(S01E13) One of the things I enjoy almost every episode is how the the creative team of Heroes manages to juggle so many characters reasonably well. The majority of the dozen-or-so major players in the half-dozen-or-so major plot threads have important and relevant scenes each time out, quite an accomplishment for just under forty-three minutes of television a week. But, nah, I didn't miss the Artist this time out. Tonight's episode saw a number of broken relationships on the mend. On the way to the mend, anyhow. There is no longer any question that egocentric politician Nathan Petrelli is now more concerned with helping little bro' Pete than he is on his congressional run. He has certainly given up pretending that things like genetic mutations and human nuclear explosions are inconvenient distractions that can be argued away. That's a relief. Skeptical characters in the face of overwhelming evidence that weird crap is happening start to get tedious after a while, and I'm happy Nathan hasn't turned stuck it out as one of these.
Psychic cop Matt Parkman and his wife's marriage troubles ease up a bit, now that he's been honest with her about his powers. Janice seems to take her husband's revelation pretty well, at least at first. She doesn't act all that disturbed about sharing a home with someone who can read her every thought. She makes a good point, though, when Matt claims that he "can't control" his power. She asks him if he has tried that. It doesn't seem as if it has occurred to him.
Trying to consciously control the special ability has mostly been Hiro's territory up to this point. Now his powers seem totally gone, and he is convinced that only finding the sword will bring them back. No progress on the sword this week. Unfortunately, the suspense of who is the powerful figure behind Hiro and Ando's kidnapping was pretty much blown in advance of the episode. Numerous NBC press releases gave away that Hiro's father would be a powerful industrialist who doesn't approve of his son's adventuring, played by George Takei. 
Some viewers out there that aren't looking to give Takei much of a chance, based on web chatter I've seen. I like Takei. He barely makes an appearance tonight, but the single shot of his stony visage as he stares down Hiro in fatherly disappointment is enough to make me willingly decide to forget Sulu for the purposes of enjoying Heroes. Takei is having a resurgence right now, and that is only part of a long and distinguished career. Meet him halfway. If the audience gives him the chance they would give any other well-known face in a new role I expect they will see he can do the character and the show justice.
Of course, Hiro's not the only character with father trouble. Micah and D.L, are not getting on. D.L. finally starts doing something right, and phases into Niki's padded cell for some badly needed parenting advice, and (I think) one of the first moments of real tenderness shown between the troubled couple. Just in time too, as Micah's started using his own powers for some easy short cuts. How cool was the moment though, when Micah says to his dad, "hey, you know how you and mom have secrets? Well ..." Noah Gray-Cabey is surely one of the best kid actors on television right now. 
By the way, not too sure about how Jessica's plan to get moved from prison to psych ward has worked out, especially now that it turns out whatever drugs they are pumping Niki/Jessica full of are inhibiting the Jessica side. Or is Jess just biding her time, knowing that a shrink would inevitably want her to show herself in treatment. I still think D.L. should just break her (them?) out, and the family should escape to New York. This trio (quartet if you count Niki and Jessica separately) still have the least to do with the überstory. Maybe Niki/Jessica will be another example of someone whose own powers ultimately destroy her.
Then there is Claire who also always has dad trouble. H.R.G. is certainly on to Claire and the Haitian's subterfuge. Guess the Haitian should have told Claire to take the chimes out of the window when she was done signaling. However, I think the Cheerleader managed to keep the deception up as long as could be expected (Manatees!) considering that her father is master of a super-secret government agency and all. The whole controlling-Claire-thing has taken its toll on H.R.G. as well. I don't believe he would have accepted the bogus phone report claiming Sylar died without immediately going to check it out himself if he hadn't been distracted with his suspicions about Claire. Later, Claire's surprise phone contact at the end, just continues to show how much superpowers are a family affair on this show. 
