Heroes 2.22 Landslide
May. 15th, 2007 02:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakRain in Berlin, which means hotel time, which means opportunity to post.
Firstly, I want to live in tv world, where one always learns sword fighting in minimal time and maximum efficiency.*g* But seriously, who cares, when it's possible to geek out about the George Takei trains Masi Osada sequence (and how long before someone uses icons with Sulu caps from The Naked Time, hm?)? It's just irresistable. On a more serious note, I think Hiro's interpretation of the story his father told him as a child gets the point wrong, though whether or not Kaito Nakamura also gets the point wrong or just allows Hiro to in order to let Hiro learn by himself isn't yet clear. Also, Hiro isn't the only one currently on the wrong interpretation track. The hero, wanting to unite a country, gets his power from the dragon. And his power is granted. And finally the dragon asks the hero to sacrifice the princess. Whereupon the hero plunges the sword in his own heart instead. Now call me somewhat single-minded, but I think I'm seeing certain parallels to certain speculations and predictions for another character here.
But back to Hiro. Who thinks it means to cut out his own heart - i.e. become future Hiro; meanwhile, Ando I think has the right idea, because what it means is NOT to sacrifice someone else, no matter who the princess is - a stranger or the person you love most - and it doesn't mean to take your own humanity away, either; it means to sacrifice your own life. Which Ando, "non-special Ando", is currently prepared to do in order to save the world from Sylar. I love him quite a lot, and still think he'll survive because we need "normal" people on this show in addition to the super-powered ones, and because Ando's survival or death is directly tied to Hiro remaining his true self.
Meanwhile, storylines converge everywhere. Molly telling Mohinder about her "other hero", Matt, currently on his way to kill her without being aware that this is what he signed on for, being nearby brought to my attention that the phrase "my hero" is used repeatedly on this show; Claire of course used it in regards to Peter in Fallout, Molly uses it here, and Nathan uses it in his conversation with Linderman in regards to the late Mr. Petrelli, when Linderman tells him that his father failed to save the world, was weak and despaired: "My father was my hero." (More about that in a moment.) Then we have Micah asking Candice why she doesn't use her ability to "be a hero". Candice gaining depth in her scenes with Micah looks pretty much like a death sentence - see also: Eden and Isaac - but it's still neat to see, and I feel somewhat smug about having observed several reviews earlier that we have no way of knowing whether her "Candice" appearance is her real one. As the invidiual specials have powers which you usually can connect and/or contrast to something in their personality, it makes Candice the illusionist, who delights in taunting people, would have a natural appearance that got her mocked and scorned before her abilities kicked in. Also, interestingly Candice appears genuinenly convinced of the Linderman plan, as opposed to being just a pragmatist working for the richest guy on the block.
Linderman's conviction of being able to read and predict people is what turns out to be his Achilles heel here. He thinks he knows how Jessica ticks, and he's not completely wrong, but the one issue he never factored in was the possibility that Jessica would voluntarily allow Niki control so that Niki might resist temptation. No matter whether you think of Jessica as an alternate personality created by Niki in the wake of the death of her sister Jessica, or genuinenly seperate entity, Jessica came into existence to protect Niki. That was far from her only goal later on, but it was the first and original one, and Jessica knows Niki does not want DL dead and could not, literary, live with herself if Jessica took Linderman's money, shot DL and ran. In the Five Years Gone future, we saw Niki grieving for Jessica; here, we see Jessica giving up her supremacy for Niki. That's what Linderman didn't factor in. He knew that Jessica cared for Micah, but he had ignored what Jessica feels for Niki.
Is DL dead or just mostly dead? When last seen, he still moves, and given his phasing ability he could use that to get rid of the bullet at least. If he dies, though, it means we're already on a different time line than the Five Years Gone one, as DL there survived long enough for Sylar to take his ability. Either way, despite what he told Nathan I hadn't seriously believed DL would be the one to kill Linderman, so kudos to the show for surprising me, and again, Linderman's confidence in his control of people becomes his downfall; he didn't count on DL being ever more than a tool.
