Heroes 10/15/07 - "The Kindness of Strangers" (SPOILERS)

Cafe Society
61

[QUOTE=Justin_Bailey]
But Bob the Alchemist is in the picture and he seems even lower on the totem pole than Eric Roberts or Mr. Bennett.

We were also shown that Mr. Bennett ran the Texas facility and only answered to “higher ups” over the phone. Eric Roberts didn’t show up until The Company thought something hinky was going on. So Mr. Bennett is at least the equal of Bob the Alchemist.
[/QUOTE]

Why would Bob be lower on the totem pole? He’s the one with the Midas touch, and therefore the money to do what needs be done - perhaps only due to Linderman’s death has he been forced to come “forward” - but I doubt that makes him a lower echelon.

That, and I think its more of a “generational” thing that makes them in the twelve.

62

[QUOTE=Justin_Bailey]
But Bob the Alchemist is in the picture and he seems even lower on the totem pole than Eric Roberts or Mr. Bennett.

We were also shown that Mr. Bennett ran the Texas facility and only answered to “higher ups” over the phone. Eric Roberts didn’t show up until The Company thought something hinky was going on. So Mr. Bennett is at least the equal of Bob the Alchemist.
[/QUOTE]
Noah didn’t know he was working for Linderman. Bob obviously knows Linderman. Noah is, as Ted said, mid-level management.

63

[QUOTE=Otto]
One would think that if Parkman’s mom and dad were both in the photo he would’ve said “that’s my mom and dad” or “those are my parents.”
[/QUOTE]

No, no, it’s his BIOLOGICAL mom, not the mom he grew up with…
Okay, I got nothin’.

64

[QUOTE=simster]
That, and I think its more of a “generational” thing that makes them in the twelve.
[/QUOTE]

The actors that play Bob the Alchemist and Mr. Bennett are only seven years apart. Mr. Bennett also had custody of Claire, a very important Company “project.”

He may have been recruited in, but he’s very important in the scheme of things, and no one knows when “The 12” formed.

65

[QUOTE=Otto]
So…Nathan is wearing a fake beard? Not the actor, the character?
[/QUOTE]
No; he had a beard, and then he shaved.

It’s hard to see Candice being stupid enough to get killed that way; but then, the show has never really been consistent with how a given character behaves. Gee, Sylar sure does like bashin’ people’s heads. I wonder if we’ll ever find out exactly what he does once he gets the top of your head off.

I’m disappointed in the impossible coincidences – Maya & Alejandro are making their way north in a stolen car that just happens to be stolen from Claire, and then who should they run into (almost literally) but Gabriel, aka Sylar. What are the odds? Lazy writing. I know impossible coincidences have long been a staple of comic books, but originally I had hopes that this show would be something different – that they’d try to show the effects of incredible powers in a realistic world.

Being able to imitate things you see on tv isn’t a very inspiring power. I hope Mikah’s other cousin, the useless, bitchy adolescent lump who wanted his grandmother to pony up 65 bucks so he could watch wrestling, doesn’t have a power.

66

[QUOTE=D_Odds]
Noah didn’t know he was working for Linderman. Bob obviously knows Linderman. Noah is, as Ted said, mid-level management.
[/QUOTE]

I’ll have to break out my DVDs, but I’m pretty sure Mr. Bennett knew about Linderman.

67

[QUOTE=Justin_Bailey]
I’ll have to break out my DVDs, but I’m pretty sure Mr. Bennett knew about Linderman.
[/QUOTE]

I’m remembering a scene in a diner with Parkman, Bennet, and Sprague(? - I think that is his name and I didn’t want to call him Geico Caveman), where Sprague laughs at Bennet for not knowing Linderman was his boss.

68

Woo, stuff happened!! Finally starting to feel like the Heroes I enjoyed so much last season. I was spoiled on the twins coming across Sylar, but I didn’t realize it was going to happen that soon! Did anyone else just want to crawl through the screen and give the poor guy a hug when he looked down at his broken watch and mumbled “I’m Gabriel.” Aww.

