Heroes Season Finale! An Invisible Thread

Last week Sylar went through hell as he went through a very thorough identity crisis and came up with a plan to take out Nathan and then use that disguise to take out the President. We ended on a cliffhanger as Danko had knocked out Nathan and tried to kill Sylar. Something which Sylar didn’t appreciate. HRG and Mohinder were captured, Hiro gets a bloody nose when he uses his powers and Matt must end this. Now here we are at the finale, lets see how they tie off this season!

We see HRG manage to get Angela and Claire to safety before he is picked up by agents. Matt flies to his destiny. Sylar tells Danko that shape shifting has altered his “off switch” that makes it a lot harder to kill him. He reiterates his plan to take over as President of the United States. Then he frames Danko for attacking a bunch of agents. Devious.

Angela and Claire are together until Angela goes after Matt to get his help to save Nathan. Claire goes to find Nathan. Sylar is kicking Nathan around, funny as hell. Starts absorbing memories from objects when Claire enters the room. Sylar manages to fool her and get her to suggest coming with him. Danko meanwhile is brought to Building 26 and paraded in front of everybody. Hiro and Ando are watching, Hiro is willing to sacrifice himself to get the job done and shut this place down. Danko ends up sharing a cell with HRG.

Nathan is found by Peter, and tells him he has to take out Sylar. Peter remarks sarcastically that he will be a lotta help. Nice. HRG and Danko are in the cell and realizing that they are essentially screwed and agree to help each other get out. Right when their hands are about to meet, Hiro stops time. He opens the door and sees the two of them shakes his head, and leaves. Hiro and Ando are trying to find the prisoners. Ando steals the two wanted photos of them as Hiro finds the prisoners and excaims, “Holy Crap.” They find Suresh and trade spots of the prisoners and the wardens. Nice job. The prisoners are released as Hiro continues to have ill effects. HRG is almost betrayed by Danko, but Hiro stops him, then collapses, bleeding from his eye. HRG goes for Sylar. Nathan/Sylar is with Claire and she is growing more and more suspicious. HRG calls his daughter to warn her, but by that time Sylar has the phone and HRG is quite scared for his daughter.

Sylay suddenly has access to the puppet master power and is bossing Claire around to get him his drink. He then proceeds to tell Claire he will kill everyone she cares about. She says she will spend the rest of her life trying to kill him, to which he replies that everyone needs a hobby. Then he thinks they can hook up and maybe she could even be his first, first lady. What a sweetie. Nathan and Peter arrive and somehow convince the Secret Service to let suspected terrorists (people with powers) to just go in and help out. Thats 2 plot holes in 5 minutes. Nathan and Peter go to confront Sylar as Claire is sent flying out. They charge in leaving Claire behind a closed door as we get a light show and screams through a crack in the door. *Sigh* Is it too much to see one cool fight on this show? Anyway, Claire bursts in and finds an injured Peter, as Sylar and Nathan apparently flew out. Peter can no longer fly. Claire and Peter give chase, as they leave Sylar throws Nathan into the room and slices his throat and watches him die.

Matt arrives in DC and is confronted by Angela, she gives a great argument that they need the same thing and he agrees to help her. Claire and Peter are confronted by HRG, but the agents try to capture them. Angela and Matt find Nathans body and Angela freaks out. Meanwhile Sylar/Nathan kills the President Chief of Staff and goes to get the President. He manages to get into the limo and shakes the Presidents hand, but its Peter! He stole the shape shifting power in the lottery that is hand shaking. Sylar is then stabbed with a tranq. Why Peter does not kill him? GAH!

Matt, HRG, Angela are part of a plot involving changing Sylar into Nathan with a mindwipe. HRG sent Claire and Peter to try and find Nathan. So those two are int he dark. Sylar needs to be Nathan because someone has to explain to the President the situation and to stop the hunting process. Now why didn’t they use Claire’s healing blood to help Nathan? Why didnt Peter just shapeshift into Nathan to fool people. The former seems to have been written out of the show, the latter actually has some semblance of sense because only Sylar could have Nathan’s memories. So now Sylar is Nathan. Fake Sylar’s frozen body is now burned, as Mohinder gives a voiceover about identity and its meaning. Angela and Nathan talk about establishing a new Company, this time with government sponsorship. They even want to put HRG in charge. This really sets up the status quo. In some ways we are right back with Season 1, just now Nathan has a ticking time bomb in his brain. Hiro also seems to not be able to use abilities.

This season has been up and down, left and right. Hopefully the next season will give us a lot more to look forward to, a lot more story consistency and for the love of god a legit fight scene.

Ok now our first look at Volume 5! Looks like Season 5 will be called Redemption, and judging by the way Tracey turned to water and killed a former agent of Building 26, she is the judge jury and executioner. With the Company getting government sponsorship and HRG in charge, he can redeem himself in his own eyes and in the eyes of his family. Should be an interesting development. Also we see that Nathan/Sylar are still attracted to how things work, something is sure to be a plot point next season.

Next season will be 18 episodes, so lets hope for a nice tight season of Heroes next year. As for the finale, there are issues as always, but I think they tied everything off the best they could.

