Heroes 4 -'Redemption' season 2.5

Cafe Society
1

(2 hour show tonight, starting at 8pm; next week it goes back to a 9pm start)

Everyone have a jolly holiday? No one at your table morphed from a beloved son into a homicidal psychopathic over the mince pie? That’s nice. Welcome back to the tail end of Redemption, where we’re still waiting for someone to get bloody well redeemed. So, previously, on Heroes (last said by Adrian Pasdar, who indeed was previously on Heroes…)
[ul]
[li]Peter depowered Sylar and beat the living crap out of him (and much to Promethea’s approval, made inappropriate use of a nail gun upon his person) until he agreed to let Nathan use the body for the day, and they went to go hang out on top of a building[/li][li]Nathan/lar decided that trying to assert his consciousness inside Sylar’s body was just too damn taxing, so he pretty much committed suicide of personality via a symbolic yet dreadfully rendered jump off the roof. Petey cried. Newly de-Petrelli’d, Sylar scooped up his carcass, flipped Peter off and affixed his evil black trucker hat to his head in an attempt to reign in those foot long bangs (given the choice, I’ll take the FLB’s over last year’s icky Fat Elvis hair). Guess he’s off to catch up on the murdering. [/li][li]After Damien, the Silent Black Man of the season, tried to whammy Hiro in some undefined fashion, Hiro started babbling in pop culture references (well, more than usual), and blooped away. It remains to be seen if Hiro is turned into a child/simpleton for the second season in a row. [/li][li]Claire took a tour of the carnival, took a bottle to the face for Samuel, told the carny kids a story about a frog so lame that even the 7 year olds figured out it was a metaphor for her life, then decided to stay. For a while. She’ll be back to school on Monday. Oh yeah.[/li][li]Sam’s new minion can create multiple replicant illusions of himself, so he can be stupid and annoying, cubed. Having been abandoned by his dark passenger Sylar, who got him on the no fly list and left some bodies in the trunk, Matt’s got some 'splaining to do. [/li]Lydia told Sam that she’s knows he killed Joseph and is an all around asshole, but she’ll behave herself since she has a daughter ripe for the blackmailing over (I guess-I’m told she shows up in those Sprint ads masquerading as scenes that I never see because I usually top up my cider mug during commercials).
[li]Samuel decides that a’wandering the globe ain’t so great, so the carnies are setting up a permanent encampment somewhere tumbleweed-y. Clarie’s there for the (heh) ground breaking ceremony; she looks like she’s more smirk-meister than cult initiate, thank god.[/ul][/li]Promo crap that’s not on the show’s site (bitch’n marketing job there, NBC), but here :

(Upon this Rock):As Claire becomes immersed into the world of the Carnival, she becomes increasingly suspicious of Samuel’s motives. Hiro is on a mission to rescue one of his own, but has difficulty communicating his intentions to Ando. Samuel has his sight set on Emma and her ability to complete his master plan. (Let it Bleed): Sylar returns to the Carnival in search of answers and Peter continues to struggle with the loss of his brother. Meanwhile, H.R.G. sets his plan in motion to take down the carnival.

So, what’s about all this ‘redemption’ business, then?: Well, link to the promo that’s been on all weekend on NBC says someone’s interested in the job (don’t hover if you want to stay unspoiled): But then, it was in all the commercials…

Since it looks like Mohinder is somewhat back in the picture, and leaving him in the loony bin all season just seems cruel, I’m going to predict that he will be tazed, smacked in the head, TK’d to a ceiling or otherwise incapacitated 4 more times before the end of the season. He was back for one episode and he’s already been gravel-shot by Samuel, and drugged up by the Florida Dep’t of Health!

Or he buys some more body armor. Look into that, sweetie.

2

Well, I wouldn’t have thought a guy with regenerative powers would have that problem.

3

I think it was a metaphor.:cool:

4

I’m not entirely sure :wink: she’d be in a position to know. But this Claire fixation is looking to me a lot like the Spike/Buffy I luuuuv you/ will you just go fucking die??? relationship:

“What are you doing outside my window, you creep? Five words or less”
“Out. For. A. Flight. …Bitch”

5

I barely made it to the end last night. I am having a lot of trouble even caring about the characters anymore. I’ll still watch unless they move it back to 9 pm.

6

I guess they probably figured it for a nice contrast with West’s similar floating outside her window back in the season 2 but it just reminded me of how creepy it was back when West did it too. Also, do they really think Sylar is so annoying that they need to invoke West when we look at him? Show, believe me he needs no help on this score.

