Heroes 1.15-1.16

[bop_radar]

I'm home sick, which means I've actually had some time to catch up on my shows. :-)

It probably comes as no surprise that I didn't enjoy Ando's saving-a-damsel-in-distress plot. Hope was such a caricature. And ultimately I was happy to see Ando heading home. However, I did find their 'break-up' scene quite touching, despite myself. I'm sad for Hiro that his rosy vision of partnership has been marred. But I do think Ando was a liability and I had been wondering if the show would choose to show that Hiro needed to 'go it alone' at some point in time, as part of his heroic journey.

Oh, how I love Claire! And what a tough time she is having. I liked that Claire's real mother proved to be superficially kind but flaky underneath, whereas Nathan on the surface seems like the colder of the two, but would actually be more loving and supportive in the longterm. At least if we believe Nathan's mother when she says that he's a sap, which I do. I do think he was emotionally affected by hearing that his child had survived, but his political instincts and his upbringing have taught him that the right way to handle such things is to offer money. Money that Claire didn't care about but her mother did.

I loved Claire's determination to see her father and Nathan's fear of seeing the photograph. I want those two to meet so desperately now! That moment where Claire hears Nathan say 'you did fine', confirming that he didn't want to see her, was so heartbreaking--but words are not the whole truth, because we saw him battling his emotions, presumably remembering his mother's appeal to put 'the people that really matter' (his 'real' family) first. That's a good way to appeal to Nathan because he has such a strong drive to protect them, and they're already under so much strain. I loved Claire's rage at that, and her throwing a rock at his car.

It was awful seeing Claire's adopted mother's deteriorating mental state. And I found the way this pushed Claire into confronting her father really moving and convincing. She loves her mother so much, she stops caring about protecting herself from her father. As much as I find what Mr Bennett is doing to his wife repulsive, I still find him a very compelling character--he genuinely believes he is protecting his family and that makes him even more dangerous. His love for them is frightening--he's one extreme of the spectrum of characters protecting their families in ways that cross lines.

Matt was becoming more sympathetic to me, having told his wife what was going on. However, just as I was starting to get into his character, he pockets those diamonds and loses me again... I don't find him sympathetic because he continually makes bad decisions, and now he's back lying to his wife again. Aarrrghh. I can see that they've established that he's got low self-esteem, but stealing diamonds is not going to help with that! However, it does make him similar to other characters who we see battling to protect their family. Matt says he's worried about making enough money for his family. And we've seen Nikki, DL and Micah use their powers to help their family survive too.

Hannah is interesting. It makes sense that someone's response to being kidnapped would be vendetta, not just fear. And by contacting others that have gone through the same experience, she is dragging them along in her wake. I really like the way different groups are trying to tackle the problem in different ways--Mohinder tracing people on the list, Sylar collecting brains, Mr Bennett tagging people, Hannah & Co. confronting him. And hopefully it will prompt some revelations.

As fun as Peter's training has been, I have some reservations with his ongoing plot line. Now that we know he absorbs the powers of others permanently, the danger is that he'll become Superman-like in his scope. I dislike this personally because I never liked the idea of Peter as The Chosen One. But I also think it could be a dramatic mistake for the show. Peter could become too powerful so that there is little suspense left. And it means it's less necessary for an ensemble 'showdown'. It's important that the show keeps throwing obstacles in Peter's way, so I was glad that he lost his mentor, especially through his own thoughtlessness. I want Peter to grow as a person, not just in his control of his powers.

So, it seems that the characters I most dislike on this show get killed! First Eden, now Simone. Although Simone may yet rally round to continue being a starry-eyed and annoying idealist a little longer. She annoyed me so much in the scene with Nathan--could she BE any more stupid? Does she really care about either of her boyfriends? Because that's a surefire way to bring down trouble for both of them. And she seems to be bouncing back and forth between Isaac and Peter like a yo-yo--which is no way to inspire my sympathy.

However, her shooting bothered me for other reasons. I didn't like that it was Isaac who caused her death. Especially because I think it will distract from the fact that Peter was completely out of control in that scene--he threw Isaac across a room! He's becoming very very dangerous, and his arrogance is allowing him to act out in anger, no doubt in love with his new power. Isaac thinks he's doing the right thing--I believe that he's motivated not just by jealousy but also in an attempt to prevent the nuclear disaster that he has foreseen. Approaching Mr Bennett is dangerous--it literally puts a gun in Isaac's hand--but it wasn't Isaac who escalated the situation into an open conflict, and he was clearly hesitating to shoot until Peter started goading him. The touch I really hated was Simone's hand opening on the key, since that's another stab at Isaac--he insisted on her keeping it, which leads to her entering without knocking, straight into the middle of the fight. Isaac doesn't need this baggage. Peter does. So I'm pissed that this will probably just make Peter be even more self-righteous and angry. I really hope he does some long hard thinking about the way he's partly to blame too.

