Episode 18 - Exposed
27 July 2009
Review
Synopsis: Sylar and Luke arrive at an abandoned café and Sylar begins to uncover repressed memories of when his father killed his mother. Sandra Bennett discovers that Claire has been hiding Alex in her closet. She helps him escape and encourages Claire to tell her the truth. Matt and Peter head to the headquarters of Nathan’s operation under instructions from Rebel. Once there Peter takes Matt’s power and they control the minds of the guards in the building. Noah uses the buildings alarm to disorientate Matt but Peter escapes with footage of the detainees being loaded onto the plane. He wants to make an exchange, the information for Matt and Daphne. Danko refuses to negotiate and shoots Peter. Nathan saves Peter while Danko loads Matt up with explosives and shoves him out into Washington DC.
The Good: Again Heroes slows the pace, focuses on fewer characters and produces some much better television as a result.
Sylar once more takes centre stage as he remembers his father killing his mother and selling him to a new family. The filming style of the flashbacks to these traumatic events are really well filmed, black and white with music blaring over any sound effects or dialogue. They just look and sound different to any other scenes in the show and effectively convey the sense that Sylar can’t remember all the details. Owing to the traumatic nature of these events it is much easier to believe that Sylar repressed the memories and only now recalls the true horror of what happened to him. The trauma and the power he clearly inherited from his father also help explain his lingering feeling that he wasn’t meant to be just a watch maker and his subsequent psychotic behaviour.
The inevitable confrontation with his father has now been built up really well and it will be genuinely intriguing to see what Daddy Sylar has to say for himself. It seems a shame if this is the end of Luke’s involvement in the story. The upshot seems to be he was only kept around to give Sylar someone to interact with but even so, he played his role well.
Speaking of which, Alex remains a solid supporting character as his presence allows us to get to know Sandra Bennett a bit better. Hearing some real sounding dialogue between her and Claire is a relief after so much soap-style melodrama. Hearing Sandra reminisce about why she married Noah and loved Def Leppard makes their interaction seem so much more authentic. Alex and Claire follow that up with a little humour and romance. It’s mostly paint by numbers stuff but it plays its role in the story just fine. The story is that Claire is learning to be a better “hero” than Noah by being honest with her loved ones.
Meanwhile over at the headquarters of Nathan’s operation we get some more logical and enjoyable developments. Matt and Peter using their powers to make Danko’s guards turn against him is a really nice visual and is the kind of dramatic X-Men style standoff that I’m still surprised the show doesn’t use more often. Even better than that though is that we finally get some definition and limitation imposed on Matt’s powers. He points out to Peter before they enter the building that there are only so many people’s minds that he can control at any one time. Then Noah informs us all that when Matt is controlling minds his other senses become much more susceptible to stimuli (and he should know, see 104). Suddenly Matt and Peter are in danger and the scene becomes dramatic and unpredictable. That’s what a strict definition over characters powers will give you.
The best development of all is reserved for Danko. Peter offers up his stolen video footage in exchange for Matt and Daphne and it seems like a simple resolution to the problem. But Danko is having none of it and points out to Nathan that the policy of the US government is to never negotiate with terrorists. That is of course true in real life and so gives this twist an added gravitas and sense of reality. The footage is then fed to the news, adding to the feeling that finally some real consequence is seeping back into the show. And the Guantanamo overtones are loud, clear and effective. So Danko decides to set Matt up as a suicide bomber and leave him, disorientated in Washington.
Between that and the return of Eric Doyle to Claire’s house, we have many good reasons to tune in next week with hope for more solid developments.
The Bad: A few too many convenient or unexplained events occur as usual. Why no one locks Peter and Matt out of their computer system I don’t know. And quite how Peter knows how to use it and get the information he needs isn’t covered either. The bullet through his shoulder doesn’t receive the treatment (pun intended) it should have and is glossed over too quickly.
It also seems very odd that Danko’s agents are allowed to search the Bennett household but then have to return to their van when they can’t find Alex. If they are that convinced of his presence why not wait inside? Lyle’s blasé attitude to all the excitement is played for laughs. But his complete lack of interest or protest about what’s going on make him seem less real.
The Unknown: Why does Angela have knowledge and access to Building 26? Did Nathan give that to her, if so, why? What did she dream was about to happen? Is Rebel one of Danko’s men working from the inside to help Peter and others? Or is the computer turning on by itself (when Matt is painting) evidence of someone like Micah being Rebel? It would imply that Rebel can control electric or electronic devices. Maybe it’s Hana Gitelman who popped up out of nowhere (116 and 120) and disappeared just as quickly. She may have a rich history in the Heroes graphic novels but that means squat to television viewers.
Best Moment: Sylar’s flashback. The direction and cinematography made it look, sound and feel totally different to the rest of the show.
Epilogue: Logical, enjoyable stuff. The sad part is we are near the end of the season and these stories will probably be rushed into a much faster gear soon and loose their cohesion. But for now the show delivered something decent and set the next episode up well.
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