Tuesday, May 22, 2007

How to Stop an Exploding Man

Well, the season ended with a bang, and now we've got the long summer wait until we see what happens in Volume 2. Highlight below for my thoughts through the end of this season.

D.L. lives on. Is it just me or is anyone else wondering what kind of degree Mohinder really has? He's supposed to have been teaching genetics at the beginning of the season but the last four or five episodes he's been more of a junior M.D. Last night he was even patching up D.L. in the hallway as if he's even got some paramedic training. I'm sure at most universities being able to draw blood, diagnose diseases, treat the sick, and patch up gunshot wounds in the field are prerequisites for doing genetics research, teaching, and writing books. I guess it's just TV land and they figure that most people won't realize the difference in types of doctors.

Candice tried to fool Niki, but Niki finally saw her own reflection and realized that it was an illusion. That seemed a little odd to me since Niki and Jessica have never spoken to one another except through a mirror. I would have figured that Niki would realize that it wasn't Jessica from the very first instant. Oh well. It was kind of cool, though, that Niki finally took control of the power and put a beat down on Candice. Surprisingly, Candice's body appeared the same as we normally see her when she was unconscious, so either she's convinced her subconscious that that is what is she really looks like so that she can maintain the illusion even while asleep or my theory from last week is incorrect and that's really what she looks like. Now that Linderman is dead, though, will Candice continue to be a force for evil? My guess is that she will just start working for Mama Petrelli.

Speaking of Mama Petrelli, I have a theory about her. I think that she has a power, and I think that it is precognition. I think that she dreams about the future, and that she originally told Linderman about the bomb and that because of her dream she believed that it was inevitable. I think that's also part of the reason that she knew about Nathan and Peter's powers before they did and that's how she continues to stay one step ahead of everyone. Besides, she's the only character that we know of that Peter had contact with before his first dream where he saw Nathan fly, so I think Peter got that power from his mother. My guess is that we'll find out a lot more about Mama Petrelli next season when she's trying to deal with the aftermath of the failed plan.

Parkman is a freaking idiot. "I'm a cop, he's a bad guy. I'm going after him." What a moronic statement. They just left out the follow up line to that, "Oh and by the way, when I do go after him, I'm going to be sure to not wear any Kevlar or take any backup because there's no way that a guy that has the power to cut people's heads open and then do whatever he does to their brains would ever try to kill me." What an imbecile. He deserves to die regardless of what that sappy little kid thinks. Besides, Peter's got his power now, so we don't really need him running around looking like he's constipated every time he hears someone's thoughts anymore.

Molly and Micah sitting in a tree… Anyone else thinking that we saw the first spark of juvenile romance on the show when Micah called the elevator and became Molly's new hero? She'll get over Parkman soon enough as long as Micah is around to be her prince charming. I just hope that neither of them gets too much screen time next season. They're cute and all, but this show is not about cute, it's supposed to be fairly serious adult drama and kids don't play into that very well.

Claire is supposed to be Nathan's daughter, but I'm wondering if she's not related to Parkman. For a moment there it was like a flashback to the first season of 24. Remember back in the day when Jack Bauer's wife and daughter did everything they could think of to make sure that they were going to be kidnapped? What the heck was Claire thinking when she left Peter? And then she stayed with Grandma (who looked very much like a wicked witch at the time)? And then she disobeyed HRG and ran back into the fire? I hope that she grows up some next season. That whole deal last night just seemed too contrived as a way to get her to see Nathan one more time and let him know that she would sacrifice her life to stop the bomb.

Hiro managed to save Ando and drop him back at work, and he left him the sword so that he'll have to go back. Of course, right after that he told Ando that he didn't need the sword anymore, so maybe then he won't be back. Who knows? The point is that he ended up saving Ando and stabbing Sylar. Right after that, Sylar threw him through the air and Hiro teleported away. Interestingly, he seems to have gone back in time to see Kensei fight, and I have to say that Kensei looked an awful lot like Mr. Nakamura. Do you suppose that Mr. Nakamura is Kensei? Do you suppose that he something of an immortal and that he's been waiting for centuries to find Hiro? Do you suppose that that's why he told the stories to Hiro as a child? And do you think that that's how he knows about sword fighting? I think we're going to find out all about it early in the next season.

Now to the best part. Peter somehow talked with Mr. Deveaux and found out that his mother wanted the bomb to go off. He also found out that Mr. Deveaux believed that the world would look to Peter and not Nathan after the explosion. I have no idea how Peter managed to have that conversation. Next, Peter realized that he had to stop Sylar.