Suddenly Sylar seems a whole lot more hip. He didn't really have a character to me before, even once we learnt his background--the nerdy watchfixer was a little hard to relate to. I started enjoying him in the scene with the metal-melter, and once he hooked up with Mohinder I found him more and more enjoyable to watch. For starters, I just love the creepiness of him using Mohinder to get to the others on the list. And it means that Mohinder's ridiculous naivety is actually a plotpoint--it's amusing and/or chilling, rather than just frustrating. It also makes Sylar more interesting--he preys on the innocence of others.

And he's unbelievably convincing at playing innocent himself, as we saw with his performance in front of Mohindar for Dale. I really liked Dale as a character, although her power was a little far-fetched (moods have a sound? Fear I can buy--racing heart--but how would other moods 'sound'?). I loved her line 'Damn! that was my best wrench!' though, and found her a really compelling guest actor.

And could Mohindar be any more dense? Dale spoke of having headaches and suddenly Zane is experiencing them too? Put. The. Pieces. Together.

Next time, I request more Nathan! And I'm looking forward to Jessica-Nathan showdown in the offing too.

Comments

[shopfront.livejournal.com]

Here's a bit of totally rabid speculation because I'm not big on meta or spoilers in Heroes, but I'm hoping (based on a very-vague interpretation of the prophetic dream, for which I haven't been following the meta so I have no idea whether this would tally with anyone else's dream ideas at all) that the big boom will be a result of Peter being a moron/making a mistake. I don't really mind whether he really does lose control of Ted's power or whether it's a red herring for something else, but I'm definitely hoping for a misstep to hopefully bring Peter down a peg or two and smack a bit of power-orientated realism into the boy.

A really nice twist? Would be Peter not being able to control the radiation power because he's trying to hang on to/use too many other powers. Peter go bang, or nearly go bang, and a limit on the Superman!Peter problem. Hell, if something like that does happen, there could be a lovely self made obstacle of him refusing to consciously tap any of the powers he leeched in case he loses control again.

[bop-radar.livejournal.com]

I'd love the big boom to be a result of Peter being a moron! :-) He needs brought down a peg or two, for sure! And I like your idea of a self-made obstacle. I just think that amount of powers needs to come with a serious price, and this show's already treading a thin line with that--I found his sudden ability to command multiple powers when threatened just a little too speedy for my liking. I really hope it's headed where you suggest. Otherwise I may soon be back to finding him an insufferable little sod, and I thought I'd got over that! ;-)

[dualbunny.livejournal.com]

Even Superman has limits when the story needs them. So I'm assuming that when it comes time, we'll find out what Peter's weakness(es) is. Whether it will be physical, mental, or based on his relationships is hard to say. All three have been used on Superman, so I wouldn't write out any as a possibility.

I feel like it's a given that Peter is going to get a dose of reality eventually, so I don't mind how Simone's death went down at Isaac's. Isaac had entirely too much success beating his drug habit and putting together a stable life to bring back Simone. I think this will let them angst his character up again, but with more depth this time around.

I guess I'm just not that worried about Peter because I find it hard to believe that the writers, with their clear comics inspiration, wouldn't have considered what happens when a character gets to be too god-like.

[bop-radar.livejournal.com]

I like your point that Isaac's journey so far has been a bit too easy. However, I still have major issues with Peter and have had from the beginning. While I agree that the comics-inspired writers will have thought about the too-many-powers issue, my fear is that they're all too happy to have Peter become the 'special' hero, who can control multiple powers, perhaps with some kind of self-martyring gesture because they cost him something, but successfully nonetheless. And that just makes me want to gag because I don't want the emo white boy to be the hero, especially a whiny emo white boy who has about as much maturity as a six-month-old puppy. What I would like would be for him to really screw up and have to deal with it and mature in the process. It's still possible that the writers will take him down that path, but I had alarm bells ringing from the very beginning when they didn't seem to problematise his conviction that he's special, and he won Simone so easily. I suspect him of being the writers 'favourite', and I worry they're blind to the problems inherent in his character.

[dualbunny.livejournal.com]

I can't say that Peter's ever been my favorite, but they do keep surprising me with the steps they've made so far with his character. Which is not to say that while I'm not too worried yet, that your fears aren't unfounded. ;D

[bop-radar.livejournal.com]

I hope my fears are unfounded. I'd settled down with him, and then I got worried again, but it could yet come good... I like him around Nathan. I like anyone around Nathan. :-)

[latxcvi.livejournal.com]

As fun as Peter's training has been, I have some reservations with his ongoing plot line. Now that we know he absorbs the powers of others permanently, the danger is that he'll become Superman-like in his scope.

I think that was a mistake from the perspective of dramatic storytelling precisely because it makes him dramatically inconvenient; if he's all-powerful, then there's no fight he can't win, and there's zero suspense in that. Even Kal-El can't battle kryptonite or magic. Now, I have just enough faith in the creative team at Heroes to believe they know this and there's some soon-to-be-revealed obstacle or downside to Peter's power (much in the way Sylar apparently can't handle having super-hearing and wow did I love that bit of karmic righteousness). But I was actually more annoyed than thrilled to see Peter channeling all the powers he's come into contact with so far during that showdown with Isaac.

I dislike this personally because I never liked the idea of Peter as The Chosen One.

