Heroes 4-12 'The Fifth Stage' (11/30/09) (Spoilers)

Cafe Society
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Not to be confused with the earlier episode “Acceptance”. (Where’s 'Bargaining"? Bargaining never gets the love).

Last time: we met Muggle’s girlfriend giving Sandra’s boyfriend a very questionable tongue bath after he passed out seeing Claire perform her daily self-mutilation demonstration; meanwhile, Claire and Gretchen have Nancy-Drew’d over to the carnival. Hiro and Lydia boing boing’d back in time to see Samuel kill Joseph; Edgar, that paragon of silent discretion, blabbed the whole thing at T’giving dinner, then ran off leaving Hiro and Lyd to face the music. Consequently, Samuel had Dreadlocked Memory Guy pull a brain whammy of some sort on Hiro, who started babbling about Star Trek and blooped off to God knows where. This apparently was not the result Samuel was hoping for.

The Queen of Denial finally fesses up to her putative son(s); Sylar Frankenstein’s out of his Nathan skin long enough to pig out and terrorize Peter and Angela; Nathan brain gains control long enough to give Angela a " Ma, yer evil" for old time’s sake and fly off. Peter, moving from denial to anger, goes off to slap the wickedness out of him and leave Sylar’s meatbag free for the forces of good.

This time: Anger? Pretty please? Also, last episode until January 11, when the show returns to 9pm. (Like being on at 8 pm kept down the sex and violence. Not that there’s anything wrong with sex and violence, except for the throat cutting. And tooth-yanking. That was just gross.)

From the show site:

H.R.G. is greeted by some unexpected visitors and Samuel’s grand plan begins to come to fruition. Meanwhile, Peter struggles to accept the truth and takes extreme measures to get what he wants. Elsewhere, Claire’s journey leads her to an unexpected destination.

Notwithstanding the above, the photo in that link (and the preview )would suggest:

Nail gun!! Sylar’s gonna bleed! They always put him in white when they want to bloody him up.

Spoily pic du jour: D’oh!

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Also, I’m thinking of doing a single thread for the back end of the season. Thoughts?

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A couple thoughts:
[ul]
[li]I think Peter wiped the wrong memories. Nathan setting himself up to fall was too convenient.[/li][li]Who is Samuel targeting, if not Claire? Noah or Gretchen? It seemed to rather heavily point to Gretchen at the end there, didn’t it?[/li]Is the second half of the season still going to be volume 5? If not, who the hell was redeemed?[/ul]

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I think Samuel is targetting Noah, using Claire as bait, or hostage. Samuel knows Noah is trying to hunt them down, after all.

So, when are Claire and Gretchen going to do it?

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[quote=“Maus_Magill, post:3, topic:519508”]

A couple thoughts:
[ul]
[li]I think Peter wiped the wrong memories. Nathan setting himself up to fall was too convenient.[/li][li]Who is Samuel targeting, if not Claire? Noah or Gretchen? It seemed to rather heavily point to Gretchen at the end there, didn’t it?[/li][li]Is the second half of the season still going to be volume 5? If not, who the hell was redeemed?[/ul][/li][/QUOTE]

I wasn’t sure if it was Pasdar was just emailing it in,a shitty chunk of writing, or if Sylar was being a big Nathan-faker so Peter would get the hell off his back about resurrecting Nathan, but I was not feeling the pathos in that scene. I don’t know if Peter managed to wipe anything. Time will tell. Sylar developing big memory gaps henceforth- heh, serves him right. Still evil, knows who he is, but forgets the years 2003-2005.

And yes, all this season is Volume 5. Thematically, I don’t know who’s getting redeemed around here. Noah, maybe, if he can get his game back on. Tracey? Geeze, one little vengeance streak against the guys who shot her like a frosty dog, c’mon. Sylar’s karma is never getting balanced, even if he eventually eats a nuke to save Tokyo. Claire, Hiro, Peter-haven’t done anything that needs redemption. Matt may be digging himself out of that Sylar mischief for a while, that’s kind of redemption once removed. Samuel, eventually, maybe. Killing your bro is pretty biblically bad guy.

