Monday, March 05, 2007

Heroes open thread 3/2

I have to leave the house at the crack of dawn tomorrow, which means I have to sack out early tonight. Even if I get around to watching "Heroes," I won't be writing about it until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest. So since this is the last new episode for a while and will no doubt end on a wicked cliffhanger, I'm leaving this post for you all to talk about it. I'll try to weigh in ASAP tomorrow. Play nice.

26 comments:

Ted Frank said...

I was going to be all upset about the Simone spoiler, but then it turned out not to be a spoiler. Nice that they foreshadowed the betrayal of HRG by the cell-phone ring. But the shape-shifting special effect is cheesier than the old Star Trek transporters, though I suppose real CGI morphing is prohibitively expensive.

So why exactly does Eric Roberts need HRG for anything?

The Ando infiltration seems to be a wild cheat of a deus ex machina. The casino has records on Hiro as a cheat, but not his sidekick? How does a Japanese citizen without real English skills get hired as a security guard with access to the Linderman inner sanctum within 48 hours of being abandoned by Hiro? Feh.

Anonymous said...

Ando's resourceful...he didn't get a job, but he did figure out a way to impersonate one.

Anonymous said...

I just want to kick myself for not figuring out who the Haitian was really reporting to. DUH!

And everybody who was giving Mohinder a hard time two episodes ago for not realizing who his buddy was owes him an apology. Not that he didn't still screw things up. I know he doesn't trust HRG, but there are times to go it alone, and times to get the people with the big guns. Telekinetic psychopaths? Those are the guys you give to the authorities.

Anonymous said...

I loved it, although I thought last week's story was a little better. But this week's didn't disappoint at all, and I hate the prospect of the Hero-less next six weeks.

I loved the Momma Petrelli twist, although really I should have seen it coming. It's also cool (albeit in a gruesome way) to have the callback to FutureHiro's statement to Peter: "I almost didn't recognize you without your scar." I'm now presuming he was referring to the one that he'll probably have after this most recent run-in with Sylar.

I was so happy to see Malcolm McDowell as Linderman. He's a terrific actor, and, at least in that brief scene, played him in an unexpected manner, which was great. For a big bad he was terribly affable and disarming, not a big glowering Evil! Villain! as we've been led to expect. Of course, I have no doubt that he's cruel and ruthless; I just thought it was a brilliant character stroke to have our first real introduction to Linderman be him making veggie pot pie like somebody's grandpa.

Lastly, it might or might not have been intentional, but I chuckled at the "Princess Bride" quote reference in Linderman's archives.

K J Gillenwater said...

I was very happy with the Simone thing, too. Thank goodness she wasn't really alive. Whew!

And they really got me good with HRG's wife. For a second I really believed she was bad...but then shape-shifter appears. I wonder what happened to the real wife? Probably bad news for her.

The last scene with Mohinder bleeding up on the ceiling was disturbing. I didn't know what to expect when Peter walked into his apartment, but that really got to me. Plus Peter getting his head sliced open and that horrible scream.

I forgot about Hiro commenting on Peter's missing scar. Thanks for the reminder on that one.

Also cool about Mrs. Petrelli knowing more and being more involved than we knew in this whole thing. Wonder what that is all about? Could it be she also has a power and Claire is 3rd generation? The Haitian did say he was keeping another hero safe from the baddies...

BF said...

For all the things Heroes does right, they really suck at 4th act character reveals. QUIT PUTTING THEIR NAMES IN THE OPENING CREDITS!!!!!!

Have we seen Morph-girl before? I knew 3 seconds into HRG's second visit with the wife that she was fake due to the "If you introduce a gun in the first act..." rule of screenwriting.

Glad to see Mohinder finally rent a clue, if only for a while.

Ted Frank said...

Yes, the cell phone and also "I like your hair."

Anonymous said...

I thought it was a very strong episode (though not quite as powerful as last week's). The scene with Sylar, Mohinder and Peter had me gasping -- but the very last image had me hooting with laughter: his bangs landing on the floor. Can we assume we've seen the last of their annoying floppiness?

