Heroes season 4 - Episode 2
Jan. 17th, 2010 10:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lathanyLast night's BBC 2 offering.
Details: At the start of the episode Claire is avoiding Getchen. Noah shows up, and Gretchen gets herself invited along for lunch where she proceeds to make it clear she knows about Claire's ability. Claire tells Noah not to call the Haitian and she'll deal with it. She then decides to be honest with Gretchen, telling Noah that she needs to be able to tell some friends about herself; he accepts this. At the end of the episode she invites Gretchen to be her room-mate and Gretchen accepts. Matt is still having Sylar problems. Sylar starts to make Matt see things that aren't there; making the cop believe that the drug dealer he and his partner (boss?) are searching the house of is into kidnapping and killing children. When Sylar's manipulation becomes apparent, Matt has to mind-wipe the other cop to save his career. At the end, it's clear that Matt seriously needs to get Sylar out of his head. Peter is told he is being sued by someone he saved. This turns out to be Samuel who has used his ground/ink power to put himself into the list of survivors and into the picture on the wall of Peter's apartment. Having initially been convinced that Samuel wasn't in the accident (not remembering him), Peter finds the picture and goes after Samuel to apologise. Samuel says he'll drop the lawsuit and tells Peter about his recently deceased brother Joseph (who I think he wants Peter to replace as an empath). Peter consoles him and talks about his earlier hospice career. He also suggests that Samuel goes home; Samuel explains that he was in city to see his home, but was changing his mind about going. Samuel goes to an expensive house and asks to see the coach house (it seems his folks were the servants). The owners refuse (they have a dinner party on) and later Peter and his partner are called to the scene where the whole house has been devastated by a "sink". At the end of the episode Peter feels something on his arm and it turns into an ink compass - from when Samuel shook hands with him earlier. Finally, there's a new person (hero?) out there - Emma who is apparently deaf, but is starting to see sounds as colours. Peter runs across her twice as she works at the hospital and he later hears her playing in the park; she borrows a cello and plays beautifully through seeing colours.
General comments: I think this had the smallest number of main characters in it for an episode - five (Noah, Claire, Matt, Sylar and Peter). Although it also had Samuel and Emma. It has an important virtue in one respect; it contained episode-contained arcs in a way that Heroes hasn't really managed since season one (eg. the events at the drug dealer's, the lawsuit). However, it also felt sluggishly long in places. I think some of that is down to Emma and Gretchen. I'm not yet sure how Emma is going to fit in being deaf as there's no reason any of the characters would have sign language, although Matt and therefore Peter could mind-read (and the writers may randomly decide that someone like Bennet can sign). It seems like a concept the writers had ("wouldn't a deaf character be cool?") without thinking through how it related to everything else. The trouble with Gretchen is that whilst this episode devoted a lot of scenes to Gretchen it isn't clear why. It's fine if she turns out to have series-wide importance (eg. is a Hero or is connected to other Heroes), but not so good if she's just a character for Claire. When Zack was around he was good because he was there for scenes about other things, not really scenes about him and Claire (and he was nicely portrayed) - their friendship was developed whilst dealing with other stuff such as Jackie, Sylar, the rape and Homecoming (whilst West had scenes devoted to him and was Just Dull).
Character by character:
Themes: There's, again, references back to season one - Peter's stint in hospice and Noah's reliance on the Haitian to memory-wipe people. And again to alone-ness/family with Emma's introduction (not least because the doctor who examines her is apparently her mother). Also the music for this episode was very season one.
Continuity errors and other weirds: Nothing immediately springs to mind. When Peter describes hospice work in season one, he talks about "saving lives" (by which I took him to mean helping people make the most of their last few weeks) and here he says that he was watching them pass away, but that could just be a different of perspective for him.
Details: At the start of the episode Claire is avoiding Getchen. Noah shows up, and Gretchen gets herself invited along for lunch where she proceeds to make it clear she knows about Claire's ability. Claire tells Noah not to call the Haitian and she'll deal with it. She then decides to be honest with Gretchen, telling Noah that she needs to be able to tell some friends about herself; he accepts this. At the end of the episode she invites Gretchen to be her room-mate and Gretchen accepts. Matt is still having Sylar problems. Sylar starts to make Matt see things that aren't there; making the cop believe that the drug dealer he and his partner (boss?) are searching the house of is into kidnapping and killing children. When Sylar's manipulation becomes apparent, Matt has to mind-wipe the other cop to save his career. At the end, it's clear that Matt seriously needs to get Sylar out of his head. Peter is told he is being sued by someone he saved. This turns out to be Samuel who has used his ground/ink power to put himself into the list of survivors and into the picture on the wall of Peter's apartment. Having initially been convinced that Samuel wasn't in the accident (not remembering him), Peter finds the picture and goes after Samuel to apologise. Samuel says he'll drop the lawsuit and tells Peter about his recently deceased brother Joseph (who I think he wants Peter to replace as an empath). Peter consoles him and talks about his earlier hospice career. He also suggests that Samuel goes home; Samuel explains that he was in city to see his home, but was changing his mind about going. Samuel goes to an expensive house and asks to see the coach house (it seems his folks were the servants). The owners refuse (they have a dinner party on) and later Peter and his partner are called to the scene where the whole house has been devastated by a "sink". At the end of the episode Peter feels something on his arm and it turns into an ink compass - from when Samuel shook hands with him earlier. Finally, there's a new person (hero?) out there - Emma who is apparently deaf, but is starting to see sounds as colours. Peter runs across her twice as she works at the hospital and he later hears her playing in the park; she borrows a cello and plays beautifully through seeing colours.