Again, agreed, although FWIW, I suspect that Peter's only going to be the Chosen One when it comes time to take out Sylar. Saving New York? He's still not going to be able to do that on his own, especially not if he's the reason it's potentially going to explode.

ITA with everything you said about Claire and Nathan, and Matt. I want to like Matt because Grunberg's an appealing actor/presence, but Matt hits a lot of the Wow, You're Really Annoying to LaT character buttons.

I could not agree with more about the problematic nature of how Simone died. I actually got into an argument with a friend about that scene Monday night (a friendly argument, but an argument nonetheless) because she couldn't understand how I assigned any blame to Peter for it when Isaac was the one who fired the gun until I pointed out to her that the only reason Isaac reached for deadly force was because Peter was the one who escalated it to that level. Once he threw Isaac across the room with his mind, chucked paint cans at him and then turned himself invisible, all bets were reasonably off in terms of Isaac just assuming Peter wouldn't try to kill him. They're both responsible for what happened, but Isaac was actually responding in a manner that could be expected when someone else comes at you the way Peter did. If Peter had just used his fists, I'd feel differently. But the very fact of his powers and how he was using them made him more dangerous than your average bar brawler; Isaac wasn't being wacky in reaching for the gun. He shouldn't have fired it without ascertaining who the target was, but it ... simply wasn't unreasonable for him to try to protect himself that way from someone who can do what Peter can and who was clearly out of control.

Sylar interests me in the way competent villains always can (and I think Zachary Quinto is fantastic), but like I said above, I loved the possible suggestion that he's bitten off more than he can chew. Sure, Dale eventually learned how to manage her power (and I really liked her and her actress a lot, too), but I think it would be nifty if Sylar couldn't (after all, different people have different degrees of aptitude; simply because Sylar steals powers doesn't automatically mean he'd always have aptitude at using them). I like it both because of its karmic implications -- hey, Sylar, this is why we don't steal other people's shit! -- but also because Sylar runs the same risk Peter does at this point: if he can manage every power perfectly, then there's no real way he can ever be defeated. There's no dramatic tension to him if he's all-powerful.

And could Mohindar be any more dense? Dale spoke of having headaches and suddenly Zane is experiencing them too? Put. The. Pieces. Together.

All I could think during that scene after they found Dale's body was, "Damn, Mohinder, it's a good thing you're so pretty."

[bop-radar.livejournal.com]

it makes him dramatically inconvenient
Yes! It's not quite there yet, but there's a danger lurking. I think the show's running a thin line on this, and like you, I was pretty annoyed that he managed to channel all his powers in the fight with Isaac. That's a little too much too fast. I want to see more of the struggle.

she couldn't understand how I assigned any blame to Peter for it when Isaac was the one who fired the gun until I pointed out to her that the only reason Isaac reached for deadly force was because Peter was the one who escalated it to that level.
Yes, that's right! And that's what I was afraid of: that many viewers would be blind to that, because the scene was so set up for you to blame Isaac, especially as many people prefer Peter already. It's things like this that bother me and make me still feel that there's a bit of Lana-esque writer blindness going on with Peter. I'm not apologising for Isaac--firing a gun is always dangerous, but I can see how he was provoked into it in defence. And I think that Peter should share some of the blame.

like it both because of its karmic implications -- hey, Sylar, this is why we don't steal other people's shit! -- but also because Sylar runs the same risk Peter does at this point: if he can manage every power perfectly, then there's no real way he can ever be defeated. There's no dramatic tension to him if he's all-powerful.
Agreed. Though I was more tolerant of Sylar collecting powers for a while because it's good to have a scaryass bad guy. But there's a point where it becomes ridiculous, and I like the karmic implications as well.

All I could think during that scene after they found Dale's body was, "Damn, Mohinder, it's a good thing you're so pretty."
And the scene where he told Sylar about Sylar was classic, as well! Mohinder really is a bimbo. His air-headedness is hilarious! Pretty, but dumn. I can imagine some very amusing fanfic written from Sylar's perspective on Mohinder. :-)

[bloodygoodgirl.livejournal.com]

Now that we know he absorbs the powers of others permanently, the danger is that he'll become Superman-like in his scope. That really bothered me too. At first I thought he might get the powers of just those in his proximity, kind of like Rogue from X-Men without the direct contact (actually I think there was an old school X-Men villian who had the power to absorb mutant's powers when they were close) /end rambling.

Anywho if he has everyone's powers then what's the point of having other people on the show? I heard the director mention once that the show will reveal how people can gain and lose powers. So right now I'm thinking his big explosion is caused by absorbing too many powers and having it frak up his dna or something. Then perhaps Peter himself doesn't explode but releases the extra powers in an energy explosion type of thing.

And maybe I've watched too much anime.

But after releasing everything in the big boom, Peter could lose his original power. Which I think would be really interesting since Nathan would still have his powers but it's his little brother who wants to be the hero and save the world.

[bop-radar.livejournal.com]

the show will reveal how people can gain and lose powers.
Well, that's promising. I like the idea of Peter losing powers again. And I agree that it would set up a far more interesting dynamic if Peter did not have the powers, but Nathan did. I was disappointed that Peter's belief in his own specialness was validated. ;-)