Heroes 06/04/09: “Turn and Face the Strange”. Now with 80% less suck!

Best episode title of the year, and part of Heroes ongoing mission to implant me with killer earworms from the 70’s. Took me three weeks to shake off “The Chain”. Thanks, guys!

So this week: Matt’s fixing to do something stupid, and Angela’s getting her posse together to save the specials, and first stop: visit the boys’ auntie? Hope that works out better than her tenure as Primatech’s head TPWA* From the show’s site:

As Danko (guest star Zeljko Ivanek) spearheads the government operation, someone close to him is put in the line of fire. H.R.G.'s (Jack Coleman) life continues to spiral out of control and his marriage is dangerously close to the breaking point. Meanwhile, Hiro (Masi Oka) and Ando (James Kyson Lee) continue their road trip with a special delivery for Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg). Elsewhere, Angela Petrelli (Cristine Rose) unearths the demons of her past.

So what’s the over/under on Ando getting Mattykins to hotwire a car tonight?

*These People With Abilities, as Noah likes to say.

The scene where Parkman is in Denko’s apartment - is Denko wearing lipstick? Creepy.

I know it was stupid but Andos face for keeping baby Parkman happy cracked me the hell up every time.

Dear Heroes:

You’re forgiven for Villains.

Love, Annie.

That was better than ‘Company Man’, which also featured Noah going apeshit when his family’s threatened thus leading to him becoming a wanted man; and Matt trying to be a cold hearted assassin but just not having the heart to do it in the end. Noah impersonating Sylar impersonating Noah? Awesome. Matty-Matt reunion was a little sappy, but hey. If Matty kills engines when he’s got a wet bum, can he kill abilities too?

That was a hell of an episode. Best of the season easily; maybe among the best of the show. (It’s been a while sine season one, so please don’t crucify me.) The possibility of having Sylar turn up as anyone really dials up the suspense.

So, does Sylar get memories when he shapeshifts? I’m also not entirely clear on whether he keeps a “library” of forms, or it’s just the most recent touch. Seems like the former, but I wasn’t paying close enough attention to be sure.

Will everyone in the cast get a chance to impersonate Sylar impersonating them? Coleman really looked like he was enjoying his work.

Noah checks out Sylar’s meatbag for corpse status confirmation. There’s only one way to be sure, but if he’s right, he’s going to wake up a homicidal psychopath who’s probably still pissed about the whole throat slashing/girlfriend shooting/eclipse thing. (Hey, just because Sylar finished Elle off himself later that night doesn’t mean he didn’t have feelings for her.) Noah reaches for the spike in Sylar’s head and-

Danko: Look who I caught. Nyah nyah. You suck, I rule, HEY DON’T TOUCH THAT SPIKE! Of course it’s Sylar. Who else could it be? Your missus is here downstairs. Looks pissed too. Stop. Touching. That. SPIKE!

*Bert, Ernie and Matty drive the world’s ugliest car cross country.
Matty’s crying. Maybe its allergies. Maybe he hates Ohio. Maybe he really hates that hideous car. Especially since it’s as dead as Hiro’s teleportation. They try to thumb a ride with a fellow son of Nippon driving truck, but his Japanese language skills are as defunct as his 18 wheeler. The boys deduce that happy Matty makes things go, but cranky Matty kills car motors like 15 years in a Amish horse bar would. *

*Daddy Matt and Mo are camping out in yet another ugly hotel room; Mohinder’s packing his passport , Matt’s playing with a gun. *
Mohinder: “I’m going back to India, but I’m going to stop at the apartment first. No chance they’d have a surveillance camera set up. You coming?”
Matt: I love you man, but I’m getting my vengeance on.
Mo: Slow boat to India. Sure I can’t tempt you?
*
Sandra comes to kick Noah’s ass for ignoring her about Claire. *
Noah: That’s nice dear, hey, I think Sylar’s alive even though he’s decomposing in the next room. I was going to pull the railway spike out of his head but that seemed kinda risky. Well, better sorry than-
Danko: Hi Mrs B- nice meeting you finally
Sandra: So you’re the perv who put the cameras in our bathroom?
Danko: What no, us,? No…Really? Uh, yes! That was us. Now if you’ll excuse me…
Goes to the head, where he’s already in there taking a leak. Yes, it does get weird at this point.
Danko: It’s fun being you. But I think there’s something wrong with your pecker.
Danko at the urinal: Are you out of your mind, what are you doing here?
Danko: I’m sorry, which one am I?
Urinal Danko: morphs into Sylar Damn. Now I’m confused.

