'Heroes': He's only mostly dead
The prophecies of Isaac's last painting was fulfilled on Monday's Heroes, pretty much just as the late artist depicted. But, show of virtual hands, did anyone really think it was gonna stick?
(As long as spoilers live inside me, they will remain alive for everyone. Or something. Here they come, at any rate.)
I was thinking of titling this post "These aren't the droids you're looking for," in honor of Parkman's new Jedi Mind Trick-esque ability. We'll get to that in a bit, but events involving the Bennet family superseded that. Specifically, HRG took one in the eye from Suresh, just as the paintings had laid out. (And who knew Suresh was such a good shot?)
The shooting capped a rolling-boulder sequence of events that found Bob, his "daughter" Elle and Suresh in Southern California, searching for Claire in order get her healing blood to Niki. And, you know, to perform a bunch of experiments on her, most likely. HRG, not surprisingly, doesn't take too kindly to that idea, going into full daddy-lockdown mode to protect Claire from his former boss and the increasingly at-sea Suresh, who is either the most naive scientist alive or has truly drunk the Company Kool-Aid.
Either way, it's not a pleasant development for the good doctor. The show hasn't laid enough groundwork for Suresh's coming around to Bob's way of thinking; two or three moral equivocations in, and he's toeing the Company line, when his sole purpose for going there initially was to take it down from within? Nuh-uh. Not good enough, even if he can say to himself that he's doing it to save Niki's life.
I suppose you could also argue that Suresh knew that Bob had drawn some of Claire's blood, and therefore knew that even if he did shoot his friend he could bring him back. That is indeed what happened, but I don't really think that was going through Suresh's mind. I do think Suresh believes he's doing good, and he believed the only way to keep doing good is to shoot HRG right through his HRGs.
One transfusion of his daughter's blood later, though, Noah Bennet is back among the living, albeit cooped up in a Company facility. I really couldn't make myself believe the show would off Jack Coleman -- he's one of the best actors in the ensemble, and narratively one of the most important characters too. And, really, it might have just about killed the show for a lot fans. Think Mr. Eko's death, only worse in terms of fan reaction.
Here's a question I hope to see explored in the next couple of weeks: Now that he's got Claire blood running through his veins, will he be able to heal again?
While HRG was saving his daughter (with, it should be noted, the help of flyboy West; maybe that's how HRG will break them up, by telling Claire how much he likes her beau), the rest of the episode concerned itself with Adam and his vendetta against the elders. It was here that we saw Parkman use his new skill -- which he discovered innocently enough during a conversation with Molly -- and which also allowed us to meet up with George Takei's Kaito Nakamura one more time.
From his father's funeral, Hiro blinks back one week (really? We're to believe all this stuff has happened in the course of just a week?) to try to stop Kaito from dying in the first place. The elder Nakamura resists, telling Hiro that even if he has god-like abilities, he doesn't get to play God. It's a message Hiro will then impart to his younger self, as he takes Kaito back to his wife's funeral in an effort to convince him to avoid death.
Hiro also realizes that he shouldn't monkey with time like that, so he monkeys with it to a lesser degree, freezing his father in mid-death plunge to see who his assailant is. It shocks him, and confirms every viewer's suspicion, to find out that it was Adam/Kensei himself who sent Kaito flying off the roof.
Parkman, meanwhile, uses his thought-control mojo on Angela Petrelli to learn that Adam is, basically, immortal. It seems that if you keep regenerating your cells for long enough, you stop aging. And Sylar thought he was a badass.
Angela also pleads with Matt not to make her reveal the name of the woman standing between Bob and Parkman's dad in the photo (who will be played, eventually, by Joanna Cassidy). "She just wants to be left alone," Angela insists. Matt apparently plows through, however, because at the end of the episode we see a sticky note with the name "Victoria Pratt" (though not this Victoria Pratt) above her face.
By my count that's two pretty decent episodes of Heroes in a row, but what are your thoughts? Did you see that final scene coming? What would you tell the show's creators to do if you had Parkman's power?
