A love letter to Bryan Fuller
I don't think I've used the word AMAZING to describe an episode of Heroes since season 1. I've long since stopped believing all the promos that claim a "return to form", and all the other other colourful buzzwords for "we've fixed the show this time, RLY!" that end up as nothing but a lot of disappointment. So this...
Well, THIS. Um. Wow.
I keep thinking I should re-watch Cold Snap again before posting any thoughts, just in case the great writing made me miss something really glaring that deserves a rant or criticism or some WTF. I mean, I wanted to believe Bryan Fuller could turn things around, but I didn't think even he could do it in the space of one episode. Let alone make it one where I liked all the characters, liked everyone's storyline, and was genuinely feeling for everyone. All in one go. The man's magic, what I can say. Pushing Daisies is proof enough, but if you need more, this episode clinches it. I'm still nervous about the rest of the season taking a turn for the worst, but if we can get more of THIS? YES, PLEASE.
ANGELA: Lady's almost always been in control, so it was cool to see her desperate and out of options for once. Even back in season 1 when Maury and Adam were coming after her, she had some amount of control and dignity about the situation by turning herself in on her own terms. Now, she's running from one closed door to another, and she's just as screwed as everyone else. Never doubt your Epic Fail Son's tendency to forgive his family, Angela. (Though....LOL, STATUE OF LIBERTY. You're as much of a subconscious drama queen as your brain-eating not!brother, Pete.)
HI, AUNT LILY. I'd love to see more of Millie, if they could fit her in somewhere down the road. Partly for the Pushing Daisies love, partly because of how much she and Angela rocked their scene together. (Also, umbrella theft. THIS is the kind of callback to season 1 I can get behind.)
SYLAR: Not actually in the episode, but has apparently decided his new purpose in life is to become a stalker secret admirer and woo his potential nemesis' with taxidermied bunnies and giftwrapped lesser villains. I LOLED.
DANKO: Oh Danko. Taking credit for Sylar's present? I'm still waiting for him to get some motivation or back-story, but he's at least a better villain than Daddy Petrelli ever was. (Or Adam, for that matter. Sorry, Adam fans. Dude bored me. The most enjoyment I got out of him in season 2 was some schadenfreude at his coffin confinement.)
DAPHNE AND MATT: ;_;
I don't think I need to say much more. But I will.
I like Daphne, and I like Matt, but I never thought they had a healthy relationship. So if things had to go down the way they did in this episode, it still made me SO HAPPY to see that acknowledged. I was practically cheering Daphne on when she "woke up" at the hospital and told Matt that vision quests aren't reality, and she didn't want to be his Janice replacement. IMO, it made the reveal at the end even MORE heartbreaking. They never would have worked out as a couple, and Daphne knew it. So all Matt could do was keep trying anyway to make her last moments happy, the only way he knew how. (Not an easy feat when your girlfriend's just broken up with you, and you know she's right to do it.) Matt was trying to live in the real world while they were together, but he was always basing their relationship around an emotional fantasy. Here, when a fantasy is the only way for he and Daphne to say goodbye, the emotions - even if they didn't turn out to be the "TRUE LUV" fairy tale he wanted - are what's real. Sometimes a simple "you made me happy" is so much more powerful than an "I love you".
At no point in the episode did I feel like this was purely a "Matt losing Daphne" storyline, like it has in the previous episodes. It was about DAPHNE dying and deciding to accept that, not just Matt losing her. It was about BOTH of them seeing their relationship for what it was, even at the most painful time possible, and deciding that it was okay that they WEREN'T "meant to be". And unlike a lot of deaths on this show, it respected Daphne as a character enough to give her a tearjerking sendoff.
This is exactly why death needs to be REAL now and then on shows like this. It might hurt when it happens, but if you make it mean something, make it about the characters rather than the plot devices, and make people feel it... Then it can be worth the heartbreak. Again, I have to give Bryan Fuller so much credit for that. If it had been any other writer, I would have just been mad about Daphne dying when she had so much potential as a character. With this... I can be sad she's gone, and still love it for making me cry. I can't even dislike the dream sequence for the slight cheese factor, because it was pulled off so well with all that slow floating and dreamy music.
