Episode 11 - Thanksgiving
28 March 2012
Synopsis: Noah hosts Thanksgiving dinner and invites Claire, Gretchen, Sandra, her boyfriend Doug and ex-Primatech employee Lauren. Naturally tensions abound as Claire discusses not returning to school. At Peter’s apartment he and Nathan grill Angela over what she has done until Sylar reasserts control over his body. At the carnival Edgar and Lydia learn that Samuel killed Joseph thanks to Hiro.
The Good: The Thanksgiving dinner theme certainly gave the plots a logical reason to be. I’m less sure about the details.
It’s always good to see Hiro stand up for himself and at least threaten to use the immense power at his disposal.
I also enjoyed Sylar taunting Angela. He claims that what she did was more evil than anything he has done and then kisses her which was creepy. But it did seem like he had a point. She tries to play the bereaved mother in explaining why she went to such lengths to save Nathan’s life. However it comes across as if she wanted to play God by swapping one man’s life for another.
The Bennett family dinner was the best of the three plots. Everything Claire has experienced this season suggests she doesn’t fit in anywhere. I like the way she brought up this issue and was so sick of lying that she just cuts herself open in front of Doug (see Best Moment). I particularly like her decision to go search out the carnival for herself. It feels a bit like all Claire has ever done on this show is complain about not fitting in, so to see her take some initiative was good. The tensions between Sandra and Noah were played out in logical fashion. The way she addressed Primatech and the anger lingering over her own memory wipes was solid detail work. Lauren was once more pleasant and convincing.
The Bad: Each of these stories had its own flaws though.
I imagine most viewers were begging Peter to bludgeon Nathan to death as soon as he gave a hint of becoming Sylar again. But his lack of action only added to the lack of tension in those scenes. Sylar regaining his body and trapping the remaining Petrelli family members ought to be as tense and exciting as any Tarrantino or Scorsese showdown moment but it isn’t. In fact there’s never a threat in this show, outside of season finales perhaps, that anyone is going to die. So when Nathan begins fighting Sylar for control I just yawn. Internal battles like that make for terrible television. The viewers instantly know that the writing is manipulating the fight to suit whatever purpose they want to achieve. There’s no sense of enjoyment for viewers in a struggle which they can’t see unfold.
As predicted Samuel killed his brother much to Lydia and Edgar’s dismay. The only trouble is that we don’t know Lydia or Edgar much at all. It’s also a general rule that unstoppable bad guys are brought down by their own confidant’s turning against them. So now are we going to sit through ten episodes of predictable tension before Samuel’s followers finally cast him out? I also love how dumb the writing makes Hiro look. Lydia asks him what he did for Samuel but he refuses to divulge that information. So a minute later she says her ability allows her to see inside his soul and he immediately agrees to let her. Ummm, didn’t he think she was just trying to find out the answer in a different way?
While Claire’s story was ok, Gretchen’s was not. She understandably fled when her life was threatened by Claire’s enemies. Seeing her return for the friendship makes sense but immediately rushing back into a confrontation with Becky just seems like bad writing. It would have been nice to see her address her fears.
The Unknown: Why does Hiro keep jumping through time without trying? What does the old man do to Hiro and where does he jump to? I won’t bother asking how the Nathan\Sylar identity split works, it will never be explained.
Best Moment: Claire tells her family that she is considering leaving College. Noah, in a line that he absolutely would say, says “And that forty thousand dollars I just gave to the school where does that go?” A very understandable and relatable question. It does leave Claire looking a bit selfish unless of course she has a great retort: “I don’t know Dad where’d it come from?” A terrific storyline answer because Noah’s business has been a secret and so he should know how her lies are affecting her life. There is too little of that kind of dialogue in the show.
Epilogue: Most of the action here feels a bit redundant. I’m all for slower character episodes but this feels more like exposition than entertainment.
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