Jeff “DarkSpirit82” Adams

Staff Writer

Posted by Nerd Boy Wonder 27 April 3 Permalink

Heroes Recap and Review “I am Sylar”

Last week we flashed back to 1961 where we learned that history has a nasty way of repeating itself within the Heroes Universe. We saw that Angela has a sister Alice, and she has weather controll powers and is pretty pissed that Angela ditched her. We also learned that people with abilities were experimented on and all died in a huge massacre in the desert. On  a happier note, the Petrelli family reunited only to see that Nathan was also on television. Looks like that shapeshifting villian Sylar has taken over as Nathan. Now here we go with “I am Sylar” after the cut.We open with Agent Taub waking up in a cold sweat. Except we find out that it is in fact Sylar. He is apparently shifting while asleep. Turning back into Sylar, he rips out a tooth, I assume to show how hardcore he is. Ouch. Later he meets up with Danko and says he is losing his own identity and shifting without control, even growing a new, extra tooth. Danko says he can either be Sylar and hunted or Agent Taub and go to work. Sylar shifts and Danko is happy, and Sylar then carves into his own arm the title of the episode.

Sylar goes after some unlucky guy who happens to have a power that the government thinks is dangerous. Sylar asks him to choose a side (after the guy got a text from Rebel or Micah) and he chooses Sylar side. Sylar kills him, steals his power (I beleive he vibrated things at a frequency until they shattered) and splatters his blood on the wall declaring that “I am Sylar”. Danko tells Sylar later that he needs an anchor, and shows Sylar an old watch his dad gave him taht acts as his anchor when he goes undercover. Great symbolism having it be a watch.

In our B story, Matt and Hiro with Ando are talking about taking down Building 26, something which Matt wants no part of. Hiro and Ando decide to do it anyway. Hiro really needs to learn that a hero also knows when he is outnumbered, its ok to retreat. Meanwhile, Hiro and Ando break into Isaccs loft and try to lure out some government agents, but Ando doesnt want to be bait. Hiro stops time when the agents appear, and Ando isnot stopped and is quite excited. Hiro and Ando continue talking and really the great line is that Ando thinks SUperman and Hiro anre really similiar including being a little fascist. Awesome. Hiro then betrays Ando and he gets knocked out while Hiro finds someone in the agents that is his size so he can infiltrate Building 26. That plan goes awry and they have to dump the truck after Ando electrocutes everyone.

Angent Taub gets files on the death of Virginia Grey (Sylars adoptive mother who he killed in Season 1), and starts looks for that anchor.Then we get a really disturbing look into Sylar and dead mom talking that turns out to be him constantly shapeshifting into her and Sylar during the conversation. Truly creepy, but really cool. We are interrupted as Danko says they have found Rebel. The agents go and cut the power wherever Rebel is hiding and charge the place. Micah is packing up when he runs into Sylar. Not good. Micha gives his second inspirational sppech of the season and Sylar shapeshifts to look like hima nd distract Dankos men. Danko mentions that he is a loose end, but Sylar dismisses him later. Sylar is needed to hunt the more powerful supers, and Sylar seems to relish the idea of being the hunter and not the prey. A callback to the episode with his real dad.

Micah ends up hanging out at Sylar or Taub’s place and witnesses Sylar and his mom have a wonderful shapeshift discussion. Gotta say, Sylar was right, getting he ability to talk to machines would have made that whole thing much worse. So Micah gives Sylar the idea to impersonate Nathan petrelli before kicking Micah out of his house with tears on his face.

Sylar is at Nathan’s office, and is looking for a personal product to shapeshift into our favorite Senator. During this he has more of a crazy conversation as the writers try and give justification for why Sylar acts the way he does. He killed the only womn that ever loved him…twice if you count electric girl. Anyway, he transforms into Nathan and we get reaction shots from Hiro and Ando, the Petrelli clan and Danko, who seems to know its Sylar or atleast suspect.

Oh and Matt and Janice meet up and talk and realize that they need to leave cause the agents are outside. They also have a lot more to talk about and Matt says he wants to be in his babies life. Boy, Matt got over Daphne quick didnt he?

We focus back on the Petrelli Clan as Nathan decides to go off on his owna nd get Sylar. That works out well when Sylar almost kills Nathan only to be knocked out by Danko who says the Senator needs to be handled delicatly. Danko wants Sylar to turn back into Taub to take down the rest. We see a montage of images as Suresh, Claire, HRG and Angela are captured and Hiro isnt able to use his powers and is getting a nosebleed. Back to Danko and Sylar as Danko gets pissed that Sylar isnt Taub and stabs him in the right area of the head to kill him. Unfortunatly that doesnt work and Danko is being stared down by an angry Sylar…and we fade to black. Next week is the finale! Lets hope we get drama and action to send us all off happy. This wek was set up for that as Sylar went crazy and for the most part it worked, but the end got kind of jumbled as they raced to the finale episode. Overall a solid effort and lets hope we get a great episode next week. Until next time!

