Episode 4 - I Am Become Death
11 January 2009
Review
Synopsis: Future Peter takes Peter four years into the future. Parkman’s vision allows him to see roughly the same events but focussing on his life. He is with Daphne and their daughter and Molly. In the future Nathan is President (married to Tracy) and people can buy or steal the formula which will give them powers. Claire kills future Peter and Peter runs away. He goes to see Mohinder who has fully evolved into some kind of cockroach. Peter heads to Costa Verde to find Sylar who future Peter told him to go see. Sylar is fighting his hunger in order to be a good father to his young son Noah. Claire is working with Daphne and Knox who use Molly to locate Peter. Peter takes Sylar’s power and Sylar warns him of the hunger that accompanies it. Knox kills Noah and Sylar gets so angry that he explodes like a nuclear bomb destroying Costa Verde. Peter and Claire survive but Daphne dies in Parkman’s arms. In the future they are a family with their baby daughter and Molly. Parkman wakes up in the present and is told to follow his spirit guide which he thinks is a tortoise. President Nathan comes to see Peter and tells him he is creating a super powered army to help the world. Peter thinks he is doing wrong and the hunger takes control and he kills Nathan. Peter jumps back to the present to confront Sylar, his brother. Tracy can’t get answers from Dr Zimmerman so she tries to kill herself. Linderman tells Nathan to go save her and they sleep together. Angela tells Hiro that in order to recover the formula he must dig up Adam Monroe. Mohinder is becoming increasingly aggressive and desperate over his condition. He encounters a domestic disturbance in his building and ends up dragging the man into his lab.
The Good: You can’t accuse Heroes of being boring or slow can you?
The Tracy Strauss story is the only one which keeps a foot in reality here. She is racked with guilt over killing someone. The scene where she tries to confess to the police is really nice. She is so emotional that she ends up freezing the phone. It demonstrates to her the danger she can cause others and so she decides to take her own life. It’s a response we haven’t seen yet from our heroes and a welcome one. If you did accidentally kill someone then you would be distraught and perhaps consider yourself too dangerous to go on living. Seeing her emotional response is good and makes her seem like a real person.
There is other stuff in the episode which is interesting to see. As Lost had to do with Walt, we see Molly at the actresses real age in the future which is a nice touch. Seeing Sylar playing good dad is fun to see and the nuclear explosion is a good visual. Ando and Hiro making up and strengthening their friendship is good to see too.
The Bad: The synopsis I had to write for this episode is far too long. There is just way too much going on for any viewer to fully absorb the impact of all the developments. Really the whole episode should have been devoted to Peter and Parkman seeing the future. There was no need to cram in all the developments in the present as well.
But really should we be seeing the future in episode four of this season? When we first encountered a dystopian future (in 120) we had spent the whole season getting to know the characters. To suddenly see them in a different dynamic was intriguing and enjoyable. Here we see the end result of characters’ stories well before they have even begun developing. We see Nathan misguided, Claire numb and brutal and Mohinder fully devolved. These are ongoing stories which have only just begun. Now we have seen the end result. Similarly we see Parkman and Daphne together and see her die. But we don’t know anything about her. Are we supposed to care that she is with Matt or that she dies? It all feels so impatient, instead of making us care about these characters and their struggles the writers just throw relentless twists at us as if that is more important. But twists that have no resonance are meaningless.
This impatience is saturated in everything that Heroes creates here. We get no real explanation for what the issue is in the future. “A line was drawn, sides were chosen” says future Peter but we don’t learn exactly what. We understand that the world is going to end (as usual) because Peter drew it but there’s no real explanation for what choices people had to make. We therefore have no clue how to react when the Haitian, normally moral and level headed, stands by as Claire stabs Peter.
There is a lack of detail in the use of powers as well. When Knox beats up Sylar, why doesn’s Sylar flip him away with his telekinesis? Indeed why doesn’t Peter freeze time and knock the villains out that way? Now that these extreme powers have been developed it doesn’t make sense when the characters don’t use them. It’s sort of explained why Peter couldn’t access Sylar’s power until now. But of course instead of slowly realising and struggling with the hunger, Peter becomes engulfed by it immediately and kills Nathan. But again why? Why would he need to kill Nathan? He already has his power and can already read his mind. The writing just won’t slow down and ask these questions we just race along a mile a minute. Future Peter and future Nathan are dead. But let’s not let that sink in and have some impact, we have to rush off to the next ridiculous development.
The Unknown: Peter implies that some were born with abilities and some were given them. Who gave people powers and who were given them? Presumably Nikki and Tracy were given them (which seems to have involved Mr Linderman if his claims from 121 were true). Speaking of Linderman how did he know Tracy would kill herself? And indeed who or what is he? Who was Noah’s mother and indeed what had happened to the Bennett family?
Best Moment: Sylar cooking breakfast in the Bennett household. He is looking after Mr Muggles and his son Noah. He hugs Peter hello and behaves like a normal person. It’s intriguing stuff to watch.
Epilogue: Just undisciplined, impatient and foolish writing. How could anyone sit through this and absorb all that’s going on? It’s way too much and it’s all so rushed and underdeveloped. The whole principle of the show seems to be shock value first and actual emotional resonance last. It’s a backwards way of telling a story because if we don’t care about the characters then nothing is shocking. Heroes at its worst, squandering all its wealth.
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