(S04E12) One of the comic books that I never expected to enjoy is Marvel's X-Factor. It used to be your typical spandex and fists adventure, but then it changed into a noir detective series, with mutants feature much more subdued powers. One of the best of these is Madrox, also known as Multiple Man. Upon impact of any kind, he splits into two beings, and then his doppelgangers retain this ability.
Why am I talking about a comic book character in a review about Heroes? Well, aside from the obvious connection, we got introduced to a new character this week. With Ray Park's Edgar gone from the Sullivan Bros. circus, Samuel turns to another denizen of the big top to step in and be his right-hand man, or right hands.
We didn't get to see him much, but I've always thought that would be a pretty damned cool power to have; certainly it could come in handy for a lot of things. I would have loved to have it in college. There's just so many cool ways to use it. Too bad Heroes didn't really use any of them.
Unfortunately, this "multiple" man settled for surrounding people and that's about it. There were so many better ways to infiltrate Noah's apartment, but at least Noah and Lauren made it easy for him (them?) to steal away with the files by both running to the bathroom to arm up. I guess they thought the boy(s) were there to kill them.
After 21 hours driving, Claire and Gretchen made it to the circus themselves, where they were met with open arms by Samuel, and more cautiously supportive ones from Lydia. Lydia's an interesting character, not least of all because of the situation going on in "Slow Burn." Now, she knows about what Samuel did to her brother, but she is holding his secret for her daughter's sake. But, she may also be plotting something with Edgar on the outside.
Claire remains one of the most naive people on television, completely falling for the fairy tale Samuel was presenting about family and finding a place she belonged. Gretchen saw right through that, and remained skeptical until the end. Considering they knew that Gretchen may still be in danger from invisible girl, I was a little surprised when Claire decided to stay at the last minute. As it turns out, that may be the last minute for Gretchen as well; as it looks like she picked up an invisible hitchhiker.
First of all, it's kind of a dick move for Claire to announce at the last minute that she's going to stay, subjecting Gretchen to a 21-hour drive by herself. Second of all, how the hell does Claire plan to get back to college, if Gretchen takes the car? Third of all ... how deliciously evil is Samuel? The pan back to reveal the disgruntled customer he "didn't fight back" earlier in the back of a nearby pick-up truck was priceless. And stupid. Man, there are a lot of dumb characters on this show.
Samuel is trying to convince Claire that she can feel like a family at the circus, and he even went so far as to turn the other cheek in front of her so she could see what a great guy he is. So leave the body uncovered in the back of a truck parked near Claire's car? He's lucky she's so short, or she could have easily seen it. Plus, he has the ability to move earth with a thought, you'd think he'd never leave bodies lying around.
But let us move on to the next stupid person. I'll give Peter a pass, even though he has a history of stupidity, because he's in a strange state of grief over Nathan, I figure he knows in his heart of hearts that Nathan is gone, but he holds out hope. Taking the Haitians ability to suppress abilities to confront Sylar was a smart move, but turning it off to allow Nathan to come forth was a huge risk. Possibly stupid even.
As for Nathan, Adrian Pasdar did the best he could to have a "moment" with Peter under the bizarre circumstances of his impending death, but it did seem kind of arbitrary the way he went. Still, why the hell did he try and throw himself off of the building? Was it to protect Peter when Sylar finally did come back, by separating them, or did he think he could kill Sylar this way?
The whole thing came across as kind of stupid to me, and pointless as well. If it is Nathan, he can fly so throwing himself off of a building accomplishes nothing. If it is Sylar, throwing himself off of a building accomplishes nothing because Sylar can heal. The drama was a bit contrived.
I was more intrigued by the scene of Hiro, Ando and Suresh running through the jungle in the montage of what's to come when Heroes comes back in January. All in all, this was a good chapter to go into a hiatus with, it just had a lot of dumb people making dumb decisions in it.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
12-01-2009 @ 11:14AM
laura said...