Jeff “DarkSpirit82” Adams

Posted by Nerd Boy Wonder 20 April Permalink

Heroes 1961

Last week we had Parkman unite with Hiro and Ando and realize that he has a son. Before that he decided that torturing Danko was a great way to get revenge for the death of Daphne. Nathan, Cliare, Peter, Angela all decided to meet at Coyote Sands, where Mohinders dad also has some history. Finally Sylar and HRG played mindgames with each other making HRG have to leave that organization and go visit the Petrelli’s. This week, we flash back to 1961 and see what the darkness in the past of Angela brings. Heroes Review after the break.Peter is mad that Nathan is with them, while Claire is way more forgiving of Nathan. yes she will forgive the dude that wanted to ship people with abilities off to who know where while drugged, but she has issues with HRG. WOW. Anyway we flashback to 1961 and we meet Angela and Alice, sisters who have powers, as doex apparently everyone in this camp. Chandra Suresh is the lead scientist at this camp as Angela reveals that this camp was the reasont he Company formed. For those that read the Heroes the Heroes online comic, just dont think that this connects anyway with that. Turns out that Alice has the power to control weather and Angela fears that she is either still alive, or needs to confirm that she is in fact dead.

In one of the funnier moments, Peter flies off because he doesnt want to be part of the NEW version of the Company that Angela wants to make. After all, the last one did a bang up job. Anyway, Peter and Nathan meet at a diner and talk. Peter doesnt like Nathan but is trying really hard. Before they can hash it out anymore, they see that a severe storm is hitting where they are. Meanhwhile Mohinder takes HRG and they get some exposition out of the way. Suresh trusts HRG so easily. We get another flashback where Angela tries to explain to Chandra Suresh hat he is gonna lose control and everyone will die. In the present, Angela insists the bad weather is her pissed off sister and leaves. The windstorm clears just as the flying boys return. Angela has disappeared along with the windstorm.

HRG and Suresh talk about the fact that good intentions are good, and sometimes get screwed up. The rest of the gang arrive, and are completly oblivious that Suresh just happened to show up. Nathan asks Suresh to hang with Peter, because I always trust a guy who tried to experiment on me with the brother I am reconciling with. Peter and Suresh talk about the fact that Suresh is ok, and Peter should make a new company because he never went through bad stuff. Except when he duplicated Sylars hunger, but thats alright. HRG, Claire and Nathan talk about Claire wanting to grow up, and realize taht she never wanted to be an agent, except when she did. Whatever. Angela meanwhile flashes back to when she ditched her sister to escape the compound in 1961 and in the present day sees her sister. Her sister btw looked like a great crone. Just saying.

Angela and Alice are hanging out and they have a pleasant conversation. Turns out Alice was  hanging out in this place because Angela had said it was safe 50 years ago. WOW. We flashback and we see Angela hanging with what will be the founding fathers of the Company. She gets a chance with Charles, before racism becomes a problem. He uses his powers to give the crowd a turnaround. Alice being elft alone is not good though as we find out that while Suresh was testing her, she freaked out. She electroucted one soldier, caused a windstorm, and was caught by Suresh who tried to contain her. He slapped her, her dad projected energy blasts and the entire camp was killed. One of those excalation things I guess, and Alice stayed there for 50 years.

In the present day, Angela tells Alice she lied to her to go escape, and Alice freaks out and electrocutes Mohinder and then disapears. Peter gives Suresh a video of his fathers research, but Suresh thinks the past should be buried. He also decides to stay in the desert to get self-forgiveness. Angela flashes back to how the Company was formed before being invited to sit with her family. They decide its time to keep the secret and get a normal life. That is until they see the TV with nathan petrelli having a press conference. Looks like Sylar will be the big bad of the season. Again. He will be impersonating Nathan. Again. The heroes will have to unite and stand agaisnt Sylar. Again.

Well here is hoping there are some surprises as we lurch forward to the end of the 4th Volume. Who knows what the future will bring?

Jeff “DarkSpirit82” Adams

Posted by Nerd Boy Wonder 13 April Permalink

Heroes “Turn and Face the Strange”

Last week we had Claire andNathan getting money by being drunk. Peter and Angela bonding at church and the Hunter and Sylar teaming up to give Sylar a new power. Lets roll on with the Heroes recap and review!  This week we have Danko and HRG posturing for control of each other, with Sylar lurking in the backround. Hiro and Ando once again on a quest to somehow reunite Matt Parkman Sr with his son. Matt is busy though planning vengeance after the death of Daphne, even saying goodbye to his friend Mohinder. More after the cut.

Angela gives HRG a call saying she is ready once again to reveal the truth to him, Peter, Nathan Claire. HRG is too distracted though because he knows his white whale, I mean Sylar, isnt dead. Something is fishy hehe. Suresh meanwhile finds that his old apartment has been ransacked by Homeland Security along with all his papers. Luckily for him the cranky landord happens to tell him that his dad left stuff in storage. Hiro and Ando continue having issues with the machine stopping baby. Matt uses his powers to find out who Danko really cares for and prepares to apparently shoot that person. HRG figures out that the dead body is in fact not Sylar, but before he can deal with that his wife tells him she wants a divorce. HRG is noticeably shaken by this revelation but its revealed outside that it is in fact Sylar trying to break HRG down. Evil I say, EVIL!