Last week, I wondered about whether Peter would absorb all of Sylar's collected powers when they met or not, and in the "scenes from last week" at the beginning of this episode I realized that we already know the answer. When Peter was training with Claude, he displayed the ability to control objects with his mind just like Sylar. He obviously got that power after meeting Sylar at Claire's school, and that is one of Sylar's collected powers. So why didn't he get the rest when they met in Mohinder's apartment? Or why didn't he use them?

Then, in this episode, when he finally met up with Sylar, he started to go nuclear. He said that he was absorbing all of "his" (presumably Sylar) powers and that he couldn't do anything. That seems like a bit of an inconsistency to me. He should have already had basically all of Sylar's powers except the one that he took from Ted, which he already had because he had met Ted. How could that have overloaded his system? Why didn't it overload him before?

Nathan did end up having a change of heart, and like we theorized back at the beginning of the season, he flew off with Peter to save the city. Presumably Nathan is now dead and Peter will survive because of his ability to regenerate. I'm sad to see Nathan gone now that he's changed his heart, but only having the ability to fly isn't really all that special anyway.

Sylar got stabbed, but it seems that he's not completely dead based on the bloody trail leading to the sewer. I really thought that they should have killed him completely and created a new villain for next season, but I'm not too disappointed as long at Peter and Sylar get to have a few more showdowns.

Looking forward to next season, it seems that Niki has gotten control of Jessica and will be a good guy. D.L., Parkman, and Peter will probably live and be good guys. Hiro, Claire, Micah, and Molly will all be good guys. Ando, Mohinder, and Mr. Bennett (Like the first name Noah? He's trying to save the ones with powers from a flood of evil men?) will be helping the good guys.

Sylar and Candice will live and be bad guys. Mama Petrelli will take over where Linderman left off and try to get control of the company and will be trying to lead the bad guys.

5 comments:

Windy Smith said...

Well there is one detail that I have a question about. Molly said that there was someone else that she didn't ever think about because they could see her if she did. I think that is an indication of a new bad guy. I guess we will see.

Michael said...

I had the nagging feeling that I had left something out. Thanks for reminding me.

I definitely want to know more about who it is that she doesn't like to think about, and what ever made her think of that person in the first place?

Melissa said...

Yeah, I'm with Windy....they've already set up a new villan for next season.

As for Mama Petrelli, I agree, I think she may have a power, but I don't think it is premonition. I told you a long time ago that Mr. Deveaux had a power....dreams or visions or something, and no one believed me. Remember he told his daughter Simone that Peter would save the world. That is where Peter got his visions and dreams from....duh! I think Mr. Deveaux told all that stuff to Mama Petrelli.

Oh, and my favorite part of the show was when Ando said, "You look bad ass!" That was awesome!!!!

Anonymous said...

The episode was building to a climax, and like a firecracker that doesn't connect the fuse to the powder, fizzed out and dissapointed me. I'm not referring to the preview to volume two, but the two guns were ready for the draw, the battle was about to commense, and after a few distractions Hiro morphs in and stabs Syler. Doesn't kill him! I wanted to see something out of Kill Bill and see the sword take off the top of his head as he so willingly did to other 'heros'; finish the job. And somewhere amoungst 15 people who were trying to stop and kill him, let him crawl off to the sewer unnoticed. No one tried to stop him or recognize "hey he's not dead maybe we want to kill him". And not only were there Heroes getting patched up, but squad cars and ambulances and no one bothered to ask what just happened or ask the question why is there a huge pool of blood and why does it trail off into the sewer? Just an abominable ending to what was a great first season and a great episode. Maybe Michael is right, these aren't cops, see Parkman, they are keystone cops.
Being a father, I was glad to see the ties that bind are stronger than personal gain. In other words when it came time to make a true choice, Nathan chose to save his daughter (and the world). I am disappointed that he will not be on the show, unless Peter, who loves his brother, will remember back on events of the two of them and he can make cameos. I really hoped they would have ended the whole DL and Micah theme, then they could have proceded with Peter and Jessica that we saw a glimpse of in the future. That is a better storyline if you have to keep her in the show. Parkman can hopefully disolve back into the woodwork, he does have his partner's kid to raise you know.
I was also a little surprised they didn't make any reference to Nathan's wife. I still think she has a role to play since she has been miraculously healed. She has to know there is something going on and maybe will join grand ma-ma Petralli.
All-in-all I still love the show and look forward to volume two. I think Hiro is about to get a history lesson which will be vital to next season. It looks as though the others are just helpers (some with powers - some without); but the dynamic duo appears to be Peter and Hiro.

Michael said...

Mel, we've been over the Mr. Deveaux thing before. If you recall, Peter dreamt about his brother flying before he got the job working for Mr. Deveaux. As a matter of fact, when they were at the hospital after the accident, Peter told Nathan that he was just getting ready to start the job, therefore, Mr. Deveaux cannot be the source of Peter's pre-cog abilities.