Ugh. even though i knew that Nathans death was coming, I was still prepared to be a bit sad. Instead I was laughing my arse off as he slow motion fell and turned into sylar...all i could think was "oh that poor persons car" Bye nathan "tell mom I love her, take care of Claire." what no love for claire?
And what was supposed to happen? i was so confused....Nathan was too weak to stay on the surface, thats true....did peter think that wimpy nathans spirit could really actually keep in control? was he planning on just keeping a nail gun on him at all times to watch nathan?
I was hoping that maybe sylar/nathan would fall on the deaf girl and we could get rid of the cheesy musical colors for good.
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12-01-2009 @ 11:22AM
Bob Sassone said...
When Nathan fell I kept thinking of Alan Rickman dying in Die Hard.
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12-01-2009 @ 5:59PM
John Hewitt said...
Hi Bob,
When he first started to fall, I was thinking of Rickman too. After a few minutes though, I started thinking about what else was on. Then I thought, can he really get injured falling so slowly? It seems like he would just settle gently on the car and take a little nap.
12-01-2009 @ 11:27AM
Jeff said...
I think having Nathan/Sylar flying is an error. Just because Nathan's memories are in Sylar's body shouldn't mean he can use the flying power. Otherwise Parkman should have had all Sylar's powers when Sylar was in his head.
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12-01-2009 @ 11:33AM
Joe Brooks said...
yep you are right - the flying power is gone for now until Claire's boyfriend from a couple seasons ago comes back. Sylar didn't take Nathan's power - he slit his throat.
12-01-2009 @ 12:06PM
JP said...
This might be a little far fetched but sylars ability isnt that he has to take it from the other person but he has to understand how it works. He would cut open their brain to see how the ability works. His body was a vessel for all abilities. I dont remember which season it was but they showed us this when he got Kristen Bell's(Elle) through empathy. So if you go along with that theory if "Nathan" thinks he is nathan then the body should be able to facilitate flight, since he knows how to use the ability. Now that he is Sylar again i don't think that he should be able to fly bc he still doesnt know how it works.
12-01-2009 @ 12:20PM
Martin said...
Sylar took Nathan's power at the end of last season when he killed him. We found with Elle he didn't actually have to cut open their heads to gain the power, and he was able to fly since then.
12-01-2009 @ 8:06PM
Oneiroi said...
After reading these objections, I'm more convinced that Sylar would have Nathan's power.
If Sylar's power is understanding how things work, then he could figure it out through getting the mind of Nathan when it was transferred into his body. Without having to cut it out.
12-01-2009 @ 11:55AM
Parl said...
What a CLUNKER after two surprisingly good episodes. Does Claire appeal to anyone anymore? I know they're trying to make her relevant but she is so bleeping stupid it's painful. It's been 5 years and she still has no clue. I'm really curious as to whether there are people who still watch this show who actually give a rat's ass about Claire.
Does Renee have to 'turn on' his power? I thought it was just passive. I'm thinking about the episode when he was near Hiro and Daphne fighting and even though he was passed out, they were still powerless. Maybe I'm remembering that wrong.
Really, just a big letdown after two pretty good eps.
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12-01-2009 @ 12:13PM
dee said...
Peter was touching and holding onto Sylar/Nathan for so long and never took his power. I kept waiting for him to take all of Sylars power , which includes the ability to take powers without touching people and that could give Peter all of his old powers back. It would have been great to see Peter and Sylar fight with equal powers while trying to get Nathan back.
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12-01-2009 @ 12:32PM
Ryan said...
As awkwardly as it was handled, I still appreciated the fact that the writers TRIED to create a moment for the Petrelli brothers before Nathan's death. But like most of you, the way it happened was just so... odd. I mean if Nathan really wanted to sacrifice himself, couldn't he had done it in a way that ALSO kills/affect Sylar?
A simple... "Hey Peter. So I'm going to go now. But I'm going to hold on for now so you have time to tie me/Sylar up. When Sylar takes over use your Haitian powers to wipe away his memories. Kthnxbye. Take care of Claire or whatever..." would've sufficed.
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12-01-2009 @ 12:38PM
Kristi said...