Mr. Bennet and Matt continue to be great foils, and if they both survive, I hope these won't be the last scenes we get with them. I love that the show continues to keep Bennet ruthless, despite his joining the White Hats; he was aware "the Walker system" was a person, and deliberately didn't tell Matt or Ted, because he knew they'd balk at murder. He just didn't know it was a little girl, which stunned him. Mind you, even without the Mexican stand-off with Mohinder, I don't think the show would let kill Bennet Molly, because Bennet is a sympathetic character now, and sympathetic characters aren't allowed to kill children, so he'll probably stop at the last minute. With Mohinder, the show has given him an excuse for doing so.
Audrey is back! I was so hoping we hadn't seen the last of her. You know, as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cadesama said the other day, it would be a lovely irony if none of the superpowered folk but Audrey were the one to eventually take out Sylar, he of the "I'm the most specialest ever" complex: a policewoman doing her job. Granted, in this episode he used her, but I think by giving her the name "Isaac Mendez" he might have made a crucial mistake. She has seen him now, and soon the police will discover Isaac is dead, and has been for a while, so Audrey will know whom she talked to, and how he looks like. And Sylar hasn't got Candice's illusions yet.
Claire wanting to be a patrolling superhero once the world is saved was wonderful, though I wonder whether more trauma is in store for her that is responsible for having chosen NOT to do that in the "Five Years Gone" future. If we're already on a seperate timeline, the point is moot, I guess; if the timeline hasn't separated yet, I have some guesses relating to the second promo, which I'll mention later.
This was the first episode in which we saw Peter use the telepathy he absorbed from Matt since Fallout; presumably meeting Matt again has reminded him he can do this. Very useful in the Sylar regard, and perhaps others.
Most heart-breaking scene of the episode: without question Hiro and Nathan. The friendship that had sprung up between them had been a very unexpected and always very delightful aspect of the show, and to see Hiro disappointed by his Flying Man was incredibly sad. Even more so because what Hiro hears and what Nathan says are two different things - what Nathan says is resignation - "this will happen" ; what Hiro hears is a taunt - "you can't stop it". And yet Hiro's cries of "villain" (echoing their conversation in Godsend) serve an emotional truth here, and I think it's important for the continuing story that Nathan hears them. (The counterpoint to the Linderman-and-Angela uttered justifications, and pronounced by the one person outside the family Nathan was shown as genuinenly liking and being nice to without getting an advantage of his own.) Paradoxically, this scene also confirmed to me they'll go for the non-evil route with Nathan, though whether they'll go for the last minute act of heroism and death or for survival I still don't know. Why? Because Hiro getting disillusioned if Nathan actually stays on the dark side path would serve no purpose in this episode, it would come in the last one, and presumably would lead directly to a showdown and/or death scene.
The Nathan and Linderman scene and Nathan's acceptance speech at the end frame the episode in a way, and in quite a layered way; they also need to be considered together. On one level, Nathan's speech is the usual political double talk, a standard victory speech of a voted politician, and hypocritical at that because to get to this point, he has made Faustian deals. (Also, his election is a fraud, though it's interesting Linderman never told Nathan that; he did say he'd make sure Nathan wins in .07%, but he never specified the method, and since Nathan starts their early conversation by bringing up the polls, it's obvious he still doesn't know.) (If Nathan survives the season, though, I bet the next one will have an investigation into the vote subplot.) On another, the speech is full of echoes. Linderman's "healing the world" phrase, yes, but more pointedly, all the references to family: children, brother, father. "Pa would have me committed for even considering this insanity," Nathan tells Linderman (incidentally, it's interesting that Nathan calls their parents "Ma" and "Pa" whereas Peter refers to them as "Mom" and "Dad"), and, as quoted above, there is the "my father was my hero" retort to Linderman's "your father was weak".
