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Heroes Rewatch: episode 1.07, Nothing to Hide
Or, the one with the brunch scenes. But I promise not to squeal just about those.*g*
Nothing to Hide opens with a dream sequence that spawned endless theories and after the finale will spawn some more. In it we start with Peter reading and talking to his patient Charles Deveaux. Given that the audience knows Peter has quit his job as a nurse and that Charles Deveaux when last seen was not in a state to talk, this clues us in pretty quickly we’re either watching a memory or a dream. Or a dreamed memory that changes into a a vision. In any case, Peter is doing what he says he does for Charles in the pilot of the show – reading the stock market section. In a neat bit of continuity, he reads out loud the following: “M-Core's holding steady, but Yamagato -- Yamagato is down to 215 and an eighth. I think that's a good bargain.” Yamagato is the company Hiro works for, which is owned, as we later found out, by Kaito Nakamura, his father, and according to Kimiko, Hiro’s sister, somewhat in trouble.
But of course the stock market isn’t the point of the conversation. Charles Deveaux plays pretty much the ideal father in Peter’s dream, teasing, affectionate, full of confidence in Peter and praise. Given this is a dream, we don’t know whether it is an accurate rendition or Peter’s image of Charles. It could be either, or both. (The implication of Charles’ behaviour are not nearly as benevolent as they appear, but that’s a rant I’ve already written.) In retrospect, you can spot the switch of the dream going from what is likely a memory to a vision here:
CHARLES DEVEAUX: In the end, all that matters is love. I love you, Peter.
PETER: I love you too, Charles.
CHARLES DEVEAUX: You speak your mind. You know who you are. You know what you want. That's your power. That's your strength.
Foreshadowing both the dream sequence in the finale and a certain exchange between spoken between Petrellis. Peter then tells Charles he can fly and does in fact fly over New York, at which point he hears the buzz at his door and is woken up by the news of Charles’ death. Simone, showing up distraught, tells him Charles became coherent shortly before dying and spoke of a dream shared with Peter. Now, this more than anything caused the Peter-picked-up-his-visionary-dreams-from-Charles theory (the only downside of which is that Peter has true dream in “Six Months Ago”, directly after graduating from nursing school and definitely before meeting either Deveaux for the first time), but it’s worth noting that the dream Simone describes is not the same dream we just saw Peter having.
Here’s Simone’s description: “He said he'd been flying all over the world. But that it was a world he didn't recognize. There was so many people filled with pain. Nobody looking out for each other. He worried for them. And for me. Until you told him everything would be okay.
(…) he said that you were flying with him. And you told him it was all gonna be okay. That there were people who cared, who would make a difference. That you would save the world. After that, he just put his head down and ... he was gone. Like he was falling asleep.”
In Peter’s dream, Charles is the one reassuring him, and Peter then flies alone – something which at this point he can’t do yet. There is nothing in Peter’s dream about saving the world. In the dream Simone narrates, not only is there shared flight with Charles, but Peter is put in the reassuring, confident role, and making a pledge to saving the world to boot. But of course, Simone is only repeating what Charles told her.
So, if you want my current theory? Dying!Charles, whether or not he shared Peter’s dream, knew exactly what he was saying. He knew Simone would repeat it to Peter. It was the Charles Deveaux version of the Linderman speech in .07%, of the Angela speech in The Hard Part. The world is sick; it is your task, young Petrelli, to save it, and you’d better. You are my champion.
(The older generation is such a bunch of manipulative pullstringers. Charles actually scares me more than the other two in this regard.)
As Simone from this point onwards supports Peter’s efforts in superheroism, the speech worked on her, too. There is a great irony in Peter promising to be there for her in this scene, to “not go anywhere”, because of course the next scene they’ll have is the “off to Texas now, bye” one, and then they will never talk again. He’s be literary and figuratively gone. We have three marital or boyfriend-girlfriend relationships in this episode, Nathan and Heidi, Matt and Janice, and Peter and Simone. Two of these couples are depicted under strain by extramarital affairs, hidden superpowers and a lot of guilt; Peter and Simone, on the other hand, get the young-lovers-becoming closer via shared grief scene. But in the end, their relationship turns out to be the flimsiest, most unreal of the three; it’s questionable whether either Peter or Simone ever really knew each other at all.
