Saving people, hunting th- O WAIT.
PETER: Wow. It's been...what, four episodes since he's done anything worthy of Epic Fail Guy? WHO ARE YOU, AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH PETER?
I guess it shows how long I've been used to him driving the plot with recklessness and screw-ups. Even after five episodes, Peter NOT being an idiot STILL amazes me. He made a PLAN. And he USED HIS POWER COMPETENTLY. And he DIDN'T COMPLETELY COCK IT UP. And he FOLLOWED THROUGH WITH HIS THREAT IN THE END. (Dumb to trust the feds to hand over Matt and Daphne, but he had enough WIN in this episode to let that mistake slide as plain ol' Peter Petrelli naïvety.) I call foul on him suddenly being enough of a SUPER HAXXOR to lock Danko's people out of their own network, but the rest? AWESOME. (ETA: ibroketuesday pointed out that that was most likely Rebel's doing. I'll re-watch later and get my brain straightened out. I think I've forgotten what subtlety looks like. I AM DUMB.)
"I love doing that." Hee, oh Peter. I adore those little moments when the characters take genuine joy and wonder out of using their abilities. Actually, Matt and Peter were awesome together in general. More of THIS, please.
AHAHA, looks like Peter set a HUG TRAP of his own in this episode. Seriously, Peter, stay like this for the rest of the series. I'll miss calling you Epic Fail Guy, but you're practically redeeming yourself for carrying that Idiot Ball around for the better part of two seasons. And almost-kinda-sort-of destroying the world a bunch of times.
SYLAR: Just when I thought Sylar's road trip couldn't seem any more like an episode of Supernatural. LOL, THAT MUSIC. I was half expecting John Winchester to walk in during the flashback for an EPIC CROSSOVER. SPN has given me an appreciation for being ~DRAMATIC~ with classic rock.
I'm...not sure what to think of this memory lane stuff. Aesthetically? They're using the same fade-away-against-the-character's-profile flashback transitions they used in Cold Wars, which I think is kind of distracting. I liked the use of colour for the blood, though. Nice effect against the black-and-white. And maybe it's my love of abandoned places and a CERTAIN SERIES coming through, but I liked the set for the abandoned diner. All it needed was some suspiciously significant writing on the wall.
Still, there's something.... Nagging me about the whole thing. I don't know. It seems awfully fucking convenient that Sylar didn't remember any of this until now, even though he claimed to have spent his whole life wishing Virginia and deadbeat-dad weren't his real parents. I can give it a BIT of a pass, since he's probably using that clairsentience ability he stole from Bridgit to jog some memories. But still. Repressed mommy-murder memories? Uh. Okaaaay, then. Guess Daddy Gray's a psycho too. Apparently a very inept one. If this were season 1, I'd be automatically expecting a twist in all this, or assuming things are more than they appear to be. But after volume 2 and 3, I've learned to stop getting my hopes up for stuff like that. So I'm holding off judgement until we meet bio-dad and see what's what.
Wee!Sylar was cute. The kid actor (Joshua Rush) has a blog entry about it, complete with adorable picture. (Hey, it could be worse, Sylar. Your dad could have sold you for $200 and a pet cockatoo. Or a pitcher of beer.)
LUKE: Ah, Luke. I HOPE WE LEARNED SOMETHING TODAY besides proper seatbelt safety. Sylar is no one's friend. You had your joy ride, got your reality check, and came out of it significantly less DEAD than most people Sylar runs into. Especially people that keep things from him and try to use his daddy/mommy issues as leverage, even for reasons as (comparably) innocent as a road trip.
The kid could always push his luck, follow Sylar to biodad's secret lair, and get himself killed in an episode or two, I guess. But hey, he's already beaten the odds and walked away with his brain intact after a Sylar-related temper tantrum. That's a lot more than I was expecting. I think I'm fond of Luke because he reminds me of Andrew from Buffy the Vampire Slayer: a wanna-be villain who's initially in it for the lulz and the coolness factor, and gets in WAY over his head. (Something about that character combination of deeply self-deluding flawed, sometimes-serious, and obnoxiously hilarious.) So I was hoping he'd inherit some of Andrew's luck with beating crazy odds and NOT dying. And with any luck, live long enough to earn himself a spot in another plotline later on.
Hope we see you again down the line, Luke. Maybe after the whole DADDY ISSUEZ storm blows over. I'd watch a whole show of Luke and Sylar, like...driving around and solving mysteries or something. Or hell, they're already halfway to a Supernatural crossover anyway. Crank up the classic rock and send them off to do some superpowered monster-hunting. I'D watch it.
NATHAN: At what point are you SURPRISED that you've lost control of your plan, Nathan? Considering it more or less seems to be this. Whatever. I still don't feel strongly about Nathan's storyline or character one way or the other, but it's moving the plot along nicely. And it's always good to see him get scenes with Peter and Angela.
ANGELA: Took lessons from the John Winchester school of Imparting Terrible Secrets To Your Eldest Son. I'm INSANELY CURIOUS about what Mama Petrelli's plan is. And it was nice to see her get a scene with both her sons, even with all the animosity and betrayal and flesh wounds between them. Keep doing what you're doing, Angela. SOMEONE has to.
CLAIRE, SANDRA, AND LYLE: Sandra was the REAL star of this episode. She's been nifty since season 1, and she's been gradually getting more awesome since season 2, but this episode? Helping Claire? Making fake IDs? Def Leppard? Knowing her husband way better than he ever thought she did? Oh man, SO MUCH LOVE. THIS is the kind of female character Heroes needs more of: ones that are strong, smart, brave, and capable of being completely normal and yet completely, extraordinary kick-ass at the same time, without existing solely as a plot device to further their husband/boyfriend/son/etc's storyline. (Tracy and Daphne? TAKE NOTES.)