Sorry you won't get to become a regular, Daphne. But you'll be missed.
(Also, because I think I'd cry again if I didn't find a way to get a little laugh from it... Heh, astral plane dream!breakup. And you thought having your significant other break up with you over FACEBOOK was bad.)
HIRO, ANDO, AND JANICE: Now that Daphne's gone, is Janice coming back as a recurring character? Judging from this episode, I wouldn't mind. Their storyline might have dragged in season 1, but at least it was more believable than most of the crap they've been trying to pass off as "romances" for the last few volumes. When a show's spent the better part of two seasons approaching romantic relationships with all the subtlety of a five-year-old smushing a Barbie and Ken doll together, it'd be nice to see something that's a step up. Even if it involves a step back to old ground.
Also, the baby was adorable. THERE, I SAID IT.
THIS is when I like Hiro and Ando's storylines: when they have that balance between funny, serious, and meaningful, and don't feel like dead weight the way the India storyline did. And when they get scenes that reinforce all the reasons their characters work so well together. ("Don't cry because then I'll cry." OH HIRO.) I expected that Hiro would get his powers back eventually, and that they'd be toned down like Peter's. I thought they would have let him keep the teleporting if they let him keep anything, but I think I like this better. The less uber the better, and just time-stopping still makes him more than useful.
TRACY AND MICAH: Since Behind The Eclipse sometimes forgets the difference between a spoiler and a teaser, I've known Rebel was Micah for a while. So it made me happy to see him finally show up tonight. You rock, Micah. You might have been exiled to the Island of Lost Plotlines for a while, but it's nice to see that characters can come back from that, even just for a visit. Keep doing what you're doing, Rebel.
I doubt Tracy is dead, so I won't react as if she is unless the rest of the season proves otherwise. (Though if ANYONE is going to get killed off, she's the most likely. If she dies, they have a spare.) She FINALLY got to exercise that character potential she showed back at the beginning of season 3, got some actual character development and an actual story of her own, AND got to go all Killer Frost on the agents' asses. (Though she already has a good superhero name from the episode title.) EPIC ICE STORM FTW. Also, her scenes with HRG and Micah were interesting. As powerful as Rebel is, Micah is still a kid who misses his mom. And Tracy just isn't her.
MOHINDER: Not a whole lot to do in this episode other than be moral support and get obliviously tazered again. But that hand on Matt's shoulder at the end? Aw.
RANDOM STUFF:
- As much as I've complained about the gender issues on Heroes, I had SO MUCH LOVE for the women in this episode. Even if the two deaths (one probably real, one probably not) were both chicks. Angela's always queen anyway, but it was fantastic to see her carry that same determination and confidence and resourcefulness even when the odds are against her, and the danger isn't something she can snark at over a glass of wine and a plate of oysters. Daphne's death was a blow, but at least she got to say what needed saying before she died, and go out with a better death than most characters get. Tracy hasn't had a whole lot to do for a while, and she was starting to feel like dead weight, but episodes like this show what can happen if you just give a character's storyline a little TLC and some motivation. Janice went from being put on a bus to returning here, and it looks like she's doing pretty well for herself and her super-baby, as well as making the right calls about who to trust. Bring Molly and Audrey back, and I'll be even more forgiving.
- It goes without saying since this whole post reads like a giant love letter to Bryan Fuller, but I was in love with the writing in this episode. Fuller has a very distinctive style that's chock full of wry humour, loaded with quirky references, brings out the human in the fantastic, and has a knack for getting to the heart of the characters and their relationships. Not to mention making the best practical uses of superpowers. I laughed when Tracy froze the electronic tag on her sweater. Add that to the fact that this is the first episode since Company Man that's made me cry, and I can pretty safely say that this is the best episode of the last two seasons.
I'm not sure what Fuller's status is at the moment, or if he intends to stick around or not, but God do I hope he stays on for season 4. If he can do this much damage control, character development, and writing magic in one episode, a full season would mean the sky's the limit. Or more appropriately, the moon.