Angela: Coyote Sands. You know the place? Get your ass there. I’m bringing the kids.
Noah: Only know it as old Primatech legend. We have a dead Sylar, by the way. I’m going to go do a systems check on the corpse.
Angela: No, Noah don’t do it don’t do it Noah no no no NO! Noah, DON”T. Stop that…………. Shit.
Noah: Hey, who swiped my nemesis’s corpse? Chases after the meatwagon and opens up the bag where Zach Quinto’s been spending a whole lot of screen time recently. Hope he didn’t get a rash or anything. *
Noah: Hold up guys, keep your guns on the dead guy, he’s a tricky one.
Sploorks the railway spike out of Sylar’s head, and readies his weapon, but the corpse continues to behave the way corpses are supposed to. Normally, this means you can stand down from red alert. Not this time.

Noah goes home to change out of the pants he probably just crapped. Sandra knocks, bearing paperwork. *

Sandra: Sign these. I want a divorce. I don’t even feel married to you anymore. You lie.
Noah: Oh god…… this stiff melodramatic out of character speechifying. Are we going back in time to Pinehurst days? Because, really, no one wants that.
Annie: Oh god, noooooooooooo!!! Not more Villains-plot! Noooooo
Sandra: I don’t Love. You. I don’t Re Spect You. And that bedspread is hideous.
Noah: Oh gawd noooooooooo don’t leave……Don’t you see? There’s only three types of women in this universe; wives, Claire, and dead!
Sandra: Yeah. Funny about that. Goodbye.

*Sandra and her spunky retro coat stride down the alley and smirks a bit. Yeah, it’s Sylar, and he morphs back to himself and is probably glad that Noah didn’t want a shag for old times’ sake. Or not. He’s really working Sandra’s coat. Sylar does chick pretty well. It seems to be that while he can morph form, he can’t always morph the clothes. This could be important, people.

Ando experiences that first horror of childrearing, that moment when a parent realizes their personality has been subsumed and will never be the same again: doing something batshit insane to make the baby happy. And he will do it, dammit, because if Matty’s not happy then no one’s happy. Or going any farther east.

Matt stalks Danko outside B26 and brain mojo thingy’s him into going to protect whoever the hell it is he loves. Turns out, it’s some fairly hot chick from the old country. Danko-who for some reason feels he has to lie to the ex-escort about his job and name- confirms all is well with Elena, that she’s probably not Sylar in girlfriend drag and goes back to B26 to violate someone’s civil rights. Matt stumbles in, not really knowing if he should shoot her in the head or wind his watch. *
Elena: How did you get in here? Are you going to take me back to the escort agency?
Matt: Danko’s doing a pro? Freaky!
Elena: Let’s have tea and I’ll tell you all about it.
Matt: Draws gun Let’s go see your boyfriend the genocidal maniac

*Smartypants Noah may not recognize when someone’s impersonating his wife and divorces his ass, but like a good married man, he knows his wife’s handwriting from 40 paces. Doesn’t know when his nemesis is impersonating her divorcing his ass, but whatever. The lab calls back to confirm the spike turns up negative for Gray-blood. Pieces sufficiently put together, it’s time for Noah to get the vengeance on.

Mohinder disguises himself as Andy Capp but blows his cover by going back to the apartment of creepy green walls (Really-what is that weird wall shit? Mould? Textured wallpaper?) Since he’s a smart guy he uses his Hulk thumb to bash out the deadbolt instead of utilizing the roguishly butch but unfortunately loud boot to the doorframe to gain entrance. *
Mo: Hey, where’s my stuff? Oh god, where’s my elephant? And is this turtle shit on the floor?
Landlord: Buncha government guys came and took it all away. By the way, they found all the little girl clothes, and they think you’re a pervert. Just thought I’d share that.
Mo: My papers, my research??? No!!!
Landlord: Get you dad’s crap out of my basement. Actually, I thought the FBI would’ve taken that too, but I guess hiding his papers in cardboard file boxes with ‘SURESH’ written all over the sides was his cunning way of keeping them out of the government’s hands.

Noah slams Sandra into the table and sticks a gun up her neck
Sandra: Noah, really, you act like I just told you I want a divorce
Noah: You’re Sylar, what did you do to my wife, you sonofabitch, I’m just going to blow you head off right here-
Sandra: Noah, NO, it’s me, what are you doing, if you kill me who’s going to look after Mr Muggles and…………the other one?
Noah: Uh, Lyle?
Sandra: No……… oh right, yeah, our son!
Noah: You really are Sandra! I’m so sorry I tried to blow your skull open
Sandra: Want divorce, dear.

