High five, turtle!
THIS is more like it. I wasn't overly fond of last week's episode, but this one had a great mix of everything: plot, characters, humour, creepiness, and plenty of awesome moments for practically everyone. The whole thing flowed a lot better, too. It's amazing what a difference editing can make.
PETER: Oh Peter. You're acting like a five-year-old whose parents just had another kid, and throws a tantrum because he doesn't want to share their affection with his new baby brother. Except you're 30 and have superpowers, and your "baby brother" is a needy serial killer. (Seriously, "I'M THE MOST SPECIAL!"? LOL.)
Despite how many idiot balls Peter is juggling, he's just being SO PETER. He's irrational and emotional anyway, and THE HUNGER is just exacerbating that with copious amounts of CRAZY. He's so petty and childish and reckless in this episode, but it all feels IC to me, and he paid for it in the end. Looks like shifting the blame runs in the family, though. Peter blamed SYLAR for "inflicting" THE HUNGER on him? Dude, Peter...you WENT TO HIM AND DEMANDED IT. He warned you and everything. Play with fire and you get burned. Which you actually WILL now, since your recklessness lost you your powers.
Man, how awesome was it that Papa Petrelli pwned Peter with a HUG? Too, too perfect. I LOVE IT. And while I don't expect Peter's powerlessness to last, I'm looking forward to seeing him try to save the world WITHOUT having a million billion superpowers at his disposal. He's gotten too used to solving problems by throwing lightning at them. Hell, with the way things are going this season, powerless heroics might even earn him a rare moment of WIN if he tries hard enough.
ANGELA: Get well soon, Angela! Also, the first thing that popped into my head when Peter mind-probed her:
(Geeky reference is geeky.)
SYLAR: Looks like Sylar DOES genuinely want to help his mom. And save his brother from his own stupidity. Which feels seriously rushed to me. But after seeing the promo for next week, I can see where they might be going with it. Angela has Sylar on her side at the moment, but Papa Petrelli wants Sylar on HIS side. While Sylar told Peter that Angela was the first person who ever "accepted him for who he is", she still wants him to CHANGE. Granted, that "change" involves becoming a decent person who isn't a slave to his murder addiction any more, and Sylar claims to want that himself now. But if Papa Petrelli encourages Sylar to stay a killer and go as brain-crazy as he wants as long as he stays loyal to daddy dearest... That's a conflict right there. One that I wish had been built up to more gradually, but I'll wait to see how it plays out before deciding how I feel about it.
I'm glad that Sylar is getting more to do this season than brain-stealing and generic villainy. I've been up in the air about his interactions with Angela since I still can't tell how much she's manipulating/lying to him, but the hand-touch was a nice little moment between them. Even if Sylar and Peter still end pretty much every encounter with a superpower brawl, the brother dynamic at least gives it a new angle. (If only because it pisses Peter off so much, LOL.) And I like seeing Peter and Sylar going in different directions character-wise.
ARTHUR: Half my f-list probably hates him for what he did to Adam, but the Peter-pwning hug was the BEST THING EVAR. If the rest of the Guild of Calamitous Intent Pinehearst plotline is that cool, I'll be totally on board for it.
CLAIRE, SANDRA, AND MEREDITH: This whole thing was so pervy and disturbing. The guy playing the Eric Doyle did an awesome job of bringing the "childish, creepy psycho" vibe to the character, and I'd love to see him again some time. The storyline worked really well for the Bennet women. Sandra is awesome anyway, but I LOVED her in this episode. I loved her grabbing her purse and heading out the door. I loved her using Lyle in her cover story (hey, they DO tend to forget he exists sometimes...). That "one of us, one of them" bit to Claire was so perfect. As horrible an experience as it was for her, she absolutely came through. She's such a strong person, and she's willing to put herself in danger to help her daughter. And TRUST her daughter when it comes down to it.
Claire was also fantastic in this episode. She bagged her first villain, and one who actually DESERVED it. She isn't forgiving her dad as easily as he would have wanted. Things are looking up for her character-wise, as long as she stays away from the mascara, hair dye, and leather catsuit.
MAYA: Stuck to the wall for the whole episode. So here's some LOL instead. Can YOU guess what Patrick Stewart is thinking?
NATHAN AND TRACY: HELL YES TRACY. I knew they were going somewhere with the constant "Are you SURE you're not Niki Sanders?" moments. I'd fanwank speculate that Mohinder was thinking of her as Niki when he let his guard down. FUCKING OWNED. As much as Tracy has been angsting about her powers, it looks like she's strong enough to step up and USE THEM when she needs to. Awesome.
MOHINDER: Still torn about Mohinder's storyline. On the down side, I'm still not seeing him as insane so much as selfish and obsessive and kind of OOC. I still can't buy that it took him so little time to go from "FOR SCIENCE!" to "YAY MURDER!" He does seem to get that what he's doing is beyond fucked up, but he just doesn't CARE.