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all i can say is ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ i had to fast forward thru lots of non important dialogue

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I think the focus on Gretchen’s car at the end was to show the carnival disappearing in the reflection in the back window. If Samuel was really after her, he would have made it more welcoming for her to stay with Claire - or seem like she needed to stay.

There’s a debate in our household: was that Doyle or multiple man in the bed of the pickup truck at the end?

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-the car focus was definitely on the carnival disappearing.
-the guy in the back was the minor league pitcher, dead, i thought.
-claire got suckered in WAY too easily.
-it was kind of unbelievable that the pitcher would take a broken bottle to a 19 year old girl for the sake of 20 bucks. scratch that. not just kind of… RIDICULOUSLY unbelievable.
-samuel’s either trying to get noah or peter. sylar/nathan mentioning claire at the rooftop was foreshadowing of sorts, imo.
-the dialogue on the rooftop was intentionally misleading. it was obviously sylar given the motives - falling to get away from peter’s powers. however the things nathan said - election stuff and claire, were things that sylar couldn’t possibly have access to. artistic license to intentionally befuddle.

i’m watching this show like i used to watch lost - just to figure out the general storyline. the show itself has plot twisted itself into a kluge, and will quickly lose my interest if they don’t get a clear and concrete direction developed by 10 episodes in.

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Yeah, I was distinctly underwhelmed too. I thought it was pretty good but I should have been way more gutted than I was. Maybe the spoiler factor had something to do with it or maybe some of it for me was sour grapes they are kicking my favourite actor off the show at all.

On that subject, irritating yet illuminating quote from Tim Kring (Heroes head honcho) speaking in USA Today:

So they cut their losses, eh? It’s almost like they realised that whole plot was the dumbest, most unpleasant, confusing idea ever. Plus, this handing out of actor marching orders because the well of inspiration had run dry would be a lot more plausible if they weren’t apparently perfectly happy to just have Sylar, Noah & Claire live out the same basic individual character arcs over and over. Still, darkly amusing to see the writers basically admit this whole writing thing is like, you know, hard for us, you guys!

To end on a positive note, given that I knew wasn’t actually going to see them kill Sylar, at least I got to enjoy Peter punching the hell out of Sylar along the way this week. Also, did they imply at one point he fired that nail gun into Sylar’s groin? Because if so, good.

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In retrospect, I agree.

That’s what I was thinking, but it was hard to tell in that light.

Let’s face it, brains are not a Petrelli trait.

Pitcher dude had obviously been drinking… a lot. I’ve known belligerent drunks to fight over less.

From a pure fanwank standpoint, Sylar did have access to it. As long as he could touch anything on that rooftop, he had access to anything it was present for.

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Sure; his office was filled with election era crap, he knows enough about Claire to bullshit.

And on that note, part 1 of Little Miss Smarty Pant’s recap…

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what to do with his character so we just kept killing him and killing him but he wouldn’t stay dead. So tonight, just to squirt some lemon juice over the salt in the wound, we’re giving him the ‘previously’ duties before we shove him under the Zamboni for good. No hard feelings Adrian! See you at the Christmas party? Hey, where you going? We may need you to come back so Sylar can pretend to be you again…hey, where you going, wait up!

Lydia: I know about you killing Joseph, you know I know about you killing Joseph, and you know I know that I know you’re going to threaten to hurt my kid to keep me from telling. So I won’t. Just so you know.
Samuel: Well, that was easier than I thought it would be.
New minion: Please let me be your new minion, Samuel!
Samuel: Well, that was easier than I thought it would be. Just try to kill one guy at the thanksgiving table, and they all fall into line! This evil overlord stuff’s pretty easy once you finish with the prep work

