<-Logic Should Bring Us Together |Main|Baby Steps->

"Out of Time" or "Now, That's Much Better"

November 6, 2007 3:02 AM

had been growing increasingly frustrated with the lack of quality in Heroes episodes. But tonight's episode really brought it back around. Everything--from the character development to the completely unforeseen (at least by me) twists--made this a great episode. I think it was definitely the best episode so far this season. I'll take things in order from least shocking to most shocking.

Claire, West, and Mr. Bennet
There wasn't anything too shocking here. Obviously, West was eventually going to find out who Claire's dad was. And obviously it wasn't going to go well. And obviously Claire was going to be pissed that Mr. Bennet had again--obviously--lied to his family. And obviously Mr. Bennet was going to overreact. There wasn't anything too shocking here, but I really liked seeing it all play out the way it did. This time, I thought, the writers did a good job. But not entirely. See, either West's uninvited breakfast cooking was a ridiculous and utterly unbelievable attempt by the writers to force the HRG-is-Claire's-dad issue or West is the creepiest fucking fucker ever. Seriously, what high-school boy shows up at his secret girlfriend's parent's house uninvited, introduces himself to her parents, and makes breakfast? That's just fucking wrong! And what kind of mother allows that? That's just fucking strange.

Matt, Maury, and Molly
It was good to see Matt man up to the whole situation. And I really liked his apology scene with Molly. And, of course, it was good to see him beat his dad and his own game. And I'm really happy that Molly's walking around again--that little girl is just so darn cute! This substory was really satisfying because Parkman's been one of my favorites for a long time, and it was awesome to see him develop both in terms of his powers and his strength of character.

Hiro and Kensei
Nothing too shocking happened here at all, but that doesn't mean that the story wasn't satisfying. The fight between Hiro and Kensei was pretty cool, especially Kensei's oath to make Hiro suffer. Hiro's goodbye to Yaeko was touching; it sucks that he gets teased with a relationship each season only to lose it. Perhaps the most shocking thing was the explosion and the lack of Kensei remains--doesn't he regenerate? I swear, I kept wondering what happened to his body. Perhaps the best part, though, is that Hiro is back in the present and reunited with Ando. Fuck yeah.

Mohinder and Niki
I still hate Niki, but she was a little more tolerable this time around. And she's got the fucking virus! I'm not saying the extermination of 93 percent of the world's population would be good, but if it means Niki dies, too, then, you know, maybe it is. In any event, it's one of the few times that we've seen Niki stand up and take some fucking responsibility, even if there was still some "woe is me" crap going on. Her stabbing herself was good, and it's interesting that the virus has mutated and that Mohinder's blood can no longer kill it.

As far as Mohinder, his shit was a little more shocking. First of all, why in the fuck did he tell Bob that he was working with Mr. Bennet? That's just fucking stupid. Seriously--has Mohinder forgotten everything? That made me pretty angry, but I can't say that I was entirely surprised--Mr. Bennet's been just as obtuse as Mohinder. Still, I don't know why he's apparently decided to give up the quest to bring down the Company. Regardless of Mr. Bennet's actions, the Company still wanted to let New York blow up, and they've been playing pretty fast and loose with the virus.

Peter, Angela, and Caitlin
Alright. Peter's back! I'm fucking excited to see that Peter got at least part of his memories back. Also, what, if anything, does this reveal about Angela's power? And now he's back in our time and, of course, we're left wondering what Peter was off doing for four months and what he was doing with Adam.

Bob, Nathan, and The Company in general
I'm glad that someone finally forced Bob to be a little more forthcoming. We got a glimpse of backstory on The Company, and I do love backstory. More importantly, we got an idea of how the whole thing started or, more accurately, who started it. We had been lead to believe that Mr. Linderman was behind the whole thing, but, as it turns out, he was only acting under Adam Monroe's direction. That's very interesting. What's more interesting, considering the last point on my list, is that Bob's dialogue seemed to suggest that Adam had weather-controlling abilities--isn't that why he pointed out the story about snow in Miami?

