11.27.2008

Heroes: Eclipse, Part 1

Could this blog be the first short one on Heroes? Doubtful. Attempts to be on topic and not following absurd tangents will be ignored.

A great episode, chock full of tension and suspense. And a lot of now regular people. It is also interesting how the eclipse is seen the same apparently from all Earthly vantage points, which is impossible. But, given the nature of the show, maybe the moon has telepathic abilities, and is making everyone think they are seeing it and become powerless. It could be Parkman's turtle controlling it. Or Mr. Muggles. Suckers.
I think once the eclipse is done the powers will revert to normal.
And if not, the show may have be called "People". Just average people and the jobs they will have to get to survive. Ones they actually show up for.

Sylar and Elle get back to being "bad". She says that Sylar shouldn't be used, he shouldn't have to listen to those that would make them into something they aren't. Then she tries turning him into a monster. Way to use logic Elle, they shouldn't be allowed change you, but I can.
Well, now that they are out on their own, they shouldn't have to report to anyone. Just out doing whatever they please, with no responsibility. This way they can take what they want with powers, do anything they want.

An amazing scene in the Black Hole Guy's(Stephen Cansfield) house takes place, Noah is showing Claire that just because she can heal, she can still be beaten on many levels. There tends to be overconfidence in a person that is immune to physical harm. She needs to learn she can be overpowered in other ways(Hello Puppet guy). She needs to find a way to actually use her brain, and find a fulcrum to give her the upper hand in battle. It's easy to defeat an opponent that telegraphs what they intend to do. He emotionally provokes her and she gets riled up. She attacks and Noah easily stops her attack. Point proven.
Then Sylar and Elle show up, but they are currently powerless, and shoot Claire. Too bad they missed vital organs.
Even armed, Sylar and Elle get their asses handed to them in a nice gift wrapped box by Noah Bennet. This is why he is completely the Batman of this series. Sun Tzu would probably endorse Noah in a fight. He knows his sh!t. Even without an ability, he will bring you down, fairly quickly and efficiently. There is also a high probability he makes his partners do all the paperwork after jobs. THAT is truly "bad ass".

Without abilities, Sylar and Elle still want to take what they want.
Now there will be a struggle to attain bad status. Sylar is somewhat grateful to lose the "hunger". They'll have to resort to ancient techniques of villainy-do thing in an old school fashion, with guns. Granted they are not as old school as swords(where's Hiro's sword gone to?), but the can get the job done. He then makes an unsuperhuman move to make out with Elle.


Peter and Nathan fall into a river, good thing they were flying low enough to not be seen by anyone looking up roughly 30 feet. A sibling power struggle seems to be growing between these two again. Nathan is untrusting of Peter and it leads him to make rash decisions. Even when Peter turns out correct, Nathan is unresponsive to being wrong. True to politician nature, and against his new found and even quicker forgotten zealous religiousness, he refuses to admit to making mistakes.

Why is he so unwilling to listen to Peter? He's been to the freakin' future. More than once. He has also(with help) averted disaster, regional(New York) and global(Shanti virus), multiple times.

A great division has been building in the Petrelli family, and will more than likely end in death for a couple of them. Hinted at by Angela looking at the Petrelli photo, and a shadow blocked out Nathan and Arthur, while Angela and Peter were still lit up. Also the Haitian's brother said that Arthur told him to be himself if he encountered Nathan. Bad news for him, that's what he gets for avoiding Peter's voice of reason.

Conveniently, the Haitian sort of finds them, but other problems present themselves.
The problems being Haitian's brother and his army. Samedi has a fairly sweet power: Invulnerablitlity(at least his skin). He skin cannot be harmed by "knives, fire, or bullets". Setting him up as a voodoo god for the locals is very smart. Relying on native superstitions to gain militant dictatorship is pretty damn smart.
The only thing I can think about is the amazing sibling rivalry between the Haitian and his brother. Samedi would be like, "Oh, I'm so invincible!", and then the Haitian mutes the power, kicks him in the ass, and runs off giggling into the forest. He could even steal the memories, so every time would be just as funny as the first.
How godlike would the people think he is, if the Haitian stopped the power, and stole all memories up to a point, leaving him like Hiro?
The memory part of the ability leads me to believe he has limited telepathy. How does he know which memories to take?
Nathan ends up in the custody of Samedi, and Peter and the Haitian trailing behind.
Samedi may be outwardly impenetrable, but does he have super strength? Any other powers in tandem with invulnerability? If not... can he be poisoned by food? Gassed?
He needs to breathe right? Overwhelm him and drown the bastard.
He may have the same overconfidence that Claire has. With the exception of the Haitian, would he have any reason to fear any other person?