Speaking of Matt and Janice: this time, Matt’s subplot improves from Hiros, not because his marriage problems become more interesting but because Audrey is back, and drafts him into her Sylar investigation again, which means Matt is back with the main plot. (Not to mention having great partner interaction with Audrey.) One thing about Matt’s marriage problems, though, i.e. the telepathic discovery that his wife had an affair with one of his collegues: he reacts by decking the guy. Matt is usually much with the nice guy everman persona, but he does have a temper, and if you like, you can see one of the potential seeds for 5YG!Matt here, as it takes physical form.
The tracking of Sylar leads Matt and Audrey to Ted, who gets introduced with this episode. The aftermath of adultery isn’t the only parallel between Matt’s subplot and Nathan’s; Nathan’s power – specifically, its first manifestation – is responsible for the crippled state of his wife Heidi, while Ted Sprague’s power not only crippled but slowly killed his wife Karen. Matt is able to help Ted via translating Karen’s thoughts for him; defusing Ted on various occasions will become something of an ongoing task for Matt later in the season. The way Ted’s power is directly tied to emotional control, or lack of same, is important to the overall plot, too. Given that this is before Fallout, the first time viewer knows only that there will be an explosion in New York, and Ted at this point becomes a prime suspect.
Claire’s subplot is relatively light-hearted, for Claire’s overall storyline: brother Lyle finds the tape where she demonstrates her superpowers, and threatens to tell on her until Claire convinces him to give it back by saying: “Don't you get it? If they found out, Mom and Dad would think it was a mistake to ever adopt me. We wouldn't be a family anymore. Please.”
Lyle rarely shows up on this show, and notably is the child Mr. Bennet doesn’t angst over, and has no problem mindwiping. Their mother seems to treat him and Claire equally, but it wouldn’t be surprising if Lyle felt completely overshadowed by Claire when it comes to their father. Here, as soon as Claire shows she’s genuinenly vulnerable and afraid, he stops with the fraternal taunting and delivers the tape. I spy another parallel, this time between the Bennet and Petrelli subplots.
Hiro and Ando have another on the road adventure, and their second meeting with another superpowered person (first one was Hiro & Nathan), though DL doesn’t notice. (Micah does.) It’s an early instance of two heroes combining their powers (inadvertendly) – DL getting the woman out of the car, Hiro by freezing time getting both the woman and DL to safety – and a great example of Hiro-Ando dynamics as Ando beams proudly at Hiro afterwards, and Hiro bows in return. It’s definitely the highlight of Micah’s day, as his father displays heroics, when the rest of his roadtrip is spent by Micah worrying about his mother. At which point we get another continuity glitch – Micah being able to tell Niki and Jessica apart on the phone. Micah is supposed to be super intelligent, but this is more insight he displays for the rest of the season. Though one can fanwank that later on when Jessica is around he has decided he’ll take his mother either as Niki or Jessica, and this in turn causes initial confusion when Candice gets into the act as well.
Meanwhile, Niki’s life gets from bad to worse as she is faced with a husband-abducted child, the realization DL got framed by her alter ego, and no idea what to do about it. Her friend Tina can’t provide more than sympathetic words. She calls Nathan (and btw, I want to know how she got the phone number, because I can’t see him giving it to her), which isn’t the best idea given not just the married situation but the fact when last he saw her, she told him their night together got taped and she knew it was a blackmail set-up, but a) I suppose she’s desperate and b) the fact Nathan had been decent to her the morning after could have impressed her. Either way, he tells her he can’t help her and hangs up. Which leads to Niki smashing the mirror and surrendering control to Jessica. Niki’s storyline is shakily written at times, but I do love the symmetry of it, as the turning point for Niki will be when Jessica surrenders control to her. Niki gives Jessica control because she feels unable to get Micah back otherwise, because she can’t face using power and violence against DL herself; Jessica will give control back to Niki during a mission to get Micah back because she knows she’s very able to use power and violence against DL, but she also knows what it would do to Niki. And when Niki makes the step to integrating both her halfs, it’s via a broken mirror again.
