Seven Minutes to Midnight

Never mind that the episode was filmed weeks before it aired. Never mind that no one with any real influence over the show reads my blog. I still want to believe that our weekly discussion had some influence over the exciting turn of events in last night’s episode. As if in response to my protestations of the show starting to get ho-hum, there was so much packed into Chapter 8, that I probably won’t even be able to cover it all, but you all know that I’ll give it a try anyway. As always, highlight below to read:

This episode deals a lot with Mohinder back in India trying to resolve himself against his father’s work and settle back into a “normal” life. The only problem is that he starts having weird dreams about his dad. He witnesses an argument between his father and himself over his father’s work, and he witnesses a discussion between his mother and father over his father’s move to the U.S. Shortly after a strange boy appears in the dream and is apparently aware of Mohinder’s presence. Interestingly, when Mohinder questions his mother about her discussion with Chandra, she confirms that it really happened. She doesn’t, however, seem to think it’s odd that Mohinder would have seen it in a dream, and she doesn’t seem to question the level of detail he has about the discussion. I guess Chandra had her convinced, or maybe she knows about the kid.

So, who is that kid anyway? At first, it seemed that Mohinder may have been using some power of his own that he didn’t know about, but after witnessing his father’s murder in the presence of the kid, receiving a key from the kid, and finding the kid’s file hidden in his father’s desk, it seems more likely that the kid is the one with powers. He seems to be calling for Mohinder. Maybe he’s like Professor X and can communicate with his mind over large distances, but that doesn’t really cover it all either. How did the kid know about the scenes he showed Mohinder? Surely he wasn’t actually present either. So, he drew the discussion from Chandra’s mind during one of their conversations (when Chandra was creating a file on him), but what about the scene of Chandra’s death? Was he telepathically linked with Chandra when he died? Or has this boy gleaned the information from Sylar himself? Or can the kid also speak to the dead? I hope it’s not the last option as that would be kind of hokey.

Next up, everyone’s favorite, or at least my favorite: Hiro. The waitress that they met this week was pretty cool, and she seemed to really like Hiro. Sylar, though, was already after her. When Hiro went back in time, he changed some things, but he still didn’t save her. How do I know? Well, mainly because Ando and the police are still at the diner investigating the murder even with the new Polaroid of Hiro and the waitress on the wall. Let’s don’t even get started on time travel paradigms, though, we’ll just leave it at the fact that he definitely went back and met her and something is going to be different now.

We’ve got another clue into Sylar’s identity now, too. The cracked watch. We saw it in the diner, and we saw it in the taxi cab. Now, unless Sylar is working for Mr. Bennett, then we also know that Mr. Bennett did not kill Chandra as Mohinder believed. I’m going to have to say it again. I’m not convinced that Mr. Bennett is a bad guy.

While we’re on the subject, let’s look at it again with this week in mind. Mr. Bennett’s claim that he’s there to help seems true enough. We saw him with Matt, and Matt’s abilities were heightened after the visit. Ted Sprague (nuclear man) claims to have been abducted by the Haitian that works with Mr. Bennett and his powers were heightened afterward. Isaac is currently with Mr. Bennett and they are supposedly working to teach Isaac how to paint without the drugs. He hasn’t Claire, he’s only ever protected her, and he went ahead and told Isaac that Sylar is out to kill Claire and that he needs Isaac’s help to protect her. If he’s a bad guy, then what is his motivation? Why would he have helped the others powers work better? Why would he have told Isaac about Sylar? Why would he have saved Claire when her parents died?

How about the mark on the necks of Matt and Ted. Did Mr. Bennett and the Haitian hand those out or did they come from somewhere else? And why doesn’t that mark match with the symbol that Jessica (Friki) has on her shoulder?

Who else was interested to learn that Eden has a power? Apparently, she’s a pusher. She can make people do things. Seems likely that that’s how she got Isaac to agree to go with her and bring along his paintings, and how she got him to agree to take the drugs so that he could paint. I wouldn’t be surprised, though, if he really just took a placebo so that they can show him that he doesn’t really need the drugs. Maybe he just thinks he took heroin, and that relaxed his mind enough to let his power work.

Did anyone else notice that one of Isaac’s paintings was of an Escalade on fire, and that when Ted escaped it was by blowing up an Escalade? It’s probably just a minor detail and not of much importance, but I did pick up on it. So far it seems that almost all of Isaac’s paintings have not dealt with the future in general but rather with the specific futures of the heroes.

Until next week. Let’s hear your thoughts.