Episode 2 - Jump, Push, Fall
28 March 2012
Synopsis: Noah finds a key on Danko and enlists Peter to help him use it. He opens a safe deposit box and finds an old compass. Edgar tries to take it but Peter absorbs his power and fights him off. Edgar cuts Noah and takes the compass. In the hospital Noah calls Tracy for support. Matt is back working as a detective and sees his power as an addiction. He refuses to use it and is in a recovery group for using it. Sylar continues to taunt him until he uses his power when he gets jealous. Gretchen is keen to prove Annie was murdered and Claire reluctantly agrees. Samuel convinces Hiro to interfere in the past causing Ando and Kimiko to become lovers. Hiro now sees righting his past wrongs as his new destiny. Samuel looks set to try and “gather” Claire, Peter and Sylar.
The Good: Another mixed bag from Heroes as they set up a new season.
Once more Samuel stands out. He manages to come across as pleasant and convincing as he manipulates Hiro into changing time. He claims he has set Hiro on a “righteous path” but it’s not clear yet what he has done or how he did it. The implication so far is that he wants to recruit these heroes rather than steal their powers but there’s definitely deceit going on.
Elsewhere there is some good detail work which is nice to see. Noah’s late night bowl of cornflakes and call to Sandra is a nice way of showing us his lonely bachelor state of mind. He is very sensible to seek out Peter’s protection when retrieving the key. It’s the type of common sense storyline which Heroes needs more of. Ditto Peter’s decision to accompany him. Peter can now only absorb one power at a time. He claims to be happy with his life, trying to do as much good as he can. So he comes along with the aim of absorbing a better power which can help him save more people. It was nice to see Noah give him advice on not becoming too isolated. It just sounded like a normal conversation rather than a forced part of the plot.
Meanwhile Sylar bringing up Matt’s wife’s infidelity was excellent. It happened so long ago in the show (107) that it would be easy to forget. But of course that lack of trust would definitely exist. Sylar uses it to agitate and force Matt to use his powers which was interesting. It would seem Sylar’s motivations are two fold. One is to provoke Matt into doing something which would benefit Sylar’s reawakening. And second is perhaps just Sylar’s belief that those with powers should use them to overpower the less worthy. The manipulation will grow old quick bur here it seemed to make sense. I suppose it continues the theme that those who try to hide from their abilities will fail to do so.
Claire’s fellow dorm mates callously taking cell phone pictures of the crime scene was spot on.
The Bad: Otherwise though Claire’s story was poor. Her decision to jump out of the window when anyone could have been looking was pure moron. It also looks like Gretchen’s curiosity is far from innocent. Her dark hair makes me suspect she might be one of the carnie folk. It wouldn’t surprise me if she killed Annie as part of a plan to take Claire’s powers. That’s one of the sad things about Heroes. We can’t have Claire make a normal friend and deal with life’s problems in a way we can relate to. No, she has to meet a friend who immediately drags her into a new mystery. There’s so little time spent on establishing a “normal” life for these characters. It would be so helpful in making the “abnormal” stand out.
Hiro indulges in some moron himself. Since he inadvertently helped create the evil Takezo Kensei, he has tried to avoid travelling into the past. Now after a few quick words he decides he will now dedicate his life to meddling with his past. It makes no sense after his speech about the butterfly effect and how he might not have saved the world. Of course it’s foolish of me to talk of sense in a plot where he changed the past. Ando and Kimiko’s love would have completely changed Hiro’s life. He would be a different person and have had completely different experiences as a result of that one change. But complaining about time travel continuity in Heroes is pretty pointless at this stage. Still Hiro’s lack of common sense makes it difficult to get interested in his story.
Matt’s yelling at an “imaginary” person would probably have had him sent straight off duty instead of being allowed to continue with detective work.
Finally if Tracy and Noah are going to get all snugly then we need to know a lot more about her. As I mentioned in the previous episode, her character has yo-yoed like crazy and we don’t know who she is supposed to be.
The Unknown: What does the compass do? Why do the Carnie’s want to “gather” our heroes? What is Edgar’s power exactly? Is he just fast like Daphne or is it different? Since when does Peter know how to fight with knives or is that part of the ability? Where’s Micah? I miss that guy, he had some common sense.
Best Moment: Samuel “persuading” Hiro to do what he wanted. Again his subtle manipulation was the most intriguing part of the episode.
Epilogue: Two pretty slow episodes to start the season. I don’t mind the pacing if the stories are headed somewhere good. But I have no faith that they will. So far for every character showing some normal behaviour, there is another ignoring obvious things. So it doesn’t look like we have any reason to believe this season of Heroes will be any different to the last. I hope I am wrong.
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