But the heart, the core of this episode? Are the Petrelli scenes. This is where the Petrelli family dynamic fully clicks into place. We’ve seen Angela at Nathan’s campaign speech before, but this is the first time we see that despite her cool personal relationship with him, she is majorly invested in getting him elected.
(Also, Jesse Alexander, the scriptwriter, is great with the exchanges between mother and son:
NATHAN: You're kidding.
ANGELA: No, I never kid about family brunch.
NATHAN: That's because we never have family brunch.)
Nathan’s wife Heidi has been referred to before, but this is where we actually meet her, and both the script and Rena Sofer and Adrian Pasdar manage to suggest a great deal about the marriage in a very limited time. Heidi comes across as smart, very able to tell Nathan to cut the crap:
NATHAN: I am not gonna use my family for political gain.
HEIDI: Tell that to Peter. Nathan, you've been trying to protect me since this happened. It's sweet in theory, but in practice, it's insulting. I'm not made of glass.
But also as very much in love with him. When she asks him in their last scene in this episode together whether he stil loves her, there is an undertone of desperation in her voice, and her ensuing words:
“I know what this chair means to us as a couple. But I need you to know that I'm going to walk again. The doctors say it's a long shot. But I can do it if I have a reason. We just need some hope, Nathan, that our life can be like it was. What Peter said about you checking out a clinic for him with a doctor. Tell me that's what happened. If you say it is ... I'll believe you. Just give me some hope.”
Are very ambiguous. Is she asking him to tell her the truth, or to lie to her? I’m tending to believe the later right now, if only because Heidi’s earlier “Tell that to Peter” remark indicates she’s well aware Nathan’s “my-brother-tried-to-commit-suicide” stunt with the press was for politics, not truth. But I could be wrong. At any rate, the close up of Heidi’s face after Nathan has given her the reassurance she asked for and has taken position behind her wheelchair, when he can’t see her face anymore, is such a great expression, somewhere between joy and pain, and a great contrast to her composure throughout the actual brunch scene, where she has a much better poker face than Nathan once the reporter starts with his attacks.
As for Nathan’s attitude towards his wife, again, script and writing manage to suggest a lot in brief time, such as when Heidi says, after Angela has announced the reporter will be here in an hour, “then I’d better get ready” and pushes her wheelchair out of the room, the first time the audience sees it. After she left, Nathan says “yes; good idea”, and the expression on his face and his tone suggest he feels guilty for her state long before the reporter makes his “your husband was driving, wasn’t he?” question. (Though we won’t find out the full truth until the flashback in Six Months Ago, which will provide us with a crucial information regarding Nathan’s attitude towards the entire superpowers gig, especially his own.) It’s typical that he delivers his explanation for the one night stand in Vegas to Peter, not Heidi; you get the impression he does love his wife, but he takes the easy way out, via lying, rather than risking losing her via telling her the truth about either the one night stand or the super powers. “Heidi doesn’t need the truth, she needs hope” is using the justification for lying she gave him, but it’s still his choice to use it. And it’s a contrast to his relationship with Peter, which is in no ways lacking of arguments but also based on a security that said arguments never mean the end of the relationship.
Nothing To Hide is evidence A against the perception of Peter as a naïve babe in the woods among the Petrellis. At this point of the show, only a few days have passed since the earlier mentioned press stunt, and he’s still understandably pissed off about it, but when Simone mentions the painting of Isaac Peter wants was bought by her client, Mr. Linderman, Peter does not choose to ask Simone to get it back from Linderman. Or, say, to give him Linderman’s phone number. He doesn’t tell her he knows exactly who Linderman is, either. Instead, he shows up at Nathan’s and asks Nathan to get the painting from Linderman for him, and a great mixture of fraternal powerplay, needling and unexpected solidarity ensues. Coupled with lots of shoulder kneading, since we’re talking Petrellis here. It’s typical for them that early in the conversation they have alone, when Peter says “Charles Deveaux died this morning”, Nathan takes a time out from brushing him off because of the reporter to say quietly “I’m sorry. Were you there?”, and that later on during the brunch of glorious double talk and dysfunctionality, the moment it’s apparent the reporter goes after a genuine weak spot of Nathan’s, the mysterious blonde in Vegas, Peter helps him out by providing him with an alibi.
