Heroes 1x23 How to Stop an Exploding Man

[oyceter]

Spoilers! Also, please don't spoil me for S2! Speculation is ok; confirmation of anything is not.

Huh. That felt rather anticlimactic. I thought it was just me, except it seems like other people have had that reaction as well.

Most of that is because I still do not care about the drama that is the Petrelli family; they are no longer the giant hole of boredom that they were in the very beginning, but they are still the characters whose fate I worry about the least.

Also, the ending made no sense! Rachel mentioned that Peter can't control more than one power at a time; ergo not being able to fly off. So that was ok. But I still don't get why they could just shoot him or whack him over the head with the meter or stick a long glass shard in the back of his head. I mean, yeah, they would have to keep doing that every time he got glowy, but that seems to be a much more practical solution than two people going off and dying.

I am mostly assuming that Peter will be back, given his healing powers.

Also also, it was rather anticlimactic because with all the focus on Nathan's greyness, he was bound to change sides at the last minute.

Also x3, it felt like all the other characters' storylines got shafted so that Peter and Nathan could have their big moment. Niki got told that she was needed in the fight; Hiro got thrown out by Sylar, only to have his killing of Sylar go rather quickly, given the amount of worry and effort that he put into it for several episodes; Claire got stopped by Nathan. The last one felt particularly unncessary and irritating! Claire's been passive for several episodes now, and it was so cool when she finally told off the Petrellis and jumped out the window -- only to be stopped at the last minute?! Argh!

I squeed when we got to see Simone and her dad again, although I am sad that Charles Deveaux came back largely to be a Magical Negro. I am hoping that he will be in the next season, as they have foreshadowed his involvement for ages and because he is clearly deeply involved with the Gen 1.0 scheme. I'm also hoping that Mohinder's sister Shanti shows up again as well. And, given the generations theme, DL's mom! Come on! She should be superpowered!

Anyway, so many plotlines felt like they were hastened to get to the big Peter/Sylar/Nathan showdown -- is Niki reintegrated? Huh? Is that Candice's real form, or has she been hanging on to the illusion so long that she keeps it even when unconscious? What are DL, Micah and Niki going to do now? And a lot fo the plotlines felt like they were twisted to get Peter and Nathan to where they were. While I liked the reveal of Mr. Bennet's real name, it felt like he trusted Peter awfully quickly, and that he was convinced a little too much that Peter was the only way to save NY.

Actually, I generally just didn't understand why most people thought Peter was the only person who could save New York. I mean -- Peter has been harping on being the exploding guy for months! And... ok, so Claire can still have her brains eaten, but she seems like a safer bet to me. Also... why didn't Mr. Bennet try and contact Bob, since Bob has helped both him and Claire before? It would have made the most sense; Bob suppresses Sylar's powers, Claire is there anyway because she can heal. I am still not sure why Peter didn't fly out to a lonely deserted island in the middle of nowhere.

I am strangely charmed by the Mohinder and Molly show. Now that Sylar has crawled off into the sewers (I am glad he is not dead, as his supervillain-ness amuses me), I am hoping for many skanky phone calls: "Hey Mohinder. It's me." "WTF? Sylar? Aren't you dead?!" "Nope. Just in the sewers. Wanna meet up?" *Mohinder hangs up*

I totally thought I saw a gooey crawly thing on the sewer lid, but Rachel informs me that it was probably blood. I think I have been a little too influenced by Spiderman 3 and gooey evil aliens from other planets.

Also -- big bad for next season! Who is the person Molly can't find, and why can he see her when she sees him?

Poor Matt. Well, you'll probably survive, because if you didn't, you'd get a death scene. You are much more amusing now than you used to be, and I am glad you didn't die.

And Noah! He has a name! (c'mon guys... name Bob...)

But finally: HIRO AND ANDO! Yay! They didn't get that much time, but they were awesome! Ando called him "kickass"! Hiro gave him the sword!!! And told him it was to ensure Hiro's return! Also, oh Hiro, you killed Sylar. I hope they deal with that next season, given the lead-up to it.

Also: TOKUGAWA JAPAN! (I originally thought the noises were dinosaurs when I saw the falling guy was Hiro. But samurai are just as good as dinosaurs!)

What I want to see next season: Molly and Mohinder! Molly and Micah bonding over their powers! More of DL and his mom! The return of Kimiko! Charles Deveaux and the big reveal of Gen 1.0's Grand Plan! Candice's real form! Hiro getting a sword power-up with Kensei, who turns out to be the ancestor of the Nakamuras! Bob actually getting a name!

The usual census up at bobthehaitian.

Comments

[thelastgoodname.livejournal.com]

The thing on the sewer lid was a cockroach, which is not the most innovative analogy to Sylar ever.

[snowking.livejournal.com]

Wasn't there a cockroach when he came back from the dead last time?

[oyceter]

Hee! Well, I am glad I wasn't hallucinating something moving!

[sophia-helix.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I totally went "Gee, a Magical Negro, just what this show needs."

[oyceter]

I know! And I was so excited when he first showed up, too!