I love how Matt and Daphne were all like "how are we going to find a teleporter?", and Hiro shows up at the apartment. Even if they didn't, Matt could use Molly(who is, by the looks of things, raising herself now that she's been left alone by Co-daddies Matt and Mohinder. Way to go guys, forget about your adopted child.
The doorbell rings and when they answer the door, it's great how 10 yr old Hiro is doing the "gonna-pee-my-pants" dance.

Slightly later when Matt can't translate Hiro's thoughts, and says he isn't able to help, Hiro is bobbing heads with the turtle. Very nice touch. Turtle knows all. Turtle controls all. Turtle is all.
Anyway they make it to Lawrence, KS just in time to lose their powers in a creepy cornfield. Everyone knows that cornfields are where aliens congregate to create plant art and scarecrows eat children. Now that Hiro is ten again, he should be completely aware of this fact. These things usually occur at night, and an eclipse is like a mini-night, so they should probably seek refuge. Maybe with Superman, he is theoretically always in Kansas, in a cornfield. Unless, Superfarmer lost his abilities along with the rest of the Heroes.

Back to the show- We finally learn what Daphne's secret "old life" is. While it's understandable that with super speed mobility is a must, it might also be neat to see a ultra fast person on crutches. Anyway, her predicament implies that perhaps Arthur can use his power to bestow abilities upon other people. Actual transfer, not just absorption. Then again, it may have been a manufactured power like Nathan and Nikki/Jessica/Tracy. Or maybe she was healed through power shifting(Arthur or Linderman???).
They are left with a relationship obstacle to be solved. Oh darn. Do they have it rough or what?


In the meantime, Hiro and Ando seek a comic store to find the new 9th Wonders. Which is definitely getting to me. The future changed after the death of Issac. So how do these new issues come out in the changed continuity? They arrive at a large, well-stocked comic store in a rural looking area. Not realistic, where I live there are tons of enthusiasts, and few stores. It's not a huge city, but we are far from rural.
At the store Hiro and Ando encounter a couple of great cameos. Breckin Meyer and Seth Green. Very sweet. They Have the newest issue of 9th Wonders, and it shows themselves, meeting Hiro and Ando in exactly the place they are now. Cool.


On to visit Douchehinder. Just kidding. He's regaining scientist and decent person status. Doing actual research and development is improving his character. Arthur shows him a picture that he believes is his death.
Turns out after the eclipse, he magically sheds all the scales in a cocoon(why didn't that magic away as well?). Mohinder decides he needs to contact Maya and is stopped by Arthur and Flint. Neither of which want to be powerless. Flint even makes a comment about not wanting to be a nobody again. Was his power synthesized? So they detain Mohinder to continue his studies in an attempt to get the powers back.

How many people have synthetic abilities? That would partially explain how the companies know what some people's powers are before the people know themselves.
Although it fails to mention how many naturally occurring ones are out there. Or how Kensei got his a couple hundred years ago. Didn't the show start out with people mutating, or evolving into their abilities? What happened to that process?

Claire ends up going to a hospital. Noah says needs to take care of something, leaving his wife and Claire without aide. The eclipse presents a perfect time to eliminate persons of a distinctly malign nature. Namely Sylar. The episode seems to be mostly under the eclipse. How much longer will it last? Awesome ending.
Will Sylar's powers return in time to avoid a bullet in the skull? Does he end up killing Noah?
Remember, Sylar's future child is named Noah. Does he kill him then feel regret for being a monster? Does he make a promise or something? He was trying to be "good".

The true Heroes of this episode are the ones that aren't useless when they lose their power. Peter keeps trying to help others. Hiro and Ando continue in their mission. Parkman is trying to be with Daphne. Noah still wants to protect his family first, and then the world from predatory people like Sylar.

Side notes:
Once Adam Munroe lost his regenerative power, he aged super fast turning to dust. If he was regenerating, the cells were new. He should not have aged that fast. It would have rendered him a normal aging person from that point on.

Done time. I am quitting early, I'll save the rest for next week.

2 comments:

  1. Personally, I think we've all been lied to and that the sun is actually a gigantic tail pipe stick out of the hind end of a large space ship, and the "eclipse" that we've seen is actually a cloud of carbon monoxide heading to Earth, which renders all of our hero friends vulnerable.

    I mean, seriously, what are these writers thinking? I mean, if it were really an eclipse, it would have been on the news long before Papa Bad Ass got his vision.

    Geez, they've just gone too far this time.

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  2. Good call. It could be the Heroes version of Galactus in his crappy beater of a interstellar backwoods pickup.
    Stupid space emissions are terrible for the universal environment. You would think that if they had a spacecraft, it would at least be "green" friendly, but nooooo, let's up and pollute the entire galaxy! Oh, and maybe give a handful of individuals paranormal abilities.

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