This week, on Heroes …
RECAP DETAILS AHEAD (don’t read if you haven’t watched it yet) …
Wow, so Claire and Hiro have never met before? That seems crazy. I mean, thinking back, I guess it’s true, but it really tells you something about how little time passes in each episode that this is possible. Has even a year passed within the timeframe of the show yet? I don’t think so. Anyway, so Hiro and Claire go back 16 years, and Claire’s first priority is to take care of herself (surprise), in this case, her infant self, so she interjects herself into her adoptive mother’s life, changes her own diapers, and even manages to keep Noah from shooting her, all to make sure that Hiro’s father can’t put The Catalyst in her.
Meanwhile, Hiro realizes that his mother — who is still alive at this point — is a healer, and that she can heal the memories that Arthur took away (I know, it’s a silly idea, don’t think about it too much), so he tells her who he is, and she believes him, and it’s actually a very touching scene, him getting to see his mother one last time, and her getting to see how her boy turned out, and after she heals his brain, he tells her to give him The Catalyst, and she does, and it’s all glowy, and once it’s gone from her, she dies, and Hiro goes up to the roof to tell Claire that everything is okay … and then Arthur shows up, takes both the Catalyst and Hiro’s power, throws Hiro over the edge of the building, sends Claire back to the present, and Hiro is left hanging on to a flag pole.
Now, when Arthur first showed up behind Hiro on that roof, for some reason I thought it was Arthur from 16 years ago, and I got pissed off about the sheer coincidence of that. But in hindsight, I realize now that it was present day Arthur using Hiro’s power. Still, it kind of bugs me that we never saw the moment that it occurred to Arthur exactly when/where Hiro and Claire might be. I mean, he had all of time and space to search in. The roof of that building was probably a logical choice, since that’s Kaito’s U.S. home, and likewise with the day Kaito gave Claire to Noah. Yet my first response was that it seemed contrived when Arthur showed up, and a little exposition about his reasoning process would have gone a long way toward fixing that. Which is too bad, because it was actually a great plot reversal … just a clumsily written one.
Anyway, so Arthur returns to the present with The Catalyst, fixes Mohinder’s formula brew, they and Nathan and Tracey test it on one of the Marines (the guy from The 4400) they’ve recruited as guinea pigs, and the result is the kind of super-strength that Jessica used to have. Matt and Daphne and Ando find Isaac’s sketch book and learn everything that happened to Hiro and Claire in the past, including that Hiro is now “Lost In Time”, and their big plan now is to use Mohinder’s brew to give Ando the power to go back and time and save Hiro. Sylar kills Elle on the beach, sets her on fire, then finds a hero with the ability to detect lies, takes her power (the old fashioned way), so he’ll be able to tell if Arthur is lying about being his father. Then Sylar changes his shirt and goes to Pinehearst — where Peter is hemming and hawing about killing his father — confirms that Arthur was lying, and kills him, saving Peter the trouble.
Next week: the fall finale. To be honest, with the exception of how that scene with Arthur on the roof played out, I really liked this episode in and of itself. But I’m less invested than ever in the overall “moral dilemma” that’s been the central plot point all season. At this point, I could really care less whether everybody gets powers or nobody gets powers. Moral ambiguity might be realistic, but it’s not as much fun to watch. And I kind of resent that we had to watch Sylar’s uphill evolution from evil to good only to have him, seemingly on the spur of the moment, choose to be almost slapstick-ily evil, running around with blood all over himself and delivering shtick-y lines. Remember when he used to be scary?
By the way, if you didn’t understand that last screencap, then you weren’t watching Saturday Night Live this weekend …
You’re right, Sylar used to be terrifying! Oh well….
As for Arthur, he has the draw-the-future power now, so I assume that clued him in to when and where Hiro and Claire were.
Did anyone else find Peter’s characteristic inability to just shoot the person he’s supposed to shoot extremely annoying?
Odette, re: Arthur … duh, yeah, I guess you’re right. I forgot that he has/had the same ability Isaac did, and was therefore perfectly capable of drawing the same picture Isaac did. Although it still would have been nice to see that drawing. You know, like he could have had it in his hand and shown it to Hiro just before he attacked him, then said, “You’re not the only one who reads comic books.”
Yeah, that would have been really cool.
I was annoyed that Arthur came by and took the catalyst so quickly. Hiro just returned to normal, just took on a really big responsibility that he convinced his mother he was ready for, two minutes later it’s gone and he’s back to looking silly hanging on a flag pole. Wtf?
You forgot to mention we finally get to see how Peter gets his wicked scar. Though, I can’t tell if it happened because of what Sylar did or did Arthur do it?
I’ve just come to accept they’ve decided exposition is their enemy on this show and just don’t do it at all. They leave a lot up to speculation.
I actually don’t think we saw how Peter got his scar. The cut he got was a few inches on one cheek. His scar ran diagonal down across the bridge of his nose, starting at his forehead.
Right there with you. Couldn’t care less about the moral dilemna (or about almost anything in this show, lately). The Hiro and his mother scene was just plain corny to me…
I have continuity fatigue, me thinks. Too much to keep up with, man.
Oops, you’re right about the scar.