But back to Peter as an active player in Petrelli power issues. This will always be one of my favourite exchanges between them:
NATHAN: Peter, I'm sorry. But you're gonna have to go, okay?
PETER: Hey, you know what? I'm just gonna fly off the terrace, yeah? No? Hey, I can fly. Nathan, so can you.
(Peter puts his hands on Nathan’s shoulders. Of course he does.)
PETER: I'll tell you what. Why don't we just race around the Statue of Liberty real quick, huh? Give this tweedy guy something to write about.
NATHAN: You wouldn't.
PETER: Ah?
(Peter gives Nathan a look and heads for the terrace.)
And the ensuing “sure I’m going to vote for Nathan” speech while Nathan looks daggers and Peter looks back like he’s having the time of his life is just fun, fun, fun. (Incidentally, Angela looks as if she’s impressed by Peter. Heidi looks like she wonders when they’ll grow up.) The best thing about Peter coming to the rescue regarding Vegas, though? It’s not completely altruistic and closing ranks in front of an outsider. He knows damm well Nathan will get the painting for him now.
Which Nathan does, but Nathan being Nathan, he finds away to fulfill Peter’s request and yet not. Because all things special and superpowers genuinenly freak him out, and presumably he has a suspicion about that painting, he asks Linderman to send it not to either Peter or himself, but directly back to Simone’s gallery. (Where, as we’ll see, he’ll be able to take a look at it first.) And then he shows up at Peter’s apartment, and we get more dysfunctional Petrelli fun. Because Nathan – looking casually dressed more than at any other point in this show when he’s not being kidnapped in his pjs – manages to simultanously confess one thing, explain another, share an important truth about another, and lie about a fourth. Now you’d think he’d tell the truth about the painting, but no. That’s what he lies about. (I.e. Linderman’s willingness to part with same.) Instead, Peter gets the why-I-committed-adultery explanation, and you’ve got to love Peter responding to “I just needed to be with someone who didn’t make me feel guilty every time I looked at her” with “So, did you talk to Linderman?” (Ah, priorities.)
In regards to future events, their most important exchange is probably:
PETER: With this thing, we can make a difference.
NATHAN: I'm trying to make a difference, Peter, the best way I know how. Flying around, how is that going to help anybody? What is that gonna -- What am I gonna do when I get there? I don't have a gun. I don't have a badge. I don't know karate. I guess I could put on a costume and fly around and pull cats out of trees. How's that gonna make a difference?
PETER: You're not gonna know until you try.
Indeed. *gets misty-eyed at the thought of finale again*
It present time, it says something about their constant push and pull – I once joked that the dynamic between Peter and Nathan exchanges can be shortened to:
Peter: I want.
Nathan: You can’t.
Argument: *ensues*
Peter: *does dangerous stuff*
Nathan: *ends up doing what Peter wanted in the first place*
But it’s equally viable to read the dynamic as:
Peter: You can.
Nathan: No, I don’t.
Argument: *ensues* etc.
Nathan feels challenged to justify himself and to look at those other possibilities by Peter in a way he doesn’t by anyone else (at this point; Claire later becomes a second challenger).
Telling Peter about the aborted kidnapping in Vegas is another priceless Petrelli moment, because you can tell that Peter’s “son of a bitch. You expect me to believe that?” reaction isn’t because he actually disbelieves Nathan but because helping out with the reporter or not, he’s still a bit in payback mode, and Peter’s way for paying Nathan back for being a dick is by being bratty.
But note: all this is done with the absolute certainty that no matter how much they irritate each other at times, they won’t lose each other. So “you’re still a bastard; now, get that painting for me!” and “will you shut up about the special crap? Let me tell you all about my marital crisis!” is absoutely compatible. They are so awesomely co-dependent, and I love them to bits.
