TVSquad

(S02E02) "Have you seen a scary white man?" - Hiro Nakamura, time traveler.

Last week at TV Squad we had a big discussion on how to handle our "reviewcaps," the episodes of the big shows that we both provide a plot summary and review of. It seemed that we were getting a lot of very detailed plot descriptions, but not enough review. These special posts seem to go on and ramble on forever and there clearly needed to be some change. It was decided that we would treat reviewcaps not as entire episode treatments, but rather a review where all the major plot points are touched upon.

So I present to you, my lovely audience, my first ever (intentional) reviewcap!

After reading JJ's ample season premiere review last week. I realized that Heroes, with its multiple story lines, would work better not as a chronological recap, but rather a plot-by-plot look at the episode. This is a little experiment. If you guys like it better chronologically and unseparated, then I will go back to that style. But I feel like this might work better.

Matt Parkman
It seems like Parkman may have the most normal/tedious storyline in this episode and the least featured one this week to boot. Parkman is doing a great job at playing smarter-than-your-average-detective and seems really content. I am glad to see that his character is coming to a little more of a stable, developed place. When they first introduced him, it seemed he was doomed to play the resident sad sack, but now after becoming a guardian and a real detective, he seems really ... happy. Maybe a little too happy.

Parkman is investigating the death of Kaito Nakamura -- after he got pushed off the balcony by an unknown assailant. It seems like a fingerprint from the photo leads him to the Petrelli matriarch as the prime suspect. Parkman and his generic cop partner/boss (not sure on their relationship yet) take Angela into custody and interrogate her. Some interesting things we learn from Angela:

• She slept with Hiro's dad at some point (gross)
• The "Godsend" symbol was used for the Petrelli law firm
• Being psychically yelled at is freaky as hell

Nathan comes to pickup his mommy when she is attacked by some invisible force. She is left bloody so we have to assume it wasn't imagined. My personal guess is that CLAUDE -- almost forgot about him, didn't ya -- is the one behind these attacks. He may have more powers than invisibility and that would explain the assassins ability to suddenly be gone after assaulting Kaito and Angela. I am going to stick with Claude until we get some more answers.

Mohinder Suresh
Mohinder also had very little story advancement, but his story had some great surprises for us. Bob from The Company, which JJ referred to as dorky glasses guy (I will choose DGG ... get it?), sent Mohinder to Port Au Prince to cure and possibly retrieve a superhuman.

Turns out that Mohinder was sent after a very sick the Haitian -- a personal favorite character. They have some very awkward moments discussing God, but the curing goes well and the Haitian returns the favor with a memory wipe, leaving DGG not all-too-happy.

Mohinder's apparent infiltration of The Company has me a little bit worried for him. For one, he and Noah (HRG) keep calling each other by phone to gloat about their sneaky little plan. Wouldn't The Company probably have him tapped by now, if they are as evil and powerful as HRG claims they are. They may be testing him. They could have easily produced a drug from his blood and sent one of their own agents, but they didn't.

Also, since when did Mohinder speak French? I mean a sexy, genius Indian geneticist maybe, but he knows French too? Too much, I say. I am not the biggest fan of this cocky, rogue-agent Suresh. If he keeps playing with fire, he will get burned ... and he doesn't have any spontaneous regeneration.

The Bennetts
Speaking of the ability to grow back tissue, Claire and the fam are still toughing out the terrors of the domestic life. Claire complains -- almost whines -- about not being able to use her ability to help burn victims, amputees, and mother's all around the world who drop their wedding band into a pot of boiling water. As always, father Bennett tells her to lay low, but Claire does a bad job by getting all intense about Newt's and Lizard's evolutionary abilities. Oh and she gets her car stolen, whoops! She then decides to cut off her pinky toe (which grows back) and much to her surprise, West is watching.

Claire is surprisingly dense. Like how hard is the concept of don't reveal your gigantic secret to understand? Also, her taste in boys is very questionable at best. West is very creepy. Peeping into windows and flying away at a moment's notice. I am pretty sure that is stalking in most states. I guess the rules are slightly different in California. When it is revealed that they are both special and he can relate to her, he will probably be a little less shady and a little more nice to have around ... but for now he gives me the willies.

HRG reveals to us that he saw Kaito's death coming, because of an Isaac Mendez painting that he had held on to. Apparently, it is one of eight paintings that had not had their prophecy fulfilled before his Sylar-ization. It will be Bennett's job (i.e. plot until midseason) to find the remaining paintings. Why he didn't have all of them already? Not sure. Wouldn't he have found the others when bringing down Linderman's organization? You would think so, but apparently not.

Also the Haitian and Bennett reunite at the Copy Kingdom, thanks to Suresh's healing blood. It is really heartwarming to see good friends together again. Now that the Haitian is back I am ready for some old school HRG-action. The kind where he was undefeatable and to be feared by all, not just his manager at the Copy Kingdom.

Just on a side note, Mr. Muggles got some good plot points of his own and totally deserves his own spin-off by now. Mr. Muggles: Dog of a Superhuman! I can see it coming to the CW this midseason.