So every stupid theory of mine has, so far, been completely blown out of the water. I suck at this game.

Matt and Mohinder make a very cute bickering old couple.

69

[QUOTE=Baldwin]
It’s hard to see Candice being stupid enough to get killed that way; but then, the show has never really been consistent with how a given character behaves. Gee, Sylar sure does like bashin’ people’s heads. I wonder if we’ll ever find out exactly what he does once he gets the top of your head off.
[/QUOTE]

Last season, Candice taunted the super-strong crazy woman whose child she’d kidnapped… and got smacked all to Heck for her efforts.

This season, she teased the psycho multiple-murderer… and got her brain eaten for her efforts.

Looks consistent to me.

All of last season was an endless series of the heroes bumping into each other, over and over. Niki sleeps with Nathan. Nathan flies to the diner where Hiro just happens to be there to see him land. On and on, the whole season through, until they’d just about all met each other (tho’ Matt and Nathan seemed to have missed hooking up).

Their intention from the start has been to mine the tropes of comic books for a tv series – incredible powers, yes; realistic world, not so much.
Which reminds me: how the heck did Noah miss West flying away with Claire… in their completely flat, suburban wasteland that has no landscaping other than some palm trees – in broad daylight??? Seriously, dude needs to get a new prescription for his horn-rimmed glasses.

Also, West needs to find a different pose for his flying. The arm-up, one knee bent pose may work for Superman in the comics, but on tv it looks about as hokey as a George Reeves flight pose.

70

[QUOTE=Otto]
I freeze-framed it at the second instance, when Mohinder and Matt were looking at it. I did not see these mystery women. I’ll look again when I get home because I can’t understand how I could have missed two entire people.
[/QUOTE]

Here is a screencap of the photo. It’s not the clearest, but you can see 12 people in the photo- four sitting in front and eight standing up.

71

[QUOTE=Sam Lowry]
Here is a screencap of the photo. It’s not the clearest, but you can see 12 people in the photo- four sitting in front and eight standing up.
[/QUOTE]

Beat me too it. Nathan says “It’s a group shot, 10 maybe 12 people in it”

Later we see the photo that Sam linked to, and there are 12 people, the same 12 that I described in my original post. Although given that screencap I guess I take back my original assertion of the guy in the lower-right being the most likely killer because we don’t get a good view of him.

That said, the hoodie-killer does NOT at ALL match the physical description of Parkman’s father, and I think that much of an obvious difference rules him out (of course, it doesn’t rule out a group of more than one that INCLUDES Parkman’s father, either)
Actually, come to think of it, I think Parkman’s father is fighting off Molly because he believes it’s the company trying to chase him down, since last he knew Molly was company property.

72

[QUOTE=Otto]
OK, so Cousin Nawlins has some kind of photographic reflex/memory power.
[/QUOTE]

so far, though, it’s only been for stuff she sees on TV.
Which makes her different than Sylar (who could figure things out) or Peter (who just kind of absorbed stuff). She might need to see it captured on film first.

73

[QUOTE=Baldwin]
No; he had a beard, and then he shaved.
[/quote]

I thought I remembered his having a beard at the bar, then no beard when he visited Mom at the police station, then a beard again with his kids in DC then no beard again with Mom in the hospital.

The power to instantly become equal to the most skilled athlete or martial artist in the world or become equal to the most skilled dancer or artisan? Seems pretty cool to me. Agreed on hoping the brat does not have a power.

That appears to be taken from earlier in the episode than what I reviewed. Which makes me feel much better. What I watched didn’t go any further left than Linderman.

Interesting that Papa Petrelli is partially turned away from the camera. Are those horn-rimmed glasses he’s wearing? Hmmmm. Anyone want to offer me odds on his still being alive?

74

[QUOTE=enigm4tic]
Actually, come to think of it, I think Parkman’s father is fighting off Molly because he believes it’s the company trying to chase him down, since last he knew Molly was company property.
[/QUOTE]

Those were my thoughts when Molly picked him out of the photo, as well. The guy looks too likeable to be the villain, and he’s too fat to be the pusher. Further, the pusher upped and ran away afterwards, unhurt, or flew off in mid-air. Not a very psychic power, is it?