Hiro and Ando make funny faces to make the baby happy, and now Ando has to hold a funny face to keep the car moving. Scintillating stuff here. Hiro calls Mohinder to find Matt. Matt sneaks into theDanko’s girlfriends house and instead of killing her, he tries to make her leave him. HRG figures out that his wife was in fact the shapeshifting Sylar,a nd now he is off on his hunt. Nathan meanwhile is trying to find Coyote Sams with Claire. Suresh finds files by his father about the self same Coyote Sams. HRG tracks down his wife and pulls a gun on her and he means business!

HRG realizes after a talk with Lyle that Sandra is real, but its too late. She wants him out, even pushing him at one point. The lost look on HRG really sells this scene and you feel for him. Then she locks the door and your heart breaks. Danko meanwwhile is trcked by Parkman to let Parkman and Danko’s girlfriend inside. Parkman wants to shoot the girl, but cant and asks Danko to finish it. Danko fires, but Hiro arrives SOMEHOW, and stops time and takes Parkman out of the apartment. Danko is pissed and the girlfriend calls him a monster and ditches him. Oh its a bad day for relationships in this VENGEANCE episode.

HRG enters Building 26 without his glasses and we all suspect he is Sylar meeting up with Danko. He reveals to Danko that he has old Primatech files from HRG’s apartment, and we get the SWERVE that its the real HRG and he just got Danko to reveal that he is working with Sylar. God I love HRG! Hiro and Matt discuss this weeks theme of how vengeance is bad, and Matt is now introduced to baby Matt and the healing can begin. Cute little moment as the kid gets remote control cars to drive in circles around them. Meanwhile HRG crashes a squad victory party and suspects an agent that Danko fingered. HRG then shoots the self-same agent accidentally, but the agent doesnt regenerate. HRG freaks out and leaves, running into the street. Poor guy is close to a complete breakdown.

We get a collage of scenes to end the episode. Turns out the dead agent isnt dead and Sylar can control his blood flow. neat. HRG calls his wife and then dumps the phone as he too is now a fugitive. Suresh finds out where Coyote is as Matt and hsi baby bond with more funny faces. Danko tries to talk to his girlfriend, but she is taking a taxi to a better place one hopes. Finally we catch up with Angela, Peter, Claire and Nathan as they seek to uncover the sins of the past, and the bones too. HRG also arrives ready to help.

Good episode that got everyone together where they need to be with just three episodes left. Lets see if they can wrap up this storylines successfully and bring back their audience for next year.!

Next week, we flashback to 1961 and the sins of Angela Petrelli come to light. Be there!

Jeff “DarkSpirit82” Adams

Posted by Nerd Boy Wonder 6 April Permalink

Heroes Recap and Review “Into Asylum”

So last week we had a winner of an episode with Cold Snap. In it we found out who Rebel was, Tracey made a heroic sacrifice, Angela was rescued by Peter and Hiro got one of his powers back. This week is”Into Asylum. The main characters this go around are once again Danko and HRG on the trail of a new powered individual, Claire and Nathan on a bit of field trip in Mexico and Peter and Angela having some fun at church. Check back after the break for a full review.

Claire and Nathan- OK this plot bored me to tears. Aside from the interesting question of what happened to Claire and Nathan, this was just an attempt for the two characters to bond. I don’t really care about their bonding though, so the scenes felt wasted to me. I did like however, that Nathan was trying hard to be a better father without saying it.  Claire manages to win the drinking game and we see that she just wants him to act normal. Bit of an aww moment when she helps him while drunk and he says he wants to fix it all. Cute moement with Claire givin her dad a pep talk, but the Superman talk was a bit much.

Peter and Angela- Peter is angry with god and just about everyone else, while Angela is seeking forgiveness from God and everyone else. An interesting development from the callous woman we met in season 1 and the peaceful man we met there as well. HRG and agents come in, but HRG takes pity and doesnt turn them in. Angela reveals she was like Peter, but no one listened to her and so she went bad. I am totally oversimplifying that to be a bit snarky, but it is funny. She decides to lie and manipulate to save the world. No sympathy here. Angela has a sister they have to see? Yeesh.

HRG and Danko- HRG was sent to go find Angela so the views could spend time with Danko and his new partner Sylar. Danko is holt on the heels of a shapechanger who has to touch and concentrate to gain the appearance of a person. Sylar is a silver tongued devil saying he is the only one that can really catch these people, and Danko starting to beleive him. The words of HRG really ring true in the sense that the “one of us, one of them” axiom really is true. Danko and Sylar buddy movie in their chase of the shapeshifter was a ton of fun though. Scary scene when Danko lets Sylar take the powers of the shape-shifter, even giving him the tip not to leave the tell-tale Sylar cut on the head.  Great moment when HRG sees the dead shapeshifter who looks like Sylar.

