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"Company Man" or "Wow, Claire's Life Sucks"

February 27, 2007 2:32 AM

don't mean to sound like a broken record, but this episode was just amazing. My favorite to date.

Spoilers.

There was so much fucking awesomeness in this episode, I don't even know where to begin. I guess the start is a good place.

I loved seeing the shots of Matt and Ted just before the Bennets arrived--it helped to show that Matt, while not entirely innocent, was at least committed to the idea of not hurting anyone. That's really important, I think, because Matt's been sliding to the dark side a little. It's nice to see that he's not a completely bad guy and that, even though he's frustrated and angry, he's still got some moral fiber to him.

The next awesome thing was seeing that first glimpse of Mr. Bennet (why do we still not know his first fucking name?) as a new hire at Primatech. And seeing how he and Claude know each other.

That was quickly followed by the glimpse of Mr. Bennet, Claude, Hiro's motherfuckin' dad, Hiro, and little, tiny, baby, infant Claire on top of the fucking Deveaux Building! First off--what the fuck is Hiro's dad doing all messed up with this? Jesus! Does Mr. Nakamura know about Hiro's abilities? Has he been hiding Hiro from the organization? Or is he just completely in the dark? Moreover, what exactly is his role in the organization? He's definitely Mr. Bennet's superior, but is he the Big Boss?

Second, what's the connection between the organization and the building and, potentially, the Deveaux family? Claude hid out on the building, and it seems unlikely that he would do that coincidentally or at random. I bet the building was some sort of base of operations or standard New York meeting point. One the organization no longer uses, making it safe for Claude to hang out there. Who the fuck knows.

Then, who the fuck is the Haitian working for? Who told him to protect Claire, and why does he believe that protecting her is worth risking his life?

Next, the resolution to the backstory between Mr. Bennet and Claude. I honestly didn't think Mr. Bennet was going to shoot Claude, and it looked like, at first, he didn't mean to. But he certainly did it on purpose thereafter. I wonder, though--could it have been staged somehow for some reason. I just watched the scene again, and it seems strange to me that Mr. Bennet (who's apparently been ordered to kill people before) would "accidentally" pull the trigger that first time. I don't know. But, in any event, this makes the relationship between Claude and Mr. Bennet very understandable, and it certainly gives more depth to Claude's paranoia.

Then there's Ted going nuclear. It was really interesting to see that he couldn't control what was happening with his ability after he got shot. Is this perhaps a preview of what's going to happen with Peter? And this makes Hiro's question somewhat more important: How do you stop an exploding man? If the only recourse is to kill him, how do you do that without setting him off? This part of the episode paid off in the best Claire-regeneration scene yet, in my opinion.

And that brings us to what was, for me, the best part of the episode: the relationship between Claire and Mr. Bennet. Mr. Bennet's been an ambiguous character throughout, one who's comfortable playing in the morally grey areas. But this episode gave us a chance to see the tenderest side of him--the side that was forced to take a surrogate daughter and care for her as his own and then grew to love her more than even he thought was possible. The scene where Mr. Bennet told Claire that she was adopted was particularly well done. And it lead right into the big emotional pay off. Mr. Bennet was willing to risk his life to make sure Claire was able to get away. And he was also willing to give up a substantial part of his memory. Although it might have been possible to hide Claire from the organization by having the Haitian take only Mr. Bennet's recent memories, the fact that Mr. Bennet told the Haitian to "go deep" made it pretty clear that Mr. Bennet wasn't going to remember his daughter at all. All I can say to that is "wow."

So where does that leave us? Claire's on the road and in hiding. Her biological mother's gone and she doesn't seem to know anyone else. To me, that means only one thing: she's going to try to find Peter. Claire trusted Peter, and she knows that he'll understand what's going on. If she's in the world on her own, she's gotta turn to someone who can understand.

