Peter Defeats Hiro?

We last leave Heroes with Hiro about to attack Peter with the Kensei sword. But what happens after that is a big mystery.

Here is what we know to be true from next weeks preview

1. Peter isn't going to die. He is seen talking to Adam right afterwards
2. Peter, Matt, and Nathan are standing at a Podium in front of the press

So I believe that Peter is indeed going to be able to "stop the virus". There is a scene where it appears the vial is falling and will smash on the floor, but Peter should be able to stop that with a little bit of well timed TK (then again, when has Peter ever shown the ability to control any of his abilities well?)

You don't have a press conference like they appear to be having for no reason. What exactly the reason is still perplexes me though. I doubt it is to talk about the virus, as I would imagine the company would want to keep that secret. Then again, Nathan did say, "No more secrets".

But what happens between Peter and Hiro? Does Hiro convince Peter that Adam is evil, and thus they don't have to fight. Peter could only be pretending when he tells Adam "let's go destroy the virus". I doubt that though. Adam has a very funny look on his face. I have to believe that Peter at least told Adam about Hiro. I doubt Hiro was defeated, or at the very least there to be seen by Adam since they are in a very public place, and nobody seems to be alarmed that there is a dead body on the floor. That and they aren't going to kill of Hiro, I can guarantee you that one. (There are actually three people I think are absolutely safe for the time being. Peter, Claire, and Hiro. Too integral to the success of the show to get rid of these three any time soon)

So what do you think? How is the virus going to be stopped, and what are Hiro and Peter's role in all of it?

Truth and Consequences

Yes, my post are slowing down. Mainly due to the fact that I'm a little disheartened by the writer's strike, and the eventual abrupt end to my favorite show, but also because this is getting a little hard when it seems like I'm talking to myself. So if you have comments, please share :)

An OK episode. Most of the action happened at the end. Not a full recap, just the interesting parts.

Show starts out with Peter again seeing himself in the future, deserted, New York City. It appears to be one of his dream sequences again. They are going to have to explain this sooner rather than later, and I hope it's sooner since I hate things that drag out for extended periods of time without explanation. He teams up with Adam to find Victoria Pratt and "save the world". Peter finds and talks to her. In the end, he reads her mind to discover where the virus is, and she ends up being killed by Adam Monroe. Adam leaves his calling card, and they head off to Texas to go find it.

Bob returns Noah's "ashes" to the Bennet Family. Of course, these aren't real since we know that Noah was in fact saved by Mohinder and locked up by the Company. Claire wishes to forget and considers asking the Haitian to wipe her memory (which of course she could always recover as we know from Peter). She scatters the ashes and notices Elle watching her. She threatens to tell the world about her abilities. I'm not exactly sure how this gives her an advantage over the company, but for some reason Claire thinks it does.

Elle has a testy exchange with her father who chastises her and tells her that she has to regain his trust. I don't think this exchange bodes well for one of these two characters. Heroes hints that two heroes are going to die next week. My money is on Elle being one of those.

Sylar teaches Maya to "control" her power in an attempt to get rid of Alejandro. She succeeds and sends Alejandro away, believing she is doing the right thing for him. Alejandro, ever the good brother, refuses to leave and confronts Sylar. During the confrontation Alejandro is killed. This storyline is really starting to bore me as it has little relevance to the rest of the plot. I'm sure it will turn around in the 2nd half of the season, but for now, it is dragging on. It also really bothers me the trust Maya puts in a stranger over her brother, who clearly loves her. Come on now, is that at all realistic?

Hiro goes back to discover why Adam Monroe was locked up, and discovers that Adam attempted to release the virus that would cause total devastation. He travels to Odessa to find him, bringing along the Kensei sword. He freezes time, only to find an unfrozen Peter Petrelli. Despite being told that Adam murdered Kaito, Peter refuses to let Hiro have Adam. The show ends with Hiro charging Peter with the sword, Peter ready to fire an electric bolt at Hiro.

Bringing Back the Dead

There is one thing I hope Heroes doesn't make a habit of. In this week's episode, they seemingly brought back Noah Bennet from the dead by giving him some of Claire's blood. This can lead to all sorts of weak storytelling elements because people can be killed off and brought back whenever the writers feel like it because all it takes is some of Claire's (or Adam's) blood, and poof, everything is OK.

