Heroes 3.03 One of us, one of them
First of all, Christine Rose and Milo Ventimiglia did a podcast for this episode, which the awesome 12_12_12 transcribed for those of us who can't access the NBC website for it, here. Go, read it now, it will make you smile for the rest of the day. Containing such gems as "You see, I give all the children over to HRG to babysit. He's like my official babysitter. First he babysat for Claire, and now he's got my baby boy Sylar! Methinks the first was easier." or Milo pleasing fandom with general comments like "Adrian and I talk about wrestling matches between brothers, but...that's another story".
Now, on the episode.
Given that Claire's storyline was undeniably one of the weakest last season, I can't tell you how happy I am about the character stuff she gets this season. And the way it is handled. I forgot to mention in my last review that Claire's reaction to what Sylar did to her struck me as similar as someone's reaction to being raped (so I wasn't surprised that Sandra wondered out loud whether a rape did happen), and I still think this is the subtext they're playing it as. It wasn't sexual, but he did violate her body, and the issue of being made helpless and having taken control over your body away by someone else is similar enough for the parallel to hold. Now, this is a tricky storyline to get right (but very rewarding if they manage it) without falling into a couple of traps. One of which would have been to let Claire retreat into little girldom and have Daddy take care of everything. Which is why I'm really glad that Noah is busy elsewhere and not anywhere near California, and the relevant scenes play out with Claire, Sandra and Meredith. I really appreciate that neither is cast as the "bad" mother, or the "true" mother who understands Claire completely. They both have a point in what they do, but in the end Claire is the only one who can help herself and has to make her own choices, which she does. The one thing Sandra and Meredith agree on is the value of a "normal", protected life for Claire, and that's precisely what, as Claire says, it's too late for. Which isn't to say going on a vengeance gig is the best thing to do, but it's something she has to discover for herself, and the desire not to be a victim anymore, to hurt Sylar back - that's Claire's idea of crashing the car with her and Brody in it written large. The scene with Meredith bringing out the anger and wish to strike back lurking beyond the "I want to help people" was terrific, and has yet another layer if you consider that when Meredith and Claire in essence parted as mother and daughter, way back when, that original death and rebirth that made Claire into a Bennet, it was in a fire.
One more thing about the California girls: Sandra continues to be awesome. I love the continuity; back in early s1, when HRG introduced the fake parents for Claire in order to stop her from enquiring further, Sandra when Claire used the term "bio parents" noted it was "cold" but was also obviously relieved and pleased; she must have been afraid to lose Claire to her biological family. Neither Meredith nor Nathan ever "claimed" Claire in any way later on, when they could have, though Angela did, so the "adoptive versus biological" parents battle never happened, but it's questionable how much Sandra knows about this, and at any rate, Meredith isn't just in her house now because of her biological connection to Claire but as an embodiment of that world of powers that has been endangering Claire - and the rest of the Bennets - for years now. The hostility is all too understandable. Meredith is harder to read and more enigmatic; I think, though, that she actually doesn't want to compete with Sandra in the mother department. It struck me in s1 that Meredith and Nathan aren't dissimilar in their attitudes towards Claire; it's not that they don't care, but after all these years of separation, they can't handle parent roles towards her, especially with Claire almost grown up, and are trying either to run away or to find something else to be towards her.
Speaking of mothers who aren't: more confirmation that Tracey is not another personality of Niki's but is physically another person, and that Niki is irrevocably dead, as the late D.L. The trip to New Orleans was the sensible thing to do - instead of dragging out the "why do I look like this Niki person and who is she?" thing, and if this is the last thing we see of Micah for a while, at least the boy got some sort of closure. (I wonder where Monica is, though, and want her back.) (Mind you, given that Heroes, like Lost, only takes weeks as a time frame for its seasons, they were going to run into trouble with their child actors growing up sooner rather than later, so I'm not surprised Micah seems to be written out. Though a bit sad, because like Molly, he was a good child character, not that common on tv.) Ali does a great job as Tracey, making her different from Niki but not in the way Jessica or Gina were. And it seems my guess is right that Nathan partly hired her because he's still waiting for the punchline and still half convinced she must be Niki pretending. However, my other guess - Niki is in fact the real Jessica - could be wrong, now that we're being told there is a "Barbara" as well, and Dr. Zimmerman (is his first name Lewis, the Trekker in me wonders) apparantly delivered a bunch of blonde babies at his hospital. Clones or genetic experiments, or both?
