Heroes - season four, episode ten

[lathany]

Last night's BBC 3 Heroes offering.

Details: Three Thanksgiving dinners - taken one at a time.

1. The Bennett thanksgiving. This gave the viewer a sighting of Mr Muggles which I felt was the primary motivation. However, also of Sandra ("Sandy") and her new bloke who has a Ms Muggles. There was also Claire in pissed-off mode saying she wanted to leave school (and go join the murdering invisible girl, or at least that was the implication). Plus there was Lauren from that entirely pointless subplot in Once Upon A Time In Texas. The main outcomes from this section were, firstly, that Lauren has been brought in as a new love interest for Bennett (they have a date planned and everything) and that Gretchen reappears (invited by Bennett to please Claire) and she and Claire drive off to find the Carnival after Claire nicks Becky's compass from her dad.

2. The Petrelli thanksgiving. This involved Angela, Peter and Nathan/Sylar. The other two finally get Angela to admit the truth, then Nathan turns into Sylar. There's some puppetry (which he nicked from that other hero last season) and then, when he attempts to kill Angela, Nathan re-emerges before flying away. Peter promises to save his brother somehow and goes after him.

3. The Carnival thanksgiving. This was all about Hiro telling Lydia that he'd gone back in time and "fixed" things and Lydia realising that Samuel hadn't meant him to save Joseph. After a bit more time-travel she and Hiro see that Samuel himself (and not Denko) was responsible for Joseph's death which she then tells to Edgar (the fast knife guy). However, Samuel gets wind of all this and tells everyone that Edgar killed Joseph, but Hiro rescues Edgar from being killed by Samuel. Finally, Hiro has his mind attacked by the House of Mirrors guy but teleports off as a consequence - to Samuel's surprise/horror. This was probably the most interesting thread of the three.

General comments: Not as good as last week, but pretty reasonable (particularly for this season). Taking the threads one-by-one; firstly, the Bennett stuff was arguably the worst value for money. It took the most scenes but for comparatively little advancement. We got Gretchen back which, on balance, I liked. We also got Lauren who I assume is going to replace Sandra as Bennett's female companion. I have mixed feelings about this; as I liked Sandra and didn't like that subplot of Once Upon a Time in Texas, but at least it was some attempt at bringing in a romantic plot without it being love at first sight (which dominated much of the first two seasons).

The Petrelli stuff was fairly short of surprises, unless someone out there wasn't expecting the Sylar reappearance. Also, I felt Sylar vs Nathan wasn't that much of a twist. However, I do like the idea that they are both in there - Sylar definitely needed a balancing factor. Although, yet again, I thought Peter was much too forgiving and that one of the brothers should have responded to Angela's threat to leave the family forever with "go on, then!".

Hiro's plot was the best of the three. We found out what had happened to Joseph and, even better, there is dissension in the Carni ranks (which, given how much of a nutter Samuel is, was way overdue). However, I'm getting bored of Hiro being crap for Charlie's sake. One last point from bateleur - it would be good if the Mirror Maze Hero had deliberately sent Hiro off (rather than, we suspect, it being blamed on the brain tumour).

Character by character:

• Claire - Carnival-hunting with Gretchen is an improvement on where she was.
• Noah - I liked his efforts at cooking and bringing Lauren in may mean we actually get some "Company" scenes in the future where Bennett isn't the "one of us" (I do like Bennett, but some variety would be good).
• Nathan/Sylar - I liked where this ended up. Half and half is definitely a good thing.
• Samuel - The season's big bad, although fortunately the Carnival isn't entirely supporting him now.
• Peter - I got a bit irritated with his willingness to forgive his mother; although I guess that's what he does.
• Angela - Good to see her back, even if was rather bit-part. The small clutch of minions was great.
• Hiro - Why oh why didn't he transport Samuel somewhere harmless and threaten to leave him there unless he revealed where Charlie was?

Title: Dull. As bateleur pointed out, there was no reason for it to be Thanksgiving. Not like that Buffy episode where the background to the occasion is explored.

Themes: Shifting alliances, I think. Lydia, Edgar and sort-of Sylar shifted sides somewhat.

Refer back moments: Lauren - which would have been cooler if they'd actually planted her first appearance in an earlier season. Also, I liked that Denko was executed because he's been framed for murdering a Hero that he didn't kill! Mr Muggles as well.

Continuity errors and other weirds: Nothing immediately springs to mind from this episode. Other than stuff I've ranted about before.

One final comment (about season three) - I've now seen a piece by the writers confirming (as far as you can use that word for stuff on the internet) that Sylar started season three with only telekinesis and his "how things work" power. So, that's why he doesn't use the others; which, in turn, means that the episode I Am Become Death was inconsistent as it has Sylar both Isaac-the-future and explode Ted-style.

Comments

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

As bateleur pointed out, there was no reason for it to be Thanksgiving.

More precisely, no IC reason. It was the all-too-obvious OOC reason I was really objecting to.

[floralaetifica.livejournal.com]

Oh no! You're ahead of me! I must start downloading immediately.

[lathany.livejournal.com]

:-) I almost prompted you, 'cos you said where you were. Next time I will!