Maya and Alejandro
The Wonder Twins are making their way closer to the border. They add this extra subtitle flair that used to be Ando and Hiro's forte. So maybe Spanish is not as indecipherable as Japanese (Watashi wa Nihongo ga hanasemasu), but it is nice to have some international flavor in the mix. It must be very depressing for Maya and Alejandro to be called cursed on a daily basis. I mean cocktail parties can not be very much fun in such situation.

Luckily, Maya and Alejandro are able to make it across the border, but they are separated for an instance, which seems to trigger Maya's ability. Her eyes turn dark and bleed black tears, this caused the same to happen to her border guide and she fell down dead. The way she was grabbing her throat it seems that it might be a contagious fatal disease that she emits. The really cool part is that Alejandro seems to have the ability to absorbs the effect and heal people in the area. It is kind of like they are like fellow Hispanic supers Mas y Menos, but they are destructive when apart, not together like the speed demons.

It is going to be very interesting when they come looking for Papa Suresh and only find Mohinder. Will this put them in the custody of The Company? Also, the crying Virgin Mary imagery is brilliant and close be being beautiful, if it wasn't so deadly.

Hiro Nakamura
Going back a couple centuries to Otsu, Japan, Hiro is a little downtrodden after finding out that the Takezo Kensei he adored and worshiped is an alcoholic gaijin. He steals the armor of Takezo and goes after the bandits before they can dispose of the swordsmith's daughter.

It is a very chicken-egg situation. If Hiro becomes the hero he worships, does that mean he stole his own sword after hearing legends about himself in the present time? Nerds will debate the space-time continuum effects of Hiro's trip to feudal Japan well into the 15th season (it would probably be best if the show didn't stretch out that long). Luckily, Hiro is going to get the chance to help out Takezo enough so he can become the hero he was meant to be, thus avoiding any dimensional meltdowns.

Hiro, easily saves the maiden in a very funny battle (rather non-battle). She assume that he is the English Kensei and falls in love with him as they watch the Cherry Blossom Trees drop their petals. Seeing Hiro be smooth, both as a warrior and a flirt, is so satisfying. Viewers feel like they have grown up with Hiro and to see him turn from helpless otaku to self-made man gives us all the hope to be better people. Sorry for the After School Special rant, but watching him disarm the baddies was a very "Oh Snap" moment for me.

The most interesting twist of the entire episode had to be the death of Takezo Kensei. As soon as he agreed to clean up his life and follow Hiro's advice he was iced by a walk-by arrowing. But the fear of an abrupt end to our enigmatic Kensei was allayed when it was revealed he has Claire-like spontaneous regeneration -- I knew that the blond hair meant something.

So what does mean? Is he the first superhuman? Is he the great ancestor of the Petrellis and Claire? Maybe he is the father of ALL the supers (if he gets around enough). I am sure JJ and I will have a lot more to say about this in the following weeks.

Peter Petrelli
Last time we saw Peter, he was very clean cut, semi-naked, and may have forgotten his identity. He is also in Cork, Ireland. As if being held chained by gangsters (Ricky and the boys), wasn't bad enough, poor 'ol Peter can't seem to remember how he got stowed away in a shipping crate or how he got such a short hair cut since we last saw him.

Peter gets treated by Ricky's sister Caitlin, who attempts to use honey rather than vinegar (aka butt-kicking) to try and get some answers. She and Peter soon find that all of his wounds are gone, meaning that his spontaneous regeneration activated without him concentrating on it. He later uses D.L.'s phase ability to get out of the ropes and escape his holding place at the back of a bar. I understand they are Irish, but a bar? A little stereotypical if you ask me. They might as well had the thugs eating Lucky Charms.

As the episode rolls back to Peter it seems that he is getting more in tune with his powers, blasting some hooligans that turn out to be kin to McSorley -- the boss who sent Ricky to rob Peter's shipping crate. In order to repay the debt, Ricky convinces Peter to help him pull off a single crime by McSorley's request. In return, the Memento-esqe Peter will get a box containing valuable information about his identity. Since NBC's Heroes teaser for next week made the box seem like the Holy Grail, there may be some important stuff inside.

Let's see where they are planning to go with the Peter story. They have a lot of questions to answer and if they don't fanboys such as myself will be very upset. When did Peter get electric powers? More appropriately, from whom did Peter get electric powers?

Other stuff from the episode:

No Nikki, D.L., or Micah again. I really hope they eventually comeback into the fold, but to be honest there are enough story lines going on right now to keep them on the back burner. My knees are knocking though to see the next stage of Micah's powers. Also, there has been very little love for Ando and I want to see more of him on screen. At the end of the season last year, he established his own persona and became a hero in his own right and deserves a little more face time.

I had a friend that was watching the episode and screamed, "I can't take it anymore. It's too much." He was just overwhelmed and he sat down and enjoyed the rest of the episode, but he did have a point. Multi-century, multi-story line, multi-continent, multi-language ... the Heroes has a multi of multis. The big budget (the Port Au Prince shots were vibrant and eye-catching) and epic feel will only carry so far. I have faith that the writers will not reach a peak and cop out (like they did with the season finale last spring). Hopefully, they have the foresight to know their current trajectory and how to make everything tie together.

Hopefully you liked this new style of Heroes review. If you like/don't like the separated plot points, which I think is easier on both of us, then let me know in the comments section. All-in-all the episode was solid and kept the drama train flowing, let's see where it takes us next week.