Wednesday, November 28, 2007

"Heroes" Worship: Nov. 26, 2007

And now, another edition of "Heroes" Worship! Incidentally, tomorrow is the "Season Finale" of the new season of Heroes in Australia. But I'm sure it's still going to continue showing in America. What gives, Channel 7?


‘HEROES’ WORSHIP: NOV. 26, 2007
Get caught up on last night’s episode of ‘Heroes’ with our in-depth recap!

By Wade Gum

Posted November 27, 2007 10:15 AM

What’s the Excitement About?

In case you slept under a rock during last year’s television season, “Heroes” is NBC’s newest hit show masterminded by Tim Kring. The series follows ordinary people with extraordinary abilities and their attempts to sort out their lives and save the world.

Last season’s chief protagonist was Peter Petrelli, a male nurse who has the ability to absorb and retain the power of any other superpowered individual he comes into contact with. He was relentlessly pursued by Sylar, a murderous villain who can also take powers, but only by killing other people who possess them. Throughout the season, Peter and his allies worked to prevent the destruction of New York as foreseen in a painter’s apocalyptic vision.



Hero Roll Call

Claire Bennet—The biological daughter of Nathan Petrelli. A cheerleader with regenerative powers.

Noah Bennet—Adoptive father of Claire. Possesses no superpowers and once worked for the villainous Primatech Paper Co.

Monica Dawson—The cousin of Micah Sanders. Possesses the ability to mimic any physical ability she sees demonstrated.

Elle—Daughter of Primatech’s Bob. Possesses electrical powers.

Alejandro and Maya Herrera—A brother and sister from Central America. Maya has a deadly power and is afflicted with a disease that kills superpowered individuals. Alejandro seems to have the ability to counteract his sister’s power.

Takezo Kensei—The legendary Japanese hero, who actually turns out to be a scumbag with the power of regeneration.

Hiro Nakamura—Son of Kaito Nakamura. Has the ability to manipulate time.

Matt Parkman—NYPD officer with the ability to hear people’s thoughts.

Nathan Petrelli—Brother of Peter Petrelli. Former politician. Has the power of flight.

Peter Petrelli—Brother of Nathan Petrelli. Has the ability to absorb and retain powers.

Micah Sanders—Son of D.L. and Niki. He has the ability to “talk” to technological devices.

Niki Sanders—Wife of D.L. and mother of Micah, with an alternate personality that possesses super-strength.

Mohinder Suresh—A genetics professor in search of superpowered individuals.

Sylar—The show’s central villain. His power is the ability to determine how things work. With this ability, he kills superpowered individuals and is able to steal their abilities.

Molly Walker—A young girl with the ability to concentrate and locate anyone in the world. Adopted by Matt Parkman.

West—A teenage boy who attends the same school as Claire. Has the power of flight and was tagged by Noah when he still worked for Primatech.

Previously on ‘Heroes’

The crap hit the fan last week when Noah clashes with Mohinder and the Company over the fate of Claire. Noah made his peace with West and then teamed up with him once Bob kidnapped Claire. The two of the managed to capture Elle and set up a hostage exchange. Things didn’t go entirely to plan as Noah ended up getting shot in the eye by Mohinder during the swap. Luckily for him, Mohinder used Claire’s regenerative blood in order to bring him back from the dead.

Hiro traveled back in time in an attempt to prevent his father’s murder. Kaito refused to change fate and was determined that Hiro should leave him to die. Hiro came to terms with Kaito’s death and allowed his father to be killed, but couldn’t resist freezing time and sneaking a peek at his father’s murderer. He was quite surprised to learn that it was Takezo Kensai aka Adam.

Matt Parkman learned that he has awesome abilities just like dear old dad. He possesses the ability to send mental commands to people and force them to obey his will. If the person has a particularly sturdy mental constitution, they can resist Matt’s power for a bit and cause blood to come out of their noses. Matt now walks a dangerous line in exploiting his powers for the cause of good. Will he turn to the dark side?

The Recap—‘Truth and Consequences’
Now that his memory has returned, Peter is resolved to stopping the Shanti virus and rescuing Caitlin from the future. Adam is interested in Peter’s knowledge about the Shanti virus because he knows a member of Primatech who has it. According to Adam, the Company is responsible for the virus. Victoria is the member of the Company with the virus, so the two head out on the road to track her down. They head out to good old Maine, home of Stephen King monsters and maple syrup.

Peter goes into Victoria’s house and confronts her. He lets her know that the virus will be released in 24 hours and demands her help. Peter attempts to get Victoria to believe her with his sob story about abandoning Caitlin. Victoria tells him to look for strain 138 of the virus, exactly what Adam is looking for. Victoria shoots Adam and Peter with a shotgun and prepares to turn Adam’s head into paste before Peter stops her. The two tie Victoria up. Victoria tries to tell Peter that Adam wants to spread the virus but Peter won’t listen. Peter reads Victoria’s mind in order to learn the location of the virus. Adam lets her go and Victoria grabs a shotgun, giving Adam ample cause to shoot and kill her.

Bob appears at the Bennet household with an urn in tow, supposedly with the ashes of Noah inside of it, but we all know better. Bob gives Elle the job of monitoring the Bennet family and blames her for everything that went wrong. Noah wakes up in a mysterious hospital bed with his injuries healed. Mohinder is there to take care of him and lets Noah know what’s up. An angry Noah tries to convince Mohinder that the company is behind the virus, but the easily manipulated professor can’t be manipulated in this circumstance.