It looks like Parkman's going to be gainfully employed, this time for Mr. Bennet's organization, colloquially known as the Agency Without Initials (AWI). I really liked the relationship between Mr. Bennet and Matt, so I hope that the Haitian's memory wipe won't go so far as removing that (and that brings up an interesting question: assuming that Mr. Bennet forgot about his daughter entirely, what's gonna happen when Parkman asks "Hey, where's your daughter?").

We also know more about the AWI. For example, we know at least that Hiro's dad is a high-ranking member. And we also know that they see it as their goal to protect humanity from the people with abilities. That all seems benign enough, except that the conversation that Mr. Nakamura had with Mr. Bennet about Claire made it seem pretty clear that the AWI doesn't just catalog the heroes and protect humanity. In fact, that conversation was down right creepy.

Anyway, wow. Great show.



7 Comments


frank x. said:

About Hiro's question about stopping an exploding man, it was answered in the episode. You send in Claire with a tranquilizer. It actually seemed really simple once you have Claire. I would also assume that you could use Hiro to stop time and approach Peter, tranquilize him, and then start time again. Also, one of the more morally gray tasks the AWI preforms is the vivisection (dissection) of people with abilities. Claude mentioned this when he was in the car with Mr. Bennett. This brings up something I thought was interesting. Who did Claude hide from the AWI? I assume it will be someone we have seen already. My money would be on Hannah Gittleman. Peter Patrelli seems too obvious. A final note question. Is the AWI a government agency or is it a corporation. Hiro's father, who shall now be known as Big Daddy Sulu, seemed very preoccupied that his son succeed him at the company. Hiro's sister, Lady Sulu, also made mention of shareholders losing faith in Big Daddy Sulu. When Hiro, Little Sulu, tricked her into taking the position, she mention a lot of biotech type stuff. If the company was a front, why would Big Daddy Sulu care about the shareholders. Why does his "front" company do biotech stuff? I propose that the AWI is really a corporation seeking some sort of world control. Also, what the fuck, Simone can heal herself?

February 27, 2007 9:19 AM



Utah said:

I think that the Haitian only needed to clear Mr. Bennet's memory of the fire and bridge shooting. After that, all he would remember is a plan to turn Claire over and he can assume that the Haitian turned and shot him. Of course, that wouldn't get rid of the sentiment Mr. Bennett feels for his daughter. I read the "go deep" line to mean that the Haitian was taking Claire into the underground where she presumably wouldn't surface again. Of course, it could also refer to the Haitian as a wide receiver, or...nevermind...

From the previews and the discussion of the bosses, I'm convinced that Hiro's dad is a major player, but Linderman has to be the guy in charge. He's just too connected to everything else that is going on.

I'm not really sure how the whole Parkman-Bennett partnership is going to work out. Although Parkman craves the truth and a "cure," I really can't see him being down with Mr. Bennett's mission. On an unrelated note, I'm now infinitely wary of Claude and his intentions, now knowing his history with Mr. Bennett and understanding his bitter attitude.

Finally, it was nice to see Nikki/Jessica, DL and Mica absent again. I think it would be pretty funny if at the end of the episode they reveal DL and Mica as heroes, but Nikki/Jessica was just some crazy person with a split personality.

February 27, 2007 10:02 AM



Santi said:

Et tu, Frank?

February 27, 2007 10:57 AM



Ismael Tapia II said:

Frank,
Obviously the tranquilizer will work, but how many people know about that? How many people even know what would happen if you shot a nuclear Peter? Everyone seemed pretty surprised when it happened with Ted, even though everyone already knows how dangerous he is. So, while the tranquilizer works, it requires a few things: Claire's gotta be there and she's gotta have a tranquilizer.

I, too, found the vivisection comment interesting, although I think it could be interpreted as an exaggeration on Claude's part. I completely missed the point about who Claude was hiding. The Heroes universe is simply too connected for that person not to be someone we've already seen, although it's possible that it was just a throwaway hero.