I take back what I said earlier about Hiro being the most preoccupied with trying to control his powers, because, of course, that's been a preoccupation of Peter's since the beginning too. Now he has someone willing to teach him something, which is a benefit most of the heroes have really had to struggle along without for most of the series. "Claude Rains", who calls himself that after the actor who played the Invisible Man in the 1933 movie, is a great addition to the story. He is someone who seems farther along in his understanding of his ability and his knowledge of other "specials," yet who is still an outsider. He's neither co-opted by H.R.G.'s organization, nor is he boring and ponderous like Mohinder Suresh. He's cool. Doesn't like people, but decides that maybe they are not so bad that he'll let millions of them get blown up if he can help stop it. Another great take on a reluctant hero. Keep 'em coming, Kring.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
1-30-2007 @ 7:48AM
Kristen said...
This is the best show on television right now. Thanks to Heroes, I actually look forward to Mondays (in some weird, warped-out way)
Any thoughts on who Claire's dad might be? My fiance and I both looked at each other after the preview and said "Linderman!"
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1-30-2007 @ 8:34AM
Cee Rubin said...
Awesome show. What always amazes me every week is that I keep looking at the clock at 9.30 and 9.45 because I can't believe the show isnt over yet. Other shows (not gonna Lost bash)seems to have nothing going on until ten minutes before the show ends. With Heroes I'm always shocked about how much is in each episode. It's so wonderful.
With that said, I'm really digging Doctor Who ... Chris Eccelstan is a GREAT addition!
PS - I just like to keep reminding people about a certain TV Squadder who told us how awful this show would be.
lol ... it makes me giggle.
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1-30-2007 @ 8:33AM
Keith McDuffee said...
Cee -- Hey now, if you're talking about me, I already called "my bad" on that: http://www.tvsquad.com/2006/10/25/i-was-wrong-about-heroes/
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1-30-2007 @ 9:13AM
Dave t. said...
I don't like Dr Who in this for some reason but liked him as dr who. The commercials in the second half of the show just kill the whole enjoyment for me, even with a dvr.
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1-30-2007 @ 9:16AM
Quetzalcoatl said...
Fantastic!
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1-30-2007 @ 9:56AM
Adebanke Lesi said...
Speculation about Claire's bio-dad here:
1. Mr. B. himself wow - if Claire's dad himself was in actuality Claire's dad!
2. Mr. Petrelli you know, the elder. Which would make Peter and Nathan her half siblings, which would be a nice twist, which would kill all those Peter-Claire ideas - yay! But Petrelli would have to reappear from the dead, and that's tough, but that could be his power.
3. Mr. Linderman, of course. But I hesitate to suggest this only because I don't want them to show his face next week. Besides, up to now, he has been some kind of all-powerful figure controlling a lot of things in the heroes' lives. I want him to remain that way - unconnected, but connected, you know.
I would love if NBC/Kring kept their mouths shut about some of the future happenings in the show - for example, I would have appreciated hearing that Takei would join the cast, without knowing in which capacity, allowing for SUSPENSE or SPECULATION.
I don't know if I LOVED or LIKED this episode (different degrees, you see). All the heroes go through the journey of some self-discovery for about 49 minutes, then the last minute, some of them find the reveal (Claire, etal.) , and the others don't quite break through (Niki, etal.); and Matt has turned into the bore Mohinder was once. Believe it or not, I was about to shut down the "we are pregnant idea" until I realized their baby might have SUPERPOWERS! Okay, Matt Parkman can stay and wallow in trying-to-save-my-marriage for a while.
What I did LOVE: Claire's deception (to the T) could run circles around Mr. Bennett's, which goes to show, they might be blood kin after all.
Finally, speculation about Mr. Bennett:
Does he have POWERS? Otherwise, how is he going to escape from the wrath of Sylar? If he has powers, we don't need a paternity test for Claire.
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1-30-2007 @ 10:01AM
Michelle said...
