“Don’t want to tell me? I’ll be back in a year or two to ask again…I have all the time in the world”
^ yeah, and then he starts bashing every single plant in sight and BOOM. ZING. PRESTO. we’re living in a ned flanders dictatorship and undergoing smile therapy and lobotomies. no thank you.
But wait, I need more detail! 
I missed the past 3 episodes, and the last I saw of him, he had just sent Charlie into an unknown dimension/location. Is he still firmly in the grey area, or is he now unambiguously villainous?
I ask because I thought his moral ambiguity was the best thing he had going for him (well, second to being played by Robert Knepper, who is fantastic), and if he has lost that, I don’t know if I want to bother to catch up.
Unambiguously a villain now. We now know his reason for putting together a family of powered folks is totally self-serving, since their presence will make him more powerful.
I figured there was no ambiguity since the episode were he destroyed a whole mansion full of people because the owners wouldn’t let them inside to see his old rooms, which was the first or second episodes.
If we’re judging bad guy-ness by if someone’s killed a bunch of others in a fit of pique, let’s talk to Matt ‘make the agents all shoot each other’ Parkman. Granted, ‘you shot my girlfriend’ is a better reason to wage a massacre than ‘you won’t let me in your house to mope’. The police station containing the policemen who basically lynched a kid? There’s a smidge of righteousness there, but pity the poor bastard in reporting a stolen car.
Something has been bugging me for a while, but it was really obvious this episode: I understand that the world Heroes resides in isn’t exactly like ours given the whole people with powers thing, but did I miss something about there being differences with electricity too? Peter’s place doesn’t seem to have any, and Noah’s only had one light on in the kitchen for a scene.
Noah’s bathroom is bigger than my bedroom. But I think Peter has an electrical outlet in the kitchen. And a couple of mugs. Don’t know why he got rid of all his stuff. Maybe he got hit by a burglar who specializes in books and photos?
Turning Dark Phoenix isn’t just turning evil. It’s turning really bad-ass cool evil, with souped up no holds barred powers and usually a cooler costume and demeanor.
Future Hiro with the dark costume, sword and cooler, more confident demeanor was sort of a Hiro gone Dark Phoenix, or Dark Hiro in that case. Except Hiro hadn’t gone evil, but same general idea.
Applying this criteria, Tracy is a bad guy. Only a few weeks ago, she tracked down and killed four agents from Building 26 in premeditated fashion and cold (hey!) blood. Five if you include the chap she iced in the hallways that time in from of the lady from Homeland Security. It’s never made clear if these agents were anything more than clock punching civil servants. Still, as we know from Noah’s wise counsel, none of that matters anyway. Because as her heart wasn’t really in it, she’s “not a killer” and thus it’s all okay.
Decent episode. Sylar’s thankgiving was very very creepy and Claire’s was funny and touching. Yay to Mrs Muggles! Things I don’t get:
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If carnivale guy was able to follow Hiro through time and trap his girlfriend, why couldn’t he get the damn film reel himself?
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8 weeks? If carnivale guy’s big reveal is that he gets more powerful when around other powers, and his brother was trying to prevent that, why were there super freaks at the carnivale? Was his brother just stupid or did he collect them in the last 8 weeks?
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If his brother already revealed the basic secret, what was so special about the film reel?
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Regarding the actor who plays Nathan:
Wasn’t there news all over the place weeks ago about him being written off the show? But we’re seeing him more than ever. Did this not happen or is it just not aired yet?
Regarding tattoo girl’s powers, it seems she has her own empathic reading powers, and she has a combined effort power of prognostication with Samuel that required both of them.
Samuel couldn’t do it himself, he needed Oxygen Arnold to shove him around in time. Why not send Arnold? Too sick, probably; and Samuel told Hiro he couldn’t let anyone see what he’d done. When he said that they changed the scene over to Dead-hinder, but he probably really meant he didn’t want anyone see him kill Joseph. Like, what happened tonight. Why Samuel didn’t have Hiro send him back to get the film so hed show up about 15 minutes early? I wouldn’t want to give Hiro any ideas about shoving me into the Kenniwick Man era. He wants others to do his work for him, more or less. Except recruitment, that’s his gig.