As far as the nature of the AWI, I don't think it's a government agency. That was the implication, at least, when Mr. Bennet said that he doesn't work for any agency with initials. As far as Bid Daddy Sulu, there are several issues: first, it's completely possible that he's running the company he wanted Hiro to run as a front and used the shareholders excuse to come try to find Hiro. We know that employees of the AWI have no problem lying to their families about pretty much everything. Second, it could be that the AWI is part of Big Daddy Sulu's real company and that he was being completely honest when he came and got Hiro. I guess we'll find out.

And, yes, I was wondering what the fuck was going on with Simone. Maybe it's a dream, I don't know. But now I'm thinking about an interview I read with the actress that plays Simone where she was being way too emotional about the character's death, so maybe that was meant to make us believe she was really dead, thereby making her nondeath more shocking. Of course, if that was the case, why the fuck would they give it away in a preview?

Mr. Utah,
I totally think the "go deep" line was about taking all his memories. That's why it was such a big deal. Mr. Bennet said to take anything that could lead them to Claire--anything. Including trips to relatives' houses, etc. Besides, if Mr. Bennet assumes that the AWI can get into his mind (which appears to be his assumption), then he would know that, if he remembered that he gave her up, they'd be able to find out.

I don't like the Linderman is in charge of the AWI thing. First off, it's too obvious. Second, Linderman's been portrayed as just a huge crime boss with his hands in everything, but I don't know if someone like Big Daddy Sulu would want to associate with someone like Linderman. I don't know, I just don't see it hapepning.

The Parkman-Bennet thing is going to be interesting.

I totally forgot to mention this--this was the second episode without Nikki and DL, and it's been one of the best. I think the producers are starting to catch on that they suck hard.

I had the opposite reaction to Claude's backstory--I like him more now. I like the fact that, even though he was all mixed up with the AWI, he started to question it to the point of letting his partner shoot him. And it says even more about the fact that he was willing to help Peter.

February 27, 2007 12:21 PM



Vice said:

Briefly, I also thought this was the best episode of the season, which is becoming a harder and harder honor to come by. I really like when the show takes a few characters (five or so) and builds an episode around them, rather than cutting back and forth between the exploits of ten different people. I really think the show has become better about that. In particular, I'm a huge fan of flashbacks as backstory, and I've been wanting to see more on Bennett for a long time.

I also thought the "go deep" line was about taking Claire and going deep underground. Could be wrong though.

Plus, the whole scene of Ted going nuclear was kickass.

Although I loved it overall, one thing that really pissed me off about this episode, however, was where the alien spacecraft came down and the aliens started shouting at that mother and her child, and then they got into a fist fight. I thought that was vaguely inappropriate, and it didn't stand up to the high standards of family programming I expect from an episode of the Gilmore Girls. Shame on you, Laureli.

February 27, 2007 3:07 PM



Ismael Tapia II said:

I just watched that part of the episode again. Mr. Bennet's exact line is "Go deep. Take everything that would lead them to her." Given the context (it's an instruction to the Haitian) and the fact that the other time we saw Mr. Bennet say something similar was when he told the Haitian to take all of Brody's memories, I have to say that I believe Mr. Bennet was telling the Haitian to take every memory that could help the AWI, even if that meant making Mr. Bennet forget everything about Claire.

It might not have been that drastic, and in fact probably wasn't. But the implication, as far as I'm concerned, is clear--Mr. Bennet gave up a huge portion of his memory. That would also dovetail nicely with all the things we just saw about Mr. Bennet.

February 28, 2007 1:13 AM



Ismael Tapia II said:

Oh snap!

Ok, so, there are these Heroes-related comic books on nbc.com. If you look at this one you'll see that Wireless is using her ability to track down the source of Mr. Bennet's orders. And she ends up in Las Vegas. Who do we know lives in Vegas aside from the Sanders? That's right--Mr. Linderman. So, could it be that Mr. Linderman is actually in charge of the AWI?

I guess we'll see, right?

February 28, 2007 4:36 AM



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