Season 4 - Episode 4
Jan. 25th, 2010 07:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lathanyLast Sunday's BBC 3 offering.
Details: Peter rescues Emma from being run over after she back into the road seeing more sounds as colours. He accidentally copies her power, but then realises it comes from her (there is no-one else). He finds her back at the hospital watching sounds and communicates this to her. After playing a piano duet, he asks her out to lunch to talk about the power, but when he jokes it will get her out of the file room she declines despite initially accepting.
Peter tries to reconnect with his mother as well, but she's far too preoccupied with Nathan's absence. Having reached the end of the day, he comments to himself on his lack of success at reconnecting with people and then Hiro teleports in and collapses in his room.
Claire becomes suspicious about Gretchen after what looked like another murder attempt (and finding stuff on her on the computer), accuses her, but Gretchen confesses to being in love with Claire. At the same time, they both join a sorority (spelt?), which Claire's mother belonged to and it turns out that the girl who invites them has invisibility, is part of Samuel's gang and has been trying to isolate Claire. Invisible girl killed Claire's room mate and framed Gretchen for the later accident.
Finally, Sylar stays as Sylar, but with no memory. He's taken in by the police and questioned by a psychiatrist. They identifying him as Gabriel Gray (mother killer) and he starts using powers to make his escape. The psychiatrist has some sympathy for him and is instrumental in him escaping the others (after he recovers from gunshot wounds in front of her).
Samuel tells his carnival gang that they'll have a new member by nightfall. The circus appears as Sylar is running away, he joins them and then it disappears when the police arrive.
General comments: Yet another episode with contained story threads and a new equal low number of cast regulars (Peter, Claire, Sylar, Hiro and Angela and the last two have barely a scene between them). I liked this episode the best so far, I think, of the season. The stuff between Peter and Emma looks interesting - if it's a romance then it wins on having reached the fourth episode (the second with both of them) without them kissing or, as in seasons one and two, sleeping together. The Sylar thread was particularly unusual - as it felt in a different style to any part of the series so far. I was also somewhat disappointed by the Sylar thread - I feel he should have been Nathan for longer. I liked that this episode answered the death of Claire's room mate - in particular, that it's now solved without us going half a season or more waiting for an answer.
Addition: As![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bateleur pointed out (and I forgot to mention before now) - why is Sylar treated as a criminal when seen by the police? Surely he looks like a victim at that point?
Character by character:
Themes: Nothing particularly new. Peter's failed connections with Emma and Angela; contrasted with Hiro's connection to him (he travelled to the one hero he knew who worked in medicine). Also - the whole memory loss thing? We've seen it - Peter in season 2.
Continuity errors and other weirds: Yeeees. To start with, why did Peter pick up Emma's ability when he'd worked out in Fugitives how to avoid randomly taking them (and doesn't collect Samuel's)? Answer - because he'd never know to connect to her otherwise. Why does Samuel have someone at Claire's university in the right year (and in her mum's sorority)? On the plus side, this makes more sense of Claire's and Sylar's faces appearing on Lydia's back at the end of the first episode.
Details: Peter rescues Emma from being run over after she back into the road seeing more sounds as colours. He accidentally copies her power, but then realises it comes from her (there is no-one else). He finds her back at the hospital watching sounds and communicates this to her. After playing a piano duet, he asks her out to lunch to talk about the power, but when he jokes it will get her out of the file room she declines despite initially accepting.
Peter tries to reconnect with his mother as well, but she's far too preoccupied with Nathan's absence. Having reached the end of the day, he comments to himself on his lack of success at reconnecting with people and then Hiro teleports in and collapses in his room.
Claire becomes suspicious about Gretchen after what looked like another murder attempt (and finding stuff on her on the computer), accuses her, but Gretchen confesses to being in love with Claire. At the same time, they both join a sorority (spelt?), which Claire's mother belonged to and it turns out that the girl who invites them has invisibility, is part of Samuel's gang and has been trying to isolate Claire. Invisible girl killed Claire's room mate and framed Gretchen for the later accident.
Finally, Sylar stays as Sylar, but with no memory. He's taken in by the police and questioned by a psychiatrist. They identifying him as Gabriel Gray (mother killer) and he starts using powers to make his escape. The psychiatrist has some sympathy for him and is instrumental in him escaping the others (after he recovers from gunshot wounds in front of her).