Dead should be dead. Period. It should be one of the very hard and fast rules of any good storyteller, if someone is confirmed dead, they can not be brought back to life. Thus far, Heroes has done OK with this. Linderman, Simone, Isaac, Charlie, all dead and as far as we know still dead. They sometimes play around a little bit, but as soon as someone is killed off, they stay dead.

The only thing that can save this story is that if we somehow find out that Mr. Bennet was not actually dead, only "near-dead". Even if they do this, it will only partially save the storyline.

Cautionary Tale

Getting pretty good at some of this prediction stuff huh? I correctly called that Hiro would actually allow his father to die. We of course find out who the killer was, and it was, as many of us suspected, Adam Monroe. Hiro allows his father to die, because it must happen. It is not the place of Heroes to play god, and preventing Kaito's death would be akin to playing God. Ironically, I got the picture wrong, as the person in the photo was in fact Ando, and not Hiro, but I still reached the correct conclusion.

This is direct contrast to what is going on with Parkman, who is slowly gaining control of his powers. I like this storyline a lot. I've stated it before, it frustrates me to no end when shows drag on the development of it's characters. Parkman has potentially one of the best powers in the show. Telepathy is not a trivial power. Professor X has shown just how powerful telepathy can really be. The show is portraying the path that Parkman is going down as the same as his father, and said as much as he forced Angela Petrelli to reveal the name of the missing twelve, Victoria Pratt.

Noah attempts to save his family, and joins forces with Wes to rescue Claire. While being held captive, they take Claire's blood, informing her that it has the ability to so many people. Noah captures Elle, and exchanges her for Claire. He is subsequently shot by Mohinder, right in the eye, right as the painting showed it.

By the way, Mohinder has not "flipped" to being a bad guy for killing Bennet. He did this very deliberately, with full knowledge that he would be able to bring back Noah. This must be true for the following reasons

• Mohinder is one of the good guys.
  
• Mohinder is just not a killer, and the way he killed Bennet was pretty cold blooded
• Noah spared Mohinder's life. Very doubtful he would return the favor by shooting him in the eye.

I think it's very fishy by the way he let Mohinder go in the first place. Either Bennet is being very sloppy, or those two are up to something. By the way, did anyone really think Bennet was dead when he was shot? I knew events would play out as they happened, because I knew A) Isaac's painting would come true. B) It would not end exactly as the painting would make it seem C) they wouldn't kill Bennet.

Only two left! Bummer about the strike, Heroes was finally taking shape.

Can Hiro Save his Dad?

Can Hiro make it back to save his Dad? Somehow I doubt it. One of the things we learned in Season 1 is that somethings are just meant to happen, and there is no way to prevent it. Heroes is a little inconsistent with this idea. They allowed Future Hiro to change his present, by ensuring that the bomb went off. Why "changing" this outcome is possible but not something like the death of Charlie is not.

Hiro states, when he comes back from trying to save Charlie, that there was nothing he could do.
No matter what he tried, she died. I think the same is going to be true for Hiro's father. In fact, I'm not even 100% sure he is going to try. I believe Hiro is going to discover that Adam Monroe is indeed his father's killer but he is going to stop short of actually preventing it. Hiro is seen in the above picture on top of the Deveaux Building. This appears to be on the outside patio. But below we see a figure in the corner, watching what is happening, but yet doing nothing about it.


Why would Hiro allow the death to happen? Not certain. I can't think of any scenario where he would actually allow that to happen. The nearest thing I can come up with is that his father actually asked Hiro to let him die, so Hiro stands by silently when it does happen. If that is the case, his death must serve a purpose.

Sorry No update

Sorry I haven't updated yesterday or today. It's been a perfect storm of events. Yesterday, was ill and felt like I was on my death bed. Today, the power is out in my building, so I'm actually only able to blog from a public location. If power comes back soon, I'll blog about this weeks episode, but otherwise, it might not be back until Monday, since I'm back to LA all day friday.

Four Months Ago

Now that's an episode. Lots of good things in this one.