Nothing to Hide opens with a dream sequence that spawned endless theories and after the finale will spawn some more. In it we start with Peter reading and talking to his patient Charles Deveaux. Given that the audience knows Peter has quit his job as a nurse and that Charles Deveaux when last seen was not in a state to talk, this clues us in pretty quickly we’re either watching a memory or a dream. Or a dreamed memory that changes into a a vision. In any case, Peter is doing what he says he does for Charles in the pilot of the show – reading the stock market section. In a neat bit of continuity, he reads out loud the following: “M-Core's holding steady, but Yamagato -- Yamagato is down to 215 and an eighth. I think that's a good bargain.” Yamagato is the company Hiro works for, which is owned, as we later found out, by Kaito Nakamura, his father, and according to Kimiko, Hiro’s sister, somewhat in trouble.
But of course the stock market isn’t the point of the conversation. Charles Deveaux plays pretty much the ideal father in Peter’s dream, teasing, affectionate, full of confidence in Peter and praise. Given this is a dream, we don’t know whether it is an accurate rendition or Peter’s image of Charles. It could be either, or both. (The implication of Charles’ behaviour are not nearly as benevolent as they appear, but that’s a rant I’ve already written.) In retrospect, you can spot the switch of the dream going from what is likely a memory to a vision here:
CHARLES DEVEAUX: In the end, all that matters is love. I love you, Peter.
PETER: I love you too, Charles.
CHARLES DEVEAUX: You speak your mind. You know who you are. You know what you want. That's your power. That's your strength.
Foreshadowing both the dream sequence in the finale and a certain exchange between spoken between Petrellis. Peter then tells Charles he can fly and does in fact fly over New York, at which point he hears the buzz at his door and is woken up by the news of Charles’ death. Simone, showing up distraught, tells him Charles became coherent shortly before dying and spoke of a dream shared with Peter. Now, this more than anything caused the Peter-picked-up-his-visionary-dreams-from-Charles theory (the only downside of which is that Peter has true dream in “Six Months Ago”, directly after graduating from nursing school and definitely before meeting either Deveaux for the first time), but it’s worth noting that the dream Simone describes is not the same dream we just saw Peter having.
Here’s Simone’s description: “He said he'd been flying all over the world. But that it was a world he didn't recognize. There was so many people filled with pain. Nobody looking out for each other. He worried for them. And for me. Until you told him everything would be okay.
(…) he said that you were flying with him. And you told him it was all gonna be okay. That there were people who cared, who would make a difference. That you would save the world. After that, he just put his head down and ... he was gone. Like he was falling asleep.”
In Peter’s dream, Charles is the one reassuring him, and Peter then flies alone – something which at this point he can’t do yet. There is nothing in Peter’s dream about saving the world. In the dream Simone narrates, not only is there shared flight with Charles, but Peter is put in the reassuring, confident role, and making a pledge to saving the world to boot. But of course, Simone is only repeating what Charles told her.
So, if you want my current theory? Dying!Charles, whether or not he shared Peter’s dream, knew exactly what he was saying. He knew Simone would repeat it to Peter. It was the Charles Deveaux version of the Linderman speech in .07%, of the Angela speech in The Hard Part. The world is sick; it is your task, young Petrelli, to save it, and you’d better. You are my champion.
(The older generation is such a bunch of manipulative pullstringers. Charles actually scares me more than the other two in this regard.)
As Simone from this point onwards supports Peter’s efforts in superheroism, the speech worked on her, too. There is a great irony in Peter promising to be there for her in this scene, to “not go anywhere”, because of course the next scene they’ll have is the “off to Texas now, bye” one, and then they will never talk again. He’s be literary and figuratively gone. We have three marital or boyfriend-girlfriend relationships in this episode, Nathan and Heidi, Matt and Janice, and Peter and Simone. Two of these couples are depicted under strain by extramarital affairs, hidden superpowers and a lot of guilt; Peter and Simone, on the other hand, get the young-lovers-becoming closer via shared grief scene. But in the end, their relationship turns out to be the flimsiest, most unreal of the three; it’s questionable whether either Peter or Simone ever really knew each other at all.
