".07%" or "The Percentage of the World's Population that Will Die When Peter Explodes"

April 24, 2007 1:25 AM

oddamn, it's been a long wait for the new episode of Heroes, and it was completely worth it. I'm going to watch the show again and try to commet on some of the more awesome or interesting aspects.

The Linderman narration at the beginning
I really liked this--it really emphasized Linderman's complete and overriding involvement in the lives of every single character.

They changed the Candace morph sequence effect
Before, when Candace "morphed," the whole scene, including the background, was obscured. Now, it's a more conventional morph. This is a strange choice, I think, since Candace doesn't actually morph, she alters people's perception of reality.

Linderman
We learned a shitload about the man that's apparently behind everything, but the new information also raised a hell of a lot of new questions. First off, we saw him demonstrate his healing ability, previously revealed in the graphic novels.

More interesting, though, were his revelations about his past and his plans for the future. What was the previous organization that Linderman was involved in? I don't think he's talking about The Company, because he seems extremely disillusioned by his past organization. What did that organization do, and who was a part of it? How long has Linderman been involved with The Company? Did he start it? What are his purposes in starting it or being involved in it? How does Hiro's father fit in? We know that, however Linderman first came to be involved, he has a monumental amount of pull--he was able to summon Candace and have her pretend to be Nikki/Jessica on a whim.

And then, of course, there's Linderman's plan: save the world by killing half of New York City. The obvious question is what he wants to save the world from. It seems like he's trying to save it from itself. And, of course, we have to wonder how long he's been planning this. Did he get the idea from Isaac's paintings? Wouldn't that be a causal mindfuck!

Linderman's plan makes Linderman an even better villain, in my opinion. Where Sylar is just a power-hungry lunatic, Linderman is a methodical man who thinks that he's serving the greater good. We saw in the graphic novel that, when he was younger, Linderman was a much more caring, good person. He's come a long way, he's been disillusioned and jaded, but he still wants to make things better. It's just that the things he's seen have convinced him that he has to take drastic measures.

Parkman, Sprague, Bennet
I really enjoyed these characters' story. I wonder, though: where the fuck are Mrs. Bennet and Lyle? Also, I can't help but think that it's not a coincidence that they ended up at the Burnt Toast Cafe--the place where Hiro met Charlie. It'll be interesting to see where their adventure takes them. And it's rather unfortunate that they're taking Sprague to NYC.

Nathan
Alright, Nathan's an asshole. He might mean well at times, but he was kind of off the deep end this time around. First off, he seems to have signed on to Linderman's plan, even though it requires that over 4 million people die. Second, his reaction to Peter's "death" was "you weren't supposed to die like this"--he was disappointed that Linderman's plan, whereby Nathan becomes the world's savior, wouldn't come to fruition. And, finally, Nathan's reaction to Claire was nothing short of cruel. Right now, I'm hating the guy.

Peter v. Sylar
This was a little shorter than I would have liked, but still awesome. I really liked the look on Sylar's face when Peter healed his head and the following dialogue. I also thought that Sylar came up with a great way to find invisible Peter, although Peter could have done any number of things to have that come out a different way. Hopefully this just foreshadows an even better battle down the road.

Mrs. Petrelli
Seriously, what the fuck? There are a lot of things we need to find out about her. Does she have a power? What is it? And what is her involvement with either The Company or Linderman or both? Given that Mr. Petrelli knew Linderman, it stands to reason that Mrs. Petrelli had some involvement either with the early Company or a younger Linderman--maybe even Linderman's earlier group of heroes. She does say she left and then came back--could she be referring to having left that first group? Or having returned to join it in the first place?

Update
I just realized something. If Mrs. Petrelli has a power, Peter's got it, too. Given that we haven't seen Peter do anything out of the ordinary around his mom, maybe she doesn't have a power? Or maybe it's just a power that you have to turn on (like flight or invisibility) or that responds to outside stimuli (like regeneration). Whatever it is, it's not a power like telepathy or super hearing, since Peter would have noticed those instantly.

Update again
Holy shit, I just realized something else! Peter's displayed at least one ability that we can't associate with any other character's known power: precognition. He's had numerous visions about the future, and none of the characters we know he's come in contact with can see the future like Peter has--Isaac can only paint it. So, it stands to reason that Mrs. Petrelli could be the source of this ability.

Mohinder and The Company
Goddamnit, Mohinder! I'm really disappointed to see Mohinder team up with Thompson.

Isaac
I won't miss Isaac very much, but I like the way he went out a lot. It sounds like he made a real contribution, what with sending off the information about how to kill Sylar and stop the bomb. Was he referring to the new episode of 9th Wonders or something else? If it's something else, I wonder who he sent it to--Peter seems like the most likely candidate to me.

Incidentally, I also really liked the style of Sylar's painting.

Hiro in the future
I can't wait to see what Future Hiro has to say. Although, isn't it problematic that Hiro's going to try to save the past, but the one time he's tried to do that--when he tried to save Charlie--he couldn't?