LOL, LYLE. I love that kid. Especially his total nonchalance to all the crazy crap going on in his house on a daily basis. ("Just another day at the Bennet house" indeed.)
I can take-or-leave Claire's storyline a lot of the time, but I love when she has scenes with Sandra. And her mom sure taught her a thing or two in this episode. I love that kind of parent-child relationship being explored. Especially when everyone ELSE on the show seems to have mommy and daddy issues at every turn.
This episode made me laugh a lot - like, GENUINELY laugh - and Claire and Sandra had a lot to do with that. I was LOLing at Claire trying to lie about having sex with her "boyfriend", and pretty much everything Lyle did. I'm indifferent about Aquaboy himself, but the would-be "romance" stuff didn't last long enough or interrupt the storyline enough to make me hate it like I did with West, because I was too busy enjoying how the whole plan played out. Well done.
DOYLE: Y HALLO THAR PUPPET MAN. I read Wil Wheaton's blog (he and David Lawrence are friends, apparently), so I already knew Doyle was coming back at some point. I approve. Doyle was one of the better new characters. He's damn good at being creepy and sadistic, and I'm interested to see more of him.
MATT: Someone needs to keep a running tally of all the times the Heroes have made a horrible premonition come true by trying to PREVENT it from coming true. Peter is the grand champion, obviously, but it looks like the future hates Matt too. Or Danko does, at least.
Matt's psychic-face always amuses me. And he made me crack up when he was smiling all smugly at the security cameras. I bet Gunny had fun with those scenes.
I feel like there was something else I wanted to say about Matt, but I forget. Or I already said it up in the Peter section.
RANDOM STUFF:
- WAY TO BE INCONSPICUOUS, DADDY GRAY. Seriously? Killing your wife in the parking lot of the place where you just sold your son for money TWO MINUTES ago? While your brother and his wife are still sitting inside? Then dumping her body in the parking lot? You should have head-sliced your name across her forehead, I don't think you left quite ENOUGH incriminating evidence lying around. Guess we know where Sylar got his girlfriend-killing genes from.
Come to think of it... Martin and Virginia lived in New York. Unless Sylar and his dysfunctional family was living elsewhere at the time, Samson and Gabriel and bio-mom lived in Newark. Why would you make your brother drive for days to get to some middle-of-nowhere diner to make an illegal child sale, when you live like, AN HOUR AWAY FROM HIM?
Anyway. I've been all excited about the actor who will be playing Daddy Gray (found out months ago). After this episode... I'm hoping they're not going to waste him by making him another Arthur Petrelli (ie, evil for no better reason than "BECAUSE I'M A DICK, THAT'S WHY.")
- The twangy song that played during Sylar's flashback was Fleetwood Mac's The Chain.
- I feel vaguely guilty for not noticing Mohinder, Tracy, Hiro, and Ando's absence from this episode. Looks like next week is heavy on the Nathan and Matt content (and if the title is any indication, Sylar too), so your guess is as good as mine about when they'll show up again.
AIM antics this week: Heroes needs a Call of Cthulhu sanity point system.
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[RE: Abilities that would help Sylar become president.]
sabella_a: The ability to get elected to whatever post he's running for!
barhaven: The SUPER AMAZING ability to stuff ballots and spam online polls?
sabella_a: +10 charisma!
barhaven: Does he get a wisdom penalty for that?
barhaven: Or maybe it's like Call of Cthulhu, and he loses 1d6 sanity points per ability gained.
sabella_a: That he can live with. He needs his wisdom.
barhaven: He should also take a 1d3 sanity loss for every traumatic childhood memory recovered.
barhaven: Because God knows they're not going to make him any MORE sane.
sabella_a: Not his fault! Sad Sylar is SAAAAD.
barhaven: He loses another 1d3 every time he gets SUPAR MEGA PISSED at being manipulated, like when he decided to take out his anger by re-enacting Saw with Angela and Claire and HRG.
barhaven: All that sanity loss is adding up.
barhaven: Not to mention the 1d10 he probably had to roll when he killed Mom #1.
sabella_a: LEAVE MY BOY ALONE!! ;O
barhaven: He rolled a natural 20 on his will save vs. BRAINZ tonight. Be proud!
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Also, just for silliness' sake, more Twitter-crack from a reply to cookie_simone last week:
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peterpetrelli: @senatorpetrelli Go to hell, Nathan. [5 minutes ago]
senatorpetrelli: @mattparkman Talk to Peter. He knows a lot about that. [14 minutes ago]
mattparkman: Oh fuck, I'm going to blow up a city?! [15 minute ago]
mattparkman: @drsuresh Serves you right. [50 minutes ago]
sylar: @drsuresh LOLOLOL [1 hour ago]
drsuresh: brb tazered. [2 hours ago]
peterpetrelli: It's hard to text in the air. [2 hours ago]
companyman: @sylar Try the peach, with a side of dead girlfriend. [3 hours ago]
rebel: HEROIC TWEETERS: ADD @building26 TO YOUR FEEDS. STAY SAFE. [4 hours ago]
companyman: Still tied to a chair. Arm is falling asleep. [4 hours ago]
sylar: LEMON MERINGUE PIE AGAIN. PRIMATECH FOOD WAS BETTER. [5 hours ago]
clairebear: @rebel Need a better plan. Soon. I can't hide boys in my closet forever. Mom asks questions. [7 hours ago]