Speculation: Petrelli Senior was the one originally meant to go to the White House via major catastrophe first, but he couldn't go through with it and killed himself. That, or he was killed, which is also an option.
Linderman then heals Heidi, providing a miracle, which was probably meant as an example (as well as a way to put Nathan even more in his debt): the healing of an injury he himself caused. He puts his emphasis on both the inevitability of the explosion, and the "what we do next, that is what counts" lesson. What does come next, though? Especially given the question of parental examples? When Linderman just before DL and Jessica showed up later mentions on the phone with his flunky that the Petrelli family will be extracted and emphasises to make sure "they're all there", it solved one question for me - if Nathan has come to believe the impending explosion will be inevitable, why let his wife and children stay around? - and set up another speculation, which Nathan's final speech strengthened: he'll let Heidi and the boys - and presumably Angela Petrelli, too - be brought to safety via Linderman's flunky... but he himself will stay in New York. Now whether at this point this is because he knows he could fly to safety on his lonesome, or because he actually intends to die (father as example), especially given that Hiro told him the future and he himself will be bad (and I think Nathan believes in Hiro's abilities at least as much as in everyone else's predictions), or whether he still hasn't made up his mind and wants to find out where Peter is, I don't know. But I think this is why Nathan is present in both of Peter's visions of the explosion.
And now some Claire-related promo speculation, based on the Canadian promo:
Claire saying "the future is not written in stone" is making the most eloquent case for free will on this show yet. She could say it to Peter or Nathan. The clip which has her saying "how can you not do something to stop it?" with Angela standing behind her has to be adressed to Nathan. On the other hand, the clip where she says "I trusted you" can't be addressed to Nathan, as she doesn't (trust him, that is) - the two people Claire trusts right now are Mr. Bennet and Peter. Of the two, Mr. Bennet could be the adressee if he tries to get her out of town against her will despite Claire's declaration that she wants to say and help save world, or it could be Peter, but then I'm stumped for a reason. Maybe whatever the reason is could explain why Five-years-gone-Claire isn't in the heroes business and definitely not anywhere near Peter?
Firstly, I want to live in tv world, where one always learns sword fighting in minimal time and maximum efficiency.*g* But seriously, who cares, when it's possible to geek out about the George Takei trains Masi Osada sequence (and how long before someone uses icons with Sulu caps from The Naked Time, hm?)? It's just irresistable. On a more serious note, I think Hiro's interpretation of the story his father told him as a child gets the point wrong, though whether or not Kaito Nakamura also gets the point wrong or just allows Hiro to in order to let Hiro learn by himself isn't yet clear. Also, Hiro isn't the only one currently on the wrong interpretation track. The hero, wanting to unite a country, gets his power from the dragon. And his power is granted. And finally the dragon asks the hero to sacrifice the princess. Whereupon the hero plunges the sword in his own heart instead. Now call me somewhat single-minded, but I think I'm seeing certain parallels to certain speculations and predictions for another character here.
But back to Hiro. Who thinks it means to cut out his own heart - i.e. become future Hiro; meanwhile, Ando I think has the right idea, because what it means is NOT to sacrifice someone else, no matter who the princess is - a stranger or the person you love most - and it doesn't mean to take your own humanity away, either; it means to sacrifice your own life. Which Ando, "non-special Ando", is currently prepared to do in order to save the world from Sylar. I love him quite a lot, and still think he'll survive because we need "normal" people on this show in addition to the super-powered ones, and because Ando's survival or death is directly tied to Hiro remaining his true self.