[honorh.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think there's a good reason Bennet didn't contact the Haitian: he was in metaphorical bed with Linderman and Mama Petrelli. I doubt he'd have helped even if Bennet had contacted him.

Re: Peter not flying, I thought the explanation was rather simple--Peter was using all his effort just to keep from going into meltdown right there. Thus, Nathan had to do the flying for him.

[oyceter]

Yeah, except... I dunno. I feel like they could have convinced Bob that blowing up NY was bad or something... everything felt entirely too contrived to have the Petrelli brothers blow up together.

Particularly since they could have just kept sticking things into Peter's brain.

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

Hiro and Ando are too cute! I may have cried a little when Hiro said that Ando had shown him what bravery was. And I also may have shouted 'tell him you love him!' when Ando called Hiro back (although 'You look badass' was an acceptable replacement).

When Peter told Niki her family needed her (for what? hugs and intensive medical care?), I expected her to keep hitting Sylar with the meter. I mean, she could do that all day.

Season 2 wish list: Shanti, Kimiko, Bob, a name for Bob, Dl's mother, Kensei, Hiro in 17th Century Japan (check), Mr Deveaux, evil Simone and Niki and Claire being allowed to DO SOMETHING.

ETA: I think the DL-Micah-Niki-Molly hug had more of a group-hug vibe to it as Niki and DL both had their arms around each oither as well as the kids. And Molly ended up with Mohinder in the end (I have never found Mohinder more attractive interesting than when he's with Molly).

[oyceter]

Awwww! I loved that Ando showed Hiro bravery! Awww Ando! I still just love that Ando was the one to go after Sylar, even though he was not superpowered at all.

I panicked a little when Hiro mentioned that he had to go his own path alone, but since he gave Ando the sword and mentioned it was a promise that he would be back, I am pretty sure there will be more great Hiro-Ando moments next season.

[cavlec.livejournal.com]

Okay, so... anybody know what Hiro said when he realized he'd fallen into the middle of a samurai showdown?

I mean, I'm assuming it was totally r00d, and I loved that they didn't translate it, just subtitled it in (kanji? I barely had time to notice it, so busy watching Hiro's face), but now I'm curious!

[desdenova.livejournal.com]

just subtitled it in (kanji?

The subtitle was comic-book swearing, like "#@*!" or something like that. I'm curious what he actually said, too.

[almeda.livejournal.com]

That amuses me so much. I'm presuming it was something that, were it translated to English, one wouldn't be allowed to say it on the air -- but because it's in Japanese they can get away with it. Rather like during the Athens Olympics, some medal-winner (I frget which sport), when they saw their score, shouted something horridly obscene in Greek and did a happydance, and my father-in-law blinked, then grinned, and said, "I can't believe they didn't bleep that!"

If it's not in English, the FCC gives not a shred of care.

[oyceter]

Oh dude, they totally did that with Firefly too (at least, when I could figure out the Chinese pronunciation).

[naye]

He said "dai pinchi", = "big trouble". It's weird they didn't use something stronger, because he's said the same before, and then it was translated to something along the lines of "darn", or somesuch, can't really remember exactly. While it was a very Hiro thing to say, I'm kind of sad he didn't get to explode into something more colorful!

[oyceter]

Ooo, thanks for the transcription.

Huh. I totally thought he would have said something like "kuso" or "shimatta" at the very least.

[naye]

You're welcome!

Yeah, I do wonder at the lack of interesting vocabulary at that point. Maybe they're just making a point that Hiro likes to under-state things? But if that's the case, why have that comic-curse translation of it, since that's the part most people understand? Ah, well. With that many people involved in the processes, it could just have been lost on the way... (I prefer to interpret it so that it has some kind of meaning, though, because it's more fun that way!)

[oyceter]

I didn't catch it, but I checked out naye's transcription... I'm also sort of surprised they didn't use anything stronger, I'd thought it'd be "kuso" (shit) or something...

[evil-kat.livejournal.com]

I was super excited and looking forward to your post!

As for Bob--I think he might've been the one Molly mentioned as being scary and knowing when she was looking at him.

I agree about the the focus too much being on the Peterellis--it'd be better if they were the 'main' characters, but they haven't played them up the right way for that. I think it should've been Hiro's doing in killing Sylar (which he kinda did...but I mean also having a big show-down.) Also, I was disappointed that Hiro knew how that he killed Sylar like that the first time and it didn't work then, either. Hello, decapitation works every time! :/

Boo on simone, I never liked her character.

I was also a little surprised there was no definitive 'past changing' event--clearly, things didn't fall into place like they had in the future Hiro saw, but I kind of wanted a point where the characters made a clearly different decision than their future counterparts. The only noticeable thing was that Hiro told Nathan he was a villian.

[almeda.livejournal.com]

I figured saving the cheerleader saved the world for two reasons:

- Sylar didn't get to eat her brain and get regeneratey
- Claire got to speak truth to power at Nathan and be an extra straw on the camel's back, convincing him it didn't have to be that way.

