warm feelings: ep 4.08 "Once Upon A Time..."
You know, it really is a shame that I wasn't all there for this episode. It is absolutely delightful in every single way (as long as you don't expect relationships to be the way you have been thinking they were all this time). There is more hilarious dialogue in this than the characters really have time to enunciate, which is why I lost so many of them the first go-round; add to that that the performances shade toward more realism in the line readings, which, combined with those occasional "Go team! We shall prevail for it is destiny!" moments of pure eye-rolling sincerity take on a weird tinge of irony. It makes retcon into an art form.
Let me get out of the way immediately that weird retcon relationship between Noah and Lauren. She is awesome. Seriously. A well-written, funny, wry, intelligent female character; let us celebrate her. Too bad it tells us some things we don't like about our HRG; let alone the fact that they cast someone who bears WAY to close of a physical resemblance to Hayden Panettiere. Whether or not it's deliberate, my mind could not help inserting Claire in those passionate kisses, face hidden behind lush blonde hair extensions. Can I help it? I was imprinted. I don't think they cast by accident on this show; I believe that the connection was deliberate. Combine that with Claire's glowing-faced, let's-go-out-just-you-and-me later on and I... well, there's something called Petrellicest, based on principles just as flimsy. And yet extreeeeeemely interesting.
Noah and Claire's actual date, as it were, reveals something that we've only barely seen hints of in the series so far; they are best friends. I never quite got that before (and it's probably writer Aury Wallington's doing; she is very good at establishing extremely close-knit relationships), but it's kind of cool. And makes everything that happens after this that much more painful. Imagine having to lie, not just to your parent or child, but to your best friend. Eek.
So good to see Jack Coleman grinning and reciting the Bard. He just jumped another quantum sexy level. Yet another. *sigh* Had to see him get morally smacked down again to set the balance straight.
The Sylar vs. Hiro High Noon sequence is, again, fabulous. And Charlie's single tear of blood, while at Red Alert on the Medical Bullshit Warning System, does look cool. I'm OK with stuff looking cool. Oh, Jayma Mays. And she can even sell being able to tell that the aneurysm is gone; nice sensitive nerve endings you've got in your BRAIN, darling. Maybe she does, y'know? I don't know. Jayma Mays said it. I'll believe it in the moment. Meanwhile, Sylar watches impassively, wondering about that weird thing called love.
Later, when Hiro is telling Sylar how he'll die, the subtle change in his expression is wonderful to see. Tiny degrees at a time, he goes from smug and skeptical, to thoughtful, to horrified. The Hiro dumps him off outside, and Sylar picks up his dropped black hat, considering it for a long time. Considering repentance. But then he hears cheerleaders, and decides to take the chance to prove Hiro wrong - to be immortal. That'd show him; if he never dies, he never dies alone and unmourned.
Awesome.
Great Hiro lines:
This is the big butterfly! This is Mothra!
Moron.
Where are we going, Charlie? (NOTE: Not so much a great line, but the way it's delivered reminds me of how and why I fell in love with Masi Oka so hard.)
We're going to Otsu! Yay! Otsu!
Beer, please. Root.
Oh, shucks, Ma'am. It was no trouble. (Again with the adorabuhls.)
Interesting that everybody knows about Future Hiro at this point (except HRG), and are disappointed in 3-years-future-Knight-Rider-T-Shirt Hiro. I personally am impressed. And it's a cute detail that in the cafe at the end, Noah kind of recognizes Hiro, which is a possibility, since he did see him as a small Korean child back in the early 1990s.
Hiro and Charlie share the most chaste kiss I've seen in years. I mean, heck, I don't know if it happened the way Aury put in the novel Saving Charlie, but SPOILER ALERTthey totally had sex. SPOILER ALERT! And it was awkwardly hot! Did Hiro's alteration of the time stream make it so that Charlie wouldn't make Hiro give it up?
More great lines:
LAUREN: I'm Haitianing you.
NOAH: Don't Haitian me.
Samuel calling Charlie "Princess Flapjack."
SYLAR: (agreeing with Hiro) I'm a doctor.
SYLAR: It's just like balling a melon.