Regarding genetic experiments: I know it all looks like Angela is telling the truth, but I'm not entirely sure she isn't bluffing or at least telling only a partial truth, because what she does tell Sylar really is his dream fulfillment, shaped to hit on all the buttons he has. Current guess: if he is in fact her biological son, both Peter and Gabriel were the result of trying to have the ultimate power-adapting baby, but they were never meant to be twins, and Victoria or whoever else did the diagnosis concluded this resulted in something extremely unstable, hence the third Summers brother situation. Ooooorrrrr maybe Peter was the result of in vitro fertilisation, and someone, Victoria, Zimmerman or whoever did some more mixing with the genetics so there'd be a second power-adapting child but used another mother as the womb.
Of course, Angela here does the most evil thing we've seen her do yet, and for a woman who backed plan blow up New York, that's saying something. But the Ozymandias plan could in some twisted form be excused as being made for the greater good, as Linderman and Angela saw it; feeding Bridget to Sylar, on the other hand, is murder which benefits no one but Sylar and Angela herself, because that certainly was one hell of an effective "this is what I can give to you if you do my bidding and believe I'm your mother" gesture. Angela also continues to play the family game as far as the touching is concerned. Is there any question whom her boys adopted the body language from? Oh, Petrellis. You do find new and exciting ways to be warped every time we look. Never change.
(I bet Christine Rose had fun, just as with the Heidi seduction scene last year. Why leave all the fun to Milo and Adrian?)
Meanwhile, Noah Bennet finds himself enlisted again, and while it's comforting to know that he plays along so he can find a way to kill Sylar, I'm also amused he at least temporarly ends up as an Angela minion. For those of us who wanted to know, after their face-off on the telephone in the s1 finale, whether in a rematch Noah could hold his own against the Queen, not so much, at least not yet. The Noah and Sylar men in black act is amusing, even for a Sylar disliker such as myself. It also contains one of the most interesting exchanges of the episode, with Noah's "you realize she's playing both of us?" and Sylar's "yes, but don't you want to find out why?" reaction. Given that Sylar takes his prison garb like a good boy at the end (and in fact returns at all instead of leaving after his buffet), I think Angela has him hooked, at least for now; if he doesn't believe she is his mother already, he very much wants to, and he does want that crown prince special status she is dangling in front of him.
The former crown princes, on the other hand, are still having bad days. Not much Nathan in this episode, and the last scene indicates whatever is going on with his mind is still going on, but the face-off with Future!Peter brings on a new tone. Last week, when F!Peter made his confession and asked for forgiveness, Nathan did not give it; what he asked was what he was supposed to do now. This week, he has gained some anger, though it's still not about the shooting as such (though I think that's there underneath); his "where is my brother?" question shows he like Angela has started to cope with the two Peters situation by thinking of them as "my brother = the present one" and the future version, who is and is not a stranger/his brother, as separate people. Whereas last week I think he still thought of them as one; after the revelation, I mean. Plus for all Nathan knew, this future version of Peter was the only one around; he hadn't seen Peter for most of s2, after all.
Present!Peter in Jessie's body continues to have the ultimate bad day, but manages to save a woman from getting killed by blue fire guy, figures out what the power of his host body is just in time, and tries out his earnest empathic ways on Knox, who I hope will stay around, because he's easily the most interesting of the level 5 bunch, with his angry argument towards Noah Bennet a pretty good one. It's a pity Jessie got killed off because Francis Capra really impressed me both as Peter and as Jessie, shortly as we saw him. And now we're off to another trip to the future. Which shows Future!Peter isn't thinking clearly, because the future he wants to show Present!Peter as a justification for his actions doesn't exist anymore in the way he remembers it, due to the changes he made already. Or... does it? The Five Years Gone future did exist after Future!Hiro contacted Peter, but that was because F!Hiro was working from a faulty premise - believing Sylar to be responsible for the blow-up-New-York event when it fact it had been Peter.