Speaking of Matt and Janice: this time, Matt’s subplot improves from Hiros, not because his marriage problems become more interesting but because Audrey is back, and drafts him into her Sylar investigation again, which means Matt is back with the main plot. (Not to mention having great partner interaction with Audrey.) One thing about Matt’s marriage problems, though, i.e. the telepathic discovery that his wife had an affair with one of his collegues: he reacts by decking the guy. Matt is usually much with the nice guy everman persona, but he does have a temper, and if you like, you can see one of the potential seeds for 5YG!Matt here, as it takes physical form.
The tracking of Sylar leads Matt and Audrey to Ted, who gets introduced with this episode. The aftermath of adultery isn’t the only parallel between Matt’s subplot and Nathan’s; Nathan’s power – specifically, its first manifestation – is responsible for the crippled state of his wife Heidi, while Ted Sprague’s power not only crippled but slowly killed his wife Karen. Matt is able to help Ted via translating Karen’s thoughts for him; defusing Ted on various occasions will become something of an ongoing task for Matt later in the season. The way Ted’s power is directly tied to emotional control, or lack of same, is important to the overall plot, too. Given that this is before Fallout, the first time viewer knows only that there will be an explosion in New York, and Ted at this point becomes a prime suspect.
Claire’s subplot is relatively light-hearted, for Claire’s overall storyline: brother Lyle finds the tape where she demonstrates her superpowers, and threatens to tell on her until Claire convinces him to give it back by saying: “Don't you get it? If they found out, Mom and Dad would think it was a mistake to ever adopt me. We wouldn't be a family anymore. Please.”
Lyle rarely shows up on this show, and notably is the child Mr. Bennet doesn’t angst over, and has no problem mindwiping. Their mother seems to treat him and Claire equally, but it wouldn’t be surprising if Lyle felt completely overshadowed by Claire when it comes to their father. Here, as soon as Claire shows she’s genuinenly vulnerable and afraid, he stops with the fraternal taunting and delivers the tape. I spy another parallel, this time between the Bennet and Petrelli subplots.
Hiro and Ando have another on the road adventure, and their second meeting with another superpowered person (first one was Hiro & Nathan), though DL doesn’t notice. (Micah does.) It’s an early instance of two heroes combining their powers (inadvertendly) – DL getting the woman out of the car, Hiro by freezing time getting both the woman and DL to safety – and a great example of Hiro-Ando dynamics as Ando beams proudly at Hiro afterwards, and Hiro bows in return. It’s definitely the highlight of Micah’s day, as his father displays heroics, when the rest of his roadtrip is spent by Micah worrying about his mother. At which point we get another continuity glitch – Micah being able to tell Niki and Jessica apart on the phone. Micah is supposed to be super intelligent, but this is more insight he displays for the rest of the season. Though one can fanwank that later on when Jessica is around he has decided he’ll take his mother either as Niki or Jessica, and this in turn causes initial confusion when Candice gets into the act as well.
Meanwhile, Niki’s life gets from bad to worse as she is faced with a husband-abducted child, the realization DL got framed by her alter ego, and no idea what to do about it. Her friend Tina can’t provide more than sympathetic words. She calls Nathan (and btw, I want to know how she got the phone number, because I can’t see him giving it to her), which isn’t the best idea given not just the married situation but the fact when last he saw her, she told him their night together got taped and she knew it was a blackmail set-up, but a) I suppose she’s desperate and b) the fact Nathan had been decent to her the morning after could have impressed her. Either way, he tells her he can’t help her and hangs up. Which leads to Niki smashing the mirror and surrendering control to Jessica. Niki’s storyline is shakily written at times, but I do love the symmetry of it, as the turning point for Niki will be when Jessica surrenders control to her. Niki gives Jessica control because she feels unable to get Micah back otherwise, because she can’t face using power and violence against DL herself; Jessica will give control back to Niki during a mission to get Micah back because she knows she’s very able to use power and violence against DL, but she also knows what it would do to Niki. And when Niki makes the step to integrating both her halfs, it’s via a broken mirror again.