Samuel tells his carnival gang that they'll have a new member by nightfall. The circus appears as Sylar is running away, he joins them and then it disappears when the police arrive.
General comments: Yet another episode with contained story threads and a new equal low number of cast regulars (Peter, Claire, Sylar, Hiro and Angela and the last two have barely a scene between them). I liked this episode the best so far, I think, of the season. The stuff between Peter and Emma looks interesting - if it's a romance then it wins on having reached the fourth episode (the second with both of them) without them kissing or, as in seasons one and two, sleeping together. The Sylar thread was particularly unusual - as it felt in a different style to any part of the series so far. I was also somewhat disappointed by the Sylar thread - I feel he should have been Nathan for longer. I liked that this episode answered the death of Claire's room mate - in particular, that it's now solved without us going half a season or more waiting for an answer.
Addition: As
bateleur pointed out (and I forgot to mention before now) - why is Sylar treated as a criminal when seen by the police? Surely he looks like a victim at that point?Character by character:
- Claire - Well, we'll have to wait another episode at least to find out what she feels about Gretchen. Also, the carnival isn't what she wants right now. A really sweet thing though - did Claire choose this place because it was Sandra's university?
- Peter - As above, I'm rather hoping that this is a romance that the writers have properly spaced for once. Even if it isn't, the interaction between Peter and Emma is a nice change to many of the others between two characters of opposite sex. Shame about the scene with his mother though; yet again, he's dealing with a parent more concerned with his elder brother. Even though said older brother is dead.
- Hiro - I reckoned he'd turn up at the carnival (as I'm sure the writers wanted me to), so was pleased to see him appear elsewhere. Also, we haven't seen Peter/Hiro since they fought over Adam (and before that was only Five Years Ago and the whole "save the cheerleader" speech).
- Angela - I think this is the first time we've seen her so distracted about one thing (Nathan) that she failed to pay attention to what was in front of her.
- Nathan/Sylar - I'm hoping there's more Nathan ahead, but can't help thinking that he's only now going to emerge with Sylar being aware of himself.
- Emma - I'm liking her more now. Plus her power development is nice.
Themes: Nothing particularly new. Peter's failed connections with Emma and Angela; contrasted with Hiro's connection to him (he travelled to the one hero he knew who worked in medicine). Also - the whole memory loss thing? We've seen it - Peter in season 2.
Continuity errors and other weirds: Yeeees. To start with, why did Peter pick up Emma's ability when he'd worked out in Fugitives how to avoid randomly taking them (and doesn't collect Samuel's)? Answer - because he'd never know to connect to her otherwise. Why does Samuel have someone at Claire's university in the right year (and in her mum's sorority)? On the plus side, this makes more sense of Claire's and Sylar's faces appearing on Lydia's back at the end of the first episode.
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-25 08:45 pm (UTC)It would also win massively for being the reverse of the usual Hollywood age gap. But I don't believe for a moment they'd do that, so my bet is that this won't go anywhere.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-27 12:33 am (UTC)I assumed something to do with the strained conversation made him do it by accident. He was trying to "connect with" her in some sense. Of course by the same argument he could have accidentally taken Angela's power, but that was less heat-of-the-moment.
Why does Samuel have someone at Claire's university in the right year
A strong belief in fate and a woman who apparently predicts the future? I wonder whether she even really is a student, or whether the super-carnies have someone who can pull a Jedi mind trick on a bunch of sorority girls. Should be explained, probably won't be, but not IMO a stretch to explain.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-27 06:51 pm (UTC)That's a decent enough argument.
A strong belief in fate and a woman who apparently predicts the future?
Not good enough. Samuel's only just decided he wants new heroes - all the scenes have indicated that's recent. Also, Lydia's predictions appear to all be in answer to questions, rather than random Isaac moments. I suppose you could suggest time travel - but that's a bit full-life-changing for invisible girl (which they've indicated they don't want to do with time-travel). Not to mention that the ill guy doesn't seem to want to do too much of it.
I wonder whether she even really is a student, or whether the super-carnies have someone who can pull a Jedi mind trick on a bunch of sorority girls. Should be explained, probably won't be, but not IMO a stretch to explain.
That's a better explanation, if they have a suitable mind person.