Sylar - How does he keep getting away

Just a quick post, but I deep thinking, how does Sylar keep getting away?

In season one, he got away even after he was shot by Noah Bennet. The man was shot, yet was still able to get away from the Haitian who tried to run him down. This is the same Haitian who looked pretty athletic chasing down Peter a few weeks ago and someone who could use his powers to make sure Sylar couldn't use any of his to get away.

Then Sylar miraculously escapes Kirby Plaza after being run through with a sword by Hiro. In this case, I could accept the fact that he was probably dragged away by someone interested in saving him, so I'll give a pass here.

But just this past week, how did he manage to get away again? He was hit by a lightning bold delivered by Elle and was thrown through a glass door. I've known someone who has gone through a glass door. You don't just get up and run. Yet somehow Sylar not only is able to get up, but he is able to run away before Elle can get within distance to throw another bolt at him.

Maybe this is one of Sylar's hidden powers. Maybe he has the ability to make miraculous get aways.

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.

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.

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.