Speaking of Hiro: he, Ando and Daphne are clearly headed for a threesome. What?
Now, on the episode.
Given that Claire's storyline was undeniably one of the weakest last season, I can't tell you how happy I am about the character stuff she gets this season. And the way it is handled. I forgot to mention in my last review that Claire's reaction to what Sylar did to her struck me as similar as someone's reaction to being raped (so I wasn't surprised that Sandra wondered out loud whether a rape did happen), and I still think this is the subtext they're playing it as. It wasn't sexual, but he did violate her body, and the issue of being made helpless and having taken control over your body away by someone else is similar enough for the parallel to hold. Now, this is a tricky storyline to get right (but very rewarding if they manage it) without falling into a couple of traps. One of which would have been to let Claire retreat into little girldom and have Daddy take care of everything. Which is why I'm really glad that Noah is busy elsewhere and not anywhere near California, and the relevant scenes play out with Claire, Sandra and Meredith. I really appreciate that neither is cast as the "bad" mother, or the "true" mother who understands Claire completely. They both have a point in what they do, but in the end Claire is the only one who can help herself and has to make her own choices, which she does. The one thing Sandra and Meredith agree on is the value of a "normal", protected life for Claire, and that's precisely what, as Claire says, it's too late for. Which isn't to say going on a vengeance gig is the best thing to do, but it's something she has to discover for herself, and the desire not to be a victim anymore, to hurt Sylar back - that's Claire's idea of crashing the car with her and Brody in it written large. The scene with Meredith bringing out the anger and wish to strike back lurking beyond the "I want to help people" was terrific, and has yet another layer if you consider that when Meredith and Claire in essence parted as mother and daughter, way back when, that original death and rebirth that made Claire into a Bennet, it was in a fire.
One more thing about the California girls: Sandra continues to be awesome. I love the continuity; back in early s1, when HRG introduced the fake parents for Claire in order to stop her from enquiring further, Sandra when Claire used the term "bio parents" noted it was "cold" but was also obviously relieved and pleased; she must have been afraid to lose Claire to her biological family. Neither Meredith nor Nathan ever "claimed" Claire in any way later on, when they could have, though Angela did, so the "adoptive versus biological" parents battle never happened, but it's questionable how much Sandra knows about this, and at any rate, Meredith isn't just in her house now because of her biological connection to Claire but as an embodiment of that world of powers that has been endangering Claire - and the rest of the Bennets - for years now. The hostility is all too understandable. Meredith is harder to read and more enigmatic; I think, though, that she actually doesn't want to compete with Sandra in the mother department. It struck me in s1 that Meredith and Nathan aren't dissimilar in their attitudes towards Claire; it's not that they don't care, but after all these years of separation, they can't handle parent roles towards her, especially with Claire almost grown up, and are trying either to run away or to find something else to be towards her.
Speaking of mothers who aren't: more confirmation that Tracey is not another personality of Niki's but is physically another person, and that Niki is irrevocably dead, as the late D.L. The trip to New Orleans was the sensible thing to do - instead of dragging out the "why do I look like this Niki person and who is she?" thing, and if this is the last thing we see of Micah for a while, at least the boy got some sort of closure. (I wonder where Monica is, though, and want her back.) (Mind you, given that Heroes, like Lost, only takes weeks as a time frame for its seasons, they were going to run into trouble with their child actors growing up sooner rather than later, so I'm not surprised Micah seems to be written out. Though a bit sad, because like Molly, he was a good child character, not that common on tv.) Ali does a great job as Tracey, making her different from Niki but not in the way Jessica or Gina were. And it seems my guess is right that Nathan partly hired her because he's still waiting for the punchline and still half convinced she must be Niki pretending. However, my other guess - Niki is in fact the real Jessica - could be wrong, now that we're being told there is a "Barbara" as well, and Dr. Zimmerman (is his first name Lewis, the Trekker in me wonders) apparantly delivered a bunch of blonde babies at his hospital. Clones or genetic experiments, or both?