The Princess Bride reference slipped right by me. What was it?

I believe that "Morph Girl" was the woman we first saw last week when they took Parkman into custody.

Also loved the Mrs. Petrelli reveal!

Anonymous said...

April 23rd? We have to wait until April 23rd? Argh.

Well, at least Simone is still dead. Gotta say, tho, that Morphing Girl is rude, arrogant little punk. I hope she gets creamed.

Enjoyed the Mrs. Petrelli reveal. I had some weird suspicion that Nathan was the one giving orders to the Haitian, which wouldn't make sense since he didn't know until recently that Claire was alive. Maybe just some weird Petrelli-related ESP.

Loved the way they wrote and portrayed Linderman. It makes him seem even more dangerous. I also wonder if he and Mama Petrelli and the late Poppa Petrelli were engaged in a clandestine war with The Company over the heroes. Could explain why Poppa Petrelli had been so close to Linderman, and why Mama Petrelli knows more than she let on. Would be neat if Linderman ended up being on the "good" side of the heroes "problemm" despite being a nasty crime lord.

I, too, had forgotten about the scar comment. And I was very happy to see Ando return.

Anonymous said...

his bangs landing on the floor. Can we assume we've seen the last of their annoying floppiness?

I gotta say, there are much less painful ways to get a haircut!

Excellent ep last night! I can't believe we have to wait so long for the next round of episodes. And I don't care how contrived it was to get Ando back because I was soooo happy to see him! :-)

Anonymous said...

But if Peter can heal ala Claire's power, then how will he have a scar?

Anonymous said...

I liked the Mama Petrelli reveal too -- I thought it would be much longer before we learned who the Haitian was working for, so I wasn't expecting this at all. For a minute there I thought Mrs. Petrelli was going to tell Claire to get lost before she ruins Nathan's election. It was cool that instead Claire finally met the person who's been protecting her. Poor kid has already been chased away from one family!

I still love Hiro so I hope sending him and Ando to the future provides him with a decent storyline -- he hasn't had one since Charlie.

Mohinder torturing Sylar with the tuning fork? Awesome. It annoys me, though, that people keep not killing Sylar when they have the chance. At least HRG has an excuse, his bosses wouldn't let him, but Mohinder should have offed him after he got the spinal fluid. (Unless we're supposed to assume that Sylar was never helpless and wanted Mohinder to finish the code? That would kinda get Mohinder off the hook.)

electricia said...

Hmm, what was the "clue" with the cell phone ring? I missed that. And also the Princess Bride comment... what was it?

For a minute I thought that HRG's wife was working with The Company all along. I'm not sure if I would have liked that more or less. On the one hand, it would have been cooler than having Morph-Girl (can we just call her Mystique and get it over with?) involved, but that might just be because I hate her. On the other hand, it might be overkill on the "EVERYONE! is involved and connected!" angle.

A little problem with the Mohinder/Sylar thing - if Sylar's powers weren't working thanks to the "cure" (and again, hi, X-Men much?), then why did the tuning fork have any effect on him? His superhearing wouldn't have been working either, so the tuning fork shouldn't have bothered him any more than a normal person.

Where the hell is Bluetooth Girl? She had potential. I hope we see her again. I'm also rapidly losing interest in Nikki/Jessica. If they don't do something with that soon, I may fall asleep whenever she's on screen. So far her "power" seems to be having a sociopathic other personality with super strength. Not interesting! Hopefully they're going to start showing timid little Nikki getting some backbone and overcoming Jessica, but maybe still being able to use her super strength.

Unknown said...

I was impressed with the Momma Patrelli reveal: I assumed The Haitian was getting orders from Future Hiro, but this ties into the lineage aspect of the show. Each hero's parents seems to either have powers or involvement in that world.

And we've seen the male characters "man up" quite a bit in the last few weeks with Matt, Peter and now Mohinder getting clued in that they need to act before things get worse. But man, that closing shot with Mohinder was like something out of "Seven".

