The second part of the two hour premiere dragged a bit more than the first episode, but you can hardly blame them for that. While it didn’t necessarily hit the ground running, like the first part did, I thought it was a great episode that continued to answer some questions. It also did a great job molding the season to come.
So, Bob is dead, Sylar suddenly has a tan and can change things to gold, and the villains have escaped. In a strange way, I thought it was sweet how Elle went to HRG after he father was killed and she realized Sylar was on the loose. It’s interesting how he’s the person virtually every character goes to when they’re in a jam, whether they’re part of The Company or somebody who wants to take it down.
I complained about HRG re-joining The Company in last year’s finale, because I felt like it was something we’ve already seen. I have now re-evaluated that somewhat, feeling like this scenario is different enough from the last one. I find the idea of Sylar being used to FIND the villains interesting. I’m curious how they’re going to pull this one off.
Peter’s scene with Claire was brief, and it makes me concerned that the show is going to make a concerted effort to keep these two separated because they don’t think the audience will buy them as uncle and niece given their real life romantic relationship. I hope that isn’t the case, because the characters have a lot of history together, and they truly do have on-screen chemistry. I loved how simplistically Claire answered, “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m trying to get hit by a train!” when Peter rhetorically asked her what she was doing when he flew to her rescue.
Speaking of Peter, as a quick note, I found his brief scene with Elle pretty nice. I found it sweet – and quite characteristic – that he would want to protect Elle despite all they had gone through.
I wasn’t quite sure what to make of this Linderman thing. Is he a ghost? An apparition? Is he back from the dead? They did a nice job of keeping us guessing, before finally revealing that, indeed, nobody other than Nathan could see him. Actually, he’s kinda like Kyle Baldwin’s “spiritual guide” ability on The 4400.
You know it’s funny, when Parkman passed by the vulture, I thought to myself, “Can he read the thoughts of animals?” I mean, I would imagine animals have thoughts of some sort. Therefore, I found his interactions with the turtle hilarious. I was actually slightly disappointed when it turned out to be a human. Although I couldn’t help but scratch my head at his cell phone comment. I don’t want to come off as some ignorant, arrogant American….but can it just be assumed that some guy in an African village has a cell phone?
And the Sprint comment was only somewhat humorous if Sprint is not a sponsor. Otherwise it made me throw up in my mouth a little.
I found the ongoing interchange between Hiro and Ando quite fun, especially with Hiro punishing Ando for something he hadn’t even done yet. What I found especially interesting, though, was that Hiro referred to Ando as the villain. When I first saw the scene, for some reason I actually envisioned Hiro as the bad one. I’ll have to watch it again, but that was my interpretation.
In my Part 1 column I noted the connection between Heroes and The 4400, where in both series a scientist creates a serum that would give ordinary individuals special abilities, and uses himself as the guinea pig. Well, guess what, in both shows the scientist’s skin peels off. And the similarities continue!
Anyway, it appears that Mohinder is Spider-Man now. I’m actually happy that they’re linking him up with Maya, because that way I basically get through two of my lesser liked characters in the same scene. That being said, I am willing to give this Mohinder story arc a chance, because I think it’s an interesting development to his character (I might go as far as to say that his character suffered more than any other last season).
I’m sure people are going to point out the similarities between these new villains and the ones we know from comics. I can’t say that I blame those critics, since I obviously do the same thing with The 4400. Sure, you’ve got the Magneto character, you’ve got the Pyro character. I think there was even a Freddy Krueger one. But truth be told, there are only so many interesting abilities out there. I suppose one could argue that it’s the writers’ job to come up with fresh ones, but I also don’t think they should be restricted to abilities that haven’t yet appeared in any sort of popular media.
Overall, these two episodes accomplished their mission: It’s made me forget about the flaws of season two and gotten me very excited for season three.
Matt Basilo has been writing for Inside Pulse since April 2005, providing his insight into popular television shows such as Lost, Heroes, Prison Break, and Smallville. You can visit his blog at A Case of the Blog.
