HEROES 3.04

Hello Heroes fans,

I say "Heroes fans" and not "people who are interested in getting into Heroes", because at this point in the show, it would be virtually impossible for non-fans to watch a brand new episode and to know what the hell is going on. You are here, either because you just watched the last episode "I Am Become Death", or you have watched Season 1 and or Season 2 of the show, and you are wondering- does the 'Heroes' train still has the steam to push it along? My quick answer- Kinda.

I will save my criticisms for the bottom of this column. First, let's have a little synopsis for episode 4. I think the best way to synopsize each episode is to explain what happens to each of the main characters featured in the episode. Take it away Mohinder:

MOHINDER- Mohinder for the past two seasons has been one of the few main characters without a power. Season 3 changes that up. While trying to help Maya get rid of her rather nasty ability (She makes people’s eyes fill with black goo, and then die) Mohinder discovers that a Heroes power is linked to their adrenal gland. Mohinder experiments with material he has extracted from Maya’s adrenal gland, until he develops a formula that can possibly give any person a super power. Mohinder tests the formula on himself, which brings him super strength and agility. The side effects? He is growing, what looks like, crusty toe nails out of his back, is starting to make a sort of cicada like noise and is overtly aggressive. In this episode, Mohinder hears a fight between the couple that lives next door to him. He attempts to help the wife, who looks like she might have been beaten, but is told to piss off by the husband. After the husband gets a little aggressive with Mohinder, he takes the husband’s head and bashes it into the door frame a few times.
Later on in the episode, the husband attempts to attack Mohinder, in his apartment. We see the husband’s feet fly in the air, as Mohinder pulls him in the door. Cue the cicada noise.

PETER- Peter and his future self land four years into the future (see what I mean about new viewers getting utterly confused). Future Peter is in desperate need to show Present Peter how badly things will eventually become. In what I would consider the best sequence of this season, thus far, both Peters step out into midtown Manhattan, filled with hundreds of people using superpowers. To Present Peter it is a shocking site, but to everyone in the future it is a common thing. Future Peter explains that there was a formula, based on the genetics of the original Heroes that was eventually massed produced, that would allow everyone to have super powers. Before Future Peter can explain much more, he is attacked by an evil Claire. How can we tell she is evil? Well, she has black hair, and also because she shoots Future Peter in the back of the neck, killing him.
Claire tries to kill Present Peter, but he escapes.
Present Peter makes his way to Mohinder’s apartment, thinking that his old friend might still be around and might lend him a hand. It turns out Mohinder is a lot more gooey and makes more cicada noises, four years into the future. Viewers can assume that he has a bug like appearance, since we never get to see what he looks like, hiding underneath blue robes. Using his ability to read minds, Present Peter is able to get the location of Sylar out of Cicada Mohinder. I forgot to mention that Future Peter told his present counterpart to find Sylar, right before Claire killed him.
Sylar is now living at the Bennet house in California. Peter is shocked to discover, that in four years, Sylar has become domesticated and has a son of his own, Noah (named after Claire’s father). Peter asks Sylar for help, telling him that he needs to absorb his powers. Sylar warns Peter, telling him that by taking Sylar’s ability, he will also take his incredibly strong hunger for other people’s abilities.
Peter takes the power, vowing that he will be able to control himself. Then, they are attacked by Claire, Knox and the speedster, Daphne. We get some intense, X-MEN style fighting between the Heroes and the Villains. In the Chaos, Sylar’s son is killed. Sylar goes ape shit and unlocks his nuclear power. Unfortunately, he can’t control the energy inside himself, and blows up, taking half of California with him.
Peter wakes up in New York. Future Nathan wants to help Peter get back to the present, but seems to be hiding something from him. Peter, wants to know what that is, and the combined with the hunger he has absorbed from Sylar, he attacks and accidentally kills Future Nathan.