Meanwhile, storylines converge everywhere. Molly telling Mohinder about her "other hero", Matt, currently on his way to kill her without being aware that this is what he signed on for, being nearby brought to my attention that the phrase "my hero" is used repeatedly on this show; Claire of course used it in regards to Peter in Fallout, Molly uses it here, and Nathan uses it in his conversation with Linderman in regards to the late Mr. Petrelli, when Linderman tells him that his father failed to save the world, was weak and despaired: "My father was my hero." (More about that in a moment.) Then we have Micah asking Candice why she doesn't use her ability to "be a hero". Candice gaining depth in her scenes with Micah looks pretty much like a death sentence - see also: Eden and Isaac - but it's still neat to see, and I feel somewhat smug about having observed several reviews earlier that we have no way of knowing whether her "Candice" appearance is her real one. As the invidiual specials have powers which you usually can connect and/or contrast to something in their personality, it makes Candice the illusionist, who delights in taunting people, would have a natural appearance that got her mocked and scorned before her abilities kicked in. Also, interestingly Candice appears genuinenly convinced of the Linderman plan, as opposed to being just a pragmatist working for the richest guy on the block.
Linderman's conviction of being able to read and predict people is what turns out to be his Achilles heel here. He thinks he knows how Jessica ticks, and he's not completely wrong, but the one issue he never factored in was the possibility that Jessica would voluntarily allow Niki control so that Niki might resist temptation. No matter whether you think of Jessica as an alternate personality created by Niki in the wake of the death of her sister Jessica, or genuinenly seperate entity, Jessica came into existence to protect Niki. That was far from her only goal later on, but it was the first and original one, and Jessica knows Niki does not want DL dead and could not, literary, live with herself if Jessica took Linderman's money, shot DL and ran. In the Five Years Gone future, we saw Niki grieving for Jessica; here, we see Jessica giving up her supremacy for Niki. That's what Linderman didn't factor in. He knew that Jessica cared for Micah, but he had ignored what Jessica feels for Niki.
Is DL dead or just mostly dead? When last seen, he still moves, and given his phasing ability he could use that to get rid of the bullet at least. If he dies, though, it means we're already on a different time line than the Five Years Gone one, as DL there survived long enough for Sylar to take his ability. Either way, despite what he told Nathan I hadn't seriously believed DL would be the one to kill Linderman, so kudos to the show for surprising me, and again, Linderman's confidence in his control of people becomes his downfall; he didn't count on DL being ever more than a tool.
Mr. Bennet and Matt continue to be great foils, and if they both survive, I hope these won't be the last scenes we get with them. I love that the show continues to keep Bennet ruthless, despite his joining the White Hats; he was aware "the Walker system" was a person, and deliberately didn't tell Matt or Ted, because he knew they'd balk at murder. He just didn't know it was a little girl, which stunned him. Mind you, even without the Mexican stand-off with Mohinder, I don't think the show would let kill Bennet Molly, because Bennet is a sympathetic character now, and sympathetic characters aren't allowed to kill children, so he'll probably stop at the last minute. With Mohinder, the show has given him an excuse for doing so.
Audrey is back! I was so hoping we hadn't seen the last of her. You know, as
cadesama said the other day, it would be a lovely irony if none of the superpowered folk but Audrey were the one to eventually take out Sylar, he of the "I'm the most specialest ever" complex: a policewoman doing her job. Granted, in this episode he used her, but I think by giving her the name "Isaac Mendez" he might have made a crucial mistake. She has seen him now, and soon the police will discover Isaac is dead, and has been for a while, so Audrey will know whom she talked to, and how he looks like. And Sylar hasn't got Candice's illusions yet. Claire wanting to be a patrolling superhero once the world is saved was wonderful, though I wonder whether more trauma is in store for her that is responsible for having chosen NOT to do that in the "Five Years Gone" future. If we're already on a seperate timeline, the point is moot, I guess; if the timeline hasn't separated yet, I have some guesses relating to the second promo, which I'll mention later.
This was the first episode in which we saw Peter use the telepathy he absorbed from Matt since Fallout; presumably meeting Matt again has reminded him he can do this. Very useful in the Sylar regard, and perhaps others.