Claire goes to the beach to throw her fake dead father’s ashes into the ocean and notices that Elle is following her. She pulls Elle out of the car and confronts her and they have a little throwdown. Claire resolves to show the world her abilities and send people like Elle running from society once people know that superpowers exist.

Hiro and Ando clean up his father’s belongings in Japan and make plans for taking out Adam. They try to follow the paper trail that Adam left behind and discover his current alias is Adam Monroe. They also discover that Kaito had Adam locked up back in 1977. He travels back in time to that day for the heck of it. He sees his father talk with Adam, who released the virus for the greater good of the world. He wanted to make the world come together and cull the herd, Watchmen-style. Kaito refuses to destroy the virus and takes it to Odessa instead. Hiro returns to the present and gets ready to go to Odessa.

Niki returns home to Micah and the two have a happy little reunion. She tells him about the Shanti virus that she has. In the greatest hardship the heroes have ever known, Micah’s backpack is stolen. He wants to get a posse of heroes together in order to go get his backpack from some evil thugs, but Niki is dead set against that idea.

Monica is willing to help, so she sneaks out at night with Micah to try and get the backpack. Once Mohinder uses Claire’s blood to mess with the virus, he gives Niki a call and lets her know that a cure is on the way. The call wakes up Niki and alerts her to the fact that Micah and Monica are missing. Monica uses her abilities to break into the thugs’ apartment and get the backpack, but they return home and catch her in the act. She’s easily subdued and captured. Perhaps she should have watched some more wrestling videos.

The Maya/Alejandro/Sylar “Three’s Company” saga continues to roll along. Sylar tries to woo Maya and take Alejandro out of the equation as best he can. He forces her to attack him with her own power, teaching her how to control her power in the process. It turns out Alejandro isn’t necessary for controlling her powers after all. Alejandro figures out who Sylar really is and gets him to admit that he murdered his mother. Sylar finds a way to get all Casanova about it and makes Maya love him more than ever. Wow, he’s smooth. Alejandro ends up leaving his sister behind.

Later that night, Alejandro returns and has a little scuffle with Sylar. The villain comes out on top and finally kills the annoying brother. Sylar makes out with Maya mere feet from where Alejandro’s corpse lies. He’s that smooth. After that, he goes and “babysits” Molly Walker and gives Mohinder a threatening phone call.

As the episode ends, Peter and Adam arrive at the Odessa facility. Hiro arrives as well and stops time. Peter and Hiro have a little showdown of their own as Peter decides to protect Adam. Who will win this titanic battle of the wills?

‘Heroes’ Highlights

BOB-O-METER
Not only does he fake HRG’s death, but he has the audacity—THE AUDACITY!—to deliver an urn of fake ashes to the grieving Bennet family! Faux Noah shizzle! This guy’s got balls of adamantium. A solid 9 out of 10 on the Bob-o-meter. —Executive Editor Brian Cunningham

HRG BADASS-O-METER
…he’s stuck in a bed recovering from being dead. The only thing that’s “badass” here are his bum’s bedsores. —Executive Editor Brian Cunningham

GRANDMA OF STEEL!
“Blade Runner,” “Superman: The Animated Series” and now “Heroes”! Joanna Cassidy can still kick some ass at age 62! Say, didja know she was originally cast as Wonder Woman before a director insisted Lynda Carter be cast instead? —Executive Editor Brian Cunningham

WANNA SEE ‘STAR WARS’ WHILE YOU’RE AT IT?
Bellbottoms, Bay City Rollers and the Bronx is burning! Yeah, it’s 1977 and Hiro stumbles upon the Shanti virus. Finally we see some cool (albeit short-lived) time travel to a familiar era. —Executive Editor Brian Cunningham

SYLAR…PLEASE COME HOME!!
“Everything’s going to be okay, Maya. I’ll take care of you.” The ticking sounds that oozed from Sylar’s creepy-ass grimace and murder of Alejandro made me hope that the good ol’ serial killer could soon return. Please come back, Sylar! I can’t take this powerless shtick for much longer! —Executive Editor Brian Cunningham

USEFUL INFORMATION OF THE WEEK: KILLNG KENSEI
It’s noted a couple times in this episode that if you want to take Adam/Kensei out, go for the head, “Highlander”-style. Conveniently, there’s a good guy with a samurai sword and a score to settle with the nigh-immortal one.—Wizard Universe editor Eric Moya

DOPE OF THE WEEK: DAMON
Micah’s cousin wants to find out how much some comics are worth and takes them to a group of thugs for an appraisal? We need to get this kid a subscription to Wizard. —Wizard Universe editor Eric Moya

CLIFFHANGER RATING: 6

Brother versus brother! Well, actually only one of these dudes has a brother, and really you all know they’re not brothers because they’re not even from the same continent. But still! It always pushes fanboy buttons to see former allies mixing it up, and with Hiro and Peter, the creators of “Heroes” couldn’t have picked a more likable pair of cast members to have a power-filled hissy fit right in the middle of the end of the world. If anything else, this week’s finish reminds us that unlike the end of Volume 1, Volume 2 is going to have plenty of good ol’-fashioned fightin’ before all is said and done.

Next Time on ‘Heroes’

Thanks to the writers’ strike, next week marks the season finale and the final chapter of Book 2. Everyone converges on Primatech Paper in Odessa, resulting in a big clash between Peter, Nathan, Hiro, Matt and Adam. Micah recruits his mother in order to try and save Monica from the evil thugs and Sylar finally does some real villainy when he goes after Mohinder and Molly Walker.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wow all I can say is that you are a great writer! Where can I contact you if I want to hire you?