Adam
I seriously didn't see that coming. There are so many awesome questions now: If Adam is Kensei, does that mean that he created The Company as part of his quest for revenge against Hiro? Is that why Kaito was involved? Or has Kensei given up on that? Moreover, did Kensei somehow get transported to the future, or have his healing abilities given him an incredibly long life? I don't think that's very far-fetched--the writers have frequently borrowed from Marvel comic books, and Wolverine's healing abilities have greatly extended his lifespan. (It should also be noted that, at least in the X-Men cartoon series, Wolverine was purposely infected with a world-ravaging virus for the express purpose of having his healing factor find a cure.) If Kensei-Adam has been alive for the past 400 years, then what has he been up to the whole time? What was Bob talking about when he implied that Adam could control the weather? Has Adam gained more abilities in a Sylar or Peter-like fashion? Does Adam actually have Peter's ability to absorb powers, which just happened to first manefest itself in the form of healing? Remember that Claude, upon finding that Peter could absorb other peoples' powers, said "so you're one of those?" That suggests that he's seen someone with that ability before--could he have been talking about Adam? Also, that would mean that Adam absorbed Hiro's power, which could explain why he's around in the present day. If Adam is the driving force behind The Company and its creation, then why isn't he in the picture? Or is he there in some other form?

In any event, the episode was awesome, and it offered just enough answers to drive me crazy with new questions. Heroes kicks ass again, and I couldn't be happier.

Oh, and I'm fucking pissed that Heroes: Origins is now cancelled because of the strike--although it could apparently also be due to Heroes' falling ratings. In any event, that just sucks. I hope the strike ends, well, immediately.



7 Comments


frank x. said:

I don't think Adam controls the weather. I think that he was the one who suggested that the Company move from helping people discover their abilities to making sure that those with abilities are kept inline. That is why Bob showed the newspaper.

November 6, 2007 6:17 AM



kristin said:

This episode was badass, and based on the preview, I predict that next week will be even more badass.

First, I was a little disappointed with how predictable the Bennett family's part was. I agree that West coming over and making breakfast was (a) completely implausible and (b) an obvious plot device. But, I was more disappointed in Mr. Bennett (again) - WHY DOESN'T HE JUST TELL EVERYONE THAT HE IS AFRAID OF GETTING SHOT AND LET THEM HELP HIM?! Does he honestly think that Claire would just keep dating stalker-boy and let him die? I find it unlikely. Instead, he lies. To everyone. I thought he learned better.

Second, I thought it was ambiguous whether Adam changed the weather. The way I first understood it, Bob showed the newspaper to explain that they formed the Company with the idea of doing good - for example, working together to prevent the destruction of the Eastern seaboard. But if Adam did it alone, that would explain why he got the idea that he was a god.

Third, speaking of Adam, holy shit. I have to say, I did guess during the last episode that Adam was Kensei and have been guessing for quite a while that Hiro ends up being the Kensei in the stories. But I think confirming that white Kensei ends up in the future opens up a whole new can of worms.

Like - seriously, who is he and what was he doing wandering around in Japan? I know they explained it in the show, but I still don't buy it. Plus, where did his powers come from? I predict there is a lot more to his background that we don't know yet.

I also wondered if his role in founding the Company had something to do with his revenge on Hiro. If he can absorb powers, that would explain how he got into the future and how he knew how his actions would influence the course of events - he went forward to take a peek like Hiro did in Season 1. In any event, his animosity toward Hiro definitely explains why Kaito Nakamura was the first of the founding members to be knocked off.

Most importantly, I think this sets Peter and Hiro up on opposite sides of whatever is about to happen. Peter has at least part of his memory back, but he still seems pretty unsure about himself and his character. It would be pretty easy for Adam/Kensei to manipulate him. Add that in to Adam/Kensei's quest for revenge against Hiro and Hiro's imminent discovery that Adam/Kensei had his father killed, and it sets up a battle between (potentially) two immortal power-sponges and the rest of the heroes. I think Peter's decision whether to defect back to the "good" side could be a turning point later - otherwise the fight seems pretty lopsided.

November 6, 2007 9:58 AM



kristin said:

Ok, after thinking about it again, I definitely think Kensei has Peter's ability and is not immortal. First, Claire also regenerates and has been aging at a normal rate. Why would Kensai suddenly stop aging right after he met Hiro?

Second, how else could Kensei have gotten through his entire life without realizing that he could regenerate? Claire has been regenerating since she was tiny - in Season One, isn't it revealed that Mr. Bennett has had to use the Haitian to erase Mrs. Bennett's memory a bunch of times to make her forget incidents where Claire regenerated? So how would Kensai get to be 30-odd years old in feudal Japan without realizing he couldn't be injured? Seriously, we're supposed to believe that he got to be that old (as a sailor/soldier) without getting a major cut/breaking a leg/catching syphillis? So I think it makes more sense that he unknowingly absorbed the power at some point in his adult life and then used Hiro's power to transport himself into the future.

Of course, that still doesn't explain where he absorbed the regenerative power and makes me even more sure that there is a lot we don't know about Kensei yet.