Most heart-breaking scene of the episode: without question Hiro and Nathan. The friendship that had sprung up between them had been a very unexpected and always very delightful aspect of the show, and to see Hiro disappointed by his Flying Man was incredibly sad. Even more so because what Hiro hears and what Nathan says are two different things - what Nathan says is resignation - "this will happen" ; what Hiro hears is a taunt - "you can't stop it". And yet Hiro's cries of "villain" (echoing their conversation in Godsend) serve an emotional truth here, and I think it's important for the continuing story that Nathan hears them. (The counterpoint to the Linderman-and-Angela uttered justifications, and pronounced by the one person outside the family Nathan was shown as genuinenly liking and being nice to without getting an advantage of his own.) Paradoxically, this scene also confirmed to me they'll go for the non-evil route with Nathan, though whether they'll go for the last minute act of heroism and death or for survival I still don't know. Why? Because Hiro getting disillusioned if Nathan actually stays on the dark side path would serve no purpose in this episode, it would come in the last one, and presumably would lead directly to a showdown and/or death scene.
The Nathan and Linderman scene and Nathan's acceptance speech at the end frame the episode in a way, and in quite a layered way; they also need to be considered together. On one level, Nathan's speech is the usual political double talk, a standard victory speech of a voted politician, and hypocritical at that because to get to this point, he has made Faustian deals. (Also, his election is a fraud, though it's interesting Linderman never told Nathan that; he did say he'd make sure Nathan wins in .07%, but he never specified the method, and since Nathan starts their early conversation by bringing up the polls, it's obvious he still doesn't know.) (If Nathan survives the season, though, I bet the next one will have an investigation into the vote subplot.) On another, the speech is full of echoes. Linderman's "healing the world" phrase, yes, but more pointedly, all the references to family: children, brother, father. "Pa would have me committed for even considering this insanity," Nathan tells Linderman (incidentally, it's interesting that Nathan calls their parents "Ma" and "Pa" whereas Peter refers to them as "Mom" and "Dad"), and, as quoted above, there is the "my father was my hero" retort to Linderman's "your father was weak".
Speculation: Petrelli Senior was the one originally meant to go to the White House via major catastrophe first, but he couldn't go through with it and killed himself. That, or he was killed, which is also an option.
Linderman then heals Heidi, providing a miracle, which was probably meant as an example (as well as a way to put Nathan even more in his debt): the healing of an injury he himself caused. He puts his emphasis on both the inevitability of the explosion, and the "what we do next, that is what counts" lesson. What does come next, though? Especially given the question of parental examples? When Linderman just before DL and Jessica showed up later mentions on the phone with his flunky that the Petrelli family will be extracted and emphasises to make sure "they're all there", it solved one question for me - if Nathan has come to believe the impending explosion will be inevitable, why let his wife and children stay around? - and set up another speculation, which Nathan's final speech strengthened: he'll let Heidi and the boys - and presumably Angela Petrelli, too - be brought to safety via Linderman's flunky... but he himself will stay in New York. Now whether at this point this is because he knows he could fly to safety on his lonesome, or because he actually intends to die (father as example), especially given that Hiro told him the future and he himself will be bad (and I think Nathan believes in Hiro's abilities at least as much as in everyone else's predictions), or whether he still hasn't made up his mind and wants to find out where Peter is, I don't know. But I think this is why Nathan is present in both of Peter's visions of the explosion.
And now some Claire-related promo speculation, based on the Canadian promo:
Claire saying "the future is not written in stone" is making the most eloquent case for free will on this show yet. She could say it to Peter or Nathan. The clip which has her saying "how can you not do something to stop it?" with Angela standing behind her has to be adressed to Nathan. On the other hand, the clip where she says "I trusted you" can't be addressed to Nathan, as she doesn't (trust him, that is) - the two people Claire trusts right now are Mr. Bennet and Peter. Of the two, Mr. Bennet could be the adressee if he tries to get her out of town against her will despite Claire's declaration that she wants to say and help save world, or it could be Peter, but then I'm stumped for a reason. Maybe whatever the reason is could explain why Five-years-gone-Claire isn't in the heroes business and definitely not anywhere near Peter?
