Episode 12 - The Fifth Stage
28 March 2012
Synopsis: Peter takes the Haitians power and seeks out Sylar. He forces Nathan to the forefront of Sylar’s mind. But Nathan realises he is dead and jumps off a building. Noah realises where Claire has gone and he and Lauren work to find her. Samuel dispatches his new right hand man Eli to steal Noah’s Primatech files. Claire and Gretchen are greeted by Samuel and shown around the carnival. Claire decides to stay for a few days and Samuel talks of settling down.
The Good: Samuel really is doing a good job. Here he gets to play seducer extraordinaire. Presenting himself as the perfect host to suck Claire into his orbit. The seduction in general was very effective. Samuel takes a beating from an angry customer to generate sympathy and tells cute bedtime stories to cute children. It all paints a picture where Claire can begin to see herself belonging. The way Samuel uses the idea that those with abilities have been treated like second class citizens all their lives is good writing. It’s those kind of grievances which bring dictators to power.
Particularly clever was the scene where the jerk customer gets cheated. The man on the stall uses his ability to rig the game, cheating the jerk and rewarding a little girl. Morally speaking you can see a positive message in his behaviour. But cynically you could also say he only rewarded the little girl to spread good PR or indeed to encourage her parents to give her more money to spend. Claire and Gretchen debate this behaviour and Claire ends up protecting the carnies. She has already begun to rationalise away their bad behaviour. In the end Samuel kills the jerk, leaving us in no doubt about his true attitude to outsiders.
Peter taking the Haitian’s power made good sense. Nathan makes the right decision in killing himself. The one consistent part of his character was his love for Peter and his death did on some level strike a sad chord. Lauren continues to be a good addition to the cast, believable and likeable.
The Bad: There are some moments on Heroes which just leave you gasping at how dumb some people can be. I wouldn’t say Eric Doyle hugging Claire was quite that bad but it was close. She did try to help him (319) but he made it clear at the time that he had no intention of “going straight.” This man tortured her, she should not have been hugging him, no way.
Similarly the characters swift behaviour changes are annoying. Claire suddenly has doubts about going into the carnival but Gretchen is happy to go in. They should have been polar opposites and it served no real purpose. Worse is Angela trying to brush off her behaviour. She approaches Peter and asks him to accept that Nathan has gone. She points out her own denial but seems to have gotten over it ridiculously quickly. She went to huge lengths to turn Sylar into Nathan, even last episode pulling out all the stops to pretend that all is ok. Now suddenly she can see clearly and is preaching to Peter? In both cases it’s as if the writers must have a conflict. They just can’t start these stories without someone telling the protagonist not to do what they are about to.
Sylar and Peter then have a brutal fight. Where was this at the end of season one I ask you? To think how little this fight meant only three years later is sad. But the reality is neither character was going to die and therefore the fight felt inconsequential. Remember we have already seen powerless Sylar be beaten up and killed (311) before and suffer no consequences. Also, Sylar did not show nearly enough pain at having nails drilled through his hands.
The jerk at the carnival seemed to go way overboard considering he had lost only tens of dollars. Yes he might have beaten up Samuel but to slash a young woman in the face with glass seemed unrealistic. In that Heroes way of course, it was a scene only to serve another scene, not one that had much basis in reality.
Lydia admitting she knew the truth about Samuel was pretty quick and convenient. She justified it well by mentioning her daughter. And that would have been fine if he was leery of her now. But instead he continues to share his plans with her including deceiving Claire. That makes him look stupid, he shouldn’t trust her.
But the details on Heroes have ceased to be as relevant as the big picture. Nathan died twelve episodes ago and it has been a huge drag to wait this long to get rid of him. All the while he talked with Peter and before that when he was Sylar, the logical thing for Peter to do was kill him. The oldest joke in the comic book is how the hero lets the villain escape week after week in order to continue their battles. But Sylar has escaped too many times, the show has lost any sense of tension.
The same can be said of Samuel. Not for one moment should any viewer believe that Claire is going to join the carnival. She will of course discover the truth about Samuel and help bring him down. Like Danko before him, Samuel is destined to almost be a good character. But without any sense that his plan will work or that the established cast are in any danger, his scheming falls flat.
The Unknown: We assume Samuel wants Claire for her power. Or at least I am assuming that. Though he hasn’t made it clear, it seems he is simply trying to recruit as many of those with abilities as possible in order to increase his own earth moving destructive power.
What did he put in that popcorn? It seemed to be a big plot point, as if it was going to replenish itself, but then nothing happened. I guess that guy who makes things disappear (406) is responsible for the carnival vanishing.
At the end we see a shot of Mohinder, Ando and Hiro running. Is that where Hiro has jumped to? What was going on there?
Best Moment: Lauren and Noah have some decent sexual chemistry going on.
Epilogue: Like Nathan I am tired. I hoped these stories were going somewhere interesting but they don’t appear to be. Half way through this season and it really needs a sense of direction toward something exciting.
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