept pulling us away from the others, but then again, now that we know Micah's, having a whole "super-family" is an intriguing aspect, if they can join forces with the others. Maybe you're right; I wonder if Linderman's brain can actually heal him! I never thought of that. :)
ReplyDeleteBrian: I was wondering about the Claire invisibility thing, too! I wondered how he did it. Are we to understand he draped his clothes over Claire and that made her invisible? A bit of a stretch. It's not exactly like he's wearing Harry Potter's cape or something. Hmm... I wonder how he did that...
Colleen: Oh... wow... I never thought of that. I bet you are bang on the money with that one... that will be SO sad. Maybe Hiro really WILL turn into Future Hiro, because his heart will have turned to stone after he sacrificed it through Ando. :( Wow... it'll be sad, but in a Joss Whedon "oh my god I can't stop crying that was the greatest scene ever" kind of way. Perfect for the story, but so sad.
Chapatikid: Good points about Linderman and Micah, etc. Maybe he is a futuristic god-like person, kinda like Jacob on Lost? Hmm... I still don't get DL's powers exactly (Brian, any help?) How is he able to make Niki walk through walls, too? I know he can phase out in order to do that -- it's almost like he liquefies himself or something -- but how does he allow Niki to do it?
chaptikid: My point was since he was able to phase Nikki through the wall, he would have been also been able to phase her through the bullet, thus saving them both. However, he is probably not as well versed in the use of his powers, and thus instinctually tried to protect her a more conventual way.
ReplyDeleteAs to engineering Micah, methinks Issac might not be the only precog Linderman's has his eye on.
Nikki: Phasing is a pretty funky power. I'll try to keep the theoretical/sci-fi physics to a minimum, but the principle behind it get pretty out there as it involves quantom mechanics and string theory. The following is mostly theoretical in nature, and has yet to be verified, although none of the experiments done to date have contradicted it either.
It works by moving an object "out of phase" with the universe. In this case, DL is moving beyond the three-dimensional universe that we know it (there are 11 dimensions, and no, time is NOT the 4th dimension in real science, as opposed to pop-culture science, but I digress here). Since electrostatic forces only work in the three dimension, this allows him to pass through matter. Matter is actually mostly empty space, and it is the electrostatic forces that give it the illusion of solidness. Gravity, however, does work in more than 3 dimensions (which is why it is much weaker than electrostatics), which keeps DL rotating with the earth instead of flying off into space. Hope that didn't get too technical for you laymans. (Don't worry, my brain hurts too thinking about this stuff).
As to DL/Peter using their phasing/invisibilty on Nikki/Clair, well, it works on their clothes too (assuming they aren't made up of "unstable molecules"), so why not another person?
As to invisibilty power, the conventional theory is bending light around the object rendered invisible, but this present the problem of how can they see in that case as there would be no light hitting the eye.
I think my brain just melted.
ReplyDeleteWas that too technical? Let me see if I can sumarize better. Quantom physics is a weird field.
ReplyDeleteBasically, he shifts to a different "phase" (a term that comes from string theory, not to be confused with shifting from liquid to solid etc., which is called a phase shift) where the forces that prevent you from passing through objects are not present. Think of it this way. Take two pieces of paper, one with a line/wall drawn accross it and the other without. When DL needs to pass through the line/wall, he shifts to the other paper/phase, moves past it, than shifts back.
Honestly, all you have to say is "quantum physics" and my brain begins to liquefy, so I'll have to read your comments again and again to actually get it. :) Thanks for the explanation!
ReplyDeleteNikki: Interestling enough, that's exactly how that one guy Sylar killed melts things. He mentions quantom physics to them, and they liquify instantly.
ReplyDelete