Nathan Healed - Again

OK, one thing that continues to bother me about this season that they still have not answered is, how did Nathan heal. This is actually the second time he miraculously healed. This time he came back from the dead.

I probably won't be satisfied with any story the writers decide to tell. First off, they brought back Nathan from the dead. The doctor declared him dead. Doctors don't do that casually. So the writers decided that something can bring him back. I've written it before, and I'll write it again, dead should be dead. Bringing characters back from the dead is just bad storytelling that should be left to Soap Operas. God only knows what will happen if Heroes starts becoming a Soap Opera.

So if I can get past this, they somehow have to come up with another story. Here are the things we know.

• It wasn't Linderman. He is dead and appears to still be dead, thank god.
  
• It wasn't Peter. He was as surprised as anyone that Nathan sprang back to life.
• There was nobody else in the close proximity. We have, as of yet, not seen anyone with the ability to heal someone from distance.
  

I've heard theories that perhaps Arthur Petrelli has some power that could in fact save Nathan from a distance. I find this difficult to believe as I think Arthur Petrelli wants Nathan dead. In fact, I'm pretty sure in this weeks episode, we will find out that Arthur was indeed behind the car crash that that injured Nathan's wife in Season 1 (BTW, where the hell is Nathan's family?)

The only somewhat plausible explanation I can come up with is that Nathan actually has a healing power like Claires. Think about it, it makes some sense. It is believed that Nathan had no powers. This is why his parents injected him with the formula. But it may very well be the case that he just never manifested these powers yet. It took a near death event to awaken these powers. Now I find this very hard to believe given the events of last season when he was burnt to a crisp, but I can at least buy it.

It would even fit into the story somewhat because it would explain Claire's powers. It makes sense that Powers, being part of a genetic code, should be inherited. We even see this now as Peter and Gabriel actually have similar powers to Arthur. All three can in effect, take multiple powers.

So that's all I got on this one. Not sure how or even if the writers are going to address this gaping hole in their story telling.

The Death of Maury Parkman

In last nights episode, Eris Quod Sum, we witness the the death of Maury Parkman. Maury Parkman, for all his faults, dies in an attempt to save his son, Matt. Maury was a key reason why Arthur Petrelli was able to return. And to demonstrate his gratitude, Arthur Petrelli dispatches of Maury with a flick of his hand. Is this guy evil or what?

What I like about the Maury's death, is that the show seems to be "cleaning up" the long list of characters with abilities. They have already killed off DL, Niki, Adam Monroe, Bob, Maury, and a few other minor characters. Not only have they killed off these characters but they also aren't using several others like Micah, Monica, and West.

I found the use of so many characters to be confusing at times. Worse than that, I believe that a show like this depends on character development and having too many characters is dilutive; it means less time to develop other more interesting characters.

So I hope that Heroes continues this trend. I prefer they focus on only a few core characters like Peter, Claire, Matt and Hiro and limit the growth of the cast as much as possible. And if they feel like killing off a few more characthers, Mohinder jumps to my mind, I'd be all for it.

Quick Thoughts on "Dying of the Light"

Show starts out with the truth about Ando and Hiro. Like I had stated in the earlier post, there was no way that Hiro actually stabbed Ando. Hiro is clearly on the "good" side and has been from the beginning

It moves on to Arthur Petrelli killing Adam Monroe in a demonstration of his powers. Arthur Petrelli has the ability to "suck" powers out of others. This is pretty interesting development and gives us insight on why he is able to instill so much fear in others. I for one hope that this ability will have its limits. I hope his powers are similar to the Parasite. He is only able to temporarily absorb the powers of others. Otherwise, we will run into the same problem we have with Sylar and Peter, characters becoming much too powerful.

I'm happy that they are bringing another Pre-cog back. I tend to think this makes the show much more interesting. The scene with him and Hiro was hilarious. I have selfish reasons for wanting another Pre-cog back on the show. The paintings provide me clues on what is going to happen next, and gives me my material to write this blog. For example, we are treated to the picture of the four villians this season. Three of them are easily recognizable. They are Arthur, Knox, and Flint. The other one is not as easily identifiable, and I believe has not been introduced as of yet.

Peter the bad guy and Sylar the good guy? What is going on with the world? Here we see the crux of this season's plot. Who are the real villians in this story?

Of course the Peter development with his father was rather predictable. As my girlfriend often says, Peter doesn't deserve his power. He is rather naive if not outright stupid, and that isn't a good quality for someone has powerful as Peter. It seems now that he has lost all his powers. In my opinion, this is a good thing. Like I stated earlier in this post and in another one, I never liked Peter being as powerful as he was. It creates problems with storytelling that are difficult to reconcile.