A fun episode that seemed to be moving the characters eith physically or emotionally to where they needed to be. Claire and Nathan are not exactly tearing up the scree, but they are getting some bonding time while Angela nd Peter are inching towards reconciliation. Danko and Sylar were my favorite parts simply because Danko is so new to working with someone and Sylar is having so much fun. Good effort, but I hope we get more meaty story next week. Though for the Heroes fans reading this, now that Sylar has the ability to shapeshift, how are are we fromt he future of Season 1?

Jeff “DarkSpirit82” Adams

Posted by Nerd Boy Wonder 30 March Permalink

Heroes ‘Shades of Grey”

Last week Sylar ditched his sidekick, Claire and her mom became heroes to Aqualad, and Parkman literally became his own prophecy. That’s the recap, lets get on with the review.

It seems this episode was about people deciding who they are, more than anything else. From Claire deciding that she wants to be the one rescuing people, to Nathan finally deciding how he is going to fight this war. Sylar confronted his father and realized that he has lost his ambition, always going for the simple things, not the bigger things. It’s human nature to do what is easiest, and this episode saw the characters forced to do the hard things. Spoilers and the rest of the review after the jump. We start out our story with Claire and her attempts to go down the path of a savior, as opposed to the one needing saving. She is forced to face her own prejudices to transcend, and this episode does a good job by having Doyle (the puppet master) be the one she has to save. Can someone change and can they be saved in more than one way? Claire also develops a secret identity attempt, but this seems more for comedic effect as she is captured at the end of the episode, negating the need for the cover job she developed.

Nathan and the Hunter Danko continued their dance with HRG watching the moves. Danko has been suspicious of Nathan for weeks, and Nathan finally plays rough and goes over his head and gets the President to fire Danko. Danko then uses his head and forces Nathan to reveal his powers and finally join the resistance. The theme of doing the hard thing is again expressed as both the Hunter and Nathan are pushed to the wall before committing to what they would have always done. Nathan saved Parkman with the bomb threat, then turned him in; now he is on a set path. Like HRG, he was wishy-washy, and after saving Claire, he is on the path.

The last of the three stories is the story of Sylar and his dad. Sylar’s dad is dying of cancer, but the real revelation is how he thinks life is painful and not worth living because he hasn’t gone for the gold as much as he should have. He considers that Sylar’s problem as well, not going for the big fish, but the “small game.” Only after it’s revealed that the dad has the same powers as Sylar, and he sees Sylar use these powers, do we see the old ambition rise in the old man. Interesting in that we see Sylar just leave the man to die, and decide the old man was right, he wasn’t pushing himself. His first goal? Go after the Hunter. Sylar doesn’t like to start small does he?

The final part of the end was Hiro and Ando finding Matt Parkman, and a baby. If the previews for the next episode in 2 weeks is any indication, the baby is Parkman’s. Finally, we see what happened to Parkman’s family! A good episode overall, and carried its theme pretty consistently throughout the episode. Looks like Heroes really is hitting a stride of character-driven as opposed to mythology driven stories, and that’s where the series really shines. Here is hoping for more of that in the coming episodes.

-Jeff “Darkspirit82” Adams-

Posted by Nerd Boy Wonder 9 March Permalink

Heroes Volume 4, Episode 5: Exposed

Welcome back folks to yet another exciting episode of Heroes. Last week we got a brand new prophecy for our intrepid cast to avert, someone blowing up Washington DC, and HRG got a flashback devoted to him. We get a new Heroes episode and a character spotlight for the Watchmen movie.

So this episode dealt with the Alex and Claire storylines, Sylar and his sidekick, and Peter and Matt finding out where Daphne is being held. Going to hit all of these in that order for a review, in my opinion of course, on the direction of the story.

Claire and Alex spend the episode bonding with each other while Sandra Bennet really comes into her own as a bad ass in her own right. Truthfully, almost everyone but Lyle have major stones in this family. Sandra makes a fake ID, makes a diversion, and does it all with calm self assurance. Claire meanwhile manages to get Alex off on his own, and feels pretty damn good about it. That is until Rebel sends her the puppet master to protect. Now that’s some conflict.

Sylar and his sidekick didn’t really have much to do this week. Mostly it was Sylar discovering that a place on the roadside is a place he and hsi dad visited back in 1980. Turns out Sylars dad sliced off his moms head in front of him right after paying somebody to take the kid off his hands. Wow, another reason for Sylars abilities. Anyway, Luke pisses Sylar off one more time and Sylar ditches him to go kill his dad.

Matt and Peter proceed to be way more bad ass then usual and infiltrate Building 26 and find out where Daphne is. Matt sacrifices himself to allow Peter to escape along with the help of Rebel. Peter manages to get all the information of what Nathan is doing and attempts to trade the info for Parkman and Daphne, but the Hunter just shoots him after HRG warns him. The shot sends Peter over, but he is caught by Nathan and flown off. Peter and Nathan have a talk along with Angela. Peter flies of in a fit and exposes what is going on to the news, while Nathan is told secretly the latest prophecy that Angela has seen.