NATHAN AND TRACY- Back in the present, Nathan has made it to Washington, DC. He is busy preparing his office for his future term as a Senator. Linderman (it is still unclear if he is a ghost, a delusion in Nathan’s mind, or alive and invisible to everyone around Nathan) is continuing to offer Nathan advice, but by this episode it looks like Nathan isn’t buying it.
Tracy confronts the doctor who was there at her birth. It turns out, that she was one of a set of triplets that were born with super abilities. Nikki, from Season 1 and 2, and Nikki’s alter ego, Jessica were her other two sisters. She freaks out when the Doctor explains that her and her sisters were part of a genetic experiment. She grabs him and starts to freeze him up, but lets go at the last moment. Eventually Tracy cannot take the stress of having this new power, or the fact that she accidentally killed a reporter a few episodes back. She throws herself off a bridge, but (in a sequence you could have seen coming from a mile away) Nathan Petrelli flies in and catches her.

PARKMAN- Parkman is still in Africa, with Usutu, the dude with the headphones, who has Isaac’s ability to paint the future. Parkman takes in some sort of substance that Usutu gives him that makes his eyes go white, and he actually sees pretty much the same stuff that Peter sees when he goes into the future. Parkman, four years from now, is married to Daphne, and they have an infant child of their own. Molly still lives with Parkman as well. At the end of his vision experience, Parkman sees that Daphne didn’t die in the explosion in California, but was not fast enough not to escape the blast. She dies, in New York City, in the Future Parkman’s arms. Present day Parkman is now convinced that he has to find Daphne and try to prevent the catastrophe in California. Usutu tells him that in order to do so, he must find his spirit animal. The last scene with Parkman in it, is him following a turtle. I kid you not.

HIRO AND ANDO- Hiro and Ando are stuck in the prison that the company set up for super powered beings. While they look for a possible way of escape, they bicker back and forth. Ando still trying to convince Hiro that he is not going to betray him in the future, but Hiro admits that every time he looks at Ando, he is reminded of the image of his best friend killing him, four years from now. They are able to open up an air duct, and attempt to crawl through it. Before they can, the Haitian shows up and brings them to see Angela Petrelli. Angela finally gets around to explaining what the formula that Hiro and Ando have been trying to secure is actually for.
The episode ends with Hiro and Ando digging up a grave. In the grave is the very much alive Adam, the main villain from Season 2, who wakes up and starts to choke Hiro. In true ‘Heroes’ fashion, when Adam begins to say a curse, the TO BE CONTINUED flashes on the screen.

PHEW! How the hell did all of this happen in less than an hour of television? Summarizing all the events in this one episode felt like writing a graduate level term paper. That is both the strength and the weakness of ‘Heroes’ Season 3- You get more action and special effects than any episode in the previous two seasons, but there is just so much spectacle going on, that there is no time for any type of character development or drama.
When in a movie theater, there are times when you will hear an audience member groan or yell something out, because they have become way too confused with what the film they are watching. Since you are on this site, I am sure you are like me, and that you can keep up with the most confusing of movies or televisions shows. You most likely chuckle at the other viewers who have gotten themselves lost in the plot.
This season of ‘Heroes’ has turned me into the confused viewer. It is different from the show ‘Lost’, which is a show that thrives on the fact that it has countless plot twists that can literally stun audiences. ‘Lost’ for the most part, will offer one or two plot twists per episode, and also have one main story, focused on a single character. ‘Heroes’ offers revelation after revelation, within a single episode, featuring a cast of characters that you need a scorecard to keep track of.
I am worried that the writers of ‘Heroes’ are offering more distracting plot twists, instead of answers to lingering questions. Don’t get me wrong, the revelations are very exciting- Sylar is Peter and Nathan’s brother, The Company has had a formula similar to the one Mohinder has created and they have used it to make Heroes of their own, the Company has kept a group of Villains locked up for years in a secret facility. It is just that the viewers need some time to let these revelations sink in. Let us use our imaginations to ponder what you have just revealed to us, before you throw us another shiny object.