Here is No Why

"Villains" or "Fuck, We Get it with the whole 'Villains' Thing"

November 11, 2008 12:19 AM

iro's back, and he's eating some of that crazy African's hallucinogenic thing. But it's not hallucinogenic, it's fucking astral-projection time-travel shit. And so Heroes uses one of its favorite devices again: we get a glimpse into the past to find out what's up in the present. And, like most of these episodes, this one pays off pretty well.

We flash back to events we saw during the first season, only we see new aspects of everything, this time seeing the role Arthur Petrelli played in the major Petrelli-family events of the first season. What we get is a look at a man who's really, really fucking mean and ruthless. Sylar is clearly still the best villain this show's ever had, but Arthur Petrelli is a clear second, I think. I mean, the man bosses Linderman around and could probably whip Sylar in a fight if he got close enough.

In the end, what we get is a portrait of a cold and calculating man willing to do pretty much anything to accomplish his goals. But, although we know that his goals include blowing up New York, we don't really know what he wants to accomplish other than that. And we also don't know why, other than that he's a homicidal maniac. Still, if the purpose of the episode was to build up Mr. Petrelli as a villain, I think it worked.

I also think the episode did a lot to flesh out Angela Petrelli's character, to a point. I mean, I can understand why she's so frightened of and angry at Mr. Petrelli now. And the present-day Angela Petrelli--the one who's bossing Sylar around and doesn't seem to care who she pisses off--makes a little more sense now. I mean, I'd be pissed if I found out that my spouse had been systematically erasing my memory for years in order to continue plotting against our children uninterrupted. And, of course, Angela's reaction--calling in the Haitian and poisoning Arthur--couldn't be more different than Mrs. Bennett's, who pretty much just rolled over on the whole "you erased my memory a whole lot" thing. Also, how many times are we going to see that device. I mean, ok, I guess that people erasing other peoples' memories makes sense, but do we need to have two different instances of it in two analogous relationships? Seems like a little more originality wouldn't have hurt.

We also see some stuff with Claire's bio-mom, her brother (another member of Claire's strange, extended family), and that guy that Mr. Bennett kills at the end of the first season--I forget his name. All of that stuff was ok, but I did think it was a little contrived that Claire's mom caused the train wreck that Claire ran through in the first season.

More interesting were the scenes with Mr. Bennett, Elle, and Sylar. First off, by injecting these scenes into the story, we get a little more continuity on the whole "hunger" subplot with Sylar. It's a little more believable now that he was a good person who did one terrible thing, then tried to control himself. But then, of course, he lost that control, and it's cool that it was Mr. Bennett that set him loose--imagine all the heartache he could have saved. I think those scenes did a lot for the Sylar character.

I also think that the Elle character keeps getting more and more interesting. She's gone from being sort of a spoiled sociopath to being sort of a confused proto-adult longing for acceptance. She really did like and believe in Sylar, but then Mr. Bennett forced her to give that all up. I'm sure that Elle and Sylar are going to meet again, and I can't wait to see what happens.

Then, of course, we get the big cliffhanger with Hiro waking up to find the African guy deader than shit and Arthur lurking. So now the question is: will Arthur take Hiro's powers. And, if he does, can that somehow be reversed? Because as much as I like Hiro, it just wouldn't be the same if he didn't control space and time.