The second season of Heroes continues, and I’ve been very pleased with how things are progressing. Naturally, there are some slow spots (more on that later), but overall I’ve enjoyed what we’ve learned, and I eagerly await finding out what we don’t yet know.
This episode featured Claire becoming more and more curious about her ability. I really enjoy her struggle, as she wrestles with the possibility that being a lab rat might actually be for the greater good. If her blood can save somebody’s life, or help somebody heal from a life altering injury or disability, should she share her secret? Of course, she also wants nothing more than to be an ordinary girl living an ordinary life, and her father continually reminds her how awful a life as a guinea pig can be. Nevertheless, we have learned more about her ability, as she can regenerate severed body parts. This bit of information is quite significant, actually, as it shows that Peter can literally blow up and simply regenerate body parts.
I do have one piece of advice, though: Sweetheart, most teachers stick around a bit after class to answer any questions. If you’re going to spew out a bunch of odd questions regarding humans developing the ability to regenerate, you might want to save it for after class to avoid some queer looks.
I have to wonder, though, are we supposed to like this West kid? Because he comes off exceptionally creepy. Last week he was all air born while peeping through Claire’s bedroom window. And this week, when he wanted to drop a book off for Claire, instead of, ya’ know, going to the front door, he decides to peak through their living room window. Not. Normal.
I love, LOVE the new open, honest relationship between Claire’s parents, as it has helped expand her mother’s character exponentially. I stand by my belief that one of the greatest moments of her character was following “Company Man,” when she revealed to her husband that he had told her everything, and that she was used to playing dumb. She also had a great line, reminding Claire that they have a colander after she put her bare hand into the boiling water. The overall family dynamic works much better when they’re all in on the secret.
We saw the return of the Haitian this episode, which I really enjoyed. We haven’t learned much about the Haitian, other than that he has pretended to be mute for several episodes (it seemed that possibly only Bennet and Mrs. Petrelli knew that he could talk), and that he seems to have two distinct, unrelated abilities (which is unique). In this episode, we discovered that he’s one of the characters suffering from this virus, and that he’s trying to atone for what he considers sins. It’s also nice seeing him fight for the “good guys.”
Is it me or was the reunion between Bennet and the Haitian a strangely touching moment? It was up there with when Michael, Jin, and Sawyer rejoined the mainland crew in the second season of Lost.
It appears that my initial theory that Hiro actually becomes Kensei might be correct. Of course, there’s still plenty of time for the real Kensei to become the person that the legend dictates he is, but I enjoy the idea that Hiro grew up unknowingly listening to his own story, and that he was actually the source of his strength. It’s also a nice touch that Hiro’s dad always considered Hiro a disappointment, yet would constantly recount the legendary tale of Kensei. Yes, yes, I know it creates a whole lot of time travel paradoxes and inconsistencies, but I’ll leave it up to the writers to make sense of that.
Oh, and we also discovered that the real Kensei has the ability to heal himself (like Claire). Some people are theorizing that he may be Claire’s ancestor, but I resist that notion. There doesn’t appear to be any correlation between a person’s abilities and their heredity. Keep in mind, Claire’s mother can spontaneously combust and her father can fly, yet she regenerates. Micah’s father can go through solid matter while his mother has super strength, yet he can control machines. If nothing else, it shows how far these abilities date back to, which is an interesting concept in itself.
I have a feeling that this story arc with Alejandro and Maya will be this season’s version of Nikki/Jessica, as the story that drags on with little new information each episode, despite getting a relatively healthy amount of coverage. That criticism aside, I actually find their ability (while we don’t know much about it) intriguing. Granted, this is only an early hypothesis, but I think that, as twins, Alejandro and Maya share an ability, and they act as a yin/yang balance to one another. In a way, this balance prevents them from using their ability. It seems that Maya’s ability is to take away life, while Alejandro’s can give it back. And while together, their abilities cancel each other’s out. Again, this is just a theory, based on the first two episodes.
This episode more than ever also made me realize how isolated Parkman was last season, as he only really interacted with Bennet and Mohinder (and briefly Nikki/Jessica). In this particular episode, he came face to face with Ando and Nathan, and he only vaguely recognized Nathan (actually, it was Nathan who recognized him), and he had no idea who Ando was. I also considered this a very nice touch, because in the finale (when pretty much all of the central characters were at the same place at the same time), Parkman was shot and out of commission before most of the characters arrived on the scene. It is also fun thinking back to last season about which characters have met each other.
Finally, did anybody else find it weird that both Heroes and Prison Break are previewing next week’s episode with the mystery of “what’s inside the box?”