Noah: So you will have to forgive me, Lauren, it’s been a while since I slept with anyone I wasn’t married to.
Lauren: You know, it might just be a little while longer, hotshot. What makes you think we’re going to sleep together?
Noah:Besides that half stick of eyeliner and smok’n top you’ve got on? You know three years ago you totally came on to me, but I was a good boy and turned you down; then you had the Haitian erase your memory of wanting to sleep with me. A girl willing to have her memory erased wanting to have an affair with me- god, you would have been, like, the perfect mistress. I’m still kicking myself.
Lauren-What’s that freaky schwoopy noise?
Noah: I dunno. Look at my compass…hey, its gone. Troublesome daughter must have stolen it!
Lauren: You sure are a trusting dad. Can’t imagine why she feels alienated. We can find her, no sweat, when we aren’t killing people the CIA has cool spy shit to play with. We have this kid working for us now who can find anyone anywhere by sticking his hand on the monitor, name’s Micah, great kid, but he should really be in school, now that I think of it…
Ding dong.
New Minion: Hey, can I come in. I only look like a mafia wannabe
Noah: Uh, blow me?
New MinionMinion: Oh look, I’m in.
Lauren: Hey, you can replicate yourself! That’s not annoying at all. Hey Noah, you still keep a piece taped under- flips the table, grabs gun underneath yeah, you can take the man out of the Company… bang bang bang and Minion ghost 1 vaporizes. Like that’s gonna be a long term solution
New MinionMinionMinion: Nyah Nyah. Made a new me
Noah: To the can!
Lauren: You’ve got guns in here? Me too! Grabs the gun taped to her thigh
Noah: Is it some kind of law that lady CIA agents have to hide a gun in their panties?
Lauren: Naw, we just do in 'cause it looks hawt. Peeks out Damn, looks like one of those minions stole your files. You did back them up, right?
Noah: Sure, right on that lap-shit, did he take the laptop too?
Lauren: You so need a partner, you do realize that?

Angela: Peter, sweetheart, I know you want your brother back, but you really shouldn’t go chase down Sylar; . He’s killed 50% of my children already and I worry so
Peter:You were the one who said Nathan was only technically dead.
Angela: I got over it! And so should you.
Peter: I don’t think I’m quite ready to move on yet. Besides, the only thing that’s going to bleach the site of Sylar and you kissing is about 45 minutes of Biblical level violence on his face. He grabs a bag, cleans out the pharmacy, hand clamps some power mojo from Rene and goes to get his vengeance on
Bitchy lifer nurse: Hold up that elevator!
Peter: You’re looking at me funny. Not that patronizing scary face you usually have on, this is different. Oh shi-
Bitch-nurse/Sylar morph: Yeah, I get my body this afternoon. Bams Peter through a wall, (but since it’s still under construction, it’s not that big a feat) and grabs the bag of drugs. Hey, are we going to a party later?root root- What’s this-Rohypnol? Peter, you creep! Oh waitaminute, that’s for me, right?
Peter: Actually *smashes Sylar in the face with something large and smashy- *that *is *for a party later. And why are you dressed like a Mormon? Hey, smash! what’s with all this whomp! blood all over your thwack! face? Cat got your abilities?
Sylar: My abilities! You mean I have to whomp whomp whomp! punch you out with my fists? What did you do to me? Thunk thunk OW SWEET JESUS!!! What was that?? Aaaarrrraaaaaggghhhh!
Peter: Yeah, I did just shoot with a nail gun through your testicle. Promethea, that was for you. Merry Christmas. And on with the Jesus metaphor! Nails Sylar’s hands and feet to the floor. I want Nathan back! *Tries to Haitian brain-wipe Sylar out of his body, but just succeeds in making the the two of them look constipated. *
Sylar: Sure, no problem! He wants the body during this horrifically painful torture session, it’s all his! & morpharoo’s into Nathan
Nathan: Jeeze Pete, couldn’t you have gotten Sylar to heal all this before he left? Ow!!

In part 2, a familiar face goes bye bye in front of the shittiest green screening yet realized on broadcast TV

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I thought Peter was uncharacteristically awesome for a lot of this episode. Thinking of going to the Haitian to neutralize Sylar was not something I would expect any of them to think of at this point in the show. And the nail gun? He took a level in smarts AND badass.