Next guy to clue in will be D.L. I assume. Can't wait for the final 4 episodes starting in April.

Ted Frank said...

The real Mrs. HRG's cell phone ring had dogs barking when the kennel called. Fake Mrs. HRG had a normal cell phone ring and said "That's the kennel."

Bluetooth's power is lame. It's like the power to make your urine smell like asparagus.

Anonymous said...

Electricia,

The drug didn't kill Sylar's powers, it made him unable to control them. So he couldn't turn down the volume when Mohinder used the tuning fork.

Anonymous said...

I thought Mohinder said he used "curare" to paralyze Sylar. Also, Sylar wanted Mohinder to finish the code so he could find *everyone* with powers, so that's why he allowed Mohinder to extract his spinal fluid. No pain, no gain!

Anonymous said...

The "Princess Bride" comment (if it was that), was when the archivist said something like, "There is a shortage of perfect dead sea scrolls in the world. It would be a shame to ruin these."

In "The Princess Bride," the paralyzed Wesley says to Buttercup, just as she's about to attempt suicide, "There's a shortage of perfect breasts in the world. It would be a pity to damage yours."

Then again, it could be just coincidental, and I could be reading too much into it. It wouldn't be the first time, heh.

Anonymous said...

plus, he all but said "hello. my name is mohinder suresh. you killed my father prepare to die" to sylar at the end.

Anonymous said...

Bluetooth Girl's power is pretty lame, and it is one that would have been useless 50 years ago, unlike almost every other hero's.

Anonymous said...

I think "Morph Girl" is really an illusionist, which is why the whole scene shifts when she uses her powers, and why she was able to hide the dead Simone.

"Bluetooth girl" is actually referred to as "Wireless" in the online comic, if anyone was wondering. I don't know why it's considered such a bad power, as everything is communicated online nowadays. Although I don't know if she can bypass encryption.

What I want to know is what happened to the Haitian's power to nullify someone's power? And why was Nikki hired to kill Nathan in the first place?

Anyway I can't wait until April 23.

JMC said...

After seeing Peter and Sylar confront each other, am I crazy to assume that the finale will center around Sylar being the actual nuclear bomb and Peter using his similar power to somehow negate Sylar?

TPTB have now made it clear that each season of Heroes is a 'volume' so it would make sense that this entire arc really comes down to Sylar being taken care of so everyone else can move forward (until next season when a new threat appears).

Anonymous said...

I was thinking the same thing about Sylar being the human bomb and not Peter. After seeing Morph Girl in action I now think that Sylar will kill her and Ted, and then nuke NYC and make it look like Peter did it. Or something like that.

But, since Morph Girl is really an illusionist, what would be a more accurate nickname for her? Daytripper? Femme Faker? None of those quite have the same ring as Morph Girl, even though that's not really her power.

Anonymous said...

I was thinking the same thing about Sylar being the human bomb and not Peter.

Peter does dream using himself as avatars for others, so I can see this happening.

As for Morph Girl, how about Protea (since she has similar powers to Proteus from the X-Men comics)? Can't stand that bratty character, so I won't be sad if Sylar takes her brain out--plus it will be more exciting if he can "hide" himself while the others try to catch him.

The CineManiac said...

Ted, Ando speaks great English with no problems, as for the getup I agree he was dressed up, not an actual hired guard.
Dan, Maybe he has a scar because the injury comes from another's powers? I mean Sylar did use his own finger to do the cutting, or maybe he passes out and can't use his power. Or maybe it's not that scar at all?
And where's all the Missy Peregrym love? Morph-Girl is not a bad character, it's obvious that she changes people's perception of reality, making them see things as she wants them to. She's less Mystique and more Mastermind. So it would be more accurate to call her Mind-F*** than anything else.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I can see the Mastermind parallels. Which makes me hate her even more because I freakin' *hated* Mastermind and his lame-ass Hellfire Club :-D