Also, thanks to the magic of Tivo and HDTV, I was able to read a few of the words from some of the newspaper clippings in Future Hiro's timeline. The one with the headline "NYC Devastated" has parts that talk about someone's mother getting an e-mail from a religious cult saying her son had been kidnapped and was being tortured. There's also something about an ex-girlfriend and Atlantic City. I couldn't make out too much on the "Our Strength in Dark Times" clipping, other than that it was written by the same guy as the other one, Ross Anderson.

All in all, although this wasn't the most exciting episode, there was a lot of backstory, a lot of setting up the last four episodes, and a lot to like. It's not my favorite, but it's damn good.

The previews for next week's show
It was Peter that exploded, and he's kicking ass. He's got the scar on his face (how is this possible now that he's absorbed Claire's ability?). Parkman seems to be leading a buch of armed guys. Peter's got a new ability--maybe walking through walls? Nathan's a creepy motherfucker (there's some speculation on one of the Heroes forums that it's Sylar masquerading as Nathan after having taken Candace's ability). Clarie's hot as a brunette (and she'll be legal five years from now). Peter and Nikki/Jessica are getting it on (damnit--does this mean that she'll still be alive?). Sylar with the caption "America Remembers." Mohinder and Nathan are working together. Goddamn--we're in for a great ride! I can't wait.

7 Comments

frank x. said:

You really need to to go read the graphic novel. It takes place in the future starring future Hiro and describes the "web of time" as I'm calling it. It has a big explanation on the "save the cheerleader" comment and the exploding man. Boo to the yah!

April 24, 2007 8:44 AM

frank x. said:

Sorry to double post, but, if you look at Sylar's paintting, you notice something clothlike on the right side of the screen. I would say it almost looks like an arm. Now it seems that because of Sylars original power, the ability to fix something and possibly understand it perfectly (which is how he figured out how to absorb other people's powers, and fix watches before they break) he may have strong control over the painting power. Possibly to the point of being able to focus on his own future. I think that he is in the office with Nathan, most likely about to kill him. If he is able to mimic him at this point, I can't say. But still, I'm willing to bet that is his arm on the right of the painting.

April 24, 2007 8:51 AM

Ismael Tapia II said:

Frank x.,
That graphic novel was really pretty awesome. So, it looks like Future Hiro had just returned from tellig Peter to save the world by saving the cheerleader. But all he ended up doing was making it so that Peter was the exploding man, not Sylar. Interesting.

As for your second comment, the reason there looks like there's an arm on the right hand side of the painting is because there is. The picture is a screencap of the first time we saw the painting, at which time Sylar was standing in front of it, having just completed it. So it's Sylar's real arm, not a painted version.

April 24, 2007 9:00 AM

kristin said:

I am guessing the answer is in Isaac's sketchbook. Sylar likely knows about the graphic novel and could hunt it down at the publisher, preventing any clues in it from getting out to the public. But I doubt he even knows the sketchbook exists or would be able to guess who Isaac gave it to before he died. I predict that at some point the kid realizes the significance of the sketchbook and gets it to someone who knows how to use that information - maybe to almost-future Hiro, since future Hiro is hanging out at Isaac's apartment?

April 24, 2007 9:38 AM

Utah said:

You know what really bothered me about this episode, is that Mohinder blew his second chance to kill an incapacitated Sylar.

I loved the escape scene and I'm excited to see where the Parkman-Sprague-Bennet alliance takes us. Something tells me that Linderman kidnapped Micah to fix the tracking machine after the trio takes it down.

I don't think that Nathan is bad; He seems more resigned to fate. It kind of reminded me of Neo after visiting the Oracle, when he presumed that he was not the one and had to sacrifice himself to save Morpheus. Nathan's visit to Linderman was not unlike this and it seems that he's playing into the fate he assumes he's locked into. Like Neo though, I anticipate Nathan shedding the mold and becoming a leader and a hero. He'll probably still be an asshole though.

April 24, 2007 9:44 AM

Ismael Tapia II said:

Kristin,
I thought about the sketchbook, but it seemed a little far fetched that Isaac would trust the future to some courier. Although, I guess maybe Isaac (who can paint the future) knew something we don't.

Utah,
Mohinder totally could have killed Sylar. I don't know if he had a good reason, other than maybe he reconsidered his whole revenge thing.

As for Nathan, I don't know--I'm bothered by his resignation. He just seems so cold and uncaring.

April 24, 2007 10:46 AM

Vice said:

Anyone else catching an ill vibe on Linderman's plan for New York and the potential parallel to 9/11? The idea of powerful figures allowing and/or orchestrating a massive attack against their own people to galvanize the country into action? Eg Linderman as Bush, Nathan as Guliani, etc. I'm not sure exactly who or what Linderman wants people to unite against, but...I'm really liking the storyline. (Assuming, of course, it doesn't take the parallel too far into the paranoid conspiracy theory territory)

April 24, 2007 11:14 AM

Leave a comment

Name

Email Address

URL

Remember personal info?

Comments (You may use HTML tags for style)