Heroes 1x21: The Hard Part
Jul. 1st, 2007 10:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
andrasteIn which events continue to escalate ...
This being the third-from-last episode of the seaon, it's time for the characters who have hitherto been scattered across the continent to assemble in New York for the finale. Jessica and D.L. go looking for their kidnapped son, while Mr. Bennet, Matt and Ted Sprague arrive in town to take down the 'Walker Tracking System.' Alas, they manage to run into Peter and Claire, with potentially explosive results. It did give us another moving father-daughter hug, though.
Peter is convinced that Claire will be the one who saves New York from him, partly because they're related. Maybe he wouldn't be so keen on the power of blood ties if he knew that his mama was happy to let him explode for the greater good. At least he knows now that something fishy is going on after seeing Thompson talking with his brother. Nathan, meanwhile, is faced with an increasingly complex decision about whether to sacrifice his political ambition and hope of a brighter future or millions of lives. (He really, really needs to have a chat with Hiro.)
Thompson is being friendly with everyone at the moment, also recruiting Mohinder to help fire up Linderman's tracking system. (Can't wait to see Matt's reaction when he sees the Walker Tracking System is ickle Molly.) I can definitely see why Mohinder feels he has to go to the Company; working alone all he's managed to do is help Sylar eat another brain. Coming right after Five Years Gone, though, it's hard not to see this as the start of a slippery slope. He does get to bond with Molly and save her life, and they obviously find each other adorable. Fingers crossed he will take the Walker Tracking System right out of the clutches of the Company and use her to help the special instead of getting them vivisected.
The meat of this episode, though, is in Sylar's story. Hiro and Sylar both have their Gethsemane moments, Hiro as he struggles with the idea of killing someone and Sylar learns that he may blow up New York.
Heroes has been walking a fine line with Sylar ever since his full introduction in Six Months Ago. Before that, he was just a threatening shadow stalking the characters we knew. The challenge for the writers is making Sylar human and inhuman at the same time. He has to be creepy and insane, but still recognizable as a character instead of a caricature. We get a great example of that when his initial reaction to a painting of the future where he seems to blow up New York is to call Mohinder - not because he suddenly thinks killing people is wrong, but because he can't see a reason why he'd want to do something like that. When Mohinder sensibly dials 911 while urging Sylar to turn himself in, he instead tries to work through his ambivalence by going to see his mother.
It's important for us to see these scenes, and it's important for Hiro to see them. They do an excellent job of reminding us that if he kills Sylar, he'll be killing a person. Sure, he may be a multiple murderer, but he still has a mom. I love the moment when Hiro, watching through the window, can't help but smile as Sylar turns her room into a snowglobe.
This is not to say that those scenes with Virginia Gray are not incredibly disturbing. (And occasionally hilarious. I cracked up when she offered him a sandwich and he said he wasn't hungry. Of course not; he just ate a whole brain a few hours ago. I bet those things are filling.) Viginia, like Chandra Suresh before her, manages to say exactly the wrong thing and pays for this entirely understandable error with her life. By the time he's painting explosions on the floor with her blood, Sylar seems reconciled to his destiny.
Which is more than Hiro is - even knowing that Sylar will kill his bestest friend, he hesitates to take a life. As a result hisshiny phallic symbol sword gets broken, oh noes!
What with Peter exploding, things are not looking good for our heroes. But then, things rarely do two episodes from a season finale *g*.
This being the third-from-last episode of the seaon, it's time for the characters who have hitherto been scattered across the continent to assemble in New York for the finale. Jessica and D.L. go looking for their kidnapped son, while Mr. Bennet, Matt and Ted Sprague arrive in town to take down the 'Walker Tracking System.' Alas, they manage to run into Peter and Claire, with potentially explosive results. It did give us another moving father-daughter hug, though.
Peter is convinced that Claire will be the one who saves New York from him, partly because they're related. Maybe he wouldn't be so keen on the power of blood ties if he knew that his mama was happy to let him explode for the greater good. At least he knows now that something fishy is going on after seeing Thompson talking with his brother. Nathan, meanwhile, is faced with an increasingly complex decision about whether to sacrifice his political ambition and hope of a brighter future or millions of lives. (He really, really needs to have a chat with Hiro.)
Thompson is being friendly with everyone at the moment, also recruiting Mohinder to help fire up Linderman's tracking system. (Can't wait to see Matt's reaction when he sees the Walker Tracking System is ickle Molly.) I can definitely see why Mohinder feels he has to go to the Company; working alone all he's managed to do is help Sylar eat another brain. Coming right after Five Years Gone, though, it's hard not to see this as the start of a slippery slope. He does get to bond with Molly and save her life, and they obviously find each other adorable. Fingers crossed he will take the Walker Tracking System right out of the clutches of the Company and use her to help the special instead of getting them vivisected.
The meat of this episode, though, is in Sylar's story. Hiro and Sylar both have their Gethsemane moments, Hiro as he struggles with the idea of killing someone and Sylar learns that he may blow up New York.
Heroes has been walking a fine line with Sylar ever since his full introduction in Six Months Ago. Before that, he was just a threatening shadow stalking the characters we knew. The challenge for the writers is making Sylar human and inhuman at the same time. He has to be creepy and insane, but still recognizable as a character instead of a caricature. We get a great example of that when his initial reaction to a painting of the future where he seems to blow up New York is to call Mohinder - not because he suddenly thinks killing people is wrong, but because he can't see a reason why he'd want to do something like that. When Mohinder sensibly dials 911 while urging Sylar to turn himself in, he instead tries to work through his ambivalence by going to see his mother.
It's important for us to see these scenes, and it's important for Hiro to see them. They do an excellent job of reminding us that if he kills Sylar, he'll be killing a person. Sure, he may be a multiple murderer, but he still has a mom. I love the moment when Hiro, watching through the window, can't help but smile as Sylar turns her room into a snowglobe.
This is not to say that those scenes with Virginia Gray are not incredibly disturbing. (And occasionally hilarious. I cracked up when she offered him a sandwich and he said he wasn't hungry. Of course not; he just ate a whole brain a few hours ago. I bet those things are filling.) Viginia, like Chandra Suresh before her, manages to say exactly the wrong thing and pays for this entirely understandable error with her life. By the time he's painting explosions on the floor with her blood, Sylar seems reconciled to his destiny.
Which is more than Hiro is - even knowing that Sylar will kill his bestest friend, he hesitates to take a life. As a result his
What with Peter exploding, things are not looking good for our heroes. But then, things rarely do two episodes from a season finale *g*.