And that shot of Mohinder on the floor? He's also riddled with bullets. Just thought I'd point that out.
Hang onto your knickers; it's going to be a bumpy ride.
No, seriously, I really do love this show. I'm sure it seems that I go on about it, but the experience of an episode just blossoming is delightful time after time.
Let me get out of the way immediately that weird retcon relationship between Noah and Lauren. She is awesome. Seriously. A well-written, funny, wry, intelligent female character; let us celebrate her. Too bad it tells us some things we don't like about our HRG; let alone the fact that they cast someone who bears WAY to close of a physical resemblance to Hayden Panettiere. Whether or not it's deliberate, my mind could not help inserting Claire in those passionate kisses, face hidden behind lush blonde hair extensions. Can I help it? I was imprinted. I don't think they cast by accident on this show; I believe that the connection was deliberate. Combine that with Claire's glowing-faced, let's-go-out-just-you-and-me later on and I... well, there's something called Petrellicest, based on principles just as flimsy. And yet extreeeeeemely interesting.
Noah and Claire's actual date, as it were, reveals something that we've only barely seen hints of in the series so far; they are best friends. I never quite got that before (and it's probably writer Aury Wallington's doing; she is very good at establishing extremely close-knit relationships), but it's kind of cool. And makes everything that happens after this that much more painful. Imagine having to lie, not just to your parent or child, but to your best friend. Eek.
So good to see Jack Coleman grinning and reciting the Bard. He just jumped another quantum sexy level. Yet another. *sigh* Had to see him get morally smacked down again to set the balance straight.
The Sylar vs. Hiro High Noon sequence is, again, fabulous. And Charlie's single tear of blood, while at Red Alert on the Medical Bullshit Warning System, does look cool. I'm OK with stuff looking cool. Oh, Jayma Mays. And she can even sell being able to tell that the aneurysm is gone; nice sensitive nerve endings you've got in your BRAIN, darling. Maybe she does, y'know? I don't know. Jayma Mays said it. I'll believe it in the moment. Meanwhile, Sylar watches impassively, wondering about that weird thing called love.
Later, when Hiro is telling Sylar how he'll die, the subtle change in his expression is wonderful to see. Tiny degrees at a time, he goes from smug and skeptical, to thoughtful, to horrified. The Hiro dumps him off outside, and Sylar picks up his dropped black hat, considering it for a long time. Considering repentance. But then he hears cheerleaders, and decides to take the chance to prove Hiro wrong - to be immortal. That'd show him; if he never dies, he never dies alone and unmourned.
Awesome.
Great Hiro lines:
This is the big butterfly! This is Mothra!
Moron.
Where are we going, Charlie? (NOTE: Not so much a great line, but the way it's delivered reminds me of how and why I fell in love with Masi Oka so hard.)
We're going to Otsu! Yay! Otsu!
Beer, please. Root.
Oh, shucks, Ma'am. It was no trouble. (Again with the adorabuhls.)
Interesting that everybody knows about Future Hiro at this point (except HRG), and are disappointed in 3-years-future-Knight-Rider-T-Shirt Hiro. I personally am impressed. And it's a cute detail that in the cafe at the end, Noah kind of recognizes Hiro, which is a possibility, since he did see him as a small Korean child back in the early 1990s.
Hiro and Charlie share the most chaste kiss I've seen in years. I mean, heck, I don't know if it happened the way Aury put in the novel Saving Charlie, but SPOILER ALERTthey totally had sex. SPOILER ALERT! And it was awkwardly hot! Did Hiro's alteration of the time stream make it so that Charlie wouldn't make Hiro give it up?
More great lines:
LAUREN: I'm Haitianing you.
NOAH: Don't Haitian me.
Samuel calling Charlie "Princess Flapjack."
SYLAR: (agreeing with Hiro) I'm a doctor.
SYLAR: It's just like balling a melon.
And that shot of Mohinder on the floor? He's also riddled with bullets. Just thought I'd point that out.
Hang onto your knickers; it's going to be a bumpy ride.
No, seriously, I really do love this show. I'm sure it seems that I go on about it, but the experience of an episode just blossoming is delightful time after time.