I was amused to see a dark haired actress obviously supposed to be Heidi at the funeral. Plus Nathan’s rarely mentioned two young sons. Still the same age as when we saw them last nearly 3 years ago but impressive we saw them at all as I thought they’d been erased from existence in the same weird way that Molly and Micah have been.

Apart from the funeral which I thought was rather touching, I thought it was all a bit lacking in interest this week - neither genuinely exciting or involving nor engagingly silly. I caught myself looking at my watch a few times to see how much more there was to go. Still, some of this is probably that I always dislike the episodes that Jeannot Szwarc directs. He gives everything this ultra measured flat pacing which I don’t think works on this show at all.

7

Crappy, revisionist, patchwork writing. This show is the epitome of it, and this episode is a prime example.

  • They half-assed a “siren” role for the deaf cellist? wtf? that doesn’t even make sense.

  • Sylar’s greatest desire is Claire? I don’t know what’s creepier - a sexual desire or a platonic desire. What does Claire posess other than a tight ass that would picque Sylar’s interest?

  • Why is she still in school? The entire school setting distracts. Everything from the lack of guys banging down her door asking for dates, to the fact that she apparently has zero schoolwork, or the fact that she got her first roomate killed with zero consequence or after thought… the entire situation is just written improperly.

  • Peter is as emotionally developed as a 6 year old. I have trouble taking him seriously as a functioning adult. Everything the writers have done to him since season 1 has been regressive. Leaving an innocent bystander 10 years in an alternate postapocolyptic future, having daddy AND brother issues leading him to become a lame version of batman, refusing to kill sylar…

  • Re-inserting long forgotten characters for no reason. They feel the need to reintroduce the speedster only to no resolution but completely ignore the existance of pivotal ones? The speedster is forgettable. His storyline long dead - he’s exiled. full stop. What about parkman? what about tracey lords?

  • Convenient nonsensical logic in an inconvenient nonsensical situation. Swamp monsters… alligators… florida… of course. we have to go to florida. Why can’t you use words other than comic book references? Why can’t you even formulate complete thoughts? Why can’t you draw pictures, or even function properly? Why am I, Ando, so pivotal to your plan? Maybe it’s my shitty red fireball blast. Maybe it’s because you can’t buy airline tickets on your own. Eh… Never mind that. Let’s go to florida.

8

2 hours of crap surrounded by one great line (paraphrasing):

Sylar: “I took your power. I don’t have to kill people to get them; I just enjoy doing it.”

9

You know, I think this show is in trouble? Two episodes, after a couple of weeks with hardly any new tv to watch at all, and after over a day there’s only 8 comments.

Interest is surely dying.

10

and a lot of it hateful.

11

I actually didn’t hate it as much as virtually all of last season. Two hours is asking a lot, and I started getting impatient at around the 45 minute mark but after that it was fine. By contrast, last season I was questioning the use of my time at least once per commercial break. Faint praise, sure, but only finding it tiresome once in a two-episode block was a drastic improvement.

I like that Peter is a retarded manchild. That’s playing to your character’s strength. I didn’t like how easily Samuel kicked Sylar’s ass. That confrontation was the one thing I hotly anticipated all last season, but it sucked balls. Yeah, yeah, Sylar can’t kill him, but when he couldn’t – which is highly stupid, btw – he should at least have issued a major beatdown. Why the hell would he have passed out from that surface damage? Using the same healing power Claire walked into a friggin’ nuclear explosion, ala Wolverine at the end of X-Men 3.

But that’s the kind of citricism I feel when I like a show, so I was pleasantly surpised. Last season all my critcism was of the “this is painfully bad, why am I wasting my time?” variety. That’s why I almost never posted in the threads. There was no point.

Along the lines of criticism from a place of liking the show, I wish they would devote an entire episode to Hiro dieing in a slow, agonizing way. And then never flashback or anything so we never have to be subjected to his stupid storylines again. And I want this episode to air this coming Monday.

12

The manchild thing wore thin for me mid season 1. The guy is capable of some compellingly dark stuff (see: Adam and the coffin), let him walk on the murky side instead of infantizing him every season.

I have to confess I spent a lot of last night hacking up a lung, so I’m going to rewatch tonight or tomorrow and just try to figure out how metaphorical Lydia was being! But was episode 1 a Sylar free zone? Did I imagine that?