*Nice transition between the baby wrangler’s touching and going out of the Chevron station, and the Petrelli flying squad stopping in for a quick coordinates check on their way to meet mom at Area 61. Highway 61. Area Coyote. Wherever. *

Hiro: Where’s MattPacman? We have special derivery for him. How come your phone still works?
Mo: I left him in Washington with a sidearm, a death wish and an Old Testament size case of bringing down the righteous vengeance upon his enemy. I wish he had something he thinks he could live for.

  • In background* Waaaaaaaaaaa * deep baby breath and gasp to reload * WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
    Hiro: Nope, sorry, can’t think of anything to help you with that-Ando, make the face!- you have an address for Matt? We got something for him.

Matt: Geeze, Hiro, you guys got across America way faster this year! And it’s called suicide by cop and you just rolled me away from doing it, dammit-you roll me back in front of that bullet right this minute!
Hiro: No, MattPacman. You are a hero. You have a destiny. See? Ando makes funny faces at your destiny.
Matt: Awww, baby! Gooogooogooooo!
Matty? Gooo?
Matt: Googidy gooo! Wow, I hope this is Janice’s kid.
Hiro: He looks like you!
Matt: Hiro, all babies look like me.

Sylar/Noah drama queens across the bullpen over to Danko’s office. Couldn’t find any HRG’s to complete the ensemble, though.

Sylar impersonating Noah: Hiya.
Danko: You shouldn’t be here. You could get caught
Noah impersonating Sylar impersonating Noah: Psych! Where’s Sylar?
Danko: Downstairs pretending to be tactical chief. He really seems to like wearing the SWAT uniform, but he’s got to stop keeping women’s clothes in his locker.
Noah: You’re Sylar!
Tactical guy: Uh, no?
Noah: Yes! Bang
TG: Bleeds. A lot.
Noah: Get up!
TG: Still bleeding.
Noah: OK, maybe I was wrong
Danko: No, now you’re a murderer. Enjoy running for your life.
TG: Yes. Run along now. Anytime, please. *Noah splits; the rest of the team leaves their fallen brother lying in his blood puddle, go out for beers. *

Danko: You do dead good.
Tactical Dead Guy Sylar: *spits out bullet. * Yeah.
Danko: Really good.
Sylar: Not that good. Stop looking at me like that.
Danko: This isn’t an evil grin.

*Noah, wearing the green field jacket of righteousness, leaves Sandra the “ I love you, I’m on the run, you can’t find me ever again” phone message. Mohinder, having rooted through dad’s boxes to find his Area Coyote files, fires up the Big Map of String, and all the threads point desert-way.
Peter and Angela show up to a decrepit desert camp in a really ugly SUV; Nathan and Claire, after stopping for new threads somewhere, zoom down. She hauls out the tools and gets the kids to start digging. *
Peter: What, are we going to make Nathan dig his own grave? Geeze mom, you are harsh.
Angela: Actually, I’ve mellowed. All of you, dig.
The young’uns make with the digging, Angela makes with the Indiana Jones walking around the dig site watching all the Egyptian laborers dig. They get about waist deep, and….
Nathan: Thunk thunkthunk. Ma? WTF? It’s a skull. Shot in the forehead.
Angela: It’s a start. Keep going *more diggydigdig *
Nathan: You’re evil, ma. You know that, right?
Noah the hunted, now an honorary Petrelli, shows up too: God, Angela, your idea of family reunification is to get everyone together to exhume the hidden bodies? Thank Christ you let me and Sandra raise Claire
Claire, waving from pit #2: Hi daddy!
*Next week: Secret experimental programs from the 60’s in the desert, scary little girls, foreshadowing references to legends about men who fly too close to the sun to impress their parents, and Dr Suresh, probably up to no good. Chandra - that Dr. Suresh-right? *

Anyone find it kind of odd that Nathan/Claire and Hiro/Ando/Junior are 50 feet away from each other and don’t realize that they are 50 feet away from each other?

Also, Coyote Whatever is the location of the last big Hero Roundup and a perfect spot for some Mama Petrelli guilt tripping.

MAMA: You know your Grat Plan To Save Humanity from the likes of us?
NATHAN: Yeah?
MAMA(holds up skull with bullethole in it): This is how they did it last time. They told Yorick here they were going to protect him too.

No, that happened practically every single episode in season 1.

No but he does have a power to learn the history of anything he touches, so it doesn’t really make a difference.

Did anyone else feel Noahs plan to catch Sylar was pretty, well… dumb? What did he think Danko was going to do? confronting Sylar in front of the other agents with only the guy whos ass is on the line for betraying them to confirm your story doesn’t seem like a very good idea.