[evil-kat.livejournal.com]

I thought so at first as well about Claire--however, she was living in the alternate future as well. Clearly, that was part of it, but not the whole thing.

[oyceter]

Yeah, the first seemed to be the reason from Five Years Gone, and the second works too, except I still feel like it's rather anti-climactic for Claire =(.

I miss active!Claire of several episodes ago.

[oyceter]

Oh, thank you!

Maybe... Hiro didn't have time for decapitation? Ehhh, yes, I fanwank like mad!

Oooh, good point about no real "past-changing" event. Unless maybe it was Nathan actually making the decision to fly Peter up there?

[evil-kat.livejournal.com]

Definitely I agree with that (and I think there's a good chance Nathan survived too--all he'd have to do is get Peter up high enough and throw him off and fly away...in fiction, esp. comic books, if you don't see the body, I think it's safe to assume they're not dead.) but besides Hiro calling Nathan a villian, there was no real point at which I feel Nathan's mindset was changed. We knew Claire survived the original timeline, so it wasn't really her presence--and we can assume everything else went down as it originally had--and so I just kind of wanted a defining point of 'ah- THIS is where things changed!'

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

Claire survived in 'Five Years Gone' but I don't get the impression that she met Nathan.

[evil-kat.livejournal.com]

I thought she had--that's why she seemed familiar with Sylar/Nathan. (I thought?)

[seraphcelene]

Yeah. Anti-climatic it definitly was. I was disappointed. I don't know what I expected, but that wasn't really it.

As for Bob, Heroes has the disconcerting tendency to "forget" about characters: dead!Simone, Mama and Brother Bennet, FBI agent girl -- disappeared never to be mentioned again.

[oyceter]

Yeah... well, FBI agent girl showed up again for a few seconds, and then they pulled the thing with bringing in Molly from episode two or something. So ... I don't know.

[almeda.livejournal.com]

I think Micah and Molly should be allowed to be BFFs. :->

[oyceter]

I think so too! They were so cute!

[witchwillow.livejournal.com]

I mean, yeah, they would have to keep doing that every time he got glowy...

You make me think of " . One hint of radiation, press a buzzer, fry his brain. Absolutely no debilitating after affects provided inherent healing powers. Or your monies back!"

[oyceter]

HEE!

I think there should be a website for that or something.

[naye]

Not only did this post leave me nodding vigorously with a lot of yes - the image of Mohinder getting Sewer-Sylar calls was funny enough to make me forgive them all for letting him crawl off unnoticed like that! I mean - really; how about paying some attention here, people? Oh, well.

Samurai! And Kensei himself! Though at the first close-up of him, my immediate reaction was "...what's Hiro's daddy doing in the past?". Hm.

Okay, so I'm probably just imagining things, but aside from Micah, have we ever seen what powers the children of previous Heroes inherit? I've assumed what was inherited was to express a power - any power. But maybe it gets more specific?

Anyway - so happy Ando lived! Now they just need a way to bring him back next season, so I can see more of the two of them together again. ♥

[oyceter]

my immediate reaction was "...what's Hiro's daddy doing in the past?". Hm.

!! rachelmanija thought the same thing! That would be awesome.

I haven't been able to figure out any trends in power inheritance yet; Claire heals but her biological parents fly and create fire. And Micah's don't seem to have much to do with Niki/Jessica's or DL's.

Hiro has to go back and find Ando and have more adventures! And Ando can get super-sword training as well, so I get to ogle at two guys wielding swords, because I am shallow like that.

[naye]

!! rachelmanija thought the same thing! That would be awesome.

Oh, really? Cool! If it was just me, I'd think I was just having hallucinations of George Takei, but - if that's actually George Takei as a Tokugawa samurai? I don't know if there are words for that awesome. Especially for what it would mean about Mr. Nakamura and Kensei and just why he was telling little Hiro all those stories...!

Claire! Of course, yes, I was just so distracted by the whole "you're my real family" and thinking that Claire's dad didn't have any powers. But of course, there's the flying and the firestarting, and that gives - healing. Hmmmm. Do the powers have anything to do with what the character in question need/want at the point when they manifest? I haven't read a lot of fan discussion on Heroes, so I don't know if anyone's already drawn any conclusions, but it does seem possible to me... Of course, it all depends on how those Very Special Genes actually work, but it does seem like there is a particular moment when they activate, and that sort of decides your power? And helps you get what you need at that very moment?

Ando! Yes! Don't leave Ando in his cubicle in Tokyo, that would be very tragic. Ando with a sword, though...! Yes! Awesome. I'd give a lot to see that.

[snowking.livejournal.com]

Also... why didn't Mr. Bennet try and contact Bob, since Bob has helped both him and Claire before?

I'm not sure how he would. I mean, I presume he dumped all his old contact details when he ran off with Claire. Plus he seems to be with the Linderman/Petrelli group. Although who knows?

*waves, just passing through looking for Heroes discussion :)*

[oyceter]

Yeah... it was just sort of weird that he trusted Bob to bring Claire out of Texas but not with keeping NY from blowing up or something.