We learn exactly what happened to Peter and to Nathan after the explosion. I'm glad they cleared up my question about how Nathan healed so quickly from his burns. I even like that they threw in a little line from Peter that he couldn't fly because it was taking all his will to just stop himself from exploding. Still think it's a little fishy, but it at least passes the plausibility test. One of the things i really liked about their story is the clear bond that these two have for each other. At times in season 1, you have to question how much Nathan really loves Peter. Throughout this season we have seen he really does. One of the things reveled was that Peter is able to "heal" himself into remembering the things the Haitian made him forget. That suggest that part of the Haitian's power really is to damage parts of the brain. Interesting.

Ma Patrelli shows some of her evil side, by convincing Nathan's wife that he was delusional. Not sure if her squeezing Heidi's arm was an indication of some sort of power that she has? Could it be a form of persuasion that she has?

We are introduced to the Adam Monroe of the present. But something is going on here. I'm not really convinced that Bob and Adam are actually opposing each other. If they are, it's really bad storytelling again. First off, from all indications, Linderman was running the company yet he was a disciple of Adam. Why would Linderman allow Adam to be imprisoned for thirty years? Further, they put Peter in their jail, yet they planned on controlling him by giving him pills? Really? The company is meticulous, but allowing the two evolved humans they would consider the most dangerous to just walk out because Peter didn't take some pills? And why on earth would they allow two prisoners to so easily communicate through their cells?

We find out how DL died. Kind of a bad way to go. I for one hope they keep DL dead. I've said it before, I don't like people coming back from the dead. It's a very weak plot element. Dead should be dead. It is too bad though. DL, for all his problems, really had a heroic attitude. Running into the fire to save the woman, true act of bravery, even with powers.

We find out the back story of Maya and Alejandro. These two still don't interest me too much. I'm still not 100% sure how they fit into this plot. Again, I think they were going to be key to the 2nd half of the season, but with it seeming very likely that there won't be a second half, I'm not sure how they will try and tie everything up with the three episodes they have left.

Morally Gray

Just a quick little post. But one of the things I wanted to say about this week's episode is I love how Mohinder, when talking to Niki, declared that he thought Bob was "Morally Gray".

This goes very nicely with my post on how Heroes characters are never just black and white. I think the creators of Heroes must be reading my blog. With the writers going on strike, and Heroes season threatening to be canceled, maybe I should be considered for a writing posiiton :)

In all seriousness, I can see a problem with them extending this idea too far. While I do believe that this gray area allows there to be some very interesting story telling, it can also be healthy for people to believe in their heroes. That is, comics are successful because we know who to root for. We, as a people, love to idealize our heroes, and if we start to see the chinks in our hero's armor, we lose a little of that idealism.

Maya and Alejandro - Their Role?

Heroes is all about people and the roles that they play. They generally waste much time with telling stories of things that aren't important to the final outcome. This explains why they spent so much time in Japan with Hiro, they needed to develop the Adam Monroe character. (They still spent too long there, but at least it had a purpose).

The people I still haven't figured out yet are Maya and Alejandro. Heroes has spent a lot of time developing these two, and have not yet revealed what role they will play. I would have to believe their role would be as major as Adam's, because they have spent almost as much time on their stories as they have on Adam's.

My analysis of this issue isn't very deep, partly because I haven't really cared about their storyline. But as we draw closer to understanding what is going on, I get more and more interested. What actually crosses my mind is that their story would have been key to what happens in the second half of the season. I thought at first that Maya would be the cause of the disaster the Heroes would have to prevent, but now that we know it was caused by a mutated version of the Shanti Virus, then something else must happen.

I actually think they are not supposed to be part of the main story in the first half. Much like last year, Heroes first focused on "Save the Cheerleader" Heroes this season would focus on stopping the Shanti Virus the company has let loose on the world. In a little bit of misdirection, the Heroes would rush to try and prevent the spread of the Shanti virus, and they would succeed. But we would learn that the Shanti Virus was not the real danger, it was Maya.

It would be the second half of the season where we would have to deal with Maya and her dangerous power, much like they dealt with the bomb last year. But now with the writer's strike underway, I'm not sure what Heroes is going to do, since there have been hints that they would prematurely end the season, by making an alternate ending to the first half, if a resolution doesn't happen soon.

Nathan - How Did He Heal?

During the previews for next week, we caught a glimpse of a man who was severely burned, and it appears to be Nathan. Throughout the season, we have seen Nathan look into the mirror only to see himself severely burnt. Up until now, I believed that he was more or less seeing things, much like Niki sees Jessica in the mirror. This alter-ego was formed from the guilt he felt because of what happened to Peter. Now I'm not so sure.

