Musings on Volume 3 Sylar, Sylar/Elle,Sylar and Noah Bennet.
Most of my Heroes fandom peeps know that the ending of last Monday's episode didn't sit right with me. The sudden smirky return...it just didn't seem like it made any sense to me. Was it a harbinger that all of the stuff we've seen from Sylar so far this volume just didn't mean anything in the name of a return to a more s1-ish Sylar? No...it did not. Because at work today I spent a very large portion of my day musing about the last episode and about Volume 3 Sylar. It's just what my mind does when it's stressed...so bear with me.
Let's start with what preceded that smirk, Elle's death by Sylar's hand. I wasn't surprised that she would leave this show in this manner. And I was a fan of their interactions but, unfortunately for Elle...she didn't pass the test. Yes it was a test. Watch again the Eclipse parts one and two...note how often he asks questions, the very carefully laid lines about 'how much of a relief it is to be normal.' Elle was being tested and played, sad to say. One part of this is his line about Elle 'getting everything that she wanted' when they were both powerless. Elle wanted her powers gone, they had ruined her life for so long with all of their implications and then most recently the excruciating pain that they caused.
Despite all the bad things that have happened to others and even to himself--Gabriel does not want normal. He wants special, he always has. He always will. Just like Maya did in Volume 2, Elle rejected her abilities and the life they bring and that turned Gabriel off. As did, I believe, her actions at the car rental place. When she had her little speech about 'who are you really?' it made him realize what he truly wanted to be--his own person. Not what his parents wanted, not what She wanted him to be like...he just wanted to be himself on his own terms again. That was a wake-up call for Gabriel that would help to lead to the ultimate resolution for their plotline.
To follow the thread of what Sylar and Elle's relationship was...it's important to set aside the 'I Am Become Death' future. To remember that what transpired in 'Villains' was months ago and he is not that person anymore. But then that brings to mind what kind of person Gabriel is in this volume. Good guy? Viillain? Little of both? Remember the scene with Claire and Noah in the car when he's making Claire doubt her father's intentions to protect her and not just do his job? That's my favorite indicator of what Sylar really is in this Volume. Wearing the suit while spewing out maniupulative words. A man who after initially trying on the guise of a 'good guy' was pulled in one direction then another, all while the intent seemed to be on his remaining a killer but for other people's means.
Angela introduced herself as his mother then gave him a victim. What is he supposed to then think about any entreaty given to him to 'rehabilitate' his urges? No he...he was along for the ride to a point and now it's time to take back control of his own destiny. From what we've heard about Episode 12, Sylar is going to find the answers to what happened/or didn't happen when he was young. Angela is dangling on a very thin thread right now ,and she had better damn well hope that she wasn't lying about his lineage. Sylar is not going to tolerate being toyed with any longer.
This brings us back to something that was said in the Eclipse part one, when he and Elle are practicing Electrokinesis and he makes mention of having to 'prove something' to someone. There could be a lot of people he was thinking of but to me, it smacks of his former 'partner' Noah Bennet. A man who's path is so entwined in his own. From the day he chose to target the cheerleader, his daughter...these two have been entangled in quite a fascinating little dance. Cat and mouse as Sylar himself said but...it does go deeper. Let's go back to Season one, where a man who had accumluated so much unquestionable power was brought down by a mere mortal in trademark eyewear. Noah Bennet was not nearly as fascinated with Sylar as Sylar was with Bennet...a man who was so deeply entrenched in this 'world' but with so much of worth outside of it. Who was so happy with 'normal', being powerless that is.
Noah Bennet has seen it all and no matter what Sylar does, he can't seem to impress this incredibly average man. 'Oh I finally got your daughter's ability and you couldn't stop me' Noah is nonplussed. "Look, I can be a Company agent just like you" Bennet is not impressed. "I saved Claire's life!" Bennet tries to kill him. It's this back and forth, this constant, strange obsession of Sylar to be significant to Noah Bennet that led to Monday's episode. When Sylar shoved Elle into the service elevator and 'gave himself up' to Bennet...he was once again trying to prove something. That he could be self-less and self-sacrificing just like Noah himself. And what happened was he got his ass kicked and his throat slit for the effort. One could argue that this was also a test for Elle as she couldn't be as selfless and try to help. No she just watched him get offed.
Later on, when Sylar was in the Bennet househould, a favorite haunt of Sylar no matter the state it's in, he made reference to the fact that he could be like Noah and have it all...that he could do his job no matter what that meant and he could have a family. Did he ever once talk about a normal life with Elle? Playing house and making waffles and having a little blonde kid together? No he made sure he pitched that idea direcetly in front of Noah himself. One that was quickly shut down when Bennet made Sylar damn sure that Elle could have only ever felt something for him all those months ago as part of her assignment and he'd never have a 'normal' life. It cemented in Sylar what had to be done.
