9.30.2008

Heroes: One of Us, One of Them

Let's call a spade a spade: the two best things about the latest Heroes epsiode, "One of Us, One of Them", are the teaming of Sylar and Noah Bennett and the teaming of the Mexican chick with no air time. Right out of the box, you have now the clearly unstable Mrs. Petrelli telling her "son" (who knows if it is true, but it would coincide with how he and Peter kind of have shades of the same ability) that she's going to let him go and partner him with HRG (Horned Rimmed Glasses, for the ungeeky), the guy who just put a dozen bullets in him last episode.Jack Coleman's HRG character naturally doesn't like that one bit; aside from Sylar being an admitted and uncontrollable killer, he finally got to his daughter Clair last episode. Although they quickly develop a respect for each other, that is immediately betrayed in the end by Sylar's instincts. And followed by HRG declaring that he's going to get close enough to Sylar to learn how he ticks and then kill him. I know it's hard to swallow this pairing after all they've been through, but it translates well to the screen, and will keep me coming back just to see their interaction. And to watch Claire heal her jaw after it bounces off the floor when Sylar inevitably makes a home appearance.

But to segue for just a moment, IF Sylar (nee Gabriel) is really a Petrelli spawn, that actually makes him Claire's UNCLE. So that makes (discounting papa Petrelli only because we have no data) a perfect five-for-five with powers in the Petrelli extended clan. Sure, Mohinder, you were wrong about it being genetics, it's really adrenaline. What no reply? No air time for you? Too bad!HRG runs into his old partner, The Haitian, who appearantly really has no name because even mama Petrelli refers to him as that. The Haitian is there to report that Hiro and Ando YET AGAIN have enabled theft of the "formula", which might as well henceforth be known as "the maguffin". Aside from Sylar, I can't think of ANYONE who more truly deserves to be locked away for their own good than them. At least there isn't a third part of the formula they can't deliver personally Hiro's speedster "nemesis", who is clearly much smarter than them. I'm not saying that because it's good that they already royally screwed the pooch, but that it's good they can't screw up any worse. I may regret saying that.

Aside, Brea Grant, who plays the speedy Daphne Millbrook, really needs to stay in super-speed mode, because depowered she runs like a mobile jello figure.

Matt Parkman, spirit quester, gets no pictures and no kudos, except for filling an extra 5 minutes of television time. It could be that the writers didn't have anything for him to do for a while, or it could be that his quest is somehow important. Or it could be a built-in extra bathroom break.But they do give Ali Larter some interesting things to do, finally. She may not be faking it at all as she finds Nikki Sanders body down south, has a chat with Nikki's son Micah, and find out from a delivery doctor that she was created. Okay, still not sure where this is leading, but at least it's not Parkman.

Last, but not least (compared to Parkman and Ali Larter threads), is Claire's struggle with the Sylar attack. Not helping out at home is Claire's biological mother (as Mrs. Bennett clarifies), who is something of a rebel herself.Not only does fire woman undermine Mrs. Bennett's house rule, but endorses hookey to teach Claire "how to fight". Now, I'm no genius, but to paraphrase Claire's brother, you're going to protect us... with fire? How does this translate into fighting skills that you can teach the human punching bag? Don't worry, she was only using it to teach Claire a lesson about recognizing anger, and who to be angry at (uh, Sylar). Boy it sure worked out, because Claire straightened right up and headed off to cheerleader sleepover... with a Primatech box in tow. Championship!!!

Cool things:
  • Jack Coleman and ZQ. Jack always brings his A-game to the role, which makes his teaming with Zachary Quinto outshine anything else in the episode by far. They have dynamic chemistry.
  • Future Peter as badass. He might come in a close second to Hiro for the ability to screw things up, but at least he is direct and uncaring. His brief appearance where he stopped the bank melee just to grab present Peter from Jesse's body and then vanished was great. It was too early for a Sylar-Peter reunion.
  • The Haitian. He may be a little incompentent, but he looks cool.
  • Jesse's sonic screams. Too short lived, for the ability and for the character. Maybe Sylar will use them. Or maybe not... he still has super-hearing, doesn't he? Wouldn't that just hurt too much?


Weak:
  • Sylar's "cop imitation". Not sure where that came from, but I inadvertently cringed.
  • Give Claire something to do. I realize it is tough with her ability to, well, recover from a good thrashing, but unless the character starts moving forward, she's going to get a lot more boring. If it wasn't Hayden Panettiere, I'd suspect we'd have moved on by now.

No comments: