eh…I didn’t really like this episode. The totally undid everything from the season ender. Nathan and Peter are alive…Sylar is alive. Clair and her family are all back together. Although she seems to have gotten remarkably stupid over the summer. She went from totally hiding her powers to holding her hand over an open flame in a class full of people. Meh, I’ll keep watching of course, but they need to stop hedging thier bets. If you’re going to kill someone off, frickin’ leave them dead.
I’ll join in with those saying “Meh”, but I also know that this show has the power (ha!) to be really bad one episode and then come back brilliantly the next. Remember Hiro and Ando’s Excellent Vegas Adventure that lasted approximately a thousand years? :rolleyes: This episode came nowhere near to sucking that badly.
Still, I’m finding I have no patience with Back-to-the-Future-Hiro’s story, or with dorky English samurai guy (who I don’t believe is actually Kensei). Way too silly, way too predictable, way too much potential to be carried on far too long.
And, am I the only one who would be very interested to meet some new people who don’t have superpowers? Jesus, are Mohinder and Mr. Bennett the only ones?!
Still can’t wait for next week though. 
Yeah, I wondered about that. Presumably he was captured by the company and tagged with their logo and put in the shipping container so during that time he may have come across some other powers. I’m guessing that Mama P figured Peter would survive exploding at ground level because of his healing powers he absorbed from Claire but exploding in the stratosphere or however high up he was might have caused him to black out and fall back to earth before he could regain consciousness and fly and end up a puddle of goo that wasn’t able to heal itself.
Yeah, there were a few bloopers in this episode, but that was the most obvious. Turn on your Bunsen burners, students, so we can discuss evolution.
Maya and Alejandro sound more like they are from Argentina, by their accent, although I’m a little rusty at placing Spanish accents these days. And was anyone surprised that Kensei turned out to be a gaijin? His Japanese accent was soooo bad that it ruined the surprise when he took off that mask. And of course Claire’s new friend turned out to have powers-- who’d of thunk it?
Other than those kind of writing weaknesses, I did like this episode. Seems like they are setting up some good story lines for this season. I think Maya and Alejandro will add some interesting twists. Plus she’s hot.
Okay – from memory, here are the main story lines set up for this season, as I see them, anyway. Just to keep a running list.
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Noah (though I still want to say AED) and Mohinder working together to bring down the Company. Will they succeed, or will they just find out there’s a better reason to leave it up and running than to destroy it?
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Clare’s new lab partner Not!Zach and his power. Who is he, and can we please at some point have a plot point that involves him, Nathan, and Peter ALL flying together somewhere? Just for the fangirl geek in me.
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Molly’s dreams and the guy who’s apparently psycho-psychic and haunting her. He’s supposed to be worse than Sylar (per last season), so that’s going to be fun to watch. (Though, kid, hate to tell you this – Parkman using his TP is NOT cheating. He can’t use it to gather evidence, but the use presented is not an ethical problem, IMO.)
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The Wonder Twins (thanks, Otto) are not that interesting to me, but there is a story question involving them and Chandra Suresh, which Mohinder will inherit.
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Hiro in Japan. Most of us here figure he’s going to become Kenzei, but with the introduction of Caucasian Kenzei, maybe not. Of course, the big question is why didn’t he just pop back to 2007?
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Who killed Sulu? And will Angela Petrelli really be next? If she is, what new members of the older generation are going to show up?
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What’s going on with Peter? I can totally buy the memory loss as a result of the big ba-da-boom at the end of last season.
No, it wasn’t an outstanding episode, but it was better than I had expected given the travesty of the last two episodes last season. Still on the must-watch list.
Really? The “Peter really can’t fly, but Nathan can” moment at the end of the first season premiere was what sold me on the show. The Very Durable Cheerleader was also neat. And Hiro, of course, was awesome pretty much from the get-go. There was nothing even remotely as interesting in this premiere for me, and a heap of negatives:
[ul]
[li]Opening the show with a heaping helping of Mohinder?[/li][li]Not just letting Parkman survive, but having him completely recovered from four gunshot wounds to the chest and still have plenty of time to transfer from the LAPD (where he had been suspended) to the NYPD and complete his detective training and pass his detective exams before the first commercial break?[/li][li]Having Nathan survive with no explanation?[/li][li]Giving Nathan a Grizzly Adams beard for no reason?[/li][li]Making Nathan a sorry drunk despite the fact that he did the right thing and knows it?[/li][li]Moving Claire to a new school, which is ALSO populated entirely by bitchy cheerleaders?[/li][li]Making these cheerleaders EXTRA BITCHY?[/li][li]Introducing new and absolutely uninteresting characters?[/li][li]Introducing the new characters’ powers in a totally predictable fashion?[/li][li]Giving George Takei the super-equivalent of the Black Spot before killing him off in a trite manner?[/li][li]Hiding the identity of George Takei’s killer with a hoodie???[/li][li]Spinning plot threads out of whole cloth as if they’d always been part of the show? (i.e. “That means there are only … nine of us left!” and “Of all of us, I never thought it would be you, Captain Hoodie!”) [/li][li]Introducing “Irish” characters with quite possibly the worst Irish accents ever committed to audio recording?[/li][li]Turning Mr. Bennet’s only scenes into asinine comic relief?[/li][li]Actually having a character ask another character his name and having that character answer with a panicky, “I … I don’t know!”[/li][li]Showing us in the “Next Time on Heroes” bit, AGAIN, that Sylar is alive.[/li][/ul]
I don’t know about anybody else, but I kind of would have liked to have learned what George Takei’s super power was before he died. (Unless his power is X-Ray vision, which would explain his ability to penetrate his killer’s clever disguise.)
And what was his killer’s power? The amazing ability to bum-rush people off of tall buildings? George didn’t exactly react like a kendo master, there. Maybe George’s power is the ability to stand like a deer in the headlights when attacked by a former comrade.
And does anyone else really look forward to a Battlestar Galactica-style “who are the final seven old-school supers?” plot thread painting itself into a corner? Not me, man.
[QUOTE=Scupper]
[li]Spinning plot threads out of whole cloth as if they’d always been part of the show? (i.e. “That means there are only … nine of us left!” and “Of all of us, I never thought it would be you, Captain Hoodie!”)[/li][/QUOTE]
This was a major part of last season’s storyline.
Hiro’s father, Simone’s father, Mama Petrelli and Linderman all mentioned the group of superfriends that “originally tried to use their powers for good.” It was assumed that Papa Petrelli had powers and was part of this group too.
It was also stated that some of them went rogue. So it’s not new in any sense of the word.
“Straight Zach” is referring to the flying kid at Claire’s new school. Calling him “straight Zach” is obviously confusing so may I suggest Flyboy?
“Brooklyn - Suresh’s apartment” was the exact caption IIRC.
Scupper, I don’t understand a number of your criticisms. The show is adding elements by introducing things like “nine of us” to flesh out previous elements like the barely-explored linkages between Papa Petrelli, Papa Hiro, Papa Shaft, etc. And obviously Nathan’s (and Peter’s) survival are mysteries that will be explored in the upcoming season. Why, when you’ve watched a season of a show that consists of riddles wrapped in mysteries and rolled in a crunchy enigma coating, are you complaining that everything isn’t explained in the first hour of season 2?
Is Takei signed on for more episodes? Maybe his power is that he can’t be killed. Or maybe he has the power to travel through worm hole, time/space, black hole, reset plot devices. Or he has a twin brother who grew up in magic “time exile land”, but now will return to avenge his brothers death by mutating into a giant sandworm while warping into lightspeed at 6000 parsecs per furlong. This shit just writes itself.
The ability to bum-rush people off of tall buildings and survive. There was only one body on the street when Ando looked down. So obviously Hoodie went somewhere; whether it was before Takei’s landing or after, and where he went, we don’t know. Either way, it would require some kind of powers, no?
[QUOTE=Scupper]
[ul]
[li]Having Nathan survive with no explanation?[/li][li]Giving Nathan a Grizzly Adams beard for no reason?[/li][li]Making Nathan a sorry drunk despite the fact that he did the right thing and knows it?[/ul][/li][/QUOTE]
The explanation of how Nathan survived hasn’t been given yet. You know, just like how they told the story last season.
He has a beard because he’s not taking care of himself, and probably because he doesn’t want to be recognized since his picture was plastered all over the damn city only four months ago.
And he’s a sorry drunk because he did the right thing, not in spite of it. Doing it lost him his brother, made him realize his mother was evil, ruined his hopes for his future, and basically wrecked his life. So, even though it was the right thing, his life is wrecked.
And your other points are a bit off, as well. They hid Sylar’s identity at the beginning of last season just as lamely as the hoodie. The head cheerleader last season was just as extra bitchy as the head cheerleader this season. Noah had comic relief scenes last season – the entire Noah-Matt-Ted roadtrip plotline, for example.
Maybe not the right show for you. God, first thread of the season and already it has started.
“Flyboy” as a nickname doesn’t really tell you the most important snark about the character – he’s exactly like the Zach character. Except he’s not. Plus, flyboy could easily be confused with Nathan (particularly since the Captain Congress type nicknames don’t really apply anymore).
If Takei has signed on for more episodes, it does not necessarily mean that his character will be showing back up in the present time. This show is fond of flashbacks, and has (at least) two characters who can go back in time.
Some interesting LotR take-offs:
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The Nine: apparently there is a group of nine elders that were first given powers and who got together (the parents of our generation of Heroes).
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Nightmares a la Pippin after looking into the palantir; someone who can see where you are.
Any others?
Wait. Is it “nine left” or “nine total”? Because I thought it was nine left and with Papa Petrelli, Simone’s father and Linderman dead that makes 12. Twelve.
The parents were Majestic-12!
The Heroes are aliens! I knew it!
Could be. It wouldn’t be the first time I messed up an important detail like that.
It was nine remaining.
Company Man might have told Mohimbo how many had gotten together to form the Company, but I don’t remember the dialog.
Whatever, just so as it’s clear that the character isn’t Zach (although I considered “Captain Congress Jr.” a la Captain Marvel Jr but decided that was even worse). The nicknames tend to fade on their own anyway after we start remembering the characters’ actual names. He doesn’t have to have a nickname.
I thought there were two companies on Heroes, because Alchemy guy knew about Mollie but somehow Mohinder has him where he wants him??? If Alchemy was part of the same company as Lindemann, etc., wouldn’t he already know everything and how could Mohinder trick him?
I wondered whether Alejandro has a power? The only reference was to the curse Maya has on her. But yeah, him being a dampener makes sense since she didn’t explode any brains with him nearby.
Thank goodness Peter got a haircut. I had assumed that Nathan had dropped him off in outer space and then scooted right back, but wasn’t clear on Peter making it, except apparently one of the alternate futures shown in a past season showed him having survived his own detonation. No chance him throwing the fireball was him picking up powers from one of the other guys? (I see **Lightray ** mentioned this possibility.
I thought it was to run off to France.
Actually she was giving him crap about using his TP to get the answers to the written test from other people, not about what he did in that training exercise. Definitely cheating IMO, and i’m only commenting on it because i just had the same discussion with my brother before reading the thread. I was slightly dissapointed we got no updates on the Nissan Versa.
My WAG is:
I have always assumed the symbol was a piece of DNA. It is just a small part of the double-helix. The lines pointing away from the squiggle are the specific genes that give people their powers.
Also I think the Kensai being a white guy is pretty lame. :dubious: Now I am hoping Hiro turns out to be the Kensai.
What happened to Nathan’s Congressman job? Didn’t he win the election last season?