Meanwhile the Hunter finally gets his chance to shine as he uses the painting he saw of Parkman and the bomb on D.C. to tape a bomb to Parkman, drug him, and release him on Washington, thus making the prophecy one step closer to coming true. Gotta say, that was a well needed twist, and certainly made me anticipate the next episode. So we got some solid plot development and lots of seeds planted for this volume. Here is hoping Heroes continues this goodness next week. Until next time folks!

Dark Spirit

Posted by Nerd Boy Wonder 2 March Permalink

Heroes Review “Cold Wars”

Hey guys, last week Mohinder, Peter and Matt kidnapped Noah.  This week, they read his mind. Tonight, we get another peek inside HRG’s black and white mind. I always like the HRG character and the fact that he is okay with morally gray things. Not only that, but this is the 17th episode of the 3rd season of Heroes, the 17th episode of the first season was “Company Man”, probably not a coincidence.

We see how the planning of the kidnapping took place. Matt seems very gung-ho about it, while Mohinder is quite reluctant. They kidnap Bennett, just like what we saw last week, and tie him up in a hotel room. Matt decides to invade his mind to figure out how all this started and to provide the audience with another look at Noah and the plot. Meanwhile, Nathan and the Hunter are both on the look for Bennett. Nathan also finds out that the Hunter is having him tailed.

Five weeks ago, Bennett met up with Angela and found out she was shutting the company down. Noah is told to go back to his home life and we find Noah is quite dissatisfied not doing something. In a lot of ways he is like the Heroes themselves, he feels he should be doing something for the world. He never was a villain, he was always the anti-hero doing what is necessary for the greater good. Later, he is approached by Nathan to join a new group, and HRG believes that he would be in charge. Only later do we find out that the Hunter is the one leading the ground troops.

During this interrogation, Peter finds a locker filled with equipment, a location divulged from HRG’s head. He is seen by the Hunter, who sends agents to capture him. Peter manages to escape. Meanwhile, Matt finds out that HRG talked to Mohinder to try and enlist him for the collection of people with abilities. Now this one was a minor nitpick, but my GOD, everyone here has been human and superhuman and they ALL have that experience. I love HRG, but that was a dumb line. HRG manages to escape when Matt and Suresh get into a fight, but Peter manages to catch him.

They duct tape HRG to a chair and interrogate his mind again, and this time they see he talked to the Hunter about the fact you need humanity to get these people. The hunter sees them only as targets, while HRG sees them as people. Fairly consistent, especially with the fact that he used to work with them on a regular basis. Matt writes down the location of the Hunter and gives it to Peter. As Peter flies off, the government agents arrive at the hotel.

Peter confronts the Hunter, who has no problem with Peter shooting him as it will just prove that people with abilities are dangerous. Nathan arrives quickly which causes the Hunter to be suspicious as to how he got there so quickly. Peter shoots the Hunter in the arm, but doesn’t kill him. Nathan tells Peter that the government agents are going after Matt and Mohinder. Peter flies off to the rescue. HRG tells Matt that Daphne is still alive and we see through his minds eye that he is telling the truth. During this, Mohinder tackles the government agents but is captured, something that it seems he thinks he deserves for past transgressions. Matt is also captured, but Peter manages to rescue him last minute.

HRG and the Hunter bond as HRG tells him he is no longer divided, and the Hunter seems vaguely satisfied. HRG then sits on the bench and talks to Angela. It seems HRG is playing the side of morally gray as he is willing to go undercover and be a part of the organization to (I would assume) throw a monkey wrench into the works. Meanwhile, Nathan tries to recruit Mohinder, who is being help by chains. Yes, the guy with super strength is captured by chains, oh well.

Then, we see Matt frantically painting the future and it looks like there are sticks of dynamite on his chest. He freaks out and Peter says he is not a murderer. Then, we see he has been painting on good ol’ Isaac Mendez’s floor over the old apocalyptic paining with a new one where, apparently, Matt blows up Washington. So the Heroes will have to save a city from being blown up, HRG is going deep to infiltrate a corrupt organization and we are exactly back to where we always are with Heroes.

Until next time, where ten to one HRG blows away the Hunter right as he is about to kill Matt, this is Jeff signing off.

-Dark Spirit-

Posted by Nerd Boy Wonder 23 February Permalink

Heroes Recap and Review of “Trust and Blood”

Welcome back everyone!  Let’s see if Heroes can continue that momentum they built last week with their inaugural episode of the new volume of Heroes. Last week, various characters were snatched from their normal lives to be taken aboard a plane destined for parts unknown. This week, the plane has crashed and we see the consequences.

We start with Nathan talking on the phone, as he will do throughout the episode, with someone, explaining the events of the past 43 hours. We are given a brief flashback of the crash as prisoners escape and soldiers try and hunt them down. Hiro is on the run and is promptly helped by both Mohinder and Parkman, who escape. Well, they want to escape, but the truly random Parkman MUST find somewhere to paint so the Heroes have something to do for the rest of the volume, aside from running away.