I've stuck with Heroes from the beginning because each year they come up with an interesting plot-line, I just feel they never follow through on it leaving me disappointed. With this show I find myself screaming at the characters for being so dumb (Hiro, Peter), stubborn (Nathan, Peter), gullable (Claire, Peter). They have so much potential I just want to shake it out of them!
http://www.orble.com/teevee-heroes-1130/
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12-01-2009 @ 12:57PM
TfJ said...
My favorite bit was that Nathan didn't mention his wife and kids at all.
Do the writers like most people, not watch the show?
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12-01-2009 @ 2:40PM
SImpression said...
"As it turns out, that may be the last minute for Gretchen as well; as it looks like she picked up an invisible hitchhiker."
Uh... no. That was simply the reflection of the carnival, it vanishing was to show that the carnival had moved... =/
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12-01-2009 @ 3:33PM
Klo said...
I kinda figured Nathan was the one that was going to die, but kept thinking that maybe Sylar's consciousness would win out and Sylar/Nathan would push Peter off the building. Peter doesn't have the flying skills anymore and would have died. But then I remembered that this wasn't season 1 of Heroes and thus would be very predictable.
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12-02-2009 @ 2:27AM
Diana said...
Hey, I'm as cynical as the next person, but I thought the Nathan Peter scene was excellently handled. In fact the whole Peter/Nathan/Sylar part of the episode was the best bit out of maybe the entire episode and here's why.
We got to see Peter thoroughly kick Sylar's ass. I've been waiting to see that since the beginning of the show, though this was still surprising because there were NO powers. For once Peter came on top, through sheer force of will alone. I liked it because although Sylar is a great character (that carries the show for a couple of seasons) for once he was left without his powers, and when he doesn't have his powers, he's just a man and a weaker man than Peter in fact.
Second of all, I appreciated that for all the times Nathan died so far, and there have been a few, this is the one time he got to say goodbye properly to his brother (even though it wasn't REALLY Nathan). I liked the struggle he was going through to stay Nathan.
And I don't think he was trying to sacrifice himself by jumping of the roof. I took it to be a symbollical fall. Nathan's power was to fly. Well Peter just has to let his brother fall. Let him go, let him fall, let him disappear.
That's how I understood it anyway.
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12-01-2009 @ 3:53PM
StLouisRibs7734 said...
I think the death was more metaphorical, he was 'letting go' of control by physically letting go. Heroes has many things like that.
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12-01-2009 @ 4:41PM
mike said...
I thought Nathan did say to Peter just before his drop off the building to take care of his wife(forgot the name)& sons? I've stayed loyal to Heroes from the start & will until the end but this wasn't one of their best episodes that's for sure.I'm intrigued though by Samuel's comment to Lydia about Claire not being the one he wants.
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12-01-2009 @ 6:17PM
bonbon99 said...
I take the whole "Claire's not the one I'm after" bit to mean either Noah or Gretchen. I understand why he might want Noah, but Gretchen's was the first name that popped into my head after Samuel said it. Maybe she'll manifest with some strange power.
I wasn't really expecting to feel all that sad about Nathan dying (I've been hoping for it since the first season) but I was a little moved by it all. It was sweet. I found the whole slow motion fall kinda lame though. Yeah, Nathan forgot to mention Heidi and Simon and Monty (his wife and kids.) Maybe they died too.
When the eclipse happened in the third season, Sylar wasn't able to fight worth a crap against H.R.G. I'm glad to see he was able to hold his own (sorta) against Peter. I had my hand over my mouth that entire scene. And a nail gun just happened to be right there? In the basement of a hospital? And nobody heard them? I found it funny that Peter was still wearing his paramedics shirt while beating up Sylar, though.
Not the best episode, but I look forward to see everyone else's reaction to Noah and Angela's deceit.
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12-19-2009 @ 7:58PM
Patricia said...
Just wondering if I heard correctly when Samuel calls Gretchen "Divina" or something similiar. I thought I had heard that name uttered by Samuel before in a previous episode at the carnival. Just curious.