Regarding genetic experiments: I know it all looks like Angela is telling the truth, but I'm not entirely sure she isn't bluffing or at least telling only a partial truth, because what she does tell Sylar really is his dream fulfillment, shaped to hit on all the buttons he has. Current guess: if he is in fact her biological son, both Peter and Gabriel were the result of trying to have the ultimate power-adapting baby, but they were never meant to be twins, and Victoria or whoever else did the diagnosis concluded this resulted in something extremely unstable, hence the third Summers brother situation. Ooooorrrrr maybe Peter was the result of in vitro fertilisation, and someone, Victoria, Zimmerman or whoever did some more mixing with the genetics so there'd be a second power-adapting child but used another mother as the womb.
Of course, Angela here does the most evil thing we've seen her do yet, and for a woman who backed plan blow up New York, that's saying something. But the Ozymandias plan could in some twisted form be excused as being made for the greater good, as Linderman and Angela saw it; feeding Bridget to Sylar, on the other hand, is murder which benefits no one but Sylar and Angela herself, because that certainly was one hell of an effective "this is what I can give to you if you do my bidding and believe I'm your mother" gesture. Angela also continues to play the family game as far as the touching is concerned. Is there any question whom her boys adopted the body language from? Oh, Petrellis. You do find new and exciting ways to be warped every time we look. Never change.
(I bet Christine Rose had fun, just as with the Heidi seduction scene last year. Why leave all the fun to Milo and Adrian?)
Meanwhile, Noah Bennet finds himself enlisted again, and while it's comforting to know that he plays along so he can find a way to kill Sylar, I'm also amused he at least temporarly ends up as an Angela minion. For those of us who wanted to know, after their face-off on the telephone in the s1 finale, whether in a rematch Noah could hold his own against the Queen, not so much, at least not yet. The Noah and Sylar men in black act is amusing, even for a Sylar disliker such as myself. It also contains one of the most interesting exchanges of the episode, with Noah's "you realize she's playing both of us?" and Sylar's "yes, but don't you want to find out why?" reaction. Given that Sylar takes his prison garb like a good boy at the end (and in fact returns at all instead of leaving after his buffet), I think Angela has him hooked, at least for now; if he doesn't believe she is his mother already, he very much wants to, and he does want that crown prince special status she is dangling in front of him.
The former crown princes, on the other hand, are still having bad days. Not much Nathan in this episode, and the last scene indicates whatever is going on with his mind is still going on, but the face-off with Future!Peter brings on a new tone. Last week, when F!Peter made his confession and asked for forgiveness, Nathan did not give it; what he asked was what he was supposed to do now. This week, he has gained some anger, though it's still not about the shooting as such (though I think that's there underneath); his "where is my brother?" question shows he like Angela has started to cope with the two Peters situation by thinking of them as "my brother = the present one" and the future version, who is and is not a stranger/his brother, as separate people. Whereas last week I think he still thought of them as one; after the revelation, I mean. Plus for all Nathan knew, this future version of Peter was the only one around; he hadn't seen Peter for most of s2, after all.
Present!Peter in Jessie's body continues to have the ultimate bad day, but manages to save a woman from getting killed by blue fire guy, figures out what the power of his host body is just in time, and tries out his earnest empathic ways on Knox, who I hope will stay around, because he's easily the most interesting of the level 5 bunch, with his angry argument towards Noah Bennet a pretty good one. It's a pity Jessie got killed off because Francis Capra really impressed me both as Peter and as Jessie, shortly as we saw him. And now we're off to another trip to the future. Which shows Future!Peter isn't thinking clearly, because the future he wants to show Present!Peter as a justification for his actions doesn't exist anymore in the way he remembers it, due to the changes he made already. Or... does it? The Five Years Gone future did exist after Future!Hiro contacted Peter, but that was because F!Hiro was working from a faulty premise - believing Sylar to be responsible for the blow-up-New-York event when it fact it had been Peter.
Speaking of Hiro: he, Ando and Daphne are clearly headed for a threesome. What?