Yes, Peter at the start here had horrible timing! It makes one wonder where the hell they got that 'empath' thing. While yes, he's spending his life and time helping others (nurse, living for other people, in Nathan's shadow, etc.), his personal empathy seems only somewhat above Nirav's. You know, guy on the floor unconscious, girlfriend (whom Peter is interested in!) weeping above him, and Peter wanders off instead of playing hero for the girl! And his complete disinterest in what's going on with Nathan - Nathan's having a crisis: recently lost his father, wife's in a wheelchair, is struggling through this election and losing; and Peter has not word one of comfort or solace for his brother. The best he does is order Nathan out of the room when Nathan starts to chew on his mother for getting arrested.
He doesn't come off as empathetic here. What he does come off as, to me, is I think exactly what the writers wanted to portray - he's in transition. He's had an awakening and doesn't know what to do with it. He's reaching out, but everyone else is wrapped up (rightly) in their own lives and he's trying to shout over them that, 'HEY GUYS! SOMETHING BIG IS HAPPENING TO ME!!!' And they're not listening.
Peter's focus is very short-term. I talk about his lack of planning, but he's good at planning small, discrete tasks. He got through nursing school. He became an EMT. He gets himself to Odessa at the spur of the moment through no help of anyone. And so on. He's very functional in that regard. But as far as figuring out his life mission, or any long-term goals? Um ... evidence is against it. Like, why is he graduating nursing school as a 26 year old? It's not that long a program! And why the flitting around from nursing school to hospice nurse to EMT? It's all in the medical profession, yeah, but it's an uneven progression (and actually not a progression at all in terms of salary).
Peter is tactics. He needs someone who is strategy, which is an underlying thing I was getting at in Brainstorming, like when he was obsessing with the idea of going back in time to heal Nathan, and Sylar was like, 'Dude, why do that when you can prevent his death altogether?' Peter was all, 'Whoa! Yeah, that's totes a better idea!' Peter gets tunnel vision at times, although that's an almost necessary effect of TV show writing (or maybe just bad writing in general) - you can't have the hero be so smart that he figures out how to make things easy for himself, because then there's not as much drama and conflict to resolve.
When you put it that way, it shoes actual contrast from what he was to what he became (with his abilities, or even how they changed him so drastically). I like that because it means Peter wasn't always quite so "perfect" if you will.
Transition! That's the word, yes.
Maybe that's what Nathan meant by "It's time to grow up," that Peter has been doing some goofing off, or worse, acting out now that Arthur is dead - it's not going well because Ma and Nathan are having infinantely more difficult and "important" problems, so once again, Peter is ignored on top of that transition, which is also ignored.
He doesn't come off as empathetic here. What he does come off as, to me, is I think exactly what the writers wanted to portray - he's in transition. He's had an awakening and doesn't know what to do with it. He's reaching out, but everyone else is wrapped up (rightly) in their own lives and he's trying to shout over them that, 'HEY GUYS! SOMETHING BIG IS HAPPENING TO ME!!!' And they're not listening.
Peter's focus is very short-term. I talk about his lack of planning, but he's good at planning small, discrete tasks. He got through nursing school. He became an EMT. He gets himself to Odessa at the spur of the moment through no help of anyone. And so on. He's very functional in that regard. But as far as figuring out his life mission, or any long-term goals? Um ... evidence is against it. Like, why is he graduating nursing school as a 26 year old? It's not that long a program! And why the flitting around from nursing school to hospice nurse to EMT? It's all in the medical profession, yeah, but it's an uneven progression (and actually not a progression at all in terms of salary).
Peter is tactics. He needs someone who is strategy, which is an underlying thing I was getting at in Brainstorming, like when he was obsessing with the idea of going back in time to heal Nathan, and Sylar was like, 'Dude, why do that when you can prevent his death altogether?' Peter was all, 'Whoa! Yeah, that's totes a better idea!' Peter gets tunnel vision at times, although that's an almost necessary effect of TV show writing (or maybe just bad writing in general) - you can't have the hero be so smart that he figures out how to make things easy for himself, because then there's not as much drama and conflict to resolve.
Reply
Transition! That's the word, yes.
Maybe that's what Nathan meant by "It's time to grow up," that Peter has been doing some goofing off, or worse, acting out now that Arthur is dead - it's not going well because Ma and Nathan are having infinantely more difficult and "important" problems, so once again, Peter is ignored on top of that transition, which is also ignored.
Reply
Leave a comment