November 6, 2007 10:22 AM



Ismael Tapia II said:

Mr. X.,
That's a really good point--it makes sense that the weather-controlling person was the first person an early version of The Company "helped." So I guess that's all wrapped up in a nice little package.

kristin,
I completely agree--Mr. Bennet is being completely retarded. I wouldn't be surprised if his deception ends up being the reason he ends up dead. Here's a thought, though: that painting shows Mr. Bennet dead, shot in the face, and Claire making out with someone--presumably West--in the background. We're supposed to think, I think, that Claire willingly played a role in her father's murder. But what if West--or someone else--killed him, Claire showed up, and West just grabed her and kissed her? That seems in keeping with West's absolutely ridiculous personality.

I absolutely did not see that Kensei-is-Adam revelation coming. But it's been pretty obvious that Hiro would be the historical Kensei. Still, Adam's the most interesting the show's done for a while--I can't wait to find out more, especially what his motivation for starting up The Company was. Did he really want to help people? Is it some ellaborate method of finding and defeating Hiro? Or does he just have an unbelievable God complex?

As far as whether Adam's power is healing or absorbing, I think the jury's still out and I think either one is perfectly plausible. We've seen that different people manifest their powers for the first time at different ages. Micah's a preteen and is pretty damned good at controlling machines. Monica and Claire both discovered their abilities while they were teenagers. Peter and Hiro seem to be in their mid-twenties and they've just discovered their abilities. Meanwhile, Parkman and Nathan both seem a little older and only discovered their abilities recently. Therefore, I think that it's reasonable to assume that, if Adam's ability is merely to heal, it first manifested itself when he got shot by those arrows.

On the other hand, I think that's it's plausible that people with healing would age to a certain degree and then stop. Think about it--getting older can't really be thought of as harmful until you reach a certain point. At that point, cells start to make imperfect copies of themselves and bones and joints start to break down. In other words, I think that the healing ability wouldn't kick in to stop aging until aging started being somehow harmful, which wouldn't happen until your twenties at least.

November 6, 2007 12:34 PM



Utah said:

Sorry for blowing the whole Kensie/Adam thing yesterday...I presumed you had watched the episode in real time. My first guess was that Adam was blown forward in time and didn't recover an identity/powers immediately, much like Peter and Sylar. However, my second impression was that he's exactly like Peter and absorbed Hiro's ability to transport himself; logic suggests I side with Kristin on this one. That, of course, begs the question as to how he became invincible in the first place.

I think that West has taken the lead in most obnoxious character. If I were Claire, I'd rip my own arms off and beat him to death with them. Actually...if I were Claire, I'd probably starve to death staring at myself in the mirror. Since some of the powers appear to be hereditary (e.g. the Parkmans), maybe West is another son of Nathan...which would mean that Claire is doing her brother. The gene pool on powers is pretty narrow, so I'd be careful on that. Niki/Jessica still irritates the hell out of me, but even she's third place behind Maya and her wondertwin brother.

Parkman's really coming around as a character, but he's morally grey and I can see him taking on many of Mr. Bennet's atributes. On that note, even though Mr. Bennet is a cold-blooded murderer, his morally ambiguous character is one of the high points of the show for me. Now if only he would kill off West...

November 6, 2007 1:19 PM



kristin said:

I have never thought that Claire was involved in the death in the painting. I have always just assumed it happened and then she stumbled onto it or that she was there but not complicit in any way.

I also agree that either theory about Kensei is as plausible as the other - and each theory begs a lot of questions.

For example, if Kensei is immortal, what the hell has he been doing for the last 400 years? If he is immortal, the Company must be at least partly related to his revenge or he would have started it hundreds of years ago.

And on the aging thing, I agree with you. I think my confusion started because Kensei (to me) looks past his physical prime. He's got wrinkles, etc. But that could just be from living outdoors in the wind and sun all the time.

In any case, I hope they go into why people start manifesting their powers when they do. At first I thought maybe someone had to come into contact with a hero for their power to start - but that didn't make any sense once we found out that loads of the parents also have powers. And I guess there could be no reason, like "they start when it's convenient for the plot," but I would be disappointed with that.

November 6, 2007 2:30 PM



Ismael Tapia II said:

Mr. Utah,
You didn't actually ruin anything--all you told me was that Kensei somehow ends up in the present, but you didn't tell me that he was Adam, so the surprise was preserved.

kristin,
I don't know if it's applicable to when people manifest their abilities, but the writers have said that what powers someone manifests are dependent--at least in part--on what they need at the time (it's implied here). So, perhaps it's a more sophisticated version of "when it's convenient for plot purposes."

November 7, 2007 3:02 AM



Leave a comment


Type the characters you see in the picture above.