Of course, I can’t rule out that Mr. Parkman has more than one power, but that would be very weak and a bit of a deus ex machina to salvage the inconsistency.

Actually, my money is on that it is Kenzei come to the future, regally pissed, Peter Petrelli further confused and mislead and/or West the Villain. Push and fly, boy.

75

[QUOTE=Otto]
I thought I remembered his having a beard at the bar, then no beard when he visited Mom at the police station, then a beard again with his kids in DC then no beard again with Mom in the hospital.
[/QUOTE]
He saw his kids before he went to the hospital.

76

[QUOTE=Maus Magill]
He saw his kids before he went to the hospital.
[/QUOTE]

Right. The sequence I remembered was: Ep 1, Nathan in a bar with a beard; Ep 1, Nathan at police station without beard; This ep, Nathan with kids with beard; This ep, Nathan at hospital without beard.

77

Yeah, this episode was quite a bit better that the earlier ones this season. But it was the same for the first season. It wasn’t until episode 3 or 4 until the show really seemed to hit its stride.

[QUOTE=Otto]
Someone on Wikipedia is asserting that Nightmare Dad is also Hal, Niki/Jessica’s dad. I can’t say as I see a resemblance.
[/QUOTE]

Niki’s dad was played by Graham Beckel, while Papa Parkman is Louis Giambalvo. Also, I haven’t seen anyone mention that the woman between Papa Parkman and the Alchemist is Joanna Cassidy.

And I agree, the black woman is almost certainly Nichelle Nichols’ character. They introduced her and the picture at practically the same time, and they love to have interconnections between all the characters and storylines.

Here are a couple more screen caps:

one two three

78

[QUOTE=Otto]
police station without beard
[/QUOTE]
Note to self:
Police station <> hospital

Was that Nathan at the station? I thought it was her counsel. I could be misremembering, though.

79

[QUOTE=D_Odds]
I’m remembering a scene in a diner with Parkman, Bennet, and Sprague(? - I think that is his name and I didn’t want to call him Geico Caveman), where Sprague laughs at Bennet for not knowing Linderman was his boss.
[/QUOTE]

You are correct. Ted was making fun of Noah for being middle management. Noah isn’t one of the original SuperFriends.

[QUOTE=Otto]
I thought I remembered his having a beard at the bar, then no beard when he visited Mom at the police station, then a beard again with his kids in DC then no beard again with Mom in the hospital.
[/QUOTE]

This is the first episode this season where Nathan didn’t have that hideous beard. I’ve found it very distracting and annoying, so it’s particularly memorable. Although they didn’t show him shaving it, the beard apparently went away after he talked to his kids and had made the decision to get his life back.

[QUOTE=Gukumatz ]
Those were my thoughts when Molly picked him out of the photo, as well. The guy looks too likeable to be the villain, and he’s too fat to be the pusher. Further, the pusher upped and ran away afterwards, unhurt, or flew off in mid-air. Not a very psychic power, is it?
[/QUOTE]

The killer could be able to project a body elsewhere, or be able to possess other people, which would very well be comic booky “psychic powers.” And reconciling Kaito’s and Angela’s attack as with the same power is no different than reconciling the memory-erasing and power-blocking that the Haitan is capable of, really. Some of these powers are pretty darn vague.

And we don’t know that Matt’s dad is the killer. We know that he uses the same damn symbol that half the cast are using at this point, but that doesn’t really tell us anything. We know that Mr. Nakamura recognized the killer, and suggested to Angela that it was one of the original SuperFriends – but that leaves, what, a half-dozen suspects including Matt’s dad?

80

[QUOTE=Santos L Halper]
Also, I haven’t seen anyone mention that the woman between Papa Parkman and the Alchemist is Joanna Cassidy.
[/QUOTE]

I read this as Joanna Cameron for a second and got way too excited at the prospect.