Last week sucked. But anyways, I'm very surprised at this week's episode, it was great. I love Angela Petrelli and am so glad she's not dead. Her efforts to keep Victoria Pratt secret were pretty hardcore. I can't believe we can't see her power yet though (she's gotta have one, just like Kaito whose power is also unknown). Parkman is definitely finally getting cool, while Suresh is just getting more retarded. I loved the Claire/HRG storyline - they're always the best in my opinion, when they come to a culminition like tonight's. I'm glad HRG is re-alive, and I love how he treated Elle - cl***ic HRG. And West trusting him? Also awesome. Definitely a strong episode where Peter wasn't missed at all, and the absense of Niki and Los Boring Twins made the episode even better.
I was so hoping HRG would shoot Suresh. Elle might be turning good soon though. Parkman's abilities are awesome, I'm glad he didn't let Angela bully him like she does everyone else.
So it's OK to stop a NYC from blowing up but not to save your father from dying? What kind of logic is that? I guess one could argue about "the greater good", but how does letting Kaito die help anything?
I think it's the best episode of this season. HRG is the best character of them all. I like that in the end, the epilogue speech came from Hiro and not from Suresh. I'm very looking forward to see the 2 episodes left. But sorry that the strike may damage this show that finally it's getting somewhere.
Probably the best ep of the season. When they focus more on just a couple of plot threads they have more time to develop the story and the viewers get more involved. They need to do this more often.
Tonight's episode was pretty good. I'll admit my mouth dropped when Suresh shot HRG, but I was very glad with the ending. I'm curious why Suresh or Bob brought HRG back from the dead, but I guess we'll find that out soon.
I'm very dissapointed that we never got to find out what Kaito Nakamura's ability was. He was very good with the sword (when he taught Hiro) but he has to have some great ability. Also, I'm dying to know what Angela Petrelli's ability is.
When Parkman said that the woman in the picture (Victoria Pratt) was the only one left alive I knew the producers changed the storyline of the elders because right before Kaito died he said "Out of all of them, I didn't expect it to be you." Now, he knew it wasn't Angela Pretrelli, Linderman, Mr. Debeaux, Mr. Petrelli. Now that's 3 characters we knew died, and Angela who also had the godsend on her picture. There were 12 elders, and since Parkman says only one is left, that means 4 others we never met are dead (a white older woman, a black older woman, a latino older man, and a white older man). My point is why would Kaito say out of all of them I didn't expect it to be you if there was only the chance of the murderer being Victoria Pratt, Parkman's Dad, Bob, and Adam. I just feel that intially Tim Kring was going to go through all of the 12, then decided to just simply say 4 of the characters we never met are already dead. They are a great mystery and I would have enjoyed learning what abilities these 12 great elders all had. AND I wonder if there is a reason Angela's husband, Mr. Petrelli, has his faced smeared in the picture? Is it he may not be dead and they plan to cast him or something?
I am wondering why they dont have a stockpile of Adam Munroe's blood. He knows it heals people and used it to heal Nathan. Surely the company knows this too. We find out in the future that Nathan died in the first outbreak of the virus, so I guess he doesnt continue to heal after getting this blood. Therefore neither would HRG, you would think.
At first I thought that adam had the ability to travel through time as well and that perhaps he was like Peter and absorbed abilities. But if he is over 400 years old, he really must have just found out in Japan 1871 that he could heal.
Did Bob really resurrect Noah with Claire's blood? It seems debatable for him to keep Noah alive especially when he's very capable of killing Bob. I wouldn't be surprised if Adam recovered Noah and gave him his own blood for a greater purpose.
When Nathan hits the mirror in "Kindness of Strangers," his hand is bloody and then bandaged in the following episode "Fight or Flight. So it is unlikely that the "healing" properties of the blood continue after the initial "injection."
Kristin Bell has been a very nice addition to the cast this year. She really adds something that was missing, that attitude in some respects, which, in correct doses, is good for the show. She also adds a character that, while on the surface seems to be simple (in her goals), beneath it all seems a textured character.
It'll be interesting to see Book 3 (if they get to show it). The storylines have been a bit smoother. Yes, the Suresh jumping sides thing wasn't done too well, but I hope it's because they decided to hurry and wrap up the storyline and move forward.
Perhaps some of the 12 elders did not have powers. Angela Petrelli may not have powers, but her husband did which p***ed powers along to her sons. This may be the same for Victoria Pratt, Bob, and others. These might have been the scientists in the group.