On the plus side, I love seeing him get his evil on, and he brought it in spades in this episode. That look on his face when Nathan and Tracy passed out was fantastic. Ditto on his table-hurling and "We're not finished here." at the end. I'm digging his creepy bug-themed music of EVIL. And I liked his scene with Daphne. So yeah, I'm finding a balance with his storyline, and there's definitely things to like. Can't wait to see the look on Sylar's face when he finds out what Mohinder's been up to.
sabella_a and I decided that Mohinder's mom needs to follow Papa Petrelli's example, and fly over from India to ground her son. Nothing like the power of parental disapproval to make things worse.
HIRO AND ANDO: HA! I knew he didn't kill Ando. And they're less angsty than ever! I'll even turn a blind eye to the fact that Daphne should have seen him do the time-stop. Plot hole retracted! As ibroketuesday pointed out, Daphne was already moving the other times she beat Hiro's ability. So I guess if she isn't moving already, the time-stop happens quick enough to prevent her from STARTING.
Hiro's slapstick and goofiness is hit-or-miss for me. Tonight was a definite hit. I was laughing out loud at him trying to get the best of Usutu, and getting a shovel to the head (twice!) for his trouble.
ADAM: I think I'm the only person on my f-list who's not that broken up about Adam dying. Kind of a shame, since he's been more bearable than last season and still had unfulfilled character potential. But considering I watched his death scene thinking "Oh, awesome!" instead of "NOOOOOOOOO ADAM!", I won't be losing much sleep over it. And hey, he was in Angela's future-vision of the villain squad's Primatech murder spree. Add that to how many convoluted ways a show like this has of bringing people back from the dead, and I'm not writing him off juuuust yet.
DAPHNE AND MATT: Wow. I honestly never expected to like Daphne as much as I do. She was entertaining against Hiro and Ando, but she works just as well against the rest of the characters as well. Nice to see that she has more going on with her character than just being in it for the money. She's not immediately falling for Matt's "I saw the future and we're totally soul mates!" pitch like one of the FAIL romances last season would have done. I love that she thought he sounded stalkery. And that she went and did her job, distasteful as she seems to find it now. She had great scenes with Sylar, Mohinder, and fake!Linderman, which made a cool connection tying the various storylines together. And all of them added another layer to how conflicted she is about her job at the moment. This is exactly how new characters SHOULD be worked in, and I'm hoping she ends up sticking around.
"High five, turtle!" I LOLed. Glad Matt didn't overstay his welcome in Africa. Now I'm waiting for him to run into his daddy again.
RANDOM STUFF:
- A bit of a fanwank that branched off from a discussion with ibroketuesday: Sylar has a blind spot when it comes to family. He DID genuinely love Virginia, and he seems to be transferring those unresolved mommy issues onto Angela to some degree. We saw in 3x04 that he was capable of loving his son enough to turn his back on "Sylar" and try to be a decent person. As soon as he found out Peter was his brother, he went from hating his guts to genuinely wanting to help him. (sabella_a insists he was all "Golly gee, mom, is my baby brother going to be okay?!" in 3x05. After this episode, I buy it.) Even back in season 1, he said he wanted another family instead of the "insignificant" one he grew up with. Now he HAS that family, for better or worse. Whether he genuinely feels something for them or he's just acting the way he is because he's convinced himself that he SHOULD, it's at least making it easier for me to go along with the breakneck speed (no pun intended) of his storyline. Family is his strongest source of validation right now, and it's what's going to make or break him when it comes to how much he can change. Or WANTS to change.
- Made a few icons from last week's episode during my down-time at work today. I couldn't decide which font I liked.
Sylar's smirk was begging for it. And when I did Sylar, I had to do HRG too. Just 'cause.
An accidental screencap while I was snagging the Peter one, but I liked it.
- And a bit of Heroes-verse genetics from tonight's AIM chat. We don't hate Peter, really. Discussing his fail just makes me LOL the most.
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barhaven: DON'T BETRAY YOUR MOM, GABRIEL.
sabella_a: Like all divorced parents, they should split the kids. Gabriel with mom, Peter with dad.
sabella_a: Although he'd get along better with his dad. Same crazy run in his vein.
barhaven: Too much crazy for one family!
barhaven: And considering Papa Petrelli grounded Peter for his FAIL and pwned him with a hug, he can't be TOO insane.
sabella_a: He's manipulative enough and smart enough.
sabella_a: Where'd Peter get his stupid FAIL genes?
barhaven: I'd buy the Fry theory that he's his own grandpa.
barhaven: He's already failed enough at his time travel adventures. It wouldn't be a huge stretch for him to do the nasty in the past-y.
barhaven: Though that would mean Sylar and Nathan have his FAIL genes as well. Maybe they're recessive.
sabella_a: Bet Angela regrets sending the wrong son for adoption.
barhaven: Or not starting on birth control sooner.