Although what he was planning to do with a semi-crucified Nathan is an oversight more like the normal Peter.

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Yeah.

We were watching the show and yelling “KILL HIM” during that whole scene. I mean, he could have done so easily, and it would have solved a whole metric buttload of problems in the long run… but Peter is not a killer, dammit.

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I tellya, the dark side smartens people up. It’s always about the *evil * genius, never the morally righteous genius. And Peter wasn’t going to kill him, he was still naively thinking he could fish Nathan out of there. He probably knew that on some level, the jig was pretty much up but felt he had to try. But the nail gun, that was pure improvisation. Good work Pete!

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I would just like to say that I get filled with irrational rage at the end of every single episode when they put “To Be Continued…” on the screen. No shit, really? You mean, this isn’t the series finale? There will be more Heroes on at any point in the future? Shocker!

It’s such an arrogant, petty conceit to put “To Be Continued…” at the end of each episode in a serialized drama. At this point I would willingly use a nail gun on Tim Kring to make him pay for just that sin alone.

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So, what was that in the end (not sure if it’s supposed to be ‘preview’ stuff, so I’ll spoiler it) with:

[spoiler]Hiro, Mohinder and Ando apparently in inpatient scrubs running through dark woods? Are they escaping from the nut house Hiro parked Mo? Is that where Hiro blooped off to?

I have a feeling dreadlock mind mojo guy didn’t do exactly what Samuel asked of him to Hiro…[/spoiler]

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Best Christmas present ever! I like to think Dark Phoenix would have been looking down fondly from Marvel comics heaven this week and going “Attaboy!”
I know that’s what I was saying. Along with “YES! Hit him, Peter!”:slight_smile:

As far as I’m concerned this whole bit means Peter has entirely atoned for all his previous screw ups, such is the measure of satisfaction I took. From now on, whenever he does stuff like letting Sylar go at the end of the episode because saying an emotional goodybe to his brother was the bigger picture, he can count on me to stick up for him and say “Ahhh, c’mon! He shot Sylar in the balls, remember?”

By the way, I usually take a bit of a qualified view of Milo Ventimiglia’s acting abilities in general but I thought he was on in this week’s episode. He looked as if he was enjoying beating the shit out of Sylar nearly as much as I was seeing him doing it. Also, unless the make up folks are doing a hell of a job, I was fairly sure he was sobbing tons of real tears at the end of the ep, saying goodbye to his brother (and good friend IRL) which was kind of touching.

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I don’t think anything before ‘to be continued…’ is a spoiler. Dammit, the line has to be drawn and it is Here! No Farther! but, on point one,I agree, it looked pretty Floridian, and point 2, either that, or it just didn’t work.Maybe he pulled a (Season 1 incident)

Nathan flying away from HRG and Haitian in his jammies. Y’d think the Haitian could have tamped down on that flying stuff- Damian could have just communicated telepathically/some as yet unexplained mojo to tell Hiro to fake it and get the fuck out. Or Hiro just grew a brain and took the opportunity. If #1 happened, this is probably what happened.

Anyone know how to make gif’s? Prom could have an ever-repeating *thunthunk OWWWWWW! Petersmirk *as her wallpaper!

Or someone introduced allergens into the air supply! :wink:

He was pretty good in the first season, but wasn’t able to rise above how they wrote Peter in S2 and 3 (until he lost his abilities-that started the turnaround for the character) Whereas I thought Pasdar’s big scene started going south quality-wise after about ‘he’s killing me’. I thought that was so trite I am moderately wondering if that was Sylar pretending to be Nathan. We’ll never know- if Sylar ever said that’s what he did, who’d believe the lying little shitehead? He’d say that just to yank Peter’s chain.

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Anybody wondering if they’ll ever find Charlie again?

I mean, it’s not like the writers are averse to stranding girlfriends in time and space (anyone remember Caitlin?)…