This picture would seem to indicate that Nathan did indeed suffer from serious burns from flying Peter into the atmosphere. (On a side note, did it bother anyone else that there was no need for Nathan to do that? Peter can fly too after all.) Now this leads me to the following two conclusions

1. Nathan was somehow miraculously healed. No way someone with seemingly third degree burns heals to look normal after four months (if ever). That means an evolved human with healing powers must have healed Nathan. As Linderman is dead (I hope the writers somehow don't bring him back to life. It's a cheap story telling technique), there must be someone else with this power.
   
2. Nathan is indeed burnt, but somehow other's don't see him that way. We have no indication from anyone that Nathan is burnt. Everyone treats him normally as if he is fine, so it is unlikely that we, the viewer, are somehow the ones who are being fooled. Perhaps there is an illusion going on in the minds of everyone else. As this seems to follow Nathan around everwhere, I think this is somewhat unlikely. Then again, we never did get to know the full scope of Candice's power. After all, In the future, Sylar is able to trick Billions of people that he is Nathan, and this power seemed to have no limitations.
   

I don't see a lot of other ways out for the writers. Perhaps this has to do with the "dark secret in the Petrelli Family" referred to by Angela Petrelli in next weeks preview. I guess we will find out soon exactly what happened.

Another thing about Nathan did cross my mind. He won the election. What the heck happened to his seat in Congress? Nathan is obviously not going to Congress every week, so what is going on with his seat? I hope this question is answered in next week's episode. It looks to be a good one.

Out of Time - Review

Good episode from Heroes. We learned quite a bit in this episode, and many of the scenes from the series of eight paintings were revealed. We found out that the blond was indeed Niki, trying to come after Bob and of course we discovered exactly why Peter was shown next to a bio-hazard sign.

Although it has yet to occur, we do know that it is indeed Mohinder with the gun and why he has a broken nose. The big mystery now is who is he shooting and why? Could it be Noah? Is Noah really going to die?

Some other things were confirmed. I'm glad I hit the nail on the head about Adam Monroe actually being Takezo Kensei. I wonder if my reasoning was sound though? Interesting to see if the writers ever confirm my theory about him being named "Adam" for the reasons I mention. I now also got confirmation about my theories that Kensei was bad. I actually was pretty accurate with my reasoning that Hiro was indeed Kensei and how the dragon story would eventually unfold. I have to pat myself on the back one more time for my correct assumption that Kensei would indeed be immortal.

One of the things that did happen was that things are a little more polarizing at this point. In my post about Heroes never being black or white, I mention how difficult it is to really know who is good or evil. I don't see how Adam Monroe can be anything but the bad guy at this point. His motives are clear. He wants revenge on Hiro for what Hiro did. If that is indeed the case, that means the company is lining up on the side of "good" for now. One flaw I think the writers are making at this point is that it is very hard to root for or against anybody right now because it is ambiguous at best who you should be rooting for. In this genre, it is important for fans to know who we should be pulling for. At this point, confusion reigns. Those that the fans have grown to love, Hiro, Perter, and Claire, all seem to be heading down a path where they are clearly aiding the wrong side. It will be interesting how the writers try to get these stories back on track.

The other major developments are of course that Matt is gaining control of his powers a little more. I hope they continue to go down this path for all the heroes. One of the most frustrating things is to watch these people with extraordinary gifts unable to use them. I'm still pretty pissed at Smallville that Clark for some reason can't fly yet. It's getting ridiculous.

I believe we also learn why Noah is in trouble. Claire, and her rebelliousness, is going to be the downfall of Mr. Bennet. Not sure exactly how it is going to happen yet, but I'm pretty positive that the whole Wes-Claire story is going to what ends up "killing" Noah. I put killing in quotes because I still don't believe that Heroes will kill off Noah, he is too popular and is easily one of the better actors on the show. His character is fantastic and extremely complex. Makes for interesting story telling.

Back From My Trip

Got back from my trip last night. But it had one noteable heroes-related moment. I went to downtown Los Angeles, to the City National building. Little did I know that I would be going to the exact location of the Peter-Sylar showdown, the so called Kirby Plaza. For those that don't know, this sculpture is actually located in downtown LA and is called Double Ascension. It was created by Herbert Bayer.