They always had some specials-Joseph said that he kept their population low to prevent Samuel’s power increasing, not out of camp entirely. He probably wanted to create a refuge for lost and abandoned specials, like little orphan Becky. Samuel’s just been on a recruitment drive adding to the existing population.
Joseph told him he could move the earth (I guess Sam already had that figured out), but also mountains, whole cities, etc. He did not tell him how he could do that (other specials increasing his power level) He did say earlier in the season he felt something in his spidey sense about other PWA’s so he may be feeling little power increases when he’s around more/new PWA’s. Just didn’t put it all together until he saw the film.
(spoiler redacted, not sure if spoilers survive quote tags)- I think it’s door #2.
If you go by what’s in the comics (and I don’t because information there tends to, shall we say, evolve if the element is introduced in the show) Lydia’s ability is
something like the ability to see someone’s needs or desires. If Sam needs to see someone who can help him I guess she can give that to him via prognosti-tats. which is kinda sorta what she told Hiro. I’d go look that up if I didn’t have to go to work right now!
Yes, Heroes has turned into All Sylar All the Time. And, he’s not that good of an actor, and not that interesting of a villain.
jackdavinci- I am not sure if Lydia/Painted Lady was actually using her Power there, as opposed to just making some shrewd guesses.
ISTR Peter has made it clear there will be no costumes or the wearing of the underwear on the outside. Thank god.
**So its all about truth and destiny and food. What is it about Americans? Anytime you see a turkey you have to fight at the meal, and you fly across your enormous nation to do it every year? Stay home, eat a pie. Watch some TV, there might be a game on.**
(I'm going to gloss over a whole lot of Benent-land, just because that part of the ep was decently written and somehow got tacked onto As Hiro's World Turns and the world's scariest 'coming out to your family at thanksgiving' psychodrama )
Hiro: I hear you watching your earthquake birth porn in there, Samuel. Open the door!
Samuel: Go away, it's getting to the good part........... *smash,crash, baby howling, more smash *Ahhh. OK, what do you want? Like I have to ask.
Hiro: It's my hourly demand that you tell me where Charlie is!
*At the other row of trailers:*
Edgar: So if Hiro went to fix the past for Samuel, where's Joseph? That was what he went to fix, right?
Lydia: He came back with a movie. Why would that be more important than saving his brother?
Edgar: 'cause, now he's King of the Camper Carnies, and we all know what a prestigious job that is?
Lydia: I dunno, I'll talk to Hiro. Hey Hiro, come watch me get changed out of this ice skating costume! *wiggle wiggle*
Hiro: You cannot seduce me, strange tattoo lady!
Lydia: I can't? Damn, it worked on the last stranger who stumbled through here......who ran away in the middle of the night. Geeze, now I'm kinda depressed. Am I losing it? Tell me Hiro, is my ass still great? Here, touch my back so I can see into your soul............
Hiro: Well, that seems like perfectly respectable behavior-*poke*
Lydia: Samuel has taken Charlie away from you and broken your heart and he's forcing you to help him so he will bring her back
Hiro: You have a gift! It's like you haven't heard me yelling at Samuel all week that he's holding my girlfriend hostage and blackmailing me into doing his evil bidding!
Lydia: Did you go back to when Joseph was killed? What happened?
Hiro: Who is Joseph and why do you want to- *bloop*
*Back at the carnival roundabout when Mohinder came to wreak his naïve havoc a couple of months ago*
Lydia: Is that the government man who killed Joseph?
Hiro: That's Dr Suresh; he is a good man; he only gets people killed inadvertently. Hey, don't go! We cannot interfere with the past!
Lydia: *grabs a sweater*; hey, so that's what happened to my sweater-I stole it from myself! Let's follow Joseph and Samuel
Hiro: Half an hour from now I'll be stopping time in a hotel room across town trying to get a bulletproof vest onto Dr Suresh. How many me's can there be in one place at once? Wait up, strange tattoo lady!