13

Nobody is more fun to make fun of than Peter the idiot manchild. Most of my fondest memories of Heroes were making fun of Peter in season 1. That could easily just be me, though.

Like you being tired of Peter’s stupidity, I am so over Hiro. Rooting for the scrappy nerd wears thin really quick. His best-by date was up in 2007.

14

I was talking about Hiro the idiot manchild! Season 2 was Peter getting amnesia, S3 was Hiro turning into a 9 year old, this year Hiro’s turned into that guy from the TNG episode who was trapped on a planet with Picard and could only speak in metaphor. That’s what Ando was doing this ep- trying to figure out WTF ‘Darmak and Gilad at Tanagra’ meant

15

Ha, I didn’t read the quote box and assumed you were talking about Peter. hehheh. I admit to being a little confused about the Adam reference. Too funny.

16

I, too, would like to see more of Hiro The Badass that we caught a glimpse of in Season 1.

While these two episodes were not the strongest I’ve seen, the show is still better than most of what’s on TV. I just think that two episodes back-to-back is a bit much.

17

Watched it again; I’ll agree with Maus that 2 ep back to back is a bit much when it’s The All Claire, All the Time show. The first was basic plot movement (although Hiro, oddly enough, did not annoy. I think it was because of the concern Ando and Kimi had for him, with their lurking realization that they are losing him); the emotional content of the second was pleasing, and Claire and Peter’s relationship is well rendered. For each other, they are family without the baggage (of which Angela and Noah are veritable manufacturers under Royal seal). Speaking of which, Noah-get a one of them. Really, you can’t do this by yourself. Lauren’s not enough, clearly.

18

I agree. They don’t know what to do with him, never have known what to do with him, and never will. Smurfing him out on these childish side missions got old season 1. Kill him. He serves no purpose except comic relief, and he’s no good at that.

19

It also reminded me of Nathan and her floating outside her window post rescue in Fugitives; I’m not sure how disturbing this should be- a 3.5 or a 7 on the creepymeter?

He can’t kill her(he says*), but she’s killed him. She’s a challenge and a threat. Probably is the epitome of the kind of girl he couldn’t get when he was plain ole Gabriel (‘Hello Cheerleader’, not "hello Claire’). And all this ‘going to die alone’ business- he’s going to need a mate as durable as he is, or else he’s either going to be alone all his life or outlive any number of wives. And all that abuse she lays on him probably cranks him up.

*Back when he did pop her skull, she seemed to die after he was finished. Eyes locked open, no breathing. Then he plopped her skull back on (god that wigged me out-I think it was that mop of hair…) and big gasp of air, back to life. He said he couldn’t kill her even if he wanted to. 1) Why didn’t he want to? 2) Well, it looks like you did kill her.

Long dead? Edgar was gone two episodes. I think that was the frigging weekend in show time. As far as other characters go, not everyone’s in every episode this year. Except for Claire and Sylar, most of them are in every other or every third ep. Tracey Strauss, I agree, is being neglected as a character.

Hiro has a brain tumor. It has been mentioned before…

Take half the skin off a guy’s face, he’s going to need a minute, and we’ll probably get a round 2. What Sylar’s not used to is people fighting back. Who’s managed to lay him out before this? Peter and the nailgun. Claire and her pointy glass. Hiro shish-kebab in S1.Sylar’s usually not opting to attack people who pose much of a threat to him, the pussy. Office workers, old guys and their little figurines, the shapeshifter who had just been shot. Oooh, scary. No wonder Samuel flayed him-he seems to figure they’re all just going to lie back and scream, he doesn’t seem prepared to deal with pushback.

Don’t kill Hiro. Kill Ando. Crank up the angst. The guy’s never been a character in his own right, he’s only defined by his relationship with Hiro.

20

If he has Claire’s power he shouldn’t need a minute. Remember the exploding guy from season 1, who was going to be the nuclear blast leveling NYC. Remember when he was at the Bennet’s house, and was going full meltdown. How Claire was the only one who could go in the house to save him or whatever, and the massive radiation was doing just as much (if not more) damage to her as the sand and rocks did to Sylar. Not only didn’t the greater damage force Claire unconscious, she didn’t even stop walking. And the damage was being healed as soon as it happened.

They can’t establish that kind of invulnerable healing and then change it. Oh yeah, thermonuclear meltdown? Unfazed by it. Sandstorm? You’re toast.