General comments: I think this had the smallest number of main characters in it for an episode - five (Noah, Claire, Matt, Sylar and Peter). Although it also had Samuel and Emma. It has an important virtue in one respect; it contained episode-contained arcs in a way that Heroes hasn't really managed since season one (eg. the events at the drug dealer's, the lawsuit). However, it also felt sluggishly long in places. I think some of that is down to Emma and Gretchen. I'm not yet sure how Emma is going to fit in being deaf as there's no reason any of the characters would have sign language, although Matt and therefore Peter could mind-read (and the writers may randomly decide that someone like Bennet can sign). It seems like a concept the writers had ("wouldn't a deaf character be cool?") without thinking through how it related to everything else. The trouble with Gretchen is that whilst this episode devoted a lot of scenes to Gretchen it isn't clear why. It's fine if she turns out to have series-wide importance (eg. is a Hero or is connected to other Heroes), but not so good if she's just a character for Claire. When Zack was around he was good because he was there for scenes about other things, not really scenes about him and Claire (and he was nicely portrayed) - their friendship was developed whilst dealing with other stuff such as Jackie, Sylar, the rape and Homecoming (whilst West had scenes devoted to him and was Just Dull).
Character by character:
- Claire - Still has a "season four of Buffy" air to it. But, irritatingly, no (or little - depends if Annie's death still has to run) plot for a character that's had a lot of air time in the first three episodes (compare with Nathan and Angela who have had almost none). On the plus side, Lyle got a name check.
- Peter - What I think of his stuff depends on what comes next (again). Was his scene at the end, actually arriving with his partner, an indication that he's going back to not using his powers and sharing the work (ie. accepting he's cutting his partner out and raising other people's suspicions/jealousies)? Also there were two nice references; the first to how good he was at hospice (stated by various people in season one) and the second when Samuel asks if he's lost a brother - actually, he has but doesn't know it. I still like his paramedical partner too, nicely portrayed as he gets on with Peter, but is somewhat upset by being a glorified driver due to Peter's powers. I like him far more than I like Gretchen (does he have a name?).
- Emma - I don't have strong views either way yet. At least she's not automatically in as a love interest (OK, there's still time) and I applaud the concept even though I doubt it'll fit properly. I'm also not sure whether her sounds->colours count as a power (or whether that matters!).
- Noah - Really just a further nod to his direction he started with Tracey, he's no longer going to do all the old things (such as memory wiping) automatically. Plus a quick update that Sandra told him about the suicide without making a separate scene out of it.
- Sylar - The bit in Matt's head is the old Sylar; sneaky and untrustworthy giving Matt a good reason to put him back.
- Matt - May have overtaken Hiro in the battle for most sucky situation. He clearly needs to do something.
- Mohinder - Still no sign, another couple of episodes and I'll conclude he's out of the main cast.
- The Haitian - Good to have a name-check and that he's still around.
Themes: There's, again, references back to season one - Peter's stint in hospice and Noah's reliance on the Haitian to memory-wipe people. And again to alone-ness/family with Emma's introduction (not least because the doctor who examines her is apparently her mother). Also the music for this episode was very season one.
Continuity errors and other weirds: Nothing immediately springs to mind. When Peter describes hospice work in season one, he talks about "saving lives" (by which I took him to mean helping people make the most of their last few weeks) and here he says that he was watching them pass away, but that could just be a different of perspective for him.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-01-17 03:06 pm (UTC)Apparently most words tasted pretty bland to him, but the lecturer who had a fairly complex Indian name which tasted like Irn Bru.
Trying and failing to remember the name of the condition, but essentially any sense pairing can get mixed up.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-17 03:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-18 10:13 am (UTC)Synaesthesia.
And in fact a mutual friend of ours has it, although I won't say who in case it's supposed to be secret.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-18 10:19 am (UTC)Emma's scenes were quite short, so I suspect it was mostly Gretchen. Not least because she had entire scenes which didn't seem at all necessary. As far as where she's going, I'm still epxecting her to end up with a superpower sooner or later (most likely because she already has one).
Emma seems to me to have a lot of clever power applications (spying!), particularly if she isn't just sound -> light but can also remap other energy types.
I was puzzled by the relationship between the sinkhole effect Samuel achieved and his known powers, but at least it makes it clearer how he filled his brother's grave.