Monday, November 17, 2008

Thoughts on HEROES, Season 3, Chapter 9 - It's Coming



8:01 - Recap time.

8:02 - Yay Ando!

8:03 - Oh crap... I don't know how Arthur did that. If he erased Hiro's memory using telepathy or... oh crap... have we seen The Haitian lately?

8:04 - Of course Arthur knew Sylar saved Peter. Unlike most of the cast, he isn't an idiot.

8:05 - I know this won't stick. I know that we did not just see Sylar get vaporized by Elle. They wouldn't be smart enough to do something that cool. I am starting to suspect, however, that all the theories about Elle and Sylar hooking up are getting pushed forward, in spite of all common sense and the inherent contradictions.

8:09 - And 10 to 1 Claire's eventual turn to the dark side is because Peter is pushing her away and trying to keep her innocent.

8:10 - Oh.. the fire-starter and the fear manipulator are trying to intimidate a girl who can't feel pain. Yeah, this will work REAL well.

8:11 - Granting that she did that before... damn, that was bad ass.

8:13 - *sighs* Solar flares... it's the solar flares that ignite the powers. It's lame but the fact that Mohinderance is ignoring it as being possible lets me know that MUST be the answer.

8:15 - Damn. I was hoping Daphne had quit the double-agent thing.

8:16 - Yeah. Peter leveling with Claire and her not buying it. Saw this coming.

8:18 - Peter, you'd better be saving her.

8:19 - My friend Keith just paged me to remind me that I had proposed that Arthur had the slightly more advanced version of Sylar's power... so good for me guessing that, since Arthur seems to know all about the Hunger.

Which is great... except I suggested Arthur had the advanced version of Peter's power. Which, if Arthur is suggesting Sylar needs to get in touch with his empathy to take powers without giving into The Hunger, means that Arthur, Peter and Sylar all have the same power.

Which would be cool and make a lot of sense genetically... except that means there was nothing for Peter to take except psychosis when he want to the future and was told he had to take Sylar's power in order to learn how to time-travel without screwing up the timeline.

Which means that either Arthur is lying or the writers really are making it all up as they go along. Take a wild guess which one I am betting money on?

8:23 - And... we're back to having Hiro and Ando as comic relief again. Which works really well... especially with Hiro being a true idiot man-child now.

8:25 - Kristen Bell in chains and Sylar asking to be hurt. I can hear the fanfic being written already. The way she's moaning and gasping isn't helping either.

8:33 - And yeah... Nathan is back, finally.

8:34 - Join me and we can rule the galaxy as father and son... it is your destiny!

8:35 - I don't know what I hate more - the fact that Sylar has been made into an even greater munchkin character... or the fact that Elle is going to totally crush over Sylar from now on. If you needed any proof that Jeph Loeb was the dominant force on this season, there it is. EVERY single female character has either been killed off or made emotionally dependent on a male character.

8:36 - I knew it. :)

8:37 - See, this is why Peter kicks ass and is my favorite out of all the heroes left. He doesn't need powers to do the right thing - He has heart, brains (most of the time) and knows that setting off a fireball in a methane-filled sewer is a bad idea.

8:42 - Awwww... aren't they a cute pair of psychopathic electromaniacs?

8:43 - And... Dad watching, even creepier.

8:44 - The source of all knowledge. Heh.

8:45 - Ummmm... okay. The "confused by all of this" ice-queen is suddenly pushing for Nathan to go along with his dad because at least it's a plan, even though Nathan is quite rightly skeptical about the whole thing.

8:46 - Annnnnnd... we turn the one decent new character this season - who hasn't been killed yet - into an unlikeable power-hungry bitch. Again... Jeph Loeb influence.

8:48 - Okay. Interesting - psychic wounds causing real-world injuries.

8:52 - "A woman will betray you at every turn." - is Frank Miller writing these scripts now?

8:54 - I'd be pissed about the whole "love conquering all" thing being cliched if it weren't for this being a violent rebuttal to the general cynicism of this season

8:55 - Yay! Peter and Matt not being idiots!

8:56 - Next Week - The Island of Doctor Mohinderance.

8:57 - Yes. Even the ten-year old Hiro knows that Marvel Comics today suck. And as if you didn't need any more proof that Jeph Loeb is behind all this... a reference to his Red Hulk storyline.

8:58 - And... the good guys, all together again. And it all starts coming together. And somehow - in all of this - Claire is the key to everything... AGAIN.

9:01 - And.... next week, everyone loses their powers. Why? Ummm... cause it's dark.



Final Verdict: A lot I liked. A lot that pissed me off, too, but not enough to make me swear off the show, yet. For those who care, here's the team run-downs as they stand now.

The Company: Angela, Peter, Nathan, Claire, Matt, Meredith, Daphne, Bennet

Pinehearst: Arthur, Sylar, Tracy, Elle, Knox, Flint

Hmm... something odd I just noticed... Hiro and Ando are, for the moment, not officially on anyone's side. But the way I laid it out, the teams are set in fairly obvious antagonist pairings.

Angela/Arthur = the elder statesperson leading the team.

Peter/Sylar = the empaths... apparently

Nathan/Tracy = More a clash of wills here, but Tracy is everything Nathan used to be.

Claire/Elle = cheerleader/outcast feud. More pronounced in the comics. The tank vs. the blaster.

Matt/Knox = The cop vs. the criminal. They were supposed to have some sort of past confrontation but that got edited out of last week's episode due to time problems. Still references to it in the on-line bonus materials though.

Meredith/Fint = Fire vs. Fire. Brother vs. Sister.

That just leaves Daphne and Bennet on the good side without an opposite number. But Hiro has already declared Daphne his nemesis. And Ando has been developing into quite the Badass Normal, having enough of an idea on how Hiro's powers work to describe how they work. Nowhere near as cool as Bennet, but still...

Problem is I can't see Hiro or Ando signing on with Pinehearst given what just happened with Hiro's memory. But it ALMOST makes sense, doesn't it?

2 comments:

  1. I'm hoping they kill off Mohinder this season. Seriously. He's approaching Nazi war crimes at this time.
    He needs to die.

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  2. Approaching? I think he passed that line a while ago when he started injecting unwilling test subjects.
    But yes. I agree. Assuming they don't pull a Dallas and wind up having one of the time-travelers fix this so the entire season never happened... Mohinderance needs to die and die painfully.

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