Episode 25 - An Invisible Thread
27 July 2009
Review
Synopsis: Despite the pain it causes him, Hiro freezes time and saves the day by freeing those being held at Building 26. Claire finds Sylar (as Nathan) and they head to meet the President. Peter finds the real Nathan and they confront Sylar leading to Nathan’s death. Peter absorbs Sylar’s ability and manages to impersonate the President and tranquilise him. Angela gets Matt to brainwash Sylar into thinking he is Nathan. “Nathan” can now convince the President to terminate Danko’s operation and create a covert operation to be run by Noah. To start the next volume we see “Nathan” displaying Sylar tendencies and a familiar face return.
The Good: The first half of this episode was pretty good, but sadly this was another disappointing season finale for Heroes.
Sylar’s plan to frame Danko was simple and clever. The revelation that he was able to move his vulnerable spot because of his shape shifting ability was a nice explanation too. It was a convenient plot point but it made the story easier to buy once we discover that the President’s Chief of Staff was at school with Nathan. It makes their interactions more personal and plausible. Claire soon realises that she is with Sylar when he signs his name with the wrong hand. Again a nice simple, plausible touch.
Then we got psycho Sylar trying to get something out of Claire. It wasn’t clear what he wanted from her exactly and I liked that. It continued the characterisation from the previous episode. We learnt from Adam Monroe that cell regeneration means Sylar and Claire could both live forever. He clearly sees her as something of an equal in that way. Certainly it made him think of her differently to the others, she could be a constant fixture in his life. Only she would survive the lonely centuries with him and it was as if he saw that, even her hating him as something of a meaningful relationship. After all, if no one is around to acknowledge how special he has become then what’s the point of killing everyone? The best line I thought was him telling her about his dad. Again in his twisted way he wants someone to share his life with. It’s just terror is the only way he can relate to her.
Nathan then comes full circle as a character and admits to Liam that he can fly. Of course last season ended with Nathan being assassinated for trying to admit this and he began this latest volume hiding that fact while he hunted down others with powers. But cast your mind back even further to season one and Nathan was trying to hide his powers back then too. He tried to convince Peter that he might be going insane because he didn’t want anyone to think he was a freak.
Hiro remains selfless and heroic by fighting potentially deadly pain to do the right thing once more. Again it’s good to see a sense of consequence for his actions and perhaps that will turn into an interesting story for him next season. I liked Noah telling Danko that it was raising Claire which made him a good agent. It was his desire to protect her and seeing the goodness in someone with abilities that helped him to keep the balance while hunting down the dangerous. Peter’s plan to impersonate the President and capture Sylar was also a nice twist and a sensible plan.
The Bad: The issue I have with the plot we get here is more about the intentions behind it. The glimpse we get of next season seems to show Tracy returning (see The Unknown) and “Nathan” clearly a good sneeze away from turning into Sylar once more. The sense that nothing ever changes in the Heroes world is annoying and will make viewers care that little bit less when the next twist comes. Worse than that of course, Angela and Noah have deceived everyone about this decision. Which means we are going to have to sit through Peter and Claire pouting and whining about what liars they are next year.
And in this instance they are right. Surely by now the rivers of blood should have convinced everyone that Sylar must be killed? By turning Sylar into Nathan the producers are telling us loud and clear that they like both actors and want to keep them around for as long as possible (ditto Nikki\Tracy). Frustratingly there are two solutions staring them in the face. Peter could have impersonated Nathan long enough to convince the President. Then they could have revealed that Nathan had been killed by a random burglar or done a terrible job shaving or what have you. Or, they could have just had Matt Parkman tell the President what to do and he would have been compelled to believe his story.
It grates as a viewer when the show chooses to ignore or invent its own rules for powers. Again it makes you care less as a viewer, looking cynically at the stories rather than getting wrapped up in them. Sylar once more changes clothes when he changes his DNA which shouldn’t happen. Suddenly he claims the power which Angela fed him (303) can make him absorb someone’s whole memory even though that has never been mentioned before. Worse than that though he can only do that once someone is awake. Again it makes no sense and is blatantly thrown in to save the sleeping Nathan from being surplus to requirements too early in the story.
We are once more robbed of seeing an actual fight scene. Heroes amazes me some times. They have turned the show more and more into an actual comic book, yet one of the major selling points of super heroes is seeing them fight. Yet we get less fight scenes in Heroes than any other drama show. You name it 24, Prison Break, Lost, Dollhouse and so on all have more fight scenes than a show about people with super powers. It is bizarre in the extreme.
Nathan’s subsequent death feels really anticlimactic. And why doesn’t Sylar take the ability to fly from him? Can he levitate himself that fast? We’ve never had an explanation for that either.
Poor Danko is criminally wasted here. Again it seems strange that he received more character development than almost any other character in this volume and yet he just gets tucked away with a tranquiliser. I suppose we may see him again. No sign of Micah either, even though Rebel was a huge part of this volume’s story.
You also have to ask yourself how many people know about those with abilities by now. Danko’s whole operation must have been a hundred people minimum. They will tell friends and family. The President and his staff know. Again it’s one of those loose threads that the writers leave hanging.
The Unknown: Again without explanation but I assume Peter isn’t going to accidentally touch someone with powers and lose all his new abilities is he? But assuming he scooped up all of Sylar’s, does that mean he now has the hunger which caused him to go a bit crazy earlier this season (304)? I assume that is Tracy returning to kill those who captured her but I suppose there is an outside chance it is the third sister.
Best Moment: Sylar chatting up Claire.
Epilogue: Heroes list of problems remains long. With falling ratings I’m not sure if the show is going to survive beyond a fourth year.
But either way here is my advice: If the show is going to be a soap opera involving this set of characters, then make their lives seem real. Then when crazy things happen we will be able to see how it affects their friendships and jobs and we will be able to relate to their pain and imagine how we would deal with life if we had their abilities. Or if you are going to make a televised comic book show about super heroes - show us the damn fight scenes.
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