Meanwhile, Claire and Peter (how do they always end up together? it’s like they are dating) manage to run right into HRG, who lets Peter go. In this episode, I think Claire is caught a grand total of three times, which makes me think the Hunter kinda has a point that she really is dangerous. Claire says that people will start asking questions and HRG says they wont, as the military carpet bombs the area leaving no evidence, except large chunks of plane. Oh well.

Peter manages to keep running, eventually into Tracey. Peter does his best, “come with me if you want to live.”  Tracey goes with him.  It’s interesting that in one future, someone that looks like her gets with Peter. Meanwhile, HRG, Nathan and the Hunter have a heated conversation, one of many of this episode concerning the treatment of Claire and the rest of the animals (Hunter). HRG and Nathan have a plan, though, and it seems the Hunter is only around long enough to get the people, then he will be cut loose. Mohinder, Matt and Hiro get clothes as Matt speed paints.

Ando is busy trying to get a flight out to Arkansas, but Daphne finds him because she is worried about Matt and has no one else she can turn to. She and Ando quip about the relative dorkiness of Hiro’s operation, then she zooms him to Arkansas. Now, we shift scenes as two new characters are introduced; Luke and Luke’s mom. It seems like her house is the torture center for Sylar and his pet soldier he kept after the last episode.

We return from commercial to Daphne and Ando arriving to the crash site. Ando is broken up but Daphne reassures him that in the future, he will kill Hiro. Not only am I legitimately confused by how this comforts anybody, but didn’t they prevent that future already? *Sigh* Anyways, we get some great Peter exposition on how his powers work, which is nice because Tracy didn’t know and apparently needed to.

We come to HRG and Claire arguing about the same thing that they have been arguing about for three years now. Claire, your dad does bad shit to save your ungrateful ass. HRG, your daughter doesn’t like morally gray stuff.  Either retire to some far off land or get over it. Sorry, sick of this storyline. Anyways, Daphne snags Claire and goes back to Ando. Hiro, Parkman and Mohinder meet up again and Daphne gets shot (and I mean a lot). It looks like two or three shots, along with Claire. The others manage to escape.

Meanwhile, Tracy and Peter figure out a way to trap Nathan. Hunter thinks that Nathan is not doing the right thing, but since he is the golden boy of the President right now, he will follow orders. Sylar pretty much tortures Luke’s mom and the soldier he has kept as a pet long enough for Luke to show off that he can heat things up literally. Sylar, of course, is fascinated by this kid because he sees himself in him. To sum up the rest of the Sylar part of the episode, Sylar manages to figure out that the kid is just like him. The kid figures that Sylar can help him with life, so they end up traveling together to find Sylar’s real dad.

Wonky to me too, but Sylar was pretty much gold as the villain here, and him with an apprentice should be interesting.

So Peter and Tracy set up the trap, but Tracy is lured by Nathan’s words. It turns out Nathan didn’t come alone. He has the Hunter and HRG with him. No shots are fired, but Tracy is kidnapped and Peter flies away. He will regroup later with the rest of the group, which wants vengeance! That, and they want to figure out just what the hell Matt pained, and then figure out a reason to go do what he pained. Isaac died guys, so does everyone who paints. Hopefully, either Parkman takes this new power and becomes a stronger character or he dies.

Claire is back home in Costa Verde and gets a mysterious text about fighting back. Meanwhile, we find out the voice on the other end of the phone is Angela talking to Nathan. She knows who the Hunter is and she isnt going to help him. And that’s all folks!

Okay, the storylines of Claire resenting her dad, the future painting and Hiro and his destiny need to stop. Claire either needs to permanently run away or something because it’s obvious her and HRG are incompatible. Next, the paintings need to stop because honestly, it’s getting to be a bit much of contrived storytelling. And Hiro needs to grow up and stop thinking everything is a George Lucas journey. Maybe when he faces death, he will realize that.

Heroes this week seemed to drag as we got some more exposition, which really set up the conflicts between characters this season. Nothing wrong with that, and the writers really have cleared a lot of things up. The clunky parts are the things they hold onto, but I think they might have a few surprises in their back pockets. Let’s hope so.

-DarkSpirit-

Posted by Nerd Boy Wonder 10 February Permalink

Heroes “Clear and Present Danger”

[caption id=”” align=”aligncenter” width=”415” caption=”The look of the lair”][/caption]

And we are back!

We open with Tracy talking to the governor, obviously in an intimate connection. Meanwhile, we see Nathan talking on a talk show about his life and goals. Obviously since last season, he has had a meteoric rise as the chair of Homeland Security. Meanwhile, Tracy notices her window is open. Suddenly, she is attacked. She defends herself, but her powers didn’t work on the attacker. She is cornered and wont surrender. Eventually, she is tazered and captured. The hooded man unmasks and calls someone, telling them to inform Petrelli that the first one is captured. More after the break…

In what is a great callback to the genre, Hiro creates a lair, computer system, and even a motorcycle for the super character Ando. Sadly, Ando does not appreciate this and thinks Hiro is living through him. He takes off after Hiro injects a GPS implant. To be fair, it apparently hurts for an hour. Meanwhile, Peter is an EMT in New York and fails to save a dead guy. He laments his failure, saying he should be stronger. In New York, Claire and Angela discuss her going to college, the fact she has a GED (nice way to show she didn’t go to school), and the fact that Sylar is still alive, at least she thinks so. She doesn’t want to be on the bench. Then in Maryland, she is proven right as Sylar confronts his father and wants some questions answered.