But the heart, the core of this episode? Are the Petrelli scenes. This is where the Petrelli family dynamic fully clicks into place. We’ve seen Angela at Nathan’s campaign speech before, but this is the first time we see that despite her cool personal relationship with him, she is majorly invested in getting him elected.
(Also, Jesse Alexander, the scriptwriter, is great with the exchanges between mother and son:
NATHAN: You're kidding.
ANGELA: No, I never kid about family brunch.
NATHAN: That's because we never have family brunch.)
Nathan’s wife Heidi has been referred to before, but this is where we actually meet her, and both the script and Rena Sofer and Adrian Pasdar manage to suggest a great deal about the marriage in a very limited time. Heidi comes across as smart, very able to tell Nathan to cut the crap:
NATHAN: I am not gonna use my family for political gain.
HEIDI: Tell that to Peter. Nathan, you've been trying to protect me since this happened. It's sweet in theory, but in practice, it's insulting. I'm not made of glass.
But also as very much in love with him. When she asks him in their last scene in this episode together whether he stil loves her, there is an undertone of desperation in her voice, and her ensuing words:
“I know what this chair means to us as a couple. But I need you to know that I'm going to walk again. The doctors say it's a long shot. But I can do it if I have a reason. We just need some hope, Nathan, that our life can be like it was. What Peter said about you checking out a clinic for him with a doctor. Tell me that's what happened. If you say it is ... I'll believe you. Just give me some hope.”
Are very ambiguous. Is she asking him to tell her the truth, or to lie to her? I’m tending to believe the later right now, if only because Heidi’s earlier “Tell that to Peter” remark indicates she’s well aware Nathan’s “my-brother-tried-to-commit-suicide” stunt with the press was for politics, not truth. But I could be wrong. At any rate, the close up of Heidi’s face after Nathan has given her the reassurance she asked for and has taken position behind her wheelchair, when he can’t see her face anymore, is such a great expression, somewhere between joy and pain, and a great contrast to her composure throughout the actual brunch scene, where she has a much better poker face than Nathan once the reporter starts with his attacks.
As for Nathan’s attitude towards his wife, again, script and writing manage to suggest a lot in brief time, such as when Heidi says, after Angela has announced the reporter will be here in an hour, “then I’d better get ready” and pushes her wheelchair out of the room, the first time the audience sees it. After she left, Nathan says “yes; good idea”, and the expression on his face and his tone suggest he feels guilty for her state long before the reporter makes his “your husband was driving, wasn’t he?” question. (Though we won’t find out the full truth until the flashback in Six Months Ago, which will provide us with a crucial information regarding Nathan’s attitude towards the entire superpowers gig, especially his own.) It’s typical that he delivers his explanation for the one night stand in Vegas to Peter, not Heidi; you get the impression he does love his wife, but he takes the easy way out, via lying, rather than risking losing her via telling her the truth about either the one night stand or the super powers. “Heidi doesn’t need the truth, she needs hope” is using the justification for lying she gave him, but it’s still his choice to use it. And it’s a contrast to his relationship with Peter, which is in no ways lacking of arguments but also based on a security that said arguments never mean the end of the relationship.
Nothing To Hide is evidence A against the perception of Peter as a naïve babe in the woods among the Petrellis. At this point of the show, only a few days have passed since the earlier mentioned press stunt, and he’s still understandably pissed off about it, but when Simone mentions the painting of Isaac Peter wants was bought by her client, Mr. Linderman, Peter does not choose to ask Simone to get it back from Linderman. Or, say, to give him Linderman’s phone number. He doesn’t tell her he knows exactly who Linderman is, either. Instead, he shows up at Nathan’s and asks Nathan to get the painting from Linderman for him, and a great mixture of fraternal powerplay, needling and unexpected solidarity ensues. Coupled with lots of shoulder kneading, since we’re talking Petrellis here. It’s typical for them that early in the conversation they have alone, when Peter says “Charles Deveaux died this morning”, Nathan takes a time out from brushing him off because of the reporter to say quietly “I’m sorry. Were you there?”, and that later on during the brunch of glorious double talk and dysfunctionality, the moment it’s apparent the reporter goes after a genuine weak spot of Nathan’s, the mysterious blonde in Vegas, Peter helps him out by providing him with an alibi.