When they were on the beach, he gave her one last kiss--himself a fleeting feeling of what could have been. But it was evident that after what Bennet said in that house and after what they'd been through that Sylar couldn't feel anything from that gesture. She would never care for him and you know...she thinks her abilities are a curse. Sylar ended her life because Elle failed the test he'd been putting her through and also the idea that Noah was right. But what he can be is a man on his own terms, whatever those may prove to be in the future.
Let's start with what preceded that smirk, Elle's death by Sylar's hand. I wasn't surprised that she would leave this show in this manner. And I was a fan of their interactions but, unfortunately for Elle...she didn't pass the test. Yes it was a test. Watch again the Eclipse parts one and two...note how often he asks questions, the very carefully laid lines about 'how much of a relief it is to be normal.' Elle was being tested and played, sad to say. One part of this is his line about Elle 'getting everything that she wanted' when they were both powerless. Elle wanted her powers gone, they had ruined her life for so long with all of their implications and then most recently the excruciating pain that they caused.
Despite all the bad things that have happened to others and even to himself--Gabriel does not want normal. He wants special, he always has. He always will. Just like Maya did in Volume 2, Elle rejected her abilities and the life they bring and that turned Gabriel off. As did, I believe, her actions at the car rental place. When she had her little speech about 'who are you really?' it made him realize what he truly wanted to be--his own person. Not what his parents wanted, not what She wanted him to be like...he just wanted to be himself on his own terms again. That was a wake-up call for Gabriel that would help to lead to the ultimate resolution for their plotline.
To follow the thread of what Sylar and Elle's relationship was...it's important to set aside the 'I Am Become Death' future. To remember that what transpired in 'Villains' was months ago and he is not that person anymore. But then that brings to mind what kind of person Gabriel is in this volume. Good guy? Viillain? Little of both? Remember the scene with Claire and Noah in the car when he's making Claire doubt her father's intentions to protect her and not just do his job? That's my favorite indicator of what Sylar really is in this Volume. Wearing the suit while spewing out maniupulative words. A man who after initially trying on the guise of a 'good guy' was pulled in one direction then another, all while the intent seemed to be on his remaining a killer but for other people's means.
Angela introduced herself as his mother then gave him a victim. What is he supposed to then think about any entreaty given to him to 'rehabilitate' his urges? No he...he was along for the ride to a point and now it's time to take back control of his own destiny. From what we've heard about Episode 12, Sylar is going to find the answers to what happened/or didn't happen when he was young. Angela is dangling on a very thin thread right now ,and she had better damn well hope that she wasn't lying about his lineage. Sylar is not going to tolerate being toyed with any longer.
This brings us back to something that was said in the Eclipse part one, when he and Elle are practicing Electrokinesis and he makes mention of having to 'prove something' to someone. There could be a lot of people he was thinking of but to me, it smacks of his former 'partner' Noah Bennet. A man who's path is so entwined in his own. From the day he chose to target the cheerleader, his daughter...these two have been entangled in quite a fascinating little dance. Cat and mouse as Sylar himself said but...it does go deeper. Let's go back to Season one, where a man who had accumluated so much unquestionable power was brought down by a mere mortal in trademark eyewear. Noah Bennet was not nearly as fascinated with Sylar as Sylar was with Bennet...a man who was so deeply entrenched in this 'world' but with so much of worth outside of it. Who was so happy with 'normal', being powerless that is.
Noah Bennet has seen it all and no matter what Sylar does, he can't seem to impress this incredibly average man. 'Oh I finally got your daughter's ability and you couldn't stop me' Noah is nonplussed. "Look, I can be a Company agent just like you" Bennet is not impressed. "I saved Claire's life!" Bennet tries to kill him. It's this back and forth, this constant, strange obsession of Sylar to be significant to Noah Bennet that led to Monday's episode. When Sylar shoved Elle into the service elevator and 'gave himself up' to Bennet...he was once again trying to prove something. That he could be self-less and self-sacrificing just like Noah himself. And what happened was he got his ass kicked and his throat slit for the effort. One could argue that this was also a test for Elle as she couldn't be as selfless and try to help. No she just watched him get offed.
Later on, when Sylar was in the Bennet househould, a favorite haunt of Sylar no matter the state it's in, he made reference to the fact that he could be like Noah and have it all...that he could do his job no matter what that meant and he could have a family. Did he ever once talk about a normal life with Elle? Playing house and making waffles and having a little blonde kid together? No he made sure he pitched that idea direcetly in front of Noah himself. One that was quickly shut down when Bennet made Sylar damn sure that Elle could have only ever felt something for him all those months ago as part of her assignment and he'd never have a 'normal' life. It cemented in Sylar what had to be done.
When they were on the beach, he gave her one last kiss--himself a fleeting feeling of what could have been. But it was evident that after what Bennet said in that house and after what they'd been through that Sylar couldn't feel anything from that gesture. She would never care for him and you know...she thinks her abilities are a curse. Sylar ended her life because Elle failed the test he'd been putting her through and also the idea that Noah was right. But what he can be is a man on his own terms, whatever those may prove to be in the future.