Tonight's episode of Heroes opens with Peter Petrelli being beaten up by our favorite gang of Irish thieves. Little do they know he can heal himself and phase through stuff! They want him to remember things, but he says he can't. Girls across America melt into a puddle because sweaty Milo is kinda hot. Eventually a cute girl named Kaitlin, the sister of one of the thieves, comes in to sponge Peter off (as girls across America melt further out of sheer jealousy) and realizes that he's totally healed. Later, when she's left alone to keep watch over him, he escapes from his ropes and is about to climb out the window (it's not really made clear why he can phase through ropes, but he needs a window to get through a wall) when he hears some guys come in and threaten to rape Kaitlin. So Peter goes Sylar on their asses, throwing them across the room with a mere gesture, and Kaitlin is sort of shocked and awed by the whole thing, enough to try to protect Peter from her brother. But her brother has other plans for Peter, which unfortunately I missed because I got a phone call!
Meanwhile, Claire is having a bit of a tough time settling into playing normal. She shows off by reaching into a pot of boiling water to rescue her mother's ring. Mama Bennett's response? "You don't need to be flashy." After she heads to school, Bennett sees the news about Hiro's father's death, and shows his wife Isaac's painting predicting that exact event. Apparently there are a series of eight that have yet to come true. Bennett has embarked on a quest to get these paintings, using Mohinder's in with the Company to get him to cure the Haitian from his mysterious hero-disease and procure him a job at Bennett's Kinko's. Mohinder's memory is erased, but the Company sees it as just an honest bungling of the job. But poor Bennett also has to deal with an idiot of a daughter who not only gets her car stolen but has an unfortunate tendency to talk loudly about sensitive information (like the fact that she can regenerate, or that they're running for their lives) in the middle of Kinko's. Claire's fascination with the idea that her blood could help wounded people heal or regenerate leads her to use household scissors to cut her pinky toe off. After a fairly long moment of suspense, the toe does grow back, and West, who was creepily staring in the window, sees the whole thing. Claire chases him outside, but all she finds is a copy of Suresh's book.
Hiro, meanwhile, tries to right the wrongs he created in 1671 Japan by convincing Takezo Kensei to woo the right woman and become a hero. (Part of the convincing involves dunking. Toughguy!Hiro is pretty amusing.) He saves the young woman Takezo was destined to love by using his power to steal swords instantaneously from his enemies. She's a lot more grateful than Kaitlin. Like, take-me-now grateful. But Hiro convinces her that it was Takezo himself who saved her. Then he almost gets Takezo killed by leading him into the path of three arrows, but turns out Takezo heals pretty damn quick after an arrow is pulled out. Very interesting.
Parkman investigates Hiro's father's death, accidentally tipping off Angela Petrelli that he can read minds. She demands a lawyer, ending the interrogation. The Beard shows up (with Nathan Petrelli in its evil clutches) to pick up his mom, but she's being attacked by an unseen force. They save her in time, but find the threatening picture from last time on her person. Ominous! It's actually a really great scene. Meanwhile, Maya runs and makes people's eyes bleed again. It's still boring. In case you care, though, they're on their way to Mexico, and apparently Maya's brother has either the superpower of healing song, or he just likes to sing while exercising his healing powers. It's unclear--but then, I have trouble paying attention to subtitles.
Great episode. I was totally into it, except when Maya was on, and I'm not missing Niki and company at all; it was a very action-packed, well-rounded, well-paced hour. We have the introduction of a few longer arcs, what with the mysterious long-distance attack (the Boogeyman!), the series of eight paintings, and the insinuation of Mohinder into the Company.
In Summary: All I could've hoped for.
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September 24, 2007: Heroes Second Season Premiere
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3 comments:
I'm with you on this episode. It was very good. I think the part you missed was Kaitlin's brother (the Irish gang leader) pressuring Peter into helping them with a job in exchange for a box with Peter's belongings and very likely his identity.
It's beyond me why Peter didn't just beat the crap out of the guy and take his identity back, but I guess he's just a nice guy.
Wow. I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with you both. I thought this episode was super lame.
Who cares about Peter's identity? We already know who he is! Is it supposed to be a big secret?
Did anyone actually think Claire's toe wouldn't grow back?
Most importantly, aside from the little stuff, where is the show going? What's it moving towards? We've got like 7 little stories going on and I don't find any of them the least bit compelling. What are the stakes?
Check out my full analysis at mediamm.wordpress.com.
matt - Thanks for filling me in. And sometimes, the things that the heroes don't do that they could do, baffle me. I feel like with characters like Peter, they should in theory never have any problems getting their way against hoi polloi, but sometimes the writers ignore or rationalize away the fact that, for example, Peter could have taken the box without permission.
media maven - I agree that some of the stories (Maya and Alejandro, anyone?) are not compelling. But I do feel like this episode was much better in terms of structure and pacing, the way the premiere should have been. And for the record, I was definitely unsure whether Claire's toe would grow back! I thought she might be walking around with nine toes for the rest of the show, which would have been kind of awesome. But perhaps I'm just slow. :)
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