/signed.

I had a feeling during the Danko twins scene, that Danko (the original) was beginning to realize how much he had stepped in it. I think Danko is now trying to cover his tracks, but Parkman’s little mind-fuck has shaken him.

It started out pretty well – impersonating Sylar impersonating Noah to get Danko to acknowledge his ties with Sylar? Awesome! He probably didn’t think it’d actually work, though, since from that point on it kinda went downhill…

All in all, awesome episode, though – I liked how they played Danko’s and Noah’s stories in contrast, with the women and phonecalls at the end.

Okay, so where’s Rebel/Micah while all this is going on? Scooping up water from a parking garage drain?

Matt: You’ve killed Daphne. You hunted my friends with plans to exterminate them. You’ve kidnapped me at least twice and tried to use me to blow up innocent bystanders. If I don’t stop you, you’ll continue to hunt and kill and destroy in your neverending quest for complete domination.
Danko: You pretty much nailed it.
Matt: So here’s what I’m planning on doing to halt this endless cycle of violence. You know that hooker friend of yours you met a few weeks ago and have been continually lying to? Yeah, I’m going to point a gun at her.
Danko: NO! DON’T DO…wait. Just point a gun at her?
Matt: OK, well maybe not even that. This gun’s heavy. Did I ever tell you that I was a pretty lousy cop?
Danko: Soooo…I can shoot you now?
Matt: That’s pretty much your MO.
Danko: What the hell did you even bother coming in here for?

Being a fan of Heroes and Supernatural, I had to do a double-take when Danko went to visit Elena; I immediately thought, “oh shit, Danko’s in league with Lilith! They’re gonna break the seals! Where’s Sam and Dean?”*
** The same actress that played Elena played Lilith the demon in the latest episode of Supernatural, if it wasn’t obvious; that actress is getting around!*

I was a bit annoyed that Noah couldn’t put the pieces together without getting a DNA test on the spike. Remember the guy that Danko was obsessed with last week, Noah, and that he seems to have forgotten about entirely at about the time dead-Sylar showed up? It’s not that hard.

(While I was watching the show, I thought Noah knew that Mr. Geometry was a shapeshifter as well, in which case his deductive failure would be completely unforgivable, but now that I think about it, I don’t recall him ever learning that last week.)

I think the only ones who knew they were after a shapeshifter were Sylar and Danko.

Well, I’m cutting him some slack. Evil nemesis dead but savvy enough to doubt that, spends all day trying to confirm said death. Wife stops by and breaks his heart; finds out that nemesis not dead but can now impersonate his wife; probably thinks wife’s lying somewhere with an open head wound; finds wife faking shapeshifter and threatens to blow him/her to hell in a hefty bag and oops! just horrifying terrorized the love of his life. Stress makes you stoopid (that’s what I tell my boss, anyhow:D)

I swear, I was going to mention that! Matt always does that- bare-minimal plan, guns blazing, gets his ass handed to him in a sling/shot in the heart/captured by the ninjas. Mohinder should have handcuffed him to a radiator back at the hotel.

Officially, Martin was still out there with an unknown ability and still #1 on the big board, probably being pursued. The dead guy was Sylar. I’m guessing Danko didn’t flesh out Martin’s dossier before formalizing his nasty new partnership.

Well he clearly thought it was a fake Sylar from the beginning but he couldn’t act on it without some solid proof could he? He had already put the pieces together, the DNA test was just confirmation.

Sure–I was disappointed that he couldn’t figure out who the fake Sylar was. Since he didn’t know that Martin was a shapeshifter, I’m willing to cut him a bit more slack now. It depends on how much Danko was keeping up the fiction of having Martin as Super Enemy No. 1, which wasn’t really addressed in the episode.

Regarding Micah–I watched a bit of last week’s commentary. Most was rather dull technical details, but they did mention that they had to cut a storyline with Noah giving Micah sanctuary. Maybe they’ll return to that idea later.

There was some interesting stuff like the Danko and Parkman scenes.

That bit where Bennet shot the disguised Sylar was just a little too lame. It’s like Bennet walked stupidly right into it.

Yeah, I hate when they take a guy like Bennet, who is supposed to be a great strategist, someone who plans and prepares for contingencies, and make him into a dumb shit just to move the plot along.

I mean, really? We’re suposed to beleive he would just walk into Danko’s office like that? And BELEIVE him about where Sylar was? The cold, calculating Bennet…granted, the guy is going through some emotional turmoil, but you’d almost think he had swapped brains with Parkman.