Matt and Daphne are now trying to live a normal life. Daphne finds it boring, but Matt really wants to make a normal life work. He doesn’t want to use abilities and Daphne agrees a bit quick. Angela is on the phone with someone who turns out to be Nathan. She is concerned about Claire getting involved. Claire picks up the phone and hears that they are going after Matt and Peter. She runs out to warn them, Angela realizes they have a problem. Later, Sylar’s dad is a watchmaker as well and was in a loveless marriage. He wanted out. Sylar was delivered to him by his brother. Sylar knows he is telling the truth, but wants to kill him. Interesting. Peter is still haunted by the death of the accident man. His partner from Iran is nervous about the Nathan talk. He thinks they are targeting Muslims, but Peter suspects. It’s confirmed when Claire calls to warn him. Peter goes to talk to his mom and he gets in a cab encounter with Mohinder. They have a brief moment of reminisce and they disagree on the idea of people with abilities getting shipped off. Suddenly, the Hunter gets in the car and threatens Mohinder to drive to a van, and Mohinder manages to use his super strength to escape. HRG saves him, but it turns out he is working for The Hunter. He seems, like Nathan, to want to keep Claire out of this.

Peter goes to talk to Angela, only to find Nathan. They exchange barbs and Nathan wants to have dinner and exchange ideas. Peter agrees, but is very suspicious. Nathan then asks what he can do. Peter doesn’t really answer. We shift to Matt who is talking to a turtle and the painter from last season. It turns out Matt is the next prophet, he will paint the future. Matt doesn’t want to, but he has no choice, as his eyes go white. Okay, what else do they do with Matt really? Anyway, Hiro finds that Ando is using his new cycle to get some ladies. Hiro is dismayed, but then captured by the men in black and Ando runs to see what happened to him.

Matt draws remarkably competent at this point. It seems to be a part of the prophetic power, which has some root in actual stories of prophets. Anyway, Claire comes to warn him and they realize there is a picture of the future that shows Matt getting hit, which he does. The black suits come in and captures Matt and Claire. Meanwhile, Peter goes home and is met by Nathan, who seems deperate to have Peter a part of his plan. Peter wont budge, so Nathan gives him a hug and the distraction allows HRG to taze Peter. Sylar goes back to his roots and sees that the brother of his fake dad is a taxidermist. Inside, he sees a picture of a boy with glasses that looks like Sylar, a snowglobe, and then three tazers rock on Sylar. Sylar also gets a nice rope around the throat, but he turns it all around and just dismantles the team like no other with TK and lightning bolts. He then tortures one of the men to figure out who they are. I might add Sylar generating lightning bolts or healing factor may allow him to ignore the pain. Not too cheap.

Ando attempts to break the password of Hiro’s computer. It’s cute that the password is ‘Ando’. We see he is tracking Hiro, who is apparently in a hanger with the rest of the captured people. Nathan finds out Sylar escaped, and wants him dead. By the way, the captured seem to be doped-up and sensory deprived. Nathan finds out Claire is captured and he sets her free, which will no doubt bite him in the ass. Claire is driven away, she recovers from the sedative, and then kicks the driver’s head. Somehow, his head busting does not crash the car. Claire escapes and boards the plane by its wheel.

[caption id=”” align=”aligncenter” width=”300” caption=”They all got uniforms!”][/caption]

Inside the plane, she sees the guards and surreptitiously starts unmasking people. She frees Peter but he doesn’t have any powers, except when he touches Mohinder. We get a neat special effect out of the deal and Peter uses super strength to clobber the guards. Meanwhile, Claire goes to the cockpit after unmasking a lot of known and one unknown people. In the cockpit, she tazes a soldier, but it turns out that HRG is piloting the plane. Peter accidentally touches Tracy, gets her ice powers, and inadvertently freezes a wall, causing it to crack. Massive decompression happens and we have a crash…to be continued.

Okay, the only nitpick is that Parkman’s powers seem odd. It seems a part of the show to have someone that can paint the future, and by golly lets give it to the one guy who doesn’t want powers. The unlikely prophet and the Heroes journey. Sylar still hasn’t found his real dad, but he knows people are after him. It seems that Ando and Daphne are destined to team up again to find their significant lovers. Sorry, but it’s not called ‘bromance’ for nothing. Peter’s abilities could be seen a bit weird, but maybe getting powers back from the formula altered how he absorbs powers, which is an interesting twist actually.

Overall, this is a setup episode for a season of them on the run and having to work together. We shall see if it holds up, but I gotta say that the pieces of the puzzle were well laid. Here is to hoping they can keep it going. Next week looks at the crash and what happens after.

-Dark Spirit-

Posted by Nerd Boy Wonder 3 February Permalink