But back to Peter as an active player in Petrelli power issues. This will always be one of my favourite exchanges between them:
NATHAN: Peter, I'm sorry. But you're gonna have to go, okay?
PETER: Hey, you know what? I'm just gonna fly off the terrace, yeah? No? Hey, I can fly. Nathan, so can you.
(Peter puts his hands on Nathan’s shoulders. Of course he does.)
PETER: I'll tell you what. Why don't we just race around the Statue of Liberty real quick, huh? Give this tweedy guy something to write about.
NATHAN: You wouldn't.
PETER: Ah?
(Peter gives Nathan a look and heads for the terrace.)
And the ensuing “sure I’m going to vote for Nathan” speech while Nathan looks daggers and Peter looks back like he’s having the time of his life is just fun, fun, fun. (Incidentally, Angela looks as if she’s impressed by Peter. Heidi looks like she wonders when they’ll grow up.) The best thing about Peter coming to the rescue regarding Vegas, though? It’s not completely altruistic and closing ranks in front of an outsider. He knows damm well Nathan will get the painting for him now.
Which Nathan does, but Nathan being Nathan, he finds away to fulfill Peter’s request and yet not. Because all things special and superpowers genuinenly freak him out, and presumably he has a suspicion about that painting, he asks Linderman to send it not to either Peter or himself, but directly back to Simone’s gallery. (Where, as we’ll see, he’ll be able to take a look at it first.) And then he shows up at Peter’s apartment, and we get more dysfunctional Petrelli fun. Because Nathan – looking casually dressed more than at any other point in this show when he’s not being kidnapped in his pjs – manages to simultanously confess one thing, explain another, share an important truth about another, and lie about a fourth. Now you’d think he’d tell the truth about the painting, but no. That’s what he lies about. (I.e. Linderman’s willingness to part with same.) Instead, Peter gets the why-I-committed-adultery explanation, and you’ve got to love Peter responding to “I just needed to be with someone who didn’t make me feel guilty every time I looked at her” with “So, did you talk to Linderman?” (Ah, priorities.)
In regards to future events, their most important exchange is probably:
PETER: With this thing, we can make a difference.
NATHAN: I'm trying to make a difference, Peter, the best way I know how. Flying around, how is that going to help anybody? What is that gonna -- What am I gonna do when I get there? I don't have a gun. I don't have a badge. I don't know karate. I guess I could put on a costume and fly around and pull cats out of trees. How's that gonna make a difference?
PETER: You're not gonna know until you try.
Indeed. *gets misty-eyed at the thought of finale again*
It present time, it says something about their constant push and pull – I once joked that the dynamic between Peter and Nathan exchanges can be shortened to:
Peter: I want.
Nathan: You can’t.
Argument: *ensues*
Peter: *does dangerous stuff*
Nathan: *ends up doing what Peter wanted in the first place*
But it’s equally viable to read the dynamic as:
Peter: You can.
Nathan: No, I don’t.
Argument: *ensues* etc.
Nathan feels challenged to justify himself and to look at those other possibilities by Peter in a way he doesn’t by anyone else (at this point; Claire later becomes a second challenger).
Telling Peter about the aborted kidnapping in Vegas is another priceless Petrelli moment, because you can tell that Peter’s “son of a bitch. You expect me to believe that?” reaction isn’t because he actually disbelieves Nathan but because helping out with the reporter or not, he’s still a bit in payback mode, and Peter’s way for paying Nathan back for being a dick is by being bratty.
But note: all this is done with the absolute certainty that no matter how much they irritate each other at times, they won’t lose each other. So “you’re still a bastard; now, get that painting for me!” and “will you shut up about the special crap? Let me tell you all about my marital crisis!” is absoutely compatible. They are so awesomely co-dependent, and I love them to bits.
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