*Peter is at his place watching over his not-brother, who's been tucked into to bed with a bottle- of Stoly. Pete, I have to ask- was letting the sublimated psychotic who's manifested as the reassembled memories of your senator brother into your liquor a solid plan? You're a nurse- if you wanted him unconscious, you can get the pharmaceuticals to do the job right. We've seen you do it before.*
*Knock Knock*
Angela: Throw this tablecloth over the card table and get a bowl for this ice cream, it's your brother's favorite. Put the sprinkles on the way he likes it.
Peter: Ma? What's with the food and the waiters? I don't even own plates
Angela: Shut up, it's thanksgiving and we are going to fake being a happy family even if it kills me.
Peter: Good choice of words. So, guess what Nathan and I found in a storage locker in Virginia? Need a hint? He was alive when you gave birth to him.
Angela: That wasn't Nathan, it was..........a shapeshifter! Yeah, a shapeshifter! He was pretending to be Syl- *oops*- Nathan, so we killed him, and of course kept the body lying around to be discovered
Peter: And Nathan having huge gaps in his memory, and suddenly having all of Sylar's abilities, and, oh yeah, the guy who did it all for you and had Sylar's personality stuck in his head for months afterwards telling us what the two of you did to Sylar after he killed Nathan? I'm not feeling the honesty here.
Angela: Well, Matt Parkman's gone nuts
Peter: Who said anything about Parkman? Let's go sober up the human lie detector in the bedroom and find out the truth
Nathan/ler:*waking up pretty coherently for a guy who fell asleep with an empty bottle in his hand;* Yeah Mom, tell us if I'm actually dead.
Angela, *to self:* *I hope Peter didn't hear that he just called me 'Mom'; Nathan and him call me 'Ma'...*
Peter: You know what the worst of all this is? Nathan being dead, that's the worst; but the *second *worst? The guy who killed him, and who you made believe he *was* Nathan? You *still *love him better than you love me! Why didn't you bring *me* any ice cream!
Nath/ler: *grabs Angela by the arm: *I only grab you like this when you betray me-*Mom. *
*Under a big frigging moon eight weeks ago (you thought Vulcan looked big from that ice planet real Spock got dumped on? A dinner plate by comparison!), Samuel and Joseph hike out to an empty field to chat about destiny and truth and being able to flatten small island nations. Hiro and Lydia have tiptoed a discreet distance away for some heroic spying. We know Lydia's on the side of the righteous because she's wearing a sweater. That's how we know she's good- evil trampy women don't wear cardigans.*
Samuel: You lied to me about my abilities! My destiny! What's on that film?
Hiro: Hey, I'm the only one around here with a destiny, bucko!
Joseph: Well Samuel, you have impulse control problems, and I can't even trust you to pick up the empty bottles around the midway, so I'm not telling you. I've had to call the PWA Gestapo on you. Be nice when Mr Danko comes to pick you up. It's for your own good.
Samuel: *hovers a rock*- I think I've got pretty good control over this -*thwack. Joseph gets a stone in the esophagus, and commences dying messily. *
Samuel*: *I love you Joseph,-but I really want your job. And that film- did that professor leave his card with you......
Lydia-*Ack*! *Gasp*! Ewwwwwww!
Hiro: Shhhhhhh!
Samuel, *looks up from his rifling through of pockets *: Becky? Are you out there being noisy and invisible?
Hiro: Hush! Bloop. Bloop. Where's my Bloop! Bloop, dammit!
Lydia: Maybe if I blink too.... *Bloop!*
Samuel: Was someone out here listening? Good thing I don't know any people who can travel through time, make things invisible, be invisible themselves, or exhibit other unusual abilities. Then this would be worrisome.
Peter: Okay, we're having our thanksgiving dinner, and we're going to act just like a regular family at thanksgiving and eat too much *and yell about how our mother betrayed us! *Oops, sorry, had a moment of clarity there*. *Go on with your comforting lies, mother.
Nath/lar: Tell us what you and Parkman did. Tell us how I died
Peter: I am so confused. He looks like Nathan and acts like Nathan-apart from those electrical outbursts and spontaneous telekinesis. I'm sure it's something we can fix together with lots of love and smacks to the back of the head.
Angela: You aren't really dead, Nathan. Yes, you are living in the body of a mass murderer,can barely remember your past and have superpowers you don't know how to control. But you're still my boy!
