Heroes - season four, episode eleven

[lathany]

Last night's BBC 3 Heroes offering.

Details: Two main plotlines and a side-thread this week.

Main plot one is Peter’s attempt to turn Sylar permanently into Nathan. Despite his mother turning up and trying to dissuade him, he takes the Haitian’s ability and a bunch of drugs and heads off. Sylar turns out to be a medic going down in the lift with him, who promptly beats him up and, tipping out the drugs, telling him that it’s bad to pull the same trick twice however well it worked the first time. Peter agrees and proceeds to beat him up - his real (or possibly back-up) plan was to use the Haitian’s ability to neutralise Sylar and then use the memory wipe to remove mind-Sylar leaving Nathan. This entire scene includes him crucifying Sylar using a nailgun which was rather awesome. At first it seems he has succeeded and Nathan reappears. The two go back to the roof of Don't Look Back where Peter threatened to throw himself off if Nathan didn't tell him the truth. They reminisce about that scene, then Nathan tells Peter he can't keep Sylar out and tries to throw himself off the roof. Peter hangs on to him at first, but then lets go.

The second main plot is Claire and Gretchen at the Carnival. They watch a Hero cheat a man out of his prize, but then give it to a small girl. They also meet Lydia and she shows Claire that she wants to be "Indestructible Woman" using a tattoo on her back. Then Claire watches story-reading to the kids and tells one herself - a thinly disguised version of her life. And Doyle shows up looking pleased to see her. Just before they are due to leave, the cheated man turns up and beats up Samuel wanting his money back. Samuel does not fight back knowing that Claire will intervene - and she does. She then decides to stay for a couple of days. Gretchen drives back, past a truck containing the dead body of the aggrieved patron.

The little side-plot is Noah discovering the missing compass when Lauren turns up for their date and the two attempting to trace Claire using the files and Lauren's CIA stuff. Then the multi-man shows as Samuel has sent him to take Noah's files. After a brief confrontation, he takes them and leaves. Noah also tells Lauren about their past and her "going Haitian".

Just before the episode ends, Peter and Angela are shown together getting over Nathan's death, Mohinder, Hiro and Ando are shown running through a forest, Emma with the cello, Sylar is shown with his season one cap and Tracey is shown somewhere controlling her abilities.

General comments: I liked main plot one, liked the side plot and loathed main plot two.

Main plot one was a great farewell to Nathan. It would have been awesome if they'd got rid of Sylar at the same time, but I guess they were never going to do that. It was good to see Peter beating Sylar - he's actually approaching a 50:50 ratio on meet-ups now and good to see the two brothers say farewell. Plus there was Angela and the Haitian (René). I particularly liked René helping Peter - it's growing into a partnership in a gradual but believable way.

The side plot took Lauren to where the audience are and, thank god, she is a competent agent. About time there was a female one.

The second main plot was grim. Watching Claire decide she wants to be with the carnival - you'd think she'd turn to Nathan and the Petrellis if she wanted a family "like her" rather than Becky-the-killer and her homicidal mates (OK, it's only Becky she knows to be a killer, but still). Maybe she was supposed to come across as innocent, but instead she came across as an idiot. The main plus? I finally like Gretchen, just as it looks like she's out of the series.

Character by character:

• Claire - I'm going to echo bateleur here and say that she's had far too much air time for far too dull a plot line. It's Been Boring. Not the fault of the actress, but she's been in every episode and there's been no real movement (and the tension with Bennett has gone on far too long; season one did it just fine).
• Noah - I liked him and Lauren, plus that he's got Samuel's number.
• Nathan/Sylar - A good farewell for Nathan; pity we still have Sylar. I did like him telling Peter that he was the future - echoes of Deveaux from season one.
• Samuel - I'm tired of watching him act like a nutter without more people sussing him. The main interesting point is what he meant about Claire not being who he was after - Noah, Peter or the village?
• Peter - Loved his "Sylar" plan. Loved that he got to beat up Sylar.
• Angela - Liked her admitting that her Nathan-Sylar plan sucked (as much as she admits anything).

Title: From Angela telling Peter that he needed to move forward to the "Fifth Stage" of grief.

Themes: Stupidity? Accepting truths, perhaps - for Lauren, Angela and Peter (although not for Claire).

Refer back moments: Don't Look Back of course. Plus Once Upon A Time In Texas (although that felt weirdly as though they're constantly looking to justify that whole weak thread from Once...). Plus the scenes at the end were a bit of a season four recap.

Continuity errors and other weirds: Nice though the scene was, Sylar-Nathan shouldn't really remember the roof-scene as Matt wasn't there. OK, you might make up an excuse saying he'd held enough objects that Nathan had on him at the time - but that's pretty contrived. Another point of interest is Peter having both the Haitian's abilities, despite only being able to select one from Sylar at the end of season three (shapechange). I'm not clear whether this is because it's the equivalent of one hero's ability (where Sylar has a number) or because his power is increasing.

Comments

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Loved that he got to beat up Sylar.

A poor second best to killing him.

Ugh, I so hate TV's meta-rules. The thought of what great stories we could tell with budgets like that is heartbreaking.

[lathany.livejournal.com]

One thing I forgot to point out is that it's the second time that they've had a fist fight and Peter won the last one of those as well. That's an aspect of it that I don't like - somehow fist fights are supposed to be more morally pure (see also Kirk, Sheridan, etc.).

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

...and that Dr Who movie everyone likes to forget about.

(Apologies to anyone who had actually forgotten about it.)