Quick Thoughts on "Angels and Monsters"

This episode further perpetuates a running theme that I have been following over the past year, Heroes characters walk a think gray line. The episode starts out with a monologue by Nathan who is trying to figure out if he is a hero or a villain. Much like everyone else, it isn't so black and white. Former heroes like Peter, Mohinder, and Hiro are on the wrong side of good and evil (although I'm not buying the Hiro thing quite yet. I'm sure we will discover not everything is as it seems when he stabs Ando) while the tradional villians of Angela and Sylar start lining up on the other side. HRG continues to walk the gray line, never clearly good or bad.

Under it all is a familiar theme. Things are being controlled by an unknown force. Like I stated in my last post, Arthur Petrelli is back. One thing is clear, people fear him. Maury Parkman fears him as does his wife, Angela. So is power, or his evil, must be truly something. More on that later. Also nice to see that my theory about Linderman being an illusion created by Maury Parkman was accurate. I knew that they wouldn't bring Linderman back to life, so the only logical conclusion was that he wasn't real.

Slowly but surely, we see the future as Parkman envisioned it and as Future Peter lived to be coming true. For some reason, Arthur Petrelli seems bent on giving powers to everyone. While I'm sure that future will never come to pass, the events leading up to it that would certainly be the basis for which this season's episodes will be based.

And can I say, I'm really think this puppet master character has some potential?

The Return of Arhtur Petrelli

The return of Arthur Petrelli seems imminent. In this weeks preview, we see a shocked Angela Petrelli confronting a "shocking return". The most logical choice at this point has to be Arthur. It was believed, since season 1, that Arthur Petrelli was dead. In fact, it was believed that he committed suicide.

However, the story of what actually happened has never really been told. It would be quite easy at this point to simply bring him back. I think this makes a lot of sense especially now considering all the drama swirling the Petrelli's. Angela is now head of the Company, Nathan is a U.S. Senator and looks to be asking his mother some tough questions, Peter turns into a "villian" in the future, and of course now we have Sylar. Or should I start calling him Gabriel?

Above is the picture of the man in the hospital bed. He definitely looks the age, build, and overall just similar to what we know Arthur Petrelli is supposed to look like. Refer back to the picture of the original 12. They also made a point to show the ring that Nathan was wearing. Pretty similar to the one that is on the finger of the man in the hospital bed. The two rings are below.


Now what his role will be is still somewhat of a mystery. I actually highly doubt that he will come back and make nice with Angela Petrelli. It seems, especially given the shocked look on her face, that his return will not be all that welcomed. I believe he is part of, if not directly responsible for, the plan to reunite the formula.

Under Linderman, the company experimented on people to give them powers. They gave them to Niki, Tracy, and Peter. We know that Arthur was a disciple of Linderman. He even volunteered his own son to undergo the experiment. Presumably, he would want to continue down that path. Given what we know of the "future" we know someone is working to create the formula. That someone is likely Arthur Petrelli.

War Buddies- Part 7

First off, sorry for the rather long delay. As I've said in some of my comments, it was a combination of new job, moving, and lack of new episodes. It has made it hard to keep up with a consistent posting schedule. Things have settled down personally so posting should be back a little more regularly.

In this post, I look at this weeks hero comic. I've not posted much about the different comics, but ironically, it is the source of some of the better information regarding the series. Heroes does an OK job of making sure that you can follow the series without knowing anything about the comic.

This week continued a story the left several months ago, the story of Linderman and Arthur Petrelli. We see Linderman back from the war still haunted by the horrific scenes he bore witness to. A mysterious woman approaches him and arranges to meet later. Now who accepts something like this? Granted she is hot, but if some random woman came up to you and just invited you to the middle of nowhere, do you follow her?

Anyway, he eventually demonstrates his power to her only to find out that she has been hunting him down to steal his powers. This leads to three interesting things

• The girl had the power to "steal" others powers. It looks like she needed to have physical contact for her power to work. However, she could have been using her power to incapacitate Linderman and then acquire his power Sylar-like.
• Decades before Mohinder's father's discovered how to locate specials, someone else is hunting down people with abilities. How this is happening is the interesting question. Could it be someone else has the power to located those with abilities?
  
• Who is this "She" that the stealer refers to? If Arthur wasn't on the list, I would love to accuse Angela Petrelli.
  

The last point is pretty interesting. Is there a mastermind behind a plot to acquire more powers?