Peter: Nathan......... you're really eying that pie.
Nathan: I'm not me. I'm an evil psychotic who's been brainwashed with the personality of freakishly noble self sacrificing lawyer. And both of our moms are manipulative self-esteem destroying smotherers, too....
Peter: But you don't like pumpkin pie......
Nathan: No! No pie! No Sylar, don't! Oh God, he's winning......*A minute of messy morphing later...*
Sylar: NOM NOM NOM NOM PIE!!!!!!!!!!!!
*Back at carnie-giving:*
Samuel: Where's Lydia?
*Lidia's daughter from the Sprint commercials I always mute: *Looking for that Japanese guy I think-hey she's over there whispering in the corner with Edgar. Don't worry; if they were conspiring against you behind your back Edgar would have run them away somewhere far away and private to do that. Right Uncle Samuel?
Samuel: Yeah.......of course honey. Edgar's a brilliant tactician. So, Hiro, what were you and Lydia up to?
Hiro: Uhhhhh........no-thing?
Edgar: Him and Lydia went back in time and saw you kill Joseph! If only there were a way I could quickly whisk you away to justice!
Lydia: *Facepalm. *Ed-garrr.*... *damn you!
*Rest of the pie-munching carnies: *Sam-uel?
Samuel: Hiro? Is that true [FONT=Arial]keeping in mind that if you ever want to see your Charlie again I'd better not be kicked to death by this mob of semi-social outcasts for killing their beloved Joseph[/FONT]
Hiro: What?! Oh all right evil butterfly, we didn't see you kill your brother under a moonlit night by throwing a big chunk of igneous rock through his larynx. That was totally the man from Building 26 who had no powers at all and only used guns to kill people.
Samuel: That's right...........and Joseph's murderer is really...........Edgar!
Edgar: What!?
Lydia: Because Edgar always slashes people to death with big hunks of rock? You bastard, Samuel!
Samuel: Edgar lied about killing Joseph because-he was jealous of his power! Because he was sick of delivering musical instruments! Because..........oh hell, I dunno. It's not like he got a promotion or a better trailer or a piece of Lydia out of it. But let's kill him anyhow.
Edgar: Damn you! If I could only race over to you in a flash and slice you to ribbons........
Hiro:*Grabs Edgar;* *Blinkfreeze *I cannot let Evil Butterfly kill you, the way he didn't kill Dr Suresh.
Edgar: Gee, thanks Hiro, Now I can run away from the man who moves at normal speed. Or I can stay and cut him to ribbons; I'm really getting to enjoy that part of the job now.
Hiro: No, run away; maybe you can think of a way to defeat this billain on your journey.
Edgar: *Quizzical look; *Think? Whu? Hey, look at my Knives! Pretty, pretty knives...
Hiro: Maybe there is room for one more at the asylum...
Edgar: Okay, okay, I can take a hint; I'm outta here. Thanks, brother; *zoom*
Hiro: *BlinkUnfreeze: *Oh my, Samuel; it looks like you billain has run away. Oh darn.
Samuel: Yes, Hiro. Darn indeed. Hmmmmmm. But I'm so glad Lydia has chosen to stay with us.........and her daughter Amanda. Beautiful girl you have here, Lydia.....be a shame if anything happened to her.
Lydia: *Seethes *
*Meanwhile, evil's holding Angela and Peter under telekinetic confinement and trying to *NOM NOM NOM NOM * stabilize its blood sugar.* *Jesus, man. Grow some freaking manners.*
Angela: Sylar, really! Why are you eating like a hog? Virginia raised you better than that and you know it. Don't give me that 'I haven't eaten in 3 months' crap; I don't think Nathan forgot to feed the two of you . Anyway, you just drank a bottle of vodka; I don't care if you can regenerate, I'm pretty sure you're going to regurgitate. Stop this, immediately.
Sylar: *Braaaaap. *Okay, *mom! *My role model of evil..I'll behave. Kiss and make up?
*Sylar leans over and plants a Gretchen-level smooch on paralyzed Angela. *
Peter: Oh, Jesus, Sylar, that's sick! She was your mother half an hour ago!
Angela: Now, now, let's not be hasty about this, Peter.
