Heroes 1x14 Distractions

[oyceter]

Oh show! I hug you!

Spoilers for episode and preview

So every single time I think this show is going to go horribly off track, it ends up completely not, and I love that so much!

For those of you wondering, I'm mostly referring to the Peter storyline and the Hiro storyline this week.

I started rolling my eyes with the Hiro storyline when it was back to Hiro being the brave individual overthrowing corporate sameness, as I swear, that is what every other Western narrative about Japan seems to lead to. And then I nearly threw somthing at the tv when they had Kimiko start going on about shaming the family.

But oh, how I love that Hiro manages to get out of it not be going off and saying "Screw you!" to his dad, but by actually thinking things through and doing the smart thing! And it was also a nice touch throwing in the acknowledgement of his sister as well -- usually I would have sporked at the whole "the Japanese society oppresses all women" just because it is so overdone, but in this case, it was woven in nicely and in a manner so that Kimiko got what she wanted, Mr. Nakamura got what he wanted (albeit with a slant) and Hiro got what he wanted.

It's also a nice touch to continue on with Ando's woman-chasing ways, though him calling her "Kimiko-san" instead of "Nakamura-san" was a little odd. Oh well, minor nitpicking. Kimiko's accent sounded pretty good to me, though George Takei's was a little wonky. But then, either they're getting people who have listened to a lot of Japanese or they're getting really great voice coaches, because even though Takei had a bit of an American accent, I could really tell that he was getting the rhythms fairly down.

As a minor note, I love how they play around with the subtitles at times.

For Peter's storyline, I started to get sporky right when I knew they were going to tail Simone invisibly and there was going to be some stupid scene in which Simone was actually doing things for Peter, but due to Peter only seeing part, he would think she was betraying him. Thankfully, that didn't turn out to be the main point at all!

This dazzles me! The writers aren't actually taking the stupid and easy way out of things! What a thought! I was particularly impressed with Isaac continuing to search for Peter despite the whole thing with Simone; I'm hoping that it is because Isaac is concerned about the greater good and not an ugly jealousy thing re: turning Peter in to Mr. Bennet. And I am happy that the Isaac-Simone relationship isn't being easily brushed aside, and that there haven't been any stupid ultimatums so far, thank goodness. And I really really really like that Isaac now also wants to do something, to help, to be an acter instead of a reacter. Hopefully Simone will have more to do later.

And dude! The Peter-Claude storyline is TOTALLY STOLEN FROM MANGA! That whole "you must disregard your emotions" and "no! my emotions make me stronger!" is SO FROM MANGA! Come to think of it, the Hiro plotline and solution with Kimiko reminded me a little of manga as well, just because of the way it went around conflict, suddenly gave a one-off character more depth for a solution, and came up with something that satisfied all three parties. Ok, so I may be projecting, because Buffy totally did the "my emotions make me stronger" thing as well. But still!

Also, awwww, Peter remembers Claire! And oh no, what if this is actually the thing that leads to his meltdown! He didn't look too good at the end, though Claude punching him out had me laughing.

The Niki storyline could be a little more interesting; I think all the people wanting the DL-Niki-Micah-Jessica square to start interacting with other people are right. Though hey, looks like it could happen! Yay! Niki trapped inside the mirror was pretty freaky, and I liked how they got Niki out of jail without having her change her mind. I wonder if there will be more consequences to Micah breaking into ATMs next week?

And finally... CLAIRE! Oh, much love! There were a few lines of awkward dialogue, as there were with the Hiro scenes and the Peter scenes, but I am going to handwave and say the writers are expositioning a whole lot to get to the end. And the show is throwing out so much cool stuff that I care much, much less. Mr. Bennet locked away! I thought for a second that Sylar was going to somehow shapeshift and look like him when he was playing with the driver's license. Guess not.

I love how she thinks of things like brochures from the aquarium, and really just how thoughtful of a character she is. You can see she's disappointed when Meredith doesn't tell her about her dad, but you can tell she gets it as well.

And that final scene, when she finds out that her mom's memories have been wiped yet again... oh ouch.

And.... NATHAN OMG! Er, I guess that throws a bit of a wrench into the Peter/Claire shipper scene? But! I wonder if it's some sort of misdirect or set up that relates back to Linderman, given Nathan's tryst with Niki/Jessica earlier in the season!

I liked this episode, and there were many moments of OMG YAY!, but it still feels like it's mostly there to move plot forward. That is ok with me though -- the last few have been much better than the first episodes of the season, so that there are still great plot-moving-forward moments and revelations even as the big revelations are yet to come.

In conclusion: that entire Kimiko thing rocked!

ETA: and how could I forget about that entire Mr. Bennet-knew-Claude thing? More hints at the past!

Comments

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

This episode WON at the in-jokes.

Mr. Nakamura's LICENSE PLATE! First Claude's scarf-stealing, then George Takei's character's license plate!

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

What was on the license plate?

