Episode 7 - Strange Attractors
28 March 2012
Synopsis: Claire and Gretchen are taken to a slaughter house to begin their initiation into Psi Alpha Chi sorority. As they discuss their feelings for one another Rebecca stalks them and tries to kill Gretchen. Sylar takes over Matt’s body for a bit and it scares Matt into sending Janice away. He tries to drink Sylar out of his mind but ends up allowing him to take permanent control. The Georgia police won’t let Jeremy out so Noah calls Tracy. When they get him freed he accidentally kills a man and he returns voluntarily to jail. Vengeful cops murder him and Tracy is so shaken that she considers turning to Samuel. He arrives to level the police station in retaliation.
The Good: This is more solid stuff from Heroes but keep your caveats handy.
Matt and Sylar create a good dynamic together once more (403) as one is so relentlessly evil and the other so good but slow. Matt should have known from their last encounter that he needed to take drastic measures to get rid of Sylar. But having ignored that warning Sylar takes over his body to have sex with Janice. It’s a suitably disturbing image though it could have had a lot more impact in a different show. Still, Sylar’s final victory should lead to some interesting developments as Sylar goes in search of his body, but as Matt. There is so much which the writers could play with. If Sylar can use Matt’s power and of course if Mohinder does arrive we could be in for some good TV. Though don’t get your hopes up just yet.
Claire and Gretchen also have a good dynamic. Despite running the gamut of every possible romance\horror cliché which the writers could think of, they still play their parts well. Claire comes across as likeable and honest as ever and the discussion about boyfriends and virginity is absolutely the kind of conversations she would be having. It makes her bonding with Gretchen seem more real and the writers have been good at acknowledging her lack of friends in the last two seasons. The final scene where two of her new sorority sisters see her being impaled could lead to her having an actual group of friends. But again why get invested until it actually happens.
Finally Samuel makes it clear that he was heavily inspired by Magneto (from X-Men) as he offers Tracy and Jeremy a place in his family. When the police kill Jeremy he levels their headquarters, making it clear his policy on humans who mistreat those with abilities. I suppose this makes Noah the Professor X trying to reconcile those with abilities with the rest of the world. Jeremy’s story was pretty sad and I did appreciate that the police had gathered evidence on him and weren’t just keeping him locked up for no reason.
The Bad: The problem with the Jeremy story is that I have more sympathy for his character than Tracy. She remains a non-existent character, about as thinly drawn as anyone on TV where he drew genuine sympathy. The police murdering Jeremy might be a more plausible story if they didn’t leave his body lying in the middle of the high street. You would think they of all people would know how to cover their tracks.
Matt finding that alcohol was Sylar’s kryptonite was a pretty dumb scene. I have no problem with the idea that Sylar couldn’t control Matt while intoxicated but the whole scene underlined the problem with Heroes. The show has never bothered to define how its characters abilities work. They have been conspicuously vague and flexible on everyone, Sylar’s ability to fly (using telekinesis apparently) being one of the more notorious examples. Matt’s powers too have grown and shrunk depending on how powerful they need him to be. If they did give each power a strict definition, believe me, the shows conflicts would be far more intriguing as the audience could anticipate what each character was capable of.
Anyway, in this particular scene, there is no logic in Sylar wincing when Matt takes a sip. The body would need time to metabolise the alcohol before Matt would feel more mentally impaired and thus cause Sylar any pain. But worse than that Sylar then takes over Matt’s body when he blacks out. Why? How? Sylar’s supposed mental strength (as in 313 when he overcomes Eric Doyle’s ability) is just something we are supposed to take for granted despite him never having gained any kind of mental ability beyond a good memory.
I’m going to predict that we see Sylar playing himself rather than seeing Matt playing Sylar in future episodes. They did this before (303) when Peter was trapped in Jesse’s body. The producers seem to miss the fun of having one actor play another. Imagine seeing Matt snarling and smiling as Sylar and how much more fun that would be than seeing regular Sylar.
The Unknown: How does Samuel make the carnival appear and disappear? Seriously. Does Janice realise that Matt isn’t himself?
Best Moment: Gretchen realising that Claire was right about someone stalking them in the slaughter house. She tells Claire that it sounds like a giant conspiracy theory before realising that that is what Claire’s life is like. At that moment she becomes a character who may go on living. Heroes has been crying out for more normal characters who can react to the lives of their supernatural friends. Without them how can anyone stand out as special?
Epilogue: Do I say this every episode? Solid if predictable stuff, if I had faith it was going somewhere I would say it was good.
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