Peter: What?! Ma, Christ, that's gross!
Angela: Well, it's been a while since your father and I got along...........quit looking at me like that
Sylar: Y'know, I don't think I want to make nice with you anymore. Hey Peter, remember that time you got my ability in the future with the hunger and tried to slice Angela's head open?
Peter: I thought we managed to make everyone forget that episode!
*Annie: No way, that had waffles, little Noah and a nuclear detonation!*
Sylar: Nuh uh; now it's my turn to cut your mom to ribbons-say, does dreaming about the future really screw with your REM sleep, Angela? I don't know if I should rip your skull open and poke around for your ability, or just rip your skull open and poke around for shits and giggles- Hey-why can't it be both? *sliiiiiiice; with accompanying screaming from Angela. Then, some screaming from Sylar-*
Arraaghaaa! *Starts thrashing around and violently morphing*
Peter*: *Nathan! It's Nathan trying to get out! C'mon Nathan, you can do it!
*Thrash, smash, crash, screaming, fighting for possession of the body noises. Sylar crashes against the doors and, Holy crap, look at those bangs! (What are those, a foot long? No wonder Sylar's trying to get his body back, he wants to TK himself a haircut.) Nathan and Sylar smash n' morph around some more until-*
Nathan: Don't you *EVER* make me kiss Ma like that again!
Peter: I knew you could beat him, Nathan. Now, just do that 16 times a day for the rest of your life, and everything'll be fine!
Nathan: I have to go, you two aren't safe with me as long as Sylar's alive. I'm going to go sacrifice myself to save the world-again.
Angela: It's the end of the season already? That was fast.
Noah: How the hell did I end up hosting a thanksgiving dinner with a chick I picked up at Safeway, my daughter cutting her wrists, two Pomeranians and my wife's new boyfriend passed out in my bed?
Claire: Get a fucking job.
*Next time:* [spoiler]Does Promethea gets her Dark Phoenix wish? Peter gets innovative with a toolkit. (Someone's gonna do what I've wanted to see for a long time-spend some quality time torturing the self repairing guy. Start lopping parts off, wait until they regrow, lop them off some more. Hours of fun for the whole family!) And Claire goes and hangs out at the fair, whatever. [/spoiler]
Real spoiler-theme, not content [spoiler] It looks like it's gonna be saaaaaaad. The Rooftop of Melancholy is back [/spoiler]Dead is relative. Maybe ded is, too. Seriously though, it seems if they’re meaning Parkman’s brain-fu to be less simple “Sylar thinks he’s Nathan” and more a “hey, I can swap people’s souls around, cool new party trick” in which case, while Nathan’s body is indeed a popsicle, his essence is very much alive, just now suppressed with Sylar being dominant in the body.
So if they want to write Nathan out, Sylar just keeps control. If they want to bring Nathan back, hey, someone fixes up his body (guess you should’ve kept those healing powers Petey, huh?) and everybody teams up to take down Sylar so Matty can rip Nate’s spirit out of him.
Well that or it starts raining donuts. I like those odds.
I thought that outfit was astonishing 
I’m by now convinced Wardrobe have got some kind of ongoing contest whereby they compete to see who can persuade an actor to wear the worst outfit. Or maybe she is just all excited about the prospect of Tracy joining and making them all instant icerinks to skate on.
Ha! I too thought that little glimpse raised a bunch more questions than answers. Such as…Peter doesn’t really seem to drink much so did they go shopping for booze? Or, as you surmised, does Peter’s rather monastic dwelling maybe nonetheless include a drinks cabinet full of half forgotten bottles brought back from Duty Free shops around the world just like regular people? In which case, Nathan can count himself fortunate he wasn’t offered a dusty bottle of Drambuie or Crème de cassis.
Ah hah! That will be Tracey’s carny job- that, and slushy machine backup.
Something tells me that Nathler’s touch memory triggered many associations between Peter’s apartment and getting shipwreck-drunk on a regular basis: now that I think of it, Nathan moved in there and partook in a multi-month grief induced bender after Peter was presumed to have blown up after Kirby Plaza. He may have had a couple of emergency bottles hidden under the kitchen cabinet 