Fantasy Football Notes:
As I predicted (in the IP writers forum) after the draft, Aaron Cameron and Michaelangelo McCullar have the best teams in the IP Writer’s League, while I’m in danger of missing even the consolation playoffs.
In my brother’s Yahoo league, I finished first in the resular season but that doesn’t matter since all eight teams make the playoffs. Helping me along there are my defensive players (4 of the top 10) plus some guy named Tomlinson. Who dropped into my lap during the draft (fifth overall)
And in my Dynasty leagues… I’m playing for draft position in two leagues, and I’ve made the playoffs in the other one. So overall, I’m about .500, and the lesson learned here is – don’t get involved in five fantasy football leagues.
Okay, let’s break things down:
Midland and Odessa, Texas
Audrey and Parkman finally interact with the rest of the main cast, as they question both Peter and Claire. Which gave us some interesting reactions when Peter synched up with Parkman (causing feedback) and Parkman got… nothing from Claire. More on that later.
Peter is experiencing visions, although we’re uncertain how he acquired this ability. It’s been suggested (by our resident Starman, Matt Morrison) that Peter is perhaps like a battery, where the abilities he synchs up with are stored until they’re used. The longer he stays in someone’s presence, the more power he builds up. So his dream power may have come from Simone’s dad, Shaft. But what is really interesting is that Peter becomes the Human Bomb, and is the actual cause of the destruction of New York City.
Claire, meanwhile, is having a very bad day. After talking with the feds and her dad, she’s found that both her brother and Zach don’t remember her having powers, and Zach doesn’t even remember the last two weeks. The Haitian is rather indiscriminate about what he pulls out, isn’t he? But it would seem that he has a larger agenda, and eleven episodes in, he finally talks and lets us know that.
Hiro and Ando met up with Isaac, who escaped the Paper Factory and discovered that he can, indeed, draw while living a straight edge lifestyle. I guess the key was that for his large paintings, he needed to relax more, and the heroin helped him get to that point more easily.
Mind you, his painting is now a riddle for another day (although possibly not that far off). It did allow us to see Hiro express disdain for the “butterfly effect” AND determination to get his hands on a sword.
Sylar, meanwhile, was trapped in the Paper Factory until breaking free with the inadvertent help of Eden, who ended up shooting herself in order to prevent Sylar from learning her powers. Not that we know that this will work – after all, we’re not exactly sure how Sylar learns how to use the powers of others.
But this brings us back to the “void” Parkman sensed during Claire’s questioning. We know that the Haitian’s around, and any time someone has seemed to have been unable to use their powers has been in the presence of HRG and the Haitian. BUT, we didn’t see the Haitian when HRG was talking to Sylar, so it’s entirely possible that HRG has a power – the ability to negate others powers. A few things would seem to point to this:
– The Haitian has, thus far, not shown us the ability to temporarily block a memory. When it’s gone, it’s gone.
– The Haitian has also not tried at any point to usurp HRG’s power, despite the fact that he could do so at any time, and has a different agenda from HRG. I mean, isn’t that what the not-so-good guys do?
– The Haitian would seem to require line of sight or at least an idea of who he’s taking memories from. During the stakeout, Parkman still had a lot of difficulty reading HRG’s mind, indicating that someone was still broadcasting their negation power. The Haitian would have no reason to broadcast if HRG were “just” human. But HRG has every reason to if he wants to protect himself mentally from the Haitian.
– The Haitian is too obvious an answer as to why people can’t access their powers. It simply feels like a red herring.
Somewhere in the Middle of Nowhere
Jessica’s nuts. And Niki turns herself in. And honestly, I find myself not caring one way or another. It’ll probably stay that way until we learn exactly how this family fits in to the overall story (aside from Niki being Ando’s online stripper, that is). I like DL and Micah, but thus far this particular plot is DOA to me.
Manhattan, New York
Mohinder’s back, and he brings us news about the next arc – the people on his father’s list. Unfortunately we have to wait until January 22 to see how that goes.
That’s a lot to think about over the holidays.