I was wondering how Takei's Japanese was, as I couldn't tell. He won at grunts, though. Those were very convincingly old Japanese guy.

I guess I was wrong about the psychiatrist. Poor psychiatrist. I liked her.

I adored the Peter-Claude storyline, especially as I just finished Doctor Who and was suffering from Christopher Eccleston withdrawal. And I also thought manga, because Claude is Jiraiya and Peter is Naruto! And Isaac is Sakura, determined to get stronger! Luckily the storyline has so far spared us the little emo punk.

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

What was on the license plate?

NCC-1701

[oyceter]

Isaac is Sakura+Hinata ;). Byakugan, of course.

I haven't really glommed onto Dr. Who like everyone else, but I loved seeing Eccleston again.

[oyceter]

Oh, I didn't catch the license plate at all! Cool!

Er, what's the scarf-stealing a reference to? Is that a Who reference?

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

The 4th Doctor was well-known for his trademark, extremely long, multicolour knitted scarf. And he's generally considered the most iconic, because he played the character the longest. (The fact that Claude stole a *Burberry* scarf amused me because it might be construed -- well, I construed it -- as a nod to Rose's so-called chavviness. Or at least because it's such a recogniseable British brand.)

[xwingace]

Or because Romana (I) used to wear Burberry?

But this might be thinking a bit *too* far, maybe :-).

XWA

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

No, it's quite possible. Although Burberry's *everywhere* these days -- it's on Richard Gilmore's bedsheets in the previews for tonight's ep of Gilmore Girls!

[almeda.livejournal.com]

but by actually thinking things through and doing the smart thing!

Yes, and before the commercial break I saw his expression and turned to my husband, going, "Oh, no, that's the 'I'm about to do something BRILLIANT BUT STUPID!' look ..." and then it wasn't! He's growing up! *snf*

He really is the most Westernized member of that family, by a lot, and his solution was to gently intertwine the Western view into things, without slapping anyone in the face with it.

BTW, is it just me, or was George Takei totally cracking himself up between takes with how stern/grunty/monolith-like Nakamura-sama is? I'm pretty sure I detected that. :-> (what's his license plate? I missed that)

I loved Isaac painting all those lovely, well-composed shots with Invisible Peter in the middle of them.

I was watching Claire's-friend's (Kyle?) face during the Mom Forgot reveal; they didn't acknowledge it in dialogue, but the ACTOR got that suddenly the guy was seeing the effects of something Claire had told him happened to him. If that makes any sense. Sentence tangled! Too ... full ... of ... squee!

I like that Jessica's getting subtler, even though this means Bad Things for Niki and I like Niki better than Jessica.

Micah and Claire have a parallelism -- they both have active Specials for both parents. Dunno what this means, if anything; Peter so far is the only one who's shown multiple powers of his own (prophetic dreams AND echo-effect ... presuming the dreams weren't ganked off someone he knew in high school or something).

[oyceter]

George Takei looked like he was having a ball.

I really want to find a screencap site and look at all of Isaac's paintings again. I never quite remember to pause the screen and just take them in.

Oh, it'd be so cool if Claire and Micah met!

[xwingace]

There is a painting in the background in the first scene with Isaac and Simone that shows the purse being stolen. It's never actually referred to, and you don't see it in Isaac's later rush of paintings, but I love that it's there.

(Also, did the sign on the cab Peter crashed onto read Nakamura?)

XWA

[oyceter]

I didn't see those! That is awesome!

[maeve-rigan.livejournal.com]

did the sign on the cab Peter crashed onto read Nakamura?

I'm pretty sure the sign on the cab read "SAMURAI"--which is also pretty neat!

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Not only did it say SAMURAI, but the piece of metal wedged through Peter's heart looked very much like a katana. (It wasn't a katana, but my first thought was "My God, it's Hiro's sword!) I don't think that's an accident.

[deevalish.livejournal.com]

So, do you think there's a possibiltiy that Hiro "is" the samurai character that he idolizes? cause I'm getting little vibes that this may be the case.

[oyceter]

Oh! I didn't even think of that!

I have no idea! Though it'd be funny if future!Hiro were channeling the samurai guy and that's why he was so gruff ;).

[deevalish.livejournal.com]

{{{(>.<)}}} (o.o) \(^o^)/

[ginny-t.livejournal.com]

That's a cool thought. And it would help with my irritation about the difference in Hiro's voice. Speaks Japanese - high. Speaks English - low & manly. Future!Hiro has been through a lot, though, which appears to have given him confidence. But still… *minor grumble*

[oyceter]

It's funny, because in real life, my voice does the same thing. Not that it's that low, but when I switch over to Japanese, it gets very noticeably higher! The guys in my Japanese class would do that too, but I suspect that's because we had female teachers and so we all unconsciously emulated their speech patterns.

[shati.livejournal.com]

That would be so awesome! I didn't think of it, but it makes sense to me, with all the focus on the guy (and he was in Hiro's bedtime stories!).