Here is No Why

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"The Eclipse, Part I" or "When Heroes Are Normal People"

November 25, 2008 1:19 AM

hings over on Heroes continue to be all uneven and shit. In one episode, we get a fairly decent Peter and Nathan plot, an interesting Parkman-Hiro-Daphne plot, a passable HRG-Claire story, and a bizarre Sylar-Elle tale. Oh, and Mohinder's there, too, this time reptile-splooged to a wall. Strange.

So, yeah. Peter's all pissed about losing his powers so Nathan agrees to take him to Haiti to look for, well, the Haitian. And then they get in an immature brother fight. Haven't we been here? I mean, why do the writers keep giving us stories, resolving them, and then bringing them up again? This is the equivalent of someone who swears they forgive you for fucking something up but then bring up every mistake you've ever made during an argument. It's lazy, I think, to resolve conflicts only to bring them back up again when there's nothing else to talk about. And this scene in particular undoes a lot of the growth Nathan's gone through--he was an asshole, then he selflessly flew away with Peter so that New York wouldn't blow up. And now he's throwing that in Peter's face? That seems really unbelievable to me. Still, the overall story of them trying to find the Haitian has promise.

Meanwhile, Parkman and Hiro are in Laurence, Kansas trying to get Daphne to stop being all emo. I have to say that Parkman failing to use his ability was awesome--"why are you turning your head sideways?" Good stuff. On the other hand, though, the Hiro's a ten-year-old plot has never been my favorite. I mean, if Mr. Petrelli was gonna fuck him up, why wouldn't he really fuck him up? Why not put him in a coma or make him forget everything completely? It makes no sense.

Speaking of characters that refuse to grow and change, we've got HRG being there for Claire, building up her trust in him once more, and then leaving right the fuck away. Even though she didn't want him to. And even though he didn't really need to. What a fucking jerkoff. HRG was one of my favorite characters during the first season, especially after how awesome "Company Man" was. The HRG-Claire relationship was one of my favorite for the same reason. But, again, it's as if the writers just didn't know where to go from there. Instead of strengthening the relationship further, they've chipped away at it using the same device over and over again. I think it just cheapens "Company Man" and the potential the characters had. But it was fairly entertaining.

Then there's Sylar. Let me make sure I understand what's happened with him. First, he's sort of a nerdy loser. Then he turns into a power-hungry, cold-blooded serial killer. Then it turns out that he's been constantly struggling against a built-in compulsion to kill. So he fights against the hunger and becomes a good guy. Then he loses his powers and the attendant urge to kill. And then, free of the negative influence of the hunger, he turns back into a bad guy. Does that make sense to anyone? Yeah, me, either. Sylar, along with Mohinder and HRG, are two characters that started off being awesome but then started being less and less so as the writers clearly had no idea what to do with them. Sometimes it just seems like it's too hard for the writers to come up with ideas that are both entertaining and consistent with what we already know about characters, so they sort of take a "wouldn't it be cool if..." mentality and fill in the character traits later on. It's frustrating as fuck.

And Mohinder's no longer a reptile thingy.

Oh, and everyone lost their powers thanks to the eclipse. I think that this is probably the best and most ballsy thing the writers have done this season. It seems like they've increasingly been depending on special effects and people with abilities to move the plot forward, which is a shortcoming that wasn't prevalent in the first season. But now it looks like the writers have put themselves in a position where they'll have to go back to the basic premise of the show: these are supposed to be ordinary people with extraordinary abilities. Hopefully the writers will rise to the challenge.

All in all, one of the better episodes of the season so far. It was entertaining, dramatic, and funny at times. A lot of the characters got to play the roles they're meant to play--Parkman was really earnest, for example--and things are set up nicely for the next episode.