Do you think Claire's real father has anything to do with Sylar? I thought they made the watch he has on (when he answers the phone in the preview)the center of that frame. Any theories?
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1-30-2007 @ 10:06AM
Jen said...
I think Claire's dad may be Nathan Petrelli. The wrist seemed skinny enough to be his...and it would make sense that her dad has powers, too. Perhaps a highschool or college sweetheart that was knocked up? A one night stand? Something?
I dunno. I may be wrong, and the above poster right, and it could be Linderman.
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1-30-2007 @ 10:02AM
Chaim said...
Keith, I remembered that post after I wrote the comment, but still - that was October, we're much further along in the season and the show just keeps getting better. I think you should do a reminder post about just how wrong you were :-)
(Your never gonna live this one down ya know ...)
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1-30-2007 @ 9:58AM
Kate Green said...
I need help- My dvr did not get Heroes last night-- is it available on the web somewhere?
thanks a bunch
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1-30-2007 @ 10:02AM
Dan Chichian said...
I am probably one of the few viewers who have no problem with Takei as Hiro's dad since I did not watch Star Trek.
However, I am not wild about Firestarter mom for Claire. I do agree that Linderman is a good candidate for her dad. It could be the previews intentionally did not show his face to make us think he was someone we had already met. We have heard about Linderman a lot but I do not think we have ever seen him.
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1-30-2007 @ 10:02AM
Michael Canfield said...
Kate Green:
NBC airs episodes on its website. This one is already up.
http://www.nbc.com/Video/rewind/full_episodes/heroes.shtml
Also, check the SciFi Channel listings. Heroes reruns there, but I don't know the schedule.
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1-30-2007 @ 2:17PM
dmorgan said...
what is the chances that H.R.G. is actually Linderman? he is way to controlling over his wife and is always erasing her memory and he seems to have some kind of power of all of these people. and who is to say that Linderman is actually in Vegas.
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1-30-2007 @ 10:26AM
Will said...
They went to commercial after the 5 five minutes and I looked at my neighbor and said "That was only 5 minutes. More stuff happened than in 3 episodes of "LOST". Everytime I looked at the clock I was surprised to see how time was left in the show.
All in all, it was another great episode and I can't wait to see what happens next week. I think Nathan is Claire's father. I wonder if Micah got caught on any security cameras. I think I may have been the only one in the room (there were 6 people) who recognized George Takei, or maybe nobody wanted to say anything.
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1-31-2007 @ 5:49PM
Nonchalant Savant said...
Does anyone else think Micah now has the best super-power?
Kaching!
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1-30-2007 @ 12:25PM
Hugeliver said...
You forgot the best part! Hiro saying "This is how we roll"!!
LMAO
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1-30-2007 @ 12:02PM
RSL said...
Yeah, Micah's power would be great if you could also become invisible so the camera wouldn't video you. Come to think of it though... If you could control the ATM, the video camera should be no problem either. Hmmmm. I think you're right.
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1-30-2007 @ 12:13PM
UTPrincesses said...
Regarding Matt's wife being pregnant...one would have to wonder, after finding out that his wife was sleeping with his friend, why he didn't bother to ask if it was actually his baby???
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1-30-2007 @ 4:37PM
will said...
Did anyone catch the thing coming out of Sylar's head? What was it?
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1-30-2007 @ 12:30PM
megatrouble said...
Heroes is a constant joy and a constant disappointment for me. I like it because its fun, stuff actually happens on the show (unlike LOST), and I love how it's an homage to comic books. But I have some serious problems with the female characters on the show. I wrote extensively about this in my blog - it boils down to how sexism is written into Niki's character. In fact, her whole story line makes no sense to me. Why base her power on a traumatic event? Why is DL made out to be an incompetent dad? Why put her in a situation where she gets locked up and declared insane? Claire is promising (I like how she's resisting her creepy dad) but I'm still doubtful of the writers ability to give the women active story lines (that is, NOT putting them in situations where they need "saving").
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