It was kind of cool that my one day off from the blog, I ran into something all Heroes Lovers would recognize.

No New Post Until Wednesday

Heading out of town for the next day. I'm even going to have miss Heroes tonight! Don't worry, I got it on my DVR.

So there won't be any new post until Wednesday morning at the earliest. Until then, let's hope that tonight's episode kicks some ass.

West- An Unhealthy Attitude

West worries me a little bit. While I like him as a character, and I hope it works out between him and Claire, I have to admit that his attitude about his powers is not always the healthiest.

He said two things that really worried me. First, when Claire asked him, "I have to listen to my parents, don't you?" He responds, "I can fly, that makes the whole parental guidance thing a non issue.
" To further illustrate my point he states, "you have a power. By definition, you're better than she is."

Now think carefully about these statements. He very clearly relishes his powers. Time and again, he tells Claire how she should embrace her power. This is actually very eerily similar to the attitude of Magneto. Magento fully embraced his power and thought that humans were beneath him because his abilities made him "better" than them.

Is West going to be able to walk this fine line? I'm not so sure. It seems to me that this is clearly the direction that the writers are gong to take this character. He is unlike almost all other characters in the show in that he fully understands and enjoys his power. This is actually further enforced by the comic this week, Team Building Exercise, when Mr. Bennet describes how most people fear or don't understand their powers. Is West destined to lead his people like Magneto lead his?

Peter - A Dream Sequence?

After this weeks episode, I assumed that Peter had used Hiro's power to actually teleport himself into the future to see a deserted Time Square. But another thought comes to mind. What if this is actually a different power that Peter possesses?


Remember, in Season 1, Peter had several dream experiences which seemingly predict the future, albeit not in an exact fashion like Isaac's paintings have done. The first time we see it is in the first episode, where Peter imagines he is flying through the skyscrapers of New York. We see it again in Fallout when Peter passes out only to wake up alone on the pavement in New York.



Could Peter have another, yet unknown power? If so who did he get it from? Could this be a power he got from Charles Deveaux? The first time this "power" manifests itself is when Peter is sitting by Deveaux's bedside. This power may have been used again after Peter is knocked unconscious in New York only to find himself on the Deveaux rooftop.

Again, while some may assume this is Peter teleporting and using his invisibility to hide from himself and his own mother, another possible answer is that this is some strange, yet to be talked about power. Remember, Deveaux is able to detect that Peter is there. So unless this is some new power, part of Deveaux's power must be able to detect when invisible people are around, which somehow just sounds less plausible to me than some sort of "Dreaming"power.

It would also parallel nicely the dream sequence that Peter originally had in "Fallout" which was clearly an instance of him dreaming and not an instance of him somehow teleporting himself into the future.

The Eight Pictures

The season seems to be revolving around the eight pictures that Isaac completed before his death. Up until this past episode, we have only been able to see the first one, depicting Kaito's death, the last one, showing a dead Mr. Bennet along with Claire and an unknown man.

Mr Bennet, along with the Haitian, has traveled to the Ukraine, to uncover the other six paintings. After disposing of his former partner, Mr. Bennet goes to a warehouse and unboxes the remaining paintings. A collage of them are below.

1. Kaito's Death
2. Claire and Wes' trick on Debbie
3. A vial, possibly the deadly virus
4. A blond woman, possibly Niki, trapped.
5. A man, perhaps peter, with eyes glazed over, and a biohazard sign in the corner.
6. Hiro and Takezo engaged in a sword fight
7. Mohinder, with a broken nose and a fired gun
8. Mr. Bennet, shot through the eye, with Claire and a mysterious man in the background.

Not sure how this is all going to play out. The first two scenes have already happened. One of the things I'm interested in is how all these disparate scenes are going to come together in the end. Why is Claire's trick so important? What is Hiro and Takezo going to do with all these present day happenings? Is Mr Bennet actually dead, and if so, who killed him? Did Mohinder fire the gun that shot Mr. Bennet

The main plot this season is definitely around some sort of bio-hazard being unleashed on the general human population. At this point, I'm not sure if it is because of the Shanti serum that Mohinder is developing, the powers that Maya has shown, or maybe a combination of both. Somehow, these eight paintings are going to lead up to the events that Peter has now teleported to.

Don't have any deep insights yet. If I do, I'll post some more.